"I think that's enough." Michael appeared in a forest with a small colorful explosion, similar to a kind of cartoonish teleportation. Then he sat on the ground, leaning his back against a tree, far away from the city.

At the same moment, Fafnir emerged from a shadow and sat next to him. He used shadow detection and made sure that Anas wasn't anywhere nearby.

He could be wrong, but that was the best he could do now.

Finally, Michael and Fafnir were alone.

The moon was already hanging in the sky, illuminating the world in the absence of the sun. Emilia was sleeping in the room, which was the best opportunity to leave without offending the duchess.

After all, she didn't say anything about them being with her while she wasn't awake.

Michael smiled wryly: "That woman can eat everything like a black hole, yet her body doesn't show a hint of fat. She reminds me of you a bit."

Fafnir frowned and wrote: "I don't eat that much."

"Surely you don't, and I'm the king in disguise."

"I don't!"

Fafnir shook his head and decided to focus on something more important.

His eyes suddenly sharpened, all emotions fading away from his face.

Michael felt the sudden change and smiled nervously, knowing the reason for that sudden change.

"Do you… doubt me by any chance?"

"Yes." Fafnir responded plainly.

Although Fafnir was glad that Michael survived… there was a little problem that had to be resolved.

In this world, there were only two people who were still breathing and knew that his master was a Crowned Existence.

The first was Skylar, the noble vampire who had given his blindfold to Dante to hide his eyes before getting the mask.

And the second was Michael himself, a soldier from the Holy Kingdom who was so loyal to his kingdom.

He was dangerous, too dangerous to stay alive.

"Are you planning to kill your friend?" Greed stood in front of Michael, as if protecting him from Fafnir: "Maybe you can solve this by talking, right? Keep the violence as your latest option, especially when Dante himself let Michael go after seeing the Crown manifesting."

'That's none of your business.' Fafnir hissed inwardly, then he wrote: "Give me one reason to stop me from beheading you here and now. If that didn't kill you, you should know so well that I can slice you into tens of pieces and burn you until you're completely dead."

Fafnir wasn't joking in his threat. He was absolutely ready to do even more than that, starting with using the silver Ether.

'My master might hate me if I killed him… but I'm ready to receive my punishment. The most important thing is eliminating all threats.'

Michael read the message, his eyes widening slightly: "Haha, I know you love your master so much, but aren't you exaggerating? Maybe you can tell him to meet me, so we can discuss that properly."

"He can't. Your discussion is with me now." Fafnir wrote swiftly, ensuring that the font was clear enough.

Michael's brows furrowed: "Huh? Is Dante okay or did he get heavily injured from—"

Before he could complete his sentence, he noticed Fafnir's gaze becoming more threatening, so he immediately stopped.

'He doesn't seem to be willing to tell me.' Michael rubbed his chin confusedly.

As far as he knew, Fafnir was either a shadow that Dante had tamed or something with a deeper connection. The only thing he knew about them was that they both were able to use shadows properly and they could switch locations.

'What if something dangerous happened to him? Even as a Crowned Existence, he was fighting a master! Even if he won… and I wish he did, he probably paid a heavy price.'

What Michael didn't know was that he was far from the truth.

Dante brutally slew that demonic giant, going as far as eating him alive in both body and soul, a fate that was even worse than normal death.

Raga was completely erased from existence.

"You have two minutes." Fafnir wrote and stood up, ready to unleash the strongest attack he could produce at the start of the battle.

"Hey! Stop being too aggressive. I'm thinking!" Michael complained and scratched his head thoughtfully.

After a moment, his eyes sparkled as he smiled: "Would giving you my secrets solve it? Do you want to know how I turned into this?"

"Depends." Fafnir sat on the ground and waited for Michael to start.

"Phew, let's see." Michael cleared his throat and began: "After running for hours… or days? Regardless, I finally stopped and used the cores that Dante gave to me."

Michael had an uncommon class called Jester.

The first ability was telekinesis!

"Though it's not like the people with the mental aspects." Michael raised a finger and explained as a rock floated above his hand: "It works only when people are watching me. The more people are watching, the stronger and less exhausting it becomes. After advancing, it started becoming stronger when more people around the world loved me. This fixed the issue of being watched."

