Glen glanced behind him. Janmalpi’s castle walls blocked his sight, and he narrowed his eyes.
‘Damn it!’ He cursed internally. He had come to this city to raise his excessively low reputation, but everything was in ruins now. Although he had achieved his original goal of acquiring fame, this fame was much less than what he had expected to gain.
Condel was someone who moved discreetly; in case of obstructing his lover’s resurrection, he hid his identity thoroughly. Even though the kidnapping incidents were soon identified by their focus on lovers due to his jealousy towards other couples, Condel’s shadow ability should have been secretive and tactful enough to conceal his identity. According to the previous timeline, Janmalpi should have failed to catch their culprit, and a new Demon Person with a resurrected lover would form.
‘Of course, it didn’t last long though.’
The Demon Person named Condel Siede was a truly baffling figure. After resurrecting his lover, he soon realized that she wasn’t the lover he once knew. After all, what Glen said to Condel before wasn’t completely unfounded. Upon realizing this fact, Condel usually took two paths: he either became a true Demon Person who erupted and destroyed all his surroundings or took his own life.
‘He’s a really unstable guy.’
Unlike other Demon People who usually followed the set path prepared for them, Condel was someone who had a high chance of not becoming a Demon Person at the slightest mishap. If he and his group hadn’t managed to secure enough humans to transform into Demon People, he wouldn’t have even kept the risk of having Condel Siede as a Demon Person candidate. However, since they already had enough Demon People to disrupt this world, Glen was letting unstable guys like Condel alone. From time to time, he used guys like Condel as sacrifices to increase his fame.
Yet, this time, his plan couldn’t have possibly derailed more from his expectations. Although he was unstable, the person who could potentially grow to become a Demon Person was dead now, and all Glen achieved was a very small amount of fame. On top of that, the person who had stolen the spotlight from him was his greatest target: ‘Zich Moore!’
Sparks almost seemed to shoot out of Glen’s eyes. The sound of Zich’s name made Glen grit his teeth.
‘He is ruining everything!’
Zich, who should have become the Demon Lord, was the city’s hero now; and Joachim and Evelyn who should have supported Zich as his underlings to drive the world into fear and despair helped him to save a city instead.
When Zich looked like he was about to win in his fight against Condel, Glen made Sia rush towards Zich; however, that ended up backfiring on him. ‘I can’t believe he used Sia Rubrent to bring him down…’
In terms of battle, Zich’s skills and wits were unparalleled. Their destinies were now beyond warped, and this had never happened before, not even once.
‘It must be because of Zich Moore.’
When Glen heard that Zich became a Karuwiman Honorary Knight, he was stunned. However, that had only been the beginning. Starting from that, his plans continued to go awry from start to finish.
‘I really have to find that guy.’ Glen thought of the most likely suspect to have created this unbelievable situation. ‘That damn bastard who taught Zich Moore strange things!’
Glen didn’t expect that bastard, who could warp destinies to this degree, to appear at this time. Although Glen didn’t know who this person exactly was or what their objective was for leading Zich onto other paths, he knew he had to find them.
‘At least for next time!’ So that their destinies wouldn’t be so distorted like now, Glen had to take action.
Yet, not everything was bad for Glen.
‘The one named Lyla.’ She was the mage who tagged along with Zich’s companions.
‘She was amazing.’ Her beauty and skills perfectly fit the position as a hero’s companion. Although he was enraged at the thought of Elena being stolen from him, Glen was pleasantly surprised to find someone who surpassed her.
‘If it’s her, she won’t be Elena’s reserve. She will probably push Elena to the reserve position.’
In the formation of the perfect hero party in his mind, Elena’s name dropped off and was replaced by Lyla’s name.
‘Good. I will ask that guy to find more information about Lyla. With the time I gave him, he might have some information about the identity of the person who gave advice to Zich Moore too.’
Glen supposed that he would at least be able to get a clue.
‘It’s been a while since I last saw him.’ Glen decided on his next destination.
‘First, I have to get rid of this woman.’ Glen glanced at Lara. Since a couple of days ago, Lara seemed to be in deep thought. In a way, it looked like she felt guilty about something; and when Glen asked her the reason for her downcast face, she didn’t give him an answer.
‘…Does she still have no intention of taking up a shield?’
He glanced at the sword hanging on Lara’s waist scornfully.
‘Before, she threw away her sword at this time and took up the shield.’
It was clear that this damn twisting fate was affecting her too.
‘…I don’t need Lara Browning if she doesn’t take up the shield.’
It unnecessarily took attention away from him if he had her on his team. Only he could be the swordsman in his party.
‘I should try convincing her a bit more since her skills are outstanding.’
Yet, if she continued to insist on holding onto her sword…
‘I won’t need to have her around anymore.’
He also had a replacement for her. Although her skills were lacking in comparison to Lara’s, she was at least much more useful than the current Lara. Glen glanced behind him once more. He saw Janmalpi’s castle walls that were further away now.
‘I can’t keep letting Zich Moore do whatever he wants.’
At this rate, the fame and cheers that were rightfully his would be all taken away from him.
