Watching that despair would be Raon’s joy.

“Looks fancy.”

Cale said that as he gave Choi Han a command.

“Sit him on that chair over there.”
“Got it.”

Choi Han threw the unconscious Venion onto the luxurious leather seat. Cale was looking toward Choi Han, who was avoiding his gaze.

“…I’m sorry. I got even angrier after looking around this base.”

Base. Cale’s group was currently in Venion’s secret base in the back alley. It was full of luxurious and fancy items.

The crazy priestess Cage had told him about this location two days ago. Cage, who served the God of Death, was still a priestess even though she was excommunicated. She specialized in curses and mental torture. It was easy for her to get the information from Venion’s lackeys.

Of course, since her abilities were used under the name of a god, she could only use her curses in situations where she believed she was just. But she should have had enough reasons for, ‘justice,’ to use her curses this time.

‘Still, she’s amazing too.’

There was nobody else serving the God of Death who was better than her at using curses. It made sense why people called her the spawn of a necromancer and that she was not fit to be a priestess.

‘Well, I know there is a separate necromancer.’

As was the case with many fantasy worlds, you were bound to find those professions that were said to have become lost in the past if you looked hard enough. Something like finding out that the main character’s neighboring old man was a sword master in the past was not uncommon in fantasy worlds.
It was all just part of making a story interesting to the readers.

‘This world is the same.’

‘The Birth of a Hero,’ was known for having many of those types of developments.

Cale quietly observed the unconscious Venion who was hunched over on the chair.

“I understand why you would want to throw him like that, but this position is not what we need. Beacrox.”
“Sigh, yes sir.”

Beacrox let out a deep sigh before approaching Venion. He then sat Venion down properly and made sure Venion looked tidy, fixing his outfit, hair, etc.

Anybody who saw Venion now would think that he was a fancy noble who has had no problems or injuries for the last few days.

Venion’s back still had a few small scars that could not be healed with the potion, but the majority of the injuries throughout his body were healed. In fact, his face, hands, and visible areas showed no signs of injuries at all.

“Then we will be on our way now.”
“Sure.”

Beacrox took Choi Han with him as they stealthily left through the base’s back door. Cale approached Raon, who had been quietly curled up in a corner since earlier.

“Shall we start?”
“Sure, human.”

“You guys come here as well.”

Meeeow!

On and Hong jumped up and sat down next to Raon and Cale. Cale made sure they were all against the corner and looked toward Raon. Black mana started to appear from Raon’s paw.

It was now time to watch.

Paaat!

With a quiet noise, Cale’s body started to turn invisible. They were no longer visible inside the base.

“Oo, oo-.”

A bit later, the base was filled with a person’s moans. It was Venion. He was frowning, as if he had just woken up from a nightmare.

“Gasp!”

He gasped as he opened his eyes. He could only observe his surroundings with a blank expression at that point.

He blinked a few times and tried to figure out where he was.

“T, this is-.”

Venion touched his neck in shock. He could speak. Human language was actually coming out of his mouth.
He also realized that there were no shackles on his neck.

He then frantically checked his body to see that there were no injuries or blood on his arms and legs. His fancy outfit did not have any blood on it at all.

He was not in any sort of pain.

“…Was it a dream?”

He couldn’t tell whether this was the dream or if that basement and the torture was the dream.
It was so terrible and painful that he still clearly remembered it, but it must have been a dream. Venion slowly reached his hand out and touched the desk in front of him.

This definitely felt like it was real.

Yes, this was all real.

Venion started to frown and wonder if he had been dreaming. Rather than being abducted on his way to the base, he had arrived and then fallen asleep.

“Haha.”

Venion started to smile, however, many emotions were running through his mind.

“Yes, it was only just a dream.”

It had to be a dream. He could still feel the whip cutting through his body, as well as the torturer’s cold gaze and that dragon bastard’s gaze, but it was all just a dream. It didn’t matter that he was still afraid. It wasn’t real.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain how he was here right now.

“Haha.”

