As always, Ana found Ethan cultivating under the lake. The boy barely moved from his spot, so once again, she threw a bunch of pelts on top of his head.

“Holy Hastings, what the f**k is this?” Upon seeing the bony creature mixed in with the pelts, even he was taken aback.

“I call it a nightmare.” explained Ana with a tired expression. “One foot spikes come out of its limbs. It runs, glides, and burrows faster than most. Oh, and it feeds on children… like, they’re this thing’s main diet.”

There was a veritable carpet of adult kobold corpses in front of the cave’s entrance, yet only the occasional bone was left of their progeny.

While Ethan was inspecting the nightmare’s limbs, Ana buried the rest of her loot, ripped a cleaning scroll in half, and immediately went to sleep. No amount of vitality pills could make the girl forget her ‘adventure’.

“Curious…” After half an hour of dissecting the beast, Ethan could only conclude it was abnormal. ‘Almost no muscles, just skin and bones. It shouldn’t even be alive, let alone rank 2.’

He confirmed its rank after digging up Ana’s mana cores. There was a distinct connection between a creature’s core and its body, since both were an expression of its soul. Though few could see it, Ethan was one of them.

“Already asleep?” The girl was unresponsive. Surprisingly, most of the cores she brought back were drained of mana. After going back and forth between them and the creature, Ethan finally connected the dots.

‘You really are a demon.’ he thought while smiling.

To be exact, Ana was only a half blood, but enough of the legacy was passed on to give her access to the demons’ main abilities. Besides rank 9 mages and highly skilled necromancers, only the demon race could use other creatures’ mana as if it were their own.

‘Good job.’ Despite her origin, Ethan felt only pride for his friend. He took one of the pelts he dried up and placed it over her as a blanket. He then turned another pelt into a pillow.

‘You must have been through hell.’ Ethan gave her a kiss on the forehead and then resumed his cultivation. If only he had remembered there was camping gear in his ring.

At the same time, in the beast people’s territory…

The royal family’s palace was rowdier than usual. Though they normally met once a month, this was the second consecutive week when the Queen and her children were found in the throne room.

“Eduard, report.” said her Majesty after the last princess had taken her seat. As always, the chairs were arranged in semi-circle, with the Queen in the middle, and the princes and princesses being seated based on their ages and rank.

“I’m afraid the hostages were more determined than we thought. On the second day of interrogation, they were all found dead.”

As soon as they were alone, after 12 hours of torture, some of the humans smashed their heads into the walls. A few others bit their own tongues off. So, by the time someone checked up on them, not one of Nolan's subordinates was still breathing.

“Seriously?” asked Amelia outraged. “I deliver them on a golden platter, and you can’t even keep them alive?”

“I should have gagged and tied them up. I apologize, sister.” Eduard bowed deeply towards the girl, though his face was as calm and professional as ever. While tapping her throne, the Queen moved on to someone else.

“Vincent, any news on the humans’ movements?”

“Yes, actually.” The 20 something year old prince stood up. “After capturing those spies a month back, Eduard made them spill their guts in an afternoon. Since then, we’ve been tracking down more and more of them.”

Satisfied with the comment, his brother gave a nod of approval.

“After the recent incident, we’ve restrained the other prisoners.” he added.

“We’ve captured a total of 17 spies as of this moment. We’ve also caught 3 dozen mages which ventured into the mountains.”

“So?” the queen was not one for lengthy introductions. “With all of these prisoners, you should know even what the human king had for breakfast by now.”

“It’s usually an omelet with a tomato salad.” said Eduard matter of factly.

A not so subtle chuckle resounded through the room. After it died down, Vincent straightened his posture and resumed the report.

“As expected, their king is planning war. He is desperate to prolong his pitiful life and thinks we may have a way to do so.”

“He could’ve just asked.” said Amelia while cracking her knuckles.

“If it’s war he wants, then we’ll gladly oblige him.” the Queen decided immediately. “Amelia, prepare our troops.”

A giant grin got plastered on the princess’ face.

“Let’s not be hasty.” Vincent butted in. “Their king isn’t getting any younger or stronger for that matter. But, if we attack right away, we may be acting exactly as he wants us to.”

After a short sigh, the Queen gestured Amelia to sit back down. She then turned her eyes towards her son.

“Go on.”