Table of Contents

Color Gallery

Copyrights and Credits

Title Page

Table of Contents Page

Part 1 Chapter 3

Prologue

Episode 1: Soiree on a Dark Night

Episode 2: I Am a First-Year Student Now

Episode 3: I Am Eight Years Old Now

Episode 4: Daily Lives of the Demons

Episode 5: I Am a Third-Year Student Now

Episode 6: I Am Nine Years Old Now

Episode 7: There Shall Be a Dinner Party Tonight

Episode 8: She Who Was Summoned

Episode 9: The Beast

Episode 10: I Have Become the True Saint…And Then

Epilogue

Bonus Story: Little Demons

Afterword

Newsletter

Color Gallery

Part 1 Chapter 3

Prologue

Prologue

EVERYTHING WAS IN RUINS—THE LAND, THE sky, even the hearts of the people.

This infertile land was not fit for humans. And so, long, long ago, the kings of every nation declared that this land would be a penal colony and sent a great number of people there under the pretense of “reclamation.” Some of these people had actually been criminals, or at least been accused of being such. The majority of them, though, had been the children of humans who had procreated with other species.

Children born of demi-human races that were similar to humans (such as elves and dwarves) were relatively accepted among society. However, those who looked drastically different would be shunned because of the ignorance of the humans in that era. Some of these children had bestial characteristics like horns, or scales for skin, or various other reptilian traits. One of their parents had been human, and that meant they had human hearts despite the inhuman blood flowing through them.

Nevertheless, humans were wary of them and drove them out to a remote land as they would a pest.

Despite being sent to this land under similar circumstances, the exiled fought each other in order to survive in the wasteland. They murdered, stole, and violated one another, and their bloodlines mixed, giving rise to a new kind of people altogether.

With ashen skin, white eyes, and traces of the characteristics of their non-human ancestries, these people believed their resentment of humans was justified. And so, they took to calling themselves “daemons.”

The daemons were stronger than humans both physically and magically. In order to survive, they had lost their ability to empathize, and thus they spent their days feuding. The blood they spilled corrupted the land, creating a miasma that rose to the heavens to block even the blessings of the sun, which in turn made the land all the more desolate.

The only thing these people revered was strength. The strong conquered the weak.

The strong battled one another, expanding their might as their numbers grew until eventually, they became one “nation.”

As he looked down at this wretched nation from his worn-out castle, a man weakly sighed. “Our country won’t last for much longer.”

The strong did not protect the weak—they chose to oppress them instead. The weak accepted this as the way of the world and resigned themselves to their fates. There was a belief among the strong that their nation could be even stronger if the weak would just disappear altogether.

The people known as the daemons would surely perish within the next hundred years.

The man turned on his heel to look away from the ruined town and walked through the corridors of the castle.

He was in the heart of the Daemon Lands, yet he was alone.

I need more power.

It would be impossible to change the mindset of the daemons. They only knew how to steal. Trying to teach them something that could bring joy would be as difficult as trying to teach an animal to have a conscience.

The daemons only put their faith in strength. Therefore, the only way to get them to obey was through power. He needed a great deal of power in order to get both the strong and the weak under his control.

The man headed for the castle town, where an altar to the gods had been built by the people who had been exiled long ago. There was also a massive, newly constructed summoning circle that was several times larger than the ones made for the demon-summoning incidents in the Holy Kingdom. Thus, this circle required an unimaginable amount of magic to use; over a hundred daemon wizards had been channeling their magic into it day and night for nearly a decade now.

But it’s still not nearly enough.

Summoning the one that the man needed would take another ten years of channeling.

There was a legend passed down among the daemons that said a legendary demon could emerge among the ancient arch demons, although such an occurrence was rare. These demons were considered a Master Class, the gods of the Demon Realm. They were anomalies that no living person could understand—beings that could destroy the entire world, in possession of great destructive powers.

If he could summon one, the man would be able to use its great power to unite the daemons.

But if he failed to control it, the summoning would likely be the day this world came to ruin.

“Is all proceeding apace?” the man asked those who were channeling into the summoning circle.

“Yes, sire!” the large daemon serving as an overseer of the operation replied as he knelt before the man. “I believe we have reached about eighty percent of the minimum amount that we need. At its current capacity, I believe we could summon multiple arch demons.”

“I see what you’re implying.”

It would have made more sense to summon and release a single arch demon capable of ravaging the human lands rather than cling to this dream of summoning a legendary demon that might not even exist. Even then, a single arch demon could destroy the Daemon Lands too if they weren’t careful enough.

This man was in charge of making these sensitive decisions. Out of his pride as a daemon who thirsted for power, he desired to cross blades with humanity’s Hero, who would surely appear in order to defeat the arch demon.

But that wasn’t good enough.

Simply destroying the humans and usurping them would only be a temporary solution to their problem.

The man fell silent. He was tired. He had long abandoned the hope that if they could take the human lands for themselves and acquire their wealth, then the daemons would be able to live in peace. The daemons knew nothing of the joys of creating and would likely instead choose to continue walking the path of destruction. The framework of their world had to be completely dismantled. The kingdoms of humans, daemons, and all other species needed to be destroyed, and only those able to survive over generations of tyranny and great fear would be chosen.

There must be a culling of every living being in this world. That was the only way to save the daemons, who were on the brink of destruction.

The man had given up hope for his very species.

“Back to work. There will be no changes to our plan,” the man declared sharply, then began channeling his own magic—said to be the best among all of the daemons—into the summoning circle.

The large daemon had watched the man grow from a child into the leader he had become. Seeing the way the man behaved now, the large daemon cast his eyes down ruefully and bowed his head with a look of renewed determination. “I shall dedicate my life to seeing your imperial command made manifest, Daemon King.”

The daemons did not worship any human or demi-human gods. To them, the strongest of all daemons, the Daemon King, was a god.

In truth, though, the Daemon King was only the king of the daemons. He did not possess the kind of cataclysmic power an arch demon exemplified—the power to ruin nations—but nevertheless, they considered him the Daemon King anyway.

The daemons had no gods. But they intentionally prayed to one they had lifted to godhood. They prayed with all their hearts to the demon god who would grant the Daemon King’s wish, so that the Daemon King’s compassionate heart that worried for their kind could find peace.

Meanwhile, a certain carefree demon had accidentally channeled a large amount of magic into the Academy of the Magical Arts’ general-purpose summoning circle as an “experiment” and summoned a surge of wakame seaweed. She was preoccupied with considering what to do with all the seaweed her attendants set about drying.

Episode 1: Soiree on a Dark Night

Episode 1:
Soiree on a Dark Night

THE MOON RESEMBLED A THIN SLIVER OF a sword hanging in the starry sky, and the smell of fragrant roses filled the air of the garden. The only light to be found was the little lantern sitting on the tea table. I couldn’t even make out the face of the person next to me, but those who lived in the shadows didn’t care about such trifling matters.

Not a single sound could be heard. Not the sound of tea being sipped or poured into the white porcelain cups, not even anyone’s breathing. Yet the attendees of this moonlit tea party were quietly enjoying themselves.

Clatter.

At least, everyone but me was enjoying themselves.

“Lady Yulucia, please stop making such loud noises!” The silver-haired Mylene had been sipping her tea with her eyes shut despite the bulging of the vein in her temple, but she finally lost her patience and shot up to her feet.

“But it’s so dark.”

That’s right. Even though I was a demon and thus also a creature of darkness, my vision was that of a typical human’s. Why did I have to have that kind of human flaw?!

My eyes never got tired when I read by lantern light, my vision never got worse, and I could see magic too, but I had no dark vision, demon’s eye, or even any girlish charm to speak of.

On top of that, the season being what it was, my eyes were feeling awfully dry lately.

My teacup clattered as I placed it back on the saucer, but I misjudged its location and the saucer went flying. My demon maid Tina caught it and casually put it back under my cup as if nothing had happened.

“Have you no manners, Lady Yulucia?! I thought you were a noble! A demon!”

“Awww, you make me sound like I’ve got my head in the clouds all the time.”

Mylene clearly had strict standards or beliefs or whatnot about how nobles should act. She took things so seriously! Why was she even a vampire? I had been wondering for some time now. She seemed be overly obsessed with her idea of her image as someone who thrived in the shadows. Like, to an absurd degree.

“Mylene, have you ever said anything like ‘my right eye is throbbing’ or ‘my left arm’s acting up’ before?”

“What is that supposed to mean?!”

Whoops, well, at least the eighth-grader syndrome didn’t seem to be getting any worse.

It was so cringe. I would know.

Putting all that aside for now, ever since the night Mylene and I became friends, we regularly held a Moonlit Tea Party for just the two of us.

She also routinely hosted tea parties (where all of the guests returned home safely) to avert any suspicion from the Holy Kingdom, but our private tea parties didn’t have any humans in attendance, since ours were exclusive to high-ranking non-humans lurking in the Holy Kingdom.

Just as an aside, we skipped the decadence for these more private tea parties. The ones with humans were much more lavish.

Though there weren’t many of us in attendance, we still had Mylene’s private lady’s maids and butlers, along with my own personal attendants who had flung their humanity out to sea. However, when these four devoted themselves solely to their work, they melted away into the darkness and it was hard to tell if they were actually with us or not.

On top of that, there was this rumor going around that when the two of us were together, things got very extravagant indeed…

“Now, now, Mylene. There’s no need to get so upset. Make sure you take your vitamins. Want some wakame seaweed?”

“No, thanks!”

I didn’t blame her. I didn’t want it either. But I had a ton of it, so I had to get rid of it somehow. Wasting food would make me feel bad for the farmers (though this came from the sea).

I usually gave it out for free to the Glimmering Darkness or Whatever Society, but they weren’t really responsive toward it either because it reeked of seawater.

“You already sent a whole coach full of that dried…seagrass, was it? After I ate it, my belly was quite bloated and what happened after was quite unmentionable.”

I fell silent in surprise. She ate it? Even though she’s a vampire?

Everyone behind me was stunned save for Noah, who had been the one to deliver the seaweed.

Hey, Fanny? Why are you suddenly wearing your clown mask? Surely you’re not trying to hide your laughter, are you? Even when you’ve fully transformed into a demon, your face is only half-covered, so why are you fully masked now?

Perhaps it was something she’d picked up from her life as a demon.

Nevertheless, Mylene was just so upfront about everything. It was utterly adorable.

“You’re not wrong…” I had a feeling I was about to stir the hornet’s nest, so I flicked my teacup as a means of changing the subject, making a ting noise. “But I must say, while I understand that this tea was made with high-quality leaves, when we’re the ones drinking the tea…”

“You have a point,” Mylene said after a moment, stifling her fury as she corrected her posture in her seat.

Sweet, I won… Or maybe not.

Us non-humans didn’t find human food to be tasty at all. Although vampires were closer to humans than demons were, they were no exception. Eating food for us was simply a matter of mimicking human behavior.

Why did human food taste bad to us? And why did vampires thirst for blood? Mylene and the other vampires had yet to realize the reason for it.

“And so!”

Nia dramatically interrupted me by smacking her scabbard behind me.

“Why are you suddenly acting so suspicious?” Mylene asked.

“Now, now, Mylene. As it so happens, I have something I would like to recommend for you to try.”

“Is that so?” Mylene eyed me with suspicion. She clearly didn’t trust me after the wakame incident.

“Hey, Noah.” I snapped my fingers.

My demon butler Noah gave a slow bow. “Right away, Lady Yulucia.” He made a fresh pot of tea and silently placed it in front of Mylene.

She stared at it quizzically. “Isn’t this just the same exact tea my people made?”

“Indeed it is.” Noah wore a smile like a mask as he took out something that looked like a white mist from his breast pocket and wrung it out like a fruit, letting it drip into the tea. “Please give this a taste, Lady Mylene.”

Mylene didn’t even try to hide her scowl.

Well, of course she was scowling. I understood completely. This whole thing was quite shady, but when someone stronger than you was addressing you politely and with a smile, you couldn’t possibly say no.

Mylene glared at me as she reluctantly brought the cup to her lips and…

The taste left her wide-eyed with surprise. I could see my reflection in her pretty purplish-silver irises.

“Well? Was this good-quality soul to your liking?”

That’s right. With help from my four attendants, I had at long last obtained better food! Ta-da!

How was I to get rid of my picky eating habits? As all mothers of the world knew, it was best to mix a child’s dislikes in with something they like.

Nia and Noah’s twin powers of absorbing and releasing played a huge part here.

“Huh? What’s this? A soul? In this tea? Impossible.”

Vampires had the power to absorb souls through the bloodstream. Surely Mylene recognized this mellow flavor. Despite her confusion and surprise, she proceeded to drink the entire cup of tea down in one gulp. It was most ungentlewomanly, if I could say so myself.

“Ahh… Do you have any more?” Mylene looked at me greedily. It was evident that she liked the soul tea.

However…

“My apologies, Mylene. That soul belonged to a sinful corrupt priest in his forties, making it a rather valuable commodity.” And there was a sad story behind it too.

A brother and sister had grown up in the slums. As they were citizens of the Holy Kingdom, they were pure of heart and lived honest lives in reference to the Goddess despite their destitute circumstances.

However, their peaceful days ended when the sister fell sick. The disease had not been one that was hard to cure, but the church required a generous donation in exchange for their healing services.

The boy’s younger sister died as a result of the unobtainable cost of the cure. The once kindhearted boy began to begrudge the gods and detest the church. He managed to infiltrate the church as a priest and bided his time for decades to get his revenge, which involved many of the church’s faithful. It was a tale of a foolish and miserable boy, but…

“Fanny harvested him during one of her evening walks.”

“Hee hee hee.” Fanny was innocently pleased to hear me praise her so—but she still had that clown mask on!

“I see,” Mylene replied, clearly disappointed to learn that this delicious tea wasn’t readily available.

I decided to move on to the main topic I wished to discuss. “That said, how about the two of us take an evening stroll as well, Mylene?”

“Huh?”

The purpose of tonight’s tea party was to teach the vampires how delicious souls were and get them accustomed to being fed. My real aim was to get the vampires to more proactively help me and get Mylene and her vampires to manage the underbelly of the Holy Kingdom for me as my minions.

I flashed her a demonic grin, flapping my golden wings as I held my hand out to Mylene.

“Tonight, I’m going to teach you how to pick out delicious souls.”

Episode 2: I Am a First-Year Student Now

Episode 2:
I Am a First-Year Student Now

I, YULUCIA VON VERSENIA, JUST MOVED INTO our manor in the capital so that I may start my first year at the Academy of the Magical Arts’ main campus, and I just turned seven years old.

For the curious, things weren’t much different from my life back in Toure, since I was still surrounded by all the same people. The only real difference was that we only held my birthday party in the capital this time. Now that I lived here, we didn’t need to have multiple parties for me, which was how most people did things. I didn’t want to have my party at the castle—though I never minded throwing it at our castle in Toure—but unfortunately, our villa in the capital couldn’t accommodate the number of people who would turn up uninvited. Therefore, I knew all too well that protesting would be futile.

For some reason, all of the archbishops of every religion with a church in the Holy Kingdom brought curiously attractive young male priests to the party along with them to make a fuss over me! I typically kept my distance from them, so what the heck were they trying to do?

Now that I lived in the royal capital, I got to see Father every day. I guess I got to do more fun things more often, like play with Shelly’s soft hair, take compulsory lessons on etiquette with Betty, the unfortunate beautiful girl, and got to talk to even more people.

However, the Academy of the Magical Arts was a problem.

I kind of knew what to expect after the “problem” that had occurred at the very beginning of my attendance there, but still.

I was attending as a regular student and, at first, my classmates kept their distance because of the difference in our social positions, but I slowly started to make new friends and we helped one another with our studies and traded food from our lunchboxes. Then one day, I accidentally got lost and wound up in a garden that only the upperclassmen were permitted to enter. My scary older sisters caught me, but after I endured some relentless bullying, this cool older student saved me, and then…

Once, I had dreamed that my school life might be just like that.

But now it was time to see what reality had in store.

The din of chatter fell silent in an instant.

The majority of the students here at the royal capital’s Academy of the Magical Arts may have been nobility, but they were still all children.

Many had grown up receiving everything their hearts desired, so the academy itself had a shockingly lavish dining hall where students could chat freely. Yet here in this hall, the hundreds of children suddenly fell quiet.

All because they had noticed that I was here.

Clink.

“Oops.”

It was in this bizarre moment that a girl who looked like one of the few commoners here accidentally dropped her silverware and it wound up tumbling into my path. The girl visibly paled, as did the students around her.

It felt like even time had stopped around us. Nia had an icy grin across her face while Tina remained completely expressionless as they slowly turned their gazes upon the girl.

That alone was enough to cause the girl’s complexion to go beyond pale and reach levels of deathly white. She broke out into such a sweat that it made me wonder if she might actually be sick, and she was trembling too.

Yet she made no move to apologize for the offense. Nia started to emanate a dangerous presence just as Tina muttered, in this room that was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, “Insolent fly.”

And I…said not a thing.

This was not good, you know. This was very bad!

Why was this happening? Oh, right. It was my fault!

Officially, everyone was equal here at the academy; social status didn’t matter. However! I was not only a member of the royal family, but the Princess of the Holy Kingdom, who had the royal family’s favor! I was the first princess of the grand duke and possessed far more wealth and political power than any of them could ever dream of! Every single religion here in our pious kingdom believed that I might be the Saint! And it was because of my prodigious authority and magic that every denomination treated me like a tumor, so it made sense that no normal girl would dare approach me!

If I were in her position, I certainly would never go near me.

Siiiiiiiiiiigh.

Now, onto the problem at hand. As the Saint and Princess of the Holy Kingdom, what options did I have available to me in this dramatic situation?!

Option one: I could just ignore the girl and walk by her while she was still frozen.

This was probably the best option, or at least the one that would cause minimal damage. But this was, y’know, the option that would lead to the common villainess route, right?! That would solidify my status of lone wolf!

Option two: I could smile as I picked up the silverware and handed it back to her.

This was a good one—but wait. If I was unlucky, the girl might decide to set her sights on me, right? My school life was certain to be hellish in both a good and a bad way even without any extra hurdles.

Option three: Eliminate all eyewitnesses. Don’t leave a single survivor.

This would be the easiest and simplest option—and it seemed to be what Nia was on the verge of doing right this moment! The girl had this huge grin on her face as she reached for her sword and even started emanating her arch demon aura. I went a bit overboard and karate-chopped her in the back of the head.

“Ow!”

Bam!

I decided to hold back at the last second, but Nia was slammed against the ground anyway since I had used the same amount of power I had once used to break through bedrock. She was sprawled out on the ground and there were enormous spiderweb-like cracks in the marble flooring under her.

Shoot, I did it again!

The shock wave of the strike made all of the students within dozens of yards fall out of their seats and splattered them with tomato stew, but it would be my loss if I bothered to care about that.

I had truly intended to live like an ordinary human. How had things turned out like this?

At any rate, Nia sure was strong. I imagined she must have used her powers of absorption to absorb the impact of the attack. Nia dreamed of becoming my guardian knight despite how rough around the edges she was, and now after she sat up again, she rubbed the back of her head while looking up at me with a pout.

It should be noted that Noah had the ability complementary to Nia’s, in that he could release what she absorbed. He had directly taken in the impact from his sister and was making a spectacle of himself heaving his guts out while Fanny rubbed his back.

Since it seemed like no one had been hurt…

“Sorry about all the commotion, ho ho ho,” was all I said as I made a quick exit before one of my friends could make a joke at my expense.

And so, an “ordinary school life” was far beyond what I could possibly hope for. I didn’t think I’d even be able to go to the dining hall ever again.

And when they were all gossiping about it, the responses were always…

“That’s our princess for you” with a sweet smile, or “That’s our princess for you” while shaking with fear.

Everyone had split into the two above factions and there were even arguments about it…

Now then, it was time to put myself back together!

At the Academy of the Magical Arts—or to be more precise, at their main campus—there was a place to which only special students were permitted entry.

Regular students and even teachers were only allowed to go as far as the entrance to the place. To go inside, you had to have a connection to the royal family or be among the upper nobility who led the nation.

Basically, it was an upper-echelons-only salon. As the daughter of a marquess and the daughter of a count respectively, both Betty and Shelly were allowed access, but the majority of students at the academy who were lower than viscount could not, making it a waste of a massive building.

“Lady Yul, say, ‘Ahh!’ Go on, ‘Ahhh…’”

“Uh, ahh…”

As a result of that unfortunate incident, I couldn’t go to the dining hall ever again, so I had taken to having my food delivered to this salon.

Although neither myself nor my demon attendants needed to eat human food, Shelly and Betty had started eating here with me because they were “concerned” about me after hearing what had happened.

Even though I had no appetite to speak of, Shelly held out a forkful of food to feed me. But for real, I didn’t want to eat food made by someone I didn’t know!

“Poor Yul! They just don’t realize what a nice girl you are!”

“That’s kind of you to say, Betty.” What about me would make anyone think I was nice?

Nevertheless, even Betty wanted to feed me. This unfortunate girl had only her appearance going for her, with her good looks and black hair, and here she had an iron grip on a gigantic lobster-looking shrimp that she then proceeded to try to cram into my mouth whole, shell and all.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t amused by such silly things.

Although we were in different grades, I had always longed for this experience of spending lunchtime with my friends, dressed in matching school uniforms—like in that dream of the world of light I’d once had back in the dark Demon Realm.

We each styled our uniforms slightly differently, but they were pretty much identical. It was a two-piece suit with a big ribbon tie as well as a skirt that showed off my calves, which was a first for me since being born in this world. However, it was improper for noble daughters to show off their bare legs, so I had to wear white tights underneath!

Shelly and Betty both looked really cute in their uniforms. Noble daughters of their standing went back to wearing dresses after sixth grade, so I had to enjoy this time of getting to see them wear their school uniforms while I still could (guess that’s my inner middle-aged man talking).

At any rate, Shelly was being her usual self, while Betty was really excited and showed no sign of calming down. The reason being…

“The three of you are such close friends.”

“W-we sure are!” Betty whipped around to reply…accidentally sticking the prawn’s antennae up my nose.

She was replying to the only boy of our group, my cousin Timoté, a prince of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud. His gentle and easygoing aura was in fine form, as always.

He was thirteen this year, a rosy-cheeked pretty boy who took after his mother, Crown Princess Elea. While he was certainly a feast for the eyes, he seemed to be something more to Betty.

“Um, uh, w-would you like some tea as well, Y-Your Highness?!”

My oh my. Hee hee hee.

Members of the royal family were usually betrothed by the time they turned fifteen, the age children became adults and also the age we graduated from the academy. Royalty then typically got married around the age of twenty. So naturally, since Timoté was the first prince and all, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to have several potential fiancées lined up already. For some reason, though, there were not any rumors about a single one. If there were, the older girls of the academy would be in a tizzy. Although the prince was easygoing at heart, he was still a prince—and handsome to boot!

Many girls fantasized about princes who looked like they had stepped out of a picture book. However, life was no fairy tale where a prince would fall in love with some commoner girl at first sight and make her a queen. A royal could only marry someone born to the family of a count or higher-ranking noble, so all of their daughters of close age to the princes had at the very least been given an education befitting a queen. Everyone except me, that was.

Betty was nine now, so while there was a four-year difference between the two of them, she just barely qualified to be in the running for the prince’s fiancée, and she must have been very aware of that fact.

Betty was closer to Timoté’s younger brother Rick in age, but she definitely preferred the older brother.

Nevertheless, there was a “cheat” that could allow for even a commoner to marry a prince: Do something so great that you surpass even the upper nobility. Basically, become the Saint of the Holy Kingdom.

Huh? Wait, does that mean that I qualify as a possible pick for fiancée too?

But the reason that Timoté hadn’t picked a fiancée yet was because…

“Yes, I think I shall join you,” Timoté said in a relaxed tone as he came over to our table. Up until now, he had been just keeping an eye on us younger kids like a good older brother.

The salon had a rule for usage: You had to take care of everything yourself.

This rule was supposedly for fostering independence among the school’s pupils. However, the truth was that in the past, some idiots decided it would be a good idea to hog the space by bringing in dozens of attendants and followers, so even attendants were now banned from the salon and we were expected to take care of our own selves.

Even so, someone had prepared tea and snacks for those who would use the room, so all you had to do was put the tea leaves into a pot and add hot water. In this case, it was my job since I was the youngest, but I still wasn’t very good with my hands, so I decided to make Betty take over since she was so motivated.

Crash.

“Betty, let me do that.”

“Okay…”

Apparently, Betty had some kind of cursed skill of clumsiness, so Shelly wound up making the tea instead.

“Thanks. It’s really good,” Timoté said.

“Don’t mention it. I only did it for Lady Yul.”

Wait, hold on, Shelly. I know you’re not interested in any of this, but he is our kingdom’s prince for the moment, so don’t say things like that so offhandedly and disdainfully.

“Ha ha ha! Everyone loves Yulucia so much.” Timoté sure was powerful, being able to laugh at that. People called him weak, but the royal family would likely be safe in his hands.

“Oh, I’m sorry for making you accompany me like this, Big Brother Timoté.” Things were starting to feel awkward, so I changed the subject to something just as awkward.

Timoté was supposed to have brought me to the dining hall since he was older than me, but he had decided to accompany me to eat at the salon where we had no one else to wait on us instead. It was what it was, though!

“Please don’t worry about it,” he said. “I think of you like a little sister too, after all. But I wonder why they were all acting that way. Nobody seems that nervous when I go to the dining hall.”

Us girls all sank into momentary silence, with Betty and Shelly wearing halfhearted smiles on their faces at this innocent remark.

Damn it all!

Obviously, no one would want to be all friendly with me like they were with the gentle Timoté.

While it was nice having such a kind big brother around and everything, sometimes I did have to wonder if he wouldn’t be better off looking for a fiancée his age rather than hanging around with kids like us.

Even though I knew that Timoté couldn’t read my mind or anything, he voluntarily told us why he was with us anyway. “I want to invite you all to come join us for a meal at the castle soon. Some people at the castle are very insistent that I talk more with Yulucia. I wonder why.”

“Yes, I think that’s very strange too,” I answered with a smile. I knew it. Some people at the castle had gotten some strange ideas into their heads.

Hearing this, Shelly raised an eyebrow, I could faintly sense Tina letting her wrath slip out from where she stood just outside the room, and Betty frowned with confusion.

Well, it didn’t matter anyway. Getting to see Timoté always had a healing effect on me.

Unlike his little brother…

While I had initially arrived at school with my attendants in tow, I couldn’t always have them waiting on me. Their magic had been too weak for them to pass the magical ability tests given to very young children, and so they had been enrolled in the courses for nobles at an ordinary school. But since they were my attendants and I was going to the Academy of the Magical Arts here in the capital, it wasn’t possible for them to go to that school. There was no leniency there.

However! For some reason, they suddenly awoke to powerful magic within themselves, and my good-natured parents—who were so worried about me—managed to get the four of them transferred to the Academy of the Magical Arts.

Money and connections could get you anything in the world!

And so, Tina and Fanny had chosen the same subjects as me since we were all the same grade. This meant they could always be by my side as my attendants while also being students. However, my demon attendants just couldn’t manage holy magic no matter how hard they tried, so the only times I was without any of them was when I was taking classes related to that.

Once again, I found myself in a corner of the practice room using a table meant for six people all by myself.

But I wasn’t lonely or anything!

It was just that, when I entered the room, everyone else in the holy magic class kept glancing at me nervously, and even the teachers would check for my reaction after they were done giving their explanations.

I just could not stand any of this at all.

For one thing, classes in holy magic were pointless for me.

While taking the class, I learned that normal holy magic was quite rigid—the teachers explained the workings and effects of existing spells. The students then had to memorize and copy their demonstrations.

However, my approach to holy magic was pretty much original and based on spells I had seen in books and games in that world of light. The practitioners of holy magic in this world had to use fixed spells with a fixed procedure, but in my case, all I had to do was imagine several spells like “multiple barriers” or “buff combat skills” and I could cast several spells simultaneously.

The clergy member who taught holy magic had wept. Something about what the hardships of their predecessors had all been for and whatnot.

What kind of answer had they expected me to give? I was a demon bulldozing my way through using magic, so they would have to forgive me.

I had gotten wildly off topic, but as I said before, I was on my own for these classes until one day, he suddenly appeared.

“Yulucia.”

I’d been about to sigh with relief because class was finally over, but I didn’t even have the chance, because that conceited prick decided to show up to talk to me again.

“Big Brother Ludoric?”

I could hear people start murmuring among themselves.

Oh, crap. I had accidentally mixed “Prince Ludoric” and “Big Brother Rick” together and now all the girls in my class were giggling and squealing.

Well, whatever.

It was annoying to call him different things in different places, and I had about reached the age where people would start getting the wrong idea if I called him “Rick” in public, so I would just call him “Big Brother Ludoric” from now on.

That being said, Rick was my cousin who was a prince and also Timoté’s little brother.

He was a fourth-year student, which made him three grades higher than me. He had just turned ten years old and seemed to be developing that same rough, egotistical personality that Grandfather had. Also, he was quite popular among the girls at the academy. No idea why.

“Heh.”

“Why are you snickering like that?” Rick frowned as he looked at me.

That was what he was asking? He was really asking me that? I had a reputation for being quiet and amiable, so I wasn’t about to do something that would smash the dreams of all these girls.

“Never mind that. Did you need something from me?”

“Ugh!”

What did he want from me? Didn’t he have his own classes to attend? Why did he always show up just after my classes were over? Where were his attendants? What if people started weird rumors about us?

And it was for that reason I gave him the “princess mode” smile I gave others. Rick let out a startled noise and then heaved a sigh. “Are you okay?”

I sank into a confused silence.

Was he asking if I was okay in the head?! No, surely he wouldn’t voice such a question out loud.

“Have I done something to worry you?” I put a hand to my cheek, calmly inclining my head to the side, unable to comprehend what he was getting at.

Rick grabbed my free hand in a somewhat irritated way. “You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

“You’ve done it again, grabbing my hand like that.”

He had gotten better with age, but he was still as bossy as ever.

If we were simply a young brother and sister, this act wouldn’t mean anything, but we were the prince and princess of this kingdom, you know? Everything we did would be scrutinized, you know?

Even now, I could feel the intense stares of my classmates who were still in the practice room and people peering in from the hallway to see what was going on. I felt like I had taken yet another step away from ordinary people. I puffed out my cheeks and looked up at Rick slightly resentfully.

He flinched again and at last noticed everyone’s stares. “Come with me.”

“Ah—”

Rick headed out into the hall, still grasping my hand.

Perhaps he really had inherited his pushiness from Grandfather? While I did approve of us leaving, couldn’t he have asked me first?

Rick had grown pretty tall these past few years. It kind of scared me to be pulled along by someone so much bigger than me.

I heard more squealing behind us as we left, but I had decided that caring about that sort of thing would mean defeat.

“You’re hurting my hand, Big Brother Ludoric.”

“Oh… Right.”

I called his attention to this fact once we were out of the corridor and reached a place where no one was watching us, but because he wasn’t used to my new way of addressing him, it took him a second to realize what I had said.

Hmm, the place where he had been holding my hand felt kinda hot. The human parts of me were so fragile from being pampered my whole life that being mishandled like this genuinely hurt.

Rick noticed how I was frowning at my tingling hand and asked the weirdest question. “Has it been as hard for you as I imagined, then?”

“Huh?”

“You’re often alone since you started coming to school here, right? People kept their distance from me too at first, but it seems different in your case.”

“Oh, that.” I see? Perhaps… “Are you worried about me?” I asked casually.

“Of course I am!” Rick shouted angrily.

Since my arrival in the Material World, people had worried about me, but few actually scolded me. I wasn’t used to someone coming at me head-on like this. Though I found it thrilling when people were directly antagonistic toward me.

“I am quite fine.” I forced myself to smile as I answered, since I didn’t like being yelled at.

The situation didn’t actually bother me all that much. I had yearned for a certain kind of school life, but frankly speaking, it would have been bothersome to have to deal with random people—or rather, I was worried because it took such a great amount of effort to keep an eye on my attendants to make sure they weren’t up to no good.

“Yulucia…” He trailed off as he put a gentle hand on my shoulder, noticing I had dropped my gaze as I got absorbed in my thoughts.

Slow down there, Rick. You shouldn’t go around grabbing girls like that all the time. Is that your default behavior?

“I’ll come check on you again later, okay?”

Huh? What was that “okay” supposed to mean? “Okay”? Did he mean that he intended to continue acting like a big brother to me?

Rick must have taken my dumbfounded silence for agreement, because he patted my head and then left with his attendants, who had just shown up to escort him.

Goodness, Rick sure was pushy. I was used to him doing whatever he wanted without asking for approval, but any normal girl was sure to become confused by such behavior.

I had to wonder if someone had been telling Rick to do things too, just like Timoté.

Power struggles among nobility were such a pain in the butt. In any case, Rick had managed to narrowly escape death.

“I apologize for my delay, Mistress.”

“It’s fine, Tina.”

Tina had arrived just as Rick’s attendants had. I could feel her seething every time Rick touched me and had been afraid that she might strike him.

Because of the difference in our grades, we only saw the twins—the ones capable of stopping her—at lunch. There was also Fanny, but I couldn’t count on her to step in since she was too busy chasing after a bug. Oh, she just ate it.

In any case, it made me depressed to think that Rick would come to check on me every time I had my class in practical skills. It was going to be so annoying.

Rick had been acting a lot stranger lately. He was always doing weird things. Even though he was so crabby when we spoke, he was weirdly overprotective of me.

He reminded me of boys who tease girls they like…

Wait…

What?

***

The girl had been born to a baronet who worked as a civil servant in the royal capital and a commoner woman who worked as a maid in the royal castle.

People would have raised an eyebrow at the situation had his rank been higher, but it wasn’t uncommon for a baronet to marry a commoner. However, the girl’s paternal grandmother didn’t think too highly of her grandson’s commoner bride, so the girl grew up in her mother’s home until she was five.

“It’s a story out of a dating sim.”

Her fifth birthday. After her mother taught her about the country they lived in and how she was a noble, Martina looked at herself in the mirror. As she said the word “dating sim”—a term that didn’t exist in this world—she suddenly remembered her past life.

In her past life, she had been an employee at a trading company in a rural area. She had been playing a dating sim on her phone as she walked when a tractor driver who had been too busy staring at his own phone ran her over. As a result, she’d ended up reincarnating into this world.

And so, being reborn as a pretty girl with a noble for a father in a town that looked like something from the European Middle Ages in a magical world made her think she was like the heroine of a dating sim.

“No, that’s not right. I must have been reborn into the world of an actual dating sim!”

This assumption excited her.

She made lots of wrong assumptions in her past life too, but it was partially due to her age in this life that she was even more prone to believing whatever she wanted.

From that day on, Martina used her knowledge of her past life to improve herself and started gathering information about the world she was now in. Since this was a dating sim, that meant that there must be a prince who was close in age to her. Because Martina had been born so pretty, she was sure to catch the prince’s eye. As for the main setting of her dating sim, it meant she had to go to an academy, of course.

With that logic in mind, Martina learned from gossip that the crown prince of the Holy Kingdom was in his thirties, but he had two sons who were relatively close in age to her. It thus came as no surprise that once she learned that the princes attended a place called the Academy of the Magical Arts, she too began her studies in spellcraft.

Luckily for her, Martina had a talent for elemental magic. Her paternal grandmother tried to make her go to the academy’s local campus, since it was difficult for commoners to attend at the main campus, but Martina plotted to convince her father to let her attend the main capital branch—despite her flaws, it was very easy for her to lead her father around by the nose, since she had lived into her thirties in her past life.

Martina cared about her appearance and cleanliness and strove to eat food that was good for her skin. She got along with water elementals best, and used them to make her skin soft and silky. She used her cuteness and cunning to wheedle her father into agreeing. Her mother took one look at her daughter and sighed, as if wondering where she had gone wrong in raising her, resigning herself to let Martina’s father make the decisions.

“I knew it! I truly am the heroine of this world!” Martina shouted her belief, using her somewhat peculiar rich-daughterly tone of voice. When she started school at the Academy of the Magical Arts in the capital, she found that the two princes were stunningly beautiful boys—just what you’d expect in a dating sim.

The elder was kind and sweet while the younger was an egotistical pretty boy. Martina was in high spirits, wondering which boy’s route she would pursue—or perhaps she would pursue both at once?—as she tried to make their acquaintances. But being the low-ranking noble that she was, Martina was overpowered by the older girls at the school and couldn’t even get close to the boys.

Since this was real life and not a game, it made sense that people would be guarding him; however, Martina didn’t even consider that. Instead, she believed there was some kind of event that she needed to trigger.

“I suppose running into him as I turn a corner in the hallway with a piece of bread in my mouth won’t work…”

That kind of rectangular bread she was thinking of didn’t even exist in this world, so Martina was trying to figure out if she could get the correct pan for it when she heard a rumor about how the “princess” of the country, who was a year younger than Martina, would be starting school at the academy.

Officially, the girl was the daughter of the grand duke who was descended from the current king. In other words, the girl ranked far higher than herself. And what was more, the rumors also said that the girl was now thought to be the Saint after saving the lives of many children during the demon-summoning incident.

“Why, of course—the villainess is finally going to be making her appearance!”

Martina concluded in her strange rich-girl way of speaking that the reason she hadn’t been able to play the boys’ routes yet had been due to the absence of the villainess who would be her rival.

Nevertheless, it would be difficult for someone of Martina’s rank to talk to a princess and people speculated that the girl probably wouldn’t even come to school every day. Martina pondered how she could get the chance to talk to her and it struck her that even if the girl only sat in the seats reserved for upper nobility, she was sure to come to the dining hall. With that in mind, Martina started her daily stakeouts by sitting close to the walkway to the dining hall.

A few months of waiting for her chance later, the day finally arrived.

Martina’s “Make Contact with the Villainess Plan” was simple. She would drop her silverware on the floor just as the villainess princess passed by. Martina would jump out in a panic to pick it up, when, if she was indeed the villainess, the girl would criticize Martina, since she was the heroine.

After getting yelled at so mercilessly, Martina would play the tragic heroine and earn everyone’s sympathy. Eventually, even the princes would hear of this. If this was indeed a dating sim, then it also wouldn’t be strange if the princes were there to witness this encounter directly.

“My plan is flawless!”

This plan was full of flaws. However, Martina was unaware of them, too utterly convinced that the Holy Kingdom’s princess would act as a villainess when she at last made an appearance at the dining hall.

“Eek!” Martina took one look at the girl and shrank back like a rabbit that had just come across an enormous tiger.

Hey, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be! Martina shrieked in her mind, feeling so nervous that she couldn’t even breathe.

The sight of the princess had been enough to silence the noisy dining hall. It was like a horror movie in a way, where even the people with their backs to her went quiet.

Silky hair like spun gold.

Long eyelashes that hid golden eyes filled with anguish.

A cold beauty who looked like a doll molded by the goddess of beauty herself.

They would have looked upon her forever if they could. However, the students forgot to breathe as they kept staring at her, believing they would never be allowed to speak to this girl who was like crystallized beauty.

Many of the students there were in a different academic year from her, and the fact that they were unused to her devilish beauty was their downfall. If the majority of the students hadn’t already been sitting, the ones closest to her would have likely genuflected before her divinity.

Clink!

Martina’s silverware dropped from her trembling hand and tumbled before the princess.

In a way, it had all gone according to plan, but Martina immediately paled and everyone around her looked like the end of the world was upon them.

N-no! I’m sorry! That wasn’t on purpose! she screamed in her mind, but her body was completely paralyzed with dread.

This would be a really awful game if this princess was actually the villainess. Martina had lost all motivation for pursuing the game’s routes and cursed the imaginary makers of this game for setting it to nightmare mode.

Even the water elemental she depended on to protect her from danger was hiding under her clothes. It trembled in fear and kept murmuring what sounded like an apology.

“Insolent fly,”Martina heard someone faintly murmur, clearly directing the insult at her. That was when she noticed the princess’s attendants were emanating auras of bloodlust her way.

These attendants were also impossibly beautiful. The golden-haired maid and the girl knight were looking at her like she was some kind of worm. Martina realized she was going to die. She regretted ever being born in this world.

But although Martina was prepared to die, there was a sudden noise and the princess left, disappearing from Martina’s sight.

Martina couldn’t comprehend what had happened or how she had been saved. Although she had wet herself in terror, Martina did not have the willpower to move again until it had gotten dark and there wasn’t a single person left in the dining hall. The water elemental that had been her best friend returned to the Elemental Realm and never responded to her summon again, and Martina couldn’t blame it. Martina wasn’t sure how the silverware had been returned to her hand, but she held it tightly like a treasure and made a vow to the gods like a nun who had just received a divine revelation: “I shall live an honest life.”

And so, after much reflection on her life up until now, she decided to take the safe and stable path in life and start looking for a husband.

Episode 3: I Am Eight Years Old Now

Episode 3:
I Am Eight Years Old Now

A FEW MONTHS AFTER I STARTED MY SECOND year of school, I turned eight years old! Can you believe it?

Well, eight years had passed since I had been born as Yulucia, so it would have been weird if I weren’t eight now. In any case, the important thing was that I had almost grown out of being considered a little girl.

Although I had the attributes of a human, it still amazed me that I was actually growing like a normal human.