Venion put his hands on his neck. He could feel the warmth of his hands. It was at that moment.

Meeeow.

Venion flinched and his shoulders started to shake.
Cale, who had been watching in the side in his invisible state, petted Hong’s head once with an indifferent expression on his face. Hong let out one more chilling meow.

Meeeow.

Venion’s face turned pale and his hands started to shake. Something suddenly popped into his head.

‘I plan to let you live.’
‘And I will come to find you whenever I don’t have an appetite.’

Venion’s hands that were clutching onto the desk were turning pale.

“C, crazy-”

He looked down and started to shake.

The dark red fog was slowly crawling up his legs like a snake. His face turned teary like a little baby.

“T, that crazy dragon bastard!”

He quickly started to brush away the fog. However, the fog did not disappear and just moved further up his body. He felt like he was going to go crazy.
However, at that moment, Venion realized something.

It was different from last time.
Unlike last time, he was able to move his body. Venion looked around and quickly found the door.

The moment Venion laid his eyes on the door, Cale looked up at the clock. If Venion hurried a bit, it would create the picture-perfect moment.

Cale patted On’s back this time.

Swiiiiiiish-

The fog started to move up Venion’s leg even faster.

Meeeeow.

The two kittens’ meows became even louder.
Venion’s two legs were shaking. He quickly got up from the chair.

Bang! The leather chair fell backward with a loud noise. However, Venion did not care, as he quickly rushed toward the door.

Unlike his fancy clothes and slick hair that were fit for a noble, his face looked like he had gone crazy from fear.

“Q, quickly-”

Venion grabbed the doorknob with his shaking hand. It was at that moment.

Click.

He heard someone turning the doorknob from the outside.

Was it his lackeys? Venion thought that he no longer needed to face this scary situation on his own. He was relieved. It definitely had to be his two lackeys from the morning.

Someone pulled the door open from the outside. Thanks to that, Venion did not need to do anything, as the door had opened for him.

Creeeeak-

The door slowly opened. Venion did not manage to notice that the fog surrounding his legs had disappeared. He was too absorbed by the light he could see coming from the other side of the door.

The door finally opened completely.

“We finally found you.”

The person to greet Venion was Taylor Stan, his older brother whom he had paralyzed in the past.

“…Uh-”

Venion took a step back. Behind Taylor was the path heading down to this secret base, which was now filled with a lot of people. It was filled with both Taylor’s people and people from the Stan estate.

“W, what is this.”

Taylor confirmed that Venion had no visible injuries before looking at his face. Venion’s face was full of fear.

Taylor looked past Venion’s shoulder into the base. Nobody was there. However, he knew that Cale was inside.

He had borrowed Cale’s invisibility magic device before. That was why he was even more certain that Cale was inside.

“I, is this a dream too?”

Venion blankly started to mumble to himself. Taylor looked at his brother, the brother that he detested, and answered his question.

“Looks like you had a long nightmare.”

He turned around and gave an order to the knights of the Stan estate.

“Arrest him.”

This was only the start of Venion’s nightmares.

Not only was he now completely pushed out of the successor picture, but he would also have to pay the price for all of his illegal deeds. He had to receive the anger of all the Stan family members for ruining their reputation.

“…The, the dragon did this. The dragon did all-”

Taylor did not care about Venion’s mumblings. He focused on what Cage was saying as she walked next to him.

“Tonight.”

Taylor could meet his benefactor again tonight. It had been quite a while.

“Young master-nim, should I start searching the base right now?”

Taylor shook his head at the knight’s question.

“The most important thing right now is to quietly move Venion to the castle. There are too many people outside.”
“Won’t it be difficult to do it quietly?”

The citizens of the Stan territory were gathered outside. That was why the knights were anxious. However, this was all because Odeus had spread the word at Cale’s order. Taylor knew about it as well, but pretended to worry about it. Even he could do this level of acting now.

“That is true, but we still need to move him as quietly as possible. We cannot allow our reputation to fall even further.”
“…I understand!”

