A month passed by since then.

The royal family was very busy because the inauguration of the crown prince to officially become the next king was in place. Atsushi still holds the title of king and Kazuki will become his official successor. Unless Kazuki dies or gives up his position, he will become the next king when Atsushi retires.

The subjugation of the demon was the deciding factor. None of the other members of the royal family tried to oppose Kazuki when Natsumi had announced that she was supporting him because Kai who was under Natsumi had defeated an S-class demon and sent the entire capital into chaos with a single technique.

The GCC was won dominatingly when Erina created a giant iceberg to freeze everyone. Memento Mori save for Kai and Erina attended the ceremony for victory. Kai had been asleep ever since he fainted in Erina's arms. He's been healed and taken care of inside the royal castle ever since then.

And a certain maiden in love had never left his side since then. Erina locked herself and Kai into the room immediately after his injuries had been healed and only left to go to the bathroom. Food was personally delivered by Natsumi and Yoko at times.

The vice-captain who had to handle the matters that Erina said she would hasn't had a proper sleep since then. A single duke's palace collapse would create giant waves of trouble so when the strongest duke's palace falls, it would create the biggest wave of trouble in the kingdom.

But instead of trouble with other kingdoms, they instead gained even more respect and superiority. There was someone who could defeat the S-class who had been possessed by the demon. That means the Alteria Kingdom had two S-class and had a higher status than the neighboring kingdom, the Empire who had only one S-class inside their capital.

Normally, an S-class would leave their kingdom and reside in the council's mansion, so the Empire which still had their own S-class was the strongest in the eyes of the other kingdoms. Alteria's status matched the Empire when Hyosuke became an S-class and now it skyrocketed when there were studdenly two.

Nobody dared to attack Alteria and most of them even tried to gain favor by visiting and giving gifts in the past month.

During all that, Kai slept peacefully. Erina placed a hand on Kai's cheek and rubbed it.

"Please wake up soon, Kai."

As if hearing Erina's words, Kai's mouth opened.

"Just five more minutes, mom."

"...Looks like you've recovered just fine to joke around."

Kai opened his eyes and saw Erina who had a bright smile on her face while touching Kai's cheek.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"An entire month."

"Seems a lot less than I thought it'd be."

"...Exactly how long did you think it'd be?"

Kai thought for a second.

"About half a year."

"You idiot!"

Erina slapped Kai's forehead.

"Don't you dare joke about that!"

"I wasn't..."

"Then don't you dare use that technique again!"

Kai silently stared at Erina which eventually caused her anger to become shame. She began turning red.

"W-what is it?"

"The last words I heard before falling unconscious, are you serious about them?"

The scene last month played in Erina's mind. The last words he heard were 'I love you.'

Remembering that, Erina flushed so red that when placed next to a tomato, she wouldn't be out of place.

"I-I..."

Erina stuttered while looking around before lowering her head.

"Yes... I love you."

"I see... I'm sorry, Erina."

When Erina heard that, her lowered head raised so fast and her face was covered in despair. When Kai saw that, his heart felt pain and quickly held Erina's shoulders.

"Don't take it the wrong way. It's not that I don't like you. In fact, I love you. But we can't be together until I show you the truth."

Erina was quite flustered during Kai's sentence but had a face of wonder at the end.

"What do you mean?"

"Since a month has passed, I guess it's already done. Gather the members of Memento Mori, include Natsumi and the prince too. We're going somewhere."

Erina slowly nodded and left the room. About an hour later, she arrived with the members of Memento Mori.

"Long time no see, everyone. I'm sure Erina told you why I gathered you all."

"Nn. She told us that we're all going somewhere."

Yoko answered for them.

"Are we going to meet them?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Natsumi asked which made everyone look at her once. Erina was jealous because Natsumi knew the secret that Kai held.

Natsumi felt cold sweat falling down her forehead when she felt Erina's gaze.

'Though she'll be giving that gaze on someone else once we get there...'

Kai's clothes suddenly changed and he stood up.

"Let's go."

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

They walked for half an hour while Kai answered quite a few questions that had been thrown at him.

"We're here."

They arrived in front of a normal wooden house enough for a family.

"A house?"

Yoko asked with a tilted head.

"Yeah, let's go in."

Kai opened the door and walked inside.

"I'm back."

A child began running towards him and leaped into his embrace.

"Papa!"

"PAPA?!"

Erina reacted loudly. The child was four years old at the least. But Kai had been missing for six years, him having a child was certainly possible.

Yoko blinked a few times before talking.

"Kai, you already have a child? Congratulations, I guess..."

"So you wanted to show us your daughter?"

Arata asked a bit dumbfounded.

"Ha! So he has a daughter! That means he can't lay his hands on my Natsumi!"

Everyone ignored the siscon who was shouting in joy at the side.

Natsumi walked up beside Kai and held a finger towards the little girl.

"Hello, Aya. Sorry I haven't visited in so long."

"Ah, big sis! I missed you!"

Erina's face changed again and Natsumi walked back a few steps.

Kai ruffled Aya's hair while sighing.

"Well, it wouldn't be wrong to say that I'm her 'papa' but we're definitely not related by blood. I had picked her up when she was being attacked by monsters with her mother. Unfortunately, her mother already gave her last breath before I found her. This is Aya, my adopted daughter I guess. She's one of the people I wanted you to meet."

Kai faced Erina while saying so. Aya placed a finger on her lip and tilted her head as she looked at Erina.

"Who's the really pretty girl?"

"She's Mariko Erina, a daughter of a duke."

"Mariko... Erina? The one that mama talked about?"

It was quite a scene. Erina's face twisted and anyone who saw it would shudder in fear.

