It was late at night.
For some reason, sleep wouldn’t come, so I was idly flipping through a book when a guild member cautiously knocked on the door.
Knock knock—
“Kaien-nim, I’ve brought the late-night snack you requested.”
“Yeah.”
The guild member quietly opened the door and stepped inside, discreetly placing a tray of snacks beside me before glancing at me nervously.
“…Then, I’ll leave it here, Kaien-nim.”
“Alright. Go on.”
Kaien didn’t even glance at him, just nodding vaguely.
The moment permission was given, the guild member scurried out of the room as if fleeing. It seemed that, after having part of his soul tampered with, he instinctively felt an unease around Kaien.
Click.
As the door shut hastily behind him, Kaien finally lifted his head to look in the direction where the guild member had vanished.
‘It’s become such an awkward situation. If only I could fully dominate their souls like I did with Rodrigo.’
Kaien had spent a considerable amount of time seizing control over the entire mansion, but even so, completely dominating the guild members’ souls remained impossible. The Holy Emperor had placed something like a protective barrier over the souls of everyone who came and went from the mansion.
Even if he managed to bypass the barrier and succeeded in tearing off a piece of a soul, the…