As soon as the heavenly fire vortex began to crumble under Sun Lord's palm, Victor acted in a split second.

Using the flames to surround his body, he quickly took out a demon from the ones he kept sedated in the cauldron, then entered it at the exact next moment.

It had to be perfect for the Sun lord to earn the experience point just as the hit landed.

Thankfully, Victor had the idea to get some demons for such situations as soon as he heard about the world’s state from the elven girls, that's why headed to the border town and then took the time to go visit the demon lands before to capture a few. He was planning to save this bail-out strategy after stealing that supposed X-ranked artifact, but this encounter forced him to use it early.

When everything failed, the best strategy was to retreat and play dead! That’s why he did it!

He had to make a good show for it to work though, so when he ran away earlier, knowing that his escape was futile, he purposely chose an area outside of the mostly empty city, making sure all the slaves who worked there were scared away before he used the heavenly fire skill to convince the Sun Lord that this was putting on a real fight!

Skills like the Heavenly Fire were usually forbidden skills that could only be used by sacrificing the user’s life… Even for him, it was very hard to maintain with his current Mana reservoir. On top of that, he had to make his act without activating his Chaos dragon bloodline required to use the skill efficiently!.

At the moment, all he had to do was wait a few days for things to cool down. As the cauldron belonged to him, no one would be able to put it in a storage ring. He was sure it would be kept in some vault somewhere, and he didn’t mind stealing that as a payment for his earlier award-worthy performance!

The only thing he was worried about was Meril whom he couldn’t really go and help her now.

Although he made sure to spread his demonic power all over the city to throw off all their detection devices, he was not sure how long this trick would work!

If his calculations were correct, as long as that girl didn't actively activate her bloodline no one would find a thing! The elves didn’t find him until he activated it himself after all!
Hopefully, Meril was as smart as he expected when he first saw her! If not… There was nothing really he could do other than to go and save her again…
After reading Meril’s fate, now he was pretty sure that the Pits that Macil talked about were a place where they made demons mate with normal people. That might be the origin of the Demon Kin… If Meril were to be found out, she would most likely end up there… It was her fate after all!

Damn it… He was now really regretting not making her his blood slave. That would have saved him a lot of trouble!

Forgetting about all that, Victor, who didn’t want to think about gloomy things and had nothing better to do decided to go and let the two elf girls console him a little bit. They have rested enough!

…

Meril opened her eyes and sat up abruptly before she began to look around. She was in a luxurious bed, in a luxurious room… Her young master’s room. What was she doing here? Wasn’t she in prison?

Slowly she began to remember what happened. How her young master came to her with that blood-purifying pill and how she felt as the process went on… It hurt like hell!

She remembered resisting passing out with all her will, but then the world turned black…

Did it succeed?

She wondered as she looked at her palm. It didn’t feel like it was hers, as the skin was white, smooth, and tender. The numerous blisters she had from when she first learned how to use a sword were no longer there. She hurried to pull up her sleeve and check her arm, checking a spot where years ago she had taken an arrow for her young master. The scar was gone! So did the Whip marks from when she angered that bitch princess and ended up being punished by the royal guards!

Wait! This shirt she was wearing was her young master’s!
Why? Wait… she did remember shattering her clothes back then… Did that mean…

Meril blushed at the mere idea… Impossible… How can the noble young master think about her like that… She was just a lowly human…

“Meril! I was going to wake you up… ” someone said, startling her… It was her young master, Macil who entered the room with a tray. On it was a bowl of soup.

“YOUNG MASTER!” she quickly wanted to jump out of bed and take it off his hands. Ever since an accident 2 months ago when it was discovered that all the staff were in fact spies for the young master’s sisters, the mansion had no maids except for her!

“Stay there…” Mail said as he slowly approached her, putting the tray in front of Meril. “Eat!” he ordered.

“Ah, young master… But… “

“This is an order… We have a lot to talk about, and you must be starving…” he sighed, “Finish quickly, make yourself presentable, and then find me in the living room, there is someone I need you to meet!” he said, his expression a little dark.

“Who?” she asked, inspecting the soup. It was as expected. A carrot soup. Carrots were the holy food of all long-eared noble creatures.

“You will see…” Macil said. “Also… Don’t leave the mansion or open any of the windows…” he added as he walked out. As a gentle self, he had strict rules of being with servants when they had their meals.

Feeling strange, Meril, who was very hungry for some reason, quickly gulped down the soup that tasted as bad as any dish that a sun elf cooked. After that, she jumped out of bed and hurried to put on her maid custom that was laid neatly on a chair nearby.

As she dressed up she finally noticed it as she adjusted herself in front of the golden mirror…. Her hair… It was now purple! She was a little startled at first, but she quickly remembered the WANTED fliers Macil showed her when she was young. Quite a few of the ones who were with her mother had purple hair too! Could it be that their blood was awakened too?

Thinking about many things as she made sure she was all tidied up, she hurried to the living room downstairs, where Macil was waiting for her.

The first thing she noticed as she entered was the elven horse who stood to the side, acting a little lost, wondering why the fuck he was in the living room and not in the stable.

