Ciel suddenly felt his back collar being lifted up. Now at eye level with Verdalite, he dangled in the air.

“Those items you told me to steal, those were bombs?”

Ciel nodded as he gave the most innocent look he could muster. 

“I thought it would be better not to tell you. Nervous people make more mistakes.”

Verdalite almost swore in front of this child, “Don’t tell me you weren’t nervous?”

‘I could see all the bombs, clear as day, how could I be nervous?’

Ciel shrugged, “I was, but I know I won’t make any mistakes. But I wasn’t sure if you would.”

“Come on, is there no trust between us?”

Ciel shrugged, his next words rendering Verdalite speechless.

“But when you think about it, there really is no trust?” 

Technically, they had only met around three times after all. He sighed, if he had more time to prepare, he would’ve created a more fool-proof, less rushed plan. 

“Well, it worked out, didn’t it?”

Sitting down on the ground, Ciel smiled cheerily at the five people rushing over in his direction. 

Lilian arrived first, bending down to examine Ciel’s knees. “Ciel! I saw that just now! Why couldn’t you keep still in the last few days of recovery?”

Ciel laughed cheekily, giving a simple summary, “It was an urgent situation. There were several bombs.”

Meanwhile, before the others could come close, they were put to work by Dominic to clear the rubble. After waving at them to show that he was fine, Ciel took his crossbow back from the second prince, who had returned to the ground. 

In the whole process, Verdalite, who had black lines on his forehead, along with his partner, was ignored. 

 

Now that the bomb threat was gone, the soldiers were cautiously encircling the old man. The mages who had been close to useless during the impending bomb were trying to be useful, depending on their affinities, they were either removing the rubble or healing the citizens. 

The once chaotic plaza was now very calm. Instead, it was almost depressing now.

Everyone was thinking about the terrible scene that could have happened in the plaza. They were almost the ones that became fireworks. 

Ciel felt Erin shifting restlessly on his arm, and patted him soothingly. Lilian had finished checking his knees, and they were fine. Ciel’s movement hadn’t reopened any wounds. 

Meanwhile, the old man looked leisurely even when the bombs that had been supposed to blow up in the plaza blew up in the air, like pretty but harmless fireworks. 

“Huh, why did they go off over there? Was there a rat?” His eyes swept across Ciel, who grinned back provocatively. 

He knew. Well, in the first place, Ciel was pretty recognizable.

He continued to speak. 

“Too bad this one failed.”

Ciel felt a bad feeling arise from the depths of his mind. 

‘This one?’ 

Ignoring the soldiers approaching him, the old man took out three gold coins from his pocket and flipped them. 

Three men emerged from the coins—each had something strapped to their waists. Ciel’s eyes widened in shock, these were unadulterated, undisguised Maura bombs. Each of them rushed off in separate directions. One was heading towards the district Fatalite resided in, one was heading towards the Ovine district, and the last one…

‘F*ck.’

The last one was headed straight towards Dominic, who was right next to Ciel. 

Immediately, Ciel cut his fingers, manipulating ten thin strings of his blood to stretch out like a net. They shot out instantly, and wrapped around each suicide bomber, pulling them together. 

Dominic also reacted quickly, “Mages! Put a barrier around the bombs!” 

As a thick barrier of mana obscured Ciel’s view of the three men, his blood strands were broken off and he retracted his blood back into his fingers.

“Verdalite, if you have any tricks up your sleeve. Use them quickly!” Now wasn’t the time to worry about later consequences. 

There was no reply, but the temperature quickly dropped. However, there was no change in the barrier. 

But there was no more time left. Ciel had just clutched Erin and shoved him deep into his sleeves when Lilian hurriedly hugged Ciel, who was still on the ground, ignoring his wide eyes.

‘What the f*ck is this guy doing?’ 

As the old man started to laugh, the barrier blew apart. But before the insides could come out, a large shield enveloped them. 

Even with his blindfold, Ciel felt his eyes hurt under the radiant light. 

‘Shield?’

