"Phew." Reivan heaved a sigh as he rubbed his left shoulder. "Well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would..."

With his interrogation finished, there was no reason to stay in the cell, so Reivan stood up, off the edge of the pit. With one last look at the gaunt man at the bottom, Reivan turned around and walked toward the exit. After opening two steel doors, Reivan was back in the hallway, where his guardian knight awaited.

Valter gave a crisp salute before commenting with a smile. "Welcome back."

"Yep. I'll submit the report later. Before bed."

"There are no problems with that. There won't be anyone to read it at this time of night anyway. His Majesty has been consecutively running all-nighters for the past few days, so it's about time for them to give in."

"True enough." Reivan nodded before a grin crossed his face. "And on that note, now that we know where all of the rat bases are, we can round them all up and get rid of them in one fell swoop."

At first, the wardens who'd been in charge of performing preliminary interrogations thought that their captive was staying silent because he didn't know anything. But Reivan's fraudulent interrogation methods had revealed that the man was relatively high on the totem pole of their organization.

'Well, he was at least high enough to know where most things were...'

Valter gave another salute before nodding. "I understand, Your Highness. I'll have the Peacekeepers make some preparations. In any case, the interrogation went faster than usual."

"Yep." Reivan's lips curled into a smirk. "As expected of the penitentiary's cells. It really creates a good condition to put people in despair."

Fear.

Since the dawn of civilization, it was a mighty tool to control people.

And one of man's greatest fears was darkness. More specifically, man feared the unknown.

'A mysterious kid that can hurt you in strange and incomprehensible ways. Paired with an atmosphere like that...? This place is practically built to manufacture fear.'

Still, Reivan felt slightly offended that the man thought he was that scary. From what Reivan knew, didn't he have a cute and youthful voice?

'Well, I suppose this wasn't the first time it happened...'

He assumed they were just spooked by how their limbs moved to follow his commands.

Thinking of how effective he'd become at using his powers, Reivan broke into a grin while looking at his palm. As he opened and closed his right hand, he chuckled in satisfaction and happiness.

'I'm gradually getting better at using it on living things...'

He idly thought back to the days when the sword he controlled with [Formless Will] would drop to the ground the moment he touched them.

Now? He could even do things like bending people's limbs!

'I really have to thank Valter...'

Reivan threw a glance at his guardian knight. If it weren't for the thousand-year-old warrior, Reivan may not have discovered that compressing his willpower to only affect small parts made it much easier to affect living beings. As expected of someone who'd been alive for so long, the man's mind worked differently.

Seemingly having noticed his gaze, Valter chose this moment to speak up. "I still stand my opinion that it's too early for you to do these kinds of things."

'There he goes again...'

"And I've already told you," Shaking his head in exasperation, Reivan replied. "That I want to do this. I'm good at it. Extracting information in this manner is an excellent way to make use of my abilities. And I want nothing more than to be an asset to the nation that my family rules."

"But still..."

"It's fine. Moreover, is there a point in stopping now?"

'And also... this is a great opportunity to test my powers on other living things...'

He'd feel horrible if his lack of control accidentally injured his friends while they were sparring.

The prisoners on the other hand? They were the perfect punching bags.

'I've already confirmed that they're all scum of society. So there's no reason for me to feel bad. What I do to them isn't even a fraction of the pain they've inflicted on others. The victims of these bastards would probably praise me for my actions... right?'

Reivan's brows creased. He took a deep breath and tried to banish the feelings of guilt to the back of his mind — right where they belonged.

'I'm in a different world now. A world with its own rules and morals. These feelings are just because I was raised on modern earth. I can't... I shouldn't keep feeling this way...'

"It's getting quite late." Valter, ignorant of the thoughts running through the little prince's mind, gestured towards the exit of the penitentiary. "Shall we go?"

"Sure." Reivan stepped forward and led the way, his hand unconsciously balled up into a fist.

Because of the enchantments all around the prison, there were only a few, trap-filled designated areas where one could teleport in or out. So they had to walk a bit before they could use Valter's black puddle express service™.

"Hmmm..." As they walked, Reivan couldn't help but glance at the floor, where a vast facility secretly lay hidden underneath the island.

Valter noticed his gaze and asked. "Should we drop by Grimsburg, Your Highness?"

Reivan thought about it for a moment before eventually shaking his head. "I doubt they found what I want already. And I don't want to frequent such a place. They still haven't done anything about the smell. You know how sensitive my nose is..."

"Understood."

'Still... maybe I should send someone to probe the researchers? Just so they know how important this is for me...'

But the scholars had bigger and more urgent subjects to worry about, so Reivan's private matters should be thrown to the back burner. In fact, he was convinced he'd have to research it on his own time.

'Oh, wait a minute. I can just hire someone to do it for me...!'

Reivan surprised even himself. He was truly starting to think like royalty, throwing work he couldn't do to someone else.

'But I don't have any money...'

