Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 125

Damian glanced towards Lilliana.

She was in the middle of striking the abraxas’s head with a chair. Annette and Casey thought she was brave, but Damian felt like he was going crazy.

“I’ll take care of things here, so you go help them!”

At Damian’s instruction, Casey didn’t hesitate to leave him behind and run towards his sister.

“Lily, Annette! Get down!”

Lilliana, sensing what Casey was about to do, pulled Annette into her arms and threw herself to the ground. Casey’s flames passed over their heads, and the abraxas was engulfed in flames.

When Casey clapped his hands, the abraxas exploded, scattering debris. Although it happened right next to them, Annette was safe thanks to Lilliana’s protection.

Lilliana touched her slightly burnt back and said to Casey, “Were you trying to roast me too?!”

“You’re resistant to fire. My flames won’t burn you.”

“My pajamas are burnt!”

Lilliana looked quite aggrieved, then turned towards Damian at the sound of continuous gunfire. He was still facing off against the basilisk. Casey scratched his head at the sight.

“Why is he having such a hard time with just one snake?”

“What are you saying? Aren’t you going to help him?”

Lilliana pushed Casey’s back, but he said with a hesitant look, “But he told me he would take care of it himself.”

Just as he was about to step forward to help Damian, Damian suddenly lunged towards the basilisk’s head, as if he was going to be eaten willingly.

The basilisk gladly opened its jaws wide. Annette screamed and covered her mouth with her hands.

“Damian!”

Lilliana shouted his name in terror. But Damian, with a calmer expression than ever, aimed his gun at the basilisk.

He aimed at the most vulnerable spot, unprotected by the tough scales – the inside of its mouth.

The fired bullet entered through the roof of the mouth, shattering the basilisk’s brain. Its massive body collapsed without a sound.

“Damian, are you okay?”

Everyone rushed to Damian, who was sitting on the floor, wiping away sweat. He got up with Casey’s help, caught his breath, and then yelled at Lilliana, “Didn’t I tell you to run away?! Why didn’t you listen?!”

Unlike Annette, who remained silent due to her guilt, Lilliana retorted, “What if something happened to you and brother while I was running away?!”

“Even so, you’re a burden!”

“A burden? Did you just call me a burden?! How could you say such a thing?”

Lilliana was shocked by Damian’s words.

“Say that again! I’m a burden?!”

Seeing Lilliana angrier than he expected, Damian flinched. But he didn’t back down and retorted, “Lilliana, your presence here distracts me! It hinders me!”

As he continued to treat her like a burden, Lilliana pouted with a dejected look.

“But I’m worried! How can I let you go alone when I don’t know what might happen?”

“This place is dangerous, and my mission is to keep you safe! So shouldn’t you be in a safe place?!”

“I’m the client who hired you for this mission! What’s wrong with the client doing as she pleases?!”

“Your presence here won’t be of any help…!”

Damian stopped mid-sentence and tried to calm his agitation. Lilliana wanted to argue back, but she didn’t know how to assert her usefulness.

“Hey, you two, stop fighting…”

Annette stepped between Damian and Lilliana, placing her hands on her hips.

“First of all, Damian is right. Lily and I weren’t much help in that situation.”

Slightly emboldened by Annette’s words, Damian stared at Lilliana with a “See?” expression.

“But Lily is also right. How can we let you go alone when we don’t know what’s ahead? What if you don’t come back while we’re waiting at home? We need to at least know what kind of danger you’re in, what the situation is. Besides, if we need an extra pair of hands, Lily and I can be of help.”

Now it was Lilliana’s turn to glare at Damian with a “See?” expression.

Annette sighed deeply and continued, “More importantly, shouldn’t we find Asher first? We had Damian and Casey, so we managed to get through that situation, but Asher must have encountered that thing with his bare hands.”

“Ah.”

Lilliana finally remembered why they had entered this maze and made a serious face.

“Then that scream we heard from Mr. Asher earlier, could it be…”

Lilliana’s face paled as she looked at the basilisk and the other monsters in turn. Fortunately, their bellies were flat as if they hadn’t eaten in months.

“What if he was eaten by something even more terrifying than the monsters here?”

Casey nodded in agreement with Lilliana’s words, then Damian stepped on his foot.

“Don’t worry too much. Nothing will happen. Probably.”

“Please don’t add ‘probably’ to that.”

Annette whimpered and clung to Casey’s side.

“Anyway, it seems like we have to go further in to find Mr. Asher, so Lilliana and Ms. Annette, please go back home.”

“I told you, no.”

“Lilliana!”

Damian was about to reprimand Lilliana in an exasperated tone, but Casey, staring blankly at him, said, “Wouldn’t it be fine?”

“What are you saying?”

“I can protect Lily. And Annette, too, while I’m at it.”

Casey waved his hand dismissively.

“So I’ll protect them, don’t worry about us, and you go find Mr. Asher.”

Lilliana, emboldened by Casey’s support, linked arms with her brother and nodded.

In the end, Damian had no choice but to give in. As Lilliana had said, she was his employer, and the employee couldn’t stop the employer from doing what she wanted.

Damian reluctantly took the handgun from his waist and handed it to Lilliana. He checked the magazine of his rifle and started walking again. Behind him followed footsteps that were more hesitant than before.

Leaving the hall, they were once again met with a long, dark passage.

After walking for a while, relying on each other, they came across another door, this time made of iron bars. A scene like a garden of an old mansion was visible through the bars.

Damian looked back, and the others nodded. He opened the iron gate and stepped inside. The well-maintained lawn felt soft underfoot.

“It’s like… a garden maze.”

As Annette said, the stone-walled maze had ended, replaced by tall, dense hedges of boxwood.

Flowers were planted along the path, and if it weren’t for the fact that this was a maze and they had to find Asher, they would have enjoyed the charming atmosphere.

Just in case, Damian touched the wall made of living trees, and as before, the front door appeared. It seemed that the door would appear regardless of the material of the wall.

Having confirmed their escape route, Damian started walking again.

“Why did the material of the maze change? Does the shape of the maze change depending on what appears?”

Casey nodded briefly at Lilliana’s reasonable question.

“If it’s a garden-like setting like this, maybe man-eating plants will appear. You know, like in novels or movies, where they wrap their prey with vine-like tentacles and hang them…”

As Casey said this in a nonchalant tone, everyone except him started looking around nervously.

“H-hey! Why are you making those kinds of jokes? Hahaha…”

Lilliana laughed with a slightly stiff face. But Casey seemed to think it was a pretty funny joke.

“It’s a joke, a joke. My previous guess was wrong too.”

Annette stared at him, laughing casually, as if he were crazy.

“What’s there to worry about when I’m protecting everyone?”

It was clear that Casey wasn’t taking this matter seriously at all. Annette and Lilliana walked closer to Damian than to Casey.

“Will Mr. Asher be alright?” Lilliana asked worriedly, and Annette shrugged.

“His scream earlier was quite loud. He must have the energy to run around and avoid the monsters.”

However, the others were quite skeptical that the frail-looking Asher would be able to skillfully escape from the monsters.

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