"However, it also becomes weaker the more the people around the world hate me. I have to be careful regarding that. I hope you don't hate me, Fafnir."

"Depends." Fafnir responded with a familiar answer and waited for Michael to continue.

Considering his aspects, such an ability that looked like telekinesis was possible.

Michael had three aspects: Water, Fire, and Force. The force, to be precise, was the closest one to telekinesis.

He already understood why he didn't use that ability before. He was barely watched most of the time.

He rarely fought and barely had a reputation. The soldiers in the camp didn't have a reason to watch him fighting.

His second ability was the jester costume.

"This one is a passive ability with a few applications." Several ribbons suddenly burst out of the costume, behaving like living tentacles connected to the costume: "As you can see, I can control every strand of my costume. It's good for defense, and these thin ribbons are sharp and durable. Never underestimate them if we ever fought in the competition, hehe."

'So that's how he fixed it.' Fafnir nodded repeatedly, remembering the fact that he reattached the costume alongside his body.

Michael added: "Well, it also has that trick of making me explode into ribbons and smoke then appear somewhere nearby. This ability also depends on how loved and known I am."

With the class abilities done, only two things remained.

"After awakening my class, I received a little trait." Michael casually held his head and rotated it slightly before lifting it up: "It's called The Show Shall Continue! The description said the show shall continue even if the jester was beheaded by the king. Because of that strange description, I didn't know I could do such a thing until I was partially killed."

"And now, with the last thing to show."

Michael showed his staff and explained: "You might not believe this, but it's a growable relic! One of the conditions to make it grow with the owner was to have the jester class, which I obviously had."

'Huh?' Fafnir stared at Greed subconsciously.

As far as he knew, only he was considered a relic capable of growing and evolving.

Such a relic wasn't something easy to get.

Before Fafnir could ask any question, Michael explained instantly: "For now, it can use my Fire Aspect to launch fireworks attacks, similar to the one I used on your owl. Your owl was cool, by the way."

"And how did you get it?"

Reading Fafnir's message, Michael grinned: "Hehe, have you heard about the mysterious merchant, Faisal?"

"Who didn't?" Greed muttered above Michael's head.

Fafnir nodded. Despite his annoyance, Fafnir knew that Greed's question was valid.

There was a mysterious merchant who seemed to have countless amounts of goods that could start world wars. When talking about wealth alone, most kingdoms would pale in comparison with what was publicly known about that merchant's wealth.

He appeared in his large tent in random places and disappeared at will, and whenever anyone entered the tent, they'd instantly realize that the tent had a huge space inside.

That made most people confident that he had the Space Aspect.

Most people dreamed of meeting such a person for once in their lives. Even the kings and queens searched deliberately for any trace of that merchant.

And that meant…

"Yes, I found him!" Michael smiled proudly, showing off his staff: "Of course, I didn't have anyone to exchange for this beautiful staff, but the merchant gave it to me anyway, calling it an investment."

Fafnir's eyes widened as he quickly wrote: "Does that mean you have a way to meet him? Can you tell me about it?"

"No, he just kicked me out of the tent and disappeared." Michael shrugged: "Maybe he'll reach for me someday. I'll try to get myself enough fortune to repay this debt and maybe buy a few other things."

"You have to see it yourself! Trust me, even a mountain of gold is nothing in comparison! Hell, he probably has a mountain of gold too!"

Fafnir sighed in disappointment.

"Do you think that he can bring Dante back with the right price?" Greed rubbed his chin: "He might be capable of doing that. I remember that he could travel to the Abyss at will somehow."

Fafnir's eyes widened under the blindfold. Was that even possible?

But… What were the chances of him meeting such a person?

There were rumours that the merchant chose his customers himself. Was Fafnir special enough to be chosen?

'Maybe not…'

Fafnir sighed and returned his focus to Michael.

"I'll kill you myself if I find out that you revealed anything about my master."

Michael finally let out a breath of relief: "That means we're good now, right?"

Fafnir gave Michael a nod.

A growable relic and the potential of his abilities weren't as important as a Crown of Existence, but they were enough to cause trouble to Michael if Fafnir revealed them.

For now… Michael could keep his head.