While there was an established tradition of how my birthday was celebrated, I decided to celebrate it in a normal way this year. Not that there was anything “normal” about holding your birthday party in a castle, but still. Although I had some reservations about this, I decided to use the royal castle this year so that I could get it over with as soon as possible. After all, it had been over half a year since then, but when I considered that Rick might possibly… I just didn’t know how I should act around him when I saw him.

And so, after getting my birthday party (with thousands of people in attendance) over with, I leveraged my power as the Princess of the Holy Kingdom to leave the capital in a rush.

Not because I wanted to skip school or anything like that. I swear.

To begin with, my official position as “Princess of the Holy Kingdom” was to be the face of the country—I was to substitute for the males of the royal family on diplomatic missions, since they were reluctant to go abroad.

In my case, the title was pretty much given by Grandfather as a way to spoil me, but I used it to my advantage now.

My father, the Grand Duke of Versenia and member of the royal family, normally shouldered the task of diplomatic relations and was often invited abroad as part of his job. However, this time there was a clash in his schedule. To make matters worse, the events were a wedding and a funeral, neither of which he could possibly abstain from. Also, it would be a little weird if the same person went to these two kinds of events one after the other, right? So, good news, Father! I would be more than happy to do your work in your place!

And not because I was running away from something or anything like that!

Both Father and Grandfather frowned at the idea of me going abroad without my family (I didn’t say “alone”); the two of them were overly soft when it came to me. But thanks to Lady Elea’s maneuvering, I got them to come around to my way of thinking when I asked to go while sitting on their laps.

And so, it was decided that I would be attending a wedding being held in the Kingdom of Sigoules, which was where Father’s elder sister—my aunt—now lived.

Naturally, since I was going on a diplomatic mission for the Holy Kingdom, I was permitted to take an official break from school.

What was that about an academy arc?

That kind of story never got started in the first place!

“Princess! The mercenary band is here!” Sarah excitedly reported on the day of my departure. She was the commander of my order of guardian knights.

Why did they need a commander in addition to the dame commander, anyway?

There were only ten of them in total, so it was more correct to think of them as a company of knights rather than an order. It felt like there was some kind of external influence at work here. Maybe they had planned for there to be a hundred of them at first?

Not that it mattered either way, but at some point, Sarah had been named commander…after winning a fistfight.

You’re all almost twelve years old, aren’t you? Why are you all still so hot-blooded?

I wondered if it was going to be up to me to arrange marriage candidates for them too.

Putting that aside, the mercenary band Sarah informed me about turned out to be what you would call “odd-job men” who specialized in fighting.

Strange, right? Adventurer was not an occupation in this world.

When monstrosities showed up in villages, the area’s lord typically dispatched soldiers to take care of them. Things like dungeons that spawned countless monstrosities didn’t exist either. This world had no dreams. Instead, we had mercenary bands that did all kinds of work. Usually they got dragged out for squabbles between nobles over territory, though they could also be employed as caravan guards, or do whatever favors rich people asked of them. Mercenary bands came in small groups of dozens of people as well as bigger companies with hundreds of men. Father had employed a mid-sized mercenary band he was on good terms with to guard me as part of his condition for letting me go to Sigoules.

And so, the people escorting me to this wedding in Sigoules were:

Ten female guardian knights.

Four of the grand duke’s knights and twenty of his soldiers.

Fifteen workers, including a cook, a coachman, and people to carry luggage and do other miscellaneous tasks.

One butler, one lady’s maid, and four maids from the grand duke’s household.

Thirty-six mercenaries.

And with my four attendants, that made a grand total of ninety-five people! So many!

Though maybe it wasn’t actually that many people for a representative of a kingdom to bring along? And even though we were already a pretty large party, Mother asked Vio to accompany me as my lady’s maid as well.

Well, although Noah and Tina were capable enough, they did still look like children, so that was expected. Plus, we didn’t know the soldiers or mercenaries very well, and Bri, Sarah, and the other knights wanted to boast about me to the knights of the other country, so they started practicing a cool way of lining up. This worried my parents, so it was inevitable that Vio wound up coming along.

Yeah. Well, whatever. It’s fine.

The representative of the mercenary band came to introduce himself to me, so I went to go meet him. To be honest, I was looking forward to finding out what kind of handsome older guy he was.

He was a bear of a man.

“Princess, you’re in good hands with me and my crew accompanying you on the journey!”

“Thank you, Mr. Bear.” I instantly gave up on all kinds of ideas and accidentally called the leader of the mercenaries a bear. For some reason, though, he liked that.

This seemed like it was going to be a painful journey (since I had nothing to soothe my soul).

But perhaps not. The gods hadn’t abandoned me or anything.

Thank you, Goddess! I promise not to draw mustaches on the idols in your temples ever again! Huh…? Is the ground rumbling a little?

Anyway, putting that aside…

“Lucia!”

“Huh? Noel?”

That’s right. Noel, the pretty boy who had been abducted during the demon-summoning incident and then bravely protected me when I was attacked by ruffians was part of this mercenary band! It had been two years since we had last seen each other. He’d grown quite a bit bigger now and looked more like a young man.

“I’m so glad to finally see you again.” Noel pounced on me like a puppy that had been thrown a bone, clasping both of my hands in his with an adorable smile on his face.

“Uh, yeah, me too.”

Uh… While I really was happy to see him again, the sudden physical contact was a bit much.

“Hey, Noel!”

Bonk!

Noel earned himself a bump on the head that looked visibly painful. He groaned.

“You can’t just go around taking the hand of a princess without permission!” Mr. Bear was in a bad mood.

Granted, Mr. Bear was in the right here. I was a member of the grand duke’s family, and thus Mr. Bear’s client. No matter how well acquainted we were, touching a girl without warning was out of the question. At least, that was how it was from an adult’s point of view, but we were still children. Perhaps he was just trying to discipline Noel, but Mr. Bear was charging up for another bonk, so I accidentally resorted to violence too on the spur of the moment.

“Hmph!” I flicked one in the forehead after the other.

“Dwuuuuuh?!”

“Eep!”

Both Mr. Bear and Tina were crouching on the ground, covering their foreheads.

I’d reflexively flicked Tina in the forehead too because of the way she had been weirdly glowering at Noel for holding my hand.

Whoops, that was a close one. I had flicked them both simultaneously, but there would’ve been a catastrophe if I accidentally got my left and my right mixed up. There was five hundred times difference in the power I had used on Tina versus what I had done to Mr. Bear. That would have been awkward.

“Noel is my friend, Mr. Bear. Can you please forgive him?” I tried asking in a girlish way.

Mr. Bear, Tina, and even Noel froze in their crouching positions. I looked around trying to figure out what was wrong with them, only to find both Bri and Sarah holding one another’s hands in fear. No one budged an inch until Vio came running over.

“Ahhh, I’d expect no less from the Saint! Prolly been ten years since someone hit me with that kinda strength!”

I revived Mr. Bear with Holy Magic. His forehead was still red as he gave a hearty laugh and forgave us.

Viva the Saint!

What a wonderful world this was, where anything out of the ordinary could be handwaved because I was the Saint. I had to wonder just what everyone pictured when they thought of the Saint.

“Regardless, Noel! Even if you’re friends with the princess, you can’t forget your manners. Don’t forget that you’re just a member of this mercenary band! I apologize, Princess. He’s still an undisciplined rookie.”

“I-I’m sorry, Lucia… Lady Lucia.”

“It’s all right.” I went into Saint mode and gave them my most pious smile.

Seeing Noel looking disheartened from having made such an embarrassing mistake in front of me made my heart skip a beat…in a kinda sleazy way.

It took me by surprise the way this all was happening so suddenly. According to Bar…Barnabas or something like that? According to Mr. Bear, the baronet who’d adopted Noel had introduced him to the mercenaries, which led to Noel joining as a promising new recruit. The baronet had also recognized Noel’s talents, you see.

“But why did you join a mercenary band?”

With talent like his, Noel could have been really successful in life if he put his mind to it. In fact, the baronet had even been raising Noel to be his successor. So why? I didn’t think he had made a particularly bad choice or anything, but why would he decide to go down this path?

For some reason, Noel’s face flushed bright red and he kept glancing at me as he replied, “Oh, uh, well… I want to…become…stronger.”

“Are you all right? I would hardly think that a boy should be embarrassed about his desire to become stronger.” I smiled gently at him.

“Uh… Yeah.” He looked like he wanted to say something more, but faltered.

Mr. Bear smirked as he watched our exchange and then proceeded to roughly muss up Noel’s hair. “It happens to every man. I hope the princess will cheer you on.”

“Yes, good luck and work hard, Noel,” I said as I looked up at him at his new height.

“Uh, thanks.” Noel had a somewhat perplexed look on his face, but then he blushed again and seemed pleased.

Since Noel had the potential to be successful at anything, I was sure he would be able to reach the top of any endeavor.

Unless he could be lured away by something else…?

And so, we set out on our journey to Sigoules.

By normal coach, it would take about three weeks to reach western Sigoules from Toure, which was located in the western part of the Holy Kingdom. However…

“The master has ordered us to stay at as many inn towns as possible so that you do not have to camp outdoors.”

“Father…”

Vio was my chaperone, you see. Nevertheless, everyone else, including my attendants, nodded as if to say, “But of course.”

Well, there was no helping it then. It was going to take a month just to get there, so I assumed that we would leisurely travel from one inn town to the next, but unfortunately, life wasn’t so easy. Believe it or not, about ten days into our journey, while we were traversing through a thick forest, we were attacked by one of the magnificent “monsters” of this other world!

“Gwubph!”

“It’s a stray hippo! Watch out!”

There was indeed a hippopotamus.

At Mr. Bear’s cry, the mercenaries and soldiers rushed to the front and my guardian knights surrounded me.

Noel wasn’t out in front, but he was brandishing a sword as part of the middle guard while casting support magic.

Although the hippo had been hit with countless arrows, it charged with its enormous body and sent soldiers flying. Just as you’d expect from a hippo, I guess? It sure was strong.

They managed to drive it back somehow. Regardless, I couldn’t believe that hippos actually did attack travelers on the road. What a scary world this was.

“I’m surprised to see a hippo in a place like this. The elves must’ve driven it outta the forest.”

“Huh?”

According to Mr. Bear, there were settlements of elves deep in the forest between the Holy Kingdom and Sigoules. They primarily cut down the forest and sold the lumber.

Now that I thought of it, that town in the mining mountains did buy large quantities of charcoal from elves.

Is that cool with you, guardian of the forest? Maybe the salt and bean mochi people should cut it out already.

They sure sounded different from what I expected from elves…

Despite that encounter, we managed to cross the border into Sigoules without further incident.

It was my first time going to another country. Sigoules was well-known for its agriculture, so I wondered what it was actually going to be like.

“Princess! This roasted sweet potato is incredibly delicious!”

“H-how is this sorghum so sweet?!”

“Princess! Princess! They’ve got white asparagus that you can eat raw here!”

My dear guardian knights were certainly enjoying our travels, yet I was silent. Why did they have to come and report to me about every little thing?

We had arrived at our first inn town in Sigoules. As befitting a place known as the Nation of Agriculture, we passed all kinds of farmlands as we made our way to the inn town. In town, they sold heaps of fresh vegetables that weren’t for export to the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud.

The main street in the town was lined with street stalls and food carts for tourists and merchants from the Holy Kingdom to peruse. The mercenaries were all stunned by how Bri, Sarah, and my other guardian knights swarmed around a cart with wild abandon.

Oh dear. I apologize for them.

“Vio, remind all of the guardian knights that they will have to submit written reports about everything they eat and drink.”

“It shall be done, my lady.”

You guys are on the clock right now!

However, we hadn’t been out on any long excursions like this since I started going to school, so I understood their excitement.

Once Vio and my four attendants issued my instructions, the girls nodded solemnly but still looked at me with affection.

“My lady is too kind.”

“Even though I have given you more work to do?”

They shouldn’t be messing around when they were supposed to be working. Regardless, I would be the one footing the bill for whatever they ate while on the job. Plus, we could not know for certain if everything Sigoules wanted to export was actually good quality. My girls who did whatever they well pleased would be sure to let me know without any reservations when they found something worthwhile.

They may have called me the Saint, but I was still the daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia, and thus I wanted to find good produce for our people. But maybe I was a little too lenient with them.

***

“On behalf of Talitelud, allow me to offer my congratulations to His Highness Prince Oslo on his marriage.”

Three days after we arrived in Sigoules’s capital, the king of Sigoules’s little brother, Prince Oslo, was wed to a marquess’s daughter named Lady Etia.

Although Sigoules’s castle was said to be the biggest among its neighboring countries, it wasn’t decked out with extravagance. Thousands of people were ushered into a hall as big as a dome-shaped baseball stadium.

It isn’t gonna collapse on us or anything, right?

Here in this ceremonial hall, I offered my congratulations before the royal family of Sigoules. I offered it again before the nobility of Sigoules, and yet again before the privileged guests who had also come from other countries, and then at last my work was done.

It was exhausting having to repeat the same words to the same people three times but in different places and for different audiences. As the representative of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud, the “princess” had the important job of giving congratulatory addresses to all kinds of people.

My attendants for this party were Vio, who was wearing a chic dress, and the twins Noah and Nia. My two maids were too young to attend, you see. The girls from the order of guardian knights were all dressed appropriately and kept watch on my surroundings. It would be most satisfactory if they could keep a lookout for potential husbands as well.

Additionally, Mr. Bear was here as my guard and was wearing a formal suit (that definitely did not suit him). Noel was also here as my escort at my request, since he was close to my age.

“You don’t need to be so nervous,” I said, since this was a celebration after all.

“Y-yes, my lady.”

“Bwa hah hah! You gotta get used to places like this if ya ever wanna make your dream come true.” Mr. Bear clapped Noel on the shoulder encouragingly.

Oh dear! You mean to tell me that Noel has another goal besides getting stronger? That was none of my business, though, so once I was done with my speeches, I tried to find somewhere to sit. However, resplendent-looking people started coming my way.

“Little Yuuul, you did such a great job up there. Very impressive,” said a beautiful woman who came over to give me a hug. She was tall and had an hourglass figure of epic proportions.

“Your Majesty,” I said.

That’s right. This was Father’s older sister who’d married into the royal family of Sigoules, Queen Camille.

How best to describe them…? They were gargantuan.

I’m not gonna say what “they” were, but let’s just say I was buried so deep in them that I couldn’t breathe.

“No need to be so formal with me. You may simply call me Auntie.”

Queen Camille finally let me go when I tapped her on the arm. I straightened my dress and gave her a perplexed smile. “Would you permit me to refer to you as such when we’re not in such a formal space?”

“What a smart girl you are. I would expect no less from Forte’s daughter. You look so much like him too.”

At that, I couldn’t help but beam.

I was still eight years old, after all. Despite my slight blunders and acting like a grown-up, Queen Camille and the Sigoules royals all forgave me with a smile.

And so, Queen Camille and I became fast friends. When she was telling me things about Father, though, I remembered something important.

“Auntie Camille, where might my sisters be?”

The second I asked this, Queen Camille’s cheerful grin collapsed into a half smile.

Now what did you two do, sisters?!

My two half sisters (born to another mother) had made a scene at my birthday party three years ago and were sent to the Noble Academy in Sigoules as long-term study-abroad students. I had so been looking forward to getting to see my wonderfully adorable sisters again.

Still, I had been thinking something was strange about all this. The Sigoules royal family had nothing but praise for Father and me, so it made no sense that no one would even mention my sisters!

“Auntie?” I smiled as I tried prompting her for an answer.

Queen Camille frowned slightly and said with a sigh, “I permitted them to study here to learn good manners at Forte and Queen Eleanor’s request. I hadn’t seen them since they were babies ten years ago, so do understand that I had been looking forward to seeing them again despite the odd rumors that had reached me.”

The length of her preamble kinda scared me.

“Unfortunately, while the two of them did attend the academy at first, at some point they pretty much stopped going and spent all their time hanging out in the city. So I replaced their butlers and lady’s maids and thought that they would at last begin to devote themselves to their studies in etiquette in earnest, but they are now instead following the so-called heroes around.”

“Huh?” It sounded like my sisters were in good health, but there was a rather strange word in this explanation. “Heroes…?”

“Yes, that’s right. Just so you know, the royal family of Sigoules has not officially recognized them as such at this point. Even so, a small mercenary band has been going around calling themselves heroes and your two sisters have joined their party.”

Heroes… You know the kind. The people who showed up when all hope was lost during a crisis, took the lead, and gave everyone courage.

And now my sisters were hanging out with those kinds of people?

As she spoke, Queen Camille’s tone made her sound like an actual auntie who was complaining about how her daughter had started hanging out with a gang of delinquents!

According to Queen Camille, people began referring to the group as “heroes” after they managed to solve a recent string of kidnappings perpetrated by daemons. It seemed pretty similar to how everyone had started calling me the Saint after I saved some kids.

However, they were not “Heroes of Sigoules” since the royal family had yet to officially recognize them. Someone who had been officially recognized by a nation as a Hero would then have that country as their sponsor. The nation itself would fully support them monetarily and have everything taken care of for them, such as their equipment and recompense for their deeds. However, the funding provided by the country was the work of government employees, and their capital came from taxes. Therefore, the royal family would not approve of this fresh-off-the-farm band of mercenaries, nor was any religion likely to back them either. That was why these heroes named by the population of Sigoules were only referred to as “the so-called heroes of Sigoules,” and not simply “the Heroes of Sigoules.”

It was hard to get officially recognized, and it was such a headache too.

Though in my case as the Saint, while the royal family did recognize me and all kinds of religions kept trying to win my favor, nothing had really happened on that front since nothing was official yet. Though I imagined it’d still be annoying even after they made it official.

This was all to say that my older sisters were now hanging out with these unofficial heroes… They sure had made a mess of their lives.

“Although they may be popular among the people, we did not send them formal invitations and thus I doubt you will see them here, but they may be mixed in among us as guards for other nobles, so do keep an eye out.”

So breaches could happen during big celebrations like these. Made sense.

“I shall. Thank you for the warning, Auntie,” I replied as I smiled in my most ladylike way.

For some reason, a worried look crossed Queen Camille’s face. “I hope you will be all right. You seem like a good-natured girl, just like your father. And there are strange perverts out there who care not for a pretty girl’s age, so you really must be careful.”

“Yes, Auntie.”

My relatives had a habit of overvaluing me. I doubted anyone would be looking at a scary child like me in such a way.

“Would you like one of my sons to escort you? I have three of them, so you can have one of them take you back to your room.”

“No, I, uh…”

The conversation had suddenly taken a weird turn.

There were only boys in the Holy Kingdom’s royal family, and it seemed Aunt Camille had the same problem we did. From a normal perspective, the more boys there were, the better. However, when a whole generation was only boys, royals all started clamoring for a princess, Grandfather included.

They had only boys here. That meant they just needed to get a nice princess from somewhere else. It was because of that, Vio told me, that I had already received a large number of inquiries about my hand in marriage from families both inside and outside of the Holy Kingdom.

From my standpoint, while I was of royal blood and subsequently in line for the throne, I was lower than an actual royal-born princess, but everyone also called me the Saint. I was like a rare item about to go out of stock.

But while I wouldn’t claim that I had no interest in marriage, I doubted I could actually have a normal romance with just anyone. Not that I had room to talk, considering how I’d fled after things got weird with my cousin. Maybe I was just being overly self-conscious?

My aunt had likely welcomed my sisters here because if she managed to tame them with education, they could potentially marry her sons, but that hadn’t worked out.

I just loved my sisters and how they practically dug their own graves!

Anyway…

“Thank you for the offer, Auntie, but I have my knight with me today.”

“And what an adorable knight he is too.”

Noel had been rigid with nervousness behind me until I dragged him forward. He looked like such a handsome boy dressed in formal attire like this, and Queen Camille beamed at him. I had always thought of him as pretty, and one could even pass him off as a noble son when he was dressed properly like this.

Noel froze under the queen’s smile. Queen Camille then giggled at the self-satisfied look on my face, yet her expression hardened with seriousness as she leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Yul, be on your guard against the Church of Kostor until you leave the country.”

After parting ways with Queen Camille, I thought over her final warning to me.

The Church of Kostor worshipped Kostor, the Goddess of Good Harvests. Their doctrine easily spread among the citizens and, because of the size of their congregation, the church had been recognized as the official religion of both the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud and the Kingdom of Sigoules. Talitelud’s founding had ties to the Church of Kostor, so their main cathedral and pontiff resided in the Holy Kingdom.

What could she have meant by warning me to be on my guard against them? If I remembered correctly, they had an archbishop who was in charge of all of the church proceedings here in Sigoules.

“Lucia?”

Hm? Oh, did I get so absorbed in my thoughts that Noel started worrying about me? Whoops. I had a feeling that if I got too lost in thinking, I might end up getting lost for real in this strange massive hall.

“Sorry, I’m fine.” I smiled and wrapped my hand around his arm so that we wouldn’t get separated.

His face stiffened.

“Are you all right?”

“I-I’m fine!”

Noel acted so strangely sometimes.

He was on duty during our travels and both the strict Mr. Bear and Vio kept a watchful eye on him, so we hardly had a chance to speak. I thought today might be a good opportunity.

Just the two of us walking around like this was gathering the attention of everyone around us. The people of this country weren’t used to my uncanny appearance, so while I was glad no one tried to talk to me, they made up for it by constantly staring at me instead.

“I’m sorry, Noel.”

It took a moment for Noel to recover from his nervousness and look at me. “Huh? For what?”

“I stand out in a bad way, don’t I? It must feel awkward to have to be with me.”

Noel shook his head with surprise. “Of course you’re going to stand out! You’re both a princess and the Saint.”

Hmm. That was only because everyone else decided to call me that, though, I thought as I made a face.

For some reason, Noel blushed and then said with determination, “And you’re pretty.”

“Oh?”

Whooooa! That made me feel all kinds of embarrassed!

I basically had two options no matter where I went: be feared or be admired at a distance. My family and everyone at our manor might tell me how cute and pretty I was, but no boy had ever said that kind of thing to me with a straight face before!

Noel was blushing, but I was surely blushing too.

Though from Noel’s point of view, I’m the Saint he oh-so-admires, so he probably has such a strangely high opinion of me because he’s biased. But how does he really see me? As I thought this over, the two of us sank into silence, unable to look at one another…

“Would you by any chance happen to be Princess Yulucia from Talitelud?” a voice said, breaking through my train of thought.

“Yes?” I answered without thinking since I hadn’t expected anyone to talk to me.

Even at these kinds of large relaxed gatherings, the nobility had rules they followed—someone of lower standing could not speak to someone of higher standing until spoken to first. If it weren’t for this rule, the royal family, and the bride and groom of course, would wind up stuck talking to everyone without end.

Aunt Camille had introduced several people to me and those people had then gone on to introduce their acquaintances, so I had already met over a hundred people today. Though, once we got far enough down the chain, the introductions were curbed by my intimidating appearance.

But back to the present—who in the world was this person who dared break the unspoken rule and speak to me without an introduction?

“Ooh, when my eyes beheld your graceful beauty, I just knew that you must be the Lady Saint Yulucia!” Since I had indeed accidentally given a kind of answer, this well-dressed old man with his somewhat familiar-looking vestments and familiar holy symbol spoke to me with a presumptuous familiarity.

Noel took half a step in front of me, ready to protect me.

The Church of Kostor? Wasn’t it a bit too soon for this event to trigger?

“I am Callisto, the archbishop residing over the temple in the Kingdom of Sigoules’s capital. When I learned that the Saint, the famous Lady Yulucia, was in attendance, I just simply had to speak with you,” he said with a deep bow of his head.

I kinda hated this…

For now, at least, it didn’t seem like he was scheming. Though I’d expect a religious figure to always be up to something—I was a bit biased.

This man came off as a bit of an airhead, and what was worse, he seemed to be the ill-natured kind. I liked my meals to be fully ripened, but those who fermented too long reeked. Plus, he was definitely the type to have fully ripened even though he wasn’t a type of fermented food.

“Archbishop Callisto, I am Yulucia von Versenia.” I cast away my impressions and went into gentle princess mode to return his greeting.

Callisto was a skinny old man who looked to be about fifty years old. While that wasn’t a bad thing, to be quite honest, he just didn’t do it for me.

“As it so happens, there is someone I was hoping to introduce you to today.”

“You want to…introduce me to someone?”

I had a bad feeling about this. My aunt’s warning echoed in my mind. Callisto didn’t even ask for permission as he looked behind him and beckoned over several men and women as if it were a matter of course.

“Perhaps you have heard of him. This is Alfio, the Hero.”

I stared in silence.

You have got to be freaking kidding me, old man.

“How do you do, beautiful princess? I am Alfio, the Hero of this country. Please, call me Al.” Alfio the Hero’s(?) white teeth sparkled as he smiled. He was in his early thirties, or maybe late twenties, with black hair, dark eyes, and a medium build. He was attractive to some extent, but I wasn’t feeling it.

It’d be good if I could experience romance with someone the same generation as me, but I preferred being spoiled by mature men. Come back in ten years after you’ve cleaned up that shallow playboy behavior, kid.

Ahem, excuse me. I accidentally let my real thoughts slip out.

As I stared at him in silence despite myself, the Hero (lol) knelt down before me to place a kiss on the back of my hand.

Smack!

But just before he could actually place the kiss, Noel intercepted by knocking his hand aside.

“Do not approach my lady without permission. You will regret it,” Noel said in a stony voice.

That set Alfio off instantly. “Oh?”

Noel was actually speaking from experience, having eaten Mr. Bear’s fist for making the very same mistake.

Regardless, Noel was right by the standards of polite society. I still had not acknowledged Alfio’s introduction, so Noel had reacted appropriately as my guard. If he had been a second later, Nia, who was happily emanating her thirst for blood, likely would’ve lopped off a critical part of this “hero.” In any case, good job, Noel.

Oblivious that he’d just narrowly avoided death, Alfio concealed his anger behind a forced smile and stood up. “It appears that the princess has herself a capable knight, small as he is,” he said, looking down on the ten-year-old Noel.

S-so immature. What did that say about an adult if they felt the need to put down a kid?

Anyway, how was I supposed to react? It would have been unnatural for me to introduce myself at this point.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sir Alfio,” I said, going into princess mode despite the headache I was getting from this. I inadvertently glanced at his companions and was hit with a jolt. “Uh, my name is…Yulucia…von…Versenia.”

Oh gods, someone save me. I was really forcing this smile.

Alfio made a face that showed he thought my reaction strange, but then smiled with satisfaction. “Ha ha ha! No need to feel so nervous, lovely princess. Has the excitement of meeting the Hero been too much for one of the Holy Kingdom? Now allow me to introduce my companions.”

No, that’s not why I reacted like this.

“First up, this is Antiquoua, our healer!”

“Bfft!” I couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

Antiquoua shouted with surprise, “Wh-what’s so funny?!”

I clutched my stomach, unable to control my fit of giggles. The elven woman looked at me reproachfully.

“M-my apologies. I am Yulucia von…Versenia.”

Oh no. I seriously could not stop laughing.

I never thought I would meet one in a place like this! It was this world’s fault for calling elves shiodaifuku—salt and bean mochi dumplings!

I didn’t have it in me to perform a proper greeting, so despite her anger, Antiquoua gave me a scornful smile for being so childish as she haughtily gave her introduction, “How do you do, Princess? I am Antiquoua. You may hesitate to call Alfio by his nickname, but you may call me ‘Anko.’”

“Pfft!”

“Ahhhh?!”

Anko—red bean paste?! Damn it, stop with these awful jokes, mochi dumpling people!

Antiquoua looked bewildered as I continued having these fits of laughter of unknown cause. Even so, perhaps thanks to her arrogance as an elf, she managed to continue speaking to me with a condescending attitude and a strained expression. “Hmph. What a rude girl! If you are feeling so unwell, then perhaps I should heal you? It must be so stressful for everyone to call you the Saint just because of your lineage. I shall gladly take the title for you.” Miss Anko bent forward to forcibly glare down at me as she spoke.

She was slim with golden hair, green eyes, and the kind of long ears you pictured an elf would have, but I just couldn’t handle it. Just looking at her face was enough to make me start laughing all over again.

Even Noel now was confused as to why I couldn’t contain my laughter.

However, a savior capable of redeeming this situation finally appeared.

“Yulucia! Get ahold of yourself!” someone behind Antiquoua snapped, seeming to take responsibility for my ceaseless laughter. Granted, I would have scolded me too.

But none of that really mattered anyway! I couldn’t have cared less about meeting these heroes. I just knew they had to be here at such a fancy place!

“Oh, myyy! I have so longed to see you again, dear sister!” I was completely over Anko, whom I’d found endlessly hilarious, and was now in such a good mood that my most cheerful smile surprised even me.

I was shining so brightly right now—in an ominous sort of way.

“I-indeed! Your lovely sisters have joined us as our companions.” Alfio had recovered from his surprise at my sparkling smile and made room in front for my sisters.

At long last. The moment I’d been waiting for was finally here!

My dear half sisters. There was Big Sister Adeline, and glaring at me from behind her was Big Sister Aureline.

Ooh, they were so wonderful. So twisted, bitter, and warped—I was a captive to the striking aroma of their noble souls.

They had fermented so nicely since I last saw them!

Big Sister Adeline faltered slightly at my broad smile. “D-does a dullard like you actually think you can get away with not listening to a word Sir Al says and snubbing Lady Anko?!”

I beg you, don’t say “Anko.” You’ll get me going again.

“That’s right, that’s right! We are now the companions of Sir Al, the Hero of Sigoules! So the likes of you—?!” Big Sister Aureline started to spout like some kind of petty underling as she cowered behind Big Sister Adeline, but she immediately went silent when I slowly turned my smile at her too.

“I apologize if I caused any offense, Big Sister.”

“Y-you…”

Despite giving an elegant and charming apology befitting a daughter of our father, Big Sister Adeline stepped protectively in front of Big Sister Aureline for some reason. Ooh, she was so impeccable.

However, this was not going to turn into a glare-off between sisters. After all, I continued to smile even though Big Sister Adeline glowered at me. Big Sister Aureline may have dropped out of the match, but Big Sister Adeline persisted despite the bead of sweat forming on her forehead.

Oh, could it be…? Is my big sister starting to realize that I’m not normal?Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.

“I believe this would be a good time to take my leave,” I said. “I apologize, everyone, but I am afraid that I must be going. I hope we can have some more time to chat again soon, sisters.”

It wouldn’t do to peck at them too much before they had truly ripened.

I had made a few blunders in this conversation, so I gave a gentle smile as a way of ending things.

Big Sister Adeline ground her teeth. “I’ll remember this.” Judging from the terrific parting remark, Big Sister Adeline seemed to have taken offense at my honest feelings for her, and her high heels clicked loudly as she took Big Sister Aureline with her and walked away.

Oooh! Nngh! You are such a delicious delight, Big Sister!

“I-I believe we should be going as well.” After witnessing all that, Callisto bowed his head as he snapped back to his senses.

Alfio also gave a hasty bow and then followed after my sisters, taking the other two women with him and disappearing into the crowd.

Ahh, that was so much fun. Perhaps I overdid it, though? I contemplated and was on the verge of leaving as well when Callisto said one last thing to me, having remained behind for some reason.

“Ah, one last thing, Lady Yulucia. I have submitted a request to be transferred to Talitelud. I believe we should see each other again next year, or the year after that at the latest, but I hope you will permit me to say hello when I can.”

What? Heck no.

***

Alfio, the (self-proclaimed) Hero of Sigoules, had a secret he couldn’t tell anyone.

He was born to a family who owned a big fruit orchard in northern Sigoules, and while he wasn’t a noble, his family was well-off, so he grew up without any discomforts.

But when he was two years old, something changed in him. During the magical aptitude exams, while he showed no aptitude for holy magic or elemental magic to speak of, he surprised everyone with his aptitude for every single element of ordinary spellcraft—earth, water, fire, and wind.

A special kind of spiritual nature—a certain kind of purity, so to speak—was required to use holy magic and elemental magic, while ordinary spellcraft depended on the user’s creativity. Their power of imagination affected how many elements a person could use and their strength.

Alfio’s parents believed their son must have been gifted, and spent a fortune to have him taught as a prodigy by one of the best teachers. Alfio liked his private teacher and he frantically devoted himself to his studies just to see how happy she looked when he did a good job.

The next change happened when he was four.

His parents had dark red hair and brown eyes, which wasn’t an unusual color combination in Sigoules. However, Alfio had black hair and dark eyes—very much unlike his parents.

He was also different from his family in that he had a talent for spellcraft. They had been unable to understand the mental image for spellcraft that Alfio tried to describe to them. It was due to these fundamental differences that he gradually started to feel a sense of alienation from his family.

The young Alfio had been troubled by this, but his teacher saved him from his worries. She saw his true personality, and she praised him and gave him confidence through her acceptance of him. It was because of this that Alfio began to have delusions of grandeur.

The greatest change of all happened when he was six.

Alfio was an early bloomer and realized that he had fallen in love with his teacher, who had nurtured his sense of confidence. She was twenty-two years old and had become a private teacher after graduating from the Academy of the Magical Arts. She was sixteen years older than Alfio and well into marriageable age. Alfio got it in his head that he was the only one who could make her happy, and believed beyond a doubt that she would accept his feelings.

However, she was already married. Having watched over Alfio since he was young made her want to have her own child, so she quit her job as his teacher before he had a chance to confess his feelings to her.

It had been a great shock for young Alfio. The shock of his broken heart gave him a high fever and he wound up bedridden for several days. That was when Alfio suddenly remembered his past life.

When a living being died, their soul dispersed and was returned to the world so that it could be reborn to a new life. However, his soul had not returned to the world and was instead reborn with some traits from his previous life intact.

Certain conditions had to be met for souls to be reborn this way.

First, they had to have acquired a lot of experience in their former life. In this kind of case, only the experience was returned to the world while the soul itself went on to instead transmigrate as an even stronger soul.

The other condition was that the soul was prevented from dispersing due to having strong emotions imprinted onto it. In most cases, these were wicked emotions, so the emotions themselves fused with a spirit and they turned into ghosts bound to specific physical locations and such. However, if these feelings were pure, the soul itself could be reborn.

In Alfio’s case, the feeling had been regret. The emotion had not been powerful enough to turn him into a ghost, and the source of it came from the living, so he was lucky enough that he was able to be reborn.

“There must be a reason I was reborn in this world.”

Alfio was not the same person he had been in his past life. However, having transmigrated with such strong emotions, his soul had been influenced by the form his spirit had taken in his past life.

The degree to which a spirit resembled its past-life appearance was correlated to the strength of its memories, which affected the body of its current life. In Alfio’s case, he was an early bloomer, able to imagine spellcraft, and had black hair and eyes all because of his spirit’s influence, taking the appearance of his past life.

Alfio started working hard after that. In his past life, he had been lazy and died before he knew it, so he made up his mind to live this life in earnest. With the regrets of his past life as his sustenance, he learned how to wield a sword (since he had been bad at it before), came up with ideas for new spells, and developed his abilities. There were times when he felt disheartened. There were times when things were really tough. But Alfio didn’t give up.

There was one big regret from his past life that he would be sure to remedy this time: He would find a woman to love and make her happy.

After a life of pouring his blood, tears, and sweat into hard work, he accepted as his companion the elven woman who had fought by his side to save a village of elves from a herd of elephants. Even the daughter of a knight, who had been an old childhood friend, had reached out to ask to join him.

If Alfio wasn’t wrong, the two women liked him.

The three of them started working as mercenaries, and while looking for a missing person, they learned that daemons were behind it. After they successfully drove the daemons away, people even started calling him the Hero.

Though the country had not officially recognized Alfio as the Hero, his reputation led the archbishop of the Church of Kostor in Sigoules’s capital to sponsor his group, even going so far as to fund their operations.

The beautiful elven woman he admired because of the influence of his past life.

His pretty childhood friend who constantly fussed over him.

And then there were the two noble daughters who had recently joined their group at the archbishop’s referral, who were somewhat domineering and still young, but sure to blossom into beautiful women in the future, and subsequently caused a new kind of emotion to take root within Alfio’s heart.

“Why should I only love one woman?”

In a way, it was a curse. One could even call it twisted.

He regretted never falling in love in his past life. He regretted how his young first love had ended so terribly. Seeing the women he had gathered in an effort to bury those regrets, Alfio started to believe that it was his duty to make many women happy.

And then Alfio met a young lady at a party hosted by the royal family of Sigoules, which he had attended as the archbishop’s guard. She was far too young to actually be considered a young lady, but her golden hair and eyes and frighteningly flawless features pierced Alfio’s heart. She looked like she had been molded in the gods’ image. Her powerful presence hinted at a gigantic soul within, overflowing with such divine light that those in possession of weaker souls would be compelled to prostrate themselves before her.

She turned out to be the youngest sister of the noble sisters who had joined their group one year prior, and her older sisters were so wary of her that they had warned Alfio to stay on his guard around her. However, his soul was durable thanks to the influence of his past life, and thanks to his knowledge of 2D characters, he could not bring himself to be wary in the face of this golden girl’s beauty.

Alfio would have surely noticed something was off about her had her personality been as cold as her doll-like appearance. However, the girl smiled radiantly with such joy at being reunited with her sisters, as appropriate for a girl her age. Although there were probably some serious interfamily issues going on (judging from how their hair and eye colors were so different), the girl did not criticize her sisters.

Having met the golden girl at that party, Alfio now understood that it was his duty to solve the discord between these sisters and help the three of them become a happy family. Alfio vowed to himself that he would show this golden girl what it meant to be happy as a woman, no matter what. After all, he too had laughed the first time he heard the word shiodaifuku, and thus felt a strange kinship with the girl.

***

“What’s wrong, Adelie?”

After seeing her younger sister again at the royal family of Sigoules’s wedding party, Adeline wound up leaving right away. Celia, the warrior of their group, had followed after her.

“Nothing,” Adeline answered.

Adeline was known for her condescending treatment of others, but she was pretending to be on her best behavior during this party in order to use the power and reputation of the Heroes. She always treated those of respectable caliber appropriately anyway, so she was on relatively good terms with the group.

The ladies of the group had frowned at the addition of more women, but never displayed any outward animosity toward the two teenaged nobles, so Adeline and Aureline had managed to find their places among them as everyone’s younger sisters.

What is wrong with that girl?!

The first time she had met her half sister Yulucia had been three years ago.

She hated her little sister for having obtained everything that was hers by rights: family, love, status, and everyone’s admiration. Should they truly be calling a girl like that their princess and Saint?

Yulucia had called both Adeline and Aureline her sisters and smiled so prettily, like she had been genuinely happy to see them again, but Adeline had had this tiny nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right about her since the first time they’d met.

She was capable of sensing it because she viewed the entire world as her enemy.

Amid that fleeting beauty, she had seen herself reflected in Yulucia’s eyes. There was something about the girl’s pretty smile that was repulsive to Adeline, like she was trapped in a cage with an enormous carnivore and there was nowhere to run.

“Do you feel better now, Adelie? Al and the others have caught up now too,” Celia said soothingly, assuming Adeline’s trembling was anger caused by family conflict and not fear.

“Yes,” Adeline replied hesitantly. She could see Alfio and the others coming their way.

Aureline must have almost gotten left behind due to being weaker than the others, because now Alfio was giving her a piggyback ride.

Adeline apologized for leaving so suddenly. Alfio and Antiquoua both tried to console her, since they were under the same assumption as Celia.

“Well, she certainly was rude,” said Antiquoua, still mad about how Yulucia had acted.

“She was probably just nervous to meet us since we’re the Heroes,” Alfio said defensively.

“She was so pretty, it was scary. It’s no surprise that she’s related to Adelie and Aurelie.” Celia didn’t seem to care either way.

“Sister.” Adeline’s little sister Aureline softly touched the hem of Adeline’s dress. She was the only one who looked uneasy.

However, Aureline was scared because of Yulucia’s political power and magical powers as the Saint. She had always been a timid girl who only imitated her mother and sister. She was powerless and always cowering in her sister’s shadow. As a result, Aureline had not yet realized why Yulucia disturbed her so.

What in the world am I to do?

No one, not even Alfio, was cautious of Yulucia.

She had hoped that Alfio would perceive how abnormal Yulucia was, since he was the Hero, but he only saw her as a pretty little princess.

No, it’s just too soon.

Alfio and his other companions had not yet awakened as the Heroes yet. Adeline believed that with her help, Alfio would grow and someday realize the truth. Until then, Adeline had to get stronger herself so that she could stand up against Yulucia.

So that she could protect the one she loved.

I will do whatever it takes to protect him from Yulucia!

Episode 4: Daily Lives of the Demons

Episode 4:
Daily Lives of the Demons

IT HAD BEEN A FEW MONTHS ALREADY SINCE I finished my job as the Princess of the Holy Kingdom in Sigoules and returned home to Talitelud.

In the end, I had been unable to headhunt Noel.

B-Bar…Mr. Bear said something like “I want you to watch over him as much as you can from afar,” and Noel said something like “I will work hard to get even stronger by the next time we see each other,” so it would’ve been impossible!

And so, of course, once I got back, I started going to school again. My trip had taken two months total, yet my life when I returned was the same as it always had been. I went to school in a bougie coach (with my ten guardian knights riding on horseback in tow) and the students all kept their distance from me while I walked with my four attendants.

Why, though? Didn’t this make me even more of a villainess then my sisters?

Well, I didn’t really care all that much.

