News of Gregory’s death quickly reached Siegfried’s ears.

This was because rumors had spread widely that the imperial princess had defended the Schneider territory from monsters.

Siegfried, who was maintaining his human form, slammed his fist hard on the desk.

With a cracking sound, the desk cracked along the grain of the solid wood.

On the desk, which was barely holding up without collapsing, Siegfried’s fist trembled uncontrollably with rage.

‘Gregory is dead.’

The strongest piece of Siegfried, no, Belial, had died.

And he hadn’t even properly completed his mission.

Vivian Schmidt, whom Gregory was supposed to kill, was unharmed, and all the people of the Schneider territory, who were supposed to be massacred, had survived without a single casualty.

It seemed that some of the villages belonging to the Schneider territory had been partially damaged by the monster army, but that was far from enough.

Siegfried’s original plan was to turn that strategic location into a monster den and create a portal of unprecedented size.

Just by building a portal in that place connected to the capital and other major cities, the magical energy in the human world would become much denser.

However, it would be quite troublesome if there were humans where the portal was to be built.

It was still too early to let humans discover the existence of the portal.

Therefore, Belial had wanted to annihilate all the people of the Schneider territory.

The right person for the job was naturally Gregory.

As the second-in-command of the demon realm and possessing the unique ability to command the monster army, there was no one more suitable than him to prepare for this task.

He had waited for several years.

He had been counting down the days until the lunar eclipse, when Gregory could use his unique ability in the human world.

‘And this is the result.’

The reason why the long-awaited operation had gone awry was obvious.

‘Vivian Schmidt…!’

The apostle of God had ruined everything. If it weren’t for her, the plan would not have failed.

“I should have killed her that day after all.”

Bang!

Siegfried, filled with rage, slammed the desk hard once again.

The table legs, which had been barely holding on, finally collapsed. Of course, Siegfried didn’t care at all.

His mind was filled with murderous intent towards Vivian.

‘I have to kill her. I have to eliminate her as soon as possible before she becomes more of a hindrance. But how?’

Vivian had now fully regained her divine power.

When he had successfully put the restraint on her that suppressed her divine power, he thought he could definitely eliminate her.

The best way was to have her sentenced to death, so that she would die without dirtying his own hands.

He had even planned ahead in case she was acquitted, recognizing the slightest possibility that things might not go according to his will.

The plan was to collapse the building before the restraint was released and kill her in that moment.

There was a probability that the sword masters Dietrich and Ludovica would try to protect her, but he had planned for that as well.

‘I’ll crush them all at once by placing a strong gravitational field on the building debris. No matter how skilled they are as sword masters, they won’t be able to withstand my attack.’

It was a perfect plan that could wipe out the sword master siblings who could be a hindrance in the future.

But at that moment when he collapsed the building.

At that moment when he was trying to kill everyone under the guise of an accident!

Some damn dragon kid showed up and interfered with Belial.

‘Why the hell is a dragon in the human world in the first place?’

The world was largely divided into the demon realm, the human realm, and the dragon realm.

Humans didn’t know much about worlds other than their own, but demons and dragons were aware of each other’s existence.

Still, it was rare for them to encounter each other.

Unlike demons who were eager to target the human realm, dragons basically had no interest in humans at all.

For them, who lived a life close to immortality, humans who died quickly in a short period of time were not of interest.

They mostly lived only within the dragon realm, immersed in boredom.

Because of that, even Belial had seen dragons only a handful of times in his long life.

But of all times, a dragon appeared at the moment when he was trying to kill Vivian Schmidt.

Moreover, it interfered with his plan with some disgusting magic.

‘If you’re a dragon, act like one and don’t care whether humans live or die!’

He couldn’t understand why it had saved the humans in the courtroom, including Vivian.

Of course, there was no point in pondering about it now.

Siegfried closed his eyes and was lost in thought.

He pondered deeply on how to kill Vivian.

‘Should I eliminate her directly now? No, I can’t. It’s too risky.’

If he was hit by the divine power, which was his counter, in his current weakened state, it would be difficult to recover.

‘Even Gregory, whom I trusted, was defeated, so it could be dangerous for me to take action myself.’

Then, could he put a restraint on Vivian’s wrist to suppress her abilities, as he had done before?

It was obvious that it would be impossible even if he thought about it for a moment.

