"A Café owner?"
Eiichi Toda, the Squid Orphnoch, yelled in disbelief. Even though Raven didn't seem entirely human, it didn't mean Toda was afraid. As an Orphnoch instructor, he had dealt with plenty of Orphnochs unwilling to kill, and he was highly experienced in combat.
"That's right, Amazon Café."
Raven didn't miss the chance to advertise his establishment. He slowly walked toward the Squid Orphnoch.
"Hmp! I don't care if you're an Orphnoch or something else!" The Squid Orphnoch immediately lunged forward, swinging the weapon in his hand fiercely at Raven.
Clang!
Raven parried the Squid Orphnoch's full-power attack with a single hand, looking at him as if nothing had happened.
"You... you..." The Squid Orphnoch could no longer hold his composure. He suddenly felt an intense sense of danger...
The next moment, he suddenly felt his heart pierced by something. Looking down, he saw Raven standing before him, holding a bloody, beating heart.
It was his own!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. This is your heart. It's truly disgusting."
Raven crushed the Orphnoch heart in his hand, then casually flicked the Squid Orphnoch's body aside like trash. It rolled to a stop right in front of Yuji Kiba and Yuka Osada.
"Ah..."
Yuka was instantly shaken and terrified.
Kiba also watched the Squid Orphnoch at his feet, his face deathly pale.
The Orphnoch reverted to his human form. Even without a heart, he still had a few gasps of life left.
"This is the last lesson... I will teach you... about Orphnoch death..."
"Complete annihilation... that is our... death."
After uttering those words, Eiichi Toda, who had taught with his dying breath, perished completely. A blue flame immediately ignited on his body.
"Shh."
"You talk too much."
Raven stepped forward and stomped on the head, which had yet to completely crumble into sand.
Then, using the System, he absorbed the life energy before the body could fully disintegrate.
This last part was invisible to the onlookers.
"Mr... Mr. Raven." Yuka looked at the black and purple figure before her. If she hadn't seen him transform, she wouldn't have been able to confirm his identity.
His methods were too brutal and cruel. Was this really the gentle Mr. Raven she knew?
After dealing with Eiichi Toda, Raven rummaged through the clothes the man had left behind and found a wallet.
Counting the contents, he found about 200,000 yen.
"Consider this your payment for the coffee you owe me."
Raven nodded in satisfaction and deactivated his transformation.
He then looked at Yuka Osada and Yuji Kiba, saying to them, "I almost forgot about you two. It's not a good place to talk here, so come with me into the shop."
Kiba had no choice but to nod obediently. The man's performance just now had been too fierce. He had killed the transformed Orphnoch Eiichi Toda so easily. If he genuinely wanted to harm them, they would be utterly defenseless.
Yuka was initially scared seeing Raven's Amazon Rider form.
But upon seeing him revert to his human appearance, a look of joy returned to her face. She instinctively stepped forward and hugged him.
She couldn't help but burst into tears, as if venting all the grievances in her heart.
"There, there, it's alright..." Raven was slightly surprised that Yuka already trusted him so much, but he quickly comforted her.
They returned to the Café.
Kaido, who should have been lying on the floor, was nowhere to be found.
"I remember there was someone here just now..." Kiba said, puzzled.
Yuka also recalled the incident.
"That's right. That person was injected with Orphnoch energy by Mr. Toda. He should be dead."
"Unless..."
"He already became an Orphnoch and probably left on his own," Raven supplied.
"Mr. Raven, what exactly do you know about Orphnochs?" Kiba asked immediately.
Yuka also looked at Raven expectantly, as if only he could provide them with answers.
"Don't rush. Listen to me slowly..."
Raven calmly made a cup of coffee at the counter.
He took a sip and then began, "The Orphnochs are the product of humans evolving too far. Although they possess astonishing power and are superior to humans in every aspect, they also have a fatal flaw."
"Which is their lifespan."
"Lifespan?" Kiba listened intently.
Yuka on the side was completely mesmerized by Raven's handsome face, thinking about other things entirely.
"That's right. Because their bodies can't withstand the extreme evolution, the average lifespan of an Orphnoch is around 20 years."
"Twenty years..."
Hearing that number, Kiba was stunned.
Even Yuka, who had been distracted by Raven's looks, snapped back to attention.
Seeing that both of them were shocked, Raven continued, "However, there isn't no way to change this. As long as the Orphnoch King awakens, they can grant all ordinary Orphnochs eternal life."
"The Orphnoch King?"
Hearing the name, Kiba suddenly recalled what the people at Smart Brain had been telling him recently—that the time for the King's awakening was approaching.
Could this King be the Orphnoch King?
"The Orphnoch King hasn't appeared yet, which is why Smart Brain is desperately trying to attack humans—to try their luck and see if they can find him early," Raven explained in detail.
Kiba and Yuka were completely captivated by his words.
"So, if the King is never found, Yuka and I only have twenty years left to live?"
"Well, you don't have to worry too much about that. As long as you don't use your Orphnoch power in the future, you can actually continue to live safely as humans," Raven reassured them.
"Is that so?"
Kiba and Yuka immediately sighed in relief. They both sincerely hoped to live as humans.
"But..."
At this point, Yuka thought of something else, and her eyes suddenly dimmed.
She had already killed over a dozen people, and she had been kicked out of her home. With only Smart Brain willing to take her in, she currently had nowhere else to go.