After Ekrok told everything to Padinyss, he found Atelon and took him straight to the palace. They entered the throne room and after Bethor appeared, Ekrok told him about his fate. “From this day onwards, you’re no king of this kingdom. As a reward for helping me find the devourer, unlike you and the others, I declare Atelon as the king of this kingdom. If either you or your men try to hurt him, I’ll make sure to kill all of you.”

“But-!” Bethor stood up from his seat to resist, but Ekrok used his aura to push him back into his chair.

“I won’t argue. Accept your fate, lower being,” he said with a calm voice.

Gulping down his anger, Bethor stood up from his chair and walked to the side of the throne room. He knew that dying here was pointless. He waited enough all his life to get to where he was, waiting wasn’t his weakness.

“Oh, but I know that you really didn’t know anything about the devourer and I also know that Atelon isn’t really fit to be a king. So I’ll state a few regulations you’ll have to follow, Atelon. You’re not to kill or torture Bethor and his men. Am I clear? Don’t underestimate me, if I hear either of you didn’t follow my words, I’ll make sure to kill you all,” Ekrok threatened again.

But both Bethor and Atelon knew that he was only acting mighty in front of them. After all, why would a powerful dragon like Ekrok care about the life of a tiny kingdom like theirs? Once he left, they’d jump at each other’s throats. The only question was whose side was stronger. Atelon believed the greedy nobles would help him retake the throne.

The only thing he didn’t know was that neither of those nobles was alive…

“I’ll take my leave now,” Ekrok said and then turned around to leave. After leaving the palace, he transformed into his dragon form and flew towards his home, the Dragon Empire. A few days later when he passed the Alof Kingdom, he didn’t know the lurking danger that was building up in the nearby area. And the Dark Scars group has finally found its master! Well, maybe it was the other way around.

---

For a few days after Ekrok’s leave, neither of the two sides made a move. It was like a cold war. Atelon changed the laws and made everything revert. He took a fancy to the new technology that appeared in the city since it made his life much easier. Sadly for him, his rule continued only for three days before Bethor and his faithful servants caught Atelon and openly executed him.

Most of the citizens didn’t even notice that there was a change of king. The whole event passed by without any problems, thanks to the stable roots Bethor created with Elena and her friends’ help. The nobles only laughed at Atelon’s naivety for even trying to use a mighty being like Ekrok to retake his throne. When Bethor retook his place, he remembered the time he decided to let Elena and Dred take care of the old nobles and realized how good his decision was.

---

“*Yawn* I’m so sleepy,” Audrey covered her mouth with her hand.

“Well, it’s your fault for tiring yourself out with training,” Jake gave a cup of drink to her. After drinking it, Audrey got out of their bed and dressed up.

“Mhm- *crack* Let’s go, we’ve got to train the kids,” she stretched her body and cracked her bones.

“Should I leave and look for more children?” Jake asked.

“I’m not sure. We gathered thirty people already, any more than this would be hard to nurture. It’s better to train capable blood servants who can actually help us than basically, serializing an army of shadows. If they have problems with their Magic or their training, we can still help them, but if there were too many of them, we wouldn’t be able to,” she shook her head.

“True, and it’s better to be quality over quantity since if Elena or Dred died, all of us would follow. Depends on whose blood we drank, but since except for Cor everyone drank Elena’s blood…” his voice died down.

“Eh, yeah. That’d be bad. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep them alive and I’m really unhappy about the fact that I don’t know anything about them. Where are they, what’s happening to them? All I know is that they’re alive since I’m still standing here,” she grumbled.

“Haah- whatever. We should do what they asked from us before we were separated,” he sighed.

The two of them left their house and went to the yard where they found six kids in a group, who were being hit by Cor. The kids understood it was necessary if they wanted to increase their physical resistance and their ability to disable their sense of pain was also handy. Basically, the just had to stand in one place and survive their wounds, which would slowly increase their physical and magical resistance.

“I don't think I can ever get used to this sight… It feels morally wrong, even if they don’t feel pain,” Audrey shook her head.

“I know, in the past, I fought to save lives. Now I’m doing good and bad to kill bad people. Well, maybe we do save people,” Jake shrugged his shoulders.

Their chatter was interrupted by two kids shouting at the entrance of the camp. Since their old location wasn’t good enough, they used Dred’s Wyvern form to carry the kids back to an area where the monsters were weaker. Ever since the kids had to go out to hunt monsters and fight as a team. Thanks to everyone having their own role, they advanced quickly by devouring many monsters.

It got the point where they had to change their location every second or third day since a lack of monsters formed every time. “Let’s see what this racket is all about,” Audrey said and then used Shadow Step to appear in front of the entrance.

Looking around, she couldn’t see anyone so she asked, “Why are you shouting?”

The kids looked at her with grins on their faces. Feeling something behind her back, she turned around.

“Hiii, fuck you! What if I had a heart attack?” she cursed.

“You’re not human, you won’t get a heart attack,” Elena laughed as she jumped off of Dred’s back. Dred closed his mouth and then remarked, “It seems like my jaws are terrifying~”

“Please stop bullying her,” Jake stepped in.

They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds until Audrey jumped at Elena and hugged her. “I missed you~”

Patting the back of her head, Elena soothed her, “It’s fine, we’re back now.”

“Ugh, I feel as if I found my lost mother…” Audrey grumbled.

