The play wasn’t over yet. The eighth recruits were still captured, and the nagas were intently guarding them. There was Vepar, dreaming and assured of a rosy future where she was the main lead. Everything was as it was.

“You came.” She smiled, welcoming the entrance of an extra who would make her shine brighter. But Vepar didn’t know she couldn’t be the center of this stage. The stage was created to make sure exactly that, and it was the same for Ru Amuh. He wasn’t the main character, either. He wasn’t even one of the main leads, but at most a fake protagonist. The director of this play had drafted his script with a different main character in mind.

However, it was now time for Vepar to be released from her expectations and delusions. Thus, Ru Amuh gripped the statue in his hand tightly with a tense expression.

“I…brought it…”

“You came earlier than I expected you to. As I thought, you must have been quite anxious.” Vepar thought her strategy to let the opposite half of the captives go had been right on the mark. She looked completely satisfied with her own wisdom. Now that this dim-witted human male had come back, the matter was basically over—of course, that was if the holy relic that the human...