“Your Excellency.”
Not long after Lian fell asleep, Selene arrived at the small pavilion with Luc.
“Your Highness the Magus… it is such a relief to see that you are safe. I heard that you—”
Seeing Feiyin, Luc let out a long sigh of relief.
From the conversations of the guards watching her, she had already learned what happened in the plaza after she was defeated by the Hero’s Daughter.
She had failed her mother and caused the death of the Magus who helped her.
During the days of her house arrest, the guilt had tormented her so much that several times she had even considered ending her own life.
“Your Excellency could never lose to a human.”
Selene coldly interrupted Luc, but Feiyin only smiled and shook her head.
“No, little Selene. I truly did lose. Even your King can lose, so what is strange about me losing? Besides, look—I was defeated by this adorable child right here.”
As she spoke, she rubbed Lian’s cheek, the girl lying in her arms… and then revealed a proud smile.
“Ah, now I finally understand why the Duchess likes doing this. I should have tried pinching her cheeks myself earlier.”
“Um… Your Highness the Magus? You are saying this girl defeated you? Then she is…”
Luc had seen this girl several times before.
She was the maid who received them on the first day they arrived at the Duke’s Household, the one who had stood outside their Royal Suite and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation through magic power detection.
During the days Luc spent preparing for the plan, she encountered this maid several times.
At the time, the severely ill Sword Saint seemed particularly concerned about her.
Luc had thought the girl was the Sword Saint’s disciple, but after seeing her performance in the Preliminary Competition of the Martial Tournament, she concluded it was probably just her own misjudgment.
“Ahem, I accidentally got lost admiring my own masterpiece.” Seeing Luc’s confused gaze, Feiyin coughed twice and continued.
“This girl is a gift from me to you, Princess Luc. She is the other daughter of that missing Hero… in other words, an illegitimate daughter.”
“An illegitimate daughter… I thought those guards were joking.”
The guards’ idle chatter had also mentioned who defeated the Magus.
They said the Sword Saint descended from the sky carrying a young girl.
People initially believed the Sword Saint was their savior… but in the end it was that girl, her body burning with flames similar to the Hero’s, who turned the Magus and all his shadows into ashes.
When discussing the girl’s identity, they lowered their voices greatly, but Luc still heard them.
Her first reaction was disbelief.
She had read many human romance novels starring the Duke and the Hero, and even watched plays adapted from their love story.
When she stayed in Nolan, she often used them to pass the idle time between training and study.
Luc did not feel admiration or reverence for the love story of the man who killed her father.
Still, she never thought the Hero was a promiscuous person… at least that was how he appeared in those somewhat exaggerated novels and plays.
“So she is the Hero’s illegitimate daughter… that explains it…”
Luc noticed Selene’s shoulders trembling violently.
She was afraid of the girl, even though the girl was currently sleeping peacefully in the enemy’s arms.
“…That explains it. How did she fall into your hands?”
Selene’s panic lasted only a short moment.
She suppressed the fear with some intense emotion and forced her expression back to calm.
“I cast a sleep spell on her. It should last about two days. With her, you should be able to report back to His Highness the Regent, right? After all, she is also the Hero’s daughter and perfectly meets the evaluation requirements of the Demon King Succession War.”
“But in that communication, His Highness the Regent asked me—”
Because it conflicted with her mother’s previous orders, Luc fell into hesitation. Ignoring her for the moment, Selene asked Feiyin:
“I understand. It seems you do not plan to travel with us. But Your Excellency said her power is enough to defeat you. This girl will wake up eventually, right? How are we supposed to take someone like that back to the Demon Realm?”
“You do not need to worry about that.” As if expecting the question, Feiyin drew open a shadow rift and took out a bracelet.
She slipped the bracelet onto Lian’s right wrist and said to the two of them, “This is a Suppression Ring. It is a Relic. Once worn, it completely suppresses the magic power of both the Demon Race and humans. Now you can rest assured.”
“Thank you very much, Your Excellency.”
Selene sincerely bowed to Feiyin. Feiyin nodded and sighed with deep emotion.
“No need to thank me. This is all for the great revival of the Demon Race. Ever since we lost our King, the entire Demon Realm has become scattered like loose sand. How I wish the glorious age under his rule could appear again…”
“…But did you not completely avoid participating in the great war?”
