The Author's POV

"Tell me why... you have a demon on your finger."

As soon as Douglas's words faded, the atmosphere instantly froze. The echo of his words chilled the very air, creating a palpable tension.

"What's going on?"

Feeling that something was gravely wrong, Waylan looked at Douglas.

Staring at the two for a while, I tapped the ring on my finger after letting out a long sigh.

'This isn't going to be easy.'

"Looks like I can no longer hide it. Come out, Angelica."

SHUU—

At my call, black steam rose from my hand, much to Waylan's surprise. A stunning woman materialized next to me.

Having just canceled her taxing transformation, Angelica's face was extremely pale, and she barely had any strength to defend herself.

"Need a hand?"

Seeing how weak she was, I offered to lend her a hand, but she swiftly refused it.

"——!"

The moment she appeared, Waylan, who was next to Douglas, finally realized what was going on.

He suddenly became wary.

"A demon…"

A threatening aura suddenly sprang out of his body, aiming towards the currently weakened Angelica.

However, just as the pressure was about to crash against Angelica, Douglas waved his hand. The pressure instantly disappeared.

"Stop."

"Douglas?!"

Waylan cried out in surprise, evidently confused by Douglas's actions. Raising his hand, Douglas calmly looked at Waylan.

"Wait."

Turning his head, Douglas scanned Angelica up and down. A frown emerged on his usually calm face.

Opening his mouth, he asked,

"Have the demons advanced so much that their stealth abilities have become nigh undetectable?"

"It's her skill,"

I replied in Angelica's stead.

"She has a special skill that allows her to turn into any object she wants. The downside, as you can see, is her current, weakened state, where for a while she has no demonic energy in her body. However, because of this skill, it becomes extremely easy for her to infiltrate most areas."

"Oh?"

Humming in thought, Douglas took a step forward, walking towards Angelica who fearlessly stared at him from where she stood.

She seemed unafraid and proud while she matched eyes with a seemingly overwhelming opponent. She looked dauntless.

Halting a few meters away from Angelica, Douglas continued to stare at her. She coldly looked back at him, not letting her gaze falter for a moment.

"..."

"..."

Their staredown continued for what felt like forever, till finally, turning his head to face me, Douglas pointed towards the seats.

"I think we still have a bit to talk about."

Slowly closing my eyes, I looked at Angelica before nodding my head and heading back to the seats.

"I understand."

***

At the same time.

[Lock, Leviathan building.]

Flip—! Flip—!

The sound of pages being flipped echoed inside of a room.

Sitting behind a large wooden desk, dimly lit by a small lamp, Kevin's eyes darted between each page of the novel. He carefully read each line twice to make sure he didn't miss a single detail.

Before long, his finger paused in front of a certain page.

Leaning forward to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, Kevin's face changed from one filled with seriousness to one filled with absolute shock.

"…N-no way."

book trembled as Kevin had

the demon, three translucent yellow rings appeared, revolving around

Bang—!

about to enter the demon's attack range, he stomped his foot on the ground and tried to force his body to a halt. However, it wasn't enough. His momentum

he had

disc appeared towards his left. What followed the first disc was

the air, ***** softly landed on the left ring before he propelled himself towards the right one, where he repeated

***** was already upon it. The demon's face finally changed, but it was too

powerful wave

"Huuup!"

making use of the [Keiki style], ***** opted to

his sword, he

the moment the Baron-ranked demon was about to block the attack, using the last ring, *****

"Puchi!"

from above, creating a misty rain

not

back. A look of complete

How can he still be alive? I-I watched

explosion, the mourning,

it possible? How could he

believe it. No, he didn't want to believe it. How could he? How could he suddenly accept the fact that his friend, who he thought to be

accept such

didn't understand who the person in

else could it be but

that he thought he had lost more than a year

Kevin tried to calm

"Haa...haa... Let's calm down."

attempts to calm down were in vain. It just wasn't possible for him to remain cool-headed. The news was too

be a recount of

this could be a possibility. Perhaps what he was seeing was what had happened to Ren in the past,

ranked demon was about to

"Haa…"

Kevin knew that it was impossible. He knew Ren's

for the previous Ren

"Ugh..."

then that Kevin's head started

groan, Kevin's

onto his head, Kevin supported his body by holding the top of

stinging sensation, the book

"Argh..."

head intensified

with his hand, it wasn't

"… What just happened?"

couple of times,

stared at the book with slight

book, Kevin's eyes opened widely. That was because the

mouth, a subtle green glow enveloped the bottom of Ren's

explosively shot towards the

"This…"

his chair as he absentmindedly stared at the

It really

his head with both hands, Kevin's mind was a mess. He couldn't make heads or tails of

that his best friend was alive,

did he fake his death? How did he even survive such a strong

and more questions

Kevin's eyes

that the answer lay somewhere

Flip—! Flip—!

pages of the book, Kevin quickly read through every part, without missing a single detail. Now that he knew that Ren was the person in the book, he wanted to know more about

"Hehe…"

face would change from time

oftentimes be taken aback,

his friend became. Though he was in the middle of

demons and was getting

"Hah?"

page. Frowning, Kevin leaned back slightly. The more he read, the

long, his face turned extremely

recounted the story, he tried

the whole conversation, the smile on the headmaster's face slowly started to fade as his brows

put a bounty on me. Because of the bounty, I was forced to leave the human domain. It is also the

ripples slightly.

Bang—!

"What?!"

pounded the

fists clenching tightly resounded in the

"Union!"

as he glared at the book. For them to do what they

sell out the one guy that

betray Ren like that when he had helped them, those bastards. Kevin's

"Haa...haaa..."

up a piece of paper beside him,

regarding the Union