God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World!

Chapter 515: Scarlet Wants Answers[1]

After sitting in silence for a while, Gabriel opened the forum.

The screen unfolded in front of him in the quiet room, and the first thing that caught his attention was exactly what he expected.

News about Darius Aston had already spread.

A new thread sat at the top with hundreds of replies.

[Breaking News: Darius Aston missing after General Aston’s banquet]

His eyes moved across the post calmly.

The comments below were moving fast.

Player 1: No way. The general’s son just disappeared like that?

Player 2: This city is getting crazier every day.

Player 3: I heard a bounty has already been posted.

Player 4: Confirmed. Anyone who finds him or gives real information gets paid.

He scrolled further down.

Player 5: How much?

Player 6: A lot. Enough to make every information broker in Stellar City start sniffing around.

Player 7: He probably went off with some noble lady and the old man is overreacting.

Player 8: You do not put that kind of bounty on a missing rich brat unless people are panicking.

Gabriel looked at the messages without changing expression. They were wasting their time. No one was going to truly find Darius Aston.

There was nothing left to find. He had killed Darius himself. The body had already been devoured. The man was gone.

He leaned back slightly against the headboard and read a few more replies before his eyes narrowed a little. Most of the players were guessing wildly, but none of them were close. They were still treating this like a missing person case instead of what it really was. The speculation followed a pattern, the kind of noise that appeared when people had enough information to feel involved but not enough to understand anything.

He scrolled past them without slowing down.

He was more interested in something else.

Whether the castle had connected anything yet.

From what he saw that night, Gabriel was certain the king did not know it was him. If anything, the man would most likely assume that Darius was the one who had jumped from the window. The armor, the timing, the location, all of it pointed that way.

Besides, based on what he observed inside that plain room, he doubted the king would step out and clarify anything for anyone. That kind of existence did not look like someone who explained himself to those beneath him. There was a specific quality to someone who had stopped caring how others interpreted their actions. The king had that quality in full.

Which meant silence from that direction...at least for now.

He closed the thread and opened his messages instead and sent XMan a short message.

[I am fine. I got the key.]

He stared at the screen for a second, added nothing else, and closed the forum completely.

Gabriel set the screen aside and stared at the ceiling. His ribs still ached when he breathed too deeply. His arm was better than it had been, but the skin around the wound felt tight. He had taken more damage that night than he was willing to admit, and the only reason he was functional at all was because Scarlet, who treated him, knew exactly what she was doing.

After resting a little longer and feeling some strength return to his limbs, he pushed himself upright and looked around properly this time. The room was large but simple. The furniture was plain, and the space felt balanced in a way that reminded him of a modern room built with discipline rather than luxury.

One shelf held folded clothes. Another held a few books with neat spacing between them. The walls were plain, and most of the color came from the soft wood and the pale light coming in through the window. Nothing sat where it had no reason to be.

His gaze shifted toward one side of the room and stopped.

A weapon rack stood against the wall.

Several elegant swords rested there in order, each one clean and well maintained. None of them looked decorative. Even from a distance, he could tell they were used, cleaned, and returned with care. The handles showed faint signs of wear. The kind that came from real use repeated over time, not from occasional practice.

"It seems she brought me to her room."

His eyes moved once more across the bed, the plain furniture, and the neat arrangement. Scarlet had not taken him to a guest room.

She brought him here.

That realization surprised him more than he expected. She was cold, distant, and strict. She kept people at a distance by nature. Yet he was lying in her own room, treated and hidden away while the city outside searched for a missing noble.

It did not fit the version of her he had built in his head.

He was not sure what to do with that, so he set the thought aside.

Gabriel exhaled quietly and got off the bed.

The air had smelled familiar from the moment he woke up, but only now did he understand why. It carried a faint clean scent. Water, fresh cloth, and a light trace of soap. Something subtle that matched Scarlet herself, the kind of thing a person never noticed until they were surrounded by it without her present.

His body still hurt, but the worst of the weakness had eased enough that he could walk without support. He moved carefully toward the window and placed one hand lightly on the frame. Outside, the sky was shifting toward sunset.

The city below was washed in a dull orange light. Rooftops caught the last of the sun, and the streets farther away were beginning to darken. From here, Stellar City looked calmer than it felt up close.

Gabriel watched the fading light in silence.

"How did I ever get fooled into believing this was a game world?" he muttered quietly.

At that moment, a knock came from behind him.

Before he could respond, the door opened and Scarlet stepped inside. Her face looked the same as always, calm and unreadable, and her posture remained straight as she shut the door behind her. She was still in her guild attire, which meant she had come directly from somewhere.

She looked at him once, checking his stance, his breathing, and the fact that he was no longer lying down. Her eyes moved like someone doing a quick assessment while trying not to make it obvious.

"Now that you feel better," Scarlet said finally, "there are things we need to talk about."