LURKERS FROM AFAR(2)

Kole sighed as he cursed everything. This hasn't been the best of his days.

With a low turn, he glanced at Rosalie and said with a smile while raising his hands up in the air as a show for surrender, "Fine. You win. Now tell me, what do you want from me?"

Rosalie chuckled as she raised a glass filled with deep red liquid and took a sip.

"I want many things, but for starters, why don't we start with your name." She peered down into his dark eyes.

"My name?" Kole's brows scrunched together as he nodded, "Joe."

Rosalie raised an eyebrow as she continued, "You know that I know you are lying, right?"

"Yes." Kole nodded as a wolfish grin appeared on his face, "but a name is just a form of address. If you want, you can call me handsome, love, darling… It doesn't matter."

Startled, Rosalie looked at Kole in half-shock, half-amusement, "You don't look very handsome to me… I've seen men who are prettier than you. If I have to give you a score, it would be 'average'."

Kole's lips curved upward, "Men are defined as handsome by not their face but their performance!"

Kole raised his hand, poised, in an inviting gesture, "Want to dance and see for yourself?"

"Don't mind if I do…" Rosalie readily stood up and approached Kole, taking his hand into hers.

At the same time, the light music in the bar started again... creating a mask of liveliness.

Although Kole felt absurd about dancing in the middle of a crowd that was staring at them with lifeless eyes, he quickly overcame his shock by pulling Rosalie's seductive young body closer to him and inhaling her seductive fragrance.

His hands traveled to her waist but didn't go further down and remained there like a gentleman meanwhile, Rosalie placed her hand on his shoulder.

They jovially moved to the tune of the light rhythm, but the atmosphere was of extreme despondency.

This dance was a pretense for the couple to gauge the other's party's strength and how long they would last against the other if they fought!

"Sooo… Miss Barkus, I wonder what brought you to Treon?" Kole chuckled with a grin.

"Oh?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow when she heard Kole's assumption of her not being a native of Treon, "Some say responsibilities, others say fate… while I think it was my own curiosity…"

"Joe, I also wonder which noble family you belong to.

"Despite being old enough, your skills in dancing aren't the best… A declining baron family that couldn't afford to teach their scions the grace of dancing or the arrogant heir of a Duke that couldn't care less of other people's opinions?"

Kole smirked, "An ordinary commoner who doesn't have any skills in dancing. I'm just a wild Rogue. Haha." He chuckled out loud.

While the two danced slowly, Rosalie shook her head in a no gesture.

"Mhm-Mhm." She tutted, "You are not a wild Rogue, I am sure of that.

"Since the first thought that came to your mind when you noticed the abnormality wasn't to escape but let the official Ascendants handle it, was it not?" She questioned with absolute confidence.

"How did you know?" Kole displayed an intriguing expression with moderate surprise.

"I didn't." Rosalie smiled, "But now I know…"

She raised a finger and trailed across Kole's cheek sensually.

"Haha. You caught me there." Kole wasn't disheartened when he was played by her.

In fact, he revealed it on purpose.

This was insurance!

Rosalie could do anything to a wild Rogue, and nobody would raise a finger, but she would have to think twice before making a move against Kole if he belonged to a powerful family.

Who would want a powerful Count or a Duke coming after them while boring deep grudges?

Not to mention, Rosalie was an outsider in the Treon Kingdom.

The entire aristocratic circle will unite to hunt her for transgression in their region! Kole had easily been able to guess her nationality because of her name... Barkus!

Barkus wasn't a surname that was common in Treon! It had a unique pronunciation that differed from the commonly used Ergen language of Treon.

"Smart…" Rosalie got on her toes and raised her head to match Kole's, her lips brushing past his.

She wasn't oblivious that despite losing the intel war, Kole held an advantage.

They locked eyes as Kole fought the urge to drown in her red orbs.

"As smart as I am, I can't figure out your intentions Miss Barkus." Kole's nudged his nose with hers.

"Simple." Rosalie smirked, "Come to the Darkmoon when you have time. The Barkus will prepare a banquet for the likes you may have never seen before... All for you, Joe..." She spoke with a broad grin.

Before Kole could make heads and tails of the situation, he heard a snipping sound.

Snip! Snip!

When his gaze fell back on Rosalie, he didn't see her in his arms.

Instead, she was standing at the only exit of the bar. She snapped her fingers.

"!!!"

What Kole saw next was definitely one of the most bizarre images of his life.

All people in the bar, including the barman, writhed. The color of their clothes rapidly changed to that of skin color as it swiftly merged with their skin.

In the next moment, the flesh on their bodies squirmed such that, maggots seemed to live beneath their skin.

After a flash of the gory display, their bodies metamorphosed into a mass of flesh and blood.

Kole's heart skipped a beat.

The squirming tissues formed tentacles as they rapidly rushed toward Rosalie.

Rosalie merely laughed when she saw Kole's crept expression.

Twisting through the floor of the bar, the tentacles of flesh and blood darted toward Rosalie and crashed against her red heels.

What surprised Kole was that the flesh and blood seemed to merge with Rosalie's heels.

The Scissors also floated in her hands.

With a swing in her ankles, Rosalie turned around and left the curious Kole and the empty bar behind.

…

In a hotel room, a woman whose features were extremely similar to Rosalie Barkus but treaded more toward maturity, unlike Rosalie's adolescent appearance, wore a long red dress covering her entire body.

However, if the riper parts of her seductive body were overlooked, she looked like a twin sister of Rosalie.

She was standing at the long floor-to-ceiling window gazing outside and observing the city of Stormwatch while sipping on a blood-red drink from the golden chalice in her hand.

The doors of the room opened, and Rosalie entered in a huff.

"Mother…" Rosalie's confident and cunning appearance crumbled in front of her mother. She pouted like a child.

"What happened, my daughter?" Ysabelle Barkus asked gently as she briefly looked at her daughter's reflection in the mirror.

After a moment of deliberation, Rosalie smiled, "I met him…"

"Oh?" Ysabelle raised an eyebrow.

"After weeks of lurking in Stormwatch, I finally found him…" Rosalie said proudly, flashing her sharp teeth.

"Are you sure?" Her mother questioned.

Rosalie shook her head gently, slightly unsure, "I think sooo… probably."

Then she revealed, "He can use Subspace quite naturally; it took me some effort to stop him from escaping. In fact, I felt he was hiding most of his abilities, and if he went all out, he should be able to escape at the very least."

"Hum…" Ysabelle hummed in agreement.

"But I couldn't get anything out of him except for the fact that he is a noble…" Saying so, a blush of embarrassment appeared on her face, "And that too, he revealed it on purpose as a threat."

Ysabelle didn't say anything as her eyes narrowed. She sighed and asked a question to herself, "Is he the one Darkmoon wants?"