“What? You knew?!”

The truth was that the girl in Beruel’s grasp was none other than an Automaton that resembled a human female.

Beruel had noticed this from the moment he made contact with it, but he still went on with the act in order to get his information.

‘Is he being dishonest? I don’t think so… my Magic Tool isn’t acting up.’ The Fairy King thought to himself.

‘Why would he go along with the whole act, though? Was he trying to glean information from me through this situation?’

The Fairy sighed, discarding the hostage he had in his grasp. He had completely lost interest in the situation.

“This is pointless. I don’t even feel like fighting any longer.” The Fairy King stared at the human boy, who still looked flustered.

“You can’t fool someone like me with such an imitation. I also know you’re holding back quite a bit. You were baiting me to display my full power, weren’t you? Such basic tactics…”

The previous image of a hot-tempered and shortsighted Fairy King began to crumble as Beruel gave another deep sigh.

At this point, he was done playing games.

“There’s no point for any further conflict. You’re Jared Leonard, right?”

“You know my name?”

“I… just remembered. You’re the one giving the Cult trouble, aren’t you?”

“Yeah…”

Beruel nodded slightly and then shrugged.

“Well, I don’t care what you do to the others, but I’ll still oppose you. You see, we all have our reasons for being there, but they all revolve around the Arcanas.”

The human, Jared, looked a bit surprised. Perhaps he didn’t expect such sincerity from the proud Fairy King.

“I also need the Arcanas, so our interests conflict.”

“I guess so. What will you do now, though? Will you try to take it from me by force?”

“There’s no need for that. At least, not now. Even if I wanted to…” He glanced at the human boy.

“I only came to ask my questions. The Arcanas were a bonus, I suppose.”

“Why are you looking for Kuzon, though?”

“Let’s just say it’s for revenge. I desire to kill him.”

The human’s face tightened a bit.

“What’s wrong? Will you stand in my way?”

“Well, judging from what I’ve heard… he seems capable of taking care of himself.”

Both Human and Fairy stared hard at each other in silence.

Finally, the Fairy King broke it.

“We’ll see about that. One last thing… the way you interact with me, it’s almost like we have met before. Who are you, really?”

“Well, that’s a secret. Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.” Jared smiled slyly.

An aura of playfulness, rather than tension, seemed to envelop the area.

“I’m not so sure about that. You see, this area isn’t my allocated territory. That’s why I can’t really act. You might end up dead before our next meeting.”

Beruel’s face showed sincerity, so Jared couldn’t doubt it.

p AndD nOve1.cO,m “Is that so? Well, I’ll take my chances.”

“Looks like your comrade are already approaching. I should take my leave. Hmm…”

“Well, then, till we next meet.” Jared gave a warm-hearted smile, causing the Fairy King to shudder in discomfort.

He certainly found the human to be… strange.

“About that—”

Before either party could say any more, or even react, a golden flash of light descended from the sky.

>BRRRRTRRTTZZZZZZZZZZ!!!<

Instantly, it crashed upon the fairy King, sending volts of lightning and bursts of energy into his body.

>VWWOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!<

The Fairy King crashed in a flash of lightning, causing a wave of destruction around the area of impact.

>BOOOOOOOOMMMM<

As he turned into nothing but cinders—thanks to the immense power that was destroying him—the decimated Fairy King smiled at the one who was responsible for his death.

“You… I finally found you… Kido’s nephew.”

The golden-haired boy said nothing, and simply proceeded to finish off the Fairy King.

“Wait! Don’t do it!”

However, not heeding Jared’s voice, the young Midas concluded the act, rendering the opponent into electrocuted dust.

“K-Kuzon!” Jared roared in both anger and surprise as he dashed in the boy’s direction.

As the boy on the ground locked gazes with the one above, an air of recollection pervaded the air.

Both boys remembered their time together at Ainzlark—their fights as allies and opponents.

Looking at each other now, so much had changed.

Jared looked rage-filled, and Kuzon appeared oddly cold.

“You look angry… that doesn’t suit you.”

Jared ignored Kuzon’s comment and still darted in the boy’s direction.

However, a distance away, he suddenly halted.

“Tch, those pesky threads of yours.”

Upon muttering that, Jared calmly descended to the ground, but his glare remained.

“You can see them clearly now. That’s progress…”

“Why did you kill him?” Jared was annoyed.

“What do you mean ‘him’? That wasn’t the real one. It was just an identical version—most likely a Golem that is remotely controlled… or an Automaton?”

Jared’s glare persisted.

“Surely, you realized that, didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did! That’s why I put a tracker on him. He was going to lead me to the original one. After all my acting, you had to ruin everything!”

Jared was fuming at this point.

If his cards were played right, he would have already gotten one member of the Nether Cult nabbed.

Unfortunately, or rather, Surprisingly, an unexpected person—Kuzon—had to ruin things.

“I doubt it. You realize he was already preparing to self-destruct, right? If I was able to figure out the one you kept on Damien, you think he wouldn’t have noticed?”

“Ah…” Jared was now at a loss for words.

“The self-destruct blast might not have hurt you, but I couldn’t afford to let him get away like that.”

“Well, didn’t you basically do the same by killing him?”

“I wonder about that…” Kuzon gave a cold smile, but his eyes wandered from Jared as he stared at the entrance of the cave—shaped like the mouth of a bodiless dragon.

“We have company… your allies, I presume. Hmm?”

************

A

/N

Looks like Kuzon is back.