"Stop pretending! It was you!" Saskia's eyes were wide with fury as she glared at Evangeline, her disgust overflowing. She seemed certain that Evangeline was the culprit behind this whole fiasco.
Evangeline looked completely innocent. Her brow was furrowed, and her eyes welled up with aggrieved tears.
Then, she gestured dismissively before pointing a trembling finger at Saskia. Her voice shook as if she had suffered a terrible injustice. "It wasn't me, it was you! You must be afraid I'll expose what you did, so you're trying to frame me!"
Saskia sneered, ignoring Evangeline and turning to Elias Moretti. "You're looking for her, aren't you?"
'Elias Moretti has visited the Midridge Tribe before without any trouble. If there's something unexpected happening now, it can only be because of this female Verdant brought back. It has to be her fault!'
Evangeline mused internally, 'This Silkworm Beastman is surprisingly sharp. Not bad.'
Elias Moretti's massive, triangular head tilted to one side. His voice was laced with a savage edge. "Expose what Saskia did?"
Evangeline seemed to perk up, immediately shouting, "I heard everything at Thorncliff yesterday! The Witch had someone harm Verdant, all for the Mermaid Tail Skirt she owns! She knows I know the truth, so she's targeting me! Don't think I'm a fool—you want to send both me and Verdant to the Grymdale Tribe as tribute!"
Her words instantly sent a massive shockwave through the Midridge Tribe.
The Beastmen began whispering amongst themselves, their faces a mixture of shock and confusion.
They all knew Verdant possessed a shimmering Mermaid Tail Skirt, but would the Witch really try to kill her for it?
A buzz of discussion filled the tribe.
Yet Saskia, the alleged instigator, remained completely unfazed, looking on as if she were a mere bystander.
Verdant, on the other hand, looked as if she was about to faint. Her eyes rolled back, and if Mundo hadn't been supporting her, she would have wished for a hole to swallow her whole.
As an Elk Beastman, she wasn't naturally bold. 'Exposing Saskia in front of everyone like this will only bring disaster upon myself!'
"Verdant! Is what this little maiden said true?" the leader demanded, his voice low with rage and his eyes bulging.
Verdant opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Saskia's sneer. "Leader, are you really going to believe the words of some unknown female? Given my status in this tribe, why would I need to steal a Mermaid Tail Skirt from Verdant?"
She paused, her voice growing even colder. "Besides, when have any of you ever seen me wear a Mermaid Tail Skirt?"
The murmuring stopped abruptly. The Beastmen's gazes all shifted back to Evangeline.
Compared to an ugly stranger, they were naturally more inclined to believe their Witch.
Of everyone there, only Elias Moretti knew the truth.
He swept a cool glance over Saskia. The matter of the Mermaid Tail Skirt was trivial to him. All he wanted to know was whether this female before him was the one who had toyed with him last night.
At this thought, Elias Moretti's powerful body suddenly coiled like a mighty bow drawn taut. He raised his triangular head high, and his massive jaws slowly opened, revealing a venomous barb, glinting coldly and ready to launch.
Evangeline's brow, which had been relaxed, instantly knitted together. She was speechless. 'Here I am, trying to expose the truth and argue my case, bringing a great revelation to the public, and Elias Moretti decides to attack now?'
Her eyes narrowed, a cold glint flashing in their depths.
'So what if he's a Six-star Beastman?'
'Throwing his weight around, being completely unreasonable, trying to stick up for his lover... No honor at all, is there?'
'Fine. I'll beat the hell out of you even if it means blowing my cover!'
Elias Moretti keenly caught that fleeting glint of coldness in Evangeline's eyes, and something inside him stirred.
His crimson eyes locked onto Evangeline, his gaze filled with ferocity and scrutiny.
"Heh." A low, cold chuckle escaped his throat.
'There's that familiar feeling from last night.'
Just as Evangeline was tensed and ready to strike, Elias Moretti did something unexpected. With a sudden shift, his massive serpentine body rapidly contracted, and in the blink of an eye, he was back in his human form.
He stood tall and straight as a spear, his crimson eyes unblinking as they bored into Evangeline.
'Rather than killing her, I'd much prefer to find her and keep her as my own.'
'A Beastman who can turn invisible... could be incredibly useful when the time is right.'
After a moment, a smirk touched Elias Moretti's lips. He took a step forward, leaning closer to Evangeline. "Are you this year's tribute from the Midridge Tribe?"
As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes slightly, his nostrils flaring as he began to carefully sniff the air around Evangeline.
He had been hoping to catch a trace of a familiar scent, but the overpowering stench surrounding her was like an impenetrable wall, blocking out everything else.
Elias Moretti frowned. Shrouded in that acrid stench, he couldn't smell a thing.
Saskia stood to the side, watching this seemingly intimate moment between Elias Moretti and Evangeline. A fire of jealousy raged in her heart. Her hands clenched into fists, her nails digging so deeply into her palms that she didn't even feel it.
'She simply couldn't understand. This female was so ugly—what right did she have to command so much of Elias Moretti's attention?'
As Evangeline felt Elias Moretti get closer, the corner of her mouth twitched. A wave of unease washed over her, and she discreetly took a step back.
'People from The Lineage Optimization Department are very picky; they don't just 'devour' anything that comes their way.'
Evangeline glanced at Elias Moretti, about to speak and break the awkward silence. But in the next instant, her small eyes narrowed sharply. She whipped her head around, her gaze like lightning as it swept across the area.
BOOM—
A deafening roar exploded without warning, like a sudden clap of thunder. The sound made the surrounding Beastmen's eardrums ache, and it felt as if the sheer force of it would tear them apart in the next instant.
Immediately after, the ground began to shake violently.
In the caves of the Midridge Tribe, dust that had settled for years rained down like a fine gray mist.
The birds roosting in the forest, startled by the sudden upheaval, shrieked in terror. They flapped their wings frantically, taking to the sky and circling high above, too scared to land.
The Wild Beasts in the mountains were also thrown into disarray, stampeding blindly in every direction.
Seeing this, the surrounding Beastmen's faces turned deathly pale. Terror spread like wildfire through the crowd.
In the ensuing chaos, someone shrieked at the top of their lungs, "The Beast God is angry—!"
That cry was the spark that ignited their terror. In an instant, shouts and sobs intermingled as the entire Midridge Tribe descended into chaos and panic.
"The Beast God is angry?" Evangeline remained firmly rooted to the spot, her face a mask of confusion.
She glanced around at the flying dust and debris, a scene of utter chaos. 'This looks just like an earthquake,' she thought to herself. 'What does it have to do with The Beast God's wrath?'
In the face of such earth-shattering chaos, even the cold, imperious, and insufferably arrogant Elias Moretti's expression turned grim. A hint of vigilance crept into his eyes, and his overbearing aura quietly receded in the face of the sudden disaster.
"Elias Moretti! The Beast God is angry!" Saskia was already pale with fright, completely overwhelmed by a surging tide of terror.
Her legs grew weak, and she could barely stand. She stumbled toward Elias Moretti, desperate to hide by his side and find some measure of protection.
However, with a sweep of his arm, Elias Moretti ruthlessly shoved her aside.
Saskia staggered, nearly falling to the ground, her face a picture of shock and hurt.
But at that moment, Elias Moretti paid her no mind. Instead, he shot out a hand and seized Evangeline's arm, as if she were the only one who mattered to him in the midst of the chaos.