Chapter 1922: Just... a perfect switch to flip!!

A Governor?

Aether didn’t answer.

He simply turned toward the pawn shop and entered through the door, gesturing for her to follow him.

Lily remained frozen for a moment, staring at his back with a mixture of confusion and fear. She didn’t understand who this man was, why he had saved her, or why he was taking her to this strange pawn shop.

Still, she had nowhere else to go.

She cautiously followed him inside.

The old man behind the counter looked up when the two cloaked figures entered.

His eyes immediately narrowed.

His relaxed posture disappeared, and his expression became tense as he studied them both.

“What do you want?” he asked coldly.

Since Aether was still wearing the cloak, the old man had no idea who stood before him.

Aether remained silent for a moment.

Lily didn’t know who Aether was, and as far as he understood, she had never been involved in anything related to his father.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been safe to assume that he could reveal himself in front of her.

But that had been the previous timeline.

This timeline was different.

His father had somehow become involved.

And now Lily had somehow become involved as well.

Aether’s eyes narrowed beneath the hood as the pieces slowly refused to fit together.

‘Something changed.’

The thought settled heavily in his mind.

And for the first time since returning to this timeline, Aether wasn’t sure how far the consequences of his actions had already spread.

It wouldn’t be good until he found what had caused the sudden, drastic change in this timeline.

Aether raised his hand calmly, making it clear that he hadn’t come here to hurt the old man or cause any trouble. He simply took the map that the old man had given him earlier and held it in his hand.

The old man frowned as he stared at the map, then slowly lowered his tense expression.

“It’s you, brat—”

“I need your help,” Aether asked in his robotic tone.

The old man blinked in confusion, clearly wondering why the man was speaking in such a strange, mechanical manner. His eyes then shifted toward the other cloaked figure standing nearby.

Something was clearly going on here.

The old man had once been a commander, and although he had retired from that life, his instincts had never completely faded. He could sense the urgency in the situation even without knowing the full story.

However…

“Nope!” the old man said firmly.

He wasn’t going to get involved with this boy again. Whatever trouble Aether had dragged behind him this time, the old man wanted absolutely no part of it.

Aether’s lips twitched beneath the cloak.

“Oh, come on, old man… Help me just this once. Look after her for a day. I’ll pick her up tonight.”

The old man stared at him for several seconds. There was a clear urgency in Aether’s voice, even beneath the artificial tone he was using. His gaze shifted toward Lily again before he finally sighed.

“Fine… If it’s just looking after her, then I’ll accommodate you.”

“Good,” Aether said with a small nod.

He turned toward Lily and spoke in the same firm, robotic tone.

“You need to stay here until I come back.”

Lily stared blankly at the cloak for a moment before asking with a worried expression, “Where is Penelope?”

Aether sighed quietly.

“I’ll bring her tonight, but you have to believe me first, okay? Got it?”

Lily hesitated.

She still didn’t know who this man was or why he was helping her. None of this had happened in the previous timeline.

Had she somehow changed the timeline simply by saving Penelope?

But if that was the case, then why would this unknown figure go this far to save her?

Nothing made sense.

The more Lily tried to understand it, the more tangled everything became.

“Lily?”

Lily flinched at the sudden call of her name.

“You know my name?”

“Of course…” Aether replied in a serious tone.

He leaned slightly toward her, lowering his voice as he continued, “You just stay put here. The old, grumpy man will help you while I’m away.”

“I heard that!” the old man complained with a grumpy expression.

Ignoring him completely, Aether continued looking at Lily.

“Please…”

Lily bit her lip as she stared at him for a moment before finally nodding her head.

She had no other choice.

If this man had wanted to harm her, he could have simply handed her over to Alpha instead of taking such a tremendous risk to save her and bring her here.

Aether noticed her hesitation before giving her a faint smile.

He then leaned toward the old man and whispered quietly,

“Keep her safe. Don’t let her leave.”

As he spoke, he placed another pouch into the old man’s hand.

The old man blinked as he looked down at the pouch. He immediately recognised what it was and shook his head.

“I already got enough.”

Aether simply smiled.

Without saying another word, he turned around and walked out of the shop.

The moment he stepped outside, he immediately bolted down the street while simultaneously disarming his illusion spell. The cloak and appearance faded away as he ran, revealing his actual appearance beneath the illusion.

He didn’t slow down.

He needed to get back to the Beta Tower as quickly as possible.

After reaching the tower, he immediately entered the building and headed toward the elevator. The moment the doors opened, he stepped inside and pressed for the upper floor.

By the time the elevator began ascending, Lackey’s breathing had finally started to settle.

