"Who else should I call next?

"

Looking through his communication device, Kevin contemplated on who to call next. Now that he had called Melissa, he needed to think of who to call next.

There were multiple people that he wanted to call, but since he was pressed for time, he needed to decide on who to prioritize.

Scrolling through his contacts, his finger paused on a certain name, Octavious Hall

'Should I inform Octavious?'

Kevin's relationship with Octavious wasn't very close. In fact, Kevin had barely talked to him.

If there was anyone that could help him, it was him. Being the leader of the biggest organization in the human domain, he definitely had the resources and knowledge to be able to find a solution for Ren's situation.

Moreover, since his daughter was coming here, and a future prospect of humanity was in danger, there was a possibility of him possibly helping.

'No, this won't work.'

But after thinking about it for a short while, Kevin proceeded to shake his head.

Kevin may have not known him for a long time, however, from what he knew, Octavious was a pragmatic man. Meaning that if he chose to help Ren, he would expect something in return. In the most likely scenario, he was going to force Ren to join the Union which was something that Kevin knew Ren would absolutely loathe.

Furthermore, now that Ren was injured, and now that he knew that he was 876, there was also the possibility of him handing him over to the Monolith.

If he judged that Ren couldn't be of any use, he would simply follow through with the deal with the Monolith, and Kevin couldn't allow for such a scenario to occur.

Therefore, he quickly discarded the notion of informing Octavious of the situation.

"Damn it, who should I call?

"

He wanted to call Monica and Donna. If the two of them had been here they would've most likely been able to find a solution, but for some unknown reason, the two of them had returned to the human domain.

Scratching the side of his head, Kevin continued to scroll through his list, and just as he was about to press on a random contact, a cold voice sounded from behind him, startling him completely.

"Call the Amanda girl.

"

"Who!?

"

Kevin's head snapped in the direction of where the voice came from.

The moment his head snapped in the direction of where the voice came from, the first thing he saw was a familiar black cat jumping down from a tall cabinet.

"You.

"

Kevin was instantly able to recognize the cat. It was none other than the demon that accompanied Ren. His wariness toned down a notch.

Although she was a demon, he knew that she was contracted to him through a mana contract and as such also knew that she didn't mean any harm.

Softly landing on the ground, the demon, or as of right now, cat slowly moved in Kevin's direction.

As she moved, the cat's bright yellow eyes gazed in Ren's direction. Pausing a couple of meters away from Ren who was still spasming on the bed, she softly said.

"If you want to call someone, you must call Amanda. She may be able to help...or should I say, the people that she can ask help from can help.

"

"Amanda?

"

Kevin asked in a confused voice.

Shua—

Black smoke suddenly diffused in the air as a cold and enchanting figure suddenly materialized before Kevin. With long black hair cascading down her shoulders, Angelica's delicate brows locked into a tight frown.

Glancing in Kevin's direction, she repeated.

"The only person that can truly help Ren at the moment would be Amanda. Tell her the truth, and that Ren is currently on the verge of dying. She will know what to do next.

"

Listening to Angelica's words, Kevin had many things that he wanted to ask, but after realizing just how serious the situation was, he could only comply with her words and turned his attention back towards his communication device and did as Angelica told him and called Amanda.

"Make sure you tell Amanda to bring the people next to her.

"

Angelica added as she watched Kevin call Amanda.

"...Okay.

"

Though confused by the sudden request, Kevin nodded his head.

Riiiing— Riiiing—

As he was calling her, Kevin turned to look at Ren. Worry flashed across his face as he thought.

'Damn it, why do you always do this kind of **.'

***

Fifteen hours had passed ever since her mother woke up.

Because it was almost early in the morning when her mother woke up, Amanda who was understandably quite tired, headed back to her dorm to sleep before going back to the queen's quarters to meet her mother.

She may not have spent a lot of time with her mother, but Amanda was not uncomfortable with her.

Amanda wasn't one to like physical touch much, and therefore loathed it when other people tried to touch her except for a select few, but somehow she was unable to feel any repulsion coming from her mother when she hugged her yesterday.

Understanding her backstory and their familial blood ties, in her heart, Amanda had already accepted her as her mother.

At the moment, she was accompanying her mother and Maylin for dinner.

Seated on a large wooden table covered in a long white cloth, a multitude of succulent food appeared before Amanda. Staring at the food, Amanda had trouble selecting what she wanted. In the end, she settled for a crystal clear grape.

Plucking the grape away from the pedicel, Amanda brought the grape to her mouth and ate it. The moment she bit onto the grape, Amanda's cheeks sunk as the juices coming from the fruit exploded in her mouth like a waterfall.

"Say, I'm still curious about something.

"

Snapping her out of her thoughts was the sound of her mother's voice.

"Yes?

"

Waiting for her mother to continue, Amanda tilted her head. Her mouth was still watering from the grape.

"...About the thing that you used to cure me, how was the boy able to get it?

"

Hearing her mother's comment, Amanda's brows knit.

Actually, she had also wondered where Ren had gotten the fruit from. Because she trusted him, she never once questioned the validity of the fruit, but that didn't mean that she wasn't curious.

She naturally understood that everyone had their own secrets and that was why she never pressed for an answer, but if she said that she wasn't curious that would be a lie.

"I don't know.

"

Amanda eventually answered.

