"Everyone, I have important news to announce."
The voice did not rise loudly because the mana carried it around the room.
The elder of the Xavierius family stood at the center of the hall. His posture was straight and his gaze was calm yet unyielding. The chandelier light above him shimmered against polished marble floors, reflecting golden warmth upon the gathered guests.
Moments ago, the laughter and polite conversation filled the air, but now, the silence descended.
Even the musicians at the far end unconsciously lowered their instruments.
The elder allowed the quiet to deepen before continuing.
"Our intelligence has brought us a troubling information."
A ripple of curiosity spread across the room. The guests leaned subtly closer, wondering about the change of atmosphere in the middle.
"It appears…" the elder said evenly, "That one among today's guests is not what they claim to be."
A pause happened before a shocking news was revealed.
"One of you is actually disguising themselves as a dark wizard."
The transformation in the room was immediate.
The smiles froze and the wine glasses halted halfway to lips. For a heartbeat, no one reacted before the meaning sank in.
"What?"
"A dark wizard?"
"Where?!"
The chairs scraped violently against the marble floors. The fear did not build gradually since it erupted at once.
Unlike the assassins who killed with purpose, precision, and money, the dark wizards did not require motive. They harvested suffering and they cultivated pain. Their experiments fed upon lives, not merely ended them.
An assassin was misfortune while a dark wizard was horror.
"I want to leave!"
"Open the gates!"
"This is madness!"
The guests surged toward the exits with panic overtaking the courtesy. The silk gowns got tangled, the nobles shoved people, and their pride collapsed before survival.
However, the doors did not open for them.
Xavierius guards stepped forward in silent formation. Their halberds were lowered, not threatening but unmovable. The outrage soon followed.
"What does this mean?"
"Are you trapping us here?"
"If we die, the kingdom will demand the answers!"
"Do you intend to sacrifice us all?!"
The uproar thickened before a voice stopped them.
"Silence…"
The elder did not shout. He infused the single word with magic.
It rolled through the hall like distant thunder. The panic halted but not completely. Even though so, it was enough for now.
"You misunderstand us," the elder continued calmly, "We do not restrain you for our benefit. If you scatter outside, you remove yourself from our protection. The dark wizard will not hesitate to hunt such isolated prey."
The logic was brutal and correct. The guests realized their instinct to flee would only expose them. To run blindly into the outside would be to offer themselves.
One by one, they retreated from the doors. Their fear remained but now it was much more controlled.
The elder nodded faintly toward such understanding. After all, he didn't want to make a chaotic commotion.
"Apparently, we have identified several suspicious individuals."
A gesture showed five figures were escorted forward. They stood apart from the crowd with pale faces and tense expressions.
They were a minor noble, a mistress, a coachman, a household guard, and a maid.
Baston narrowed his eyes since the Xavierius family moved decisively, too decisive that they did not hesitate anymore.
That meant Alicia's earlier deduction had been taken seriously.
Harry Xavierius stood calmly near the raised platform and Angus was beside him with Alicia who was slightly behind. Meanwhile, Theodore was rigid with contained anxiety.
One guard approached the elder, carrying a small velvet-lined box. Inside, the white beads lay silently that were softly luminous. They pulsed faintly as if they were breathing.
The whispers soon moved through the hall.
"Holy suppression beads…"
"They certainly burn the dark mana…"
"Only high-ranking families can receive such artifacts..."
"The kingdom must favor Xavierius greatly…"
The elder allowed the murmurs to strengthen the family's prestige before he continued speaking.
"These beads react violently to dark mana. For ordinary people, they are harmless."
The implication was clear. If it was brought near a dark wizard, the reaction would expose them.
Baston observed carefully. The beads required proximity. That meant the dark wizard would only be revealed when they were cornered which meant the real one would not remain passive.
The five suspects stood under scrutiny and the air grew heavier as all five stood beneath the chandelier light.
They were positioned deliberately apart from one another yet close enough for comparison. It was not only the beads that examined them but hundreds of eyes also did.
The minor noble was sweating profusely. His embroidered collar was slightly crooked and he kept glancing toward the exit as though calculating the distance. His protest sounded loud and almost desperate but the desperation could come from innocence just as easily as the guilt.
The mistress trembled visibly. Her fingers clutched the hem of her dress so tightly that her knuckles turned pale. Her tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. Was it fear of death or fear of exposure?
