The Author's POV

—Spurt!

Retrieving my sword back from the corpse of a demon, I icily looked towards the distance.

About half a day had passed since the start of the second wave and as of now, the situation was under control.

Although the first line of defense had been breached multiple times, I, alongside Hein, Ava, and Leopold, had done an excellent job at keeping the demons from breaching the second line.

Of course, we weren't the only ones standing in the second line of defense, but judging from the body count alone, we were some of the few individuals that had made the most contributions. This was mainly due to the fact that the powerful individuals had not made a move yet.

Spi Sli—!

Slashing the sword down to get rid of the blood coating it, I turned to face the others.

"You guys doing alright?"

—Clang!

Blocking an incoming attack, Hein let out a muffled groan before finally stabilizing his footing. Turning his head, he forced a smile.

"Khh...Yeah, though I'm a bit tired."

Raising my hand, I pointed towards my wrist, or more specifically, towards my bracelet.

"Drink a potion then. It'll help out."

"...Right, I almost forgot about that."

"You what?"

His answer made me shake my head.

Perhaps it was because he was too excited, but it seemed as though Hein completely forgot about the fact that potions existed.

"Tell the others to cover for you while you drink a potion."

"Oka—Huk!"

But just before Hein could take out a potion, a demon shot explosively towards him, and a whistling sound arose. Soon the demon violently clashed against Hein's shield.

—Bang!

Fortunately, Hein was quick to react. Even though he had been distracted the moment the demon attacked, angling his shield right in front of his shoulder, he nudged it slightly and cushioned the attack of the demon. Sparks flew, and Hein proudly remained standing on the same spot as before.

Unmoving.

"..."

Silently staring at Hein from behind, I was impressed by his performance. Not only him but Ava and Leopold's performances deeply impressed me. In fact, they were doing so well that all together, they had accumulated quite a substantial amount of kills.

Quite a few more than me who was a whole rank higher than them.

Well, this was to be expected. After all, I wasn't fighting at my fullest abilities. My body count would've been way higher if I had been using the Keiki style.

On another note, I was also improving as the fight continued. The more I got used to this new fighting style, the faster I started killing the demons. If before it took me a minute to get rid of a <D> ranked demon, it only took half of the time now.

Slowly but surely, everyone was improving.

"Hm?"

Sensing something, I looked towards my right.

Sure enough, a demon was quickly headed in my direction. Before long, it appeared a couple of meters away from me.

"Hieeek!"

Sinisterly opening its mouth, the demon let out a screech and viciously slashed in my direction.

WIIIIIING!

Staring at the incoming attack, I was completely unfazed. Raising my sword and thrusting it forward, the green hue enveloping my sword expanded and contracted rapidly.

Shuop—!

What came as a result of this was a subtle suction force that altered the direction of the demon's attack. An instant later, gently tapping on the ground with my foot, the ground cracked apart with a 'bang,' and I appeared only a few centimeters away from the demon.

The speed at which I moved was so fast that the demon could not react in time. Raising my sword, I slashed upwards, cleanly cutting the demon's head off.

Spurt—!

As black blood sprayed everywhere, the head of the demon quietly rolled in front of me. Wiping my face, I softly muttered.

"That's another one down."

But just as my words faded…

VUAAAAM—!

It was then that a grim pressure suddenly enveloped the battlefield.

Glancing towards the distance, a black humanoid figure stood in the air with its wings wide open. The moment the humanoid figure appeared, I instantly knew that things were about to become serious.

Behind the humanoid figure, the moon shone brightly, enveloping the humanoid figure and enhancing its features.

The whole battlefield soon came at a standstill and everyone turned their attention towards the sky.

—Splurt!

Stepping on the head of the demon I killed before, unprecedented seriousness clouded my face.

"Looks like the commander of the second wave finally showed up."

***

Moments before the humanoid figure showed up.

"What do you think?"

Two men were looking at the battle ensuing outside of the walls from a small room. One of them had his hands interlocked behind his back; he was the headmaster of the Lock, Douglas.

The other person stood behind the old man with his arms crossed. He was none other than Waylan Roshfield, Emma's father. Similarly, staring at the battle from the small room, Waylan leaned his body forward a bit.

Raising his hand, he pinched slightly. The video that was playing before them zoomed, and a couple of figures appeared on the screen. More precisely, they were the images of two youths and an adult who supported them from behind. The adult would take out a weird gun-like object and shoot it at the demons from time to time.

Most impressive was his commanding abilities as he perfectly told the two youths what to do. The way the three of them coordinated with each other deeply impressed Waylan as he couldn't help but compliment them.

"They're good."

Leaning back on his seat, he crossed his arms and looked at Douglas, who was wordlessly staring at the same screen. The pensive look on his face reminded Waylan of a sage. Calm and wise.

Pointing at the screen, Waylan started making small talk.

"The guy who is leading them from the back seems very experienced. Judging from how he can make the right calls in this situation, he must've gone through similar situations before."

Having observed them long enough, Waylan could tell that the man helping the two youths was highly experienced.

Not only were his calls the ideal ones, but the timing at which he supported them was also superb.

Moving his hand slightly, the video soon focused on the two youths.