“Young master…”

“Sit down… We have a lot to talk about…” Macil said.

Meril silently obeyed.

“First of all, I need to ask… Are you a demon?” he said, glancing at the elven horse and then at Meril again.

“... Not as far as I know….” she said with a frown, hiding her hesitation. She does remember feeling a strange surge of power when her bloodline was awakening… Wait… She quickly began to check her status window.

“Then why does this revealing ring say otherwise?” Macil asked, taking out a demon-revealing ring and pointing it at her.

“What?” Meril asked nervously as she looked at him. In her status window, it didn’t have a bloodline field, but she had 5 new skills. One of them was demonification. Could she really be a Demon?

“Ahh…” Macil frowned. The ring didn’t react… It was reacting faintly a few hours earlier though…

“...”

“...”

“...”

“My mistake…” he sighed in relief. It was as if a huge load had gotten off his chest. “It must be that demon making me see illusions and wrecking all the measuring devices off!”

“Oh…” Meril sweated a little as she also sighed in relief. “What demon?” she quickly looked up and asked.

“Some crazy demon infiltrated the city as you were awakening your bloodline,” he said as he gave her a pill.

“Really!!… What is this?” she asked as she put it in her mouth she had absolute trust in him!

“Just a pill…” he said nervously. It was the antidote for the paralyzing poison he gave her earlier, just in case she turned out to be a demon and attacked him.

“...Oh… Never mind then…” she said, playing dump despite realizing something. “What about that demon, what happened to it?”

“It was a mess! Half the city is on fire,” Macil sighed. “If it were not for the Sun Lord’s direct interference, many would have died!”

“WHAT? REALLY?” she asked.

“Yup! The lord just squished him with one palm!” Macil said in a worshiping tone.

“Why did it come here?” Meril looking at her status window asked nervously.

“Yeah… I am not sure, but from what I heard, apparently, one of my sisters stole something from it…. Now all of those bitches were dragged to the dungeons to be questioned!” Macil said as he began to chuckle. Now that the matter of Meril was solved, he could finally relax

“Oh…That’s good!” Meril sighed in relief.

“Yup… Hopefully, his Highness, the sun lord will skin them alive!” Meril smiled. “Anyway, thanks to that the hearing for the bet had been delayed… Hopefully, by the end of this, I will end up being the only living heir, saving us all the trouble!

“...” Meril nodded. Although she didn’t like the idea of siblings fighting each other, those elven princesses were too evil! “Who did you want me to meet?” she asked after five minutes of silence.

“Ah… Yes!” Macil quickly remembered. “It is about the blood-cleansing pill! It was given to me by your brother!” Macil said.

“WHAT? Brother?”

“Yes! He entered this world recently, and had been searching for a trace of his family members who were lost here… The first one he found was you, hearing about you from an outcast!” Macil said, turning to the elven horse. “Look, He has the same purple hair as you now!” he added. It really had a purple mane.

“...”

“This is your brother…” Macil said, looking at the elven horse that began to shew on the couch with complex eyes.

“...”

“...”

“The elven horse?” she asked as she looked at the elven horse. It looked back, then resumed its meal. Was this some kind of a new play by her young master?

“It is not an elven horse…” Macil whispered, clarifying. “Victor, your brother, used his shapeshifting skill to turn into one in order to come with me into the city undetected… “ he quickly explained. "He was really worried about you after I told him about the bet!"

“Oh... And you believed him?" she asked. Her young master was really too trusting of people.

"His master saved my life... He knew too many things to be a fake, and the pill was real!"

"I see..." she sighed. "Then why isn’t he turning back? Didn’t you activate the isolation array around the mansion?”

“I tried telling him that…” Macil said with a sigh. “But apparently, when he was flung away by the last explosion in the battle earlier, he hit his head... “ he shrugged. "Now it appears as if there is something wrong with him... I tried giving him a healing pill, but it didn't work! "

“...” Meril gave the elven horse an examining look, then looked back at Meril with strange eyes. It was as if she was asking him if this was for real!

“I am telling the truth!” Macil exclaimed. Meril's looks really sent shivers down his spine.

“...” Meril frowned, then as if she remembered something she looked at Macil. “Can you describe what he looks like… ah… Maybe that would help him remember!” she quickly added.

“Oh… Yes… He looked like all humans… Still, he was prettier than average, with silky long purple hair, dark eyes, a perfect nose…. “ he said, looking at the elven horse, and missing the way Meril nodded.

“What was he dressed like?” she asked.

“A black cloak… Nothing special… Now he should be naked though…” Macil commented.

“Naked?”

“Yes… he had to shapeshift you know…”

“Did you see him do that?”

"Get naked?"

"Shapeshift!"

“Ah, of course… Not directly though… He was naked… I had to look away! “ Macil clarified. “But he was acting perfectly fine before I entered the prison!”

“I see…” Meril, as if confirming something, said. “I think all we can do is to see if he heals by himself in a few days… “ she added. “We can’t take him to a doctor after all!”

“I know…” Macil sighed.

Akaichi

Sorry for the delay.... I was busy... Stop flipping tables... The Nutcracker might come for you.... Just saying...