“Haha, that’s just because of my blood. I’m sorry, I guess.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Will you let go of me? I want to look around,” Elena pointed out.

“Soon.”

“Okay.”

A few seconds later, Audrey indeed let go of her and stepped back. Thanks to the role she got from Elena’s blood, she was more affectionate than anyone else, except if Dred was counted…

“Master Elena! Master Dred!” all of a sudden, the kids knelt down in front of them in an orderly manner.

“Stand up, you don’t have to kneel,” Dred said with a straight face, visibly not surprised. Looking into the kids' eyes, he saw great reverence, even though they’ve just met. It was completely different from their direct blood servants. This was because of a simple reason. Direct blood servants were always freer when met with their master.

The highest ranked blood servants, like Audrey, were able to think clearer than the lower ranked ones. For example, if one of the kids had a blood servant, the said servant would be still quite free around the kid. But if met with Audrey or Elena, their respect would also increase based on the rank.

This was because, the lower ranked a blood servant was, the least Elena’s or Dred’s blood would change their bodies and would focus more on the servant’s mind. Obviously, if Elena or Dred, and not even Audrey and co. bothered to take the said person as their blood servant, said a person would be a nothing but a ‘disposable pawn’.

That’s why such a low-ranked blood servant would have a crazed mind, filled with respect for the highest ranked blood servants and would throw away their lives to save them without a second thought.

“Could you show me around quickly?” Elena asked.

“No. I want to hear what happened to you two!” Audrey denied.

“I’ll tell you after, just let me sit down. We’ve been travelling for days and five monsters attacked us as well… Very powerful ones, but we killed the last one!” Elena flaunted their achievements.

“Fine then! Come quickly, I want to hear your tale,” Audrey grabbed her hand and dragged her through the camp.

“Oh! You’re back!” Cor ran towards them upon noticing Elena and Dred.

“Hello Cor, we’ll talk in a bit,” Elena went past him with a pat on his shoulder.

“Okay…” he replied, a bit down.

After a quick tour of the camp, they entered Audrey’s and Jake’s house. Both sides told each other about the events that took place while they were separated.

“So you’re runaways now, right?” Jake remarked in the end, trying to sum everything that happened to Elena and Dred up.

“Not just us, you guys too,” Elena shook her head and clarified her meaning. “Like I said, spies of the Dragon Kingdom were already questioning people in pubs and cities if they’ve seen us or you guys. They’re spreading descriptions about us… I believe Padinyss wants to take us back and once he opened the seal with our help, he’d kill us.”

“He is a prideful Dragon God. Most of the legendary creatures have nothing in mind but to become the strongest and reach the apex… seriously. They’re so silly. He probably killed Reinald only because of the same simple reason.”

“Is that so?” Cor furrowed his brows. “My life was but an ‘obstacle’ in front of him?”

“Yes.”

“Can I have a request?” Cor asked.

“Say it,” Elena raised her brows in her curiosity.

“I want to be the one who finishes Padinyss if there is a way. Of course, don’t risk your life to fulfil my stupid request.”

“I’ve got nothing against taking revenge,” Elena shrugged her shoulders. “If it’s possible, I’ll let you finish him. But at first, we’ll have to stay alive long enough…”

“I know, I know. We’ve been training these kiddos since you left. Some are stronger, some are weaker. You know, it’s all dependent on their age and mindset,” Cor said, waving his hands.

“By the way, after hearing more about your past life, I’ll ask it again. Do you want me to call you Reinald or Cor?” Elena leaned on the table.

“Don’t be stupid. I told you before, Reinald had died and Cor has come alive. I’ll be Cor until the day I die!”

“Pfft- but… aren’t you already dead?” Dred couldn’t help but shoot a joke. Although Cor laughed at him, the others only held their foreheads, feeling ten years older than before.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Dred grumbled.

Clearing his throat, Jake said, “Enough chatter. Let’s go and introduce yourselves to the kids. Believe me, their teamwork is better than ours at this point and they’re all really hard-working. They’re real monsters!”

Looking at his proud face, Dred asked, “You seem like a father who is proud of his kids. Since when did you have a quality like that?”

“You’re just imagining things…”

“Yeah? Then why are you living in one house with Audrey, while Cor lives alone?”

“Well, it’s because I’m dating Audrey!” Jake declared their relationship with his chest stuck out.

“And did you, you know~” Elena indicated with her finger, asking if they had done it. Being met with silence, she found out the answer without anyone telling. “Great, that’s one less thing to worry about.”

“Since when was it a problem you had to worry about?” Audrey furrowed her brows.

“Never mind. Bad wording. It was your problem,” Elena hurried to correct herself, realizing she stepped on a landmine. I shouldn’t be too nosy.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t,” Dred replied. After all these days, they’ve got used to using Elena’s whispering to communicate secretly.

“Suspicious… But alright. I know what you meant by it since if I had a bad relationship with Jake, it’d have affected our teamwork as well. But don’t forget that I’ve been with you since your childhood. I know you well enough and you too should know me well enough. I can take care of my own matters and I’m not the type of person who takes offense and gets upset on every little thing. I believe even if we ended up as friends, we could have talked things over,” Audrey caught on Elena’s thoughts and told her, her opinion.

“I got it, I’m sorry, okay?”

“It’s good that you understand,” Audrey nodded her head.

“Now then… let’s see the kiddos!”