The Author's POV

Minutes prior to ambushing the Greed clan, I sent a message to the Wrath clan.

In the message, I told them that the Sloth clan and the Gluttony clan were planning on secretly working together to ambush the Greed clan.

Although my words sounded sketchy, I provided them with the exact location of where the Ambush was going to happen and told them that they knew that they were planning an ambush against someone called 'The white death' and that it was all a ruse in order to make the Greed clan act, and use that opportunity to deal damage to them.

Since the Wrath clan was allied with the Greed clan, all they had to do was contact them and confirm the information that I told them.

Once they were able to confirm my words, the rest was pretty much self-explanatory.

While everyone was staring into the distance, I slowly stood up.

'I should probably take my leave...'

My plan was pretty much done.

If there was a time for me to leave, then it was now. With everyone still confused and startled by the sudden situation, I prepared to use this chance to leave.

Taking another look toward the sky, I sighed in relief.

"That was close..."

Fortunately for me, the plan somehow worked out. By exploiting the demon's desire to harm each other, I was able to create this scenario.

In any case, I had never been too worried about the plan failing. I had three more plans prepared just in case this one failed.

Not that I wanted it to fail, but I wasn't delusional. I never once thought that my plan couldn't fail.

I found myself doubting my plan a lot, but in the end, it seemed as though the demons had been at peace for too long to realize what had happened.

"Good for me."

Masking my presence as much as possible, I quietly left the area and headed toward the Pride Clan's territory.

My goal here had been achieved.

It was time for me to move to the next part.

***

After a while, inside a large forest.

"How long till we reach our destination?"

Halting for a bit, I rested my hand by the side of the tree.

It had been about half a day since I left the conflict, and by now, the sun was already starting to set.

Considering that I was under a time constraint, I knew that I could waste as little time as possible.

"We're almost there. About two hours."

"Two hours!?"

I groaned.

It had to be noted that when he meant two hours, it meant two hours of me running at full speed.

Not only that, but I also had to watch out for the monsters and demons in my way. If anything, that only served to make me even more tired.

"Hurry up, you don't have much time. Keep going straight."

"…Fine."

Recollecting my breath, I once again dashed forward.

"I can't waste time..."

I had a goal in mind when acting on the previous plan. Primarily, I wanted to turn the attention of the Pride clan away from their own territory.

Although the conflict was a minor one, it was still a conflict.

It could serve as a great excuse for the other clans to start conflicts with each other.

This was exactly what I wanted.

Still, I wasn't naive enough to think that they wouldn't notice that I had a hand at play in this conflict. But that was fine, by the time they realized what had happened, I would already have left the Demon Realm.

"Huup!"

Pressing my foot on the ground, I sped up even more.

***

Following the directions given to me by my other self, I continued running for the next two hours. To be more precise, it was actually three hours as I met a lot of demons and monsters along the way.

They weren't looking for me though.

Just as I had expected, the fight in the distance had caused enough chaos to attract the attention of the Pride clan.

This was exactly what I wanted.

"You can stop now."

Hearing a certain voice, my feet came to a stop.

Resting my hands on my knees, I took a couple of deep breaths. Sweat dripped from the side of my face.

"…Are we finally here?"

Looking around me, the only thing that met my sight were trees.

They weren't exactly normal trees though. They were quite tall, and their bark was quite dark. Most notable was the fact that the leaves were red.

As it was nighttime, it was actually quite hard for me to see what was ahead. Furthermore, an eerie silence enveloped the area around me, making it all the creepier.

Crunch. Crunch.

The only noise I heard was the crunching sound of my feet stepping on the ground.

Seeing that I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary in the area around me, I turned to look at my other-self.

"Is Amanda's father here?"

"Not quite."

He answered.

My brows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"We're close, but we will have to stop now. You might not like the sound of my next words."

Taking a step back, I instantly felt an ominous premonition.

"Spit it out."

Our eyes met.

For a brief moment, I saw my other self's lips curled upwards. It left as fast as it came and thus I became unsure of whether it was real or not.

'Did I just imagine that?'

His next words made me realize that I didn't see wrongly.

"...You're going to fight a demon and lose on purpose."

"Eh?"

I blinked my eyes a couple of times as I had difficulty trying to process what he was saying.

"Are you telling me to lose on purpose? And get captured by a demon?"

This…

Was he crazy or something?

'Never mind, he's always been crazy.'