As for Rick, whom I had been avoiding, our relationship cooled enough that we were able to have proper conversations again. I mean, he had actually waited until I was done with classes for the day?! Didn’t he understand his own position?! Plus, he’d been acting weirdly sullen ever since I started avoiding him. Though that was par for the course as far as he was concerned. In any case, one of his type was more than enough for me.

Look, it was Rick’s own fault in the first place for not making himself clear! Though it would’ve been problematic for me if he had spelled it out clearly, but what the heck was he hoping to achieve by coming to see me every day? And when I looked straight at him, he looked away! What was he, a purehearted maiden?!

Timoté was also coming with Rick to see me, so everyone saw it favorably as the two princes being nice to their younger cousin, but this was going to be the source of strange rumors once I turned ten.

Regardless, I did not have so much free time on my hands that I could just hang out with my cousins all the time. I was the first princess of a grand duke, after all. I had to do as Mother told me and host tea parties for frightened noble girls, go shopping with Shelly and Betty plus dozens of attendants and guards (which was a royal pain), reply to Noel’s letters (which passed inspection), and study summoning spellcraft. All in all, I was quite busy.

But those were things I was busy doing as the princess of the Grand Duke of Versenia. I also had other things to do as the Devil Princess.

I had met all kinds of people in the Kingdom of Sigoules, after all.

Anyway, had my cute demons finished the jobs I gave them?

***

“That is all I have to report.”

“Okay, thanks. Here’s some candy.”

It was late at night and the pious citizens of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud were asleep. In the dark capital, hiding from the light of spellcraft streetlamps, a silver-haired maid held out a black “candy” to a pale young butler. He smiled, giving a slight flash of his fangs as he accepted it.

Her soft hair looked both white and silver. Her half-closed eyes were a jewel-like blue. She was a young girl of only about eight years old and was radiantly beautiful, even in this back alley with no lights to speak of.

“Give my regards to Mylene.”

“I shall, Lady Fanny.” The vampire butler bowed before disappearing into the darkness.

Fanny took another black candy from her apron pocket and popped it into her mouth.

Fanny was an arch demon—classified as Calamity Rank, a being powerful enough to bring a nation to its knees.

What was this black candy she was enjoying the taste of?

It was so black, it did not even reflect light. At a glance, it gave off this wriggling icky aura like some kind of cursed object. Given that a vampire—who hated human food—happily accepted it, and demons liked it as well, it couldn’t have been anything good. One was probably better off not knowing what it was made out of.

“I don’t get it.”

Fanny’s mistress Yulucia had ordered her to investigate the Church of Kostor. One might assume that Noah the demon butler would have been more suitable for the job, since it seemed like the kind of thing Fanny would get bored of quickly, but personality aside, Fanny’s abilities made this task right up her alley.

After all, Noah was taking care of things both publicly and behind the scenes. Nia the demon knight and Tina the demon maid were too hotheaded from Fanny’s point of view, which meant that the only one of them capable of infiltrating the church by themself was Fanny.

Fanny was getting help from Mylene, who managed the underbelly of the Holy Kingdom to gather rumors and investigate Archbishop Callisto. The people who ran things in the countries surrounding Talitelud were appointed by the Church of Kostor’s main cathedral in the Holy Kingdom. This seemed like the kind of thing that would impact international relations, but the other countries trusted the Holy Kingdom when it came to religion, and the countries that did see Talitelud as their enemy didn’t have the Church of Kostor as their official religion in the first place.

The cardinals had appointed Callisto to his position, yet the Charm spells from the vampires and Fanny’s nightmares hadn’t uncovered anything out of the ordinary about the man. In fact, the only thing she had discovered was that the man was obsessed with cleanliness.

Callisto’s impulsive personality had led him to being stationed as the archbishop in another country instead of at the main cathedral in the Holy Kingdom. However, that in itself wasn’t anything unusual for the career of a religious leader. The reason the cardinals had sent him abroad was because they had faith that he would acquire the right mindset if they waited long enough. It was only natural then that Callisto wanted to return to the Holy Kingdom, so how did he end up involved with the Heroes?

“This sucks.”

After all that work, she was going to have to go investigate Callisto directly. However, Fanny was like her mistress in that she was not good at handling such gross kinds of people. There was something off, but she couldn’t put her finger on what. Fanny created nightmares that came from the soul itself, which was why she had realized how icky he was; however, when humans were prone to wild delusions, it made it difficult to perceive the truth through nightmares. While she was sure that Yulucia would praise her for even reporting that much about him, Fanny herself hated the idea of leaving things at that.

Fanny was the weakest among the four arch demons in terms of fighting strength. It wasn’t that her abilities were inferior or that her rank as a demon was any lower than theirs—she just wasn’t made for direct combat. This was why she wanted to be useful to Yulucia in ways that didn’t have to do with battles.

Also, Fanny could teleport by following a soul’s wavelength. All arch demons had the power to teleport, but only Fanny was able to travel across great distances without having to pay a price for it. This was exactly why Fanny had been given this mission, since she could easily travel between Talitelud and Sigoules.

If anything, Yulucia was more in the minority as a demon, since she pretty much had no special abilities to speak of and solved everything by bombarding it with magic.

“That’s odd.”

Having teleported to Sigoules, Fanny used a nightmare to try to touch the surface of Callisto’s soul, but she was unable to learn anything more than she already had from her investigation in the Holy Kingdom. The only thing that stood out to her was that he gave most of his jobs to that “party of Heroes.”

There was nothing suspicious about his requests, and the Heroes all did the work in earnest. Yet, as someone capable of reading a human’s soul, Fanny found this incredibly strange.

“Why do they only save so few of them?”

There had been several kidnappings recently in the Kingdom of Sigoules. The reason people had started referring to Alfio’s party as “Heroes” was because they’d found out that daemons had been behind the kidnappings. And this evening as well, the Heroes had received a request and gotten information from Callisto to go and save only one of the children who had been kidnapped. On the days the Heroes were dispatched to go rescue a child, other children were also kidnapped elsewhere.

“Hmmm.”

After mulling it over, Fanny decided to go and check it out for herself. To be more precise, Fanny was bored of investigating Callisto. Plus, Yulucia was more concerned about the Heroes. They didn’t know just how much of a hero Alfio might actually be, but if he was the real deal, then that meant he was going to be the demons’ biggest threat. Against a demon like Yulucia, he didn’t stand a chance; however, she was still wary of him because the true Hero would be capable of taking on arch demons.

Compared to the Hero, whatever Callisto might have been scheming would prove no great threat at all. If Callisto was trying to achieve something by using them, then she had better investigate up close. In any case, the only reason she had investigated Callisto first was because there were people Yulucia was currently “nurturing” with the Heroes, and thus she wanted to avoid interfering with them. Even so, since she’d come into contact with them, Fanny figured that she should just observe and let her curiosity guide her as she teleported to where the kidnapped child was being held.

The location was a storage shed on a big farm far from the city. Even though it was the middle of the night, Fanny could sense four adults and one child inside. As for why she’d chosen to teleport directly to the victims instead of the Heroes, it was because she was curious about the child’s soul.

Fanny quietly peeked into the shed.

“Shuddup, brat!” a large adult man roared as he kicked the small child.

The man didn’t seem to actually be putting much oomph into kicking the kid, but the boy, who was much smaller than Fanny, sobbed quietly as he cowered with pain and fear.

“Hey, cut it out, would ya? We only managed to get the one. We ain’t gonna get any money if he dies,” the man’s partner admonished him.

“Tch. Why we gotta nab kids anyway? They’re nothin’ but trouble.”

“And? Don’t forget, we get two large gold coins for every holy-magic-casting brat we manage to snatch. We got paid some upfront, but we won’t get the rest if he dies.”

“He was such a weirdo, though. Wouldn’t even show his face.”

“Prolly some bigwig from somewhere. Anyway, what’re we gonna do about them?”

“We’ve only got one brat, so maybe we can get some kinda bonus for ’em?”

“Doubt it.”

He shot a dangerous look at the man and woman who must have tried to stop them when they were kidnapping the child.

“Eek!”

“We won’t tell anyone! Please don’t kill us!”

“Pray you’ll at least be worth somethin’ to us,” one of the kidnappers said. They both started laughing. “Bwa ha ha!”

“Hmm.” Not that Fanny’s murmurs meant anything. She was a demon and thus had no heart that could empathize with humans. The only thing she knew was that she didn’t like the emotion she could sense coming from the boy.

Fanny was outside, but the second kidnapper heard her voice and immediately drew his sword. “Who’s there?!”

The irritated man also unsheathed a thick single-edged sword and cautiously peered outside the shed.

It turned out that these guys were not your run-of-the-mill ruffians, but actually wannabe mercenaries trying to earn some cash on the side. The man who’d first noticed her nodded to his partner and the two of them kicked down the door and burst outside. However…

“Ack!” The men made eye contact with something and let out a strangled scream as their souls were pulverized by tens of thousands of nightmares. They died still standing.

“Good evening,” Fanny said as she strolled into the shed just a few moments after the two kidnappers had rushed outside.

The captured man and woman blinked with confusion at the eight-year-old maid’s incredibly casual greeting.

Fanny didn’t even glance at them as she brazenly traversed the shed to crouch down by the sobbing boy, who looked to be about three years old, and soothingly started stroking his head. She didn’t say a word, yet the gesture was enough to get the boy to raise his tearstained face despite his fears.

“Who are you?” the young boy asked.

Fanny smiled and pulled a black candy out of her apron pocket. “I’ve got some candy! Want it?”

“Candy?”

“Yeah. It’s really sweet.”

“Okay.” The boy nodded, so Fanny held out the black candy to him.

However, the boy didn’t try to look at the candy. In fact, his eyes looked cloudy and didn’t even reflect Fanny.

“Can you see?” she asked.

“No.”

“Then say, ‘Ahh.’”

“Ahh.”

Fanny popped the black candy into the blind boy’s mouth and then cut the rope tied around him with her nails.

The boy chewed the candy. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Do you like it?”

“Hmm… It tastes kinda weird?”

“You don’t like it, then?”

“No, it’s good. Just weird.”

“Hee hee hee. I see.” Fanny laughed with delight at the boy’s overt honesty and started stroking his curly hair again.

One shouldn’t worry about what the black candy was actually made of.

“H-hey,” the man said, having judged Fanny was not a threat after witnessing such a sweet scene between the young maid and the toddler. “Cut our ropes too before those guys get back.”

“Yes! You’ve saved the boy already! Please untie me too!” the woman urged.

Fanny frowned at the two adults as she looked back at them. “Are you this child’s parents?”

“No! I don’t care about that kid!” said the woman.

“That’s right, young lady. Hurry up and cut our ropes too! Come on!” demanded the man.

“Hmm?” Fanny immediately lost interest in the yelling adults and went back to stroking the boy’s hair while he chewed on the candy.

“H-hey! What are you doing?!”

“Just leave the kid and help us already!”

“Eek!” The man’s angry shouting made the boy let out a small shriek and shrink back, interrupting Fanny’s petting.

Fanny’s good mood soured with a frown. “You sure are annoying.” She stood up and started walking toward the man and woman.

The man was pleased, assuming the little girl was finally going to set them free, but he was irritated by her dawdling and so glared at her. “Get on with it and—gack!”

Fanny punched the man’s head in. Chunks of flesh and fresh blood splattered onto half of the woman’s body.

“Ee—!” Before the woman could get a scream out, Fanny sliced her head clean off. The light faded from the woman’s eyes, her mouth open in a silent scream.

“Hey, what’s going on?” the boy asked after a pause.

“Nothing at all,” Fanny replied in a gentle tone.

“Really? I smell something weird.”

“Oh, that’s the smell of death.” Fanny wore a triumphant look, like she deserved a medal.

The blind boy cocked his head. “Really?”

Fanny hadn’t planned to save the boy. She had only done it because she wanted to pet his soft-looking hair—the same reaction she had whenever she saw a stray cat near the castle. Had this boy actually been a stray kitten and not a human child, Fanny would have done this exact same thing. She hadn’t done it out of any affection for living beings—she saw them more as toys to kill time with.

In any case, Fanny had successfully eliminated the obstacles to her fun. Now that those pesky annoying people were gone, Fanny went back to petting the boy’s hair, intending to enjoy the feel of it to her heart’s desire. But then…

“Remove your hand from the boy!” someone yelled from the shed’s door just as a spellcraft fire arrow came flying at her. She immediately put on her clown mask and blocked it.

Someone else was here now.

Had Fanny been too focused on the child to notice them? Or were they just that powerful? The fact that she hadn’t noticed them approach made Fanny make the mask’s face grimace.

“Get away from that child, daemon!”

A black-haired man and a woman with long chestnut-colored hair rushed in through the door, blades drawn.

Fanny’s job was to investigate, and she remembered how Yulucia had told her to keep things on the down-low, so she covered her whole face with the mask even though she didn’t like it. She shifted her focus to the insolent humans who had just barged in.

Hwuh? Are these guys the Heroes…? Maybe?

Fanny hadn’t seen them in person, but Noah and Nia had used their sight to share information about them, since they had been at the party with Yulucia.

But what’s a daemon? Assessing their strength, Fanny didn’t feel threatened or nervous at all. She merely inclined her head with confusion.

Fanny had completely suppressed her demonic miasma so that she could pet the child. Since she looked like a human child wearing a strange mask, only a Hero who had the protection of an elemental or someone more powerful than that would have been capable of seeing her for what she really was—an arch demon.

“Daemon” was just a general term for the savage tribes and intelligent monstrosities that were hostile toward humanoids in this world. It did not apply at all to an actual demon like her. In fact, it was practically insulting. She felt the word was offensive since it hurt their reputation.

Alfio the Hero mistook Fanny’s confusion for an opening and ferociously sliced at her. “Perish, daemon!”

He struck with such speed that you wouldn’t have thought there was a child right next to his target, but Fanny easily avoided it, then smashed through the wall of the shed with her bare hands and stepped outside.

“Nngh?” Fanny had a strange feeling at the unjustified accusation and merciless display of violence.

The boy burst into tears because of the Heroes’ shouts. “Waaah!”

“Oh, there, there. You don’t need to be scared anymore.” Celia the swordswoman rushed over to the boy and hugged him.

The way Fanny saw it, these people had intruded out of nowhere and taken her kitten away, and she didn’t like that one bit. “Stupid humans.”

The next moment, there was a chill as Fanny emitted a small bit of her miasma. It rotted the grassy field in the vicinity and the Heroes quickly jumped back.

Alfio was drenched in a cold sweat. “W-watch out! This daemon’s pretty strong!” he warned his companions.

Standing behind him, Antiquoua the elf raised her staff up high and shouted, “Manifeest Light!” to cast a support spell on her allies with holy magic.

The girl’s usage of magic was ungraceful compared to how Yulucia cast with Empyreal. Fanny was momentarily distracted by the girl’s mispronunciation of the spell and Alfio rushed at her, moving faster thanks to the magical buff.

However, he could not land a hit on her. Just as she took a half step back to avoid the point of his sword, she heard the boy start to cry again.

“Waaah!”

Fanny glanced at him and realized that the boy had been abandoned, left alone on what was now a dangerous battlefield. Fanny’s eyes opened wide with surprise as she wondered why they would do such a thing.

“You’re mine!” Celia leaped toward her from Alfio’s other side, sword at the ready.

Shing!

“What the?!”

It appeared this woman had abandoned the child to prioritize slaying a daemon. Fanny pinched the woman’s sword in her fingertips and snapped the tip right off.

Fanny said nothing. Things she didn’t find entertaining only served to increase her displeasure. Why had this woman left the boy with the nice hair behind after she had stolen him from her? She wanted to go all out on this woman, but Yulucia had told her to restrain herself from getting into a real fight. Yulucia was trying to measure the strength of the awakened Heroes, but Fanny could see souls, and the strength of the human woman in front of her didn’t amount to much, even if she were to awaken.

Nevertheless, Yulucia was her creator, so surely there was some significance to the warning.

“Fire Javelin!”

“Ice Lance!”

“Huh?”

Kaboooom!

Fire and ice hit Fanny in the back simultaneously, and there was a violent explosion of steam.

Adeline had cast the fire spellcraft, Aureline the ice. The two of them had used up all of their energy with those spells, so they were sure that it must have been a powerful hit.

“Nice job, Adelie, Aurelie!” Alfio praised.

“We did it, Sir Al!” Aureline replied happily.

“It’s not over yet! Focus!” Adeline admonished them, having a bad feeling about the situation.

Celia also looked nervous as she received a spare sword from Antiquoua and stepped ahead.

“She snapped my sword like a stick. She might be Daemon General-class in the Daemon King’s army.”

The women were still on guard, caution in their voices. Alfio doubted their enemy could still be alive after an explosion like that, but…

There was a burst of an intense aura of intimidation. He gasped in astonishment when Fanny emerged from the steam and dust with only the hem of her maid’s dress looking a little bit dirty. However…

Huh? What? Huh? Fanny was very confused. She hadn’t sensed them. She could tell how many of them there were by how many souls there were, yet she hadn’t noticed the two girls who had been hiding until they saw the right moment to strike.

These two girls who had just fired attack spells at her…especially the older one…

Yulucia had warned her before she started the investigation into the Heroes not to touch her prey. It was exactly the kind of simple request her mistress would ask of her. Fanny broke out in a cold sweat, afraid of how she might be reprimanded if she accidentally hurt the girls.

“Nngh, I’m leaving.”

She was scared of the punishment, but above all, she couldn’t bear the thought of causing Yulucia to hate her. She hadn’t planned on fighting in the first place, and the whole thing was just one big bore now, so while Fanny was a bit sad to leave the boy’s hair, she vanished and left.

“Did she…run away?” The party’s pride wouldn’t allow Alfio to admit that they had missed her running, so they waited until they counted to about a hundred after the powerful daemon retreated before they finally let out a sigh of relief and sank to the ground.

They had come to be called Heroes after happening across a daemon in the process of kidnapping someone and defeating it. After that, the Church of Kostor became their sponsor and they solved other kidnapping cases. All of those kidnappers, however, had been humanoids, and they hadn’t had to fight any daemons. That meant that this was only their second time fighting a daemon, and this one was far more powerful than they could have ever imagined.

“That one sure was powerful, even though it looked like a child,” Alfio said.

“It’s a daemon. They’ve probably got little ones among them too.”

He nodded at Antiquoua’s assessment.

“Yeah… Oh, right, the kid!” Their conversation reminded Celia of the forgotten child, so she went racing off to find him. The child had been wailing for “Big Sis,” so she gave him a hug. “I’m right here! Why won’t you stop crying?”

She looked back at her companions, puzzled at why the boy wouldn’t calm down now that his savior had returned.

Antiquoua looked around the shed and came back shaking her head with a grim expression. “There’s a woman’s corpse in there. I bet she’s his…”

Everyone in the group assumed that the woman must have been his loving older sister. Mourning her death, Alfio the Hero looked to the dawn breaking in the sky and vowed, “Cursed daemon! The next time we meet, I will get revenge for this boy’s big sister!”

The following day, after the Church of Kostor had seen the boy safely returned to his parents, he experienced a strange change. The boy had been blind from birth, yet little by little, light began to shine in his eyes. Finding this miraculous, his parents and a priest of the Church of Kostor asked him what had happened, and he said, “The nice big sis gave me a strange candy.”

The Church of Kostor of Sigoules thus went on to hold a respectable funeral for the unidentified woman who had been a victim in the kidnapping, calling her the “nameless Saint.”

***

The Hero and the Saint were revered by the powerless as the bringers of peace to the world. They inspired hope in the hearts of the people, which was why countless had falsely assumed these titles since times of old, but people yearned for their presence whether they be genuine or impostors. Perhaps it was because humanity unconsciously sensed that there was now a great evil in the world, capable of bringing calamity…

After Princess Yulucia’s return and while Fanny was busy running around fulfilling her mistress’s command, two girls who were so beautiful that everyone stopped to stare sat across from each other at a white table at the Academy of the Magical Arts’ sidewalk café in the capital of the Holy Kingdom.

Even though this was part of the cafeteria, there was nothing on the table. No teacups, not even glasses of water. The two girls were the kind of annoying customers who took up a table without ordering anything, yet not a single person dared to complain.

The brunette with blue-grey eyes was a fifth-year student in Knighthood Studies named Ninette Lutre, also known as Nia.

The girl with platinum-like blonde ringlets with azure eyes was a second-year student in Attendant Studies named Christina Celda, also known as Tina.

These two girls served as attendants to the daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia and Princess of the Holy Kingdom who was sixth in line for the throne, Yulucia von Versenia, whose existence had caused the biggest fuss the country had seen in the past several years. It was easy to overlook the girls when they stood by their famous mistress’s side with her unapproachable, otherworldly good looks, but those who were more perceptive had recognized that the two of them—as well as the two other attendants, Noah and Fanny—were quite beautiful as well.

One of the reasons Yulucia’s attendants stood out so much was because they refused to wear the academy’s uniforms, opting instead for the Grand Duke’s maid and knight uniforms. So, what were the two of them doing here?

“Hey, Nia? Do you think some part of me isn’t good enough?” Tina mused, sounding like an exhausted office lady grumbling at a bar in the middle of the night because her boyfriend still hadn’t asked her to marry him even though they were already living together.

Nia gave Tina an affectionate smile as a bead of sweat trailed down her forehead. She was so over this constant complaint from Tina lately.

Tina had initially complained to Fanny, but Fanny wasn’t the type to help people with their problems. Noah, the only boy of their group, had immediately judged the situation to be too annoying and busied himself with work only he was capable of doing. Fanny and Noah also often wound up traveling and running errands. So unfortunately for Nia, as the only other attendant who was kept near Yulucia’s side, she was stuck with the job of listening to Tina’s whining.

“Hmm? Maybe you should try to control yourself a little bit more?” Nia replied.

“What did you just say?!”

Tina’s presence as she moved to lean forward caused Nia to reflexively reach for her demonic blade, but she quickly remembered that they were at their mistress’s academy, so she put a hand on Tina’s shoulder to push her back down instead.

Her hand made an audible tap and the leaves on the trees nearby stirred.

A student with an aptitude for elemental magic thought it strange how the wind blew even though there was not a single wind elemental around (as if they had all fled from the area). However, he never would have suspected that it had been a shock wave from two high-ranking demons clashing and canceling out one another’s magical powers.

Nia gave Tina an exasperated look. She couldn’t believe that she had actually just had to use all of her power to Absorb here of all places. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Lady Yulucia is a cat type, you know? Of course she’s going to reflexively hit you whenever you make sudden movements.”

“I guess, but…”

How many times now had Nia given her this same exact answer after hearing the same complaints? And yet Tina refused to accept it and puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. She was troubled because Yulucia wouldn’t accept her deluge of love for her mistress. In fact, Yulucia always counterattacked in response!

“It’s true, though,” Nia said with a gentle tone and smiled.

It was rather obvious. Clobbering someone with heavy emotions before they had a chance to think about love would put anyone on guard, not just Yulucia.

Despite Nia pointing this out time and time again, Tina still seemed unaware she was even doing it. Although Tina was on the extreme side of things, all four of Yulucia’s attendants loved and respected their mistress, so they couldn’t exactly deny their feelings. So, basically, Nia had given up trying to persuade her.

How had she turned out like this? They had all been together since they were born and had no sense of self to speak of. Tina had never been this much of a freak back in the Demon Realm.

I think I know the reason. Nia too had merged with a human soul, inheriting Ninette’s feelings and knowledge. Nia had just eaten the insolent part of her soul that had disrespected her mistress instead of merging with it. As for Ninette’s remaining feelings, Nia had taken surprisingly well to them. The slothfulness and self-love meshed well with her easygoing nature. Perhaps the soul Tina had chosen had hated Yulucia immensely, and Tina’s love for Yulucia had grown in proportion to how much Christina had detested her, like adding a pinch of salt to sweet red-bean soup with mochi. Having come to this conclusion, Nia sighed behind her smile.

And so, Nia and Tina were having this absurd conversation, yet they were still considered prominent beauties among the students. While the grand duke’s household had gradually come to recognize them as competent rotten eggs, to the public, they were the surprisingly young, pretty lady’s maids who worked for the grand duke’s family.

To their spectators, the two were perhaps having a serious conversation, judging from the weary looks on their faces, so of course they were gathering a lot of attention. Sometimes they spoke and acted in ways that made it clear they thought of humans as insignificant worms. However, those who had the favor of the grand duke’s family saw that coolheaded behavior as an expression of their loyalty to the princess and thought it was heartwarming how they only fawned on their lady. As a result, they were starting to gain popularity among both boys and girls. Meanwhile…

“Nia.” Tina gave Nia a somewhat sharp look as she spoke.

“Another one?” Nia was able to surmise Tina’s meaning from that alone, frowning slightly.

They left a silver coin on the table even though they hadn’t ordered anything, stood up from their seats, and headed outside.

While Fanny had powerful abilities, she still quickly grew bored of things the way a child would. Noah was good at everything, but because of his merging with a human named Noir, he was even more gleeful than he used to be when it came to scheming up things for Yulucia. From that perspective, Nia and Tina could be considered hot-blooded idiots; however, they never cut corners when it came to their work, and they trusted each other deeply when it came to dealing with enemies.

The people milling about at the Academy of the Magical Arts weren’t just students and teachers. A large number of powerful magic users were nobility, so that necessitated the presence of numerous guards. The nobles didn’t differentiate between guardian knights and attendants on campus like Yulucia did, so many had adult attendants along with them.

There were also suppliers who brought in food and other necessities, as well as those who came to discuss business with professors and at the laboratories, so there were always lots of people coming and going on campus. Nevertheless, outsiders typically could not approach the school buildings where classes were held. It was for this reason that these buildings and the student dormitories had their own team of knights and guards posted at the gates to keep strict surveillance.

Tina covered her mouth with a silk handkerchief when they arrived at their destination. “It reeks of dust in here.”

The two of them had walked through the academy like normal and gone inside an old, unused school building. Old buildings were demolished if they posed any danger, but students could get permission to use the ones that were safe. It seemed that this one in particular did not get regular use, since there was so much dust covering the floor that the girls left footprints wherever they stepped.

“Hmm, it’s probably okay. I don’t think we need to worry,” Nia replied nonchalantly. The two of them waited in an empty classroom, without even a desk or a chair, until he finally showed up.

“Please pardon my intrusion,” said a man in his thirties who was dressed like minor nobility. He was dressed inconspicuously, looking like someone’s parent, yet his demeanor and the way he carried himself made him come off as some high-ranking noble’s attendant. That said, it was not all that unusual for someone like this to try to make contact with the two of them.

Tina and Nia weren’t the only ones who dealt with them either; all four attendants were regularly in contact with all kinds of humans.

People came to them for many reasons. Some just wanted to get to know the four of them because of how attractive they were. There were students who confessed their love directly to them. There were nobles who tried to headhunt them and make them their own attendants after seeing their beauty and work ethic. And then there were those who wanted to gain connections to the daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia, but had no one to introduce them to her.

The people who belonged to the lower two categories all had one thing in common: They looked down on the four attendants because they were just a bunch of eight- and eleven-year-olds.

The man pasted a smile on his face as Tina and Nia regarded him in silence. “I believe you two must be Lady Ninette and Lady Christina, yes?”

“No, we are not,” Tina replied without missing a beat.

The man’s eyes darted about for a moment.

Nia jabbed Tina with her elbow, reminding Tina that those were their vessels’ former names, so Tina corrected herself with a straight face. “Yes, I believe that’s right.”

“I see.” The man wondered briefly if they were using false names, but decided that would make sense for people who worked for the grand duke. He recollected himself and then said, “My apologies. My name is Ilerio, and I am a messenger from the Church of Kostor. I have a message I wish to convey to both your mistress and you, her attendants.”

Messengers from the Church of Kostor weren’t all that unusual either. Although she was a princess and everyone called her the Saint, Yulucia was still too young to attend too many soirees. Both citizens of the Holy Kingdom and people from abroad were constantly sending both formal and informal inquiries to the royal family and grand duke about getting an audience with the princess. To their disappointment, the King of Talitelud and the Grand Duke of Versenia both declared it too soon for her and thus avoided them all.

Tina and Nia had both worn their respective blank looks and smiles on their faces like masks, but now they stared at the man as if he were an insignificant worm.

“Naturally, I will do my utmost to accommodate both of you in addition to Her Highness. We shall spare no expense.” The man tried to combat the pressure of their silent stares with his words. Tina and Nia showed no reaction, though.

How could these children who were only about ten years old feel so intimidating? Fearing Tina’s blank stare, he turned his attention instead to Nia and was unsettled to find that her smile hadn’t changed even a little bit. Part of him wanted to tut in annoyance, since he couldn’t understand why these children were looking at him this way, but he decided to push it aside and move on to business instead.

“Gracious me, you two certainly are worthy of being the Lady Saint’s attendants,” the man prattled on with a histrionic gesture and tone. “You are wise to be cautious. However, I promise that I am not a suspicious person. As I said before, I am from the Church of Kostor. To tell the truth, though, I am from a faction that supports a new interpretation of the doctrine. If you were to give us your support when we establish our new church as the true one, we would gladly recognize Princess Yulucia as the Saint.”

In other words, this guy was from a group about to start a new sect, and he wanted to make Yulucia the officially recognized Saint of their new sect to make themselves look more legit.

“Can that being call itself a messenger for the Church of Kostor, then?” Nia voiced her doubts as she slowly tilted her head to the side. Belonging to a splinter sect meant that he was entirely unrelated to the main Church.

“Of course. We are still at present affiliated with the Church of Kostor, so I did not misrepresent myself on that point. We just have a different interpretation,” Ilerio replied coolly.

These were still substantially different things, so someone from the Church of Kostor would surely disagree. These girls may have been competent, but they were still just children, so Ilerio intended to win them over through smiles and authority.

“And?” Up until now Tina had remained frozen, so her question left Ilerio baffled.

“Huh?”

“What exactly is this new sect going to do?”

“Th-that is a very good question. Our world has elementals and even evil demons running rampant, yet the gods have never shown themselves to us. And so, we hope to gather individuals with powerful magic such as yourselves and offer up the Lady Saint’s magic in supplication to get our great goddess to manifest!” Ilerio said, full of confidence.

However, Tina’s gaze sharpened and Nia’s smile faded. They regarded him silently.

Did the gods really exist? Neither of them had ever felt such a presence. To them, if one did exist, it was Yulucia. However, that didn’t matter right now. What did matter was something that the two girls could absolutely not overlook.

“You’re going to gather magic and summon a god?”

“That we shall! I am telling you all this now because we wish for Her Highness to reject any other offers from denominations willing to recognize her as the Saint.” Ilerio’s face took on a more zealous expression as he went on. “It shall be made clear to you soon. The archbishop shall return within the next few years to Talitelud. He has made an ally of a major nation who shares in our ideology. Surely you can see that joining us now would be the wisest choice for you to make.”

The Holy Kingdom did not choose their Saint lightly; the title of “Saint of the Holy Kingdom” was in a league of its own compared to other titles. Yulucia and her attendants were unaware of this, but the main religion in the Holy Kingdom had already reached out to Yulucia to discuss officially recognizing her. Adding that to Yulucia’s title of the princess of the Grand Duke of Versenia, she was even more special than before.

Up until now, when female priests and acolytes worthy of the title appeared in any of the sects, their sect and the royal family would recognize her as such and that was that. However, Yulucia could cast numerous powerful spells, belonged to no religious affiliation, and was only the second Saint to be born to royalty. Essentially, this meant that she would become the second “true Saint” in history.

As a result, the royal family was being cautious about choosing which religious sect to back, and they had decided to defer officially recognizing Yulucia as the Saint and choosing which sect she would join until Yulucia was old enough to make the decision for herself. Because of this, no sect could publicly contact Yulucia unless she herself requested it. The Church of Kostor—the official religion of Talitelud—would likely be the religion officially recognizing her as the Saint.

And so, many of the churches were quietly working behind the scenes without Yulucia’s knowledge because they didn’t want to let such an influential poster girl get away. However, there was an unspoken rule they had to follow: No one would directly invite Yulucia. Inviting her attendants, on the other hand, was considered a gray area. Nevertheless, insistently soliciting them in a dusty place like this was a sure sign that said solicitor belonged to a shady religion that could not operate in the light.

“If the two of you would be willing to put in a good word with Her Highness for us, we would be happy to offer you anything you desire in return—be it any object or person.”

Ilerio had heard that the princess was close with her attendants. She would not be able to disregard their counsel. And no matter how loyal they were to the princess, no attendant could possibly turn down the prospect of having their worldly desires fulfilled. Even though they were children—no, as a man of religion, Ilerio understood that it was precisely because they were children that their wants must have known no limits.

However, Ilerio’s assumptions were wrong on a fundamental level.

“That’s…hilarious,” said Nia.

“Wh-what is?”

The two girls now had a strange air about them, as if they had suddenly changed into entirely different people. Ilerio instinctively took a step back.

There’s something abnormal about these girls. The instant he came to this conclusion, he suddenly felt himself on guard, like a warning call from the innermost depths of his heart—from his very soul. He was utterly confused, but decided to trust his gut and take his leave.

“I must apologize. I just remembered that I have a prior engagement that I—”

“Did we hear correctly that you intend to use our mistress?” Nia asked.

Ilerio sensed a quiet rancor from the girl’s voice as she interrupted him. He decided to abandon all sense of pride and bowed his head deeply to the young girl. “Please accept my apologies. I can see now that I was far too hasty. I must—”

“Aw, you’re leaving so soon?” Tina asked.

“Ack!”

Nia had just been standing next to Tina, but now she stood behind Ilerio and tapped his shoulder.

He couldn’t move. All she’d done was touch his shoulder, but he felt like he had fallen into the crevice of an enormous rock. A cold sweat started pouring down his face.

It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t physical strength either. Yet Ilerio felt his very soul shrivel before such powerful predators.

“He really did say something about wishing to summon a god,” Nia said.

“Then that means what he truly wants is to become sustenance for a god, right?” Tina asked.

“It sure sounds like that to me.”

“Although our goddess…” the two girls said in unison.

Caught between their ominous presences and words, tears began streaming down Ilerio’s face as his teeth chattered.

“Open the way to Lost Eden,” the girls chorused.

Tina’s hair and Nia’s demonic sword shone black as the dusty old classroom was plunged into darkness.

But it wasn’t dark. Ilerio could still see the two girls. He realized that not only had the classroom been enveloped in darkness, but he was now in a different place altogether.

This was a pocket dimension that Yulucia’s attendants had slowly constructed by using the surplus of their mistress’s magic to help her hide her true form away, since she was growing more powerful by the day.

Yulucia was a child of this world, and this was her Demon Realm.

“Welcome to our world,” a boy said from far away.

In the distance loomed a towering black castle that was still in the process of being built.

“Ah… Ah…” Ilerio was already speechless. His soul was unable to withstand the miasma here—it was truly more than any human could endure.

There was a horde of demons building the castle—over a thousand of them were already greater demons. Ilerio’s heart broke at the sight of them. Noah glanced at the unexpected guest and gave an order to the other demons. The man’s soul was tossed into a cauldron and came tumbling back out as a small black candy, as if it had just gone through an assembly line.

This was exactly how Mylene’s vampires, following Yulucia’s request, had been turning the unnecessary humans of the world that they hunted down into sustenance for the demons.

Meanwhile…

“I’m home, Lady Yuluciiia!”

“Oh, Fanny. Welcome home.” Yulucia picked up her textbooks as she smiled at Fanny, who looked like any other maid who had come to pick up her mistress after classes were finished.

“The Hero didn’t seem all that tasty to me.”

“Has he still not awoken yet, then? That’s fine, so long as he doesn’t cause any problems for my dear sisters. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen the others in a while. Do you know what they’re up to?”

“They’re working on building our secret base.”

“Well, even they like to be kids at times.”

“Yeah. Want a candy, Lady Yulucia?”

“I would love one.”

The two of them popped black candies into their mouths and laughed together as they munched on them.

The oblivious Yulucia continued to indulge in the peace of the world without a care.

Episode 5: I Am a Third-Year Student Now

Episode 5:
I Am a Third-Year Student Now

THE ACADEMIC YEAR CAME TO AN END AND I became a third-year student at the Academy of the Magical Arts. Seasons changed and it was now early summer, just a few months away from my ninth birthday. I would be a big girl once I turned nine! I wouldn’t let anyone call me a little girl anymore.

As for things that had changed, at long last it seemed that people had finally gotten used to me, and now my classmates actually said hello to me! It had taken over two years, but finally!

Though, thinking about it, maybe it was all thanks to the ten or so people that Fanny got to know on the first day she transferred to the school? Possibly? Or maybe it was because I was more mature now? Maybe this meant I was about to reach the age where I got to enjoy more romantic attention than usual! This was about the age that Noah and Nia both started regularly receiving letters and people confessing their love to them. That hadn’t happened to me or Tina yet, though.

As for me and Rick, that turned out to be nothing.

But why had he been acting that way? Was it just because he really thought of me as a little sister? Even though he was being so pushy about it? I just don’t get that dummy.

I asked Shelly if boys acted weird around her too and she said, “It’s your punishment for being so beautiful!” along with a bunch of other stuff that made no sense to me, so it didn’t help me solve this mystery. Perhaps I could claim innocence because I was of unsound mind? But I was glad that I hadn’t gone and asked Rick directly. He would have been really hurt to have been so misunderstood.

I doubted that Rick would ever come see me at school, lie in ambush for me, or roughly grab my hand and drag me away anymore.

“Hey!”

I was too quick to let my guard down. Damn.

Tina was accompanying me as I was heading to the salon to skip—I mean, take a break from classes—when someone called out to me in such a crude way.

There was only one person in the entire kingdom who would dare to address me like that.

“Big Brother Ludoric.”

Rick was essentially the kind of self-centered guy who had a huge ego, so he barged straight toward me, leaving his guards and attendants behind. However, there was something different about him today—or perhaps I should say there’d been something different about him in general lately.

He reminded me of a mercenary who had encountered a strong monstrosity and then wound up gathering a train of them as he ran away. Though in Rick’s case, it was a train of girls.

“Was he not aware of it?” one might ask. He was royalty after all, so it was only natural for him to have all kinds of followers. The way he was so popular yet so utterly oblivious made me mad.

Oh, the numbers just kept growing.

Until a few years ago, he’d just been a cheeky brat, but he was twelve now. He must have also been starting to grow into our bloodline or something, because he was so tall now that I had to look up at him.

“Yulucia, come with me.”

“Huh?”

Was he not aware of the current situation? The girls who had been breathlessly trying to keep up with his quick pace now realized he was talking to a girl and were directing their hateful radio waves of jealousy at me.

I couldn’t blame them, though. Rick was so huge, they probably couldn’t see who I was.

“Did you all need something from us?” I made my presence known and the girls practically jumped backward.

“Eek!”

“Eek”? I may look scary, but no one has ever had that kind of reaction before.

Oh, it must be because of the bloodlust Tina was emanating behind me in reaction to Rick’s behavior. There really was no helping that girl. I smiled in an attempt to reassure them.

“Hey, uh, come on.”

“Huh?”

Rick looked really anxious about something as he proceeded to ignore the frozen girls and start leading me somewhere by the hand.

“You’re grabbing my arm again!”

“Oh, be quiet.”

What was going on? Surely he knew he was crossing the line. Thinking that Tina might make a fuss again, I glanced back at her, but now even Tina was making a face just like his.

But why?!

Rick brought me straight to the entrance of the salon that only us higher nobility could patronize, looking around to make sure that no one else was here before he scrutinized my face. “Yulucia, has something been bothering you lately?”

“Huh?”

Why was he asking me that? Did I look bothered? Maybe I had seemed annoyed by Tina and the girls, but then why did Rick seem fine? I couldn’t be sure, but maybe I had done something that made me look unhuman? I felt around my face with my free left hand and then glanced at Tina. She nodded several times, sighing with relief.

I must have been making a weird face, then.

Rick also looked relieved. “There, you look back to your normal self now.”

“My normal self? What do I look like normally?”

“Uhhh, sleepy?”

What? Look, that’s just because I inherited my father’s slightly drooping eyes.

“What were you so upset about?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” And that was the truth. It wasn’t like I was that mad at Rick or anything. “Perhaps it’s because you have turned into a person of ill character who deceives girls.”

“Why do you think that?!”

“Because of the gaggle of girls accompanying you.”

“That isn’t my fault! They just follow me around without asking. Besides, I’d never do anything that would make you angr—”

“Hm?”

“Uh, never mind.” His ears turned faintly red as he looked away.

He really was such an enigma to me.

“Anyway, how long do you intend to keep holding my hand?”

“Oh, oops.” He finally noticed that he was still holding my hand, but for some reason it still took him a second before he finally let me go.

I was such a soft and fragile girl. He was going to end up leaving a bruise, holding my hand so firmly. Such a pushy boy. It reminded me of my time back in the Demon Realm.

“Oh yeah, there was something I needed to talk to you about. Here, let’s go inside the salon.”

“Huh? Wait.”

Rick wound up grabbing my other hand this time and dragged me inside the room.

Why did fate surround me with so many aggressive people?

“Don’t fall asleep.”

“I wasn’t.”

Yeesh, just what was everyone’s impression of me?

I sighed as I sipped the bright red tea that Tina had made for us.

As an attendant, Tina wouldn’t have normally been allowed to come in here, but there would have been all kinds of problems if a boy and girl were alone in a room together, even if they were just children, so she had special permission to wait on us.

