After Elise looked around the house with her ability and found nothing, they went to the other victims' houses, only to come upon the same thing as the first house. There were no signs of a fight and abandoned without a second thought by the family of the victims because of fear.
This search continued until the sunset and Auriel and Elise began to get tired of the same, monotonous process that didn't bore any fruits. And because of that, they returned to the village head's house and entered their room.
At the moment, Auriel was sitting on his bed with Mia on his lap, she had a dissatisfied expression, but without caring about why she was displeased, Auriel just caressed her head while directly looking at Elise, who began to come to herself from her strange mental condition caused by mental manipulation.
"How are you feeling, Elise? Do you have some sudden thoughts about wanting to go to Archpaldin Asher's side?'' Auriel asked and pulled Elise's strings to himself, making her sit on his side. He did this to assert his control over her and get the answers if he could.
"No, why would I…" Elise murmured with a certain tone as if she didn't have a thought like that and bowed her head with a slight maidenly blush apparent on her cheeks, making Auriel frown with disgust for a moment eventually noticing a fact.
"What the fuck!?" Auriel muttered and rubbed his temples. 'I guess she doesn't have thoughts like that but her body reacts like she is head over heels for that dog of the church.' Auriel thought and looked at his wrapped arm that was 'healed' by the same Asher. 'Does he have something like a body manipulation that makes him able to manipulate flesh, hormones, and maybe even the brain?'
Even the thought of this made Auriel ponder about cutting his arm but he threw this idea from his mind. Even if he cut his arm, as a Grandmaster, Archpaladin Asher could easily kill him. So cutting his arm just because of suspicion would be a waste.
Then when he noticed the fact that this archpaladin could kill both him and Elise without much effort, he concluded. 'They send me away because they plan to brainwash us away from prying eyes in the church. But why is that bastard trying to take what is mine instead of just brainwashing us? And why hasn't he brainwashed me yet?' Auriel's lips stretched into a sinister grin. 'That idiot must have a limit of one person, and he chose Elise over me, implanting something in my arm for easier manipulation once he's done with her. He will regret it. I won't allow anyone to take my possessions or my freedom unless I willingly give it.'
A newfound rage awakened in Auriel making his blood boil and clenching his hand hard enough to draw blood because of his nails, but before he wiped the blood, Mia hopped onto his hand like a hungry beast and began to lick the blood.
'She is a feline, it is okay for her to like blood I guess.' Auriel assumed and let Mia drink the blood but she didn't stop even after the blood stopped flowing and tried to bite the hand. However Auriel wasn't going to feed this cat more, so he grabbed the cat from her nape and dropped it to the floor. "That is enough, get out of the room," Auriel ordered as he was going to do something that might cause more blood, and don't want to be cat food anymore.
Mia looked at Auriel as if he was lower than trash and showed her teeth, then she got out of the room, giving Auriel that sense of something was wrong with this cat too.
'Am I surrounded with nothing but troubles?' He asked himself and nodded. Then he ordered Elise. "Go and sleep. Don't use your ability tonight even if you hear something, ask permission from me."
Elise tilted her head with confusion but obediently nodded, she wasn't going to question this while Auriel's voice was more serious than before.
After Elise did what Auriel ordered and covered herself with the ancient blanket over her head, Auriel removed his shirt and wrappings.
Then one of the many ethereally black strings appeared between his thumb and index finger.
'If something is playing with the natural string network in my arm, then all I need to do is to recreate or restore the old one. How hard can it be?' Auriel thought and grimaced after imagining the pain he was going to experience. 'It will undoubtedly be painful. According to Sebastian, being injected with these strings is six times more agonizing than being stabbed with a kitchen knife…'
Auriel tucked a cloth in his mouth and clenched his teeth. Then with a slightly trembling hand, he brought the string toward his arm. 'I didn't get stabbed by a kitchen knife, so I don't know how much it hurts but it should be lower than the burn wound I received from the Awakened bandits, right?' Auriel hoped and took a deep breath, at the same time plunging the string into his arm.
"Agh!" Slight muffle escaped from him as he felt like someone was stabbing him with a hot, razor-sharp knife.
'Fucking Sebastian, you lied!' Auriel cursed his currently lifeless butler without caring that he was the reason Sebastian died.
His eyes welled up with tears of agony, rolling down his face. Suddenly, the pain ceased, and Auriel could feel the presence of the new string in his arm. He let out a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the bed and closing his eyes. However, he quickly reopened them, muttering, "Damn... It barely covers a twentieth of my arm."
A torturous night began for Auriel as he shed tears like a child who is going to receive a shot in the ass.