Following the departure of Arvin, Alvein, and Davin, silence briefly crept back into the second-floor lounge. However, Allen refused to let anxiety linger and take over the room's atmosphere.
The pink-haired youth stood up from the sofa he had been occupying, casually tidying his clothes before casting a warm yet firm gaze around the youths gathered around him.
"Come on, help me prepare dinner!" Allen urged, his voice shattering the remaining daze of the others. He walked a few steps toward the center of the room, ensuring everyone could hear him clearly. "And for those of you who don't know how to cook yet, use tonight as an opportunity to learn. After all, it is one of your core duties as his spouses."
Allen's straightforward words were immediately met with nods of agreement from Alrain, Ordion, and Alrian.
"Our husband truly loves the cooking of his spouses." Allen continued, a faint, tender smile gracing his lips. "Because by enjoying the food we make with our own hands, he can smile happily."
Hearing the explanation from the first spouse, Kylen and Victor instantly grew enthusiastic, unable to wait to start learning. On the other hand, Dylan and Arion merely exchanged subtle, knowing smirks.
Alrian, noticing the shift in the two youths' expressions, furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why are you two smiling like that? Is there something strange about our husband's wish?"
Dylan and Arion shook their heads in perfect unison, quickly dispelling the fifth spouse's suspicion.
"There's nothing strange at all about our husband's wish." Dylan answered swiftly, chuckling softly to hide his amusement. "In fact, I'm just incredibly excited because I've actually known how to cook for a very long time. So, this is a wonderful opportunity for me. Hehehe."
"Me too!" Arion chimed in, not wanting to be outdone, his voice carrying a trace of pride. "From the moment I first became a slave, I was rigorously trained in how to cook and serve meals. So, kitchen matters are nothing new to me."
Hearing their responses, Allen, Alrain, Ordion, and Alrian let out a collective sigh of relief. At least the burden in the kitchen tonight would be slightly alleviated with extra experienced hands on deck.
However, the reaction shown by Kylen and Victor was entirely different. Rather than relaxing, the two felt even more fired up and eager, determined not to be left behind by the others when it came to making Arvin happy.
"In that case, what are we waiting for? Let's head to the kitchen and get to cooking for everyone!" Allen invited enthusiastically.
"Yeah!" they answered together, uniting their resolve.
Stepping forward in a neat, orderly line, the eight youths left the warm embrace of the lounge. They walked side by side down the staircase toward the kitchen on the first floor, ready to whip up a variety of delicious dishes.
While domestic warmth began to blossom inside the mansion, a stark and horrifying contrast unfolded atop the crest of the palace entrance wall of the Victoriaz Kingdom. Arvin, Alvein, and Davin, completely cloaked in their invisible forms, stood frozen as they looked down from the high wall bordering the palace grounds.
Below them, all the prisoners who had previously fled with a glimmer of hope in their hearts were now dead in a gruesome manner. Their lifeless bodies lay scattered in chaotic patterns, pooling in fresh, warm blood.
Not far from the piles of corpses stood Kaydan's thick sand wall, still holding its ground.
Arvin turned his head slightly, whispering in an incredibly low voice into the empty air beside him. "Do you see the city gate not far from here?"
Alvein and Davin, despite being unable to see each other's physical forms, glanced toward the left of their position in unison. An iron gate separating the palace perimeter from the outer streets of the capital stood firmly in the distance.
"I see it!" Davin whispered back watchfully, responding to his husband. "Are they going to head toward that gate to make their escape?"
"Yes, you're right!" Arvin whispered back, his eyes firmly locking onto Prince Wiltan's movements below. "Go to the forest on the right side of that gate this instant. Take up a safe position and immediately carry out what we planned before!"
"Yes, Honey / My King!" they answered simultaneously in a hushed whisper that blended seamlessly with the rustle of the night wind.
The moment the words left their lips, Alvein began to flap his transparent fairy wings. A gentle, chilly gust generated by the invisible wings brushed past the empty air next to Arvin.
