Arena Fifty: Their Secrets X

"Lady Anastasia, please wait!"

Anastasia ignored the cries of the servant behind her as she walked through the corridor. Her mind was occupied to the fullest.

Not only they had taken Arnold hostage, but now Roxy was also missing.

However, Anastasia never liked Roxy... She was the reason why she had a bad childhood full of bullying. But then again, her anger was justified.

Anastasia's half-brother, Jeffery had tried to assault her, after all. In her own words...

"That bastard couldn't keep his hands inside his damn pocket, which resulted in him trying to rape Roxy."

Thankfully, she had been able to save herself by awakening the power of denial just in time... But due to Jeffery being the heir to the Valentina House, the whole incident was put under the rug.

Which had angered Roxy... and led her to bully Anastasia. She was justified in her hatred for the Valentina Family... but that didn't mean the flaxen-haired beauty forgave her for what she had done to her.

Even so, her sudden disappearance was weird to Anastasia. And without her, it would be impossible to free Arnold from the Imperial Castle.

Anastasia gritted her teeth as she lamented her powerlessness. Soon, she stopped in front of a certain door. Pushing the door open, she glared at her mother, Flora Valentina.

"What are you causing the ruckus for?"

She asked in a disinterested tone without even looking away from her tablet. Her attitude angered the girl, but she kept her calm.

"I want you to mobilize the personal forces under the Valentina family, mother."

"And why would I do that?"

The mother asked, raising her eyebrow and looking at Anastasia with confusion.

"Why? Because Arnold is held captive and Roxy is missing, mother! Both you and I know that the Imperial Family is behind it!"

She hissed at her, but Flora just shrugged. Yes, both of them knew what kind of place the Imperial Castle was.

The Valentina family, of all people, would know the dark side of the emperor... which had given birth to Anastasia, an anomaly.

Born from two mothers, she was artificially made... though that fact had never bugged her. It did, however, made her loathe the emperor for making her life a misery. After all, the one who actually gave birth to Anastasia wasn't a noble. Anastasia didn't know who she was... but she wasn't a noble.

The lesser nobles might not have known, but the major nobles and the high-ranking nobles all knew about her situation. They kept quiet due to Flora's fear... But they would still send stares of pity and loathing towards her.

And of course, with that came bullying. Honestly... It made her sometimes want to kill herself.

Yet, she persisted... But this event had blown away every ounce of respect Anastasia had for that wretched emperor.

"Yes, I know that Arnold has been captured. But currently, the Imperial Family is keeping a close eye on us. The moment we do something shady, they will announce us as traitors and attack."

Flora explained in an exasperated voice, which angered Anastasia more.

"But then you'll let them do whatever they want? Really?"

"Of course not."

Flora shot down Anastasia's comment and stood up.

"But we need a valid reason to intervene... I'm waiting for the opportunity."

Flora muttered as she closed the screens around her.

"And what if the opportunity never comes?"

Anastasia asked, still sceptical. Hearing that, Flora sighed and answered.

"Then we'll rebel."

"R-really?"

While it was what Anastasia wanted to do, hearing her mother agree to the plan was something she hadn't expected.

"We major nobles don't answer to the emperor, after all. We answer to the empire."

Flora commented with a slight smile.

At the same time, the door was slammed open. Both the mother and daughter turned towards the servant who had rudely enter.

But before they could say anything, the servant dropped a bomb.

"The Imperial Castle has been infiltrated!"

...

I sat inside the white room silently, lamenting my weakness.

I had tried to remove the gag or at least somehow force open the mechanical bindings around my body... But to no avail.

Without my skills, I was just a normal human. I had to accept that hard truth.

Even so, I hadn't thought that they would leave me unfed and without any breaks to go to the toilet... While I still hadn't gotten the urge to urinate, it was still frustrating to see how far they were willing to go.

But I had no intention of breaking... Not yet, at the least. If only I found a chance to escape...

Just as I thought that, the whole room rattled as if responding to my wishes. The white lights turned red as the trembles continued.

Probably due to a technical error, the wall in front of me had become transparent once again. I could see countless soldiers and people in white coats, probably scientists, running behind it as if escaping from something.

I sat there alone, watching these people run around... until the wall to my side suddenly exploded.

Surprised and scared, I turned my head towards the gap, only to see a heavily armoured military vehicle lodged into the wall. It was the most powerful model too... with a heavy cannon on the top.

The vehicle backed out of the gap, before ramming into it again.

The gap widened, but it still wasn't big enough for the vehicle to enter. The giant armoured car kept hitting the wall again and again until the gap was wide enough for it to enter.

Ignoring the tremendous damage it took to get into the room, the car entered through the gap and stopped just in front of me.

The door opened and the driver got down.

I widened my eyes in surprise as the driver smiled at me.

It was the last person I had expected to come.

"D-dad?"

I asked with a shaky voice. Since when did he get so brazen?

