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."

page of the book trembled

demon, three translucent yellow rings appeared, revolving around his

Bang—!

ground and tried to force his body to a halt. However,

had

What followed the first disc was a second that stopped

landed on the left ring before he propelled himself towards the right one,

already upon it. The demon's face finally changed,

a low cry, a powerful wave of mana

"Huuup!"

the [Keiki style],

sword, he

the attack, using the last ring, ***** used the gravitational effect and changed the course of the sword, once again catching the demon

"Puchi!"

down from above, creating

not possible. I-…impossible.

moved back. A look of complete

How can he still be alive? I-I watched

terrifying explosion, the

How

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

he accept

understand

could it be but

that he thought he had lost more than a year

his trembling lips, Kevin tried to calm himself

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

in vain. It just wasn't possible

be a recount of the

Perhaps what he was seeing was what had happened to Ren in

ranked demon was

"Haa…"

that it was impossible. He

it was impossible for the previous Ren to kill

"Ugh..."

Kevin's head started to

a groan,

supported his body by holding

the book

"Argh..."

in his head

it wasn't long before the glow

"… What just happened?"

couple of times, Kevin's eyes flashed

up, Kevin stared at

Kevin's eyes opened widely. That was because the black mist covering the name

of his mouth, a subtle green glow enveloped the bottom of

explosively shot towards the

"This…"

his chair as he absentmindedly stared

shoes… It

a mess. He couldn't make

out that his best friend was alive, there was something else that Kevin was curious

happened to him, and why did he fake his death? How did he even survive

and more questions flooded Kevin's

a while, Kevin's eyes landed

that the

Flip—! Flip—!

again flipping through the pages of the book, Kevin quickly read through every part, without missing a single detail. Now that he knew that Ren was the person

"Hehe…"

through the pages, Kevin's face would change from time

oftentimes be

Though he was in the middle of a war, he seemed

Baron-ranked demons and was getting along with

"Hah?"

a certain page. Frowning, Kevin leaned back

his face turned extremely

he tried his best to suppress his

headmaster's face slowly started to fade

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

eyes ripples slightly.

Bang—!

"What?!"

the

fists clenching tightly resounded in the

"Union!"

the book. For them to do what they did to Ren... The veins on Kevin's

out the one guy that saved your

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

"Haa...haaa..."

him, Kevin tried his best to

he read about Ren's plans regarding the Union did Kevin