Villain Seduces to Rise in Status

Chapter 28: 28 - Elowen’s Secret

Seth was quite impressed with the single hunt they’d just completed, already doing mental calculations about their earnings and potential profits.

”A pair of horns, the fur and the skin, its beast core... if we can just take a few down in a single night, we’d make a fortune!”

Cale immediately shut down his enthusiasm. ”Don’t go dreaming, you idiot.”

Nex chimed in with hope in his voice. ”Hehe, with this amount of loot, won’t we earn a decent bit if we do it daily?”

These people, guess they forgot about the entrance fees entirely, Cale thought bitterly, knowing that their excitement was premature without accounting for the daily two-gold cost per person to even access the beast garden.

Night came quickly, and they hunted for about eight more elks of different sizes, each hunt becoming slightly easier as they refined their strategy and understood the beasts’ patterns better. The rhythm of hunt, kill, harvest, repeat became almost mechanical in its repetition.

”Huff... let’s take a quick break,” Cale finally called out when exhaustion threatened to slow them down.

They made a decent meal from the beast meat they’d prepared, eating quickly and without much conversation before continuing the hunt with renewed energy. The process continued relentlessly through the darkness.

After five hours of continuous hunting, the first rays of dawn broke across the landscape, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink.

”Aah, it’s dawn now.”

The very first rays hit Cale’s face and his body ached like hell from all the constant movement and exertion. The others sat down with a heavy thud, their bodies hitting the ground hard enough to suggest they hadn’t even rested properly for anything more than ten minutes throughout the entire night.

Carl groaned as he assessed their progress. ”We hunted over sixty beasts across all of them. With the amount we have right now, we can easily get thirty to forty gold coins each person.”

The next two days for these people went exactly the same way—hunting through the night when beasts were most active, and studying or training during the day to recover and maintain their skills. Their bodies were strained by the immense pressure and exhaustion, but Cale concocted some random drink each time, using herbs and stimulants to make them feel energetic enough to continue. His knowledge of alchemy and herbalism proved invaluable for keeping the team functional.

People throughout the beast garden were starting to recognize that the amount of herbivorous beasts had gotten significantly lower in recent days. Cale and the others giggled hearing them talk and complain about the sudden shortage, not realizing that the four of them were responsible for the dramatic population decrease.

Later that night, during their continued hunting session, a terrible animal scream echoed through the darkness.

”Gaaah!”

Another one-star beast met its end at their hands. Named beasts, or rather beasts which were commonly known by the academy, started from two-star and three-star classifications. Most of the one-stars were just some random-looking beasts without distinctive characteristics or special abilities.

Cale looked at their accumulated loot with a smug, happy after another successful hunt.

”Over these few days, we’ve got over six thousand silver in total. With this amount, we can buy a lot of interesting things now.”

Seth kept nagging with exhaustion. ”Hey, we’ve been doing this nonstop for the past few days. Can’t we get just a few hours to actually sleep?”

Nex yawned while covering his mouth with his hand. ”Yawwwwnnn, I also wanted to take a nap. My body is starting to shut down from fatigue.”

Cale sighed, understanding their limits despite his own seemingly boundless energy reserves. ”You guys look for a decent and safe place to set up camp and then sleep. I will go find some herbs I need since tomorrow we can’t come back.”

Carl basically collapsed where he stood, his exhaustion finally overwhelming his consciousness. ”Hup, finally... snore... snore...”

Cale went through trees and bushes, running like some wild ape through the dense forest vegetation. The darkness didn’t slow him down—his aura sensing and instincts guided him through the terrain.

”Let’s check this place out properly. Maybe I will come across something interesting out here.”

He sensed a faint qi lingering in the air, meaning someone proficient in aura and qi manipulation was present nearby. This presence was unusual for the beast garden at night, and Cale’s curiosity was immediately piqued by the anomaly.

Cale snuck up slowly, moving with silence, and found the source of the qi disturbance. What he discovered made him pause.

