The Author's POV

"Tell me why... you have a demon on your finger."

As soon as Douglas's words faded, the atmosphere instantly froze. The echo of his words chilled the very air, creating a palpable tension.

"What's going on?"

Feeling that something was gravely wrong, Waylan looked at Douglas.

Staring at the two for a while, I tapped the ring on my finger after letting out a long sigh.

'This isn't going to be easy.'

"Looks like I can no longer hide it. Come out, Angelica."

SHUU—

At my call, black steam rose from my hand, much to Waylan's surprise. A stunning woman materialized next to me.

Having just canceled her taxing transformation, Angelica's face was extremely pale, and she barely had any strength to defend herself.

"Need a hand?"

Seeing how weak she was, I offered to lend her a hand, but she swiftly refused it.

"——!"

The moment she appeared, Waylan, who was next to Douglas, finally realized what was going on.

He suddenly became wary.

"A demon…"

A threatening aura suddenly sprang out of his body, aiming towards the currently weakened Angelica.

However, just as the pressure was about to crash against Angelica, Douglas waved his hand. The pressure instantly disappeared.

"Stop."

"Douglas?!"

Waylan cried out in surprise, evidently confused by Douglas's actions. Raising his hand, Douglas calmly looked at Waylan.

"Wait."

Turning his head, Douglas scanned Angelica up and down. A frown emerged on his usually calm face.

Opening his mouth, he asked,

"Have the demons advanced so much that their stealth abilities have become nigh undetectable?"

"It's her skill,"

I replied in Angelica's stead.

"She has a special skill that allows her to turn into any object she wants. The downside, as you can see, is her current, weakened state, where for a while she has no demonic energy in her body. However, because of this skill, it becomes extremely easy for her to infiltrate most areas."

"Oh?"

Humming in thought, Douglas took a step forward, walking towards Angelica who fearlessly stared at him from where she stood.

She seemed unafraid and proud while she matched eyes with a seemingly overwhelming opponent. She looked dauntless.

Halting a few meters away from Angelica, Douglas continued to stare at her. She coldly looked back at him, not letting her gaze falter for a moment.

"..."

"..."

Their staredown continued for what felt like forever, till finally, turning his head to face me, Douglas pointed towards the seats.

"I think we still have a bit to talk about."

Slowly closing my eyes, I looked at Angelica before nodding my head and heading back to the seats.

"I understand."

***

At the same time.

[Lock, Leviathan building.]

Flip—! Flip—!

The sound of pages being flipped echoed inside of a room.

Sitting behind a large wooden desk, dimly lit by a small lamp, Kevin's eyes darted between each page of the novel. He carefully read each line twice to make sure he didn't miss a single detail.

Before long, his finger paused in front of a certain page.

Leaning forward to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, Kevin's face changed from one filled with seriousness to one filled with absolute shock.

"…N-no way."

The hand holding onto the page of the book trembled as Kevin had trouble keeping himself calm.

Reappearing in front of the demon, three translucent yellow rings appeared, revolving around his body.

Bang—!

Just as ***** was about to enter the demon's attack range, he stomped his foot on the ground and tried to force his body to a halt. However, it wasn't enough. His momentum was still too strong.

However, he had expected that.

Pointing his finger forward, a disc appeared towards his left. What followed the first disc was a second that stopped a bit further on the right.

Jumping in the air, ***** softly landed on the left ring before he propelled himself towards the right one, where he repeated his actions.

Before the demon could react, ***** was already upon it. The demon's face finally changed, but it was too late.

Letting out a low cry, a powerful wave of mana suddenly burst out from his body.

"Huuup!"

Rather than making use of the [Keiki style], ***** opted to apply a simpler move.

Unsheathing his sword, he swung upwards.

This was no regular swing, however, as the moment the Baron-ranked demon was about to block the attack, using the last ring, ***** used the gravitational effect and changed the course of the sword, once again catching the demon off-guard.

"Puchi!"

Blood poured down from above, creating a misty rain of black.

"N-no, it's not possible. I-…impossible. How?"

Dropping the book, Kevin moved back. A look of complete denial appeared on his face.

"It...it's not possible. How can he still be alive? I-I watched him die!"

The terrifying explosion, the mourning, the nightmares.

How was it possible? How could he still be alive?

Kevin couldn't believe it. No, he didn't want to believe it. How could he? How could he suddenly accept the fact that his friend, who he thought to be dead, was still alive?

How could he accept such a sick joke?

He'd be stupid if he didn't understand who the person in the book was.

Who else could it be but Ren?

His best friend that he thought he had lost more than a year ago.

Biting his trembling lips, Kevin tried to calm himself down.

"Haa...haa... Let's calm down."

His attempts to calm down were in vain. It just wasn't possible for him to remain cool-headed. The news was too shocking for him.

'Could this, perhaps, be a recount of the past?'

Right, this could be a possibility. Perhaps what he was seeing was what had happened to Ren in the past, but…

'The moment the Baron ranked demon was about to block the attack.'

"Haa…"

Staring at the sentence, Kevin knew that it was impossible. He knew Ren's real strength.

He knew that it was impossible for the previous Ren to kill a Baron-ranked demon.

"Ugh..."

It was then that Kevin's head started to sting out of nowhere.

Letting out a groan, Kevin's knees buckled slightly.

Holding onto his head, Kevin supported his body by holding the top of his chair.

Following the stinging sensation, the book started to glow mysteriously.

"Argh..."

The pain in his head intensified as the book brightened.

Covering his eyes with his hand, it wasn't long before the glow disappeared.

"… What just happened?"

Blinking a couple of times, Kevin's eyes flashed with wariness.

