The assumption caught them off guard. Lucian instinctively stepped back, a surprised sound escaping his lips. "W-what? No! I..." he blurted out, his cheeks flushing. He'd never been in a real mutual relationship with a girl, but he was certainly old enough. With red-flushed cheeks, he turned to face the braided beauty, curious about her reaction.

  She seemed to be blushing, a delicate rose tint appearing on her cheeks before vanishing just as quickly, her eyes as well mirroring her surprise. True to form, though, her expression stayed mostly unreadable—no clear sign she liked the assumption, nor that she hated it.

  'I can't read her. An enigma indeed,' Lucian thought, sighing inwardly. But he quickly gathered himself and walked up to Sketchy, who was writhing on the floor.

  Clearing his throat, "We aren't in that sort of relationship. I just need to ask you a few questions."

  "Really? Alright then, what's your question?" Sketchy asked cautiously.

  Lucian's expression turned deadly serious. He crouched to Sketchy's level, meeting his eyes, "What I'm about to ask you, I need you to tell me nothing but the truth. No jokes or sarcasm. If not, there's a strong chance the hellspawn will come after you next—and you saw what it did to the others."

  Sketchy swallowed hard at Lucian's words before nodding. Lucian nodded back before gathering his thoughts. After a few seconds of visualizing, he began.

  "Did you lie?" Lucian asked.

  "Lie?" Sketchy asked back.

  Lucian shook his head, "Sorry, I wasn't very clear. What I meant was, back when you boasted about your weapon production facility, did you tell any lies?"

  Sketchy's expression changed, somewhat wry, before he answered, "N-no. I didn't. W-why would you think that?"

  Lucian's lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes narrowing slightly as he let out a quiet sigh. To be fair, Lucian had assumed Sketchy was just empty bragging to look important—but apparently not. Which only left one more possibility.

  "If you didn't lie and said only the truth, then you must have overexaggerated something."

  Sketchy seemed to have quieted down, his eyes shifting, seemingly embarrassed that his facade had been easily deciphered. He wasn't planning on answering that deduction; Lucian didn't need him to as his silence said it all. But he saw the death glare the braided beauty sent him, and he coughed up all the necessary info.

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  "I really did manage a weapon's production facility... well, I was one of the many managers there. It was the largest because it was the only one there; otherwise, it wasn't really a large facility. The city itself isn't big after all. So while I might have made it sound more impressive, I didn't lie," Sketchy admitted.

  The braided beauty's eyes narrowed while Lucian rubbed the back of his neck slightly. He had hoped for something more to be honest, but he knew better. He turned and just in time to come face to face with the braided beauty who turned towards him as well.

  "Well, I guess we need to tell everyone now," Lucian said.

  The braided beauty raised a brow, "And why would we need to do that? We should just leave them to eliminate themselves, shouldn't we?"

  Lucian tilted his head, "I see how that would be an enticing idea, but there are a lot of problems with that plan of action," Lucian stated in disagreement.

  "What problems?" The braided beauty questioned.

  Lucian shrugged, "First of all, him," he said, pointing at Sketchy. The braided beauty's blue eyes refocused on him, causing Sketchy to freeze and curse silently.

  Lucian continued, "He already heard us, so he's a problem."

  "Then we kill him," she said instantly, a cold glint flashing in her eyes, causing Sketchy to gulp in fear.

  Lucian was a bit shocked by her lack of hesitation but quickly regained himself and shook his head. "As much as I would like to do that, it's not feasible because he could easily scream for help before we could do him in..."

  "All I'd need is a second," she cut in again, and both Lucian and Sketchy had their eyes nearly popping from their sockets. There was the possibility she was bluffing, but they... but they doubted it.

  Sketchy looked towards Lucian, a pleading look in his eyes. Lucian coughed, gathering himself... again, before adding, "It would also seem suspicious if we suddenly killed him. The entire group might go against us."

  She finally seemed to show some reflection, "That would be a bit of a problem."

  Both Lucian and Sketchy breathed a sigh of relief, though for different reasons.

  Seeing that she didn't seem as murderous anymore, Lucian continued, "Also, we need to tell them for our safety. You saw what it did to people that got in its way. It would be bad if we got that unlucky as well because of our greed."

  She remained silent, having no comeback on this point. He was successfully getting her to see deeper and decided to cement this with his next words.

  "Also, I believe we should actively try to keep everyone here alive... the most we can without endangering ourselves," Lucian added.

  The braided beauty seemed confused, "And why should we do that? I mean, all these people are our competition. Shouldn't we try to clear them out for the highest chance of success?"

  Lucian raised a brow, though, "Does that mean you plan to clear me out eventually?"

  The braided beauty went silent, not knowing how to answer. It was a topic no one wanted to face—perhaps because, deep down, they all already knew the answer.

  Lucian sighed, feeling somewhat bad for putting her in the spot. It wasn't her fault they were in the same trial... but that was their reality, and it was putting a lot of strain on his mental health and taxing his mind; the heat wasn't helping matters either. Hence, his outburst.

  'Sigh… We haven't even gotten close to the goal yet, and I'm already reaching my breaking point.'

  With a sigh, he said, "I'm sorry for my rudeness just now, but we... but we really can't let people die needlessly. We might encounter problems that we can't handle on our own, problems that will require numbers and different expertise."

  The braided beauty considered his words for a bit before sighing, "I guess you're right."

  Then with a curious expression, she added, "Who's telling smooth talker?"

  Lucian's eyes widened as he blurted, "Alright, you've got to have some mind-reading ability. Confess..."

  ...

  After his seemingly serious but sort of playful accusation, they underwent a few minutes of back and forth and decided the braided beauty should go explain their discovery.

  Looking at her discussing with smooth talker, Lucian suddenly face-palmed. 'Shit! I forgot to ask her name,' he muttered under his breath.

  He shook his head and turned to the side, thinking about his next course of action when he noticed something off in the distance.

  Something was speeding toward them from the distance. Lucian's heartbeat increased, but he decided to calm down and scrutinize the situation more carefully, deluding himself with a fleeting hope that it wasn't what he thought. But that hope was ruthlessly crushed when he narrowed his eyes and got a clearer picture of what was coming.

  Indeed, it was the tongue-eating hellspawn.

  Anxiety and rage surged through him. He spun back to the group and roared—voice ferocious, yet laced with raw urgency...

  "Who lied?!"