It was a very peaceful morning.

After a good night’s sleep with her two younger siblings, Akjan woke up with a pleasant yawn. Lately, all the morning seemed to be so lovely.

Looking at her little brother and little sister, she couldn’t help but affectionately nuzzle them.

They were so adorable.

Both were eleven years old, but in her eyes, they looked so little, just like the day they were born.

Akjan couldn’t help but adore her younger siblings. After all, they were all she had left of her family.

Looking at them, her eyes could not ignore a detail about her younger siblings.

Both of them only had a single horn on one side of the head.

They were not originally like that; each one lost a horn at the hands of the Kas clan.

It was a permanent reminder of their sad past.

For Akjan, it was the scars on her back, for her siblings, it was the missing horns.

‘In all honesty, I can hardly believe my eyes. I still can hardly believe that I have my little brother and sister back.’ Her eyes teared up.

Looking at them reminded her of the missing members of her family.

Her parents and grandfather.

Due to the fact that she had a rare Darkness mana affinity just like her grandfather, her grandfather took it upon himself to train Akjan in the art of magic.

Not only was he her grandfather, he was also her sensei. He was the demon she used to look up to, the one she thought she wanted to be like when she grew up.

She used to have an ordinary yet fulfilling life with her family.

But after the Kas clan sacked their territory and imprisoned them, they managed to let Akjan escape after months of torture at the hands of Nar Kas.

And then, when she was running for her life from the pursuers, she met Ren.

Many things happened afterwards, but it was because of Ren that Kas clan was no more, their leader was defeated, and Akjan got her siblings back.

Ren did so much for her and her family, and yet she couldn’t even lighten his burdens.

In fact, Akjan worried that her presence in his life added even more burden upon him.

She did not realize that among all his clan members, Akjan was the one Ren had the best impression of. He considered her one of the few ‘safe’ demons to be around.

Of everyone else, Ren pretty much thought he was surrounded by dangerous weirdoes.

Funnily enough, nearly every Tengu clan member thought Ren is the weird one.

Being a member of the Tengu clan were the greatest times of Akjan’s life.

The farm work took a lot of sweat and toll but it was strangely enjoyable.

With her skin tanning under the suns, Akjan would happily do her best to help out in the fields.

While she did not share Ren’s extreme enthusiasm for gardening, she did like spending time with him.

Every time he wanted to do something, she was the one who volunteered to help him out even when everyone else would back away at Ren’s suggestion.

No matter what, she wanted to help Ren out with his tasks, and when she was with him, she felt a strange sense of fulfillment within her heart; it was a feeling that she had finally found a place where she belonged; by Ren’s side.

She was not as greedy as to want him to love her.

But she couldn’t help but love him.

For a while, he was the only shining light within her life, but in time, that light illuminated her road, opening her path to true happiness.

Just knowing that he was safe and sound was enough. And if she could help him with any task, no matter how miniscule, she would gladly do so.

Above all else, she wanted him to be happy.

Even if it meant that he would never look her way.

With how things were going now, Akjan noted that would most likely be the case.

Her siblings seemed to get along with Ren, at least Akjin did.

Apparently Ren and Akjin would often do things like fishing and flying kites together in their free time.

As for Akjai, she did not completely trust Ren yet. Akjan could hardly blame her. After what happened to them, it was natural to not trust anyone. Akjan was genuinely surprised that Akjin ended up bonding with Ren so quickly.

In fact, it took Ren stopping her from ending herself, for Akjan to open her heart to him.

Affectionately rubbing their hair upon their heads, Akjan thought.

‘My parents and grandfather are gone. These two have none but me to rely on. For their sake, I must smile so that the wounds upon their hearts can slowly heal.’

Even if her two younger siblings put up a strong front, it was obvious they were still traumatized.

Every now and then, they would ask Akjan to sleep in the same room as them. They were afraid that she might suddenly disappear just like their parents and grandfather did.

With a loving look in her eyes, she uttered.

“I am not going anywhere. I will be right here. Always”

As long as she was alive, none will ever hurt them. Akjan made her promise.