"On the other hand, these two youths seem to be extremely talented, especially the girl…"

Waylan's brows furrowed tightly.

"If I'm not wrong, she's controlling four beasts…that's almost unheard of."

Typically a beast tamer could only control one beast at a time.

This was the common consensus.

On rare occasions, some could tame two, but even then, they were extremely expensive to take care of, and most of the time, they weren't a class that people paid particular attention to.

However, things were different if the beast tamer could control more than one animal. If they could control more than two beasts, things would be very different.

"Is it perhaps the flute?"

It was then that he noticed the girl holding onto a flute.

Whenever she blew her mouth onto it, the beasts would move. It was almost as though they were hypnotized.

An intrigued looked suddenly appeared on his face as he focused his whole attention on Ava.

"How interesting. To think that there was something like that…"

It was just a hunch for now, but the more he observed, the more he found his conjecture to be true.

But he wasn't quite sure just yet. The flute could very well be an artifact that enhanced her mental capabilities.

Turning his head and looking at Douglas, Waylan suddenly asked.

"What do you think, Douglas?"

Silently staring at the screen, Waylan did not answer back immediately.

At the moment his attention was fully focused on a particular youth on the screen. He was neither the girl nor boy that Waylan was looking at but someone else. He was another youth with jet black hair and deep blue eyes.

Standing a little bit further away from them, he skilfully dealt with the demons that were coming his way.

"?"

Turning around and looking toward where Douglas was looking, Waylan had a sudden look of understanding.

"I see, so you're interested in him."

Stroking his beard, Douglas curiously asked.

"You know him?"

"I've met him before."

Waylan replied with a slight smile.

"Oh?"

Douglas's brow raised, and his interest was instantly piqued.

Turning to face Waylan, he asked.

"Can you tell me more?"

Glancing at Douglas, Waylan leaned back and nodded his head.

"It was at the t…keumm…I mean when I was walking down the streets. He was a human, so pretty easy to spot."

Waylan coughed in the middle and corrected himself, but judging from how indifferent Douglas was Waylan knew that he had not fooled him.

It had to be noted that he wasn't actually allowed to go anywhere near that tavern since he wasn't allowed to get drunk. After all, they couldn't allow themselves to let down their guards in such an unfamiliar place.

Knowing that he had slipped up, Waylan quickly changed the topic.

"Anyhow, what makes you so interested in him?"

Shaking his head, Douglas's brows knit for a second.

Touching his beard, he thoughtfully answered.

"...He seems familiar."

"Familiar?"

This time it was Waylan's turn to be surprised.

"You've also met him before? …or have you not realized that this is the youth from the video you showed me before."

Glancing at the video, Waylan tilted his head.

"Hmm, now that I take a good look at it, compared to what we've last seen, he seems to be fighting a lot more differently. Does it look like his swordsmanship has regressed? Or is it just me?"

The way he was fighting was beyond sloppy.

His attacks were all over the place, and he seemed to be having trouble fighting opponents weaker than him.

From the looks of it, he lacked a lot of experience.

Compared to the last time he fought the demons, his performance was more lackluster.

"No, it has. Compared to before, his swordsmanship has regressed a bit."

"...wait, that aside. What did you mean by he seemed familiar?"

Stroking his beard, Douglas hesitantly spoke.

"I think he's supposed to be one of the students Donna had told me about; it's just that…"

"Just that…?"

"He's supposed to have died."

As soon as Douglas's words faded, silence enveloped the room. Then, not long after, Waylan's face turned strange.

"...What? Did I hear wrongly? Dead? He's standing right there. How can he be dead?"

Shaking his head, Douglas kept looking at the youth on the screen.

"Remember the incident back at the Lock? When the Monolith attacked?"

"Yes, I remember very clearly."

A bitter smile appeared on Waylan's face.

How could he not remember? Douglas overexerted himself by using the special skill that allowed him to create a clone of himself during that day.

He was bedridden for a month because of the incident. During those days, he had to go to replace him and go to boring meetings every day.

Those days were a nightmare to him.

Squinting his eyes, Douglas pointed at the youth.

"That day, that student should've died."

At Douglas's revelation, Waylan's face became serious.

"…how certain are you?"

"At first, I was quite certain, but…"

Intently staring at how the youth was fighting, Douglas started having doubts.

"I've not seen him use his main sword style yet."

"What do you m—"

TWIIIIING—!

Cutting Waylan off was a sudden message that appeared on the screen. Before long, a red message covered half of the screen.

[Marquis ranked demon spotted in the northern area, please provide assistance.]

"Talk about bad timing."

Waylan sighed before standing up.

Though he seemed lighthearted at the moment, his current disposition was nothing but serious as a powerful pressure started exuding from his body.

Taking off his coat and putting on two black gloves, he looked at Douglas.

"I'll be going now; tell me later if you find anything more about that kid."

Glancing at Waylan by the side of his eyes, Douglas gave him a simple nod.

"Be careful."

"I will."

Right as he spoke those words, Waylan exited the room.

Once he left, silence once again enveloped the room. Bringing his hands together, Douglas's eyes never left the youth on the screen.

He continued to stare at the youth for a while before muttering.

"....Are you really the inheritor of the Keiki style?"