The Author's POV

-Ziiiiiiiip!

"Haaa..."

Exhaling, I put my arms on my waist and nodded my head in satisfaction.

After returning from my little trip to the headquarters of my mercenary group, I quickly returned to the Lock.

There was a particular reason for that...and that was that today I was finally moving out of my dorm and finally moving to a better one.

The Manticore building

...a considerable upgrade compared to the horned sheep building which I was currently staying in. It didn't need to be pointed out as to why the Manticore building was better as after all, I was going to get my own training room as well as a personal butler. Just those two things alone showed just how much better the place was.

If I did have a complaint though, it would be about the price. Believe it or not, I was roughly paying 100,000 U in monthly rent...yeah.

Very pricy as that would mean that I was basically paying 1,200,000 million U in yearly rent.

Expensive...but worth it.

With me having my own private training room, I no longer had to hold back when training. I could finally go all out and train without needing to worry about others discovering any of my secrets.

...and yes, although I could've gone to the Hydra building, the one that was even better than the Manticore building, I firmly was against the idea.

Too expensive and was filled with annoying young masters. To hell with that.

Aside from that, the main reason as to why I moved towards the Manticore building rather than the Hydra building was because Ava was here.

With her being in the same building as me, there was more room for me to interact with her.

At the very least I wanted to interact with her in a more organic way rather than me creepily approaching her in class. It just would look very suspicious in my opinion.

...either way, this move wasn't solely for me as it was also going to be a big help for me in increasing the chances of recruiting Ava to my group.

All in all, today was going to be a good day.

"Alright"

-Vuuuam!

Tapping my bracelet once, all of the packages before me disappeared.

"Let's see, is there anything else I am missing?"

After making sure I took every package in front of me, stepping outside my dorm, I took one last glimpse at the insides of my room and checked to see if there was anything I was missing.

After a couple of minutes, making sure that nothing was missing, I couldn't help but look back at the time I spent in this place.

Although the four months I had been in this dorm were short, I couldn't say I disliked the place.

If not for the private training facility, I would've opted to stay here rather than move. After all, I would've rather have saved money. But the situation called for it, and I really needed my own private training room, therefore I had no choice but to switch.

"haaa.."

Exhaling out loud and glancing at the long scar on the wall to the right, my mouth couldn't help but twitch. Thereafter, turning off the lights I closed the door of the room and left.

-Clank!

The scar had nothing to do with me...

...

"Name and student card"

Arriving at the Manticore building reception, I was immediately greeted by a stern-looking middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man before me had a long face, a well-formed nose, and puffy lips. His light brown hair was carefully brushed to the side to give him a cleaner look, however, his droopy eyes that had black circles beneath them gave everything away as he looked to be on the verge of fainting any minute from now.

Staring at the receptionist before me, I couldn't help but feel a trace of pity for him. Especially since another notable feature of his was his straight brown hair that was showing signs of thinning.

...it looked like he was really having a bad time here.

"Here you go, my name is Ren"

Complying with his request, I handed him my student ID card and told him my name.

"Hmmm...thank you"

Without looking at me, the middle-aged man lazily took my card. A couple of minutes after taking my card, after checking the card's information and compiling a couple of paper works, the middle-aged man briefly glanced at me before a large yawn escaped from his mouth.

"Huuuuuammm...all the rules and stuff will shortly be sent to your phone, so if you have any questions look over there"

Thereafter, taking out a purple card from one of the drawers of his desk, he swiftly handed it to me before closing his eyes and crossing his arms.

Staring at the man, my mouth twitched as I shook my head at his behavior.

"...thank you I guess?"

Turning around, I looked at the card in my hand and saw an [906] engraved on it. Thereafter, I quickly headed towards the elevators.

As I walked along the corridor of the building, I was impressed by the internal design of the building. Especially the lighting as the corridor I was walking on was illuminated with a soft and welcoming light, as if it were a sunshine in gentle pastel hue.

The floor was made out of marble and a long red carpet covered most of the pavement as it directly led towards the elevator area.

Thus, following the red carpets and arriving in front of the elevators, I quickly pressed a button and patiently waited for the elevator to come down.

"huuu..."

Taking a deep breath, now that I sorted everything out, I looked back at the incident with Angelica.

