"The Lander siblings have made it back to the estate!"
"I repeat, the Lander siblings have returned to the estate!"
The watchdogs of the various forces within the country's curse community, who had been monitoring the activities around the Lander Estate, reported in disbelief as they watched the siblings stroll into the property as if returning from a pleasant road trip. They radioed their higher-ups to inform them of the surprising developnt.
"What?"
"That's impossible!"
"Co again?"
"Are you sure it's the Lander siblings?"
These were just a few of the stunned responses from the higher-ups across the nation's curse factions. The reaction was unanimous: disbelief—utter and absolute disbelief.
"Yes, sir. It's been confird. The McSuile staff have verified their identities—it's definitely the Lander siblings."
The subordinates had made absolutely sure of the information before reporting it, not wanting to risk becoming the targets of their superiors' anger or embarrassnt.
"How the fuck did he manage to do that?"
"How reliable is the McSuile staff's intel?"
The country's curse forces were baffled. Just monts ago, they had witnessed Ace use his wooden-stick-shaped curse tool to burrow underground with his mortal sister. But before the cultists could dig them out, word had spread that Ace was already back at the Lander Estate—with his sister.
The estate and the executive airport were miles apart. For them to travel that distance in the blink of an eye was logistically impossible.
"Teleportation, maybe?"
"The McSuile staff seed equally puzzled by Ace returning to the estate with his sister. It's safe to assu that whatever Ace Lander did, the McSuile family was not part of it. In fact, they appeared to be completely unaware of Ace's plan."
The subordinates reported, offering their expert assessnt to their higher-ups.
"The cult factions had blocked the airport's space, making it impossible to teleport in or out. So it definitely wasn't teleportation. Does that an he used sothing similar—or even better—than teleportation?"
"Ace Lander didn't trust the McSuile family with his plan to bring his sister to safety? That's suspicious. He trusts them to guard his family, but not enough to involve them in such a critical operation? Sothing doesn't add up. Dig into this."
The various forces in the country's curse community were beginning to co to a grim realization: maybe their perfect bait wasn't so perfect after all. Perhaps it was resisting the fate they had so carefully crafted for it.
Still, despite all the evidence, they couldn't fully accept that Ace—who had only awakened as a Curse Master a few weeks ago—could be capable of pulling this off alone. Doubts began to surface: Was the McSuile family involved? After all, it wouldn't be the first ti they had used their power, wealth, and superior inherited legacy to manipulate and bully the rest of the curse community.
"Yes, Master. I'm on it."
The subordinate acknowledged, accepting their new mission.
"..."
Hanging up on their subordinates after receiving their reports and issuing new orders, the various forces of the country's curse community signaled their operatives to stop holding back and round up the cult mbers. After all, with their bait, "Ace: Samsara Slayer," missing, the other cult factions would no longer make a move. It was pointless to continue the charade in hopes of reeling in the jackpot, the overlord's descendant.
The overlord's descendant—or his followers—had never shown up. After learning Ace and his sister were already back in the safety of their estate's curse arrays, the cult factions would likely abandon all plans and return to whatever shadows they were previously hiding in. Especially if their original intent was to stay hidden, waiting to strike only after their rivals had triggered all the traps and exhausted the prey.
...
"They're back?" Delores, resting on a lounger on the front porch, suddenly turned toward the old Lander house, sensing Ace's return with his sister.
"I knew that kid was too smart to put his sister in harm's way," Delores said with an impressed grin, noting that neither Ace nor Lyra had a scratch on them—and more importantly, Lyra appeared completely unaware of the chaos her arrival had caused.
She had no idea how Ace had managed to pull this off with the odds stacked so heavily against him. Still, she was just happy that, this ti, she wasn't the target of Ace's trickery—just a spectator. And one day, she hoped to be his partner in cri.
Delores's smile faltered realizing her beloved niece—who had left to help Ace safely retrieve his sister—had not returned with them.
Fearing the worst, Delores quickly reached for her cursed phone and called her niece's cursed phone. To her relief, not only did the call connect, but it was answered imdiately.
"Auntie, what is it?" Elinor answered the call, clearly annoyed.
"Where are you? Why aren't you ho with Ace and his sister?" Delores asked imdiately in doubt, wondering why the latter did not return with the Lander siblings after all she left to guard them.
"I'm still at the airport—and what do you an Ace and his sister are back ho?" Elinor asked, astonished. She had been searching for Ace at the airport the entire ti using her Hundred Eyes and the airport surveillance system, but there had been no sign of him. So, to hear that he was already back ho ca as a huge surprise to her.
"Wasn't I clear? They're ho—safe and sound. Don't tell you never t up with Ace. You've been wandering the airport cluelessly all this ti instead of just calling him?" Delores said, exasperated. Honestly, she had expected her clumsy niece to screw sothing up—but this? This was just plain stupid.
"Seeing how secretive he was being about the whole thing, I thought he wouldn't answer my call and even if he did he would ask to leave… so I planned to find him on my own. But he—wait, did he really make it back ho with his sister?" Elinor asked, still in disbelief, because if Ace and his sister had truly been at the airport at any point, her Hundred Eyes—linked to the airport's entire surveillance system—should have detected them.
"Yes, they're definitely back," Delores repeated herself, impatience creeping into her voice.
After hearing Delores repeatedly confirm that Ace and Lyra had indeed returned ho, Elinor quickly ca to a conclusion. "Ace didn't use the county airport—he must have used one of the private air hangars," she reported with full confidence. Her hundred eyes had been monitoring the entire county airport, and not once had they picked up even a shadow of Ace or his sister.
Delores went silent, listening to Elinor's assumption. When she heard Ace ntion he was picking his sister up from the airport, she hadn't given it much thought and simply assud it would be the county airport. That was where she had her innate curse tool transport Elinor to.
"You sent to the wrong airport!" Elinor yelled in bla, finally piecing together what had gone wrong. It was her dearest aunt who had ssed up, causing her to waste ti surveilling the wrong location.
"My board is waiting for you where it dropped you off earlier," Delores inford her before promptly hanging up the call in embarrassnt. Turns out, it wasn't her niece who screwed up—it was her. She was the fool. Knowing Elinor, she was going to hold this shaful mistake over her head till the end of ti.
"Damn you, Ace Lander!" Delores cursed aloud, realizing that Ace had tricked her without even trying. That only made things worse than they were. Just when she thought she was a clever spectator in one of his sches, she had beco an unwitting victim. And the worst part? She didn't even realize it until it was pointed out to her by her dumb niece of all people in the two worlds.
Frustrated, she imdiately contacted Evil Eyes, who was the McSuile family's representative and liaison to the various factions of the country's curse community. As soon as he answered, she asked sharply, "What happened? Give a quick update."
"Well…" Evil Eyes quickly summarized everything he had learned and uncovered so far for Delores, he did not dare to delay or hold back, fully aware of her temper.
Upon learning that Ace had booked a chartered flight and a private airfield to pick up his sister, Delores was stunned. 'Wasn't he hiding his insane wealth from his family? What changed?' she wondered.
She didn't have ti to dwell on that thought, though, because sothing even more shocking ca to light: Ace, who had apparently been trapped by the fallen Sarmasa cult factions, sohow managed to escape their encirclent and arrive at the Lander Estate in the blink of an eye.
The more Delores learned about Ace's escape from the cultists' trap, the more baffled she beca. It was a well-known fact that one could not escape a locked space unless they could access the void. And only Void-tier curse users were capable of that feat.
Which raised a troubling question: was Ace aided by a Void-tier, or was he hiding a secret of equal magnitude?
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