"Easy, easy," Mark said, raising both hands to calm them. "That’s exactly the other thing we need to talk about..."

The five looked at him in silence.

Mark settled in the throne and let out a short sigh before continuing.

"There’s a reason I decided to tell you all this now, and not before," Mark said. "And that reason has to do with exactly what happened in the Demon Lord’s dungeon."

Ely visibly tensed at hearing that.

"What does that woman have to do with any of this?" she asked with a furrowed brow.

"She knew."

"Knew what?"

"That I’m a reincarnated person..."

"..."

Hearing Mark’s words, everyone fell silent.

Aria blinked incredulously several times, Alice raised her eyes from the floor, and Yuki, who had been quiet the entire time, tilted her head slightly.

Then Ely was once again the first to speak.

"How is it possible that she knew that?"

"I have no idea..."

"But Master, that doesn’t make sense," Ely continued, crossing her arms. "If you had never told anyone about your origins, how did she find out? Could she see it somehow? Or maybe she read your mind?"

"I’m telling you again, Ely, I have no idea," Mark said with a shrug. "When we were face to face she simply whispered it to me."

"And did you ask her how she knew?" Aria chimed in.

"I was in shock from what she’d just told me, Aria — it wasn’t exactly the best moment to strike up a conversation with her."

"That’s true..."

"The point is," Mark said, running a hand over the back of his neck, "that after barely escaping that woman by the skin of our teeth, I reached a pretty simple conclusion."

The five looked at him expectantly.

"Which is that as long as she exists, I’m never going to be safe."

Hearing their Master speak so seriously, Ely and Aria, who hadn’t been present during the confrontation — could understand that the demoness was no ordinary threat.

"If she ever decides to show up here one day," Mark continued, "I have absolutely nothing to defend myself with... and no matter how strong all of you are, I’m not entirely sure we could stand up to her."

Alice tightened her fists slightly at hearing that, but said nothing.

"So that’s why I’m going to follow Rose’s suggestion and look for a way to recover my powers."

"Are you really going to do it, Master?" Rose asked.

"If there’s a chance, however small, that you’re right... then it’s worth trying, because staying the way I am now is not an option."

Rose nodded with a small smile.

"But," Mark added, raising a finger, "we have a small problem."

"What is it?"

"That I have absolutely no idea where to start looking," Mark admitted with a shrug.

Ely opened her mouth to say something but ended up thinking, Aria did the same, Yuki simply frowned slightly, and for a few seconds nobody said anything, because none of them had an immediate answer.

Until Rose was once again the one to break the silence.

"I have an idea, Master."

"Go ahead, I’m listening."

"If what we’re looking for is clues about the reincarnated ones," Rose continued, "then the most logical place to start would be the locations where the heroes of the past appeared, or the places where they’re known to have been at some point in their lives."

"Do those places even still exist?"

"Of course they exist," Rose replied. "Every hero left some kind of trace... Some have monuments, others have ruins associated with them, others have temples built where they supposedly first appeared."

"I see..."

"So if we go, we might find something like records or personal belongings they left behind... anything that gives us a clue about how they came to this world and what made them special," Rose said.

Mark thought about what Rose said for a moment.

The idea didn’t sound bad, but it didn’t sound exactly simple either, visiting several locations scattered across the continent wasn’t something that could be done quickly or easily.

But before Mark could say anything more, Alice stepped forward.

"If you’ll allow me, my lord..."

Mark turned his head toward her, surprised, it was the first time in the entire meeting that Alice had spoken up on her own initiative, and despite the firm posture she was trying to maintain, her voice still had a faint undercurrent of uncertainty.

"Go ahead, Alice, I’m listening."

"If we’re going to follow Rose’s advice, I think the most efficient approach would be to start with the most recent heroes," she said in a firmer tone.

"The most recent?"

"Those who defeated the last Demon Lord," Alice confirmed. "That group is the one with the most existing records right now, since their existence was recent enough that the information is still available."

"I see... but where would we start looking for that information?"

Alice hesitated a second before answering.

"...In the clergy and the inquisition, primarily."

Mark kept his eyes on her, and she continued speaking, slightly nervous.

"I, as a high-ranking member of the inquisition," Alice continued, lowering her gaze slightly, "had access to privileged information about the group of heroes... information that isn’t available to the general public and that may be very useful to us."

Mark straightened up a little on the throne at hearing that.

"What kind of information are we talking about?"

"The routes they traveled, contacts they made, specific locations of their tombs..." Alice listed. "I also know what personal belongings they left in the custody of the clergy and where those are currently kept."

"...That’s far more useful than I expected."

"Unfortunately I don’t remember everything by heart, but..." Alice’s voice wavered for a second. "I know where the records related to the heroes are kept."

Mark thought for a moment.

"Then it’s settled," Mark said finally. "We’ll start with the most recent heroes, since that will be more efficient than chasing legends from a thousand years ago."

"As you command, my lord."

"Understood, Master."

"Got it, Master."

Mark nodded, satisfied, then rested his hands on the throne’s armrests.

"Good, so that topic is more or less wrapped up for now," Mark said. "Which means there’s only one more thing left to address..."

And as he said it, his gaze drifted slowly until it came to rest, without any attempt to hide it, on Rose and Alice.