"Hey! Master Ken! Wake up!"

"Whu-what...?" Reivan awoke with a start, cradling his cheek as his mind struggled to start back up again. It didn't really hurt since his face was thick, but suddenly being slapped awake wasn't pleasant for anyone.

'Who the fuck...'

With a fierce glare, he searched for the culprit only to find Aila next to him, naked as the day she was born. Her hand was raised as if she was going to slap him again.

"Hey, stop stop stop..." Reivan looked at her, incredulous. "What, no... Did you slap me?"

Aila shrugged, standing up before throwing him some clothes. "You said to wake you up just before dawn but you wouldn't wake up."

'Dawn...right, right... I promised to meet up with Helen to do some hunting...'

Reivan sent a glance toward the nearby window and indeed saw the light of the sun illuminating the sky. In fact, it was a bit too bright for that. He hurriedly checked the clock on the wall and discovered that it was six o'clock in the morning.

"Ah... Sormon help me..." he paled in horror as his palm automatically covered his forehead. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier...?"

"You're joking, right?" Aila rolled her eyes before putting on some clothes too. "Big sis tried to wake you up earlier before leaving but you wouldn't budge either."

"No way..."

"Yes, way. Me? I also just woke up, as you can see." She gestured down at her state of relative undress. "Anyway, are you leaving or not? Honestly, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to go for another round. But I thought you had something to do, master?"

"Right." Reivan nodded as he tried to get up, but someone's body was right on top of him. So he carefully pushed her off and covered her with the blanket. Then he carefully got off the bed only to stop.

'God, they really slept on the floor again...'

On the floor of his and Elsa's little love room were a bunch of other naked beauties. With a sigh, he carried them all to the bed and made sure the cover protected them from any chills. It would be a while until they had to wake up for work and whatnot, so he decided to let them sleep—they had all been up really late last night, after all.

Reivan took out a bottle of pills that restored stamina and placed them on the nearby counter with a note.

"Ah, wait. Is my share in there too, master?" Aila asked while fixing her corset.

"Yep."

"Great. I need a couple." She smiled and hopped over to take a few of the pills before throwing him an aggrieved look. "Why are you always such a monster, I swear..."

Reivan fixed his own clothes and scowled at her, feeling wronged. "Maybe don't come at me all at once then."

'It was supposed to be just me and Elsa... When did things devolve to this?'

It had all started two years ago, when Elsamina had to go around all over the place for work. She and he agreed that his lust was a bit too boundless, so she said that it was fine if he asked a few of the other girls to help him out. Reivan, indignant, had said that he wasn't some kind of animal who couldn't control himself. He would wait for her to return and they would make love.

But then he discovered that he couldn't, in fact, wait for her return.

'Who knew hybrids like me went in heat all year round? Crazy...'

It was a horrifying discovery—one that would probably discourage humans and warbeasts from making babies with each other. He started having hallucinations if he went a month without doing something. Reivan had lamented that if, hypothetically, someone locked him inside of a room alone for a month, he'd probably go nuts because he couldn't fuck anything.

'Worse, masturbation doesn't work!'

In shame, he'd told his parents about it, causing Vianna to giggle at him for a few moments before hugging him in comfort. His father, on the other hand, took it a bit more seriously by sending out a subtle announcement to the Terracatta clan not to couple with humans—not that they were keen to do so, anyway.

Reivan appreciated how his father didn't tell anyone why members of the two races shouldn't make a child together. Because that would mean everyone would know that Reivan—the only other hybrid in existence—was horny all year round.

'By Sormon's grace, I really wish this is all some joke or misunderstanding...'

Sadly, it wasn't. This was his reality now.

For all the benefits being a hybrid brought, it seemed that this was just one of its weaknesses.

Anyway, that's why he eventually agreed to Elsa's proposition to ask the other girls to help out. They were a bit too enthusiastic about it sometimes, but all was well. Maybe he'd even take all of them in as his concubines, as absurd as that sounded.

'Well... I'm thinking about all sorts of idle thoughts, but really, I'm fucked now, aren't I?'

He had an appointment at dawn, but he was late by an entire hour. Really, he could only blame the girls for ganging up on him.

'Not like I can reproach them, though.'

Reivan scanned the room, gave Aila a kiss, and then whispered goodbye to the sleeping beauties piled up on the bed.

'I hope she's not too mad...'

Helen was flipping mad.

Reivan knew because she wasn't talking at all. She'd grown more vocal these past few years, so when she regressed to her past quiet self, he knew she just didn't know how to put her anger into words.

"Helen, I'm really sorry about being late..."

The pretty little genius said nothing, keeping her arms crossed. She wasn't even looking at him.

Reivan felt at a loss as he looked down at one of his best friends.

While being a hybrid warbeast-human had its downsides, it also came with advantages. Notably, his body's physical development was astonishingly rapid. At the tender age of fifteen, he now stood at a towering one hundred and eighty centimeters in height, presenting a physique reminiscent of a Greek god. His broad shoulders and chiseled chest hinted at the immense strength he possessed, while his limbs were lean yet sinewy, showcasing his agility and athleticism.

