The Devil Princess Vol. 2

Prologue

“AND THE DEVIL PRINCESS SHALL LOVE YOU ALL the way down to your souls for all eternity… Hee hee… Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Bam!

“Is everything all right, Lady Yul?!”

“Your Ladyship! Your Ladyshiiip!”

“Lady Yul, did you have a bad dream?! Did you wet the bed?!”

“Someone bring the potty!”

The door slammed open and a swarm of maids crowded into the room.

“Huh? Uh, what? No?!” Don’t tell me they heard what I just said?!

Vio, Fer, and Min—who had long taken care of me—were among the intruding maids, as was Nanny, the head of our lady’s maids. They picked me up, soothed me, checked to make sure the sheets were dry, and even started laying out a mountain of stuffed animals for me to hold while I fell asleep.

“I’m fine! I said I’m fine!” I cried out in protest.

“Really?!” three of them asked in unison.

Really!

Even though it was the middle of the night, they had all come into my room uninvited. I did my best to reassure them as I proceeded to kick them out, shut the door with a bang, and sigh.

Once I had calmed down, I became aware of how my face felt hot all the way to the tips of my ears, as if it were about to burst into flames.

My father had been a prince but was now a grand duke, and my grandfather and grandmother were king and queen. I had enjoyed some delicious snacks and felt such exuberance that I started shouting all those cringey things about loving people while looking out the window at the nightscape of the city!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Nope! I’m going to bed!

I buried my face in the gigantic canopy bed and flailed my legs until I finally fell asleep.

***

Huh…?

“Where am I?”

I was now in a strange world.

There were buildings made of stone, iron, and glass that could reach all the way to the sky.

A big street with all kinds of stores adorned with elaborately made furnishings spread out before me, and there were guardian lion-dogs and dragons made of wood that were painted with primary colors.

There was a house made of rocks that looked like they had just been piled up—perhaps it was a work of art.

I saw a white castle that had a wet glassy look and no joining points to be found.

A battered coach made of gold and an exquisite military tank made out of cookies and candy was there as well.

And there was a carpet soaring through the sky that seemed impossible to ride on…

There were all sorts of things that looked like relics of the past and things that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. If I had to try to describe it, it was like I was looking at a town full of random structures that came from different eras and locations—and some even defied the laws of physics. And that wasn’t all…

“Is that a department store?”

There were all kinds of different stores in the multi-storied building made of stone, tiles, and glass. Their multicolored signs all had English and Japanese words on them.

“Did I transmigrate to another world again?” I wondered aloud.

No, that couldn’t be. I raised my hand and saw I still had the same chubby hand of a child. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that shining golden color of my hair—except it was the body hair of a demon.

Had I been summoned?

I was still wearing the same silky nightgown I had worn to bed. When I looked up, there was a crescent moon hanging in the pitch-black sky.

So where was I, then?

The street lights shone brightly against the dark sky, but I didn’t sense a single living creature nearby.

Such a stupid and nonsensical world could only exist in…

“That’s right. You’re in a dream right now, little lady.”

As I turned toward the voice, I found myself strangely not that surprised by his statement and readily accepted it as fact.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I see you’re not surprised.”

“I am, but only a little.”

He smiled at my reply. The person—if you could even call him that—looked like a man in his mid-twenties with black hair. Well, not exactly black. It was more of an endlessly dark indigo that reminded me of the darkest color of night. He wore a tailcoat the same color as his hair and, with exaggerated gestures, snapped his fingers as he continued to gaze at me with his gentle red eyes.

“For starters, how about something to drink?” he offered.

A spotlight started shining down from nowhere in the night sky onto a glass tea table and chairs that weren’t there a second ago. For some reason, there was also a crimson skeleton dressed like a maid and a crimson panda dressed like a butler. They poured us tea with jerky movements. The tea, too, was crimson.

“Please, take a seat.”

I took the man’s offered hand and realized that my nightgown had changed into a dress that looked just like the one Alice wore in that story. I didn’t recall moving at all, but suddenly I was sitting at the table and drinking the tea.

So this is what a dream is like.

And while the man was one of the most handsome men I had ever seen and carried himself with an air of allure and charm… “Hmph. I don’t find you appealing at all,” I said without thinking. Oops, honesty wasn’t always the best policy.

Nevertheless, the man sitting directly across from me chuckled with amusement as he rocked his glass back and forth, as if he were enjoying the aroma the crimson liquid gave off. “Well, that’s to be expected. In a way, the two of us are like siblings, after all.”

The liquid spilled onto the table, transforming into a trembling crimson hamster that then proceeded to start eating all of the confections on the table. Meanwhile, the skeleton and panda dissolved into liquid that then turned into playful puppies and kittens.

“Those with a high affinity to us gather of their own accord to help us. Not that they’ll necessarily do exactly as we tell them to,” he explained.

Was everything made of blood, then? Not that it mattered.

“What do you mean we’re siblings?”

“I said that we’re like siblings, Yulucia.”

“Oh.”

That’s right. I was Yulucia. The name defined my existence as a demon, yet I was on the verge of forgetting because of this strange place, and my existence had been weakening.

That was a close one. But was that just a coincidence or had that been his intention?

Or had he done me a favor and reminded me of my name before I lost myself?

“Who are you?” I asked again.

He smiled and tilted his head slightly. “That’s a good question. I have been known by many different names throughout the ages and in the places I’ve visited, because my original name is very long.” He pretended to look panicked for a moment before saying, “For now, please call me Mephi.”

“Mephi?”

It kind of sounded like a girl’s name. I assumed it must be some kind of nickname, but knowing that much of his name alone suddenly made me feel like there was a great weight on my soul as a demon.

Uh-oh. This guy is bad news.

“I came here tonight because I wanted to talk with you.”

“You want to talk to me?”

“That’s right.” He nodded, and suddenly he was under the spotlight, dancing with a crimson mannequin. “I’m quite interested in you, Yulucia. I’ve never met anyone else like you in all of time immemorial. I never even dreamt of scheming up that kind of secret trick. By all rights, it should have taken you as much luck and time as it does for a lower life-form to become an intelligent being for you to have attained your current level of existence.” With a pop, he was suddenly in front of me again, rocking his glass back and forth.

Now it was my turn to give him an inquisitive look. “I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not blaming you or demanding anything of you.” As he said that, there was a fire in his eyes. “I have traveled to so many different kinds of worlds and I am quite grateful for the chance to meet you here in this kind of world.”

“And what is this world?”

“This is the worlds that I know, the worlds that you know, and the world of dreams that everyone knows, and it will exist for one night only.”

“Then are the words that I recognize from the World of Light in my dreams what I know? Or are they words that you know?”

“I cannot say. I have been traveling for a very long time, you see.”

A very long time… A very long journey. Mephi must have been traveling all by his lonesome for an incredibly long time. So much so that it had inspired him to talk to me when he happened to come across me. Perhaps he had once traveled to the same World of Light from my dreams. And what was that he had said about a “secret trick”? I supposed I had an idea about what he might be referring to, though.

Mephi rested his elbows on the table with his chin in his folded hands, an affectionate smile across his face. “Let me give you a piece of advice. Though maybe you’ll think I’m just being a busybody? In any case, don’t overestimate the extent of your power. You’re still so tiny and cute.”

What a scary thing to say. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to scare me or praise me. I knew that weird humans did exist, so I wasn’t going to overestimate myself or anything. I was quite confident in my decision to live a quiet life.

“It’s my wish that you remain as you are,” he added.

“Uh, okay.”

Now he was saying things that I didn’t really understand.

“Now, then.” Mephi stood from his seat and there was suddenly a crimson teddy bear helping him into a cloak. The man walked over to me and touched my hair. “It’s about time for us to say farewell. Thank you for speaking with me, Yulucia.”

Mephi left a gentle kiss upon my forehead.

The shock of it left me momentarily frozen. Wh-what did this person think he was doing?! Though I was pretty sure he was more than a mere “person”!

“I don’t know if we shall ever meet again.” He casually put some distance between us as six bat wings, the same dark indigo as his hair, sprouted from his back. He soared up into the sky of the crimson moon.

“Goodbye, girl who is the same species as me—the very first that I’ve met in tens of thousands of years.”

***

I opened my eyes to the gentle rays of the morning sun streaming through the silk curtains of my canopy bed. I had only recently gotten used to my enormous room in the grand duke’s manor, though I still wasn’t used to the bed itself yet. I checked to make sure that I was still my tiny self and sighed with relief.

I felt like I had just had this really super-duper important dream or something?!

But more concerning to me was the sensation I still felt on my forehead. I touched it and sighed as I mumbled, “Did that guy have a Lolita complex or something?”

And now another ordinary day in my peaceful life was about to begin!

Episode 1:
I Am a Princess Now

GOOD MORNING! THE SUN WAS UP AND sparkling!

It had been nearly a year since the second demon-summoning incident and I would be turning five years old in three months. I had taken a bit of damage as a demon due to my previous cringe-worthy actions that I wanted to forget ever happened, but I was feeling just fine today too. This was all thanks in part to my self-proclaimed dream brother, whom I was not above dragging into this.

Putting that aside, my daily life had changed rather dramatically ever since that demon-summoning incident. My family had always been excessively overprotective and pampered me like crazy, and that part hadn’t changed much, except that now they spoiled me even more than before.

They were sooo clingy now—like stewed wakame seaweed!

“His Majesty has sent you the most popular kinds of baked sweets in the capital, Your Ladyship,” our head lady’s maid said as she brought enough boxes of sweets to feed fifty people.

“Yaaay!”

How I wished human food would simply perish…

Our head lady’s maid had been serving at the castle since Father was a prince. Now that he was a grand duke, she had selected a dozen or so lady’s maids and attendants from the castle to wait on us here. Was that really okay, though? Wouldn’t there be a staff shortage at the castle?

“Her Majesty also sent sweets, as well as some new maids for us.”

They have Grandmother’s seal of approval? I supposed we had no choice but to accept them. But sweets and maids?

“Would you like to eat them with the duchess? Come along with Nanny.”

This woman calling me “Your Ladyship” was also the wife of that old butler who was our head chamberlain. She forced me to call her “Nanny.”

Why was she in such a rush to get me to go?

“Take my hand.”

“’Kay!”

Nanny took my hand and slowly started leading me along.

I’m almost five years old already. I’m a big girl now. It’s about time for people to stop carrying me around!

However, the moment she led me by the hand, the blonde-haired maid Fer appeared and took my other hand with a wide smile on her face. And for some reason, this black-and-white image of two men in coats leading an alien by the hands popped into my head.

I hardly had any need to walk at all with the two of them holding my hands. In fact, my feet were floating off the ground.

What was going on? This was ridiculous. But if I were to protest, then they would forcibly carry me in their arms instead. I had no choice or right to refuse in the matter.

But, wait, wasn’t I a princess now?

I caught a glimpse of what was going on in one of the open-doored rooms we passed.

“Huh? What are they doing?” I asked.

“Vio is training the new maids.”

Uh, Fer. That isn’t what I mean.

Why did this so-called training involve walking around while carrying sandbags? What were they training themselves to carry? Their love for me was serious indeed.

“Thank you for joining us, Yul. You came at a great time. We just received a bunch of the most popular sweets in the kingdom from a viscountess.”

When we reached the terrace where Mother was, I stared in silence at the all-too-familiar sight of mountains of boxes of confections.

Food prepared by strangers was just so tasteless to me!

My family of the Grand Duke of Versenia was rather well-off financially.

The land of Talitelud, also known as the Holy Kingdom, had always been fertile. The citizens were so pious, you could call this a religious state, and they took their work very seriously every day and happily paid their taxes.

I really hoped we weren’t one of those corrupted religious countries.

But basically, Toure, the lands that belonged to the grand duke and where we lived, also paid heaps of taxes. However, this money was not simply the grand duke’s private asset. The money was meant for enriching the lands of the grand duchy, though we did get a portion of it, of course. The reason we made such a joyful amount of money was thanks to Father’s independent trading endeavors.

Our grand duchy was in the western part of the Holy Kingdom. Farther west from us was a country called the Kingdom of Sigoules. This kingdom was a farming country to the extreme. As you’d expect from that kind of label (though they’d get mad if you publicly called them a farming country), thirty percent of the country was farmland and the majority of their citizens were farmers. Therefore, their official religion was the same as ours here in the Holy Kingdom where we worshipped Kostor, the Goddess of Good Harvests.

And what was more, their queen was Father’s older sister—in other words, my aunt!

No wonder he made so much money. He was a very trustworthy man. But I didn’t really know the details. Whenever I asked, they’d change the subject. I did hear gossip about how the former chamberlain who’d run things back when Father was a duke had only made him a “moderate profit.” And since Father had risen to grand duke, he’d brought his former staff from the capital and the son of Mr. Butler had become our chamberlain instead, so Father was free of all kinds of trouble now. Apparently. It was all very mysterious!

But basically, our family was very rich.

Even so, neither Father nor Mother was the kind to go on shopping sprees and only did so when it was necessary for me. The new chamberlain and lady’s maids that Father brought all doted on me in earnest. Most of the people who had worked for the previous grand duke’s family quit, so Nanny, Vio, and our other maids gave the newcomers rigorous training. It was kind of scary how they all looked poised, waiting for their chance to serve me.

I was blessed with an enormous quantity of dresses and extravagant meals. Of course, none of that was enough to use up all of our money. Though, to be honest, I didn’t want any of it. Especially the food made by strangers. Why were they always giving me things I had no interest in?!

But the biggest gift of all was probably my guardian knights. They were women, but they seemed younger than Vio and the other maids. Like, really young! I had this personal escort of ten girl knights who had only just reached adulthood. Every time I went out, they would accompany me as my guards.

Lady knights—that had a really nice ring to it. The way they all looked reminded me of the actresses who played male roles in a certain theater troupe. I kind of liked it.

My family had not had a direct hand in the founding of the order of my personal guardian knights, but that was something to ponder another time. Right now, I needed to focus on what was right in front of me.

“Take a look, Yulucia! You can see the castle from here!”

“Ooh, castle!” I kept accidentally slipping into talking like a toddler. But I was only four years old. I still couldn’t enunciate well!

Anyway, I was now riding on a horse with His Majesty the King—aka my grandfather. My grandfather was something else. He had a rugged look to him, yet he was majestic at the same time, which wasn’t bad. However, he didn’t have the most eloquent way of speaking. I knew that he really loved me, but… Hmm.

By the way, my uncle—that is, my father’s older brother—was also lacking in the decorum department. I was very grateful that Father took after Grandmother.

That mean assessment aside, today we were going on a long ride together.

That’s right. We had ridden all the way to the capital. It turned out that Grandfather had assembled my private order of knights so that I could come to the capital all by myself! I was going to be staying there for three days. The journey there and back took two weeks. The king had commanded that I visit him at the castle once every two months. What a pain in the butt.

In the end, I couldn’t go by myself even with my escort of guardian knights, since I was only four, so Father or Mother always had to accompany me anyway, leaving poor Father to constantly struggle to rearrange his schedule.

But that was just how much my grandfather loved me.

Was I really that cute even though I looked so inhuman? Even though there were people at the castle who still shrank back while clutching at their hearts whenever they saw me up close?

Anyway, my uncle and my aunt had only given Grandfather boys for grandchildren. Both he and my grandmother had longed for a granddaughter to spoil rotten. And I didn’t mean in the “I just want to gobble you up” kind of way either. More in the drunken kind of snuggly way.

Huh? What about my two older sisters?

They didn’t count.

“Yulucia! We’re gonna go hunt some birds called pheasants in that forest over there today!”

“Birdies!” I replied just to be polite and started looking for these birds I knew nothing about. I didn’t have any hunting experience from the World of Light in my dreams, so I was looking forward to this.

Hmm? I could sense some kind of beast deep in the forest.

Of course, even safe forests that the royal family took care of had lots of wild animals, since they were still forests and all. By “beast,” though, I meant the demon kind—something evil that would more than happily devour even someone of the same species. Which meant that whoever they were, they were like me.

But based on what I could sense, they weren’t that scary or anything. Something cute that ate for the fun of murdering—not something that killed to eat for survival. Aww, how adorable.

I had regained my power as a demon to some extent, but I didn’t let it get to my head. My self-proclaimed older brother had warned me against that, after all. Plus, it would be dangerous to just rush in, since I had no idea how strong the Special Threats in this world were.

Not that I was going to attack our kingdom or anything. I loved humans, after all.

But if the owner of this aura tried to eat what belonged to me…

I focused my gaze in the direction of the presence.

Despite the distance, that alone seemed enough to perturb them, because the sensation vanished as if out of fear.

“Are you all right, Yulucia?”

“Wup?!” I screeched as Grandfather scooped me up into his arms.

“Up?”

“Uh, a squirrel!”

When he looked up, there just happened to be a squirrel with a striped pattern on the branch staring straight at me. At least, I was pretty sure it was a squirrel. So I managed to use that to distract him.

“Yeah, there sure is a squirrel. Do you want it?”

“Uh, no! I’d feel sorry for it if we caught it.” Animals were scared of me, so we simply didn’t get along.

Just then, someone other than Grandfather started patting me on the head.

“You’re such a kind girl,” a boy with pink-tinged honey-blond hair said casually. He looked at me with a warm smile on his face.

He’d come here with Grandfather and the rest of us. His name was Timoté. He was eleven years old and he was my cousin. He was Rick’s older brother and the oldest son of the first prince, who was my uncle, as well as the one who held the title of second prince instead of Father. Which meant that, going in order, he was next in line to the throne.

Timoté was as sweet as the color of his strawberry-blond hair. He resembled Crown Princess Elea and looked exactly like the kind of prince you’d find in a picture book. Timoté was so sugary sweet and soft on the inside and such a good older brother that Rick couldn’t even hope to compare to him. He was also able to deftly give commands even when the excitable adults couldn’t, so I had a feeling he’d make a great king someday.

Up until now, he had been hiding in Rick’s and Lady Elea’s shadows, so I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him, which was why they had come up with this outing—so that us cousins could spend some time together.

Since the king was playing with me today, Father, Uncle, and Lady Elea were all filling in for his absence. Rick, however, was at school. He couldn’t get the day off, apparently. Not that I cared about Rick. I wasn’t really into boys who didn’t know how to control themselves. So I continued talking to the oh-so-very-sweet Timoté instead.

“I’m not kind,” I grumbled. I’m a predator, I’ll have you know.

“I hope that Rick can realize what a nice girl you are too,” Timoté said as he tousled my hair.

I squeezed my eyes shut from the sensation and started giggling. He was just like Lady Elea in both how he spoke and how he smiled. He was way too nice of a guy to be the heir to the royal family, but I thought of him as a wonderful older brother since he was so much older than me. It also helped that he wasn’t scared of me. “Hee hee,” I kept laughing, since that thought kind of made me happy and he was still tickling me.

That was when Grandfather decided to start patting my head rather roughly. That hurt a bit. “Yulucia! We’re going after those pheasants!”

Several birds took flight in response to Grandfather’s shouting. Don’t worry, there were still some to be found. The pale-faced hunter who was our guide managed to find some right away.

Grandfather passed me over to Timoté and then easily drew back the string of this enormous bow to shoot down a pink bird in one shot. I guessed that must have been a pheasant?

“Oooooooooooooooh!” All of our guards and attendants cried out at once in admiration. There was about fifty of them in all.

But why?

For some reason, in my mind, I heard a voice say something like, “Nice shot, Boss.”

“What did I tell you?”

“You’re amazing, Grandfather!” I clapped my hands ecstatically as he turned around to look at me with a beaming smile. I had no choice but to praise him since he wore such a triumphant look on his face.

That smile and the way he acted reminded me of Rick. I wondered if Uncle was like him too. And I had a feeling that he was a whole lot like the Dark Beast.

It seemed I was doomed to meet these kinds of people even here in the Material World.

***

“A tea party?”

I couldn’t let Grandfather hog me all to himself. Grandmother was sulking, so today I had gone to see her. My grandmother who was the queen, Lady Elea who was the crown princess, my mother (whom Lady Elea seemed to consider as like a little sister), and my other cousin Rick had all gathered to have tea with me.

“That’s right. You’re almost five years old, after all,” Lady Elea said with a smile in her usual carefree voice. She was so pretty.

We were in the royal family’s garden like usual. This garden was for people related to the royal family to enjoy tea, host small parties, and the like. Apparently, it was a great honor to be invited here. The flower bed had been left as-is out of Grandmother’s girlish interests. I was currently seated on Grandmother’s lap, which was my “assigned seat” for the day.

“Oh! I would love for you to come to one of my tea parties, then. You want to go, right, Yul?” Grandmother said as she nuzzled her cheek against my head.

Grandmother was very sweet and feminine. Today, I was basically her doll.

But wait, a tea party?

“But Mother, Yulucia was at that tea party we had recently!” Rick voiced my thoughts, wearing a look as bitter as the tea he was sipping. I would be sure to praise him for that by pinching his cheeks later.

Lady Elea gave her young son a disappointed glance. “You silly boy. A girl’s first tea party is a very special event.”

Oh, my. Lady Elea was harsh.

I sorted through what information I had picked up about tea parties using my demon ears. Noble girls were able to officially participate in tea parties as “ladies” starting from when they turned five years old. (Younger girls could go with their mothers, but only to parties attended exclusively by family or close family friends.) Once recognized as a lady, noble daughters were expected to go to tea parties by themselves to form friendships with other nobles and to exchange information with them.

Well, that was just what the parties were officially. They were pretty much your regular ole “girls’ day out” kind of affair.

Though girls were considered ladies once they turned five years old, five-year-olds were still little kids and required guidance. And so, in most cases, a girl’s very first official tea party was often limited to her relatives. It kind of reminded me of a kid going on their very first errand.

“That being said, Yul, you should join in one of my tea parties or Mother’s,” Lady Elea suggested. “That’s fine with you too, right, Lia?”

“Yes, of course, Sister. We’d love to.” Mother seemed pleased.

Mother called Lady Elea “Sister” not because they were sisters-in-law now, but because she had called Lady Elea that since they were students together at the Academy of the Magical Arts.

So did that make Vio Lady Elea’s little sister too, since Vio called Mother “Sister”? Hmm.

Not that I had ever met my own actual sisters!

Tea parties were for girls, so boys would act all embarrassed when they had to go, which was why the only boy at our party, Rick, was making such a sour face. He was being treated like a kid, after all.

The first time I’d come to the capital and gone to a tea party, the guests had all been children, both boys and girls. I realized later that it had secretly been set up to introduce me to Rick, as he was the relative who was closest to me in age.

But why was Rick here anyway? Perhaps he didn’t have school today, but wouldn’t it have been best if he had gone hunting with Grandfather, Timoté, and me yesterday instead?

Wait… If I had to take a guess, Lady Elea was probably the one who set this all up.

“What?” Rick pouted when he caught me sneaking a peek at him.

“Oh, nothing, Prince Ludoric.”

A gathering of only relatives didn’t really count as a girls-only hangout in my book, but he must have been really bored. I wanted to sympathize with him a bit, but he always took on this weirdly prickly attitude with me. He was never so mean to Shelly or Betty.

If I were actually a normal girl instead of a demon, perhaps we would have been able to have a normal conversation like children do. However… Heh heh. I’ll never forget how you treated me the first time we met! I’m just that petty!

Oblivious to the fragile inner workings of my heart, a cheerful voice spoke up: “Oh, my, Yul. Why are you addressing Rick so formally? You should call him ‘Brother’ instead.”

Oh, Grandmother…

“Um, I…”

She had set such a high hurdle for me without warning!

After quizzing Vio and the others, I learned that among noble sons and daughters, only toddlers were permitted to call one another by their nicknames. Once they reached a certain age, you didn’t use nicknames with one another unless you were engaged or related. This was why I called him “Prince Ludoric.” I could comfortably call Timoté “Big Brother,” but it was way too big of an ask for me to call Rick that!

“I-I’m fine with Yulucia calling me Rick!”

Rick, what are you saying?! Did he also understand how weird my calling him “Brother” would be and was trying to avoid it?!

Mother was shocked.

Lady Elea was grinning ear to ear.

So that’s how it is!

But that was when a glimmer of hope appeared.

“Your Majesty, it appears that the idea of calling a boy by his nickname has left Yul feeling a bit shy. Perhaps it would be best if, in more formal settings, she called him ‘Prince Ludoric,’ and in settings such as this, she called him ‘Big Brother Rick’ instead?”

Nice save, Mother! Oh, but wait, now that I think about it, this alternative isn’t so good either. But surely this would be less awkward than calling him Rick or simply “Big Brother.”

“My, that’s such a cute idea. She should do so, then. Speaking of which, Lia, do call me ‘Mother’ from now on.”

“Yes, Mother.”

As I was trying to come up with a better alternative, the conversation came to an amicable end.

Rick and I exchanged a long look. While he was fine with me referring to him without any formalities, he didn’t seem so keen on the idea of me adding “Big Brother” in there. So why did his face look so red right now?

Stop that. The gods were dead. Or, rather, I was going to destroy them.

I supposed I had no choice… I may have looked like a toddler, but I was a demon who was the very best at reading the room back in the Demon Realm. Something as trifling as this wouldn’t mortify me mentally! Ugh…

“B…Big Brother Rick?”

“Uh, right.”

He definitely wasn’t blushing right now! Nor was his blushing making me blush. I glanced to the side.

Both Grandmother and Mother were smiling. Lady Elea was smirking, looking as if she would concede for today.

The tea party I had attended previously had been set up by Grandfather and the others so that I could meet my relatives. However, Lady Elea had different intentions. She was scheming to make my mother, whom she had been close to since they were young, into her daughter-in-law by setting me up with her son!

Just how serious was she? And just what would it mean for me if she really had her heart set on it? In any case, Rick and I were not of suitable positions to get engaged to each other!

As far as the proper order went, as the second prince now, Timoté would someday become the crown prince, who would then eventually go on to become the king after Uncle. When that happened, as the third prince, Rick would be given land with which to found his own house or be married off to some foreign princess, duke’s family, or someone of similar status. Surely marrying into a grand duke’s family would be the best choice for him—so long as he wasn’t being wed to me.

It wasn’t the mere fact of being cousins that bothered me or anything. Here in the Holy Kingdom, so long as your parents weren’t twins, cousins could wed freely. However, were we to get married, our children’s blood would be way too thick.

Uncle excelled in war and charisma. Father excelled in wisdom and brilliance. Both were fit to be king and “royal purebloods,” despite being born to a mother outside the royal family. That was all well and good. The royal family was more of a unifying force, after all. However, things had changed now that word about the Saint was spreading.

The Holy Kingdom was a pious nation. It went without saying that our people loved the Saint. So much so that even children turned into zealous fanatics for her. Need I say more?

That was the problem. It was a huge problem. Of course we were an unfit match!

The safest solution would be to match me up with Timoté. However, by the time he reached marriageable age, I would only be about ten years old. It might’ve been okay if we were at least two years closer in age, but it wasn’t like I wanted to get married so badly that it weighed heavily on my mind or anything. Lady Elea, could it be that you’ve forgotten how people have started regarding me?!

I fell silent. Though, to tell the truth, there was an easy fix to this.

There was a girl with Father’s blood who wasn’t the Saint. That’s right—if my older sister married Timoté, then she would be of the same purity of blood and perhaps even be able to surpass the renown of the Saint! What was more, I had two sisters. They could just marry the other one to Rick!

I had mentioned this in passing once to Lady Elea. She smiled in response, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she said, “That’s a very funny joke.”

That look in her eyes told me there wasn’t a chance in all the hells.

What in the world did you do, sisters of mine whom I have yet to meet?!

This didn’t bode well for me. I needed to find myself a moderately rich and doting, handsome older man before my family went ahead and decided everything for me.

That reminded me of something my guardian knights had said to me once: “Princess Yulucia, you are our one and only princess.”

What exactly did they mean by that, anyway?

Episode 2:
I Am Five Years Old Now

“YULUCIA, YOUR FIFTH BIRTHDAY PARTY IS going to be held in the castle and the palace!”

Huh?

Grandfather, what was this all about?! Did he not understand how a person would feel to hear that something like this had been decided without running it by them first?

Regardless of my feelings, a month before my fifth birthday, Grandfather had told Father as much when the latter had dropped by the castle for business. His reaction had been the same as mine.

Well, duh! I may have been the granddaughter of the king, but I was still the daughter of a grand duke who had his own lands. I was going to be making my debut as the daughter of a grand duke! Which naturally meant that we were going to be holding my birthday party at our castle in Toure and had already sent out invitations to all of the noble families in the vicinity.

In fact, we had already sent invitations to both Grandfather and Grandmother, and they had already replied to confirm that they would be attending!

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t stop him.”

“It’s not your fault, Father!”

Father hung his head, so I gave him a comforting hug. This is all your fault, Grandfather!

Father had tried to warn him against the idea, but Grandfather basically threw a temper tantrum. When asked why he was so insistent, Grandfather said it was because the nobles from all over the kingdom wouldn’t come unless it was being held in the capital, the center of the Holy Kingdom.

For real? Just how many thousands of people did he want to attend this thing?!

“Admittedly, the noble families from the east and the north said they wished they could also attend, but the distance made it too difficult.”

“Oh…”

Why, oh, why…

As someone who felt more like she was lower middle class, even having a party at a castle in Toure felt daunting. Apparently, before we had even sent out the invitations, hundreds of nobles and wealthy merchants had sent inquiries once they had heard the rumors about me. By rumors, you know the ones I mean. The somewhat embarrassing ones about how I was the Holy Kingdom’s princess and the Holy Kingdom’s Saint.

All of the children who had been kidnapped for summoning demons had shouted that I was the Saint again and again with sparkling excitement in their eyes, and now the people of the Church of Kostor and other faiths were beginning to speak of it in whispers among themselves.

But, like, wasn’t that title the kind of thing some big religion granted you once you were officially recognized as such?

I didn’t like it at all. I was sure to be accused of being an apostate and it was going to invite assassins to come after me. Not that I was an apostate or anything—I was actually a demon, after all. So, while I was prepared for a party in Toure, I really wished they wouldn’t force a party at the royal castle on me. I wouldn’t be surprised if representatives for most of the faiths were there!

“I’ll try one more time to convince him to change his mind.”

“Okay!”

Father, your daughter will be praying from the bottom of her heart for your success in not yielding to his authority.

Yeah, it didn’t work.

Not that I could rag on Father about it or anything. He had made enemies of Grandmother and even Lady Elea as a result, and now it was too late to cancel, since the invitations had already been sent out.

“Is this really going to be okay?”

“Is something the matter, my lady?” my capable maid Vio asked politely when she heard me muttering to myself. She then carefully listened to my concerns.

It had been a few weeks and now there were only four days left before my birthday party. It wouldn’t do for us to arrive at the castle just before the party, so we arrived with time to spare and were now staying at the royal palace.

The royal palace wasn’t just one single building; smaller palaces had been built in the back of the castle for each member of the royal family. Why had there been one for me too?

“I have never been to our manor in the capital before and—”

“Its location is not very suitable, so please do not worry yourself about it,” Vio interrupted.

Huh? I had been to Father’s manor in the capital before. However, I had not been to the manor that would be considered our main residence in the capital. I assumed that was where my sisters must have been living, and I had been looking forward to finally meeting them. By the location not being suitable, did she mean that there was a lack of public order there or something?

They weren’t purposely trying to keep me away from them or something, right?

“Having my debut at the royal castle, of all things, even though I’m just the daughter of a grand duke… I’ve decided to just accept it.”

“It is most appreciated that you have.”

As if. “But why am I the only one getting such special treatment? Isn’t there anyone else in the other families of dukes related to the royal family in some way or another?”

Like my sister or my other sister. The Holy Kingdom’s royal family was also related by blood to five ducal families, based in locations that formed a pentagram. They had lost one and gained a grand duke, but surely these other families had daughters too.

“At present, the four families of dukes only have weak blood ties to the royal family. The one with the thickest bloodline was that of Duke Cowell, but that house has been effectively dissolved. Now the family with the closest lineage would be House Capell, which the third princess of two generations past married into. The queen of two generations ago had also been from the family of a duke, but she has already passed away.”

Uhhhh…? “So you’re saying it’s because I’m the king’s granddaughter?”

“Yes, that is correct. Plus, while your father may have dropped in the order of succession, once the crown prince takes the throne, it will be your father’s job as his younger brother to step in for the king in the case of an emergency. As the first princess of a grand duke, you are now sixth in line for the throne, and thus your position is unlike those of the other daughters of dukes.”

So it all comes down to being part of the line of succession. I almost wholly accepted it—but I couldn’t simply ignore what Vio said next.

“Lady Yul, you have been recognized by the king as the princess of the Holy Kingdom. Your existence as our princess is a necessity from a diplomatic standpoint.”

“Hwuh? Er, I mean, why is that?” I accidentally let my true self pop out for a second there, which brought an uncomfortably warm smile to Vio’s face as she explained it in a way that was easy for me to understand.

Lately I had been working very hard to sound like the proper lady of a grand duke, okay? I would become the perfect lady—a daughter my father would be proud of. Mm-hmm.

That said, Vio’s explanation could be summarized as follows:

Diplomatically, when royalty of neighboring countries wed, or when a delegation was needed for some kind of celebration, a noble could be sent as an emissary when the countries in question were relatively inconsequential, such as dukedoms with populations of only a few tens of thousands of people. However, more important nations, such as the Kingdom of Sigoules (where my aunt now lived after marrying into their royal family), required sending a royal emissary.

Even then, when dealing with nations whose strength equaled ours, a poorly handled visit might cause a dispute over territory if it was uncertain whether we could continue to build favorable diplomatic relations with them. However, the king himself acting as the emissary or sending a male heir of high ranking in the line of succession would apparently also invite all kinds of problems. So the Holy Kingdom had had a custom for generations now to send young princesses as their ambassadors.

Okay… So they favored young girls over filthy middle-aged men…

“Does that mean that I will be expected to attend events in other countries, then?” You can’t possibly expect this of me, Grandfather. I mean, doesn’t this mean I could possibly be put into dangerous situations?

The thought must have shown on my face, because Vio shook her head with a gentle expression as she said, “You will not, Lady Yul. The title is but a formality. Your father shall continue to attend these functions by himself, just as he always has until now. Not to mention, my lord would never allow you to be appointed to such a dangerous position.”

