Inside the halls of the castle.

"How is the situation?"

"It's not good."

An orc replied with a somber expression.

"Were you able to get a clear idea of how many enemies there are present?l

"The numbers appear too large for us to count."

"Okay."

Silug replied in a serious tone.

The halls quieted down after his words.

"Didn't you say that the demons would come at us in about a year's time? Why did they suddenly attack now? I've still not recovered my strength."

Omgolung asked from the side. Out of all the orcs present, he was the only one that Silug treated as an equal and wasn't afraid of voicing his concerns.

"Do you have any plans for how we should handle the situation?"

"I have a rough plan."

Silug replied in an apathetic tone.

He then got out of his chair. His body started to take on a green color, and a dreadful pressure started to radiate from him.

Sweeping his eyes over the orcs that were present in the room, he ordered.

"Call for the shaman to come to my room. In the meantime, everyone is to prepare for battle as we've practiced in the past."

"Yes!"

The orcs replied in unison by thumping their chests once. They left after that, leaving Omgolung and Silug all alone.

"Is your plan to go to war and fight back?"

"No."

Silug shook his head before turning his attention toward Omgolung. He then pressed his finger on Omgolung's chest and replied.

"My plan is simple."

His deep green eyes stared straight into Omgolung's eyes.

"You are my plan."

***

"Wow, this is a much grander spectacle than I had ever expected in my life."

A sea of black was slowly moving toward us as I watched it from behind the castle walls. The numbers were so high that I felt my body turn a little cold.

'I'm glad I didn't choose to go there by myself.'

I could never defeat that many demons on my own, no matter how strong I was. The same as a typical human would with mosquitos. Even a regular human wouldn't have trouble smacking them if there were only a few of them; but, they would simply perish if they were surrounded by thousands of them.

"Mh, I only see four Marquis-ranked demons present. There doesn't seem to be anyone stronger than that."

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Liam's disappointed voice echoed beside me.

He was staring off into the horizon, and as I turned to look at him, I saw that his eyes were burning with a yellow color.

Scratching the side of my face and turning to look at the horde of demons in the distance, I asked.

"No Duke ranked demon?"

"Doesn't seem like it"

Liam's eyes stopped glowing, and his eyelids started to droop, showing clear signs of boredom.

"I'm bored. I thought we were going to face some formidable enemies, but in the end, it's just a bunch of weaklings."

"You do know that you're in the same rank as them, right?"

Hein added as he stood beside him.

"Ah, right, I forgot."

Liam smacked himself on the forehead.

"I mean, isn't there anything you don't forget?"

"No, not really. Who are you, actually?"

Liam replied when he looked at Hein.

Hein threw his middle finger at him in response.

"Fuck you."

Having spent two years together, the two of them had grown familiar with each other.

Liam was at this moment joking. With my help, he was now able to remember everyone in the groups.

"Anyways, just because they are the same rank as me, it doesn't change the fact that they are weaklings. The energy fluctuating that their bodies are giving out isn't that strong."

Squinting his eyes for a moment and letting his eyes flow one more time, he mumbled.

"There is one guy over there that is half decentbut that's it, and even he isn't that much of a threat."

As he said those words, there was a clear sign of frustration in his voice.

Moving next to him, I patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. They aren't real enemies. You'll have your fun later."

"Oh?"

Liam raised his brow and looked at me.

"You serious?"

"Yes, yes"

Just like Liam said, the demons in front of us weren't anything special. I wasn't saying this because I was arrogant or anything like that, but at this point, even I could tell that their strength wasn't something that would pose a threat to me.

But I knew this from the beginning.

My goal in luring them here wasn't to fight them off or anything of the sort. It was to instigate a war between the orcs and the demons so that I could start the real war faster.

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I only had seventy days at my disposal, and I couldn't just beat thousands of demons in that little time.

Excluding the fact that I wasn't delusional to the point where I thought I could beat hundreds of thousands of demons with just a group of eight people, I also didn't think I could make it to them on time.

