The Author's POV

[Day 5]

"Where's everyone?"

I was taken aback to discover that the lobby of the mercenary headquarters was completely deserted. At any given time, there would typically be at least one or two of the guys lounging about on the sofas.

"Guess everyone's busy."

I eventually shrugged my shoulders.

When I thought about the upcoming event, it made perfect sense. Indeed, I had given a significant amount of work to each of them.

Without much consideration, I made my way to Ryan's room. Among all the people present, he was most likely the only one who knew where the others were.

They were probably in the building, but the place was quite big, and since I needed to check up on Ryan, I decided to just ask him since he most probably had eyes on the entire place.

Clank—!

After making my way to Ryan's room and opening the door, I discovered Ryan hunched over with his back arched and his feet crossed on the chair as he was looking at more than fifty monitors in front of him.

Displayed on the monitors were the different areas of Ashton city.

"Oh, you're back."

Ryan was quickly made aware of my presence, and after giving me a passing glance, he returned his focus to the screens.

He most likely was aware that I was heading to him long ago and was just being casual about it.

I approached him and placed my hand on the chair he was sitting on.

"How's the situation?"

"They haven't made any movements yet. Not notable ones…at least."

"This is in Ashton city?"

"Yes, same for the other cities. Still no major movement."

"Okay."

I nodded my head, struggling to keep up with Ryan, who looked at all the monitors in front of him without any trouble.

In fact, every two seconds, the screens would switch and new areas would appear on the monitors.

While this happened, Ryan would write a couple of notes on a small book that rested next to his keyboard before switching the screens again.

He kept doing this for all the fifty screens in front of him, and my head started to throb at the sight.

"I'll leave you to it."

I gave the back of the chair a light pat before turning around. When I was on the verge of leaving, I suddenly recalled the purpose of my visit here and asked.

"By the way, do you have any idea where the others are? I didn't see anyone in the lob—"

"Training room."

Ryan responded before I could even finish my sentence. I pursed my lips and nodded my head.

"Alright, good luck with your job."

It appeared as though Ryan was too preoccupied with what he was doing. It was to the point where he did not care about me at all.

It didn't really bother me, as I knew his role in the upcoming war was going to be very important.

I had a lot of things planned out for the upcoming events, and Ryan was going to play a significant part in all of them.

'Well, everyone will.'

I had not chosen my members randomly. They were all selected with this event in mind, and it was time for me to finally bear the fruit of their nurturing.

Bang—!

got closer to the training room, the first thing that I heard was a loud crashing sound, followed by what

easy! I'm not

Bang—!

'What's going on here?'

know what to make of the events

who was standing opposite Hein and who was all beaten up and full of bruises, continued to punch him relentlessly while

Hein was Leopold, who had a pack of gums in his hand and was cheering

Beat

You're supposed to be on my

"Oh, right."

didn't know how to respond to the sudden

young girl who sat at the back of the room, and I made my way toward

has this been

the last three

at the numerous small birds that were resting

were also multiple cats and mouses, snuggling around her

sight surprised me, and I pointed at them. She

control animals that have not been too

see…and how many

affected by mana, which are currently at fifty, then

raising her head

jumped

"A thousand? That many?"

could probably push it to a couple hundred more, but that would

mused to herself, lowering her head and massaging her

just like you've asked. I also already coordinated myself with

"Perfect."

than I had expected. Everything so

eyes and Ava

in the city, as well as Ava's network of animals scattered throughout the city, I had complete control over

on

could escape my sight and

up the good

and decided to head out of the

the way, I don't see Liam anywhere. Do you have any idea

her head to the side to look at me, then tapped on the face

roaming Ashton city. He's currently in the

"Okay…"

'Well, there you go.'

I had established. She was able to

spread across my face, and I headed out of the

in the background, I didn't pay them any attention. My

been completely set up and I've got eyes on

grand total of five days left before the human domain would all of

those five days, I intended to finish putting everything in place before handing over responsibility for the

developing a new sword art and

to reach a point where I could fight toe to toe against Malik

"Ren."

from the training room, the first thing I noticed was Angelica making her way

her face, and my face changed when I noticed

wrong? Did something

"No, not really."

Angelica shook her head.

reached out her hand, at which point a dark radiance emanated from her and covered her entire arm. I was taken aback by her behaviour at first, but then I understood exactly what

about to break through to

"Correct."

retrieving her hand

close to breaking through for quite a while now,

found that

"No."

her head, a complicated look flashing across her face as

opportunity. It appears that the demonic energy

"Right…"

energy was at a drastically lower level than that of