The moment Zero pointed her out, every single pair of eyes in the grand dining room locked onto the young maid at the end of the line.
Brielle gasped, her face turning pale.
"Maya?! No, that is impossible! She has been working in the outer estate for two years and was just promoted! She passed every magical truth-detection test!"
The maid named Maya looked absolutely terrified. Her hands started shaking violently, and tears immediately welled up in her big, innocent eyes. She looked like a helpless, bullied victim.
"M-My Lady!" Maya cried out, dropping to her knees and bowing her head to the floor. "I swear on my life, I don't know what Lord Zero is talking about! I am completely loyal! Please, do not kill me!"
Lilia's confident posture wavered. Seeing the girl cry so pitifully made Lilia doubt for a second. "Zero..." Lilia whispered, stepping closer to him. "Are you absolutely certain? Magical truth-detection crystals are never wrong. If she passed them, how could she be a spy?"
Zero did not say a single word. He simply took one heavy, terrifying step toward the crying maid. His massive, armored boots clicked loudly on the marble floor.
Zero took another step. The heavy, suffocating killing intent radiating from his iron mask filled the entire room.
He didn't need to argue with Lilia. He trusted his System.
As Zero's massive shadow fell over her, Maya realized her pathetic acting was not going to work on this terrifying monster.
Instantly, the innocent, crying tears completely vanished from her eyes. Her face twisted into a look of cold, calculating ruthlessness. She was not a scared maid; she was a highly trained, deadly assassin.
CRASH!
Maya aggressively threw the heavy wine jug directly at Zero's face. The glass shattered, spraying red wine everywhere.
At the exact same time, she reached into her maid uniform and pulled out a small, viciously sharp dagger glowing with dark purple poison. But she didn't attack Zero—she knew he was too strong. Instead, she exploded off the floor with incredible speed, lunging straight toward Lilia to take the Matriarch as a hostage!
"!Matriarch" Brielle screamed in pure terror.
Before Maya could even get within five feet of Lilia, a massive, armored hand shot out like lightning.
SLAM!
Zero grabbed Maya by the throat and violently slammed her back-first into the stone wall. The impact was so heavy that the stone cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
Maya gasped for air, dropping her poisoned dagger as she clawed desperately at Zero's iron grip. Her legs kicked helplessly in the air
"You thought you could move in my presence?" Zero whispered, his metallic voice echoing with absolute authority.
The dining room descended into chaos. The other green-tagged servants screamed and huddled in the corner. Kaelith instantly stepped in front of Lilia, shielding her with her massive body, her amber eyes burning with fury.
But Lilia didn't need shielding. She pushed past Kaelith and walked right up to the choking assassin.
Her beautiful face was completely dark, and her eyes burned with the pride and wrath of a true Matriarch.
SMACK!
Lilia slapped the spy across the face so hard that blood flew from Maya's mouth.
"You filthy rat," Lilia hissed venomously.
"Every servant goes through strict magical verification! How did you bypass my truth-detection crystals?! And who sent you?!"
Maya choked in Zero's crushing grip. A bloody, mocking smile appeared on her face as she struggled to breathe.
"You... think you are so smart," Maya gasped out, spitting blood. "I didn't lie to your truth crystals... because my memories were completely sealed by a high-tier Mind Mage! I didn't even know I was an assassin! I lived as a normal maid until I received the secret trigger word this morning!"
Lilia's eyes widened in realization. A Memory Seal! It was an incredibly expensive, highly illegal dark magic technique used only by the most elite underworld syndicates.
Before Maya could even catch her breath after being slammed against the wall, her eyes flashed with ruthless desperation. She realized the Thorne Family would never let her live after failing a mission, and falling into the hands of the Valmont Estate meant a fate worse than death.
With blinding speed, the assassin tried to bite down hard on her own back molar—where a deadly, hidden suicide poison capsule was embedded in her teeth.
She wanted to crush it and end her life instantly.
CLACK!
Before her teeth could even touch the capsule, a heavy, armored hand grabbed her jaw with terrifying speed.
It was Zero.
Before Maya even realized what was happening, Zero shoved his fingers deep into her mouth. With a sickening, effortless crack, he violently ripped her back tooth straight out of her jaw, along with the poison capsule, and tossed it onto the marble floor.
Maya gagged, blood spilling from her broken gum, her eyes wide with absolute, mind-shattering shock.
'How is he this fast?!' Maya screamed in her mind, trembling in sheer terror. She hadn't even seen his hand move.
Choking on her own blood, Maya glared at Lilia and shrieked the truth of her mission.
