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."

holding onto the page of the book trembled as

the demon, three translucent yellow rings

Bang—!

the ground and tried to force his body

he had

forward, a disc appeared towards his left. What followed the first disc was a second that stopped

softly landed on the left ring before he propelled himself

***** was already upon it. The demon's

low cry, a powerful wave of mana

"Huuup!"

making use of the [Keiki style],

sword, he swung

was no regular swing, however, as the moment the Baron-ranked demon was about to block the attack, using the last ring, ***** used the gravitational effect and changed the course

"Puchi!"

creating a

not possible. I-…impossible.

moved back. A look of complete denial appeared on his

possible. How can he still

explosion, the

was it possible? How could he still

he suddenly accept the fact that his friend,

accept such a

stupid if he didn't understand who the person in the book

else could it

friend that he thought he had lost more than a year

trembling lips, Kevin tried

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

were in vain. It just wasn't possible for him to

be a recount of

a possibility. Perhaps what he was seeing

ranked demon was about

"Haa…"

that it was impossible. He knew Ren's

knew that it was impossible for the previous Ren to kill a

"Ugh..."

that Kevin's head started to sting out

out a groan, Kevin's knees buckled

his body by holding the top of

the

"Argh..."

pain in his head intensified as

his hand, it wasn't

"… What just happened?"

a couple of times, Kevin's eyes

at the

That was because the black mist covering the name

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

explosively shot towards the demon, like a sharp

"This…"

on his chair as he absentmindedly stared

shoes… It really

his head with both hands, Kevin's mind was a mess.

best friend was alive,

to him, and why did he fake his

and more questions

while, Kevin's eyes landed on

that the answer lay somewhere

Flip—! Flip—!

without missing a single detail. Now that he knew that Ren was the person in the book, he

"Hehe…"

pages, Kevin's face

would sometimes frown, oftentimes be taken aback, and

more he read, the less his worries for his friend became. Though he was in the middle of a war, he seemed to be fine. In fact, he seemed to be

had killed multiple Baron-ranked demons and

"Hah?"

then his hand paused on a certain page. Frowning, Kevin leaned back slightly. The more he read, the bigger

face turned extremely

Ren recounted the story, he tried his best to suppress his uneven

whole conversation, the smile on the headmaster's face

of the bounty, I was forced to leave the human domain. It is also

slightly. For a while, he didn't

Bang—!

"What?!"

pounded the table

his fists clenching tightly

"Union!"

hoarse as he glared at the book. For them to do what they did to Ren... The veins on Kevin's forehead

could you sell out the one

Ren like that when he had helped them, those bastards.

"Haa...haaa..."

up a piece of paper beside him, Kevin

Ren's plans regarding the Union did