Exiting the portal, they finally arrived at the guild. Nero followed behind Liberta, with Bellato and the girl on his shoulder. Well, it was his idea to make her lose consciousness and carry her.

The rest followed them, fortunately encountering no problems along the way. And so, they emerged from the portal and headed towards the mission counter.

A familiar person caught their eye. Seeing them, a man in glasses signaled for them to follow him. They all proceeded towards Room 23, as before.

Upon entering, they found a chubby man who rejoiced upon seeing his son.

He was excited and kept talking to his son, asking if he was injured. This caused them to wait for the guild to bring the reward.

Observing them, Nero grew irritated. He was craving a delicious meal and wanted to read about magic. If it weren't for the lack of money, he wouldn't have become an adventurer so hastily. Now, seeing them wasting time, he couldn't help but speak up.

"Excuse me, could we finish and confirm the mission completion? Since he's safe, you'll have time to chat," Nero said.

His words caused a momentary silence, after which the chubby man awkwardly scratched the back of his head and agreed.

"Yes! Yes! Sorry, I was just relieved that my son is alive... hehe."

After that, everything went smoothly. The chubby man confirmed, and the group received their money.

They all exited the room together, and for a moment, Nero wanted to talk to his now scattered group. However, the other side left without saying a word.

He had nothing left. After everything, his thoughts were consumed by various dishes, their taste, and aroma. Before leaving, he saw the son of the chubby man and the girl they had mistreated, talking. The girl was shouting at the boy, expressing her hatred towards him.

Indeed, after their conversation, it was clear that the boy, who wanted to go out and explore, was to blame. Instead of proper preparation, he simply persuaded them to go out. As a result, the girl suffered. Weakness is always a sin, as if in this world or the previous one.

Nero recalled what had happened to him in school, which chilled his heart. It was a severe blow to his psyche and his subsequent trust in people.

In a situation where there are three sides, and two sides are playing and manipulating the third side, pretending to hate each other when they are actually working together, one side even having a close relationship like a boy and a girl.

People who play with the emotions and psyche of others for fun, that's who Nero hates.

Setting aside his thoughts, he composed himself. Now he was strong, realizing it when he killed those people. His mind had long hardened, so he didn't feel bad about the killings. Although it might be a psychological distortion, he didn't care. Now that the money problems were resolved, it was time to study magic. And when he had enough money, he wanted to buy a mansion and have slaves there.

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According to his memories, there was a slave room magic that connected a slave to their owner. In such a situation, the slave couldn't betray the person. That's what Nero believed, as it was the surest way not to be betrayed by someone like in the past, as well as to create a harem.

He had played many such games and read many novels about harems, but he was still naive to think that several girls could love one person and peacefully and beautifully share him among themselves.

In this regard, he knew it would be much easier with slaves.

As he exited the guild, he proceeded forward and finally wanted to use his skill to hide and change clothes. But at that moment, there was a sound of collision ahead. Subconsciously looking, he recognized the familiar people. They were the same two who were at the base of the Lost Continent.

They wore the same armor and wielded a huge sword, standing against a handsome man in mage attire.

At that time, Nero was far away, but now he could clearly see their appearances.

The tall girl with a figure concealed by metal armor, only revealing her head, had thick, long, straight black hair.

From the side, half of her face was visible, but it was enough because it was stunningly beautiful.

On the other hand, the man was tall with short white hair, dressed in a mage's elegant attire.

Unaware of their argument, Nero moved forward while activating his ability.

Everything slowed down as he walked past them, as there were narrow alleyways on the other side where he could easily change his clothes before returning to the academy.

As he passed by, he subconsciously glanced at the girl and briefly stopped. She had also turned towards him, her dark violet eyes following him. His initial thought was that the girl might be able to keep up with him in an accelerated state, although he hadn't increased his speed by much.

But then the other side also moved normally, and as he looked at her, she seemed to become alert, placing her hand on her sword as if preparing herself.

Realizing that Nero was simply walking ahead, she also released her grip.

As Nero continued forward, he didn't look back and wanted to accelerate a little more. If this young-looking girl could see him while he was moving at an accelerated pace, there could be others who were even stronger.

Just as he was about to accelerate, he heard a sound. It was the sound of footsteps. Nero quickly looked back, causing his pupils to narrow. The girl was following him. Due to the acceleration, the sound barely reached him.

Yes, it was about the speed of sound, which is why he initially didn't realize that the other side had started following him.

Seeing that he had turned and stopped, the other side also came to a halt.

Nero realized that he had underestimated the people in this world. Now that this girl could almost keep up with him, reaching the speed of sound, it was evident that there were others who could surpass the speed of sound, maybe even multiple times.

The problem was that when he wasn't in an accelerated state, his reactions and movements were similar to those of a warrior of a similar level. If someone as strong as this girl wanted to kill him, it wouldn't be a problem. Even knowing that he could rewind time, he couldn't confirm if he could rewind time in case his head was destroyed.

Without much hesitation, Nero accelerated directly, and everything slowed down much more than before. Even the girl now moved like a snail, evident from the speed of her blinking and raising her hand.

After that, he quickly escaped.

From the girl's perspective, at one moment they locked eyes, and in the next moment, the figure vanished. Then an invisible shockwave spread in all directions, a few meters from where the figure stood, even enveloping it. The girl looked at the spot where a small crater remained, then sighed.