"Kyaak! Kyaaaak!"

The woman, who had been captured and teleported by Lucas, was constantly screaming.

"Alright. This time, I'll listen to you until the end. What was the reason?"

"You son of a b-tch! Do you know who my father is?!"

As the woman screamed in anger, Lucas's expression hardened for a moment.

"...Why are you asking me that? Ah, perhaps your mother didn't tell you?"

Humans were truly strange. Why did they ask their opponent if they knew who their parents were, even while they were in the middle of being attacked?

"W-what do you mean...!"

The woman's expression was a sight to behold, as if she had finally understood Lucas's words.

"You're going to die here anyway. So I'll give you another choice."

"..."

"The first is to answer my questions obediently and die peacefully. The second is to struggle until the end and experience a trial version of hell."

As Lucas smiled brightly, the woman collapsed on the floor and began to cry.

"Hic... please spare me. I'll give you everything I have. Just my life, just my life... please spare me..."

Her appearance was so pitiful that if an ignorant person had seen it, Lucas would have been the very picture of a villain.

"Haha. Don't make me laugh. You'll give me everything you have..."

"Yes, yes! I'll give you everything. I'll really give you everything, so please, please just spare me once."

The woman crawled on the floor in a hurry and rubbed her only remaining hand in the air.

"How was it for you?"

"...Pardon?"

"When you took everything from others. How did you feel then?"

"T-that's..."

The woman was at a loss for words at Lucas's words.

"What was your name again?"

"I-I'm..."

The woman was choosing her words at the sudden question.

"No, that's fine. You're just my plaything now anyway, so what's the use of knowing your name?"

Lucas, who had cut her off sharply, looked down at the woman with a bored expression.

"So, what's your answer? The first, or the second?"

"P-please... please..."

Lucas's cruel question began again.

"You can't seem to choose. Then it wouldn't be bad to choose while you're experiencing it."

"Ugh... ugh... kyaaaak!!!"

Light gathered at the tip of Lucas's finger.

***

In the end, the choice she made was number 3. 'Confess while being beaten.'

Lucas, who had put the cage he had set aside in a corner for a moment while he was beating her, swallowed a bitter breath.

"She's still the same..."

Alin was in the same state as when she had escaped from the mad baroness's underground dungeon, with her eyes closed and her ears covered.

No matter how brave a pixie was, they were such a timid race.

Even though a considerable amount of time had passed, the pixie's body was trembling faintly.

Her small fingertips, as well as her head, were bright red from how hard she had been pressing her hands to her ears.

-Click.

Lucas, who had opened the cage door, put his hand in and touched the pixie gently.

"Gaaah! Aaaah!!!"

As Lucas's hand touched her, Alin began to scream, shaking her head like crazy.

"Shh, shh, shh..."

Lucas gently wrapped his hand around Alin's body, making a small sound as if to say it was okay.

"Ugh... ah... benefactor?"

Then Alin raised her head slightly and looked at Lucas.

"Yes, it's all over now."

"Hic! Benefactor! I was so f-cking scared!"

Alin, who had clung to Lucas's chest, began to pour out her complaints like a machine gun.

"So you're saying you gave that devil-like wench a good scolding, right?"

"Yes."

"No, but how can there be such a bad b-tch? Isn't she a murderer of the century?"

Lucas just listened to Alin's words and continued to stroke her small head.

"Benefactor, you're so kind. I was really scared when I saw you get angry earlier... as expected, you can't judge a person by their appearance."

"No, judge by appearance. I am a scary person, and a cruel person. So don't trust any human."

Alin, who was embarrassed at Lucas's scolding, lowered her head slightly and nodded.

"Right. Don't trust humans."

"Yes. Benefactor!"

Lucas's lips curled up at Alin's energetic answer.

'Now, there's a problem that the old ones have to solve.'

***

Lucas, who had returned to the pixies' village with Alin, first looked for the chief.

"Oho! Benefactor. Have you returned already!"

"Yes. Things didn't go as planned."

The chief's expression darkened at Lucas's words.

"Is that so... then our kinsmen..."

"That's not what I'm talking about. It's just that I was a little impatient and couldn't dig any deeper."

"Is that so. It's okay. It's just that you've returned safely, benefactor. The problem of our kinsmen is something we should solve on our own, but I'm sorry that I seem to be constantly burdening you, benefactor."

The chief bowed his small head.

"But if there are other races who have been captured by humans, I will always step up and save them. So, chief, please protect the remaining kinsmen well."

"Ooh... really... thank you so much. Thank you so much."

"Would you mind waiting for a moment? I'll be right back, so please don't let the young kinsmen and those with weak minds and bodies come near."

"...I understand."

The chief, who felt a sense of foreboding at Lucas's request, swallowed a dry gulp.

After a while, Lucas, who had teleported, returned.

"I'm back soon..."

The chief, who was getting up from his seat to greet Lucas, froze on the spot.

"I'm sorry."

A large carpet in Lucas's hand.

The corpses of the kinsmen displayed there.

"Khuk... what is this..."

"I was going to bring them after cleaning them up... but I thought it would be better to show them as they are."

Lucas had intentionally shown their miserable appearance without any embellishment.

Because they were pure beings who trusted humans too much.

'It's better to turn them into enemies.'

