Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse

Seeing Liam walking towards them, the eleven of the team from the Gales Kingdom followed Ellis to close the distance between the two sides.

"Liam, are you okay?" Ellis asked with a slight frown, clearly worried not only about superficial injuries but more about his mental state.

Liam smiled gently and said freely, "I'm perfectly fine."

Seeing that some were still looking at him doubtfully, Liam dug the tip of his greatsword into the ground and folded his arms.

"Really? You guys think something like that can make me go crazy? Guys, the last one to join us is Sylvie but even then we've known each other since the age of 12 or so. You've all seen me go through worse than this and I didn't fall for it, you think a spoiled little brat is going to take me down with words? Hmph, there he gets what he deserves for a big mouth."

Ellis and Seraphina exchanged glances with the others before finally smiling nonchalantly.

True enough.

Liam had been through worse than this in the past and yet he was still on his feet, as bright and powerful as ever. The Prince Edmund affair was nothing more than an unforeseen event, an event which Liam had already solved with his own hands.

It was at that moment that the mage's voice rang out loudly.

"The winners of the third matchup of the team matches on the first day of the competition of kingdoms are the representatives of the Gales Kingdom!"

The crowd immediately burst into cheers. Even the kingdoms that were not allied with Gales shouted out loud Liam Anworth's name and congratulated the winners as if this had been the final match between the last two kingdoms to take the number 1 spot.

However, it was no wonder considering that the Zivell Kingdom was one of the favorites to make it to the finals and yet was ousted on the first day by an affiliated kingdom that no one had any confidence in.

Evan looked at the excited crowd and couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "Somehow, I don't feel happy to receive these praises despite the fact that our team won."

"Well, isn't that because Liam was the one who did all the work?" said Anna with a shrug.

"You two, why are you so dim? Hmm?" Giles appeared between the two of them and hugged them both putting his hands on their shoulders as he said with a wide smile, "We won, we fucking won! On the first day, we defeated one of the three most powerful kingdoms in the entire world haha!"

Giles' words seemed to wake them all up, finally realizing how great was the feat the Gales Kingdom had achieved today.

They, the future of Gales, the strongest of the younger generation, had defeated the future of one of the most powerful kingdoms in all of Eventide World, the future of the Zivell Kingdom.

"Hahahaha!"

"We really won!"

"Well played, sharp ears!"

"Hey, Zack, want me to kick your ass later?!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

...

Bai Zemin watched from afar the smiles on the faces of Seraphina and the others as they hugged each other and jumped like little kids under the applause and cheers of hundreds of thousands.

"Being young sure is good."

Lilith gave him a sidelong glance and sighed as she said softly, "My dear Zemin, did you forget that some of them are even older than you?"

The smile on Bai Zemin's face froze, finally realizing his mistake.

In fact, most of the 12 who were happily celebrating their first victory in this competition as if it was the finals were older than him.... Then, why did Bai Zemin feel as if he was older than them?

"I see.... So that's the reason." Bai Zemin sighed, finally realizing where the problem was.

Sure, Ellis and the others were very talented and brave. Liam's resolve, cunning, and steady mindset along with his dexterity and skills on the battlefield were all things that surprised Bai Zemin.... However, even after Liam's demonstration of power, all Bai Zemin felt was that he was watching a kid fight against another kid as it happened in the schools of the old Earth.

This was because this whole competition, and thus all who participated in it, was just a kid's game. Despite its importance, there were no real deaths here.... This was not a real battlefield.

Liam and the others knew how to fight just for "entertainment", unfortunately, Bai Zemin did not know how to do such a thing.

He only knew how to brandish his weapon to kill, that was all.

When his greatsword was in his hands, the blood of his enemies would always spread across the land and when he activated his skills thousands would die.

Even though they were older than him, Ellis and the others were under the protection of a big kingdom like Gales. They could smile and jump happily as they were doing now, but Bai Zemin and his friends could not.

Because comparing the situation of Ellis, Liam, and all the others of this world with the situation of Bai Zemin and all the inhabitants of Earth was like comparing heaven and hell.

Bai Zemin turned and slapped his cloak with the back of his right hand, walking silently towards the side exit of the stadium.

