Roy

Opening his eyes Roy lazily stares at the clouds that are continuously morphing into a myriad of shapes as if to compete with each other in terms of creativity.

Seemingly enjoying their performance Roy lets out a smile, but soon, tears start streaming down his face, falling from the corner of his eyes towards the back of his ear. 

Perhaps a coincidence but at the same time not, the clouds darken and rain starts pouring down as if to resonate with Roy's emotions.

After struggling to suppress his emotions, Roy once again closed his eyes drifting off to sleep.

A few hundred kilometers away a man dressed in a majestic robe frowned after hearing the reports of several elders. "You said that the demonic beasts in the Crimson forest have become agitated for some reason."

"Yes," a grey-robed elder stood up from his seat and while wearing a solemn expression on his face as he continued, "lord Ress, I suspect that a demonic beast might have been promoted to the demon sovereign realm." As soon as he said that the complexion of the remaining elders changed. 

One of the elders hurriedly stood up and quickly refuted "Impossible the mana in the crimson forest is nowhere near enough to support the breakthrough of a sovereign realm beast. Elder Mond, don't spew nonsense without evidence. yo~"

Before the elder could finish his sentence lord Rees threw him an indifferent glance making him immediately shut up. 

Staring back at Elder Mond, Lord Rees's face once again became serious, "Continue." Without wasting any time Elder Mond waved his hand making a compass-like object appear out of thin air. The object is pure white in color and emits a grayish noble aura. It would look even more noble if it wasn't for the several cracks on its surface. Everyone's expression remained unchanged as if the magical scene just witnessed was nothing special. 

"This is a magic artifact I borrowed from Master Rix, the divinity Compass. It can be used to divine the fortune of others. I used it on a captured demonic beast to find out what agitated it. But.."

Elder Mond pointed at the cracks on the compass. "As you know only demon sovereign realm and above could shield themselves from divination." The face of Elder Leng, the one who had stood up to refute Elder Mond earlier turned red in embarrassment, and then he glared at Elder Mond as if thinking that Elder Mond purposefully waited for him to speak in order to embarrass him.

Lord Rees who saw this scene looked speechless with countless question marks appearing above his head. Suppressing the urge to give Elder Leng a hard slap, Lord Rees looked at the remaining elders, "I will send someone to inform the imperial family about this matter. Elder Ping, in two days you will follow me to the crimson forest for further investigation, elder Lu, send a letter to the mercenary union and have them issue more missions pertaining to the crimson forest, and Elder Leng... forget it. You are all dismissed."

After saying that Lord Rees vanished from his seat. Everyone else got up to leave in a more reasonable manner.

A few hours later, back in the crimson forest, Roy once again opened his eyes feeling the slightly cold wind being blown from the nearby lake. He gets up preparing to enter a dilapidated cottage, but suddenly he hears a scream from the distance.

Shifting his gaze towards the location Roy sees a girl being chased by four ferocious-looking Wolflike creatures. The four of them were over two meters tall with red fur, they had red eyes and large fangs. Drool could be seen coming out of their mouth and their eyes are filled with desire. 

Paying no heed to the trees that would have obstructed the sight of any other normal person, Roy continues to stare.

Sally begins to pant heavily as she continues to run away from the Crimson fiend wolves. She is the daughter of Lincoln, the leader of the Rose Chamber of Commerce in Crimson City. Her father fell ill due to poisoning, The chamber of commerce invited an alchemist from the mage guild to cure Lincoln. But the alchemist invited said that 3 stalks of Red leaf Lotus are needed to make the antidote. 

Such medicinal ingredients can only be found in places like the Crimson Forest. Several elders went to the mercenary union and posted a mission to help them acquire the red-leaf lotus. Sally tagged along, not only because she wanted to help her father but most importantly she wanted to get away from Kane, the son of the city lord of Crimson City. He's been pursuing her for several months and Sally has started to get annoyed. 

Upon entering the crimson forest, She, her elders, and the mercenaries got separated due to being chased by a pack of crimson wolves. 

As Sally continues to run in desperation she sees the silhouette of a cottage ahead.

Her mind begins to work at an extremely fast speed and she quickly analyzes that anyone who is capable of living in the Crimson Forest is most likely a powerful existence. And even if there is no one living in the cottage perhaps she can find a place to hide or maybe even find something that can cause her to Get out of her current predicament.

With a burning desire to survive, Sally shifts her direction towards the cottage and begins to run at an even faster pace. 

Her eyes begin to shine with hope. joy could be seen on her face, but before the joy continues to blossom, her foot hits a large tree root causing her to fall. Her forehead then smashes hard onto the ground making her let out a scream, but not a scream of pain, instead it's one of despair knowing that she is most likely about to die. Quickly turning her head she sees one of the wolves jumping towards her, she then closes her eyes waiting for her death.

Roy stares at the scene in the distance and begins mumbling to himself, "Is this the part where I quickly kill the big wolf creature so when that girl does not feel the sudden pain of being devoured alive she'll slowly open her eyes and see my valiant back causing her eyes to shine with stars?"

Nodding to himself, Roy narrows his eyes preparing to take action but before he can take even half a step forward the wolf pounces on the girl ripping off her head from her neck. The Remaining wolves gather around her and begin devouring her body. 

Roy stood there stunned, "Could it be that I had to act as soon as she fell on the ground or perhaps not spend so long of a time thinking about how the scene should have played out?"

Shrugging his shoulders Roy turned around, his expression returned to that of indifference and laziness as he entered the cottage and closed the door. 

One of the wolves raises its head, staring at the cottage door in the distance, fear and agitation could be seen in its eyes, it emitted a low howl causing the remaining wolves to begin devouring the body at a quicker pace, a few seconds later they all hurriedly left leaving bloody remains and tattered clothes on the ground

Entering the kitchen, Roy begins cooking up something to eat when suddenly… 

Woosh 

As if feeling something, Roy lifts his gaze and stares in a certain direction. His previously lazy aura transforms into something profound for less than a second before returning back to normal. 

"Sigh…"

So Apathy is finally done huh, well, looks like it's now my turn

"Sigh," how troublesome. 

—-

[the 55th layer has been formed, please purchase the appraisal skill for more detailed information]