"Where's River?"
I asked with my voice laced in ice.
Elliot, like the brain-dead person he is, answered in an almost robotic voice.
"He is currently following a group of children wrapped in chains."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Why? That isn't part of the plan."
My eyebrows furrowed.
Our simple plan was to have Elliot and River observe the children and the [Level III] security guards for a bit, just long enough to deduce the paths they'll take, before coming back to this room and informing us.
Though I'd like it if all of us could observe the children and guards, it would be impossible to move in a group of four without anyone noticing.
Once the two of them are back in the room, Elliot would cause a disturbance. While that happens, we'll escape the room and locate our targets with River leading the search, since he was one of the two people that went out to observe.
After that, it's relatively simple. Take out three guards by surprise and pretend to be them while escorting the children to the basement.
This was a plan made assuming that the three of us would stay together. Clearly, it isn't possible without River.
Even if Elliot would go to cause a disturbance, no one would guide us to our targets. Shin and I would just be roaming the mansion like blind people.
Closing my eyes, I looked up.
'River is a smart person. I need to keep this in mind.'
I doubt that he disobeyed my orders due to rebellious reasons. He's not one to betray me. He probably acted on his own after seeing a flaw in our current plan.
In other words, there's a change in the situation.
Opening my eyes, I tilted my head down and back to the figure with white eyes.
"Elliot."
Still speaking coldly, I asked him.
"Tell me the current situation."
"Currently, there's an appearance of one [Pillar] along with the children and the [Level III] security guards."
"Pillar? What's that? I've never heard that before."
True to what I said, I have not written anything about a [Pillar] whatsoever in my Prologue.
Elliot explained.
"Pillar is a title akin to a very high-ranking executive of a Devil Household. They're important members as they're considered as someone the head of a household personally trusts."
"I see."
'In other words, Pillar is a pain in the ass that I don't want to encounter.'
Nodding to myself, I started to figure out why River didn't come back.
"Is the Pillar with the children and the [Level III] security guards?"
"No, he is not. The Pillar is currently roaming the interiors of the mansion and checking [Level II] security guards if they're currently in their posts."
"Ha! I see."
I scoffed in disbelief and processed every information I got.
'Well, it's not like I didn't expect the appearance of overpowered fuckers. I just didn't account that they would appear this early.'
In all honesty, I thought they would appear at the end of the naming ceremony and I also thought that someone like a Pillar would not leave the children's side.
Looks like I was wrong on both.
"Haa. That's half of my plan down the drain."
Shaking my head, I thought about River.
'Really, that emo vampire is too smart for his own good.'
With the situation at hand, he must've thought that someone needed to keep an eye on the children and someone needed to come to warn us about that Pillar. His judgment wasn't wrong.
If he had come back with Elliot, it's possible that we'll lose sight of the children.
Why is that? There are two reasons.
First, the appearance of the Pillar checking our posts from time to time.
In order to not raise his suspicion, we'll have to stay in our positions for quite some time. After all, he'd definitely be alerted if he notices a few [Level II] security guards suddenly disappearing after he checked their posts once or twice.
The second weakness is the insufficient time they have for observing the targets.
As I've said earlier, I ordered Elliot and River to observe the targets and deduce a path they'll take. It doesn't necessarily mean that with just a little observation, they'd know all the paths the targets will take.
At first, the paths the targets will take are guessable but only to a certain degree. The further the targets travel into the mansion, the harder it gets to deduce the paths they'll take since the mansion becomes a labyrinth the further you go inside.
They would think about the what-ifs.
What if they choose to take a different path than what we suspected?
What if they already passed the paths we hypothesized?
In other words, the moment they stop observing it would be a race against time.
We would need to search and spot the children again as soon as possible. But with the Pillar? It would take us a considerable amount of time before we can leave and start searching.
Most likely case in hand, we'll never find them.
That's why River needed to stay with the children.
After sorting out my thoughts, I looked back at Elliot and Shin.
'Hmm?'
I don't know how long I was thinking to myself but something must have happened while I was lost in my thoughts.
'Why is Shin looking awful again?'
"Shin, do you want to go to the bathroom?"
Slowly, he stiffly shook his head.
"Then why do you look like you're suffering from diarrhea?"
"S-Someone's coming. It's a heavy and frightening p-presence. It's hard t-to breathe."
"What?"
My eyes widened as I also began to take notice of a choking fear that sneakily climbed its way to my throat.
'Shit. Don't tell me...'
Forcibly swallowing the fear, I focused my eyes on Shin again.
Shin is a beast person. His senses are way higher than average humans and maybe even higher than River.
If something is terrifying to human standards, it becomes much more terrifying to him.
In this case, I think the presence is causing him so much pressure that he can't bring himself to move.
I quickly asked in a panicked voice.
"Is the Pillar near?"
"Y-Yes."
"Where is he?"
"Out, ugh, outside the door."
Just as he answered, the door handle twisted open.
'Holy shit!'
I hurriedly ran to Shin and pushed his stiff body inside the closet. With my other hand, I pulled Elliot's body and pushed him to the closet door while closing the doors to hide Shin and the dead bodies.
Bang!
Bang!
The closet door closed and the room door opened in unison.
Thanks to that, the sounds united and I was able to mask the noise caused by closing the closet door abruptly.
"Hmm?"
From behind me, I heard a deep and confused voice.
The intense pressure also came from the same spot.
Even without verbal confirmation from Elliot, I would know.
The so-called Pillar is behind me.