Hearing Owen's question, Daphne thought deeply for a moment before finally shaking her head:
"From what I know of Margaret, since she's so wary of you, there's no way she'd let herself walk into danger.
"Your invitation obviously carries that kind of implication… and while she's a Demoness and not one to shy away from… intimate interaction, given the precedent of the White Saintess being controlled by you, she wouldn't dare to take that risk."
Ebner frowned at her answer, pondering for a moment before asking,
"Even with you here, she still wouldn't feel safe?"
Daphne gave a soft laugh, brushing back a lock of her hair before answering:
"First, she doesn't actually know what identity I'm disguising myself as—she only knows I'd be attending.
"Second, even if she realizes that Lady Philo is me, since I've entered Owen's room, how could she still trust me?"
So, tricking her into coming here and drawing her blood won't work after all…
Ebner sighed in mild disappointment, though his expression remained calm. Since Plan A wouldn't do, he could simply move on to Plan B.
With that thought, and knowing precisely where the correct "door" lay, Ebner's true body instantly teleported out of the hidden space he'd created, leaving behind Owen's avatar to maintain appearances. He went to make the necessary preparations before the ball ended.
Now, inside the room remained only Owen's body-double, Daphne, and a woman lost in a fevered dream of desire.
The soft, broken moans of Lady Halna filled the air, making the atmosphere instantly awkward. Since the ball was still underway, it wasn't yet time for them to leave.
To maintain Owen's persona, the clone broke the silence calmly and asked,
"Lady Daphne, you seem quite familiar with the Saintesses of the Demoness Sect, don't you?"
Glad to distract herself from the sounds in the background, Daphne replied without hesitation,
"Yes… during Roselle's overthrow of the Sauron Family and his seizure of power, the Blue Saintess and Green Saintess of the Demoness Sect were both secretly aiding him.
"Back then, our Secret Order, under President Zaratul's guidance, coordinated with Roselle's actions. I worked with them several times—we knew each other well.
"The Scarlet Saintess Margaret only became active after the fall of the Gustav Dynasty. Because she's been based in Trier, and due to a favor from the Green Saintess, we've crossed paths frequently over the past century.
"With time, we've grown acquainted—and even became friends."
"A favor from the Green Saintess?" Owen noticed a flicker of emotion in Daphne's tone when she mentioned her, and he casually asked.
"The Green Saintess' name was Marianne," Daphne said softly. "She… seemed to have feelings for me, even confessed to me once. But my orientation is quite normal—even though she claimed to have once been a man, I couldn't reciprocate.
"Later, during one mission, we encountered the Sauron Family's half-mad Angel. Marianne sacrificed herself so that the Blue Saintess and I could hold out until the President arrived to save us.
"Of course, the situation was chaotic. Everyone was desperate; maybe her sacrifice wasn't entirely voluntary—but still, a debt is a debt.
"So when the Scarlet Saintess Margaret later advanced to Demoness of Unaging and inherited her predecessor's mantle, I made a point to look after her."
Daphne sighed faintly after finishing her account of those years among the Demonesses.
She'd long since decided never to bring up those memories again—but since it was the believer of her Lord asking, she saw no reason to hide it from a "fellow kin."
Tsk… another 'Demoness dying for love' tale, huh?
Ebner couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Still, he didn't comment further—after all, even the woman before him didn't believe that Marianne's sacrifice had anything to do with true love. To her, it was simply a debt to be repaid.
After a moment of thought, he asked one last question:
"By the way, has the Scarlet Saintess ever seen you use that book, the Book of Virtue?"
Daphne shook her head, casting Owen a slightly bitter glance before saying with certainty,
"Other than you, anyone who has ever seen the trial space within the Book of Virtue… did not live to tell the tale."
"Then that makes things simple."
The Owen avatar smiled faintly, the corners of his lips curling upward.
Roughly an hour later, the ball finally came to an end. After a brief closing address, "Owen" once again slipped back into the lounge, ignoring the mix of envy, contempt, and amusement in the guests' eyes.
As for the two women who had entered earlier—neither emerged again that night.
Outside the Delien Manor, the Scarlet Saintess Margaret was surprised that Owen hadn't chosen to summon her, but ultimately she breathed a sigh of relief.
Had he truly insisted she enter that lounge, she would have had to feign illness and refuse. After all, she had no desire to follow the footsteps of the White Saintess Katarina.
Yet as she stepped outside, Margaret felt a strange irritability rise within her, a restless unease—as if something terrible were about to happen.
It wasn't a spiritual premonition, but her instincts as a Demoness screamed that something was off.
