"Phew."
Raon let out a sigh of exhaustion after putting Olga to sleep in her bed.
‘Is it already dawn?’
It had been night when he entered the training hall with Olga, but now the golden sunlight flooded the windowsill. It seemed that achieving the Complete Body Reformation had taken over 12 hours.
‘No wonder I’m so tired.’
Spending 12 hours rebuilding another person's body using his own aura and the power of elixirs was naturally exhausting even for a Transcendent.
- That's not all, you didn't sleep the day before yesterday either!
Wrath gritted his teeth, pointing at the dark circles under Raon's eyes.
- You stayed up all night practicing the day before yesterday, and you stayed up all night healing yesterday. Why don't you ever sleep?!
He frowned, complaining that he couldn't sleep a wink because of Raon.
‘I’m sorry. And…’
Raon waved his hand with a slight smile.
‘Thank you.’
Wrath had stayed awake for two days, providing the foundation for Raon to heal Olga. Although he always pretended to be cold, he was warmer than anyone Raon knew. He heard a new beaded ice cream was coming out next week; it might not be a bad idea to go buy him some right away.
Raon drew the curtains so Olga could sleep soundly, then left the room.
‘I feel like I’m about to collapse. I need to go to sleep quickly.’
If it were only two days without sleep, he could easily endure it, but having exhausted all his physical and mental energy, he couldn't resist the urge to sleep. He wanted to leave everything aside and go to bed quickly.
"¡Raon!"
As he was about to head straight to his room, without even the energy to wash up, Sia ran towards him at the entrance.
"¡Let's play!"
Sia tugged on his sleeve, wanting to play together today since she hadn't seen him yesterday.
"I'm sorry."
Raon shook his head while patting Sia's head.
"I haven't been able to sleep, so I think I need to rest now."
Although there was a high probability that the young-minded Sia wouldn't understand, he had no choice but to put it that way for now.
"Hmm..."
Sia tilted her head as if she was thinking, then stepped back.
"¿Then you'll play with me after you wake up, right?"
She blinked as if asking if it would be okay after he woke up, if not now.
"Of course."
"Then I'll wait. Sleep well!"
Sia waved her hand energetically and ran towards the maids waiting for her.
‘She’s definitely changed.’
Raon smiled slightly as he watched Sia’s back.
‘She’s become a little more mature.’
The old Sia would have insisted on playing and thrown a tantrum, but today she understood and accepted his situation. He had felt it during dinner as well, but it seemed that her mind was growing rapidly.
‘Ah, my head hurts. I’ll think about that later, I need to sleep first.’
Raon opened the door to his room and collapsed onto the bed.
- You can't!
Just as he was about to fall asleep, a blue cotton candy appeared before his eyes.
- Eat something before you sleep! If you don't eat now, you'll be hungry again all day!
Wrath frowned, saying that Raon couldn't keep going hungry.
‘Are you thinking about food at a time like this?’
- Of course! For this king, food comes before sleep!
He tilted his chin as if asking why Raon was questioning something so obvious.
‘Why the hell did you become Wrath instead of Gluttony?’
Raon pushed Wrath’s head away with a trembling hand.
‘When we go to Devildom, I’ll have to ask the demon god about this.’
Thinking about food even when exhausted from lack of sleep, no matter how he looked at it, the Authority that suited Wrath was Gluttony. If he ever went to Devildom, he decided to ask the demon god why Wrath’s essence was rage.
- Stop saying nonsense. Just eat something!
Wrath waved his hand, saying that breakfast was being prepared in the dining hall.
‘I don’t even have the strength to lift a fork.’
Raon shook his head wearily.
- That's why you need to eat!
Wrath shook his head vigorously.
- This king isn't telling you to eat breakfast because I want to eat, but for your own good! It's not good to sleep on an empty stomach when you're at an age where you should be growing!
‘You’re being ridiculous.’
Raon let out a hollow laugh.
‘Your nonsense is so absurd it’s waking me up.’
There was no way Wrath was suggesting eating for Raon’s sake. He was just hungry himself.
- I-It's true! This king is only worried about your health…
‘So you’re saying it’s not good to sleep on an empty stomach, right?’
- That's right! It would be better to eat something, anything!
Wrath nodded rapidly in anticipation.
‘Then there’s no need to worry.’
Raon smiled mischievously as he took out his Subspace Bag.
‘There’s plenty of food here to fill our stomachs.’
- R-Really? When did you prepare this?!
Wrath’s mood seemed to improve dramatically as he licked his lips.
‘It’s the best food to fill your stomach at once.’
Raon reached into the Subspace Bag and pulled out a well-baked brown bread.
- W-Wait a minute! That's Nadine bread, right?!
Wrath waved both hands as if telling Raon to stop.
"Correct."
- S-Stop!
Ignoring Wrath’s protests to starve to death, Raon bit into the Nadine bread and chewed. As he ate the hard bread that smelled of burnt rubber, he felt instantly full. As always, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the power of Nadine bread was at a Transcendent level.
- Ugh…
Wrath collapsed with a pale face, as if the Nadine bread had completely wiped out his appetite.
