Lord began to rebuke Melphis as he watched Vivian’s back disappear through the warp.

“If you hadn’t stepped up first, that child might have eventually become your companion. You know that, don’t you?”

“…… Yes, I was aware of it.”

A bitter smile hung on Melphis’ lips.

What Lord said was something he had already noticed long ago.

If he hadn’t offered to help Vivian, she would have surely stayed here for several days.

In the meantime, the human world may have already come close to destruction.

Perhaps even those she cherishes may not survive.

If that happened, she would have no one to rely on but him.

Becoming her only support. There was no easier way to form an imprint with her than that.

Melphis knew it was an unethical and wrong method from the human perspective.

However, for dragons, this was not something particularly deserving of ridicule.

If it’s not a dragon but another race, using any means necessary to make the desired person their companion is simply a matter of individual freedom.

Because they live long, dragons are sometimes seen as creatures of wisdom, but this is only superficial.

Living long means having a lot of experience.

And having a lot of experience also means knowing well how to become cunning.

In an eternity-like time, their desires may have dulled, but when they want something, they can act more treacherously than anyone.

Some dragons have even killed and concealed all of their desired companion’s family members in order to make them their own.

So from the moral perspective here, it couldn’t really be judged as bad to just stand by and watch someone lose everyone around them.

Even if one were to side with the demons and participate in massacring humans to gain a companion, there would be no one here to condemn them for it.

Although Melphis had spent a long time of 10 years in the human world, his moral standards were still closer to those of dragons than humans.

Nevertheless, there was a reason he made a choice that other dragons would mock as foolish.

“Won’t you regret it?”

“I will regret it. She’s the first person I’ve ever cared for. I will probably ache for a long time over the missed opportunity to be with her now.”

Knowing that, and still taking such actions.

Not understanding Melphis at all, Lord unknowingly hardened his expression slightly.

However, being connected by blood, Melphis quickly noticed the change in his great-grandfather’s expression.

‘I thought Lord, who has existed since the beginning, would understand my actions, but even he has things he doesn’t know.’

Originally, he too should have been unaware of such emotions.

A race that prefers domination over consideration. That was Melphis’ nature.

But being with Vivian, he learned new emotions.

“Because her shedding even one less tear is more valuable to me than my own desires.”

Sincerity was evident in Melphis’ eyes as he said that.

Still, Lord could not understand the heart of his own flesh and blood.

Just as it took two days to reach the Dragon Realm, I thought it would take as long to return, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The Dragon Village had a special warp that instantly takes the user to their desired location.

Instant teleportation magic was impossible within the Dragon Realm, so it was a device invented by Lord in the past.

Thanks to that, I was able to comfortably return to the hideout.

‘Will Ren be here? Will he welcome me when we meet?’

As usual, I opened the hidden door of the hideout and naturally entered, but something was strange.

“Ren? Where are you?”

I called out his name loudly, but no answer came back.

‘Strange……’

I thought he had simply gone out, so I kept looking around, but no matter how I looked at it, that didn’t seem to be the case.

The hideout space, which had always been warm, had turned cold without any signs of life.

Apart from the clean space, it felt as if no one had lived here for a long time.

‘Is Ren staying somewhere else now, not here?’

As I entered the interior through the corridor of the hideout, I turned on the communication device attached to my ear.

Now that I had left the Dragon Realm and returned to the human world, it should work normally.

“Ren, where are you?”

But the communication device, which had always quickly responded, remained silent.

‘What’s going on……’

I immediately headed to the room where Ren used to stay. As expected, it was empty.

I was about to turn around and leave the room when a thick notebook on the desk caught my eye.

‘What’s this?’

I flipped through the notebook without much expectation, but I couldn’t help but be surprised by its contents.

‘Could it be what Ren was writing?’

Densely written on each page was information about what had happened in the human world and how they responded to the events.

Seeing the neat and tidy handwriting, it was clearly prepared by Ren, but….

Why did he leave such important documents abandoned like this?

As I tried to pick up the notebook with my hand, a small note hidden underneath it revealed itself.

The note also seemed to have been deliberately left behind by Ren.

Just in case Vivian returns while I’m not here, I’ve organized and left behind a record of what has happened.

I unknowingly smiled at the note’s content that showed Ren’s personality.