Speaking of which, was it safe for humans to drink the kind of tea that I found delicious? Tina had made enough tea for Rick, as expected, but he was making choking sounds for some reason.

It was safe for them to drink too, right?!

“By the way, did you know that the Church of Kostor is building a new cathedral in Koltz?” Rick asked.

What?

“They are?”

This was what he’d dragged me in here to talk about? Not that it was a weird topic for conversation, but still.

“Yeah. That will make five cathedrals in Talitelud. The Crown and the reigning lord of that territory are splitting the construction costs.”

So the kingdom was funding it. Was that a good thing? Probably, since it was the kingdom’s official religion and all. As the Holy Kingdom, Talitelud had no separation of church and state.

In any case, the pontiff of the Church of Kostor had the influential voice of a cabinet minister, and authorizing something like that required approval not only from the church, but the king as well.

However, I still wasn’t sure why Rick had brought this up.

“Has something happened regarding this new cathedral?”

“Not yet. But probably today or tomorrow, Uncle—the Grand Duke of Versenia—will tell you that the newly appointed archbishop and the lord of Koltz have jointly signed a petition asking for you to visit as the next Saint and Princess of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Huh?” Go to Koltz? But why? Wasn’t Koltz really far to the north? Like, really far away. “I have no desire to travel so far from Toure, though.” Toure was my home base. I was only in the capital for school and had only just returned home from my last trip, so I disliked the idea of going somewhere so far away.

“I bet they’ll try to convince you to move there if they can. If you say no, though, they can’t force you.”

“I hope you’re right. What are they even expecting me to do there?”

“The same kinds of things you do here in the capital and in Toure sometimes: Use holy magic in front of the citizens, cure the very sick and injured, maybe preach before gatherings of people…though I bet that’d never happen.”

“Hmph.” Was he poking fun at me? I puffed up my cheeks and tried to whack him, but he laughed and easily dodged my attack. Then his expression turned serious.

“Regardless, this is a request from an archbishop and a lord who rules over a large territory. Uncle will not be able to refuse it either. You’re probably going to end up having to go.”

“Well, I guess I can go if it’s just for a few weeks.” I would say no if they wanted me there for a year, but a few weeks including travel time was no different from a trip.

However, Rick was giving me a weary look for some reason. “Yulucia, you know you’re the Princess of Versenia, right?”

“Uh, what about it?” Huh? Did I miss something? I glanced at Tina, but she looked as confused as me.

“This is Koltz we’re talking about here! Koltz! It’s part of Duke Capell’s lands, and he’s basically Uncle’s political rival!”

“Oooh.”

If I remembered correctly, that was Mr. Zesh’s family. He was one of the members of the Glimmering Darkness or Whatever Society whom I had healed. Tina quietly clapped her hands together in recognition as well.

“You remember now? And considering who the guy is, who knows what kinds of things he’s going to say to you if you go? And it happens to overlap with a time when Uncle is away on a diplomatic trip too. I doubt Uncle will want you to go to a place like that all by yourself.”

I understood now. Rick was worried that Duke Capell was up to something nefarious. And since he was a duke and requesting me as the “Princess of the Holy Kingdom”—the face of the kingdom—the royal family couldn’t say no just because they thought the request was suspicious. This situation was all Grandfather’s fault for throwing that job at Father. However…

“If I remember correctly, Lord Capell and Father are on bad terms with one another,” I said with a carefree smile. Sorry for not remembering. I had completely disregarded the man.

In any case, this invitation was a bold move. I was kind of looking forward to going now.

“Why are you so…?” Rick massaged his temple, like he had a headache. And then it seemed like he had made up his mind about something as he looked at me again. “If you’re going, then I’m going with you.”

“What?” I asked after a pause. Why, oh why had it come to this? “Um, I’m sure that I will be fine on my own.” Is he intending to come along as a chaperone?! Ugh, no thanks. Despite my thoughts, I kept calm and inclined my head with a puzzled look.

Rick shook his head at me. “Maybe you just didn’t know since Uncle has been protecting you, but some nobles out there are capable of doing terrible things on a fancy stage while laughing about it. But you should just go on imagining that the world is a pretty place. That’s what Uncle wants—and me too.”

“Oh, Big Brother Ludoric.” Saying stuff like that is sure to give girls the wrong impression, you know.

Yikes. Was he actually one of those himbos who were oblivious about how charming they were? In any case, I understood what he was trying to say. Rick wanted to be a shield to protect my honor and heart against the evil intentions of Duke Capell, who was sure to try to bring about my downfall in a place where Father could not protect me. Perhaps my calling him “Big Brother Ludoric” had given rise to these brotherly emotions within him.

Oh, Rick. You’re so dumb. If I’m in danger, then as my shield, that would mean you’re in danger too.

Oh, well. I would just have to protect Rick too, then.

There was still that human world with overflowing light I had so longed for.

I loved Father and Mother too. It was so much fun I hardly ever got bored of it, yet when something suddenly made me think of the Dark Beast, I started feeling a bit lonely.

What had he been up to? Was he still mad at me?

Oh… I guess I miss him.

Regardless, I had zero intentions of apologizing to him or going back!

After all, human malice was my favorite food, so what was I to do?

Episode 6: I Am Nine Years Old Now

Episode 6:
I Am Nine Years Old Now

“HOW ARE THE PREPARATIONS GOING, Callisto?”

“Everything is going smoothly thanks to your assistance, Your Grace!”

In Duke Capell’s castle in Koltz, there was a parlor decorated with numerous works of art where Archbishop Callisto of the Church of Kostor bowed his head with reverence, glad to have at long last set foot on Talitelud soil once again.

He had been transferred to Sigoules because of his extreme ideology, but he had found that Duke Capell shared his beliefs. The duke went on to provide funding and exert his influence on the main cathedral of the Church of Kostor to help Callisto return to the Holy Kingdom much faster than originally expected.

Callisto was sure that the cardinals would have never approved of his return, regardless of how many good deeds he did in Sigoules’s temple, so long as he held onto his ideologies. That Callisto had managed to return anyway was all thanks to Duke Capell building a cathedral in Koltz and requesting Callisto to oversee it.

By all rights, as a religious leader, Callisto had no need to debase himself before the duke, even if he did wish to pay the man respect. Nevertheless, he was fully aware that without the duke, he wouldn’t have been there today. Callisto found himself unable to treat Duke Capell as his inferior.

With this, I have taken a step toward my ideal.

Callisto’s goal was to bring permanent peace to the world. As a child, he had lived in dire poverty. He wasn’t born into it, though. He had no memories of that time in his life, since he had been so young, but he had once had a mother and father and all kinds of servants. But that had only lasted for a few years. After that, he wound up in a remote orphanage.

He now knew that the orphanage he had lived in only took in children from special backgrounds. The staff there kept the children alive, but they didn’t particularly care if the children died either. The people who took care of the orphans there were cold toward their charges, looking down on them for being the children of criminals.

That had all changed when he was seven years old. A priestess who had been his mother’s friend adopted him. She had a high position within the Church of Kostor and she instructed him in divine doctrine at church in order to reform him. His life there turned Callisto into a devout believer and warped his heart.

Callisto’s parents had likely been high-ranking nobles. They had committed a serious crime, but since Callisto was so young, he was not implicated in it and allowed to live. While he was aware that it was wrong, he held onto the memories of his kind parents and began to believe that his suffering was not caused by his parents’ crimes, but by the cruelty of the world.

There was no end to the strife in this world. And this very strife was what caused people to sin. Callisto understood that this was because the world was twisted, and so began to believe that the world needed to be reformed.

Anyone who heard about Callisto’s ideal of a world of endless peace thought it just a foolish dream. The more they knew about the realities of the world, the more they believed it an impossibility. This was precisely why religion existed. If people could not control their own desires, then people had no choice but to shackle themselves with religion, using the great beings of gods as their emotional mainstays.

Callisto pondered this and wondered if that was enough.

There were outstanding people in the world. Yet there were just as many people who were foolish. Just as there were rich and poor, good and evil, holy and wicked—they were balanced in number. In order for there to be peace, they all had to be properly managed. They couldn’t just get rid of all of the bad people and fools. Everyone who had attempted this in their quest for peace had all failed. It was an impossible undertaking for someone who was not an almighty god.

Nevertheless, he had found his answer: People needed to be controlled through the righteous divine powers of a god, not by other humans who were prone to picking the wrong path.

And a messenger from a major nation showed him the only way to make that happen: via Duke Capell.

“By the way, I heard that you had the opportunity to meet that girl in Sigoules. Tell me, what did you think of her?”

“Ah…”

The girl Duke Capell was talking about must have been Princess Yulucia. His impression of her had been that she was strong in mind and in power—truly worthy of being called a Saint.

At first, he had felt indescribable terror because she was so beautiful despite her young age. She carried herself in a way that made her seem otherworldly. He had never imagined a person like her could have possibly existed.

However, that fear had vanished in an instant.

When he showed her the heroes he had picked out, she showed her age by laughing, clearly amused by something. At first, he had been taken aback, but then he was struck by how she was as human as any of them.

If Princess Yulucia had behaved as coldly as she appeared, then Callisto would likely have hesitated to deem her the Saint. However, the fact that this angelic Saint acted more human than anyone else at that party made Callisto believe that she was genuine.

Callisto was irritated by how the duke called her “that girl” and was quick to tell the duke his impressions. “Yes, I had the opportunity to meet her. Her power was such that she is worthy of being the Saint—”

“All right, I get the point. So long as she’s got enough magic, that’s more than enough. I think we should use her, even if she is his brood,” Duke Capell interrupted, snickering at Callisto as he nodded to himself about something.

“Did you ask to speak with me today to discuss Her Highness?” Callisto asked, trying to seem slightly confused to cover his annoyance. He had assumed that the duke had summoned him to discuss the cathedral they were still building.

“Ah, sorry about that. While I was wondering how useful the girl could be, there is actually someone who I would like to introduce you to today.”

“You called me here to introduce me, then?”

“That’s right. Someone, bring in Isabella,” Duke Capell said to the maids in the room.

Isabella was Duke Capell’s current first wife. He had heard that she was the one to recommend Callisto to be the archbishop here. Duke Capell may have ultimately made the decision, but if it weren’t for her putting in a good word for him, it probably would have taken Callisto much longer to be able to return to the Holy Kingdom.

Sometime later, the door opened again and a lady came into the room.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Grace. My name is Isabella.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lady Isabella. Please call me Callisto.”

Duchess Isabella was a beautiful woman who was much younger than her husband. She was the duke’s second wife and was not the mother of the duke’s two older sons.

“There is someone I wish to introduce to you today,” she said, and then an uncouth-looking large man walked—well, practically squeezed—through the open door into the room. “This is Lord Caudle, whom I have invited here from Telthed.”

“I am Caudle Dlehn.”

“You’re from the Military Country?”

Caudle was unrefined, with silver hair like a lion’s mane. He looked to be in his forties and was dressed in the attire of middle nobility in Talitelud, yet he was of muscular build and so tall that he towered over everyone.

The Military Country of Telthed was Talitelud’s northern neighbor. They were unique in that their main trade was the manufacturing and selling of weapons; however, they were not held in contempt for being merchants of death, since everyone in the world had enemies beyond monstrosities and the race of humans called daemons. On the contrary, they were seen in a positive light and had good relations with their neighbors, since they were also known as the Mercenary Country. Their people could be hired as necessary by smaller countries ravaged by monstrosities.

So why was one of their people here in Koltz?

“W-wait, is he—?”

“That’s right, Callisto. This man is a top researcher in summoning circles and has agreed to lend us his skills.”

“Ooh…!” Callisto bowed his head in reverence to the man before him, who might have been capable of making his aspirations of many years come true.

Caudle was a researcher in the field of enchanting weapons with spellcraft, yet he looked exactly like the kind of warrior would come from a country with as many soldiers as Telthed. Despite his appearance, though, he touched Callisto’s shoulder and gave a well-mannered smile of sympathy.

“I am but a mere researcher. That my work may be of use to you is all thanks to your many years of steady effort.”

“Thank you, Lord Caudle!”

Caudle’s reassuring words cleared away the anxieties that clung to the innermost depths of Callisto’s heart like dregs.

Why had the duke’s people called upon Callisto after he’d gone unnoticed for so long? Why was someone from a great nation like Telthed willing to help someone like Callisto, who had been driven into a do-nothing job? Why did they all support his idealism? Why were they all willing to invest so much into Callisto’s dreams, even though there was no guarantee that they would pay off?

Why? Why? Why?

Even if all went well—no, it was because everything was going so well that, although Callisto questioned the point of his suffering up until now and whether he was being used, he decided to abide by the doctrine of trusting in people and squashed those doubts to the bottommost depths of his heart.

The dregs all disappeared nicely. Believing that he was on the correct path, he gave thanks to the Goddess Kostor, and the image of the goddess’s smile in his mind turned into that of the young Saint he had met in Sigoules.

Saint Yulucia. The girl still had to be officially recognized as such, but she shone more brilliantly with virtue than anyone else he had ever seen. He believed it had been a divine revelation that he was able to meet her in this age and at this time, just as his dream was about to come true.

Callisto had tried to make it a reality a few decades ago. He’d gathered all of the commoner children capable of using holy magic and attempted to use their prayers to reform the world. However, it wound up causing a scandal in the church. Although the priestess who was his foster mother had covered for him and Callisto had managed to avoid being excommunicated, he’d been forced into that do-nothing post in the Kingdom of Sigoules.

Callisto did not see himself as a leader. He knew very well that he was not a leader. But this time he would not fail. He believed beyond a doubt that the heavenly Saint would lead them to their salvation and that meeting her had been the will of the Goddess.

Princess, for your sake, I shall bring peace to this world!

***

I was finally nine years old now. That meant I was a big girl! I was no longer a little girl! I did it, Goddess! Thank you!

Ruuuuumble…

“Oh my, a small earthquake. They keep happening of late. Be careful, Yul.” My concerned mother smiled at me.

“Yes, Mother.”

Why did earthquakes and the like tend to happen whenever I invoked the gods? It was no use worrying about the small stuff, but my kind mother had her reasons to be so worried today as she said goodbye to me and Father.

Today was my ninth birthday, meaning it was time for my nationwide birthday party, which was now a yearly custom. We’d held my party in a single location last year and the year before that, but thousands of people showed up anyway. Why did a single girl’s birthday party warrant as big of an event as a Sigoules royal wedding?! Well, during my trip abroad, I realized just how crazy my family is.

Huh? We have tens of thousands of requests from people asking to be invited to this party? What is this, some kind of doujinshi convention?!

And it was for that reason that I, as the most humble demon in all of the Demon Realm, who wished to live a very human life, yearned to start having parties of a more sensible scope! Although my grandfather doted on me so—he was a slave to his own desires—I was sure I knew how to persuade him. And it was thanks to that that I had managed to hold my party in Toure only instead of at the capital this time.

Basically, I claimed that I wasn’t feeling good. I thought that excuse would be good enough to let me get to go home for the first time in a while and relax. However, a lot more people had grown used to being around me, and while that wasn’t a bad thing, the people who did come all the way here to say happy birthday just wouldn’t leave.

Before, it had taken time for people to recover from standing rigid in astonishment at my looks, but now they showed no fear for some reason. Instead, they took their time staring at me, and those stares scared me.

Why did they do it?!

“Owwww.”

Vio and the other maids looked at me with pity as I heaved myself out of a chair.

“Lady Yul?”

“It hurts, okay?”

My joints were hurting lately, especially my legs. I’d get cramps in the middle of the night and other weird pains elsewhere. A lot in my chest too.

I took no pride in this fact, but I had no resistance to pain after having been spoiled rotten and pampered all my life. It was really nothing to boast about.

This was probably just growing pains, right? But why? I was only nine years old. I thought growing pains started in the early teens? Yet the pain was so bad that I felt the urge to sigh with relief whenever I soaked in the bathtub. Well, it wasn’t as bad as it had been a few months ago, but I had grown quite a bit. I had a feeling I would catch up to Betty’s height soon, even though she was two years older than me.

Maybe it had to do with lineage? Both Father and my uncle were tall, my aunt was as well, and I was sure that even Rick had suddenly shot up around the age of ten.

Mother supervised as I got dressed for going out, and that was when Vio looked me over with awe and said, “You have changed.”

“You think so?”

“You look so much more mature now. We will have to prepare some grown-up dresses for you, rather than these childish ones.”

“I have spoken with Mother about Yul’s dresses and she has placed several orders already,” Mother said.

I don’t need that many of them, Mother.

I already had so many dresses from Grandmother and Lady Elea that I had only worn once. And even if they did make new ones in my current size, I was likely to outgrow them in the next several months anyway.

“That’s just the way things are,” Mother said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Was this a test of being a granddaughter? It seemed I still had a long road ahead of me of being everyone’s dress-up doll.

Just what had Vio meant about me changing, anyway? According to her: “It shall not be much longer before your years have caught up to match your beauty.”

What the heck did that mean? It brought to mind my thoughts the first time I’d seen my reflection in a mirror when I was two, how I’d hoped to blossom into beauty when I was closer to ten. I supposed this meant that my wish had come true.

When I was a toddler, I believed that my bizarre beauty was more scary than anything else, but now that I was taller and closer to being an adult, I’d gradually grown from being a weird child to a beautiful young lady. And according to Vio, my chubby child tummy had slimmed down so that now, while my body was still roundish, I looked very different from before.

Was I allowed to feel confident because of this? That must have been why everyone had been looking at me that way at my birthday party, wasn’t it?! I felt I had the right to be a little bit vain!

“It’s much too soon.”

Sometime later, they finished dressing me and I set off with Father for our tour around Toure. Normally, I went with Father whenever he found a free moment, or by myself when I just needed a break. However, Father had been the one to invite me out today, so this was a father-daughter kind of trip (plus a horde of guards).

Woohoo! Going on a trip with Faaather!

What was more, my joints still ached, so Father carried me into the coach and sat me on his lap, which we hadn’t done in a while. That was when he suddenly said that statement.

Huh? What’s too soon? For me to be conceited?

“Uh, is something the matter, Father?”

When I was younger, I perfectly fit in his lap, but now I was so big that it was hard to get a good balance, so I wrapped my arms around his neck to get a good look at his somewhat uncomfortable expression. Sitting on his lap like this, I was now basically at eye level with him, so it made me very happy to get to see his pretty face up close.

“Uhhh, it’s just, I think you’re still a bit too young to wear dresses of this style.”

“You do?”

Oh? So Father was concerned about how everyone had dressed me up today.

Today I was wearing Grownup Dress #1, which had been hastily made (at a premium rate). It was not the kind of billowing dress I would wear to a party, but a long dress in a rosé color with a chic upper half and a cute poofy skirt. Mother and everyone else had looked very satisfied as they got me dressed, and I liked it a lot as well.

I tilted my head with a puzzled look, to which Father lowered his gaze away from me, saying, “You can see the base of your neck.”

“That’s right.”

Yeah, well, he had a point.

Dumb girl that I was, it was only just recently that I realized that all of the frilly dresses I had been wearing and thought were childish up until now had actually been made in the image of the Saint. In other words, they were the kinds of clothes that a pure and naive daughter from a rich family would wear, made to show as little skin as possible.

While my arms and legs were still covered up, this new dress was made so that my nape and collarbone peeked out a little.

My collarbone was fine, right?

“You are far too overprotective of me, Father. Betty and Shelly wear dresses that show off their upper arms.”

“Now, now. You’re still only nine years old. It’s far too soon for you!”

It was just my collarbone. Who cared?!

Shelly still often wore frilly dresses since she was cute. The beautiful Betty, on the other hand, wore sexy (but still cute) kinds of dresses that showed off not only her collarbone, but her upper arms and even her shoulders!

You’re too overprotective, Father!

And this same father came off as charming as ever. His charm had only grown since he’d reached his thirties. I looked forward to seeing how much he would develop in the next ten or twenty years. I just loved attractive older men!

However, I needed to take care of his hair. I had loads of dried wakame seaweed, which had plenty of minerals. If push came to shove, I would use my knowledge from the other world to heal him!

Speaking of which, I had foisted the massive quantity of wakame onto Mylene, who, after much deliberation as acting lady of the land, started selling it as wakame bread. It was turning into the food that Count Auber’s lands were known for. Even though it was in the middle of the mountains, with no sight of the sea to speak of!

I had done a very good deed, if I do say so myself!

The legendary vampire who had taught her people how to make wakame bread—something about it made me feel guilty, like I had seen something I shouldn’t have, but I was sure that I had done nothing wrong.

Mylene the vampire’s overseriousness gave this demon a bad conscience…

I was busy thinking about the truths of the universe that had resulted from the wakame when Father’s serious tone brought me back to reality. “Yulucia.”

“Yes?” I had an inkling that Father had asked me out on this trip because he had something to discuss, but I feigned innocence and gave him a quizzical look.

Father regarded me and said with a small sigh, “There’s only two months left of this year, and then next term, you’ll be a fourth-year.”

“That’s right.”

“It feels like just the other day you were still a small princess I could carry in my arms, but now you’ve grown into an elegant lady.”

“Oh, Father.”

I might have been bigger now, but I still wanted all his attention! But as a noble daughter, perhaps I should have been happy that people would start treating me more like an adult? Everyone in this world was so serious.

Still, why was I surrounded by so many unfortunate people?

It was probably just my imagination that everyone at the castle all did their jobs with serious expressions and their faces brightened for just a moment whenever they saw me.

“Yulucia.”

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to force yourself to go to Koltz.”

“Father,” was all I said.

Well, I’d known this was coming.

After my discussion with Rick, I had been officially informed about it. Father tried to talk about it privately to my grandfather, the king, but due to various issues, he ended up having a meeting with Grandfather, Uncle, and a bunch of others about how I would be treated. Flat-out refusing a formal request from Duke Capell and the Church of Kostor would have hurt Father’s reputation. They couldn’t have people saying that the royal family only showed favor to the Grand Duke of Versenia.

So basically, this was all Grandfather’s fault for establishing me as the “Princess of the Holy Kingdom” as a way to publicly dote on me.

I would be staying at the Kostor Cathedral in Koltz for approximately one month. Furthermore, a noble family from Telthed who was on good terms with Duke Capell had requested Father by name to attend some ceremony that happened to be taking place at the same exact time.

My, what a funny coincidence! Just thinking about it made me roll my eyes.

Well, regardless of all the headaches I was sure awaited us, these were unfortunately both matters that the grand duke’s family could not skip out on. Though, if Father was saying that I didn’t have to go, then it meant that he was planning to take responsibility for the repercussions if I chose not to.

If I refused, then Duke Capell’s faction would probably use it as an excuse to criticize Father. They would likely start picking on the Grand Duke of Versenia’s unchecked imports and exports and it would come back to bite us.

Despite that, Father still wanted to protect me. However…

“Don’t worry. I’m a strong girl.” In a very physical sense.

Should Duke Capell bully Father, then I would happily turn the duke’s castle into a vacant plot of land that very instant!

I enthusiastically made a small fist, which Father completely covered with his own big hand, wearing a sad look on his face. Why?!

“I am worried, though.”

“Oh, Father.” I wouldn’t make any embarrassing mistakes like leaving evidence.

“If only someone with status could go with you.”

That’s all? Uhh… “Oh, that’s right. Big Brother Ludoric said that he would go with me.”

Not that it made a difference whether he was with me or not. But I didn’t say that; I would go ahead and use him now anyway, since I understood how Father felt.

Mother didn’t want to go to such a drab and dingy place, so she was out. I assumed the other families of dukes would be watching from the sidelines because they were also cautious of Duke Capell and his long lineage. And while Uncle and Lady Elea would make good shields, people would probably think that the royal family was favoring us, so the young Rick might have been the most suitable to join me. However…

“Ludoric?” Father said after a pause.

Huh? I thought that would help bring you peace of mind. Why are you frowning like that, Father?

“Uh, is something the matter?”

“As a matter of fact, there is. It worries me. As beautiful as you’re growing up to be, I’m sure that men are going to swarm you like hungry beasts.”

“Huh?” Wait, what? What are we talking about?!

“To tell the truth, we’ve already received countless marriage proposals not only from people of Talitelud, but from abroad as well. Father and I have both rejected them all, but they never seem to stop pouring in.”

“Oh…”

Vio had mentioned the same thing to me before. I had no idea that it had been so many that both Father and Grandfather were needed to handle them all.

So, wait, was this conversation not actually about how Duke Capell’s family was going to mistreat me or concerns about my physical safety?! Just what had Father and Grandfather been up to together?!

“While we cannot say that we have a good relationship with Duke Capell, he is an honest man. And if you met his younger brother Zesh, you would know that he is as well. But I fear that once they see how beautiful you are, even they may forget themselves and attempt to court you. But no one’s saying that you have to pick someone close to you. I know that Lady Eleanor has been pushing for a match with her sons, and I admit that both Timoté and Ludoric are good boys. I know you’re close with the two of them, but there are rumors that neither of them have matches yet because they’re waiting for you to come of age and—”

“Father?! Come back to me!”

He was such a worrywart!

I had no intentions of agreeing to marry just like that. If anything, I would decide to get married much later than others if left to my own devices!

So this is what he’s been worried about?! I thought as I glared at him reproachfully.

Father cleared his throat and then looked at me again all serious. But he couldn’t fool me!

“Duke Capell isn’t foolish enough to harm you… At least, I’m pretty sure he’s not.”

Whaaat?

Well, if he had been identified as a threat, the royal family would have surely put a stop to this.

“It would be best if you didn’t go at all. But as you have decided to go, I have asked Barnabas to be your guard to keep you safe. He was titled a baronet thanks to his distinguished service, but I have spoken with Father and he has agreed to grant him the rank of viscount so that he can be authorized to be your guard. I am sure that he will be able to pose an obstacle for any trouble that arises.”

“I see.”

Barna…who? Did I know someone with that name? It certainly sounded familiar, so if Father said I knew them, then I would likely recognize him when I saw him again. But, wait, they’d promoted this man to a viscount just to protect me? And he discussed this with Grandfather too? All this time I had believed that Father didn’t really take after Grandfather, but now I was starting to see the resemblance.

While I was lost in my thoughts, Father bumped his forehead against mine. “I know you’re a lot stronger than you look. But it’s a parent’s job to worry about their children. Both Liasteia and I will be praying for your safe return.”

“I understand, Father.”

My mother and father both believed in me.

Though I was pretty sure we had different ideas about how strong I was. Being malicious toward me was one thing, but I would gladly strike back against anyone who was nasty toward my family. In a very physical sense.

***

“I have good news, Cordelia. You know how that woman’s daughter is coming here thanks to your father’s petition? It turns out that Prince Ludoric will be accompanying her as well,” Isabella told her daughter in her designated sitting room at the duke’s castle.

Her beloved daughter’s eyes sparkled as she cried out, “Oh my! He will?!”

Everything transpiring now was all thanks to many years of planning on Isabella’s part. At first, she hadn’t intended to take things this far. However, hearing the endless rumors about a certain someone felt like torture to Isabella.

Isabella was not born to a family that made her qualified to be a suitable first wife for the duke. She was the daughter of a viscount and, as the duke was the reigning lord over her family, the best she could have hoped to become was his third wife.

Back when Isabella was a student at the Academy of the Magical Arts, there was a woman she didn’t like. Isabella was brilliant, and even though this woman was average in both her studies and magical abilities, a certain nobleman cherished her all the same.

Isabella hadn’t fallen in love with this man or anything. She just hated the fact that even though the two of them were equals in terms of beauty, Isabella was probably going to be stuck as Duke Capell’s third wife, while that nobleman loved that other woman from the bottom of his heart.

But heaven allied with Isabella. The man was instead forced into a political marriage with the daughter of Duke Cowell and left his love behind.

“Oh, Mother, I wonder if I’ll be able to marry Prince Ludoric.”

“Yes, of course, my sweet Cordelia. I shall see to it that you get your heart’s desire.” Isabella gently hugged her only daughter, who had a weak constitution.

The woman had fallen from grace without Isabella lifting a finger. However, she had only fallen to Isabella’s same level. Isabella hadn’t actually won. This was why she’d taken Duke Capell for herself.

She was from the family of a viscount that had long served House Capell, bearing the duty of gathering information on their behalf and carrying out their schemes in secret. It was planned that Isabella would be married to Duke Capell as his third wife because the previous duke had commanded him to in order to strengthen their ability to gather intelligence.

Back then, Duke Capell’s first wife had given birth to two sons. However, her constitution had weakened as a result and she was gradually disappearing from the public eye. Isabella knew that the duke needed a second wife to manage things among the family and so she used her beauty to get herself pregnant with Duke Capell’s child, and after his first wife was unlucky enough to die, she successfully became his new first wife.

With this, she had beaten that woman. Or so she had thought, until she learned the shocking truth: Duke Cowell’s lineage had been effectively abolished. A new title of grand duke was created in its place, with that man claiming it and that woman as his first wife. Their daughter had even been granted a spot in the line of succession.

Isabella had flown into a rage. How could this be possible?

“Say, Mother? That girl will be with the prince, won’t she? The so-called princess he’s been ignoring me for. I promise that I won’t lose to her!”

“Yes, dear. I’m sure you won’t. That’s why I am so proud that you’re my daughter. We will make sure that you win.” Isabella smiled proudly at her daughter, whose expression and enthusiasm reminded her of herself as a child.

They were talking about the princess who was the face of the Holy Kingdom, whom people went so far as to call the Saint. Rumor had it she was going to be engaged to both princes.

Cordelia had had a crush on Ludoric ever since they first met when she was little. However, there had been talks of having him engaged to Duke Cowell’s eldest daughter, and even Isabella was incapable of stirring up trouble against the woman who had once been considered a belle of high society. But then the potential engagement was canceled and Isabella jumped on this chance to seize the boy for her daughter.

The grand duke’s previous title had been Duke Cowell. His daughter was the king’s grandchild and it was for that reason alone they called her a princess. Were they trying to imply that Cordelia couldn’t be betrothed to royalty even though she too was the daughter of a duke?

Cordelia had a weak constitution. It was probably the result of Isabella having a child with a normal person even though she had acquired a tolerance to poison at a young age. Because of her health, Cordelia had not been allowed to attend the main campus of the Academy of the Magical Arts in the capital and, despite how much Duke Capell doted on his daughter, he deemed her unfit to be a royal’s fiancée and had not allowed for any talks of her betrothal to the prince.

And so, Isabella began to scheme.

She would eliminate anyone who got in her way.

This time, she would beat that woman.

***

The new year began and, just as I became a fourth-year, I departed for Koltz.

People fussed over me quite a bit, so as someone who loves humans so much, I was very much looking forward to seeing what kind of meanness awaited me there.

I had a feeling that this was going to be a wonderful trip!

But why had things turned out like this?!

Rattle clatter rattle.

The three of us sat in silence in the coach headed for Koltz, side by side.

First, the current situation: I was going to Koltz because of a request from Duke Capell and the archbishop of the Church of Kostor in Koltz.

As always, I had a large entourage escorting me. I had my four attendants, who came with me everywhere, as well as Bri, Sarah, and my other guardian knights who were always around to protect me, which was another ten people. In addition, Mother had sent the lady’s maids of our household, under Vio’s command, along with a great number of other maids, adding fifteen more people. Next, we had thirty knights, soldiers, coachmen, and other servants from the grand duke’s household.

And then there was Rick, since he had offered to come along, and of course he had his own guards too. He had palace valets and butlers to wait on him, along with high-ranking maids, coming to fifteen total. For security, he had three of the thirty paladins who served the royal family’s guards, plus seventeen knights and thirty soldiers. Then there were the ten civil servants, court ladies, coachmen, and other servants.

And if that wasn’t enough, we also had thirty-five mercenaries along at Father’s bidding…which meant we were an army of 169 people! That was such a crazy number!

But Rick was royalty, after all. Considering that the two of us were part of the line of succession, perhaps it wasn’t all that big a number. Granted, I was becoming numb to this kind of thing.

And also, that Ba…Barn…something guy actually turned out to be Mr. Bear!

How surprising! Why wasn’t anyone else surprised?! Why did both Sarah and Bri look confused?!

Father and Grandfather had forced Mr. Bear to be appointed to the rank of viscount specifically to be my escort, so when I gave an admirable apology to him, he had a perplexed look on his face before giving a hearty laugh about how he had no choice in the matter.

I’d given him a big bag of dried wakame seaweed as an apology. He must have had some last night as a beer snack, judging from how he clutched his swollen belly like he was in pain.

Oh dear! The tragedy was playing out all over again.

Not that that mattered or anything (how mean of me). Anyway, usually when I traveled by coach, we used the grand duke’s high-speed enchanted coaches that could carry sixty people at a time, so I usually had my attendants with me. Unfortunately, considering who we had tagging along this time, my attendants were riding in another coach while Vio waited on me instead. Right now, she was sitting directly across from me.

Rattle clatter.

Th-the current silence was killing me, though!

The boys sitting on either side of me were the cause of the silence, not me.

On my right, I had twelve-year-old Rick, and on my left, I had eleven-year-old Noel. The two of them sat in silence while Rick held my right hand and Noel held my left hand.

Why were they doing this?!

I was completely stuck!

Vio! I begged her with my eyes to save me, yet for some reason she was watching me with this fond look in her eyes. She nodded several times with a smile as to say, “Fret not, Lady Yul. I understand your situation.”

No, you don’t. You’ve got it completely wrong. I want you to put a stop to this, I mean it!

Why, oh why…?

It had all started right before we departed, when we saw one another at the castle.

***

“It is an honor to make Your Highness’s acquaintance. I am Noel.” Noel was nervous meeting someone from the royal family (other than the family of the Grand Duke of Versenia), but he managed to introduce himself without making any mistakes.

Rick was used to people greeting him this way, so he nodded with a crooked smile in reply. “We are about to set out on a journey together, so please be at ease. I have heard much of Lord Barnabas’s valor from my uncle. You must be pretty strong yourself, since you’ve been learning under a man said to be a match for any paladin.”

“I am still in training, but I do have some actual combat experience from working with the mercenaries,” Noel said.

“Is that so? Perhaps you wouldn’t mind being my sparring partner during our travels, then. We’re close in age. I’m sure it’ll be good practice for me too.”

“You would make someone like me such an offer?! I have heard that you yourself are as skilled as any knight with the blade. It would be my honor to be your sparring partner!”

The two smiled as they shook hands.

The two of them hadn’t had any sparring partners their age, so it gave me hope that they might actually become good friends. There was something so delightful about the friendship between boys.

Bri, why is blood spurting out of your nose? I had a feeling she was thinking something naughty. And even my maids were being annoying with how much they were giggling among themselves. They all truly lived in their own worlds.

While they were close in age, why was it that Noel felt comfortable enough to chat with a prince after the introductions were over? As it turned out, Mr. Bear had adopted Noel!

It was all well and good that Mr. Bear was a viscount now, but he was a bachelor. He was older than Father, so he found things like the prospect of marriage at his age and lineages and stuff to just be one big bother. However, Mr. Bear found himself in need of an heir for the sake of his public image as a noble, so he decided to make the competent Noel his son.

Granted, all of my guardian knights were about to reach marriageable age.

Anyway, that was a good move on Mr. Bear’s part. Since Noel was now the son of a viscount, he didn’t need to scold him anymore for talking to me and Rick.

However! For some reason, the second I made my appearance, everything changed between them.

“Lucia!” Noel caught me secretly watching the boys and grinned before rushing over to me.

This was admittedly a faux pas on his part, but I supposed it was barely acceptable since he was the son of a viscount. Maybe?

Anyway, even though Noel had no means of possibly hearing my inner thoughts, a surprised look crossed his face. “M-my apologies, Lady Lucia.”

“It’s so nice to see you again, Noel. You’ve grown even taller since the last time I saw you, haven’t you?”

“And you…have grown more beautiful.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Here Noel was, such a smooth-talker. And yet he still didn’t let my hand go.

The maids were clamoring again at how Noel had grown up to be so cute and handsome.

No matter how you looked at it, boys were different in this world than in the World of Light I had dreamed of in that they were capable of complimenting a girl without any bashfulness. They made it so easy to misunderstand their motives.

“Yulucia!” Rick recovered from his momentary shock, marched straight over to me, and grabbed my arm without warning.

Huh? Here I thought he had learned some self-restraint recently. What had gotten into him?

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Okay? Huh? Where are we going?”

Rick proceeded to start dragging my confused self along by the arm.

“Wait!” Noel stopped him since he had a firm grip on my left hand. He looked at the prince with a determined gaze. “Your Highness, I fear you might be hurting Lady Lucia.”

“Then you should let go.”

“I am not the problem.”

“What is the problem, then?”

Rick and Noel were now glaring at one another.

Huuuh? Why? Weren’t they being such nice friends up until a few minutes ago?!

I wouldn’t allow myself to make such excessively conceited assumptions such as “these two boys might be fighting over me” any longer, so since I was certain that Rick thought of me as a little sister and that Noel had always worshipped me as the Saint, what exactly did this all mean? Were they both just being overly protective of me or something?

If I were the kind of girl to have such delusions, then this would be my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shout at them not to fight over me, but I knew that only my maids and guardian knights might enjoy that kind of development.

Bri was now crouched down with a puddle of blood at her feet and Sarah was chopping her in the back of the head out of panic, making me wonder if the two of them had been possessed.

***

And so, that was how I found myself in my current situation.

Between that and Mr. Bear’s fussing, the three of us were now crammed into the same coach. Don’t misunderstand, though. He wasn’t fussing over the boys—he was fussing over me!

The silence continued.

I found myself unable to utter a single word. I couldn’t even tell them to let go of my hands! I assumed that their desire to protect me must have been out of control, but I was too scared for some reason to ask why things had ended up like this.

I wonder when our next bathroom break will be.

Nothing changed over the next several days as we traveled from the capital toward Koltz. They kept acting like that the whole time. Still, the two of them were faithful, or I guess you could say that they kept their promises? Every night, the two of them sparred with one another. I heard that it was very exciting to watch.

What was I doing? Why, sleeping, of course! I had my health to consider!

And then, at long last, we arrived in Koltz!

It had been such a long journey. It took about as long as it had to travel from Toure to the capital, yet it felt like it had been a billion times longer. I had never looked forward to arriving somewhere as I did to Koltz, despite how much people were worried about my trip.

My stomach hurt so bad too.

I felt such tremendous joy to be released from that peculiar situation that had been whittling away at my demonic heart. How happy was I? Overjoyed.

“If isn’t Prince Ludoric. And Lady Yulucia as well. Thank you both for coming all this way.”

When we arrived at the first town in Koltz, a noblewoman in a fancy dress—Duchess Capell—and her daughter were there to receive us.

“It’s so nice to see you again, Prince Ludoric!” her daughter said.

“Thank you for coming here to receive us, Duchess Isabella. And it’s nice to see you again, Cordelia,” Rick greeted them.

So Duke Capell had a daughter too. She was a little bit older than me and gave me a quick, forced smile before a slight bob of her head to break eye contact with me and then promptly glued her eyes to Rick and Noel.

Duchess Isabella also gave me—no, she gave Rick a smile, and went on to start talking about her plans. “Today we shall spend the night at our villa and then tomorrow we will be hosting a dinner party at our castle.”

“Okay,” Rick said. “But isn’t tomorrow a bit too soon? I can handle it, but Yulucia—”

“Don’t worry! I’m fine with these arrangements,” I cut in. Everyone turned to look at me with surprise.

“Y-Yulucia?” Rick probably assumed that since I was only nine years old, I should spend the day after arriving at my destination resting after such a long journey, but that wasn’t the case at all!

“How do you do, Duchess Isabella? I am Yulucia. I believe this schedule you have come up with is a wonderful plan. Both yourself and Duke Capell must be very busy, after all. Plus, the purpose of my visit is to bring light to these lands, and who knows how long that would take if we dragged our feet taking time to constantly rest. The two of you must be some of the kindest people there are, given that you have taken my feelings into such consideration. Don’t you agree, Big Brother Ludoric?” I said, all without pausing for breath and with a radiant smile on my face.

Rick took a step back in awe. “Uh, yeah.”

The duchess was shocked as well, yet managed to plaster a fake smile on her face. “I-I am pleased to hear that. As it so happens, I myself have a request for you, Lady Yulucia.”

“But Duchess—” Rick tried to interrupt, so I interrupted him.

“My, whatever could it be? Do feel free to come to me whenever you are in need of my help.”

“Uh, well, I heard that there is a child at the Church of Kostor here who is believed to have been cursed and—”

“I understand! I would be happy to take a look at them.”

“Uh, thank you?” For some reason, Isabella seemed more confused than happy or grateful at my immediate acceptance.

“H-hey,” Rick said.

“Ahem. With that settled, while I escort Lady Yulucia to the church, perhaps Your Highness would like to take a stroll around the town? My daughter shall be happy to escort you,” Isabella said after clearing her throat to collect herself.

Cordelia seemed like she had been waiting for this moment from the way she stepped in front of Rick. “Yes, I shall be your guide! I’m sure that it would be way too boring for you to just go to the church, right?” It only lasted for just for a moment, but Cordelia gave me a triumphant look. However…

“No, I’m here to keep an eye on Yulucia while she does her duty,” Rick protested. “I would get an earful from His Majesty if I left her side.”

“Huh?” both Cordelia and I uttered in unison. Her eyes widened with surprise and then she shot me a glare.

Oh my, she was so cute.

“Yulucia?” Rick prompted.

“Never mind me, Big Brother Ludoric. Ho ho ho.”