Previously, it was possible because he had taken advantage of Vivian’s guard being down towards her family.

Now, it was clear that she would show wariness towards Leonie.

After much deliberation, Siegfried came to a conclusion. There was no clever way to kill Vivian Schmidt.

But that didn’t mean he could let her interfere with his grand plan in the future.

‘I’ll have to move faster than the original plan. I have to finish everything before she comes to stop me…’

Siegfried’s green eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.

About a week had passed since the battle in the Schneider territory.

During that time, under the command of Princess Veronica, the Schneider territory was returning to its original state.

Buildings that had been damaged by monsters were undergoing repairs, and residents who had evacuated returned to their homes.

Everyone who would have died according to the original story was able to continue their previous lives.

The good news didn’t end there.

Veronica, who had lost the emperor’s trust due to the serial kidnapping case of handsome men, fortunately began to receive the emperor’s favor again, although not as much as before.

As rumors spread throughout the empire that she had predicted the monster attack in advance and saved a territory, her status rose again among the people.

‘But this can’t be considered a good thing.’

Because Siegfried would have completely noticed this incident.

That Veronica and I were on the same side.

So he might try to target Veronica in the future.

‘But I’ve prepared as much as possible.’

In case such a danger occurred, I also gave Veronica an artifact that could prevent mental brainwashing.

I also thoroughly informed her guard Trian about demons, so that she wouldn’t face difficulties.

Still, it was fortunate that there were no other unusual movements, indicating that the news about Ren had not yet reached Siegfried’s ears.

‘Siegfried must not find out about Ren. If he does, he will definitely come after Ren.’

Some of Veronica’s knights had witnessed Ren’s abilities, but she had strictly ordered them to keep their mouths shut.

Even in the original story, her knights were the most loyal in the empire, so there was no need to worry about rumors spreading about Ren.

‘I’m relieved that things ended more smoothly than I thought.’

Dietrich, Ruby, Ren, and I.

Even though everyone was prepared to risk their lives, no one was seriously injured.

As I recalled the recent events, I slumped over the desk and let out a sigh of relief.

‘Now that Gregory, who would have been the most troublesome enemy, is gone, we can fight the demons from a much more advantageous position than in the original story.’

There was still a long way to go, but we had overcome a major hurdle.

But at that moment.

Knock, knock, knock.

‘Who is it at this hour?’

The only person who would come looking for me in the morning was Ren. But if it were him, he would come in on his own without knocking.

“Who is it?”

Perhaps because of the memory of being dragged straight to prison due to Leonie’s unsolicited visit before, I grabbed the doorknob with tension.

“Vivian! It’s me, it’s me!”

The voice belonged to an unexpected person.

“Melphis?”

I quickly opened the door at the familiar voice. As expected, the person standing in front of the door was the pink-haired man I knew.

“Long time no see. I came to see you because I missed you. May I come in?”

“Huh? Sure.”

Caught up in his pace in an instant, I naturally let him in.

Well, there was no harm. I had something I wanted to say to him anyway.

Following him as he naturally took a seat at the table, I also sat across from him.

“Vivian, the reason I came to see you today is…”

“Wait, Melphis. I have something to say first.”

Melphis tilted his head to the side, quite surprised.

“What’s the occasion? You have something to say to me. Oh, could it be!”

“Could it be?”

“You finally realized your feelings for me and want to confess first? I’m really touched, Vivian!”

“Huh?”

Melphis, whom I was seeing after a long time, was surprisingly unchanged.

No? It seemed his skill at talking nonsense had rather increased.

“You know that’s not it.”

I glared at him slightly with narrowed eyes.

“It’s not? Ah, that’s too bad. I was hoping…”

“Sigh, forget it. You’re not even letting me speak.”

“I’m just kidding, just kidding. So, what did you want to say, Vivian? Do you have another task you need help with?”

Melphis laughed playfully and finally seemed ready to listen to the conversation.

“No, it’s not that…”

“Then what is it?”

Curiosity flickered in his eyes. Urged by that impatient gaze, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Remember my trial a month ago? The mage who saved everyone that day, it was you, wasn’t it?”

“…What?”

“I wanted to say thank you… for saving everyone that day.”

After finishing my words, I smiled at him.

However, unlike my cheerful expression, Melphis’ face was filled with deep bewilderment.