Smiling, my father, Alfred walked over to me and looked at the binding around my body. His smile turned into a frown as he looked at the tight shackles.

Still frowning, he went back into the car and pulled a heavy rifle out of it. He came back to me and aimed the gun at the joints of the shackles before shooting at them with absolute accuracy.

I had half-expected him to wound me, but he did the job perfectly as if he had been handling the weapon for a long time.

He shot three more times, destroying all the joints of the bindings. Then once he became sure that I was free, he extended his hand towards me.

"Come, Arnold. We have a facility to escape."

My dad had never looked cooler.

...

"Ugh..."

Roxy opened her eyes slowly as her head trembled with pain. It took her a few moments to notice the ropes around her body, which had bound her to the chair she was sitting on.

Frowning, she looked around the room. Instead of her mansion, she was on a floor of a top building, judging from the sky she could see through the windows in front of her. And the old equipment lying around made her realize that it wasn't the real world.

She was in Stigma, and against her will.

Roxy closed her eyes to recall the events that had happened probably a few hours ago.

She was inside her mansion reading reports when that bastard had attacked the building.

The ex-noble, Jeffery Valentina, had infiltrated the mansion. With his charm skills, he had charmed the guards at the gates before asking them to open the gates... Before killing them with his gun.

Roxy had seen the whole thing via the cameras around the property, yet for some absurd reason, she couldn't connect to the military headquarters, nor she could contact her mother who was out.

Deciding to put Jeffery down by her own hand, she sent her butler, Zenon to kill the charmer as normal servants and guards wouldn't be able to reject his charm.

Yet... Zenon malfunctioned. Instead of listening to her request, it shut down completely.

After that... Roxy watched in horror as Jeffery killed the servants one by one before reaching her. She could remember the rotten smile he had when he had entered her room.

The noble girl decided to gun him down, but before she could pull the trigger, something happened.

She fell unconscious.

And the next thing she knew, she was here, in Stigma, bound to a chair.

"Oh, you're awake."

Roxy snapped towards the owner of the voice, before hissing.

"I'll kill you, bastard."

"Try all you want, I don't think you can do anything at all."

The 'bastard' in concern, Jeffery, laughed as he pulled a chair and sat down across from her.

"What do you want?"

Roxy growled at the guy, but he just smiled.

"Nothing... Actually, no. I want you to be my bait."

"Your bait?"

Roxy frowned. She could understand where he was going to.

"Yup. Remember that bastard Arnold? I want you to pull him to me."

"Haha, in your dreams. Arnold is missing, and even if he wasn't, he wouldn't fall for your filthy trap."

Roxy hissed at him with a mocking grin on her face. Seeing that, Jeffery laughed.

"No, you underestimate him. He'll surely come... And he'll escape too. Mark my words."

"..."

Roxy knew about what Arnold had done to Jeffery, but she still hoped that Arnold wouldn't come here to save her.

"Anyhow, until he comes, you can just sit tight."

Roxy narrowed her eyes. She was confused... Knowing Jeffery, he would definitely try to assault her now that she was helpless. Yet, he just wanted her to sit tight?

Had he changed? No, that wasn't possible.

Deciding to gauge his intentions, she decided to provoke him.

"Oh? Are you not interested in women now? Maybe you want men instead? Have you become incompetent after getting beaten by Arnold?"

The moment she spoke out those words, her ears rang. She felt an intense pain in her cheeks.

Jeffery had slapped her.

"Shut up, bitch. Don't you dare talk like that to me!"

Jeffery growled as he yanked Roxy by grabbing her hair.

Then he turned the chair around and showed Roxy what was behind her.

The floor which was on... Had a huge hole in the middle. And from there, she could see countless floors below... And then, she could see the dark void.

She trembled as she caught a glimpse of the abomination inside the void.

It was large. It was vicious.

Whatever it was... It was much stronger than any other phantom, she could tell that much just from looking at it from a distance.

"W-what is that?"

She forgot the pain as she trembled while looking at the abomination below her, which had again disappeared into the dark crater.

"That's a Leviathan. And you know why it's here?"

Roxy didn't know what a Leviathan was... But now that she had seen one, she could never forget it. She shook in fear.

Jeffery smiled while he enjoyed her pale face.

Before Roxy could answer, Jeffery solved the question by himself.

"To eat you and Arnold. You hear me? Both of you will die to it."

Jeffery whispered into her ears before yanking her away from the edge of the hole.

"I am not a fool, bitch. No way in hell I'm going to take any risks. Besides, I can thoroughly enjoy your dead body once you get eaten, so I have no rush."

He laughed a vulgar laughed before letting go of Roxy's hair.

"So, sit here and wait patiently for that guy to come. You can thank me while you're at it too!"

The mad man chuckled as he walked away, leaving Roxy alone to shiver in fear.

"After all, I'm being merciful by letting you two experience the same death, right?"

His last words rang in her ear as she desperately prayed for Arnold to not come here.

She didn't want him to die just for her sake.