The Author's POV

[They're coming out; what shall we do, commander?]

A voice transmitted into the commander's mind. The commander didn't answer immediately and pondered over the matter.

'It's safe to assume that the pretender's goal is to save whoever is inside cell 9862. From the information, it seems to be a moderately strong human.'

The original goal of keeping the pretender alive was to see what their motive was.

The commander already had an idea beforehand and thus wasn't very surprised with what he found out.

He was a bit disappointed, however…

"A pitiful attempt."

It was honestly a pathetic attempt. The commander had expected much more, but it seemed like he was just being too cautious.

He never thought someone would show up in such an obvious manner. He thought that there was something more to their terrible disguise, but it seemed that… that was it.

"The moment they come out, apprehend them immediately. I no longer have any interest in the matter."

Finally answering the communication, the commander turned around and left to patrol a different area.

He was no longer interested in whatever was happening over here. Whatever interest he previously held had long been extinguished.

"Ah."

His feet came to a sudden pause, recalling something.

"…Don't kill them. Keep them alive."

The commander had a change of heart about the standard protocol that dictated that those who tried to infiltrate would get killed on the spot.

Killing them was far too light of a punishment.

"We need to set an example for those who misbehave."

***

"Surrender yourselves, and we'll consider keeping your lives."

The moment Leopold and Ryan left the room, demons surrounded them on all sides.

They didn't even get the chance to do anything before a terrifying pressure locked onto them and stopped them in their tracks.

"Eh…"

The most confused one was Leopold, who turned his head to look at Ryan. His face was rather pale.

"You… I thought you didn't get followed."

"…I, impossible, my disguise.. it was perfect."

Ryan's face appeared completely pale at this moment, giving off the impression that he was more than just flustered.

Looking around at the demons around him, the holographic outline around his body flickered in and out before revealing his true body, and his face paled even further.

"Oh, no.."

"So that's what it was."

Ryan's sudden appearance made the demon realize something, and they all smiled.

"You were looking to save your comrade, weren't you?"

One of the demons said, his voice filled with light amusement.

"You should've worked harder on your disguise. The commander saw through it at first glance. I bet you went in all smug thinking about how stupid we were when, in reality, you were merely walking in on a trap that we've set up for you."

The demon's words were rather harsh, and Ryan's expression trembled. Most likely from embarrassment, Leopold thought.

"W,what are you going to do with us now?"

Ryan asked in a quivering voice.

He tried to step back, but his movements were impaired by the force that was enveloping their bodies.

The only thing he could do was stay rooted on the spot and wait for the demons to do something.

He was helpless… utterly helpless.

"Don't worry."

One of the demons reassured.

"You're in luck. Under the commander's orders, you are not to be killed. The two of you…"

The demon alternated his gaze between Leopold and Ryan.

"…will not be killed for now. In fact, you'll be moved to another cell where we can ensure that you don't pull another similar stunt like the one you just pulled. As a matter of fact, how exactly did you manage to escape from your cell?"

The demon turned his gaze to look at Ryan, whose expression grew even paler. His entire body trembled, and he seemed to be on the verge of crying.

Such scene was found to be utterly amusing by the demons.

"I… I…"

He stuttered over his words, and the demons found the scene extremely amusing.

"Oh? Are you that scared?"

A demon approached him and patted him on the shoulder. Bringing his head closer, he whispered close to his ear.

"Don't worry, we won't kill you fast. We'll make sure to make it as slow as possible so the two of you can live for a longer period of time."

"Ah.. ah.."

Ryan's body started to tremble even further, and tears finally streamed down the side of his face.

"Hahahah, he's crying!"

The scene left the demons utterly amused, as they couldn't help but laugh out loud amongst each other.

"Where did all the guts from before go? Why are you crying right now?"

Teasing him, the demons placed a new bracelet over Ryan's and Leopold's wrists, and the mana inside of their bodies instantly vanished. Then, the demons placed the two of them on their shoulders and carried them like a sack of potatoes.

"While we carry them to the other quarters, check the room carefully. Make sure they haven't tampered with the room."

"Understood."

In minutes, they were already far away from the cell that Leopold was previously held in.

It was just the right distance.

"It's been a while since I've had such a hearty belly laugh. Kid, considering that you've brightened my day, I think we'll take it easy on you from here on out. Am nice, aren't I?"

The demon once again tried to tease Ryan, but contrary to what he had expected, he was met with a calm smile.

"Is that so?"

"Hm?"

A response like that caused the demon to immediately frown, but before he even had the chance to figure out why the human was suddenly smiling, the demon noticed that the human's lips were beginning to part.

"This should be far enough."

Booom—! Booom—!

Within a fraction of a second of Ryan uttering those words, there were not one but two horrifyingly large explosions heard reverberating through the cave system.

The force that was released during those explosions was so intense that the entirety of the cave system shook, and a massive fire erupted from the ground, engulfing each and every passageway within the cave.

Spurt! Spurt!

Ryan and Leopold both reacted at the same time to the explosions. They suddenly produced a couple of daggers from nowhere and stabbed the demon that was carrying them in the neck.

"Argggh!"

With an agonized scream, the demon that held Ryan fell to the ground and covered its neck with both hands.

Black blood leaked down from the gap between his fingers, and he let out a terrifying wail.

While this happened, Ryan and Leopold dashed toward the remaining demons and pointed their guns at them.

They both shot at the same time.

Bang—! Bang—!

"Arkhh!"

In contrast to Leopold, Ryan needed to use a sizeable core before each use of the gun. Upon destroying the core, the weapon would go off, and a demon would fall.

He was a lot slower than Leopold at killing the demons around them, but he was still doing a good job, and by the time five seconds had passed, almost all of the demons had their cores shattered.

"haaa.. haaa… that was tough."

With both hands on his knees, Ryan tried to catch his breath. This had proven to be a lot more difficult than he had anticipated, but…

'My plan has worked.'

From the very beginning, Ryan knew that there was no way that they wouldn't find out about his disguise. There were simply too many flaws in the disguise, and he knew better than to expect anything from it.

Having said that, the fact that the disguise was terrible did not mean that it was completely useless.

After evaluating all of his options, Ryan decided to use the situation to his advantage. Since his goal from the very beginning was to get to Leopold, he didn't care if he was found out in the process.

Like Ren had told him before, 'The more predictable you seem, the more predictable their movements are.'

His words didn't make much sense to him back then, but now… he fully understood them.

'If I move in an obvious and predictable manner, then I can narrow down what move my opponent will make and start planning from there…'

Since Ryan had made it obvious that he was a demon in disguise, he knew that the demons would let him go for a little bit in hopes of understanding what he was plotting, and as soon as they realized his purpose, they made their move and closed down on him.

It was on purpose that he allowed himself to be captured by the demons; his tears were merely a distraction designed to prevent the demons from interrogating him about the circumstances leading up to the situation.

Like how he had managed to get all the way there.

"Looks like the traps we've set up worked beautifully."

"Uh, ah…"

It was Leopold's voice that brought him out of his thoughts, and pursing his lips, Ryan smiled.

"…Yeah."

Taking out a potion and downing it, Ryan turned his attention back toward where they came from.

"Let's go. We still aren't done yet."