The shorter butler, standing a little way off in a man's tailcoat, opened his mouth to speak but ultimately just sighed. With a slight bow, he announced, “Please proceed to the drawing room and wait.”
A maid approached to escort Lu Li, and he followed her through a side door off the main hall, his gaze averted.
Baroness Joseph kept her eyes fixed on Lu Li until his form vanished behind the drawing room door. Beneath her long gown, her legs tensed, ready to follow him.
The butler in the thick, round glasses stepped forward, blocking her path. "You must stay and continue the selection," he stated in his usual impassive tone.
"Can't you do it in my stead?" Baroness Joseph asked nonchalantly.
"They wish to see Baroness Joseph."
Impatience flickered across the baroness's face. "And what if he leaves?"
"He will not. Mr. Lu Li has taken an interest in you."
Baroness Joseph’s scarlet lips curved into a faint smile. She rather enjoyed the ambiguity of her butler's words.
Seeing that the baroness had montarily abandoned her impulse and settled back onto the sofa, the butler retrieved the throw blanket that had slipped to the carpet. He passed it to a waiting maid, took a fresh velvet one from another maid’s tray, and draped it over the baroness. “If any others should arrive...”
The butler paused for a mont, choosing his words carefully, before continuing, “I must ask you to exercise so restraint. We can accept no more than four people.”
"Aren't there three spots left?"
"Every candidate we reject diminishes our chances of success."
Baroness Joseph lazily raised a hand, admiring her pale fingers as if they were a masterpiece. “Then let him be re decoration,” she said airily. “Don’t all good stories have characters like that?”
She adopted a deliberately rough, low voice. “And then, the valiant Baroness Joseph performs a heroic deed, rescues the handso beauty, and wins his heart. They share a long kiss beneath the moon.”
The maids flanking the sofa remained impassive, as if long accustod to their mistress’s... eccentricity.
But the mont Baroness Joseph finished speaking, a black line materialized from the air, growing denser and wrapping the baroness in a sinister aura. A whisper echoed from the void, and with it, several distorted, clawed limbs of black mist, each stretching for several ters, began to descend, tracing the path of the dark line.
The butler’s face went deathly pale. The baroness, however, rely glanced up and pronounced with undisguised disgust, “How revolting.”
The butler lifted his head and declared loudly, “Every romance novel has a scene where the heroine is rescued! It’s perfectly normal! Even Aileen the maid dreams of it, dreams of being saved by a handso man nad Baroness Joseph!”
His voice echoed through the hall, though it seed he wasn't addressing anyone present.
As soon as he finished speaking, the black, clawed limbs hovering over Baroness Joseph’s head paused their slow descent, then began to dissolve into nothingness. The dense black line also started to fade, vanishing from sight.
Everything returned to normal.
Except for the fear in the maids' eyes, which had not faded.
Seeing the black line vanish completely, the butler let out a quiet breath. Reverting to his professional tone, he said, “Please, mind your words, even when it sleeps. This is no ti for storytelling.”
Baroness Joseph waved a hand impatiently. “Yes, yes, I know. Bring in the next one.”
The interrupted selection resud. When the head maid reappeared in the garden, the whispers died down, and the assembled exorcists watched with envy as the successful candidate was led away, each hoping for the sa fate...
...
The drawing room in the baroness’s estate was every bit as opulent as the main hall. Polished marble floors and exquisite moldings attested to both wealth and refined taste.
A long table was laden with expensive fruits and pastries. Lu Li settled into a carved armchair with silver inlays, his gaze lingering on the refreshnts for a mont before he looked away.
He was full.
Although... perhaps he could manage a few small grapes.
A few minutes later, the silver platter of grapes was noticeably depleted.
Lu Li picked up another grape and brought it to his lips, but suddenly froze, his brow furrowed.
“What’s wrong?!”
After a few seconds of him remaining motionless, Anna’s alard voice echoed from nowhere. “Is it poisoned?!”
"No, it's nothing."
Lu Li’s frown softened. He shook his head and placed the grape back on the platter.
“I just needed to belch.”
The mont the words left his mouth, the drawing room door opened.
Lu Li turned his head to see the second exorcist who had passed the selection.
...
Whoosh!
A massive fireball erupted from the exorcist’s mouth, montarily plunging the brightly lit hall into shadow.
When the fireball dissipated, light returned to the hall. The exorcist wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and stood motionless, awaiting the baroness’s judgnt.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
A slow, deliberate clap echoed from the sofa. Baroness Joseph was applauding with a smile. Turning to her butler, she instructed, “Give this circus perforr so money and show him out.”
“Huh? I’m not a circus act, I’m an exorcist!”
Less than a minute later, the next exorcist entered the hall.
This exorcist wore a black cloak, his gaunt face etched with wrinkles. He cast a brief glance at Baroness Joseph on the sofa before his eyes shifted to the empty space above her head, as if he could see sothing there.
“I knew it. The baroness’s public call for exorcists isn’t a simple hiring,” he rasped. “It seems you’re in serious trouble.”
The butler, standing beside the sofa, drew himself up slightly. As if sensing sothing, he replied, “That is precisely why we have invited every exorcist on the Allen Peninsula.”
The middle-aged exorcist chuckled, a knowing look in his eyes. “Hardly all of them.”
Before the butler could respond, the man went on, “Spare
the formalities. I know what manner of evil spirit the baroness is dealing with.”
The butler’s expression turned serious. He didn’t argue, but simply said, “Please make your way to the drawing room and wait.”
...
Lu Li’s gaze fell to the badge pinned to the exorcist’s cloak.
A three-eyed black crow shimred with a sinister light.
"An exorcist?" the man asked.
“A colleague,” Lu Li replied, pulling his own badge from his pocket.
They regarded each other with considerably less suspicion.
“I thought I was the only one who showed up at the baroness’s estate out of sheer boredom,” the man said, taking a seat across from Lu Li.
“Ben Petra.”
“Lu Li.”
Petra gave Lu Li a nod and got straight to the point. “Have you figured out how to deal with the Shadow Puppeteer yet?”
“The Shadow Puppeteer?”
Lu Li frowned, an instinctive sense of unease washing over him.
“You an you didn’t notice?” Petra asked, surprised. He clarified, “The evil spirit shrouding the baroness and her butler—it’s the Shadow Puppeteer.”
Of course, Lu Li knew. He had only just heard about this particular evil spirit yesterday.
He just hadn’t expected to run into it so soon.
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