The coachman's jaw was tight. Unlike the others, he did not plead. He stared at the guards with contained resentment and his silence felt heavier than words.
The household guard stood stiffly upright with the indignation that was clear in his expression. His loyalty was loudly declared but loyalty could be rehearsed. Baston noticed the subtle twitch in his left eye since it was not fear but calculation.
And then, there was the maid. Her head lowered with shoulders that were slightly hunched. Her hands folded neatly before her apron and she just kept her composure intact.
Baston's gaze lingered since her breathing was steady.
At least from what he could observe from a distance, her pulse showed no frantic rise. Even when the elder spoke of holy suppression beads, she did not flinch.
That calmness disturbed him more than the panic would have.
Most people reacted in extremes. They either overreacted or froze unnaturally but she blended perfectly into the background like someone who had practiced invisibility for several years.
The familiarity was the perfect disguise.
The elder gestured for the beads to be brought closer.
The guard who was holding the velvet box stepped forward slowly. His boots were echoing sharply against the marble.
The white beads pulsed faintly once then twice.
The hall held its breath and the maid finally lifted her head. Just slightly and for the briefest moment, her eyes met with Baston's.
There was no fear there. There was only the curiosity as if she was measuring him.
Baston felt the unease crawl along his spine.
Before the beads could be tested further, the floor trembled. It was subtle at first then it was violently shaking.
"BAM!"
The center of the hall exploded in blinding light.
The dust engulfed everything and the sound vanished beneath the ringing ears.
Baston stumbled backward with pounding heart. For a moment, he thought dozens had died but when the wind magic swept the dust aside, there were no bodies lay broken and no blood stained the marble.
The explosion had not targeted the crowd because it had only targeted the suspects.
There were five people before, but now, there were only four. The missing one was not among the injured. Above them, a figure hovered.
It was the maid, the one who could be deemed as the dark wizard.
Her simple uniform fluttered unnaturally as the dark energy seeped through the fabric like ink through the water.
Her posture was different. She was no longer lowered herself and her lips curved upward. A snap of her fingers echoed sharply. The disguise soon dissolved before her magic thickened into suffocating darkness.
Such action eventually made Baston felt the dropping temperature.
"So…" she laughed softly and her voice was no longer meek but layered with something evil,
"Congratulations, you found me."
Harry's gaze hardened, "Surrender, now!"
The woman tilted her head and she was almost amused.
"I lived within these kind of walls for years at another place," she said, "I'm always polishing the silver, carrying the trays, and watching everyone dine."
Alicia's breath caught faintly and the maid grinned viciously.
"Such moment was quite good but eventually…" the witch continued softly, "It was just a part of my job to kill everyone."
Angus stepped forward slightly, "You cannot escape. You better just surrender while you're not hurt."
A faint shimmer glowed across the estate perimeter. The layered barrier arrays were reinforced and prepared.
The witch glanced at the barrier and she smiled wider.
"Oh… I never planned to escape quietly."
Her arms extended and the dark purple mist poured outward like blooming poison, spreading rapidly.
Baston's mind calculated instantly.
The ice magic could not neutralize the vapor. The flare magic would be able to but such magic could not be revealed.
In the meantime, Harry did not hesitate and he raised his hand.
The wind spiraled out of nowhere. It was not dispersing the gas randomly but compressing it into a rotating funnel. With precise control, he expelled it upward toward the purification arrays above the estate.
The gas vanished soon before it could be harming anyone.
The witch's expression cooled slightly. She raised two fingers to her temple and the next attack was invisible.
The pain quickly erupted behind Baston's eyes.
It happened as a sudden spike with a pressure inside the skull. Several guests soon collapsed, clutching their heads. It was a mental assault and not physical one.
Baston gritted his teeth and the pain tried to dig deeper to fracture his thought and to scatter his consciousness.
For a terrifying instant, the darkness clawed at his mind before it receded.
He steadied himself because he could not afford unconsciousness while the enemy was nearby.
Angus who saw everything quickly moved.
With terrifying speed, he surged forward and trapped the witch within a compressed sphere of wind.
The air around her twisted violently, dragging her outside the hall and into the estate grounds.
The elders soon followed while Harry remained behind to stabilize the guests.
Baston acted without hesitation. He summoned a puppet silently, transforming it mid-motion into a small bird and released it through a shattered window.
