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.

was the one being targeted, to how the demon seemed to

indeed strange; let's observe a little

words faded, the two figures

***

Amanda sat on her desk

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

Board member

coming

—Knock! —Knock!

A knocking sound sounded.

"Come in."

her

"You called for me?"

slim girl with long light brown hair

It was Melissa.

what did you call

looked around the neatly

in front of Amanda, she crossed her legs and propped her elbow on the sidearm of

"..."

the stack of papers down, Amanda wordlessly

continued for a couple of seconds until Melissa could no longer take it and mouthed in

called me here to admire my beauty? Sorry, but I'm

is the project

Melissa's comments, Amanda finally opened her

project? It's going well; why? Has something come up

"No."

her head, prompting Melissa's brows to

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

grumbled as she rested her cheek on her right

know phones exist,

"It's not that."

her hand, a small barrier appeared, enveloping

"What are you doing?"

looked at the barrier that

She

was joking about the previous comments about you

"Here."

tablet resting on her

onto the image mid-air, the video soon began

playing, multiple different

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

last video, where the middle-aged

in Melissa's voice as she took her eyes away from the video and looked

perhaps looking for a partner to look at

"No, look carefully."

the middle-aged man playing with the girl

"That's Ren."

"..."

a brief moment,

her mouth multiple times, Melissa didn't know what

by Amanda's sudden

was until her face

completely lost it? Has all the work you've been

"It has not."

Amanda calmly replied.

Melissa snorted in response.

has now become some weird middle-aged man

"I have proof."

"Proof?"

and

a small key, Amanda

slid the drawer back. After taking out a couple of

"Here."

"What's this?"

confused look on her face, Melissa slowly read through

asked after a while, alternating her gaze between the video

profiles of

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

of her head, Melissa tapped on the names of

figured from their names, and the fact that his father looks similar to him...but this isn't nearly

at this

another paper in

was a detailed profile of the middle-aged

to our investigation, that man in the video has long disappeared ten years ago. This was the first time in ten

"..."

carefully looked through it

to her, Amanda was unable to read her expression. Instead, she seemed to be lost in her own

after a couple of minutes had passed that Melissa finally

are you

"Very sure."

Amanda replied.

this kind of investigation was a piece of

having done a background check on them prior to when they first met and when Ren had asked to

a better idea of

behaviour had given Amanda another reason to believe that the man in the video was Ren in

"I see..."

muttered underneath

straight and tapping her finger on the armrest of

did you tell me? Aren't