After killing Tabor, Reji looked at his right hand.
He had been waiting for the Philosopher's Stone to consume more energy.
But...
It was a bit unexpected.
The glow color of the Philosopher's Stone above hadn't changed.
"Hmm?"
Reji was quite surprised because in the normal plot of the first playthrough, Tabor had pretended to return to Freya and him and then secretly poisoned their food during the night's camping, attempting to kill him and forcibly occupy Freya.
This incident had a great impact on Freya.
After all, she had always treated Tabor as a brother and trusted him very much, never thinking that Tabor would become like this because of her.
This was actually a classic case of how everything becomes very complicated and painful when friendship turns sour.
So Reji would rather sacrifice a bit of energy than let Freya experience it again.
But now, he had taken a step ahead and killed this paladin who was crazy in love, successfully deviating from the plot.
Then, according to the rules he had summarized before...
The Philosopher's Stone should have reacted to the modified history, flashing with light and then dimming, just like when he changed his name before.
But... Reji waited for a while longer, but the gem on his right hand still had no reaction, as if it completely ignored Tabor's death and the changes in this plot.
Why was that?
Reji immediately fell into contemplation.
He paced to Tabor's corpse and entered the cave stronghold of the Black Lion mercenary group.
Inside the cave, the pungent smell of blood had already permeated the air. The bodies of mercenaries lay scattered on the ground. Of course, there was also Matthew, Tabor's companion and another paladin, who had been killed by Tabor to silence him.
So in other words...
In this area, there was no second living person except him.
This also meant...
How Tabor died, no, it should be said that including those mercenaries and Matthew, how these people died and the cause of their deaths were only known to him.
Reji felt like he had grasped something in an instant.
This might be the reason why the Philosopher's Stone didn't lose energy even though he had modified history.
The key point was...
Witnesses.
That was, after escaping the pursuit of the Black Lion mercenary group, he directly went to explore the outside world with the Saintess.
He didn't kill Earl Nicholas and his daughter at that time.
The Earl's daughter looked down on him, and breaking off the engagement was one thing.
Later, the Earl kept sending people to hunt him down in order to protect his daughter's reputation, and Reji endured it.
However, it was only later in the plot of the demon race's descent that the Earl Nicholas's family all became traitors and pledged allegiance to the wicked demons.
They used their noble status to constantly sell information to the demon race, causing heavy casualties to the human army. Moreover, because of their old grudge with him, the hero, they repeatedly colluded with the demon race to surround and kill him.
It could be said that the Earl Nicholas's family were thoroughly disgusting characters from beginning to end.
But due to the issue of strength in the first playthrough...
At every stage, Reji hated them to the point of gritting his teeth, but he couldn't do anything to them. It wasn't until almost the end that he finally exterminated this family of tumors.
Now... Since he had this opportunity to return to this point in time in the first playthrough, and even brought the strength of the Demon King from the second playthrough...
Hehe~.
Reji didn't need to identify the map or anything.
He had long been familiar with Nicholas's manor like the back of his hand. He could fly there with his eyes closed.
Tonight, he was going to let this Earl and that young lady know what it meant to...
Don't bully the Demon King when he's poor.
Reji wasn't in a hurry to leave. He did two things first.
First, powerful flames spread from his hands, burning all the corpses in the cave, including Tabor, to ashes, leaving not even a trace of ash. Then, he used Megalith Technique to completely fill the entire cave stronghold. Finally, the light of natural magic flickered around Reji, and vines and plants grew wildly, covering all traces.
After doing all this, even if the leader of the Black Lion mercenary group were to be resurrected, he definitely wouldn't be able to find where his own stronghold was.
Second, Reji wove a messenger pigeon with magic and simply told Freya, who was still waiting for him, not to worry. He was not in danger, but he needed to spend more time. He promised Freya that he would definitely return before dark.
After completing these two points...
Reji put on his cloak, and his figure quickly disappeared into the shadows of the sunset.
When he reappeared... He was already hovering high in the air.
And below his feet was a very beautiful and tall castle.
It was now sunset. The crimson sunset, like maple leaves, shone on the castle, as if draping it with a veil, making it exceptionally beautiful.
The servants were busy preparing dinner.
The gardeners worked tirelessly in the vast estate.
From the luxurious room at the top of the castle, bursts of laughter could be heard.
It was Earl Nicholas's family, chatting happily under the flickering candlelight.