"Who is she?" Evie aske, curiously calm.

She sounded composed, yet a lethal creeping cold made Ren's spine twinge.

First Saya, and then her now, there was another short girl!

"It seems like you really like little girls," Evie said to Ren with a smile on her tilted head.

"It's not what you think!" Ren immediately defended himself. How did he get himself into this situation? "I thought she was you!"

"Really?" Evie spoke in fake surprise. "You couldn't tell the difference at all?"

Ren knew the hidden meaning behind those words without his little girlfriend expounding it. Her point was that he should be able to distinguish even the texture of her fingers, the length of her nails, and the line on her palms if he really liked her, that is.

". . ." That was a woman's logic he couldn't refute it no matter what.

"T-that's . . ." Ren had never found himself in trouble as deep as this, and he didn't know how to smooth his way out from this.

"You." Ren shifted his attention to Lily, knowing that he couldn't reason with Evie. "Tell my girlfriend that it's just a misunderstanding. And why are you even here?"

"Girlfriend?" Lily was surprised, and she felt a pang in her heart.

She turned her head to Evie and scanned the latter from head to toe. Whipping her head back to face Ren, she said, "It's fine . . . may the best woman win then," she said, blowing the situation even more.

". . ." Ren's eyes widened, and he felt a dark, ominous aura radiating from Evie. Her eyes seemed to glow red behind her mask.

He was so sure that she was roasting him alive in her head at this very moment.

Ren panicked and snapped at Lily. "W-what are you even talking about?!"

Irritated and stumped, Ren grabbed Lily by the hem of her robe and threw her into the Charnel Hound's way.

He had enough of her nonsense. That girl was nothing but trouble ever since the first time he had seen her!

Ren wasn't usually aggressive towards girls and would just let them be most of the time, even if they irritated him to no end but he couldn't tolerate Lily any longer.

His relationship was on the line this time.

It was time for her to go.

This was the only method he thought of to immediately get rid of the irritating girl, simultaneously showing Evie that she had nothing to worry about.

Lily was curled like a cat as she flew in the air. Her poker face didn't budge one bit, like she didn't care what happened to her. But inside, she didn't know what had happened.

Perhaps, to protect her pride, her mind subconsciously fogged itself, letting her forget what happened after Ren grabbed the hem of her robe.

Before Lily knew it, a shadow loomed over her vision as sharp needle-like teeth surrounded her. She then found herself inside the mouth of the Charnel Hound, and with one chomp, a loud crunch resonated in everyone's ears.

With just one bite, Lily dissolved into particles.

Ren was panting at the side. The situation made him exhausted for some reason.

He quickly looked behind and found that Evie was slightly shaking her head. Even though he couldn't see her face, Ren knew that she was disappointed.

"Ren . . . how could you? She's just a little girl." Evie sighed.

". . ." Ren didn't know what to say next. He felt like no matter what he said. He would still be in the wrong.

This was a conversation that he couldn't win, no matter what he did.

While Ren was in the middle of a dilemma, Evie was giggling inside. She wasn't really that jealous and just wanted to see his reaction. It was surprising that he actually threw Lily into the jaws of the hound, though.

Of course, Evie knew about Lily, and she had long expected that she'd have a lot of competition for Ren's attention.

Ren was handsome, rich, and very capable. There were bound to be bees and butterflies around him.

Evie originally thought that she was ready to face such situations, but when she saw Lily take hold of Ren's hand, she couldn't help but feel a little insecure and threatened.

Lily was a beautiful girl, after all.

They were still in the early phase of their relationship, and there were still a lot of things that she didn't know about him and vice versa.

Evie sighed and looked over at the ceiling. She wondered if their relationship would last long if this kept up.

Her troubles were misunderstood by Ren, and he gently took her hand into his.

"Don't worry about that girl. She's always nothing but trouble. You have nothing to worry about," he reassured her, rubbing the pad of his thumb against the back of her hand.

The worry and sincerity in his voice made Evie guilty. She was about to open her mouth and say that she was merely joking when they heard the Charnel Hound's howl and the Bone Golem's growls.

Upon directing their attention to the battlefield, Ren and Evie noticed that they were the only players left in the hall, and all the monsters were drawing closer in their direction.

There was a smile on Ren's lips as he faced the monsters that crept together. When he was sure that the monsters were close enough to each other, he released [Inferno] just in time for the Charnel Hound to leap in their direction.

Everything was going extremely well with Ren's plans. The Charnel Hound's growl slowly turned into whimpers mixed with the echoing cries of the Bone Golems as they burned to ashes.

When everything was clear, and peace returned, a golden chest appeared on the altar. Ren and Evie checked its contents but only found one thing . . . the map to the Chaos Realm.

"Is this it?" Evie asked, excited. "Is it normal to find this map early on?"

Ren nodded and replied, "Yes. This is an event with a time limit, so finding the map to the Chaos Realm at this time isn't strange."

He then used that old parchment of paper to update their map.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)