"If it isn''t going to happen in July, then when is it going to happen?"


    [Next Month.]


    "What?!"


    Laurene eximed in surprise upon hearing Evan''s reply. She remembered the scale of the attack that Evan had described in his letter and didn''t think that a few weeks was enough to prepare to resist such an attack at all.


    [The Demonic Hand''s ns have been moved up by a few months. And I know this because I just tortured out this information from a member of the demonic hand.]


    As he spoke, he grabbed the cor of a body and held it up, allowing the magic projector to capture the full appearance of the half-corpse with blood and a half-detached lung still spilling out of it.


    The expression on the face of the corpse showed just how much pain and fear the owner of the said corpse had felt before his death.


    [''Evan, that''s not his body. That''s his dead contracted demon''s corpse.''


    Oh? Wrong Body.]


    Evan looked at the thing in his hands after hearing Pride''s words, and realized that it was what was left of Thoruul''s corpse, dropping it back on the ground right after and picking up Ulmoch''s unconscious body.


    However, Laurene and everyone else with her had already seen the demon''s corpse which looked a lot simr to Xakon''s, the only other member of the ''Demon'' race that they had seen before.


    Ignoring this, Evan held up Ulmoch''s unconscious body which had a few unheble stab wounds along his vicle and continued speaking.


    [Yeah…this guy.


    He''s a subordinate of the Seventh Finger of the Demonic Hand who tried to attack Osto with thousands of monsters after his brother got killed by the Guild Master.


    So I beat him up and I got the info from him, afterwards.]


    His words snapped Laurene out of her shock as she narrowed her eyes and asked back.


    "The Seventh? Not the Eighth?"


    [Yeah.


    He''s a senior member of the Demonic Hand, so he is privy to information about the movements of the other executives besides his direct boss.


    The thing is, an unexpected variable urred, and due to that unexpected variable, shit is going to get a lot worse.]


    Dropping Ulmoch back on the ground, Evan took a deep breath and began exining.


    [Let''s start with the unexpected variable.


    The variable; was ''Strongest Human Rathal''.]


    Expressions of surprise once again coloured the faces of all those who heard, as they certainly didn''t expect Evan to bring up one of ''The Five''.


    [As you already know, when we went to the Graveyard of the Arrogant in Merdin. I had foiled the Demonic Hand''s ns for the ''Seven Deadly Sins'' Massacre'' while Ralphie was unconscious after defeating that Troll King.


    I honestly didn''t think that they''d have a backup prepared, which was foolish of me.]


    As Ralphie''s eyes widened upon hearing Evan''s words, the boy continued with his exnation.


    [Well, the thing is that they did.


    They had a backup prepared in the event that the ''Seven Sins Massacre'' didn''t happen, and that was nned for the Great Western Empire too.


    The problem here was, I didn''t know about this backup, no one did, besides the Demonic Hand members.


    And this backup would have seeded, if it wasn''t for the force of nature, that made it so the ''Strongest Human Rathal'', discovered this n and took out the entire unit working on it, along with the person in charge.


    The backup n is now pretty much scrapped because he killed the ''Tenth Finger'' of the Demonic Hand, permanently.]


    "Hold up? He killed a ''Finger'' permanently? What about the First Finger''s skill you told me about?"


    [Oh that, it''s something that can be countered by anyone with a Unique Series Skill.]


    Laurene leaned back on her chair and pointed to her eyes as she asked.


    "So basically, us seven, huh?"


    Evan nodded in response to Laurene''s words, holding up a few fingers as he began counting other people with such skills.


    [In the Great Western Empire, we have Finley…his Heaven Sword skill from the Heaven Series. There''s the First Star from the Great Eastern Empire, he has the ''Child of Fire'' skill. That''s where his ''Human me'' nicknamees from.


    There''s Jenson too. His ''Child of Lightning'' can do the job, since someone of Jenson''s level of expertise should be able to tap into his skill''s true nature.


    Oh! And Joanna too. Her ''Breath of Lightning'' is also capable of permanently taking them out.]


    "Sorry, who''s this ''Joanna'' again?"


    [Kasteblum''s Vice Chief Grand Magus.]


    Laurene massaged her temple with her fingers as she looked up at Evan and asked.


    "You met her in Kasteblum?"


    [Yeah, we''re pretty chill.


    Oh, yeah. Remind me to introduce Jenson to her sometime, they look like they''d be a good match and she seems to have a favourable impression of him already.]


    "…You''re close enough to talk about potential partners with the Vice Chief Grand Magus of Kasteblum?"


    [Yup.]


    "How did you eve-Never mind. Just get back to the important stuff."


    Laurene gave up on thinking about it midway and just urged Evan to go back to tell her about the changes to the Duhan Attack.


    "You said that the Tenth Finger was killed by ''Strongest Human Rathal'', right?"


    [Yeah. Somewhere around Cheart.]


    Upon hearing the name of the town that Evan called, a look of realization shed through Rudeus'' eyes as he sunk into his thoughts.


    ''So that''s why he was there''.


    The man was naturally aware of Rathal''s presence in his country, after all, the loud explosion and the deep crater Rathal had left behind were too conspicuous to miss.


    He just didn''t know what Rathal was doing there as all the people who could have told him ended up as blood stter on the ground.


    [Anyway, the variable; Rathal, averted a disaster for our empire, while indirectly making another one somewhere else, worse.]


    "Worse, huh?"


    [The Duhan attack has been brought up to next month so the Duhans would be weaker than they were originally meant to be.]


    Hearing Evan''s words, Laurene voiced out a question that everyone else present in the room with her wanted to ask also.


    "IF they are weaker, isn''t that a good thing?"


    However, Evan''s answer was not the kind they had expected.


    [No.


    It''s bad.


    Very bad.


    You know why?


    It''s because to circumvent that weakness, he''d be appearing in person.]


    "Who?"


    [Who else? The Eighth Finger of the Demonic hand himself.]