Dust slowly drifted up with the breeze, and the black windbreaker swayed back and forth in the air.
This was the training ground of the Klevenna estate.
Viktor stood in place, looking at the empty training field.
"Hey!"
A girl-like figure circled behind Viktor and tapped his shoulder.
Feeling the force on his shoulder, Viktor showed no reaction at all.
As if he had already guessed who it was, he only calmly asked, "What is it?"
The girl behind him did not find it strange.
To her, Viktor's calmness was completely expected.
She never thought she could scare Viktor anyway.
So she stood on tiptoe, pushed herself up, and jumped from behind him.
She hung onto Viktor's back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Viktor, what are you doing here?"
Cocotte poked her head out from behind him and asked curiously.
Viktor turned his head and glanced at her before replying flatly, "Waiting."
'Uh... that was way too vague.'
Cocotte thought so and looked around.
She did not see anyone else nearby besides herself.
Could he be waiting for her?
Oh, but she had another question.
"What happened to your Liya? I just saw her go out alone, and her face was super red."
She thought carefully. She had never seen Liya act like that before.
Thinking about how Liya had been terribly upset yesterday because Viktor dug up her family graveyard, she did not feel comfortable chasing after her to ask.
But Viktor did not answer. Instead, he asked her, "You're unusual too."
"At this hour, I can actually see you awake."
Not only that, seeing her walking with both feet on the ground already felt unusual to Viktor.
Cocotte sighed, jumped down from Viktor's back, shrugged, and said helplessly, "Can't help it. My cloud's gone, so I can't sleep at all."
Even Cocotte was not the type who could sleep anywhere whenever she wanted.
Just like back in the Elven Forest.
If the surroundings did not feel comfortable, naturally she could not sleep well.
Since she could not sleep, she might as well stay awake.
She was too used to staying on her soft cloud. Even lying on the softest bed in the Klevenna estate felt uncomfortable to her.
Not to mention the missing cloud, there was also a whole group of nature elves in the huge backyard of the estate.
As long as she got a little close to the elf group, endless prayers from the elves would ring nonstop inside her head.
Chirp! Chirp! Buzz! Buzz.
Maybe the only bad thing about becoming the World Tree was that the elves' voices became even louder.
With all the buzzing noise, she simply could not sleep.
So Cocotte grabbed Viktor's arm and shook it back and forth, asking him softly, "Viktor~ when are we going back?"
"I miss my cloud and garden."
For some reason, ever since Viktor woke her up from inside the World Tree that day, she had really wanted to do this to him.
'According to humans, this should be called... acting spoiled?', Cocotte thought about it.
Then she gave up thinking and tightly held onto Viktor's arm without letting go.
"How about you carry me instead? Maybe if you carry me, I'll fall asleep."
To put it simply, she still did not want to walk herself.
Life without her cloud was really tiring.
But at that moment, the sound of wings flapping came from the sky.
A black feather drifted in front of Cocotte with the wind.
A pitch-black one-eyed crow landed on Viktor's shoulder.
It shook its body and used its beak to fix the feathers sticking out.
'Hm? Viktor's crow?'
Cocotte froze slightly. Only then did she realize that the crow pet that usually followed Viktor around had disappeared earlier.
And after Vega returned, Viktor quietly pulled back the arm Cocotte had been holding.
"If you really don't want to walk, I can temporarily prepare a mount for you."
"Huh?"
Cocotte became confused when she heard that.
'A mount? What's that?'
Viktor only looked at the empty field ahead, slightly raising the corner of his mouth as he mysteriously said, "That is, if you can accept it."
The next second, a glowing green crack suddenly tore open in the space before Viktor.
BOOM!
A gigantic undead gate slowly pulled its enormous and majestic body out from the crack.
The double doors swung open to both sides, and a crimson vortex surged from within.
Thick green mist poured out together with it, instantly wrapping around the entire field.
At the very top of the gate, green flames burst out from the eyes of the goat skull.
At the same time, orange-red sparks and flames spewed from its mouth.
The two mixed together, carrying an extremely terrifying aura of death.
Even the originally clear sky turned gloomy.
Under layers of smoke, crimson spread across the clouds.
It was as if the entire world was gradually being drowned in scarlet.
Cocotte stood frozen in place, staring at the rising gate as an ominous feeling welled up inside her.
Then her feeling came true.
An enormous claw stretched out from the Gate of the Dead and slammed heavily onto the training ground.
Scarlet flames burned endlessly on the giant claw, crackling with dull popping sounds.
At that moment, an overwhelming pressure poured out like a giant wave, making Cocotte's hair stand on end as she froze in fear.
Then, three heads stretched out from the crimson vortex.
The three dog heads viciously bit at the air around them, foul-smelling saliva dripping from their sharp white teeth.