“I see.” I’d had no idea that Father was a diplomat. That fit his image to a tee! “But what do you mean by ‘the title is only a formality’?”

“It is the king’s means for ensuring you are assigned a surplus of guards when you are called to visit him in the capital.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s playing favorites.”

“Oh, Grandfather…”

He truly was one of those overly doting grandparents! Did no one object when he publicly recognized me as a princess just because he wanted to pamper me and play favorites? Oh, but…

“What about my older sisters, then?” Usually everyone tried to change the topic when I brought them up, but I thought now might be a good time to ask. I cocked my head quizzically as I looked at Vio, implying that I was asking, “Aren’t they Grandfather’s granddaughters too?”

Vio’s cheek twitched before she gave a weak sigh. “Your sisters… Lady Adeline and Lady Aureline, are, uh…difficult.”

You can do it, Vio. Don’t look away from me.

But she fell silent.

Still, yikes. Just what the heck had the two of you done, sisters I had yet to meet?! And Lady Elea’s reaction definitely backed up Vio’s statement too.

Hearing that made me all the more interested in meeting them—in a demon way, that is.

I was now able to understand to a certain extent what Grandfather and Lady Elea were thinking. I could understand why he preferred me over his other granddaughters, but that still didn’t explain why my guardian knights called me their one and only princess.

And so, I decided to interrogate them about it!

“Um, Dame Lady Knight?”

“P-Princess!”

I approached a knight who looked like she was doing some drills or something in one of the gardens. When I addressed her, this chestnut-haired knight immediately straightened her posture and threw her wooden sword away…right into the face of a knight with black hair. The latter girl’s nose was now bleeding and she was crouching down.

“Princess, you may address me as Sarah!” the brunette knight said.

“Okay, Sarah.” I had a feeling she would tell me not to call her by her title and that would have been annoying, so I decided to just skip that part and went straight to calling her by her name. “Fer, put me down.”

Fer, who had carried me here, openly frowned at the command. “No, my lady.”

No? Sigh. Fer really was the one out of all of my maids who just didn’t want to put me down.

But I simply insist that you release me from these arms of yours that you have been working so hard to build up recently.

Zshf!

As soon as I stood with my own two feet on the ground for the first time in a while, Fer, Sarah, and all of the other maids and knights in the vicinity simultaneously knelt to me.

Ahhhh, why? This made things so awkward.

Fer and the others never did this sort of thing at the castle. Why were they all looking so proud of themselves now? Had they practiced this? Did the maids and knights all train together or something?

“Uh, so, Sarah?”

“Yes, Your Highness!” Her brown eyes were sparkling so brightly! I was pretty sure now that this cute, freckled girl was younger than Fer and Min.

I decided to start with small talk. “Why did you become my knight?”

“I would be happy to answer that, Your Highness. About two years ago, all of the women who had graduated that year from the study of knighthood at the academy received a letter announcing that they were recruiting for the position. It said, ‘Are you in need of a princess to dedicate your blade to?! Are you in need of a mistress to offer your love? We’re recruiting beautiful women knights!’ And so, I applied!”

So they’d all been recruited. I had to give them credit for actually responding to such a shady-sounding enlistment. Judging from how the knight with the bleeding nose was nodding her agreement, this had really happened.

Which meant that this had all been planned even before I had learned anything at all.

“So why do you call me ‘princess,’ then?”

“Uh…because you are one?”

“You called me the one and only princess. What did you mean by that?” Why did people keep saying that about me?

For some reason, Sarah put her right hand to her chest and raised her left to the heavens, looking very much like a stage actress as she profoundly recited, “O Your Highness! Most beautiful of flowers of the Holy Kingdom! With hair the color of spun gold and skin as soft as the finest silks. Your golden eyes are like an arrow to the heart. It shames me to admit that the very first moment I beheld you, I wet myself a little. I had no idea how to best express the joy I felt at the opportunity of being your guardian knight. So badly did I want to convey my immense delight that I boasted about it from dawn until dusk for an entire week to my poor brothers, who were stuck serving old men in the countryside, until finally it turned into an exchange of blows and—ow!”

I tapped Sarah on the forehead with my fingers. From the way she crouched back down while holding her forehead, it seemed to hurt her much more than I had intended. “Calm down, Sarah.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness.” For some reason, Sarah’s cheeks flushed and her eyes misted over with embarrassment.

Huh? Wait, seriously? Was she into that kind of thing? And that bit about wetting herself hadn’t been because she feared me down to her very soul, right?

Misattributing arousal was different from falling in love at first sight, right? But what if this really was a misattribution of arousal?!

Anyway.

“Not that—I mean, why did you say I’m the one and only when I have two older sisters?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?” Did she not know about them?!

“O-of course, I have heard about your sisters, but…what I’ve heard…is, uh…”

“Is what?”

Sarah sunk into silence.

Come on, Sarah. Look into my eyes! I glanced around; even Fer and the other maids had averted their gazes from me too.

“I-it’s just—the princess of the Holy Kingdom is essentially the face of the Holy Kingdom! Princess Yulucia, you are the only one we can proudly boast about to knights from other countries!”

She’d changed the subject! And was I really someone to boast about? That kind of scared me maybe. “What do you mean ‘face of the kingdom’?”

“Why, you are as lovely as an angel, and the princess of the Holy Kingdom, and furthermore, the Saint! None in this world are worthier of being considered a princess than you, Your Highness!”

“The Saint…”

There it was—the Saint.

The fact that even the knights were calling me this now was sure to mean that word of this gossip was spreading all over. What a huge pain in the butt.

In the end, all I’d learned was that they thought I was some amazing princess because I was the Saint. I hadn’t learned a thing about my sisters. I supposed I would just have to wait until I met them for myself.

I was halfway to giving up, so I used holy magic to heal the knight with the bloody nose. She and Sarah then dedicated their blades to me anew.

Were they so sure about that, though? I was a devil, after all.

***

In Versenia, the capital city of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud, the king used the castle, the palaces, and every venue available to host a birthday party for his beloved granddaughter, Princess Yulucia von Versenia. This ceremony, of a type commonly known as making one’s debut into society, would be officially attended by 3,250 people.

Although she was the daughter of the grand duke, who had blood ties to the royal family, it was unprecedented for someone who was not formally a member of the royal family to have their birthday party at the royal castle. Despite this, the majority of the similarly unprecedented number of attendees had voluntarily offered to attend, which in itself was also unprecedented. They were all looking forward to attending so that they could catch a glimpse of the rumored princess.

They all only knew of her from rumors, so there were few who wanted to attend because they actually wanted to celebrate Yulucia’s birthday. The majority only wanted to see if the outlandish rumors about this five-year-old girl were true or not.

According to these rumors…

She was beloved by the gods and gifted in holy magic.

A beautiful, golden princess who turned all those who beheld her into her thrall.

A pure Saint whose healing had brought dying children back from the brink.

Not only would the pontiff of the official religion of the Holy Kingdom, the Church of Kostor, Goddess of Good Harvests, be in attendance to ascertain Yulucia’s qualities for himself, but nearly every religion with temples within Talitelud would be sending their own representatives as well.

One of the rumors swirling around her was that she was the Saint. If, by some unlikely possibility, Yulucia had abilities worthy of the title of Saint, then these officials knew she absolutely must be brought into the fold of their respective faiths.

She was the favorite of the king. The daughter of a grand duke in possession of both riches and power. That alone was enough to give her a most favorable reputation and made her special enough to be confused with the Saint of the Holy Kingdom.

But only one woman in the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud could be the Saint.

No matter how many priestesses each faith had gathered and brought forth to be recognized and titled as the Saint, their value compared to hers was like trying to compare large blooming roses to flowers on the roadside. The power of the Saint was such that even kings could not be impolite to her—she must be treated as a national guest by every nation.

Nevertheless…

Could a five-year-old girl truly have such power? If not, and the king was merely conspiring with the Church of Kostor to have his beloved granddaughter granted the title of Saint of the Holy Kingdom—a title which had not been granted in over a hundred years—then it was up to the other faiths to rally together to condemn this act.

It was ridiculous to think that a child could be the Saint. They would ascertain the truth. If the girl was only a pretty child, even if they didn’t actually criticize the king, they could at least use her as a poster girl.

Those who assumed as much, though, were utterly blindsided by the truth.

A shocked silence filled the room.

The music from the orchestra shifted as the huge doors at the top of the enormous set of stairs opened. The second they saw the princess, escorted on either side by the two princes, the shock was so great the guests felt as though they had each been speared in the heart. Their expressions were all frozen with surprise.

Perhaps it was an instinctual fear at seeing a human who looked like she had been crafted by the gods. Her cold beauty was such that she resembled a doll that the goddess of beauty herself had modeled in her own image. Her golden hair looked spun from the gold of the heavens and shone like the light of the sun. Her lustrous white skin looked like porcelain, smooth as the finest silk.

If this human girl had been created by the hands of the gods themselves, then were they themselves actually human?

That was the root of their fear and it made them lament their own existences.

Oh, gods above…

We are such flawed people…

Such endless despair that verged on the desire to commit suicide vanished entirely when they saw the girl smile.

The way she shyly smiled as she met the gazes of the guests made them all realize that she was as human as any of them. They were then all grateful to the gods that they were human too, and some even wept with relief.

They all understood. This girl—Yulucia von Versenia—was the one and only princess of Talitelud and the one and only Saint of this kingdom of the gods, the Holy Kingdom.

All, at least, except those who wished to rebel against her.

***

Oh, no! The second I made my entrance, I accidentally overpowered them all with my demonic presence!

Yikes. Nobody had a heart attack, right?! The cause of death would probably be officially deemed heart failure and therefore there would be no substantial proof linking it to me, but if anybody did die, I promise that I’ll use all my power to revive them, so just let me know if you died!

Oh? Everybody’s okay? They managed to survive since I quickly shut it off? I was so embarrassed about my lack of self-control that I forced myself to smile, which seemed to smooth things over.

I-I just couldn’t help it, okay?

Before we’d gone through the doors, the vulgar smell of human malice had been overpowering and it stimulated my demonic instincts. It took everything I had to restrain them! But I tried really hard! I really did! And (for the first time) I won against my hunger!

“Yulucia?”

“Yes?”

The voice coming from diagonally upward made me look up without hiding my feelings. Rick was looking me over from a close distance. As our eyes met, he bent backward with a strangled look.

Huh? What was that all about? Was he surprised by how I looked up at him like that?

“Uh, never mind. Just don’t look that way, okay?”

Don’t look what way?

“Were you feeling scared? Your hands were trembling.”

Oh, perhaps he was right. Maybe I was afraid of being in front of so many people. I may have been a demon, but I was still me, after all. I realized then that I had been holding Rick’s hand the whole time.

“It’s really scary to go out in front of so many people. But the face you were making was kind of scary, you know.” Timoté was holding my opposite hand. He wore a soft smile on his face as he reached over to pat me on the head.

I’m sorry, you two. Unlike Rick, Timoté was like my real older brother and it was kinda reassuring to have him with me. “Thank you both.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Hmph.”

Despite my exhaustion, I smiled. Timoté returned it, but Rick looked away like he was sulking.

Sigh, what was Rick’s problem? Here I thought his worry for me was a sign that he had matured a bit since last year, but clearly he hadn’t changed at all. I looked at Timoté in confusion and Timoté only gave a crooked smile.

“Anyway…”

Just as I was going to ask Timoté to escort me back, Rick suddenly grabbed my hand again and started dragging me down the stairs. “Yulucia! Since you’re the guest of honor, you can’t just stand up here forever!”

“Huh? Hey—” I protested.

“Prince Ludoric?!” Timoté exclaimed.

H-hey! Why are you walking so fast?!

Stop! Or at least walk slower! I’ll have you know, my lower body is feeble! You’re going to make me fall! I will surely fall flat on my face!

Ahhhh, enough already!

“Big Brother Rick!” I cried out in desperation.

Rick looked back at me, startled. He was wearing quite the expression and probably wasn’t able to contain his emotions in that moment.

“I am going to trip down the stairs. Let’s go slower,” I pleaded earnestly, looking up at him with tears in my eyes; I truly did believe that I would fall.

“Oh, sorry.” Rick finally realized his mistake and nervously adjusted his grip on my hand.

That was when Timoté caught up to us and took my other hand. The three of us then continued down into the venue.

Nevertheless, Rick was suddenly being very meek.

I suppose it must be because it really was weird for me to address him as my older brother?

As I was thinking this, Rick must have been thinking the very same thing. He muttered to himself, “I’d rather you not call me that.”

I totally agreed.

Bump!

“Lady Yuuuul!”

“Grph!”

A small shadow managed to slip past the attendees and my knights and tackle me from the side.

“Sh-Shelly?!”

“That’s right! It’s so nice to see you again after such a long time, Lady Yul! It’s me, Ciellindo!”

“Oh, I guess. It’s been two days, hasn’t it?” I was pretty sure I had seen her the day before yesterday. In fact, hadn’t we been seeing each other practically every day since I arrived in the capital? We hadn’t been able to yesterday, being the day before this big event and all, but Shelly visited me pretty much every time I was in town.

Could be she suffering from amnesia? Oh, Shelly, you’re too young for that kind of thing.

Nevertheless, I should count my blessings. The awkward atmosphere from when I’d first arrived at the event had been utterly flung away. However, just as I was wondering what to do about the way she kept clinging to me like a burr…

Bonk!

“Wah!”

Another small person came rushing over from the side to headbutt Shelly.

“Shelly! What do you think you’re doing? You’re bothering Yul. Get away from her!”

“I can’t believe you just headbutted me, Betty.” Shelly touched her head as she looked up at the girl reprimanding her.

Betty was our friend who was just a bit older than us. She made it seem like she had done that because of Shelly’s misbehavior, but I knew better. She had originally come over to stop Shelly in a more subtle manner—however, she’d accidentally slipped and wound up headbutting Shelly instead.

I regularly played with Betty whenever I came to the capital too, though not as much as I played with Shelly. I didn’t get to see her as much because she had more common sense than Shelly did, for better or for worse. Such a pitiful girl.

And she wasn’t the only one to join us.

“Are you all right? Your forehead looks so red right now.” The forgotten Timoté looked closely at Betty’s face, causing her to make a strange-sounding shriek as her whole face turned even redder than the spot where she had bumped her head.

Oh? What have we here? Is that how it is, Betty? Timoté does make for a picture-perfect prince.

Betty kept opening and closing her mouth as she looked at Timoté. It seemed she didn’t even realize that Rick was also standing next to him.

I really hoped that the party could continue to be this easygoing, but life wasn’t so kind.

“How many more, Father?”

As the guest of honor at this party, I had a job to do. I had already lost count of how many groups of people I had spoken to. Fifty? A hundred? I’d stopped counting at some point (since it was annoying).

The thousands of people here were all relatively important people; however, it would have been impossible for me to individually introduce myself to such a crowd, so Father and Grandfather were limiting it to those they were on friendly terms with. Yet the stream of people showed no sign of ending.

I had been at this for two hours already. It was taking way too long to get through talking with each group. And how rude were they all to stop and freeze in their tracks the moment they saw me up close?

Father, save meee.

“Hmm, that’s a good question. I suppose you’ll be needing a break soon, won’t you? Father—I mean, the king and I will handle the rest, so you go ahead and relax for a little while. Liasteia, can you take her?”

“Of course, Your Grace.” Mother smiled kindly in response to his request, which he had seemed reluctant to make. I wondered if her face was just stuck in a smile from all of the talking with people. At any rate, Mother took me by the hand and led me to the “pen.”

Did our party have animal pens in it? Of course not.

Lavish sofas and tables had been placed all around the hall. With knights standing guard around the perimeters, they created closed-off spaces that only friends in possession of the utmost determination could enter. However, those on the outside could plainly see us, which was why I was calling them pens.

See there? In that pen over there, Grandfather and Uncle could clearly be seen drinking alcohol and having a good time with some rugged-looking old men. I thought they were supposed to be greeting all the guests with Father?

“Yul, I’m going to go back to help Lord Forte. Can you be a good girl here?”

“Yes, Mother. Good luck.”

How unforgivable.

Shelly and Betty were already in the pen Mother dropped me off at, and with my knights standing guard, they made a space where boys weren’t allowed.

Oh, Mother. She’d taken her comforting powers with her. However, Father needed backup. I would have to get comfort from Shelly and Betty instead.

The knights to receive me were Sarah and the knight who’d had the nosebleed. I think her name was Brigitte? They walked me inside the pen and my two comforting friends welcomed me with waves.

“Lady Yuuul! Over here!”

“Hmph, you took so long! And Prince Timoté isn’t even with you anymore,” Betty complained, even though all she could do was mutely blush around him.

Shelly pounced on me just like she always did, so I was able to replenish my supply of softness as Betty patted the seat next to her, and I wound up sitting in between the two of them.

“I couldn’t believe the line of people who wanted to speak with you! I suppose that’s the kind of thing a daughter of a grand duke should expect.” Betty sounded just like a villainess with the way she went “ho ho ho!” as she laughed. Her forehead was still red.

Ignoring the joke, Shelly wrapped her arms around my arm. “My father and brother went to meet you too.”

“I’m sorry. I met so many people.” I vaguely remembered meeting them, but I just couldn’t remember them now. The normal, unappetizing people just didn’t make a lasting impression.

“Oh, it’s all right. Never mind them.”

Really?

“Have you heard anything about your very first tea party yet?” Shelly asked.

“That’s right. I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it yet,” Betty said.

It seemed like the kind of thing people would talk about since I was coming to the capital all the time these days, but the adults were limiting who could invite me, and thus people were probably keeping quiet about it.

Shelly and Betty exchanged a glance and nodded. I could tell what they were both thinking.

“Grandmother—Her Majesty has invited me to her tea party,” I said.

The two of them drooped their shoulders at this. After all, I could have made my tea-party debut at a friend’s house instead of being hosted by my grandmother or Lady Elea.

I got a cup of calming tea, as I was here to relax. Though even the fanciest of teas tasted no different from hot water to me.

“So you’ll be attending Her Majesty’s tea party, then. I wanted to invite you to one of our tea parties, but I guess it’s more complicated since you’re the Golden Princess,” said Shelly.

“The Golden Princess?” What was with that cringey nickname?

They explained that people were calling me that behind my back because of my gold hair and eyes.

“Oh, but there’s also a Silver Princess, so that could also be why it stuck.”

“That’s quite a name too. Who is she?”

“What?!” Betty was stunned as I gave her a quizzical look.

I looked around and saw that even Vio, Sarah, and others were surprised by the question as well. Did everyone know about her or something?

“Allow me to explain!” Betty somewhat puffed out her chest with pride. As she spoke, she had this smug look on her face like she was an expert in gossip.

Apparently, the Silver Princess was a very pretty girl who had silver hair and purplish-silver eyes. She rarely attended soirees and only those she invited to her “Moonlit Tea Parties” were permitted to know what she looked like.

“An acquaintance of my sister’s attended one of her tea parties. She said that they were waited on by beautiful men and women and she was served delicious tea and confections like she’d never seen before. She said it was as lovely as a dream!”

“I think Lady Yul is prettier, though, so I have no interest in her.”

“Shelly!”

Oh, Shelly. Never change. Shelly had this faint smile on her face when, having been so curtly brushed aside, Betty grabbed Shelly’s shoulders and started violently shaking her.

“Is she not here today, then?” I doubted Betty was going to say anything more, so I looked to the servants for more information.

Vio soundlessly walked over to whisper, “Count Auber is getting on in years, so he and his wife have not left their lands in several years now. Their only child is Lady Mylene, who is ten years old and made her debut into high society just this year. Rumor has it that she is as beautiful as a night fairy.”

“Oooh.” Now I had a better picture of who this Silver Princess was.

“Lady Mylene has a weak constitution and is known for having been raised in seclusion. I believe she had said she would be coming to this party, but they might have sent someone else to represent their family instead. In any case, there are too many people here to be sure.”

“I understand. Thank you, Vio.”

This one hall couldn’t accommodate the thousand-plus attendees to this party, so we were using multiple halls and even the courtyard. I had to make an appearance at all of them and that thought just made me feel so depressed.

But I had to say, I was astonished that Vio had memorized the list of every noble family that was here today.

Anyway, it seemed that the frail Lady Mylene rarely left their land either. She only invited people to attend her Moonlit Tea Parties when she was in good health. Status didn’t matter to her for these parties, apparently; it was considered a great honor among the daughters of lower houses to receive an invitation from her. It seemed that the maids and knights were more in the know about Lady Mylene than anyone else. Clearly, they must all neglect their work to gossip.

In any case, in this space where there were only pretty girls in pretty dresses, I doubted any men we didn’t know would even attempt to try to talk to us, so it helped me to relax somewhat. However, none of the other girls tried to join us either.

Even so, I kept feeling all their eyes on me. Were they hesitant because I stood out so much? Or was it because they were scared of me?

I made a terrible mess the last time I tried to scavenge for food, so don’t worry. I’m not going to snitch.

I wanted to have some more normal friends, but there was just no helping the situation. Instead, however, they finally arrived. In a way, they were the main event of today’s party.

Hee hee hee.

***

Splash.

“Ooh, my! My sincerest apologies.”

The girl showed up out of nowhere and spilled bright red wine all over Yulucia, the guest of honor.

Although many people wanted to speak with Lady Yulucia, she was with other girls of upper nobility and being protected by many guards and maids. Even other noble girls found it difficult to get close, faltering under the authority and beauty of the princess. However, two girls had managed to intrude.

The other partygoers were stunned by the girls’ recklessness. Red splotches dyed Yulucia’s pure white dress and beautiful golden hair. The fact that they had brought bright red wine instead of a drink of a paler color made it obvious that this had been a premeditated attack.

“Ha ha ha! Look, Sister! She looks like she’s been covered in blood.”

“My, Aureline. Do watch your tongue. Though I hadn’t imagined she would be such a simpleton that she couldn’t even manage to dodge a spilled drink.”

The girls mocked Yulucia loudly enough that everyone in the vicinity could hear. Their words brought the maids and guardian knights back to their senses, but as they began to move—

“You there! I am Adeline, the legitimate daughter of Duke Cowell! Stand down, you dogs!” Adeline’s rebuke was enough to stop even the knights.

She had luxurious wavy hair that was as red as a rose. Combined with her piercing gaze, though, she seemed more like a crimson lion. As she proudly asserted herself as a member of House Cowell (which was all she had left to her name), Adeline closely resembled their mother, who had once been known as the belle of high society. Her splendor and the way she carried herself made her seem much older than a child, which was what had made the knights stop in their tracks.

Adeline’s younger sister Aureline started snickering at them. “That’s right. You wouldn’t dare disobey my older sister. Ha ha ha ha ha!”

That was right—these two girls were Princess Yulucia’s half sisters.

The two daughters belonged to the bloodline of the former House Cowell. The elder sister was Adeline. The younger, Aureline.

They looked so mature and captivatingly beautiful that you wouldn’t think they were only ten and nine years old. They carried themselves with such arrogance that even the attendants and Yulucia’s angry friends shrank back from them.

Adeline calmly surveyed the area with her overpowering gaze before sighing in contempt. “Hmph. It looks like the maids of the grand duke don’t even have any manners. I’m guessing the new head housemaid for this girl who’s now covered in wine is to blame?”

“What?!” Vio and two of the family’s other long-serving lady’s maids were starting to lose their temper at this cruel remark, especially since she had been the one to dump the wine all over their little charge’s head.

The girls were cunning enough to make their move when there weren’t any adults from the royal family or grand duke’s house around, and they were cruel enough to call the people who worked for the grand duke mere housemaids. Many people who had been in the family’s employ had been abused or humiliated by these two girls before. Nevertheless, Adeline and Aureline were still the older sisters of their beloved Yulucia and the daughters of Grand Duke Forte, whom they all respected and adored. Although Yulucia’s friends were angry for her, none of them were of high enough status to oppose them—someone of higher standing would have had to step up. However, the sisters had already worked out that the princes would not be dropping by this area.

No one said a word.

The nobles in the vicinity tragically pretended they didn’t see anything. They all knew the rumors about the Cowell sisters that had spread throughout the capital at the Academy of the Magical Arts.

They had forced shops out of business for not stocking what they wanted to buy. They had bullied a student so badly, she had attempted suicide. They were irresponsible with their money and had taken out loans with people from the underbelly of society. They had…

People said a great many things about them. Many noble daughters of high-ranking families grew up selfish and believing they should get everything they wanted. In their case, though, there was no smoke without a fire; it was clear that these girls, who were only about ten years old, had gone too far with their abhorrent behavior.

This was why their rumored engagements to members of the royal family had been canceled before being finalized, which further proved that all of the other rumors were true. And now they were even directing that boundless malice of theirs toward their youngest half sister—a dainty white lily being pricked by the thorns of bloodstained roses.

Some, unable to stand idly by and watch the sisters antagonize the girl, attempted to alert the grand duke, but they were stopped by those who opposed the Grand Duke of Versenia. Everyone who powerlessly cast their eyes down wondered if there was anyone who could stop the two cruel sisters. But those who sensed something like a cool breeze in the air looked up and began trembling down to their very souls.

The very girl who had been subjected to their wickedness and covered in their wine smiled sweetly up at them with a soft glint in her golden eyes.

It was a sight they would never forget.

***

Whoops, almost did a bad thing there. I accidentally let my true aura slip out. I think the air wavered a little?

“Wh-what’s your problem?!” Big Sister Aureline threw her glass of wine at me, almost as if in fear. However, this time Shelly and Betty wound up getting splatters on their dresses too.

I took my time examining the droplets of red launching toward me as I caught the glass in my hand, weaving power into my next words. “Manifest Light.”

A weak, gentle light illuminated the area. When it faded, the red wine had turned into colorless water; the red stains on my white dress were gone.

I had used the high-level holy magic spell Purification.

This spell could remove not only poisons and miasma, but curses as well. A small casting of it could remove all dirt and stains from one’s body or clothes. However, one had to be careful not to accidentally remove the color from fabric.

The casting of the spell lingered, evaporating into the air like steam. Betty and Shelly both looked at me in surprise. I could not contain my delight and was softly smiling as I sophisticatedly wiped my hands with a handkerchief.

“How do you do, sisters? I am so delighted to meet you.”

Ahh, I was so happy my face was frozen in the expression it was making. Hopefully it didn’t look weird. I intended to be smiling in a friendly way. Why were my sisters shrinking back like that?

“Ugh… Why, you—!”

Even so, Big Sister Adeline alone had stopped in her tracks and was grinding her teeth. Huh? How odd. I was pretty sure I hadn’t accidentally let my aura slip or anything.

Still, since they had scared my cute friends and insulted Vio and the others, it didn’t hurt me too much. I was only a little disheartened about my lack of self-control.

I needed to do better. I knew I had to try my hardest to act like a normal human.

It was with such sad affection that I gazed at my sisters. But for some reason, the small hairs framing Big Sister Adeline’s face were bristling up like a cat’s.

“I will never accept the likes of you as Father’s daughter!” Big Sister Adeline uttered before turning on her heel, Big Sister Aureline hurrying after her.

“S-Sister?!”

Aww. They left. Too bad. I was hoping we could get to play together a bit more.

“Lady Yul!”

“Yul!”

“Lady Yuuul!”

“Princess!”

After my sisters disappeared, my two friends clung to each of my arms and Vio, the other maids, and my guardian knights all came rushing toward me to kneel.

“Please forgive us!”

“We are so…”

They all had such dark looks on their faces as I quietly shook my head at them. “It’s all right. I know you couldn’t do anything. If anything, I’m sorry you all had to deal with such unpleasantness because of me.”

I really was sorry about that!

I patted Shelly’s chick-colored hair while I—wait, Betty, I was going to pat you too, so don’t rub my cheeks around like that! Anyway, I said that while patting them and everyone got all flustered about it.

“Think nothing of it! It is our job to—”

“That’s right! We should have opposed them, even if it meant we would be punished!”

“It’s our job as your knights to be your shield, yet we failed.”

“It pleases me to hear you say that.” I smiled, which made everyone sigh with relief. Fer and Min then proceeded to make a big fuss.

“You were soooo wonderful, Lady Yul!”

“Was that holy magic just now?”

“I-I’ve got something else to brag about to my brother now!”

Sarah, please don’t. You’re only going to start another fight.

Amid all this kerfuffle, a quiet and mature maid whom I had hardly ever spoken with quietly murmured, “That was so nice to see.”

Perhaps she was a maid who had served since Father was a duke and had been bullied by my sisters? That was not the sort of thing a servant of the grand duke should be saying, but other maids who overheard her nodded their heads slightly in agreement.

“I-I’m sorry for saying such a thing even though they victimized you,” she added.

“It’s all right.”

The maid shrank back when she noticed everyone looking at her, so I smiled at her.

“I wasn’t really hurt at all. And…”

And…

I had been dreaming of this ever since I’d first heard the rumors about them. I just knew that something amazing would happen the first time we met, and I was not disappointed. My sisters were even lovelier than I had hoped. Especially Big Sister Adeline—she was wonderful. I just couldn’t take it. They were just so…

“They’re so cute, don’t you think?” I tilted my head to the side a little, which surprised not only those near me, but those who had been watching us.

It’s just, they really were such sweet girls.

They looked so delectable.

***

The high-society debut of Princess Yulucia, daughter of the Grand Duke of Versenia, came to a successful conclusion without any incidents. The opinions of her held by the great number of nobles who had attended the party could be mostly divided into three groups, mostly influenced by what had happened with her older sisters. Some had gossiped that she was not the grand duke’s biological daughter, but after hearing what had transpired between Yulucia and her sisters…

Yulucia had smiled sadly at her sisters, whom she knew had a bad history, and forgiven them for their misconduct, even going so far as to call them cute for being unable to be honest about their true feelings. All now knew the breadth of Yulucia’s loving heart. She had certainly lived up to her reputation.

The great majority of people’s reaction was acceptance that Princess Yulucia truly was the Princess of the Holy Kingdom, the face of their nation, and they extolled her as the true Saint of the Holy Kingdom to their families and friends.

The second group feared Princess Yulucia’s power—her reputation, the praise she received, her abilities as the Saint, and so on. But most of all, they feared her charm. They were now very cautious of the family of the Grand Duke of Versenia.

However, the most panicked was the third group, consisting of the most powerful nobles. Although the current king was in good health, the crown prince would likely succeed the throne within the next ten years. Second Prince Forte had already renounced his place in the line of succession, so there were no problems there. Which meant that the first prince’s children, Timoté and Ludoric, would both be vying for the title of crown prince after their father became king.

One faction backed the eldest and incredibly competent Timoté as their future king, which was in accordance with normal conventions. However, there was another faction that backed Ludoric, who took more after the king and the crown prince in his disposition, whereas his older brother was more like the queen and the crown princess. One faction valued tradition, while the other desired to build a more modern Holy Kingdom.

Each had their reasons, but they could not reach any agreements in their disputes. And now a total game-changer had appeared: the beautiful, elegant Golden Princess who possessed overflowing love as the Saint.

She was young now, but when she grew up, her beauty would surely launch a thousand ships. Right now, both factions had to stealthily take whatever action they could to make her one of their own…

Because the prince who claimed Princess Yulucia would ultimately become king.

Such were some people’s thoughts as they left the castle. Meanwhile, a single girl was looking down at them from a spire that reached close to the night sky.

She wore a dress made of blue satin, and her straight silver hair fluttered in the breeze. She had one of her purplish-silver eyes closed as she listened to people gossiping, and now slowly opened her eye again.

“The Golden Princess?”

Unable to suppress her giggles, her voice was like a bell as it fell from her red lips that stood out against skin as white as the moon. She reached up toward that moon and said, “If I were to invite her to one of my tea parties, I wonder if she would come?”

Episode 3:
I Am a Mistress Now

SEVERAL MONTHS HAD PASSED BY IN A FLASH since that awful birthday party I hoped to never have to go through again.

For real, Grandfather! I’m begging you! Please, never again!

However, it had finally given me an opportunity to meet my lovely older sisters, which certainly was a treat. I did accidentally let my true self slip there a bit, but I couldn’t help it. I, a demon, was here all by myself and had no minions of my own. Perhaps I should try to summon some from another world? Surely that would be a mistake…

In any case, all’s well that ends well, so, whatever. But I had a feeling that word of my sisters’ antics had reached the royal family. I didn’t know for sure or anything, but Lady Elea seemed quite angry about it. She had been an acquaintance of my sisters’ mother and was planning on sending them off to the Academy of the Magical Arts in the Kingdom of Sigoules—which was where my aunt lived—before I started going to school.

Siiiigh. Not like I was depressed about it or anything. Truth be told, they weren’t fully ripened yet. I would give them a few more years to mature before I harvested them. But if we had been able to go to the same school together, it would’ve meant that, y’know, I could have had a teeny tiny sip of them, maybe. But I would try to do what I could to get them to return while I was still in school. Noble girls like them were very valuable, you know.

Father apologized to me for what happened, but it didn’t bother me at all! If anything, I was more than ready to take them on! Father always had such a heartbreaking look on his face whenever talking about my sisters, though. He must have had very complicated feelings of love for them. Perhaps it would be best if I treasured my sisters from the heart and sipped on them little by little over the course of our lives, like some old guy who kept a cherished hidden bottle of sake.

Please be well, sisters. Or, at least, I’d have liked to think that. But as it so happened, they left me an annoying “parting gift.”

“Are you listening, Yulucia?”

“Yeees, Father.”

Father had just returned to Toure and called for me. I ran as fast as my little legs could take me and Father picked me up into his arms and placed me on his lap as we sat down on the couch.

Huh? Why does he look so tired?

“Do you know what our family of the Grand Duke of Versenia exports to the Kingdom of Sigoules, which is where your sisters have gone to now?”

“Uhh, alcohol and…iron!”

He patted my head as a reward for getting the right answer. “That’s right. You’ve been studying well. We export products made of iron and spirits, and import crops and fruit from them in return.”

