Chapter 175: No Records
{Third Person}
"Do you have any idea who I am?" Lila demanded, looking very furious.
Barron slowly nodded. "Unfortunately."
The answer nearly made her choke. "What does that mean?" She glared daggers at him.
"It means I know exactly who you are."
Lila then narrowed her eyes. "Then release me."
Barron looked genuinely surprised, but still, he refused her. "No."
Lila bit her lower lip in annoyance as she just stared at him. She also couldn’t believe that he just refused her.
"No?"
"No," Barron answered calmly, almost cheerfully. He was really enjoying riling her up.
Almost immediately, Lila gripped the bars. "There must be some mistake."
"There wasn’t."
"You arrested the wrong person."
"We didn’t."
Lila’s expression darkened. "I was merely walking. Just walking."
Barron looked unconvinced. One interaction with her and he already confirmed the kind of person she was.
"You were trespassing," he revealed.
"I wasn’t."
"You were."
"I wasn’t."
"You were."
Lila stared at him, and he, Barron, stared back. The silence stretched, then Lila finally clenched her teeth.
"This is ridiculous."
Barron nodded. "I agree."
To him, she finally made some sense, so he added, "The part where you thought nobody would notice you sneaking around a restricted area was particularly ridiculous."
Lila almost exploded at being caught. "I was not sneaking around," she lied defensively.
"Ah." Barron looked around theatrically, then nodded. "My mistake."
Lila folded her arms. At least he was finally being reasonable. So, she thought.
Barron continued. "You were wandering suspiciously."
The correction nearly made Lila scream.
Outside the cell, one of the guards suddenly found the ceiling fascinating. Another looked away entirely. Neither wanted to laugh in front of a superior.
Back inside the cell, Lila’s patience was rapidly disintegrating. "What exactly do you want?"
Barron’s smile widened in satisfaction. "Nothing."
She blinked. "Nothing?" she repeated with a trace of doubt in her tone.
"Correct."
"Then why are you here?"
Barron looked a bit thoughtful before answering honestly, "I wanted to see how you were doing."
The response was so absurd that Lila could not immediately process it.
Barron, meanwhile, appeared completely sincere. His amusement only grew the more frustrated she became.
For the next several minutes, every attempt Lila made to regain control of the conversation failed spectacularly.
Whenever she demanded answers, Barron gave vague ones. Whenever she threatened consequences, he sounded interested rather than concerned. And whenever she tried to assert her importance, he appeared entertained.
By the end of it, Lila was visibly shaking with anger. Barron, on the other hand, seemed to be having an excellent evening. Eventually, he checked the time, then released a soft sigh.
"What a shame."
Lila immediately became hopeful. Perhaps he was finally leaving to arrange her release. But contrary to her expectation, Barron shook his head.
"I should probably get some sleep."
Her hope vanished instantly. The next second, Barron turned and began walking away.
Immediately, Lila grabbed the bars again. "Wait."
Barron slowly stopped dramatically, then glanced back over his shoulder as if he wasn’t enjoying every bit of this.
"What?"
"When am I being released?"
Barron’s smile returned. "Tomorrow," he replied.
Lila exhaled sharply. At least there was that. Even though she was pissed that she had to spend the night in a dirty cell, she at least remembered to keep her thoughts to herself.
Then Barron added, "Maybe."
Her eye twitched.
Barron nodded politely and bid her farewell. "Goodnight."
The next moment, he continued walking away. Behind him, Lila’s furious voice echoed through the corridor.
Barron never looked back. By the time he emerged from the detention area, he felt considerably better.
Some lessons, after all, were best learned through experience.
And if Lila spent one uncomfortable night contemplating the consequences of sticking her nose where it did not belong, Barron saw absolutely nothing wrong with that.
---
Late that night, while most of the palace had settled into silence, Elder Mage Seraphina remained awake.
A small lamp illuminated her temporary study inside the quarters assigned to the mages.
Scrolls, books, and old records covered the table before her. Several had already been opened and discarded after proving useless.
For hours, she had been searching through records she had brought from the Mage territories. At first, she had merely wanted confirmation. But now, she was looking for answers.
Unfortunately, the deeper she dug, the more unsettled she became.
Seraphina carefully turned another page, then another. A frown slowly appeared on her face.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
The records did not make sense. She was finding references to the segregated Mage faction. There were mentions of bloodlines, settlements, and family names. There were even records of births and deaths.
Yet every time she felt she was approaching something useful, she encountered gaps.
