The Author's POV

Khhhhh—!

The static sound of the radio sounded.

"...I guess he hung up."

A trace of pity flashed across my eyes as I put the radio transmitter away.

Standing up and putting my coat on, I nudged the others to follow me.

"Alright, let's go."

Now that I had taken care of the annoying flies swarming on my back, I could now go to my destination without too many worries.

"Ren, how long do we have left?"

Ryan asked from behind.

"We're almost there."

Our current destination was Henolur, the dwarven capital.

After travelling for the past four months, we had almost arrived at the location.

"Precise time?"

"About one more week of travel, I would say."

Originally we were supposed to take a lot less time to arrive; however, to slow down Xavier and the other's pursuit, I decided to take a slight detour and travelled near the elven border.

Fortunately, during our fight right now the elves didn't get involved, but in all likelihood, they were already aware of our presence.

"Let's go before we run into trouble."

"Are you talking about the elves?"

Smallsnake arrived by my side and followed along.

"That's right."

Playing with the dimensional spaces that he had collected from the people we had just killed, Smallsnake handed them to me.

"...Do you think they'd attack us? I heard that they don't attack humans."

"Sort of, but you can never be too safe."

With humanity's advancement these past few decades, all three races started viewing humans in a more 'favourable' light.

That being said, this didn't mean that they still fully trusted us.

This was why a conference was going to be held soon.

It was made with the purpose of talking about the potential third cataclysm that was soon going to hit the earth and the possibility of allowing humanity to join the alliance.

Well, that was well into the future.

Right now, my goal was to enter the dwarven domain and increase my strength by leaps and bounds.

"Let's hurry for now. I don't want to meet any trouble along our way."

***

A few kilometres away from where Ren and the others were, Gazing at them from a distance, were two obscured figures.

With each breath the two figures took, the mana in the air would follow their breathing rhythm. Almost as though they were in complete synch with the mana in the air.

"Should we attack?"

Looking right, one of the figures asked as a melodious voice rang out.

Judging from their subservient tone, it was evident that the figure they talked to was higher ranked.

"...no"

The other figure shook its head.

"What about the demon?"

The higher-ranked figure pointed towards the distance, revealing a delicate white hand devoid of imperfection.

"Did you sense the mana of the people they were fighting?"

"Mhm, it was tainted with demonic energy."

"Right, for that female demon to work with humans and kill multiple contracted individuals, we can assume that she is no longer on the same side as the demons."

Although most demons worked with each other, in the end, what they cared for most was their self-interest.

Just because they were from the same race didn't mean that they had to help them.

This was a natural occurrence that occurred in all races.

"...That's true. However, I've also noticed that the demon follows that human with long hair. Strange."

The whole time they observed the fight in the distance, they noticed that everything revolved around a specific human with long black hair and blue eyes.

one being targeted, to how the demon seemed to be following

indeed strange; let's

words faded, the two figures

***

on her desk and completed her

boring route that she had grown accustomed to over the last year or so in her new position in

Hunter guild, Board member -

the sunlight coming from the window

—Knock! —Knock!

A knocking sound sounded.

"Come in."

head, Amanda opened her mouth, and the

"You called for me?"

light brown hair and a pair

It was Melissa.

what did you call

around the neatly organized office. It was

she crossed her legs and propped her elbow

"..."

stack of papers down, Amanda wordlessly stared at

continued for a couple of seconds until Melissa could no longer

to admire my beauty? Sorry, but I'm not

is the

Melissa's comments, Amanda finally

It's going well; why? Has something come

"No."

head, prompting Melissa's brows to

call me? Don't tell me you asked me to come here to find out about how the project

her cheek on

know phones exist,

"It's not that."

her hand, a small barrier appeared,

"What are you doing?"

barrier that

much of a reaction. She

I was joking about the previous comments about you being into

"Here."

small tablet resting on her desk,

mid-air, the video soon

began playing, multiple different

scenarios, there was a common thing: a middle-aged man playing with a

last video, where the

as she took her eyes away from the video

for a partner

"No, look carefully."

pointed towards the middle-aged man playing with the girl in the

"That's Ren."

"..."

a brief moment, silence

mouth multiple times,

by

until her face suddenly

work you've been doing finally fried your brain into

"It has not."

Amanda calmly replied.

Melissa snorted in response.

me that Ren has now

"I have proof."

"Proof?"

stopped and

a small key, Amanda inserted the

After taking out a couple of files,

"Here."

"What's this?"

look on her face, Melissa slowly read through

asked after a while, alternating her gaze between the video and

of the people in the

"Mhm, they're Ren's parents."

of her head, Melissa tapped on the names of the

names, and the fact that his father looks similar to him...but this isn't nearly enough to prove that he is

this

slid another paper

paper was a detailed profile of the

disappeared ten years ago. This was the first time in ten years that

"..."

paper, Melissa carefully

Amanda was unable to read her expression. Instead, she

a couple of minutes had passed that Melissa finally

sure are

"Very sure."

Amanda replied.

kind of investigation was a piece of cake

on Ren's parents due to having done a background check on them prior to when they first met and when Ren had asked to protect

a better idea of who the people they were

Nola's recent behaviour had given Amanda another reason to believe

"I see..."

underneath her

straight and tapping her finger on the armrest

what you said is true; why did you tell me? Aren't