‘I told Camilla I would be ok by myself. Like hell I am! I am a complete idiot!’

If Camilla was here, then he could have made both of them invisible and would have a chance to sneak away unseen.

As he was now, Dark Lord could not teleport away without attracting unwanted attention.

‘Not encountering someone dangerous my ass! The most dangerous person in the entire kingdom shows up out of nowhere! What is it? Something like a curse of misfortune on top of the curse that I already am afflicted with?!’

‘At this point, I am fine with a roof falling down on me, crushing me into tiny bits, as long as it gets me away from her!’

‘Still, why do we end up meeting each other so often?’

At the moment, Leona was crushing Runfar with her mighty embrace.

“Are you my soul mate or something?”

“What?”

“Never mind” Runfar realized that he just said it out loud.

“I am just so happy to see you, Runfar. I thought of traveling to Tracoa to see you again, but I never thought I would find you in Merok”

As soon as Leona put him down, Runfar was able to breathe easily.

Being half undead, he did not need to breathe, but since he still had one lung, it felt more natural to do so.

Leona seemed to be in a rather good mood.

Since they were in a pub, they ended up ordering some food.

“I see that you have kept the dress”

“Yes, wearing shiny armor would attract too much attention, and all the other clothing I have is made for men. But just for one day, I wanted to just be myself.”

“Any special occasion?”

“A funeral for the heroes and fallen knights”

“Oh, my condolences”

“Yeah…I was kind of responsible for their deaths”

“How so?”

“Had I arrived sooner, that crow Demon Lord would not have killed them and gotten away”

‘Crow Demon Lord…Wait, is she talking about Kazan?!’

Dark Lord had a few theories in mind about that crow demon, but at the moment he thought of Kazan as some distant relative, since both were same type of demons.

“Even worse, I have confirmed that the Dark Lord has been conspiring with them. Crow Demon Lord talked as though he knew Dark Lord”

“Really? What else did he tell you?”

“I tried to get him to talk, but he mocked me instead”

“I see”

“I am sorry for venting out on you, Runfar. You are the only one I can talk to about this. Everyone else thinks I am some invincible hero. Only you know the truth.”

“I understand”

She trusted Runfar with her secret, ever since he ended up finding her in a horrible state and healing her wounds.

“But the Crow Demon Lord is right; Dark Lord really did a number on me.”

‘No kidding. And he is sitting in front of you!’ Runfar struggled against the urge to shout it out.

“But for the sake of the kingdom, I need to stop obsessing with Dark Lord and focus on the bigger picture, the Demon King Draco, who is the mastermind behind everything”

‘Oh dear, just how wrong you are. Arin is currently focused on freeing every demon that has been captured, enslaved, or held captive to be sacrificed on the upcoming Festival of the Sun. As far as all the events going wrong in the kingdom, well, she is not responsible, at least not for most of it. The true villain you seek is currently having a lunch with you.’

“You are probably right”

‘Wrong, but if this gets Leona off my back, then it is fine’ he thought on the inside.

As they were eating, Runfar picked the perfect moment when Leona looked away to slip in something into Leona’s drink.

A single drop of Camilla’s most powerful poison, potent enough to kill thirty people within seconds.

Not even realizing what Runfar did, Leona kept drinking from her goblet, as naïve as ever.

But even after several minutes passed, Leona did not show any signs of getting weaker or growing pale.

In fact, the more she talked to Runfar, the more excited she got.

‘This can’t be right. Why is it not working?’

“Uhm, Leona, do you ever get sick?” he asked, making sure that the question was neutral enough to not raise suspicion.

“No. My blessing gives me complete immunity to bodily ailments like diseases or poisons.”

‘Are you kidding me?! What is she, an overpowered hero? Oh right, she is!’

Then the topic of the conversation shifted to the many people disappearing within the slums areas.

“I suspect there is some kind of monster preying upon people at night. Most likely a type that feeds upon the blood of its victims. If anything, please be careful, Runfar. I do not want you to become its next prey”

‘Yeah, I am pretty sure the monster she is talking about is the vampire I ‘recruited’ just a little while ago.’

As far as Dark Lord was concerned, that vampire was rather weak.

“I know! How about I escort you back home? I can guarantee I can keep you safe!”

‘Heck no! That is the last thing I want!’

According to Mrakus, Chronos is unaware of what Dark Lord is doing so far, which was good.

But if the Knight of Light sticks around him, then Solaris might become aware of what Dark Lord has been up to.

‘But even if Solaris does find out, I don’t think he will interfere. From what I heard of him, he never actually plays a direct role in anything. It must be because he has Chronos. If anything were to go horribly wrong, he can have Chronos simply reverse the time’

If Dark Lord ever caused enough damage, Chronos will have to show up to reset everything. That was his current plan, at the very least.

“Don’t worry, Leona, I will be fine! I wouldn’t want to bother you…”

“It is not a bother at all…”

Then, something fell out of Leona’s purse.

Runfar bent down to pick it up, only to hear Leona’s panicked voice.

“Wait! That is…”

Runfar saw an expression of horror upon Leona’s face.

Curious at what could cause her so much distress; he looked at the object in his hand.

A handmade plushy.

And not just any plushy.

It had clothing, a cape, golden hair made of silk, and a half mask upon the face, with only the red left eye visible.

This design looked oddly familiar…

It took Runfar a moment to realize that this plushy was modeled after him.

‘It is like a miniature version of me’

After staring at a plushy for what felt like an eternity, Runfar looked up and saw that Leona’s face was completely red. She was sweating all over.

‘Perhaps I went too far with my disguise. I may have inadvertedly caused Leona to become infatuated with me for some reason. I feel flattered and disturbed at the same time. I mean, she is the last person I expected to end up falling for me’

Without saying a word, Runfar handed back the plushy Runfar to Leona.

“Thank you” She muttered, in a defeated voice.

Trembling from head to toe, she put it inside her purse. It was obvious she was extremely embarrassed.

‘Wow, she got my looks down to a tee, even had the design of the mask sewn just right’