Our lands produced crops and fruit too, but Sigoules was known as a major agricultural power, and they produced plenty of crops that weren’t fit to be sold. They treated these crops so that they wouldn’t rot during the journey and sent them to us to process into wines, ale, and the like, which we then sent back to them. I was pretty sure that Sigoules produced its own iron too, but we sent things like chisels and drills for precision cutting, not ores to be turned into weapons. The products we made all had the grand duke’s seal on them.

“And so they want you, instead of me, to help out by going on a tour of the place where it’s all made. Does that sound okay to you?”

“I get to help out?” It would be my very first errand as the princess of the grand duke!

Wait, “tour”? By myself? Were they serious about this? But I was just a good-for-nothing pureblood who had only ever been here and the castle in the royal capital.

“Do you want to hear more about it?”

“Okay.”

He explained that not everything we exported was produced within Toure. In particular, the iron ores usually never left the mines—they went through the entire refining and treating processes in that same area in an attempt to optimize production.

“It’s hard to ensure there’s enough fuel there for the whole thing, but the elves who live in the nearby forests cut down lots of trees and sell us the charcoal, so it works.”

“Ooh.”

The salt-and-bean mochi-dumpling peoples, eh? I had assumed they would care about preserving the forests, but it seemed I was wrong.

Anyway, this on-site observation tour thing was an important part of Father’s job, but he had other matters to attend to, both as a grand duke and as a member of the royal family. He might even be called to go abroad if something happened, so he didn’t have time to travel around to different parts of our lands.

You mean it’s not because you’ve been coming home so often to see me instead?

Though that was a justifiable reason, so there was no helping that. But when I asked why me, apparently the people there had requested it. Uhh?

What should I sing? Wait, what? You mean I’m not going there on tour as an idol? Then why? Oh, because they’re demanding me as the Saint?!

“People can get pretty hurt when working in the mines and ironworks. We have been helping people who can’t return to their jobs find different work instead, but they were wondering if you could help them. Of course, I’m sure that just seeing your face would be enough to lift their spirits,” my father explained.

“I see.”

So I would be more like an idol going to a hospital to cheer people up. But surely they had places of healing or pastors or priests who could use holy magic, right?

Well, it turned out that it took many castings for a regular priest to be able to mend a broken bone, and so they couldn’t heal great numbers of people at once like I could—not to mention bringing people back from the brink of death. This was why the people desired the rumored Saint to heal their bodies and hearts.

But…

“Am I really the Saint?” I hadn’t been officially recognized as the Saint by any religion yet, so it was embarrassing to hear people call me that.

“People are working hard to figure that out, so don’t worry. The Saint is a special title here in the Holy Kingdom, so we don’t call just anyone that.”

“Okay.”

That just made me more scared! None of the religions were going to start treating me like an enemy, right?

“I’d like to tell you more about the Saint now,” Father said.

“’Kaaay.”

The simplest reason the title of Saint was not easily granted was because our nation was recognized by all as the religious Holy Kingdom. I didn’t really get it, but it was like how unbranded wine was worth less than the kind made by a brand name—everyone saw the Saint, who had the Holy Kingdom’s brand, as special.

The very first queen at the time of the country’s founding had been the Saint, so the Saint was admired just as reverently as the royal family was by the people even today. Because of this, hundreds of years ago, each religion had their own Saint and began squabbling among themselves. The king at the time was tired of it and went off to fight the Daemon King all on his own, which cost him his life. Well, that was dumb of him.

If I remembered correctly, the daemons weren’t humans who had done bad things, but actually some kind of savage species? I wished they had picked a better name that didn’t give demons such a bad rap.

But I digress.

Anyway, there was some stupid legend about how all of the Saints ran away or died, and now all of the religions were scared of picking the wrong person to name as Saint and having their recognition revoked by the Holy Kingdom. As a result, they were now very careful about who they gave the title to.

“And it’s for that same reason that there’s another title that’s rarely granted. Do you know what that is?”

“Uhhh, the Daemon King?”

“I…guess so. Yeah, that’s certainly not a title we would commonly grant.”

Seemed I’d guessed wrong.

It was the Saint’s job to name the enemy of humanity, but apparently there had been another title meant for striking down our enemies. It seemed that there had been a ton of such enemies at one time, but they had been cast out with the Saints, never to return.

“They’re the person who’s supposed to stand by the Saint’s side. Think carefully, now.”

“Okay.” I had no idea what it could be, though!

“And this is why I’ll be assigning four personal attendants to you.”

“Huh?” Attendants? Like how Vio is to Mother?

I presently had Vio or one of the other two with me whenever I went somewhere. It was mainly because I was Mother’s daughter, so I was basically borrowing them from her. I also had Sarah and the other knights as my guards, so I thought they were attendants, but they were for protecting me, not tending to my needs.

Not that I minded having my own personal attendants or anything, but… Father? Why are you looking away from me like that?!

For some reason, Father grimaced like he had a stomachache and, suddenly, his explanation about the attendants ended without another word. He just went back to work. How suspicious. There must’ve been something wrong with these attendants—I had no doubt about it.

Very well, then. It was time to forget about focusing on somewhat bothersome things and keep a positive outlook instead. Today, I had decided to get our book-loving maid Min to teach me all about the monsters in this world, since I had been wondering about them for some time now. After all, given that I was going on an idol tour into the countryside—er, I mean, since I was going to have to travel on an observation tour of our land—a time might come where such knowledge would be required. I knew about daemons, but they were different from monsters, so I was looking forward to learning about them!

“Lady Yuuul, I’ve brought a book called The Traveler’s Dictionary of Versatile Monsters.”

“Yay!”

I’d known Min would come through for me. And what she’d chosen sounded like the perfect book too.

“First up, here’s a jackalope,” Min said while opening the book.

“Ooh!”

“They’re fast and usually run away the second they’re spotted. However, their meat tastes really good!”

“Ooh…” That just sounded like a regular rabbit. “What about the one on this page?”

“This is a wolf. They approach travelers they see, and if you give them food, they’ll keep watch for you all night long.”

That didn’t sound very wild of them.

“What’s this one?”

“This is a boar. They’re a bit tough, but their meat is very tasty.”

So that was what the title meant by “versatile” monsters…

“Oh, wait, were you perhaps hoping to learn about the more dangerous kinds of monsters instead, Lady Yul?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Don’t look so surprised. It’s not an unusual request coming from me.

Min ran off and soon came back with a book called The Traveler’s Dictionary of Perilous Monsters instead.

Oh, good. I’m glad that kind of book actually exists.

“This is a tiger. They’re cautious creatures that are rarely sighted by people; however, you have to be careful since they try to attack horses.”

“Oh, my!” The forests had such fearsome animals? How scary!

“This is a rhinoceros. They attack travelers with their horns.”

“Ooh?”

“And this is a hippopotamus. They charge straight at travelers the second they see them.”

“Huh.”

“This is an elephant. They like to attack travelers in herds.”

I fell silent.

What was the meaning of this?

These were monsters? Really? But they seemed so…normal!

No, wait, that wasn’t what I should have been focusing on; there was a bigger problem here.

These animals attacked people? On the roads through the forests? You mean to tell me that travelers got attacked by rhinos and hippos?! Uh, that was actually a really terrifying thought! They actually sounded scarier than lesser demons!

I had asked Min to teach me about this kind of thing, but this wasn’t exactly what I had wanted to learn.

“Ooh, wait, were you actually hoping to learn about dangerous monstrosities instead?”

“Yeah.”

Even I was surprised now. But this was very interesting. Hippos and elephants were ordinary animals, but treated as monsters because they were dangerous creatures. If this was the standard here in this world, then I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from pointing and laughing if the Daemon King came riding out on a hippo.

And so, life went on and a few months passed. I was already a big girl by now, I’ll have you know. Not that I understood why I was growing up, since I was a demon.

At long last, my father finally brought my prospective attendants to meet me, though he had been very vague about the whole thing. Father, I trust you, okay?

I was silent in the face of them.

“Since they’re going to be serving as your attendants for a long time, we thought it would be best if they were close to you in age.”

They were going to attend to my every need, right?

These children…

As if to avoid my stare, Father had brought the four of them before me. They didn’t seem scared of me, but they didn’t really seem interested in me either. So I asked them, “Uh, could you all introduce yourselves to me?”

The first was the group’s only boy. There was something unpleasant about the way he smiled. He almost seemed to be rubbing his hands together as he said, “I am Noir, the heir to the former Baron Lutre. I am to be your chamberlain-in-training, Lady Yulucia.”

Noir was eight years old. He had dark brown hair, which I supposed made him a brunette? He gave a courteous enough greeting, but there was a questionable glint in those bluish-grey eyes of his. Not to mention, the whole time he was introducing himself, he kept glancing at Father instead of me.

The second was…

“I’m Big Brother Noir’s little sister, Ninette. I’m, uh, your guardian knight-in-training, I guess?”

Ninette was also eight years old. She had the same hair and eyes as her brother. While Noir seemed shady, Ninette seemed very confused about herself. She hadn’t even tried to hide a yawn from Father and me. Maybe she was supposed to be in-training to be both my attendant and my guardian knight?

The third…

“I’m Christina, the eldest daughter of the former Viscount of Celda. I will be in training to become your lady-in-waiting.”

Christina was five years old. She was the same age as me, yet she could speak very well. This was the first time I had ever seen golden ringlet curls in real life.

Perhaps it was the azure of her eyes, but there something strangely apathetic about her—dangerous, even. Not so much that it aroused my appetite, though.

And the fourth and final one…

“So, I’m Fantine, the third daughter of the former Baron Rhoan, I guess? I’m in training to become your lady-in-waiting like Christy, and your maid too!”

Fantine was five years old. Also the same age as me. She sure was cheerful, which was great and all, but she seemed kind of oblivious to her surroundings. She was pretty, but—maybe because of her silver hair and blue eyes, or the somewhat stilted way she moved—she seemed more like a heartless doll than anything.

Father and I stared at one another in silence for a moment. He eventually averted his gaze.

So these four were to be my personal attendants? They all sounded like they were from noble families, but what was the “former” thing that they had all mentioned?

“Okay! Now that introductions are out of the way, the four of you are to take care of Yulucia! You try your best to get along with them too, Yulucia!”

“Ah! Father?!”

After that announcement, Father grabbed his cloak from Butler and went back to work before I could stop him. Was this really happening right now?!

I had reached out to him, but now I lowered my arm, putting a smile on my face as I shifted into princess mode while I slowly turned around to face my attendants. “I look forward to getting to know you all.”

“Yes,” replied three of them.

“Me too, my lady!” Fantine added.

Would I be able to become friends with them? Perhaps we should aim to become an idol unit?

These four children weren’t bad kids. At the very least, I didn’t sense any antagonism toward my family from them. They seemed determined to obey not only my every order, but those of Vio and the others, who were teaching them what to do.

They weren’t naughty at all.

But there was something about them…

“Lady Yulucia, on today’s schedule, we have your tutor on etiquette coming this morning.”

“Okay.”

Noir? Is that all you had to say about today’s schedule? You can just go back to work then, you know? Why are you just staring at me like that? Moreover, why are you looking at the baked sweets on the table? I’m not going to give you a treat just because you did such a small thing for me.

“You can have some,” I said, motioning to the treats.

“Thank you, my lady!”

Perhaps they weren’t feeding him enough? Fer and Min were always pleased by the sumptuous meals they received here, though.

Crash!

“Oh, I’m so sorry, my lady. I broke the vase.”

The clumsy Ninette had broken something again. This child was so easily distracted that I wondered if she was able to concentrate on anything at all. And she was supposed to be my guard?

“Ninette, could you please not bring your practice sword indoors?”

“But I am your guard, my lady… And…I like swords.”

“Uh, okay.”

I didn’t ask what you like. What I’m trying to say is that you’re such a scatterbrain, you’re going to end up breaking all kinds of things walking around while wearing something like that on your hip.

“Don’t worry, Lady Yulucia,” Noir interjected as he gave a bow. He seemed to be trying to cover for his sister. “With the wealth of the grand duke, surely a broken vase or two is nothing to cry about.”

Excuse me?

“Yes, I’m sure you’re right. I’m so glad I get to work here,” Ninette said.

What are you two trying to imply?

“Just get this cleaned up already,” I ordered, trying not to let my annoyance show.

“Yes, of course, my lady. Come on, Ninette. Get this cleaned up,” Noir said.

You do it, Noir. You’re the one not doing anything.

“Right away. I’ll call one of the maids,” Ninette said with a quick look around.

I slowly massaged my brow. As the twins tried to pass the job off onto someone else, I felt my aura attempting to leak out and did all I could to hold it back as I quietly smiled at them. “I want the two of you to get this cleaned up. Now.”

For the first time in the five and a half years I had been alive, I was angry.

“Christy, could you make me some tea?” It might not have had any flavor to me, but even demons got thirsty.

“Right away, my lady. By the way, my name is Christina.”

“All right.” So I can’t call you by your nickname? But Fantine can call you “Christy”?

“You need to tell me what your preferences are for tea or I won’t know what to pick.”

“Just pick some herbal tea.”

“Very well, I shall go make you some herbal tea.”

“Where’s Fantine?”

“I do not know. I shall be back in a few minutes.”

“Ah—”

She shut the door and was gone.

Christina was so good at her job that it was hard to believe she was the same age as me. But she was very particular about the details. Maybe I would even go so far as to call her fussy? She was a cool-headed and calm kind of person in a way, but there was a world of difference between her and Vio, who also had the same kind of personality.

As of this moment, she was one hundred percent tsun and her dere was nil.

Hmm, I don’t sense any malice in her. She’s just a perfectionist.

I hoped!

As for my other lady-in-waiting and maid, there were some days where I didn’t see her at all.

“Fer, have you seen Fantine?” I asked Fer while I was having some tea.

She tilted her head to the side like she was trying to remember. “I saw her digging a hole in the flower bed in the courtyard this morning. Did you ask her to do something there?”

“No?” What the heck had she been doing?

The two of us exchanged confused looks, and then the other maids who were present spoke up.

“I saw her fetching confections for you in the kitchens, but I do not see them here.”

“I saw her going somewhere with a blanket.”

“Now that you mention it, she was the first to get breakfast this morning. Was she given permission to not be attending to Lady Yul’s breakfast?”

“And I saw her walking somewhere with one of Lady Yul’s coloring books and some crayons. She brought them to you, right?”

I fell silent. What are you doing, Fantine? She was acting like a child playing at a relative’s house!

Was this just her way of doing things? Still! Fantine was the least objectionable of the four of them, but for now, I needed to have a talk with her. Not that I knew if she’d understand me or not.

I was sure that these four kids would shape up once I got them to open up to me. Surely they must’ve had some good points about them, since they were human.

And all five of us were still children. Forcing children to work was just asking for trouble. I was sure that in several years when we were all grown up, they would turn out to be acceptable, unruffled attendants.

But the question was, would I hit my limit first?

The day was drawing closer too for my departure on the tour of our lands…with my four attendants in tow.

I wished I could run away.

***

Nearly every son and daughter of Talitelud nobility with a magical gift went to school at the main campus of the Academy of the Magical Arts in the royal capital of Versenia. Some noble families owned a villa in the capital or rented a manor there, but the school was also fully equipped with dormitories for the children of middle-ranking families from the countryside or of lower standing.

One of the children living at these dorms was a fifth-year named Seri, who was the third daughter of Baron Varun. One day, she received an invitation.

“Oh my?!” She covered her mouth with both hands as she nearly shrieked with surprise when she saw the name of the sender.

Her family possessed a small bit of land in the north and had no particularly big industries to speak of. As such, they weren’t wealthy enough to have their own villa in the capital. As the third daughter of the family, she managed to somehow avoid going to the academy’s branch school in the north and attend the main school in the capital instead, but she had to live in the dorms.

The daughters of wealthy families who owned their own manors in the capital or wealthy merchants attended tea parties practically every day, discussing the latest fashions and music in the capital and enjoying tea and confections from the highest-class shops.

However, countryside girls like Seri were hardly ever invited. Seri, her friends of similar circumstances, and the commoner girls would all hold their own pretend tea parties in the dormitories instead, dreaming of what living a life of luxury must be like. At these parties, they talked about everyday things, school, handsome boys, and listened to what real tea parties were like from the lucky older girls who had received the rare invitation before.

Seri and the other girls all especially longed to know what it would be like to attend one of the Moonlit Tea Parties they had heard so much about. They had heard that you didn’t get to go to this party by ordinary means. Girls from the upper nobility had been rejected when they asked if they could attend.

It all started with receiving an invitation.

Invitations could be received regardless of birth or whether a girl personally knew Lady Mylene. Those who were chosen to receive an invitation by Count Auber’s daughter and able to participate in the Moonlit Tea Party always came back with dreamy looks on their faces, telling others how wonderful the tea party had been. At the Moonlit Tea Party, the girls had been greeted by young gorgeous butlers and pretty maids who looked like fairies. They were served wonderful beverages, lavish food, and sweets in a luxurious garden of blooming roses. And they were charmed by the beauty of the hostess, Lady Mylene—the Silver Princess.

However, there was a covenant to be followed in order to attend a Moonlit Tea Party:

One, you must not show the invitation to anyone.

Two, you must not tell a single soul that you were invited until after the tea party.

Three, you must not allow yourself to be seen by anyone that night until the moment you stepped into the coach that would take you to the party.

If you broke any of these rules, no one would come for you and you would never receive an invitation ever again.

To receive such an invitation to such an exclusive party…

“Th-this is unbelievable.”

The invitation with illustrations of silver roses had been slid under the door to Seri’s dorm room, and now she clutched it to her chest. Feeling the same kind of fear as someone who had been suddenly entrusted with a great sum of money, she hurriedly hid it under her underwear in her dresser drawer.

“Oooh, I want to tell someone sooo badly!” Seri plunged into her bed and started rolling around with excitement. She was afraid that she might let it slip if she went to dinner with her friends, so she lied, saying she had no appetite, and hid in her room.

And then, that night…

“Wow!”

Seri got into a coach that looked just like the pretty ones she had seen in picture books as a child and was ushered to the unfamiliar, yet beautiful garden of an extravagant manor she had never been to before. Everywhere she looked, bright red roses bloomed, and she liked the elegant music she could hear coming from some unidentifiable place.

Other girls holding the same silver-rose-adorned invitation sat at a table made of white marble with white chairs made of thin metals. They looked enthralled as they were waited on by beautiful butlers and maids.

“Welcome, Miss Seri.” A silver-haired girl wearing a black-and-purple dress walked over to Seri as soon as she arrived.

“Th-thank you, Lady Mylene.”

She had sparkling silver hair like moonlight. Her skin was so pale, it was practically transparent.

She’s so beautiful.

Seri stopped in her tracks, completely captivated by the girl’s beauty. There was a bewitching gleam in the girl’s purplish-silver eyes and then Seri’s heart melted, with an expression to match, as she too became as entranced as the other girls.

“Come, join us.”

The girls awoke the next morning in their beds in their rooms.

However, they all found the proof that showed that last night had not been a dream or a fantasy: a single rose tied with a silver ribbon. The girls all then went on to tell all of their friends and families about the previous night, describing in a dreamy state of mind just how wonderful the Moonlit Tea Party had been.

That is, all but the few girls, including Seri, who had not been returned home…

Episode 4:
My Magnificent Daily Life as the Saint

“YUL, ARE YOU SURE YOU WILL BE ALL RIGHT without me or Vio or the others coming with you?”

“Yes, Mother. I will do my best now.”

Of course, I wished they would come; it was almost enough to bring me to tears.

It was finally the day for me to depart for my tour of our land. Mother kept asking me this exact question up until she, Nanny, and the other servants saw me off as I got into the coach.

“I’ll be counting on you, Brigitte.”

“You’re safe with me, Princess!”

As for this tour I’d been asked to do, our precise destination was a provincial city in a land that had no lord; Father was managing it with the aid of a baronet who was one of Father’s vassals. Which meant that, naturally, I would be bringing along ten of my guardian knights. Brigitte, whom I had taken to calling Bri in my head, was the Nosebleed Knight who had sworn her blade to me along with Sarah back at the palace. The mucous membrane of her nose must have been very delicate.

Bri was very cool and like one of the actresses from that all-women’s theater troupe who played male roles. I always feared that she and Sarah might start singing and dancing for me one of these days.

Mother and Nanny were so worried because Vio and the others who had taken such good care of me weren’t coming along this time.

Those three had always been Mother’s attendants, after all, and had only acted as my maids because I was her daughter. Now I had my own attendants, although they were still in their evaluation period, so as the daughter of the grand duke, it was my duty to utilize them. In other words, the four of them would be coming along on this trip and were expected to be the ones taking care of me!

Was it possible for a demon to get stomach ulcers?

The four of them were silent.

I was silent.

N-nobody’s talking.

The four of us were traveling in the big coach my family owned, but I had nothing to talk to them about. I supposed they didn’t have anything to talk about either since, from their point of view, I was like a boss they weren’t on particularly friendly terms with.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

“Oooh, there’s the forest!” Fantine, known for being completely oblivious about any situation, was having a grand old time on her own as she looked out the window.

And the other three were just doing whatever the heck they felt like. Christina was reading a book next to Fantine. Noir was polishing his pretty pocket watch, and his twin Ninette was grinning as she stared at her brand-new sword again.

That’s great and all that you’re enjoying yourselves, but what about me? Aren’t you supposed to be attending to me?

However, as middle management, it was my duty to improve the work environment. It wasn’t because I couldn’t stand this silence anymore or anything.

What should I talk to them about, though?

I supposed the one who seemed easiest to talk to was…Ninette, who seemed more mature as my guardian knight-in-training.

“Uh, Ninette? Do you like the sword?”

Wait. Don’t get mad if she doesn’t answer right away.

“Uh, Ninette?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. I do. This is such an amazing sword. I had it ordered from a famous shop in the capital.”

“Oh?”

It does seem impressive. I can sense magic from the blade, so it must have been pretty expensive. I’m surprised she can afford it.

As I was thinking this, Noir looked up with a start from what his sister said and gave a shady smile. Before I could say anything else, he said, “My lady, you have nothing to worry about. Ninette is your guardian knight. Everything that she equips herself with is for the purpose of protecting you! And so, it is indispensable that we acquire what we need in order to fulfill our duties.”

“They give us anything we want when we say that my lady asked for it,” Ninette remarked.

As she dropped this bombshell, Noir’s smile widened into a smirk. I could practically see him greedily rubbing his hands together. “It’s all thanks to our lady, the princess of the grand duke! Right, Ninette?”

“Oh, yeah. Our lady is the best. Thank you sooo much.”

I fell silent.

Uh-oh. This wasn’t good.

So, what they were saying was that they’d ordered this without anyone’s permission by using my name—the name of the grand duke?

And Ninette was in possession of an enchanted sword, yeah? I could tell, you know? It was a man-made enchanted sword that someone had made in imitation of the kinds of holy swords and demonic blades that humans could never forge themselves. Furthermore, the fact that she had ordered it from a “famous shop” meant that it was a brand-name luxury item, didn’t it? Like, the kind of car people’s bosses rode around in or swords only the knight commanders of the elite paladins would carry on their person, right? Just how many years of Ninette’s annual salary had that thing cost?

Don’t tell me Noir obtained his pocket watch in a similar way… It looked expensive and like it was made of silver, but I was pretty sure I had seen him wearing a gold one just the other day. How many of them had he bought? The watches in this world weren’t mechanical like the ones you’d find in the World of Light from my dreams either—they were made using magic formulas, just like the enchanted sword, so they were definitely not cheap.

I couldn’t take talking to them anymore. My stomach already hurt. So I tried talking to my lady-in-waiting-in-training, Christina, instead. She was currently reading a book.

“Hey, Christy, what are you reading?”

“My name is Christina. I am reading a book.”

I fell silent again.

Well, duh, you’re reading a book. What book, though? It seemed we still hadn’t reached the level where I could call her by a nickname yet. I supposed we would have to take it slow.

“Did you get that from the library? Do we have such old-looking books?”

“I found it in the private room at the back of the library.”

“Huh? But isn’t that…Father’s study?”

“I don’t know.”

But only family and our higher-ranking servants are allowed to go into Father’s study.

Fantine was the only one I could count on now.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Fantine?”

What a dumb question for me to ask. Despite that, she turned to me with a grin, utterly oblivious to the mood in the coach, and said, “Yeah, I sure am. Won’t you look outside the window with me, my lady?”

“Uh, okay.”

She was the only one I could barely manage to have a conversation with. I wasn’t sure whether we were actually managing to communicate, though. But there was a very slim chance that I would manage to understand her someday, and then we might be able to graduate from simply mistress and servant and actually become friends.

I followed Fantine’s lead and got on my knees to look out the window. Doing something that a regular kid would do made me feel awkward and… Wait a second.

“Where did you get those shoes?”

“Oh, these? They’re so pretty, aren’t they? I found them while exploring the manor!”

“Is that so? They don’t belong to anybody?”

Fantine gave me a puzzled look and laughed. “Nah. Finders keepers, you know?”

I didn’t respond.

Oh-ho. I see how it is. So that was how Fantine’s mind worked. Of course they were pretty. They were my party shoes. Mm-hmm. I think I have a better understanding now.

I stood up amid the rocking of the coach, barged straight over to the door, and kicked it open.

Bam!

“Brigitte! Sarah! I demand that one of you let me ride with you!”

I’m so sorry, Father.

Middle management isn’t for me!

I was never taking them with me anywhere ever again!

I was going to live boldly on my own from now on!

“Manifest Light!”

Even under such stress, I could still cast holy magic just fine. I had just cast Rejuvenation on a miner who had lost his leg. The new limb sprouted out before our eyes. Eww.

“Ooooooooh!”

We had arrived a week prior at this town next to the mines. All kinds of people had gathered here in the lord’s manor and clamored at the spectacle of the spell.

But I didn’t care. I was more concerned about the hairs already vigorously growing on the new leg. “I guess I can make hair grow back too,” I murmured to myself amid the clamor.

For some reason, the remark made several men’s shoulders slightly tremble.

“Th-thank you, Saint!”

“Don’t mention it.”

My oh my, what are you so scared about, Mr. Miner? I’m just hiding my expression because I’m stressed out, okay? Hm? Why are Sarah and Bri standing so far away? You’re supposed to be my guards, so come closer.

Things felt awkward as the baronet timidly approached me. “Th-thank you so much for your services, Princess Yulucia.”

“I’m glad that I can help the people.” I had a feeling that things might get more awkward if I didn’t, so I smiled at him.

He gave a sigh of relief. Sorry about that. His head was gleaming with sweat. “You must be tired. We have a room prepared for you.”

“I’m still okay. Is there anyone else whose injuries require healing?”

“That was the last of the people who were seriously injured. We still have some people with minor injuries to attend to, but we have a house of healing here and a priest of Kostor as well, so you needn’t trouble yourself with them.”

“If you say so.”

Having been told that, I supposed I couldn’t suggest stress-casting Feast of Blessings. Granted, most normal people couldn’t use this much magic, and I doubted anyone would look at me as human anymore if I did something like make it look like there were angels of light flying through the town.

“I’d like to invite you to stay at my manor tonight. And I’d be honored if you could join me for dinner as well, so that we can discuss your father, Lord Forte.”

“Thank you. It would be my pleasure to accept your invitation. If we have time before then, would you mind showing me around the town?” Since I was here and all, might as well do a little sightseeing.

“But of course. I shall find someone who can give you a tour.”

“Brigitte, Sarah,” I called while the baronet went to go find someone.

“Yes, Princess!”

Bri was the dame commander of my knights, but I’d called for Sarah too because the two of them were like a pair in my mind—or, rather, because Sarah was second in command. (Also, whenever I only asked for one of them, the other tended to start pouting about it.) Though every one of my guardian knights wound up coming over too.

“I have a favor I’d like to ask you,” I said.

When I told them that I wanted to go sightseeing in town, the two of them got remarkably flustered.

“B-but you can’t, Princess! It’s too dangerous!”

“That’s right! You’re the one and only princess of the Holy Kingdom!”

Well, I understood their protests, so I used the fact that I was a child to my advantage by giving them doe eyes. “You mean I can’t?”

“P-Pwinsesh!”

“Wah?!”

Bri collapsed to the ground as her nose suddenly started spurting blood, which I reflexively bent backward to avoid.

“Very well! We shall accompany you!” Sarah said with sparkling eyes, chopping Bri’s medulla oblongata relentlessly as Bri squatted with her nose still gushing.

Uh, I don’t think that helps to stop nosebleeds.

At any rate, nothing could win against a toddler’s begging. I couldn’t believe how weak Bri’s mucous membranes were, though. People didn’t normally get nosebleeds from seeing doe eyes, right? She was just a hot-blooded person, right?

However…

“I want to travel incognito, so only one of you can come.”

“But…”

“I’ll only be walking around this safe town… Please?”

Even Sarah couldn’t withstand a second blow from my doe eyes.

I didn’t actually care about going incognito or anything; it was just that if everyone went, then those four would probably come along too. I had sent them away on a break already, so we had no need to call them for this. It wore on my fragile heart to have them around.

“Then I shall—”

“No, I shall, as the dame commander!”

Sarah raised her hand just as Bri suddenly revived and spoke up.

I looked to my other guardian knights for help, but they all had their hands raised as well. They wanted to escort me too? Honestly speaking, I wasn’t sure why they would all volunteer like this for a scary child like me. I supposed they must all be very enthusiastic about their jobs.

As I tried to figure out how I was going to pick, the knights all started duking it out to decide who would accompany.

“I win!”

Brigitte was the victor. Poor Sarah. I’m pretty sure she would have won if Bri hadn’t blinded her with that nosebleed attack. Which was all fine and dandy, but who was going to have to be the one to cast holy magic on all of you now that you were all beat up?

“I-is something the matter, Princess?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I responded after a pause.

When the baronet came back, he was stunned by my guardian knights’ hair and clothes being in such a state of disarray even though they didn’t have a single scratch on them.

There was a young boy with him now who looked like a page. Oh, right, he said he was going to find someone to be my guide. This boy must be him, but… Huh?

“I-it’s so nice to be able to see you again, Lady Saint!”

The boy looked at me with a blush across his face… Who was he again?

I looked at the baronet as I tried to remember. He smiled with a nod. “Do you remember the boy? He was one of the children you saved during that incident.”

“Oh, right.” Uh, of course I remembered him. This was the boy who had been kidnapped for that second demon-summoning incident and nearly died of abuse from that pretty woman I ate. “I believe you said your name was Noel?”

“That’s right! Thank you so much for saving me.” He beamed.

“You’re welcome.”

His gaunt cheeks were now plump and he wore nicer clothes too. He seemed happy.

I’m so happy for you, Noel. Though I did really enjoy it when you had that look of wonderful despair in your eyes back then. It almost hurt to heal you. I would not regret my past actions, though. I was going to live with a positive mindset.

While talking to Noel, I learned that he had once been a refugee, but had lost both of his parents. Father had entrusted the care of other orphans like him to his vassals who were capable of taking care of them! What a great guy my father was!

“I have always hoped that I would get an opportunity to see you again,” Noel said.

Aw, it was so cute how he fidgeted. But then a strange object blocked the cute image he was making.

“He’s a very competent boy, Your Highness. It seems he also has some training in spellcraft too, even though he’s only seven years old. We’re hoping he’ll one day be able to work for His Grace.”

Oh, the baronet was back. And now I knew that Noel was two years older than me.

“Lady Saint, I will be happy to show you around the town!”

“Thank you.”

I had been so let down by trying to get along with other kids of late, and he was helping me to feel better.

Now, how best should I go about darkening the glimmer in those eyes of his?

However, Noel, I see that you still insist on calling me “Lady Saint.”

And so, Noel, Bri, and I headed out into the town.

Yaaay, I was free!

I gave Sarah and my other guardian knights some spending money and told them to take shifts watching my four attendants. Why, you may ask? Because I was worried about them, of course—worried that they would cause a scandal embezzling money.

“Do I look strange?” Everyone would immediately know who I was if I wore my usual kind of pretty gowns, so I asked the man to give me a dress that a common shopkeeper’s daughter might wear. There was nothing I could do about my glistening hair, so I tried hiding it under a hat, which also worked to hide my face too. My gaze was frightening, after all.

“You look great, Pr—my lady!”

Bri, you were clearly about to call me “Princess” again.

“Y-you look pretty, Lady Saint.”

And there Noel was again with the cute comments. A lady was watching us now with wide eyes. I had to say something.

“Noel? I’m supposed to be in disguise, so don’t call me ‘Lady Saint.’”

“B-but then what should I call you?”

“Just call me by my name.” Anything but “Lady Saint”!

“I couldn’t possibly! I’m not worthy of calling you by your name!”

Noel was so stubborn.

“He’s right! At the very least, you can call her ‘Princess Yul.’ Now, say it from the heart!”

Bri… How could you…?

“Brigitte.”

“Yes?”

“The two of you are forbidden from calling me ‘Princess’ while we are here.”

“What?!”

Was this such a surprising thing to ask for?! I’d said that I was supposed to be in disguise!

“If you call me ‘Princess’ from now until we are finished with our walk, you must keep ten paces from me. Understand?”

“Yes,” they both said after a pause.

Even I had to put my foot down and make demands at times. Like with Sarah.

“Hmm, I guess for now, you should call me ‘Lucia.’”

That still not okay with you, Noel? I understood he worshipped me because I’d saved his life and all, but I had hardly any friends to speak of, so I was hoping we could be. But…I supposed I was left with no choice.

I smiled at him as I gave a playful curtsy.

“I am Lucia, the daughter of a merchant right now. You’re my friend from this town, Noel. I’m just a regular girl, so it won’t be weird if you call me by my name.” I smiled to make doubly sure to convince him.

Uh-oh, I think my smile might be frozen on my face. Furthermore, this is kinda embarrassing and now my ears feel all hot. And I do wish that Bri would stop with the nosebleeds.

As I smiled wordlessly at Noel, he was frozen in place until his mouth trembled open to say, “L-Lucia?”

“That’s right!”

He did it! And I finally did it too. I managed to graduate from that silly mascot nickname to a cuter one that sounded like it belonged to a proper lady!

“Now, let us be off.”

“Yes…Lucia.”

“Yes, Princess!”

And so, Bri walked ten paces behind Noel and me.