He probably looked more mature now than when he was Kagami Ken at the moment of his death. Even warbeasts didn't have such rapid growth, though they were pretty fast as well.

Because of this, it was a bit awkward to hang out with his two best friends—they always looked like a young father playing with his two kids. Of course, that didn't stop them from hanging out anyway.

"Hey...?" Reivan tried to get Helen to look at him by leaning from side to side, but she swiveled her head left and right to avoid him. Eventually, he decided to call upon his other best friend for help. "Hey, Hector, help me out here?"

"Don't look at me, man." Hector chuckled, looking at Reivan like he was thoroughly enjoying the events unfolding. "I didn't even know you two were meeting up two hours early. What, is going with me and the boys too boring for you guys?"

Numerous teasing grunts and heckles followed Hector's accusations. The knights behind him couldn't help but jump in on the fun, it seemed.

"Shut up, you guys..." Reivan glared them all down. "I guess I've been giving out too many bonuses to you guys, hm? Maybe I should stop."

That got them all to close their mouths and avoid their gazes, busying themselves with making sure they had everything in order.

After handling his subordinates, Reivan turned back to the immovable girl sulking in front of him. Leaving her behind was one option—one that would likely cause more problems than it would solve.

'Damn... Uh, this is hard...'

At some point, it had become set in stone that Helen would be his fiance. Of course, his parents had already met Elsamina and didn't have any problems with her being his wife too, but they were still adamant about pulling Helen closer to the royal family.

To him, this made sense in a lot of ways despite how awkward it felt for him to marry his best friend. Helen was an incredibly talented individual and infusing her genes into the royal bloodline would benefit everyone. She herself would likely be an Ascendant in a decade or two, and maybe even a Transcendent one day.

There were only benefits to be had if she became part of the royal family through marriage.

Even then, he'd expected some protests from the girl herself. After all, weren't other people deciding her marriage partner without her consent? But then she seemed to think this was totally ordinary and happily nodded when Reivan broke the news to her. With how enthusiastic she seemed, how could Reivan say anything else?

When life throws you lemons, you have to roll with the punches.

'Oh, wait. I don't think that's how the saying went...'

In any case, since they would soon be married anyway, Reivan tried to treat her like a fiance instead of a friend—though, he had to admit that he wasn't very good at it and they still went out as if they were friends.

So now, Reivan was very troubled.

He'd now enraged his fiance because he overslept after playing around with other girls. Wasn't he just absolutely finished? Nobody would be on his side here. Not even his family, since they would all gang up on him for being too careless. If he was the protagonist of a story, this would be the point where the audience would be cheering for him to suffer a bit of a setback.

'I have no choice! I just have to make her pity me!'

"Royal command! Turn around and block your ears!" Reivan ordered every single person in the room aside from Helen. All of them were knights so they had no choice but to obey.

"The hell, man..." Hector grumbled with his brows creased but he didn't have a choice here. Having a soul armament meant that he was unable to disobey a command from the royal family.

All the other knights snickered while following Reivan's orders. They'd all grown a little too familiar this past year and Reivan felt like he had to teach them a lesson soon.

'Good. The coast is clear...'

Reivan then walked up behind Helen and wrapped his arms around her delicate shoulders. He then placed his chin on her right shoulder. It was a pain to bend his knees to do so, but sacrifices had to be made. This, he had found, was the best way to make her stop sulking.

Helen didn't try to break out of his embrace, but she still didn't say anything.

"Helen... I'm sorry."

"..."

"Forgive me, please?"

"..."

"Please? It won't happen again..."

Helen let an audible breath escape through her nose before muttering in a very quiet voice that was barely a whisper.

"Why were you late?"

Reivan's face brightened at the opportunity to explain. "I overslept. I am really sorry."

"Hmm..." Helen wriggled out of his grasp and turned around, staring at him with narrowed eyes. "Where?"

"What do you mean where...?"

"Where did you oversleep."

"Oh. There's only one place I can sleep, right?"

"Did you oversleep because you were at that place again?"

'Shit. Does she know? Did someone tell her...? Was it Jiji...!? It was her, wasn't it!? I've been betrayed again!'

"Uhm..." Reivan thought that maybe he should lie, but Helen now had the resources to actually investigate the truth. She might have also known the truth already. In which case, he'd just make everything worse by lying. "Yes... I was there..."

"I knew it." Lightning sparked from Helen's eyes and Reivan braced for an attack that never came. Instead, Helen turned around and headed to the portal to the outlands. "You're bait today."

"Eh?" Reivan's puzzled expression soon turned to one of relief. "You're not mad anymore?"

"I'm not mad."

[Lie Detection] has activated!

'Oh.'

Reivan waved his hand to slap all the other knights on the back of their heads with [Formless Will] before catching up with his fiance and speaking in whispers. "I'll make it up to you, okay?"

Helen didn't stop walking until she stopped right before the giant puddle that led to one of the most dangerous places in the world. When Reivan caught up and stood right beside her, she gave him the side-eye.

"How?"