...having pondered over the matter for a while, I realized that I was too arrogant and carefree. The actions that I took led to someone targeting me...pausing my thoughts there, a frown emerged on my face as I couldn't help but think about the fact that they could've also targeted my parents...

If the person targeting me went after my parents, I wouldn't know what I would've done at the time.

Would the old Ren have taken over my body and done something reckless as a consequence or would I be the one doing something reckless? I wasn't sure...but I wasn't eager to find out.

Fortunately, because the one that was targeting me seemed to be a demon, they didn't touch my parents as they soon noticed that they were under a curse from another demon...and killing someone that was already being targeted by a demon was essentially a very big no no for the demons as that would mean that they were basically stealing someone else's food and declaring war on them...and fortunately, because of this, my parents were currently still unharmed.

I guess the fact that they were cursed wasn't all too bad. I mean, it did save their lives.

...but still, what if my enemy wasn't a demon, but a human? What would've happened then?

I was too naive, and immature.

I needed to put further thought into every one of my actions from now on. Come up with countermeasures for everything...that's why setting up this mercenary group was a must for me.

Only when I had true power would I not need to worry about such things...I had to get even stronger than I was now.

-Ding!

Snapping me out of my thoughts, was the loud chime coming from the elevator. Entering the elevator, without skipping a beat, I quickly pressed the button that led to the ninth floor.

The Manticore building had fifteen floors, and the current floor I was headed towards was the 9th floor, where my room, 906, was located.

Recalling something, I quickly pulled out my phone and checked my notifications.

"There..."

Tapping on my phone, I quickly looked through my inbox before clicking on a certain email that had an attached file on it. Opening the file, I quickly started reading through the contents.

"Hmm, to summarize, the butler will only be assigned to me in a month after I choose him from a list that will later be given to me? What else...a personalized diet will also be made for me?"

As I read through the contents shown in the email attachment, I started to become more and more satisfied with my decision.

...I probably should've done this sooner. With all of the benefits and services I was being provided, it felt as if I was staying in a five-star hotel.

It was amazing.

-Ding!

Exiting the elevator I was greeted with a small corridor that split into two, left and right. Checking my phone, I turned right and after walking past a couple of doors, I was soon able to see a door with the number [906] displayed on the side.

Without hesitation, I swiped my card on the door. Shortly after, as the doorknob turned green, I opened the door to my room.

-Click!

Entering the room, I was immediately stunned by what a saw. The first thing I saw was a large window inside of the living room that illuminated the whole place. Thereafter, I noticed all of the decorations around the place. From clean white sofas to a personal kitchen furnished with all sorts of utensils.

Compared to my previous dorm, it felt as I was going from the slums to the main city.

...A huge difference.

Turning right of the living room, I soon spotted the bedroom that had a large white bed in the middle. There were a couple of other decorations in this place, however, that wasn't what attracted me...no, it was in fact a door that was by the side of the bedroom.

Without hesitation, I immediately headed for the door and opened it. This was the only thing that interested me at the moment.

-Click!

Opening the door, I instantly felt cool air brushed past my clothes. Thereafter, looking at the room, a look of amazement appeared on my face.

"Fuuu...this, now this is exactly why I moved here"

A large spacious room that was twice the size of the living room appeared before me. On the right side of the room, multiple different types of equipment ranging from dumbells, squat racks, and all sorts of other gym equipment appeared before me. Moreover, they all seemed to be made by state-of-the-art tech as the largest dumbells, which were the 500kg ones, were only about the size of a water bottle. Very small.

That aside, on the left side of the room, there was no equipment or anything of the sort. However, the pavement and the sides of the wall were made of a special material that was shock absorbent.

Essentially, that area was the area in which I could peacefully train my sword art without worrying about leaving a scar behind like what had happened to me before. As I looked at the gym, a satisfied grin appeared on my face as I couldn't help myself from exclaiming out loud.

"Ahhhh...the more I stay here, the more I realize how I should've done this before. Now that no one is disturbing me during my training, I don't have to hold back during training as I can just go all out"

-Ding! -Dong!

Just as I was happily admiring my new training room, I suddenly heard the sound of my doorbell ring. Taken aback for a brief moment, a slight frown appeared on my face.

"Hmm...who?"

....I don't recall knowing anyone that was here? So who could it possibly be?