The Author's POV

"What a pitiful child."

My vision returned to what it was prior to the visions after the demon took his hand from Melissa's head.

I didn't know exactly how long had passed, but during the time where I was looking through Melissa's memories, it felt as if years had passed by...of course, I knew that it was only my imagination.

Thud—!

During the time that my vision returned, Melissa fell to the ground on both knees. Her complexion looked rather pale as what seemed to be tears flowed down the sides of her eyes.

I couldn't blame her.

Relieving what she was desperately trying to hide and forget, and knowing that the closest people she knew were also watching her deepest secrets...

'Shit.'

I could tell exactly what she was feeling.

Lowering his body, the demon stood at eye level with her.

Patting her head, he gently spoke to her.

"Your life is truly hard. You wanted to make your father proud throughout your entire childhood, but no matter what you did, he never satisfied you."

"Even when you excelled in a different field, he ignored you and only cared about your achievements in the combat field...yet, you had no talent for it, but you knew this..."

"Of course, you knew this. You're a smart child after all, am I right?"

Melissa's body trembled as the demon's gentle words echoed throughout. Slowly, she started to nod her head.

'Don't respond to him!'

I shouted inside of my head as I tried to move, and open my mouth, but it all proved to be fruitless.

I couldn't activate any of my skills, nor feel my mana.

I was desperate.

Melissa may not be aware at the moment, but the demon was definitely using some sort of skill at the moment. A skill that would severely weaken her mind the more she listened to him or spoke to him.

"Even though you trained for twelve hours every day, to the point of exhaustion, as a way to finally show your father the results of your achievements, he completely disregarded your achievements and treated you like trash...all because you couldn't take the first spot."

Extending his hand, the demon patted Melissa on the back.

"When your father dismissed you after you placed second, that was the turning point of your life, wasn't it? You stopped caring about him, or about anyone else's opinion, right? You felt free when you stopped caring, right? ...and why do you treat everyone so harshly? Is it because you don't trust anyone but yourself?"

With each question that the demon asked, the paler Melissa's complexion became, and it wasn't long before her eyes started to lose some clarity.

'Oh no.'

alarmed when I

This pattern...

the creation of contractees. After thoroughly exposing the secrets and breaking

'Not good.'

remained in the same spot, shouting inside of my mind as I tried

look like someone prideful at a first glance, but in a way, that's just yourself trying to distance others from you so that

time, her complexion worsened, and it wasn't long before her eyes became hollow and

'Shit.'

my mind when I

you

took notice of Melissa's condition and the

like I overdid things a little bit. I'm not supposed to break

attention to

that there was no dust on his clothes, he turned

exactly wrong about you being talentless. It's a pity that

was then that my eyes

through your memories, I've come to find quite a nice gem

me, the demon soon reached where I was standing and stopped right

I was able to catch a glimpse of a strange twinkle in his eyes. While he analyzed

seem to be extremely strong for someone your age. Not bad, not

more he

turned his head and his eyes lingered on Liam's and Kevin's

quite hard to choose between

again face my direction, the smile on his face became even more sinister and his hand

'No!'

the enlargening shadow cast by the hand slowly approaching hand, from the corner of my eyes I stared at the others who

started to beat faster as

'Not my memories!'

I realized that the others would also see my

can't let that

Anything but that!

the things I had been trying to hide being revealed to them terrified me

in the past and everything that happened to me made my skin crawl. Especially after they would find out the truth about my life at the Lock,

I was helpless

how hard I tried, I couldn't resist the demon's hand

"Sleep tight."

when dark after

***

'Is it happening again?'

Kevin walked past a paved driveway toward an area surrounded by

he could not control his body as it

'...Are these Ren's memories?'

Ren's head, Kevin could make out what was going on at the moment. He felt a burning rage rush from deep

'Bastard.'

remembered Melissa's

called it a game, but this felt like no game to Kevin at