The knight responded with a serious expression.

“You can focus on searching the base after that. We will leave some of the soldiers here to guard the entrance.”
“Yes sir.”

Taylor made it a bit easier for Cale to get out and turned his back to the entrance. He now had to go to the castle and cut off the Marquis and Venion’s arms and legs, one by one.

Some of the knights remained to protect this empty secret base. The others went to capture Venion’s other lackeys, who were probably in his other bases.

“Hey, guard properly.”
“It’s not like anybody is there. We haven’t been able to rest the last few days. Let’s just chill.”
“We cannot do that.”
“Why so serious? We just have to prevent someone from going in.”

The two knights were talking quietly so that the soldiers could not hear. A light wind passed by behind them, but they paid no attention to it.

Although the wind didn’t make sense, they couldn’t see anything anyway, so they didn’t care.

Cale, the person responsible for that light wind, got on a carriage he had prepared not too far from the base. Raon, who was following behind Cale, removed the invisibility on everyone except himself.

“Shall we head out now?”
“Go.”

Odeus closed the carriage door and sat down in the driver’s spot. The carriage slowly started to head toward the residence. Cale leaned on the chair and could feel the soft leather relaxing him.

He looked down and made eye contact with Raon, who was no longer invisible and was laying on his lap. At that moment, Raon started to smile and speak.

“I am not too bad. I am a great and mighty dragon!”
“Yes. Their hell is only just beginning.”
“Right!”

Cale spoke to the others in the carriage.

“Let’s all eat some delicious food and get some rest today.”

However, Cale had to enjoy his dinner away from the others.

“I guess you have some free time now?”
“Of course I had to come since it is to see you, young master Cale.”

Taylor Stan and the crazy priestess Cage. The two of them came to find Cale with some alcohol and drinking glasses. They came to see him late at night, so Cale ended up drinking and eating at the same time.

“I will probably get busier after today.”
“Naturally so.”

Cale nodded at Taylor’s words and looked toward Cage. She smiled and lifted up the bottle. Cale emptied the entire glass without any changes to his expression.

“The majority of the people you told us about were Venion’s people, young master Cale.”
“Is that so?”

Taylor could not look at Cale comfortably. Cale had given him the file regarding Venion’s bases and the involved people. That alone was surprising, but there was an even more surprising development.

“There were some of my father’s people as well.”
“…I did not know that.”

Cale looked toward Taylor with a sincerely shocked expression.
But of course, he was just acting.

Venion had received orders from Marquis Stan to torture the Black Dragon. Thanks to that, the people guarding the cave were naturally going to include some of Marquis Stan’s people. A couple of them were connected to Venion’s dirty deeds.

They would receive a life sentence at minimum and be executed at maximum. The Stan territory had the most vicious rules after all. The Marquis would probably want to kill them all so that he could try to hide his involvement.

“…I will trust that you didn’t know.”

Taylor answered like he was convincing himself. A bottle was placed between the two of them.

“How about we empty this bottle first?”
“Sure. Let’s drink.”
“Sounds good.”

The three people took turns filling each other’s glasses and emptied the bottle. Taylor and Cage had to return to work as the bottle emptied out.

“Will you be leaving tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“I heard you are taking the western route to the capital. Is the capital your final destination?”

Taylor could see Cale starting to smile instead of answering his question. Taylor did not ask further. Instead, he shared his sentiments with Cale.

“I will definitely pay you back for your help in this situation, as well as last time.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Yes, please look forward to it.”

Seeing Taylor looking straight into his eyes as he told Cale to look forward to it, Cale thought about the new connections he had in this Northwest region.

Taylor and Odeus. He had quite a few people to put to use in the approaching future.

***

Cale finished all of his preparations early the next morning and was looking in the mirror.
He asked Raon, who was looking in the mirror as well.

“Have you figured out the crown prince’s magic?”
“I know what it is, human. I am great and mighty.”

There was a smile on Cale’s face as he continued to look into the mirror.

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