The fairy then took flight, leaving his husband alone atop the palace entrance wall.
After ensuring that Alvein had flown far enough and was almost nearing the city gate, Arvin shifted his focus entirely back to the critical situation below. He extended his right hand forward, retrieving a solid gold bar from his spatial dimension storage.
Channeling his alchemy magic, the gold bar softened instantly, melting like hot honey without emitting any conspicuous magical glow. Under his incredibly precise control, the liquid gold solidified once more, elongating and shaping itself into a sleekly designed dagger with an exceptionally sharp blade.
With the crafting complete, Arvin gripped the hilt of the golden dagger firmly in his right hand. He locked his gaze onto the exact spot where Calverd had just unleashed his telekinesis magic upon Prince Wiltan.
Right as he witnessed Wiltan successfully breaking free from the telekinetic restraint by utilizing spatial blink magic—
Zap!
Arvin materialized right next to Calverd, who at that very moment had already closed his eyes, completely resigned to facing his demise from the second prince's descending sword.
[Back to the present, precisely a moment after Arvin intercepted the prince's sword swing]
"Who are you?!" Wiltan barked in absolute shock.
The prince's eyes widened past his initial surprise, but a split second later, his expression twisted into sheer infuriation. His jaw tightened as he realized his fatal strike had been thwarted from the outside for the third time tonight.
Thud!
Arvin offered no verbal reply. Instead, he immediately drove a powerful, direct kick straight into the prince's abdomen.
Whoosh!
The sheer velocity and raw physical strength behind the kick sent Wiltan hurtling backward through the air at high speed.
Zap!
But, the second prince quickly triggered his blink magic mid-air, instantly canceling his backward momentum and landing with both feet perfectly planted on the paved street surface of the capital.
Arvin turned his upper body slightly, facing Kaydan and Calverd.
"The two of you, get out of here and go to the nearest gate right now!" Arvin commanded in a heavy, muffled whisper laden with absolute authority. "Everyone you freed from the underground prison... they are all dead. There is no time to mourn. Focus on running while protecting yourselves from sudden attacks!"
Hearing the horrific revelation, both Kaydan and Calverd froze in their tracks. It had never crossed their minds that the dozens of lives they had successfully led out of the underground hell had been completely wiped out in such a short window of time.
Every single prisoner who had just been fighting alongside them now lay as a blood-soaked corpse, slaughtered mercilessly across the courtyard.
"What about you?" Kaydan asked in a strained whisper.
"Let me hold off that man and the rest of the royal forces here!" Arvin replied firmly, turning his back on the two of them to face Wiltan, who was already recovering and preparing to charge forward again.
"But—" Calverd attempted to protest, feeling a pang of guilt at leaving their protector behind to face the onslaught alone.
"Go, quickly!" Arvin cut him off harshly, refusing to let the youths remain trapped in hesitation.
Sensing that they had no other logical choice given the rapidly tightening trap, Kaydan gripped Calverd's wrist with an iron hold, forcing the indigo-haired youth to turn and run with all his might toward the direction of the nearest city gate.
"What about him?!" Calverd pressed as they sprinted, his breath turning ragged against the wind. "Are we seriously going to leave him all by himself against all those royal troops?!"
"Just trust him!" Kaydan answered resolutely, not looking back for even a fraction of a second as he pushed his pace, his grip never slipping from the indigo-haired youth. "He is strong! Far stronger than anything you could ever comprehend, even far stronger than those two bastard princes!"
Calverd was left utterly stunned in the middle of his frantic run, having never expected that the mysterious masked man who had been silently watching over them possessed such a massive echelon of power.
But, despite the overwhelming awe, his chest tightened with a profound weight of sorrow and grief over the sudden loss of all his comrades-in-arms, the prisoners who had perished right at the precipice of salvation, without ever getting the chance to truly taste the meaning of freedom.