Leif nervously fidgeted with her fingers, as if searching for the staff she always carried with her.

“I was the one who suggested talking outside with Ray on the Sabbath, and I was the one who just stood by and let Roman go on his own… I don’t want to pretend I didn’t know…!”

Leif’s voice trembled slightly as she clasped her hands together, determined, but then her tone quickly returned to its usual lively self.

“And besides, I don’t really have anywhere else to go, you know? It’s not like anyone’s scouting me like they did for Roman, and there’s no place that really takes in spiritists…”

Her bright tone darkened again just as quickly.
Her mood swings were something I had noticed before—Leif was clearly someone with low self-esteem, even if she tried to hide it with her cheerfulness.

Perhaps sensing that her instincts had reached their limit, Ray quickly changed the subject and turned the focus toward me.

“Scouted? He’s the guy who fought tooth and nail just to win a bet. Where’s he going to go?”

Ray’s eyes fixed on me, signaling for me to agree with her.

“Exactly. I’ve got to win that bet and claim my reward.”

At that, Leif perked up again, as if it were her victory, and spoke excitedly.

“Exactly! That red-haired woman was so out of line! Trying to steal away other team members…”

As the conversation shifted back to the bet, Ray’s expression turned somewhat mischievous.

“Come to think of it, the only reason you helped me was because of that bet, right?”

“What? Of course not!”
“Your tone is weird, Roman!”
“You sound like you’re hiding something.”
“Wha—!”

I would never think of Ray as some kind of cutting-edge biological navigation system or as a guide cat or anything like that. Nope. I’m innocent.

We continued bantering back and forth, and then I suddenly asked the question that had popped into my mind.

“By the way, how old are you?”

“Huh?”

“You look pretty young.”

“I’m sixteen. Why?”

The cup I was holding froze in midair as my hand stopped.

‘Sixteen? Sixteen?!’

Not twenty-six, not even eighteen—sixteen?

I felt the Confucian dragon deep within me awaken.

“Sixteen? Sixteeeen? My god… the world’s falling apart… If you were born in my homeland, oh? You’d have gotten a good smack already. Unbelievable…!”

There’s no Korean age here, only international age, so if she’s sixteen, that means she’s either in her first or second year of high school.
She was even younger than when I first fell into this world.

“Your homeland? Where’s that? Is it where you’re from?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, where I’m from, we don’t have any of that. Once you turn fifteen, you’re an adult. But what about you? How old are you? You don’t seem that much older than me.”

“I’m twenty-one.”

“…Five years apart? That’s nothing—we’re practically friends.”

“Ray.”

Suddenly, Leif cut in, her voice unusually serious.

“I’m eighteen.”

“Huh? So?”

“I said, I’m! Eighteen!”

“…So?”

“You should… call me your elder sister…”

“That’s enough.”

Poor Leif.
From the sound of her voice, this might have been the bravest thing she’d ever said in her life, and it all came crashing down so easily.

Ray effortlessly shut down Leif’s attempts at asserting her age superiority and then changed the subject.

“Now that we’re officially a team, how about we come up with a team name?”

“You know, something like ‘The Three Great Heavens.’ Haven’t you heard of Flame King, Frost Witch, and Judge…?”

“What are you talking about? How about ‘Pride’? It’s perfect—one guy, two girls.”

“Well, I think a team name should be something everyone agrees on…”

§

‘What a bunch of weirdos.’

Ray chuckled quietly to herself as she lay in bed.

How long had it been?
How long since she last felt comfortable enough to have a conversation like this?

Leif, who tried to act like an elder sister despite being only two years older.
Roman, who had the audacity to be so brazen despite the scorn and contempt he faced as a demon sorcerer.

She had never met people like them during her time in the plains.

Both of them, with their wide open hearts, trying to get close to her despite barely knowing her.

Maybe they both felt it, even if not in the same way she did.
The three of them shared something in common.

Of course, there were the shared experiences of slavery between Roman and herself. But even Leif, though she couldn’t quite explain it, gave off the same vibe. Her beastly instincts told her so.

Ray suddenly realized something, though deep down she had known it all along.