She furrowed her perfect brows, then climbed into a hired carriage, keeping her composure. However, shortly after the carriage set off, she turned invisible and silently slipped away, leaping down and darting into a nearby alley.
She had no idea that at that very moment, a pair of cold, transparent, eyelash-less eyes were observing her every move.
They belonged to Yaloran's clone, the "Eye of Secrets."
Through that gaze, Ebner clearly saw the red-haired, black-eyed woman gliding down the alleyway—her long gown flowing behind her like weightless feathers. Even the patrolling policemen who looked straight at her saw nothing at all.
Without Yaloran's assistance, Ebner himself would have had to rely on the Pure White Eye to pierce such high-level invisibility—but the Pure White Eye lacked the subtlety that the Eye of Secrets offered.
Taking a deep breath, he patiently waited for the Scarlet Saintess to step right into his carefully prepared trap.
As for why she would cooperate—well, that was simple.
Ebner had already used the Wheel of Fate to subtly bless Margaret with a touch of misfortune—that very sensation of agitation she now felt.
Meanwhile, Yaloran's clone had also deployed the "Mystic Recreation—Game of the Nightmare Dragon," temporarily guiding her actions within a certain range, nudging her to invisibility, to jumping from the carriage, and slipping into the alley—all perfectly reasonable to her mind, with not a hint of suspicion.
Time ticked by, the crimson moon shifting westward.
After circling the nearby streets several times and confirming that no one had followed, Margaret finally relaxed, putting away a talisman.
Moments later, with a mix of confusion and relief flickering in her eyes, she stopped before the window of an old building.
Under the dim moonlight, the glass pane mirrored her surroundings like a dark lake.
Her eyes glimmered faintly, and the "mirror" rippled—its surface deepening into a hazy, infinite depth, as though concealing countless things and layers of space.
The window had transformed into a passage to another world.
She's here.
Seeing this, Ebner's eyes lit up. This was precisely the place of his ambush.
The Scarlet Saintess could never have imagined that he had hidden the Book of Virtue within the "Mirror World" behind that pane of glass.
Indeed, she only realized something was wrong after stepping inside—but by then, it was too late.
And then—she saw Owen.
The moment Margaret recognized him, memories of the White Saintess's tragic fate flooded her mind. Terrified, she immediately attempted to activate her powers again, trying to "shift through mirrors."
But she failed.
Her surge of fear had triggered the Book of Virtue's trial space, and a few thin cords—like hemp ropes—manifested out of thin air, binding her tightly.
Fortunately, her fear wasn't too intense, so the punishment was light. She tore through the ropes with little effort, even burning away several that reformed around her.
But no matter how she destroyed them, the ropes kept regenerating—each new wave harder to break than the last.
The Scarlet Saintess hadn't yet understood the rule of this space: as long as her negative emotions persisted, the punishment would never cease.
Seeing the ropes multiply and tighten, she cast a sharp glance at the silently watching "Owen," then discreetly released her Mystic Domain of Disease.
She meant to control the master of this space.
However, she didn't realize that within the Book of Virtue's trial realm, any power capable of causing direct harm was strictly forbidden.
The instant her disease spread, flames erupted from nowhere, burning her manifestation of plague to cinders—and soon engulfed Margaret herself.
She hastily covered herself in black flames to resist the searing heat—dark and crimson fire collided, locked in a furious stalemate.
At that moment, "Owen," who had so far done nothing, sighed softly. Then, from nowhere, he produced a pair of wings—bat-like flesh wings—and prepared to end the battle.
If there were any other way, Ebner would never have resorted to this against a descendant of the God of Luck.
But just as he was about to channel his spirituality into the bat wings, Margaret, sensing impending doom, suddenly raised a solemn, awe-inspiring talisman and chanted in ancient Hermes:
"Chaos!"
In an instant, the strict laws of the trial space collapsed. All its mechanisms—trial, punishment, restriction—failed at once, and even the "door" leading outside became visible.
Seeing this, Margaret wasted no time. She leapt toward the exit, trying to escape while all supernatural abilities were thrown into disarray.
Yet she had barely taken two steps when her body convulsed, some strange change overtaking her—and she stumbled hard to the floor.
"Impossible! Under the Emperor's Authority of Chaos, how can any Beyonder power still function?!"
Margaret's eyes were wide with disbelief as she struggled to rise.
"Ordinary Beyonder powers can't, indeed… but this—"
Ebner's voice echoed through the air, calm and steady.
"—is also Authority."
(End of Chapter)