After washing up, Via changed into a new set of clothes—a plain gray coat that made her easy to overlook. To avoid drawing attention, she pulled up her hood and zipped it higher before leaving the room and heading downstairs.
The bald innkeeper who had checked them in last night was leaning on the sofa behind the counter, yawning heavily. He looked like he was about to collapse, clearly having stayed up all night on duty.
“Guest, is there anything else you need?” the owner asked when he saw Via.
“I’m… hungry.”
“Oh, no problem. Your girlfriend mentioned it before she left the inn,” the owner said, pointing in a direction. “The restaurant is over there. If you’d like breakfast, you can head that way.”
Girlfriend?
Via suppressed the urge to correct him, simply nodded to show she understood, then walked toward the inn’s restaurant.
The restaurant had quite a few customers this morning, mostly guests staying at the inn, the majority of whom were travelers from out of town.
Via chose a secluded spot and sat down. After ordering some simple breakfast items from the waiter, she began listening to the conversations between the other guests.
“The disaster in Kado City was truly terrifying. Quite a lot of people died or were injured.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about it recently too. The news has already spread across the Empire. Who would’ve thought demonized individuals would launch an attack during the Saint Prayer Day?”
“Those evil demonized bastards deserve to die. Not a single one of them is innocent. It’d be best if they all disappeared from this world!”
The guests’ voices were filled with anger whenever they mentioned the demonized individuals.
Via listened carefully, analyzing the details through the key points she picked up.
After several days of spreading, news of the disaster in Kado City had likely reached the entire human world.
Under the joint suppression of the Holy Land and the Saint Luo Empire, demonized individuals had been operating in the shadows all these years, avoiding the public eye.
This was the first time they had caused such a major incident that shocked the entire human race.
The disaster caused by the demonized would undoubtedly heighten people’s fear toward them and damage their confidence in the Holy Land, especially since it had happened during an important ceremony.
Of course, none of this was what Via cared about most. What concerned her was her own situation.
“The Demon King appeared in Kado City too!”
“Wasn’t the Demon King killed by Lady Sword Princess eighteen years ago?”
“According to the Empire and the Holy Land, those demonized people were the Demon King’s subordinates. The disaster in Kado City was personally orchestrated by the Demon King! He has already infiltrated our human society and is preparing for revenge. This disaster was just a signal!”
Many people in the restaurant were discussing the events that had occurred in Kado City a few days earlier.
There was particularly heated debate surrounding the topics of the Demon King and the Sword Princess.
“Here’s your breakfast, miss.”
The waiter placed Via’s meal in front of her.
Via picked up the steaming hot milk, about to take a sip, but the heat scalded her tongue. She quickly set it down and began blowing on it.
Just as she had expected, both the Saint Luo Empire and the Holy Land had pinned the entire blame for the disaster on her, claiming the demonized individuals had close ties to her.
In reality, she had personally eliminated quite a few of those demonized people in Kado City.
Even if that was the truth, the Empire and Holy Land would never admit it.
People needed an outlet for their negative emotions, and Demon King Ville was the perfect target.
Thankfully, Lady Sword Princess had stepped forward at the time.
“Lady Sword Princess? Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?”
“Of course not! When Demon King Ville led the demonized in slaughtering innocent civilians, Lady Selina the Silver Sword Princess reappeared in Kado City and defeated the Demon King!”
“But didn’t Lady Sword Princess leave this world after that battle eighteen years ago?”
“The Holy Land and the Empire haven’t made an official statement about this yet, but according to the widely circulated rumors, Lady Sword Princess actually didn’t die back then. She used some method to survive and has been secretly protecting the human world all this time…”
Whenever the conversation turned to the Silver Sword Princess, the guests’ expressions changed. Their faces lit up with excitement and admiration.
Via took out her sandwich, took a bite, and focused even more intently on listening to the people around her.
Abyssal aura, magical beasts, demonized individuals, Demon King, Silver Sword Princess…
All of these topics were being discussed.
However, almost no one was talking about the saintess candidates.
Why is that?
Via frowned.
The fact that the daughter of the Perfect Saintess Sylvia was actually the reincarnated Demon King Ville should have been enough to shake the entire human world.
So why was no one mentioning it at all?
Could it be…
A guess surfaced in the pink-haired girl’s mind.
Via stood in front of a newsstand on the streets of Shim Town, flipping through today’s newspaper.
There were indeed reports about the Kado City incident. While the specific details of the event hadn’t been fully disclosed, the general situation matched what the guests at the inn’s restaurant had said, with no major discrepancies.
Her name was briefly mentioned in the corner of the report—she was listed as missing and currently being searched for.
They didn’t brand me a heretic?
Via put the newspaper down.
Just then, several clergy members walked down the street. She immediately lowered the newspaper and casually moved closer, turning her back to them while pretending to be an ordinary passerby.
“We need to hurry. There are still many things to handle in Kado City. By the way, has Miss Sophie already returned to the Holy Land?”
“Yes. Miss Via is still missing… If she were to disappear for good in this disaster, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
The clergy members heading toward Kado City chatted as they walked past Via.
From their conversation, she was able to confirm one thing.
Her true identity had not yet been exposed within the Holy Land.
If the upper echelons of the Holy Land knew the truth, the people below would definitely have launched a full-scale manhunt. They would have sealed off all nearby cities and mobilized massive forces to find her no matter what.
Clearly, the atmosphere in this town was not like that.
As for why this was the case, she had more or less guessed the reason in her heart.
It turned out that Sophie had concealed the truth from the Holy Land and hadn’t told them everything.