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.'

instantly became alarmed when

This pattern...

was the same pattern that resulted in the creation of contractees. After thoroughly exposing the secrets and breaking their minds, demons used this exact scenario to convince

'Not good.'

changed and I remained in the same spot,

trying to distance others from you so that you don't get hurt again, right? It's a pitiful life, the one that you

with pity as he continued to pat Melissa on the back. Over time, her complexion worsened, and

'Shit.'

cursed inside of my mind

you

of Melissa's

like I overdid things a little bit. I'm not supposed to break you just yet. His majesty might get mad at me if

longer paying any attention

once he confirmed that there was no dust on his clothes, he turned to glance

about you being talentless. It's a pity that I'm tempted to

head suddenly turned and it was then that my eyes met with

your memories, I've come to find quite a nice gem over here. One that I am very

couple of steps toward me, the demon soon reached where I was standing and stopped right before

body, I was able to catch a glimpse of a strange twinkle in his eyes. While he analyzed my body with his eyes, I felt the back of my

you seem to be extremely strong for someone your age. Not

he looked, the more he seemed to be satisfied with

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

also be quite the talent. It's quite hard to choose between the three of you…so, how about we continue our little

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

'No!'

the hand slowly approaching hand, from the corner of my eyes I stared at the

faster as deep anxiety started to permeate my

'Not my memories!'

started to panic when I realized that the others

can't let

Anything but that!

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

and everything that happened to me made my skin crawl.

I was helpless at the

matter how hard I tried, I couldn't resist the demon's hand as it soon reached out for my head and grasped it

"Sleep tight."

dark after

***

'Is it happening again?'

Kevin walked past a paved driveway toward an area surrounded by iron gates and

his body as it slowly headed toward

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

was going on at the moment. He

'Bastard.'

as he remembered Melissa's state

and broken state...Kevin felt his emotions run wild. He called it