* * *

After Akjin and Akjai woke up, they went towards Ren’s room, with Akjan following them.

Apparently the twins thought it was a good idea to wake Ren up with a surprise, and Akjan was desperately trying to stop them.

But as soon as the twins entered the room, Akjan heard a loud gasp.

After a moment, the twins exited the room.

Akjai was covering her eyes with her hands while Akjin was red from head to toe from embarrassment.

“Is everything all right?” This was definitely not the reaction Akjan was expecting.

“So indecent!” Akjai cried out, her hands still covering her face.

“Uhm, big sister, is that normal around here?” Akjin asked.

“What do you mean?” Akjan now proceeded to enter the room.

What greeted her was a sight of two female demons, one dragon and one frost wolf demon, buck naked, cuddling on the bed, all the while their lips were locked in a kiss. They were both asleep.

“I can never unsee that” Akjan’s mouth was wide open at the sight before her.

No wonder her siblings had such reaction to this.

But the owner of the room was nowhere to be seen.

After a couple of seconds, Lotus and Karli opened their eyes, and after seeing just what they were doing, both ended up backing away, screaming.

“This never happened” Karli uttered, all the floor around her froze while she was using the pillow to cover herself.

“Agreed” Lotus replied, desperately trying to hide herself with a blanket.

“Uhm, guys, where is Elder Brother Ren?” Akjin asked.

“Has he left?” Lotus was a little confused, Ren was there when she and Karli snuck into his bedroom last night.

“He was not outside, so we thought he was still in his room”

“Oh no” Akjan muttered.

This sensation, it was the leftover of her darkness mana, and from the scent, she could tell it was Ren who used it.

He teleported himself.

Which meant that he was likely no longer in Tengu clan territory.

“Is something wrong?” Lotus asked. She managed to put at least some of her clothing on.

“This is bad. Ren used my darkness magic to teleport himself to I don’t know where. Quickly, gather the others. We need to find him before something happens!”

Akjan quickly took charge of the situation, all the while thinking.

‘How could I have been so careless? I forgot about Ren’s sleep walking and this happened. I am a fool! Ren, please be safe!’

* * *

Akjan organized demons to search for Ren in groups of two.

Groups were as follows: Akjan and Lotus, Orin and Shaula, Lumina and Korkau, Karli and Aijasyl, Kizilkoz and Doran, and Sirinke and Sukesir.

Shaula cast a spell upon all of them so that they would be able to contact each other telepathically if one of the groups managed to find Ren.

Each group split up to search in different directions.

They kept the matter secret from Master Korgan, fearing what would happen if they told him that his only grandson was missing.

Unknown to them, Master Korgan and Sento Draco already knew, but they were under a completely different impression.

“Seems like Akjan organized squads to search for Young Master, but you don’t seem very worried”

“There is no need to worry. I am confident everything is going exactly as Ren had planned. The only thing we can do now is wait”

Master Korgan was under a misguided impression that everything his grandson did so far was part of a master plan, and since it was all part of Ren’s plan, Master Korgan was confident Ren had everything under control.

* * *

“So, let me get this straight. You are not actually a prisoner, right?”

“Not really. I am a lich, I can get out of here any time I want to. But, as long as they think I am prisoner, they do feed me once, sometimes twice a day. And I get some space for space for myself to chill and relax my old bones. All for free! Does that not sound wonderful?”

“It kind of does, to be honest” Ren found himself swayed by such a positive argument.

Turns out this fellow prisoner, Kanka, was not such a bad guy.

Ren found him to be scary at first, but as they started to talk, the more Ren came to like that weird undead person.

“You know, you are a splitting image of a colleague of mine”

“Really? Do tell”

“His is called Death Hand, I am not sure what his real name is, but we both work for the same boss. He is in this world on a secret mission and personally I just came by to see his progress. But, boss did not ask me to do anything, and technically, I am on vacation, so it pretty much is my free time. I spend it wisely by staying in various prisons and dungeons, for fun’s sake. And free food, of course.”

