Behind Seraphina’s carriage, separated by a certain distance, was another relatively smaller carriage.
Inside, Erasia sat upright and proper, while Saint Eustacia also gazed silently through the window at everything outside.
That wide road, the transport wagons loaded full of supplies, and the demons driving the vehicles—their faces were not numb or fierce, but filled with the joy of soon reaching their destination.
In those cold, clear eyes of hers, a rare tremor and disbelief still appeared.
This… was this really the barren, chaotic Demon Realm of the rumors?
“As you can see, under the guidance of the vision Her Highness left behind before her departure, the Demon Realm of today is no longer the place in your fixed impressions.”
Erasia took Saint Eustacia’s reaction in at a glance and spoke with a touch of pride in her tone.
Saint Eustacia did not respond. She could not deny the ironclad facts before her eyes. The results were even better than the governance of certain human nations.
Although she did not want to admit it, although this had long since shattered the notions in her heart, she still had no choice but to lower her head before reality.
Perhaps… the reason her teacher insisted on sending her to the Demon Realm had not been a mere whim.
With the support of the flat roads, the convoy’s speed far exceeded expectations. They actually arrived at the Demon King’s Castle by noon.
The tall black city walls appeared on the distant horizon. As the distance closed, a magnificent presence rushed toward them.
Compared to Seraphina’s memories, there was almost no change.
The carriages drove straight into the city. The welcoming ceremony was not grand; one could even call it low-key.
The welcoming party was limited only to the maids of the Demon King’s Castle, along with Lina and Ailinuo standing at the very front.
Because Movira’s sudden departure had been publicly announced as a private inspection tour, the return at this moment naturally could not be too ostentatious.
The moment the carriage came to a steady stop, the door was pushed open. Seraphina almost jumped down at the first opportunity. Her gaze quickly locked onto that familiar figure, and then she charged forward without regard for anything else.
“Lina!”
Lina seemed to have grown a little taller over these past few months, and her demeanor had become even more steady.
When she saw Seraphina running toward her, the ice and snow on her face instantly melted, revealing a long-lost smile. She opened her arms and steadily caught the body that threw itself at her. The impact even forced her to take half a step back. She immediately half-crouched so that her line of sight was level with Seraphina’s.
Seraphina carefully examined Lina’s face. In the other woman’s eyes, intense residual fear was surging at this moment, along with guilt and the relief of having regained what was nearly lost.
“Your Highness…” Lina’s voice trembled. She tightly gripped Seraphina’s hands. “I’m sorry, Your Highness… I’m sorry for letting you fall into such a dangerous situation… I will never leave your side by even half a step again!”
Hearing this long-unheard form of address also made Seraphina freeze for a moment, after which a wave of emotional feeling welled up.
Just then, another person also threw herself over. It was Ailinuo. Unlike Lina’s restraint, tears were already rolling down her face. She grabbed Seraphina’s arm and said with a thick sob in her voice:
“It’s really so good that you came back safely! Wuu… we were all so worried about you!”
Seraphina was surrounded by the two of them, feeling their completely unconcealed joy.
She reached out and patted Ailinuo’s back, then looked at Lina whose eyes were moist, and comforted them:
“Alright, don’t be like this. Didn’t I come back perfectly fine? It’s okay. It’s all in the past.”
Yet seeing that the two were still unwilling to leave this atmosphere, Seraphina had no choice but to quickly change the subject. “Hurry back already. I still want to ask you what the situation outside has been like during the months I was gone. I feel like the changes are huge, really huge!”
Lina took a deep breath, calmed the emotions that had been showing, and nodded. “Alright. We’ll talk after we go back.”
However, the moment she stood up, her gaze swept past the figure stepping down from the carriage behind them, and her eyes suddenly turned cold. But the strangeness lasted only an instant, so fast that even she herself seemed not to have noticed it. She immediately lowered her head again and said to Seraphina, “Your Highness, this way please.”
She guided Seraphina toward the interior of the Demon King’s Castle.
Ailinuo had not yet fully left the atmosphere of the reunion just now. Her speech was still intermittent. “Do we… really not need to go welcome Her Majesty?”
Seraphina pushed her arm and said, “Don’t worry about her! Let’s go do our own things. Let her do whatever she wants.”
“Oh… but I somehow feel… that Her Majesty seems a little displeased?”
“I already said not to worry about her. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.”
The group passed through the familiar corridors and soon arrived at the study Seraphina was most familiar with—and that also carried pain.
Yet at this moment, the pain had long been smoothed away by time, leaving only a trace of nostalgia.
Pushing open the heavy door, the furnishings inside came into view.
The air was still filled with the former scent of ink, as if she had never left.
The books here were still arranged neatly in the way she was used to. Everything on the desk remained the same.
The brain liked familiar scenes, and so all of this made Seraphina feel very at ease.
The only difference was the relatively smaller desk that belonged to Lina. It was almost completely buried under a mountain of documents. At the same time, this also told who had silently supported the operation of the entire Demon Realm over these past few months.
This made Seraphina think of those not-so-good memories from back then, but her footsteps stopped. She looked at those documents, and the tears she had just forcibly held back still unconsciously made her eyes grow moist again.
At this moment, she once again felt with extreme clarity that the decision she had made back then to save Lina had been absolutely correct.
She walked up and reached out to brush across those cold sheets of paper. “Lina… this period of time… you’ve truly worked hard. I’m sorry for throwing such a heavy burden onto you.”
Lina shook her head. “This is my duty, Your Highness.”
A subordinate dies for the one who understands them. Lina added that sentence in her heart.
Ailinuo also nodded vigorously beside them and said, “Mm! Sister Lina is really amazing. She handled so many things in an orderly way!”
“Alright, alright. Now tell me about it. From the time I left until now, everything that has happened in the Demon Realm—I want to hear it all!”
Seraphina pulled the two of them to sit in front of her desk.
Ailinuo scratched her head a little awkwardly and said, “Actually… I don’t know that much… Most of it was handled by Sister Lina. I was just… helping out. Then there’s my father, and Sister Erasia. They are the ones who know these things best.”
This sudden affirmation made Ailinuo’s heart surge with wild joy. Seraphina seemed to have forgotten just how great an influence she had on Ailinuo.
“Is that so? That’s still pretty good.”