Living as the Villainess Stepmother

Chapter 103 - Gone Softer

The raised eyes headed for Lugar and fiercer words started bursting out. "How could you fail again? I mean how can you miss a shadow? And why in the world did you even summon three rings? Whether you summon one or three the result is still a failure and is useless."

The fact that the mission became a failure stimulated Hizette. Not to mention that he couldn't participate in the mission himself.

However, despite Hizette's harsh words, Lugar did not react at all. Instead, he twisted his mouth and laughed. "I think it's better than you who smashed the hall into pieces."

It was the tone that really irritated Hizette. Hizette's mouth was glued shut as Lugar pointed at his mistakes on the previous mission so Lugar kept going.

"I'd rather miss it than completely blow it off. I can't believe you demolished it. Well, you truly are amazing, aren't you? What were you doing? Bragging your strength?"

Hizette urged to say something but his mouth was still kept shut. His eyes grew fiercer and Lugar only snorted at the sight.

"Look at your eyes. Are you going to hit me or something? Well, don't we have an amazing system down here? Sure enough, there is going to be a big disruption in the order. Roxana, this is all your fault!"

"Shut up." Finally, two words came out of the young man's mouth, but they were short-lived as Roxanna quickly butted in to defuse the situation.

"Hizette, you don't have much to say either. The Duke pointed you out of this mission, which proves you made a big mistake. I'm the only one here who can talk."

Hizette clenched his teeth, but he couldn't refute her words. His fists trembled with a sense of defeat.

"You don't have anything to say, do you?"

"..."

"Now, go to sleep."

Hizette's face, which was full of humiliation at first, gradually calmed down. Soon enough, his face became tranquil as if nothing had happened.

Roxana murmured as she looked at Hizette's cold face without any emotion.

"Something's off."

His calm face changed back to hers "What?"

"About your punishment, Hizette. You made such a fatal mistake but the only disciplinary action was the exclusion of your next mission."

"For Hizette, that is the worst punishment." Lugar adjoined.

"That's true, but still ... If it had been some other time, there would have been more consequences for his mistake, yet it only ended there. Don't you think the duke has become softer?"

Roxana's comments were answered without hesitation by Lugar. "I mean he has been weird after Lila showed up. I think I'm still possessed by the devil."

"I mean that too. Wait, no, not that!"

"Then what?" Lugar tilted his head as if he didn't understand. Roxana, who had pounded her chest with frustration, then turned back to Hizette.

"Hey, Hizette. What do you think? Do you think he is acting weird? Or am I hallucinating?"

Roxana and Lugar's eyes were glued to Hizette. Hizette slowly opened his mouth. "Certainly...."

"Certainly?"

Lugar couldn't stand the hold-up. "Hurry up and say it!"

"He doesn't care as much as he used to."

Roxana clapped her hands, as if happy to find someone else agreeing with her. "Yes, that's what I wanted to say! I feel like the fuke has suddenly become indifferent to searching the hall."

Lugar did not share her enthusiasm, instead, he proposed another question. "What does that mean?"

Roxanna rolled her eyes and smacked him in the head. "You idiot. Why are you so stupid?" She cuffed her hands and rolled close to his ear to make sure no one heard her explanation.

"Remember the frequency of the duke's participation in the search for the hall?"

"Yes, I do. He came almost every time." Lugar didn't even bother whispering back.

"Yes, that's right. But how about these days?"

"These days ... ?" Lugar scratched his head for a moment before remembering.

Come to think of it, he certainly hasn't been ... around.

"These days ... we're almost always on our own." Lugar answered happily as if he were a student satisfying his teacher.

"Yes, and because we were mostly on our own our results weren't as good ... I mean that isn't important right now ... Anyways! The duke is definitely not caring much about finding the hall as he used to. But why?"

"Well..." Lugar began to think deeply, rubbing his chin. He felt like he was going to have a headache from all this thinking. "Oh, I don't know, maybe he has already found the head of the shadows! Because that was our ultimate goal!"

Two pairs of eyes mixed with absurdity and astonishment flew into Lugar's face.

"Are you crazy?!" They said almost in unison.

Roxanna quickly lowered her voice again and went back to his ears. "You idiot. Do you think that makes sense? We've been searching for years, you think he suddenly just found the head of the shadows? You have to say something that makes sense. I feel like your stupidity might be contagious."

After what felt like an eternity of Lugar scratching his head, he too concluded that it all didn't make sense. There was certainly something else at play here.