Arthur's shocking statement left Laura and Rex with stunned expressions.
Rex approached Arthur and Ramon.
"Ah, Arthur, what do you mean by that?"
As he drew near, Laura blocked Rex's path.
She stayed on high alert, sensing the unusual aura emanating from Arthur.
Meanwhile, Ramon, whose shoulder Arthur gripped, met his gaze with a hardened expression and opened his mouth.
"Arthur, I..."
"Perhaps you were promised elevation to Family Head of the Siemens if you eliminated me here."
At Arthur's words, Ramon's eyes wavered.
Rex shoved past Laura, who was blocking him, and shouted,
"Arthur! Snap out of it! There's no way Ramon would do something like that!"
Though Ramon and Arthur often growled at each other, Rex couldn't imagine such a cowardly deal between friends.
Hearing this, Arthur tugged the corner of his mouth into a smirk and let out a chuckle.
"Hmm, Rex says as much. What about you, Ramon?"
The hand gripping Ramon's shoulder tightened further.
Crack.
The sound of bones shifting in Ramon's shoulder made him grimace in pain.
Seeing this, Rex tried to approach them, but Laura blocked his way again.
"Rex, hold on."
She pulled a vial of medicine from her pocket and whispered softly,
"It could be temporary mental confusion from the Magical Beast's venom."
Rex, who had been about to push past her once more, considered the words of the healer Laura and thought it plausible.
He calmed his excitement and stepped back.
Ramon, facing off against Arthur, remained silent.
At that moment, Laura approached Arthur.
"Hey, Arthur Draker."
Arthur turned his head toward her, still gripping Ramon's shoulder.
Sizzle!
In an instant, Laura sprayed an antidote for abnormal conditions at Arthur.
A purple mist billowed up thickly.
As the strength left Arthur's hand, Ramon twisted his body and barely escaped his grasp.
"Huff, huff."
Ramon collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
The mist from the antidote spray still lingered around Arthur.
But then— Whoosh!
Arthur lunged forward through the mist in a flash and roughly seized Laura's wrist.
"Urk!"
Laura panicked at the unimaginable strength in his grip.
He stared down at her, holding the wrist of the hand clutching the spray.
The moment their eyes met, Laura felt as if her breath had stopped.
She sensed an alien power in Arthur's jewel-like eyes that seemed to suck in souls.
Under that gaze, which felt like it was scouring her very soul, Laura shivered as if stripped bare in freezing cold.
Zing—
Suddenly, a golden aura rippled from her body.
Only then did Arthur release Laura's wrist and step back.
The atmosphere and demeanor around Arthur differed markedly from before they entered the Dungeon, leaving both Laura and Rex on guard.
Arthur looked around at his companions and suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
After laughing uproariously, he spoke in an exaggerated manner and tone, like an actor on stage.
"It seems my joke went a bit too far."
He approached the fallen Ramon with a smile.
Then he extended a hand to him.
"I'm just so overjoyed to see you all alive and to reunite like this that I played a prank that went overboard. I apologize."
Ramon swatted away Arthur's outstretched hand.
"Get lost."
Arthur smirked as Ramon rose on his own, clearly displeased.
Arthur glanced at Rex, Laura, and Ramon one by one, then flashed a more charming smile than anyone else's and said,
"I'd love to celebrate my return with you all and spend more enjoyable time together, but I have something I must attend to first, so I'll head down now. I spent more time in the Dungeon than expected."
He added one more line, his gaze fixed on Ramon.
"Ramon, let's have a deeper conversation in Atlas when the time comes." Arthur left those words and exited the cave.
Only after he departed could the three finally breathe. Rex turned to Ramon, whose face had paled.
"Ramon, was what Arthur said just now really a joke?" Ramon sat on a rock without answering Rex's question.
That silence complicated Rex's thoughts.
'What if Ramon hadn't thrown that scroll at the Magical Beast back then?'
Even though Arthur had been preparing to strike the Magical Beast with his sword, Ramon ignored his signal and threw the scroll, exposing their position.
And when Arthur was attacked by the Magical Beast, Ramon used a space teleportation scroll and fled, abandoning him.
As doubts grew in his mind, suspicions chained together and expanded.
At that moment, Ramon, sitting on the rock, slowly spoke.
"...Are you suspecting me too?" His voice sounded exhausted.
Rex couldn't immediately say no.
But then— Smack!
Laura, standing beside him, struck Ramon's back hard.
Ramon twisted in agony from the intense impact.
Laura glared at Ramon with sharp eyes and said,
"Don't sit there looking like you've shouldered the world's troubles! If you have something to say, spit it out straight!"
Laura's straightforward words reversed the heavy atmosphere.
Ramon, wincing from the pain on his unreachable back, coughed a few times and finally calmed down.
"Ugh. Laura, do you know how harsh your hand is?"
"Whatever, just speak quickly. It's annoying."