It was Elowen, her whole body glowing brilliantly as she cultivated under the moonlight. Her form was practically luminous with energy as it cycled through her meridians in controlled patterns. But Cale was surprised by her presence—he’d thought only his family allowed their heirs to learn methods like cultivation, which most houses actively forbade their members from pursuing due to various political and social reasons.

Seeing her, Cale remembered that one time when she suddenly came running to their estate and asked for Ava, without any apparent meaning or explanation. Thinking about it now, both of them did look somewhat similar in facial structure and bearing.

Right, yeah, as if that’s a coincidence.

Cale watched her for another ten minutes, observing the way her cultivation progressed, the pattern of her qi flow, the subtle imperfections in her technique. Her breathing was slightly off, suggesting she hadn’t been trained properly in the fundamentals.

She’s cultivating for so long, but if I go according to the timeline, she was getting slowly poisoned by her uncle’s faction.

Cale thought strategically about the situation unfolding before him. Well, in this life, since I already do know about it, how about I just tell her and train her to quickly learn to resist it internally? That would prevent the catastrophe that happened in my previous life.

He slowly got up to approach her, but his movement made a nearby bush rustle with a distinct sound that echoed through the quiet night.

Elowen alerted herself immediately, becoming defensive as she took out a small knife from seemingly nowhere, standing in guard position with the blade ready.

”Who’s there? Show yourself!”

Cale raised his hands and slowly walked forward, though technically he didn’t need to—she was no match for him in combat.

”Uh... it’s me...”

She still couldn’t identify him clearly in the night, so she acted as if she was going to throw the blade at him.

”Wait, wait, wait... it’s me, Cale. Keep the blade away!”

She finally realized who he was and her posture relaxed slightly, though suspicion remained in her eyes.

”You... you’re from the Midgar family, Cale, right?”

She kept the blade inside her sleeve where it had come from.

Cale shook his head. ”Huff, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? Don’t you know you shouldn’t cultivate like this unless you have expert-level sensing to detect danger?”

Elowen crossed her arms defensively. ”Hmph, what have you guys been doing here then? Don’t think I didn’t notice you all hunting every single night.”

”Me, I’m just... training.”

”Don’t lie. You think I didn’t see you guys hunting all sorts of beasts here? That Seth kid always keeps bragging to the girls about money.”

That damned shit.He can’t keep his mouth shut about anything.

She already knew, so why did she even ask?

”Okay, I’ll be on my way then,” Cale said, turning to leave.

As she sat back down to resume her cultivation, Cale turned back and kept staring at her, unable to ignore what he was sensing. Something in her body was releasing negative energy, a toxic substance that forced her base cultivation to slow down as much as possible. The poison was actively sabotaging her progress with every technique she attempted.

Elowen thought he was being creepy, ogling her in the darkness like some pervert.

”When are you leaving? ”

Cale spoke without thinking much about how he phrased it. ”Does your body release negative energy constantly, making any type of training you do completely pointless?”

Elowen was surprised, spinning back to look at him with sudden intensity. ”How do you know about that?”

”Does your body ache with just one hour of physical training, making you tired but still full of energy at the same time?”

”Do you know what this is?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

”Someone in your family has been poisoning you. Maybe they still are.”

She wasn’t shocked by his revelation, meaning she knew to some extent that she was being targeted. Her expression confirmed that she’d suspected this for some time.

Elowen’s voice broke slightly. ”I trained so hard so as not to be sold as a bargaining chip like my sister. Why is this happening to me?”

”Is this because of your father?”

She took a step back, her entire body going rigid. Her father being suddenly sick and bedridden was something only family members knew about. It was a closely guarded secret meant to prevent exploitation by rival families.

”Who... who told you? Are you also with them? Are you part of the conspiracy?”

Cale shook his head. ”If I was with them, I wouldn’t have been telling you this at all, right? ”

Elowen took a moment to process his words, weighing his talk against her paranoia and fear. After several tense seconds, she finally spoke again with quiet resignation.

”Okay, I will trust you. What do you want?”

Cale took a step closer. ”Maybe I can help you with your current problem.”