Standing up, Kevin stared at the book with slight apprehension.

As his eyes landed on the book, Kevin's eyes opened widely. That was because the black mist covering the name of the individual slowly started to fade.

Wiping the side of his mouth, a subtle green glow enveloped the bottom of Ren's shoes.

Right after, his body explosively shot towards the demon, like a sharp arrow.

"This…"

Kevin weakly slumped back on his chair as he absentmindedly stared at the book.

"Ren's shoes… It really is him."

Holding his head with both hands, Kevin's mind was a mess. He couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

Aside from the shock and relief of finding out that his best friend was alive, there was something else that Kevin was curious about.

Just what in the world had happened to him, and why did he fake his death? How did he even survive such a strong explosion?

More and more questions flooded Kevin's mind.

After a while, Kevin's eyes landed on the book.

He knew that the answer lay somewhere there.

Flip—! Flip—!

Once again flipping through the pages of the book, Kevin quickly read through every part, without missing a single detail. Now that he knew that Ren was the person in the book, he wanted to know more about what happened to him and how he was doing.

"Hehe…"

Scrolling through the pages, Kevin's face would change from time to time.

He would sometimes frown, oftentimes be taken aback, and sometimes laugh.

The more he read, the less his worries for his friend became. Though he was in the middle of a war, he seemed to be fine. In fact, he seemed to be thriving.

He had killed multiple Baron-ranked demons and was getting along with the other races.

"Hah?"

But then his hand paused on a certain page. Frowning, Kevin leaned back slightly. The more he read, the bigger his frown became.

Before long, his face turned extremely dark.

As Ren recounted the story, he tried his best to suppress his uneven heartbeat.

Throughout the whole conversation, the smile on the headmaster's face slowly started to fade as his brows knit tightly.

"…the Union joined hands with the Monolith and put a bounty on me. Because of the bounty, I was forced to leave the human domain. It is also the reason why I'm here."

Leaning forward, the headmaster's eyes ripples slightly. For a while, he didn't say anything.

Bang—!

"What?!"

Kevin pounded the table violently.

The sound of his fists clenching tightly resounded in the room.

"Union!"

Kevin's voice turned hoarse as he glared at the book. For them to do what they did to Ren... The veins on Kevin's forehead popped.

"...You bastards! How could you sell out the one guy that saved your asses!?"

For them to betray Ren like that when he had helped them, those bastards. Kevin's rage was reaching a boiling point.

"Haa...haaa..."

Scrunching up a piece of paper beside him, Kevin tried his best to calm himself down.

Only when he read about Ren's plans regarding the Union did Kevin finally manage to relax.

He realized that he was letting his emotions get the best of him.

"...Shit, I need to be more rational about this."

If Ren, the person involved, was so calm, then, why should he, someone who did not even go through the hardships he went through, be angrier than him?

Recovering from his sudden outburst, Kevin finally managed to put the pieces together.

"Wait...so you were 876?!"

876, the most notorious person in the human domain.

The individual who suddenly showed up out of nowhere with a super bounty on his head.

Someone who was hunted by both the Monolith and the Union.

"Haa, Ren. What in the world have you done..."

As he put the pieces together, Kevin slowly started to feel the helplessness that Ren felt when the bounty was put up.

"No wonder you had to leave..."

Hunted by the two strongest organizations in the human domain, he had no other choice but to leave.

He too would've done that if he was in the same situation.

As his thoughts paused there, Kevin's brows knit.

'...How odd. Why does it feel like I went through something similar before?'

Getting completely abandoned by the world and forced to leave the human domain, the scene felt oddly familiar.

But that was impossible since he had never gone through it.

'Could it be because of the red book?'

Could the red book be sharing Ren's experiences with him? But how was that possible? And, why was the book connected to Ren?

Instead of finding answers to his questions, Kevin was left with even more questions compared to before.

"Ugh."

A sudden stinging sensation hit his head.

Scratching his head, Kevin decided to stop thinking about it.

The more he thought about it, the stronger his headaches became.

'Let's set those questions aside from now.'

Flip—!

Flipping through the next page, Kevin continued to read. He didn't want to miss a single page.

"You're right. My friend and I did go through quite a rough beating under her tutelage."

Ren replied, with a bitter smile.

The memory of the time he trained with Kevin at the Lock, with Donna and Monica, was still deeply etched into his mind.

"Friend? There was someone else too?"

Douglas amusingly asked.

He was obviously taken aback by the fact that Monica not only taught Ren but someone else too.

Taking a sip of his tea, Ren proceeded to nod his head.

"Yes, you probably know him; his name is Kevin. Kevin Voss.

At the mention of Kevin's name, Douglas's brows furrowed.

"Oh?"

Pausing there, an intrigued look appeared on Kevin's face.

"...So you didn't forget about me."

A relieved smile appeared on his face. His chest felt warm.

Flipping the page, he continued to read.

"…Kevin Voss? I think I've heard that name before."

"I'm sure you have."

Kevin was the first-year super rookie that scored some of the highest results recorded in the history of the Lock. There was no way Donna didn't talk about him.

"…Is that so? Interesting. So you're saying that Monica trained both you and him?"

"Correct. She beat us black and blue, but he deserved it. Me? Not so much."

"…pfft."

Reading the last line, Kevin's lips trembled. Before long, leaning back on his chair, Kevin started laughing out loud.

"Hahahaha, you bastard… You fucker! No wonder I sneezed so...m-much."

As he laughed, unbeknownst to him, a small tear dropped by the side of his cheek.

'This isn't my imagination, right, Ren?'

Covering his face with his arms, it finally dawned on him.

Ren was alive.