Lilith followed him from behind, and as she looked at his back, she couldn't help but notice that the aura of the little man in front of her had changed again.

Even though she already knew the answer, she still asked, "Zemin, what are you going to do?"

"I'll take a walk around the city. With so many people from all the kingdoms of the world gathering here, I should be able to find something good to buy or maybe trade, something that might help to improve the current situation on Earth at least a bit." Bai Zemin replied calmly.

He had been bathing in the peace that surrounded him and the gentleness that everyone had shown him so far. Even though it had been less than 6 hours since he had woken up, Bai Zemin scolded himself.

What the hell was he doing here, watching this children's competition, while his subordinates and friends were fighting to the death against other races on Earth? There was even the Xuanyuan Wentian problem that had to be solved as soon as possible.

Seraphina, Ellis, Liam, and everyone else in this world could afford to have this kind of competition for the sake of peace. Unfortunately, Bai Zemin and his friends did not have that privilege.

At the end of the day, they didn't even have peace, therefore, there was nothing to protect. All they could do was fight tooth and nail to one day achieve the same peace as the human kingdoms of Eventide World.

Lilith sighed and a glint of sadness shone in her eyes.

She understood Bai Zemin's burdens so she said nothing, however, she hoped that at least he could relax for a few days and forget about his role as a leader for the first time in a long time.

Unfortunately, such a thing was not possible at present.... Not yet.

* * *

Approximately eight hours passed since Bai Zemin had left the stadium.

For six of those eight hours, he wandered through part of the capital of the Gales Kingdom and met with all sorts of merchants. Just like the establishments built with trunks by mankind on Earth but obviously in a much more elegant and careful way, the citizens of Gales set up their stalls or had their own stores to sell many interesting things.

In fact, Bai Zemin even found that in some parts of the city, there were people from other kingdoms wearing language earrings who casually placed the pelt of some mutant beast on the ground and set various items there before waiting for some interested person to show up to trade or buy something.

Sitting in front of a desk in the room the royal family of Gales had given him to stay as long as he wanted, Bai Zemin put down the pen he had been using to write for the past two hours.

"Damn, this place doesn't have laptops or something? Handwriting is hell. Reminds me of college." Bai Zemin muttered as he watched the view outside of the huge window that went from the floor to halfway up the wall of the room.

"What have you been writing all this time anyway?" Lilith asked as she lazily rested on the bed.

Bai Zemin looked at her and a small flame of lust sparked in his eyes as he observed the lazy yet elegant and seductive posture of his loved succubus. However, he suppressed that lust, and as he looked at the several written sheets before him, he calmly explained.

"I made a nice return today. Not only did I manage to buy several construction blueprints but I also managed to buy over 20 potion formulas using some Soul Stones and gold."

"I understand about the construction blueprints, but what about the potions? The plants on Earth won't necessarily be the same as the ones in this world, you know that too don't you?"

"Of course, I do. That's why before I bought the formula I made sure to check the copy of the herbs found so far by the botanical teams of our faction. Only after remembering them all did I dare to buy these 20 formulas."

The people of this world were really much more advanced compared to the humans from Earth. Even the potion formulas had a small magic circle that made it so that only the person holding the paper with the written ingredients for more than 5 seconds could read the contents and at the same time that person would forget several of the necessary ingredients after leaving the formula paper for more than 10 seconds. Therefore, one could only buy and it was impossible to be sneaky, learn the ingredients, and good game.

"These construction blueprints and formulas are written in Gales, to bring them to Earth I need to first translate them all into Mandarin Chinese." Bai Zemin explained as he made sure he had written everything right and without mistakes.

His eyes sparkled as he whispered to himself, "Concrete fortification, mana-based woodcarving, magic fire watchtower, initial sacred defense statue, timed stamina potion, timed power potion, potion to increase movement speed by 40 points for 10 minutes..."

Bai Zemin was incredibly satisfied. Even though everything he had obtained were normal things and the only two rare things he had managed to buy for a high price were the construction blueprints for the initial sacred defense statue and the magic fire watchtower, his faction's power would definitely benefit greatly from all these things.

