Chapter 12: Side Character x Mafia Boss (12)

The police officers exchanged thoroughly doubtful glances with one another. The head officer let out a long, exhausted sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Miss," the officer said sternly, looking directly at Lyra. "If this entire scene was just a false alarm brought on by an overactive imagination, please do not waste emergency services’ precious time ever again. There are people out there in the city who genuinely need our help right now."

Lyra immediately bowed her head at a ninety-degree angle, practically folding herself in half.

"I am so, so incredibly sorry, Officer!" she apologized profusely, "I promise on my life it will never, ever happen again! We are going straight home right now!"

The officer gave her a nod. "See that it doesn’t."

With a final warning glance, the police officers turned, walked back out of the alley, and climbed into their patrol cars. Within moments, the loud engine rumbles and the flashing red-and-blue emergency lights faded away, disappearing completely into the distance.

Silence filled the dark alleyway once more.

Elena slowly turned her entire body toward Lyra. Her delicate brows were tightly knitted together in deep, hurt confusion.

"Lyra..."

Her voice was quiet, barely a whisper in the cold night air.

"Why did you just lie to the police like that?" Elena asked, searching Lyra’s face. "I know what we saw tonight. I saw the guns. I saw those men. And so did you."

Lyra forced a soft, reassuring smile onto her face, trying to keep her posture relaxed...

But inside her chest, her heart was pounding so hard it felt like a jackhammer. Cold sweat lined her back.

Why did I lie? Lyra thought to herself, her mind flashing back to the terrifying, icy grey eyes of Alastair Voss and the cold metal barrel pressed against Elena’s forehead.

Because, my dear naive female lead... if I had told those officers the truth, that terrifying Mafia Boss wouldn’t waste a single second making good on his promise to delete my and yours existence from this world!

"Are you completely dumb?!"

Elena blinked, her soft eyes wide with utter shock. "W-What?"

Lyra leaned in closer, her voice trembling "If we go and tell the police the full truth about what happened, that terrifying man is going to come directly after us next!" She gestured frantically toward the empty spot where Alastair had been standing just moments prior. "Didn’t you look at his face?! Didn’t you see his eyes?! He was not joking around, Elena! He held a literal gun to your forehead!"

Elena’s shocked expression slowly softened, fading into a mix of guilt and hesitation. "But... Lyra... there was someone in real, genuine danger... That poor older man was crying out for help..."

Lyra let out a heavy exhausted sigh, rubbing her temples.

"I know," she murmured softly, her tone softening just a bit. "I wanted to save him too, okay? I really did."

She gently reached out and placed both of her hands on Elena’s shoulders, looking straight into her eyes with absolute, dead seriousness.

"But right now... your life matters first. Your safety is what’s most important." She squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. "If we become targets for a massive criminal organization, then who on earth are we going to save? Nobody! What if he finds out we gave a detailed description of his face to the police tonight? He has weapons, private armies, and resources, Elena. We’re just two ordinary, broke girls who work at a coffee shop."

Elena lowered her head, looking down at her shoes as the harsh reality of the situation finally settled into her chest.

"...You’re right," Elena whispered, her voice barely audible over the cold night breeze. "I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking clearly..."

Lyra smiled softly, a huge wave of relief washing over her tense shoulders. "We’ll think of another clever way to handle things later, okay? But for now... I just want to make sure you get home completely safely tonight."

Elena’s eyes welled up, turning slightly red as emotional tears pooled in the corners. Unable to hold back her gratitude, she suddenly threw her arms forward and hugged Lyra tightly around the neck.

"Thank you so much, Lyra..." Elena sniffled into her shoulder. "You really are the absolute best friend I could ever ask for in this world!"

Lyra stood there awkwardly, her arms hovering in the air for a second before she lightly patted Elena’s back.

"Hehe..." Lyra let out a tiny, nervous laugh. "It’s... it’s really nothing at all..."

If only you knew that I’m literally just trying to stop the entire world’s narrative plot from collapsing into total chaos so I don’t get erased by the system... Lyra screamed hysterically inside her own head.

She took a deep breath, wrapped an arm around Elena’s shoulders, and began gently steering her back toward the brightly lit main street.

"Come on, Elena," Lyra said softly, her voice trembling just a tiny bit despite her best efforts. "Let me walk you home. It’s been a really... really long night."

And far away, inside her panicked mind, Lyra silently waited for the System to chime in and tell her if her life was still in danger.

A few minutes later, after marching Elena out to the main avenue and making 100% sure she was safely buckled inside the back seat of a licensed yellow taxi, Lyra finally allowed her tense muscles to relax.

She stood alone on the curb, listening to the taxi drive away into the night, and scratched the back of her sore neck.

"...Man, what a ridiculously long day," she groaned to herself, rolling her stiff shoulders.

As she turned around on her heel to begin her own long walk back to her apartment... a sudden, ice-cold chill crawled slowly up her spine, making every single tiny goosebump break out across her skin.

It felt... suffocating. It felt as if a predator’s pair of eyes was intently watching her every move from the shadows.

She froze mid-step and slowly looked back over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the dark buildings and empty rooftops across the street.

Nothing.

There was only the quiet, empty street and the soft flickering of a yellow streetlamp.

Lyra shook her head vigorously, rubbing her arms to warm herself up. "...Nope. I am definitely becoming completely paranoid after everything today. Need to sleep for a week."

She hugged her bag tightly against her chest, ducked her head down, and hurried away as fast as her legs could walk.

High above the empty street, crouched quietly on the shadowy ledge of a tall rooftop directly across from the alley...

Alastair Voss stood with his long dark coat fluttering gently in the cold night wind, quietly watching her small figure hurry down the sidewalk until she completely disappeared into the distance.

The corner of his lips lifted into a very faint, incredibly dangerous smirk.

"...Good girl."

He turned around smoothly’ stepping away from the roof’s edge. "Let’s move out."

"Yes, Boss," his chief lieutenant replied immediately, stepping out from the shadows of the rooftop door.

However, as the dozen men fell into formation behind their supreme leader, almost every single subordinate wore the exact same deeply confused, utterly baffled expression on their faces.

Finally, after walking down a flight of concrete stairs, one of the boldest man gathered the courage to clear his throat and speak up.

"...Boss?"

Alastair didn’t pause his stride. "Speak."

"You... you let both of those civilian girls go tonight," the man pointed out carefully.

Another senior guard nodded in complete agreement. "And earlier in the alley... you explicitly stopped us from shooting that noisy waitress when she sprinted right into the spot"

"...You didn’t silence a single witness tonight, Boss," the first man added, his brows furrowed in complete disbelief. "They saw your face. They know what happened."

The men exchanged puzzled anxious glances behind his broad back. This level of mercy and restraint wasn’t like Alastair Voss at all. Normally, anyone who so much as made eye contact with him during an execution was quietly erased before the night ended.

Alastair didn’t offer a single word of explanation to his men.

He simply continued walking down the hallway toward his waiting private vehicle, his coat sweeping behind him. Only the tiny smirk remained on his handsome face... leaving his elite inner circle far more confused and terrified than ever before.