Zich noticed them when he was looking around the area where the mercenaries stayed to gain more information about Til. The mercenaries camped outside and below the castle walls, probably to maintain their autonomy. Thus, Zich had to go beyond the castle walls to see the mercenaries’ base, and it was when he was walking in that direction that he met Glen’s eyes. There was no need to say who saw who first. Like lovers reuniting, they recognized each other instantly. Of course, it was without an ounce of love in their eyes but more likely, hatred. Yet, even if their relationship was fake and both parties wanted to spy on each other, the two were too well acquainted to simply ignore each other.
“Huh? What is it, Glen?” Lara turned her head to see what Glen was looking at and noticed Zich. She also looked surprised to see him. Glen treaded towards Zich, and Zich waited for Glen to reach him patiently.
“It’s been a while, sir.”
“Indeed, sir.”
The two did not show a hint of their clear loathing for each other. If Lyla had been there, she would have been impressed by the thick masks they were both wearing. As if they had planned it beforehand, the two addressed one another with the perfect level of distance and awkwardness, much like a pair that had battled together a couple of times but didn’t get much closer due to clashing personalities.
“I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you come here to investigate the monster peculiarities at the Denest Mountain Range?”
“Yes, sir. While I was passing by this area, I coincidentally learned of the monster attacks occurring here.” Of course, there was another reason why Zich had come to this place, but he had no intention of revealing this fact. Glen nodded.
“That’s a splendid decision, sir. I am proud of you as a fellow Karuwiman Honorary Holy Knight.”
“Oh well.” Zich carelessly responded to Glen’s fake flattery. Then, he commented, “I see that your party has increased, sir.”
Up until now, Glen had only one companion: Lara Browning. However, now, he had two more. Of course, they weren’t the companions Glen had from his pre-regression days. Lubella was currently working as the Saint for the Karuwimans while Leona returned to her elf forest. Lastly, Elena was now a member of Zich’s party. Three of Glen’s original companions had changed their trajectories due to Zich’s influence. Zich felt a great amount of joy and pride about this fact.
“Yes, we have some new companions. Let me introduce you to them.” Glen pointed at the companion closest to him. “This is Chelsea Windne here. She was even selected as a potential candidate to be the Karuwiman Saint. However, she very graciously left everything behind to travel with me.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Chelsea Windne,” Chelsea introduced herself to Zich curtly. Then, she smiled while looking at Glen. “As I told you before, there’s no need to thank me. I should be thanking you instead since I am happy that I can be part of your travels.”
“Haha, Chelsea is always overflowing with consideration for others.”
Zich stared at the woman named Chelsea Windne. ‘So, she was a saint candidate like Lubella…’ If that was true, she probably had considerable skills since not anyone could be a saint candidate. ‘If I think about the concern Lubella told me about before, it makes me question that.’ Yet, even Zich didn’t think that the Chelsea Windne in front of him could be the concern that Lubella had confided in him about. There was no need for him to think to that extent anyway. Then, Glen pointed to another one of his companions.
“She is our party’s mage, Pina Acous.”
“…You are Zich?”
“Yes.”
“…I heard that one of your companions is the granddaughter of the master of Sunewick’s magical tower.”
“If you are talking about Elena, then yes.”
An indifferent, perhaps, even cold expression formed on Pina’s face. She was wary of her competition.
“Did she learn how to do magic?”
“Of course, miss. Not only does she have an outstanding teacher, but she also places tremendous effort in her studies. She will be stronger than most mages now.”
“Okay. Thank you.” It seemed that Pina had a connection to Elena in some way, but Zich didn’t dig into this matter. He could ask Elena about it later if he was curious about it.
‘It seems like he’s got the basic formation down.’ Two sword wielders, one mage, and one healer. The party’s balance was even better than Zich’s party, which was heavily concentrated on damage dealing.
‘Of course, we won’t lose if we battle them though.’ Truthfully, he wouldn’t even need Hans, Snoc, or Elena. With just him and Lyla, they could finish them off. However, Zich didn’t let his guard down since his opponent had the cheat-like power of regression and even cornered Zich to his deathbed once.
‘It really became troublesome.’
Not only did they have to find a place where they guessed a tree would be, but they also had to survey Til’s surroundings since he was a prospective Demon Lord; now, Glen Zenard had appeared. The situation had become more complicated. Yet, Zich didn’t plan on disregarding Glen.
‘I should think of this positively.’
If he spied on Glen, he might find a clue as to how Til became a Demon Lord. Zich stared deeply at Chelsea and Pina standing by Glen’s side. However, he noticed something slightly strange.
‘Lara Browning.’
She was the one who had continued to be Glen’s companion while the other three original members didn’t. She stood behind Glen.
‘Her expression doesn’t look good.’ He glanced at her waist and thought, ‘It seems like she didn’t abandon her sword either.’
Even though Zich heard that Glen suggested to Lara to take up a shield instead of a sword, she firmly held onto her sword.
‘Of course, Lara Browning with a shield was not bad.’ In fact, she wasn’t just ‘not bad’. Before the regression, she defended against all of Zich’s attacks in their fight against him. Considering that, her battling skills with a shield were formidable.