“In that case, I shall see you all later.” Whatever Cordelia thought of my exchange with Rick had put her in a sour mood. She turned her back with a harrumph! and then…

Grab.

“Come with us, Lady Cordelia.”

“Eek!” Cordelia let out a scared shriek as my hand clamped onto her arm to stop her.

“L-Lady Yulucia?”

“Hey, Yulucia!”

Duchess Isabella and Rick both cried out at once in confusion. However, I was not about to back down!

“Please allow me to apologize, Lady Isabella, Big Brother Ludoric. I just felt so nervous for a moment there that I wound up clinging onto Lady Cordelia, since she seems like a big sister to me,” I mumbled, refusing to meet their gazes as I kept holding onto the rigid Cordelia.

“Oh, my.”

The two of them looked troubled, but said no more.

I wasn’t about to let my “meat shield” get away, you see!

What was more, she looked just about as tasty as my actual big sisters.

In the coach, I used my meat shield so that I wouldn’t be stuck between the two boys again. The entrance to the church had been Sealed off by a priest warrior and I could sense something unusual even from where we stood outside.

“There.” Isabella grimaced at the rotten smell that permeated the air as she pointed at a young mother holding a child covered in ragged bandages. They were surrounded by priests casting holy magic.

“How awful.” I bet my lower half would get a chill if I got stuck sitting on that stone floor!

The young mother wept when she saw us. “Please, I beg you, help my child!” she called out desperately.

What was wrong with the kid? Maybe it was just a disease, but it seemed pretty likely that it was indeed a curse.

The World of Light from my dreams didn’t seem to have curses, but this world sure did. Here they were normally caused by demons; however, I believed that what afflicted this kid had been caused by spellcraft. It was difficult, but possible to cast that kind of spell.

The difference between the two was that in a demon’s case, a price was paid in exchange for casting a curse from a remote location, while with spellcraft, curses were ordinarily used as traps. Treasure chests and other kinds of containers for important objects could be spelled to activate a curse when touched.

Spellcraft curses were annoying because they could still activate even after the caster died. Perhaps the child had touched something cursed, but how would these commoner-looking people come into contact with something like that?

“If you cannot do it, then perhaps you should just apologize,” my meat shield said, covering her mouth with a handkerchief a few paces away from me.

“You mustn’t say such things, Cordelia,” Duchess Isabella said. “Lady Yulucia is still very young, after all.”

“So true. I apologize, Mother.”

If she was going to apologize, she should’ve been apologizing to me. Whatever.

I don’t mind so much since I’m in a good mood right now. Thank you for that, Meat Shield! I thought as I smiled at her. For some reason that scared her. How mean.

Putting that aside, Meat Shield had a point. Regular holy magic would have a hard time breaking this curse. This child had been cursed with disease. I had a feeling that both the disease and the curse had to be cured at the same time, or it wouldn’t work.

Meaning, I just needed to use not-regular magic to fix it.

I made to approach the mother and child, but the priests intervened. “It is too dangerous to come any closer.”

I could sense the priests were both worried about me because I was a child, but also looking down on me for the same reason. I was pretty well-known in the capital and in Toure, so I had to wonder what Duke Capell’s people had been saying about me.

“I’ll be fine.”

Krak!

“What? The barrier just suddenly broke?!” the priests cried out in surprise.

All I’d done was approach the barrier. Surely this holy barrier hadn’t broken just because I had gotten close to it.

“Help me.”

“I shall.” I smiled kindly at the mother and child and gently spread out my hands. “Manifest Light!”

I imagined an item from a game I’d seen in the World of Light. It had been the strongest potion in the game, able to immediately cure anything but death. It was one I had never used, though, because I didn’t want to waste it. I supposed I did waste it in the end, in a way.

The cure didn’t hurt my wallet at all, since I made it with magic, yet for some reason the commoner in me felt nervous and sweat beaded on my forehead.

A soft glow filled the room and the thick element-less magic materialized with feathers of light scattering around. In the blink of an eye, the child looked good as new without a single mark on him.

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Oh, my Lady Saint! Thank you so much!” the mother thanked me as she held her confused child close.

I smiled and nodded at her, still sweating. I was glad he was better now. It was nice to see someone on the mend.

It would be bad if this disease spread, so I’d cast the spell on the entire church just in case. However, this would just cure people, so anyone who had tattoos or any kind of cosmetic surgery (if that existed in this world) wouldn’t have those changes reversed or anything. In any case, I seemed to be in the clear, since nobody looked different now.

“Thanks, Big Sis.” The little boy smiled up at me after hearing what had happened from his mom.

“Don’t mention it. I’m just glad you feel better now.” I patted his head.

Look at me! I’m like a big sister now!

“And, um, as for the tithe?” the boy’s mother asked hesitantly.

Oh, right. We had that kind of system.

The religious organizations had a monopoly on remedies using holy magic; however, they couldn’t ordinarily take any money in return, and so their work was repaid with tithes instead. Anyone who didn’t pay up and then tried to get magical healing again would be told that the priests were busy with other patients and they would be in contact at a later date, which of course meant never.

Also, tithes from healing were an important source of income for them as religious institutions. They were a necessity since they wouldn’t be able to heal anyone if they couldn’t maintain their facilities.

Even in such a system, the treatment fee was fixed to a certain extent. Healing a broken bone cost about as much as a normal person’s monthly income. Depending on the caster, it took about three days to heal what normally took months to heal on its own.

However, the fact that I was the one who’d performed the service changed things. To compare it to something from the World of Light, it would be as much as the expenses someone might have to pay after getting a heart transplant and then the aftercare prevention for infections.

I was busy wondering what to do when a priest-looking guy brought out a tray with a single sheet of paper on it, as if they had already gone ahead and calculated the tithe in advance. “As the Goddess wills it.”

Let’s see, how much is it? Yikes.

“Yah.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

I played a prank on the priest as he tried to get past me and he wound up skidding all the way to the corner of the church in a funny pose.

I snatched the bill out of the air, crumpled it into a ball, and made it burst into flames in my hand as I smiled peacefully at the mother and child. “I do not require any payment for my services. Think of this as a special experience.”

“B-b-b-b-b-b-but…”

She was scared now for some reason! But I wouldn’t be discouraged!

“While this may be a church, the holy magic spell I used was not any of the usual kind, but one I thought up just now. I believe that asking for such a large tithe for such a trifle would be in defiance to the will of the Goddess.”

Ruuuuuuuumble.

“Eek!”

“An earthquake?!”

“It’s the wrath of the Goddess!”

This again? I wasn’t sure if it was an elemental here or an earth god or whatnot, but I sure wished they would stop getting scared like that every time I invoked the gods. I promise I’m not going to eat you.

However, it worked out in my favor, since the people who had been petrified by magic forgot the jab at me.

“Mom, candyyy.” The boy seemed oblivious that anything had happened.

“Sh-shh.”

However, the boy couldn’t sit still and started fishing around in his mom’s bag. He took out a small cookie and held it out to me. “For you, Big Sis!”

“My! Thank you so much. This is a wonderful kind of tithe.” I looked around expectantly at everyone in the room for them to agree with me.

The priests looked away, seemingly feeling guilty to have tried to extort such an obscene tithe from a child. I wasn’t sure why the child’s mother and even Rick and everyone else were looking away too. Call me naive, but there was no squeezing money out of someone who never had any to begin with. They should just extort it from the reigning family instead.

The priests were all giving me scared bunny eyes for some reason as the mother of the boy thanked me profusely before leaving. Was it okay to just let her go? She had been locked up in this church for days. It wouldn’t be good if the priests refused them the next time one of them needed to be treated for something.

But don’t worry. Afterward, a certain important person in this town settled the matter with the church for me. And on his chest…

“As the Goddess wills it.”

…was a sparkly membership card for the Glimmering Darkness and Whatnot Club (even his scalp sparkled).

Money and connections really did make this world go round. I would be sure to bring about the darkness later.

I really did feel much freer now. I had been way too happy to escape from the coach. Though it made me depressed to think that we still had a return trip in our future.

And also…

“What’s this?”

There was something strange about the candy the boy had given me.

It smelled good and looked like something that I assumed the woman who was his mother had made, and even Vio had warned me not to eat it if I didn’t have to. Yet I sensed something like the boy’s heart, or something like the residue of his soul from it.

Before now, there were times when I was able to sense it in the flavors of the food Min and other people I knew well cooked for me, but was this an offering?

Episode 7: There Shall Be a Dinner Party Tonight

Episode 7:
There Shall Be a Dinner Party Tonight

“IS THIS REALLY OKAY?”

In Duke Capell’s castle, Cordelia had sent the maids away and reflected on the day’s events in solitude.

The original plan had been for Cordelia to leave the town that was considered the front door to Koltz and return to the castle tomorrow morning with Prince Ludoric and his entourage. Cordelia had already felt shocked by everything that had happened, but then that night, her mother had commanded her to go to Ludoric’s bedchamber and Cordelia had felt such aversion toward her mother the like of which she had never felt before. She told her mother that she felt unwell and immediately returned to the castle.

Yulucia—the daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia, the king’s granddaughter whom everyone called “the Princess of the Holy Kingdom” and “the Saint”—was younger than Cordelia. Her mother Isabella claimed her titles were just everyone playing favorites because she was the former second prince’s daughter and she was a spoiled brat who didn’t deserve the titles they had given her.

Cordelia was the daughter of a second wife, but she was the duke’s only daughter and because of her weak constitution, her father and half brothers all adored and took care of her. Her brothers were neutral in regards to the grand duke, but her father and Yulucia’s father were on bad terms, so she had aligned herself with her mother’s opinion and saw the grand duke’s family as their enemy.

Having grown up like that, Cordelia naturally came to share her mother’s opinions and assumed that Princess Yulucia was an impertinent spoiled brat. She especially thought this way because of the rumor that Princess Yulucia might get engaged to the boy she had feelings for, Prince Ludoric, and Cordelia hated that idea.

Her mother had told her that she would see to it that Cordelia would have her heart’s desire, that Cordelia would have Ludoric for a husband and he would become the next Duke Capell someday. But what did that mean for her older brothers, then? Neither of them had returned from the Academy of the Magical Arts in the capital after they had butted heads with their parents over some matter, but they were still her kind older brothers. When Cordelia asked about them, her mother had said not to worry because she would have them sent somewhere far away.

Had her mother meant that they would remain in the capital? Cordelia missed them, but the capital wasn’t so far away that she could never see them ever again, so she decided to have faith in her mother’s words.

However, Yulucia was so extraordinarily different from how Cordelia had expected her to be.

Golden hair and eyes.

The face of an angel who looked like she had been sculpted by the gods.

She truly was worthy of being called “the Golden Princess.” Cordelia had never imagined that such a beautiful person could possibly exist.

Superior social standing and superior looks. Cordelia was jealous of how Yulucia had everything she didn’t: a healthy body and an abundance of power. The girl was not at all the impertinent brat Cordelia had assumed she would be.

She was two years younger than Cordelia and, having come to a new place and been asked to do work as the Saint, she had acted her age in the way she had looked to Cordelia as an older sister.

Yulucia’s pushy attitude had made her mother uncomfortable, which had confused Cordelia as well. Even so, when Cordelia realized that Yulucia was just trying to suppress her age-appropriate anxieties, Cordelia had started to see Yulucia as the little sister she had always wanted and come to like the girl as well.

Despite that, she had joined her mother in complaining about Yulucia. But after bearing witness to the benevolence of the true Saint and her light, Cordelia felt as if the dark dregs of her heart had melted away. Once the jealousy that had clouded her mind had been stripped away, she realized that Yulucia had been looking at her with a little bit of pity.

Yulucia was not only the true Saint, but also pretty and lovely.

Ludoric had grown up to be much more dignified than he had been when he was little, and when Cordelia realized that the prince was just as worried about Yulucia as she was now, Cordelia understood that she would not make a suitable fiancée for him. Now that her eyes had been opened, Cordelia was aware how strange her way of thinking had been.

Yulucia was the complete opposite of how Cordelia’s mother had described her. No matter how bad things may have been between their respective parents, it would be strange if the Capell family didn’t change their opinion about her after meeting her. It even crossed Cordelia’s mind that her mother might have set up that cursed child in the church.

She had not thought about these kinds of things on purpose up until now. Even when she had noticed, she’d just brushed them off.

A few days ago, her mother had invited some strange merchant to the castle and bought all kinds of cheap trinkets, the kind she had never had any interest in before. Her mother had told Cordelia to stay away from the things because none of them were any good, so Cordelia hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. However, she recognized the amulet the child had been wearing before it crumbled away in the light of Yulucia’s holy magic.

She knew her mother must be up to no good.

She had no idea how involved her father and the other members of their household might have been with her scheme, but Cordelia had had a change of heart and knew she couldn’t let this stand. She believed that she needed to do something to protect her little sister, who must be feeling so nervous.

“As your older sister, I will protect you!”

***

For some reason, Cordelia, who had been so hostile toward me, left.

She wouldn’t have been as big of a meal as one of my elder sisters, but she would have made for a good snack. However, her animosity cooled after what happened in the church. It was a pretty big shock to me, but I figured that I would just have to settle for the duchess and duke instead. Tragic.

Next up was Duke Capell’s castle! No time for rest—we had a dinner party to get to!

You might assume that it would just be us eating with their family, but a dinner party being hosted by a duke would surely include far more guests. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as big of a deal as a soiree, but I was certain that all kinds of important people were going to attend.

While Rick might have just gotten away with changing his clothes, I was swiftly thrown into the bath so that Vio and the other maids could scrub me head to toe. They smeared all kinds of things on me, did my hair, and then they had to dress me in the outfit they had picked out.

Getting ready was a whole big thing, but there was no getting out of it.

However, when given any chance, those two boys would probably be at one another’s throats like they had been last night, so I had to put up with this.

In any case, if we were calling this a dinner party, then didn’t that require some form of entertainment? I was learning piano and singing and stuff as part of my education as a noble daughter, but surely they wouldn’t be expecting me to sing and dance for everyone, right?

“I think your presence alone should be enough, Lady Yul,” Vio told me as she washed my hair.

Really? They aren’t expecting me to sing and dance?

The other lady’s maids and my loyal Tina and Fanny all nodded to back her up.

Really, really? Not that I had gotten my hopes up that I would be able to or anything. If all that was required of me was to be present, then did that mean I was just there for decoration?

And then it was finally time for the dinner party to begin!

Not that I had been looking forward to it or anything, but keeping busy was linked to a peaceful heart.

“You look so pretty, Lady Lucia,” Noel complimented me. He was here to be my guard again today, dressed up like the son of a viscount.

“Thanks, Noel.”

If only that were the end of it.

“Yulucia.”

“I’m ready.”

His Highness Prince Rick was here as my actual escort, as befitting his position. He thrust out his elbow, so I wrapped my hand around his arm, sensing Rick and Noel glaring at one another over the top of my head.

Ugh, I was getting another stomachache.

When we entered the hall, several people looked like they wanted to talk to us before we reached our seats, but they seemed to change their minds when they noticed the mood around us and hurried elsewhere.

Please stop. Don’t make things any more awkward than they already are… Oh!

“Duke Capell!” When I spotted the host of the party, I managed to slip out of Rick and Noel’s grasp before they could stop me and headed over to him.

Duke Capell was…how do I put it? I’d heard he was the older brother of Zesh, one of the members of that fan club, and, well, he had a very nice scalp, but I wouldn’t let that bother me! I had been so eagerly waiting for this moment that I was ready to bring darkness at a thirty percent discount!

“Lady Yulucia, allow me to thank you for accepting my—”

“My, my! There’s no need for such formalities, my lord! I have so been looking forward to meeting you! Your scalp even looks thirty percent shinier!”

For some reason, Duke Capell’s smile stiffened even though I had just given him one of my highest compliments. “I-I see that you are quite the conversationalist. That must be how you managed to bewitch Zesh. Ah, pardon me. Allow me to—”

“Are you interested as well? If you are, you should speak with Lord Zesh. I am sure that he will be happy to tell a member of his family all about it! Every one of the members are all such kind people who have given me so many presents! I would appreciate it if you would give it some consideration yourself!” I cut in as I stepped closer to him. For some reason, he took a step back.

“L-let us not continue to linger on the subject of Zesh. He is no longer part of my—”

“What do you mean? Lord Zesh is just as fine a man as you are, my lord! If you are too shy to speak with him, then I would be happy to help mediate as a third party!”

A bead of sweat ran down Duke Capell’s forehead and his lips started trembling. Why might that be?

“Ahem! Please, let us set that matter aside. Instead, allow me to tell you about this fruit wine that I imported from northern Telthed just for this dinner party. Compared to the wine that the grand duke sells, I believe the flavor is much—oh, my apologies. You are still too young to enjoy wine.” Duke Capell smirked as he wiped the sweat on his scalp away with a handkerchief.

I loved how sketchy he was. “Why, you are too kind! The fact that you wasted so much money to import a large number of fruit wines for a child who cannot even drink, such as myself, is so unsurprising coming from someone as wealthy as yourself! My father is an honest man, though. Perhaps it would be in his best interests to follow your example and waste his money as well?”

My compliments about his wealth caused the duke to start trembling all over. “I-indeed. There is much that young people such as yourself could not possibly be expected to know. As a child, it must be difficult to have the burden of such heavy responsibilities thrust upon you just because you are the daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia.”

“My, my, what an empathetic man you are! I cannot possibly say no to an order from my grandfather—I mean, His Majesty the King, and it can be very difficult at times! I entreat you, my lord, to say something to him on my behalf! I shall happily make an appointment for you to speak to him at once and—”

“O-oh, that is unnecessary! Wholly unnecessary!” Now it was his turn to interrupt me. There was sweat dripping all the way down his face. Was he going to be okay? “You must have all kinds of things to deal with. I take it that your titles of Princess and Saint must be too big of a responsibility for you?” The duke forced himself to smile despite how he seemed to be suffering from some kind of great distress.

“His Majesty appointed me as such when I was only four years old and it seems that while the other nobles were in agreement, Father and I didn’t even have a chance to voice our opinions before it had been decided! As you yourself have a daughter, why did you not speak up?”

“Because of your lineage and magical powers—I mean, because my daughter has a weak constitution, I had no right.”

“Lady Cordelia does?! I would be happy to heal her. Her uncle Zesh lives in the capital, so she could recover under his care.”

“Where are you trying to take my daughter?! Ahem, excuse me.” The duke quickly hid his panic.

“No worries. I understand how much fathers love their daughters.” I smiled sympathetically to him, which caused the duke’s face to go pale for some reason.

As a father, it must have been painful to be apart from his beloved daughter. It was too bad, since Noah had asked to offer our “hospitality” to the duke, which he hardly ever asked to do.

“Th-that’s very true. So, do you not wish to be called the Saint? I heard that many children were involved in that incident. But who was responsible for such a thing?”

“My! As it so happens, Big Brother Ludoric and my guard here with me today were among them! Would you like to ask them about it? Shall I call them over? Would you like to discuss this in private with the two of them?!”

“No, that would be unnecessary!”

He actually said no when I tried to force those two onto him! How perceptive of him! I had to wonder if I got a suspicious glint in my eye or something at times.

“A-anyway, I have to wonder, are you actually capable of using powerful enough holy magic to be considered the Saint? I heard about what happened yesterday, but was that really because of your abilities?”

“Ah, you will not believe it unless you see it with your own eyes. Shall I show you now? I can. You seem to be feeling unwell, so shall I cast Feast of Blessings for you? With my current powers, I am sure that even archangels would flutter about and it would turn into a most majestic—”

“P-please don’t! Ah! Excuse me again! I just remembered that there’s something I must attend to!”

“Huh?! But wait—”

Ahh! Wait! My! Comfort! Is leaving…

He didn’t hear me and he sped off in the opposite direction and disappeared somewhere.

Perhaps he went to the bathroom? I may have done a bad thing.

“I shouldn’t have bothered being so worried,” someone said with a sigh behind me as I ruefully watched Duke Capell head off toward the bathroom(?).

“What do you mean?”

Rick was frowning slightly, his shoulders drooping wearily for some reason. What was up with him? “How can you ask that? What were you trying to achieve with that conversation just now, anyway?”

“Huh?” What was bothering him? I had gotten a bit carried away there, but I was pretty sure we hadn’t talked about anything too out of the ordinary. “Both you and Father were so worried about me, yet Duke Capell was as normal as any gentleman to talk to.”

“Are you serious?”

“Lady Lucia.” Noel was standing next to Rick, on guard, but now his posture mimicked Rick’s. The two of them realized this and weakly smiled at one another, then sighed in unison.

“Hmph. What is with you two?”

“Never mind. Just forget it,” Rick said.

“I agree. You shouldn’t worry about such things, Lady Lucia,” Noel said.

The two of them were certainly in sync now.

Huh? I’d thought the two of them were still at each other’s throats? Did one of their evening practices result in the blossoming of the kind of friendship between boys that came from mutual respect of one another’s abilities? Boys sure were weird! I didn’t know what had fixed things between them, but I had a feeling that my stomachache would go away soon.

“Lady Yulucia!” Duke Capell’s daughter Cordelia rushed over to us, pinching her skirts between her fingers.

Aw, her soul looked all clean and lacking in bitterness now. How tragic!

“Are you all right? My father didn’t say anything strange to you, did he?” she asked.

“Huh?”

Before Rick and Noel could stop her, Cordelia gave me a tight hug.

What is the meaning of this? I thought you liked Rick and maybe even Noel. Why are you hugging me? “Lady Cordelia?”

“You must have been so scared. But it’s all right. Your big sister is here to help!” she declared proudly.

“Huh?” Big sister? How did this happen?

“Prince Ludoric, and you! What were you two just standing around for?! Look at how shaken Lady Yulucia looks. The poor thing!”

“Uh, I didn’t—”

“Um—”

“I will not hear any of your excuses! I shall take over in protecting her now.” She turned back to me. “Think of me like your real sister now.”

“Uh, okay.” What in the world? Cordelia had been so hostile to me before, yet now she wanted to be my protector while I was here in Koltz. Huuuh? What had happened to the passive-aggressive exchanges that I had been so looking forward to?

And that was how the dinner party began. What in the world? This was going much differently from how I had imagined.

I assumed that at normal dinner parties, people would gather around a big table and eat while talking to those nearby, but that wasn’t how it worked with so many people here. Imagine the reception for a wedding. There were lots of round tables that could each seat eight people. Everyone had been divided up based on how they were connected. While people ate and the hors d’oeuvres and drinks were being brought out, those of lower standing went to the tables of those of higher standing to pour alcoholic beverages for them and chat.

Since this dinner party was a welcome party for me, I had assumed that I would be seated with the duke’s family, but they were all at a different table. Why was that?

Seated at my table were me, Rick, Noel, and Ba…bar…? Mr. Bear. For some reason, though, Cordelia sat down next to me like it was her proper place.

“Do you tend to have a small appetite, Lady Yulucia? Our local specialties are very delicious.”

“Yes.”

For some reason, Cordelia was attempting to take care of me like one might a little kid.

Look, food made by people I don’t know is just plain tasteless to me!

Even if she gave me a meal whose flavor was enhanced with something that looked like cheese, it was nothing more than a smelly sticky lump to me since I couldn’t taste what was so good about it!

“Uh, this is really delicious,” I lied.

“Right? You can have my portion too!”

Please stop.

What was I to do? I was here as Father’s daughter, after all. There was none of that initial maliciousness to be had here. Even if I wanted to have Noah and Tina add some flavor to the dish, Cordelia kept blocking them. Not even Rick could get close to us, let alone all of the people who wanted to come say hello.

Meanwhile, Rick and Noel were talking like normal as they ate. I wished someone would come and save me—I didn’t care who it was!

“Princess Yulucia.”

“My!”

And then my savior appeared! Except it was…

“Oh, Archbishop Callisto?” My excitement plummeted when I realized it was the scrawny (rude, I know) man I had met in the Kingdom of Sigoules.

“Do you know my Lady Yulucia, Your Grace?!”

“Uh, well, no, uh—” Callisto took a step back, having been overpowered by Cordelia’s threatening look.

“Now, now, hold on.”

However! I didn’t care who he was—I wasn’t going to let him escape. I politely avoided the fork that Cordelia was about to cram into my mouth because, look, I really didn’t want it!

“It’s so nice to see you again.” I smiled at Callisto.

“A-and you as well, Your Highness!”

In any case, I had to wonder what this guy was doing here in Koltz now.

“I just wanted to come over to say hello and thank you so much for coming all this way.”

I nodded silently with a soft smile on my face. Just as I was wondering what he meant, Rick leaned over to whisper in my ear, “Noel said he said that he would come back to Talitelud in a few years.”

“Oh, right!” I whispered back. Of course, I remembered! “Does that mean that you are the archbishop of the new cathedral here, then?”

“That is correct. It is an honor to be able to receive you in this land!”

Oh, good, I hadn’t guessed wrong. I vaguely remembered something about him saying he would come back. What a small world it was that he of all people would end up doing so as the person in charge of the Church of Kostor in Duke Capell’s lands.

“So, uh…” he muttered.

“Yes?”

“About the…tithe…for healing that curse.”

“Oh, yes, that whole thing.” I’d had a feeling that this was coming. “You mean the curse I broke and how I healed that boy? I felt so bad for that mother and her child. It’s a good thing that I—who have no affiliation to the Church of Kostor whatsoever—Happened to be there to be able to heal them with my magic.”

“Huh? No, uh—”

“Tithes are required when it’s someone from the church who does the healing, yes?”

“And that’s why, uh—”

“If only the clergy could have cast the same spell that I did. Though if you do have someone capable of casting that spell, then perhaps I overstepped?”

“No, we do not.”

There, I won. Good grief, he was weak! Was it really safe to leave the leadership of the church in his hands?

Granted, medical fees were an important source of income for the churches, so of course he was going to try to push the matter, since he was in charge and all. I would just have to get him to back down.

“By the way, how much magic did that spell require?” he asked.

“Let me think. About three times the power required for the Feast of Blessings?”

He gasped.

The high-level spell Feast of Blessings.

It was the spell I had used to heal the dying Noel and other children locked in that room who had been kidnapped as sacrifices for summoning demons. I’d learned later that very few people were capable of casting this spell.

If humans could cast it, then surely it wasn’t that rare of a spell, you may think. However, the little extra oomph I had used in the casting this time would probably have been enough to whittle a person down to the very limits of their soul. I glanced at Rick and Noel to back me up, and they gave me resigned looks. Even Cordelia had stopped her moaning to gape at me.

“That you could cast such powerful magic without any burden unto yourself…” Callisto trailed off, reeling with shock as he looked at me searchingly.

Hm? Did the amount of magic used change the price of the tithe or something? The Church of Kostor may have been our official religion, but I had no intention of working for the cathedral here.

“There is a matter I wish to discuss with you.”

I knew he was going to ask! “Whatever could it be?” I treated him with the same kind of nervousness one would have when dealing with a newspaper salesman over the intercom.

He then bowed his head very low to me even though he was in a higher position than I was. “Please! I entreat you! I would like you to use your powerful magic for the sake of the Goddess! I will do anything in my power for you! So, please!”

“Ah! Please, raise your head!”

What was he doing?! Everyone was staring at us now! They probably thought I was bullying him!

I had to hand it to him for resorting to such a trick. Though I had no idea what for.

At any rate, this was one huge red flag! He hadn’t even told me what exactly he wanted me to do.

“What exactly do you want me to do and where?”

“Duke Capell has granted me permission to use a space to offer up prayers to the Goddess. I have been working closely with the group of Heroes and intend to ask them to be our guards. I can guarantee your safety!”

The Heroes. They were going to make an appearance here too?

Thinking of all those sketchy people made me feel on the verge of bursting out laughing again. However, if they were here, then that meant my sisters would be here as well.

“I’ll do it.”

“Ooh, thank you! Your Highness! No, Lady Saint!”

“Hey.” Rick was the opposite of Callisto’s jubilation in the way he whispered to me with suspicion.

“But we must, Big Brother Ludoric. It is part of my duty.”

“Yeah, but still.”

When the church asked a member of the royal family to do something for the sake of the Goddess, they had no right to refuse unless they had a very good reason. That was probably what Rick thought I meant, but I actually meant something quite different.

While this prayer business was undeniably suspicious, if it was going to interfere with my schemes for controlling the underside of society, then I needed to see what was going on for myself so that I could take steps to crush it.

Besides, what I wanted most of all was my sisters! I needed their comfort after all of the awful things that had been happening! And I feared that if left to their own devices, they would wind up getting involved with shady organizations or daemons or something, and if that affected how well they were fermenting, I would cry!

Oh, my sisters. I can’t wait to see you again!

“Lady Lucia.” Noel waited to speak until after Callisto hurried off.

“What is it?”

“Can we really trust this Archbishop Callisto?”

“I want to know too.” Rick furrowed his brow. “This is the first time I’ve heard of him. Typically it’s good to be acquainted with the future archbishops of our kingdom, even if it’s just a temporary position.”

The two of them were being so normal with each other. Not that that was a bad thing. In fact, it was a good thing, since it meant my stomach didn’t hurt so much anymore, but I kind of missed the way they had been before.

“He used to be the archbishop in the Kingdom of Sigoules, so I cannot decline based on a feeling or what I think of the man.”

“That may be true, but still.”

Perhaps they had a hunch that the archbishop and Duke Capell were up to no good? Not that I cared so much about politics, but if we played our cards right, we might end up weakening Duke Capell’s position.

“Lady Yulucia,” Cordelia finally spoke up after giving something much consideration. “If you’re going, then I shall accompany you. I may not be capable of stopping my father, but my parents might change their minds if I’m there with you.”

“Are you sure?” I had to wonder if she knew something.

Something about her expression told me that we were on the verge of something involving me, her family, her father, her mother, and all of the lip service up until now. Whatever it was, she found herself unable to sit by and watch idly as a noble. It kinda gave me these wicked chills.

After that, the rest of the dinner party went on without incident. At least, I thought it did. I had assumed the commotion was over and I had suppressed those who opposed my acceptance of Callisto’s invitation, but…

“I cannot allow you to do this, Lady Yul.”

“Vio?”

I had left the party venue and was on my way to the guest room Duke Capell had provided when Vio suddenly spoke from behind me. I came to a stop.

Vio had been there waiting on our table, so she had overheard my conversation with Callisto.

“Would you please give us a moment?” I asked my escorts.

“Yulucia, you know I’m not okay with—”

“Lady Yulucia,” Noel interrupted Rick, “I shall escort Prince Ludoric to his room.”

“Hey, Noel!”

It was a bit forcibly, but Noel and Mr. Bear managed to take Rick away. I still had Bri and Sarah to be my guards, and my four attendants were at a polite distance.

In addition to my guards for this trip, Rick also had three paladins, the most powerful warriors of Talitelud, come along as his guards. Just three? You might assume that was a tiny number, but they were wearing full-body armor made of some kind of expensive, highly magic-resistant material called mithril? Or something like that. They were also capable of casting high-level holy magic spells and strong enough to take down a hippopotamus singlehandedly.

Perhaps that wasn’t enough to make us feel safe, though.

Granted, that wasn’t what Vio was concerned about.

“Vio, I know you’ve always hated the church.”

“You remember? I told you that story when you were only two.”

“I think of you and Fer and Min as family.”

The three of them had been there with me since I was born and I really did think of them like family now. Vio smiled at that.

“What worries you so?” I asked.

“Will you reconsider accepting his invitation if I tell you?”

“I cannot say for sure.” I gave her a disconcerted smile, which she replied to with a somewhat wry one of her own.

“I once told you about my relationship with Lady Lia—your mother. Do you remember that story?”

“Yes.”

Mother had been like a mentor to her back when they were students at the Academy of the Magical Arts and she had adored her like a little sister. Vio’s family fell on hard times and she was on the verge of falling behind in her studies. That was when Mother stepped in to help.

“I was like you, my lady, in that I was able to wield holy magic from a young age. I had an affinity for water and wind spellcraft as well and a lot of magical power at my disposal, so I caught the attention of a certain priest. He tried to invite me to join him many times.”

“I see.” It sounded kind of similar?

“I declined, saying that I was busy with my studies and helping out at my parents’ store. He persisted, and when I refused to yield, all kinds of bad things started happening to my family. Lady Lia knew Archbishop Malt and was able to ask him to help us, so my family managed to recover.”

“What about the priest?”

“Archbishop Malt urged the congregation to have him excommunicated; however, someone from within the Church of Kostor protected him and had him transferred to another country.”

“You don’t say.” I couldn’t believe this. No wonder she hated religions now.

But wait a second.

“And what was the name of the priest?” I smiled as I asked.

Vio hesitated, sensing that I already had a hunch who it was. It took her a moment before she said in a heavy tone, “I believe it was Callisto.”

“Oh, my.”

My smile deepened. I had no idea what I looked like in that moment, but I could imagine it was bad, since not only had Vio started sweating slightly, but both Noah and Nia were shaking their heads with these tense looks on their faces.

“I understand now.”

“Th-then you’ll—?”

“I shall accept his request.”

“But, my lady—!” Vio reached out her hand to me.

I gently took it in both of mine. “I understand your fears and why you are so concerned. And it is because you are my family that I want to set things right for you.”

“Lady Yul.” Vio was overcome with emotion as she took my hand and brought it to her forehead.

I will clear away the wounds within your heart. I have known you since I was born as a human and I will protect you. But I’m sorry, Vio.

I’m actually a demon.

I shall save this world you live in as the demon I am and not as the pretty, small princess you think I am.

Boy, I sure was looking forward to this now.

***

In the desolate northern lands—the Daemon Lands—there was hardly any water, the skies were covered in clouds caught in a never-ending maelstrom, and the sun never shone.

The land was as barren as the hearts of the people dwelling upon it, and in the Daemon Lands, people had been constantly channeling their magic into the enormous summoning circle deep below the Daemon King’s castle.

However, its large daemon overseer was nowhere to be found. He had gone to the human lands on behalf of his master, the Daemon King, to collect magic to send back to their land. He was a Daemon General in the Daemon King’s army and prudent in all things. With him handling the matter directly, he should be able to gather the magic they needed without the humans noticing. Proof of this was the even more incredible amounts of magic that he had been able to channel into the summoning circle this past year or so.

“I see he’s not here, Daemon King.”

“Geas?” The king of the Daemon Lands turned his attention from the summoning circle to the man who had spoken to him.

The man appeared to be elderly, dressed in the antiquated robes of a mage, but the king didn’t know if he was actually old or not. Or if the man was actually even a daemon. All the king knew was that this man rivaled his own magic power and possessed a deep knowledge of spellcraft. That, and that the man’s name was Geas.

Why was someone so sinister in the Daemon King’s castle? Why did he have permission to speak with the Daemon King? The daemons revered strength, and Geas was one of their most powerful and intelligent. It was he who had taught the Daemon King how to construct this giant summoning circle so that the Daemon King could achieve his wish.

“He’s gone south. Thanks to him, I believe it won’t be much longer before we hear good news,” the king told him.

“Heh heh. Splendid. It won’t be much longer before our wish will be fulfilled.”

“Yes,” he said after a pause.

The Daemon King had no idea what Geas’s intentions were. Perhaps he was making a huge mistake. However, even if he had fallen into a demon’s trap, the Daemon King couldn’t possibly back down now, or else the daemons—his pitiful subjects—would suffer.

At the very least, you better manage to come back in one piece, Caudle.

Episode 8: She Who Was Summoned

Episode 8:
She Who Was Summoned

SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE DINNER PARTY, WE rode in Duke Capell’s coach to the duke’s old castle.

“I’m so disappointed. I thought my sisters would be among the ones who would ride with us,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” Rick replied in a tone that made me think he meant something else.

Huh? Did Rick know my sisters? I supposed he must, since they were his relatives too. Considering how my sisters had wound up, Rick must have had a heck of a time with them.

Today, we were riding in a regular six-passenger coach rather than the high-speed one, since we were traveling within the duke’s lands. This meant that Rick and Noel were sitting across from me and, sitting next to me, I had my lady’s maid Vio and…

“Are you talking about your elder sisters, Lady Yul? They must be such wonderful people.” Cordelia was sitting in such a way next to me that she was clamped onto my arm.

At some point after she had protected me from her father, she had started calling me by my nickname; however, she was starting to seem a bit too much like Shelly. I hoped she wouldn’t end up being as excitable as her. I prayed from the bottom of my heart that she would stay the way I knew her: pure and relatively serious.

“Why, yes! My elder sisters are so wonderful and cute!”

“Really? I am so looking forward to getting to meet them, then!”

As Cordelia and I chatted with smiles on our faces, Rick went from wearing that somewhat odd expression to sighing with a frown on his face. “I wish I could be as carefree as you.”

The cramped coach was tolerable, but Rick and Noel both had seemed on edge ever since they learned that our destination was the castle Callisto was borrowing from Duke Capell.

It was because they were worried about me, right? It wasn’t because I was smiling nonstop, right?

But I couldn’t help it. Not only was I going to get to see my sweet sisters again, I just couldn’t help getting the biggest smile on my face whenever I started plotting how best to punish Callisto. Maybe I was starting to veer a little too close to inhuman these days?

Fear. Not. I’m. Still. Fine. (I think.)

And then, some time later…

“I can see the castle now, Lady Yul.”

“Thank you, Vio.” I leaned toward Vio, wearing a most calm and humanlike smile on my face, to peer out the expensive glass windows. The old castle was far from the capital of the duke’s territory. Through clearings in the forest, I could see that it was small and stood on the shore of a pretty lake. That might make you imagine it would be a nice retreat in summer to escape the heat, but since this was Cordelia’s first time coming here too, I had to imagine that maintaining it must have been troublesome.

There were reeds taller than me all along the shore and so many weeds around the castle that it looked like a certain famous prairie. The castle itself was also covered in vines and seemed more abandoned than merely old.

If they were so rich, why didn’t they do something about it?

“Prince Ludoric, Lady Yulucia, thank you for coming all this way.”

Waiting for us in front of the old castle was Duchess Isabella Capell with several lady’s maids in tow. Behind her was Callisto, our host, who looked like he had come out to greet us as well, but his mouth was opening and closing like a fish deprived of oxygen and no words actually came out before he finally sank into silence.

“Mother!”

“Oh, Cordelia. I see you came along with Prince Ludoric. Did you get to chat much along the way?”

“No, I spoke with Lady Yul.”

“That simply won’t do. Don’t be so shy around him. You must talk to His Highness.”

“But Mother…”

Cordelia and her mother had seemed so close when we’d first met, but perhaps that was simply how Cordelia had been brainwashed to be. The second she deviated even slightly from the script, they became unable to communicate at all.

Rick sighed as he stepped forward. “I believe that we were invited here by the archbishop?” he asked, the exact question I’d been thinking.

Duchess Isabella smiled shamelessly. “This is our castle, which our house has provided the funds for. I just decided to welcome you all on Archbishop Callisto’s behalf.”

“I see. Then do you know what exactly we’re going to be doing here?”

“Ho ho ho. That will have to wait until you see it with your own eyes. But first, let us have a bite to eat.”

“Fine.”

I didn’t really care either way, but it felt like the duchess was looking down on me. She seemed to have conflicted feelings about something. Perhaps if I gave her just a little more time, she would be ripe and ready to eat?

“Then let us be—”

“Come, Lady Yulucia! This way!” Callisto had finally stepped up to interrupt the duchess and take it upon himself to volunteer as our guide with gusto. “Come along, everyone. Lady Cordelia, you as well.”

“All right,” I said as I took Cordelia’s hand and started walking. Rick was immediately at my side and Noel was several steps behind giving orders to the mercenaries.

Everyone’s so serious, I thought carefully just as…

“Princess!” I heard a strangely familiar voice as we were being guided to the main hall.

I wasn’t sure if this could actually be considered a main hall or not. It seemed like the kind of place where soirees would have been held in the past, but for some reason there was a big magic-circle-looking thing here that some wizard-looking people were preparing. What was this all about? It resembled a summoning circle, but there was something different about it.

A young man weaved through the ring of people working on it to come running over toward us. “Oh, fair princess. You are even more beautiful than I remember.”

“It’s nice to see you again, Sir Alfio.”

Here he was. Alfio, the (self-proclaimed) Hero of Sigoules. I was reluctant to even address him by his name from the way he was looking at me; furthermore, I refused to address him as Hero when no one from the Sigoules royal family had recognized him as such. In the Holy Kingdom, Hero was just as important a title as Saint, so it wasn’t good enough for just Callisto to call him that.

When Alfio reached me, he knelt and proceeded to try to kiss the back of my hand.

“How dare you treat our kingdom’s princess with such familiarity?” Rick said in an oppressive tone as he grabbed Alfio’s hand and stared down at him.

“Who are you?” Alfio asked sullenly from below.

“I’m Ludoric of Talitelud. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of me.”

Alfio had indeed recognized the prince’s name, judging from how he backed down. Despite his disgruntled expression, he bowed his head for form’s sake. “Please forgive me. Truly. I am not a noble, nor am I from this kingdom.”

Yikes, check out that awful attitude.

It wasn’t all that unusual for someone who had money, spellcraft, and sword skills to act this way—for someone so confident in their abilities to be bizarrely hostile toward someone with political power. However, this time he was out of his league. One of the paladins already had his hand on the grip of his sword for not only having an attitude toward the prince, but for the level of disrespect that had crossed into insolence. Fortunately for Alfio, Rick held up a hand to stop the paladin.

“What’s your name?” Rick asked.

