Hypocrisy

"What's wrong Commander Gerald? We can surprise attack the black mage location now and round them all up." Zhen spoke with a bright smile.

"Yes, this is critical information and I need to go back to the army to organize them." Commander Gerald replied with a happy expression.

'Too bad, I have seen too many people to know that your so-called happy expression is panic. You think I'll let your hypocrite act getaway so you can inform the black mage.'

Zhen sneered at this Command Gerald in his mind while acting like a naive kid that wants to help out.

"Why go back? We shall go to the City Council and gather everyone there. Right, Sara?" Zhen ignored Commander Gerald's remark and advised another suggestion to Sara.

Sara got her guard up when she found Zhen acting this weird.

Although he's cheeky and flirty but never proactive.

'This could only mean…'

*Bam*

Like a thunderbolt strike that enlightens her, Sara's conjecture only means Zhen is suspicious of Uncle Gerald.

Despite coming to this thought, Sara didn't show any change in her expression.

With a delighted smile on her face, "You are right Zhen, we should go together to the City Council and create a plan to catch them off guard."

Sara knew Zhen is planning something for this suggestion so she will play along and allow him to do his thing.

"This.... uh then we shall go to the City Council. "Commander Gerald took a moment before agreeing with us.

Zhen sneered at him, 'let's see how long you can act calmly.'

It was already daytime when they walked outside.

'You people wasted an entire night to interrogate us and ruin a perfect ending night for me and Sara.'

Zhen wants to cast his fireball toward this traitor for ruining everything.

'Son of a bitch!'

As Zhen cursed them in his mind, they started walking to the City Council.

Zhen continues to use Sense to see if any mana is being transmitted because Commander Gerald would try something fishy to inform the black mage.

'Cmon, show me your anxiety in trying to tell the black mages that they are exposed'

Zhen can't wait to see his plan being executed perfectly to have the enemy expose themselves like an idiot would do in this situation.

He also placed a tracker to the people greeting Gerald so if they tried to do something suspicious, the mana would automatically seep into their brain, knocking out their conscience.

What Zhen is worried about now is, how much more traitors are in town?

Zhen doesn't believe a mere Commander would dare to collaborate with the black mage if there's not a backer for him.

While Zhen was thinking about who is the mastermind behind it, something unexpected happened at this moment.

Zhen stopped walking which was confusing for Sara and Commander Gerald that they stopped and looked at him.

"Apologies, I actually have no clue about the black mage location." Zhen calmly spoke when they turned around.

"WHAT! Then why did you speak this kind of nonsense? Explain yourself or I'll have to detain you for false information." Commander Gerald had an outburst and out-of-character reply.

'You're breaking your hypocrisy, Commander Gerald.'

Of course, Zhen was not going to say it aloud as he really wanted to go to the City Council but something unexpected happened like every cliche scene.

"Commander Gerald, hear my explanation, a mysterious person was able to infiltrate the town despite heavy defenses and launched an attack on Sara. I believed if I said something like the location of their hideout, he would appear again to silence me."

Zhen took a deep breath before telling Commander Gerald of his reasoning.

Thinking how he is logical with his explanation, Commander Gerald couldn't find a good excuse to punish him and it would make him look suspicious instead.

"Sigh, it's alright, I was just a bit agitated from knowing this great news is false. I shall return back to the army and increase the defense." Commander Gerald replied before walking away.

'What an actor! Truly, hypocrisy to the maximum is the dirtiest and scumbag of all people.'

Zhen believes the oscar award should be handed over to these two-face villains.

But now they have a greater problem than Zhen initially thought.

His mana tracking on the black mage disappeared and the main point is, they found out about his information regarding their hideout place being exposed.

There was no mana coming out of Commander Gerald nor any of his people. He was still nervous the entire time.

So how were they informed?

'Ahhhh, what a headache.'

Zhen scratched his head in confusion on how they managed to send the intel this quickly.

Sara holds his arm at this time and whispers, "Did something happen to make you change your decision?"

Turning his head around, Zhen smiled at her for understanding him this well and explained to her what happened.

*Gasp*

Sara was petrified by his explanation and stood still.

Taking advantage of this, Zhen kissed her lip softly and told her it would be fine.

Sara nodded slowly with a bashful expression. She doesn't know why she unconditionally trusts him so much.

'Is this the magical power of love?'

While Sara is in a daze, Zhen holds her hand that's hugging his arm before going back to the inn.

It's better to inform John about this detail instead.

Even though John may hide it well from his family, Zhen can tell he is definitely not a simple Gold-rank adventurer.

It was his intuition and 9 out of 10 times, Zhen's intuition is right.

Also, if he can't trust John, a soon-to-be father-in-law then he can rely on no one besides Kuro and Sara.

About 20 minutes later, they arrived back at the inn. Sara tried to push Zhen away but how could he let her succeed in that.

Zhen held her tightly and entered just to be greeted by a loud voice from Sara's mother, Sandy Ruiz.

"How could you come back now? What were you two doing outside the entire night and...." Sandy couldn't continue her word as she saw her daughter hugging Zhen.

'They already did that thing. Unbelievable, when did my daughter become this casual.'

Sandy said inwardly and was amazed by the speed that Zhen used to conquer her daughter.

Seeing her misunderstanding them, Zhen gladly took this chance and replied, "Mother in law, it was my fault, not Sara. We were unable to do anything as we spent the night in a room."

Sara, who didn't know his hidden meaning as she was dragged to the interrogation room the entire night simply nodded and said, "Yes, we couldn't do anything about it."

Shocked by their confession, Sandy placed a head on her forehead before replying, "Sigh, since you have already done it then I can't do anything. You better take good care of my daughter otherwise, you will feel my wrath, Zhen!"

"Understood, even if Mother-in-law didn't say it, I would do anything at the cost of my life to guarantee Sara's safety."

Zhen replied to Sandy with a serious expression.

Sara, who found the conversation weird, finally figured out her mother's understanding.

She tried to explain but Zhen kissed her passionately this time.

Trying to struggle but gathered barely any strength, she gave up, and since she already accepted him when he protects her every time.

She opened her mouth to let his sinister snake-like tongue to roam around the inside of her mouth.

'Mother always said when you finally love a man, you will feel safe whenever he is with you. I can finally understand her words now.'

Sara said in her mind before closing her eyes to embrace Zhen's advancement.

Meanwhile, the crowd in the inn was dazed by their bold behavior and John was speechless when he came out from the kitchen.

'My beautiful daughter is taken now huh, will she remember this father of her?'

This was all John had in his mind when he saw this scene of kissing.