Noel first showed us the big public square at the center of the town. It was the intersection of the two big roads going north to south and the other going east to west. There were also a lot of nice stores here.

“Is there anything you would like to take a closer look at, Lucia?”

“What is there to see?”

“Well, how about trying the fried potatoes our town is known for? They’re sweet and really tasty.”

Is it just me, or does this kind of sound like a date?

But I would rather avoid food. And this must have shown on my face, since Noel’s expression immediately turned dark.

“I’m sorry. Of course you wouldn’t eat potatoes.”

“Uh, that’s not true! I love potatoes!”

“Really? Then I’ll go buy you a whole bunch!”

“I don’t need a whole bunch!”

Ahhhhhhh! Noel brightened at my words and scampered off like a puppy without my approval.

“I bought you potatoes!”

“Uh, thanks.”

These fried potatoes were mashed potatoes that had been rolled into balls about the size of my fist and sprinkled with something that looked like sugar. He’d bought ten of these? Are you kidding me? Very well. This would be my last resort. I would eat about a third of one of these oily sweet things and then…

“I’m full. You want some, Noel?” I feigned being the kind of girl who didn’t eat very much and offered him the rest.

Noel froze splendidly. Oh, wait, he probably didn’t want one that I had bitten into already. Boys were surprisingly picky about these kinds of things. Having no other choice, I offered eight of them and my partially eaten one to Brigitte instead. Starting with the half-eaten one, they disappeared down her gullet with terrific speed.

“Is something wrong, Noel?” I asked.

“No, nothing. I’m fine.”

Then why was Noel looking at Bri with such resentment? Oh, I get it. One probably hadn’t been enough for him. I really hadn’t expected her to eat every single one of the rest.

Noel seemed a bit sad, as if that really hadn’t been enough food for him. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I supposed I should casually try to change the topic.

“Oh yeah, so I heard that you can use magic?” This topic had nothing to do with our tour around the town.

“Magic?” Noel looked confused for a moment before going along with it. “During my examination, they said I had affinities for fire, water, wind, earth, and…”

“Wow, that many?” All I’d gotten was holy magic.

“And also… ､ .”

“Huh?”

When Noel said some word out loud, it turned into a mote of light and disappeared.

“All of them?!” Now Brigitte, who had been watching us from afar, joined me in my surprise. She had good ears.

Anyway, having all five was really impressive. Hey, baronet guy, Noel is far more than just competent!

Noel got a bit bashful over how surprised we were and humbly shook his head. “That’s not true. I had no aptitude for holy magic. But then, for some reason, I heard a voice and it became my light. The source of this power is…”

Noel knelt down before me and took my hands to touch them to his forehead.

“You were the one who gave me this light.”

“Noel…”

Do remember that this is the public square.

I made Noel stand back up again. People were halfheartedly staring at us as I dragged him by the hand into an alleyway.

Why would Noel think something as ludicrous as that?

If I had to take a guess, though, after adoring me as the “Lady Saint” for having saved his life with holy magic and becoming obsessed with light, along with an onset of something like teenage cringe, some light spirit must have taken a liking to him or something.

Nothing nearby was growing dark at my presence, so this light spirit must have been very calm in nature. Though I bet it would run away and everything would get dark if I did make a serious effort.

Just how much did this boy love his Lady Saint?

“Hm?”

“What is it, Lucia?”

We were out of sight of anyone else now that we had gone down an alleyway. That was when I noticed that everything around us had gotten darker. And this time it definitely wasn’t my fault.

“I sense a presence that’s…kinda strange.”

“You sense something?” Noel looked confused.

I supposed I would have to be more specific. I had sensed a beast earlier in the royal family’s forest. But why did I sense something here in the middle of this town?

“I’m sorry, I can’t really sense anything,” Noel said.

“Then maybe I’m mistaken. I’m probably just a little tired.” Though all I had done so far was eat a potato.

“Oh, no. I’m sorry for not noticing!” Noel apologized.

Brigitte had come rushing over too. “Shall we return to the manor, Princess?”

Bri… Whatever. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore what she calls me.

“It’s okay. I’ll just sit down on that bench over there for a few minutes. Could you bring us some water, Brigitte?”

“Huh? Oh, all right.” Bri looked at Noel for a moment. After seeing how worried he looked, she agreed to the errand. Normally, however, I wouldn’t let Bri go since she was my guard and all.

I was silent as she went.

It was coming closer. A beast hunting its prey.

Was the prey Noel or me? Or did it not care who they were, so long as they were a child?

Now that it was just us children, it was definitely coming closer.

Come closer now.

Vermin that dare to intrude upon my feeding ground…

***

“Princess?!” At hearing a shriek from the alleyway, Brigitte dropped the drinks she was carrying and broke into a run.

It was considered a back alley, but it was in a quiet residential area of a safe town with high walls that fenced off gardens. Brigitte ran through the deserted cobblestone road and found Noel flat on his face.

“What happened?! Where’s the princess?!”

Noel must have been attacked by someone, judging from how he was now covered in injuries. Brigitte shook him back to consciousness. This wasn’t really an appropriate way to behave toward an injured child, but Noel didn’t complain and started trying to stand up again. “They took Lucia—I mean, the Lady Saint!” he said.

“Which way?! Who were they?!”

“That way! It was a man and a woman dressed like commoners. But the way they moved wasn’t normal!”

Yulucia had been kidnapped. Brigitte nodded to acknowledge she had heard what Noel said and cursed her foolishness in abandoning her post and leaving her princess with only another child. She reached for the sword at her hip. “Noel, you go find the baronet! Tell him what’s happened and—”

“Dame Brigitte! Please, take me with you! I can use elementary-level magic!” Noel shouted, interrupting Brigitte’s orders and earning himself a glare.

They were losing time arguing. Plus, there may have just been two assailants at the time, but there could be more of them. She couldn’t afford to bring an injured child along. However…

“I beg you!” Enduring the pain, Noel got to his feet. His whole body began to shine with a faint light and his injuries began to heal, leaving Brigitte staring at him in astonishment.

“You just… Fine. But don’t count on me to protect you. Our objective is ensuring the safety of the princess and recovering her. Are you willing to possibly sacrifice your life for her?!”

“Yes, of course!”

“Then we’re going! Don’t fall behind!”

“Yes, Dame!”

Without another glance, the two of them ran off in the direction that Yulucia had been taken.

Brigitte wasn’t being callous toward Noel. She just had to keep her priorities in line. In that short time, she understood that Noel was prepared to lay down his life for Yulucia and thus knew she could trust him.

And the same was true of Noel—he was prepared to sacrifice whatever it took, even Brigitte’s life or his own, if it meant rescuing Yulucia. Even if one of them fell, they knew that the other would save Yulucia no matter what.

“This way!”

“Yes, Dame!”

Who were these kidnappers? They had been dressed as commoners, but that might have been a disguise. Had some noble family who detested the grand duke made a move against him? Were they spies from another kingdom? Or perhaps this was some kind of ploy instigated by a religious organization?

Yulucia was innocent.

However, she’d been born with royal blood and was now a princess capable of wielding powerful holy magic, not to mention a matchless beauty beloved by all. These facts alone meant that Yulucia had many enemies. It was just that up until now, no one had dared to try to make a direct move against her.

Who could this enemy be? Brigitte was fit, yet still hadn’t caught up to the assailants, even though they were running with a child in their grasp.

However, they weren’t necessarily competent. Brigette and Noel had managed to trail them this far because they hadn’t bothered to hide their tracks—they still hadn’t gotten very far yet. However, Noel’s stamina would run out if they had to keep running at this pace.

They were both silent.

Noel must have realized it as well. There was more panic than exhaustion on his face.

Just as such thoughts were beginning to wear on both of their morales…

Thoom…!

The ground began to shake violently, causing the two of them to pitch forward.

What in the world was that? The two of them nodded at one another, having a bad feeling about this, before they started to run again. They turned down an alleyway and were confused by the spectacle that awaited them.

“Oh, Brigitte! Noel!” Yulucia waved as cheerfully as if she had just bumped into friends while on a walk.

Stunned, they raced over to her as fast as they could.

“Princess?! What happened?!”

“Lucia?! Are you okay?!”

How was she unhurt? What had happened to her kidnappers?

They found the man lying on the ground on his back staring absentmindedly at the wall. As Yulucia nonchalantly toddled over to them, Brigitte gasped and threw herself in front of the girl protectively. The knight unsheathed her blade and pointed it at the man just as Noel leapt at Yulucia to give her a hug.

“Uh, Noel?”

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Lucia.”

Noel sounded on the verge of tears as he clung to her, and Yulucia was so surprised that she found herself unable to push him away. She looked at Brigitte’s back in hopes of rescue.

“Are you all right, Princess? Do you have any injuries?!” Brigitte asked over her shoulder as she kept an eye on the enemy.

“No, not at all.” For some reason, Yulucia’s voice cracked as she answered.

“Forgive me, Princess. This was all due to my error. Punish me as you see fit later, but right now, we must prioritize dealing with our enemies. Where is the woman?”

“Oh, uh, I somehow managed to take care of her with holy magic. Oh, by the by, my kidnappers aren’t actually humans, so feel free to do whatever you want with him.”

“Oh. All right.” Brigitte had felt such a sense of urgency up until then, but seeing Yulucia again had made that tension completely disappear. At first, she had merely been happy just to serve her princess, but she had grown fond of the charming girl the more time she’d spent with her. She was more than eager to dedicate her blade to her lovable young mistress; however, she’d never expected that it would prove difficult to maintain the willpower to fight when faced with a situation like this.

Nevertheless, each and every one of her guardian knights loved Yulucia’s gentleness. If Yulucia’s personality had been as inhuman as her looks, then likely none of them would have been able to look directly upon her goddess-like beauty.

For now, Brigitte decided she would pretend not to have noticed the human-shaped smear on the wall that her mistress had indicated as where she had “somehow” managed to take care of the woman.

“Grrgh…” The man finally realized that his enemies had caught up to him and let out a beastlike growl.

Brigitte psyched herself up as she grasped her sword tightly in her hand.

“Lucia, stand back.” Noel finally released Yulucia from the long hug and protectively drew a knife.

Yulucia had said that this man wasn’t human. As if trying to prove her right, the man’s eyes grew bloodshot, and black claws grew from his hands as fangs tore through his mouth.

“Hah!” Brigitte leaped fearlessly at the man, sweeping her sword sideways at him.

The man parried it with his black claws, causing sparks to fly with a strange ear-piercing noise.

The man darted left and right like an animal, trying to sink his claws into Yulucia, but Brigitte managed to block him. Brigitte tried to keep her distance, but as she was dressed in plainclothes instead of her armor, he managed to lightly graze her shoulder. She grimaced.

Brigitte was stronger as far as skill went. However, she was at a serious disadvantage since she was poorly equipped for a fight.

“Don’t worry, Lucia. I’ll protect you no matter what,” Noel said encouragingly as he firmly grasped the handle of his knife. Nevertheless, his hand was trembling slightly.

He wouldn’t be able to use spellcraft very well in a situation like this. Seeing that Brigitte was at a disadvantage too, Yulucia took a quiet breath and then softly opened her cherry-blossom-colored lips. “Manifest Light.”

Vast light came pouring out of Yulucia and rained down on Brigitte and Noel. They gasped with surprise—it was holy magic, but it wasn’t a normal kind of spell.

Grace repelled evil.

Protection granted its target invisible armor.

Shell protected against spellcraft.

Holy Weapon enchanted a weapon with holy power.

Invigorate reduced fatigue and helped a person’s stamina slowly recover.

Rejuvenation healed all kinds of wounds.

Bless increased a person’s luck and boosted all of their abilities.

Brigitte and Noel felt high-level support spells cast one after the other on them, including ones that they didn’t even recognize. Both they and the man watched Yulucia in astonishment. Yulucia then smiled bashfully at them as she twiddled her fingers.

“Does that help you feel a little better?”

“A little” barely described it. Who could possibly be capable of casting this degree of magic?

One might have trembled at beholding the might of the Saint, capable of using so much mana with a single spell. Yet, rather than grateful, the two of them were more shocked than anything by how excessively overprotective the act had been.

It was almost as if she were the Saint blessing the Hero before the final battle against the Daemon King.

All had gone silent, until…

“Ugraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The man let out a howl of terror as his body began to twist and warp. He was becoming something that was no longer human—more like a carnivorous animal standing upright.

The sight of it reminded Brigitte of something. “No… He’s a lycanthrope?!”

Lycanthropes were different from the demi-human beastfolk in that they were a type of monstrosity. From a common-knowledge perspective, he would have been called a werewolf—one of those people who transformed under the moon. Like werewolves, lycanthropes could only transform at night. Nevertheless, blood sprayed from all over the man’s body as he shapeshifted. It looked like he was disintegrating. He must have realized that he had no chance of winning and given up his life in order to transform.

Brigitte gasped at her enemy’s determination as he focused his fiery yellow eyes on her. The man who had just shifted into a beast lunged at Brigitte with blazing force.

Having been buffed with all kinds of support spells, Brigitte severed his claws with her blessed blade and then plunged it into his side. However…

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The man let out a scream, ignoring the gash in his side as he ducked around Brigitte to pounce on Yulucia behind her.

“No!” Noel blocked his path, protecting Yulucia with his knife. However, he was still just a seven-year-old boy, even if he’d had all kinds of spells cast on him. He would end up torn to shreds trying to protect Yulucia.

“Noel!” the girl he was trying to protect called out from behind him.

And then it was like a miracle happened—the man who was now a beast froze in fear of what he saw behind Noel.

They say that wicked people fear those who are truly pure.

Remembering that phrase, the blessed light energized Noel and her voice allowed him to summon the true power hidden inside of him.

“ ､ (Light)!”

It wasn’t the incantation of a spell. It was a Primal word exclusively used by high-ranking elementals—no normal human could ever manage to utter it.

It was the power to summon Light that only the Chosen One could wield.

Dazzling light emanated from Noel’s whole body, reaching all the way to the blade of his knife. He stabbed into the petrified man.

Brigitte watched in mute astonishment. Even Noel was shocked at what he had just done as he stared at the man on the ground.

What had just happened to Noel? And just what was this man who had attacked Yulucia?

They had defeated the enemy. They had rescued their charge. But there were just too many lingering questions.

They were just about to express their feelings when they heard the voice of the girl. “Thank you both.”

All doubt and distress instantly vanished at the sight of Yulucia’s radiant smile. Their minds went completely blank.

“Now, let us continue with our tour of the town.”

“Huh? Lucia?!”

“P-Princess?! We should—”

“Shh.” Yulucia cutely put a finger to her lips, laughing as her skirt whirled around her as she turned. “What happened here today is to remain a secret between the three of us. I don’t want to be lectured by Father, okay?”

That smile…

After putting their lives in danger to protect her, that smile was the greatest reward that they could have possibly received.

And so, two days later, the troublesome party of the Saint began its journey home.

“Lady Saint… Lucia…”

Noel sank into thought as he watched the coach getting smaller and smaller.

He had once longed for death after his friends and family were killed and he had lost all hope when he had been forced to live in suffering. But the pretty little Saint had saved him when she had harshly reprimanded him and made him understand the error of his ways with love in her eyes.

He had impressed everything about her—including her purity and beauty—upon his heart, and his feelings for Yulucia were such now that they bordered on worship. Even two years later, those feelings for her had not faded. In fact, they had grown into something even stronger, which was when Noel was permitted to see her again.

During their reunion, he had seen that she had grown even more beautiful. Her selflessness even made her seem to sparkle and he had felt unworthy to be in her presence. She was the princess of the grand duke and the princess of the Holy Kingdom. People said that she was wise, pretty, calm, always kept her composure, and that she was the true Saint who would watch over all of the people with her gentle gaze.

But that wasn’t true.

No matter how much they extolled her as the Saint, she was still a girl—and that worried him. She was happier to be called by her name like a regular girl than to be hailed as the Saint. She was the kind of girl who looked with wonder as she stuffed her cheeks with simple food she likely had never tried before. Although she was so pretty—practically dazzling—she was the kind of girl with a carefree personality who had a somewhat sleepy gaze and liked to have casual conversations.

Noel smiled at the memory of how different she actually was from what everyone said about her. He recalled how when she had been kidnapped, he had lost all hope at the terror that he might lose her, like his heart was being squeezed. When they had gotten her back, he had realized what the true nature of his feelings were.

He wanted to protect Lucia. For the rest of his life and forever.

Noel had finally realized that his light had been given to him by the gods to fulfill that duty.

He wanted power.

So that he could protect her.

So that no one could ever steal Lucia from him ever again.

There was a legend in the Holy Kingdom.

That a person would be chosen by the elemental of light when a great evil appeared, and they would save the world.

“I’m going to keep moving forward, Lucia.”

That day, the boy had taken his first step to adulthood, all so he could stand by the side of the one and only Saint.

And he would one day come to be known as the Hero of the Holy Kingdom.

***

“Oh dear, one of my manservants has died.”

The woman had just gotten out of her “bed” in the dark room. She hadn’t turned on any lights and a maid was brushing her hair in the dark when she noticed that one of her black stones was now broken.

“When did it happen?”

“It was like this when we awoke, so it must have been this afternoon,” the maid replied.

“What a bother. Find me a replacement, then.”

“It shall be done, my lady.”

The girls were restricted in their actions, so they used those who could live in the dark and work in the day as manservants. However, they had few who would work for money and sometimes they betrayed her, so she used spellcraft to control their minds through the usage of the mana stones that came from monstrosities.

Creatures that had mana stones inside of their bodies were classified as monstrosities. Animals that lived in areas dense with mana created mana stones that then turned them into savage monstrosities. People tended to live in places with little mana, but those who did live in areas lush with it did not turn into monstrosities, but were instead transformed into elf-like beings called demi-humans. The demi-human races closest to darkness were called daemons.

But what were these girls who took those closest to darkness as manservants?

“Camilla. You used one of my manservants without my permission again,” the silver-haired girl said reproachfully to the woman enjoying a cup of tea out on the moonlit terrace.

“My, that is no way to speak to your mother, Miss Mylene,” the beautiful woman in her late twenties with long, flowing, black hair replied snidely, to which Mylene responded in kind.

“Would you prefer I spoke in a way more befitting of your station, Countess Auber?”

Indeed, these were Camilla, the Countess of Auber, and Mylene, the daughter of Count Auber. They were mother and daughter, but not a single thing about them was alike.

“Why, yes. How I do wish I could have a cute child for myself. I’d rather like a young girl with golden hair.”

“If you did that, though, surely you would have to leave the country.”

The two glared at one another. They gave off a maelstrom of bloodlust that caused their butlers and lady’s maids to go pale. That was when someone cut into their conversation.

“Stop this. Bickering among ourselves is a waste of time.”

The women didn’t reply to the middle-aged man. Instead, Mylene silently sat down at the same table as Camilla.

Count Auber approached his wife and only daughter.

Their family was known for never leaving their lands and not associating with other nobles much because their daughter was sickly, so not many people knew what they looked like. However, if the people who lived on Count Auber’s lands or the nobles of the older generation saw them, they would likely ask themselves, “What in the world are these people?”

Count Auber smoothed back his gray hair and sighed at their behavior as he joined them at the table.

“Mylene, are there not any girls of better quality?” Countess Auber asked.

“We wouldn’t want the upper nobility to come sniffing around.”

“Nevertheless, I crave a girl of higher quality. I’m tired of these low-ranking nobles,” said Camilla.

“This is why I told you not to act without my permission, Camilla. You’re just not smart.”

“Mylene!”

“Stop it.” Count Auber glared at the two, who were now scowling at one another as they began to bicker again. “Let me remind you that we need many girls with noble blood. In doing so, we will obtain greater power.”

“Yes.”

“We know that.”

“Then you know what must be done. We must teach those who laid a trap for us a lesson.”

Hearing this, everyone began to move. Once away from her family, Mylene murmured to herself, “So you say, but you’re the ones who abandoned your ally.”

Episode 5:
I Am Six Years Old Now

WHILE I WAS BUSY TRYING TO EXTERMINATE the vermin, Bri and Noel proved themselves to be extremely, brilliantly impatient. I quickly used my power to squash the one, but they caught up to us before I managed to take out the other.

Nngh! Why did the two of them have to be so rash? Left with no choice, I piled all kinds of holy magic spells onto them, but to be honest, even that hadn’t been enough.

But just what was that? Noel’s power, I mean.

It seemed a bit different from the kind of affinity to light that humans could have. It felt more like elemental magic. And the word he’d spoken—that had to have been Primal, right? The language of high-ranking elementals. He seemed to be able to use it just by uttering a single syllable, but how had he managed to pronounce it with his human mouth? Because it’s definitely impossible for a human to do it, and so while it should have been able to convey his desire to everyone, it seemed that it wasn’t audible to normal humans.

“Oh, wait…”

C-could it have been a side effect of me spamming all kinds of holy magic spells on him?! Uh-oh. I wondered if he was going to sue me over it or something. After the incident, his face had been bright red. It hadn’t been a fever, but there was something strange about it.

For now, I would pray for his recovery.

Anyway! My tour had been a success, so Father said he was going to see if there were any other places that wanted me to visit.

And! I finally turned six years old!

Being six years old meant that I was a big girl now. I could no longer sit on the lap of any man besides my father!

Oh, Grandfather’s looking at me…

Nevertheless, despite being a year older, nothing had really changed. Grandfather feigned tears and begged Grandmother and Lady Elea because he wanted to host my birthday party at the castle and palace again and I continued to enjoy playing with Shelly’s soft hair.

This time we actually had a party for me in Toure. When a noble was foolish enough to bring up the possibility of me getting engaged to their thirty-year-old son, all of our help staff gave off threatening auras of murderous intent.

I played with Betty until I was all out of breath.

I gave a halfhearted response to Rick when he showed up in his coach like usual, with such an enormous bouquet of white roses that he couldn’t carry them all and collapsed at the front door.

Timoté made me feel better.

My beloved older sisters didn’t join us this time, so I asked a sobbing wind elemental to tell them how much I loved them by making their windows rattle from midnight until morning.

It was a very peaceful birthday where nothing bad happened!

Sorry…

I was trying to disassociate from reality.

Starting in the first month of the next year, I would be in elementary school—er, I mean, I would be attending primary school at the Academy of the Magical Arts. There wasn’t much time left leading up to that. It had been three months since my trip. I’d been born during the “mid-autumn moon,” so that meant we had three months left.

And what was I to do with my four would-be attendants?

I knew I should do something about them, but I turned out to be surprisingly busy with…certain things.

“Huh?”

After coming back to my room from my lessons one day, I found a sealed letter had been slid under the door I had cast a Protection spell on in place of locking it with a key.

Sniff, sniff. Was this the smell of roses? Based on my biased experiences, I knew that this kind of letter likely contained nothing but trouble. For one thing, it was especially suspicious that someone had managed to sneak a letter past a barrier that would have been difficult for any human to infiltrate. By the by, I used that spell in place of a key to keep those four out.

But I was a bit curious about who the sender might be. Inside I found…an envelope? And the sender was…

“Ah, now I understand.”

What a pain. Just to be clear, I was alone right now. With those four as my attendants, this meant that I would have to handle this invitation all on my own.

Was there anyone nearby? Someone would come if I called, but I didn’t want to interrupt anyone’s work. Who, then…? Ah, I had an idea.

“Wait.” As I walked down the hall, I held out the invitation to the girl coming from the opposite direction. “Christina, could you send this back to the daughter of Count Auber along with a note declining the invitation for me?”

It felt like it had been days since I’d last talked to her. It didn’t seem like she had anything to do at the moment, so it seemed like a good time to ask her.

“Huh?” She froze at the mention of Lady Auber and stared in disbelief at the invitation. Likely, she had heard the rumors about it too.

Huh. I had no idea you could make that kind of expression.

“Please make sure she gets it,” I said before leaving her. Christina didn’t budge an inch and just kept staring at the invitation to the Moonlit Tea Party until I reached my room.

I stopped talking to the four of them, starting with Christina.

Since they were supposedly my attendants, I did see them, but I never asked anything of them and they never did anything unless I asked them to. I didn’t take them with me when I went anywhere either. It was fine so long as I had Bri and Sarah.

I asked the stewards to stop letting them buy expensive things in my name. I had them change the locks on the doors to my dressing room and Father’s study as well, so only Butler and Nanny had the keys.

If it was possible to do so much just by using my name, then it meant that I could do a whole lot more if I acted myself. I didn’t want to boast, but I never said a single word about how selfish they all were. I was a very good girl and only asked little things of them. I overlooked most of the things they did…which meant it would have been quite easy to find all the evidence needed to get them dismissed.

But, you know, since Father had taken in poor children who had suffered during that incident, like Noel, and given them jobs, I had a feeling he would be sad if I fired them.

Siiiigh.

I took work seriously because I dreamed the memories of that girl who had lived in the World of Light, but young children like Noel with a good work ethic might have actually been pretty unusual. Perhaps it was more commonplace for nobles to be like my sisters. Nobles sure were something.

But since I could do things on my own, I should have taken care of my errands too.

I was busy with certain things.

“Could someone call Brigitte or Sarah for me, please?”

I had a secret job to do as the Saint.

Well, it wasn’t the kind of thing that would be problematic if it became public, but starting with that baronet, I had founded a “society” mainly comprised of noble men who worshipped me. None of these men had told their families about it, yet it continued to secretly grow through the Holy Kingdom.

The feeling of fellowship among the members of this society was stronger than iron and there was not a single traitor among them who would leak information about it. Proof of their solidarity came in the form of tribute and large sums of donations that were delivered to me.

The name of this group was “The Saint of Glimmering Darkness Society.”

What kind of name was that?

“Lady Yulucia, it is an honor to see you in such high spirits today. Thank you for your help the other day. I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Sir Zesh Capell.”

“Hello.”

“Your Highness, it is a pleasure to meet you. It is most gracious of you to meet with someone such as me. However…”

Ah, yes, here we go. Sir Zesh had left home and managed to acquire the rank of baronet, but he was the younger brother of the current Duke Capell, who was a political opponent of the Grand Duke of Versenia. I had heard how much the duke complained about Father’s title.

I wondered if there was an age gap between Zesh and his older brother, considering he was still young—only in his thirties. Even so…

Except perhaps that was exactly why he had wanted to gain the favor of this society, considering how he was now silently crying while hugging Viscount Lepont, who had been the one to introduce him to me. Old men sure were moody.

“Are you certain about this, Sir Zesh?”

“Yes. While I may still have some lingering affection for my family even though I left them, my loyalty is to the Crown, not my brother. If my brother harmed Your Highness, then I wouldn’t even hesitate to—”

“I understand. That’s enough!” This guy was about to say some dangerous things! So I got on with it. “Then without further ado, Sir Zesh, I shall usher darkness into your light.”

“Ooooooh! You have my gratitude!”

I was antsy too from how desperate I was getting.

“Manifest Light.”

To use holy magic, all you needed was a precise image and pure magic to make it manifest. Using the knowledge I had of that other World of Light, I was able to accurately recreate holy magic even though I was a demon. Likely, it would be nearly impossible for high-ranking priests to do this.

Rejuvenation to restore his body.

Invigorate to give him vitality.

Purification to purge him of diseases.

You could not cast it too strongly, but not too weakly either. One had to get it just right when reconstructing a body. It was key to have a detailed image in your head and knowledge of other worlds.

And then…

“Ooh. Oooooooh!”

“You did it! You really did it, Zesh!”

Zesh’s scalp was covered in something that looked like thin seaweed and had lost its sheen.

Zesh and Viscount Lepont hugged one another, crying tears of joy at the result.

How depressing.

“You must now try to live a life where you refrain from eating fried food and mainly eat fish, legumes, and vegetables. And you should lightly tap your scalp with a brush or something like that,” I instructed.

“Thank you so much for your divine revelation!”

That was not some divine revelation.

“Thank you, Your Highness! Lady Saint! I will be sure to loan as much of my company’s commodities as I can to Toure!” Zesh pledged eagerly.

“I appreciate the offer and shall look forward to it.” I was really annoyed by the whole thing, so I decided to go into princess mode to deal with it.

“I feel as if I have been reborn! I am sure that my wife and daughter shall no longer give me strange looks as they comfort me and my client’s child will no longer call me ‘Grandpa’!”

“Oh, surely.”

Zesh left all kinds of hush money—aka offerings—from his company Cape & Co. and then he went home with an arm around Viscount Lepont’s shoulder.

Thus, the Holy Kingdom had lost another light.

And so, this faction comprised of only men who worshipped me was slowly corroding the Holy Kingdom as it spread.

What the heck?

Things being as they were, I was able to do this on my own as I pleased. But don’t worry, I didn’t feel inconvenienced at all. The adults were probably just waiting until I complained about something.

Talking to those four only stressed me out, so I never asked them for anything. As a result, however, that meant that I had no one attending to me.

No one woke me up in the morning, so I woke up on my own and washed my own face.

No one prepared my clothes for me, but I never got dirty since I was a demon, so I just mixed and matched my clothes.

I never got hungry, so I just skipped meals when Father and Mother weren’t home.

I never got truly dirty, but dust did tend to stick to me, so I just splashed used bathwater over my head on occasion.

I didn’t need tea or snacks, so I stopped asking for them.

I was able to read as much as I wanted late into the dead of night.

I had been happily enjoying the kind of life shut-ins dreamed of when one night, I was awoken by some commotion in the library after dozing off. A horrified Nanny had found me and quickly scooped me up, and then starting the following morning, Vio and the others were back to taking care of me.

They’d realized that there were no signs I had eaten and that no one had been doing my laundry, so when they found I wasn’t in my room, the maids had searched all over the house for me.

Mother and Nanny both cried.

Thinking about it from their perspective, I had done a big bad.

***

Today, Christina had been lectured by the head lady-in-waiting for not doing a good job at her work. It hadn’t been that long since they had started working here, but since she was a child, the kindhearted elderly lady easily forgave her after she gave a proper apology.

The moronic twins and the somewhat-strange-in-the-head girl must have also managed to get out of trouble since they were cute.

“You cut too many corners,” Christina told the other three. She had just wanted to be a bother, but she hadn’t imagined that the other three hadn’t been doing their jobs either. Unlike the other three, Christina had already been educated on how to be a lady-in-waiting. Because of her parents’ problems and her original ladies’ circumstances changing, she had wound up becoming someone else’s lady-in-waiting instead.

After talking to the other three, she had learned that they had all wound up working here for similar reasons. The three of them didn’t regard one another as friends, but they didn’t see each other as rivals either.

Christina did not like Yulucia, the lady she had to serve now. It was all her parents’ fault that she’d wound up being taken in by the grand duke even though they weren’t related, and she hated the girl’s carefree smile.

This princess had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Everyone loved her. How could she be so different from Christina, who had lost everything? How could this princess smile like that after she had stolen everything away from Christina’s true mistresses, who should have been loved and respected?

“I hate Yulucia,” Christina grumbled to herself in the dark room as she tightly grasped the invitation that her real mistresses had wanted so badly—the one that if you showed anyone else, you lost the ability to use it.

***

I had continued my pilgrimages to the capital as often as I could.

I would have been able to make more progress on my work if I didn’t have to do this, but I wasn’t about to complain. I was looking forward to getting to see Grandmother and Lady Elea, as well as meeting Shelly and Betty at today’s tea party!

“Be more at ease, Lady Bertille, Lady Ciellindo.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing you need to be afraid of.”

“Uh, all right.”

“I’ll try…”

Betty and Shelly had gone so rigid that Bri and Sarah tried to reassure them. Why was it that the two of them could act like normal knights when dealing with other people?

In case you were wondering what I was doing while the girls were being escorted by my knights, Betty and Shelly had me firmly in the middle of them both with their arms around me.

“Don’t worry. Grandmother and Lady Elea aren’t scary at all,” I tried to soothe them.

Mother was there too, but she had never frightened them. Nevertheless, these seven- and eight-year-olds had been invited to a tea party with the queen, crown princess, and grand duke’s consort, so I could understand how daunting that must be. Nevertheless, I did hope that they would let go of my arms soon.

“Huh?”

“Huh?!”

“What?”

“Ohh…?”

“What is it?”

That last one was said by me. Why was everyone so surprised? What other reason could there be?

“Princess, could you smile a bit more?”

“Huh?”

Ohh, I get it now. I must have made a scary face. Whoops!

“Don’t worry, Yul! We shall be there to protect you!”

“That’s right, Lady Yul! We shan’t let their kind come near!”

Betty and Shelly clutched tightly to me despite their fear. I was sure that my lack of expression must have scared them, but the cause of this felt a bit different. Ever since my enormous fifth birthday party, there were a lot more people now who greeted me whenever I went to the castle. Most of them smiled and treated me with the respect a small princess should be granted. However, sometimes at least once an hour, we’d be stopped by someone who wanted to sing Timoté or Rick’s praises and ask which of them I preferred. Why would they do that? Did they want something from me? They would just smirk and never tell their true intentions and it grossed me out. It felt like getting served your least favorite food for dinner. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they would simply give me an aristocratic greeting and then be on their way again.

“Oh,” Sarah’s murmuring made the other three’s expressions turn rigid.

Walking straight this way was…uhhh, some kind of minister, maybe? Well, some kind of noble, at any rate. Even though Grandfather had lost his temper at this man for taking up so much of our time when I’d made my debut into high society, this man continued to stop to talk my ear off and refused to let me go even when I tried to wrap up the conversation.

“Hello, there.”

He looked shocked as I made my face devoid of all emotion. When I did this, my humanity disappeared, so my tone was flat as I greeted him. He automatically stuck to the wall and did me the favor of skittering off like the cockroach he was.

“See, Yul? Nothing to be afraid of!”

“That’s right! Because you have us by your side!”

“Oh, thanks.”

Despite how scared they were, Betty and Shelly had tried to protect me.

Now what was I going to do? I still couldn’t shake free of them.

These weren’t the only kinds of people I met in the castle, though. There were some who treated me with animosity.

The Holy Kingdom fundamentally practiced monogamy, but this wasn’t because there was a law about it. The religious citizens had voluntarily come up with this themselves. However, nobles needed heirs, so it wasn’t uncommon for them to have two or even three wives. As such, some nobles wanted the royal family to take mistresses, but now that I had become the new princess of the royal family, these nobles had lost their grounds for urging the royals to take them in.