“I am Alfio. I am known as the Hero in Sigoules.”

Not only did Rick grimace at how Alfio introduced himself as the “Hero,” but the paladins did as well.

“I see. I haven’t heard any mention of you from my aunt, who is the Queen of Sigoules, but no matter. You may go. Return to your work.”

Wow! He got rid of him in a single stroke!

He was, after all, only a (self-professed) Hero (temporary title). Perhaps it was different elsewhere, but here you needed to have at least awoken and been blessed by the elementals before anyone would even recognize you.

“Please excuse me.” Alfio’s face had gone past bright red and into a darkish color as he left.

The other members of the party of Heroes followed after him with worried expressions. My sisters were among them. Big Sister Adeline gave me such an incredible glare that I returned it with my most radiant smile. She looked startled as she retreated.

Ooh, I just couldn’t take it! Big Sister Adeline was simply the cutest!

“Noel,” Rick said with a grim look on his face as he watched them.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Noel came forward and now I had both Rick and Noel on either side of me for protection.

What was that all about? Were the two of them so close now that they could basically read each other’s minds? I much preferred this to how prickly they’d been before, yet I still couldn’t believe how in sync they were now. How was this possible?

Boys were such an enigma.

“Yulucia. Do not permit that man to approach you so easily,” Rick said, sounding like my dad.

“I’m sorry, Big Brother Ludoric. I will be more careful. Though, I must say, I don’t often get to see this side of you. Acting with such authority. You were just like a prince from a storybook. It was marvelous.”

Cordelia blushed as she nodded in agreement.

He was now so mature compared to the neighborhood bully he had been as a kid. I smiled up at him, yet he looked away with a frown. “Just what kind of person do you think I am?”

Rick had looked all the way away, so I tried peeking at him. He gave me a light poke in the head. Were his ears a bit red too?

“Must you poke me like that?” Not that it had hurt or anything, but I puffed up my cheeks a bit to show I didn’t like it. Noel gently stroked the back of my head.

“What are you doing?” Was he trying to comfort me? I looked back at him in confusion and Noel pulled back his hand with a blush on his face.

“Nothing, sorry.”

Oh dear. Don’t you know that I actually do like people giving me this kind of attention?

Rick and Noel were so cool, but there was something adorable about them as well. And they were quite different from a certain someone from the Demon Realm.

Which was good and all, but I heard some kind of gushing behind us and I knew that Bri had possibly been possessed by something wicked again.

“Prince Ludoric, please accept my apologies for being unable to receive you when you arrived.”

Duchess Isabella and Callisto guided us to what appeared to be a dining room, where Duke Capell welcomed us in. He had been busy getting things ready.

“I apologize for the current state of the castle and that we could not prepare a place with more space. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to fit into this room, so I will have to ask that your attendants enjoy our hospitality in another parlor. Of course, we have prepared meals for the soldiers as well.”

Rick looked somewhat suspicious about all of this as he replied, “Have you? Thank you for being so considerate.”

Duke Capell hadn’t said anything particularly strange. It was pretty typical for guards and soldiers and the like to eat in a different location since they couldn’t possibly host everyone at once.

Though that usually only applied when you trusted your host.

At any rate, why was it that Duke Capell refused to make eye contact with me? He spoke solely to Rick and didn’t even spare a glance my way. And even if he did meet my gaze for a split second, he looked away immediately. That must have really hurt his neck, snapping his head away like that.

How could he treat me this way after we had such a lovely conversation before?

“Is this not cramped?” I blurted out.

“Uh, do excuse us. We prepared this all in such great haste that we haven’t finished with the upholstery yet. Please forgive the state of things.” He was dripping with sweat as he replied. It seemed that even he was bothered by the situation and thus was unable to ignore my question.

Don’t worry. If I were to start poking fun at you, it wouldn’t be about that.

It wasn’t that big for a room to eat in, but if they just moved the boxy things containing magic of unknown origin that were scattered all over the room, it would be pretty big. Still, I had a feeling that even if I continued to point things out, the sweaty Duke Capell would act even more erratically than he already was, so I decided to drop the matter.

“And Cordelia. I want you to come with me,” Duchess Isabella said in a cold voice.

“But Mother—!” It was clear Cordelia wished to remain by my side, but her mother was trying to call her back because Cordelia hadn’t talked to Rick yet.

“I thought I raised you better than this. If you refuse to listen to what I say, then perhaps it is time for you to leave. You should always do as I say.”

“Yes, Mother.” Cordelia bit her bottom lip and dropped her head at her mother’s cold tone that bordered on annoyance.

“Isabella, there is no need to be so harsh with her,” Duke Capell interjected.

“She’s turning out this way because you keep being so lenient with her. I shall have to double down on her education from now on. I need her to behave today.”

Duke Capell sympathized with his daughter, but his wife remained firm. Cordelia’s eyes were wide with shock as she leaned closer to her father.

“Yulucia,” Rick whispered in my ear after a brief exchange with Mr. Bear.

“Yes?” I whispered back.

“Originally, Lord Barnabas was supposed to join us for this meal; however, I’m having Noel join us in his stead.”

“I don’t mind, but why?”

Rick furrowed his brow a little. “Since we have no idea what will happen, Lord Barnabas wants to rally the mercenaries so that they’ll be ready to act on a moment’s notice.”

Ah, so that’s how it is. Rick and Mr. Bear were thinking that Duke Capell might try something here. However, unlike his wife, I sensed no such drive in him.

I sat down in the seat one of the Capell servants showed me to as the meal began.

In the end, it was just me, Rick, and Noel in this room. Vio and my attendants were all taken elsewhere to eat. Just in case, I had warned my attendants to get everyone in my retinue out if something happened, so I wasn’t too worried. Everyone was going to be okay, right?

In any case, no point in dwelling on that!

“Big Sister Adeline? Wrinkling your brow like that is ruining your pretty face.”

“Is this some kind of joke? What gives the likes of you the right to call me ‘Big Sister’?”

Aww! Big Sister Adeline was so delightful!!! Duke Capell had actually gone and invited Big Sister Adeline and Big Sister Aureline to dine with us! The rest of the party of Heroes (lol) wasn’t here, but since Duke Capell had invited their littlest sister, he had been obligated to invite them too, even though they had run away from home. Also, since they had once been the daughters of a duke, they were probably already acquainted with him.

Sitting across from me at the big table was Big Sister Adeline, who glared at me with the most adorable expression, like she was ready to jump down my throat. Next to her was Big Sister Aureline, who kept fidgeting nervously. I must say, she still didn’t look tasty at all.

“Forgive me, Big Sister. I am just so happy to finally see you again, I can hardly contain myself.”

“Are you seriously…?”

Hm? I’d done an admirable thing and apologized, yet for some reason, she was glaring at me even harder than before.

“Oh, that reminds me, I hear you two have joined up with those people. Are they feeding you properly? I am very worried about how my noble sisters are faring among their kind.”

“Hmph. He may seem a bit unreliable, but he knows a lot of things and has many licenses for both spellcraft and farming. You of all people have no need to be concerned about us.” Big Sister Adeline turned her face away.

“My! Is that so? That’s splendid. I feared he only had eyes for children, so that is most reassuring to hear. And Father will stop worrying so much if this means that you two have found a husband as well.”

“Why, you—!” Big Sister Adeline slammed her hand on the table as she rose to her feet.

Oh, dear.

They must have seen him try to kiss my hand two times and get blocked now. If he had some good points beyond that, then why was she so mad? There was pretty much no hope of finding a family willing to marry them to their sons in the Holy Kingdom, so I’d thought this was a good thing.

“P-please, just stop, Yulucia!” Big Sister Aureline warned me as she tried to calm her sister.

“Whatever do you mean?”

How unusual. It was rare for her to speak directly to me like this. For some reason, Big Sister Aureline’s gaze jumped from me to the person sitting next to me. I glanced and…

“Yulucia.” Rick had been silently listening to my loving conversation with my sisters, but now he let out a long sigh as he massaged his brow. “Just drop it already. I understand you’re happy to finally see them again, but you have a habit of being too…candid when you get excited like this.”

“Oh.” Too candid? I had no idea I was acting that way. Was that why Duke Capell had started avoiding me as well?

“Adeline, it’s nice to see you again.”

“It’s nice to see you as well, Prince Ludoric.”

Rick had this look in his eye like he must have been thinking about things that had happened long ago as Big Sister Adeline met his gaze. She looked like a pouting child holding back tears.

I glanced at Big Sister Aureline questioningly. I could almost imagine her shrieking from the way she looked away from me. Surely I wasn’t deserving of such fear.

I wanted to ask what their history was, so I stared at her more intensely. She glanced at the two of them and frantically shook her head as a warning for me to stay silent.

Hmm. Since they were relatives close in age, I imagined that Rick and my sisters were something like childhood friends. However, there was this eddy of emotions that told me there was something more.

Which reminded me, Rick had been engaged at one time. Could Big Sister Adeline have been his betrothed? She must have done something pretty awful to make the royal family annul an engagement to someone from a duke’s family.

“A-anyway, let us eat!” Duke Capell suddenly shouted, unable to withstand the heavy atmosphere any longer. He started giving directions to the chamberlains.

Well, that was fine. Everyone had something they were dealing with.

Still, how did I even go about beginning to describe this scene?

Duke Capell was prattling on in an attempt to soothe the mood while beside him, his wife ignored him. Rick was being his usual self and eating in sullen silence. Big Sister Adeline hadn’t tried to take a single bite. Big Sister Aureline fidgeted as she ate out of despair. And in case you were wondering, Callisto had been here the whole time as well, but he was still being a wallflower.

I wondered why that was? I had some ideas, but I had a feeling that the cause of this shift in his personality must have been pretty big. Surely it wasn’t something I’d done. Despite how I may act on occasion, back in the Demon Realm I’d been the best at reading the room, so I decided to drink only water and not touch my food at all.

“Oh my. Is the food not to the tastes of a lady as noble as yourself, Lady Yulucia?” Duchess Isabella looked at me and asked.

“Mother, please don’t.”

“Quiet, Cordelia. I am asking out of concern.”

But why? Had she been looking for a chance to criticize me?

“Duke Capell, who is he?”

What do you know? Rick got the jump on her.

They had forced out the paladins guarding Rick and instead we had this stranger of a man seated at the table with us. He even had people who looked like his attendants waiting behind him.

“Ah, I completely forgot. Please accept my apologies.” Based on how flustered he was now, Duke Capell really had just forgotten to introduce this man because of the previous conversation. “This is Lord Caudle, whom I invited here from Telthed so that he could offer us his technical guidance for conducting the upcoming ritual.”

The introduction made him sound like someone who went door-to-door trying to scam people. The large man—who was all angles, like a boulder—stood up and bowed without smiling. “My name is Caudle Dlehn. I have heard much about you all. I beg your forgiveness in advance if I say something disrespectful due to being a country bumpkin devoted to his studies.”

He was a researcher? He looked more like a soldier or even someone nonhuman to me.

“Are all of the men in Telthed as muscular as you are, Lord Caudle?” I asked.

Caudle was at a loss for words for a moment before he finally averted his gaze from my stare and smiled as he finally answered, “The weak are looked down upon with disdain in the Military Country.”

The Military Country of Telthed. Talitelud was called “the Holy Kingdom” and Sigoules was known as “the Nation of Agriculture,” but those weren’t their official names. Although Talitelud took pride in being the Holy Kingdom, we never introduced ourselves as such to those of other countries, and we never called the Kingdom of Sigoules “the Nation of Agriculture” to someone from Sigoules either. Some soldiers from Telthed may have called their own country by what it was known as among themselves, but never with someone from another country. That didn’t necessarily mean that this man wasn’t actually from Telthed, but it didn’t seem like he’d said that because he was a soldier either. Did this mean I had permission to poke fun at him?

“So that’s why you became stronger than any human?” I asked with a friendly grin on my face.

Caudle looked at me with shock. But let’s be serious, Caudle and those guys who were probably his attendants were clearly not human. And they weren’t beings from the Ethereal World like us demons or elementals either.

So what were they, then? We did have creatures called monstrosities that had once been animals that had absorbed too much mana and then formed mana stones in their hearts. They were rarely spotted here in the Holy Kingdom, though. I had never seen one for myself, but I got the sense that maybe these guys were something like monstrosities that had taken human form.

Caudle sunk into contemplative silence, so Rick did his princely duty by starting a conversation with Duke Capell.

“By the way, Archbishop Callisto had mentioned something about using Yulucia’s magic for the sake of the Goddess. Just what exactly does that entail?”

Rick’s tone came off more like he was demanding an explanation rather than asking a simple question, so despite looking somewhat relieved, Duke Capell sounded like he was reading lines off a script as he replied, “I am offering the archbishop my support because I was so deeply moved by his ideals. His aim is to create a site for the advent of the Goddess Kostor or even one of her servants, even if it is only for a short while, so that he may speak with her about how best to guide the people of this world.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Even that is only the first step. Our goal is ultimately to communicate with the Goddess, and by doing so, the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud will be able to surpass even the Land of Faith to the south and become the true land of the Goddess!” Duke Capell told us in a fit of zealous passion.

The Land of Faith—I had heard of it before. It was the country at the southernmost part of the continent we lived on. They were known for their religious atmosphere just as Talitelud was, but the people worshipped their queen and revered her as a goddess. The World of Light had countries that were similar in that respect too.

Talitelud was different on a fundamental level in both the shape of its government and religion, yet for some reason Duke Capell felt this weird rivalry with the Land of Faith.

In any case, this all hinged on whether the goddess they all believed in actually existed or not.

“So, then, someone such as yourself was in Telthed to research that?” I asked Caudle.

He knitted his brows as he gave me a curt answer. “That’s right.”

It sure must be tough for non-humans to live in a human world. Perhaps he was keeping it a secret that he was only pretending to be a human? I definitely sympathized with how difficult that was.

I smiled at him encouragingly, hoping to communicate that I supported him even if I might not be able to help him. For some reason, Caudle’s attendants started fidgeting and he looked away from me with a grimace. Why?!

“L-Lady Yulucia, if the food is not to your taste, then perhaps you would like something to drink instead?” Duchess Isabella suddenly cut in, speaking rather quickly.

Why would she ask that? I didn’t need to drink, but since I hadn’t touched the food, perhaps it would be considered rude if I refused something to drink too.

“Isabella?” Duke Capell said.

“Lord Caudle has brought an unusual kind of drink from Telthed for us to enjoy. Perhaps Lady Yulucia would like the chance to try it as well.”

“Is that so?”

Duke Capell seemed ignorant about it. The duchess sure was a sinful woman, accepting a present from a man without her husband even knowing.

Duchess Isabella gave an order to a lady’s maid and several bottles were brought out. It must have been pretty delicious, considering how they poured glasses for not just me, but everyone else as well.

It was a strange shade of orange. And I could see something sparkling in there. What could it be?

“A toast to the futures of Talitelud and Telthed!” Duke Capell said as he raised his glass up.

Oh, my. I know what this is.

“Something wrong, Yulucia?”

“Oh, no, it’s just so delicious.” It actually did have a flavor to me, you see. The bittersweetness of evil intentions.

However, this was…

I suddenly made a choking noise and Rick jumped up from his seat. “Yulucia?!”

But then he staggered and clutched at his forehead. Noel, having noticed something was strange, also started to move, but the two of them collapsed.

My sisters and Cordelia both lost consciousness. That was when my attendants kicked down the door and came rushing in from the adjacent room.

Oh, my.

“Lady Yulucia!”

“Mistress! Fanny, teleport her out!”

“N-no, don’t—”

“Mistress’s magic is unstable!”

I was so relieved that the four of them hadn’t drunk that much of it. “Manifest Light.” Light spread out from me, enveloping those who had fainted, and I was pretty sure I managed to neutralize it.

“Please…”

I couldn’t believe how strong it had been. I would have to leave the rest to them to handle things.

***

“How dare you humans!”

Just as Tina was about to unleash her wrath upon those who had harmed her beloved mistress, Nia grabbed her shoulder and Absorbed the power.

“Let me go, Nia!”

“Tina, you can’t do this! Did you forget what Lady Yulucia told us to do?!”

“Argh!”

Yulucia had given the four arch demons an order beforehand. It was not limited to this occasion only, but any time that Yulucia was incapacitated: They were to first ensure the safety of the humans she knew.

It had only been a warning so that the attendants didn’t go on a rampage if a problem occurred when Yulucia was unable to act due to her ties of obligation as a human. Nevertheless, the arch demons tried as faithfully as they could to obey.

If the arch demons followed their instincts and let loose, Yulucia’s human friends would die. It wasn’t a matter of whether they could protect the humans or not, but the fact that humans were unable to withstand the miasma the arch demons emitted when they released their powers. It would likely corrupt not just their flesh, but their very souls.

Noah took charge. “The three of you, listen close. We are to follow Mistress’s command and first guarantee the safety of the humans she cares about. Seeing as how Vio and the other maids have passed out too, the ones in the other rooms are probably all asleep as well. We are to find them and dump them outside the castle. Fanny, you help me get them out.”

“Okay!”

Fanny was able to keep her composure since she had her orders; however, deep down, Noah was infuriated enough to speak more casually than usual.

“B-but what about Mistress?” Tina asked.

“We cannot teleport her in her current state. Her inner magic is out of control and we’re not strong enough to move her safely,” Noah said.

“What are we going to do, then?!”

“Nia will use her power to keep her magic contained until she stabilizes again. Tina, you protect them both in the meantime.”

“All right.”

Their roles having been decided, Noah took Ludoric and Noel onto his shoulders and Fanny picked up Yulucia’s sisters, and then they carried their charges outside the room.

“Are you okay, Nia?”

“I’m hanging in there.”

It was just Tina and Nia now, working on suppressing Yulucia’s magic. On the opposite side of the room, though, the remaining humans began to act.

“Wh-what’s going on?!” Duke Capell’s eyes popped wide open with panic at the sight of his fainted guests.

“Lady Yulucia’s attendants have taken the prince? How irritating.”

“Isabella?!”

The duke whirled around to face his wife, who was gently cradling their daughter Cordelia in her arms as she stared with cold eyes at the golden girl.

“Is Cordelia all right?! Was that drink your doing?!”

“Why are you in such a panic? Cordelia is only sleeping. I had planned to get them all unconscious, but it seems that Lady Yulucia had prepared for such an event. She’s truly an infuriating girl, what with how saintly she is.”

“Are you mad?! What are you planning to do about this situation?!”

Yulucia had cast some kind of light just before she passed out. Assuming it was a spell that could cure poison, that meant Isabella had actually poisoned everyone.

As her husband floundered, attempting to comprehend the situation, Isabella gave him a frigid smile devoid of any warmth. “All I have done is help you. You want her magic, don’t you?”

“Isabella…”

The duke’s original plan had been to construct a spellcraft device that could protect their country. House Capell was descended from the royal family. If something happened to the royal family, it was their house’s duty to guide the citizens in their stead. It was also their duty to rectify any mistakes the royal family made.

The existing royal family was softhearted. This was all well and good during times of peace, but Talitelud was located in the center of the waterways and many countries currently had their sights set on their fertile lands, such as the Land of Faith to the south. And so, Duke Capell had proposed making a device that could use spellcraft to make summoning circles and elemental magic more stable. If they could do that, then they could reliably borrow the power of higher beings like gods and elementals.

The Holy Kingdom was a nation where the influence of the divine was strong and, even though the duke thought he could use that to his advantage, the royal family rejected his methods and he’d had to abandon his plans. There remained some nobles who agreed with his methods, though. House Cowell had been the first on that list, and even though the next head of the house, Albertine, had been prideful, Duke Capell thought her virtuous nature befitting a noble was worthy of respect.

However, the values of House Cowell had changed completely once Forte, who had been the second prince at the time, married into their family. Forte pushed Albertine aside and became duke himself. He believed the best way to protect the country was to cooperate and support the neighboring countries, so he began focusing his efforts into diplomacy and had the support of the royal family for that.

That was when House Capell and House Cowell became politically at odds and House Cowell’s opinions began to be favored. And after Albertine’s death, House Cowell lost all but their name and was effectively dissolved. Forte was elevated to grand duke and the rift between the two houses grew even deeper.

The king had most likely done it out of a desire to protect his son and granddaughter, though restoring the title of grand duke was also the royal family’s way of strengthening the protection of the country.

While the remaining four ducal families were all branch families of royal blood, now, hundreds of years later, they had been demoted to being the royal family’s vassals. It was only proper for vassals to devote their lives to the royal family, but the current king was too kindhearted to willingly send his vassals to extremely dangerous places. This was probably why Forte had been named grand duke: so that his own son could take on the duty and bear the burden himself.

Still, this was exactly why Duke Capell felt that the pride of the dukes who had devoted their lives to serving their country had been sullied and why he had decided to resume his plans in secret. Duke Capell believed that this plan theoretically should be possible. However, the spellcraft notation of the device had proved extremely difficult and he was faced with another obstacle: They had no good prospects for a source of vast amounts of magic.

Thankfully, his second wife Isabella was able to solve both problems. She was from a family that served House Capell from the shadows and she used her connections to introduce her husband to Archbishop Callisto, who had been cast away to the Kingdom of Sigoules, and Caudle, the researcher from Telthed. Callisto appreciated the duke’s ideas and promised the cooperation of the Church of Kostor. Caudle used his knowledge to help with the spellcraft notation and taught the duke how to obtain a large quantity of magic. Both men were peculiar and of dubious character, but without any other allies to call upon, Duke Capell decided to trust them and proceeded with his plans.

According to Caudle, magic had inherent qualities, and he said that pure magic without any attributes like fire or water would be best. With Callisto’s help, they gathered people who could use holy magic and were thus able to acquire magic with a high purity. Unfortunately, it had not been enough for what they needed. Isabella came through for her troubled husband again by telling him about a certain person.

If they had Yulucia, who was called the Saint for her deep well of non-elemental magic, they would be able to acquire hundreds of people’s worth of pure magic. Duke Capell resented having to turn to that man’s daughter for help, but making her involuntarily use her magic was a way to get revenge against Forte for neglecting Albertine, and the royal family as well. It was with that in mind that the duke accepted his wife’s suggestion.

And yet, how had they wound up in this situation?

“Dear, would you hurry up and accept reality already? No matter how this played out, you were going to make an enemy of the royal family and the grand duke once this all went public.”

“How dare you!”

The plan had been to install a device in the castle that passively absorbed the magic of anyone inside of it. They were going to put Yulucia at its center and steal her magic without her knowing. However, Isabella and Caudle did not think that would be enough and instead thought that it would be more effective to wring it out of her while she was unconscious.

Stealing Yulucia’s magic alone should have been enough to acquire close to the minimal required value. This was why they had spiked her drink. The poison hadn’t just put her to sleep; the duke believed they must have used a dangerous concoction that would make it easier to unleash her magic too.

Prince Ludoric hadn’t been part of the original plan, but now that he had gotten involved, House Capell was certain to earn the ire of both the grand duke’s house and the royal family. The duke had gone ahead with this plan only because he had Talitelud’s best interests at heart. He had never intended to make an enemy of the royal family and divide their kingdom.

“What this means is that you just need to depose the current opportunistic royal family and become king yourself,” his wife continued.

“Do you know what you’re saying?!”

“You carried this plan out in secret because you want to protect the kingdom. You of all people must know what must be done for the sake of the kingdom.” Isabella’s pretty smile and sweet sigh made the duke feel utterly bewildered, like he couldn’t think straight any longer. “Prince Ludoric is here as well. If you think becoming king yourself is unreasonable, then we could have him marry our Cordelia and name him king instead.”

The duke was speechless.

Isabella had mentioned wanting Ludoric to marry into their family for some time now. But then what would become of Duke Capell’s two sons?

That had been one of the reasons he had dismissed the idea, but now his mind felt numb and he couldn’t think deeply about what she was saying. The only thing he was capable of doing was holding his beloved sleeping daughter close.

“Very well, then,” Isabella said. “I shall take control of this situation. First, we must secure the prince, whom Lady Yulucia’s attendants have taken. And I want someone to move my husband and Cordelia to the annex.”

“Yes, my lady!”

Several people silently set about following her orders. Isabella looked around the room for confirmation. She had already replaced their household servants with those versed in working from the shadows some years back, and now they all bowed their heads to her in unison.

“Good.” Isabella nodded with satisfaction at their response.

Although she was a citizen of the Holy Kingdom, she didn’t believe in the existence of the gods. She did know that beings with enough power to be considered gods existed: the elementals revered as local gods, and demons. It would be greatly beneficial to them if they could borrow and use even a fragment of their power. This was why Isabella had agreed with her husband’s ideas, even though she herself didn’t believe in the gods.

However, her ultimate goal was quite different from his.

As his second wife, Isabella had been in a position to unify those who served House Capell from the shadows. Now, her father, older brother, and little brother all served her. They were all loyal to House Capell and showed an understanding of Isabella’s intentions, believing it to be the best for the family. They did what was asked of them for Isabella’s plans, even if it meant deceiving the duke himself.

“Uh, um, Duchess Isabella? What is going on?”

“Oh, Archbishop Callisto.” Isabella turned to find the archbishop looking unruffled due to his inability to comprehend what had just happened. Pious adherent that he was, he hadn’t consumed any of the poisoned alcohol.

Callisto had been supported by a former cardinal who was now retired. That was how he had gotten exiled to another country instead of excommunicated after the incident he had caused. Nevertheless, Isabella thought his ideas would be useful to her plan, and so had helped him come back to the kingdom.

Unfortunately, he was an incompetent man, but his devotion to his ideologies and clout within the church were not to be underestimated, which was why Isabella smiled at him even though he was a nuisance she could not get rid of.

“There isn’t a problem at all, Your Grace. With this, we shall pave the way for the advent of our goddess. Just relax for now while we take care of some things.”

“I-I see.”

Callisto was worried about the unconscious Yulucia. He likely believed her to be the genuine Saint, but all their problems would go away with the advent of a being with the power of a god. Even if they made enemies of the royal family and the country wound up divided, any fuss the nobles who supported the royals might kick up would die down before long if they had the support of the Church of Kostor.

“Isabella.”

There was one other person there, who approached her now: Caudle, the researcher from Telthed. She knew what he really was.

He hadn’t revealed the truth to her, but it was through her secret connections that he had gotten in contact with her. Thinking she could use them, she hadn’t bothered to investigate. Caudle was likely trying to use her as well, but she knew she would be the one who would end up on top. And while building their relationship as coconspirators, Isabella had concluded from both her thoughts as a noble and as someone who worked from the shadows that if Talitelud joined forces in secret with the enemies of humanity while being pro-humanity, they would be in a stronger position among all of the human nations.

“What is it, Caudle?”

“Our preparations are coming along. Do not allow the Saint’s attendants to interfere.”

“Very well.”

***

“What happened?”

Ludoric awoke thanks to Yulucia’s holy magic managing to neutralize the poison. He sat up while clutching his dizzy head.

“Are you awake now?”

“You…”

Ludoric surveyed the unfamiliar forest he was now in. He instantly found the members of Yulucia’s staff who had been in a different room, including Barnabas and Vio, along with the boy who had spoken to him, Yulucia’s butler. He was the one who’d laid them all down on the ground here.

The butler looked somewhat annoyed as he looked over his shoulder, making Ludoric inch back a bit. Yulucia’s attendants had sworn absolute loyalty to her alone and were only ostensibly respectful to Ludoric because he was a prince. The butler cast his cold gaze at Ludoric and Noel every opportunity he got. Since Yulucia’s other attendants were girls, Ludoric didn’t interact with them much, but her butler seemed to always be closely watching him, and he felt a bit uncomfortable around him.

“Wh-where’s Lucia?” Noel was the next to awaken, and that was the first thing out of his mouth even as he gripped his forehead.

Ludoric looked around in a panic. “That’s right. Where’s Yulucia?!”

He didn’t see her anywhere. The last thing he remembered was how he’d suddenly felt so sleepy and on the verge of passing out.

“What happened?! Why isn’t Yulucia here?!” Ludoric lashed out like he might actually grab the boy’s neck.

The butler, who was the same height as him, was completely unperturbed and looked back at him with a frigid gaze. “You were poisoned by House Capell. Lady Yulucia is in no state to be safely moved at the moment, so I have left her personal knight and lady’s maid to protect her.”

“What?!” Ludoric was stunned by the butler’s dispassionate explanation. Protect Yulucia. That was the entire reason he had demanded to come along on this trip, so what was he doing?

“We have to get to her.” Noel staggered in the direction of the girl he loved, but the unfeeling voice of the butler stopped him.

“And just what are you going to do to help her in that sorry state? My mistress cast a spell with her holy magic just before she fell unconscious, but I believe she is best left where she is for now.”

“Then why the hell did you leave her side?!” In his rage, Ludoric grabbed the butler’s arm, but his fury evaporated in the face of the frigid bloodlust emanating from the boy.

“Those were Lady Yulucia’s orders: If something happened, I was to ensure the safety of everyone else first. Believe me, if it weren’t for her command, I would not have left her side.”

“Argh!”

The butler’s tone implied that it was their ineptitude that was inconveniencing him now, and all Ludoric could do was glare in response.

“What’s your name?”

“Noah.”

As the two of them glared at one another, a petite maid with silver hair appeared, carrying a few other maids on her shoulders. She laid them down on the ground and called out to them without noticing the mood.

“Noah, this is the last of them! I left the other hum—people at the other place!”

“Thanks, Fanny. Now we can return to Mistress’s side.”

“Okay!”

“I’m co—” Before Noel could finish that statement, Noah held up a hand in front of him and looked down at the tottering boy.

“You stay here to protect these people. That’s part of your job, isn’t it? We will protect Lady Yulucia with our lives.”

“Come on, Noah!”

Noah nodded at Fanny and she ran ahead, Noah quickly following after her. Both Ludoric and Noel were stunned by Yulucia’s attendants’ physical abilities—they were gone in a flash.

“Damn it!” Ludoric punched a tree trunk, frustrated to be left behind.

Noel hung his head for a moment, but snapped up again with a strong determination in his eyes as he looked straight ahead. “I’m going. I don’t care what anyone says—she’s the one I want to protect.”

“Yeah. I feel the same way.”

Noel’s words helped Ludoric remember what he was capable of and he too turned toward the road. However, Noah had been right that someone needed to stay here to protect everyone who was still unconscious. Abandoning them felt like losing to Noah and that just didn’t sit right with him.

“Noel, can you heal them with spellcraft?”

“Hmm, I don’t know if my holy magic will be enough.”

Just then, a voice interrupted their conversation. “Go.”

Vio was the third to awaken. She staggered toward them, reaching out her hand to them. “Manifest Light.”

“Miss Vio!”

“You…”

Vio had cast a holy magic spell on the two of them, purging the lingering poison from their bodies. “I’ll do what I can to take care of everyone here. So please, go to Lady Yul. I know I should not be asking such a thing of two nobles such as you, but I beg you!”

“I understand. We feel the same way,” Rick said.

“Yeah, just leave it to us. I swear that we’ll save Lucia!” Noel added.

The two boys gave Vio a firm nod. They understood her desperate wish for the girl’s safety. But then…

“There he is!”

“There’s Prince Ludoric!”

The boys turned toward the voices. Was it the guards who had been taken elsewhere? Had they also woken up and come in search of them?

“Prince Ludoric.”

“I know.”

No, these were not their guards. They were dressed like butlers, and from the way they approached with swords drawn, the boys determined in an instant that these two men were enemies.

“Get him!”

“Don’t hurt the prince!”

And they weren’t ordinary butlers either. It was clear from their movements that these men had trained for battle. Noel stepped protectively in front of Ludoric. Neither boy had a weapon since they had been in the middle of a meal. Noel had a hidden knife, but he figured that engaging these two men with that would be dangerous and opted to start casting a spell instead.

But that was when Ludoric rushed forward. “Raaaaaaaah!!!”

He moved with such speed that you wouldn’t have thought he had just been poisoned. He caught a butler off guard and threw his fist directly into his face. One man flew backward into the other, knocking him over.

“Your Highness? I can’t believe you’re so strong,” Noel exclaimed.

“I don’t know where that came from.”

It was not the kind of strength a boy would ordinarily possess. Ludoric felt like he had some kind of warm light in his hand and took a look. His fist hurt from punching a man with such strength, but…

“Are you all right, Your Highness?”

“Yeah. It hurt more when that guy Noah grabbed my arm.”

“I know. He cares a lot about Lucia too.”

There was a slight bruise on Ludoric’s arm now. Assuming it was the proof of Noah’s feelings for his mistress, Ludoric believed that he was deriving strength from Noah’s feelings too.

“Noel, you don’t have to keep being so polite and using titles for me anymore.”

“Okay. Let’s go, Ludoric.”

The two boys starting running for the sake of a girl, all the while keeping their feelings locked away in their hearts.

***

“Nia, what’s happening?!”

“Just need to hang on…”

Beads of sweat were forming on Nia’s brow as she tried to keep Yulucia’s magic under control. Since she was a demon, Nia didn’t normally sweat even in her vessel’s body. However, it was no easy feat using her power as an arch demon to absorb Yulucia’s power into herself. Since she was an ethereal being, the burden of the task was manifesting from her imagination as sweat.

“I think it’s time you stopped this already,” Isabella spoke, trying to persuade them.

“You!” Tina was instantly filled with rage.

Nia desperately tried to hold her back. “Tina! Control your magic!”

“Nngh!”

If Tina gave into her rage and unleashed her power as an arch demon, it would have a bad effect on Yulucia. Tina understood this and so held herself back.

Isabella had felt a momentary fear of the girl, but managed to elegantly smile at her anyway. “Such futility. You’re only going to bring about that girl’s demise!”

“What—” Just as Tina started to speak again…

“Hey, stop!”

“Nia?!”

Nia was usually so easygoing, but now she looked suddenly panicked as Tina turned back to her. That was when the carpet covering the entire room suddenly lit up.

No, it wasn’t the carpet. Underneath it was a geometric pattern covered with some kind of writing, and that was what was actually glowing.

“Mistreeess!” Tina’s voice rang out.

The geometric pattern of light centralized on the unconscious Yulucia. And its shape was…

“A summoning circle?!”

Realizing what it truly was, Tina immediately infused her fist with magic and brought it down onto the ground. She may have been holding back, but she still possessed the strength of an arch demon. Even though the floor was made of stone, her fist pierced all the way to the lower level—or at least, that was what should have happened.

Krak!

Tina gasped.

“Tina!”

The punch flung Tina’s body back.

“Don’t! I can’t keep Lady Yulucia’s magic held back!” Nia shrieked as she desperately tried to maintain control. They had just gotten Yulucia’s powers to start calming down, but just as that light began to glow, they started acting up again.

Tina’s fist must have been repelled, because Yulucia’s magic was being absorbed by the entire floor. Destroying the summoning circle at this point to make it stop would require a power stronger than Yulucia’s.

“Lady Yulucia!”

“Mistress!!!”

The summoning circle glowed even brighter now and Yulucia began to float into the air, throwing Nia back when she tried to keep her pinned down.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! This is the end! Come, unknown god of another world! Receive not just this magic, but take this girl as a sacrificial offering as well!” Isabella cackled with rapture.

And that was when it all started.

“So it’s begun.”

After beginning the ritual, Caudle shuddered at the massive amounts of magic being channeled into it, and turned his attention to the source of the power: Saint Yulucia. The girl had not been formally titled yet because of her age, but she really did have a wellspring of powerful magic hidden inside her that made her worthy of it.

The original plan had been to have Callisto gather children who could use the holy magic of the Church of Kostor and then steal their pure magic. That was why he had taken the risk of crossing into the Holy Kingdom and proceeded carefully with this plan.

It was all for the sake of…

“Oh, Daemon King, with this, I shall grant your dearest wish.”

Caudle was the Daemon King’s trusted confidant and one of the top-ranking officers of his army, a daemon general. Originally, he’d had no intention of reaching out to the Holy Kingdom, since they were essentially the enemies of all daemons. He had instead worked in the expansive Kingdom of Sigoules to kidnap hundreds of children and drain them of their magic. Then he took the place of a noble from Telthed to develop weapons and spells for absorbing magic for the Daemon Army. However, he clashed with the vampires in Telthed who had also been operating from the shadows, and while he had attempted to eliminate them, he realized he needed a new plan when he started running out of undercover spies.

And that was when he came into contact with the black operatives of House Capell of the Holy Kingdom. They wanted the weapon technology that Caudle had developed and a means of collecting magic too. His covert operatives all pretended to go along with their schemes, and after hearing the reports about what their true goal was, Caudle realized that he could use them, so he proposed to provide them with the technique for the notation of a magic circle that could be used to summon a powerful being.

The daemons being enemies of the people of the Holy Kingdom had not been the thing that prevented Caudle from conducting his operations there—it was because he had no connections that would enable him to penetrate the inner circles of the deeply religious humans. But that was when their connections led the daemons to the greatest connection of all: a duke.

Caudle had been overseeing their giant summoning circle in the Daemon Lands when he heard about this development from his undercover subordinates. Caudle then decided to go undercover himself into the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud in order to harvest the highest quality of magic.

That was when he heard the rumors.

There was a heavenly child beloved by the gods who, despite her tender age, offered herself as a sacrifice in order to save other children and then went on to heal dozens of dying children. Saint Yulucia.

He had heard all kinds of rumors. All kinds of praise. Even if half of them were just talk, a person capable of wielding that much magic must be a source of supreme magic.

The Daemon King needed an immense quantity of magic to make his wish come true. However, there was a limit to how long the magic they gathered could be stored. At some point, the magic would slowly start to diminish.

They needed it immediately. Vast quantities of magic with a high purity. And the one person capable of providing it lived in the Holy Kingdom, which was their enemy.

And that person was the Saint, of all people—the sworn enemy of daemons.

Unlike the riffraff in other countries who were called saints just because they could use holy magic, this girl was the true Saint of the Holy Kingdom, said to possess powers that surpassed the generations of Saints recorded in even daemon history—even the very first Saint herself.

And the evidence was that she alone had been able to see through their perfect human disguises.

Perhaps it was out of her compassion as the Saint or her naivety as a princess of a grand duke, but she hadn’t revealed the truth about Caudle and his men. Instead, she looked at them with such gentleness in her eyes that Caudle gasped in admiration while simultaneously feeling a rush of extreme fear.

This girl—Yulucia—was the real deal. And if the true Saint was now here, that meant that there was likely a true Hero out there somewhere, not the fake that Callisto had brought along. The Saint in the legends passed down by the daemons described her as a wielder of powerful magic who led the Hero to victory with her compassionate heart. The Hero was basically immortal so long as the Saint was by his side, and he had managed to strike down all of their enemies.

Caudle was a warrior too. He would have loved the opportunity to face Yulucia’s chosen Hero in battle; however, her saintly compassion and immaturity had made her careless. It was ironic, then, that her magic was not going to be used for the sake of her fellow humans, but for the daemons instead.

“Keep your wits about you.”

“Yes, sir!” three of Caudle’s men responded in unison.

What must have been Yulucia’s pure saintly magic was making her whole body shine golden now, and that golden magic was being channeled through the magic circle and funneled to the Daemon Lands. The amount of magic was far more than they could have ever predicted, eliciting a screeching sound from the magic circle they had engraved into the castle.

What she possessed was equal to the amount of magic that had taken Caudle and the Daemon King a decade to gather. Forcibly extracting it from the unconscious Yulucia, reaching down to draw out the power sleeping within the depths of her very soul, would likely end up killing the girl.

“I’m sorry.” Caudle prayed not as a daemon general, but as another living being of the world, for the departed soul of this golden girl who had looked at them with such tenderness in her eyes even though she knew they weren’t human.

But then…

Kreeeeeee!!!

The magic circle surpassed its limit and cracked apart, erupting in a golden light that absorbed Yulucia.

What had happened? What was this phenomenon?

“Tina! Help me!”

“I know!”

At Nia’s urgent shriek, Tina tried her hardest to control her mistress’s magic despite her injured right arm. However—

They gasped.

Even two arch demons using all of their strength wasn’t enough to contain it, and the two of them were knocked back by the eruption of power.

The two of them just barely managed to survive. They groaned weakly.

“Nia.”

“I can’t believe it.”

They broke out into a cold sweat. Their expressions were deadly serious, the kind that was hard to imagine compared to their usual attitudes.

“Did they draw out her true self?”

The graceful body of a petite leopard.

A long, thick tail several times larger than her body.

Giant bat wings, each spanning dozens of meters wide.

Her whole body was covered in golden fur, and when her crimson eyes, glistening like fresh blood, found the weak creatures within her vicinity, she let out a roar that could reach the heavens.

This was the enemy of all living things. A god of the Demon Realm even more powerful than an arch demon. A demon with a voracious appetite that would bring calamity to the world and devour all.

Having been released from the shackles of her human heart and human body, the Beast—the Golden Beast—had now materialized in this world.

Rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooar!!!

Episode 9: The Beast

Episode 9:
The Beast

“WHAT’S…HAPPENING?” LUDORIC RASPED.

There was a sudden burst of golden light from the castle they were heading toward. The light was beautiful, but they could not stop trembling in the face of the ominous presence that came with it.

“Wh-what is this feeling?” Noel’s voice quivered.

“Your Highness!” The three paladins were with them now, having managed to cleanse themselves of the poison and join the two boys along the way. They also looked to be unnerved by the light. “You mustn’t go, Your Highness. You mustn’t get involved.”

