You came to me!

Ellie watched, unbothered, her expression clearly indicating her lack of interest in the item. However, someone else in the room had a very different reaction, their face dark and painted with annoyance.

"They're auctioning an opportunity to steal what is mine?" Azrael mumbled as his gaze fixated on the now empty stage.

"Azreel?" Ellie called out, drawing his attention away from the stage. As he turned to face her, he corrected her, "It's Azrael."

"Well, Azrael, can we go now?" Ellie asked, rising from the sofa where she had been seated.

"Yes," Azrael replied, walking from the balcony towards the room's exit. Ellie, who had noticed Azrael's reaction to the last auction, regarded him with a curious expression.

"Are you interested in the First God's sword or something?" Ellie inquired as she descended the stairs, with Azrael following closely behind.

"No," Azrael responded, his tone firm and resolute in his lack of interest to discuss the topic further. "We need to retrieve the ruby from the treasury floor," he added.

"Yes, please come with me," a worker at the end of the staircase said to Azrael and Ellie, gesturing for them to follow her. She led them to one of the elevators, and with a pull of a lever, the door creaked open.

Azrael and Ellie boarded the elevator with the girl, and with a few flicks of switches and another pull of a lever, the elevator began to ascend. After a familiar resounding alarm, the elevator came to a halt. The girl escorted Azrael and Ellie into a floor that, unlike the VIP room, had no windows. The floor appeared to be as large as the VIP floor, but most of it was concealed, with only what seemed to be an office in sight.

"Miss Blueborne," a man said, rising from his chair behind his desk as he walked towards Ellie. "It's truly a pleasure," he said, extending his hand for a shake.

"Likewise, Sir Revon," Ellie replied, shaking the man's hand. "Oh, how amazing that someone like Miss Blueborne knows me," Sir Revon remarked.

"Well, you are quite popular mercenary leader," Ellie responded.

"Let's get straight to business," Sir Revon said, walking back to his desk. "You see, the God Ruby is quite the item, which is why we require your signature before we can release it to you, Miss," he added, pushing a single piece of paper forward.

"Of course, I understand," Ellie said, walking towards Sir Revon's desk and picking up the pen that lay beside the paper. She signed the document, and just moments after Sir Revon's signal, the God Ruby was brought in a small case.

Ellie was handed the case, and she opened it to inspect the God Ruby. The jewel was unmistakable, so the inspection didn't take long before the case disappeared into her space ring.

"Thank you for having me, Sir Revon," Ellie said as she turned around and walked towards the elevator.

"Thank you for coming, Miss Blueborne. We hope to see you again next year," Sir Revon responded as the worker pulled the lever, closing the elevator.

"That was a pretty successful auction," Ellie remarked as she and Azrael walked away from the Auction Towers. "So, what's the plan now?" she asked.

"We'll be dropping you off," Azrael replied, not glancing at Ellie as he spoke. "We'll be taking Demis Path, and there are some people waiting to pick you up somewhere around there."

"What?" Ellie asked, clearly unaware of this arrangement. "Why can't I just go back with the carriage that brought me?" she said, walking faster to keep up with Azrael, who had increased his pace.

"For security reasons," Azrael responded, evading person after person as they walked the busy streets of AML City. Ellie said nothing more as they walked quietly.

A few minutes later, Azrael and Ellie arrived at another gate of AML City. The gate was still grand in its own right, but it paled in comparison to the West Gate. At the gate, a carriage was parked, and as Azrael and Ellie approached, the coach opened its doors, gesturing for them to enter.

"Something weird is going on. How is Demis Path safer than the route I came?" Ellie asked as she sat in the carriage.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Azrael said as he sat beside Ellie.

The carriage was on its way not long after they boarded it. Both passengers remained quiet as the carriage moved, with only the rhythm of the horses' gallops accompanying their journey. But after a substantial amount of traveling, even this became silent as the horses suddenly stopped.

"We're here," the coach informed them.

"We are?" Ellie asked, looking around her surroundings from the carriage.

"Yes, we are," Azrael answered, opening the door to get down. "We'll walk from here," he said, offering a hand to Ellie as she came down.

"Why would we do that?" Ellie asked, taking Azrael's hand and getting down.

"You'll find out soon enough," Azrael replied, hitting the carriage twice. With that, the coach drove the carriage away.

"You know I don't trust you," Ellie said, looking Azrael dead in the eyes. "But if you try anything, I'm confident I could handle it," she added before saying, "Let's go. We'll lose sunlight soon."

"Yeah," Azrael said, catching up and walking beside Ellie, knowing she didn't know where they were going.

The two of them walked through Demis Path for some time in silence, and soon the sun began to set, painting an orange glow over the light forest. Along with the setting sun came occasional gusts of wind that blew the trees and leaves in a harmonic frenzy.

"Azrael, I think we're being followed," Ellie said, breaking the long silence, her voice drenched with a bit of panic.

"There seem to be a few of them," she added.

"There are fourteen, to be exact," Azrael said, his voice much louder than Ellie's whispers.

Azrael suddenly stopped walking and looked back towards the dense trees. "So, are you guys going to come out, or should I force you out?" he asked, his voice dripping with a subtle menace.