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nAfter giving Aleni three more days to rest, Zaos, Moody, and Aleni left their base while leaving the others behind. Some of the mercenaries still needed a few extra days to recover, and Zaos decided to use that… However, he left them behind because they had another mission: joining Kat group and spreading around that Zaos disbanded his own group. While that would be suspicious, no one would be able to do anything against them as long as they had a leader like Kat, and while Zaos kept acting, besides, they made a promise to reunite when the time came.

nAs for the former assassins, they will eventually join Zaos and Aleni, but they will keep doing the work in the shadows. Until the demon god is defeated, they will have to return to the old days where only a handful of people knew about their existence. The fact that they walked around in broad daylight was one of the things that granted the chance for enemies to surprise them, after all. Still, Zaos was determined in not to give them the orders to assassinate anyone.

n“I am sorry, I really tried to stop them and protect Milliendra, but…” Aleni finally said that when they were alone.

n“It was my fault… I didn’t imagine that Drannor would negotiate with Elkim,” Zaos said. “My only job was to protect her, but then I got my goals sidetracked… I won’t make the same mistake again.”

n“Do you think that Millie and the kids will be fine?” Aleni asked.

n“They will… if Drannor’s allies were to harm any of them, Millie won’t trust them,” Zaos replied. “They will try to convince her that Drannor is her real father, but she won’t trust any of them if they harm her friends. The real problems are the gloves and her powers.”

n“About that, Milliendra practiced a lot, so she now is capable of returning all her mana to the glove,” Aleni said. “She can sometimes keep doing that even while she is asleep, so I guess we will have some time to rescue.”

n“That is a lot of progress for a few days of practice…” Zaos said with a dark expression on his face.

n“You think that her progress is unnatural?” Aleni asked.

n“I discovered that the demon god is just a human front, a small tribe that massive magic talent,” Zaos explained. “After facing some injustices, he became an asshole, that will do anything to achieve his goals, even manipulate Milliendra… we can’t discard the possibility that his power is growing stronger because I left her side for a while.”

n“Do you think that even while he is dead and can monitor us?” Aleni asked, visibly shocked.

n“Probably not… if he could, his minions would have done a better job at finding her,” Zaos replied. “Still, with his magic skills, he might be able to sense those with strong magic powers close to Milliendra… her powers are like a link for him to the world of the living, after all.”

n“I see…” Aleni said.

n“Still, with his power growing stronger, I can imagine managing to manipulate Millie,” Zaos said. “Maybe talking directly is impossible, but since I can put others to sleep and make them see illusions, maybe he can do the same to influence her. The followers of the demon god have a spell that makes the target see things… maybe, I should have helped Millie develop some kind of Resistance against that.”

nDoubt is like that disease that spreads endlessly. Only now Zaos realized that. Before, he believed that he did his best, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if he could have done better or if he should have done other things… it was useless to think about that, though.

n“What are we going to do now?” Aleni asked.

n“I didn’t want to kill needlessly since we will need all the help we could get against the demon god, but I can’t forget this incident,” Zaos said. “Those three and whoever decides to get on my way will die… after that, I can only hope that no one will discover Millie’s secret before we find her.”

nAleni didn’t want to think of that either because once that happened, there was no turning back… a wise man said that if two people know something, it is a secret. Still, if three knows it, then it is information… Aleni and Zaos could and have been doing everything while thinking about the future of Milliendra, but how many could be that earnest aside from the people that were her family. Perhaps Drannor could keep the secret, but considering that Milliendra is his heir, it is only a matter of time before more people discover it. That was why he tried too hard to find a way with the demon god… given how much the situation got complicated, Zaos was even considering summoning the asshole and dealing with him and making sure that he would never bother Milliendra ever again.

n“Your friends said that we shouldn’t keep this secret… Maybe they are right,” Aleni said. “I am sure everyone will believe once they learn that you even sacrificed one arm to raise Milliendra well and with love.”

n“Somehow, I doubt that,” Zaos said. “Unless the demon god appears, everything I say about him will be met with dubious eyes. I am the worst criminal in the world, currently, after all.”

n“If you are a criminal, then the people who raise weapons to protect others are no better,” Aleni hugged Zaos from behind and then let her head rest on his back. “Anyway, are we going to head on straight on the mercenaries’ bases?”

n“I will do it alone. You need to rest for a while longer,” Zaos replied. “Besides…”

n“Besides?” Aleni frowned.

n“If those people aren’t going to help us, then I should make sure that I use their mana well and increase my focus,” Zaos said. “Defeating a few hundred mercenaries should give me a decent power up.”

nSince Milliendra’s powers had increased, Zaos needed the same since her powers were a fraction of what the demon god could do. Considering what he heard about the individual, Zaos felt that he needed to come up with new tricks, but nothing came to his mind yet…

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