Damien quickly recovered from his surprise and moved forward to grab the suspicious cloaked figure who still seemed stunned.
The cloaked person took even more time to process their shock and understand what just happened since they never expected to headbutt against another person.
Damien grabbed their hands first since he didn't want that person to attack him but was surprised to find out that the wrists he was holding were willowy, unlike a man's wrist he was expecting.
Damien guessed that this was a woman immediately and wondered who this woman was to sneak through the secret passage at night. He already guessed that it was a woman earlier based on the shout of surprise he heard before the moment he headbutted against her.
He felt that this must either be a thief or an assassin who had sneaked into the royal palace just like him though he had no idea how she got information about this secret passage.
He quickly twisted her body around while grabbing her wrists and pushed her body towards him in order to snap her neck so as to hide the fact that he was here. He didn't want to risk getting exposed.
His hand covered her mouth to muffle her voice in case she was about to shout.
"Ummmm!!!!" The woman was surprised by the turn of events and was even unable to express her protest and couldn't understand what Damien was trying to do.
Since the secret passage was narrow, Damien's back was resting against the wall while the woman before him had barely any space even to flail her legs.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})She frantically grabbed his arms, noticing that he was about to do something that she surely wasn't going to like.
Damien ignored her attempts to speak and was about to snap her neck when he noticed that her grip on his arms was too strong!
He instantly activated his Anti-God Arts and was able to stop her from escaping from his hold. But she seemed to apply even more strength, and Damien could even hear strained grunts from her, trying her best to escape out of his iron hold.
However, both were surprised at each other's strength after realizing that they were at an impasse.
Damien was not able to restrain her hands completely to snap her neck, while the woman was not able to push away Damien's hands completely.
She couldn't even use her legs since Damien locked hers with his legs. If one saw them, they would only smile knowingly, thinking that these two were having the time of their lives though wondering why they were doing it in such a shoddy place.
The woman's face hidden underneath her hood was becoming crimson with embarrassment, shame, and anger at being manhandled by this guard behind her.
No one ever before had ever dared to touch her, let alone a measly guard. She couldn't understand where this guard popped out from or how he found out about the secret passage.
In fact, she was just as confused as Damien, not knowing why the other party was here at this time or how they knew about this secret passage.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Damien wasn't even noticing how soft and supple the woman's body was since, in his mind, he was busy thinking of different alternatives to get rid of this suspicious woman.
The last thing he wanted was to get caught because of her. Only the worst punishment would await him for breaking into the royal palace.
He was confident of escaping because of Haunter's flight speed and its powerful cultivation. Even if Heaven Ethereal Realm practitioners began to chase him, he knew Haunter could outlast them in terms of energy reserves during flight since humans inherently weren't born to fly, and thus their consumption of ethereal energy to fly wasn't effective.
Both were getting tense as the situation didn't seem to go anywhere, and Damien didn't dare to talk as he had no idea if anyone else might hear him or if there was someone else in the narrow passage as well.
Damien felt that the woman before was at least at the High Levels of Earth Ethereal Realm as he realized that he wouldn't be able to resist her attempts for long.
Seeing that she was at a deadlock with the brash and shameless guard behind her, she let go of his arms to Damien's surprise and touched the walls of the narrow passage in a sudden motion.
Before Damien could think why she was touching the walls, he got his answer when the walls seemed to move magically, and some hands formed out of it, moving towards Damien's limbs, locking him towards the walls.
"What the hell…" Damien was taken aback as he didn't expect such a move and wondered if she was an expert at manipulating earthen elements to such a degree.
However, his astonishment was one thing, and his uneasiness was another thing since he was now trapped!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})His limbs were being strapped to the walls one by one, but when his hand, which was holding the woman's face, was about to be pulled by the earthen hands, he desperately tried to grab anything to get his grip on to resist the earthen hands from completely immobilizing him.
But unfortunately, he was only able to grab her hood within such a short interval, thus pulling back her hood along with his hand, which got strapped to the wall.
"Ahhh!"
Just as she thought she got free, she shrieked in surprise when the hood of her cloak got pulled backward, and her long and silky, thick auburn hair came undone while her back struck against the wall.
Even though the narrow passage only had night lamps, it was enough for Damien's eyes to momentarily freeze when he saw the face of a young girl with a beauty that was like a light in such a dimly lit passage.
Her straight auburn hair was so lush and lovely it seemed as if fairies painted them; her big and round honey-colored eyes were glittering like a pair of golden pearls; her skin was as smooth and white as a polished lilac marble; her pink lips seemed as soft as butter and shiny as honey, making people's eyes melt from such a beautiful sight.
Damien was not expecting the one hiding behind the cloak so suspiciously was a young girl whose beauty was as gorgeous as the hues of heaven.
"Princess Yurio…" Damien unconsciously mumbled as that was the only conjecture he could arrive at, especially after hearing the rumors.
Her pearl-like eyes were watery after undergoing the biggest humiliation in her life...at least in her perspective.
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the trapped guard before her with a sour gaze, "Hmph, feeling scared after knowing that it's me? Once I tell my papa how a little guard offended me by touching all over my body, you would be done for."
Damien was flabbergasted at this sudden turn of events, especially after hearing her words, making him seem like a molester who tried to bully a young and pure girl.
Not only that, but the fact that he was about to kill the person he was trying to find and one of the most influential figures in this kingdom made him feel like he dodged a deadly bullet.
How in the world could he have expected that the suspiciously dressed figure in the secret passage would be the precious daughter of the king himself?
Why would someone like her go about sneaking around like a thief?
But Damien threw all those questions to the back of his mind and said in a calm tone, "Princess, you misunderstand. I am not who you think I am, so let me free, and we can talk."
Yuria shook her head side to side in slow motion with a peevish expression, "No, no, no. I am not going to let a pervert like you get scot-free after taking advantage of me. You should have thought of this before you tried to grope me, hmph."
"Grope?? Pervert? What the…" Damien was left speechless at her nonsense claims. All he did was grab her wrists and cover her mouth. Other than that, he never touched her anywhere else.
Besides, in his perspective, he had to choose between the possibility of having his whereabouts exposed or nip the threat in the bud.
Damien wondered how straight-faced this girl could be to list out such false accusations and said while the veins in his temple twitched, "Look, princess, you are mistaken. How about we both settle down and talk in a civilized manner? Aren't you a princess first and foremost? If you really want to report me, then I will tell everyone how you were sneaking around in this secret passage for god knows what reason. So, you still want to report me?" Damien asked with a smirk though it was hidden because of his scarf.
