“How dare you mention the word holy power. You must explain accurately. Otherwise……”

In the increasingly intense killing intent, Baphula trembled. At some point, Belial had returned to his true form rather than his human appearance.

Due to the two horns boasting an overwhelming majesty, even his hair grown to his waist was not noticeable.

Six jet-black wings sprouted from his back.

Although his power must have weakened since this was the human realm, not the demon realm, the intimidation his form gave was comparable to the past.

In a frightened state, Baphula confessed everything that had happened.

“It was when I was managing the altar to maintain the portal as you ordered. A human man and woman appeared in the depths of the forest. At first I tried to kill them to use as sacrifices, but as you can see, I ended up like this.”

He continued his explanation while recalling that moment.

Even when he first decided to report the situation to the king, he was overwhelmed with shame at losing to humans.

Because of that, all his attention was focused on the swordsman who had attacked him.

Then, while flying through the imperial city, as he kept mulling over the incident, he belatedly realized that the woman was more suspicious than the man.

Baphula had lost four heads, but that didn’t mean he had lost the memories in each head.

In his brother’s memory, there was a clear image of the human woman fighting, albeit briefly.

That scene his brother had accidentally captured was strangely similar to certain individuals in the center of Baphula’s mind.

The woman’s eyes were dyed a dazzling gold like the sun, and her movements were so fast that even his eyes could barely follow.

With a body that seemed to have no muscles, she fought well against the strong magical beasts.

And that was with just an ordinary dagger.

‘……It’s similar to those filthy priests, isn’t it?’

In fact, this wasn’t the first time demons had attempted to invade the human realm.

Hundreds of years ago, they had already tried to invade the human realm once.

At that time, humans had not yet mastered magic or swordsmanship. So the demon realm expected to easily dominate the world.

But then there were those who interfered with their plans. They were the apostles of God.

If demons had a king, humans had God.

God divided His power among the apostles to protect the human realm.

In the end, due to the interference of God and His apostles, the demons’ invasion failed.

It was an old incident, so he had buried it in the back of his memory, but now that he recalled it, the appearance of that woman and the priests had too many similarities.

‘Moreover, in the last moment, as if her strength was drained, she couldn’t even properly avoid the magical beast’s attack.’

God’s power was too mighty for humans to handle.

That’s why even the priests of the past would collapse like that when they used power beyond what they could handle.

‘Is it really saying that woman is an apostle of God?’

But that didn’t make sense.

God was dead. That was something the king had confirmed for certain.

‘For someone using holy power to appear now?’

Does this mean God has come back to life?

Baphula pondered deeply the entire way to Belial. Perhaps due to losing 4 heads, his brain wasn’t working well.

But one thing he could know for certain. That he had to convey this to the king.

Of course, he also planned to report the fact that humans had discovered the existence of the altar, as per the original plan.

And so, now having an audience with the king, Baphula revealed everything in detail to the king.

Belial, who had been quietly listening to his story, fell into contemplation. A sinister smile hung on his lips.

‘A woman with holy power……’

Suddenly, he was reminded of the serial handsome man kidnapper who had helped him get one step closer to the imperial throne of the Agrian Empire.

A speed too difficult for human eyes to follow. Strength enough to kidnap an adult man in one go.

Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? The fact that the kidnapper’s characteristics were surprisingly similar to God’s apostles.

Of course, with God gone now, it was impossible to know whether that woman’s power was really holy power or not.

But what was certain was that she would become a hindrance to him in the future.

He had to capture or eliminate her by any means necessary.

Belial closed his eyes and pondered on the method.

Going to kill her directly was too dangerous. Demons were vulnerable to holy power.

He had already used a lot of power for the invasion of the human realm.

If that woman’s power was really holy power, he might end up being defeated if he went to attack.

Ordering the imperial knights was also useless. There was no way knights could capture a human with holy power.

Seeing the king’s contemplation taking longer than expected, Baphula carefully opened his mouth while observing the situation.

“……I have prepared a portrait of that woman.”

The paper he handed over contained the image of a woman he had drawn himself.

Short lavender hair, eyes drooping like a puppy’s.

It was a familiar appearance to Belial’s eyes.

At that moment, a good scheme flashed through his mind.