"All of these things in conjunction along with what we found in the ruins of the Five Silver Pagodas.... Once we can understand and apply the information in the books, as well as the mass production of the electromagnetic rifles.... Everything will be incredibly easier and the mortality rate of my soldiers and soul evolvers will be a lot lower!"

Bai Zemin was excited just thinking about it!

Bang!

The door suddenly was opened and the rude person who didn't even knock just slammed the door so hard that it was a miracle the wood didn't shatter into thousands of pieces.

As for who was the rude person? Bai Zemin did not even need to turn around to know the identity of this person.

"You!"

Seraphina's furious shout caused Bai Zemin to sigh in his heart. However, his expression was indifferent as he turned the chair he was sitting in to look into her eyes.

The flame of anger that burned in the emerald eyes of the second Princess of Gales dimmed when she met the coldness of the other party's black eyes.

"You... Orc..." Seraphina for some reason felt uncomfortable, because this was the first time Bai Zemin had looked at her with eyes that seemed to be looking at a rock.

"Do you need something?" Bai Zemin asked calmly.

"I-"

Seraphina wanted to yell in his face that she and the others had been worried when he suddenly disappeared. She wanted him to give her explanations as to where he had gone since they had been trying to find him for over three hours with no success. She hoped that after he apologized, she would forgive him after a snort and then cheerfully tell him about today's results.

However, she realized that this Bai Zemin was different from before.

"You... What's happening with you?"

Bai Zemin held his expression and picked up two of the many papers on the desk. He waved it in front of Seraphina and said calmly, "I went for a walk around the city, I needed to buy some things. I managed to get a good deal on a good crop, a bit expensive but it's okay, I can afford this spend at least."

Seraphina was able to read one of the papers, she identified it as a low-level formula for brewing potions that decreased Stamina consumption by 2% for 20 minutes. However, she couldn't read the other one at all and noticed that it was handwritten, which quickly made her figure out that this was the native language of the world from which Bai Zemin came from.

"By the time I return to my world, I will try to take some things from this world with me. But, don't worry since I won't steal and will pay for everything that belongs to other people." Bai Zemin said as he placed the two papers in the same place as before.

"These things may not be a big deal to you, but to me and my friends they are of great importance. Therefore, I took advantage of the free time I had to do this." He finished as he pointed to the mountain of papers.

"You... Return to your world...? Can you even do something like that?" Seraphina asked as she suddenly began to feel anxious at a possibility she had overlooked.

"The skill I used to open a portal allows me to return to my birth world. I plan to return when I get a few more things... My friends and subordinates are waiting for me after all." Bai Zemin replied casually.

Seraphina put her hands to her chest and gritted her teeth. Then, she looked at Bai Zemin like an angry little lion and shouted loudly, "Then why don't you leave right now?! You stupid orc!"

She ran out after activating some skill and didn't even close the door.

Bai Zemin rubbed his ears that were vibrating due to Seraphina's shout and shook his head. His indifferent expression broke and a bitter smile appeared on his face as he walked towards the door to close it.

He looked at Lilith who was watching everything calmly from the bed and asked curiously, "You don't blame me?"

"No," Lilith shook her head, and while looking directly at him, she said in a clear voice: "If you ask me, what you did is the right thing to do. At the end of the day, you will eventually leave this world to return to your own, and considering the vast number of worlds in the vast universe, the probabilities of you returning here are so low that it wouldn't be too wrong to say that you will never return."

Bai Zemin nodded, and feeling a bit complex went back to work.

At the end of the day, things were as Lilith had just pointed out and Bai Zemin thought the same.

Seraphina, Ellis, Liam, Evan, Giles, Anna.... All of them, even King Philip and Queen Helena were very good people. Bai Zemin wished them well and hoped they would prosper in their lives and be happy.

If things were different, then he would have liked to be friends with wonderful people like them. Unfortunately, Bai Zemin was different from them.

They resided in Eventide World and fought for Eventide World.

Bai Zemin was just a passenger in Eventide World, and therefore, in their lives. His home, family, friends... His people were on the distant Planet Earth, that place needed him, and he would fight for it.

Staying in this world? Bai Zemin did not even think about the existence of such a possibility. Even if the existence of such a possibility crossed his mind, he would not even consider it.

Therefore, it was better to stay away from too much closeness..... It would be easier for everyone that way.