Logan collapsed onto his bed with a sigh.
"It’s soft," he mumbled, grateful for not having to sleep in a cave or a tree anymore.
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. For the first ti in days, he felt safe.
’I’ll ask them about Derek when I wake up again,’ he thought, too exhausted to bother thinking about him despite his anger.
Closing his eyes, Logan imdiately drifted into a deep sleep.
Hours flew by as he slept, completely unaware of what was happening in the outside world.
At the sa ti, sowhere in Arica, inside a large mansion by the coast.
"Derek Alvarez," a middle-aged man shouted, pointing at the kneeling Derek. "You had one task, and you failed!"
Beside him stood several young adults, each older than Derek and holding a disdainful look in their eyes.
"But Dad..." Derek started weakly, sweating profusely.
"No," the middle-aged man shook his head. "No, no."
"How do you think I am going to explain this, huh?"
His face had turned bright red with anger as he glared at his son.
"This was the perfect opportunity and you ruined it!"
Derek quietly glanced at the floor, no longer daring to speak.
"Out," the middle-aged man shouted. "Now!"
Scrambling to his feet, Derek speed-walked out of the room.
Once Derek left, the head of the Alvarez family glanced at his other children.
"You all," he spoke, still calming down. "Be prepared for a rough ti."
Walking over to his desk, the Alvarez head sat down on his chair.
"The Imperial Church and the rcer family won’t take this lying down, and neither will the Holy Grail Guild after we failed the mission."
A young brunette took a step forward, attracting his attention.
"Speak," he said coldly.
"Yes, Father," the girl said in a sweet voice.
"While the original plan has been completely ruined by my silly little brother, can’t we still turn this around?" she asked, putting a finger to her lips.
The Alvarez family head looked up, studying his youngest daughter. "What did you have in mind?"
"We can always get the Holy Grail Guild to give us more support for the upcoming conflict," she said, her tone innocent.
The Alvarez patriarch narrowed his eyes. "How so?"
"If the rcer family and the Imperial Church work together to push us out, they’ll imdiately lose all influence over the United States too," she said, smiling as she continued with an innocent face. "This is no doubt a sore point for them."
The Alvarez patriarch shook his head. "That won’t be enough for them to start an open conflict with the Imperial Church."
Walking closer, the brunette continued.
"Then we remind them," she whispered, "who commissioned the hit on Logan and Livia."
"We’ll risk offending all three," the Alvarez patriarch said, thinking it through. "But it is viable as a last resort."
"That’s right," the brunette said, smiling brightly. "A last resort."
"We don’t have to worry for any public backlash since they have no proof," she added. "He may have failed the mission, but breaking that recorder? That gave us the ability to deny anything that happened."
"And even if they do," she paused, a large grin spreading across her face. "We can just spread rumors that Livia lost control in the dungeon... and that Logan was using her all along."
"People love drama more than truth. No one will know who to believe."
The Alvarez patriarch smiled, satisfied with her performance. "Well done, Aylana," he said, clapping his hands. "That’s a solid plan."
Glancing at her older siblings’ sour expressions, Aylana smirked.
"No problem, Father," she said sweetly. "We’ll co out of this and destroy the rcer family."
Back inside the rcer family’s air shuttle, Logan woke up.
"That feels better," Logan said, stretching out.
Glancing at the ti, Logan was shocked to see that a whole day and a half had passed.
"I was out cold," he muttered, shaking his head.
Walking out through the doors of his room into the lounge, Logan found Edric working on his hologram.
"Good morning," Logan said, waving his remaining hand with a smile.
Edric looked up, smiling. "Good morning."
"Seems like you slept well?" he asked, pointing at his watch.
"You could say so," Logan said, his smile growing.
Edric stood up, giving Logan a firm pat on his back. "Let’s get off this shuttle now then."
Logan gave a small nod, heading over to the hatch together with Edric.
"Are we at the university currently?" he asked, looking at Edric.
Edric shook his head, his expression darkening slightly. "No, you are ho at the mont."
After the hatch lowered, Logan followed Edric inside, where they t up with Silas.
"Alright," Edric started, turning to Logan. "Do you wish to talk about what happened inside the dungeon?"
"All of us know you aren’t careless enough to actually lure over countless C-rank snow panthers."
Logan raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear them ntion snow panthers.
"How co you know we were hunting snow panthers?"
Silas and Edric exchanged glances.
"The university told us the story your teammate gave them," Silas said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "But neither of us trust that Alvarez kid—especially after the way he frad it."
Logan narrowed his eyes, clenching his fists as he understood that sothing had gone different from his expectations.
"What about the university’s recording device?" he asked, glancing between Silas and Edric with anger in his voice.
"No footage had been recorded of the incident," Edric shook his head. "Conveniently enough, the university recorder stopped working just before the incident."
"I see," Logan muttered.
’They carefully planned this.’
The silence that followed was clearer than any words for Edric and Silas.
Logan’s jaw tightened as he clenched his fist before gesturing for them to follow him. "We’ll talk about this in my room," he said, no longer smiling.
Edric and Silas nodded, following after him.
’Sothing definitely went wrong,’ Silas thought, watching Logan carefully. ’But there’s no way Logan couldn’t handle that Alvarez brat.’
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