Chapter 210: [THE PARK]

Eli drew in a shaky breath.

Caelen’s reaction… hadn’t truly surprised him.

The frozen expression.

The sudden, complete stillness.

It fit too neatly with everything Eli had already noticed—the tension whenever Kairo’s name came up. The way Caelen’s joking bravado dulled whenever their rivalry surfaced. The way something darker always lingered underneath his charm.

Whatever bound the brothers together wasn’t just competition.

It was something deeper.

Something buried.

And clearly… something secret.

Eli swallowed.

’Yeah… I figured it would hit a nerve.’

Carefully, he leaned forward the slightest bit, prepared to soften the impact of the bomb he’d dropped.

“I—I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that,” Eli said quietly. “I found out when—Kairie… your mother… told me earlier. I wasn’t snooping or anything like—”

Caelen’s hands jerked on the steering wheel.

Hard.

The car swerved sharply to the right.

Eli yelped as the sudden turn threw him against the seatbelt, his shoulder bumping painfully into the door. The violent jolt rattled his teeth.

“Whoa—!”

He fumbled for the armrest, fingers digging into it as the tires squealed against the asphalt before the car straightened out again.

’Holy shit! Is he trying to kill us?!’

The scenery around them changed abruptly.

Different street.

Different turn.

Everything unfamiliar.

Eli whipped his head toward the windshield.

“This isn’t the way to my condo!” he blurted, blinking rapidly. “Caelen—this is the wrong turn!”

“I know,” Caelen said flatly.

No teasing.

No warmth.

No humor.

Just a voice cold as drawn steel.

Then he pressed the accelerator.

The car surged forward, shoving Eli back into his seat. His grip tightened on the armrest as his heart lurched into a full sprint.

“C-Caelen—what are you doing?!” Eli asked, panic slipping into his voice. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere to talk.”

“S-Somewhere to talk? But… where? Why—”

“Because this conversation just got serious.”

Eli stared at the back of Caelen’s head, a chill prickling across his spine.

His jaw was clenched so tightly it looked painful.

And in the faint reflection of the side mirror, Caelen’s golden eyes burned sharper than Eli had ever seen them.

A knot twisted painfully in Eli’s stomach.

’Oh no… this wasn’t supposed to escalate like this.’

Eli was scared.

Not the adrenaline-fueled kind of dungeon fear he was used to—the kind that sharpened his thoughts and told him exactly what to do.

This was different.

This was the helpless kind.

Caelen didn’t usually snap. Even the first time they met, when everything had been awkward and charged, Caelen had never felt dangerous in a violent way.

Cocky.

Teasing.

Infuriating.

But not threatening.

Unlike Kairo, whose intensity always carried a sharp edge, Caelen had always felt… lighter.

Safer.

So this version of him—

Cold.

Wordless.

Driving like the road was something to conquer—

Set Eli’s nerves on fire.

’Is he actually angry?’

Eli swallowed and forced his courage into his voice.

’Or worse… did I cross a line I can’t come back from?’

“…Are you… mad?” he asked quietly.

Nothing.

No response.

Caelen didn’t even turn his head.

The only answer was the car surging faster, the engine purring louder as the city lights blurred into streaks along the windows.

Eli squeezed the door handle with one hand, his other clutching the sleeve over Wormy’s coiled form. He felt the serpent tense beneath the fabric, its tiny body reacting to the rising distress.

’Please don’t let this be a mistake…’

The car accelerated again.

Eli sucked in a breath and held tight, pressing back into the seat as if bracing against an invisible wave.

Caelen drove like someone trying to outrun something—

And Eli, heart pounding wildly in his chest, could only cling to his seat and stare ahead, completely unsure of what waited for him at the end of this ride.

The rest of the drive passed in a tense, suffocating quiet.

Eli didn’t speak again.

Not because he didn’t want to—

But because every instinct in his body was screaming at him not to.

Caelen didn’t say a single word either. His attention stayed locked on the road, expression carved into something hard and unreadable—jaw tight, posture rigid, golden eyes sharp with thoughts Eli could never see into.

The engine hummed beneath them.

Tires whispered over asphalt.

Streetlights streaked past like fading comets.

’Okay… calm down. Just calm down.’

Eli sat stiffly in the passenger seat, one hand clenched around the door handle, the other gripping the fabric over Wormy’s coiled form.

The serpent stayed tense against his wrist—aware, mirroring the anxiety vibrating through him.

Eli focused on his breathing.

