"Huff... Huff..."
Kaito carried his mother behind his back from the castle to their underground hideout.
"How's the situation?" Kaito asked the knights who were under the princes' commands.
(A/N: Alright... So the first prince's name is Francis. The second prince's name is Isaac, and the third prince's name is Leonard.)
"Not good. We are outnumbered, and the demon forces are way stronger than us!" One of the knights said aloud, panicking.
"Isn't that the headmaster?" The injured knight, that has his left eye bandaged, asked.
"Ah, yes. Please look after her. She's unconscious right now and needs a lot of rest."
"The headmaster is here...?" The panicked knight said in shock.
"The headmaster is here!!!" The same knight said semi-loudly.
The news spread to every knight's ears in just a few minutes. Hearing the news that the headmaster, one of the strongest in Arka City, is back, they gained hope. Some hope that maybe—just maybe, they'll get Arka City back.
"Please look after the headmaster. If anything goes wrong, notify any one of the princes immediately." Kaito said seriously, looking at the knights before him.
"Yes!" The knights said together, saluting the boy who saved the headmaster.
None of them knew his name or recognized that he was the headmaster's son since Kaito's reputation isn't that big yet.
'I sensed two strong presences an hour ago. Just now, one of the presences perished. Did you not feel that strong magic nearby? Your friend could be in trouble. Let me take over.' A voice in Kaito's head echoed.
'You won't do anything weird again, would you?'
'Why would I? Last time, I helped your friend, didn't I?' The voice replied.
'Hmph, fine. You better save Rem, or else I'm never letting you take over again!' Kaito said in his head.
'I got it. Just put some trust in me, okay?'
Kaito walked out of their hideout and let his other half take over.
"...Finally, some fresh air!" Kaito stretched his arms.
(A/N: I forgot Kaito's other half's name... And I can't find his nameeeeeee even after going through the chapters TOT)
"That little girl can't be in trouble that quick, right? It hasn't even been a day since she was back to her senses... No, no. I better get there quickly before anything happens. I have a bad feeling about this...!" Kaito muttered under his breath.
He dashed towards the Dark Forest in a hurry.
...
"Holy sh*t! What the hell happened here??!" Kaito's eyes widened at the scene in front of him.
The Dark Forest wasn't dark anymore. Instead, it became lit, and almost everything was on fire.
"Gosh, this is bad," Kaito whispered while using his mana detection to sense everything around him.
He sensed two presences on the south side of the forest and immediately ran towards those two presences.
When Kaito got there, which wasn't far away from where he was, he met a high-ranked demon floating above a tiger-sized monster.
The monster has shadows surrounding it, almost as if the shadows are trying to protect the monster.
'And this is where all things go south...' Kaito thought, sighing silently in his mind.
He knew that Rem was that tiger-sized monster.
*Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!
Three massive fireballs were shot at Rem. However, Rem wasn't injured due to the shadows protecting her.
"F*ckin hell! These things are so annoying!!!" The high-ranked demon yelled in anger.
'Haiz... I guess I'll have to get rid of that demon before I figure out how to get her out of this mess.'
Kaito flashed behind the demon as water surrounded his right arm. The water was formed into a blade.
Kaito aimed for the demon's neck, but the demon moved away just in time. Although he wasn't decapitated, his arm that was burned badly got cut off.
Kaito's movements were very smooth, almost elegant even. He's very different from the other Kaito, who's a thousand times weaker than him.
"F*CK!" The demon cursed.
He ripped a magic scroll in half, which teleported him away from this dangerous situation he was in.
"D*mn, he got away," Kaito growled in displeasure.
"Anyways... What happened here?"
Kaito examined the black shadows that seemed as if they were... ALIVE.
Kaito sensed someone familiar from the shadows.
"Kage, is that you?" Kaito questioned.
.
.
.
There was silence.
"Hm... That's odd. I sense your presence even more than before. I know you're conscious. Stop pretending and speak to me!" Kaito demanded as his patience slowly ran out.