"Wow?! The Blood Tyrant Eliminates his enemy without bloodshed and enters the Last Sixteen!"

Maki''s cheerful voice sounded while Ryuji and Erika pinned down the two C-Rank knights, using their weapons to deter the enemy. Meanwhile, Yumiko''s powerful fists knocked out Ryuji and Erika''s classmate Endo Fuji, a slightly chubby boy who had the class rogue.

Alicia also shone with her supportive archery; however, she felt a little unsatisfied with how the crowd would now boo or heckle Ryuji.

"Murderer!"

"Get out of our city, heartless outsider!"

Ryuji''s eyes flicked towards Maki and then towards the royal box. Once again, Alan and the brown-haired Anne watched his every movement.

''It feels like she wants to kill me...''

He wondered where Liana was, which made him a little disappointed at being unable to see her. At the same time, he already won the battle, so Ryuji planned to speak with Alan—there were many things that he wanted to say and tell his friend.

''It feels like Alan has been a little busy lately.''

"Come on, Yumi, Eri, Alicia, we should head back and rest. The easy matches should be over now."

Many groans and muttered words came from the crowd as the group left.

However, Ryuji and the others didn''t seem to care. They got the win, and now they would relax or train depending on what they felt like.

"Ryuji, are you going to meet with Alan?" Yumiko asked, her two tails swaying slowly behind her while she gave a faint smile, trying to ignore the situation and how much the people''s attitudes changed because of one battle.

"Yeah, there are a few things I need to tell him." Ryuji turned back to the women. His atmosphere seemed a little different from usual. "Do you three mind going home first?"

"No problem, Ryu~ I''ll let the maids know to make something extra delicious." Erika skipped forward, stroking his hand before she winked at him and kissed his cheek. "See you later, handsome."

Alicia looked wistfully at how open and free Erika seemed about kissing him while Yumiko walked forward with a confident stride. Her round hips swayed as she kissed the opposite cheek and followed Erika, swishing both her tails across Ryuji''s body when she passed. "I love you, Ryuji. Don''t be too upset about them."

"I won''t, thanks Yumi. Love you too." His lips lifted slightly after letting them leave.

"Uhm..." Alicia and her beautiful glossy brown figure stepped forward, looking at both sides of his cheeks, before she darted forward and kissed his lips with a slight peck. Her soft, squishy lips felt wet to the touch before she pulled away. "Ah... because they kissed the other sides..."

The lovely elf then skittered away, her head turning back several times as a soft voice echoed down the quiet and lonely tunnel. "See you later... Ryuji."

''She really is quite the adorable woman...''

"Well, it''s about time I went to meet Alan..."

With a serious face, Ryuji headed in the opposite direction from the group. He looked towards the sky and felt the grey, miserable clouds reflecting how the city felt for him right now and made him feel even more gloomy about the things he wanted to talk about.

[The goddess of Darkness has cloaked your presence—even the most useless light cannot observe you for the next two hours!]

[Serena''s favourite food is Lasagne]

"Eh... Ryuji... are you?" Alan looked at him with a shocked gaze. It made Ryuji feel like this message or somehow Alan also felt something.

"I guess I am blessed a little, huh?" Ryuji could only be cryptic because he knew what happened last time with the goddess and could only rely on her help.

"It''s good... Now, I don''t have to hide things from you. What a great feeling. It''s about the enemy we face and the true existence of the curse our bloodline suffers from."

Alan seemed different the moment the barrier appeared. His breathing and posture more relaxed, and his lips curled into a faint smile before turning to Ryuji.

"Our enemy, the one that is currently crushing our knights who fight in the north... Her true identity I don''t know, but her origins and power I do."

Ryuji looked at his friend, to be honest, although he felt that something like this might happen one day, with the fact there being a demon queen and his class being a demon lord, which he presumed would upgrade to king, eventually.

''I was hoping for her to be an ally. Maybe that was wishful thinking.''

"So, what do you have to tell me, dear friend?"

"It all started in the past, roughly twenty years ago, maybe a few months less."

Alan seemed to look into the distance, his mind moving back to the past before he learned the true hardships of the world and a time when his eldest sister Linda and Avandar''s first wife were still alive.

The four of them were close, while Alice would chase them but was too young to join them in battle, and back then, she resembled Liana before meeting Ryuji.

Alan the young hero, with long blonde hair, silver armour and a confidence that any handsome man would have at his age in his late teens.

Linda, the blonde beauty, with the same genes as her mother and quite similar to Anne now, with firm muscles but with an aptitude for wind magic.

Avandar, with his looks back then, was almost equal to Ryuji''s. A youthful prince who would eventually become the next king because of their eldest sister''s absolving.

Then, the last person was a lovely woman with black hair and a small beauty spot beneath her purple eyes. She was not only Avandar''s young wife but the mother of Liana and Anne, who would become his pride and joy, Lydia.

"At this time, our mother recently passed, and father started to become strange; his hair fell out, and he began to turn against the most loyal knights. The same happened to our senior nobles; suddenly, they started to betray or side with the opposite members of the council who wanted me to take the crown next... As if to start a war with my brother."

Alan''s face looked bleak, while Ryuji found it strange that the time it started was a little after his birth, or rather the time he would have been conceived.

''No, this world doesn''t work on the same time axis as my previous world, I cannot assume.''

"So?"

"It was that moment, we learned about the ''Curse'' from our father for the first time. A curse was caused because of our grandfather and mother''s actions. They helped a hero and his beloved woman, who was pregnant, to return to his world."