When Chiffon woke up, she found herself sleeping alone in the bed.
Instantly, her drowsiness vanished as she sat upright and scanned the room. She was about to get out of bed when the door opened, revealing William holding a tray of pancakes, and a bottle of honey.
“Good morning,” William said with a smile.
Chiffon sighed a relief in her heart when she saw her Big Brother. After having that kind of dream, the last thing she wanted was to wake up all alone in their room.
“Good morning, Big Brother,” Chiffon replied. “Sorry, I overslept.”
William placed the tray on the small table beside the bed and motioned for Chiffon to join him for breakfast.
“It’s fine.” William busied himself in placing three pancakes on Chiffon’s plate and topping with a generous serving of honey. “Girls need their beauty sleep. Also, you need to be properly rested since we don’t know when the enemy is going to attack.”
Chiffon nodded her head as she sat facing William.
“Thank you, Big Brother.”
“For what?”
“For always taking care of me,” Chiffon answered. “I’m glad to have Big Brother in my life.”
William smirked, “Well, as long as you promise not to eat me, I will ensure that you won’t get hungry again. Go on. Eat while the pancakes are still hot.”
The Half-Elf said this as a joke, but for Chiffon, it had a different meaning. The pink-haired girl looked at her Big Brother as if she was finding it hard to make that promise.
William didn’t notice that Chiffon unconsciously gulped as she stared in his direction. The Half-Elf was so busy lathering his pancakes with honey that he didn’t catch the look of regret on Chiffon’s face, which only lasted for a brief moment.
“Um? What’s wrong?” William asked as he glanced at the girl who still hadn’t started eating. “Do you want more pancakes?”
“N-No,” Chiffon stuttered. She almost bit her tongue because her thoughts had wandered to a scene that she saw in her dream. A scene where she took a bite of William… and nearly succeeded.
After breakfast, William took Chiffon to where Xavier and his officers were having a discussion about how to escape the encirclement of Xander’s forces.
“I say we all focus on one side to break through their encirclement,” one of the Saints proposed. “Or, we can choose to use the secret passages and pray that nothing is waiting for us on the other side.”
“The escape routes are already compromised,” the other Saint commented. “That traitorous Randy has already sold us out. I should have killed that bastard when I had the chance.”
Xavier sighed after hearing the name of one of his trusted subordinates. He didn’t know what methods Xander used to make Randy work for him, but the man’s betrayal had led to their current circumstances.
Randy had guided Xander and his troops to their hiding place, effectively cornering Xavier and his allies with nowhere else to go.
Seeing that the meeting was going nowhere, William left the conference room with Chiffon in tow.
‘I guess I’ll finish what I started yesterday,’ William thought as he equipped his Runemaster Job Class.
William had placed several landmines within Xavier’s base in preparation for a head-on battle with Xander and his troops. He had set them all on standby, so anyone that stepped on them wouldn’t trigger them and cause an explosion.
The last thing he wanted to happen was to have friendly fire between allies, before the battle between the two brothers even started.
This was the only thing he could do for now, and he planned to do it well.
Chiffon didn’t do anything special, and followed William around while licking a lollipop. For her, it didn’t matter which side won. As long as she could climb the tower alongside William.
The pink-haired girl had developed an unwavering trust in the Half-Elf, who had extended his hand to bring her out of her suffering. The only thing she could think of to repay his kindness was to protect him from any kind of harm.
Chiffon wouldn’t think twice about devouring anyone that would dare to hurt her Big Brother in front of her.
William was not aware of what Chiffon was thinking. For him, the one that needed protection was not him, but Chiffon. He had seen how the pink-haired girl fought in close combat. Although she was quite proficient in a melee fight, William still worried that she was still inexperienced in fighting against strong opponents.
Although William had seen Chiffon devour an entire floor in the Dungeon of Atlantis, he thought that the incident only transpired because the little girl had lost control of her powers.
What he didn’t know was that Chiffon was capable of using this ability in battle as well. If not for the fact that she didn’t want William to be repulsed by her actions, she might have already devoured the bad men that they had fought a day ago.
Right now, the last thing that Chiffon wanted was for William to hate her. She would rather keep this ability of hers a secret, and fight with her fists, rather than being left alone, like what happened when she was still living in the Demonic Continent.
Two hours passed before William finally finished laying down the traps in every nook and cranny that he could find. Right now, if he willed it, it was possible for him to detonate the entire base, causing a collapse that could bury anyone inside it.
Seeing that William had stopped making hand seals, Chiffon raised her head and tugged at his arm.
“Big Brother, are you done?”
“Yes. Let’s go back and see if they finally finished their meeting.”
“Un!”
Just as William and Chiffon were about to return to the conference room, a loud ringing sound spread across the entire base.
William grabbed Chiffon’s hand, and the two ran as fast as they could, in order to meet up with Xavier and his men.
All of them had anticipated that Xander wouldn’t wait too long before commencing his attack. Fortunately, the Half-Elf had already finished his preparations, but he had no intention of activating his traps right away.
He would allow Xander and his men to infiltrate the base first. That way, they would not be too wary of the traps that he had set. William wanted to activate the bombs at a crucial moment in order to create an opportunity to capture Xander, and let Xavier put an end to his misery.