“You let yourself get imprisoned, just to get some free food?”

“You never realize how much the taste of food is worth until all your organs had rotted away, leaving nothing but a skeleton behind. Master Morphus did attach this artificial flesh and skin on my bones, allowing me to eat, but…without these things I can’t even take a sip of water.”

“Sound rough.”

“I know, right?” Kanka proceeded to demonstrate his point by taking off the flesh suit he was wearing on his head, exposing his bare skull. He was holding the head shaped fake flesh and skin in his hand.

He truly was a lich, a walking skeleton.

Seeing that Ren was looking at him with a mixture of horror and fright, Kanka sighed.

“I know it looks scary, I can’t really blame you for being afraid.”

“Don’t mind me”

“It wasn’t always like this though. I once had flesh too, you know, the real deal.”

“I believe ya”

“Unlike most that were turned, I was born this way. Not as a skeleton, of course, but as a True Undead. I didn’t age past my prime, my body could absorb near limitless energy and life force, and I could share my gift of undeath with the entire world!”

“Village after village, town after town, city after city, I amassed countless followers, all converted into eternal and undying hordes. I was going to make the world into a deathless paradise…But then, he showed up.”

“Who?” Ren asked.

“Dark Lord, who else?! Unlike the others, he rejected my gift and turned against me. He sealed me away within a stone and threw it into the ocean. The ocean damaged the sealing stone, making my body age within it. Since I could not absorb mana while I was sealed away, I slowly rotted in there until nothing but my bones remained. By the time I was found and freed by Master Morphus several hundred years later, I was just s fleshless skeleton; deprived of many things that I once took for granted. Damn that Dark Lord!”

Kanka got uncharacteristically flared up and punched the rock floor of the cell. The impact of his strike left a deep crack on the floor.

“I swear, if Dark Lord was here, right this minute, I would have torn him to pieces! Damn it! Damn it! Damn him!”

“There, there, buddy. We all have bad days~” Ren consoled Kanka by patting his bony back.

“I suppose that’s true. Sorry for losing my cool.”

“No biggie”

Looking at the imprisoned humans near them, Kanka muttered.

“Paladins, huh. Religious weirdoes. Kind of reminds me of Bolvan cultists”

“What’s Bolvan?” Ren asked out of curiosity.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t know about it. They were quite popular around thousand years ago. Basically, it was founded by Saint Bolvan, after he allegedly jumped off the roof of a house, sprouted wings, and flew towards the heavens. The members of the cult practiced jumping off the roofs, hoping to sprout their own wings and enter heaven. They are not entirely wrong, many of them broke their necks and most likely went to heaven….He he he”

“They don’t seem anywhere as crazy as those Bolvan folks you are talking about”

“Well, Paladins are the superiors of the Pishak Priests, who practice eating demons…”

“Ok, they are definitely as crazy as the Bolvan cult” Ren muttered.

“We are not associated with Pishak Priests, you idiots!” one of the Paladins cried out. “We would never lower ourselves to the level of demons and consume their flesh!”

While Pishak Priests and Paladins were both human groups, apparently they were not on the same side.

“Oh, my bad” Kanka muttered.

“Sorry” Ren shrugged.

Their dull reactions only angered the captured Paladins.

By now, Ren and Kanka turned their prison stay into some kind of vacation time. Their relaxed, happy go lucky attitudes were in sharp contrast to their gloomy surroundings.

Putting his flesh and skin mask on, Kanka asked Ren.

“Want some wine?”

“Do you have some?”

“You bet I do, though I do not have cups…I did not really plan on having a neighbor… are you fine with drinking out of a bottle?”

“Already got you covered. Here” Ren handed Kanka a cup.

Luckily Ren had couple of cups within his storage ring.

“Thanks”

Now, both of them had cups full of wine, which they proceeded to toast and drink to their heart’s content.

If anyone else was watching them, it would resemble a happy picnic rather than imprisonment.

