The Author's POV

"Mhm."

Hearing her mother's words, Amanda nodded her head.

Staring at Ren who was lying down on the bed, Amanda turned her head to look at Angelica. A complicated look flashed across her face.

She still couldn't quite come to terms with the fact that the cat that had been following Ren all the time was in fact the same demon that had cursed her mother, but she felt that there was more to the story than it was let out.

"Are you sure about this Natasha?"

Maylin asked while turning to look at Natasha. The icicles in the air trembled slightly.

"This is the same demon that stopped you from seeing your daughter for fifteen years. Are you sure that you want to let her go just like that?"

With her eyes locked on her daughter, Natasha sighed.

"What other choice do I have. Just take a look at my daughter..."

Waving her hand, all of the icicles that were aiming at Angelica vanished out of thin air.

"...Okay."

Giving a cold glance to Angelica, Maylin added.

"Just because I'm not killing you right now doesn't mean that I won't be doing it later. I'm only doing this for her sake."

"..."

Under Maylin's pressure, Angelica kept her cool.

She wasn't a count-ranked demon for nothing. Despite the fact that she had been subjected to the power of one of the strongest people in the human domain, she was able to remain unfazed.

"Let her be Maylin."

Natasha's voice rang throughout the room as she stepped in front of Maylin. Then, turning her attention towards Angelica, she took a deep breath.

Memories of her past surfaced inside of her mind.

She could still remember getting chased and threatened by her, and it honestly frightened her. But, for the sake of looking strong for her daughter, she remained composed.

"...C.can you explain the situation?"

There was a faint tremble in her voice as she asked Angelica her question, but following that, her words became more concise and the tremble vanished.

Turning her head, she looked at Ren.

"What happened for him to turn this way?"

There was an awkward silence following her words.

"You don't have to hide anything. I can tell that it is somehow connected with my awakening."

A complicated look appeared on Angelica's face as she heard her words. It wasn't long before she eventually opened her mouth.

"You're correct."

Lowering her head, Angelica lightly glanced in Ren's direction.

"The reason why he's in that state is indeed due to the fruit that he gave you."

"I see."

Rather than being shocked, a look of understanding appeared on Natasha's face. She then turned to look at Kevin.

"If I don't remember wrongly, you previously said that if something happens to her, the boy over here will die, correct?"

"...Yes."

Kevin nodded his head as his brows furrowed.

Natasha pursed her lips before turning

of the situation. I'm

"Yeah..."

from the

enough evidence to believe that Ren and

the contract, there was most likely a clause

of the room, Natasha plucked her lips outwardly. She then crossed her arms

I ate the fruit and the curse broke, 'she', the demoness, suffered from the backlash of the curse and as a result broke the boy broke the contract with

and staring at his sickly figure, Natasha

his soul is in the state that

to the analysis from Maylin and Natasha, Angelica's eyes

could even explain the situation, the two of

queen while the other was the wife

their jobs because of luck. They

hand over Ren's forehead, Natasha

we can already

halted mid-sentence as she glimpsed in Angelica's

of the tournament we can exclude rank [I] and [II] contracts, leaving me with no choice but to believe that

this point,

would mean that he would be ranked

more, Natasha's head snapped in Ren's direction. This time her face had a little

she suddenly realized something. And that was that the only possible way for Ren to have survived

She was already shocked by the fact that her daughter had reached rank, but rank? What kind of monster was

kind of thought became even more prominent from the fact that she knew that he was around the same age as her own

mouth hung open as she turned her head to look at Maylin, hoping that perhaps her analysis was wrong, but instead, Maylin's next words caused the shock inside of her body to

you thought, he indeed rank

How is that possible? Didn't he get

head

I say this...he

...Why would

a smile,

said that he was

Amanda who had been listening throughout their whole time, powerlessly sat back down on her

that happened was

she felt many different

did. After all, he did just try to

time,

into words, but she really hated the way Ren did things. She hated the way that he just did things without caring about himself or what the

way he did, and it was exactly because she understood this

situation from the start, Amanda would've

never taken

wasn't exactly sure, she could tell that Ren most likely didn't know about the fact that the demon he had contracted

contracted with was in fact the same demon that had contracted with Elijah, the elective representative back at the

so, how he

had not targeted her again, but it was only

eyes, Amanda bit

clear to her that Ren still did

not discourage her. This was only natural. Especially since they hadn't known each other long enough to develop a full sense of

"Oy!"

of her thoughts

direction of where her mother was, she saw her

"M...mom!"

as she stood up from her

that you're awake.

"Eh?"

Natasha

"Ouch!"

***

having my forehead flicked, my eyes

thing I saw was a familiar-looking face a couple of inches away from mine. Caught off guard by the sudden

me. She may have looked like Amanda at a first glance,

"Looks like you're fine."

that I was able to see the current situation in the room, and when I