- Damn bastard!
He wiped his tongue with the palm of his hand, trying to get rid of the rubbery taste, his eyes filled with tears.
- The best food? Absolutely not. That's the worst food in the history of mankind! It's not even fit to be used as fertilizer!
Wrath bit his lip, declaring that Nadine bread was a food that should be eradicated.
‘You’d better get used to Nadine bread.’
Raon smiled mischievously as he looked at the indignant Wrath.
‘Because when we enter the cave, we’ll have to eat only that bread for a while.’
- You mentioned a cave before too, where the hell is this cave!
‘That’s…’
With his stomach full, an irresistible drowsiness washed over him. Without answering, he fell into a deep sleep.
- Grr…
Wrath trembled his clenched fist as he watched Raon snoring softly.
- I can’t stand this human manipulating me anymore! I’d rather die!
Wrath threw a tantrum, pretending to choke and threatening to die. However, seeing that Raon had truly fallen asleep without moving, he lay down beside him and closed his eyes.
- When you wake up, I'll kill you!
With those words, Wrath slipped under Raon’s blanket and slowly closed his eyes. The room where the human and the demon king slept was only filled with the sound of breathing, as if a single person was asleep.
* * *
"Mmm."
Olga opened her eyes urgently.
‘This is…’
She saw an elegant, clean ceiling that seemed to have been constantly maintained.
‘Is this my lodging?’
Judging by the familiar ceiling, it seemed to be the guest room in the annex building where she had been staying. She had fainted in the training hall, so she couldn’t understand why she had woken up here.
‘Did Raon bring me here?’
Given the situation, that seemed to be the correct answer.
‘Taking care of me even in that state, he really is a monster among monsters.’
Raon must have accumulated even more pain and fatigue than her. It was amazing that he had managed to take care of her until the end, despite his exhausted body.
‘But why does my body feel so renewed?’
After overuse of her sacred power, she normally woke up with severe headaches every morning, but strangely, today her head felt as clear as when she was a child.
‘Did the treatment really end?’
She had only endured the pain, so she couldn’t tell how the treatment had progressed. Her last memory was hearing Raon say that she could sleep now, so she wondered if the treatment had ended well.
‘I’ll find out when I see Raon.’
As Olga slowly tried to sit up, she froze upon seeing her right arm.
"¿Eh...?"
Her arm, which looked horrible with tattoos on the melted blackened skin, now had a clean glow like that of a newborn baby.
"¿W-What is this…"
Olga frantically darted her eyes around.
"¿The black lines are gone?"
It wasn't just her right arm. The scars and tattoos that had covered her left and right legs were also gone. She hastily stood up to look at herself in the mirror, and found that even the worst melted scars on her chest and back had completely disappeared. She felt like she was dreaming.
"Really…"
Olga knelt in front of the mirror, biting her trembling lips.
"¿Am I really completely healed?"
As a woman, no, as a person, who wouldn't want to look their best? She, too, had wanted to show a pretty appearance befitting her age. But she had chosen a more important cause than that.
She had given up her appearance and life expectancy to focus solely on saving people, without expecting to get back what she had lost.
Olga pinched her cheek with her fingers.
‘This isn’t a dream.’
This is really me. Seeing something happen in reality that she couldn't even imagine in her dreams, her heart pounded as if it were going to explode. Confusion and joy arose simultaneously, leaving her speechless.
‘What’s even more amazing is my constitution.’
Since her body had begun to deteriorate, even using sacred power would cause pain as if her flesh was being torn, but now, despite a considerable amount of sacred power roaring within her, she only felt renewed.
‘Should I try it?’
Olga summoned a large amount of sacred power and spread it over her hand. In the past, this would have caused pain as if her hand was melting, but now she felt no pain at all.
"Ha, hahaha…"
Olga covered her face with her hand enveloped in sacred power.
‘He really was able to cure me.’
Honestly, when Raon said he would fix her constitution, she hadn't had any expectations. Although she believed in his abilities, she considered herself superior in healing arts, so she believed that this constitution she had given up on was impossible to cure.
She had only kept waiting to satisfy her benefactor Raon, without expecting to gain a new body.
‘How am I supposed to repay this debt?’
Thinking about it, even saving Montiro was just an act of repaying her debt to Raon. She couldn't think of what gift to give Raon, who had accomplished in a single day what even a god might not be capable of.
"Wait…"
Thinking about it, had she thanked Raon? Reflecting on it, she realized that she had fainted immediately and hadn't even properly expressed her gratitude.
"¡Damn it!"
Olga immediately stood up and left the room. As she was about to run to Raon’s room, Sylvia suddenly appeared in the corridor.
"¿Oh, my God?"
Sylvia’s eyes widened at the sight of Olga.
"¿Could it be you, Saint?"
"Ah, yes…"
Olga stopped short and nodded.
"¡My God! I heard Raon was treating you, but I never imagined you'd change this much!"
Sylvia let out a soft laugh, saying that Olga looked much more beautiful now.
