The Author's POV

Sixty to seventy years.

That much time has elapsed since my departure from Immorra.

It seemed like a lot of time, and in all honesty, it was.

At this time, the average lifespan of a human was 200–300 years.

Sixty to seventy years were approximately 1/3 of a human's lifespan. Obviously, that only applied to those who had mana within them. If they had no mana, then their life span would only equate to at most the early hundreds.

There were ways to extend one's life if one had no mana, but those strategies were sometimes far too expensive because they called for the acquisition of incredibly expensive and potent medical materials and potions.

In any case, even if it seemed like a lot of time, this wasn't a huge issue for an orc. Compared to humans, they lived much longer lives. For them, seventy years wasn't anything noteworthy.

Of course, that wasn't what I was worried about. The problem was the situation surrounding him.

'I don't believe Silug's strength has increased much because Immorra doesn't have a high aura density and there is still a conflict going on. He is most likely at least on the same level as me.'

Back then, the only reason Silug was able to break through to rank was because of the medical ingredients I had given him.

That was in the past, however.

With the state Immorra was in, I feared that his strength might've stagnated. Resources were that scarce.

'I shouldn't have held this off for as long as I did.'

This made me realize just how negligent I had been in the past.

…The situation was probably dire for the orcs at this moment.

Dire enough to not make me want to help them.

It sounded really troublesome, and if not for the fact that Angelica's life was on the line it Silug died, I would've already discarded the idea of saving him.

"How annoying."

I murmured to myself as my vision became slightly foggy.

My feet soon came to a halt.

Before I knew it, I was in front of my house door.

"Hm?"

Feeling something trickle down my nose, I quickly wiped it away with my hand. I didn't need to look to understand it was blood.

"Shit, not again."

I was forced to lean my hand against the side of the door as a wave of dizziness hit me. The world around me started to spin and I started to choke on the air.

"Khuak."

My body shook to the sides as my eyesight zoomed and unzoomed. My hold on the door handle was all that was preventing me from falling. The experience I was having reminded me of being stranded aboard a tiny wooden boat in the middle of the ocean with waves twice the side of me.

My stomach churned.

My breathing was labored, and it took a total of five minutes for the symptoms to subside. Even then, I didn't feel so good.

"Haaa…haa…"

Was it because I was overworking my body to the extreme or because the other me was slowly taking over, I wasn't sure, but…

"It's getting worse."

The frequency and duration of them were increasing, if there was anything I observed.

A thought occurred to me.

'I hope Melissa is done checking over my conditions.'

When the symptoms first appeared, I visited numerous medical professionals. None of them, though, appeared knowledgeable enough to understand what was happening inside of me right then.

This was why things had gotten as bad as they did.

Melissa was my sole ray of hope at the time. I had thrown my pride to the wind and sought her for assistance.

Surprisingly, she came, took a sample of my blood, and didn't seem to be against the concept of helping me as I thought she would have been. All I had to do was wait for the results to come back.

That being said, it was taking longer than I had anticipated. Not that I was one to complain.

a bit troublesome was the fact

Ding— Dong—

my house once

rushed footsteps echoed shortly after, and coming to greet

Clank—

"Welcome back, Ren!"

"Yeah."

and took off my shoes. After that,

room, they all looked at me with strange

"What?"

way they were looking at

kind of

'Ah, right.'

to realize why they were

I sat

to. Circumstances made me have to act that

understand anyways. Fortunately, none of the people present seemed keen in asking for more as they greeted me and went back

"Want one?"

a chip once I sat down

up on the offer and ate the chip. Meanwhile, I rubbed Nola in

if I

"Mhm! Stop it."

Nola stood

"No!"

"Uh?"

left

was she reacting

Now her hair is all messed

confused me. It

"All done."

a small mirror

when she saw her own

"Happy?"

"Happy."

her head before sitting back down on the sofa. This time, she chose to sit on the other side,

to blame

and sat

"I..."

I supposed

"Here look."

so close to me that it

eyes opened up a bit as I looked around me and whispered near

a bit too

"So?"

"Everyone is looking…"

to

"And?"

"Ugh."

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly. Eventually, I let

the course of the last two years. You'd think Amanda would have kept her distance from me throughout that period. I would have completely understood if she buried her affections for me after what she saw,

more pressure on my arm,

watch if they are

"Haa…"

could only sigh

in the end, this

it was because I needed to come to terms with Smallsnake's death or because she stuck with me after finding out the

our relationship

discovered that aside from Amanda acting more pampered than usual, our relationship hadn't actually changed all that

our own things, her with the guild, and me with

was all right. We were moving at our own

no need to

"Here, have a look."

her phone

"Oh, right."

phone from her hand, I looked at the

at the age of 24. Monster or a spy from the

a shocking return. From

phone back

are you showing

look at the

out while leaning her

"Oh."

that all the photos used in the articles were that