"Uhm..." Reivan tried to come up with something on the spot. He almost wanted to ask what she wanted, but he had enough experience to know that would piss her off. It would make her think that he wasn't putting in the effort. "There's this new place in Lightharbor City that serves a mean fish stew..."

"What about meat?"

"Oh. I think they have meat dishes too, yes."

"Mhm." Helen nodded, crossed her arms, and stared at him.

Reivan took this as his cue to continue. "So, you wanna go there with me after this?"

"...A date."

"Yes. My treat, of course."

"For how long?"

"How long...?" Reivan tilted his head, puzzled at the question. "However long it takes...?"

Helen smiled as she jumped into the giant puddle of darkness.

"Okay. Forgiven."

Reivan pumped his fist before jumping in after her. But grimaced when he glanced behind him and saw that everyone else was wearing smirks on their faces. They even offered thumbs-ups, as if that made him happy.

As he sunk into the portal and felt the familiar sense of being whisked off into another world, he promised he would teach those guys a lesson.

Perhaps because his family finally accepted his incessant insistence that he didn't want to be king, Reivan's studies had changed drastically. It was as if he was being molded into a battlefield general, similar to his mother—one who was extremely strong and could command a group of knights.

That's why he was tasked with a few dozen knights to take to the outlands every few days. While he got to practice his skills at commanding knights, the knights would get high-quality training by fighting in actual battles. And it was in a relatively safe environment too, since obviously, the prince wouldn't go around unguarded or unwatched.

Of course, even if they didn't die, it wouldn't be pleasant to get mauled by those ugly things.

Furthermore, because Reivan's eyes were special, he could see through the fog that even the Sword Star's senses couldn't fully penetrate, making him the best candidate to take command during operations in the Outlands.

"Hey! Watch your flanks!" Reivan yelled from behind the formation while overseeing the battle. His sword turned into a bow and he shot a few of the more powerful nightmare spawns dead before letting the others take care of the rest. Naturally, he made sure a few spawns that would be very challenging for them remained.

"Hrah! Yah!" Hector was like a gust of wind, skewering enemies left and right with his spear.

For all his self-deprecating crap about being untalented, he'd unlocked his qi at age fifteen, proving himself as one of Aizen's rising stars. In fact, the other knights with them had only been recently knighted, but they were already in their mid to late twenties, barely making the cut. If they had been delayed for a few more years, they may have had to enter the Order of Peace instead.

'Ooooh. Hector's keeping up really well even though he's the physically weakest one of the lot.'

This was a vast improvement from the nervous wreck that he was two months ago. That said, even though Reivan was happy about his friend's growth and success, that didn't mean he would let the guy off easy today.

"Hey, leader...!" Hector eventually yelled out as he swung his spear like a madman. Each time its blade sliced through the air, a nightmare spawn was bisected. "Last time I heard, soul armaments didn't run out of arrows! How about some ranged support, huh!?"

The other knights were feeling the pressure too but hadn't said anything. Even though they were familiar enough with Reivan to tease him about his problems with women, questioning him on the battlefield was a different matter. Luckily, one of them was the prince's best friend and someone from House Mercer.

"What~?" Reivan shot a few arrows sparingly, killing the strongest spawns but leaving everything they could theoretically handle alone. "I can't hear you! I'm too busy shooting arrows!"

Hector cursed under his breath and then chanced a glance at where his sister was, but couldn't even see through the dark mist. With a shake of his head, he continued reaping the lives of all his enemies.

'Haha. This guy, he really wanted to ask his sister for help.'

Even though nobody could see Helen at the moment, Reivan was different.

'She's busy with her own shit.'

Helen was like the living embodiment of a storm. Bolts of lightning rained down a certain area as tempests were left behind in her wake. The raging winds ripped apart any monster foolish enough to come close while the lightning focused on attacking three monsters that, surprisingly, had human faces.

Reivan had done most of the work in gathering the human-faced nightmare spawns, using his body as bait. They were the only mortal-realm nightmare spawns capable of giving him or Helen an actual challenge at this point, so they were the prey that both of them preferred.

Usually, they shared the ones they found. But Reivan just had to be an idiot today, so he wasn't fighting anything and Helen would benefit from all of his hard work—not that he'd worked very hard if he were being honest.

'Heh, if I went back in time and told my past self that by age fifteen, I'd be the one hunting for trouble... I probably wouldn't have believed myself and called some knights to kill me for impersonation.'

The thought made him chuckle. Perhaps this was also part of his growth?

"Look at this guy, snickering to himself...!" Hector must have seen him since he appeared even more annoyed. "Hey! We're dying here!"

"You sure like to exaggerate..." Reivan grinned but pulled the string of his bow back as far as it would go. An ornate black arrow was automatically created for it by his soul armament and it was soon encased in lightning that obscured its figure. "I'm clearing the front!"

He aimed high at nothing in particular. But as the arrow sailed across the sky, electricity snaked through the air and struck every single nightmare spawn nearby, turning them into crisps. This earned them a brief respite. Some of them even took out water canteens to take a sip before continuing the grind.

But before they could fully relax...

"Brace!"

A new swarm broke through the fog in time with Reivan's exclamation.