That reality immediately dropped Reivan's spirits. He actually had quite a number of people on his payroll, so he lacked the budget to hire even more people.

'If only there was an easy way to make money in my spare time... I hate myself for only being able to think of illegal stuff.'

He stroked his chin while walking, eventually remembering the information he received from Terrel.

'A criminal syndicate from Arkhan's underground, trying to sink their fangs on Worgon Outpost...'

In particular, it was a criminal syndicate that had amassed a lot of money and all sorts of other goods.

'Heh. That's it. I'm a fucking genius.'

With a chuckle at his ingenious thoughts, Reivan and Valter made their way home.

Back to the capital.

----------------------------------------

Reivan slowly, and very carefully cracked open the door to his bed chamber. He was not unlike a thief, in that he strived not to make a single sound.

'Is she here...?'

His golden eyes pierced through the darkness, examining the immaculate state of his bed. Seeing as the sheets were still neatly folded and none of the pillows were out of place, it was safe to assume that there wasn't anybody sleeping in his bed, waiting for him to come back.

'That's great. I don't want her to be around for this...'

Seeing as there was nobody to wake up with the noise he made, Reivan strode into his room with confidence. He sat at the edge of his bed and took out a large syringe from within Zouros' stomach. With narrowed eyes, Reivan glared at its luminous contents.

This was the latest development for aiding mortals to increase their physical abilities within a short period of time. Born from the sacrifices of dozens, if not hundreds, of prisoners, Aizen had now improved the growth of its might yet again.

Just by injecting the contents of this syringe into his body, the strands of solidified energy would seek to fill his veins, eventually dissolving once they'd spread out enough. Once this happens, energy would seep into his body within the next couple of hours.

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Too bad that it wasn't technically medicine, so Reivan couldn't modify or use it infinitely when he'd memorized it with [Drug Memorization].

"Ugh..." Reivan grimaced while looking at all the glowing strands of wriggling energy. Although he knew they were biological constructs made through methods he couldn't begin to fathom, they were too similar to worms that he couldn't really see them as anything else. "Gross..."

The biggest problem was that the things looked absolutely repulsive.

They were also very gross.

And appalling.

Reivan felt like he didn't know enough words to describe how unpleasant the little wriggly things were.

Feeling all the worm-like biological thingamajigs squirming inside your body was extremely unpleasant. And that wasn't even taking into consideration that the process of assimilating with the energy wasn't much different from bathing in boiling water.

In simple terms, it hurt like hell.

"Dammit..." Reivan groaned. Still, looking at the disgusting things wouldn't do him any good. He took out two bands and secured them to his legs, tightening around his upper thighs. With his blood flow slightly hindered, Reivan stabbed the syringe's needle into his right thigh, pouring in about half of the contents. Once he was done, he pulled it out and plunged it into his other leg.

'I fucking hate leg day...!'

Reivan rushed to stuff a piece of cloth into his mouth in preparation for what was to come and lay flat on the soft mattress. Then, with his [Formless Will], he controlled the straps that had been installed on his bed a few months ago to secure all four of his limbs.

Although he couldn't see it at the moment, he was sure that his legs had luminescent veins spread out all over like roots.

'Alright. Off to dreamland, I go...'

Not willing to stick around for the rest, Reivan activated the ability that he was steadily using more and more.

[Glimpse of Eternity] has activated!

As his consciousness began to fade, Reivan thought that if anything, this troublesome skill was great for when he wanted to run away from the pain of reality.

----------------------------------------

"You're here. Again."

The first thing Reivan heard when his mind cleared up was Karuna's droll voice — which, now that he thought about it, somewhat reminded him of Donovan's.

'I bet they'd get along really well with each other. Like, they'd trade clever ways on how to insult people or something...'

Too bad the two would likely never meet.

Karuna took a sip of her tea while lounging around on an exact replica of his bed, in a room that was an exact replica of his room. She then heaved a sigh while brushing some of her white hair behind her ear.

"Judging from the stupid look on your stupid face, you must be thinking about something stupid. I'm right, aren't I?"

A bit taken aback, Reivan broke into a grin. "Not at all. I was thinking about how you're always cute whenever I see you. Do you intentionally pretty yourself up just before I arrive?"

"Horse. Shit."

"Can I take that as a yes?"

Seemingly finding it an exercise in stupidity to entertain him any longer, Karuna rolled her eyes and shooed him away. "Just do what you came here to do and leave quickly."

Reivan chuckled. "You're just worried that if I spend too much time here, I'd get swallowed up again."

"Are you one of those idiots that think lightning doesn't strike the same place twice? Since it happened once, it can always happen again. If I have to watch you relive your life one more time, I'll gouge my eyes out."

"You worry too much. I already told you..." The boy grinned with his chest puffed out. "I've got it all figured out. I didn't even have any trouble forcing it to go dormant last year. And I'm sure I won't have any trouble this year either."

"Famous last words." Karuna's voice dripped with sarcasm. She heaved a sigh as he closed her eyes. "Just be careful. Seriously."