"...Mama?"

"Nn! Mama is mama! Big sis Erina is pretty but mama is prettier!"

Even Kazuki who was still in joy felt a chill and meekly stayed with the others.

Kai who saw that sighed.

"Amelia, come out already."

"Ara~ Welcome home, d-a-r-l-i-n-g~"

A blonde woman with red eyes and a black dress walked out of the shadows and greeted Kai as if it was an everyday scene. Erina was trembling when she heard her say 'darling' in a teasing tone.

Erina was quite angry when she saw Amelia.

"...You're the woman who had followed us during a date..."

"Looks like you remembered. I am Amelia, Kai's lover."

Amelia said this while locking arms with Kai who was carrying Aya. They looked like a real family and everyone was taken aback. Yoko was worriedly looking at Erina who was having a staring contest with Amelia, for some reason she could see lightning in between their eyes.

Kai saw this and sighed. He had expected this would happen. He freed his arm from Amelia and passed Aya to Natsumi.

"You can say anything they want to ask as long as you know about it, I promised them after all. I'll take care of Erina and Amelia."

Natsumi nodded and took Aya into her arms. Then, she led the group inside and through another door that revealed a huge space enough to be called a banquet hall.

"What is this place...?"

Arata dumbfoundedly asked.

"The house is actually just a cover, every door here has a secret space which only selected people can go through. Now, take a seat everyone. I'll answer all your questions for Kai while he's mediating."

The door closed behind them, leaving the three alone.

"Now, I'll start with who Amelia is and where I met her."

Kai snapped his fingers and the scenery around them changed. Erina nearly fell down but her hand was caught by Kai. Her face turned red for an instant but then it immediately changed to irritation as she glared at Kai.

Amelia chuckled and took a seat on the chairs that had just appeared around them.

"Amelia is someone who I met four years ago. I met her one year prior heading to the kingdom."

Kai took the illusion world cube from his pendant.

(A/N: Refresher, the cube that Juro had given him.)

"This was given to me by my father and it was created by my grandfather. It transports me into a world of illusions... or so I thought. But apparently, it was a prison."

Amelia had her arms crossed while rubbing them, seemingly afraid.

Kai held the pendant up and showed Erina.

"This separates into several levels and the difficulty increases for each one. I died a lot of times inside but I managed to complete it in the end. Amelia was on the last level and I freed her. I won't tell you the specifics, you should hear it from the person herself."

Erina had her brows furrowed and urged Kai to continue.

"I've been training in the Desolate Beast Mountain Range with my grandmother, the Goddess of Frost. I always wondered during our mock battle at the time, the words you used couldn't be comprehended by me. I had found out it was the language of the Gods and you had a connection to my grandmother. When I freed Amelia, all I had in my thoughts were retribution and I wanted to save her even if it costed me my life. I knew that it was a bad decision because my grandfather himself sealed her but never did I regret it once."

Kai faced Amelia who responded with a nod.

"Let me introduce myself again. My name is Amelia Tepes, a vampire. My power was used as the source for the illusion world and it's basically useless now."

Erina's eyes opened wide but they soon turned normal.

"...You don't seem too surprised."

"I've read about the characteristics of other races. Blonde hair and red eyes are a common trait in vampire women. There's also the fact that the air around you is seductive and even people of the same gender without resistance would have trouble keeping their sanity."

Amelia voiced her surprise.

"Amazing... To think you memorized that much. I doubt that even in the lowest level of the royal library in this kingdom would have a single book about vampires. It is known that vampires have gone extinct over 300 years ago after all-"

Amelia suddenly paused. Erina looked at her and saw that her red eyes were glowing and the fangs that were only a little sharper than a human's suddenly grew bigger and sharper.

Kai immediately picked Amelia up and placed her on his lap.

"It's been a month since the last time it sprung up, looks like you've been suppressing it quite a bit. You can start. Erina, don't be alarmed."

Amelia's body was trembling as she placed her arms around Kai and sank her fangs into his neck. The air around her became even more oppressive and if Erina wasn't a normal person, she would've lost control. A vampire has an innate ability to seduce their targets through vision and atmosphere.

"There's also another reason for my grandfather sealing her. Her vampiric powers are so strong that her body wasn't able to take it. My grandfather harnessed her power and turned it into an entire world of illusions. I wouldn't have taken her out if I knew that but fortunately, all she needed was my blood to suppress it. My blood is special, I'm only half-human. I'm a quarter demon and a quarter divine, my blood was enough for her to seal her power if she took it in doses. Her symptoms sprang up every week at first but repeated consuming of my blood turned that longer and she can hold on for three weeks. I've been in a coma since a month ago so she must've had to endure the immense pain for an entire week."

At the time that Kai finished talking, Amelia finished sucking blood and returned to her seat with her head down. Kai was a shade paler than before, healing magic can't produce more blood.

"...I'm sorry, Kai."

"I told you that there's no need to apologize every time this happens. You can't help your own urges. It's not like having a bit of my blood taken each month would harm me. Besides, having such a beauty in my arms would instead be called a blessing, wouldn't it?"

Kai held Amelia's face. Erina was about to stop him but instead stopped herself. She sympathized with Amelia and it was the truth that Amelia was his lover and not herself.

"...Kai, answer two of my questions for now and I'll forgive you."

"...Forgive me for what?"

"For that display you just did."

Kai sighed and waved his hands to urge her to go on.

"What happened to the tumor that had nearly killed you? Also, during the battle with my father, you said that you lost your best friend who was also your mentor, you meant Reo, didn't you? What happened to him?"

Kai's expression darkened and he began to speak.