Uncle was devoted to Lady Elea and she had borne two princes already, so he showed no signs of wanting a mistress, but some people seemed to think that was my fault. These people saw the family of the grand duke—and therefore me—as enemies, but that was okay.

I simply adored those kinds of people, after all.

Unfortunately, none of them managed to whet my appetite like that beautiful lady had. The next most appetizing were my sisters, so I sure was in a tough situation. However, I couldn’t let my own enmity toward these kinds of people show, so I took care of them by summoning mice or bugs into their manors to get them to quiet down for a while. It was quite an effective approach. As it so happened, I had gotten very good at drawing summoning circles.

For some reason, though, every two out of three times, I summoned marine slop. It seemed that a certain someone was helping me, but I wondered if I was actually cursed.

I refused to accept that it might be because I had a high affinity for them or something.

The royal tea party was being held at the gardens of Keil Palace as usual.

Bri and Sarah could come in as my chamberlains if I so wished, but they opted out since they felt too awkward attending as such minor nobility. Shelly’s and Betty’s ladies-in-waiting bowed out for the same reason, so they all went to wait at the waiting room prepared for chamberlains.

Each of us then entered one at a time, escorted by royal chamberlains. First Shelly entered, as the daughter of a count. Betty was next, as the daughter of a marquess, and I was last.

“Yulucia!”

“Big Brother Rick?”

Uh? Was I supposed to call him Prince Ludoric? Hmm, whatever. He was Rick, after all.

He had either immediately noticed me or had been waiting for me, judging from how quickly he ran over to grab my hand.

“Why are you always grabbing my hand like that, Big Brother Rick?”

“Uh, because…you always end up wandering off somewhere.”

Huh? What?

“I’m not trying to avoid you or anything. It’s just that you’re so pushy.” I glanced down at his hand, implying that I was asking whether he was aware of it or not.

Rick made a noise in his throat and relaxed his grip. But why didn’t he let me go?

“You’re not perfect either, you know.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked after a pause.

What the heck was he talking about? I really didn’t know what he meant, so I gave him a puzzled expression as I looked him in the eye. Rick flinched and averted his gaze. Hey, look at me properly!

“It’s just that you haven’t been to the castle recently,” he said.

Huh? That was what he’d meant? He wanted me to come at least once every two months to hang out with him?

“I thought I visited every season.”

“That’s not what I mean! By the way, you traveled around Uncle’s land for him, right? Nothing bad happened?”

“Is that what you meant? Everything was perfectly fine.” I had been more concerned about the embezzlement problem I was dealing with at the time.

“Weird things have been happening all over the country lately,” Rick said.

“You don’t say!”

“Like mice and bugs appearing in swarms in people’s manors. One person even had their manor filled with something like seaweed!”

“Oh, my.”

“And kids are going missing again.”

Again? Was it just me, or was kidnapping way too common here? “How scary. I hope Betty and Shelly will be okay,” I said.

“Hey.”

Bump!

Angered by my nonchalant attitude, Rick pushed me up against a nearby wall. He was still holding my hand.

“Uh, Big Brother Rick?”

“You should be more worried about yourself! If something were to happen to you, Grandfather and Grandmother and everyone in your family would be really worried about you!”

“Rick…” I see. Rick thinks of me as part of his family now. I managed to look at him with kindness, which made him turn away in a panic.

“You’re like…a…a sister to me, Yulucia, okay?”

I fell silent.

He’s a tsundere?!

“My, you sure took a while to get here, Yul. Did something happen?” Grandmother asked quietly.

“No, Grandmother. There was something I needed to do.” I gave an aristocratic smile to cover up my lie. Talking to Rick wasn’t such a big deal, but I had a feeling that Lady Elea would start scheming a way to stick me with her son, which would be annoying.

“Y-Yul?”

Now that they were surrounded by the three most powerful women in the country, Betty and Shelly looked miserable, so I sat down in the empty space between them. They immediately proceeded to grab onto my arms.

Mother chuckled at the sight. “Yul has such pretty ladies on both arms.” Couldn’t she see that I was stuck?

Finding it amusing how I was so stuck now that I couldn’t even drink tea, Grandmother and Lady Elea fed me sweets and gave me sips of tea.

Look, I have no interest in this kind of harem. Wait, I don’t wanna eat or drink tea made by people I don’t knooow!

And so, with me as the butt of this joke, the two girls gradually relaxed. Lady Elea then suddenly said, “Say, whose tea parties have the three of you been going to?”

She was so calm about it. It was probably thanks to these three adults that my way of speaking came off as so soft too.

“I went to my aunt’s tea party,” Betty answered as cheerfully as ever.

“Me too. And Lady Yul’s mother’s as well.”

“That’s right. Mother and I went to the one hosted by Shelly’s mother as well,” I said as Shelly and I exchanged smiles.

“Lady Yul and I have had a private tea party together too,” Shelly added.

“You did?! That’s not fair! Why didn’t you invite me?” Betty cried out as she stood up.

“Shelly came all the way to Toure, you see,” I said.

“Ahhh. Make sure you let me know next time you come to the capital and I shall invite you to one too! And Shelly as well!”

“Okay.”

At our answer, Betty sat down again with her nostrils flared in satisfaction. She was such a pretty girl. It was such a shame how she could be sometimes.

“Then have you all heard of the Moonlit Tea Party?” Lady Elea then interjected after watching the scene play out with a smile.

“Maybe.” Shelly glanced over at Betty, since she seemed like she would know about the topic.

As a second-year student in primary school at the Academy of the Magical Arts, Betty happily explained, “I have. I heard my sister talking about it with her friend. It’s a secret party where you’re not supposed to tell anyone about it until it’s over!”

“Is that so? Do you know anyone who has gone?”

“Yes! My sister’s friend’s cousin’s husband’s little sister’s friend went. She said it was so wonderful, like a dream come true!”

She considered that to be someone she knew? But putting such doubts aside, Betty suddenly got this dreamy look on her face, like she was envisioning what such a tea party should be like.

Meanwhile, Lady Elea frowned with a sigh. “I do not want the three of you to attend.”

Shelly and I didn’t really care, since we weren’t particularly interested in going, but Betty half rose from her seat in surprise. “Really? B-but why are we forbidden from going, Lady Eleanor?!”

Lady Elea gave a calm smile to Betty, motioning for her to sit down again. “I didn’t say you were forbidden. I’m just saying that there’s no proof that any invitation you may receive is actually from Lady Auber.”

“Oh.” Betty slowly sat down again, understanding now.

She brought up a good point. Even though the invitations allegedly bore the Auber family’s seal, the rule demanding secrecy meant you couldn’t ascertain the veracity of that.

“Everyone who’s gone was relieved of their invitations, so we can’t confirm for ourselves what the invitations look like.”

Even though the Moonlit Tea Party might have been safe to attend, there was a chance that someone was forging the Auber seal. But then that meant…

“Does this have something to do with all of the recent kidnappings?” I asked, remembering what Rick had said to me.

The adults looked a bit surprised. Lady Elea even momentarily put on her royal face before breaking out in a kind smile and patting me on the head. I imagined this was the kind of thing that wasn’t discussed with children, but perhaps I got a pass since I was a princess?

Betty and Shelly didn’t seem to notice, but I too thought the whole thing about this count’s daughter was suspicious. And so, I started fishing around in my breast pocket for something I just happened to have brought. “I have something you would be interested in seeing, Lady Elea,” I said.

“Oh? What could it be?”

The girls crowded in to see what I pulled out.

“I got this invitation to the Moonlit Tea Party today.”

Everyone stared in surprise. Well, everyone except Shelly. She was busy eating her second slice of cake.

“Is this real?”

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing, Yul?! You mustn’t show it to anyone else!” Betty grabbed my shoulder in a panic, so I gave her a light pat.

“Don’t worry. I have no interest in going. Plus, this is the third invitation I’ve received.”

“The third one?!”

The first one, I had given to Christina to return.

The second one, I just tossed into the trash can without even opening.

The third one, I had found in my room at our manor in the capital. It was kind of like a horror story.

“That’s our Yul. I’m glad you decided not to go.” I wasn’t sure what Lady Elea meant by that first statement, but maybe it was just my imagination that she seemed more exasperated than impressed.

“I’m glad to be of service, Lady Elea. I made the right choice in not burning this.”

“Burning it?!” Betty kept giving such exaggerated reactions.

Meanwhile, Shelly had made it very clear she wasn’t interested in the current topic, but I did wish she would abstain from that fourth slice of cake.

“Hee hee. You’re so amusing, Yul. May I have that invitation, then?”

“Yes, of course.”

Lady Elea and I smiled at one another. I tried to act cool by sliding it over to her on the table, but unfortunately, my clumsiness skill decided to kick in and it fell off the table instead. Betty pounced on it like a puppy.

After finishing my business in the capital and dealing with a few people for my work with the Society, Mother and I returned to Toure only to be greeted by Vio, who now had this peculiar intensity about her.

Mother knew something was up and bowed out at once, taking Fer and Min with her at an elegantly quick pace back to the castle. “It seems that Vio has something she needs to discuss with you, so I’ll be returning to my room.”

“Mother?!” I protested. Normally, Mother was so gentle. Why was it only in times like these she would make a quick exit?!

“Lady Yul, I must talk to you about those four.”

“Go ahead.”

After we got to my room, Vio spoke with a calm tone and expression on her face, but I could see that the vein on her temple was throbbing. “Those four children have been brought in to be your prospective attendants, yet they do nothing. Not a single thing.”

“Yep,” I said after a pause, feeling my inner American on the verge of coming out. After all, it had been four months now since I had had an actual conversation with the four of them. I didn’t take them anywhere with me. I never asked them to wait on me. We were paying them a salary, of course, but since they had nothing to do with me, they couldn’t buy anything using my name, they weren’t permitted access to anywhere important in the castle, and they were basically given the cold shoulder.

“Things being as they are now, they should be worried about keeping their jobs. Typically, people would either find a way to look busy just to change the current situation or voluntarily quit working for the grand duke’s household and seek out a new place of employment instead.”

“What have they been doing?”

“Every day—every. Single. Day. They have been lazing around eating and sleeping all day without lifting a single finger to do any chores or training, and they stopped doing anything at all a few weeks ago. What’s worse…”

“There’s more?!”

Vio gave a dry chuckle at my shriek. “We gave them rooms and meals in addition to their wages, but we cannot feed people who do not earn their keep the same way we would feed someone who was your personal attendant. Using my authority, I have made it so that they receive the same kind of meals as servants in their first year of service.”

By the quality of meals, I supposed that it meant that the caliber of their food had originally been one level under what Mother and I ate. It must have been the highest rank of meals that a servant could have, equal to the kind that Butler and Nanny enjoyed.

“Because they’re boarding here at the grand duke’s home, we do take pride in the fact that their meals are still better than those served in town. However, the four of them refused to accept this and instead attempted to negotiate with the head waiter and head chef. Since both refused, the four of them have started eating at restaurants in town instead.”

Negotiate? How bold of them.

In a way, the four of them were something else. Of course, they were still receiving their wages, so they were more than capable of going out to eat…but wait a minute.

“Hold on, you mean they’ve been doing this every day?”

“Yes, they have. My fear is that they have been going to high-end restaurants instead of regular eateries. Lady Yul, do you recognize these?”

“Huh?”

Vio took out a box that contained a familiar designer short sword, several gold and silver pocket watches, encyclopedias from Father’s study and the back of the library, and several of my accessories for wearing to parties.

“Why do you have all this?”

“These had all been sold to pawn shops in town, who then contacted me. I decided to buy them all back.” Unable to contain her anger, Vio briskly poured me a cup of tea.

Ooh, this certainly has some flavor to it.

It seemed that those four kids had finally gone too far. There was no doubt about it—the twins were definitely guilty. Christina was verging on guilty, whereas it felt like they still didn’t have definite proof of Fantine’s wrongdoings. But then I noticed the dark expression on Vio’s face. “What’s the matter, Vio?”

“Lady Yul, we found these in the back of the storage room that Fantine goes to play in.”

“What are they?”

Vio had a heartbroken look in her eyes. I fearfully peered into the box she produced and…

I gasped.

There were all kinds of familiar things inside.

A pair of my shoes covered in scratches. An old dress caked in mud. Books I had read countless times over the years, ripped to shreds. Crayons so damaged that you couldn’t even read the label on them anymore. The harm didn’t seem to have been done out of spite, which meant that this had all happened just from Fantine playing with them.

And what was more…

The silver comb my mother had given me for my third birthday, now bent and missing several teeth. And the rabbit doll my father had given me that same day, which I had lovingly slept with every night until its material had worn out and then put it away in my closet for safekeeping, had had all of its stuffing plucked out and limbs cruelly ripped off.

“Why?” I picked up the silver comb and rabbit with trembling hands and hugged them to myself. “Why would she do such a thing?”

Something hot spilled out of my eyes.

I didn’t understand. I couldn’t comprehend it. My memories of my life with everyone until now were whirling through my mind. I realized the hot things spilling from my eyes were staining my destroyed doll.

Why…? I wasn’t human.

Why was I crying…?

As soon as she noticed that I was crying, Vio’s magic flared up and swelled like a maelstrom. “My lady, wait here for just a moment. I shall dispose of the trash.”

“Ehhh?!”

Vio wore the same expression as always, but there was this dark look in her eyes that sent shivers down my spine as she turned to leave. I grabbed onto her uniform in an attempt to stop her.

“Y-you can’t!”

“Why not? Their lives have no value at all.”

“I can’t let you do such a thing, Vio!”

“My lady…”

Hearing my cries of concern for her, Vio took me into her arms and stroked my head until I stopped crying.

“Lady Lia—your mother—was always there to help me any way she could,” Vio began to explain as she held me. “She was so kind to me even though I was a commoner. She did everything she could to help my family when our shop was in a decline. And she was there to shield me when some shady religion had their sights on me because I had an affinity for holy magic.”

This was why Vio was so dedicated to my mother.

“When I graduated from the Academy, Lady Lia was already pregnant with you, so I decided to become her lady-in-waiting in order to repay her kindness.” Vio looked into my eyes as she continued in a gentle tone of voice, “Lady Lia is my treasure. And you are her treasure—as well as the treasure of every single person who lived in that house and every person who lives in this castle now. His Grace, Lady Lia, and every single one of us—we all love you so much, Lady Yul. Never forget this.”

She punctuated this with a tight hug, so I hugged her back just as tightly.

“Okay.”

Ahh, I feel so embarrassed right now. But I also feel so much better.

I was overflowing with human emotion. Perhaps this was what it meant to understand people? Could that be what it means, so-called older brother of mine who has gone so far from me?

That was when knowledge of unfamiliar other worlds flowed into me from far away…

I understood now.

I should just do as I pleased.

I could be full of human emotion if I wanted to be. Or I could have the heart of a merciless demon instead. I wasn’t entirely a demon, but I wasn’t entirely a human either. This was why I had been born as the Devil Princess—so I could become my true self.

I was a demon free of any shackles, after all.

“Vio,” I said as I stood up.

Vio knelt down before “Yulucia” for the very first time. “Yes?”

Vio had always called me “my lady.” This was because of her loyalty to my mother, but for the very first time, she was acting on my personal behalf.

“Does anyone else know how badly those four have blundered?”

“No,” she said. “I discovered everything through my own private investigations. Fer and Min helped me, but I am the only one who knows the full story. I apologize for how long it took.”

“There’s no need to apologize. However, I would like you to keep this matter a secret.”

“But, my lady…” Vio weighed her emotions against my words before calmly pointing out the issues with this request. “I’m afraid I might not be able to do so. Others have witnessed their disgraceful behavior. And it would be impossible to conceal the amount it cost to buy these items back.”

“If it’s money we need, then Cape & Co. from the capital would be willing to give me a loan. They have a branch here in Toure too, so if you mention my name, you can get as much as you need from them.”

“Yes, my lady,” Vio said after a pause. She must have known this already, since I had received all kinds of tribute from Zesh at Cape & Co.

“Do your best to keep this between the two of us so that Father and Mother do not have to worry,” I added.

“As you wish, Lady Yulucia.” Vio reverently bowed her head to me.

I was sure that it would be normal for someone to be suspicious to hear a six-year-old speaking in such a way, but she had already sensed there was something different about me.

Now, I had some thoughts on what to do with the four of them, but as it so happened, the perfect thing had just arrived in my room: a small jewelry box. Inside, hidden underneath all of the jewels, was a fourth invitation.

Vermin who dared to ravage my heart and my garden, it was time for the feast of demons to begin.

***

“Heh heh… Ha ha ha. I’ve finally done it.”

The girl eagerly picked up the invitation before her.

It was an invitation to the Moonlit Tea Party that girls all across the Holy Kingdom longed to receive. But this was not the kind delivered to prospective attendees—it was the magically paired counterpart of one of those invitations.

Hair the silver of moonlight.

Skin so white, it shunned the sun.

Eyes tinged with purple that reminded people of the dark night sky.

The girl beamed with delight. She had an inhuman, alluring beauty about her despite having only turned ten years old.

Lady Mylene la Auber.

Those who knew of her called her the “Silver Princess.”

“That took so long.” Mylene returned the invitation to the table and glanced over at the three vessels next to it. They had once been invitations as well, but all of them had burned into ash.

The invitations delivered to noble girls were all lilac-colored, while their counterparts were pink. They were trapped so that when a lilac one was opened, if it came into contact with the magic of another person other than the recipient, an invisible magic circle would activate and its pink copy would burn.

Every invitation sent to this girl had turned to ash the same day it had been delivered. Mylene was angry now at herself at how this had surprised her. Normally, she would only ever send a single invitation. This was because it was dangerous to invite someone who would not follow the covenant of the Moonlit Tea Party. She had to be discreet so that she never repeated the mistakes of her past.

However, this girl alone was the exception. She was of royal blood and virtuous enough to be called the Saint. Known as the “Golden Princess,” her angelic beauty made her seem special.

Mylene had invited over a hundred noble girls to her tea parties and locked up about a dozen or so of those who had long bloodlines in the manor. Yet they simply weren’t good enough. Likely, their blood needed to be of higher quality.

This Golden Princess was different. Mylene could tell from a single look that this single girl had as much power as a hundred noble girls from old families. In a way, her obsession with the girl might border on something akin to love at first sight. But Mylene was oblivious to this as she used all kinds of methods in her attempts to acquire the Golden Princess.

She had sent her numerous flawless jewels that no child could ever hope to receive—not even a noble one. Assuming the girl must be scared to go alone, she was even making an exception in allowing the girl to bring along her attendants.

In all likelihood, people were starting to become suspicious. However, there was no proof that allowed such suspicions to fall upon the Aubers. And even if people did suspect them, it was more realistic for some kidnapper to be holding fake tea parties, so Count Auber had yet to be summoned to the capital. The count and his lady were still optimistic, but Mylene believed that now was the time.

And so…

“I shall be the winner of this wager.”

At long last, she had received a reply directly from Yulucia saying that she would attend.

Once she had Yulucia, she wouldn’t need anyone else. Yulucia was all Mylene needed to get what she wanted.

“Hee hee. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Mylene and her family had come to Talitelud from the militaristic country of Telthed. They had lost one of their own there battling Telthed’s knights. They would get their revenge on Telthed and on the daemons who had deceived them. Long ago, they had antagonized the daemons who operated in secret in Telthed and the daemons had tipped off the humans to the Auber family’s presence.

If Mylene could get stronger by keeping Yulucia all to herself, then she would be able to get her revenge by her own power. Secretly, quietly, she was working toward the day the Holy Kingdom would know a calamity.

Episode 6:
The Moonlit Tea Party

“DID YOU REQUIRE SOMETHING OF US?”

Just after the sun had completely set, I summoned those four to the side gate. I brought no one along with me, since I figured they wouldn’t come if I brought someone like Vio. Because of this, I could sense their disdain for me. Not that I planned to take it easy on them, even if they did suddenly start acting like respectable servants.

“I’m on my way to a tea party and the four of you are going to accompany me,” I ordered, switching into princess mode.

They all reacted at once: Noir eyed me with suspicion. Ninette yawned, looking like she thought this would be one big bore. Fantine just ignored me and happily stomped on the ants by her feet. Christina’s face was blank, but her eyes widened slightly at the mention of a tea party.

I supposed that I would start with the one who had already been trained in how to become a lady-in-waiting. “We’re going to the Moonlit Tea Party.”

“What?! Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t have an invitation anymore. Plus, you’ll never get another one, since you told me you received it.”

“No worries. As it so happens, Lady Mylene is permitting the four of you to attend with me,” I said as I showed them my fourth invitation.

Christina swiped it out of my hand to read it and then looked at me reproachfully. Ah, what a nice expression that was.

“My lady, we are very busy. We cannot attend on such short notice. Right, Ninette?” Noir’s interest had been slightly piqued at the mention of the Moonlit Tea Party, but not knowing his place in life, he took several paces back as he tried to back out.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Ninette only just followed after him.

“Ninette, as my guard, you need a sword, right? Are you saying you don’t need this anymore?”

“Huh?!”

When I showed the sword, her eyes sparkled despite her surprise. I doubted she had wanted to let the magic sword go, even though she had been forced to sell it.

“H-hey, Ninette!” Noir cried out.

“And I believe this was yours, Noir.” This time I took out the gold pocket watch. At Noir’s dumbfounded look, I continued, “I know you’re smart. You understand what this means, don’t you?”

With the proof of his embezzlement thrust before him, Noir wore the smile of someone trying to find a way to slither out of trouble as he silently took back the pocket watch.

Even a child would be charged for the crime of stealing from the grand duke’s household. The boy must’ve been assuming that because I was handing these over, he could be forgiven if he played his cards right. The wheels in his head were turning, but in the end, he was just a small fry.

I turned to Fantine. “Is there something you would like to have, Fantine?”

“Hmm? How about cookies?”

“But of course. The cookies and tea they serve there will be simply delicious. You can have as much as you would like.”

“Okay!” Fantine was just that kind of girl. Not a single bit of ill will in her, though not much of a mind either, for that matter.

“Our coach is here,” I said.

The faint fragrance of roses surrounded us. The scent put the guard at the side gate to sleep while he was still standing. Soundlessly, two lovely coaches arrived, looking like they had come out of a fairy tale. A butler and a lady’s maid stepped out and bowed their heads respectfully.

“The four of you may ride in this coach,” the gorgeous butler told my attendants, who were now entranced. He then turned to the other coach and said to the lady’s maid, who was petrified at the sight of me, “Would you please help her in?”

“Oh, yes.”

Her hand was cold and she smelled a bit like a beast.

I had to wonder what kind of faces my four attendants were making right now. Were they anxious? Happy? I didn’t really care either way. The only reason I hadn’t fired them was because I didn’t want Father to lose face. Tonight, I was giving them one last chance.

Repent, regret what you’ve done, lament for it, and grovel as you swear your loyalty to Father. Repent for what you’ve done by licking the heels of my shoes and regret your actions until you die.

And if they were incapable of that, well, they must’ve known what was coming.

The coach hardly rocked at all. Also, this lady’s maid was completely useless. All she did was stare at my face. I couldn’t see outside, but our coach was moving several times faster than a normal one could. Perhaps we were flying through the air? We didn’t even make a single turn. No human could possibly make this kind of vehicle.

We arrived without any incidents.

“Thank you so much for coming, Your Highness,” a ten-year-old girl wearing a dress as dark as the night sky greeted me. Attractive butlers and lady’s maids who looked like dolls stood at her sides, with her in the center. She gave a bewitching smile capable of easily disarming the hearts of most people. As her jewel-like eyes gazed at my four attendants, they were petrified with surprise.

I stopped and looked at her with a faint smile on my own face. The person of lesser rank should introduce themselves first, after all.

“My name is Mylene, and I am the eldest daughter of Count Auber,” she said after a pause.

“I’m Yulucia. Will you be showing us inside?”

“Yes, this way.” For a second, as she led us into the garden, I sensed that the smile she wore covered up her dissatisfaction.

It was time for this battle of wits between two monsters to begin.

***

Mylene was finally able to welcome the Golden Princess, whom she had desired so much.

However, something wasn’t right.

Yulucia was even more beautiful than the rumors had described, despite her young age. From the moment Yulucia stepped out of the coach, Mylene could sense agitation coming from the Auber family’s minions, even though they were used to seeing Mylene and Camilla by now. Normally, they’d be in for a scolding, but even Mylene had been taken aback by the girl’s inhumanly beautiful looks.

Irritated at herself, Mylene started by using a Charm spell on the four children, but despite how befuddled they became, it wore off within seconds. And Mylene felt a force pressing back at her from Yulucia; it hadn’t worked on her at all.

Don’t tell me that Yulucia’s charm is more powerful than my own?! Mylene almost lost her composure in her fury, but she managed to regain it. No, this must be part of why people claim she is the Saint. Perhaps she habitually uses resistance magic on herself.

A vampire’s Charm was not an inherent ability—it was part of the unique dark magic they could use. Therefore, if someone else were to cast a resistance spell, the vampiric magic would wear off. Mylene decided that must have been the reason. She could not accept the idea that her own charm could possibly be inferior to such a young child’s.

She realized that Count Auber and Camilla were watching from the darkness, there to examine this finest-quality sacrifice known as the princess of the Holy Kingdom. They hadn’t yet disposed of the noble girls they had taken captive up until now. In order for a sacrifice to be most effective, the girl needed her emotions to be heightened. As an ancient being, Count Auber knew just how to accomplish that.

Nevertheless, Mylene sensed that her allies had been captivated by Yulucia’s beauty, which irritated her even more.

“Lady Mylene, where is everyone else who is attending tonight?”

As Mylene’s attention was brought back to Yulucia, she immediately put a soft smile on her face. “Since you have done me the great honor of attending tonight, I decided not to invite anyone else.”

With such a high-quality sacrifice, she had no need for the more average sacrifices as aperitifs. That applied for Yulucia’s four attendants as well. Although they were attractive to some extent, they were likely nothing but garnish to the main dish.

Up until now, they had let the low-quality sacrifices return home to cover up the actual missing people, but perhaps she would give these four to her ladies-in-waiting and butlers to reward them for their hard work.

The four of them were only children. Mylene had been on guard because Yulucia was abnormal, but her attendants had already left their mistress to accept fancy cakes from the attractive butlers and lady’s maids and now wore enthralled looks on their faces.

Seeing that, Mylene’s heart sank.

Calming herself down, Mylene knew that this was only to be expected. Ordinary humans could not remain themselves after looking into their eyes. Mylene and her two allies were just on another level as nobles.

But then she gasped. She had realized someone was staring straight at her.

It was causing her to feel this strange sensation like sweat running down her back, so she looked over her shoulder at Yulucia, who was wearing an impassive smile that made her look just like a living doll as she quietly watched Mylene.

“Is something the matter?” Mylene asked.

“No. I’m glad that you’re concerned about showing proper hospitality to my attendants. However…” Yulucia paused for a moment. That force Mylene had felt before was beginning to feel stronger. “I would prefer if you would only concern yourself with me. Or would that be too much to ask of the Silver Princess?”

“My…deepest apologies…” Mylene bowed her head as Yulucia smiled elegantly at her. She was surprised by her own reaction. As a noble, she had apologized like this to humans before, but it had always been merely for show. After all, she was just making a mockery of playing at nobility. For some reason, though, now that she had the grand duke’s daughter as an invited guest and she was playing the hostess, Yulucia’s words made Mylene feel as if she were beneath the princess, as if that were her natural place.

Realizing what had happened, Mylene ground her teeth in such a way that she bared her fangs as she looked down at the ground.

This wretched human!

Mylene had heard the rumors about Yulucia. She was the princess who was the face of the Holy Kingdom and the only daughter of the grand duke. She rarely appeared in public and was quiet and calm. At first, some people had despised her, but she had traveled all over, despite her age, to help those who were suffering. There was even a group of noble men who worshipped her like a goddess—she was a true saint.

Nevertheless, Mylene knew there was something about the girl she saw in front of her that didn’t match her pure reputation.

Having been trapped in the sea of her own thoughts again, Mylene watched as Yulucia started filing her nails out of boredom with something that looked like a stone. The princess’s insolence quickly set her into motion. “You there! Lady Yulucia’s tea is growing cold. Bring her another cup at once.”

Normally, she would have never given this kind of order. The usual guests at her tea parties had always been so mellow in their dreamy state of mind and the maids and butlers had always attentively given refills and seconds without needing to be asked. However, everyone was fixated on the young Yulucia’s every move right now. Her beauty must’ve been so enchanting that their very souls had been sapped out of them.

This isn’t good.

The ones who had become their minions only just recently were starting to have trouble maintaining their human forms because they were so unable to resist Yulucia’s charm. Mylene was about to stand up to try to smooth things over, but then Yulucia stopped her by saying, “I don’t need any more tea. I mean, we’re going to do more than just drink tea, right?”

Mylene made a noise in her throat.

What was going on? Mylene was bewildered by how this girl was behaving so differently from the rumors about her. She was definitely not acting like a proper lady who had been invited to a tea party in high society.

“You brought me here in your jostling coach, your lady’s maid didn’t even properly wait on me, and now that I’m here, you still continue to neglect me. Why in the world did you invite me all the way out here?”

“P-please accept my apologies.” She decided to apologize for now, even if it was for show. Mylene was just about at her own limit for enduring all this.

The plan had been to capture Yulucia, break her spirit, and then slowly devour her. However, she kept provoking Mylene with her attitude. Mylene’s pride as a far superior being would not permit her to continue bowing and apologizing to this little girl.

Just as she dropped her eyes to the ground, about to lose control of her anger, she noticed something small rolling around in the corner of her eye.

“This nail file doesn’t work very well, so you can have it back,” Yulucia said.

Mylene was shocked. It was a large ruby the size of an adult fingertip—one of the jewels that Mylene had given Yulucia in an attempt to win her over. The jewels had been valuable enough to buy a small manor, yet here Yulucia was, dropping them onto the ground in front of her. Mylene looked up at her in astonishment.

She was beginning to feel dizzy with rage.

What is wrong with this girl?!

Likely, Yulucia was continuing to provoke her like this because she knew about the kidnappings and thought this tea party had something to do with them. This was why she was acting like this—to get Mylene to slip up and reveal something. It made sense when she thought about it. Simultaneously, she realized how naive Yulucia was.

Yulucia possessed the pure heart of a saint and must have come here out of her sorrow for the kidnappings. She appeared to be wise, but she was still a child. After all, she hadn’t brought her guardian knights here—only those four children.

I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to kill her now!

Yulucia was getting too cocky. Mylene would get her revenge for Yulucia trying to uncover the villain by giving Yulucia the most brutal and merciless death she could think of.

However…

Out of nowhere, Yulucia asked, “Have you heard of the vampire uprising that happened some years back in Telthed?”

Not only Mylene, but Count Auber and Camilla stiffened in their hiding spots in the shadows.

“Why do you ask, Lady Yulucia?” Mylene’s tone had completely lost its human tenor. The sound of her voice caused the four attendants to snap out of their dreamlike state and tremble.

The gentle music stopped playing. All of the musicians, butlers, and maids were watching her with blank looks on their faces. Yulucia was the only one wearing a peaceful smile.

“Oh, I was just wondering out loud. I heard that there had been several vampires, but the uprising ended when they were defeated by the humans and deserted one of their own in order to flee. Poor thing.”

Yulucia’s words caused the maids and butlers to grimace in a beastly way. Intense anger spread through them all.

Mylene in particular was awfully incensed by this. Her anger turned to rancor and the miasma she now radiated caused the vividly colored lawn and roses to wither in an instant.

“What are you trying to say?” Mylene’s voice quivered with rage.

Yet, despite the strange occurrences happening around them, Yulucia’s smile didn’t falter. Instead, she took out the invitation she had received and tossed it onto the withered lawn.

“I hate to break it to you, but the fragrance of roses cannot cover up the stench of beasts.”

In the next instant, the butlers and maids who had barely been managing to maintain their human forms all simultaneously bared their fangs and chattered their teeth. The musicians who still had some humanity to them were covered in fur in the blink of an eye as they turned into beasts standing upright.

“Eek!” Now suddenly surrounded by inhuman monsters, the four attendants finally realized the gravity of their situation and clung to one another for protection as they began to cry. The fact that they managed to remain conscious despite being caught in this eddy of malice that was a monster’s manor was because their mistress Yulucia still showed no fear. That was the one and only reason.

The saintly, noble Yulucia would not desert them. They believed that, at the very least, she would buy them time to run.

Seeing how relaxed Yulucia was, Mylene bared her fangs and laughed. “You knew and yet you came anyway. I’m overjoyed to see that you’re not a Saint in name only.”

“I’ll have you know that I have never once called myself a Saint. Having people call me that has been such a bother. All I want is to live in peace.” Yulucia sighed as she calmly placed a hand on her cheek. That was when the other two presences stepped out of the shadows.

“I’ll be glad to bring you ‘peace,’ my lady, so long as you give me your blood.” Count Auber, a middle-aged vampire with gray hair, came forward. He was considered a count among vampires as well.

“The Lady Saint seems so relaxed. Does she think she still has a chance to run? I hope not.” His wife Camilla, a beautiful vampire with black hair, followed. She was considered a vampire viscount.

“We’ll wipe that smile right off your face and make you regret this until you scream.” And finally, their noble daughter Mylene, a vampire with silver hair. She was considered a vampire baron.

A vampire’s rank changed over time. The longer they lived, the more powerful they became.

Count Auber was four hundred years old and his strength as a vampire with an aristocratic rank meant that he was a lower Calamity-Rank creature—meaning he was capable of bringing a nation to ruin.

Camilla, also of aristocratic rank since she was a vampire viscount, was only two hundred years old, while Mylene was one hundred, and thus a vampire baron. This meant they were upper Disaster-Rank creatures, each capable of destroying a whole city by themselves. However, the might of the three of them working together meant that they were greater in power than an arch elemental, which could bring about a cataclysm.

Yet Yulucia didn’t react.

Mylene was the only one who still felt there was something strange about Yulucia, who remained fearless before them.