She was exhausted.

Meeting people who shared the same scars as she did made her steely resolve crumble.

She had grown weary of being alone.
She had secretly hoped someone would reach out to her, to pull her out of her isolation.

Even if that person happened to be a demon sorcerer, someone she had once sworn to hate...

‘No, he’s different…’

Her father’s death had been a long process.
The demon sorcerer who had allied with her uncle had been the one to break the seemingly invincible man that was her father. There was no doubt about that sorcerer’s skill.

But even that demon sorcerer had taken a long time to kill her father because of the cost involved in using demonic magic.

The price.
It was the reason why most sorcerers avoided becoming demon sorcerers, and why nearly every demon sorcerer eventually met a self-destructive end.

Roman, however, had willingly paid that price.

Over and over again.

He had paid an unimaginable cost, beyond anything Ray could comprehend, just to defeat Malevris, the terrifying slaver who had haunted runaway slaves for years.

How much had he spent?
What kind of price had he paid, and what had he lost in return?

‘Whatever it was, it must’ve been heavy.’

Roman had suffocated a demon sorcerer like Malevris to death using only raw magic.

In terms of lifespan, he probably lost several years.

Sure, Roman had also done it for himself.
His face had been seen, so it was already too late for him to escape the situation.
He must’ve decided that it was better to pay the price now and eliminate anyone who had witnessed his identity.

But that was only a temporary solution.
There was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t hire another demon sorcerer to track him down with some bizarre demonic powers.
It didn’t even have to be a demon sorcerer.

Unlike Ray, Roman had left behind traces of his magic.
There were many sorcerers in Res Rimen capable of analyzing residual magic and figuring out its properties.

And most importantly, Roman had another option.
He could have left her behind and run away while she was fighting Malevris.

He had chosen to stay and fight by her side, willingly risking the cost to help her.

Even if it meant paying a heavy price.

“This is why…”

Ray wrapped her blanket tightly around her body.
Instead of using it to cover herself, she hugged the blanket like a pillow, holding it close and whispering softly.

“…I hate this.”

She had to repay him.

Ray had never learned to let insults slide.
And she had never learned to ignore a debt of gratitude either.

‘If he doesn’t tell me, I’ll just have to repay it on my own.’

Ray didn’t know exactly what price Roman had paid.

But she was determined to pay him back.

She would repay him, however she saw fit, until she felt it was enough.

§

I was exhausted.

Dragging my heavy body to the bathroom, I quickly washed up and returned to my room. For the first time in a while, I saw my roommate’s face.
Usually, he was up before me and returned after me, so I saw him more during training than in our dorm.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

“That beastkin. Did she teach you how to strengthen your body?”

Ray had already been found out, so she had thrown off her hood, figuring it was too much of a hassle to hide it.
Beastkin weren’t that rare in Res Rimen, so after a brief stir, the attention had died down.
Still, the guys had stared a bit longer because, despite her rough mannerisms, Ray had a pretty face.

Wait…

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at Arthur.

“And what about it?”

“No, nothing. You must be tired—I’ll leave you to rest.”

What was that?
It’s like this guy knows how to get under people’s skin.

Was he learning from the instructors?
Maybe I’ll ask him about it later, but I’m too tired for that right now.

With a shrug, I threw myself onto my bed.

§

As Roman immediately fell asleep, Arthur silently watched him.

He could tell in an instant that Ray had taught Roman the beastkin method of body enhancement.

Despite not being a master of magic sight, Arthur could still see the flow of magic inside Roman’s body, revealing just how much magic Roman had packed into himself.

‘It’s the beastkin enhancement method.’

It’s a technique where magic is stored in the bones and muscles to directly enhance the body.
Since beastkin have naturally strong physiques and abundant magic, it’s the most efficient method for them.

Advanced techniques might go beyond that, but the basic mechanism remains the same.

Naturally, Roman had learned this method from Ray.

In other words…

Roman was mimicking the method of storing large amounts of magic in a strong body, just like a beastkin would.

But he was doing it with demonic magic.

And he was using it recklessly.

‘Is he trying to find a new way to commit suicide?’