Glen didn’t have a clear plan yet. Right now, he was simply emphasizing the way Zich provoked Condel at the end of their fight so that it wouldn’t be strange even if they clashed later on. Depending on the future, he thought he could make a bigger deal out of it or leave the matter to a simple difference in opinions.
‘Zich Moore, just follow your destiny. Don’t act like some just hero that doesn’t fit you. You are not Zich Brave.’ Besides everything, the fact that Zich didn’t show any signs of becoming Zich Brave was good news to Glen.
* * *
As they expected, when more time passed, Zich began their harsh training again. Elena was also included in their training as well. Since Lyla was focused on translating Clowon’s letters, Elena’s magic lessons naturally decreased as well. And Zich fully utilized Elena’s new leisure time. Even if Elena was a mage, Zich stressed the importance of having basic stamina and trained her to the ground. As a result, Elena was able to fully taste the hell that Hans and Snoc experienced in their training.
“Hey, run more! Even if you’re a mage, if you just stay inside your room all day, your brain is going to stiffen! You should know that as a Dwayne!”
Elena had been running so hard that she couldn’t even wipe her vomit or saliva. She almost screamed at Zich’s words. As Zich said, even the magical tower recommended basic exercise. However, it was to the extent where exercise would help with studying magic and not hellish training like this.
“Your teacher also did the same thing! Are you going to give up!” Of course, Zich didn’t expect Elena to reach Lyla’s level since Lyla also had extremely high physical abilities and Elena’s physical abilities were normal.
However, Zich’s words had a clear effect on Elena. Her eyes, which looked dazed, now regained focus. She gritted her teeth and began moving her legs again.
“Yeah, that’s it! Good job, Elena!” Zich loudly shouted as Elena’s back moved further from him.
‘This should be enough.’ Even though Zich was pushing a very harsh training routine on Elena, he had no thoughts about continuing this type of training on her. She was not the type to fight physically, and she couldn’t be called his disciples like Hans and Snoc.
‘She needs to at least have some basic physical capabilities.’
If she wanted to continue traveling with Zich and his companions, she needed to have basic stamina. It was also more advantageous in a battle, especially since Zich and his companions were always getting themselves into dangerous situations.
‘Demon Person, Demon Lord, Clowon, and Glen Zenard.’
Each and every person or place he just listed was formidable. No matter how strong Zich was, he couldn’t keep protecting his companions from these obstacles. For that reason, they needed to do basic training. However, Zich also didn’t concern himself more than necessary about this matter.
‘In the first place, they joined while knowing that they could fall into dangerous situations.’
Before Elena joined them, he had already gotten a reply from her grandfather. Most of all, she was that Elena Dwayne; as someone who knew how monstrously strong she could get as a mage, Zich wasn’t that concerned.
‘So what if our opponent is a Demon Person? Elena Dwayne used to be on a team that professionally hunted those people down.’
Even though Elena went around in a party before his regression, her strength used to be at the same level or above a top-tier Demon Person.
‘Who knows, she might become an even stronger mage than before I regressed.’
Considering her talent, Lyla’s teachings, and the experiences she’d gain in the near future, this was not a far-fetched thought. On the other hand, there was a high possibility that this would turn out to be true.
‘In order to toughen her up for the future, harsh training is necessary.’
Of course, going through such difficult training for the first time could weaken the body instead, but Elena could use potions to heal herself. It was a rough but sure-fire method. This was also an extremely shocking event, but Zich was training Elena out of pure goodwill without calculations or out of sadistic tendencies. It was a very rare act from Zich. However, Elena had no leisure to think about such thoughts. Her mind was completely blank as she ran mindlessly.
‘While Lyla is focused on deciphering the texts and Elena has free time from her magic studies, I need to raise her physical abilities to a certain level.’
After that, Elena could just train on maintaining her physical abilities. Zich stared at Elena who reached her destination and was running back again. She looked at Zich and turned her gaze to the side.
Flinch! Her body shivered. She saw that Hans and Snoc were receiving training that was incomparably harsher than hers.
“You guys are slacking off!” With Zich’s shout, Hans and Snoc straightened their posture. After Zich checked on them, he stared at Elena. “Why aren’t you quickly running!”
Elena put more strength into her legs. This training continued until the sunset, and when the three returned back to their lodging, they were half-dead.
* * *
On the same day, Zich’s group ate dinner with Joachim and Evelyn. It had been a while since they ate with them, and Joachim and Evelyn were also still staying inside the city.
Joachim asked, “Are the others not joining us?”
The only ones in the dining room were Zich, Lyla, Joachim, and Evelyn. None of Zich and Lyla’s disciples were present.
Zich replied, “I gave them a hard training regimen today, and all of them passed out. Really, they’re all too weak.”
“Is that so?”
Joachim and Evelyn didn’t know about Zich’s training method, so they just listened to his words without thinking much. But Lyla had experience with Zich’s training, and her hands trembled slightly. Lyla made a silent prayer for Elena, Snoc, and Hans who were passed out on their beds as if they were dead.
After they exchanged some small talk while eating and the dishes began to empty, Joachim opened his mouth. “I’m sorry Sir Zich, but would you be able to accept a request from me?”