Placing her hand over her chin, Natasha muttered.

"I see. You must really trust that boy to not have questioned if the fruit was valid or not.

"

"...I do.

"

Amanda nodded her head.

From the moment that Ren had presented the fruit to her, Amanda had not once doubted the validity of his words.

She had seen him do the craziest stuff and have even survived an explosion that put ranks to shame. Furthermore, he didn't really have a reason to lie to her.

Maybe if he was trying to impress her, but Amanda knew that he wasn't that type of person.

From the moment that she had met him, she had never seen him be interested in any girl. The only girl she had ever seen him trying to impress was Nola, and rightfully so. She was just too cute.

Caressing her cheeks, a smile blossomed on Natasha's face.

"Interesting. To make my daughter trust him so much, this boy must be quite the charmer.

"

Hearing her mother's comment, Amanda's cheek turned rosier. Before she could say anything else, her communication device suddenly started to vibrate.

TWIIIING—! TWIIIING—!

Amanda's brows furrowed when she sensed this. She then turned to look at her mother who smiled at her.

"Go ahead and take it.

"

"Thank you.

"

Turning her communication device on, Amanda looked at the caller ID. It was Kevin.

She quickly answered the call.

"Hello?

"

—Amanda!?

Kevin's rushed voice suddenly sounded from the speaker of the communication device. Amanda instantly became serious. This was one of the few rare times that she had ever heard Kevin sound so panicked. Something was definitely up.

Bringing the communication device closer to her ear, she carefully asked.

"Kevin? Is there something going on?

"

—You need to come to Ren's room. Ren's on the verge of death.

"...huh?

"

Like a thunderclap, Kevin's words powerfully resounded across Amanda's head as her mind blanked. She couldn't quite process what Kevin had said.

Opening her mouth, she asked.

"...Is it true? W..what you just said? ...Is that true?

"

—Yes, so come quick. Make sure to bring the people that are next to you.

Du.Du.Du. Before Amanda could ask anything else, Kevin quickly hung up, sending Amanda into a state of shock. Everything happened so abruptly that she wasn't sure how to react. Was what Kevin said real or fake? She wasn't sure, but she doubted that Kevin would lie to her about something this serious.

Realizing this, Amanda's heartbeat increased.

'Not again'

She thought.

Trying to keep her mind clear, Amanda thought back at the conversation before a few words suddenly caught her attention.

'Make sure to bring the people that are next to you.'

The last sentence...how did he know that she was with someone? Did Ren tell him? ...She had so many questions that she wanted to ask, but she quickly dropped them.

The priority was saving Ren.

Noticing Amanda's strange reaction, Natasha's face grew solemn as she asked.

"Amanda, is everything alright?

"

Turning her head to look at her mother, Amanda opened and closed her mouth repeatedly as no words came out of her mouth. She then shook her head and said.

"No.

"

***

Hanging up the phone, Kevin turned to look at Angelica.

"Alright, I've told Amanda to come. Can you explain to me what happened?

"

"No.

"

Angelica shook her head, quickly shutting Kevin down.

"This is not something you should be meddling with.

"

She added.

"What?!

"

Hearing Angelica's words, Kevin's voice raised. Pointing at Ren who was spasming uncontrollably on the bed, he shouted.

"He is right here dying, and I'm here trying to help him. Shouldn't I at least know how he got in this state so I can figure things out?

"

Kevin was angry, and understandably so. He was trying to figure out a way to save Ren, yet, the one person that should be helping him was telling him to not meddle.

One of his closest friends was dying, why in the world would he not meddle!?

Despite Kevin's protests, Angelica was adamant about not telling him anything.

"...This is a private matter. If you want to know what happened, you should ask Ren after he is healed.

"

Her words made Kevin angrier, but after thinking things through for a bit, he realized that her words somehow made sense.

Right now his priority should be helping Ren. Since Angelica was adamant in saying that this was a private matter, Kevin decided to stop being unreasonable and proceeded to calm himself down.

There was a time and place to lose his cool.

Clank—

And it was then the door suddenly swung open at full force and an enraged Melissa came in. Angelica who was standing next to Kevin quickly vanished from sight.

Before Kevin could wonder where she had left off, Melissa's angry voice resounded throughout the room.

"You better have a good excuse for telling me to come here and hanging up on m—

"

Halting her footsteps, Melissa's eyes paused on Ren. Her brows knit tightly when she saw the state that Ren was in. Walking towards Ren she turned to look at Kevin and asked.

"Did he overdose on period tablets? ...I told him not to do that.

"

Hearing Melissa's remark, Kevin's mouth twitched.

"You think now is the time for jokes?

"

"...just saying.

"

Bending down and taking a closer look at Ren, Melissa closely examined his body before taking out several potions from her dimensional space and quickly fed them to him.

The moment she fed him the potions, Ren's body instantly stabilized much to Kevin's surprise. Turning his head to look at Melissa, Kevin asked.

"What did you do?

"

Putting the empty potions caps away, Melissa did not respond to Kevin. Staring at Ren's pale face for a good minute, she finally took her eyes away from him before replying.

"I gave him a muscle relaxer to relax his muscles, a healing potion, and a couple of other things, but...

"

Pausing, her brows knit.

"It has only stabilized his condition a bit. He is still far from being in the clear.

"

Standing up she looked at Kevin.

"What in the world did he do?

"