88: key

After a few minutes, Serena had completely regained her composure. However, having finally avenged herself, her face no longer bore its usual icy expression, and she no longer gave off the feeling of being cold and distant.

Of course, this was only true when it came to Locke.

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Serena wiped the tears from her face, then lowered her head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Locke, I'm sorry for getting your clothes dirty."

"It's fine. Clothes can be washed if they get dirty."

Locke looked at her dotingly, even subconsciously pinching her cheek. "You look much brighter now than you did before."

He truly felt this way.

It was as if, in this instant, Serena had suddenly cast off the shackles she had worn for so many years.

The expression on her face was no longer cold and sharp; instead, it gave the impression of someone who was cold on the outside but extremely gentle on the inside.

"Do you still remember what I promised you earlier?"

Serena looked up at Locke, her eyes darting away, not out of fear, but out of shyness.

"You mean..." Locke was slightly stunned for a moment, almost failing to react.

"Oh, it's just..."

Serena didn't dare to look into Locke's eyes anymore; she turned her face away and finished her sentence at lightning speed. "What I promised you in the room last time."

"Now? Do you want to do it here?"

Reminded by her, Locke naturally remembered everything. He knew exactly what Serena was talking about—the time they shared a bed, and she had stopped him when he wanted to take things further.

At the time, Serena had said that once she had avenged herself, she would give herself to him completely.

Now that Victor was dead, it could indeed be considered avenged, but Locke felt the timing was a bit too delicate.

Primarily because he was very confident in his own stamina, and once they started, he was afraid it wouldn't end in a short time.

"Ah!" Hearing his words, Serena couldn't help but gasp in surprise, then asked in an extremely faint voice, "Locke, do... do you want to do it here? Can't we wait until we go back to the room?"

It was clear she was a bit coy.

"Time is tight; there's no time to go back to the room. If you want to do it, let's just hurry up here."

Locke could clearly notice that Serena's originally pale face was now flushed with color, especially her slender, jade-like neck, which had turned completely pink.

It looked so pink and tender that it made one want to explore it.

"Haa... okay..." Although Serena was shy, she gritted her teeth and agreed.

After all, Locke had already said as much, and there was no one else in the conference room—just the two of them. In a way, it wasn't much different from being in a room.

Seeing this, Locke immediately laughed and gently poked her forehead. "I'm just teasing you. Such a precious first time, how could it happen in a place like this? Let's wait. After I've dealt with Marcus, we'll talk about it."

"Locke, you're awful! You only know how to tease me."

Serena lightly pounded Locke's chest, looking shy and coy, wishing she could find a hole to hide in immediately.

"That's your fault." Locke pinched Serena's nose. "Who told you to look so easy to bully?"

"You..." Serena put her hands on her hips, raised her hand, and swiped at Locke, but in the end, it landed lightly on his waist, where she gave it a hard pinch. Finally, the corners of her mouth curved slightly, and she leaned into his ear, whispering affectionately, "It's a deal then; you're not allowed to run away when the time comes."

"Ahem, don't worry. With you here, how could I possibly run away?"

The two of them messed around in the conference room for a while, then pushed the door open and walked out together.

Emilia, who was waiting at the door, suspiciously checked Serena and Locke's attire. After ensuring from the details that they hadn't "snacked" inside, she finally relaxed.

"Lord Locke, do we need to go deal with Marcus now?"

Locke nodded, his expression calm. "Do you know where his hibernation chamber is?"

"I know that, but I don't have the key to his hibernation chamber, so even if we go down, we might not be able to open the door."

"Can't we just blow it open?"

"No." Emilia shook her head and explained earnestly, "The doors to the three Elder chambers are specially constructed. If we use force to destroy them, the chambers will likely collapse, and it will also trigger an emergency safety mechanism that will wake Marcus up."

"We won't be able to get in, and Marcus will have woken up. It might end up like you said with Victor, allowing Marcus to escape."

"So that means we can only get in with the key."

Locke frowned slightly. He hadn't thought of that just now. Mainly because when they went to Victor's chamber, they had the key Serena gave them, so he had subconsciously overlooked this point when it came to Marcus.

"Yes, I remember Marcus's key is kept by Kraven."

"On Kraven?" Locke recalled that after he killed Kraven, he hadn't found anything similar to the key Serena had given him on his person.

Not only that, but he hadn't found the key in Kraven's room either, which made him somewhat suspicious. "Are you sure it's on Kraven, and not in the hands of the few people I just killed? I didn't see a key on Kraven's corpse, and I searched his room, but I didn't find the key."

"I'm very sure it's Kraven." Emilia nodded and then thought for a moment. Honestly, Kraven's unusual behavior left her feeling puzzled as well. "Marcus is a very scheming guy and only trusts Kraven. It stands to reason that something as valuable as the key would definitely be kept on Kraven's person. How could it be missing?"

Serena, standing to the side, couldn't get a word in. But Erica, hearing their discussion, seemed to think of something and immediately rushed in front of Locke. "Is that key a diamond-shaped object with patterns carved on it, looking like a stone?"

"Yes, that's right." Locke had originally thought they were at a dead end and would have to find another way to enter the chamber, but it seemed Erica knew something.

"Erica, do you know where Kraven hid it?"

"Hmm, let me think. I saw him hide this thing in a fairly secret room a few days ago."

"Let's go. Take me there." Locke didn't want to delay for even a second and urged her hurriedly.

Erica nodded. "Then follow me."