Lackey tapped his foot impatiently, his expression becoming increasingly hurried as he watched the numbers rise.

When the elevator finally reached the top floor, the doors opened.

Lackey immediately bolted out and hurried toward Beta’s room.

He stopped before the door and took a deep breath.

He quickly ran a hand through his hair, straightening it and making sure his appearance didn’t look suspicious. After everything that had happened, he couldn’t afford to let Nova realise what he had been doing.

He composed his expression and was just about to step forward when the door automatically slid open.

Nova was standing there in her gown, leaning casually against the doorway.

She looked at him with a blank expression, her eyes quietly examining him from head to toe.

“Where have you been… God?”

She muttered the question with an almost emotionless tone, but there was something unsettling about the way she was staring at him.

“…”

Lackey awkwardly smiled.

‘Here we go again,’ he thought.

“You know you cannot just roam around whenever you want, right? Where exactly have you been? And what were you doing outside in the middle of the night?”

She barraged him with questions like a housewife who had just caught her husband coming home suspiciously late after work.

Lackey gave her an awkward smile, trying his best to remain calm.

“I was just getting some fresh air.”

“…In the middle of the night?” Nova narrowed her eyes even further, clearly unconvinced by his excuse.

Lackey’s smile became even more awkward.

“Well… Yeah. It was actually pretty nice to get some fresh air in the middle of the night. You should try it once in a while.”

He said that as casually as possible before slipping past her and entering the room.

Nova stared blankly at Lackey for a moment before shaking her head.

She turned toward him again and sighed, “God, I don’t want to sound like I am nagging you, but you do know your own value, right? What if someone kidnapped you? You have already attracted the attention of far too many people. We cannot just—”

“In two days… He will come.”

“Huh?”

Nova blinked in confusion, her sentence dying halfway as Lackey interrupted her.

Lackey quietly sat down on the bed, his expression suddenly becoming tired. He rubbed his face for a moment before saying,

“In two days… There will be a Hell’s Gate manifest near the Delta-Beta Border. He will arrive through it.”

Nova stared at him with a blank expression, as though her mind needed a moment to process what she had just heard.

Then, her voice became noticeably quieter and hesitant.

“You mean… A-Aether?”

Lackey simply nodded.

Without explaining anything further, he lay back down on the bed and covered his face with one hand.

“Wake me if there is a Tournament match today.”

His voice gradually faded as exhaustion finally caught up with him, and he quietly fell asleep.

Nova remained standing beside the bed, staring at her God without saying a word. Her fingers slowly tightened, and her eyes trembled faintly as the meaning of his words settled inside her.

After a moment, she turned around and quietly left the room without uttering another word.

Once she was gone, Lackey let out a long sigh and slowly sat back up.

“Fuck… That diverted her attention. Thank goodness,” he muttered, his face loosening with relief.

Then, a faint trail of purple glitter fluttered through the air directly behind him.

“Hello, Motherfucker!”

!!

Lackey flinched so violently that his entire body practically launched itself out of the bed. He landed on his feet and immediately stood straight, his eyes widening as he turned around.

Grace was hovering right before him.

Her cold, merciless eyes were fixed directly on him, and the faint flutter of her wings behind her only made her presence feel more threatening.

‘Oh shit! I almost forgot I have one more pain in the ass to deal with.’

He screamed inwardly while forcing a gentle, professional smile onto his face.

“Plea—”

“I will wipe that fucking smile off your face and onto the floor,” Grace said coldly, her voice carrying a menacing edge that made the room feel several degrees colder.

Lackey immediately stopped smiling.

He swallowed hard as he felt the atmosphere around him become suffocating.

There was something genuinely frightening about the calmness in Grace’s expression. She was not shouting, nor was she making any sudden movements.

She simply looked pissed off enough to kill him.

It was honestly a miracle that she had not already done so.

Grace’s wings fluttered quietly as she lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. She crossed one leg over the other with the composed arrogance of a queen passing judgment before fixing Lackey with a cold, contemptuous stare.

Then, without saying anything else, she raised one cute little finger and motioned downward.

Lackey, of course, understood exactly what she was gesturing for.

As much as he would have loved to protest and make a scene, he knew better. He had seriously messed up this time. He had deliberately used her as bait, and if she had not played along, his entire plan might have fallen apart.

So, after a brief hesitation, Lackey quietly lowered himself to his knees before her.

Grace did not change her expression as she stared at him. She did not even say a word, yet Lackey felt as though her gaze had pierced straight through him, stripping away every excuse he had prepared before he could even speak.

Lackey awkwardly parted his lips and said, “FYI, I already said sorry before—”

“Shut. Up. Bitch!”

She said it with the most thug-like expression Lackey had ever seen on her face, her eyes remaining completely cold as if she had just declared his sentence.

“Alright!” Lackey immediately nodded, realising that Grace was not cute anymore.

She looked seriously different right now, and for some reason, that quiet fury in her eyes was far more frightening than if she had simply started shouting.

Grace continued staring at him without saying anything for a few more minutes. The silence itself became unbearable, and Lackey could slowly feel his legs going numb from kneeling on the floor.

The pain gradually crept up his thighs, but he did not dare move even an inch.

Finally, Grace spoke, her voice carrying the same cold ruthlessness.

“Three times… Three fucking times.”

“…”

Lackey gulped.

‘Here it comes.’

He subtly positioned himself, preparing for whatever was coming.

Heck, he even updated his Null-Return right then and there.

Just to be sure if he really fucked up here!

Grace slowly raised one finger.

“First… You caged me.”

A second finger rose.

“Second… You tortured me with your love life.”

Then the third.

“Third… You used me as bait.”

She held up all three fingers for a moment, her eyes never leaving Lackey’s face.

“Do you have anything to say about this, boy?” she asked coldly.

Lackey swallowed again, his expression becoming genuinely guilty.

Grace continued staring at him with the same condescending look, her voice becoming sharper with every word.

“You treated me like a bird… Like I was some kind of animal you could keep in a cage whenever it was convenient for you, feed whenever you felt like it, and pet whenever you wanted some entertainment.”

Sweat slowly formed across Lackey’s forehead.

“Not only that, but you were not even grateful that I fucking saved your ass twice.”

Lackey began sweating even more. He could almost imagine an invisible scythe hovering beside his neck, waiting for Grace to make the smallest movement.

Grace quietly stared at the boy kneeling before her. He was genuinely feeling guilty now, and she could see that much from his face.

She was really pissed.

And it was honestly a miracle that she had not killed him yet.

What bothered her even more was that she herself could not understand why she had not already done it.

If it was anybody else… their soul would have been in her hands to torment.

Was it because she had grown on him?

Were all those ridiculous stories he had told her the reason she had slowly begun to feel some strange familiarity with him?

Or was it because staying inside his Domain felt warmer and gentler than she had expected?

There, she had experienced so many unfamiliar things, things she had never bothered to understand before, and every one of them had somehow made her more curious about the world outside her own existence.

Or… was it something else?

Grace’s expression tightened slightly.

‘If my little sisters and brothers knew about this… they would laugh at me!’

She thought with an annoyed expression, almost irritated with herself for showing favoritism toward someone she barely had any connection with to begin with.

She had no reason to care about him this much.

He was reckless, irritating, shameless, and apparently possessed by some strange instinct that compelled him to make her life considerably more difficult whenever he got the opportunity.

So why was she still standing here?

Why had she listened to his stories?

Why had she allowed him to drag her into his ridiculous plans?

And, most irritatingly of all, why had she saved him twice?

Grace’s fingers slowly curled against her palm.

She hated not having an answer!!!

So…

‘Yeah, but this fucker in his place,’ She thought coldly as she readied herself to kill this ‘Thing’.

Otherwise… it would be her shame for eternity!

Just as she was about to kill him, Lackey suddenly spoke.

“I am truly sorry, Grace.”

His voice was quieter this time.

Lackey looked directly at her, and there was no awkward smile on his face anymore. His expression was sincere, almost unusually serious for someone who had spent the last several minutes preparing himself for death.

“I know I have not been treating you well… and I know we had a hard start. But after getting to know you, I realised how much you—”

“What do you know about me, boy?”

Lackey stopped.

“…”

“…”

Silence suddenly settled between them.

Lackey stared at Grace with his lips slightly parted, completely caught off guard by the question.

‘Holy fuck… I shouldn’t have gone with a cliché dialogue.’

Right!

What did he actually know about her?

He had spent months talking to Grace, but most of those conversations had been him talking endlessly about himself, his experiences, his plans, his problems, and whatever ridiculous thought happened to cross his mind.

Grace had mostly been the one listening.

She had never fucking shared a single thing about herself.

He knew almost nothing about her past.

He did not know what she feared, what she desired, what she had lost, or what kind of life had shaped the person sitting before him.

Lackey slowly lowered his gaze for a moment before calming himself down.

He just needed to find the right words to cool her down.

The time was ticking… her murderous aura kept increasing exponentially.

He could feel it… Her hands started to glimmer as well.

‘Fuck! Fuck!! FUCK!!!’

He needed the right switch to flip.

Just… a perfect switch to flip!!