He looked down at Baphula with a strange laugh. By now, he had hidden his demonic true form and changed into human form.

“To think my fiancée’s family was the serial handsome man kidnapper who shook the empire. As a prince, I simply cannot stand by and watch this serious situation.”

The voice and expression that changed in an instant were clearly full of dignity, but somehow caused even more unpleasantness than when he was in demonic form.

After Vivian returned from the Belvedere mansion, many changes occurred.

The biggest change was that she stopped kidnapping handsome men.

It was because she learned that Ren was Callys.

She also released the handsome man she had imprisoned. Only Vivian and Ren remained at the hideout.

Since she stopped kidnapping, there was no longer any need to leave the surveillance orbs scattered throughout the city.

Ren thoroughly removed everything related to the kidnappings one by one.

It was an action stemming from worry that Vivian’s crimes might somehow be discovered.

The cleanup didn’t take very long. They had been consistently eliminating evidence related to the kidnappings all along.

‘With this, there’s no possibility of anyone discovering that Lady Vivian is the serial handsome man kidnapper.’

Ren thought so until he removed the last remaining surveillance orb.

There were the people of the Belvedere family and Melphis who knew that Vivian was the handsome man kidnapper, but he believed it wouldn’t be a problem.

Though he was reluctant to admit it, they all seemed to care for Vivian.

But was this thought of his arrogant?

“My lady, a problem has arisen. Information related to the serial handsome man kidnappings came in from a guild member who infiltrated the imperial palace……”

Until the Master came looking for him saying there was an urgent matter to report, he thought it would be some trivial content.

Ren’s expression hardened in an instant when he heard the report that followed shortly after.

“A man claiming to be a victim of the handsome man kidnapper entered the palace to meet Prince Siegfried. The problem is that this person said he witnessed the culprit’s appearance.”

“And that appearance is……”

“Yes, it seems he revealed it was a woman with lavender hair.”

“……”

At that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Ren’s mind.

The first question that needed to be asked was already decided.

“Who is this man claiming to be a victim?”

“……I was concerned about that too, so I investigated. His name is James Hibalt. He’s 28 years old and unemployed.”

James Hibalt. No such name existed on the list of people Vivian had kidnapped.

A man who claims he was kidnapped when he had never been kidnapped.

Moreover, he knows some of Vivian’s physical characteristics.

His brain rotated quickly as if time had stopped. Ren soon reached a conclusion.

‘There’s a force trying to frame Lady Vivian after noticing that she’s the serial handsome man kidnapper.’

No, to be precise, it was unknown whether the opponent had accurately identified that she was the culprit.

Still, it was clear that some unknown force was now trying to frame her as the culprit.

‘Who could it be? Who would benefit from such an act?’

It couldn’t be Princess Veronica.

From what he learned through the Master, she didn’t seem to have the disposition to commit such dishonest acts as creating non-existent evidence.

Moreover, the probability became even lower since that man James Hibalt had gone to Siegfried, not Veronica.

Rather, it seemed more likely to be Siegfried.

As a demon, he wouldn’t hesitate to use any means necessary for his goals. Ren had long learned of his cruelty.

He had lived almost his entire life being tortured under Siegfried.

He had always wondered. Why did he do such things to him? Why did he have to silently endure such treatment?

He only recently learned the reason when he heard about the existence of demons from Vivian.

According to Vivian, demons first annihilate the soul in order to possess a human body.

However, unlike damaging the soul, completely annihilating it seemed quite difficult.

Only when the soul was mentally cornered to the point where it could no longer resist could the demon attempt to annihilate the soul.

So the long torture Ren had endured was merely an intermediate step for that purpose.

Siegfried had driven him to extreme pain without any guilt in order to get his hands on a body with shadow abilities.

When he first heard that story, Ren pretended to maintain his composure on the outside. He couldn’t show a negative appearance to Vivian.

But that didn’t mean he could forgive Siegfried.

And if the one targeting Vivian was really Siegfried…….

No, that wasn’t it.

It didn’t matter who the target was.

Whoever it was, if they intended to take Vivian away from him…….

Ren had no intention of forgiving them, no matter who they were.

“Find the person who bribed James Hibalt.”

The Master gladly nodded to his master’s order.