‘He takes care of me somehow even when he’s not by my side. Ren, really……’

I sat down at his desk and started reading through the notebook.

While reading the beginning part, I became curious about what he might be doing now, so I flipped the notebook to the latter half all at once.

It contained details about how Ren ended up heading to the Schneider territory alone, belatedly falling for Siegfried’s trap.

In addition, the fact that Siegfried himself would be in the Schneider territory.

‘Ren and Siegfried went to the same place? I don’t know about anything else, but that absolutely can’t happen……!’

I hurriedly flipped to the next page, trying to see what happened after that, but unfortunately, it was blank.

Thinking there might be something written if I turn a few more pages, I kept flipping backwards urgently, but only white papers revealed themselves.

Only then did I notice the dates written in the notebook.

The series of events happened just today.

In other words, Ren may have encountered Siegfried right now. And alone at that.

‘…… Ren is in danger!’

If Siegfried finds Ren, he will definitely make him the top priority target, Schneider territory or not.

He will try to secure Ren’s body no matter what. That absolutely cannot happen.

I rushed out of the hideout in a hurry.

With my unconsciously activated abilities, I ran frantically towards the Schneider territory.

Fortunately, the Schneider territory was not too far from the capital. It was a distance that could be reached using abilities.

‘But there won’t be much usage time left……’

Thinking that Ren was in danger, I didn’t even care about such things. I was just worried sick about him.

‘Please be safe……’

Desperately praying inwardly, I hurriedly headed to where Ren would be.

Last night, the news that demons had invaded the Schneider Duchy reached Ren’s ears even before Veronica.

It was thanks to the master of the Gerald Information Guild delivering it to him right away.

Ren headed straight to the Schneider Duchy even before hearing Veronica’s dispatch orders.

If it were before, he would have waited for Veronica to come up with a clear plan, but this time, he couldn’t do that.

The Schneider territory was a place he had protected together with Vivian before.

Without realizing it, his body moved first, thinking she would be disappointed and frustrated when she returned from the Dragon Realm and saw the Schneider territory turned into ruins.

Ren used shadows to head to the territory as quickly as possible, but he had physical limitations.

By the time he arrived there, half of the village in the territory was already burning red, and the remaining half had already turned to ashes.

Since it had been attacked before, the Duke of Schneider must have paid attention to defense, so it was strange that the territory had become such a mess in such a short time.

However, Ren soon found out the reason.

All the demons attacking from various places had the same tattoo on the back of their hands.

A tattoo of overlapping triangles and inverted triangles.

Every single one of those demons was of the highest rank, without exception.

Previously, a high-ranking demon would lead a group of mid-ranking ones to attack, but now there were only many high-ranking ones.

It was clear that Siegfried had made up his mind.

Ren rescued a few people who were still alive and took them out of the village, then moved to the ducal residence.

Unlike this place that had turned into a mess, the mansion still looked intact on the outside.

‘I have to at least save the duke.’

With that single thought, he infiltrated the mansion, avoiding the demons blocking it, but the first thing Ren witnessed was the duke’s head attached to the front door, decapitated.

Tsk. Ren clicked his tongue without realizing it.

Now that the lord of a territory had become like this, it was obvious how much chaos the people under him would fall into without even looking.

Humans are a race that is greatly influenced by a trustworthy leader.

Ren urgently set out to at least find the duke’s children. He split the shadows into dozens of strands and spread them throughout the mansion.

Before long, a signal came from the shadows.

The signal came from the far end room one floor above.

He ran straight there.

The scene he encountered was Damian Schneider, who had lost one of his feet, lying on the floor and pointing his sword at a demon.

If it were someone else, they would have been frightened by the demon’s grotesque appearance, but Ren’s eyes wavered for a different reason.

Long golden hair reaching the waist. Two horns grown tall on the head. Six black wings grown from the back.

Although the appearance was different from what he knew, the familiar energy made it impossible not to recognize.

The opponent was Siegfried, transformed into the form of a demon.

The very culprit who had plunged his life into darkness.

And it seemed that Ren was not the only one who recognized the other.

Siegfried, who had been focused on attacking Damian, stopped moving for a moment.

His eyes, which had discovered Ren, no, Callys, glowed eerily.