?Chapter 881:


    Elena remained silent, allowing him to ponder her interest. Her indifference to his mask and appearance was total. Her engagement in this conversation was solely to stall for time. She had already signaled Lydia. The rescue team was advancing stealthily. Once they secured the children, her gun would be aimed at Earle’s heart.


    Earle recalled that Elena had once attempted to remove his mask, and now she seemed to be trying again. His eyes darkened with suspicion, wondering if she truly wished to see whaty beneath.


    Various rumors circted about his mask. Some spected he was scarred, and others guessed he wore it to avoid detection. However, the reality was more straightforward—the mask was a tool of intimidation. Without it, Earle was often mistaken for a wealthy yboy or a benign flirt, rather than a figure to be feared.


    In fact, he was not disfigured but rather quite attractive. He despised revealing his face to others, yet he considered making an exception for Elena.


    With a calcting smirk and his gaze fixed on her, he dered, “I once said that seeing my face is a death sentence. But I do make exceptions…” He moved closer, his voice softening into a low murmur. “For my woman.”


    In his mind, unveiling his mask would bind her to him eternally. A smile tugged at his lips, but his eyes remained cold and unblinking. He was not joking.


    Elena detected the change in his tone. Her gaze turned steely as she shoved him back, saying sharply, “The music has stopped.”


    She refused to entertain the notion any further. His choice to wear the mask was irrelevant to her.


    Elena checked the time. Thirty minutes had psed since hermunication with Lydia. The rescue team should have been nearing their position.


    She began to walk away, but Earle was not prepared to let her go free.


    The sky slowly grew darker, signaling the ideal time to slip into the base unnoticed.


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    Lydia, feeling like she had been waiting forever, was growing increasingly anxious about Earle’s potential actions toward Elena. As her patience wore thin, a message from Elena pinged. With her extensive experience as a former top assassin for SK, Lydia was intimately familiar with the base’syout. The message spurred her into action, and she swiftly guided her team toward the grim reservoir dungeon.


    Earle, that cold-hearted madman, had locked the children in the reservoir. The reservoir, Earle’s cruel creation, served as an inescapable ce designed to break even the strongest wills, and had once held rebellious Shadow assassins.


    The reservoir was no ordinary body of water—it overflowed with water snakes, rats, and leeches, a torment even for adults, and unimaginably brutal for children.


    Driven by rage, Lydia adeptly navigated past the guards, her team following her lead in silence. Her team efficiently dispatched the guards stationed around the reservoir, their daggers silent but deadly. Upon entering, they encountered the children, visibly shaken, their skin pruned and their limbs swollen from prolonged exposure to the cruel waters.


    Muttering a curse at Earle, Lydia forcefully kicked open the door.


    The children recoiled in fear, mistaking her for another tormentor.


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