Demon Lord's Reincarnation

"Let's go meet that old man. Show me were he is, and I'll determine if he's the one who placed the curse on your siblings." After telling Hilda what he was planning to do next, Ren was about to exit the house but stopped. 

"Why aren't you moving? I told you to show me where that old man is." Ren looked at Hilda with confusion in his face, as the person in question was simply standing in her spot unmoving. Upon closer inspection, Ren noticed that Hilda was trembling. 

"Are you perhaps scared?" Ren couldn't understand why she would be feeling that way, but based on her reaction that was the only thing he could think of, that was happening to Hilda.

"I'm not scared!" Hilda suddenly shouted as she glared at Ren. She then stomped her feet forward. She quickly passed by Ren, her body still slightly trembling. Ren seeing her move on ahead with that angry yet blushing expression of hers made him chuckle a bit before following after her. 

Hilda walked straight ahead and when she was near the corner of the street she stopped, her body started to tremble even more, but this time it was a visible action. Ren then walked ahead of her and saw that she was trying her hardest not to cry. 

"So where's the old man?" Hilda didn't say anything and pointed at an empty stall at the very corner of the street. Ren came closer and checked on the stall. After checking the stall and asking the surrounding people about the person who was using it, the people Ren asked all answered the same thing they can't remember who was using the stall. 

'He manipulated everyone's minds and erased any memory of himself. Only people with higher mental resistance like Hilda could somehow retain a bit of memory about him. What an interesting guy. Hmmm?' 

Ren who felt a flicker of mana directed at him looked at the direction where he felt the mana fluctuation but saw no one. In fact, that feeling of mana being directed at him disappeared as quickly as he felt it. 

'Was that my imagination, or perhaps?... I see another one of those assassin types, and this one is a bit trickier than Gregory. An assassin that uses curses how troublesome.' Even though Ren was thinking that things were getting troublesome, his expression that was smiling ever viciously was saying otherwise. 

'So many rats inside my territory, I better flush them out all at once.' 

...

In an empty alleyway, an old man was panting heavily as he stopped running to take a breather. The old man's body was sweating profusely as he was gasping for air. If Hilda saw the old man, she would immediately identify him as the old man that was with the knight on that fateful day. 

The old man who was breathing heavily clenched his chest. 

'What the f*ck was that! That guy can't possibly be human! That was a freaking monster in human skin!' The old man couldn't control himself from shivering in fear as he recalled the moment Ren almost spotted him. 

'I was just going to probe him to see if all the rumors about him were true... But what was with that mana! I just poked at it a bit and it felt like his mana would devour me whole! He was even able to sense my presence and the moment he did he was ready to cut off my head.'

The old man remembered the moment Ren looked directly at him, at that very moment it felt like his head was about to separate from his body. It was also at that very moment every fiber of his being screamed at him telling him to escape. The old man knew that Ren wasn't able to see him, but for some reason when he saw Ren's eyes it was like Ren was looking at a dead man. 

Without a moment's hesitation, the old man quickly hid his presence again and fled the scene. He without using any mana so that he won't alert Ren started running as fast as he physically could. Once he was able to calm down a bit the old man pinched the side of his neck and removed his skin. It turns out he was simply wearing a mask and beneath that mask was a very younger man in comparison to the older man character he was acting out to be. 

The young man was around his late twenties and his face was something that could blend in easily in a crowd, he wasn't ugly but he wasn't handsome either. His face was only slightly more handsome than Ren's face. His physique was also quite skinny and his presence was almost nonexistent. 

Once the young man removed the mask he was wearing felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He felt a bit more safe, as Ren and Hilda didn't know what he truly looked like so it would be harder for them to locate him. The young man really wanted to escape from New Grenton at this very second, but he knew the moment he did that would spell his death. 

He needed to lay low for a few weeks or maybe months to lessen Ren's vigilance. If he messes up even a tiny bit he would die in the most gruesome way possible. Every time he remembered that look of Ren's he couldn't help but think of the worse possible outcome. 

'I f*cking thought this was going to be an easy job! Not only did his wife prove to be hard to deal with, but even his eldest daughter was also such a nuisance. Damn it! How come she knows such a monster! If he wasn't here, this job would've been over and done with. The pay for this f*cking job is not worth risking myself against that monster.'

The young man kept on complaining to himself as he blended into the crowd of people. He didn't notice that someone was watching him from the rooftops. 

...

"Such a boring play... Still,  I wonder what kind of act the so called bearer of the strongest soul will show. Is he truly worth all the effort and love my master is showering him with?" The hooded man sighed as he suddenly disappeared from view.