What was this strange sensation? It was like not realizing you had done up your buttons wrong, or like going outside wearing your shoes on the wrong feet—that kind of peculiar uncomfortableness.

How long had Mylene been feeling this for? Since the girl had come to their manor? Since she had first sent her an invitation? Or…had she felt it ever since they had arrived in this country?

No… Impossible.

They had come to Talitelud because it was part of the plan they’d made back in Telthed. The Holy Kingdom of Talitelud was the birthplace of the Saint and the Hero. The people here were deeply religious, and it was a land that demons and villains alike avoided. That was the very reason the vampires had chosen to come here. There were so many different kinds of religions in this land. No one would ever suspect that terrifying monsters would be among their nobility. They were going to discreetly and quietly corrupt this holy kingdom at their leisure, changing its locations, its position, and even its form so that they could completely devour the blood of its people.

No one could possibly defeat Mylene and her family. Even if Yulucia really were the Saint, she had no means of fighting back without the Hero who was to be her partner. That was just how deeply Mylene trusted in the strength of her two allies.

Yet despite that, she felt such a nauseating despair.

If all the vampires had fought together when the knights of Telthed had taken them by surprise, then surely They wouldn’t have needed to have sacrificed one of their allies. It was because of this that Mylene felt such discontent toward the two who had run away at the very beginning of that fight—Count Auber and Camilla.

And here in the den of such monsters…

“Let’s play a game of tag,” Yulucia suggested cheerfully. She clapped her hands and smiled like a child who had just thought of a great idea.

Camilla was speechless as she realized that this was her response to Camilla asking if Yulucia thought she could run.

“So, Noir, Ninette, Fantine, Christina…”

Three of them flinched at the mention of their names, whereas Christina looked up at Yulucia to glare. Yulucia gave them a kind smile.

“You four do your best to run away too. If you manage to evade these people, then I’ll forgive you for what you’ve done.” Her words were cheerful yet merciless. Yulucia unhurriedly stood up straight and stretched out her hands. “Manifest Light.”

She had done it so effortlessly that no one had been able to react.

In that instant, it was not radiant light, but a black light that expanded around them with Yulucia at its center. Everyone was enshrouded in a darkness so pitch-black that not even the vampires could see through it.

The vampires had been on guard against holy-magic attacks, so they were confused to be caught in this kind of inky-black darkness.

From the darkness, Yulucia’s cheerful voice sang, “Hee hee. Try to catch me now!”

Episode 7:
The Children Enshrouded in Darkness

THE SECOND THEY WERE COVERED IN A BLINDING darkness, a small hand grabbed onto Fantine and started leading her away from this scary place.

“Ch-Christy?” She assumed it must have been Christina’s hand she was holding, but no one responded to her.

Fantine was in a dark, silent forest. Even the bugs were quiet. She surveyed the area through the darkness and spied the manor and the rose garden she had just been in through the gaps of the trees.

“Uugh, whyyy?” Now that she had nothing to be afraid of, she had already forgotten how to be afraid, so now Fantine bemoaned her savior who had left her in this random spot.

She couldn’t comprehend why they had left her, a child, in such a dangerous place. She was glad they had saved her, but Fantine believed they should have taken full responsibility for ensuring her safety too.

Vampires were scary. Monsters that turned into animals were scary. But this forest was dark, so it was scary too. She hated being scared, so she wanted to run. And that rich girl had told her to get away. She said she’d forgive her for what she’d done if she could just get away. But…

“Why do I need her to forgive me?” Fantine didn’t understand what Yulucia could have possibly meant.

She didn’t understand what adults said when they spoke. Fantine was born a noble daughter, yet she could never understand what it was that other people wanted from her.

That was just how it was for Fantine.

In her mind, everything in the world belonged to her and there were no compromises. By nature, Fantine felt the boundaries between herself and other people were ambiguous, and since everything belonged to her, she never got attached to anything, nor did she ever feel like she had taken anything from anyone else. She could not understand how other people might care about a thing, nor just how important something could be to someone. She didn’t even hesitate to take the lives of small animals. Everything in this world was just fun and games to her.

But Fantine didn’t want to die either.

If she died, then she wouldn’t have anything anymore. She didn’t like to feel hunger, distress, or pain either. And so, death was what she feared more than anything. Since everything belonged to her already, the thing Fantine treasured most in the whole wide world was her life.

It was natural for children to be protected. She didn’t need parents who wouldn’t protect her. The twins may have taught her how to eat and Christina may have taught her how to make money, but she didn’t need them anymore if they weren’t going to protect her.

Fantine had been scared when the vampires attacked because she had realized that the other three weren’t strong enough to protect her life, since they too only had their lives, which she didn’t even care about. But she wasn’t scared now, because she had already found the next person who would protect her.

“My lady will protect me.”

She had that rich daughter in her life. Yulucia had just laughed at the monsters even though they were scary. Since she was Fantine’s mistress, it was only natural that she would protect Fantine’s life, since it was the most important thing in the world.

Having come to that conclusion, Fantine didn’t run away from the forest or try to hide in it. Instead, she started walking back toward the manor without a single doubt in her mind, since she was sure that that was where Yulucia was.

“Hmm-hmm!” Fantine hummed as she passed through a gate that had been left wide open. A black lump kind of scared her, so she avoided it on her way to the manor. That was when she spotted a tea cart that had been prepared but not served, and started eating the food off of it with her hands.

Thanks to her audacity, she had managed to avoid running into any vampires or lycanthropes. It only made sense when she thought about it. Fantine’s life was the most important thing in the world, so of course those vampires would be respectful of her. Fantine even started to believe that she had been wrong to have been afraid as she walked through the courtyard while munching away on a cookie. But that was when she noticed something was following her.

“Who’s there?” she called as she turned around. She heard something that sounded like a dog’s panting in response.

When it stepped out of the darkness, Fantine gasped at the chill in the air and murderous aura surrounding it. She let out a strangled scream.

It was the kind of black dog that breathed out cold air and was a familiar for vampires: a death hound.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Fantine stumbled as she tried to run away, her face contorted with fear.

And then a second and a third death hound stepped out of the darkness. They began to toy with their prey, whose movements had slowed due to the cold.

“Why?! Why?!”

Fantine couldn’t understand why these dogs were attacking her.

Fantine couldn’t understand why no one had come to save her.

Fantine couldn’t understand why they were trying to take her life, which was the most important life in the world.

In her hopeless terror, Fantine screamed out through the darkness for the girl who was her mistress: “Help meeee!!!”

But no one answered her scream. The only sounds that could be heard in the darkness of the night were several muffled shrieks and the sound of something being torn to pieces.

***

“This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!!!”

Ninette crouched in the shadows of the wall near the manor’s back gate with her drawn sword at the ready. Her teeth chattered and her body shook all over. Holding the grip of the sword so hard her fingertips turned white, Ninette continued muttering to herself like a curse, “This can’t be happening!”

This was just supposed to be a tea party. She had just wanted to sleep and only decided to come along because she had been given her sword back.

This couldn’t be real. None of this could possibly be happening. There couldn’t be those kinds of monsters, or monsters who had transformed into nobles, and she couldn’t have been invited to that kind of tea party, and her lady couldn’t have possibly provoked such monsters or laughed as she mocked them, nor could Ninette’s own life possibly be in danger right now.

“I hate this. No, no, no, no!”

She hated everything about this. She didn’t want to die. Ninette wanted to go home and have an easy, comfortable life. Ninette had always hated bothersome things.

Her twin brother Noir wanted an easy life too, but she hated how he didn’t balk at deprecating himself to make that happen.

She hated being a lady-in-waiting who had to be considerate of her lady’s every little need, so she’d tried training to become a knight instead, but she hated having to train to use a sword.

She hated how she had to go along with all of her brother’s schemes.

She hated how she had to make herself beneath people and scrape and bow to win their favor.

She hated that she couldn’t eat unless she worked.

She hated thinking about what she’d have to do to get what she wanted.

She hated, hated, hated, hated it all.

She just wanted to live an easy, comfortable life.

Ninette never asserted herself, always living in her brother’s shadow, because even having emotions was usually too much of a bother. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t want anything at all.

She hated bad-tasting food, so she wanted to eat delicious food.

She hated sleeping in cold places, so she wanted a warm room.

She hated not having a comfortable life, so she wanted money.

That was why she had needed such a powerful sword. With a strong sword, she could still be strong without any training and everyone would accept it. When she grew up, she would become the dame commander of the guardian knights, make her subordinates deal with all of their lady’s enemies, and Ninette could just sit back and relax.

In a way, Ninette was the most “normal” of the four of them. After all, she had a vision for the future, although it was an imperfect one.

She would serve their lady, make the maids and housemaids all do the annoying stuff, leave all the thinking to her brother, and live a life of comfort even when she was all grown up.

But something about that plan had all gone wrong.

She’d suddenly stopped being able to buy stuff by using her lady’s name. She’d started getting fed the same kind of meals the housemaids were given. Her lady had stopped asking her to do easy jobs and she was asked to do hard chores all the time instead. She had run away from the work too.

Where had she gone wrong?

Why was she going to die in a place like this?

Whose fault was all this?

“It’s all my lady’s fault.”

She had lured Ninette to such a dangerous place with the sword as bait. It was all her fault.

She wanted to run away as fast as she could. She had to. Her lady had said as much. But Ninette couldn’t run away.

Not because she couldn’t leave her brother or her friends behind; that didn’t bother her at all. Up until now, she had relied on her parents for everything. Once they were gone, she had relied on her brother instead, then the grand duke, and had abandoned all thought in the process. The fact of the matter was, Ninette didn’t even know how to escape from this dangerous situation.

“Eek!”

She heard quiet footsteps from the dark forest surrounding the manor.

Normally, they would have been inaudible. Such a tiny sound would have been lost in the forest, but now Ninette heard a dissonance that sounded like the fluttering of a swarm of bugs.

And then a single person—no, two, three people—stepped out of the darkness. When Ninette realized all of them were fanged monsters, she nearly passed out.

She was silent. Even so, she couldn’t faint. Because she had lived her life without the ups and downs of emotions, she wasn’t able to conjure enough panic to faint.

A vampire’s rank and strength were dependent on their age. It also depended on the circumstances of their own birth. If a noble with powerful magic or a wizard became a vampire, their rank would change even if their strength didn’t. This was because magic affected not only the fluctuations of their power with age, but their appearances as well. Thus, Mylene used those of lower rank as her butlers and ladies-in-waiting.

And now four of these low-ranking vampires dressed in commoners’ attire, incapable of hiding the ugliness of a vampire, had spotted Ninette in her hiding place, looking down upon her with vulgar grins.

Although Ninette was in possession of a powerful magical sword, she was still a child and had had no training to speak of. These were foes she could not possibly defeat.

Her mouth felt dry. She could hardly even breathe.

Ninette understood that she was about to die. These monsters were going to torment her, tear her flesh into shreds, and devour her entrails while she still lived.

“I curse you!”

She shed tears in her final moments as she cursed her parents who had been arrested, her twin brother, her useless allies, and Yulucia for having gotten her involved in this kind of world. She cursed them all as she brought the trembling tip of her sword to her throat.

It truly was the only way for her to find peace now.

***

There was an enormous chapel attached to Count Auber’s manor.

On holidays, the pious people of the count’s lands came with their children to pray to the goddess Kostor. It was the holiest place in all the land.

“Sniff… Sniff…” In that chapel, Christina was trying to hold back her sobs as tears streamed down her face.

After Christina had been shrouded in darkness, someone had left her in the corner of the garden. Despite her confusion, she’d managed to hide in the shadows of the trees, but one of the maids had spotted her when she had moved and dragged her into this chapel.

Nothing had happened to her yet. She’d been brought to the altar and emotionless maids surrounded her now. All they did was stare at her in silence. Christina felt the dread that something horrible was about to happen.

Christina hadn’t seen any of these maids at the first garden. The only thing these maids had going for them was that they matched Mylene’s ladies-in-waiting in terms of looks. However, these fifty low-ranking vampires were powerless, had no rank, and had been chosen for their appearances, thus gaining them their mistress’s favor.

And their mistress was…

Creak…

The faint noise of the door opening interrupted the girl’s sobbing.

“Eek!”

Sleek hair the color of night. Inhuman beauty. Countess Camilla entered the chapel with thirty lycanthropes behind her—werewolves, weretigers, wereboars, and wererats.

Seeing Camilla and the boy she cradled in her arms like a doll, Christina let out a wail of despair.

It was Noir, and his eyes were devoid of light.

He had been caught just as Christina had, but they had done something terrible to him. Underneath the rips and tears in his expensive butler’s uniform, she could see countless wounds left by fangs on his pale skin.

However, Camilla only had lycanthropes with her. Christina guessed that since Noir was still alive, the marks had all been left by Camilla having her fun with him.

“Hee hee.” As Christina recoiled with fear, Camilla made a display of licking the blood off of Noir’s cheek and then playfully bit his neck so that she could lick up the fresh blood.

Noir shuddered each time her fangs and tongue touched his skin. Christina reflexively turned her face away from the revolting sight before her. However, Christina’s reflection in Noir’s empty eyes brought a bit of life back into them. A nasty grin spread across his face.

“M-my lady! You should drink her blood instead! She’s much tastier than me!”

Christina was speechless, her eyes round with shock as Noir not only betrayed his friend, but surrendered his dignity as a human. Camilla laughed with delight.

“Ho ho ho. You two are so much more adorable than that unpleasant Saint.”

Sensing that Camilla was now more interested in Christina, Noir clung to what faint hope he had found amid his despair.

Noir had wanted to live an easy, comfortable life too. However, his idea of what that meant was different from his younger twin sister Ninette’s. His idea of an easy life was to live with a middling amount of power.

It sucked being born the eldest son of a noble family.

It sucked having to be in a position of responsibility.

Commoners probably imagined that kings could do whatever they pleased. However, with power came the heavy pressure of responsibility. Mistakes would simply make your life miserable. And so, rather than becoming the most powerful person in the land, Noir believed the easiest path in life would be to receive responsibility from the bigwigs while foisting the most annoying tasks onto those beneath him. If anyone made a mistake, it would be his underlings’ fault and the bigwigs would have to take responsibility for it.

Noir’s idea of an easy life was to divide out all of the annoying tasks to other people and live a life where he alone had nothing stressful to deal with. He didn’t care if that meant he had to butter someone up to make that happen. He would even flatter a homeless person if that meant avoiding something that could possibly give him a headache. His family had been ruined and he and his twin had no one else they could turn to, so in Noir’s mind, becoming Princess Yulucia’s chamberlain was the best way things could have turned out.

Yulucia only gave orders that were easy enough for even a child to do. Even when he messed up, Yulucia only just frowned and never reprimanded him. He could just leave all the most troublesome tasks to the castle housemaids.

Noir then realized that he could do pretty much anything he wanted just by mentioning Yulucia’s name.

So that he didn’t get in trouble if it did end up being a problem, they first bought Ninette’s sword. That arrived without incident and nobody scolded them about it either, so he used his mistress’s name to then procure everything he wanted, one thing after the other.

The food he was served was much better than what had been served at his family’s home, and he could order the maids to change his sheets and clean his room for him. Noir thought that his position as the princess’s chamberlain was wonderful.

But that easy life started crumbling away just a few months ago.

Yulucia stopped summoning them to her.

She stopped giving them chores to do.

He stopped being able to give people orders in Yulucia’s name.

They stopped allowing him access to places he’d been permitted to go before.

They stopped cleaning his room for him.

They lowered the quality of his meals to less than what he had been served as the son of a baron.

He lost all of his responsibilities.

Nevertheless, Noir hadn’t tried to apologize and change the state of things. As a baron’s heir, he had received enough education to know that if someone could prove he had spent the grand duke’s money without permission, then he would be in for the biggest headache of all.

Yulucia kept quiet. So long as Noir didn’t admit to anything, nobody else would accuse him either. His sister and the other girls did nothing but complain about the food and their treatment, so he sold all of the items they had bought using the embezzled money.

He was going to run out of money at some point, so he would need to find someone else he could leech off of before that happened. The only reason he hadn’t abandoned his stupid little sister was so that he could sell her when he needed the money.

But before it reached that point, Yulucia summoned them for the first time in a long time—to criticize them.

However, Yulucia forgave people so easily. So his kissing up to her worked, and she even brought them along to a tea party, which was rather unusual.

But it had actually been a punishment.

There were monsters as far as the eye could see here. Yulucia alone seemed unruffled by the situation. She used strange magic, and the next thing he knew, he had been left by the gate. However, one of the monsters had caught him and sucked his blood. He knew he was going to die. But then, in his terror, he found someone to take his place.

“I-I have an idea, my lady! You should make me one of your allies! I will gladly suck out all of the blood of that fake deceiving Saint and—ahhhhhhhhh!”

Noir was cut off as Camilla bit his shoulder. This time she wasn’t sucking his blood—she was actually biting into his flesh.

“I hate foolish children.” Camilla smiled affectionately with the visage of a beast. Noir could do nothing but scream in pain and terror.

Meanwhile…

“This is all because of her.”

Camilla slowly turned her gaze toward the mumbling Christina.

“It’s all her fault I’m here now! She’s only just some mistress’s child! And yet it’s all because of her that Lady Adeline and Lady Aureline were sent so far away!”

The now-deceased Duchess Albertine Cowell had been friends with Christina’s mother. Her mother had worshipped Albertine and raised her own pretty daughter to be given to the duchess’s daughters.

Adeline and Aureline didn’t listen to gossip and were tolerant toward those who idolized them. The young Christina knew of their beauty and magnificence as nobility, so she worshipped the girls just as her mother did and looked forward to the day when she would become able to serve them.

But then Christina lost all that.

Her parents were killed with Albertine, as they had followed her orders and gotten involved in the demon-summoning incident. The house of Viscount Celda was ruined and Christina was orphaned.

The Grand Duke of Versenia assumed guardianship over not only the kidnapped children, but all the children of those arrested for their involvement, like Christina and the other prospects for Yulucia’s attendants. He searched for places of employment for those who wanted it, but there weren’t many who wanted to take in the children of criminals. They spent gloomy days in the orphanage of a church.

However, Christina held out hope. Although the house of Duke Cowell had been dissolved in all but name, Adeline and Aureline remained in the former duke’s manor in the capital. So once Christina turned five years old, she would still be able to become their lady-in-waiting-in-training. Or at least, she was pretty sure she could.

Right before that happened, though, because of an incident they had caused, the girls were sent to study abroad in the neighboring Kingdom of Sigoules indefinitely and Christina lost her chance to serve them. However, Grand Duke Forte had closely overseen the entire matter and decided to take in the last four children who had yet to find a caretaker to become apprentice attendants to his daughter Yulucia, who was close to them in age.

Yulucia von Versenia, the princess of the Holy Kingdom.

This child of a mistress had stolen everything that should have belonged to Adeline and Aureline, whom Christina had respected and loved so dearly. Glory, everyone’s favor, their father’s love—everything.

Of course, Christina hadn’t hated the girl at first, before she even knew what she looked like. However, she then saw how Yulucia was loved unconditionally by her father, her mother, and everyone in the castle and how she was hailed as the Saint by everyone in the kingdom. When Christina compared her to herself and how she had lost her warm home, her parents’ love, and even the mistresses she yearned to serve, Christina felt nothing but resentment toward the girl.

This was why she had put the idea into the stupid twins’ heads for how to embezzle money. This was why she had told the peculiar Fantine about Yulucia’s most treasured items and so she could rough them up a little bit.

Christina’s heart was a maelstrom of the emotions she had felt up until this moment. Now that she was about to lose her very life as well, she burned with pure hatred.

“I will kill her… I will kill Yulucia!”

In her terror, she was now beyond reason. Seeing Christina’s confession flowing out of her like bitter tears, Camilla was so overcome with emotion that she cast Noir aside and rushed over to the girl. Camilla tenderly took Christina into her arms.

“Ahh… Now you finally look ready to eat.”

Episode 8:
Sacrifice

IT IS I, YULUCIA. IN THIS MOMENT, I HAVE CURRENTLY found myself in a bit of a fix.

“What am I to do now?”

In the center of the gradually shrinking dark light, I sipped a cup of the cold, bitter, tealike drink. I hadn’t moved from this spot since this all began.

Admittedly, I had moved a bit to hide those four kids, but by the time I’d finished, there was no one here.

I had told them to catch me if they could in the most laughable pampered-daughter move I could make, but, like, there had been lycanthropes here, right? Couldn’t they follow me by my scent or something? Surely all of those silly vampires hadn’t all gone looking for me, right?

Or had they?

I had at least managed to verify they were monsters with holy magic, so I had no regrets about what I had done.

Light magic manifested with white light, but not all light was white. Based on my knowledge of the dream world, I believed it was called visible rays? Wait, maybe that was black too? In any case, it seemed that magic just worked by reflecting how you envisioned it.

If that was true, then maybe it did have some effect on those with no dark attributes too? Darkness was darkness, but that didn’t mean that there was always something lurking in the shadows. However, if black light was actually considered dark magic, then perhaps light elementals and dark elementals were one and the same.

Then perhaps that meant I could use dark magic with holy magic? Well, that was enough following that train of thought for now.

In any case, I sure am bored. I wonder if the four of them managed to get away? It’s a bit hard to tell from inside this black light.

“Fine, I guess I have no choice. It’s time to go.”

If they hadn’t gotten away, then that was on them.

I still had some use for them, though, so I didn’t want them dying.

“Ow!”

“Graaagh!”

The moment I left the black light and stepped into the manor, I struck and crushed the maid vampires I happened to come across.

“Oops, sorry about that.”

Not that they could hear my apology once they were just smears on the wall. But coming across a bug would startle anyone, you know?

Ah, they turned to ash. That would make cleanup easier. But still…

“This place sure is huge.”

Lady Elea had told me as much, but the Aubers were an old family line. They seemed to have added on to the manor several times over the years, so now it was stupidly huge and incredibly complex.

Just how much had these people filled their own pockets by taking advantage of their position? Ah, but probably the one who had actually done that was the original count, who had been replaced.

“Hmmm.”

Tracking and detection were not skills I excelled at. I did have my catlike instincts to work with, so I had come this far in my search by following my nose. I got the sense, though, that there were a lot of them below.

Still, just how big was this place? The basement seemed like you could play baseball in it. There were minions in the chapel and outside the manor, but exactly how many of them were there?

I could somehow sense the three bigger ones, but I wasn’t sure which was Mylene.

If I summoned some lesser demons, I could make things easier for myself, but I had a feeling that a certain someone would notice if I were to use a crazy amount of magic to force open a summoning gate.

I had a feeling that I’d only have a single chance to fool his nose in his current angry state and open a big gate. I hoped I could summon the demons I had in mind. My overly protective so-called older brother had even taught me how to make the summoning circle I needed to summon them to me.

“Maybe he’s one of those guys with a sister complex?” I pondered aloud.

In any case, maybe I would run into somebody if I just walked in a random direction for now?

I wonder if I’ll find one of my four attendants? Or maybe one of the count’s family? I’d rather avoid their minions since they’re so corrupt, I thought as I arrived at a room that was curiously made of stone.

Was this the kind of room you’d typically find in a noble’s manor?

Binding chains hung from the walls and there were things like saws and axes scattered about. The wooden bed was covered in something reddish brown and the rotten smell of iron permeated the air.

It’s certainly possible that a noble’s manor might have this kind of room, I thought as…

Click.

“Oh my, if it isn’t the Lady Saint.” A beautiful woman with black hair entered the torture chamber, her high heels clicking on the floor, followed by a retinue of several beautiful maids. She looked at me and smiled.

“How do you do, Countess? May I ask what your name is?”

“You may call me Camilla.”

“Thank you, Camilla.”

We smiled at one another, with me standing where I was in the torture chamber while Camilla held a tattered child in her arms like a doll.

“Where did you find that?”

“She was a lucky find. She’ll make a fine aperitif.”

Christina’s eyes were vacant from blood loss as Camilla lifted up her chin to lick off the oozing blood so that she could bite into her again.

“Did this belong to you?” Camilla asked provocatively, then sucked the girl’s blood while looking at me.

Likely, if I were an ordinary Yulucia, I would be angered by how she was tormenting my attendant and lose my cool. Which was exactly why…

“Yes, she does. Thank you so much for finding her, Camilla,” I answered with a gentle smile.

Camilla frowned slightly for just a fleeting moment before the smile she wore as a mask returned. “Hee hee. I see that you remain unruffled by this situation.”

Unlike Mylene, Camilla looked down on me. No matter how powerful she was, she was still a “person” in the end. The haughtiness of someone in her position made her more talkative than necessary, since she was more interested in getting me to succumb to her and lose heart than outright killing me.

“Say, Yulucia? Did you know that humans are quite marvelous? The blood of those harboring strong emotions taste so very sweet. I wonder just how sweet the blood of the Saint will be.”

Well, then.

She and the other vampires just didn’t know, did they? That the sweet taste was actually born of a person’s karma.

“Christina, that makes me so happy to hear. I didn’t realize you felt so strongly.” As I sweetly called out her name, Christina’s shoulder twitched slightly.

Camilla had been relaxed up until this point, but now her gaze shifted in annoyance. “Indeed. But they’re starting to lose their flavor, so I’ll give them back to you,” Camilla said a bit hastily as she tossed the unmoving Christina at me.

Behind her, the maids threw the other three humans at me like they were tossing out the trash.

Fantine, Ninette, Noir—I see that none of you managed to escape.

“Do you understand what this means, Yulucia? These four children are still barely alive. What will you do now, Lady Saint? Will you heal them with the holy magic that you’re so good at?” In a display of power, Camilla taunted me as I stared at my attendants who had been so mercilessly drained of their blood and beaten.

She was right, though. I could tell from a glance. The four of them still barely drew breath, just as Camilla said. But I would be unable to heal them with holy magic.

The problem wasn’t the magic itself—it was because they had practically no soul left in them. From what I could tell, vampires sucked out the souls of people through their blood and turned that into power for themselves.

How did this work, exactly? I had a pretty good idea now just from looking at the four of them. Humans who survived being drained of their blood and souls were transformed in both body and mind by the desire for another soul to replace the one they had lost. The reason a vampire’s victim became a vampire wasn’t because of the common theory that they were cursed or because it was some contagious disease, it was because their soul itself had been altered. This was why vampires thirsted for souls and the blood of humans with strong souls.

When a living being died, their soul rapidly dispersed and dissipated into the world. Only a very small fraction of souls that had accumulated lots of experience were able to spend those “experience points” and be reborn while preserving the traits of their souls.

Even though I was a demon, not even I knew where those souls that dissolved into the world went. However, even if a corpse was restored, once their soul had dissipated, they couldn’t be brought back. This was why resurrection magic didn’t exist.

If left in their current state, my four attendants would either die or turn into vampires. They really were just beyond saving. And so, I decided to pose this final question to them, not as a human, but as a wicked demon:

“Do you still want to live?”

It was a very simple question. My demonic voice whispered into the hearts of their very selves.

Ninette’s, Noir’s, and Fantine’s shoulders twitched slightly in response. And…

Christina alone cracked her eyes open slightly to glare at me with hatred.

“I take that as a yes.”

The pact was made.

Thin black chains jangled as they extended from my hands and wrapped around their souls.

“Manifest Light.”

Camilla tittered with glee as she watched me recite the words of the spell. “Ha ha ha! What a foolish girl! You’ve actually done it! Now that their bodies have been healed, they’ll turn into vampires! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

She roared with laughter as I moved on to the final touches.

It was not their bodies that I was saving, but the feelings they had hidden within their souls.

“The pacts have been made. Devour their pitiful souls and reveal yourselves!” With my words, the light changed into a multi-layered summoning circle composed of intricate levels.

Having sensed something from the change, one of the maids went flying at it and gasped as she was instantly repelled by the light. That was why I had cast the holy magic spell—to prevent any vampires from interrupting this sacred demonic ritual.

Working as carefully as I could, the intricate summoning circle reached hundreds of layers as I weaved my emotions into the magical equation.

I only had this one chance to use a summoning circle of this scale.

For my one and only summoning, my feelings had been necessary in order to make sure it was successful. This summoning circle had no compelling power within it. Nevertheless, there were those that only I could summon.

So, come and be welcomed.

“By order of the Devil Princess: Come to me, my darling demons.”

***

When the four attendants came to, they realized they were in a place shrouded in darkness. There was no sky, no ground, not even a horizon. They couldn’t even tell up from down in this dark world. The only things the four of them could see were each other.

They tried to speak, but their voices made no sound. They tried to scream in desperation, but there was still only silence. They tried to run toward one another, but they never got any closer. When they tried to run elsewhere instead, they didn’t get any farther either. They couldn’t even be sure just how far away they were from one another in this dark world. Only Ninette continued trying to run while screaming something.

Ninette had been cold from blood loss and in agony when she heard her lady ask if she wanted to live. She tried with all her might to answer yes. She resented Yulucia for bringing her to this place, but she hated the idea of dying more than anything else, so she didn’t even hesitate and was the quickest one to wish to live.

But why was she being hunted right now?

Something she couldn’t see was pursuing her like a predator chases prey. It was hurting her.

All she’d ever wanted was to live an easy, comfortable life. She wanted to live and do nothing. That was why she had leeched off her twin brother, her friends, and Lady Yulucia. What was so wrong about using them?

She continued to scream her laments into the dark world as she ran in fear. In her final moments, an enormous black sheep devoured her slothful soul whole.

That was when the other three also started running from something.

Fantine ran too, but she tripped on the empty air, tumbled onto something invisible, and each time it happened, she was harassed in all kinds of ways as something laughed scornfully in her ear.

Being asked if she wanted to live should have meant that Yulucia intended to help her, right? Fantine screamed that Yulucia was a liar as she continued to run.

She was being toyed with. She was their plaything. The world belonged to Fantine and everything in it was supposed to be her playthings, so why was someone toying with her life now?

Fantine was the most important person in the world and yet Lady Yulucia had lied to her and given her as a plaything to some invisible assailant.

When Fantine cried out for someone to save her, an enormous white monkey crushed her prideful soul and slowly chewed it until it disappeared within the beast.

Noir had given up running and had a faint smile on his face as he desperately begged for his life.

He desperately sang the praises of the invisible someone in this soundless world, sucked up to them, pleading that they could do whatever they wanted with his twin sister and the other girls so long as they spared him.

Noir cared not for what anyone might think of him; if this was enough to save him, then it would be a small price to pay. He was willing to do whatever it took to be able to push every headache aside and live unbothered and unburdened. He saved up money, stole items, and used other people’s possessions to live an easy, comfortable life.

Living an easy life meant taking possession of the privileges of others.

This was why he felt no guilt about selling the privileges of his sister and friends. However, when he offered to sell Lady Yulucia as well, the whatever it was that had been silently looking down on him suddenly exploded with anger. Noir was crushed under the hoof of an enormous black goat. It grasped his greedy soul and crunched it to bits.

Christina ran frantically. She couldn’t die in a place like this.

After all, the reason she had said she wanted to live was because she wanted revenge on Lady Yulucia. She would get revenge against that woman who had stolen everything from her beloved Lady Adeline and Lady Aureline. She would gladly give up anything to make that happen.

Christina gave into despair and wailed as she flailed her arms around, trying to intimidate her invisible attacker.

All she wanted was to get revenge. All she felt in her heart was hatred for that girl.

She hated Yulucia for robbing the people whom she loved and respected of their honor.

She hated her for taking away her happiness.

She hated her for being so rich.

She hated her for being so happy.

She hated her for being loved and adored by everyone.

She hated her for her position and her power.

She hated her for having both honor and a future.

She hated everything about Yulucia von Versenia’s entire being.

It wasn’t fair. She wanted everything Yulucia had.

Before Christina could scream this, an enormous golden snake appeared and sneered at her as if it could see deep into the depths of her very human emotions.

Hatred was the opposite of love. Because Yulucia was so radiant, Christina could only hate her and never look straight at her. And so, the snake gulped her envious soul down whole and dissolved it without leaving a single sliver behind.

***

Shiiiiing…

A sound resonated and the light of the summoning circle shattered. The remnants of it faded away like snowfall in spring. Once the light was gone, all that remained was even deeper darkness than before.

The darkness was reduced to something like mud, with the lights illuminating the room dimly seeping through it. An excessively dense shadow gushed forth, covering the entire floor. The vampires jumped back in fear of the bizarre phenomenon. The deep darkness then swallowed up the four attendants like a bottomless swamp.

“Wh-what’s happening?!” Camilla shrieked. She couldn’t understand. It made no sense. She couldn’t comprehend what she was witnessing at all.

All the other living beings of this world who stood in this room shared her confusion.

Darkness filled the vicinity like a moonless night. It was a darkness that scared even vampires, and they were creatures of the night.

Quietly, slowly, beings that had once been the four attendants rose up from the surface of the darkness that now covered the whole floor. While they were still the same children, there was something clearly different about them. The expensive clothes given by the family of the grand duke for their service looked so weathered now, as if they had been exposed to wind and rain for hundreds of years. The four of them gave off a sinister miasma as they absorbed the sea of darkness and then turned their malignant gazes upon the weaklings.

“Attaaaack!!” Camilla let out an animalistic shriek as she gave the order. The maids took on their beast forms and pounced on the four children.

Then one shadow wavered and…

Slice!!!

The being who had once been Ninette unsheathed the sword at her waist and, in that single swing alone, the blade snaked out like tree roots and impaled every single one of the vampire maids.

“∮∝､￠燿∴ ∝▲､￠￠∴∮珥□￠燿□￠､￠∝ ▼ !!” The being roared with laughter as she spoke words that no human should have been able to pronounce.

The impact of it rocked even the gigantic manor. The vampire maids who had been pierced by the sword withered away into dust.

These demons had devoured corrupt souls, acquired bodies to possess, and were now able to manifest in this world in human form.

I watched in silence.

Oh nooo!

What am I going to do now?! Camilla’s gone now too! She must have run away! Leaving me behind?!

The four beings who now inhabited the bodies of my former attendants knelt before me and bowed their heads. Noir had always acted as their leader, so the one in his body now took up the role to greet me in a distorted voice. “Mistress, it’s so nice to see you again.”

Ah, it really is them.

“I’m so glad to see you all too,” I said. “Have you all been well?”