‘Still, a sword suits her much more.’ Even though Zich hadn’t seen her fight many times, Zich was sure of this. “Ms. Browning, it’s also been a while.”
“Yes, it’s been a while.” Even though she accepted his greeting, judging by her voice, it didn’t seem like she had positive emotions about Zich. However, he no longer felt any animosity from her like before.
‘No, is she just merely feeling down?’ Zich was able to find out the reason for her state right away.
‘She’s being pushed out.’
He saw a subtle distance between the three of them, including Glen and Lara. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for relationships to change as new people joined a party. However, Zich didn’t think that Lara was being pushed out for a reason like that.
‘Is she getting outcasted with Glen’s lead?’
This made too much sense. Zich clicked his tongue inside his mind but didn’t reveal his thoughts. He couldn’t reveal that he had figured out Glen Zenard’s true nature yet.
‘I need to stab his back when he least expects it.’
“Then Mr. Zenard, will you be hunting monsters from now on?”
“Yes, it’s only right. We’re also planning to go around the city to protect people and try our best to investigate why all of this is happening.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to do a good job.” Zich calmly let out words that he didn’t even mean.
“Mr. Zich, what will you do?”
“I also have a similar goal. We have to defeat the monsters and find out the reason for these monster ambushes.” Of course, Zich was going to focus on investigating the reason for these happenings, or more specifically, the tree. However, there was no need for him to share this information with Glen.
“We might fight together like before.” Glen then erased the friendly smile off his face and said a bit stiffly, “I hope what happened last time won’t happen again.”
Glen was talking about when Zich tortured Condel Siede and killed him.
In contrast, Zich smiled and said, “As I said before, if you want to force your opinions on me, there’s only one way.” Zich tapped the scabbard holding Windur on his back.
Glen’s companion’s faces stiffened. Chelsea and Pina slightly held onto their staffs, and Glen blocked them with his hand. “It’s all right. There’s no point in fighting right now.”
“Yes, Mr. Zenard’s words are correct. There’s no point in fighting right now. The situation is dire right now, and there’s no reason to fight.”
On the other hand, it also meant that if the situation was different and there was a suitable reason, they would fight. A slight tension flowed between Zich and Zenard’s companions. However, just like he said, Zich had no intentions to fight Glen right now.
“It seems like you recently arrived in the city, and all of you must be tired. I’m afraid I’ve been holding onto you for too long. Then, I’ll take my leave now. I have things to do.”
Like this, Zich bent his neck one time and passed Glen and his companions. Glen’s gaze followed Zich’s back, but Zich didn’t even turn back once and disappeared into the crowd of people.
Chelsea stood next to Glen and asked, “Is that the person named Zich?”
“Yep.”
“Mr. Glen, he’s definitely the person you said helped Ms. Lubella, right?’
“From what I know.”
“Then, he’s a benefactor for us Karuwimans.” Chelsea lightly gathered her hands together and closed her eyes. She looked as if she was blessing the future path of the benefactor of Karuwiman. However, her internal thoughts were completely different.
‘That’s the fucking bastard!’
The competition to pick the Karuwiman Saint had ended up absurdly and in vain. In the first place, the main reason why Lubella became the Saint was that her ability was much greater than the other saint candidates. The other candidates had lasted only because Lubella’s naivety was holding her back. However, Zich helped her grow and even handed her the enormous achievement of stopping Bellid’s evil conspiracy. From then on, the possibility of other saint candidates becoming the Saint completely disappeared. As expected, the Karuwiman Saint position went to Lubella, but at a much faster rate than expected. However, Chelsea could not admit her defeat.
Lubella was much better than her in terms of abilities and skills, and she had always been the target of Chelsea’s jealousy. Chelsea could not possibly defeat Lubella in terms of abilities. For that reason, Chelsea had tried to become the Karuwiman Saint. If she was able to grab the Saint position for herself and stood at a higher position than Lubella, this would be definite evidence that she was better than Lubella. However, even that goal had gone up in smoke. Moreover, it didn’t seem like she would be able to properly stay in the church when she had bullied the present Saint in the past.
Even though Lubella hadn’t disclosed Chelsea’s bullying yet, she could always open her mouth and expose her. Therefore, Chelsea left the church and joined Glen’s party, which was led by another Karuwiman Honorary Knight other than Zich.
‘If Lubella obtained the Saint position by gaining achievements, I can do that as well.’
If she piled up achievements that were comparable to Lubella’s, shook her political footing, and brought Lubella down from her Saint position, Chelsea would be able to become the new Saint. This way, it was very fortunate that her fate intertwined with Glen Zenard.
‘Anyone can see that this person looks much more fitting to be a holy knight than that Zich guy.’ Chelsea had obsessively collected information about Zich after he helped Lubella. From her information, she found out that Zich was different from the holy knight that people usually imagined. ‘If I expose the true personality of that man named Zich, I’ll have an easier time dragging down Lubella since she received help from such trash.’
However, the problem was that the achievements that Zich made were not just ordinary achievements. If Chelsea disclosed his personality without sufficient evidence, it would easily be buried under his achievements. For that reason, she also needed to make an achievement even greater than his.
‘If it’s this person, it’ll be possible.’
Chelsea made a bright smile and smiled at Glen. He was a true hero who would be able to lift her to her rightful place.