Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead-Chapter 201: Revival (2)

The rich no longer looked rich. The powerful no longer looked powerful. Everyone looked the same now.

Defeated.

Grandpa Venus finally moved. His voice was quiet but sharp, like a blade cutting through silence.

"Take Sia and meet me in our estate," he told King Philip, looking around. "This place is finished."

King Philip's face was pale, but his jade fragments circled him tighter as he nodded. The two kings didn't look at each other for long. There was no victory to share. Only failure.

I watched them both, my mind still echoing with Sia's words.

The Rebirth Flames, one of the things which could help humanity keep an edge gone just like that.

And deep inside, I couldn't help but feel like the Hollow knew that.

Like it had all been part of his plan.

As the last of the nobles fled and silence finally settled over the ruined auction house, I realized something.

This wasn't just the end of an auction.

This was the start of something much, much bigger.

And I wasn't sure if I was ready for it.

***

The city felt wrong after the auction.

Everything was too quiet and too tense. Like everyone was pretending life was normal but their bones remembered what had happened.

I leaned against the balcony of the ground floor of the auction house, staring at the streets outside.

People walked fast, heads low, no laughter, no merchants calling out prices. Just footsteps and whispers.

They were scared, and so was I.

After all, this auction had been live...and that meant that everyone in the world now knew about the presence of the Hollow's again—

The Hollow wasn't just a man.

He was a storm.

A monster in human skin.

And he had slipped right through two kings, hundreds of guards, and an entire hall filled with nobles.

If someone like that could show up and rip apart reality, what the hell did that mean for the rest of us?

"Still sulking?" Aurelia's voice cut through my head. She always had that mocking tone, but this time she seemed more...sober.

I didn't bother turning. "Just thinking." I said, my voice low and droopy.

She walked up beside me, her brown chestnut hair catching the sunlight, and shrugged. "That's new."

I shot her a look. She smirked back, but there was something softer in her eyes. Even Aurelia couldn't hide that she was shaken.

Behind us, the room was noisy. Erza was pacing like a caged animal, muttering incomprehensible things.

Dario sat with his legs up on the table, tapping his teleportation hands as if he was ready to jump at the first sign of trouble.

As for Seraphina, she was quiet, too quiet, fiddling with her choker like she wanted to crush it.

And then there was Sia.

She sat on one of the couches, posture perfect, face calm, but I could tell it was a mask.

Her eyes betrayed her. They carried that flicker of frustration, like she wanted to scream but couldn't.

Finally, she broke the silence, not acting like her usual cold, reserved shell. "You all realize what this means, don't you?"

We all turned to her.

"The Hollow appearing here wasn't random. He didn't just crash the auction for fun. He was after something. And the fact that he wasn't killed…" She paused, her hands curling into fists.

"That means our enemies have pieces on the board we can't counter yet."

Her words sank deep. I hated it because she was right.

Grandpa Venus had the power of shadows. King Philip had jade manipulation. And both of them together couldn't pin the Hollow down.

I swallowed.

The room fell into silence again, heavy and suffocating.

I thought back to the moment Grandpa's shadows had erupted, wrapping the Hollow in pitch-black chains that looked alive.

I thought that would be the end. But then the Hollow's sword cut through them like paper.

And King Philip?

I could still see the jade spikes he summoned from the floor, piercing upward like a forest of emerald blades.

They didn't matter either. The Hollow had shattered through them and laughed.

My grandfather…was a shadow assassin. I'd only found that out recently, but even now it felt unreal.

A man whose name alone kept kingdoms in line had been pushed aside like he was nothing.

I clenched my fists. What did that make me, then?

Nothing.

A knock on the door broke my thoughts. It creaked open, and one of our guards stepped inside, bowing. "The kings request your presence."

We followed him out until we reached a wider chamber. The two kings were already there, sitting across a large round table. They both looked drained, older, like the fight had taken more than just energy.

Grandpa's eyes flicked to me for a moment. I saw something there, anger, exhaustion, maybe even shattered pride, but he said nothing.

King Philip spoke first. His voice was cold, sharp, the kind of tone that cut the room into pieces. "The auction is finished. Its master has been revived...and with that the final item has been expended."

The Rebirth Flames.

The name alone burned in all of ours heads.

Something powerful enough to revive even the dead. Something we never got to see because it had already been used on Mr. Lapui.

Grandpa leaned back, shadows curling faintly around his hands as if they moved on their own. "This changes everything. Whoever controls the Rebirth Flames controls the balance between life and death. And with his revival, Lapui must have gained immense powers as well—"

The two kings fell into discussion, words twisting around politics, alliances, responsibilities. I barely followed. My chest was too heavy to listen to any of it right now.

I looked at Team A instead. Dario was restless, his eyes darting around like he couldn't sit still.

Erza looked like she wanted to punch someone. Seraphina was biting her lip, holding back something.

And Aurelia just leaned back, pretending to be relaxed but her foot tapped against the floor nonstop.

Sia, though, she was the only one who looked steady.

Like this stuff didn't matter to her.

It was almost like she didn't care about what had just transpired in the Auction house.

Remembering that I still had that tablet which carried all the answers in the world, I asked Damien to wake up. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

It was past time I figure out Sia's background and motivations.

***