“Your Excellency must have been operating undercover among the humans. Are you questioning her?”
Selene frowned at Luc. Just as she was about to scold her, Feiyin stopped her.
“That is enough. Do not argue over such trivial matters. Take advantage of the night and leave with the gift I gave you. To make things easier, I also prepared this for you.”
She leaned Lian against the seat and ran behind the pavilion, returning with a long burlap sack.
“This is…”
The two people across from her froze for a moment.
“Do not just stare. Come help.”
“O-okay.”
So the three of them worked together to stuff Lian into the burlap sack.
Feiyin carefully left a small breathing opening near the head and tied the sack shut with thin rope.
Although it looked rather ridiculous, Selene knew it was a reasonable measure.
The moment she touched the maid, she had tried to analyze her… and discovered it was completely impossible.
Likewise, Selene could not influence the maid with her imitation ability.
Even now, with the Suppression Ring suppressing her power, the maid still appeared in Selene’s analysis like a boundless ocean.
Compared to that ocean, Selene’s imitation was like a piece of cloth.
And a piece of cloth could never cover the sea.
Most likely, their Excellency chose such a crude method because she herself had already tried using the Shadow Demon’s abilities on the maid and found them ineffective.
Thinking this, Selene calmly accepted the reality that her powers could not interfere with the maid.
“There are many guards patrolling the palace walls now, so you probably cannot climb out by relying on magic power and physical strength while carrying her. I will prepare a room for you in this Shed Pavilion building. In the morning, blend into the Maid Team that goes out to purchase supplies and leave the palace with them.”
“But there will definitely be guards verifying identities at the palace gate. Even if I can use hypnosis spells to deceive the maids, we will not pass inspection there. I saw they are holding some kind of device. Everyone passing through the gate must be checked by it.”
Feiyin’s plan sounded reasonable, but Selene voiced her concern.
After being thrown away by Aoke that day, she had been found by Feiyin and brought back to the palace.
In the following days she relied on the Shadow Demon’s imitation and hypnosis spells to disguise herself as a palace maid and gather intelligence.
The most important information she obtained was about the newly added guards at the palace gates.
After the attack on the fourth day, a large number of Sage’s Clones were stationed on the gates and walls of Honglian Palace.
At each gate, mages from the City Defense Force held some kind of detection device and inspected everyone.
Selene did not dare approach those clones with glowing green eyes or the heavily guarded soldiers.
She also did not dare test what the devices actually did… but she believed they could at least distinguish humans from the Demon Race.
She had seen several demon servants from the Duke’s Household pass through the gate, causing the device in the mage’s hand to flash red.
They were then subjected to particularly strict inspection before being allowed to pass.
Because of this, Selene had not stepped outside the palace even once in the past few days.
“Ah, you mean the new magic power detector developed by the City Defense Force. I thought they would wait a few more days before putting it into use… that thing can indeed detect your identities.”
Feiyin clapped her hands and took something out of her pocket.
They were two crescent-shaped brooches. In the dim environment, they emitted a soft glow similar to moonlight.
“But if you show these to the guards, they should let you leave. Later, you will also need them to find your contact in the Darkwood Sea.”
“You mean… we must go to the Elf Sea of Trees to meet the contact?”
Luc and Selene took the brooches and carefully stored them away.
They knew the Darkwood Sea Feiyin mentioned was a neighboring country of Yilansiya, a demi-human nation mainly inhabited by elves.
In their original plan, their retreat route had indeed passed through that country… they simply had not arranged a contact.
At that time, they had never imagined that only the two of them would remain at the end of the mission.
“That is right. The Sea of Trees is where the continent’s magic power veins converge. The large teleportation array in its capital, Fenglin City, can quickly send you back to Nolan. Just wear the brooch in the city’s plaza and the contact will find you.”
After saying this, Feiyin handed them the key to a room in the Shed Pavilion and told them its location.
Only after everything was ready did Selene and Luc say goodbye to her.
“Thank you, Your Excellency. Time is short, so we will depart immediately.”
“Thank you very much, Your Highness the Magus. I will repay your kindness one day.”
“No need… may the beautiful moon guide you.”
Watching them leave while carrying the burlap sack containing Lian, Feiyin let out a soft breath.
She sat quietly in the pavilion for a while before finally standing and leaving the garden.
“Well then, it is time to say goodbye to the Duchess as well.”