The girl was determined to not let the servant live.
After the initial kick into his abdomen, she landed a few more before stepping back a bit, finally gathering some of the Power of Death and Extinction on her hand.
It was time to finish him off.
She didn't feel like listening to the groaning.
Just as the girl was about to strike, she felt a presence behind her.
The next moment, someone grabbed her by the wrist, not letting her kill the old man.
The girl didn't look back at who it was that stopped her.
Instead, she looked down at her hand and at the palm wrapped around her wrist.
At the moment, the Power of Death and Extinction was coursing right under her skin, so anyone who touched her should have been affected by it.
But as if not feeling the power, the hand gripping her remained firm.
"Your hand will rot," she commented, tugging her hand down to get out of that grip.
The hand holding her wasn't putting much effort into it, so the girl slipped free without feeling much resistance.
Then, she turned around to look at the one who stopped her.
And just like she expected, it was one of the brothers — the black‑eyed one.
"Why did you stop me?" she asked with a frown.
The man stared down at the brat in front of him, his eyes narrowed sharply.
"Why were you about to kill my servant?" he questioned back.
"He tried to kill me," the girl was honest about that part.
"I doubt you kept me here to have me die, so it's safe to assume that guy is a traitor," she continued.
"Leave traitors for me and my brother to handle. Weren't you supposed to be immobile?" the man's voice dropped lower with the last sentence, reminding the girl of her injuries.
Her body was indeed aching, and she could only move because of the sheer power of her will.
Anyone else in her shoes would have been forced to stay in the bed and at most scream for help when the servant attacked.
But just because the girl's body was aching, she wouldn't give up on taking care of the servant on her own.
"My mobility has nothing to do with you. Now, if you would excuse me, I have work to do."
She carelessly waved her hand at the man as if to shoo him away, turning back toward the servant curled up on the ground, barely conscious.
The girl had beaten him up in a way that he couldn't faint, so he would feel the pain the whole time.
She did it by striking a specific spot in the back of his neck.
It was obvious that the man had some kind of power, and if a person wielding a power had its flow narrowed near the spine or brain, it could actually alter consciousness.
The girl did that to the man.
The black‑eyed man watched the girl walk over to the servant again, gathering her power on her hand again.
Then, she squatted down next to the old man and placed her palm right over the spot that had caused him to stay conscious.
The poor old man twitched once before going still.
But his eyes widened, showing he was still alive.
Even with her power activated, the girl was choosing to kill him slowly.
Seeing what the power was doing to the servant, the black‑eyed man lifted his hand up to look at his palm.
Just a moment ago, he had used that hand to grip the girl's wrist when her power was unleashed just like at the moment.
Since it didn't hurt him, the Soul Bind had to be nearly activated.
The girl ignored the man behind her and put her focus on the servant, keeping her hand on his neck until his eyes lost the light of life.
And even then, she kept her palm there for a moment until she was sure he was dead.
Then, she finally stood up.
"Since you are so prone on taking care of your traitors on your own..." she turned around to look at the black‑eyed man again, "you can take the corpse away."
The man dropped his gaze to the newly dead body on the ground before looking at the girl again.
At the moment, he could only guess the physical state she was in, but once the Soul Bind activated, he would know it instantly.
"Shouldn't you go rest now?" he returned to the topic of the state of the girl's body.
The girl frowned at that.
"I'm feeling just right."
That was a lie, but put so convincingly by the girl that the man believed her.
Or, he would have believed her if he didn't feel a sudden tingle in his wrist.
His already narrowed eyes locked on the girl before he strode over in two steps.
"You shouldn't lie..." he lowered his head to whisper into her ear.
With that, not caring what the girl thought, he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her into his arms.
No matter how mature the girl's soul was, that she had already once lived to be an adult, at the moment she had the body of a twelve‑year‑old teenager; she was a child, and the man could easily lift her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing.
"Time to sleep," the man dropped her into the bed and pulled the thick blanket over her.
The girl kicked into the blanket.
First of all, she didn't feel like sleeping; second, it was hot under the blanket.
But the man pulled the blanket over her again.
"Now, now, no tantrums."
Something in his gaze made the girl's stomach tighten.
It wasn't fear, but it still made her listen.
It was more like she was uncomfortable, and her body on its own knew that if she just listened, the discomfort caused by the stare would disappear.
Seeing the girl calm down under the blanket, the man stepped away and grabbed the dead servant by the leg, dragging him out of the room.
"Sleep tight..." he glanced back at the girl before slamming the door shut.
Once alone, the girl once again kicked the blanket off of her, but she remained in bed.
She herself knew she desperately needed the rest.
In just a few seconds, she slipped into deep slumber.
The girl didn't even fight her sleepiness, mostly thinking it was from exhaustion and overuse of the Limit Killer.
She had no way to know that something called the Soul Bind was wedging itself in place, and that was draining her energy more than anything.
Just about the time the girl fell asleep, the silver‑eyed brother fell asleep in his office.
But unlike the girl, he knew what it was from.
And at the same time, while getting rid of the body, the black‑eyed man also felt strangely drowsy.
He also knew what was going on.
He resisted the tiredness and continued discarding the body.
Only when he was done did he retreat to his room and lie down.
He knew he couldn't resist exhaustion caused by the Soul Bind.
So, just a while after an old man died a brutal death in the building, silence overtook it.
Only a few guards were in the building, and they knew to always stay silent, no matter what.
The first one to wake up was the silver‑eyed man, a frown on his face.
He was sweating buckets, looking like he had run a marathon while carrying a boulder weighing over a ton.
Nearly instantly, he touched the back of his neck before looking down at his hand, specifically his wrist.
There, something that wasn't there before had appeared.
A mark in the shape of three claws; two big, one smaller.
For a long time, the man just stared at the mark before rubbing it with his other hand.
"What a nice little thing..." he muttered.
After that, he got up and went to clean himself.
The second one to wake up (in the guest room) was the girl.
Slowly she sat up, having the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
But no matter how she tried to wrap her mind around it, she couldn't figure it out.
While thinking about that, she casually moved her hand to support herself on the bed when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.
"What's this?"
She first rubbed her eyes to clear them after the sleep.
Only then did she look down at her wrist.
A mark rested on her wrist: three claws, two big and one small.
She had no clue what it meant, but she knew it had to do with the brothers.
The last one to wake up was the black‑eyed brother (probably because he had resisted falling asleep, which drained him more than his brother and the girl).
He got off his bed and left the room.
Beforehand, he knew what would happen, so he was already prepared for what to do next.
First, he needed to find his brother.
As he walked through the building, he passed a few guards.
Like always, they averted their gaze and looked down, but this time, they seemed even more respectful and scared.
So the Soul Bind must have also changed something about his presence.