They were the four demons that the Dark Beast had found for me in the Demon Realm, whom I had then raised and changed in my image.

The thought then struck me once again: This was impossible.

Honestly speaking, their appearances gave them away immediately. Their complexions were a dark and disgusting sight. And the veins under their skin or whatever that was were constantly wriggling. It took a lot of courage just to look them in the eye.

I was pretty sure I knew the reason. They looked just like that monkey demon who’d run away from me after evolving during the demon-summoning incident. Furthermore, since he had only just evolved, he wasn’t able to skillfully use his powers, whereas based on what had just happened, I could tell these kiddies had already mastered them.

Not to mention, this sinister presence? The miasma they were radiating was enough to decompose the stone flooring. And what was more, it reeked something awful! This would not do. There would be pandemonium if I brought them back with me to the human world.

Also, there was something else that worried me.

I hadn’t thought that what little remained of their souls would possibly be enough for payment to sustain them, so when I’d offered up my four attendants, I had experimented with merging them with my demons. This method also fulfilled the pact, since they got to live, so it was two birds with one stone! Kinda. Which was why I’d gone ahead with it.

“Christina, is there still a human soul within you?” Their true selves might have been demons now, but just how much of the four humans still existed within them? When there was no response, I asked again, “Christina?”

The being inhabiting Noir then poked Christina’s body, which helped her finally realize that I had been addressing her.

“My apologies, Mistress. It feels a bit strange to be called the name of my vessel.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Since living in the human world, I had completely forgotten: Demons had no names. To be more accurate, demons couldn’t name one another, because that meant erasing each other’s beings. Also, humans with weak souls were incapable of naming demons who were too powerful. It had taken me time to get used to being called nicknames too, since they weren’t my actual name.

But that statement made it seem like…

“Are you saying that nothing remains of the souls you fused with, then?” Maybe they had been weakened, since the compensation I’d offered hadn’t been enough?

Despite my fears, the one in Christina’s body shook her head. “They do remain, Mistress. I can say for certain that this soul has fused with me and, from gaining its knowledge, it has affected my way of speaking and preferences. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

I had a bad feeling about this. And the demon in Christina’s body confirmed my fears as her face contorted with twisted delight. “The majority of what was left of the soul was comprised of negative emotions toward you, so I couldn’t bear it.”

“And you ate them?”

“Yes,” the four of them all answered at once.

Which I supposed meant that they had eaten everything but stuff like their way of speaking, their preferences, and what knowledge they possessed? Well, how should I put this? I was pleased that they had grown up into such wonderful demons. And also glad that they had managed to obtain vessels and souls that they vibed with.

That being said, if each of them had fused with even a fragment of their respective vessels, then that meant that my pact had been fulfilled in a way. Probably. Though my former attendants had certainly been cheated in this deal.

The important thing here wasn’t the size of the soul, but the fact that they had managed to fuse with them at all, so they didn’t seem to have been weakened. In any case, it was annoying to keep calling them “the demon inside so-and-so’s body.” However, now that they were this strong, no human could give them a name. Whoever gave them a name might end up being tied to them, so we couldn’t ask an elemental or dragon (if they even existed) or someone like that to do it either.

But wait, perhaps I could…?

“You four.”

“Yes!”

“You must remember that my name is Yulucia. And now I shall give you all names.”

I was a demon giving other demons names. However, the four of them merely bowed their heads deeply without a word of protest. Was it because they trusted me just that much? Or were they so loyal to me that they didn’t care if I wound up destroying them?

However, I wasn’t doing this without carefully considering the outcome. I had possessed the body that I had been reborn into and not even holy magic worked on me. While I was still a demon, I was exceedingly close to human and even possessed human qualities.

I was pretty confident that I could do this.

We were demons. Ethereal lifeforms. If I believed that I could do it, and they believed in me as well, then our wish would certainly be granted.

“Your name is Noah.” I named the demon possessing Noir’s body.

“Your name is Nia.” I named the demon in Ninette.

“Your name is Tina.” I named the demon in Christina.

“Your name is Fanny.” I named the demon in Fantine.

I wasn’t sentimental about it or anything, but at the very least, I would use nicknames of those four attendants I had been unable to befriend.

The four demons—I mean people—stayed crouching in silence for a long moment. When they silently stood back up, it was like their entire appearances had changed.

It was safe to say it had been a success. With names now, they were able to contain their sinister auras. Their former selves’ features—reasonably attractive, but still humanly imperfect—gave way to the kind of cold beauty that made them look like exquisitely made dolls.

I was afraid that they had changed too much. Hmm, it was probably because they were more like me now, where their faces were completely symmetrical and they didn’t have any flaws. Nevertheless, it should be safe to call them human now; it seemed that just giving them names had been enough to stabilize them.

However, would the world accept them as the same people as my former attendants?

Eh, whatever.

“Come along. We have some cleaning to do.”

“Yes, Lady Yulucia!” they all responded at once.

The five of us walked outside of the manor.

Now it was time to begin exterminating the vermin that had made their nest in my feeding ground.

Episode 9:
The Feast of Demons

“OH, I NEARLY FORGOT,” I MUMBLED AS WE walked down a corridor in Count Auber’s manor.

“What is it?” Noah asked.

“Do you know how he’s been?”

The demons walking behind me all flinched at the question.

Huh? What’s with that reaction? “Tell me,” I commanded.

The four of them averted their eyes and the three girls took a step back. Noah sighed.

You can do it, boy!

“After you came here, he went on a terrible rampage, completely destroying every demon in the area. The only thing we could do was evacuate.”

“I see.” Was this my fault? It sure sounded like it. But I wanted to come here! So he just had to deal with it!

“Um, I have a different question, Lady Yulucia.”

“Yes, Nia?”

Nia had casually swept aside the topic of what must have been a catastrophe in the Demon Realm. Such behavior made me think she really had meshed well with the former Ninette, since she wasn’t acting all that different from both Ninette and the demon I had known in the Demon Realm.

“What’s wrong?” I prompted.

“Uhhh, could you take a look at this?” Nia held up Ninette’s enchanted sword. It wasn’t shining at all anymore. In fact, it looked all corroded now.

“What happened to it?” I asked.

“All I did was use it. I didn’t do anything to it.” Nia’s expression drooped miserably. Demons didn’t need enchanted swords, but maybe her preferences had been influenced by her vessel. Nia pinched the rusted parts of the blade and…

Snap!

“Whoa,” we said.

It just snapped right off. That thing had been expensive too!

“Lady Yuluciaaa…”

I refused to buy her a new sword even if she begged like that.

“Don’t worry. It’s okay,” Noah said.

“Huh?”

Noah momentarily reminded me of Noir. Except while Noir had been powerless, Noah took the tip of the broken blade and turned to Nia. “Nia, let me borrow the soul you absorbed and the sword.”

“Sure thing, Brother.”

I was reminded then that I had raised these two to be brother and sister and given them the powers to absorb and unleash.

After Nia “connected,” or something like that, to Noah, the boy took out this white-mist-looking thing and ran his fingers over the broken sword. “All fixed,” he said.

I was stunned. That was so fast! And I had no idea what he had done either!

The silver of the allegedly repaired sword turned pitch-black and then I heard…

“Ooh… Oooh…” A resentful wail came from the impressively made demonic blade.

“You’re the best, Brother!” Nia happily took the demonic blade and started swinging it around. The wall crumpled away to debris when the blade struck it.

That’s dangerous! Stop that!

“Speaking of mending things, our clothes are not the least bit suitable for being our mistress’s attendants,” Tina said as she pinched the weathered maid outfit and made a face.

Noir looked down at his tattered butler’s uniform. “That’s a good point. Can you do something about our clothes, Tina?”

“Yes, of course. Fanny, would you help me?”

“Sure thing!” Fanny beamed as she raised her hand. She was covered in the debris of the walls—and possibly human bones?

Tina plucked out strands of hair from her platinum blonde ringlets and Fanny plucked out strands of her own silver (bordering on pure white) hair. They channeled their magic into the strands and, in the blink of an eye, their clothes were suddenly good as new!

Just kidding. The hair changed into uniforms with black cloth and silver embroidery. Of course, Nia’s surcoat was pure black too.

“Look here, my lady. This silver thread was my hair!” Fanny told me proudly.

“My, how pretty it turned out.”

Once the work was done, Fanny hugged me from behind and nuzzled her cheek against mine. If Fanny’s hair was the silver thread, then what had happened to Tina’s blonde hair?

“It’s because Tina is dark to her core.” It was like Fanny had read my mind.

“Fanny?!” Tina made a face like she had been betrayed.

Fanny was no different in nature, if you asked me.

Though Noah, Nia, Tina, and Fanny looked the same, they were completely different. My four human attendants hadn’t been so reverent toward me, nor had they ever felt all that close to me. Right now, however, we had what Father had wished for me and what I had tried so hard to achieve with them: They were friendly yet respectful toward me as my attendants who were close to me in age, and we had mutual trust for each other.

That would have been impossible with those four!

“Say, my lady, have you noticed that strange smell in this manor?” Fanny asked as she sniffed the air. She was still clinging to me.

“Yeah. Can you tell who it is and where they are?”

“Mm-hmm. That lady is in the chapel? There are a lot of them outside. There are two more and a lot of others below.”

“Hmm.”

So Camilla’s gone to the chapel. Count Auber and Mylene must be underground, then. Hmm, where shall we start with?

As I was thinking that, Tina stopped looking at Fanny with envy and, in a flutter of skirts, stepped in front of us.

“Then you should leave the ones outside to me, Mistress.” Although Tina was as competent as Christina, she was a lot more proactive about taking the initiative.

I gave a puzzled look at her proposal. “Will you be able to manage them by yourself?”

Since she was nuzzling my cheek, Fanny inclined her head with mine, which caused Tina to bitterly bite down on a handkerchief.

“Yes, of course! Mistress! I shall have the trash taken out in no time!” With every word, Tina came closer with a fiery look in her eyes.

Uh, while I did want us to be on familiar terms, I didn’t want our relationship to be close enough that our lips might actually touch.

“Oookay, Tina. That’s close enough,” Nia said with a nonchalant smile on her face. The tip of her demonic sword was pointed at Tina, whose face had come awfully close to mine.

“Tch!” Tina clicked her tongue as she backed away.

“Anyway, there seems to be an awful lot of them outside. Fanny, could you help her out?”

“Sure!” Fanny said in a childlike way as she nuzzled my cheeks.

Tina was dumbfounded. “Why am I the only one being treated this way?!”

Because you were breathing so heavily through your nose as you approached me. Regardless, I felt sorry for Tina, so I patted her on the head. It was enough to instantly placate her, and so she headed outside.

What had happened to the cool beauty she was supposed to be?

Anyway, it was time for the rest of us to go see Mylene.

***

Alone, Tina left her beloved mistress’s side to head toward the chapel in the night.

She knew that she wasn’t normal. She had been born a weak demon who had been granted knowledge of another world by the Golden Beast—Yulucia—and changed by her. Tina had no complaints in that regard. Quite the opposite, in fact, since she had always faithfully adored her un-demon-like and carefree mistress.

However, after being allowed to serve her again, given a new sacrifice to make her stronger, and recklessly given a name, she had completely merged with the final emotions of that weakened soul, and now Tina had started to feel something for Yulucia other than reverence.

She ruminated on what this feeling could be as she arrived at the chapel. Then a dark emotion she had never felt before took root inside of her as she sensed the countess’s presence.

Tina knew that it must be the girl’s soul’s reaction to what the countess had done to her, yet despite the unhappy feelings, she felt no discomfort.

Because they were entirely her own feelings.

A little while earlier…

“How could this be?!” Camilla raced as fast as she could through the empty corridors, having completely discarded the gracefulness of a noblewoman.

She was sure that they had stationed several maids inside the manor, but since she didn’t see any of them now, she assumed that that Saint—Yulucia—must have defeated them all.

But that didn’t matter. Camilla’s panic wasn’t due to anything so trivial.

“I can’t believe it!”

She doubted that anyone would possibly believe her that the girl she had looked down upon for being a weak human—the pure maiden extolled as the Saint—had commenced a ritual for summoning demons right there on the spot!

And they hadn’t been ordinary demons either.

It was said to be close to impossible to pick what kinds of demons one summoned. Likely, since she had found herself in trouble, Yulucia had used powerful magic to forcibly wrench open a summoning gate to achieve the unthinkable.

Camilla had been alive for two hundred years now and she knew of these demons—she’d recognized them the moment they turned their dark gazes on her. At that moment, she used the maids as shields to flee with no regard to how it made her look. The way the very ground under the manor shook with their inhuman roars of laughter dashed away any shred of doubt Camilla had about who they were.

They were high-ranking demons, equally matched with arch elementals, capable of causing earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, volcanic eruptions—natural disasters of the kind that could shock an entire nation. They were the enemies of all living creatures, great and small. It was said that when they materialized in the world, they would give off sinister auras and be dressed as nobles.

“Arch demons.”

One alone was enough to be classified as Calamity Rank in the national crisis levels. The fact that there were four of them was no laughing matter. If they had acquired bodies with which to materialize in the world, then they would not only be beyond that rank, but capable of devastating the entirety of the Holy Kingdom and the surrounding countries as well.

The arch demon who had been summoned in the past was a black beast who’d destroyed a country. Humans had been unable to defeat it, and it hadn’t been able to acquire a vessel either, so the humans had been forced to just wait it out until it had run out of magic and disappeared.

It was unthinkable that a human would be capable of having enough magic to summon four similar demons. Surely depleting herself of that much magic must have killed the Saint too. Even if she had survived, the demons would only end up killing her out of desire for a sacrifice.

Count Auber ranked lower on the Calamity scale, so while the three vampires fighting together might manage to defeat one of those demons,, Camilla knew they had no choice but to run. Besides, Camilla didn’t want to fight with them. Nor did she bother warning her allies of over a hundred years—she quickly decided to abandon them.

This wasn’t the first time she had abandoned an ally.

Camilla had been turned into a vampire after Count Auber had sucked her blood, but Mylene had once had another ally: the three-hundred-year-old vampire who had turned her. He had died at the hands of the knightly orders of Telthed when Count Auber and Camilla left him behind and ran, leaving their lycanthrope minions to deal with the rest. Mylene had lost consciousness at the time, but she’d managed to pursue them. Since the daemons who worked in secret in Telthed had intervened, Mylene ostensibly accepted the Count and Countess’s explanation, yet still harbored a grudge against them.

This time was no different. Camilla had decided to abandon them and run. However…

“I need to recover some of them.”

Even if she managed to escape from the Holy Kingdom, she couldn’t walk under the sun. Camilla needed minions who could.

Camilla excelled at using Charm, which was dark magic, so it had been her job to keep the lycanthropes under the vampires’ control. It was sometimes a troublesome task, but right now, it was a godsend. There were still the thirty lycanthropes and thirty vampire maids Camilla had gathered in the chapel. Maybe she couldn’t get them all out, but she could take half of them with her if they used all of the coaches in the manor. She assumed that would be enough to get off this continent without much issue.

Camilla had faith that her dependable allies would keep the arch demons at bay until she could escape.

Creeeak…

Camilla gasped in surprise as she whirled around. She was in the chapel now and had started preparing to retreat when the door opened. The person she saw left her stunned.

“No…!”

Azure eyes tinged with deep indigo.

Golden ringlets that reached down her back.

A dress of such a deep black that it matched the shadows, covered in an apron of white and silver—a maid’s outfit of the finest quality.

Camilla was sure it was the same small maid whom she had tormented, whose sweet blood she had drunk—who, in the next instant, had terrified Camilla as she was possessed by a demon and turned into a monster. Yet the impression the girl gave off now was completely different.

The dull golden hair was now a platinum blonde. Her ringlets shone with such hard luster, they looked capable of gouging out the very earth. The girl had had such a cute face before, but now there something inhuman about it. She looked completely different now and, coupled with the azure of her eyes, she looked like such a coolheaded beauty that she resembled a doll chiseled out of ice. A shiver ran down Camilla’s spine at the sight of her.

The girl looked like a human. But could such a repulsive human actually exist? Since she was a vampire who lived in the shadows, Camilla had sharp senses. However, low-ranking vampires whose senses weren’t much better than a normal human’s wouldn’t have been able to perceive such repulsiveness.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The vampire maids who had been lurking in the shadows and the ceiling of the spacious chapel all pounced at once toward their pretty, young prey.

The girl’s expression didn’t change as she silently stepped forth. She crossed her hands at her waist and didn’t seem perturbed at all. And then her eyes turned red on her cold, young, yet beautiful face.

Skreeeee…

Some kind of creaking sound echoed through the chapel. The vampire maids all stopped and collapsed or rained down from the ceiling. Like a hymn being sung, they all turned to stone and smashed into pieces on the chapel floor.

Camilla let out a strangled cry at this unbelievable spectacle. She was completely at a loss for words. The remaining maids and lycanthropes who served her were frozen in place as they broke out in a cold sweat.

The natural enemy of all living things.

This was an arch demon.

Camilla had sensed that such demons had emerged back at the torture chamber. However, this girl no longer radiated the sinister aura she’d had back there and now looked like any other person. Yet Camilla could sense just how different they were in terms of power.

Camilla had lived up until now as one of the strong. She was unable to face the cruelty of reality and complained without thinking, “Why? How can there be such monsters here? How could such a…such a stupid brat summon something as nonsensical as—”

And then…

The entire chapel went dark. Several vampire maids were unable to resist the rage that erupted forth, and they turned to ash and crumbled away.

All fell silent except for the deeply reproachful voice that pierced this space of whirling anger. “How dare you… You are nothing but an insignificant mosquito. How dare you insult our creator, our loving mother, and mistress who was our sun in the Demon Realm! You shall learn your place!!!”

Her voice was like a curse that came from the depths of the earth. When the girl finally realized that it had been Camilla who had disrespected her mistress, her lips curved in a smile that did not reach her eyes.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Countess. I’m so happy to get this opportunity to see you again.” As she spoke, the girl pinched the hem of her maid’s dress and gave a fine curtsy.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaah!” Realizing her life was in danger, Camilla took one last chance to save her life, unleashing all of her magic and the power of her entire being to warp her body into that of an enlarged beast to attack the girl. The vampire maids and shape-shifted lycanthropes who were under her compulsion all simultaneously attacked too.

She was up against a Calamity-Rank being. Camilla herself was only lower Disaster Rank, but if she mustered all her life force and fought with everyone else she had here, she might have a chance at defeating the demon.

However…

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The screams of her death throes echoed through the chapel.

Golden whips burst out of the stone floor of the chapel to pierce, slash, and rend the girl’s attackers. As blood and countless corpse parts splattered everywhere around them, the girl cupped Camilla’s face between her hands and looked her dead in the eye.

“Ooh. I knew there were different kinds of vampires, but I see that you’re the red-eyed type.”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

As the girl held Camilla’s face with her tiny, yet viselike hands, Camilla raked out with her claws, but couldn’t leave a single scratch on the girl’s body. Not even on her uniform.

“I’m so jealous and envious of you. Ooh! I’ve always wanted to have a golden body and red eyes just like my mistress!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The girl’s azure eyes were so full of malice, and the whites of her eyes shone red. As Camila felt her body turning into stone, she screamed from her very soul.

The ringlets of the girl’s platinum blonde hair transformed into countless snakes, covering the floor, the walls, the ceiling, leaving no space untouched as they then proceeded to strangle everyone to death.

“My name is Tina. My mistress created me in the image of a gorgon. Can you still hear me? Hee hee hee… Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! ､￠□∮燿､‡…”

It wasn’t even a battle anymore—it was the strong mercilessly trampling over the weak.

Surrounded by blood, corpses, and snakes, Camilla turned to stone, her face contorted with despair. Tina tore off the vampire’s head and lifted it up, laughing loudly as if she were offering it up to the sun goddess of the Demon Realm.

Everything she did was for her beloved mother.

Everything she did was for her beloved mistress.

Everything she did was for her dearest Yulucia.

Having merged with the weak soul and eaten it up, the new emotions that had budded within Tina were stirring.

“Ooh, I love Yulucia so much that I abhor her. How I yearn to devour her.”

She meant that in more ways than one.

***

“Hey, I have something to tell you all!”

Something strange was happening in the gloomy forest. The trouble had started out of nowhere, when a silver-haired girl appeared in front of a bunch of vampires.

Not every vampire’s victim actually turned into a vampire. While the majority died after having their souls sucked out through their blood, those with strong life forces, wills, or souls who managed to survive having their blood drained would then go on to become vampires themselves.

There was a hierarchy among the vampires, though. Those with noble blood, strong abilities, or beautiful looks were granted important positions by the masters who had turned them and were permitted to serve them directly. These lower-ranking vampires in the forest, however, were merely villagers of the Holy Kingdom who had been attacked and turned into vampires to be brought along to serve. They had no skill in combat, no special abilities their master could make use of, and average appearances. The only thing they had going for them was their physical strength. They had not been allowed to join the feast of blood and instead were ordered to surround the perimeter of the manor so that their prey wouldn’t escape.

At the count’s summoning, about a hundred of them had headed back to the manor, while the other three hundred had remained at their stations.

“Lady Yulucia gave me a name!” The girl laughed happily as she stood before the vampires.

What in the world was this girl who had just appeared out of nowhere in the center of them? She looked to be a young girl dressed in an expensive maid’s outfit. Was she tonight’s feast’s guest? Or was she related to them?

She was so young—more like a little girl. Still, the fact that she was here meant that she must be of good lineage and, despite her young age, her physical appearance attracted their notice.

Her silver, bordering on white, hair seemed to sparkle here in the dark forest. Her pretty smile promised a blessed future. Her skin was pale, but she had a healthy complexion, like the finest quality of fruit. As these lesser vampires gazed at her skin, they started salivating despite themselves as they imagined the sweet blood hidden beneath.

Their masters would surely punish them if they went and tasted the blood of a guest without permission. If they were unlucky, their masters might even kill them. Even with that in mind, their thirst for the girl whose blood was giving off such a sweet scent was immediately too strong to resist. The vampires all shakily reached out toward the girl.

It was her fault for coming here.

If she had never come, then she wouldn’t have been attacked.

Their great masters were probably aware that their guest was missing.

That must mean that this small prey was a treat meant for them.

A vampire’s rank affected their ability to reason. On top of that, the majority of them had been uneducated to begin with. They had been simple villagers who relied on their faith, and succumbing to darkness like this had changed their values. They had once scorned guilty pleasures, but now they delighted in exposing their fangs.

However, they were still ignorant of how this girl had managed to get here without any of them noticing.

“Ha ha ha!” The vampires stretched their hands out toward her, so the girl giggled as she started running around them like a child trying to get adults to play.

None of them could manage to catch her. They listened to her laughter and watched as she giddily ran about. Gradually, more joined the chase until it was every single one of them chasing after her—three hundred vampires chasing after a single child.

She didn’t stop. They couldn’t catch her. They couldn’t even touch her. Those who did manage to grab her disappeared into mist, starting from their hands.

It was like they were in a dream.

Under the sun they had once lived under, the vampires chased the laughing girl through a field of flowers. Petals whirled about wondrously and no one thought it strange that the girl was now floating in the air. They didn’t even worry about how her hair had changed to white crystal or that her eyes were dyed white and the right half of her face was covered by a clown mask that had a metallic gleam to it.

And then…

“It’s my tuuurn!”

The vampires heard her whisper in their ears, and though there was only one of her, she now appeared in front of every single one of them.

The smiling girl held a small knife in her hand, which she used to slash each vampire in the chest. They screamed in intense pain. It felt like the kind of pain they had experienced as humans. They reflexively tried to hit her, but they couldn’t move at all.

They couldn’t move.

Their screams were soundless. The girl used the knife to ineptly rip off their skins, flay their flesh, tear out their nerves, and remove their organs. She slashed until they were naught but bones. All the while, the vampires continued to be racked with pain and fear as they screamed silently.

However…

“It’s my tuuurn!”

In the blink of an eye, they were back to normal. Their bodies were intact and they were wearing clothes. Yet they still could not move.

The small knife carved into their chests again. As she gave the signal, three hundred vampires were all simultaneously dismembered and felt a repulsive degree of pain and terror.

And then…

“It’s my tuuurn!”

The horror began for a third time.

The vampires shrieked and wailed for forgiveness. One had even soiled themself. They prayed for salvation to the gods they had ridiculed after being turned into vampires.

One of them had killed his wife after he lost his senses, simply for the thrill of it. One woman had laughed as she drained the blood of her children. They had howled like beasts as they reveled in killing their neighbors, drinking the blood of those they had once loved, tearing their bodies apart, and bathing in their blood.

This was their sin. They had committed acts unspeakable. Despite becoming vampires, they hadn’t forgotten their morals. They’d known they were being sinful as they killed for pleasure.

They prayed to the gods to save them. They desperately prayed out of their heartbreaking despair. They prayed to be killed, promising that they would apologize for everything they had done.

“It’s my tuuurn!”

“Well, my name is Fanny, and I was made in the image of nightmares! My beloved Lady Yulucia bestowed this name to me, so it’s a very special name. Hey, are you listening?”

Fanny shook the male vampire, but he only stared at the ground where he stood. He showed no sign of responding at all.

“Are we all done playing?”

Only ten seconds had passed since Fanny had appeared.

She looked around to find the three hundred vampires in the forest rooted to the spot like a grove of flesh. They had no external wounds, yet they weren’t dead either. However, their spirits had been pulverized by tens of thousands of nightmares, killing their hearts.

“Okay, then. Onto the next job!” Fanny said as she started gathering the wretched souls of all three hundred vampires. The souls of vampires were weak by nature, and she had gone and battered them all the more. Still, this many of them made for a decent amount. Moreover…

“I promise I’ll keep the terms of our ‘pacts’ and offer you up to my goddess, so don’t worry.”

In their endless agony and despair, the vampires had prayed to the gods to save them. They’d offered their entire being in exchange. As for who this goddess was, though…

“But our goddess is Lady Yulucia.”

Yulucia had saved the four little demons and affectionately raised them. She was like the goddess of the Demon Realm to them.

Fanny eagerly worked to gather their souls for her. She didn’t like working, but doing anything for Yulucia was a pleasure.

In that dark, lonely, scary, and frigid Demon Realm, Yulucia alone had been as warm as the sun. They had spent days in search of small prey and lived in fear that they would become the hunted someday. Fanny still clearly remembered the time when she had been so weak and small, and had felt her mistress’s warmth for the very first time.

Fanny thought herself to be a prideful demon. It was because she had once been the weakest of the four, incapable of doing anything, that she now threw off all self-restraint and prioritized having fun over everything else. She had chosen this soul to merge with because she had felt a similar sense of pride from it. However, the soul had no core. Fanny had figured that she didn’t need the part of the soul that sought pleasure just for pleasure’s sake, despite never knowing the root of that desire. Since she couldn’t understand the soul and it hated Yulucia, she had eaten its hollowed source.

Nevertheless, the pride that she had left had taken form in Fanny as the belief that the world belonged to her, just as the soul had once felt.

She felt no discomfort from the emotion. It was perfectly normal to her.

After all…

“My ‘world’ wholly exists to serve Lady Yulucia!”

Episode 10:
The Devil…

“OH, ARE YOU DONE RUNNING AROUND EVERYWHERE now?”

As Noah, Nia, and I descended the long stairs together, we found Mylene waiting for us with her beautiful butlers and maids in a corner of an enormous limestone cavern. It was cold and dark. That probably made it a good place for the vampires to sleep.

“Here I thought you would come chasing after me in rage, but have you given up on that yourself?” I calmly put a hand to my cheek and tilted my head to the side.

A vein bulged on Mylene’s temple in her graceful agitation. “My, you seem awfully relaxed despite the situation. When hunting someone of high personage, you can just rouse your prey from their cover and apologize after. Or perhaps you didn’t know this even though you’re a princess?”

So the reason there were so many stationed outside was to prevent me from escaping.

“Oh, my most sincere apologies. I cannot allow you to do something so uncivilized. After all, I am a city girl,” I replied.

The two of us started giggling together. For some reason, one of the vampire maids swayed as if she were feeling dizzy. Was she suffering from anemia? She probably wasn’t getting enough blood.

“You’ve finally arrived.” A middle-aged vampire appeared from the depths of the cavern. It was Count Auber, though the real count had probably been served as a meal long ago.

“You look so pale, my lord. Have you been having trouble sleeping?” I teased.

“How is this mischief-making girl still alive?” He gave a thin smile as he noticed I had fewer attendants with me. “I see your numbers have decreased. Did you get attacked on your way here?” He seemed like the chatty type, but evidently he and the countess hadn’t shared any information with each other.

I knew, however, that the real reason he was talking so much was to cover up his moment of letting a suspicious look slip. Although we were hiding our demonic presences, he sensed there was something different about Noah and Nia, and was slightly on guard now. I wouldn’t expect anything less from such an old vampire. However, I supposed that appearances didn’t exactly correlate to how old a vampire was. That seemed to be the case for Mylene as well, who looked like she was only eleven years old and… Uh-oh, she’s glaring at me.

I gave a troubled sigh. “I sent my other two attendants to give my regards to your wife in the chapel, since it seemed like she was on her way out. Do you know where she might be planning to go?”

Count Auber’s eyes glazed over. Mylene frowned and glared up at the ceiling.

“That said, I am starting to tire of my time here, so I came to say my goodbyes before I left.”

“Ha ha ha! I had heard that the Holy Kingdom’s princess was so graceful and full of love that she wouldn’t even harm a fly, but it turns out that she’s quite the tomboy instead.” Count Auber laughed at me as he bared his fangs. “Do you really think you’re going to be allowed to leave here?”

Hundreds of vampires stepped out of the shadows of the cavern. Wait, it wasn’t just vampires. Judging from the color of their skin, half of them were actually ghouls. There was too many of them to have hidden in the shadows. Perhaps it was the work of shadow magic? Or a kind of dark magic?

At any rate, it was certainly the right time for a vampire’s minions to make their appearance. They sure reeked, though. Count Auber must have come down here to get all of these guys out.

Count Auber had a hundred vampires and a hundred ghouls. Mylene had fifty pretty vampires. The air was tense with bloodlust.

However.

“Lady Yulucia, may I have your permission to exterminate them?” Noah’s calm voice broke the silence that had settled in the cavern.

“Me too, please!”

Nia too? Here I’d thought she’d find it a bother and prioritize wanting to go home. Perhaps the two of them just couldn’t bear the disrespect these vampires continued to show me any longer.

Guess I have no choice.

“You have my permission, Noah, Nia. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” the twins happily replied in unison as they stepped before me.

I figured they’d be all right if they could still wield the power they’d demonstrated before. If things got bad, I knew I could just get them all in one sweep of my megaton punch, but I quickly realized that would be unnecessary.

“Release.”

***

Roar!!!

Nia connected her power with Noah’s. Noah then let out this black breath like a dragon’s that mowed down all of the ghouls and vampires.

“What was that?!” Mylene cried out, having been fortunate enough to barely dodge the breath with her minions. She took a defensive posture just as an almost repulsive miasma ran through her body.

“Stand down, Mylene!” Count Auber had managed to avoid the attack by using his minions as a shield, yet he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Yulucia’s two attendants couldn’t be even ten years old, yet here they were transforming into something inhuman. The skin of the boy named Noah was turning bluish-black. The whites of his eyes turned black and their pupils turned white. There was a wicked smile across his face as the crooked horns of a goat sprouted from his head.

The vampires struck by the ominous miasma turned to ash. The ghouls rotted to death.

“Ha ha!” And in this chaos, Nia’s body changed the same way her brother’s had as she singlehandedly cut her way into the center of the hordes of ghouls and vampires. The only difference was that she sprouted the black twisted horns of a sheep as she swung her demonic sword. The single blow sliced dozens of ghouls into pieces, absorbing their evil lives and souls altogether, and they disintegrated into dust.

They looked like the kinds of demons that people should rightly be afraid of. Their noble visages left Count Auber wide-eyed in astonishment.

“Arch demons?!”

Noah had been born in the bottom layer of the Demon Realm. The bottommost layer wasn’t the deepest part of it, but rather where the weakest demons were born. Thus, Noah had been in a position where he could’ve been preyed upon by anyone.

Nia had been born there too, and the reason they hadn’t tried to eat one another was because they were the same color—and possibly out of loneliness too.

Demons weren’t supposed to feel emotions like loneliness, yet the Demon Realm was so cruel that it did give rise to such emotions, and Noah and Nia were weak. It was because of these emotions—or perhaps just how unusual they were—that the two of them had been captured by a mighty being and then introduced to another being. One might even call it destiny.

The Golden Beast—Yulucia. At the time, she had been rather powerful herself. They’d thought she was just going to eat them, but instead she had lovingly raised them, though that might have just been for fun.

And then that feeling of wanting everything had taken root and begun to grow. They wanted everything so that they could offer it up to their creator, to whom they owed everything.

That was Noah’s one and only desire as a greedy demon.

This was why he understood the Dark Beast’s feelings of wanting all of her. Yet despite knowing that, he had betrayed the Dark Beast after the Golden Beast left for the sake of his beloved mistress.

He was sure his sister Nia felt the same. Nia could be careless at times, but she wasn’t stupid. She always kept an eye out for threats against their mistress and friends. She wanted to protect. No demon felt this kind of emotion. After being raised by Yulucia and knowing other people for the first time, Nia wanted to protect her beloved mother’s entire being.

She was a slothful demon, but laziness and slothfulness were two separate things. She was not slothful because she didn’t want to do anything. Nia’s sloth was the kind intended for her mistress who had seemed so lonely back in the Demon Realm, born from her desire to live an untroubled life with everyone.

And it was for these reasons that the two of them sought power.

This must’ve been the reason Yulucia had given them these powers too.

Nia was a succubus who had the power to absorb so that she could be a shield to protect everything.

Noah was an incubus who had the power to release so that he could be the spear that vanquished everything.

However…

Having been the one to give them these “stats,” Yulucia didn’t want their powers to simply be of the adult variety, so she had given them this sort of power instead. The two of them were completely ignorant of this as they gleefully called forth their demonic powers to use for the sake of peace for their beloved Yulucia.

After having Yulucia tinker with their powers and grant them as she pleased, their power was now that of evolved arch demons.