“You know Ren, life is not so much about having goals and being serious about achieving them, it is more about enjoying the ride. The small things make all the difference. Just look at us, two complete strangers, with the only commonality being that we are both prisoners. But add couple of cups and some wine, and presto! You have a formula for a good time. No stress, no responsibility, just relaxing just for the sake of it. Does that not sound like living a dream?”

“You said it, buddy! My clan has crazy high expectations for me, so just getting a chance to have a brake like this is more than I could have asked for!”

“Toast, to prison buddies!”

“To prison buddies!”

They drank more wine.

“Hey greetings, I am Kanka, the lich, currently a member of Divine Lords, and the one who nearly conquered the human world. How is that for an introduction?”

“Ooh, ooh, let me try! I am Ren, the Muffin Lover! The Slayer of Pies, the Burner of Stoves, and the one true Ruler of the Kitchen!”

Both now started to laugh.

Their enthusiasm about their current circumstances made the other prisoners, who were mostly captured humans, rather disturbed.

“How can you be laughing when our lives are in the hands of these filthy ox demons?!” One of the captured Paladins cried out at Kanka and Ren.

“Look, life is short, at least for you. So, even if it is your last moment, would you rather go down laughing or feeling sorry for yourself? I would advise the former. Trust me, I speak from experience. Crying your eyes out will not do you much good. Do it enough and your eyeballs start falling out of their sockets and rotting into dust in no time.”

“Do they really do that? The eyes I mean” Ren covered his own eyeballs with his hands.

“Oh yeah, if anything, in less than a year after being sealed, my eyes were gone. Everything else soon followed”

“Ouch”

“But since I am an undead, it did not really affect my sight, but ever since then I couldn’t really close my eyes since I no longer had eye lids. And I couldn’t roll over my eyes, since….”

“…You no longer had eyes that you could roll” Ren finished his sentence.

“Exactly! See what I mean?”

“Ughhh, before you told this to me, I was going to ask if you could turn me into one of the undead. But if that’s the case, I guess not”

“Wise choice. Even if I did turn you, you wouldn’t be a true undead; you would be a lesser lich, retaining none of your flesh. If the years after Master Morphus had freed me had taught me anything, it is that there is nothing quite like tasting food. Liches can’t eat, so for someone like you, who seems to be an aspiring chef, I wouldn’t recommend it”

“I see. Thanks anyways”

“Don’t sweat it. Everything has plusses and minuses. You just need to learn how to live with them. Speaking of which….Undead don’t sweat, but we are practically corpses, so there is that.”

Lying on his back, Kanka chuckled.

“The world sure has changed. It used to be harsher, but now, everything seems to be so much tamer. I can get used to this…”

Now looking at Ren, Kanka uttered.

“Make sure to spend your time doing things you enjoy doing rather than trying to meet some crazy expectations you know you are not going to meet. Unlike me, you are not gonna live to your two hundredth birthday…probably not. So, enjoy all the time you can have for yourself. Trying to be what you are not is just going to become a big disappointment. Just look at me! Lived longer than anyone else, and got nothing to show for it!”

“I will keep that in mind”

“Splendid! Drink up, drink up buddy! Oh, I ran out of wine…”

“I have some” Ren took one of the bottles out of his storage ring, which was filled with strange liquid.

Ren thought it was wine, but he did not know that it was actually Holy Water he ended up collecting during the Second Trial.

He proceeded to chug it into his mouth.

But then, Bukka clan prison guard showed up.

Apparently Ren and Kanka were making too much noise.

When he approached Ren, the guard saw that Ren’s mouth was filled with something, a liquid he was afraid to swallow in front of the guard.

“What’s in your mouth? Spit it out!”

Guard would later regret saying those words.

What followed next was Ren spitting the Holy Water on the demon’s face.

The effect was immediate.

Nearly all of the guard’s face was burned off as he was screaming, running blindly out of the prison area.

“Do you think he is going to be ok?” Ren asked, clearly concerned for the ox demon.

“Somehow, I doubt that” Kanka replied in a matter of factly manner.