Runfar was leading quite a group.

Behind him were Camilla, Meros, Morphus, Verine, and their newest ally, Navek.

Dark Lord couldn’t help but compare himself to a cock leading a harem of hens. The image in his mind was too similar for him to dismiss. He quickly erased the thought from his mind.

‘I formed the Shadow Lords because there was no way I could accomplish everything alone. But I never thought I would get so carried away with recruiting members. Oh well, the more the merrier, I suppose’

Having many subordinates meant more headaches for him, but they did make his goals far easier to achieve than working alone.

If anything, Shadow Lords were formed as a counterpart to the Holy Order, so the more recruits that are able to face heroes, the better.

They were walking across the streets of Merok territory, specifically the city of Rine, where the royal family resided.

After walking for a little bit, the Shadow Lords proceeded to split up.

It was not like each had a mission. Dark Lord gave all of them a day off to sightsee and explore the city.

‘Being too uptight with my subordinates is not a good idea, might as well have them relax for a little bit. Meros still seems to be super mad for spending couple of days in prison. This might give him some time to cool his head’

Out of all the Shadow Lords, Meros Solros was easily the most hot-headed one. When he got riled up, it would take some time for him to get rid of all the rage boiling up inside.

Morphus, on the other hand, wanted to go sightseeing in the city. As much as he would try to act mature, Morphus was easily the most childish member of the Shadow Lords. It was no wonder that Luka and Meros tended to treat him as such, much to his ire.

Giving Morphus a subordinate of his own was Runfar’s attempt at letting Morphus become more mature and develop some useful leadership skills. As such, Verine followed Morphus, not having much of a choice on the matter.

Now the only ones left with Dark Lord were Camilla and Navek.

A snake demon who was Dark Lord’s first and most loyal subordinate and the latest addition to the team, the two of them couldn’t be more different. One was a demon while the other was a human.

Only Dark Lord, as a half demon, could see the middle ground between the two races.

Suddenly, a form of a person appeared out of thin air. Dark Lord recognized the method of transportation right away, the Teleportation, achieved with the usage of magic ring made by Lukalis.

It was a black haired feline demi-human, with a burn mark on the right side of her face. Since she was facing her superior, she was not wearing the mask she usually had on.

There was no mistaking who it was.

It was Jun, another one of Dark Lord’s subordinates.

She did not even greet him first, preferring to be purely professional.

“Master, I have completed the mission you have assigned to me”

“Hello to you as well, Jun. Speaking of your mission, could you please remind me what it was?”

Lot of things happened. Even with Dark Lord’s formidable memory, remembering each and every detail of actions he had taken in every loop was an impossible endeavor. By now, he only memorized things that were of vital importance to him, the other information he would simply dismiss as junk. It seems like he may have accidentally junked the memory of giving Jun her missions, much to his dismay.

“My mission was the elimination of heads of noble families involved in demi-human slave trafficking that have close ties or are allies of royal family. This is the twelfth one that I managed to eradicate so far…”

“Eradicate…What did you do with him?”

Why was she talking like this? Eradicate? Really?!

Dark Lord wanted to laugh out loud, but he needed to maintain the air of a calm minded superior, which is why he barely managed to contain his emotions.

“I successfully assassinated him and left his head with an apple in its mouth on top of the table for all his family to see”

‘Oh goodness. I remember telling her to eliminate as many nobles as she wished, I even provided her with names of those nobles so she could have many targets to practice her assassination skills upon. I never thought she would take it this far.’

Granted, most of the names Dark Lord provided were of nobles who were in some way involved in demi-human trafficking, so it was not surprising that she would take the matter of their assassination rather seriously.

Armed with a teleportation ring and a cloak of concealment made from Camilla’s scales, Jun Valens was a rather formidable assassin.

So far, she eliminated twelve heads of noble families. For each one, she would spy on them day and night, observe all their daily habits, and then, when her target was most vulnerable, she would swoop in and kill him. More often than not, she would torture the nobleman by slowly cutting him into pieces.

At first, Runfar had at least one other Shadow Lord accompany her, but after Jun became more and more proficient in assassination, it was no longer necessary. The latest missions she could handle alone.

Due to the nature of her missions, each one took at least a week to complete, so Dark Lord did not really see her around much.

With Jun telling him the grisly fate of her latest victim, Runfar couldn’t help but feel a little sick in the stomach.

Granted, he was not much better. Though, he was more of a manipulative fiend rather than someone who derived pleasure from prolonging someone’s suffering.

To him, control over his victim’s fate was everything, rather than the ending point; he was more concerned with how his victim would end up reaching that point. With his curse, manipulating the roads of fate of his victims had become a feasible task. Not easy, but possible.

Personally, Runfar took pride in how he could arrange events so that his opponent would end up with all the losing cards.

