Chapter 72: reunion

Now, standing right in front of Cell 9, the reality of those words slammed into him. Dante didn’t turn the key. He didn’t open the door. His fingers simply wrapped around the bars, his grip tightening so violently that the metal began to warp and groan under his raw physical strength. His bottom lip shook slightly, his eyes filled with a suffocating mix of anger and despair.

Inside the cell, the sudden noise of the groaning caused the small shape on the floor to flinch violently.

Yenna scrambled backward into the darkest corner, her black ears flattening completely against her head. She tightly wrapped her arms over her face, trembling as she cried out in a terrified, trembling voice.

"I won’t say anything!" Yenna sobbed, her voice hoarse from days of confinement. "I won’t tell anyone about him! Please, just don’t open the door! I won’t tell them anything about Dante!"

She didn’t even realize who was standing on the other side of the bars. Her mind was completely overwhelmed by the ordeal, reacting out of pure survival terror to the sound of anyone approaching her cage.

Dante was now completely empty he couldn’t even speak to her.

Seeing him like this—filled with an intense, quiet despair for the very first time—Esabella slowly stepped out of the shadow. Her eyes locked onto Dante’s shaking shoulders. The manic smile she usually wore was completely gone.

She walked up beside him, She looked through the bars at the shivering girl, then back at Dante’s profile.

"Is this person your former teammate?" Esabella asked, her voice unusually quiet and serious. "Is she... really that important to you?"

Dante remained silent for a long three seconds, his eyes fixed on the dark corner of the cell. Then, his voice came out. "Yeah. She is important. Very valuable."

Esabella’s golden eyes flickered. Instead of showing jealousy, a deep, protective intensity settled across her features. If this girl was valuable to her King, then she was part of his domain.

Esabella stepped directly up to the bars. "Look up, girl," she commanded. Her voice carried the natural authority of a ruler, cutting straight through Yenna’s frantic panic. "Stop crying and look at the path. Look who came all the way down here for you."

Yenna’s trembling slowed down. She slowly lowered her arms from her face, her tear-stained eyes blinking through her knotted hair. She stared through the dim oil lamplight, her gaze locking onto the familiar torn hoodie and the cold, handsome face of the man standing by the door.

"Dan... te?" Yenna whispered, her breath catching.

Dante didn’t waste another second. He jammed the key into the lock and twisted it violently. The lock snapped open, and he shoved the door aside.

Yenna scrambled forward on her hands and knees, throwing her thin frame out of the cell and locking her arms tightly around Dante’s waist. She buried her face into his chest, sobbing hysterically as the tears poured down her bruised cheeks.

"Dante! You’re alive! You really came back!" Yenna cried out, her entire body shaking. "I didn’t tell them anything! Marcus and Elena... they kept asking about you, but I didn’t say a single word! I swear! But... but Dante... our companion beast... they destroyed it right in front of me...i am scared "

Dante stood perfectly still, letting her hold onto him. He raised his left hand, placing it gently on the back of her head. "Don’t worry anymore. I’m here. I won’t leave you behind again."

Esabella sat down quietly on a stone ledge across the narrow corridor, She watched the emotional reunion in complete silence, her full red lips pulling into a complex, dramatic expression. She disliked that another woman was touching his waist.

Suddenly, Dante’s expression turned serious.

He reached down, gently but firmly breaking Yenna’s grip from his waist, and pushed her back a few inches. His eyes slid down her torn, ragged clothing, locking onto the lower half of her legs. Amidst the dirt and grime, there was a dried trail of blood searing through the fabric of her trousers near her thighs.

The memory of Elena’s crazy laughter flashed through his mind again. Dante reached his hand out, his fingers targeting the edge of her torn clothes. He wanted to lift the fabric to see exactly what Elena told him was true or not.

Yenna instantly shrank back, her face turning a deep, embarrassed red as she tried to pull her legs away in shame. "Dante... no, don’t look..."

Esabella stood up from the ledge immediately, her pitch-black tail snapping against the wall. A sharp flash of territorial jealousy returned to her face as she pointed a long red nail at him. "No–My king! What do you think you are doing, focusing your eyes on another girl’s thighs right in front of me? If you want to see legs so badly, look at mine instead! I will let you look at mine all day, please my king~!"

"Be quiet," Dante said.

His voice didn’t carry its usual tone. It was a freezing, absolute whisper that caused both women to freeze instantly.

Dante looked back at Yenna. His dark eyes were completely steady, but his voice went incredibly soft and gentle—a tone he had never used with anyone else before. "Yenna. Stay still. I just need to confirm something."

Hearing the rare gentleness in his voice, Yenna’s face slowly turned completely empty. The tears continued to stream down her cheeks, but her expression went totally blank, as if she had detached herself from her own body.

"Dante... you really shouldn’t..." Yenna whispered quietly.

Dante didn’t answer. He slowly reached out, his fingers lifting the edge of the torn fabric just a few inches—just enough to see the skin underneath.

The moment his eyes registered the sight, Dante went completely numb.

Elena hadn’t been lying.

Dante slowly let go of the cloth, his hand dropping to his side. He had absolutely nothing to say. The silence in the narrow tunnel grew.

Esabella, driven by pure curiosity, leaned her head forward to look past his shoulder. The moment her eyes caught sight of the severe, mutilated scars, the jealous expression on her beautiful face violently shattered.

Her face turned into a mask of pure, monstrous royal fury. She quickly reached down with her long black claws, pulling Yenna’s clothes back down to cover her legs gently, her entire frame vibrating with a lethal, dark energy.