"I know. Don't worry. I've got this. I just need to not slow down time too much..."

Reivan showed her a sincere smile before turning away. In an instant, the scenery around him changed. The exact replica of his room that had a snarky, white-haired fairy as a permanent resident disappeared, giving way to a perfect imitation of the underground training room he frequently met Donovan in.

Just by desiring it, his clothes changed to the usual gear he wore whenever he trained. And even without the old bastard present, a wall of water rose to surround the island he was on.

After taking a deep breath, he spoke. "Karuna, can you remind me to stop once about two hours have passed in the real world?"

Even though he didn't receive an answer, he knew she would still do it.

Just like all the other times he did this.

----------------------------------------

When Reivan opened his eyes in the real world, he found that his limbs were still strapped. His sheets were a mess due to the sweat that practically poured out of his body, but otherwise, everything was perfect.

"My legs are killing me..." Reivan scowled. After he removed his restraints in an instant, he sat up and looked at his legs. "Yikes. A few blood vessels popped..."

Luckily, he could heal such injuries in an instant with [Effect Reproduction]. Once he'd healed what needed to be healed, he stood up and used [Formless Will] to change his dirty sheets. He then took out a holostone and checked the time.

23 : 57

'Oops. It's almost midnight.'

Reivan recalled the report he was supposed to submit. But it really did seem pointless to submit it this late at night, so he decided to just do it tomorrow. Besides, he only needed a couple of minutes to do it if he used a communication crystal and a holostone to pump text out of his brain immediately.

'I'm definitely not procrastinating...'

He also had to get up early tomorrow, lest he anger a certain hairless bastard. As such, he had to get to bed as soon as possible.

'But first...!'

Obviously, he had to check the fruits of his labor.

Earlier, he had ninety-six points of Might. And although doping could help raise that within the next few hours, its real strength was increasing Might over time.

'It's starting to be less effective these days, but I guess it should have risen to ninety-eight, right? And the over the next week or so, I'll be at a hundred.'

Unfortunately, he couldn't go past a hundred base Might. According to Valter, an ordinary human had physical limits. Although there were techniques to temporarily leave these limits far behind you, ultimately, one returned to their original state.

Naturally, Reivan took a look at someone who'd reached the "limit" of the physical body without Qi...

This led to his discovery that the limit was 100 Might.

If he wanted to reach a base Might of 101 and above, then Reivan would have to unlock his Qi first. No amount of doping would help him climb past that barrier — according to Valter, that is.

"Qi, huh...?" Reivan looked down at his palm while clenching and unclenching his hand. "Mother and Uncle said that I'd automatically get it once I turned thirteen but..."

'Is there a way to push that forward? Or rather, are they even sure that it applies to me? I'm only half-warbeast after all.'

Being the first hybrid race in the history of this world certainly had some downsides. One of which, was that Reivan could never be sure if what applied to a human or a warbeast would apply to him as well. It was quite headache-inducing if he was being perfectly honest.

'Well, anyway...'

Thinking that some things were just out of his control, Reivan brought his hand up to his face and used [Supreme Insight].

~^+— Unit's Statistics —+^~

Name: Reivan Aizenwald

Species: Hybrid

Realm: Mortal

Age: Cannot Be Calculated

Sex: Male

Special Abilities [Supreme Insight] [Indomitable Willpower]

[Essence of Falsehood] [Drug Memorization]

[Glimpse of Eternity]

Might: 98 Extra Skills Elemental Affinities: [Lightning] [Chaos] [Darkness] [Ice] [Chaos Origin]

[Intuition] [Taunt]

Seeing his predictions confirmed, Reivan broke into a satisfied grin.

'Next, I'll dope up my upper body while working on my agility, and then...'

While he was brooding, the door to his room slowly opened.

"Who's there?" Reivan asked in a calm manner. Being within the very heart of Aizen, if danger lurked in this place, there would be nowhere truly safe for him. In that case, it was better to just give up and die.

Still, there were only two people who frequently entered his room at such a late time; and both of those people were females with white hair.

From beyond the darkness, a voice he was familiar with cried out in a sleepy voice. "Yani... You here...?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"Yay..."

Following a very lethargic "yay", a girl wearing a gown as white as her hair strolled into the room while rubbing her right eye. In her free hand was a pillow, which, Reivan assumed, belonged to their mother. With her eyes barely open, Jiji climbed onto Reivan's bed, set the pillow down beside her, then lay down to sleep. In a manner of seconds, the sounds of her even breathing filled the room.

"Pfft." Reivan lightly chuckled, shaking his head. Even though his legs still felt like they were made out of lead, he climbed onto the bed too, settling himself beside his younger sister. As his head sunk into a soft pillow, his eyelids gradually closed shut. "Good night..."

It was unknown whether his sister actually heard him, but he could feel her warm little body seek him out. And by the time her thin arms wrapped around his body, Reivan was already fast asleep.

Just like that, another normal day ends for Aizen's second prince.