Following the light string attached to the shield, he tracked it down to Cedric, who was covered in the same light, shivering violently. 

*Crack*

With a loud sound, the shield slowly broke apart like pieces of glass. As it started to crumble, cold white smoke started to come out of the encirclement. There were definitely three people inside, however, nothing, not even a piece of flesh or even a drop of blood, could be seen when the smoke dissipated. 

Seizing the chance for when everyone was feeling chills go down their spine at the strength of the explosion, the soldiers immediately started escorting the citizens out of the plaza. Their mental fortitude was pretty good. 

Because Ciel had concentrated the bombs at one location, which was then blocked off, no one was seriously injured.  

 

Watching Cedric fall into the arms of a couple that had rushed over, Ciel gently pushed Lilian away.

“Doctor, with your thin body, even if you blocked the bomb, I would still die.”

Hiding his embarrassment, Lilian rapped a knuckle on Ciel’s head. 

“Shut up.”

“But thanks for trying.”

Ciel grinned happily as he covered his head.

Lilian paused, “No need for thanks, anyone else in my place would do the same thing.”

Ciel coughed, feeling Erin nudge him unhappily inside his sleeves. 

“Anyway, tell those guys to stop fooling around.”

Jadiel and the others had been too far away to do what Lilian had done, therefore, they had decided to vent their anger at the old man. 

The old man also didn’t resist, obediently letting himself be tied up and beaten. It was a good thing that the citizens had been efficiently evacuated by the soldiers earlier, otherwise the old man would’ve been even more beaten up. 

‘No wait, in the novel, the old man had been Beelzebub in disguise. With his personality, would he let himself be captured this easily?’

Ciel moved forward, wanting to confirm the old guy’s identity.

Before he could act on his doubts, Ciel was once again picked up like a chick. This time, it was Lilian. 

“The crown prince has invited us all to the palace. The old man will be thrown into prison and interrogated.”

Ciel nodded obediently. Silently casting his gaze on the soldiers and mages, he pitied them as the ones who had to clean up the mess. 

The carriage taking them back was incredibly crowded, with all five Fatalite members crammed in a vehicle meant for four people. Sitting on Lilian’s legs, Ciel pondered an obvious question—if he let Erin out now, would it be more crowded?

In the end, Jadiel sighed, “Erin, come out.”

Erin slithered out by himself, transforming back into a human on Jadiel’s legs. Jadiel picked him up and sat him on Lanae, who sat beside Lilian. Once both boys were seated neatly across from him, he crossed his legs and folded his arms. 

“Now tell me. What happened?”

Ciel looked outside the window. Erin, the blank faced idiot, looked at him. 

Feeling Jadiel’s one unscarred eye locking in on him, Ciel cursed at Erin. 

‘Retard, don’t look at me!’

“It seems I didn’t make it clear before. What part did you have in what happened? I’m talking to you, Ciel.”

Ciel couldn’t play dumb anymore. Therefore, he tried to simplify it as much as possible. 

“There were bombs. So I took them and made the second prince shoot them up into the sky.”

The carriage was dead silent as Jadiel’s rising irritation enveloped the entire area. 

Ciel tried to lighten the atmosphere.

“Uh, the fireworks were pretty right?”

Jadiel rubbed his forehead. “Did your previous family not tell you to stay away from danger?”

Ciel pondered about it. 

“Nope.”

In his past life, his sister was just like him, having a tendency to seek out trouble. His brother, on the other hand, had long given up stopping Ciel and his sister. He was satisfied as long as Ciel and his sister were safe.

Jadiel sighed, “Then I’ll tell you now, Erin, you too. No matter what happens, you both have to prioritize your safety. Got it?”

Ciel cocked his head to the side.

“I did prioritize our safety. If those bombs really blew up, we wouldn’t be able to run far enough.” 

It was true, otherwise in the novel, entire districts wouldn’t have been decimated in seconds. 

“I want a yes or no answer. No arguing.” Jadiel’s glare gave no room for argument. Under his gaze, both Ciel and Erin sat up straighter. 

““Yes!””