“How can you say such a thing?!” Ludoric snapped.

Since the paladins could use holy magic, they could more easily sense the evil of that light. Yet that was the very reason that Ludoric could not turn a blind eye to it.

“Have you forgotten your duty?! Yes, you’re here for my protection, but you also have an obligation to protect the Princess of the Holy Kingdom and the Saint, Yulucia! You call yourselves proud knights of the Holy Kingdom who smite evil?!”

“Please forgive us.”

What was even the point of apologizing? Ludoric was right that it was indeed their duty as paladins to go and rescue Yulucia. Nevertheless, protecting Ludoric was their priority.

“We shall go to save Her Highness. You and Lord Noel should remain here.”

“Out of the question! I will spare no effort to rescue her. And—”

“I agree. I am also coming along,” Noel said.

The man acting as the leader of the paladins looked into the two boys’ eyes, finding them full of determination. He nodded with a soft sigh of resignation. “We will rescue Her Highness, even if it costs us our lives. However, should we encounter true peril, will you please trust us and withdraw?”

“Fine,” Ludoric agreed, though he would most likely refuse to flee.

Still, the paladins were moved by the boys’ tenacity.

“Let’s go!” Ludoric called.

“Yes, Your Highness!” the three paladins replied.

With the swords taken from their assailants in hand, Ludoric led the paladins toward the castle.

Noel was in the rear, reeling from the sense of déjà vu he felt when he saw the color of the golden light that reached the sky. “That light… It couldn’t be.”

***

“Ooh, we did it.” Isabella’s breath caught and she felt tingly all over at the sight of its mighty yet beautiful form.

It was so unnerving and gave her such a chill that she had goosebumps all over her body, so intense that she thought she might pass out or try to flee. Nevertheless, as the daughter of a family of spies and assassins, Isabella had the force of will to endure—it was because of what she knew that she was able to withstand her fear.

Archbishop Callisto said it was a messenger of the gods. They were unable to summon an actual almighty god, but they would be capable of communicating with one of their messengers.

Caudle said it was something like an elemental that had been called a god and then sealed away. That they could bind it to the magic circle and then use its powers for their own purposes.

She hadn’t known it would materialize here, but she was filled with exaltation since she believed that she was about to achieve what she desired.

Even though Liasteia was the daughter of a viscount just like her, Liasteia had gotten a prince to fall in love with her at first sight and was now a part of the royal family, having been named the Grand Duke of Versenia’s first wife. Isabella had used Liasteia’s daughter as a sacrifice so that she herself could become queen and her own daughter a princess. If anyone had heard her ambitions, they would have likely scoffed. However, Isabella had assumed she would be trapped as a third wife in a loveless marriage of convenience just to keep the ties between her family and House Capell, so this had been worth staking her life on. She believed that she would find happiness at the top of society.

She still had not heard word that her men had managed to capture Ludoric. But no matter; that drug could not be easily cured even with holy magic. She was certain that they would catch him right away. Even if Ludoric himself wound up realizing that he had been drugged and refused to marry Cordelia, she figured she could simply use the daemon’s dark magic spell Charm to convince him.

“Hee hee.” It was starting to sink in that this was all really happening. Isabella’s life was truly just about to begin.

And for that, she had to take the first step to making it happen. Isabella mustered all of her courage to take up the role of the being’s mistress and give it an order, readying herself for a step forward. But that was when…

“Oooooh, Goddess!” Callisto staggered forward, tears streaming down his face.

Callisto wished for world peace. He was unable to contain his emotional tears at beholding a great being with power to control the foolish masses.

The being of golden light was more beautiful than anything Callisto could have imagined. The fact that she looked like a beast and not a human meant that she was a divine beast—a messenger of the gods who had transcended the human species—and the overflowing power coming from her was doubtless proof of that in his mind.

He attributed his fear and trembling to his awe in the presence of such a great being, and there was no hesitation in Callisto as he reached out his hand. “O Goddess—”

Starting at the fingertips of his outstretched hand, Callisto’s body hardened and turned black. Callisto had a look of ecstasy on his face as his body corroded away and he crumbled to the ground in pieces.

There was a moment of silence.

“Eek!” Isabella had just been about to step forward as well, but she let out a muffled cry and tumbled backward to get away. And that…

That action—the extreme terror rising up within Isabella—was enough to arouse the interest of the Golden Beast, who had not moved at all until that moment.

“Someone heeeeeeeeeeelp!”

Isabella was overtaken from behind by the golden light. Crimson claws ripped through her, fresh blood splattering as Isabella fell and the Golden Beast crashed down on her back.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

What had she done wrong? What line had she crossed that she shouldn’t have?

She was sure she hadn’t done anything wrong at all.

Every action she had taken was what any superior person would have done to obtain everything they were owed. And yet…

Blood and cries of agony gushed from her mouth as she asked herself where she had gone wrong. She had no idea just what she had gotten involved in as all of her loyal servants met a grisly death, flooded with a massive amount of miasma that made them decompose into dust.

“To think that we would manage to summon the Beast!” Daemon General Caudle of the Daemon King’s army shuddered as he watched the golden sparkling beast that had devoured the Saint’s magic powers.

Caudle was a warrior, and he wished that he could have battled the humans head-on and even clashed with the true Hero. However, the compassionate Daemon King whom he loved and respected didn’t want the power to defeat the humans, but to summon a special kind of asset: a great being that would enable the daemons to steal the world for themselves, so that their kind wouldn’t have to die.

This was a demon from another dimension. It had lived such a very long time that those with limited lifespans, such as him, would call it an eternity.

A single arch demon was powerful enough to bring calamity to an entire nation, and as those arch demons devoured one another, three kinds of Master Class Demons had emerged: the Demon Lord, the Beast, and the Devil. A Master Class Demon’s power was equal to that of a god, and so long as the daemons could acquire the power of one of them, they should be able to save their kind. However, if they were unable to control the demon, and it was released into the world, then not only would the daemons perish, but the rest of the world may follow.

Without that power, though, there was no way to control the selfish daemons or greedy humans.

The Daemon King and Caudle had carefully planned and worked toward this for over ten years now. If a human nation had discovered that they were planning to summon such a dangerous being, then the humans would’ve likely set their differences aside to band together and eradicate the daemons.

Under normal circumstances, the Daemon King would never have considered trying to use such a dangerous being either. He had tried instead to use his own might to control the human nations through armed interference, teaching Caudle the concept of deterrence.

In order to summon and control the demon, they had channeled massive amounts of magic into the enormous summoning circle underneath the Daemon King’s castle and, once they were ready, planned to use the hundreds of human sacrifices gathered by Caudle’s underlings to make a pact with the demon.

They had successfully drugged Yulucia to knock her out and then used the magic circle and a dark magic ritual to sap her magic. The circle had screamed at the quantity of magic that far surpassed what any human should possess, but that power should have been enough to make the Daemon King’s wish come true.

So why had the being they had been trying to summon manifested here and not the Daemon Lands?

And completely unbound at that.

“This cannot be!” Caudle was confused. Why had the king of being that only existed in legends, myths, and historical documents appeared here? Could it be that because they had used Saint Yulucia’s magic, which was of the highest quality, it had materialized here in order to take her as a sacrifice?

He had kept Callisto and Isabella in the dark, and now the humans had died because they had carelessly attempted to contact the demon. No, it had preyed on them. They had become a predator’s meal.

The Golden Beast swallowed up something that must have been the souls of the dead humans and then casually floated up into the air with the giant wings on her back.

“What the…?”

What was the Beast trying to do? Was she about to destroy the world? Bring about the downfall of all living things?

Caudle paled as he watched the Beast look out into the distance and narrow her crimson eyes.

The north. That was where the Daemon Lands were. The Saint probably hadn’t been enough of a sacrifice for the Golden Beast and now she was going to go after the magic they had sent to the Daemon Lands.

“Ugh… Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Caudle let out a roar to shake off his fear and unsheathed his sword to slash at the Beast.

“Lord Caudle?!”

“We need to get its attention! We can’t let it go to the Daemon King!”

Caudle’s underlings voiced their confusion as he cast off his human disguise, revealing his true form as an ashen-skinned daemon, and attacked the Beast. He was too deep in his panic to care about disguises or plans.

Everything would be over if the Beast managed to reach the Daemon Lands. If something were to happen to the Daemon King, then the daemons had no future.

“Understood. We will sacrifice ourselves for the Daemon King.” Caudle’s men sensed something in his spirit, and they too threw off their human disguises and unsheathed their hidden weapons.

Daemon was the general term for the people who had been banished to the northern lands. After generations of mixing bloodlines—including with monstrosities—the daemons did not have any common trait other than their ashen skin. The men who had joined Caudle on this mission looked comparatively closer to humans in terms of their appearances and were rational enough to be able to live among humans. Though this made them valuable assets in the eyes of the selfish daemons, it also meant they weren’t all that strong in battle.

“I’m sorry to ask this of you.” Caudle couldn’t retreat. He knew they had no chance of winning. Or surviving. They just needed to get the attention of the Beast away from the Daemon Lands.

In order to ensure that the daemons could survive.

“Let’s go!”

“Yaaaaaah!”

After trying so hard to suppress Yulucia’s power, Nia was now furious at the people who had so carelessly provoked her.

Why had Yulucia appeared in her true form? The only thing she could tell was that Yulucia wasn’t in her usual state of mind and was only acting on instinct.

There had been something mixed into the alcohol she drank, but drugs that worked on humans shouldn’t have affected a demon. The fact that it hadn’t worked on Nia and the other three was proof of that.

Yulucia had calmed down a little bit after eating Isabella’s soul, so Nia considered seizing her chance to kill and collect the souls of the other humans in the area while Noah fired at their mistress to try to get her to snap back to herself, but Nia was afraid that plan might set Yulucia off and cause her to go on a violent rampage instead.

“Nia! Tina!”

Having sensed something wrong with their mistress, Noah and Fanny had teleported in.

“Lady Yulucia?!”

“How is Mistress?! What’s happened?!”

“We don’t know, but she’s not herself right now! Nia’s got her under control for the moment, but we don’t know how long she’ll be able to hold her,” Tina explained, since Nia was completely focused on using her powers.

Normally, Yulucia wouldn’t have been defeated, no matter who her opponent was. However, they feared that Yulucia might end up hurting even them in her present confused state.

“Lady Yulucia!”

“Wait!” Noah stopped Fanny before she could leap at Yulucia.

Sensing the powers of the arch demons, the Golden Beast vanished and Noah and Fanny were sent flying straight through the stone wall.

“Nia!”

“I know!”

At Tina’s shout, Nia unsheathed her black demonic blade and slashed through the eddy of magic, absorbing some of it, but her demonic blade shrieked in protest. Not even an arch demon like Nia was a match for that power.

Rooooooooooooooooooooooooooar!!!

The Golden Beast howled, knocking back Tina and Nia along with the magic they had been suppressing. That was when…

“Raaaaaaaaaaaah!” Caudle drove his long sword right at her, ready in the face of death. “Beast Magic Strike!!!”

Caudle was descended from a line that was predominantly beastfolk. He interwove the strength of his vitality and magic—gathering his fighting spirit—to unleash a powerful attack. The shock wave of it was enough to break the stone flooring and the blade of his demonic sword struck true against the Golden Beast. However…

“Wh—”

The Golden Beast repelled his mighty attack with a snap of her wing. Caudle was stunned that the golden membrane didn’t have a single scratch on it. Her golden tail cracked like a whip at not only him but his men as well, cutting them all down around him.

“Gruuuuuuuuuuuugh?!”

The Golden Beast moved at such a speed that his eyes couldn’t track it. Caudle relied on the trace of gold he could see to block her with his long sword, handed down among those in the Daemon King’s castle.

However, a single flick of the Beast’s tail broke the powerful demonic sword and sliced through Caudle’s side as well. His severed left arm was knocked away along with the chunks of meat that had once been his men.

Daemon General Caudle was known not only in the Daemon Lands but the human nations as a mighty warrior, and here he had been swatted back in a single strike as if he were a fly.

“Nrrrgh…” Despite his lost arm and the gaping wound in his side, Caudle stood up with his broken demonic blade at the ready. “Damn it…”

“How dare he…!” Noah hissed at the fool who recklessly provoked the Golden Beast, flinging debris away as he stood up.

“Mistreeeess!” Debris scattered off Tina as she bolted forward, this time using not just magic but her physical abilities as an arch demon to try to immobilize the Golden Beast.

“Tina!” Fanny cried as she came crawling out of the debris, just as the Golden Beast took a bite off Tina’s left shoulder at dreadful speed.

“Ahh!” Tina was momentarily petrified at having been attacked like this by her beloved mistress.

The Golden Beast swung a golden wing at Tina. Nia leapt out to block it with her black demonic blade, shouting Tina’s name, but both girls were thrown back.

“Koff… This sure isn’t easy.” Nia spat out a black clump the way a human would vomit blood. The attack had been enough to whittle away a part of her very being, and if it weren’t for her power to Absorb, she likely wouldn’t even have been able to speak anymore.

But they weren’t out of danger yet.

“Here she comes!”

The Golden Beast’s form turned hazy—as if covered in mist—just before she attacked them at fearsome speed.

“Spaaarkle!” Fanny leapt out and used her nightmare glamour to avert the attack from the two of them.

Rrrruuuumble!!!

The noise of the shock wave was deafening, whipping up a windstorm of such velocity that it blew away the outer walls of the castle like cotton candy.

“This is all so ridiculous.” Noah took the opportunity to retrieve the two girls and heal them with his powers of Release. He shuddered at the difference in their power, yet could not peel his eyes away from the Golden Beast. “Nia, Tina, can you still move?” he asked with a grave expression.

“Just barely.” Nia had not yet fully recovered from the exhaustion of trying to restrain Yulucia.

“I…can manage.” Tina was the one with the best combat skills out of all of them, and she looked at her mistress with fire in her eyes as she checked the feeling in her newly regenerated left arm. “I will endure our Mistress’s love.”

“Okay. Let’s do this,” Noah answered after a strange pause, then rushed toward the Golden Beast with the two girl demons following after him.

“Nia!”

“Got it!”

Nia took the lead, taking Fanny’s place to block the Golden Beast’s attacks with her demonic blade.

Claaaang!

“Khgh!”

“Nia, I’ve got your back! Tina, attack her! Fanny, help her out!” Noah shouted.

Of course Nia would be their tank. She was the only one who could withstand the Golden Beast’s blows. But in order to do that, she needed Noah to replenish whatever magic she lost.

Nia’s Absorb ability could convert an attack from an enemy into the corresponding amount of magic. However, if the attack was stronger than she could absorb, she would take considerable damage. But Noah could convert the small amount she was able to absorb into magic to heal with her with, and this was how Nia was able to just barely endure the onslaught.

“Attack Mistress?! Have you gone mad?!” Tina asked Noah. Out of their designated roles of attacker, tank, and support, she was their attacker.

“Half-hearted attacks won’t even make her blink. We have to give her some kind of shock to try to get her to wake up again. It’s the only thing we can do!”

Tina groaned in response and then turned toward her Mistress, baring her pitch-black fangs and claws.

“Here I go!” Tina cried out of desperation as she rushed forward and drove her magical attacks into the Golden Beast’s side just as their mistress was about to attack Nia.

Dooooooom!

There was a roaring sound like two enormous metal objects clashing. Tina lost to the impact and was repelled back.

The deep crimson eyes whirled around to stare at Tina, sending a chill down her spine. The Golden Beast’s tail snapped at her like a whip, which Fanny managed to block using her glamour.

“Haaaaah!” Nia saw her chance to imbue the demonic blade with the magic she got from Noah and plunge it into the Golden Beast.

Krak!

The attack not only failed to so much as shake the Golden Beast, but despite being imbued with the magic of two arch demons, the tip of the blade broke off and shattered into pieces.

Rooooooooooooooooooooooar! The Golden Beast bellowed, gathering an eddy of great power in her opened mouth.

“Block it!” Noah shrieked.

Nia’s absorption powers and Fanny’s nightmares enveloped them all just as an enormous shock wave fired like a beam from the Golden Beast’s mouth, demolishing what remained of the castle into sand and carving into one of the mountains that could be seen in the distance.

***

“Get doooown!”

Ludoric instinctively obeyed the paladin’s shout just as a gale like that from an explosion powerful enough to uproot the thin trees in the area swept past them.

“Noel!”

“Khgh!”

Although Noel was also on the ground, he was small and seemed on the verge of being blown away, so Ludoric reached out his hand to him. Noel immediately took the boy’s hand and used it to endure the impact.

“What was that?” Noel asked.

“Look there!” one of the paladins shouted.

The paladins had managed to withstand the force of the wind thanks to their heavy armor, but they were all stunned by what their comrade called their attention to.

“The castle…”

“That mountain’s just completely gone?!”

They had been heading toward the castle, yet not only had their destination completely vanished without a trace of its existence, one of the mountains in the distance had been gouged into and a colossal mushroom-shaped cloud of dust was rising up from it.

“What in the world?” Ludoric uttered weakly at the realization that something completely out of the ordinary had just happened.

There was no way that whatever Duke Capell had been scheming would have reached this level. Knowing that this was now a crisis situation made the prince hesitate to step forward.

It wasn’t because he was afraid. Of course, he was afraid. But if something were to happen to him, not only would his guards have to take responsibility for it, but losing a member of the royal family would weaken the kingdom’s strength internationally and affect the entire nation.

“I have no intention of stopping here. If something were to happen to me, there’s always my brother. It’s my duty as a member of the royal family to save Yulucia and take care of this situation.”

“Right!” The paladins and Noel all nodded with determination at the prince’s declaration.

“Let’s go!”

***

“Is everyone okay?”

“I think so.”

Noah emerged as he pushed the debris of the demolished castle off himself. The other three arch demons also emerged from the rubble unharmed, though their clothes were all torn.

As beings from the Ethereal World, the demons appeared fine, but the damage they had taken had depleted their stock of magic considerably.

“This is—”

“Mistress’s power.”

The Golden Beast was the Beast, the title of one of the Demon Realm’s most powerful demons.

Yulucia’s four attendants knew better than anyone else that Yulucia was of a much higher rank than they were. She was their creator, their mother, their older sister—their beloved mistress who was the shining sun of the Demon Realm.

The four arch demons had been summoned from the Demon Realm by Yulucia to serve her once again. While her true self was indeed powerful, they were aware that the magic they felt from her wasn’t all that different from their own after they had evolved into arch demons. They thought this the result of their desperate attempts to build up their strength in order to better serve her, and were overjoyed from the bottoms of their hearts that they were able to use their power for her sake and that she needed their powers as well.

But they had been wrong.

Yulucia had once called them demons with no redeeming features. They had no special abilities—the only thing they had going for them was their speed. But that was only in terms of their abilities. In seeing her true self manifest with her fangs bared, the four demons realized just how much of a gulf there was between themselves and their mistress in terms of power.

Thinking back, they should have known from their time with her in the Demon Realm.

There was a demon Yulucia only referred to as him, and while he was mighty, she had never seemed bothered by the intensity of his presence. And once, when she had wielded her power, it had been enough to make the very ground of the Demon Realm quake.

Likely, top-ranking demons were able to hide their power, but where did they hide it? High-ranking demons could create an intrinsic pocket dimension within their souls. They could sever their power, which far surpassed that of any arch demon, and tuck it away in there.

They had assumed that Yulucia didn’t have her own intrinsic pocket dimension, but after witnessing the Golden Beast’s power, her attendants at last knew the truth: The Golden Beast—Yulucia’s true form—had lost her magic when she forced her way through that gate to the Material World, and until now had been sleeping deep inside Yulucia’s soul.

Meaning that Yulucia had been completely unable to use any of her demonic powers until she had consumed her first soul. Which only made sense. It was impossible to recover enough power to destroy a world on human meals alone. Since then, she had been slowly recovering some of her power through offerings, but had yet to recover her true strength.

Once she had her four attendants, though, she had been able to consume souls more regularly, and that magic flowed into her slumbering true self as well.

That power of her true form could no longer be contained within her intrinsic pocket dimension and had increased so significantly that it wouldn’t have been surprising if it burst out from inside of her soul at one point or another. The daemons’ evil designs to draw out her magic had instead dragged out her true form—starving from hunger—from the depths of her soul.

“Keep focused!” Noah said.

The Golden Beast had noticed that the arch demons were still alive. She flapped her golden wings as she gazed down at them with her crimson eyes from high in the sky.

Having used her power, she was probably starting to feel hungry. The Golden Beast peered at the demons with their masses of magic like they were her prey and swooped down at them while they were still paralyzed by the degree of difference in their powers. That was when…

“Are you all right?!”

Noah grimaced at the sound of the distant voice.

Ludoric and Noel were rushing straight for them. They did not balk at the sight of the terrible spectacle and had even brought the three paladins along.

“Why are you here?!” Noah shouted, not bothering to hide his irritation. While he had no personal concern for their well-being, Yulucia had ordered them to ensure their safety, so he had to make sure that Yulucia didn’t accidentally kill them.

“Now’s not the time to worry about me!” Ludoric shouted back.

The paladins raised an eyebrow at Noah’s disrespectful attitude, but since Ludoric didn’t seem to care, they judged that Noah must have had a similar relationship to the prince as Noel.

“Don’t get distracted!” Noel glared at the Golden Beast, sword drawn and at the ready.

“What—? What is that?” Ludoric and the paladins felt a chill run down their spines.

The creature appeared to be a small leopard with golden fur and wings, yet her beauty belied the undeniable reality of the frightening level of power that they could sense from a single look.

“Noah? Where’s Yulucia?” Ludoric asked.

“Uh…” Noah stumbled at the question.

Sensing something in Noah’s hesitation, Ludoric’s gaze snapped toward the Golden Beast in the sky with a sudden realization.

“Brace yourselves!” Noel shouted out again just as the Golden Beast pounced at them. Noel readied his sword to take the blow, but—

“Haaah!” Nia intercepted using her demonic blade as a shield, but was flung back and slammed into the rubble.

“Nia!” Noel cried out with fright.

Before he could even turn his head to look back at her, Noah and Fanny grabbed the humans, pushing them away just as Tina hurled herself at the Golden Beast to prevent her from chasing after them.

“Stay back!” Noah dumped Ludoric and Noel unceremoniously on the ground.

“How are you able to withstand that?” Ludoric asked Noah.

“Now is not the time,” Noah replied.

As the prince stood back up again, he noticed the stunned look on Noel’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you recognize that golden glow?” Noel asked.

“Huh?” Ludoric scowled as he tried to make the connection.

Noah’s lips curled. These two boys Yulucia was close with were on the verge of figuring out the truth.

The beast was the same golden color as Yulucia. She was gone and that creature was here now—what would they think it meant?

“Hear me, humans!” Caudle shouted. Just barely hanging onto life by a thread, he pointed his broken demonic blade at them with his remaining right arm. He had only managed to survive the destruction because he had been fortunate enough to be standing behind the barrier the four arch demons had erected.

“Listen closely to what I say! That there is a high-ranking demon from the Demon Realm! She’s going to destroy the world if we don’t do something! If you don’t want to die, then fight with me!!!”

Daemons couldn’t use holy magic. Instead, they could heal themselves by using dark magic spells like Wounds to give their injuries to someone else. At present, though, Caudle had something that looked like a black miasma clinging to his injured left shoulder and side, eating away at him like a curse.

The man already had one foot in the grave, yet his dedication and loyalty to the Daemon King kept him going. He now felt a faint glimmer of hope in the humans who were somehow managing to put up a fight against the powerful demon he had accidentally summoned.

He had to prevent that monster from reaching the Daemon King no matter what. That sense of duty was the only thing keeping him alive now.

Ludoric was shocked by Caudle’s now-ashen skin. “That color—are you a daemon?!”

Caudle looked toward them in answer. “I am Daemon General Caudle of the Daemon King’s Army! If the Beast is allowed to run free, it would be perilous for not just this kingdom, but the entire world! Forget what I am and help me!”

“What?! Don’t tell me that this is all your—”

“Ludoric, wait!” Noel stopped Ludoric from running his mouth and pointed his sword at Caudle as he looked up at the Golden Beast in the sky with something like hatred in his eyes. “Then that means that beast really is—”

Ludoric finally began to understand what Noel had been trying to tell him and shuddered. “No.”

Yulucia was gone.

And instead, there was a beast with the same coloring as Yulucia.

The four demons fell silent, welling up with the desire to kill these humans who had figured out the truth.

Their masquerading as humans was over. Their mistress would probably punish them for it later, but to protect Yulucia’s dream of living in a human world, they were now resolved to kill all of the humans here without leaving even a trace of their souls behind. They were just about to reveal their own true forms when—

“You mean to say that monster’s glowing like that because it absorbed Yulucia?!” Ludoric cried out.

“Yes, I think they used Lucia as a sacrifice to summon that beast. I can’t believe they would do such an awful thing!” Noel answered.

“Now do you understand, kids?! The Beast has grown even stronger by absorbing the Saint’s magic! That golden glow is your proof!” Caudle confirmed their conclusion.

Hearing all of this, Noah’s shoulders relaxed.

They all thought so highly of her that not even Caudle—their enemy—doubted Yulucia’s saintly purity. It would never even occur to them that Yulucia was involved with demons.

“Uh, that’s right.” Noah felt so exhausted after that, he could only give a listless answer.

‹Noah.› That was when Noah heard Fanny speak to him telepathically. She was busy with their mistress at present.

‹What is it?›

‹I think there’s something wrong with Lady Yulucia.›

‹What?!› When he took a good look at her, he realized something strange.

Nia hadn’t taken any damage and was back on the front lines. Even Tina and Fanny looked like they were having an easier time.

Could it be—? Ah! Noah’s mind whirled and he instantly arrived at an answer.

Why were the humans unharmed even though they were so close to the Golden Beast as she wielded her immense power? The moment after she’d manifested, the miasma she emitted had been enough to rot the scheming humans away, and she’d gobbled them up along with their very souls. But now the Golden Beast wasn’t giving off any miasma at all.

Although the Golden Beast grew stronger from eating the black souls of Isabella and the daemons, no important human had died. This phenomenon was—

It must be because humans Mistress cares about are here.

Which meant that a part of Yulucia’s consciousness still remained. Likely, she unconsciously didn’t register Ludoric, Noel, and the others as prey.

Same went for Noah and the other arch demons. Although they were all barely hanging on, the four of them would likely be dead already if she had attacked them with her full strength and speed. But each time, the Golden Beast had pulled back at the very last moment, giving the demons a chance to survive.

Even Caudle had managed to survive that torrent of power because he had been behind Noah and the others.

The four demons were moved that their mistress still had unconscious compassion toward them even in her current state. Meanwhile, Ludoric and the other humans continued bickering with Caudle, so Noah pleasantly interjected like the trickster he was and simply said, “Leave this to us. We have a good idea of how to handle this.”

“Let’s do it!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” the three paladins responded in unison to Ludoric’s command and began to move.

However, it was not Ludoric or any of the paladins leading the charge, but Nia, the girl knight who was still only twelve years old.

The paladins frowned at the idea of having to fight behind the pretty little girl at first, but she had been fending off the Golden Beast’s attacks the entire time they were talking, and they had had no choice but to accept the attendant’s strength, believing that she had the divine protection of the Saint.

“We’re going to get Yulucia back!”

Noah’s proposed plan wasn’t anything unusual. They were to give their mistress such a shock that it rattled her, as the four demons had been attempting to do the whole time—though before, they had been trying to specifically bring Yulucia back to her senses. Now they were trying something different.

“I want you all to keep attacking as hard as you can. When we see our opening, we will sever Lady Yulucia from the creature!” Noah’s words gave the humans hope as they charged the Golden Beast.

Up until then, the four attendants had assumed that Yulucia’s consciousness had been devoured by her real demonic nature, but assuming she still unconsciously cared for Ludoric and the other humans, then there was a chance that they could seal her true form away again.

Yulucia didn’t have her own intrinsic pocket dimension. That was why she had unconsciously avoided destroying the World of Light she so yearned for when she first arrived in the Material World in her oversized true form. Accidentally using up all of her true form’s magic must have been the reason she had been reborn as a human.

The reason the Golden Beast was going on such a rampage now must have been because her true form’s magic was far too great for the current Yulucia to control. With time, she would have acclimated to it, but to leave such magical powers unchecked would likely turn the entire world against her.

And so, Noah and the others planned to seal her true form into a new intrinsic pocket dimension for Yulucia’s usage.

Could they make such a thing so easily, though? They had an idea for how to pull it off.

Since they’d arrived in the Material World, the four arch demons had been slowly gathering up Yulucia’s surplus of magic to create an intrinsic pocket dimension for her in a Demon Realm they called Lost Eden.

Their plan was to seal Yulucia’s true body in Lost Eden and stabilize her by officially making it her intrinsic pocket dimension. And so, all of the arch demons other than Nia set about making a giant magic circle in the ruins of the castle to prepare.

They couldn’t afford to split up any further if they were going to seal their mistress’s powers away. They had no choice but to assign Nia to protect the humans so that they didn’t accidentally die.

That being the case, who would make the attack to rattle the Golden Beast?

“Don’t lag behind, human!”

“You don’t need to tell me!”

Even as they bickered, Caudle and Noel engaged the Golden Beast with their swords. The two of them were strong, but their lifespans were limited. Alone, their powers could not even hope to match that of an arch demon, let alone a greater demon.

Still, Noel and Ludoric were Yulucia’s close friends and a single strike from one of them was sure to rattle her heart more than any more powerful blow ever could.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

The Golden Beast snarled threateningly at the puny creatures attacking her and pounced. Nia blocked her, parrying the attack with all her might.

“Now!” The one-armed Caudle charged in, putting his whole body into swinging his broken demonic blade.

A golden wing repelled the attack, so Noel dove in to fill the gap and swung. Her long tail parried his sword, smacking both him and the sword away.

“I’m not finished yet!” Noel had not yet been defeated. He dug his heels into the ground before charging into the battle again.

The Golden Beast began to move to face him, but Nia blocked the attack.

“This way, beast!”

“Heal Lord Noel!”

Caudle was afflicted by the miasma and Nia had been hit by multiple miasma attacks already, but they both refused healing, knowing holy magic wouldn’t be as effective on them. As a result, the paladins gave Nia backup as she single-handedly fought off each attack and healed Noel with their magic so that one person didn’t have to shoulder all of the burden.

“These are humans?” The lone daemon among all of these humans, Caudle was astonished by their strength.

Daemons were physically superior from the beastfolk and monstrosity blood running through their veins. The other humanoid species—humans being the most numerous—couldn’t hope to compare in terms of physical strength. However, humans were capable of combining their strength and fighting together. They could band together and fight for a common cause, unlike daemons, who lived in packs formed through fear and violence. Even if it meant having to sacrifice their own life, humans could rally their courage to fight to protect someone they loved. This was why humans had their Heroes who represented that courage and their Saints who represented that love.

“The Saint.”

The golden girl the humans were trying to save. The purehearted maiden who was more beautiful than any girl should have been at her age. Who had seen through Caudle’s true identity with her keen eye—and despite knowing what he was, she had smiled at him affectionately. If she were to meet the compassionate Daemon King, perhaps she would be willing to save him too. Not that he hoped to be granted such a wish after plotting to sacrifice her to end the world for the sake of his kind, but Caudle couldn’t help but wish she would save him.

Caudle was using the humans, pretending to be part of a united front so that this monster wouldn’t reach the Daemon King. However, hisfeelings about everything had changed. It was as if by coming into contact with her purity, he too had been slightly purified. He now wielded his blade, putting his life on the line not only for the Daemon King, but for the Saint as well—to save that little girl.

“Daemon King, please forgive me.” Caudle knew he was likely to die here. Knowing that the Daemon King may mourn for him, but surely not rebuke him, Caudle readied his demonic blade again as he leaped back into the fray.

“Damn it!” Ludoric panicked. Yulucia had been absorbed by that monster and it felt like it was taking so long to get her back, but he was overwhelmingly frustrated with himself for being so useless on this battlefield.

Everyone always told Ludoric how competent he was, but they meant that he was competent for a twelve-year-old boy.

He was as good a swordsman as a knight, but not as good as the paladins.

He could use spellcraft just as well as anyone else, but he couldn’t match Noel, who had been working as a mercenary for several years now.

The attendants who had Yulucia’s blessing must have poured their blood and sweat into getting strong enough to be the Saint’s attendants. He couldn’t match any of them in their protection of others, wisdom for how to save their mistress, or their ability to make that happen.

Ludoric was inferior to everyone here.

As the person with the highest social status, he was in charge, but everyone knew their roles so well that there was no need for him to give orders.

What am I even doing? Ludoric clenched his fist at his own powerlessness.

He had come on this trip in order to protect Yulucia. Some had criticized the prince’s plan out of concern, but he pushed to travel with her anyway because he knew that he was only the backup heir. If something happened to Ludoric, there was always his older brother Timoté.

That wasn’t a good reason for putting himself in danger, but Ludoric knew that there was a faction that supported his claim to the throne over his brother’s. There were times when he even thought that the kingdom would be better off without him.

He understood very well why the battle of succession had made Yulucia’s father try to leave the royal family. At the same time, he sympathized with the feelings of being unable to sever his familial ties.

“Yulucia!”

They could be overly indulgent at times, but he loved his family. And for the sake of his family, he would do whatever it took to rescue Yulucia. She was his family too—like a little sister, even.

But he hadn’t felt that way about her at first.

The first time he met her, Ludoric had been seven years old. She had such doll-like beauty, yet such humanlike flaws, and he couldn’t help but be enchanted by how pretty she was.

During the kidnapping, he had been powerless while she managed to heal not only the bodies of those children, but their hearts as well, even though she wasn’t even four years old yet. And Ludoric adored her for it.

She was the true Saint. People respected Ludoric since he was a prince, but he was sure that even if she weren’t a princess, the entire Holy Kingdom would still respect and revere Yulucia.

If only she weren’t a princess. If she weren’t descended from royal blood, then Ludoric could have loved her without any obstacles. But she was royalty and the Saint, and to marry her would be synonymous with becoming king.

Since Timoté was so much older, he only saw Yulucia as a little sister. Therefore, Ludoric had no choice but to be her older brother too.

That was why Ludoric had struggled so hard to become more mature. He tried to grow up not just physically, but mentally so that he could be more rational. Ludoric grew up to be the kind of big brother who could protect his little sister—or at least, he had tried.

But now Yulucia’s life was in danger because of the evil designs of the daemons.

Why had he tried so hard to grow up? Why had he resolved to be like an older brother to her? Had everything he had done up until now all been for naught?

If he couldn’t save Yulucia, then lying to his heart would have just been a pointless waste of time.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

In that moment he made up his mind to fight for the girl he loved, something took root in Ludoric’s heart.

His body was enveloped in silver light as he received the blessing of Steel Heart, an earth arch elemental. Brimming with new energy, the boy bellowed toward the heavens.

“Lucia!” Noel continued putting his whole heart and soul into every swing of his sword. He never faltered or felt afraid, not even when he was injured or knocked off his feet. He continued driving forward and swinging the blade in his hand.

All for the sake of the girl he loved.

His whole family had been murdered when he was young. Noel had been abused, had lost all hope and given into despair, wishing for death until the tiny golden Saint had saved him.

Saint Yulucia. She declared that she would not allow him to resign himself to death, and the affectionate smile she showed him then made him feel as if he were seeing an angel sent by the gods.

Even when all was lost, there was always still hope. In teaching him that, Yulucia was like a goddess who had given light to the world—and he believed her to be the true Saint.

At first, he’d admired her. Just as people clung to religion when they felt hopeless, he’d relied on the Saint’s existence for emotional support as he desperately continued to live. His talents were recognized and it ultimately led him to his adoptive father. The boy who had once been the son of refugees now lived among the nobility.

He had been able to make graves for his family and spoke to them, telling them that he was living a good life now. At long last, he felt as if he were human.

That young boy who had been content just admiring the girl slowly grew up, and became keenly aware of the differences between him and her: He was the adopted son of middle nobility with no territory to call his own, while she was the Princess of the Holy Kingdom and the true Saint. There was a wall as high as a mountain range between them.

He had been so happy when he got to see her again. But as they got older, it was becoming harder to talk to her on the same level.

Meeting Yulucia had given him the hope to go on living again in a time when Noel had lost everything, and he had slowly grown the circle of people he cared about through his adoptive father, allies, and friends. Each time he added more people to that circle, they became bonds of obligation that pulled him even further away from her.

She had always treated him the same, as if nothing had changed. She still smiled at him just like she had when they were younger, but her smile was even more beautiful now that they were older.

And now Yulucia was lost inside of this monster with extraordinary strength.

The attendants said that they would be able to extract Yulucia from the beast if they kept attacking. Surely her attendants wanted to save their mistress too if they could. They themselves couldn’t all keep fighting the beast, despite their strength, because the Saint had trained them in a kind of spellcraft that only they could use to save her.

They believed in Noel, so that was why they entrusted this task to him.

Though he was trying his best, he had been unable to land a blow that gave them the chance to pull her out.

“Why?!”

Why couldn’t he do that attack he had used way back when?

Yulucia had gone to a provincial city in Toure to visit the injured and sick, and she had been kidnapped. Noel had managed to turn the feelings welling up inside of him into light to slay the lycanthropes.

He just couldn’t draw out that attack—that light—again. He could make light by reciting a spell. However, he had not managed to perform that explosive attack a second time.

What had been different about that moment? Was it because he had received Yulucia’s blessings? Or had he been wrong and that attack had never actually been his own power?

“Oh, so that’s it.”

His heart filled with despair at his inability to save Yulucia. Although he’d felt the same way back then, he had felt the light of courage inside his heart.

If he couldn’t use the light, then there was something else he could use instead. Which was—

“My life!”

He didn’t need protection. He didn’t want to keep on living if she wasn’t part of his life. He had to do the same thing he had done the last time he’d needed to rescue her: throw his entire being into a single attack, using his own life as a weapon.

If it could save the Saint he so admired—no, that wasn’t right.

If it could save the girl he loved, then Noel would willingly sacrifice his own life.

And that determination summoned the light again.

Noel gasped.

It hadn’t disappeared. The light had always been inside of him. He just hadn’t been able to see it. He could feel the light elemental inside his heart.

The legends of the Holy Kingdom said that when a great evil appeared, the light elemental would choose a Hero to save the world. Having received the light elemental’s protection, Noel then awoke as the one and only true Hero of this world. He shouted the feelings of his heart for the girl he loved: “†§† (Light)!”

A great pillar of white light erupted from his blade as he swung down at the Golden Beast, his light clashing with the Golden Beast’s strength.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” At the same time, Ludoric struck on the opposite side, his sword shining with silver light. “Noel!”

“Ludoric!”

The two called one another’s names, nodded in unison, and then drove their lights into the Golden Beast even further. Until that moment, the Golden Beast had been unperturbed, but now she was finally knocked back.

“Now!” At Noah’s cry, all four attendants rushed after her and used their magic to activate the magic circle.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!

It didn’t stop the Golden Beast, though, and she fired off a pulse of energy from her mouth aimed at the four of them. Even the four attendants wouldn’t be able to withstand the attack without some kind of defense.

“Noooooo!” Caudle leaped in, using his demonic blade and body as a shield against the shock waves. He gave a slightly chagrined look to the long-awaited Hero, who looked shocked now. “Do it, Heroes! Save the Saint!”

That was when the magic circle enveloped the Golden Beast in red light and a golden light shot out from within her.

“Yulucia!”

“Luciaaa!”

The light was as blindingly bright as the sun. It was impossible for the boys to see what was happening.

Had the magic circle worked? Was Yulucia okay? The boys screamed out from their hearts and light scattered about like golden feathers in answer.

“Ahhh.”

The form of a girl emerged from the light. Her tattered dress fluttered about her like wings as the unconscious Yulucia glided down like an angel, returning to the people who loved her.

Episode 10: I Have Become the True Saint…And Then

Episode 10:
I Have Become the True Saint…And Then

“HUH?” WHEN I AWOKE, I WASN’T SURE WHY, but I saw the sky.

Huh? What’s going on? What happened? Why am I sleeping in the middle of all this debris?

“Yulucia!”

“Lucia!”

I turned toward the voices to find Rick and Noel looking kind of dirty and tired as they rushed toward me on the verge of tears. They must’ve known what happened. I hauled myself up and Rick and Noel both blushed as something that looked like a cloak, which must have been draped over me, slipped off.

Tina immediately grabbed the napes of both of their necks and hauled them backward. “Please avert your eyes.”

“Whoa!”

“Ah!”

Huh? Why was my dress all shredded? My private parts were safe, but considering how I usually kept everything but my face and hands covered up, I was showing a considerable amount of skin.

Oh—

“Ow!”

“Mistress?!”

My hand instinctually rose to my aching head. My three female attendants came rushing over while Noah kept his back turned, blocking everyone else’s view of me.

“Ah, I’m all right. Are you guys okay?” I asked.

“We didn’t take too much damage.”

“That’s good.”

Based on how I was feeling, this had to be a hangover.

I knew it. The second I drank that liquid, I knew it was bad. That had been my first time drinking alcohol in this life—and it would be the last. And did I eat some weird soul too on top of that? I had no idea how easily I could get drunk. I may have still been a child, but was a single sip really enough to make me black out? It was so delicious, I had accidentally let my guard down.

I would never drink alcohol ever again!

Setting that thought aside, I surveyed the mountain of rubble that appeared to have once been a castle and, after putting the pieces together in my mind, broke into a cold sweat.

