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.

that was a bit troublesome was the fact that

Ding— Dong—

rang the doorbell to my house once I managed to

coming to greet me

Clank—

"Welcome back, Ren!"

"Yeah."

I went into the room and took off my shoes. After that, I headed

entered the room, they all looked

"What?"

they were

kind of

'Ah, right.'

instant to realize why they were

I sat

I wanted to. Circumstances made me

of the people present seemed keen in asking for more

"Want one?"

once I sat down on

the offer and ate the chip. Meanwhile,

mind if

"Mhm! Stop it."

stood up and glared

"No!"

"Uh?"

reaction left me

she reacting

done. Now

which further confused me. It

"All done."

out a small mirror and

smiled when she saw her own

"Happy?"

"Happy."

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

you want to blame

and sat down next

"I..."

was I supposed

"Here look."

down and handed me her phone. She leaned so close to me that it wasn't long before I

eyes opened up a bit as I looked

you're leaning a bit too

"So?"

"Everyone is looking…"

her head up to look

"And?"

"Ugh."

opened and closed my mouth repeatedly. Eventually,

death, a lot of things changed throughout 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

on my

watch if they are

"Haa…"

only sigh

in the end, this is

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

our relationship

jump for me, I eventually discovered that aside from Amanda acting more pampered than usual, our relationship hadn't actually changed

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

all right. We were moving at our own pace, and that was all

was no need to rush

"Here, have a look."

phone in

"Oh, right."

from her hand,

of 24. Monster or a spy from

shocking return.

handed the phone back

are you

a look at

pointed out while leaning

"Oh."

I realized that all the photos used in the articles were