Don't involve others

Ali looked at Blun, and Blun also nodded. She slowly lowered her guard, but still held the blade tightly in her hand.

'It seems that the duke is very likely to be an important factor in this instance. But now is not the time to enter.'

Blun exchanged glances with Ali. Ali also understood and quietly approached Blun, keeping a distance from the man in front of him.

The man still had a smile on his face, turned around, and walked ahead as if he were leading the way for them to follow.

"May I ask, are you the butler here?"

Blun asked cautiously while observing and analyzing the person in front of him.

"Yes, sir. I am the head butler in charge of the main hall. You must be the duke's guests, right?"

"I apologize for not being able to welcome you properly. We did not receive your early notice."

"It's okay, it's our fault for not informing you in advance."

"The other guests will soon return to the guest room. I'll have someone introduce you to the room then."

Blun just nodded, and no one said anything during the rest of the journey. But Ali and Blun could feel a strangeness in the air. The candlelight flickered as if there was a breeze, even though there were very few windows in this place.

The quartz statues and the carved patterns on the pillars seemed to move wherever they passed, all of them seemed to be staring at them in the darkness.

'The surrounding air isn't perfect...'

'What is this feeling of near danger?'

Ali's intuition told him that something was extraordinary. Especially since the butler didn't even make a sound when he walked, he was not just an ordinary NPC.

But he still hasn't made a move yet, he probably can't just kill people indiscriminately. Or at least he doesn't have any intention of doing it for now.

That was what they thought, but in reality, if it weren't for Daniel's instructions twenty minutes ago, they would have died long ago.

Back to twenty minutes ago. At the office of the Duke, Daniel, or currently Duke Evigheden. Daniel was looking through the documents in the office to find some more clues when a knock came from the door.

Daniel was a little surprised at first, but thinking back to what the system had said, he should also get into character to create a memorable trip.

"Come in."

The door made a soft click and then quickly closed. The figure of a man appeared with a gentle smile on his face.

'A butler?'

"What business do you have here?"

The man placed one hand on his chest, bowing slightly forward as a polite greeting. The smile remained on his lips, the feeling it brought was not comfort but a strangeness that reached to the bones.

"Duke, your guests have arrived. They are all over the mansion. What do you think we should do with them?"

Daniel calmly put the book in his hand down on the table, looking straight into the eyes that were still smiling and had never opened, along with the strange smile on the lips of the person in front of him.

The meaning of the question was clearly whether or not to kill them.

'What else should we do? Of course, serve guests!! Do all the NPCs in every dungeon discuss with the boss that they need to kill all the players like you?'

Daniel silently screamed in his heart, acting as someone who was not even human was not an easy thing. Now he had to decide the life and death of another person in a beautiful way, which was completely different from the feeling of killing someone normally.

"Temporarily gather them in the second-floor lobby. When I'm done, I'll go greet them. You should also prepare a place for them to rest."

"We'll need to entertain these guests for a long time."

Back to the present, the sound of dry footsteps echoed on the stone stairs. The old butler took the lead, not turning his head, but Ali and Blun still had the feeling that his eyes knew their every breath. The iron key swinging from his belt made a very small jingle every time he walked.

The second-floor hallway was lit by an oil lamp mounted on the wall, the flame flickering, casting shimmering shadows as if whispering. The large living room door opened silently.

The interior was like a sealed still painting, velvet sofas, floor-length curtains, a ceiling carved with bats and drooping grapes, and a silent fireplace that was still warm with ashes.

"Please be seated."

Immediately after, from the left, two young servants in dark clothes quietly entered with a silver tray in hand, pouring black tea into porcelain cups with a faint gold rim.

The scent of tea wafted out like mist, with hints of anise, ginger, and something... hard to guess, like the smell of old paper. The scones were neatly arranged on the dark enamel plate, steaming hot, the red strawberry jam filling about to spill out with every slight cut.

The old butler said nothing more, just bowed. Not warmly, not coldly. As if he were not serving them, but serving some rule that had existed here longer than flesh and blood.

Then he turned away, as silently as he had come, the sound of his footsteps blending with the rhythm of the oil lamp, the rhythm of the tea, the beat of his heart... and the nameless silence.

Ali glanced at Blun, intending to say something, but the words caught in his throat. Outside the window, mist began to cling to the glass like a shadowy hand.

Blun waited until the servant had retreated outside the door, leaving the two of them sitting silently in the dim, eerie light of the candle in the room. The crackling of the fire, as if dancing on the ashes of the wood in the corner of the fireplace, gradually became the only sound.

"The weather here was cool and slightly gloomy just a moment ago, but now there's fog and an unusually cold feeling. Do you think something is about to go wrong?"

"It's true that the time and space here are both wrong. But we can only wait, there's no useful information here."

"And even if there was, I can't go there to find out right now."

"I wonder if those new people will be able to find any useful information or clues. What do you think?"

"I don't expect it."

"It's not worth expecting..."

Ali recalled Abigail's timid and awkward demeanor, and also recalled the admirable psychological qualities of the new group's decision-making leader, Clinton.

She smiled again.

"But it might be worth betting, don't you think so? I thought you people from the Church of Fate liked to bet?"

"You seem to be very observant?"

"Thanks for the compliment, but your reckless actions are really easy to see. If you're not from the Church of Fate, then they're wasting their talent."

"It's not like you're crazy, we're just living peacefully in the face of death."

"I just hope you don't risk your life and bring unnecessary danger to everyone. After all, the strange changes in the game's instance are a very important thing for the players."