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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: selkie
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Aileen and her subordinates were moving towards the imperial capital.
However, at this moment, their steps were incomparably heavier than when they had just left Thebes.
They had left the city burning with the will to avenge the resentment they had suffered from the demons.
However, the people in the target area were not demons, and the demons they were looking for had disappeared.
As such, it was perhaps only natural that they were unable to muster any enthusiasm in this situation, where their momentum had been broken once.
And among those who were caught up in such a depressed atmosphere was Aileen, who was leading the group.
Although the fundamental reason was different, she, like the others, was not very enthusiastic.
Even though she had a sense of duty to be somewhat diligent in her work when she set out for the imperial capital.
However, as time passed and she had time to cool her head, she became acutely aware of her sense of loss and her mood plummeted.
‘Torare has left… that damned Shude took Torare…’
Aileen had actively participated in the expedition to save Torare from the hands of the demons.
However, Torare had ended up in the hands of Shude, who was not a demon but had a legitimate claim to him.
Of course, it was much better than her beloved being in danger at the hands of demons, but the fact that she would not be able to see him or have a night with him for at least a while was enough to make her depressed.
Just then…
“Um… Aileen?”
“Yeah?”
A group of subordinates cautiously approached her.
Seeing that they seemed to have something to say, Aileen, their leader, asked in a calm voice.
“What’s wrong? Is there something important?”
“Ah, well… that’s…”
“Hmm…”
The soldiers seemed hesitant to answer Aileen’s question.
In response, Aileen put on a benevolent smile as part of her job and said to them.
“It’s okay. Feel free to say what you want to say. Even though I am the High Priestess, I have a duty as a servant of God to listen to you.”
Aileen spoke, wondering if they were trying to make some kind of confession.
In response, the soldiers seemed to feel a little less burdened and began to speak to her in a calm voice.
“Actually, High Priestess, we’ve been thinking about it on the way here… and we think something is wrong.”
“Wrong? What do you mean?”
“Those witches we met the other day. Although we couldn’t see them very well because it was dark at the time, it seemed like one of them looked similar to a demon I had seen in Thebes before.”
“Huh? What do you mean…”
“Me… me too. Of course, she didn’t have horns like a demon, but I remember it clearly. There was a witch there who looked exactly like the guy who killed my friend.”
“!…Does that mean… could it be?”
Aileen began to realize something as she listened to her subordinates’ testimony.
It was about the racial disguise magic that she also knew well.
It was a method that used illusion magic to disguise themselves as demons or elves by putting horns on their heads or lengthening their ears.
It required quite advanced magic to change the shape of the face, but disguising the race by changing only these minor features was surprisingly not that difficult.
Especially for the highly trained witches of the Magic Kingdom, this level of racial disguise magic was almost a necessity.
“And… and this. I found this at the scene of the demon attack this time, and I remember that the witches were wearing similar brooches.”
A priestess nervously took out a brooch.
Aileen took it and began to feel like all the pieces were finally falling into place.
“I see… I thought something was a little suspicious. No matter how late I arrived, there’s no way the demons could have escaped my detection net so quickly…”
Aileen spoke in a tone that conveyed a subtle anger.
The fact that all of this was the result of being played by Shude from the beginning made her feel genuine anger.
‘That girl… I thought she was just planning this to take Torare, but that’s not it. Her real objective was to sow chaos… to use this staged demon attack as a smokescreen to throw our empire into turmoil.’
The Falcon Empire, which had already had an expedition end in complete failure and was even at war with the Elf Church.
In this situation, if the demons were to launch a provocation on this side, the empire would inevitably be in a difficult situation in many ways.
No matter how strong the Falcon Empire, the strongest nation on the continent, may be, it would be impossible to form another expeditionary force across the sea at this point.
Enemies located in such untouchable places launching provocations could only exacerbate the empire’s chaos, and it was clear that this would further worsen the already unstable political situation.
“Those Magic Kingdom bastards… to think they’d stoop to such dirty tricks behind our backs.”
“Ugh…”
“To think they’d do such a thing against fellow humans, not even demons…”
Aileen confirmed the situation, and the soldiers expressed deep anger at her words.
Then, Aileen looked at the soldiers in front of her and said in a voice filled with deep anger.
“It seems like… we need to hurry on our way. We must inform His Majesty as soon as possible that the Magic Kingdom has committed such dirty deeds.”
“I agree. We must inform the entire empire of their atrocities and take appropriate action.”
“Those filthy bastards… to think they’d go this far to deceive our empire.”
Thus, the soldiers began to turn their anger, which they had been directing at the demons, towards the Magic Kingdom.
However, at this moment, unlike the soldiers who were purely consumed by anger, Aileen’s heart was beginning to grow with a feeling of joy as well as simple anger.
‘This… in some ways… might be a good thing. If Shude has committed such dirty deeds, I might be able to seize this opportunity to formally punish her.’
The last rival left to her after the other two had evaporated.
Thinking that the opportunity had come to finally erase her, whom she had not been able to touch because she had no valid excuse, a deep smile began to bloom in Aileen’s heart.
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The Hero Hector.
Leading the demons towards the imperial capital of the empire at this moment, he was well aware of what he was
doing.
The Demon King’s kingdom and the demons, which he had thought he must destroy until just a few weeks ago.
But now Hector was sincerely doing his best to help them.
“Is this the right way?”
“Of course. Just over that hill is the imperial capital.”
“Hmm…”
The demon army commander, Samuel, still looked at him with suspicion.
But, regardless of how much trust she had in him, Hector was simply guiding the way to the best of his ability at
this moment.
At the same time, Samuel was still suspicious in preparation for any possible situation, but nevertheless, she had
a somewhat loose trust in Hector’s actions themselves.
Looking at his actions so far, he cherished his companions terribly, and he was willing to give up his life for them.
Since those companions were being held hostage in the Demon King’s kingdom, and they were to be executed immediately if he tried anything funny, it was a believable fact that he would not be able to act rashly.
However, apart from Samuel’s cold calculation, there was another reason why Hector was doing his best in this matter.
‘To think that the day would come when I would sincerely try to help the demons this much…’
If he had seen himself a few weeks ago, he would have had nothing to say even if he had tried to cut his throat, saying that he was out of his mind.
Although the lives of his precious companions were important, Hector also had a strong sense of pride as a hero before that.
If those guys had given him such an order by taking the lives of his companions hostage, he would have tried to protect his own honor even by escaping and committing suicide.
But now, Hector no longer had such honor as a hero.
The memory of that moment, which was still on Hector’s mind even at this moment.
Just before he was asked to do this mission, the shocking scene that appeared before him and his companions, who were imprisoned in the Demon King’s kingdom.
Hector clearly realized that the cause of the war was nothing more than an illusion, and that the demons were more trustworthy than the humans.
‘The end of a hero… in that sense, maybe I’m a really lucky guy.’
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