For the impatient Laura, this was already considerable restraint.
Ramon looked at her with a weary expression and then opened his mouth.
"...It's not that there was no such proposal." At those words, Rex's eyes widened.
"Ramon, you don't mean...?"
Ramon stood up and shouted,
"Damn it! No matter how good the terms, I'm not the type to sell out a friend!" He continued, breathing heavily.
"I approached them on purpose to find out they were targeting Arthur and what they planned to do. If they tried any dirty tricks, I needed to uncover it in advance to stop them."
It meant he had been acting as a double agent.
Hearing Ramon's explanation, Rex slumped to the ground as if deflated.
Then he let out a hollow laugh.
"Hahaha, of course. What was I even thinking...?"
He felt ashamed for briefly suspecting his friend Ramon.
At that moment, Laura looked at Ramon and said,
"Then it's true that the Draker Family is targeting Arthur. You made it sound like speculation earlier."
Rex's expression turned shocked at her words.
"My god, then isn't Arthur in danger if he goes down now? We should hurry and..." As Rex moved urgently, his wounds reopened.
He winced in pain and shrank back, and Laura shook her head.
"Don't overdo it. You still can't move. You need a few more days of rest." She turned to Ramon and continued.
"Ramon, if Arthur's in real danger as Rex says, shouldn't you have stopped him from going? Why let him leave like that?"
Ramon lifted his head and said,
"...Something was off."
Laura's eyes sharpened at Ramon's words.
"Off? With Arthur?"
She too had sensed an unusual change in Arthur, so she couldn't dismiss Ramon's words.
Ramon continued.
"The Arthur facing me... didn't seem like Arthur." Laura's eyes narrowed at Ramon's statement.
"Not Arthur? You mean like a doppelganger or something?" Ramon shook his head at Laura's words.
"It's not that. I can't explain it in words, but... something has definitely changed. It felt like something else was inside him."
Recalling the gaze he'd exchanged with Arthur, Ramon felt a chill down his spine again.
Under that transparent yet hollow gaze, which seemed to know everything, Ramon had felt an instinctive fear.
Seeing Ramon's frozen expression, Laura said,
"Even if Arthur has changed, that doesn't mean he's safe from the Draker Family."
"That's true, but... I don't know. I'm confused too."
Zeke had been watching the entire situation from inside Rex's body.
'They've noticed Arthur Draker's change to some extent.'
Zeke had witnessed with his own eyes the process of Arthur Draker incorporating dark matter into his body and becoming a solar saint body.
Moreover, the changed Arthur had expressed emotions more naturally and had spoken more eloquently than before.
And what had resembled the Arthur Draker Zeke knew was actually the changed version.
'He's been in this altered state ever since that incident.' Zeke knew what would happen next.
Despite the unfavorable conditions, Arthur Draker would win the competition for Family Head of the Draker.
The shift occurred because the eldest son, the most promising candidate, died in a suspicious accident.
Intense factional struggles arose among the remaining competitors, and amid that, Arthur Draker gathered forces through his own abilities to become the strongest candidate.
All competitors who crossed swords with him were mercilessly slaughtered without exception.
In the end, only Arthur Draker remained as a candidate, and the Draker Knights had no choice but to pledge loyalty to him.
The Council of Elders, having lost any means to check him, switched to supporting him instead.
Ultimately, Arthur Draker ascended to the position of Family Head by unanimous vote.
It was the birth of the most powerful overlord in Draker Family history.
A man with greater strength and authority than anyone else.
Arthur Draker was the figure the sun god Apollyon deemed most suitable as the ideal human king.
'The sun god chose Arthur Draker to make him the new avatar Adam.' Based on the circumstances, Zeke could only conclude that.
As Zeke pondered various thoughts about Arthur Draker, Laura approached Rex.
"Let me check your wounds."
She healed Rex's torn injuries with healing magic.
But at that moment— Whoosh!
As a golden aura emanated from Laura's hand, Zeke's body slipped out of Rex.
At the same time, the surroundings rippled, and the scenery began to change.
Whoosh!
A completely different landscape unfolded before Zeke's eyes.
In a beautiful garden blooming with flowers, Laura sat at a tea table in modest attire, while Rex, dressed in the traditional colors of the Thurn Family, stood looking down at her.
At that moment, Carmilla, dressed as a maid, approached the table with tea.
Without a word, she quietly placed the steaming, fragrant tea on the table.
Rex looked at Laura and said,
"Laura, are you truly without regrets about that choice?"
His voice was much deeper than in the cave, as if over ten years had passed.
Laura also carried a more composed air than before.
Gazing at the flowers in the garden, she said,
"Yes, Rex. My choice remains unchanged." Rex's expression hardened at Laura's response.
Then Laura spoke again.
"To protect the savior of fate, I must marry Arthur Draker. No, the monster pretending to be Arthur Draker."