The flesh on their faces squeezed together as they glared fiercely at the stunned Cocotte.
At that moment, Cocotte's whole body started trembling.
Her legs turned weak.
Locked onto by the beast's three pairs of scarlet eyes, she felt like prey, like food already inside the three-headed dog's mouth.
A chill rushed up her spine into her brain, and warning bells rang wildly in Cocotte's head.
Then the enormous three-headed dog, which took up nearly half the training ground, completely pulled its body out from the Gate of Hell.
It stood on the ground, breathing heavily.
Even the breath from its three heads burned the surrounding earth like flames.
"Waaahhh!!! Don't eat me!"
The scene frightened Cocotte so badly that her vision blurred. She hurriedly hid behind Viktor.
She shut her eyes, hugged her head, and crouched down.
"Viktor! What the heck is that thing? Wuuuuhhh…"
Viktor slowly raised the corner of his mouth, seemingly pleased to see Cocotte scared again after so long.
"Look carefully."
"This is your transportation."
Cocotte shook her head wildly like a rattle drum.
"No no no, wuuhhh, I'm not doing it…"
At this moment, Viktor slowly raised his head and looked at the Hellhound whose eyes were filled with scarlet.
The pressure from a hound from hell was still too strong.
Even putting aside the fact that it came from hell itself, a level sixty-five creature was not something ordinary people could compare to.
Viktor waved his hand, and the enormous Gate of Hell shut closed and sank back into the green crack.
After the gate disappeared, the heavy crimson aura around them gradually faded as well.
The clear sky appeared above them again, as if none of what just happened had ever existed.
Without the aura of hell surrounding it, the Hellhound could only accept the atmosphere of reality.
Its massive body slowly shrank, and the flames covering it gradually faded and went out.
In the blink of an eye, Cerberus became the size of a normal puppy.
The only difference was that it had three heads.
It sat on the ground with its front paws planted there, all three heads sticking out their tongues and panting.
Its tail wagged back and forth, occasionally barking twice.
Having three heads also meant having three minds.
Because of that, whenever one of them barked, it would annoy the other two heads.
Then the dog would fall into an argument with itself.
"Woof woof woof!"
The noisy barking continued endlessly beside Cocotte's ears.
Hearing barking like an ordinary puppy, Cocotte slowly opened her eyes.
She lowered her head and carefully looked forward.
It was a red puppy with three heads, and it was even slightly chubby.
Cocotte stood there dumbfounded, eyes wide open in disbelief as she shakily stood back up.
Pointing at the three-headed evil dog in front of her, she looked toward Viktor.
"Th-This... what exactly is this?"
Just now, it definitely did not look like that.
"The gatekeeper hound of hell, Cerberus."
Hearing Viktor's explanation, Cocotte's face filled with confusion.
'Hell? Cerberus?'
She did not understand either of them.
Viktor continued explaining, "I'm using it to guard the house for Liya."
In an instant, Cocotte froze.
She stared at the dog with confused eyes, while the dog raised all six eyes to stare back at her.
'That thing from before... is used for guarding the house?'
'What exactly are you hiding in your house that you need that thing guarding it?'
Viktor looked at the person and dog staring at each other as his body gradually became transparent.
"Well then, you two can spend some time bonding here."
"Though being from hell, it might not be easy to communicate with."
Whoosh!
The moment he finished speaking, his entire body turned into specks of starlight and disappeared from the spot.
Cocotte blinked. Watching Viktor vanish, she instantly became so anxious she was almost crying.
"Hey Viktor, where are you going? Don't leave me behind, don't leave me behind!"
"Hey!!!"
But nobody answered her.
Cocotte tremblingly turned her head back toward the dog and forced out a stiff smile.
"Uh... hi?"
"Woof!"
———
Water droplets fell onto the rocky ground, producing hollow echoes.
Viktor held up a cluster of bright crimson flame as he walked into the deep cave.
The moment he entered, a pair of green snake eyes shot straight toward him.
The huge tiger-man lay on the ground with its tongue hanging out.
Its eyes were tightly shut, as if it had lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, Saphiroth sat nearby, leaning against the wall.
There were several more tears in her clothes.
But in the end, she was the winner of this battle.
Perhaps sensing Viktor's arrival, she blankly muttered, "Number of battles, 11"
"Record: 10 losses, 1 win. Objective completed."
Viktor stood before her and looked down into Saphiroth's snake eyes.
"Looks like you completed my mission."
"Then now, you can choose."
"You can either leave with me, or gain your freedom and leave."
Saphiroth's widened pupils suddenly shrank into vertical slits.
She spoke mechanically, "Identifying whitelist mission: Henny."
"Identification successful."
"Mission One: Become a teaching assistant."