The chaos in the surrounding concealed his action perfectly.
The bird landed upon a distant branch that was overlooking the battlefield. Through its vision, he saw the witch hovered, contained within Angus's rotating wind prison.
She did not struggle immediately but she only watched. She was waiting for something. At the moment, she was too calm.
Baston's unease deepened before the maid whispered something. The dark needles suddenly erupted outward, puncturing the wind sphere from within.
Angus retreated smoothly, expecting the resistance from the opponent.
She landed lightly and the barrier that was surrounding the estate shimmered visibly behind her. She tested it with her dark mana, holding her back and her smile thinned.
Angus raised his hand. The wind once again condensed violently into a focused cannon. It struck and the impact slammed her into the earth, creating a crater.
Before she could recover, a second blast followed. With dust erupted, the blood stained her lips. She struggled to rise. She was powerful but eventually, Angus was stronger.
"Damn you…" she hissed.
By then, her palm struck the ground. The dark runes flared beneath her toward a hidden pre-engraved magic circle long before today.
Angus's eyes widened. He attacked immediately but the magic circle activated first. The air quickly distorted and it blinded everything around.
"EVERYONE, SHIELDS!" Angus roared.
The explosion that followed was monstrous. It swallowed sound, swallowed sight, and swallowed everything.
Baston's puppet was also annihilated instantly. The connection was severed and he flinched violently.
The shockwave reached the mansion with several windows shattered and some guests who screamed inside. Even Harry staggered slightly from the impact.
The smoke rose across the estate grounds and the debris fell like a rain. For several seconds, nothing moved.
Baston's heart pounded. He checked the old book instinctively. The quest text flickered faintly that the dark wizard had not been eliminated. He grimaced over the fact.
The smoke began to thin. Angus stood within a cracked but intact wind barrier. Several elders also supported him.
The crater was massive. At its center, it was empty. There was no body, no corpse, and no remains.
"She escaped?" someone whispered.
It was quite impossible. The barrier still shimmered intact and the estate perimeter had not fallen.
Harry stepped outside slowly. His gaze swept upon the destruction, looking at the barrier that had not been breached. There was no opening and no rupture, yet she was gone.
Baston's thoughts raced over what had already occurred.
The maid had prepared that circle in advance. Not merely as a suicide attack but as a cover. It was a diversion and a concealment.
He felt something colder than fear before the realization struck him.
She had never intended to win against Angus. She had intended to disappear quickly.
A faint sound echoed faintly near the estate's eastern garden. It was not loud and not obvious but it was deliberate like a footstep that wanted to be heard.
Angus turned sharply and the wind surged toward the direction. Still, when he arrived, there was nothing remained. His coming only disturbed the leaves.
The barrier flickered faintly once more. It was not broken but adjusted.
That subtle difference made Baston's skin crawl.
The barriers did not simply adjust on their own. They responded to interference. Either something had passed through for a fraction of a second or something had been allowed to.
His gaze shifted toward the elders who were maintaining the formation. Their expressions were tense but none seemed aware of any breach.
Something had changed but only him who could notice it.
The eastern garden remained quiet. There were no shattered branches beyond what the wind magic caused. There was no lingering dark aura that was thick enough to trace which meant she had not forced her way out.
Perhaps, she had woven herself out from this chaos.
Perhaps, she had not escaped in a conventional sense. Not broken through and not forced out but slipped between the layers of magic for a breath of time.
The barrier had flickered and adjusted but not shattered. That meant something had interacted with it. With such conclusion, Baston's thoughts moved quickly.
If she had truly fled beyond the estate, the barrier would show the stress fractures. There would be distortion and instability, yet it remained structurally intact which left a far more unsettling possibility.
She had not gone far because she had shifted.
Hidden within the blind spots of the formation, beneath overlapping arrays, and inside the estate's own shadow where the detection thinned between spells.
Harry's expression darkened. His gaze swept across the grounds then toward the mansion.
"She should be still within our perimeter."
It was not certainty and it was just his own assumption but the words chilled everyone.
If she had not escaped outward, then she had embedded herself inward.
Somewhere within the fortified estate, within layered wards and guarded halls, the dark wizard still lingered.
Perhaps, she wasn't fleeing.
Perhaps, she wasn't defeated.
Perhaps, she was repositioning, watching, and waiting.