[Rein''s POV: ]


    ''I had never seen him like that…''


    It wasn''t the first time he cried in my arms, but the way he kept crying for hours back then was apletely new side of him.


    He was mentally strong, one of the strongest in this world perhaps. But even he broke down and let his tears flow for that long of a time.


    ''It was apletely new thing for me… for us actually. Everybody in the house knew about this incident already.''


    He said he was alone in that ce, and even Celes came out after he had woken up and started crying because she was separated from him.


    It was difficult for me to understand what they were trying to say for a while, but I figured it out soon.


    ''The person he was fighting was somehow able to separate him from everything else in that ce. And by him, I mean just him. Even his special person inside of him, Lucy, was disconnected from him.''


    Even Zoe who always knew everything that happened to him had no idea about any of it until after they found him in that destroyed room.


    ''I came at night, and everything had happened in the afternoon.''


    Mother Nn told me how there were thieves that they already captured and how the one that had gathered them managed to escape after defeating Eon, a shock I was not expecting to hear as soon as I arrived from that goddamn shithole.


    "Haaa. How far is this damn ce?!"


    "The map is showing it''s just a little ahead of that tree over there. We''re almost there."


    "Fuck this! I''m not doing this next time! She should live in a ce where we can at least reach quickly for a freaking tea party!


    Who the hell is she to live in the middle of nowhere like this?!"


    "Um… someone who got second ce in the annual alchemypetition? As well as someone who''s probably a lot stronger than us?"


    "No! She''s a half demon bitch! A Bitch!"


    All the matters of past happenings on one side, we were going to the ce where that demon bitch lived. The one prince Charles had apanied during thepetition.


    And it was getting more and more frustrating as we climbed this damn mountain!


    "Calm down now. We are almost there. Comin directly to her all you want when you are there."


    "That''s what I''m going to do! Hump!"


    He got an envelope from Prince Alph during Anna''s grand tea party that was sealed and only opened when openedter that night.


    It contained a simple letter inviting us to a tea party and coordinations of the ce where we had to be for this tea party, which apparently was located way down from our territory, in high mountains in the middle of nowhere.


    ''I still don''t know why we were climbing this damned mountain instead of flying there directly but, whatever!''


    I don''t care anymore.


    It had been six freaking hours we were walking on foot after the nearest city from here… which was not Near at all!


    I don''t even remember how much we have walked until now, but if he wasn''t lying this time about the final destination, we would reach that damned ce in a bit.


    "She better serve us a divine tea."


    "I''m sure she will."


    This basted…


    I will never forget the day he broke down like that.


    Beingpletely isted was no good experience for him.


    ''He told me how right after waking up, when he remembered the time he was in that… darkness, many things from the past resurfaced in his mind.''


    From the time he was separated from my inws, the time he spent an entire night in a broken tree trunk that was getting attacked by a bore, to the time he spent alone from his master… all the times he had been alone resurfaced all at once and he did not want to control them. At all.


    He did not have enough strength to do so.


    ''He lost against a stronger opponent, a thief that was stealing something from them, from his mom at that. He didn''t like it, and more than that, he did not like how there was practically no information of that bastard on them.''


    Since he had destroyed the entire control room and knocked out the operators as well as almost all the important personnel of the Hiraani, no one had anything on him.


    There were no signs of him even in surveince equipment, and everyone they talked with did not see any suspicious activities.


    ''He spent three days trying to figure out even a little clue about that bastard but, even he couldn''te up with anything.''


    We got no leads and no answers. The mysterious ck Angel was still the same mystery man the stories and tales made him to be.


    ''And it was fucked up.''


    He was overworking himself for the two days the winter festival was going on, as well as on the day they cleared everything and returned back to their everyday lives.


    Everyone from the family was worried about him but since he was saying he was fine, even though he clearly was not fine at all, they left him be.


    ''I had already told them about this invitation from this ''Special'' person, so they at least knew he wouldn''t stay the way he was.''


    Three days passed, everyone got back to their daily life, and we came all the way here for this shit as hell tea party… in this mountain range, with trees and powerful, dangerous monsters all around us.


    ''Welp, there weren''t any creatures on the path we were following at least so that was a good thing.''


    Those innocent creatures were better off away from me right now. I don''t want to release all my anger on those poor animals.


    I wanted to kill something aftering back from that marquis estate anyway. That bastard yed tricks to trick me the entire time I was in that territory.


    ''I wanted to kill him… but we had to end things with a simple duel.''


    Beating him up gracefully in a noble manner didn''t give me the kind of satisfaction I wanted… so the pent up frustration was still there.


    And this damned trip had only increased it to many folds.


    Plus, the disappearance of my parents was no good news. Not especially since Eon was saying he saw them getting dragged to the King of the underground city of merpeople as prisoners in his dream.


    ''He was saying strange things like how Lakmer was going to wage wars on neighbouring countries and how the demonic cultists had gotten their hands on some strange artifact that, as They calmed, was going to help them win over the entire western continent.''


    Those were absurd things and he knew that as well. That''s why he only told those crazy things to me.


    There was no way a neutral nation would forsake their neutral stance after hundreds of years of strategic political monopoly.


    They were a nation that worked with words as long as the violence was not the onlyst avable answer.


    ''I don''t know what to think of this strange dream he had.''


    There was always a possibility it was just a baseless dream and that whatever he saw was only made up by his mind.


    But… since he was taking those things seriously for some reason, I didn''t know what to think of this.


    ''It could just be the side effects of the trauma.''


    A few days back, mother Nol told me how there was only one thing that had been stolen by that thief, however, they did not have any kind of record of that thing. At all.


    ''Not even he remembered having anything other than the items present in the storage room at that time.''


    The auction data list said something was missing however, they had no idea what it actually was.


    There were no records of it. Which was strange once again since every item in Hiraani was given a unique identification number and it was checked before the auction.


    ''The records of headcount said something certainly was missing from the time before the auction, but there was no record of it.''


    Which was strange once again.


    And he had put every bit of his mind to solve this mystery thesest few days, and still failed to understand it.


    Perhaps all that made him think highly of that dream. And…


    Facing that person and getting separated was a kind of experience he never knew he needed to get better, to learn more about himself.


    ''Perhaps it could have been the reason he saw that weird dream in the first ce.''


    But whatever it might be… it was important for him. I know that much.


    So I''ll just do my best to believe in him.


    "Alright, we are finally here…"


    We reached the location! Finally!


    "…but, where''s her house?" He was confused as soon as we reached the location.


    The ce we had reached was a simple open area with a little more light than the rest of the forest.


    There was nothing special about this ce.


    At least, not to normal eyes.


    "There''s a boundary, Eon."


    I could see it.


    Just like the one present some distance away from our estate, there was a boundary in this ce that looked like apletely ck ce to my eyes.


    "A boundary? You mean a permanent boundary? Here?"


    Even he couldn''t see this with his special eyes, just like the previous one.


    "Yup. And it''s like a gate. A square in the middle of this ce."


    It was different from the one we have back in our estate, the one in the crack of a tree.


    It strangely resembled a door, and there were no signs of any activity in this specific area to indicate the presence of monsters either.


    Which obviously meant this thing wasn''t just naturally present here.


    "This should be the ce."


    "Her house?"


    "Or a ce leading to the house. We will see once we cross this."


    All boundaries were connected to some other point of space. And there was no guarantee that ce would be on this.


    "Wow… now this is what I call a secret hideout."


    This bastard… he was suddenly all excited now.


    "Hump! Whatever!"


    I didn''t like her from the start but now, she was even influencing my husband!


    ''I don''t like that bitch at all!''


    Secretive half demon bitch!