Slow.

Silent.

Controlled.

’Don’t poke the sleeping lion…’

If Caelen really was angry—truly angry—then talking now would only spark something Eli didn’t understand yet.

So he stayed quiet.

But no amount of forced calm could stop his mind from spiraling.

The awful possibilities ran rampant.

’Where is he taking me…?’

’What if he’s furious?’

’What if I crossed a line I didn’t even know existed?’

Eli swallowed thickly.

He knew how dangerous S-Class hunters were.

He had seen their power firsthand—the sheer, merciless scale of what they could do. Entire battlefields razed in moments. Monsters annihilated without hesitation.

One mistake.

One wrong word.

And a life could end.

And he was just—

Him.

A soft-bodied, anxiety-riddled freelance hunter with a cursed system and a glow-worm serpent as backup.

His heart began to pound harder despite his efforts to stay calm.

’What if he’s taking me somewhere private?’

’What if he just… wants to corner me?’

The thought twisted darker.

’What if he wants to shut me up?’

And then—

The coldest thought of all.

’…What if he plans to kill me?’

The idea slid down Eli’s spine like ice.

He would have felt danger, wouldn’t he?

His danger sense hadn’t gone off—not since the dungeon.

But that was what terrified him.

As much as he wanted to believe it meant there was no threat… he couldn’t help wondering if something was wrong instead.

’What if it’s not working properly?’

Eli forced himself to think logically.

He was smart.

Caelen could be dangerous.

Power like that always carried the potential for violence.

And right now—

Eli knew too much.

He had said their secret out loud.

He’d placed a truth into the open that wasn’t meant to be spoken—one tangled up with Midas, with Orion, with dungeon anomalies… and with the brothers themselves.

And if all of that really was connected—

Then he wasn’t just a bystander anymore.

He was a liability.

Eli’s grip on his sleeve tightened.

Wormy reacted instantly, coiling tighter around his wrist, tiny scales warming faintly beneath the fabric in response to its host’s spike of fear.

’…If things turn violent…’

Eli forced his breathing not to ragged.

He couldn’t afford panic.

’I won’t freeze.’’I can run.’

His mind began mapping an escape without him consciously telling it to.

Door angles.Reaction times.The way seatbelts released.

If the car stopped somewhere deserted, he’d bolt.

If Caelen turned too quickly or reached too suddenly, Wormy could lash out—just enough to stun, just long enough for him to pry open space and flee.

He hated himself for even thinking this way.

Caelen had never hurt him.

Not once.

But fear wasn’t rational.

And survival never waited for certainty.

’Safety first.’

Eli couldn’t risk being injured—couldn’t risk dying over secrets he didn’t even fully understand himself.

Not over ajudas relationships tangled in pain and rivalry.

No matter how tragic.

No matter how complicated.

So he stayed silent.

…Stayed alert.

…Stayed braced.

Then—

The car stopped.

Abrupt.

Violent.

Eli gasped as inertia flung him forward, the seatbelt snapping tight across his chest and jerking him back into his seat.

“—!”

His hands slapped the dashboard instinctively as the jolt rattled his bones.

The engine went dead.

No screeching tires.

No collision.

Just a hard stop—followed by heavy stillness.

Eli blinked quickly, heart slamming against his ribs.

’Is—this it?’

He lifted his head slowly, cautiously, and looked through the windshield.

…Green.

Trees.

Wide open space.

A curving path lined with benches and soft lamp posts glowing warmly.

Families strolling in pairs.

Joggers pacing past.

Kids laughing near a fenced playground ahead even though it was dark..

It felt normal.

Alive even.

And most importantly, it felt safe.

They were—

At a park.

Eli stared.

“…A… park? What are we doing at a park, Caelen?”

Slowly, he turned to Caelen.

Caelen sat motionless behind the wheel.

No blazing intensity anymore.

No dangerous sharpness.

Just distant.

Quiet.

Then Caelen reached out, switched off the engine completely, pulled the keys free, and unbuckled his seatbelt.

Eli watched the whole thing in stunned silence, the tension inside him unsure of where to go now.

Caelen opened his door.

“Come on,” he said simply. “Let’s go down.”

“Go down? Caelen, what are we—”

He stepped out and glanced back at Eli with that faint, familiar smirk—though it wasn’t teasing this time.

“Then I’ll answer whatever questions you have, sweetheart. Now don’t look so cautious, as if I’m ever going to kill you.”

Oh.

He noticed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep