"...This was out of my expectations."

Duke Anozech's face was tinged with solemnity as he gazed at the arena from one of the platforms.

Pondering over the events that had just transpired, his brows furrowed tightly.

"How odd..."

"What's odd about the situation, your excellency?"

Appearing from behind was his servant.

Without looking back, Duke Anozech replied.

"Have you ever seen the Blood Prince go all out from the beginning?"

Musing for a moment, the servant shook his head.

"No, it has never happened before."

"That's right, it has never happened before."

There had never been a time when the Blood Prince had started from the very beginning with such vigor.

To gauge his opponent's strength, he tended to always start slowly before ending it.

"Furthermore, he displayed several skills that he had never demonstrated before. Isn't the situation odd?"

"...It's as you say, your excellency."

As he listened to the Duke's reasoning, the servant became increasingly curious about the situation.

"Have there been any strange movements from the Blood Prince the last few days?"

Pondering for a moment, the servant shook his head.

"There haven't."

"Nothing at all?"

"...Hmm."

Lowering his head, the servant suddenly thought of something.

"Nothing concrete, but most recently, the Blood Prince has been spending his time either training or writing some things."

"Writing?"

The Duke's interest was piqued. Turning around, he asked.

"Tell me more about this writing."

"...As you wish."

Placing his hand over his chest and taking a knee to the ground, the servant started to explain.

"A couple of days ago, Blood Prince had started spending his time writing in his own room. He spends an average of an hour on each letter, and he has been writing them at the same time each day."

"Is there any knowledge of the contents of the thing he wrote?"

"Yes."

The servant nodded.

There were times when the Blood Prince would casually toss some of the letters away, and from there he was able to learn of its contents.

"...It appears to be letters addressed to his daughter that he misses."

"Hmmm."

Duke Anozech's eyes squinted.

Opening his mouth, he asked after a while.

"When did this start?"

The servant was quick with his reply.

"It started a bit after White Reaper's visit."

"...It started after meeting White Reaper, huh?"

Duke Anozech lowered his head and covered his mouth with his hand. He quickly came up with a hypothesis.

"Could his appearance have caused the Blood Prince to miss his daughter?"

In light of the fact that both of them were humans, the appearance of White Reaper may have triggered memories from the past to resurface in Blood Prince's mind. This may have resulted in his sudden actions.

Even then.

"Keep a close watch on the situation."

He quickly ordered.

Duke Anozech was cautious by nature. He would never let go of anything, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

"...Is there anything else that you need to report to me?"

Thinking for a moment, the servant recalled something and answered.

"Yes."

***

At the same time.

"Nooooooo!"

An anguished scream echoed throughout a small platform that overlooked the arena from above.

SilverMoon collapsed to her knees and placed both hands on the glass. Her face turned pale as she gazed in the direction of where SilverStar used to stand.

"Arun...Arun...You..you told me that you were going to win..."

SilverMoon mumbled out SilverStar's real name in a frantic voice.

The relationship between the two was special. The two of them were in fact married to each other.

It was a relationship that started before they found themselves in this shithole.

Had it not been for that accident...

"Arun..A"

"Shut up."

Her despair was interrupted by an irritated voice.

"...Ha?"

Weakly turning her head, her eyes paused on an individual who was lying on the couch with both of his eyes closed. His sleeping posture was rather weird as he seemed to be snuggling against his sword.

Opening her mouth, SilverMoon eventually managed to utter his name.

"L..Lightning dragon..."

"Yes, that's what they call me."

Opening his eye, he briefly glanced at her before closing his eye again.

"....Now shut up, I'm trying to get some sleep."

It took her a while to process his words, and when she did, her face quickly turned red in anger.

"H...how, da"

"Did you not hear me?"

Cutting her off, Lightning Dragon's eyes snapped open revealing his two yellow-colored eyes. Raising his head to glance at SilverMoon, his eyes narrowed.

"I'm tired of your endless nagging. Do you expect me to give you sympathy?"

Carefully putting the sword down on the couch, Lightning Dragon slowly stood up.

Gazing toward a platform in the distance, he turned to look at SilverMoon again.

"You think I don't know what you did?"

Taking a single step forward, an overwhelming pressure bore down on the room.

Among the nine people in the room, not one of them was able to alleviate the pressure bearing down on them.

Not a single one of them.

Tok. Tok.

Taking a couple of more steps forward, Lightning Dragon's eyes shone with a brilliant yellow hue.

Trying frantically to open her mouth, SilverMoon's heartbeat quickened as she gazed into those eyes. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to summon the strength to speak.

...He was simply too terrifying.

"You think I don't know about the things SilverStar tried to pull during his fight?"

His next words caused her eyes to shoot wide open.

"H..how?"

"Heh."

The edges of LighningDragon's lips pulled into a slight grin.

Raising his hand to point at his eyes, he muttered.

"Nothing escapes my sight. I see everything."

"Hackkk...."

At the exact moment, those words left his mouth, his eyes shone in an even brighter hue of yellow as SilverMoon suddenly found herself grasping her neck with both hands.

Spit flew out of her mouth as she struggled to mouth a single word.

