The chaos within the Royal City finally came to an end.
The massive statue of the new Demon Queen, Sidella Eve Cecilia, was also destroyed in this battle.
The Firework Bomb hidden inside the statue ultimately went unused.
Lilith, the hardworking girl whose injuries had just begun to heal, took the initiative to lead the Demon Soldiers in the post-war reconstruction of the Royal City.
In front of a collapsed Demon Inn.
Lilith stood in the wind, clad in the pitch-black Demon Officer Uniform, her not-so-tall frame straight and disciplined.
Her stern expression was flawless.
Behind her, long crimson hair fluttered gently in the breeze.
Beside her, Penina, who had regained her freedom, clung to Lilith and refused to leave, unable to hide her urgency in her voice.
“Where’s HualÃ! Where is she? Why can’t she come back to the Human Race with me?”
Penina truly regretted not stopping Hualà back then.
She clearly knew that once Hualà appeared before Sidella again, it would be hard to say if she could ever escape.
“Sorry, Penina.”
Lilith sighed.
“This is Her Majesty the Queen’s will. It’s not something I can decide.”
“Then how long do you intend to keep Hualà locked up?!”
Lilith shook her head, indicating it was a matter for Her Majesty the Queen to consider—she didn’t know.
“But I can promise you this: Hualà will not be locked in the dungeon again. She’s no longer a defeated, captured prisoner.”
“Then did any of you ask Hualà what she wants?!”
Penina could no longer suppress the anger in her heart, and she glared furiously at Lilith.
“She could have escaped, but she turned back for your sake! Hualà saw you as a friend—what about you? What do you see her as?”
Stupid HualÃ, truly a fool to the core, counting money for someone even after being sold.
She should have knocked Hualà out and carried her straight back to the Human Race.
Faced with Penina’s accusation, Lilith took a deep breath, her tone turning solemn.
“Hualà is, of course, my friend. And I’m grateful that you both helped me in a critical moment. But if you define such actions as selfishness, then tell me, Penina—no, Saintess Miss—what are your intentions in bringing Hualà back to the Human Race?”
Lilith had overheard these words from Sidella by chance.
As early as half a month ago, rumors had already spread among the Human Race that the Human Hero Hualà was defeated on the battlefield by the Blood Queen.
In other words, Hualà had already been erased from the Human Race’s records—a person with no identity.
“You want to bring Hualà back to the Human Race with all your heart, but have you considered how she would live, without a name or family?”
These days, it’s so hard to find work—even to be a security guard, you need a college diploma.
Look at HualÃ.
Does she look like someone who ever studied?
With those thin arms and legs, she’s not fit for manual labor either.
If you send Hualà back to the Human Race, do you want her to starve?
And what would she do there?
Continue to force an innocent girl to bear the title of ‘Human Hero’ and send her to the front lines?
Penina fell silent.
But when it came to Hualà being an idiot, she simply couldn’t refute it.
In fact, there was one more thing Lilith didn’t say.
A month ago, the clash between the Human Race and the Demon Race was actually instigated by the Human Royal Family after they heard of the previous Demon King’s fall.
They simply hadn’t expected the new Demon Queen to rise so quickly among the Blood Clan.
And so, they ruthlessly pushed HualÃ, a temporary hero, onto the front lines.
“I… If she has nowhere to go… I can take care of her…”
Penina’s voice grew weak, knowing she was in the wrong.
She’d been so focused on taking Hualà back to the Human Race that she’d ignored the problems Hualà would face there.
At this, Lilith’s serious expression faltered, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
Take care of HualÃ?
Has she truly forgotten she’s the Human Race’s Saintess?
If word got out, people could drown them both with their spit.
“Anyway, I’ll arrange for someone to escort you out of the Demon Border later.”
Lilith said to Penina, whose head drooped low.
“As for HualÃ, I think you’ll have a chance to meet again.”
“Once you return to Human territory, you’re the Saintess. Stop pretending to be a defeated captive.”
This was her last piece of advice—as a friend, just barely.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Inside the Demon King Palace, in the bedchamber of the Blood Queen, Sidella.
Sunlight poured brightly outside the palace, glinting off the window glass.
But thick silk curtains blocked its entry, leaving the chamber dim.
On a pearwood chair, Hualà slowly woke up, eyelids struggling to open as her head spun dizzily.
Her body felt as heavy as if it were filled with lead, then run over by a steamroller—again and again.
She could hardly move.
This sensation…why did it feel so familiar?
Where had she experienced this before?
Her foggy mind drifted.
“I—I… What the hell! Why am I tied up again!”
Feeling the all-too-familiar, snake-like bind around her, HualÃ’s face went pale.
She screamed.
Didn’t she help that terrible Sidella deal with the internal strife?
So where was she now?
What the heck happened after that!!
Wait!
She remembered.
On the night the civil strife ended, Lilith had invited her and Penina to the tavern for drinks as thanks.
She recalled the Innkeeper Goat Head insisting, “It’s all homemade—no alcohol content.”
While pouring furiously into her cup.
Had she gotten drunk after that?
“The owner said there was no alcohol—how could that be a lie!”
Hualà gritted her teeth.
“It must have been Lilith who drugged me—damn you, Lilith, I misjudged you!”
We’re done!
Done a million times over!
Hualà struggled desperately, her face contorted in effort.
The chair beneath her wobbled violently.
It was only a matter of time before it tipped over.
Her cheek hit the floor.
She flailed, unable to control her direction, like a headless ant stripped of its pheromones, spinning around comically in place.
“Ha~~”
A lazy yawn shattered the silence of the bedchamber.
HualÃ’s face stiffened.
That voice—
She wriggled, managing to turn her head toward the grand bed.
Through the thin curtains, she could barely make out the small silhouette of a girl sprawled atop it.
The girl propped her chin on her hand, strands of silver hair draped over her ear.
With slender fingers, she flipped through the pages of a book atop her pillow.
Her eyes curved like crescent moons, filled with a thirst for strange knowledge.
Whenever the story turned exciting, her white toes would tap the mattress in delight, making faint, muffled sounds.
“Eh? HualÃ, you’re already awake?”
Sidella’s pleasant voice drifted through the gem-studded veil.
She sat up, slipping the book beneath her pillow.
A pale hand reached out, parting the curtain around the bed.
She stepped down in fluffy slippers, unhurriedly approaching the fallen HualÃ.
Finally, she crouched in front of her.
The white nightgown she wore was so thin its contours shimmered with every movement.
The neckline dipped slightly, revealing a hint of delicate skin.
HualÃ’s gaze was helplessly drawn to that patch of white.
A faint blush lingered on Sidella’s cheeks.
In her ruby eyes, a glimmer of anticipation sparkled.
“Hey, HualÃ! Want to have a child with me?”