"Elara !" Maya cried out desperately, using Lilia's first name. "Your new high-grade potions are being sold at incredibly cheap prices! You are completely destroying their market monopoly! The Thorne Family is losing millions of gold coins every single day! I was sent to steal the master formula of that revolutionary potion you sold in the last auction!"
Before Lilia could interrogate her further, the heavy wooden doors of the dining room cracked open slightly.
A maid standing guard outside peeked into the hallway and gasped, her face turning pale. She immediately rushed over to Brielle and whispered frantically in her ear.
Brielle's eyes widened in absolute horror.
"My Lady!" Brielle whispered in a panicked, low voice, quickly stepping forward. "Gareth Sunstrike is walking down the main hallway! He is heading straight toward the dining room right now!"
Lilia cursed under her breath. Gareth Sunstrike, the arrogant noble of the Sunstrike Clan, was a massive thorn in her side. If he walked in and saw a captured assassin bleeding on the floor, it would cause a political disaster.
"Damn it!" Brielle whispered fiercely, her eyes darting toward Kaelith. She quickly turned to the mysterious man in the iron mask. "Lord Zero, please! Hide Kaelith in your shadow right now!"
Lady Elara!" Brielle whispered in a panicked, low voice, quickly stepping forward. "Gareth is walking down the main hallway! He is heading straight toward the dining room right now!"
Elara let out a sharp, deeply annoyed sigh, her face twisting into an expression of pure irritation. She rubbed her temples, feeling a sudden headache coming on.
'Does this annoying bastard ever leave me alone?' Elara thought bitterly to herself, a wave of regret washing over her.
'Sometimes I honestly feel like making Brielle my official right-hand commander was a massive mistake. Brielle is more than enough for me'
"Damn it!" Brielle whispered fiercely, her eyes darting toward Kaelith. She quickly turned to the Zero"Lord Zero, please! Hide Kaelith in your shadow right now!"
Zero didn't hesitate. He raised his hand, his dark magic flaring up.
The pitch-black shadow beneath Zero's boots instantly expanded into a swirling pool of dark, liquid abyss. Kaelith didn't even flinch—she had experienced this exact ability before. With a calm, practiced movement, the giant centaur gracefully stepped backward and sank straight down into the shadow, completely vanishing from sight.
While Lilia and Brielle watched calmly—already well-aware of Zero's incredible shadow manipulation abilities—the surrounding maids and servants were frozen in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.
"She... she just melted into the floor!" a footman whispered, his eyes bulging out of his head as he stared at the spot where the giant centaur had just been.
"What kind of dark sorcery is that?!" another maid gasped, trembling in fear.
Before the servants could recover from their shock, the heavy dining room doors swung wide open.
Gareth Sunstrike strutted straight into the room, wearing his usual smug, punchable smile, completely unaware of the blood, the assassin, and the dark tension filling the air.
The surrounding maids and footmen widened their eyes in absolute panic, staring frantically at the bleeding assassin on the floor and quickly trying to block Gareth's view.
Gareth completely ignored the panicked servants. His eyes swept across the room and landed directly on Zero, who was sitting comfortably in his chair. The table in front of Zero was a messy mix of empty plates and a few remaining luxury food items.
Gareth's gaze then shifted to Matriarch
'No matter what clothes she wears, Elara always looks breathtaking,' Gareth thought to himself with a greedy, admiring smirk.
But the moment he saw Elara standing right next to Zero while the mysterious masked man casually remained seated Gareth's expression instantly twisted into a look of boiling, murderous jealousy.
His face flushed red with fury. Veins bulged on his neck as he glared daggers at Zero.
'Who the hell does this fucking trash think he is?!' Gareth raged internally, his fists clenching so tightly his knuckles turned white. 'He is just a nameless, low-born commoner! How dare he sit down while the great Matriarch Elara stands right next to him?! Does he have a death wish?! I am going to slaughter this piece of trash!'
Gareth stood there, glaring hatefully at Zero, burning holes into the iron mask with his eyes.
Elara noticed Gareth's disrespectful, hateful staring at Zero. Her irritation flared into ice-cold fury.
"Gareth, you are wasting my time," Elara snapped sharply, her voice cutting through the room like a blade. "And more importantly, you barged into my private dining hall without knocking or announcing yourself. Do I need to teach you basic manners and etiquette myself?"
Gareth snapped out of his hateful thoughts. The cold sting of Elara's words made him blink rapidly, forcing his anger down as he remembered why he was here.
"P-Pardon me, Matriarch," Gareth stuttered nervously, bowing his head slightly before putting his smug facade back on. "Royal Knights have just arrived from the Royal Palace. They brought a direct message from the King. They are waiting in the grand hall and demand your presence immediately"