CHAPTER 399: DOMESTIC HORRORS

Of course, it was just a guess. An assumption based on the few vague clues that were available. It could very well be wrong.

Lane decided to go with it. That it was wrong, that is.

It had to be. After all, if Clara truly had a crush on Nyla, then would she be so rude to her twin? And yes, he was also rude to Clara, despite l...iking Damien very much, but still! Clara looked nothing like Damien, and besides, she was the one who started it, so it didn’t count! Lane was plenty nice to Damien’s other sisters, who weren’t being insufferable and hostile towards him. That’s how a person should treat their crush’s loved ones.

Surely, Lane had previously jumped to a ridiculous conclusion, and there was actually a perfectly innocent explanation behind Clara’s weird behavior.

Lane nodded to himself, convincing himself that he was just imagining things, and stuffed a large spoonful of cake into his mouth. He needed it, in order to keep his sanity. Both the cake and the belief that Clara’s blush was just a trick of the eye. Otherwise, he might just throw up.

It wasn’t just Lane who noticed the weird atmosphere. Eloise and Samantha acted as usual - they were already aware of whatever unexpected illness Clara may have caught ahead of time, it seemed - but Damien didn’t fail to pick up on the... peculiar signs. Although his reaction to the possibility wasn’t anywhere as intense as Lane’s, he could see his boyfriend’s expression, and he knew that he shouldn’t let this uncomfortable situation continue. And, since he couldn’t exactly clarify things with Clara, not at the moment, not when Nyla was present, he decided to simply change the topic to something... safer. He turned to Nyla,

"Miss Nyla..."

"Please, just call me Nyla!" Nyla rushed to correct him. Since Damien had already asked her to call him by his first name, naturally, she was going to reciprocate.

"Right. Nyla, then," Damien nodded, agreeing without hesitation. Although he wasn’t usually quick to drop honorifics, it was his boyfriend’s twin sister, so it wasn’t inappropriate to do so, especially when she suggested so herself. "How are your efforts in Gate C31-2 going?"

Gate C31-2 was the C-rank Gate by the Lapis Lake that had reactivated a while ago, when the Association’s A-rank team had been conducting inspections there. What Damien was asking Nyla about was work... Which hardly seemed like the best topic to talk over cake at a birthday party, but it was difficult to come up with anything else on the spot, when they hardly knew each other.

And Nyla didn’t mind, anyway. Rather, she was relieved that the awkward atmosphere eased a little.

"We have the dungeon under control," she answered. "It is yet to be cleared, though. We have captured some of the monsters in cages, and left most of the Mana plants and other resources for the ManaTech to research. They have yet to find any clues regarding the potential reasons behind the dungeon’s expansion, but what they have discovered was..."

They continued chatting, discussing the monsters and the plants. None of the discoveries that the ManaTech had made in the dungeon were particularly groundbreaking, it was just that previously there hadn’t been much information about this particular dungeon available, not about the monsters living there, and even less about the plants, some of which turned out to have useful properties...

Everyone present around the table was a licensed Awakened, so they could keep up with the conversation. Even Eloise and Samantha - although they were Guides currently employed at the Association as the General Staff, thus only working in the office, and they had never been in this particular dungeon... Or any dungeon, for that matter - had enough knowledge about monsters and Mana plants to join in on the chat. Only Clara remained oddly silent... She was fidgety, frequently glancing up before lowering her eyes a second later, looking as if she had something to say... Possibly about her own experience in the dungeon, since she had thought the monsters and scouted the perimeters together with Lane. However, in the end, she got shy and didn’t say anything...

Honestly, Lane wanted to gag. Seeing her acting all shy like that made his stomach turn. Perhaps he would have thrown up, if it weren’t for the fact that it would be a waste of a perfectly good cake.

Everything eventually comes to an end, though, and so did this unexpected little birthday party. Everyone finished their slices of cake and drank their tea, and started getting up from their seats. Lane led Nyla away, to finally hear whatever it was that his sister had to say to him...

You would think that since Clara had already gotten what she had come for - that is, Damien’s birthday celebration and confirmation that her brother was alive and well - she would now regain her social awareness and make herself scarce. But no. Instead of putting her shoes back on and going home, she trailed after Lane and Nyla, following them to the living room.

"Um, Miss Nyla," she said (or perhaps mumbled would be a better word?), suddenly remembering that she had a tongue and could use it to speak. "We are going to be inspecting the Eldenveil dungeon in two days. It is still controlled by the Allen Guild, if I’m not mistaken... Are you going to join us there?"

Lane and Nyla exchanged glances. Of course, they both had already been aware of the scheduled inspection. And while they weren’t necessarily against working together... It simply wasn’t a good idea. Just like Clara had said, the dungeon, while owned by the Trailblazer Guild, was currently still under the Allen Guild’s control. Not to mention, there was Ethan, who was working as a spy for the Allens, on the Association’s A-rank team. If Nyla did indeed join them, she and Lane would have to be extra careful about how they acted around each other. After all, the fact that they had made up was still a secret, and it had to remain this way...

Since it was so, it was better to just keep their distance as much as possible. If they didn’t meet, they couldn’t make a mistake.

Nyla turned to Clara, giving her a slightly sad, but polite smile. "I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to. I have other obligations," she said, causing Clara’s shoulders to drop in disappointment. Her attitude towards Nyla was truly... alarming. "Now, if you excuse us. I need to have a word with Lane in private..."

Damien was in the kitchen, putting the leftover cake away and washing the dishes with Samantha’s help. Because of that, there was no one to stop Lane. Not even his own brain. It simply didn’t cross his mind that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to open that door, not when there were other people present... Because why would it? Their bedroom was always very tidy. Damien even made a bed every day in the morning, before leaving for work, without fault.

Well, until now that is. Usually, he didn’t have a massacred mattress and torn sheets to deal with. No matter how much he had wanted to tidy it all up, there wasn’t enough time in the morning to get it done.

And because of that, when Lane thoughtlessly pressed down on the handle and pushed the door open, what showed up in front of everyone’s eyes was a scene of carnage.

"...Oops." Lane blinked, realizing what he had done. He had enough of functional brain cells to know that he should step back and close the door immediately...

But it was already too late. Everyone had seen the scene. Or at least Nyla and Clara had. Eloise, who had just stepped out of the dining room, following her sister to ensure that Clara didn’t cause too much trouble, seemed to have been spared from the view, judging by her calm expression. But the other two women...

Nyla was in shock, her eyes open wide. It wasn’t something she ever wanted to see, especially not knowing that the culprits behind that... scenery were her brother and his boyfriend. It was very clear what had taken place there - very rough sex. There was even blood on the sheets... Of course, not ALL of the red stains were blood, some were the result of rose petals being squashed underneath Lane and Damien, but it was hard to tell at a single glance, and Nyla didn’t get enough time to get a closer look. Not that she would have wanted to. Still, she took it pretty well - it was Lane’s personal business, if that was what he liked, she didn’t care. She just pushed it out of her mind, and decided to act as if she had never seen a thing.

Clara, on the other hand... It wasn’t the first time she had seen the aftermath of Lane and Damien’s nightly activities. She had seen the broken bed back in Damien’s old studio apartment. But somehow, even though this time it was only the mattress, and not the whole bed, that had been destroyed, the scene she had just seen horrified her even more...

Perhaps because of the red stains. It was hard to say. Either way, it shocked her so much that she completely forgot about Nyla’s presence, and before she could stop herself and think twice about what she was about to say, she muttered, "...You two should really break up. I... need to talk to Damien..."