Lyla sneakily went towards the inner section where the Clover family members resided in search of Allen. Thankfully it didn't take long for her to find him as every building had a nameplate on its door.
Allen's home was guarded by two people in the Martial Master realm. Just by releasing a wisp of her aura Lyla managed to knock them out without alerting anyone.
She merged into the shadow formed under the door and went inside the house. It was completely dark inside and there was no source of light that illuminated the room.
Lyla had no trouble seeing in the darkness, she thrived in places covered in shadows as she was born with an affinity to darkness.
After searching inside the house she found a man in his early twenties in one of the rooms. He was sleeping on his bed without a care in the world.
Lyla took out a sphere made of glass and threw it hard onto the ground.
-Crash!
With the sound of the glass breaking Allen woke up startled and looked around to find runes covering his room.
He instantly recognized the runes used for creating sound barriers.
"Shit! Who is it?"
He looked around frantically as he circulated his mana in order to attack as soon as he spotted someone. But no matter how he looked he didn't find anyone.
"Don't play with me! This is the Clover family's domain, I will have your head if you mess with me."
He started screaming in fear, if he couldn't find the intruder that only meant one thing.
The intruder was stronger than him.
As soon as he realised it he quickly took out a talisman from his nightstand and tried to activate it to call for help.
-Swoosh!
But just as he was about to inject his mana into the talisman and activate it his control over his mana slipped as he was enveloped by a powerful aura.
-King's Domain-
The bone crushing pressure bought out by the aura made him unable to move as he fell face first into the ground.
-Thud!
'I am dead! It's a Martial King!'
Allen despaired when he realised he was being subjected to the pressure of a Martial King. He dipped his head low, all plans of calling for help forgotten.
It was impossible for someone in the Martial Master realm to escape from the King's domain.
Once a cultivator reaches the realm of Martial King they could form a domain of their element in which everything was under their control.
Only someone in the same realm or higher can fight back. It was just a pipe dream for Allen to escape now that he felt the King's domain slowly covering his room.
-Tap! -Tap!
He heard the footsteps coming from ahead and with some effort he managed to look up.
His breath hitched as he saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life walking towards him.
He momentarily forgot that he was under a King's domain as he tried to get up from the ground only to slump back to the floor due to the pressure.
-Gulp!
He gulped audibly as he saw her face up close when she bent down to look into his eyes.
"Where is Raymond Clover?"
"Huh?"
Allen was flabbergasted for a second when he heard Raymond's name out of the blue. That was the last thing he expected to hear in this situation.
But he managed to calm down in time and replied hesitatingly.
"I-I don't know."
Lyla narrowed her eyes at him as she found his answer not to her liking. Seeing the look in her eyes Allen cowered as he said in a pleading tone.
"Please, I am telling the truth. I really don't know where he is, you have to believe me. I have no idea where he went."
"Hmmm…then tell me where you last saw him."
Lyla's cold and powerful voice rang in his ears as he found himself compelled to answer whatever questions she asked of him.
It was as if he was in a trance as Allen started recounting his latest encounter with Raymond.
He told everything that had happened without missing a single detail. He even told her about his crushing defeat at the hands of Raymond.
Allen was a very prideful person, for him to talk about his humiliation just goes to show how much he was losing control of his mind due to Lyla's enchanting voice.
By the time he finished reporting everything, he was completely in a daze as he stared at Lyla with his eyes glazed over.
Lyla shook her head in disappointment after hearing his story. It was nothing special. A typical case of some noble abusing his powers except in the end, the noble here got his comeuppance.
It was still a mystery to Lyla how Raymond was able to beat Allen without any cultivation. She needed to find out more about this before she made her move against Raymond.
Even though she was confident that she could kill him without any problems she didn't want to take any risks.
She had learned her lessons from the last time when she went to assassinate the emperor. If it wasn't for her 'Heartsbane' spirit she wouldn't have been able to escape from the Imperial Guardians.
After thinking for a while about her future course of action Lyla looked at Allen who was still on the floor.
"Do you have anything that can help me find Raymond Clover?"
She asked casually as she didn't have any hopes of finding something useful from Allen.
But contrary to her expectations Allen meekly nodded his head and pointed towards a bookshelf in one of the corners of the room.
"Oh?"
Lyla reigned in her domain to give him room for breathing. Allen took deep breaths as he regained some of his senses. His body felt much lighter than before as he stood up on his shaky legs.
He went to the shelf and took out a thick book that had a worn out cover. After flipping through the book he soon found a parchment that had the portrait of a beautiful blonde haired girl on it.
"This is Raymond's maid Jasmine. I had some of my servants check her room this evening." Allen spoke softly as he handed the portrait to Lyla. "She has already packed up her luggage and left the family. If you find her you can find Raymond."
Looking at the gorgeous face painted on the parchment, Lyla felt it was a pity that she might have to kill her in order to get to Raymond.
She would of course give her a chance to turn a blind eye to everything and leave Raymond. If the girl still insisted on interfering with her mission, Lyla would be forced to kill her too.
But according to what she had heard from Allen, Jasmine was more than just a maid to Raymond. She was probably going to stand by his side even if the odds were against her.
Lyla closed her eyes for a second to resolve herself for the upcoming task where she might have to kill Jasmine.
She disliked this feeling of having to kill someone. If she could have her way she would leave the Capital city and go somewhere far from her family to live the rest of her life in solitude.
It was still better than being used as a weapon for killing and forced to obey every order from her family like a slave.
Just for the wicked plans of her father to succeed, she was forced to kill two young lovers. Lyla, who had never experienced love, understood the value of it even more than others.
'I should have just died with my mother. It would have been so much better than being a slave.'
She thought inwardly as she folded the parchment and kept it in her spatial ring.
With the 'Ruffle of Servitude' around her neck she couldn't even kill herself otherwise she would have long left this world to join her mother.
Alas, that was just wishful thinking, no one was coming to rescue her from her father. Only a handful of people knew that she even existed.
Lyla shook her head to get rid of these depressing thoughts. Now was not the time for that, she had a mission to complete.
She looked at Allen who was standing with his back hunched looking as if he was ready to carry out her orders. She took out a yellowish-red pill from her ring and handed it to Allen.
"Take this pill, you will forget everything that just happened."
Allen hesitated to take the pill as he was worried that it might be poison. Seeing him reluctant, Lyla asked in her usually cold voice.
"Or do you wish to lose your life instead?"
Allen reeled back from the shock and quickly took the pill and swallowed it. He had no other choice than to take the pill. He could only hope that what she said was true and this wasn't poisonous.
"Now go back to sleep."
Lyla commanded and Allen, just like a puppy ordered by its master, climbed on his bed and instantly fell asleep.
She twirled her wrist in an anti-clockwise direction when she confirmed that Allen had taken the pill and was sound asleep.
-Swoosh!
Instantly the runes covering the room slithered back towards the place where Lyla had thrown the sphere before. All the shattered glass pieces flew towards that place and started fusing together to form a sphere again.
With a wave of her hand, the sphere flew back to her and she put it back in her spatial ring. That sphere was a commonly used artefact called 'Runes Dispatcher' used to set up runes quickly and without effort.
After making sure that the room was back to its previous state. Lyla retracted her domain and disappeared into the night in search of Jasmine.
Capital City was a huge place covering the grounds for tens and tens of miles and was home to more than half a million people.
It was going to be very hard looking for a person in that crowd. If she was unlucky and the people she was looking for had already left the capital, then she could kiss her mission goodbye.