There were missing names, missing generations, and missing records. Entire sections that should have existed simply weren’t there.
Seraphina sat back in her chair as the realization settled heavily in her chest. This was not accidental. Records did not disappear like this naturally. Especially not Mage records.
The Mage race was obsessive when it came to preserving history.
Every lineage was documented. Every family was recorded. Every significant birth was catalogued. Yet here she was, staring at holes that should not exist.
Slowly, Seraphina closed the book in front of her. Someone had deliberately erased information. The thought disturbed her more than she cared to admit.
Why? And more importantly... Who?
Her mind immediately drifted back to Amara. The young woman’s face appeared clearly in her thoughts.
She replayed the red markings, the reaction of her body to poison, and the traces of Mage blood she had detected.
Everything pointed in one direction, yet the records refused to cooperate.
Seraphina lowered her gaze. For the first time since arriving in the Werewolf Kingdom, genuine worry settled into her heart.
Because if someone had truly gone to the effort of erasing an entire lineage from Mage history, then perhaps Amara’s existence was a secret that somebody desperately wanted hidden.
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The following morning, Lila was finally released.
The royal guards offered neither apology nor explanation. The cell door was simply opened. She was informed she was free to leave, then escorted out.
Lila had never been so humiliated in her life. The entire experience of being locked in a cell by the Werewolf guards had been degrading.
Then there was that masked man. The memory alone was enough to make her blood boil.
By the time she finally returned to the guest house, her mood had become absolutely foul. The moment she entered the room she shared with Torin, she found him sitting near the window.
The sight of her immediately made him stand. Relief flashed across his face. "Lila."
She barely looked at him.
Torin quickly crossed the room. "Where have you been?" He inquired as two lines appeared on his forehead, but Lila didn’t bother answering him.
His concern deepened, though. "I’ve been worried all night."
Still, there was no answer. Instead, Lila marched past him and threw herself into a chair.
His worried gaze followed her. Instantly, he concluded that something was clearly wrong. "What happened?"
She shot him a glare. "Nothing." The answer was sharp enough to cut.
Torin frowned. The response alone told him that something had definitely happened. As he moved closer, however, he suddenly stopped, then he blinked. His nose wrinkled.
Lila noticed immediately and almost rolled her eyes. "What?"
Torin hesitated, weighing whether to speak, but in the end, honesty won. "There is a smell on you."
The room descended into steel silence. Lila stared at him long enough to make him realize his mistake. Unfortunately, it was already too late.
"I smell?" Lila repeated.
Torin cleared his throat. "That’s not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?"
He considered several possible answers, none of them seemed safe.
Meanwhile, Lila’s expression continued darkening. "I spent an entire night locked up because of those ridiculous guards, and that’s the first thing you say to me?"
Torin blinked. "Locked up?"
Lila stood abruptly. "Yes!"
Torin stared. For a moment, he wasn’t even sure he had heard correctly. "Why were you locked up?"
Lila looked away. The reaction alone was suspicious, so Torin narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"
Immediately, Lila became defensive. "I didn’t do anything."
Torin wasn’t convinced. "Lila."
"I didn’t."
He folded his arms. The look he gave her made it obvious that he didn’t believe a word of it. Unfortunately, that only irritated her further, and soon the argument began.
Lila accused him of not looking for her. Torin pointed out that she had disappeared without telling him where she was going.
Lila accused him of not caring enough. Torin reminded her that he had spent the entire evening worrying.
Lila claimed he should have done more.
Torin finally lost his patience. "What exactly was I supposed to do?"
The question echoed through the room.
Lila froze, giving Torin the opportunity to continue, "You left without saying where you were going."
His frustration was becoming increasingly obvious. "You left while I was gone."
Lila opened her mouth, but Torin didn’t give her a chance. "How was I supposed to know where to find you?"
The room was silent, and Torin rarely raised his voice, which was precisely why the outburst carried so much weight.
For several moments, neither spoke, then Torin rubbed his forehead. His exhaustion was obvious.
"I was worried about you." The words came out quieter this time. "I genuinely was."
Lila looked away. Unfortunately, her anger had not faded, not even slightly. If anything, the humiliation from the previous night still burned hotter than ever.
And somewhere in the back of her mind, she was still thinking about the masked man. The way he had mocked her. The way he had enjoyed every moment of her imprisonment.
The memory alone was enough to reignite her fury.
Whoever he was, Lila intended to find out.
And when she did, she promised herself that she would remember this humiliation for a very long time.