“Uh, can someone tell me what happened?”

“Oh, sure.”

The three girls gave me a confusing description that also included their opinions on everything, but basically, I learned that I had done something very bad. My inner cat came out and attacked everyone? At any rate, everyone assumed that it had been a stray demon with no connection to me, but I was very embarrassed by the incident all the same.

“I caused everyone so much trouble because I cannot tolerate alcohol and passed out as a result, didn’t I? The castle is in ruins and such an awful thing happened to the Capells.”

I was so embarrassed to learn that I was a violent drunk. While I had continued to grow my personal assets every day, there was no way I could afford the cost of repairs for a castle. What was I to do?

I quietly put a hand to my cheek as I fretted over this. Rick and Noel had come back over and sighed with exhausted relief.

“Yulucia.”

“Lucia, I hope you never change.”

Why was it that they seemed kind of exasperated by me again?

“This didn’t happen because you passed out. It was because of Caudle the daemon’s trap. I have no idea how a daemon disguising himself as a human was connected to House Capell, but Duchess Isabella is missing, so we won’t be able to charge her for bringing him here,” Rick explained.

“Oh, dear.” Maybe I was safe, then? I wouldn’t have to pay if it wasn’t my fault, right? It was all their fault for knocking me out in the first place, anyway!

“Do you want to talk to him?” Rick asked.

“Huh?” Caudle was still alive?

“It’s practically a miracle, but he’s just barely hanging on. He’s been waiting for you to wake up.” There was something like pity for the daemon in the way Rick spoke. He knew what the daemons were, though. They were non-humans who had done bad things and lived in the north, meaning they were enemies of human nations, right?

Caudle was the one to blame for all of this, but he’d joined forces with my people in the end and they would have gotten really hurt if he hadn’t been their shield or something. Boy, I sure felt sorry about this whole mess.

“Mistress, perhaps you should get changed first?”

“Do we have a change of clothes?”

As I tried to stand up, Tina and Fanny offered me this choker-looking thing. Why was it black?

“What’s this?”

“By your leave, Fanny and I made this with your magic. Please take it.”

“Okay?”

I didn’t really understand—they’d made this black choker instead of clothes? I was very confused, but Tina and Fanny seemed very proud of it, so I wrapped it around my neck.

“Is that you, Saint?”

“Yes.”

I was wearing both the choker and the cloak as I approached Caudle. I couldn’t believe he was still alive—half of his body had been eaten away by miasma. He was lying on the ground and cracked his eyes open to look at me.

“Do you want me to heal you?” I asked.

“No… You would…show mercy…to a daemon too? I stole…your power to summon a monster.”

Oh, so that’s how it was? I knelt down beside him and took his only hand. “You must have had some reason for doing so, right? If you would explain it to me, I might be able to help.”

Behind me, I sensed Noel stopping Rick from interjecting.

My words were even more of a shock for the daemon, and tears began to flow from his eyes, opened wide with surprise. “Oh, Saint, I beseech you… Go north. Meet with the Daemon King.”

I gave a quiet nod and smiled at him. “I shall.”

Caudle closed his eyes with relief. His body then disintegrated into dust and was gone.

Sweet. I nabbed myself a high-quality soul.

“Big Brother Ludoric, Noel, I see that the two of you are much stronger now than before.”

“You can tell?”

Of course I could. I had long sensed the vestiges of something like a light elemental in Noel, and now I could sense a great deal of elemental power from both of them. “Do you both have the protection of an elemental?”

“I guess so,” Ludoric answered.

“I’m not surprised you can tell,” Noel said.

One of the paladins confirmed as much. “Your Highness, I believe one may be the Hero of legend, and the other the Holy Warrior—the same as the Hero-class warrior who fought alongside the very first Hero.”

Was it just me, or did the paladins seem rather excited about this? Not that there was anything to be done about it.

Ahh, they were now such bothersome souls, though. I hadn’t thought the two of them would awaken like this instead of my older sister’s Hero (just kidding).

Being by my side for so long had put a tremendous strain on their souls.

Well, too late now.

I quietly looked up at the sky.

I see. So you’re here now. I can feel it—your heartbeat.

“Would the two of you and the paladins as well accept me if I were to declare myself the Saint?”

Noel and Rick nodded despite their confusion.

“Of course,” Noel said.

“Yes, you are the Saint of the Holy Kingdom,” Rick agreed.

“Yes, of course we would. There is none but you, Your Highness, who could possibly be she.” Even the paladins agreed.

I figured I would be okay if this many souls were willing to recognize me as the Saint. I was glad too, since that meant I could do this.

“Noel, lend me your blade.”

“Lady Lucia?”

“The two of you, kneel before me.”

Noel handed me his battered sword, and despite their confusion, they did as I said and knelt before me. I touched the blade to Rick’s shoulder first.

The two of them were not yet stable. What I was doing would likely offend the elementals who empowered them, but I had to do this here and now.

Sorry for being a demon and all.

“Ludoric von Versenia. In the name of the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, I hereby dub thee the Holy Warrior.”

Ludoric gasped. His entire body was enveloped in silvery light as his very soul accepted him as such.

Noel was wide-eyed as I next touched the blade to his shoulder. His head snapped up to look at me.

“Noel Barnabas. In the name of the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, I hereby dub thee the Hero of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Lady…Lucia…” Noel’s body was also enveloped in white light.

“In the name of Yulucia von Versenia, for having been graced with the divine protection of the elementals, I offer unto you the blessings of light—Manifest Light.”

The humans watched in awe as I released a golden light centered upon myself.

I should be allowed to get away with this much at least. It was just a little insurance.

Because without it, they wouldn’t be able to survive what was coming.

“What is that?” one of the paladins murmured.

We all looked up in the same direction and saw what looked like a whirlwind of massive black clouds far beyond the mountains.

They were to the north, where the Daemon Lands were.

“Mistress!” Noah cried out in alarm.

Light shot out from Rick and Noel to shield the weak humans.

“What is it?”

“Stand back, everyone.” I alone stepped forward. The two boys tried to stand to stop me, but they were surprised to find that they couldn’t move.

This was why I had tricked them into agreeing that I was the Saint and forcibly interfered with their elementals’ powers—to protect them. Their elementals had frozen them in place for me. All to ensure that they would survive this.

“Manifest Light!”

Beyond the mountain range, jet-black lightning surged from the dark clouds to attack us. I gathered light into my hand and blocked the lightning with my palm.

“Lucia!”

“Yulucia!”

Roooooooooooooooooooooooar!

There was a thunderous roar like a beast’s howling as the golden light clashed with the black lightning. All of the living creatures not currently protected by the boys’ lights—bugs, animals, even small elementals—perished.

As the black lightning attempted to destroy everything in its path, the arch elementals desperately protected the humans who would be everyone’s hope.

That was when the black choker changed, replacing my scorched cloak and shredded outfit with a brand-new dress that protectively enveloped me.

I crushed the lightning in my hand and its remnants left black letter-like carvings in the walls of the wreckage.

Ahh, he was finally here.

***

Daemon King Haebulat was born the son of the king of the daemons. His mother had been one of the king’s several concubines and was murdered by one of the other wives just after she gave birth to him. His father had multiple wives and children, and they all feuded to become the next king.

Without anyone to support him, Haebulat should have been killed right away. Despite all odds, he survived.

He had those who’d sheltered him out of pity to thank for this, but the biggest reason he was still alive today was because he was enlightened.

Ever since he was young, Haebulat had possessed the memories of someone else’s life. He knew the life of a man who was not him. That man’s memories flashed before his eyes, and from them, Haebulat had learned a certain way of thinking and moral values.

The man had not lived a happy life at all. He had been exploited by others for all he was worth and wound up dying from overwork. Haebulat saw the man’s life as a good example of what not to do in his own life, and laid traps to kill enemies who did not grasp the concept of subtle maneuvering.

He knew it was wrong, but he struggled for his survival, ultimately eliminating all of his father’s wives and other sons. His father favored him for his ruthlessness and named him his successor.

His cruel education had shown Haebulat the truth, though, and he despaired.

Even supposing that the man whose life he remembered was his own past self, Haebulat had no emotional attachment to the memories—they were just information to him. How that man had lived his life bore no relation to Haebulat. Still, the knowledge that man possessed had greatly impacted Haebulat’s own way of thinking.

The Daemon Lands were a barren wasteland that never saw sunshine, so crops couldn’t grow, and their people suffered from destitution. Nevertheless, it was his country. As its next king, Haebulat sought to improve it, using the moral values he had learned from the man.

However, his wish was impossible.

The daemons only knew how to steal—they knew not how to make anything with their own hands. The daemons were already at their limits and thought only of cheating others, had no ambitions for rising up in the world, and were only capable of holding others back so that none could ever be successful.

Within the next hundred years, the daemons would likely go extinct.

Realizing that it would be impossible to change the culture of his people, Haebulat despaired and made up his mind.

The king of the daemons was known as the “Daemon King,” but that was merely a title given to their ruler—he was not someone on the same level of power as the first Daemon King, who had been Daemon Lord Rank.

Daemon Lord Rank fell within the Catastrophe Rank, which was one rank higher than the Calamity Rank that arch elementals and arch demons belonged to. Once someone of Daemon Lord Rank appeared and the elementals chose a Hero, the Daemon King could be considered that rank.

If the king of the daemons really had possessed power worthy of Daemon Lord Rank, then perhaps he would have been able to subjugate the daemons and change their mindsets through strength. However, both Haebulat and his father were only Disaster Rank, which was two levels below that, so Haebulat believed that he needed to acquire even greater power to save the daemons from dying out.

Haebulat had been the tender age of fifteen when he killed his father and claimed the title of Daemon King. With Caudle and his other few supporters, they began to mobilize. Over the course of twenty years, they accumulated a tremendous amount of magic in the enormous summoning circle underneath the Daemon King’s castle. The magic was going to be used to summon an incredibly powerful demon. Summoning demons was very risky business, though. Haebulat had studied countless texts and was devising a means to summon an intelligent demon capable of rational conversation known as the “Demon Expert.”

“Not much longer now, Françoise.”

Haebulat’s wish would soon be fulfilled. Over the past twenty years, he had made many enemies, but he had also met many allies he cared about as well. Daemon General Caudle was one such ally, but the biggest reason he did not want this plan to fail was because of his beloved daughter. He had no blood relation to the girl. She was the daughter of a family of dwarves who had oppressed and banished her. He’d pitied her and decided to take her in and raise her as his own. Just the thought of her and the daemons who believed in him gave Haebulat renewed motivation.

That was when it suddenly happened.

“What’s going on?”

Since his trusted retainer Daemon General Caudle had gone to the human lands in pursuit of magic, he had been regularly sending magic back, and now they had about eighty percent of the amount needed for the summoning.

He had received word from Caudle that the Saint in the Holy Kingdom possessed a wealth of magic and that he was going to steal her magic for them. Haebulat had been worried about Caudle taking on the Saint, since she was their sworn enemy by nature, but within the blink of an eye, the immense amounts of magic he sent back exceeded the amount of magic the summoning circle could contain. He saw the golden magic cover the circle and sensed that something they never could have anticipated had occurred.

“Sever the connection!” Haebulat ordered.

“W-we can’t!” shouted the man handling the circle of magic transmission. They had received far too much and now he couldn’t stop it.

The summoning circle started to grow brighter as it continued absorbing the magic and activated on its own.

“Who just activated the circle?! Stop the spell! I don’t care if you have to destroy it!” Daemon King Haebulat shouted at his guards as he unsheathed his sword and lunged forward.

Summoning a demon must be done very carefully. If they tried to brute-force a summoning with magic alone, they wouldn’t summon the specific demon they intended to invoke. They might accidentally unleash millions of demons into the world instead. And in a worst-case scenario, they might accidentally summon a monster they couldn’t even make a pact with.

Whooo…

It sounded like the howling of a beast from the depths of the earth.

The summoning circle repelled Haebulat’s attack. Out of fear of the voice that sounded like a curse incarnate, Haebulat cast his most powerful spell. “Flare!”

He summoned a giant white-hot fireball that hit the summoning circle and seared away everything in the vicinity.

This might mean that they were back at square one with their plans, but he wasn’t about to let that repulsive being into this world unfettered. But then—

Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

The beastly howl shook the entirety of the Daemon Lands.

Wrath, resentment, hatred—the negative emotions imbuing that howl were enough to dispel his Flare, and the creature appeared from within the blazing flames.

“Ooooooh!” Geas stepped forth from where he had been watching in the shadows, crying out with joy. “Now we will be able to see our aspirations fulfilled. Wha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

The elderly man cackled with glee as it revealed itself entirely. Sensing what the creature really was, Haebulat sank to the ground, a hopeless look on his face.

Haebulat hadn’t known that the Demon Expert was already dead. Nor did he know that the demon who had killed him would be there. Unfortunately, Haebulat had summoned that beast instead.

“No.”

His leopard-like body, over ten yards long, was the color of jet-black darkness. This was an ancient demon that had wracked the entire world with fear long ago—the legendary Beast. He was—

“The Beast—the Dark Beast!”

The Beast ripped off the shackles of the summoning circle with his raw power and howled toward the south as he shot off black lightning.

“Golden Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeast!”

***

I, Yulucia, have returned to the capital in one piece.

Well, how do I describe what happened? Everyone freaked out because of the incident, but I managed to calm things down by explaining that after they freed me from the demon, it had turned from gold to black and tried to drag me back with its claws.

But would you call that settling things? In any case, nothing happened after that, so, yeah.

Duke Capell and Cordelia were unharmed. Cordelia was rather depressed when she heard that her mother was missing, though since she was no longer brainwashed, she would probably be okay eventually. Duke Capell understood her feelings too and was even considering letting her recuperate at Zesh’s home.

As for Duke Capell, he was deeply rethinking his actions after hearing the details of what had happened. He was like a whole new man and was even trying to make amends. For now, though, he would have to wait for Grandfather’s verdict.

In any case, it was clear that Duchess Isabella and the daemons were at fault for all this, so I doubted his punishment would be anything too bad. They could just blame it all on the daemons.

Duke Capell humbly apologized to me and, having become a member of the Society officially, he now had bushy hair. And I was getting more assets.

While that was great and all…

Meow.

“Nia? Quit swinging that sword,” I said.

“Awww!” she replied.

Was that complaining I heard?

We were in my room in the castle, where Nia was showing off the new demonic blade made out of my magic to Bri and Sarah.

Why wasn’t anyone stopping her from swinging a sword indoors?

Her black demonic blade from before had reached its limit because of the battle and not even Noah could repair it, so she’d begged me for a new sword. She happened to find a broken demonic blade nearby, so Nia used the magic absorbed from me to forge a new one. This one wound up golden in color—the same shade as my hair.

The meow just now was the sound of the sword being swung.

You gotta be freaking kidding me.

“Hand that over to me, Nia. I’ll buy you a new one,” I said with a smile.

“No way.” Nia hugged the naked blade tightly to herself, looking on the verge of tears as she shook her head.

“Lady Yulucia,” said Bri and Sarah.

Absolutely not! Not Bri, not Sarah, not anybody else! Give me puppy-dog eyes all you like, but I’m not making another one of those! You weren’t even part of the fight! You were still asleep!

Arrrgh! What the heck was with this demonic blade? Why did it meow with a voice that sounded just like mine?! That demonic blade she’d just happened to find wasn’t cursed, was it?! My shame was being put to the test.

“Don’t worry about that, Lady Yul. It’s your dress we need to do something about.”

“Is it bad?”

I didn’t want us to drop the topic of the golden demonic blade so quickly, but Vio was always sure to step in and correct anything that was urgent.

I had grown considerably and my old dresses didn’t really fit me anymore. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t have a new one ready for me in time for the upcoming ceremony that had been scheduled on the spur of the moment. I didn’t mind wearing something that could just be bought from a store, so I wished they’d just get me one of those.

“This will be a formal occasion for you, so I doubt that Lady Lia or His Grace will agree to one that can just be bought from a store.”

“Oh, dear. What are we to do?” I glanced at Tina. She shook her head mournfully.

This just wouldn’t do. I mean, I did have a dress. One that was just my size, at least.

Back then, my scorched dress had been replaced by the black and silver dress that Tina and Fanny had made for me. What did it mean that I was able to transform clothes like that from my choker? In any case, the two of them were able to make their uniforms as well. While there was no issue with the ability in itself, there was another problem entirely.

The design was fine and all. They’d added some cool details too. They sure went all out making it, because it came equipped with all kinds of features, such as self-cleaning, self-mending, temperature control, automatic size adjustment, automatic changing skirt length, and all kinds of other things. I had a feeling that I could change the design to some extent too if I wanted.

Wasn’t that amazing? I could save so much money with this single dress.

So what was so bad about it?

“Black simply won’t do for your public debut to the citizens.”

“Yeah, I figured…”

It was a pretty shade of black with embroidery in Fanny’s silver thread. The design was Gothic-Lolita-like, so I didn’t think it was bad, but Vio just shook her head in silence.

“Why are all of the clothes Tina makes black?”

“Who’s to say?”

Tina and I inclined our heads to the side in unison, and Fanny, amused, did so too.

“I disagree! It makes Lady Yul all the more radiantly beautiful! The black dress brings out the white of her velvety-smooth, scrumptious skin and golden hair! I’m not so convinced they’re the Holy Warrior and the Hero, but such greenhorn children couldn’t hope to compare! Ooh, you are simply so divine, like the Goddess herself!”

“Whoa! Shelly! Slow down there!”

Shelly and Betty were here as well, and once again Betty had to step in to pull Shelly back when she started rambling nonsense.

While it felt like Betty was used to this kind of thing now, was it really okay for a citizen of the Holy Kingdom like Shelly to go around saying these kinds of things?

Anyway, today was going to be our big debut. My grandfather had gone all out to put together a huge ceremony for his grandchildren, and this time we would be making our debut from the castle terrace to all the people of the nation who had gathered outside the castle to see us.

Yikes. Was it really okay to be doing this kind of thing for his grandchildren?

We did have a very good reason for this event, though.

“Since we have no other choice, let’s instead have you put on a white surcoat over the dress. Prince Ludoric and Lord Noel will both be wearing white surcoats as well, so it will look like you’re matching them.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Don’t worry, Yul. You’ll look pretty in anything.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

I wasn’t going to be appearing alone this time; Rick and Noel would be with me.

I put on the pure white surcoat they already had prepared and wore it over my black dress. Having received my mother’s approval, I headed out to the terrace where the two boys were waiting for me.

“Took you long enough.”

“Now, now, Ludoric. Girls need extra time to get ready.”

Look, it wasn’t just my fault that I’d taken so long.

“The two of you look so dashing.” I tried to get him to drop the subject by giving them a gentle princess-like smile.

But, well, it was the truth. The two of them weren’t wearing their regular clothes, but were now clad in proper armor. Rick’s silver armor looked just like the kind the Holy Warrior had worn, and with his white surcoat, he looked very gallant. The base of Noel’s armor was also silver, but his was a mix of equipment made of leather and plate armor, and he was also wearing the white surcoat. A paladin’s uniform was similar, but our surcoats differed in that ours had the coat of arms of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud embroidered on the chest in silver thread. In an in-your-face kind of way.

“You also look pretty, Lu—Lady Lucia.”

“Yeah, you look good dressed like the Saint.”

“Thank you.” I couldn’t believe Noel and Rick could say such things to me so smoothly.

And what made them look even cooler was the golden demonic blades hanging from their waists. After they’d seen Nia make her sword, she wound up having to make new swords for the both of them too, since theirs had gotten all battered in the fight. These were made from normal swords, so they didn’t say anything with my voice when swung. Why had they seemed so unhappy about that?

I held out my hand because I just felt like it for some reason. “Would you be my escort, then?”

Rick and Noel exchanged scowls as they both attempted to take it, and then each took one of my hands before walking forward.

Huh? Were we really going to go in front of everyone like this?

The crowd gathered outside the castle broke out in cheers when they saw the three of us. When we joined my grandfather the king, my uncle the crown prince, and the pontiff of the Church of Kostor, they began giving their official proclamation.

With the earth elemental as his guardian, Rick was given the title of the Holy Warrior of the Holy Kingdom.

With the light arch elemental as his guardian, Noel was given the title of the Hero of the Holy Kingdom.

And…

“Yulucia von Versenia, in the name of the Holy Kingdom and the Church of Kostor, I hereby dub thee the Saint of the Holy Kingdom in recognition of thy meritorious deeds of protecting our people!”

“It is with great honor that I accept.”

There was a commotion among the citizens and the sound of feet stomping shook through the capital. They raised their arms up to cheer for my unenthusiastic self, just like they had for Rick and Noel. Confetti was tossed into the air all over the capital, and when I gave them a polite smile, the people all cheered even more excitedly than before.

The people of the Holy Kingdom sure loved their Lady Saint.

Why was I now suddenly being officially recognized by the royal family and the church? That jet-black lightning was all to blame for this.

Even now, we could still see dark clouds hanging above the distant northern mountain range. The lightning from them had killed every living creature in the ruins of the castle and left black letters behind wherever they struck.

The Church of Kostor and Conclave of Wizards concluded from their investigations that it was the kind of writing that only high-ranking demons could use, and that it could only be read by the specific person it was intended for.

And I had been the only one there who could read it.

The so-called writing intended only for my eyes said just one thing: “Come.”

I hadn’t told many what it said, yet somehow it got out anyway. People kept talking about it until ultimately a very strange rumor took root: The demon beast seeks to make the Saint his bride.

So in order to quell the fears of the people, Rick and Noel were publicly bestowed the same titles I had already given them, and I was officially titled as well.

With this all happening, I had a feeling that we were now stuck having to investigate the dark clouds. In a way, the wild enthusiasm of the crowd here could be explained by their fear of those clouds.

Rick and Noel understood the people’s fears and smiled as they waved at them. I couldn’t wave since they were both holding my hands, so I did my best to just smile at them all.

So, um, considering I was a demon and all, was everyone really cool with this?

Epilogue

Epilogue

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT MONSTER?” HE grumbled as he downed his ale. They’d stopped at a respectable inn they had found in a different noble’s lands far from House Capell’s territory.

During the incident, Alfio the so-called Hero and his allies had drunk the poison and been knocked out in a different hall from everyone else. They had managed to make it out with their lives because there were so few people who could cure poison with holy magic. Vio had healed their healer, Antiquoua the elf, in order to secure more backup for saving Yulucia. She’d asked Antiquoua to help her awaken Barnabas and the mercenaries.

However, Antiquoua hadn’t bothered to wake the mercenaries. Instead, she healed her companions, along with the two noble girls, and they all left.

They had a good reason for this: They were trying to preserve their magic for saving the princess, and Antiquoua had depleted her magic quite a bit from casting multiple spells just to get them all up and moving again. However, what they found when they finally went back to save the princess was a fearsome golden beast.

Were they capable of fighting a monster that could destroy castles and even blow up a mountain? There was a small number of people fighting it, yet none of the “heroes” found themselves capable of offering their assistance. Alfio wasn’t the only one who had paled at the sight; even Antiquoua and their warrior Celia had too.

And that wasn’t the only shock—their entire party had been stunned to see the daemon in his natural form.

Callisto had introduced Caudle to their group. He had also introduced them to Duchess Isabella, saying that she shared a common goal with them. But in that room with the horrible beast, they didn’t see the duchess or Callisto. Had they gotten caught up in the battle and died? If they were dead, then that meant Alfio’s group had the closest connection to that daemon.

Daemons were enemies to humanoids like them. It was a crime to secretly shelter one here in the Holy Kingdom. Caudle being an actual daemon meant that their involvement with him made them suspects.

So they ran.

Alfio persuaded them to leave not by emphasizing how scary the monster was, but by saying that they were going to be falsely accused of being responsible for this.

Their chosen path had not been an easy one, though. They couldn’t ride in a fancy coach and they had to avoid big towns. The girls had come along quietly at first, but over time started to voice their complaints, so Alfio relented and they entered a bigger town.

“What did we do to deserve this?” Alfio muttered.

They had just had been doing what the archbishop had told them to do and now they were suspects being accused of collaborating with a daemon in the Holy Kingdom. They may have even wound up on a wanted list for the murder of the archbishop and Duchess Isabella, so they were relieved that there were no papers being distributed here with descriptions of their group.

“I believe that girl must be involved with the daemons,” Adeline remarked.

“Adelie?” Alfio replied.

They had been using a spell to keep themselves clean, so this was the first time in a while they were able to take baths. Alfio noticed that Adeline was looking freshly radiant as she approached the table where he sat.

Some of the youth from when they’d first met still lingered on her, but Adeline had grown even more beautiful now that she was nearly fourteen and close to adulthood. Alfio couldn’t stop himself from swallowing at the sight of that voluptuous beauty a girl her age shouldn’t have.

Aureline was hiding behind her, but Alfio didn’t notice the younger girl at all since she was slender, as befit her age.

“I know you dislike her, Sister, but don’t forget that she is our sister too.”

“Aureline! Don’t you dare think of the likes of her as family!”

Adeline clearly disliked her half sister. Meanwhile, Antiquoua and Celia had also returned from their baths and everyone was now assembled at the table. Antiquoua nodded deeply in agreement as she listened to their conversation.

“I agree. I do not think that girl is actually as competent as the rumors say she is. She dared to disrespect me, and who knows what this so-called Saint gets up to in the shadows.”

“That’s exactly right, Lady Anko!”

Celia watched in exasperation as Adeline grabbed Antiquoua’s hands, and turned her attention to Alfio in an attempt to change the subject. “So, Al, what are we going to do from here on out?”

They had heard rumors about the trouble in Koltz, but there wasn’t a huge commotion over it. People were more focused on talking about how the kingdom had officially recognized the Hero, Holy Warrior, and Saint, which had probably been done on purpose so that people would forget about the news of what had happened in Koltz.

Blessedly, that also meant Alfio and their group weren’t currently on a wanted list. As a result, though, some of them were now feeling a bit guilty for fleeing the scene.

“Leave the country, I guess.”

That had been their initial goal. He had wondered if it was okay for people to think of them as heroes after they resolved an incident involving daemons, but after seeing that golden monster and the people fighting it, he had had enough of fighting. He didn’t want to face danger ever again. He wanted to live a life with a reasonable amount of adventure, fighting moderately tough adversaries, getting decent rewards, and being considered a hero among the ignorant populace.

While he had no intention of working at his parents’ farm at this point in this life, for now he planned to leave the Holy Kingdom and go back to their homeland, the Kingdom of Sigoules. However…

“Precisely right, Al! We need to tell them that you’re the true Hero!” Antiquoua said as she abruptly stood up from her seat.

“Huh?” Alfio was so stunned the sausage fell straight off his fork.

Adeline turned to Alfio. “She’s right! We will investigate the plots of the daemons, gather evidence that proves that girl is colluding with them, and expose them to the world!”

“I agree with my sister! I’m sure Sir Al has already thought that far ahead.”

The noble sisters’ eyes sparkled as they spoke.

Celia chuckled dryly as she gave an encouraging nod. “Then the daemon territory to the north will be our next destination.”

Despite Alfio’s choice to flee from that battle, they still believed in him. Maybe they just didn’t want to believe that the man they had chosen was a phony.

The hopes and silent pressure coming from the women cut off Alfio’s means of escape, so all he could do was weakly reply (after a long pause), “Okay.”

Adeline looked to the south, the opposite of their destination, feeling concern for a certain boy who would likely be caught up in the conflict and resentment for her youngest sister who would drag him into it. With this in mind, she set a new vow in her heart: I swear that I will do whatever it takes to expose your true colors to the world!

***

I was now officially the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, and with the Hero and Holy Warrior having been titled as well, the revelry across the capital finally quieted down late into the night.

My room in the capital was dark. Only the light of the moon illuminated it as I smiled at the thing I held in my hand: a small piece of rubble. Miasma clung to it, scorched into it from a black lightning bolt.

There was no one else in the room, not even my attendants. I didn’t want anyone to interfere with what I was about to do.

I closed my eyes as I channeled magic into the shard. And then—

“I’ve finally found you.”

The voice was one I hadn’t heard for a very long time now, rumbling up from the depths of the earth.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a dreary world of endless wasteland and dark skies. This is your world, isn’t it?

“It’s nice to see you again. How have you been?”

The Beast of the Demon Realm—the Dark Beast.

It had been ten years now, but then again, time meant nothing in the Demon Realm. We had spent what could be called an eternity here. The four kids had joined us at some point, but just the two of us had spent even longer alone together.

Ten years was practically an instant. Nevertheless, I could tell that the time hadn’t felt so short to him.

He gave off an irritated aura as he stared fixedly at me. “Why do you wear a human form, Golden Beast?”

“Don’t call me by my species name. My name is Yulucia.”

As I smiled at him in the world in my mind, he gave off a presence like a whirling gale and caused a gentle breeze to rustle my golden hair.

I sensed his surprise as he said, “What? Did you find a human capable of actually giving you a name, then?”

A demon could not bestow a name upon another demon. When ethereal beings tried to name one another, it only resulted in them harming each other’s existences. When a creature of the Material World tried to name a demon, that creature’s soul bore the weight of it, and how much they were affected depended on how strong the demon was. Therefore, it took both powerful magic and a strong heart to withstand the act. Most named demons had received their names when they were still weak. In my case, though, my parents were fine when they named me because I had lost the majority of my power.

I quietly stepped forward and the Dark Beast slowly started walking toward me. When we were close enough to touch, I silently stretched out my hand. He responded by plunging his fangs into my shoulder.

“I see you still have a thing for biting me.”

“Hmph,” he replied with his usual gruffness.

It hurt a bit, but not as much as I thought it would. It made me think of days long gone, and I closed my eyes as I felt the faint wave of the sweet intoxication his gentle nip always made me feel. He then licked the back of my neck with that coarse tongue of his.

“Now, now, don’t get carried away.”

“Hmph.”

Ooh, I had missed him. We had spent all that time together just like this.

“Why?” he asked.

“Hm?”

“Why did you leave me?” His presence grew even stronger with the question.

“Because I wanted to see it.” The world from my dreams—the World of Light I had so yearned for.

I never lied to him. And he never lied to me.

However, I could feel him gradually applying more pressure to his bite on my shoulder. “And that’s why you look like a human now?”

“Yes, that’s right. It is just happenstance that I look like this now, but I like how I look.”

My body, which had died before I could be reborn.

“Why are you here?” I asked, though I knew why. I knew why, and yet I asked anyway.

Because I want to hear you say the words.

He applied more force, his fangs sinking even deeper into my skin. “I felt your magic.”

“That’s all?” That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“I’m taking you back to the Demon Realm. Even if it means I have to destroy this human body of yours.” He bit down deep, trying to do just that.

I gave him a tender smile and softly touched his cheek with my fingertips.

“Manifest Golden Light.”

I unleashed golden light, flinging him away.

“Grrrgh! Impossible! A demon cannot use holy light!” He squinted from the brightness, unleashing an intense bloodlust and an intimidating presence.

Past Me probably would have been dealt a serious blow from his presence alone. But who I was now did not fear the likes of him.

“You dare to defy me?” he growled with fury.

I gave a small sigh. “You just don’t get it.”

If that is all you have to say to me, then I will not allow myself to be broken by you.

If you truly want me from the bottom of your heart, then I would be happy to go back to the Demon Realm at any time. But you just don’t get it, and I’m not going to cater to your every selfish whim any longer.

Then again, what I wanted was a purely selfish thing too.

We were going to kill one another with our selfishness. What a demonic thing to do.

“I’ll kill you!” he snarled.

“Will you now?”

I drew upon the magic of the intrinsic pocket dimension that the kids had created for my use.

I flapped the golden bat wings that sprouted from my back. The whites of my eyes changed to black while my irises turned crimson. Having recovered my true power, my magic was like a windstorm that swept over the desolate world.

“But are you capable of killing me as you are?” I asked.

The daemons had used my magic to summon him, hadn’t they? But it should have been impossible for them to summon a demon as powerful as him. Even with the magic from the summoning circle, he must have used a considerable amount of his own magic to come to this world to find me. So much so that he hadn’t been able to immediately break the summoning circle’s shackles.

Can the likes of you defeat the powers of the Beast and the Devil now that I have both a name and a vessel?

“Why, you—!” he growled.

Our magic and presences clashed. Golden gales and jet-black lightning bolts devasted the area. His mental world began to fracture and break into pieces.

“You do realize that you won’t be able to take me away even if you do manage to break me in this dream?”

This world in our minds only existed because of the connection between our hearts. As ethereal beings, we could touch and bite one another, but there was no point in destroying one another here.

He glared at me in silence and jumped back to put some distance between us. “Come, Yulucia. I will destroy this world until you come to me.”

“Very well. I shall see you soon.”

His presence dissipated. Opening my eyes, I was back in my room.

What a selfish person he was.

I could feel his presence in the north, beyond the far distant mountains, beneath the black clouds. I would be going there no matter what.

He claimed that he would destroy my beloved world until I got there. I would not allow that. This world was mine and mine alone. I wasn’t going to give it to anyone, not even him.

And so, I will go to see you. I will do what you want.

But if you don’t do what I want…

Then I shall devour every bit of you and love you from within me.

Bonus Story: Little Demons

Bonus Story:
Little Demons

THE GOLDEN BEAST HAD TAKEN IN AND RAISED four little demons, one boy and three girls—granted, demons didn’t actually have genders, but she had decided them on a whim. Regardless, they never thought anything strange about their genders and worshipped their mistress as a god.

The four of them were lucky enough to be given the chance to serve her again in the Material World. However, that was also the source of their problems: Their vessels were bad. Vessels were required for an ethereal being like a demon to exist in the Material World. Without one, they could appear in the world, but they were basically like fish that had accidentally jumped onto the land. While even the worst vessel was better than none at all, a poor vessel presented its own kinds of problems.

It wasn’t the quality of their vessels that was bad; they even had talent. However, they had extremely bad reputations. They had been awful people who had used the beloved princess Yulucia to satisfy their own desires. And after taking these people as their vessels, their mistress Yulucia, whom they so respected and adored, said to the little demons: “Well, just try your best!”

The words inspired the little demons—as expected, since they were her minions and all. Even if they were stuck with vessels she had just happened to choose on the spur of the moment because she had four on hand that happened to fit their genders. And even if their mistress regretted it, they would feel inspired anyway so long as they could be useful to their creator.

And so, the little demons went about like normal and were of course met with the scrutiny of the adults around them. Although Yulucia assured the adults that she had corrected their attitudes, they would obviously still be suspicious. As the person in charge of Yulucia’s education, Vio in particular kept a close watch on them, even going so far as to wear fake cat-eye glasses to hide her eyes as she scrutinized them.

Nevertheless, people’s attitudes toward the little demons gradually improved as they went about their work.

“Huh? That’s them, isn’t it?”

“How are they capable of being so productive?”

“Wait, is it just me, or are they getting everything done too quickly?!”

The only thing the four of them inherently had was their talents. Furthermore, since they had taken vessels instead of being born as a baby like Yulucia, they had received proper education as nobility. Everything they did was quite notably unlike the unskillful Yulucia.

“Have those four always been that cute?”

“How come their hair is so shiny?”

“They have such nice skin too.”

Their appearances influenced what people thought of them as well. The bodies of their vessels had been affected by their demon hosts. High-ranking demons such as themselves could optimize themselves to look more human. The flaws inflicted by their bodies’ previous lifestyles were gone and their proportions were perfectly symmetrical.

It was the kind of phenomenon that irritated normal humans, but the demons hadn’t done it on purpose. Ordinarily, it would take some time for their appearances to be perfected, but Yulucia had used her powers to force their appearances to be more human right away.

One could imagine that people would be suspicious about how much they had changed.

“Reforming one’s lifestyle also changes one’s appearance,” Vio would say, light glinting off her glasses.

Although Vio had such a scrutinizing eye, lifting the rim of her glasses gave her tunnel vision and nobody commented any further on their appearances. She was usually more perceptive than this, but her fake glasses were getting to her head.

Still, the four of them were demons, the kinds of beings that clashed with humans on a fundamental level.

“When do they sleep?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them eat.”

“They just work nonstop, don’t they?”

Demons didn’t need to sleep. They didn’t need to eat human food either. Nor did they crave the same kinds of things that humans did.

They slept for fun, but they didn’t bother if they had things to do. Just like Yulucia, they also got their sustenance from souls, and only food that had been made with feeling had any taste to them, so they didn’t crave to eat either.

Since they wanted for nothing, people began to be suspicious of them. Demons had a different limit in regards to how much of that they could tolerate; if this had been a performance of one of those bizarre stories, this would be the part where the atmosphere grew more eerie and the people who noticed would get into trouble, but that wasn’t what happened here.

“Oh, good morning, Lady Yul!”

“Hello.”

That eerie atmosphere always dissipated whenever Yulucia was with them, wearing her carefree smile.

Whenever Yulucia was around, they went from being perfect at everything to begging for her attention like a child might their mother or older sister. Yulucia’s obliviousness made her more human than most humans, and even though it didn’t befit a noble, it always managed to neutralize anything disquieting about a situation.

Everyone just felt so much more relaxed and carefree whenever Yulucia was around.

Yulucia was relieved that the four attendants had been accepted by the staff at the castle, but there was someone who was even more relieved.

“Thank goodness,” said her father Forte, the Grand Duke of Versenia.

Forte had originally had good intentions when he assigned the four of them to be his daughter’s attendants. Nothing but good intentions.

They were the children of nobles who had been involved in the demon-summoning incident. The majority of the noble houses involved had been dissolved and several of them wound up convicted for their crimes. Nevertheless, it was the parents who had done wrong—their children were innocent. The young children were not punished and the majority of the now-orphans were taken in by their relatives. However, the four of them had no relatives to speak of.

No one else was willing to adopt the children of criminals, and they were going to end up in an orphanage, so Forte had taken pity on them and taken them in. His daughter needed attendants who were close in age to her, after all. She only had a few friends because of her unique looks and noble birth, so he believed she needed other children who could be her playmates.

Of course, he had interviewed them all first, but they had all hidden their true natures behind their competence. He was a virtuous man who never could have imagined that children under the age of ten could possibly have such wicked hearts. It was around the time he introduced them to his daughter that he started to get the sense that there was something off about them. Despite his worry, he had decided to harden his heart and entrust them to his daughter in hopes that it would help her mature as a royal, even if they were from a branch family.

He never understood the extent of their heartlessness until he heard from his wife about all of the terrible things they had done. He had been grappling with how best to deal with the four of them when his daughter managed to take care of the matter herself.

He was so, so relieved by this turn of events. Proud of his daughter, he heaved a sigh of relief. Seeing him do so, someone gently put a hand on Forte’s shoulder.

“My dear.”

“Liasteia.” Forte smiled at his beloved wife.

Liasteia smiled back as she said, “There is something we must discuss.”

“Right.”

Her smile was so intense that all Forte could do was nod his head like a child who was about to get a scolding, and he was practically dragged into their living quarters in the castle.

Afterword

Afterword

TO THOSE I’M MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME, it’s nice to meet you! And to those who have been waiting for this volume, hello again, Harunohi Biyori here.

Sorry to have kept you waiting for Volume 3 of The Devil Princess, “The Beast’s Bride.”

The dastardly kitty cat made an appearance in part of this volume! That sure took a while, huh? When I was first publishing the web version of this, I didn’t think there’d be such a big reaction, but there were a lot of people even back then begging for him to come back to the story. Maybe his single-mindedness, so to speak, struck a chord in some readers? Maybe they appreciated the idea that he wanted her back so badly that he’d go as far as trying to shackle her?

And what about the two boys? They got a bit of a boost in this volume, but the best is yet to come for their character arcs, so stay tuned.

While I did some drastic editing for Volumes 1 and 2 while keeping the story the same, for Volume 3, I not only edited my writing, but made some slight alterations to the story too. I wrote the original story six years ago, and there were some parts I wrote just for carrying momentum without any understanding of what readers might want. Some may have liked it as it was, but my impressions of the characters have changed somewhat over these past six years. With the passage of time, you just can’t help but wonder if things would have been better if you had done it a different way instead, or if parts felt too unnatural. I learned some things from reading everyone’s reviews, and so I decided to go ahead and change how the story plays out.

Basically, Yul’s personality being what it is, her relationship with the Dark Beast had felt rather lacking, hadn’t it? Compared to how passionate he is, Yul’s not nearly passionate enough. Yul does indeed reciprocate his feelings, but she doesn’t have the same kinds of emotions that other demons do, so it’s supposed to only serve to add more fuel to the fire of their relationship.

I don’t think there are too many people who read the afterword first before the actual story, but please be sure to read it. It will make this author happy if you leave a review too.

And my own passion as an author hasn’t decreased one bit! I’m looking forward to editing and making changes in the next volume, and I’m also looking forward to writing Part 2 of the story too.

Speaking of Part 2, there’s the manga series. Have you read the manga version of The Devil Princess that’s drawn by Satoshi Shiki-sensei? The editor and Shiki-sensei have edited the story of the manga so that even those who haven’t read Part 1 of the light novels can enjoy reading it, so even though I’m the original author, I look forward to reading it every month to see what kinds of changes they’ve made. Please be sure to read it if you’re interested!

And Geso Umiu-sensei drew the gorgeous illustrations in this volume too! The illustrations alone are worth the cost of this book!

With the publishing of this volume, I’d like to give maximum gratitude to the readers, the bookstores offering this book, and everyone involved in its publication!

Let’s meet again in the next volume.