Raising her head, she turned to look at the other people in the room. Reaching out her hand, she begged for help.

"H..Help..."

But it was all futile.

Turning their heads, everyone in the room glanced away from her. SilverMoon's eyes opened wide when she saw this.

"After...all..I d..id for you?"

Everyone, apart from Lightning Dragon, was where they were because of her and SilverStar.

Yet.

The moment that SilverStar died, no one dared to spare her a glance. Upon realizing the harsh reality of the situation, SilverMoon's eyes dulled and she stopped speaking. The pressure that was bearing down on her had long stopped taking effect.

Lightning Dragon shook his head as he looked at the other people in the room.

"Spineless..."

He muttered under his breath as he turned around and headed back to the sofa. As he was walking back to the sofa, he managed to utter a couple of more words.

"...Do me a favor and shut up. I'm trying to sleep."

To Tok!

But it was then that someone knocked on the door. Without waiting for anyone's permission, the door flung open and a couple of demons entered the room.

Lightning Dragon's feet came to a pause.

"What is it now?"

Lightning Dragon was really starting to get annoyed now.

It was one annoyance after another. When would they let him peaceful sleep?

Unaware of what had transpired moments prior, the demons scanned the place before focusing their attention on Lightning Dragon.

Once they managed to catch sight of him, a demon stepped up and announced.

"Lightning Dragon. You have been challenged to a match."

"A match?"

The frown on his face tightened.

"...Am I allowed to refuse?"

"You cannot."

Without saying anything, Lightning Dragon's face remained impassive. Opening his mouth, he asked.

"...Who is challenging me?"

"White Reaper."

***

"Looks like I didn't need to interfere."

I muttered as I gazed at Edward who was standing in the middle of the arena.

On the off-chance that something did go wrong, and Edward had not read the letter, I had planned on interfering with the match. Not directly, but through the usage of 'The one.'

It was an extremely risky plan, but I was fortunate enough to not use it.

Taking my eyes away from my arena, I glanced toward my right.

"...You already know what to do next."

"I do."

I nodded my head.

"I've already sent the application."

Moments before the match between Edward and SilverStar started, I had sent my own application to fight.

The target was Lightning Dragon.

"Before your fight starts, use this chance to break through to the next rank. If you don't, you'll have a hard time beating him."

My other self reminded me.

I waved my hand in annoyance.

"How am I supposed to do that when there is barely any mana here?"

It would've been understandable if I was back on earth where the mana was denser, however, I was currently in the demon world. A place that barely had any mana, if any.

"Not only that, but I've also broken through like five months ago. How do you expect me to breakthrough when I can barely feel the sensation telling me that I can breakthrough."

Whenever I was on the verge of breaking through, there would be this weird tingling sensation coursing down my body whenever I channeled the mana inside of my body.

At the moment, I didn't feel such a sensation.

Simply put, I was still a little bit away from reaching the next rank.

"Idiot."

"...What?"

My forehead creased.

Did I miss something?

"Don't tell me you forgot you're a top ten contender?"

"Ah."

I snapped my fingers.

"Right, I almost forgot about this "

Apart from a better room, top contenders would gain access to more resources.

That said.

"I don't think that will be enough for me to break through."

Although I wasn't exactly far from reaching the next rank, I was also not very close. For me to break through to <A+> rank, I needed something special.

"You're right, but did you forget about what we discussed a whole back?"

"...Right."

Raising my head, I massaged my forehead.

'There's that too...'

There was one reason why SilverStar wanted to create a group. It wasn't because he wanted to help the others, but because he wanted to gain their resources.

In exchange for a spot in the top ten, the contenders were to hand over to him a part of the resources they would get.

It was a simple deal.

Anyhow, now that he was dead, it meant that the resources he had kept with him were free for anyone to get.

"This is allowed, right?"

"It technically belongs to the current Overlord, but Duke-ranked resources shouldn't interest him, so he'll probably not care. That and the fact that the Overlord is Edward. He wouldn't mind if you take them."

"Alright."

I turned around and directly headed for the SilverStar's room.

Unsatisfied with my pace, my other self reminded me.

"You should hurry. You should arrive before she gets back. You will have the advantage then."

"Alright, alright."

*

"What are you doing?"

Arriving at SilverStar's room, I was blocked by two demons.

Staring at the demons, I answered.

"I'm here to collect his resources."

"Collect his resources?"

"Yeah. He's dead, so I will take his resources "

With confused looks on their faces, the two demons stared at each other. It was clear that the demons had no idea how to respond to the situation.

After a while, they both grinned and took a step to the side and opened the door.

"Okay."

Since the resources were useless to them, they didn't even think twice about taking them. Furthermore, I could tell from a glance what they were planning on doing.

They were probably going to let me take the resources before telling the current Overlord of what happened, and thus create a conflict between us.

Not only him but with the other top ten contenders.

But it didn't really matter to me.

In fact, this was exactly what I wanted.

I wanted people to think that my relationship with Edward was terrible. After all, this was the best way for me to catch the Duke's interest.

Regarding the others.

I frankly did not care.

"Thank you."

Taking a step forward, I entered the room.