"That's the last piece of bread; you can't have it!" Luna tried grabbing the bread from Lucian, but he quickly shoved it into his mouth. "Mom!" Luna cried out to the shape-shifting beast, Wisteria.
Wisteria smiles as she waves her hands on the table, using her magic to make more food appear.
"Is that real food?" Draven asked. Stepping out of a slit space in the air, he smiled in amusement as he saw Lucian chewing on a piece of bread. The dazed, lostful look in Lucian's eyes was the same one in Luna's eyes.
"What makes you think that I'm incapable of feeding my children?" Wisteria smiled as Luna picked up a spoon and started eating. Everything was perfect, just as she had always wanted.
The fog in Lucian's daze cleared up; he stopped moving his mouth and spit out the bread. His actions grab Draven's and Wisteria's attention.
Confusion filled Lucian's features as his gaze went to Luna and the others in the room. From the rough attire of the man in the room, he could tell that Draven was also a player. But the beautiful young lady in her middle 30s dressed in exquisite fabric was out of place in the simple house he was in. "What is this? Who are you?" The last thing Lucian remembered was being trapped in a dungeon full of snow. 'Was he still in the dungeon?' he thought and didn't know. His head was hurting, and the strangers before him had the look of amazement and rage. Luna, on the other hand, smiled and ate like a mindless zombie incapable of thinking for herself.
"Woah." Draven was amazed. "He broke out of your enchantment."
"That's the second time." Wisteria got up from her seat and placed her slender hand on Lucian's shoulder. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾※𝙣𝙚𝙩
'The second time?' Draven thought, unable to believe it.
"You are in a safe place." Wisteria said softly. Lucian tried shrugging her hand off, but his body suddenly became weak, unable to move as though it had been given secret orders it couldn't defy. "There's no need for you to remember your past. As your mother, I will take care of you and your sister. Forget about the game and relax." The fog in Lucian's eyes returned.
Draven gulped down in fear, 'She's crazy.' He looked outside the window, where there were other houses filled with beasts who had shape-shifted themselves into humans. He was in a dungeon where there was a village filled with shape-shifting beasts.
Draven took a seat at Wisteria's dining table and tried taking an apple, but Wisteria's sharp voice stopped him.
"Don't try stealing what I made for my children."
Draven frowned and kept staring at Luna, wondering if she was the same girl who had been with the villain, because her bangs, which used to cover her face, had been pinned to the side. "You know he's the villain, right?" He removed his gaze from Luna. "Remember the deal we made." Out of curiosity, Draven asked, "Did you change their name?"
Wisteria glanced at Lucian. "I did, but that was the first time he broke out of my spell, so I had to use his original name, and since it didn't make sense to change only the name of my daughter while my son bears his original name, I decided to be a kind, thoughtful mother and let them keep their original names."
Draven's face twisted in annoyance as he listened to Wisteria blabbering about things he didn't care about. He didn't care about what Wisteria and the other beasts in the village chose to do with the humans they had captured; he was curious about their obsession with playing houses with humans, but not curious enough to risk his life by questioning Wisteria.
"In fulfillment of our deal, you are supposed to kill the villain, not feed him as your son. If you want a son, you can take the other guy who was with him."
Wisteria stubbornly shakes her head in a childlike manner. "Lucian is more handsome, and my son has to be handsome. And since we are already on this discussion, what about the humans you promised me?" She asked, "Surely you don't think that just this few humans is enough? There are many others in the village who want a new family. As the village head, it's my job to make that happen. Don't forget the reason you have the freedom to move between this dungeon and the outside world."
Although Draven was able to move between the dungeon and the outside world, he was nothing more than a dog who sniffed out humans for Wisteria. He was bound to the dungeon, and no matter how much he wanted to break the binding spell and run away once he was outside of the dungeon, he couldn't. The spell gave him a limited amount of time he could spend in the outside world before forcing him back into the dungeon, to Wisteria.
Draven didn't have a combat ability; his magic system gave him the ability to see the future at times, but not all the time. Before his magic had shown him the truth about what was in the mysterious abandoned tower, it was too late; his teammates were captured, and the only way for Draven to save himself from turning into a mindless zombie playing houses in the home of a beast was by making a deal with Wisteria, a deal that turned him into her dog, and his only reward was surviving the game to the end. Wisteria was supposed to get rid of both the hero and the villain for him so that the game, and the awful world he was trapped in, could come to an end.
"Drop the look, Draven." Wisteria said after studying the expression on Draven's face, "I'm still going to grant you your reward. Besides, the game won't end unless the hero and villains fight each other and one of them dies. Before, I was planning on making both of them die, but I think I will just use my son to get rid of the hero, and then you will be free."
Draven nodded. He stood up and used his finger to slit through the air with the powers Wisteria gave him. He created an opening through the space that led outside the dungeon. "I will be back soon with good news; there's a team I found hiding in the forest. Soon, I will bring them to you." He steps into the open space he has created.
Wisteria smiled in approval. The only way she was able to quickly capture Lucian and his team before they ended up dying at the entrance of the dungeon was through Draven's ability that had seen them ahead, before they stepped their feet into the dungeon. In a way Draven saved their life even though he was only looking out for himself.