"Seeing you like this, you're younger than I thought. This is so much better."
She nodded, saying Olga was incomparably more beautiful now.
"Th-Thank you…"
Olga avoided Sylvia’s gaze. Not only was she the mother of her benefactor, but the aura emanating from her was also difficult to face.
"Um, where's Raon?"
Olga asked about Raon, saying she had something to tell him.
"¿Why are you looking for Raon?"
"Help…"
She bit her lip as she looked at her toes.
"I received such enormous help, I don't know what to do…"
Olga tugged at her purple hair, saying she didn't know what to do because what she had received was too great.
"It's simple."
Sylvia smiled as she raised one finger.
"Just saying thank you will be enough."
"Of course I'll do that, but isn't that too simple? What I received from Raon is priceless."
Not only the two top-grade elixirs, but using aura for 12 hours to change the composition of her body wasn't something anyone could do. A simple thank you couldn't convey all her feelings.
"Raon doesn't think about compensation when he helps someone."
Sylvia shook her head and took Olga's hand.
"Raon reached out because he considered you a friend, Saint. A simple thank you will satisfy him."
She let out a small chuckle, saying her son wasn't greedy.
"Do you really think so?"
Despite hearing Sylvia’s words, Olga bit her lip as if she was still worried.
"Of course."
Sylvia nodded calmly.
"Our son has no desires for things like reward."
"Hmm…"
Olga seemed even more moved by those words, lowering her head as her eyes reddened. She slowly let tears fall as she looked at her now clean arms.
"It's alright."
Sylvia gently embraced Olga. It was a touching scene, but neither of them could hear a certain demon king’s voice.
- Even if you're his mother, I can't stand it!
Unable to hold back any longer, Wrath burst through the door and shouted.
- Saying that that pig has no greed, what the hell are you looking at! If Raon had been born in Devildom, he would have definitely become the new master of ! Without a doubt!
* * *
"Yawning."
Raon stretched and opened his eyes.
‘It’s been a while since I slept so soundly.’
He wasn’t sure how long he had slept, but his body, which had felt heavy since the war, now felt light as a feather. It seemed that his exhausted physical and mental energy had completely recharged.
‘You feel the same, right?’
Raon tilted his chin toward Wrath, who was floating in the air.
- I couldn't sleep well because I was so angry at you!
Wrath raised his fist, openly displaying his anger.
‘You got angry because of me?’
- Giving me Nadine bread before sleeping! It was the worst of the worst!
He trembled his shoulders, claiming he could still taste the rubber in his mouth.
‘I’m sorry. I was out of it at the time.’
- If you had been out of it twice, this king would have died!
Wrath gritted his teeth, saying that the Nadine bread would have been listed as the cause of death.
‘Don’t be like that. From now on, I’ll get you something you like…’
As Raon smiled and patted Wrath’s head, he felt a very faint presence near the window. When he turned his gaze, he saw an old man with golden hair and red eyes looking at him through the window.
"Head of House?"
The person standing in front of the window was Glenn. He gestured with his finger as if telling Raon to come out, then disappeared.
‘Has he already prepared it?’
Raon opened the window and went out. He approached the edge of the lake and stood beside Glenn.
"It seems you just woke up. I came at the right time."
Glenn nodded calmly, as if he had just arrived.
- Right time, my foot. He's been waiting this whole time.
Wrath shook his head, saying the old man was still spouting nonsense.
"Lately, I haven't had any inspiration for new martial arts. And the martial arts I used in the past wouldn't be of much help to you…"
Glenn briefly licked his lips and extended a thick book. It was titled "Thunder Piercing Heaven," and the smell of fresh ink suggested it had been recently made.
"It's a martial art that properly combines the forms of the Azure Sky Sword and the Heavenly Thunder Arts. You can use them together or separately."
When Glenn had transmitted the Heavenly Thunder Arts, he had explained that it was swordsmanship that combined well with the Azure Sky Sword, but now it seemed he had completely combined them.
"Thank you."
Raon bowed his head to Glenn as he received the Thunder Piercing Heaven.
"Really…"
Glenn had not only provided five treasures from the Zieghart treasure trove, but he had also combined the Azure Sky Sword and Heavenly Thunder Arts for Raon’s sake. It seemed that a simple "thank you" couldn't fully express his current feelings.
[You have obtained a desired item.]
[The trait is activated.]
[All abilities have increased.]
[The value of the trait has increased.]
Receiving the martial art he had desired even activated Greed. He could feel his soul becoming a little stronger.
- This is maddening! It was already hurting my stomach, but now it's even worse!
Wrath glared with flaming blue eyes, saying it was really becoming hard to bear.
"It's nothing compared to what you've done."
Glenn waved his hand, saying it was nothing compared to defeating the Black Tower Master.
"I was originally going to demonstrate the Thunder Piercing Heaven, but you look tired, so it might be better to do it later."
He turned his back as if he were about to leave.
"Wait a moment."
Raon raised his hand. Although he felt uncomfortable mentioning it now after receiving so much from Glenn, there was something he had to say.
"There's something I need to ask you, Head of House."