“Damn it,” Count Auber swore at the hopeless scene.

The fact that these two arch demons were in the guise of the Saint’s attendants meant that they had obtained vessels for manifesting in this world. Once these two were unleashed, the Holy Kingdom would be finished. So why were such dreadful beings serving Yulucia, the Saint?

Judging from the fact that she had given the two of them names, they must have still been greater demons at the time of their summoning. She must’ve used her powerful saintly magic to name them as the compensation for their pact.

Yet that wasn’t absolute. While the person who named a demon would be deemed special in their eyes, the demon wasn’t obligated to be subservient to them. An even greater price would have to be paid to make such a pact.

Don’t tell me she promised them her saintly soul?!

The soul of a pure maiden would certainly be sufficient. Yet what would drive Yulucia, the Saint and also a princess who wanted for nothing, to offer up her pure soul to strike a pact with a demon? Had she foreseen his family’s arrival and known that they were Calamity-Rank and Disaster-Rank vampires? Perhaps since she currently did not have the Hero at her side, she believed she had no chance of winning and had decided to sacrifice herself without telling anyone?

Though but a child, she had the heart of a martyr. She truly was the Saint of the Holy Kingdom.

They knew, though. Although Mylene had tried to break this deadlock by defeating the Saint, Yulucia was not someone who could be defeated so easily. After all, were the Hero here with her, the two of them would have been enough to defeat vampires.

Count Auber had believed that these two of legend would never appear again, which was why he had chosen to hide in this land. And yet, the strongest Saint in all of history existed in this era. In the presence of this shining girl, even Count Auber, who had not been human for four hundred years and had even forgotten his true name, felt like his heart was being cleansed.

But it was too late.

Even if they managed to defeat Yulucia, the arch demons would be released from the spell that bound them, and they would kill Mylene before going on to bring the entire Holy Kingdom to ruin.

Mylene was extraordinarily talented. When she had initially been turned into a vampire by their former ally, she had been an unsightly girl. But thanks to Camilla cultivating her, she had become surprisingly beautiful—a demon among vampires. And thanks to her proficiency with controlling her own flesh, she could change her appearance from that of a young girl to that of an adult woman, which made her very useful when she needed to replace someone.

However, after Count Auber and Camilla had abandoned their ally, she had cheekily started to rebel.

As a four-hundred-year-old vampire, Count Auber couldn’t die in a place like this.

He had become a vampire to gain the wisdom of this world. He had read literature from every land, and even gained a fragment of the knowledge of other worlds that the great demon summoned in the past had left behind.

He couldn’t die. He must acquire more knowledge so that he could meet a certain person.

Just as vampires had ranks, so too did demons. In the legends told since time immemorial, only demons of a high rank could evolve into arch demons and reach the sphere of godhood. Three beings had been recorded in the knowledge of the other worlds as having attained godhood:

The first was the great god of the Demon Realm, the Demon Lord.

The second was the great beast of the Demon Realm, the Beast.

And the third was…

A demon who had devoured countless humans over tens of thousands of years and acquired an understanding of human hearts.

Their exceptional beauty was such that people couldn’t believe they were human, and thus they were able to captivate the hearts of those who beheld them. They could enthrall anyone with their presence alone and, for a long time, had delighted in giving humans knowledge of the other worlds for fun, just to see the kind of chaos it would cause.

Even in the eternal Demon Realm, only one of their species had ever existed.

The Devil.

Count Auber needed intelligence so that he could have a chance to meet this demon who possessed knowledge of the other worlds, even if it took him hundreds of years. Even if it cost him his soul.

And so, he could not die. He had to keep on living, even if it meant abandoning his allies like at the battle in Telthed.

He spared one last look for Mylene and the holy maiden she was facing off against. The Saint—Yulucia—looked at Count Auber and grinned so sweetly, it was almost repulsive.

The Devil could enthrall anyone with their presence alone.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Captivated by the girl’s smile, Count Auber had slowed down a little bit. That was when Nia the arch demon materialized and used her demonic sword to slice Count Auber in two from the top of his head.

***

“Oh my.”

I had given Count Auber an insincere smile to try to get him to stop when he’d tried to run away, but Nia suddenly came out of nowhere and chopped him right in half.

Had that been my fault?

Sweet Mylene glanced at him too and made a face that was a mixture of sadness and anger. However, she quickly shook the emotion as she turned back to me to glare. “Enough of this. Don’t run; fight me!”

“Oh, but…”

I had made a terrible discovery: I had no grudge against Mylene whatsoever! Admittedly, I had just intended to take her out kinda as a pest-control measure? I felt the only one I did begrudge was the count. What should I do, then?

Based on the turn of events, I was going to end up facing off against little Mylene, but I had yet to use my magic or true power against her. At present, little Mylene’s attacks couldn’t even touch me thanks to my magic pressure.

Oh, well.

“All right. I’ll take you on for real.”

“Then come at me.” Mylene grew black claws and warped the muscles of her entire body as she tapped the physical strength of a vampire. But surely Mylene was going to realize soon that I wasn’t a human. And I especially wasn’t the Saint.

Very well, then. I’ll face off against you.

Offer unto me your despair.

Mylene instinctively leapt back.

I raked into her face with nails of deep crimson, and as I caught up with her at great speed, I threw stalactites at her.

The color of my eyes had changed. The whites had corroded into black, my pupils dyed the crimson of fresh blood. As I laughed, I bared my fangs that gleamed like rose quartz, all the while continuing to hurl stalactites at her in the darkness of the vast cavern.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” The stalactite shattered and Mylene let out a scream as she flew back about a hundred meters. Black wings sprouted from her back and she stopped in the sky.

Was it blood? Or a shadow?

“You’re a demon!”

“Yes, that’s right,” I whispered in her ear as I flapped my golden wings that each spanned five meters across.

“How are you so fast?!”

“You’re just slow.”

Mylene’s face contorted with confusion. The sweet fragrance of fear from her brought a smile to my face.

She reflexively brandished her hand to strike at me, but I managed to dodge it by circling behind her. There was a golden blur as the bat claws on my wings grabbed Mylene’s legs and flung her into the ground.

Booom!

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Mylene screamed as she was pierced by a stalagmite and crushed into the very dust of the cavern floor.

Several shadows leapt out toward her then.

“Lady Mylene!”

“We’ll help you!”

The butlers and vampire maids who had been spellbound by my miasma now rushed to Mylene’s side. They dug her out of the ground and surrounded her protectively.

“You…must…run…”

“No!”

“We shall not leave your side, my lady!”

“But…why…?”

Despite their fear of me, still floating in the air, Mylene’s minions desperately tried to protect her. She was starting to heal as she opened her eyes wide.

“Because you created us!”

“And that fact has not robbed us of our own desires!”

“It is our wish to serve you, Lady Mylene!”

“Truly…?” Mylene continued to recover, and despite how wobbly she was, she managed to get their help to stand again. The despair and impatience had gone from her eyes. Now instead she felt a faint hope and love for those who had protected her.

This isn’t over yet.

No, wait, I’m not a bad guy! Though I am a demon!

Because of how her servants had forced themselves to move despite my binding spell—aka my petrifying aura—all of them had half crumbled away! I was pretty sure that if I flared out with my aura again—which I was currently holding back—they would just turn to ash.

What in the world should I do now?! I was the demon who’d been the best at reading situations back in the Demon Realm! Now I had to actually think about what my next move would be!

Arrrrrgh! Dang it!

There was nothing else for it.

Pat.

I was suddenly behind Mylene. When I tapped her shoulder, Mylene and all the pretty vampires bent back in surprise.

“It’s a bit cramped in here. How about we go outside for a little chat?”

“Huh?!” Mylene uttered inanely as I grabbed her wrist and started flying toward the ceiling with her.

“Hand, Pierce.” I infused my fist with magic by speaking Empyreal and punched right through the bedrock that was probably dozens of meters thick.

Kabooooooooooooom!

With a thunderous crash and tremors that must have shaken the entirety of Count Auber’s lands, I punched a shaft to the surface about the size of a water well. I ascended up through it with Mylene.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” Mylene screamed like a maiden. “Ow! Wait! Stop! Ow! That hurts!”

Bam, wham, bam, thwak, bam.

I heard something hitting the newly made rough rock face.

But I had decided that day that I would have no regrets!

Pop!

“Oh, right, this was supposed to be a ‘moonlit’ tea party.”

The Moonlit Tea Party was always held on nights with a pretty moon. We flew up about a thousand feet in the air. Mylene managed to shake herself free and sprouted her black wings again. She flew right in front of me and…

“Eek!” Mylene gasped as she was surrounded by my adorable demons, who were showing their true natures still. She was sweating hard and her eyes darted all over, unsure of where to look. She was surprisingly versatile for a vampire.

I silently snapped my fingers and the four of them relaxed their auras. Mylene was finally able to breathe again. She bit her bottom lip as she shot me a reproachful look.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Don’t cry.”

“Don’t cry?!”

She was admittedly kind of cute.

“Mylene, I want you to be my minion.”

“Wh—” Mylene was speechless, the look on her face unbecoming for someone as pretty as her.

“If you don’t want to, then…”

“What will you do to me?”

“How about we be friends instead?”

“What?” Mylene gaped at me as I suddenly lowered the bar.

Well, I didn’t really care what we called our relationship.

“What do you think of my offer, Lady Mylene?” Still in my demonic form, I placed a hand on my cheek like a proper lady and tilted my head to the side inquisitively.

Mylene let out an exaggerated breath. “Let us be friends then, Lady Yulucia.”

“Thank you.” With that, I had succeeded in securing manpower.

“Not that any of this matters anymore, Count Auber being who he was too…” Mylene murmured in resignation. Her dress was in tatters. She then suddenly looked up and turned her face to the side. “Not that I care! I’m only mad about how humans despise us!”

“I understand.”

I sure knew a lot of tsunderes.

The vampires had been drawn here to manage the underside of society here in the Holy Kingdom where the simpleminded citizens were treated as food. This was so they could manage the livestock that no one would notice had gone missing. And so, the series of missing persons cases was left unsolved and the impending vampire threat ended before anyone in the Holy Kingdom had even realized it. I saw it as a very good thing for me too; I now had someone to manage the underworld of the Holy Kingdom.

But I couldn’t tell her.

I could never tell her that I had simply used the lives of Mylene and the other vampires to educate my attendants.

Episode 11:
I Am a Student Now… And Then…

THINGS WERE A BIT OF A MESS AFTER THAT.

After the earthquake that was localized just to the heart of Count Auber’s lands for some reason, the citizens had all rushed for safety into the chapel. We scolded Tina for making such a mess of the building. The demons and vampires worked together to clean up the debris, and then they passed out warm cups of tea to the frightened people. They sure all took their jobs seriously. They also took the opportunity to claim that Count Auber and his lady wife had died in the earthquake.

While we were dealing with that, morning had come, so we ignored Mylene’s insistence that we help more (since the vampires had to go to sleep) and went home.

I had been the fastest in the Demon Realm, so I yanked my attendants along by the scruffs of their necks and flew as fast as I could. I just knew I’d be in for a long scolding if I was caught coming home after being out all night without telling anyone!

I just barely managed to make it home before everyone woke up. Yet for some reason, Vio was there to greet us, looking quite imposing with a wonderful smile on her face. My attendants and I were all subjected to a long lecture until it was time for breakfast.

By the by, people reported seeing an unidentified flying object that cast golden light shooting through the sky that day, and they were all busy discussing whether it was a good omen or a bad one.

“Lady Yulucia.”

“Yes?”

My attendants knelt before me and Vio in perfect order. No longer did they wear slovenly looks on their faces. They were the image of what a princess’s attendants should be: calm and graceful.

However, many people still remembered all of the unpleasant things that had happened until now, so in order to show the staff that the four had turned over a new leaf, I sent each of them to help out across the castle. By the end of the day, the entire staff was begging me to let them only serve as my attendants instead, since otherwise they wouldn’t have any work to do themselves.

“Just what kind of training did you put those four through?”

“Sorry, but that’s a trade secret.”

Maidens always had lots of secrets.

I said they had learned new skills, yet just this change in their consciousness alone had been enough to make them this competent. The staff all had to wonder just how much they had been holding back.

Even though I couldn’t do a thing.

“I must say, my lady, not only have there been improvements in their behavior and enthusiasm, but they even appear to sparkle when you look at them.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Though they had actually changed quite a bit.

“Lady Yuluciaaa, look at this.”

“What is it, Fanny?”

Since they were so good at their duties now, my attendants were no longer considered in-training and were allowed to fully wait on me for my daily needs. Ever cheerful and easygoing, Fanny had an unusually despondent look on her face as she held the objects out to me.

“Oh, my.”

“I tried to fix them with my hair.”

It was the silver comb and rabbit doll that Fantine had destroyed. Fanny had sewed up the doll with her silver hair and even mended the broken teeth of the comb. Both had been completely restored to their former condition.

Fanny hadn’t been the one to destroy them, but she must have felt something like guilt about it because her soul had merged with Fantine’s.

These four truly were different people from whom they had once been. They only looked like my former attendants, but my darling demons had gone and grown up so big.

I took the silver comb and put the rabbit doll in Fanny’s arms. “You can have him, Fanny. You’ll take good care of him, right?”

“Of course I will!” Fanny beamed and gave me a hug.

Noah and Tina smiled somewhat enviously, though Tina was tearing her handkerchief apart with her teeth.

Aww, everyone come here! I’ll give you all head pats!

At the end of the year, I attended a party at the royal castle.

Even Mylene la Auber, the Silver Princess who was rarely seen, attended on behalf of the lord of the land, and everyone was abuzz about it.

She was so gorgeous, she didn’t seem like she could possibly be only eleven years old, and as she was next in line to inherit the title of countess, the boys all flocked to her. However, she chose to greet me first over the royal family as a way to show everyone that she was friends with the Golden Princess.

Perhaps now the nobles would be less inclined to poke their noses into her family’s affairs, especially since she was Count Auber’s only daughter. This also gave her the opportunity to show her innocence to Lady Elea, since surely if she was friends with me, it meant that she was safe.

“I shall be your friend for the next thousand years or so. You’d better not bore me during that time, Yulucia.”

“Of course. I look forward to the fun times we shall have as friends, Mylene.”

The two of us whispered to each other and then started laughing like the high-class ladies we were. For some reason, none of the other nobles, not even Shelly or Betty, dared to approach us.

Though the only knowledge from the other world I had to offer was how to restore a person’s hair.

And then it was the new year.

After all of the festivities of the new year, it was almost time for me to start going to school at the Academy of the Magical Arts. My grandfather the king then proclaimed with a triumphant look, “Yulucia, you’ve been picked to make the welcome speech as the representative for this year’s new students!”

…What? What in the world was Grandfather talking about?

What welcome speech? Was that a thing they did? I glanced at those who looked like they had graduated from the academy and they all slightly shook their heads.

Apparently, it had been a thing back in Grandfather and Grandmother’s time at the academy. Why had they stopped? Because it was a huge headache.

The new students were six years old. That was an awfully difficult thing to ask of them. And there wasn’t a test to decide who got to do it either, so the role just automatically fell to a kid from the family of highest status.

The one who had gotten it abolished was Grandfather himself. He’d thrown such a tantrum about it because it was such a pain. Yet here he was, stupidly forcing his granddaughter to do the very thing he hadn’t wanted to do!

Both Rick and Timoté had looks like they were glad they hadn’t been forced to do it too! Was he one of those overly doting grandfathers or what?!

“I heard that you were a big help after that earthquake in Count Auber’s lands. The people all sent their gratitude, so the headmistress wants to show off the Saint’s holy magic to the students and has even gone ahead with making a round podium in the center of the auditorium for you.”

“Ugh.”

I felt a bit responsible for what had happened after the earthquake, so I had secretly used holy magic in a corner of the chapel to heal those who were injured. One of the people there happened to be a child who had been kidnapped for the demon-summoning incident, and he’d told everyone who I was.

“Lady Mylene has spoken highly of your efforts as the current steward of the land as well.”

She’d sold me out! She was trying to get back at me!

“Fine.”

I really hated that I had to do this, though.

It was the day of the Academy of the Magical Arts’ entrance ceremony.

Mother had told me in advance that I wouldn’t be attending the branch school in Toure, but the main campus in the capital, since nearly every child of nobility attended there. It was only nearly every child because there were cloistered maidens like Mylene who chose to attend the branch schools in their own lands or were homeschooled instead. Nobles who didn’t have estates in the capital stayed in the dormitories; however, Mother, everyone from the manor, and I had all moved into our manor in the capital at the start of the year.

Unfortunately, my older sisters were studying abroad in the Kingdom of Sigoules, which was where my aunt lived. It was almost tragic enough to bring a tear to my eye.

I arrived at the academy in an enormous coach escorted by ten of my guardian knights riding on their steeds. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the commoners had prostrated themselves at our passing.

Shortly after, the ceremony began.

“And now for the representative of this year’s new students, Her Highness Princess Yulucia von Versenia.”

“Thank you.”

I was addressed by my full title even though I was a student.

I did not sound enthusiastic at all as I stood from my seat. I caught sight of my parents, who were both getting excited just from my doing that much. My grandparents were sitting with them in the same box seats. They were both able to attend because my uncle and Lady Elea were handling things back at the castle for them.

Clunk…

Some mechanism made a noise and a round podium five meters in diameter sprang up in the center of the spacious auditorium. Did they really need to waste all that money just for this? The headmistress and other people were all on the regular stage when they talked!

I climbed up the podium, dressed in my school uniform, which consisted of a dress that reached below the knee. We were supposed to wear these until we were sixth-years, but of course we weren’t allowed to walk about with bare legs; we needed thick tights. I bet it would be hot in the summer.

For some reason, not only our guardians but the entire student body was in assembly for this. Shelly and Betty gave small waves at me from their spots where the high-ranking nobles sat. They were dressed the same as I was—they sure looked cute in their uniforms. Maybe I should style myself like them? Also, why was everyone in my grade surrounding me from a distance?

Everyone stared at me as I stood at the center of the platform.

Why, though? Were they expecting me to sing and dance or something?

Was all this really necessary…?

“I…” I began.

There were so many eyes looking at me now. I could feel the genuine yearning of the children.

I had decided to live as both a human and a demon. Just what did they see when they looked at me?

Can you see me? As the princess of the Holy Kingdom, I will save you all. What do you feel in your heart? Can you tell what I’m feeling?

From the shadows of this world, I shall love your souls as the demon I am. Now offer up your love unto me until it borders on stupidity. Sleep like babies in the womb in a cradle of nightmares.

“I bless the lives of each and every one of you!”

And I shall love you for your misery.

In that moment, my feelings turned into light that spread and illuminated the entire auditorium. It captured numerous light elementals with no wills of their own and thousands of angels of light materialized, only to whirl around as they merged into one enormous archangel to grant everyone in attendance my blessing. There were shrieks and confused cries as the auditorium descended into chaos.

Oops!

Because of the reckless, emotional thing I had done in front of so many people, the entrance ceremony was called off on the spot, which was not surprising. The speech given by a representative of the new class was once again abolished.

Mother and Lady Elea caught me and ordered me to write an apology letter to every single person who had been in attendance. I was then confined to the palace and placed under Vio’s watchful eye.

Someone help me escape this scolding, please!

Epilogue

“AURELINE, PACK UP YOUR BELONGINGS.”

“Why, Sister?”

The Kingdom of Sigoules lay to the west of the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud. It was at about the same latitude as the Holy Kingdom, but unlike the Holy Kingdom with its four distinct seasons, Sigoules didn’t experience such drastic changes in temperature between summer and winter. They were able to harvest crops year-round, which made them well-known as a farming country because their citizens from all over the kingdom took to farming.

Thanks to developments in processing technologies, they were even able to export a great quantity of food. There had even been a time when they had continued sending food to a country they were at war with. The people of Sigoules lived simple and honest lives.

Because of the gentle nature of their people and their prosperous farming industry, they worshipped Kostor, the Goddess of Good Harvests, just like the Holy Kingdom of Talitelud did. Thanks to good relations between the two countries, it was common for their royal families to intermarry as well.

The current queen was the older sister of Adeline and Aureline’s father, the Grand Duke of Versenia. Since their aunt had once been the princess of the Holy Kingdom, they had been entrusted to her care after they had caused a scandal. The two sisters were to be long-term study-abroad students at the Noble Academy in Sigoules.

“We’re leaving this manor. I went ahead and submitted our withdrawals from the Noble Academy already. Now hurry up and get packed.”

“But, Sister?!” Aureline cried out in surprise. While Adeline had a habit of suddenly doing things like this, Aureline couldn’t understand why they would want to leave the safety of the manor. They had dozens of servants and guards here, making their lives quite comfortable. Well, except for the fact that their servants weren’t actually servants, but the queen’s watchdogs. They were all brawny and from a “dark” organization who used their skills to ignore all of the girls’ ridiculous demands.

The atrocities their mother Albertine had committed hadn’t been made public, but Adeline had some ideas about what had happened. The sisters were spared from the ruin suffered by the entire house of the long line of Duke Cowell, yet they were left with nothing but their family names and had lost all of their power and authority. The two of them were still nobles, but they were no longer the daughters of a duke.

However, Adeline did not begrudge her mother. If anything, she respected her mother’s determination and accepted the aftermath in stride.

“I don’t understand. Where are we going then?”

“You haven’t heard, Aureline? The Hero of Sigoules has appeared.”

“The Hero?!”

The Hero and the Saint were special to the people of the Holy Kingdom. The sisters would never recognize that brat who had their father’s blood as the Saint, but hearing of the Hero left Aureline in shock.

“And what business do we have with the Hero?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We have inherited the knowledge of powerful spellcraft from Mother. We shall leverage that to become allies of the Hero.”

Aureline blinked several times. “But, uh, would the Hero want anything to do with us? We’re not from here.”

“Just leave it to me, Aureline. They say that great men have great fondness for sensual pleasures, right? One look at me, and the Hero will gladly accept us into his retinue.”

Adeline strongly resembled their mother, who had once been known as one of the belles of high society. She prided herself on her ability to charm anyone and puffed up her chest to accentuate the two fruits that not many eleven-year-olds possessed. Aureline, on the other hand, was more appropriately proportioned for her age, and she frowned.

“Uh, yes, of course. I know you can do it. We’ll become his allies and then we’ll get the better of her!” Aureline smiled cheerfully as she pulled herself together.

A somewhat dark look crossed Adeline’s face. “Indeed.”

Aureline respected her older sister, following her around and trying to be like her ever since she was young. While she did think the more problematic things about her sister were cute, Aureline being who she was, Adeline had no intention of telling Aureline what she had realized.

Yulucia, that young girl who shared the same blood as them, had managed to obtain everything that should have belonged to Adeline: her father’s love, her family’s love, power, wealth, admiration, adoration.

That girl is a monster.

Everyone praised her as a purehearted maiden, but perhaps it was because Adeline had always viewed her with hostility that she had been the only one to notice how abnormal that girl was in that strange space.

It was this vague sense that something was wrong. Like a small thorn lodging itself into her heart.

Adeline had sensed something lurking behind that girl’s graceful smile. She was more than she appeared to be. She was something more repulsive. Something Adeline couldn’t quite put her finger on. Yet she had no proof of any of it, so if she tried to tell anyone, surely they would accuse her of being the abnormal one.

Adeline would dig up and expose who she really was. The girl did indeed possess enough power to be called the Saint, but surely the Hero would notice that something was off about the girl too.

All would go smoothly. Even the daemons of the northern lands had been sighted again after all this time. The wise Hero would surely be willing to increase his number of allies.

She would get revenge for her mother and restore the pride and glory of the family of Duke Cowell. She would do it for the sake of the boy she had loved when she was young too.

In this world where everyone loved and admired Yulucia, Adeline—the only girl who noticed something strange about her—had thrown herself into a long and lonely war.

“That brat is no sister of mine!”

***

Dark clouds covered the entire sky of this desolate land.

The Demon Realm was nothing but debris and boulders that refused to let anything grow. There, an enormous demon continued to glare down, unmoving, at those who were living on the land.

He was the wild beast of the Demon Realm: the Dark Beast.

Like the Demon Lord, the title of Beast was granted to only one demon at a time. It denoted the beast-type demon with the greatest power. He was tyranny incarnate and lived to compete against others. The previous Beast had been defeated by the Dark Beast a very long time ago, when he had evolved and taken on the title of Beast.

However, strange things were happening in this era.

Although the bearer of the title changed over the ages, there was only ever one Beast. Then the Dark Beast had taken the one he had believed to be of his same species under his wing and the two of them had lived together.

There had never been two Beasts existing at once in all of the history of the Demon Realm. Violent tremors shook the Demon Realm. If the golden demon grew up and became the new Beast, then the power structure of the Demon Realm would be rewritten.

However, the demon—the Golden Beast—had instead vanished from the Demon Realm.

Rumors spread that they must have grown to hate one another due to the Beast’s tyrannical nature and he’d killed the Golden Beast. However, no one other than the Dark Beast knew the truth of what had happened; all other lifeforms who’d been in the vicinity when he had unleashed his rage had died.

The Dark Beast only continued to glower at the sight before him.

It looked like a gigantic summoning circle that, based on its grand scale, must have taken a vast amount of magic the likes of which had never been seen before.

Multiple worlds were capable of making summoning circles. He had no idea if that world was the one he sought. However, the Dark Beast could smell her—the Golden Beast.

Why had she vanished?

Why had she gone away?

Why had she left him?

The Dark Beast didn’t understand any of those emotions and continued instead to angrily glare at the magic circle.

He would make her his for eternity, even if it meant he had to devour her.

Bonus Story:
Go For It, Mylene!

“WHAT A MESS,” THE SILVER-HAIRED GIRL muttered to herself, gnawing on a finger with her canine tooth.

Lady Mylene la Auber. She had lost her parents to an earthquake of unknown origin and was now in charge of this land. She had been declared an adult and become a countess at the age of eleven.

But it wasn’t such trifling matters that weighed on Mylene’s mind now. She was thinking about that girl who had made Mylene her minion under the pretext that they were friends: Yulucia, the first princess of the Grand Duke of Versenia.

She was beautiful despite only being six years old, and everyone knew and admired her as the Saint. Everyone recognized her as such, even Mylene, who was a vampire, and her allies. It would have been one thing if she had been human, but she couldn’t smell what Yulucia really was even though, as a being of the shadows herself, she should have been able to.

Yulucia too lived in the shadows, for she was actually a demon. Not only did the humans worship the girl, they believed her to be their Saint. Yulucia was an even more repulsive monster than the vampires were.

Yet not a single person suspected a thing. How could this even be possible?

Mylene had failed to see through her because Yulucia acted and behaved like a human in the worst way. She wasn’t like the vampires, who merely mimicked how they had acted back when they were still human. Yulucia laughed with the humans, spoke with them, rejoiced with them as she felt the same emotions. She was able to fully contain her true demonic nature within.

The fact that Yulucia didn’t trigger a sense that something was off about her made her even more frightening. She reminded Mylene of that being Count Auber talked about every time he could: one of the top-ranking demons, who understood the hearts of humans in order to consume them and gave humans knowledge of other worlds.

“She really is like the Devil,” Mylene said in a small whisper as a shudder ran down her spine.

If that was who Yulucia truly was, then Mylene was lucky to still be alive, she realized as she clasped her hands. On the verge of trembling, she let out a sigh of relief.

But things depend on how you look at them.

Mylene had been turned into a vampire about a hundred years ago. She didn’t remember her previous life much, but she was certain that she had once been the daughter of a noble in the countryside who owned a small amount of territory. What memories she had left were happy ones, but that happiness had suddenly come to an end when other nobles had invaded their lands and killed her family. Mylene had been young at the time and she alone had been kept alive for her beauty. She was locked up in a spire and endured days of humiliation at the hands of the invaders. However, those days hadn’t lasted very long.

They were raided by vampires. They sucked the blood of her people, whom she had once loved, and turned them into mere livestock or mindless minions to obey them. It was then that a vampire of large build appeared before Mylene in her tower. Mylene offered up her blood to him, and she was reborn from her hatred and fury into a high-ranking vampire. She killed the nobles who had killed her family and then killed every single one of her people, whom she had formerly loved but who had sneered at her under the reign of the invaders.

Mylene had heard that the man had turned her into a vampire because he too had suffered similarly in the past and thus sympathized with her situation. By nature, though, vampires did not feel such emotions as sympathy. Nevertheless, the man had let her live.

From that day forward, Mylene and her three allies set out on their eternal wandering. They laid waste to the lands of the nobles who had killed her family, and about a hundred years later, they were chased out of that country. In their search for a place to make a stronghold for themselves, they found themselves in a country called Telthed. Mylene was innately gifted at manipulating her body and was able to control her appearance and how old she looked. She hid in Telthed with her allies as they steadily increased their number of minions.

However, they made an enemy of the daemons who were also working from the shadows in the same human country. The daemons tricked the orders of knights into attacking them. As a result, they lost their new minions and weak allies one after the other. If Mylene and the other higher vampires had joined forces, the weaker vampires surely would have managed to escape. Unfortunately, because two of the higher vampires fled immediately, the man who had made Mylene a vampire used himself as a decoy so that Mylene and the lesser vampires could live.

She had her reservations toward the two who had fled. However, he had wanted her to live and she wanted to get revenge against the daemons, so she decided to ally herself with the traitors again.

Her desire to go on living for the man who had died was not the kind of emotion a vampire should have felt. And yet, Mylene had vowed to do so in what little of her human heart still remained.

Nevertheless, her grim determination and everything else had changed once she got involved with a certain girl.

“I have a delivery for you from my mistress, Lady Yulucia,” a handsome young butler with scant remnants of his humanity left said as he appeared.

One of the reasons she presumed Yulucia was the Devil was because of these aristocratic arch demons with powers that far exceeded her own as a higher vampire. A single arch demon was classified as Calamity Rank, capable of destroying an entire nation. It was unthinkable that four such demons would serve a single one were she not the Devil.

This boy who stood before her now was one of those arch demons who had acquired a vessel. Unlike Yulucia, who easily passed as a human, the dark look in his eye that betrayed his true nature beneath his human features made Mylene uncomfortable.

She was terrified of him, to be quite honest.

“May I ask what it is?”

“This is a ‘marine by-product’ of one of my mistress’s summoning experiments.”

The dried blackish flakes were actually seaweed, a grass that grew in the ocean. Mylene couldn’t comprehend how something like this wound up as a by-product of a summoning, but anyone would be lucky if they were able to comprehend that girl’s mind.

“She said I should warn you not to eat too much of it.”

“Yes, fine. Please give my thanks to Lady Yulucia.” Mylene would end up feeling scared of the consequences for her impoliteness later, but right now, this was the only way she could resist.

She didn’t know much about seaweed, but she knew humans could eat it. After the earthquake, refugees had taken sanctuary in the chapel since they had lost their homes. Yulucia thought it was annoying how everyone praised her for every saintly thing she did even though she’d been the one to cause the earthquake, so she’d left Mylene and her minions to deal with the aftermath even though they couldn’t act in the daytime. Was this Yulucia’s way of apologizing? Mylene checked it for poison and discovered it was dried wakame seaweed. She then tossed the whole thing into her mouth.

“So salty.”

Everything had changed, but now she had stronger forces on her side. If she could use the powers of the demons, then getting revenge against the daemons might not be such a faraway dream.

Just you watch. I will destroy your enemies, no matter what it takes.

There weren’t enough people to pitch in, so Mylene was changing the diaper of a refugee’s baby. She grasped the diaper tightly in her hand as she made this vow anew, oblivious to the carefree demon’s influence on her.

Several days later, Mylene was suffering from a stomachache for the first time in the hundred years since she had become an immortal vampire. All kinds of troublesome things kept getting foisted on her, so she got back at Yulucia by giving the girl all the credit for solving the problems in her report to the royal family.

Afterword

TO THOSE READING MY WORK FOR THE FIRST time, it’s nice to meet you. And it’s nice to see you again. I’m Harunohi Biyori.

Thank you for waiting! Here is Part 1, Chapter 2 of the story: “The Moonlit Tea Party.”

To be honest, I was still an obscure novelist at the time I was posting this volume. My audience of hundreds of people gave me my inspiration to write! This was also around the time I added “The Tale of the Carefree Devil” to the title. It had just been The Devil Princess up until then.

I still remember my astonishment at how I was just writing along, coasting on the energy of how fun it was to write, when one day, my readership numbers jumped hundreds of times from what they were before. And then I rewrote the whole thing with that same energy when my story was picked up to be published!

I rewrote every word in my current writing style. I added to the places that were lacking and even incorporated scenes leading up to the final chapter, and now we have this completed version of the book! And it has Geso Umiu-sensei’s gorgeous illustrations, to boot! This book is such a great value!

I know there are a few people out there who like to read the afterword first, so I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but this volume introduces many characters who will be important in the future.

I hope I can give more screen time to the tsunderes who hardly made any appearances in the web novel version too.

And the little demons are finally here! Yay!

At the time when the books were going to get published, the reason I wanted to continue their story no matter what was because I wanted Geso-sensei to draw them for me. Please look forward to seeing how Yulucia continues to grow up into a beautiful girl too.

If possible, I want Geso-sensei to draw the heroine of this world who shows up in Chapter 4 too, so I ask that you all continue to support me so it can happen.

And Shiki Satoshi-sensei’s Yuzu in the manga version is so cute too! I hope you all read the manga as well if you haven’t yet.

What the daemons are doing behind the scenes.

Yulucia’s older sister, who has decided to fight after becoming the only one to realize the wickedness in the world.

The existence of the Hero who appears in order to fight against evil.

The magic circle that appeared in the Demon Realm.

Everyone Yulucia associates with can’t help but feel carefree too, so Yulucia’s seeing everything that happens through rose-tinted glasses, yet murky intrigue and conflicts continue to unfold behind the scenes.

Yulucia’s POV written in first person: the world is a field of flowers.

Everyone else’s POV written in third person: murky intrigue.

I hope that’s how you all enjoy reading the story.

And then after that, I hope we meet again.

I am so very grateful to all of my readers who picked up this book, the bookstores who stocked this book, and everyone involved in the making of this book!