After all that had happened to him, he wanted his victims to preferably be alive, but living a hell of their own creation.

Death was a release, an ultimate cure for suffering.

And Dark Lord was not so kind to give such a gift to his enemies.

Jun, on the other hand, wanted to get rid of all the humans that have wronged her.

Since he wanted an assassin in the ranks of Shadow Lords, Runfar manipulated her trauma, making her derive joy in killing her former tormentors.

But he also hoped that by doing so, it might cure the wounds that weigh so deep on her soul.

From what he was seeing now, he knew he failed rather spectacularly.

Killing people apparently does not make one get better, in fact, it only makes things worse.

The trauma she suffered at the hands of humans may have left created a beast of vengeance within her heart, but it was Dark Lord who cultivated that beat into a savage monster.

What have I done?

I created a monster.

Good job me.

“Who is next on the list, master?”

“Wow, you really seem eager, don’t you? How about give it a rest for a bit and take a break?”

By now, her willingness to kill as many humans responsible for demi-human enslavement was starting to creep the hell out of Dark Lord.

“What? Please no! I would like to get another target…”

“Bro Runfar, who is the chick?”

Navek nonchalantly asked.

“This is Jun; she is one of my allies”

“Pleasure to meet ya” Navek extended his hand but at that very moment Jun backed away and drew her dagger from its sheath, pointing it at Navek.

It was obvious that she perceived Navek as a threat.

Runfar couldn’t really blame her for having such an averse reaction to Navek.

After what the human noblemen did to her, she was still scared of males.

If they were her allies and non-human, she could tolerate males, to a certain extent. But she always made sure to stay as far away as possible without making any physical contact.

But when it came to human males, all the bottled up fear and hatred would come out to the surface, resulting in her reacting with extreme hostility and desire to kill the person on the spot.

Due to this, Meros always made sure to stay at least ten feet away from her at all times, while holding a shield to protect himself.

“Ok. Tough crowd” Navek muttered.

“Jun, this is Navek. He is a comrade of mine”

“We are comrades?” Navek tilted his head in question. They just met, so calling them comrades might be too soon and too much.

“Comrades in suffering” Runfar specified.

“Hmm, I can’t refute that” Navek nodded.

Jun was still holding her dagger between her and Navek.

“Jun, you might want to drop that. If he wanted to kill you, that thing wouldn’t stop him” A dagger was useless tool against an immortal.

Now Runfar addressed his snake demon ally.

“Camilla, could you please take Navek with you to the Sevilles mansion? Tell Mordon and Landon that he is my guest, all right?”

“Camilla shall do as milord commands” with a short bow, Camilla put his hand upon Navek’s shoulder and proceeded to teleport away.

Now, Runfar was left alone with his subordinate assassin.

‘Oh goodness. I am not scared of death, but being alone with her for some reason is freaking me out’

Maybe that is how a creator felt about his creation that suddenly went completely out of control.

“Let’s go”

“Yes master”

Now the two of them proceeded to walk through the city of Rine, all the while paying attention to everyone in their surroundings.

So many people, but most were humans. They spotted several demi-humans in chains being sold to the highest bidders.

Dark Lord had to personally hold back Jun from attacking the slave traders.

Since demi-humans are treated as second class citizens at best and slaves at worst, Jun wore a mask and a hood that concealed all her non-human features. Even her tail was tucked away in her clothing.

Dark Lord could feel the aura of anger Jun emanated, but he tried his best to stop her from acting recklessly.

Soon, they came to a plaza located in the middle of the city.

It was a rather beautiful sight to behold.

Buildings were surrounded by many magic fountains that radiated colors of the rainbow.

Runfar proceeded to buy a couple of snacks and gave one to Jun, who was waiting on the bench, trying her best to ignore all the humans surrounding them.

“Master, I am very sorry. I almost compromised us”

“No worries. It would be unreasonable to ask you to ignore something like that”

Jun’s mask had an open portion around the mouth, allowing her to eat without taking her mask off.

Watching the city in bloom under the blue sky, Dark Lord muttered.

“A rather splendid sight to see, is it not?”

“What is so splendid about it, master? All I see is human filth everywhere”

“Am I included in the list of filths then?”

“But you are not human, master”

“Maybe not, but currently, at least appearance-wise, I am one of them”

To that statement, Jun nodded sadly.

But then, Dark Lord felt his vision suddenly grow pitch black.

What followed was his body limply falling on the ground, following with Jun’s scream.

“Master!!!”

Maybe he was overjoyed at finally finding someone who could understand his suffering or maybe he just let his guard down.

With a body that could not produce mana on its own, Runfar had to absorb mana of others in order to function. Forgetting to recharge was truly foolish of him.

‘I ran out of mana, huh’ Runfar noted before he passed out.