Because they were the ones who had trusted humans even in the long past when they had lost their kinsmen.

'Rather than giving a side to those who approach with a mask.'

He judged that it was better.

"Hoooook!"

The chief, who had knelt on the large unfolded carpet, wailed.

"They are the living kinsmen."

Lucas had brought them as they were, without even taking them out of the cage.

Although the cage door was open, they were not moving inside, but were just staring blankly into the air, or were circling the same spot and hitting their heads on the iron bars, showing abnormal behavior.

"Gaaah!!! Sering!!! Sering!!!"

The chief, who had approached the cage, hurriedly opened the door and rushed to the dazed female pixie.

"My daughter... my daughter!!!"

It was the daughter the chief had lost a long time ago.

"I thought she was dead... I thought she was dead..."

As the chief's wail echoed through the forest, numerous pixies were already sticking their heads out from between the trees and observing the situation.

But as the name of his lost daughter, 'Sering', came out of his mouth, the kinsmen who couldn't stand it anymore began to rush out.

"S-Sering? Sering?"

"Tora... Tora!!! Tora!!!"

"Gaaah!!! Sister!!!"

Some went to the kinsmen who had become cold with their wings pinned to the tapestry and wailed.

"Bernason... is that you, Bernason...?"

Some approached the kinsmen who were endlessly hitting their heads on the iron bars.

The quiet forest was filled with sadness.

"Our... son... our son..."

In that place where the greenery was deep, the groans deepened.

"I won't let them get away with it... never!!!"

The peaceful place was consumed by hatred.

"Kinsmen, listen!!!"

The cracked voice of the old chief, who was holding his daughter, echoed through the forest.

"From now on, humans are our enemies!!!"

The chief's resentment, which had burst out as if declaring war.

"Humans... are our enemies!!!"

As the other kinsmen also added their will to it, the enemy became public.

'Right. This is better.'

Sadness was also visible on Lucas's face as he looked back at the scene.

The irony of living in a human body and letting other races hate humans.

Lucas was sad about that now.

'Still... this is better.'

And so he comforted himself and turned away.

***

The situation was similar for the other other races, but the most serious one was the winter fox tribe.

It was difficult to find their whereabouts in the first place.

The location that he had barely managed to get by coaxing the winter fox tribe who had been trapped in the iron cage.

"Grrr... if you do anything bad to our kinsmen..."

"As you can see, I am a dragon's contractor. If I do something like that to your kinsmen, my contractor will not stand still either. You know that well, don't you?"

The final means of successfully coaxing him was to sell Aman's name.

The winter fox tribe, as well as other beast-like races, were those who believed that they received the protection of their king, the dragon.

That's why there was a vague belief that the king's contractor would not harm them either.

It was a relief that they didn't trust humans.

"Bring the chief. I will wait here."

In front of the cave in the snowy mountain that seemed to be their home.

Lucas chose to wait for their chief here.

After a while, the chief appeared with three winter fox tribes who looked to be elite.

"You have returned our child."

"That's right."

"Thank you, but I can't fully trust you either."

"That's why I'm also grateful. Please don't trust humans."

Lucas smiled brightly and answered at the chief's defensive attitude.

Then the chief frowned for a moment, as if he were surprised.

"I am the contractor of the blue dragon, Amarok Teridion. First, I would like you to believe this. That I have not harmed your kinsmen, and that I will not do so in the future."

The chief did not let go of his suspicious gaze even at Lucas's gentle tone, who was showing the emblem on the back of his hand.

The reason why Lucas had first asked him to believe him was only one.

'He'll lose his mind when he sees this...'

It was because he was afraid that their resentment would be poured out on him.

No, even if their anger was poured out, he could just turn his body and teleport away, but Lucas didn't want to do that.

'I can't tarnish Aman's name.'

A minimum defensive measure to avoid unnecessary suspicion.

As Lucas put his hand into the subspace pocket, the fox tribe knights took a defensive posture.

Then the chief raised one hand and stopped them.

"He's a mage anyway. If he wanted to attack us, he wouldn't have had to do such a trivial thing."

The knights, who had agreed with the chief's words, took a step back.

"This was in the place where I saved your kinsmen. There were no other remains."

The expressions of the winter fox tribes, who saw what Lucas had taken out, instantly hardened.

"T-this is... this is..."

"It's the work of humans."

What Lucas had taken out was an ornament with the eyes of the winter fox tribe densely embedded in it.

"How... how could they do such a thing...!!!"

They, who couldn't even think of receiving it from Lucas's hand, just repeated the same words with a shocked expression.

"Be wary of humans, and be wary again. They will not change."

"Gaaah! How much longer!!! How much longer do we have to hide!!!"

The chief's anger shook the snowy mountain.

"We must go down and strike the necks of the humans right away!"

The angry knight's voice scattered in the snow.

"The time for revenge will come. When that time comes, I will help you, so for now, hide yourselves."

As Lucas's calm voice suppressed the anger, a frosty gaze turned to him.

"Aren't you also a human?"

"That's why I'm saying I'll help. I can't be hated because of those trashy humans."

"..."

"Lucas Rodrigo. Remember my name. I will not ignore the help you ask for. But, wait for the time for revenge."

Lucas turned away at the end of those words.

(End of Chapter)