We couldn't fly like the demons could... Liam and I could, although it wasn't particularly quick, and a lot of mana was used in the process. Given the distance we had to travel to reach them and the fact that they numbered in the hundreds of thousands, our only viable choice was to engage them in battle with the orcs.

In any case, with all the information I had gathered, I was able to learn a lot of things. One of them was the fact that Azeroth was still alive and doing quite well.

He was the key factor in my plan, and everything was going smoothly so far.

"By the way Ren"

It was at this moment that I felt someone tug me on the shirt. I lowered my head and saw Ryan staring at me from below.

Although he was now 16 years old, he was still on the short side, forcing me to look down on him.

"Yea?"

"How did you know that the demon will come to attack us after this much time has passed? If I'm not wrong, over sixty years have passed since you last came, what makes you think he would still remember you?"

"Ah, that?"

Understanding what he was trying to ask, I replied.

"Simple really. Why do you think we are here?"

"To meet Silug?"

"Right."

I nodded my head.

"My goal was to meet Silug...but that's not the only reason why."

I had planned to come here for more than a year.

With my plan to take the entire planet for myself, I wouldn't just come here without any plans.

"There's another reason?"

Rather than answering I posed him a question.

"Why do you think I announced it in front of everyone that Silug is working under me?"

"There was a reason? Didn't you just do it to provoke him?"

"No."

I shook my head.

Although I did indeed provoke him into a fight, that wasn't the reason why I actually did what I did back then.

"Didn't you notice that there were other orcs present inside of the square when I met Silug?"

"Yes?"

Ryan slowly nodded his head.

"I remember that."

"Good. Given what you already know, you should be aware that the demons have placed spies inside this castle, and"

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"Oh! I get it!"

I was cut before I could finish my sentence.

Smacking his fist on his palm, Ryan's eyes brightened up.

"The reason why you revealed everything and provoked Silug publicly was because you wanted the demons to know that you were the one who helped Silug breakthrough to <S-> rank six years ago."

"...And since you were aware that they had spies in the castle, you neglected to have them taken out during the conflict; as a result, only the demon Silug killed reacted when the spies informed the other demons of what they had learned."

Ryan said everything in a single breath.

I nodded my head from time to time as he continued speaking.

"That's right. Also"

I took out a small statue from my dimensional space and tossed to it Ryan.

"I used this statue that I picked back then to make the demon understand that the humans Silug was talking to were the same people that ransacked his castle. Only this way would I instigate him to come attack us."

"I see, I see it all makes sense, but"

Ryan stopped for a moment and raised his head.

"What about the other demons , why aren't they doing anything to stop them from coming?"

"Good question."

I turned to face the distance and placed my arm on the side of the wall.

"They are probably aware of what is happening and are just waiting to see what happens. They are definetly not happy with the situation, but why do you think I beat Silug up quickly, and harshly? You know me, I'm not the type to 'show off' without any reason to do so."

I suddenly asked when I looked at Ryan.

"Since I knew that there was spies watching, wouldn't it be detrimental for me to suddenly show off my power and let the demons know that I'm strong?"

Ryan's brows furrowed as he fell into deep thought.

Seeing the state that he was in, I didn't say anything else and just continued to watch him.

I wanted him to understand things without the need for me to explain everything to him.

'if it was 'him', he'd probably understand what I was planning on doing without me needing to lead him on.'

I felt a pang of sadness when I thought back on Smallsnake. Had it been him, he would've understood my intentions quickly.

"I got it."

Ryan's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

"Go on."

Pinching the middle of his brows, he spoke.

"The reason why you exposed your strenght was so that the demons would be wary of you. In short, the reason why they aren't stopping the demons from coming here despite it being against their plans is because they want to see how strong you are. If you can beat Silug, then it is only natural that they become wary of you."

"That's right."

I patted Ryan on the head. I was very satisfied at the moment.

"That's exactly why I showed a glimpse of my abilities when fighting against Silug, and once we manage to defeat the incoming demons, the real ones will be coming. That's why"

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I raised my head to stare into the distance.

"We have to win this battle in a way that will make the demons take action personally. Enough to make them stop whatever they are planning on doing and come to us."