Why in the world did I forget this?

I took a deep breath and sat down on the ground. I then leaned my back against one of the trees.

There was definitely more to the plan than he let out. I wasn't planning on dismissing it without properly understanding what he was trying to say.

"Kindly explain to me your plan."

"Sure."

In a rather calm manner, he started to explain.

Raising his hand, he pointed it toward the distance.

"Not far from here you will find Morian, one of the largest cities in the Pride clan territory. The city is quite big, about the size of Ashton city, and Amanda's father is located there."

"I see..."

I scratched the side of my cheek.

"But how does that have anything to do with me purposely losing to a demon?"

"Let me explain."

The other me leaned back on a tree. A small rattling sound accompanied his movement.

"To put it bluntly, you can't infiltrate Morian. It's impossible unless your strength is equal to a Duke-ranked demon."

"SS rank? That hard?"

"Yes."

His words surprised me quite a bit.

"Even if you can make it seem like you have demonic energy inside of your body thanks to the trick that I taught you, it can easily be discovered. It might work when someone isn't paying attention, but once you enter a city filled with demons, you won't make it a couple of steps before everyone finds out that you are an impostor."

"Right..."

My brows knit tightly.

His words once again made me realize just how dangerous the Demon Realm was. So far I had only been playing around with the weaker demons on the outskirts of the major cities.

My brows soon relaxed, and I asked.

"I get it. But what does that have to do with the fact that I have to lose to a demon? Are you thinking of having me infiltrate the place as a prisoner? But what makes you think the demon won't kill me?"

"You're not exactly wrong."

The other me spoke.

"I won't go on a long speech telling you exactly how the city function as that would be counterproductive. I will cut straight to the point, if you get caught by a demon, you will not be killed. In fact, they will try their best to keep you alive."

"Oh?"

I was once again left surprised by his words.

"Elaborate."

"Mhm."

The other me nodded.

"In a way, demons aren't that different from humans, or any other race with a shred of intelligence. At one point, all of them seek entertainment."

"Right..."

I was slowly starting to get an idea of what he was trying to say.

Lowering my head and placing my hand over my mouth, I softly mumbled.

"Are you saying that my appearance will serve as some form of entertainment for them, hence why they wouldn't kill me, but sell me off to make money?"

"Yes."

"I see..."

Once again covering my mouth with my hand, I had a sudden thought.

"Is that what happened with Amanda's dad? Is he currently inside of that city for the purpose of entertaining the demons?"

"That's right."

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Taking a couple of steps forward, the other me stopped in front of me.

"One of the biggest entertainments in Morian is their Arena. A place where captives from the other races are made to fight each other, and where Amanda's father is currently residing in."

"Ah."

I let out a small sound.

Everything finally started to make sense.

In short, in order to reach Amanda's father, I had to purposely lose to a demon so that they would sell me to the arena.

Since he said that infiltrating the city was impossible, it seemed like this was the only method that could work.

There was only one problem.

"Since you said that it's impossible to infiltrate the place, what makes you think I can escape from that place?"

"Don't worry about that."

The other me reassured.

"I wouldn't propose something so dangerous without coming up with countermeasures."

"Hmm."

My eyes squinted.

To be honest, over the pasts four months I had seen just how smart and calculative he was. Every one of his plans worked perfectly fine.

It may have to do with the fact that he perfectly understood the psychology of the demons, but not once have his plans ever failed.

I also didn't doubt that whatever he had planned would end up working out, but...

'I don't trust him.'

I just couldn't bring myself to trust him. Without fully understanding his intentions, I couldn't bring myself to trust him at all.

The only reason why I listened to what he had to say was because I knew that my death wasn't something that was within his interest.

It was the only thing that reassured me.

"You're doubting me?"

Hearing his words, I snapped out of it. Raising my head and meeting his eyes which seemed to be devoid of any emotions, I ended up nodding.

"I don't trust you at all."

"Good."

"...Good?"

"Let me give you a piece of advice."

He suddenly disappeared from his spot before reappearing on top of a tree branch.

"Always keep your guard up. In this life, you might never know who might end up betraying you out of nowhere. Only ever trust yourself."

My eyes narrowed.

I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was speaking from experience, but despite being the same person, we were fundamentally different.

Etching his words into my mind, I slowly stood up.

"I'll keep your words in mind."

I then turned around and headed deeper into the forest. It was time to get caught by a demon.