Royal Princess of Blood

The testing finished at night, and it was indeed a lot of work. That said, no other demon had been exposed. At this point, we could conclude that the palace staff was clear of demons. There was only one demon and was already eliminated. Which was very good. Even more impressive that it was a winged imp.

There was some confusion about what exactly was going on. But given what happened with the demon, only the military officials and others present were the ‌ones who knew what Miyako was looking for. And she had no plan to announce anything just yet. That was fine, she could do what she wanted. It was her strategy from here on out.

I met up with her once everyone had vacated the throne room. We were at the side of the palace, where no one else came around. She was sitting on the edge of the pavement, all alone on this chilly night. As I approached, I noticed her rubbing her eyes.

“Will you be alright?” I asked gently as I sat down beside her.

“... Just relieved and a bit upset…” She took a deep breath. “There was only one demon, and it had to be a close friend.”

It would seem they were closer than I had first understood. But then again, I learned that Isaki was the friendliest among them, she got along very well with everyone. She must have also pretended to be extremely kind.

Or Miyako just cared deeply for her people.

When you are that way, betrayal cuts deep.

“How unfortunate indeed.”

“... Aeko and Shijo are still pretty shaken about it. Isaki had always been there for them. Never could they ever think that she was a demon. I couldn’t believe it at first.”

“Do you grieve Isaki as she is, or who you believed she was?”

Miyako lowered her head, her gaze distant. “I wonder, did she ever feel something sincere during her time with us? Despite being a demon.”

That was a difficult thing to answer. There was not much known about demons, but fundamentally they were monsters. They were creatures of chaos, literally underlings of the god of despair. You could never assume them to be anything good. Did she ever feel sincerity? I think not. Isaki seemed to look down on humans. And even in her final moments, she strove to trick Miyako.

Wondering something like that was not something surprising coming from Miyako. But if they could even feel something sincere towards humans, things would have been nice ‌a long time ago. Co-existence could have been possible, but with the demons’ nature, you shouldn’t expect it.

“With how she treated you after being exposed, I doubt it.”

“I guess so…” she wryly laughed. “Pretty stupid of me to even think that.”

I stared at her. “It’s not stupid, it’s only natural to wonder about many things.”

“... Isaki is definitely involved in shady activities in the capital. Too bad I killed her already…”

If she were alive, they could have interrogated her. However, I wouldn’t recommend it. It would be extremely difficult to hold a demon like that for too long. Even more so considering that only Miyako and Satomi could use blood art properly. Furthermore, other demons might come to notice her disappearance, they might send some people to retrieve her.

There was just too much risk in keeping a winged demon imprisoned when they couldn’t sustain it just yet. The safest option was just to eliminate the threat.

“That’s fine… you’ve only just started. What will you do moving forward?”

“For now, I’ll make an army of my own, and I’ll teach them the blood art. They will be a force against demons. Meanwhile, I’ll continue cleaning up the corruption on my island.”

“... Any word from your father?”

She shook her head. “Nothing yet.”

I nodded. “I see… Miyako, now that you have defeated a major obstacle, I can be assured. I can now leave without worry.”

“... I guess with this you’re leaving, huh?”

“Yes, we’ll leave the day after tomorrow. I don’t have much time.”

Miyako lifted a tender smile. “Thank you for giving me your precious little time. I owe you greatly.”

“... You’re welcome.”

“Lots have changed ever since we met… And I don’t regret ever meeting you.”

Hearing that, I felt quite flattered. Rarely could I hear those words. Mostly, when I met people, they only saw their certain death, and they feared me.

I smiled and patted her shoulder as I stood up. “I have to go, I still have to scold a couple of guys.”

“Oh yeah, they’ve returned. I’m curious what could have made them miss the whole day.”

“That’s what I’m going to find out.”

***

“Where the hell were you two?!” I shouted angrily, which I rarely do, by the way.

At the moment, the gang, except Nira, was in my room. I stood, putting my hands on my waist to show my frustration. The culprits of my fury, Hartwin and Taneva, were sitting on the floor. Hartwin lowered his head in regret, while the other, not at all.

“The demon turned out to be a winged imp, you know! Good thing Miyako defeated it. If I had to intervene, I might be vomiting blood right now. We were expecting you. So, any explanation?!”

Hartwin formed an exaggerated pout. “I’m sorry, Princess!” he clasped his hands together. “Something terrible and embarrassing happened!”

“You look fine.”

“N-Not that way…”

“So, what is it?”

Hartwin directed a glance at Taneva for a moment before finally answering. “We had a terrible hangover!”

What…?

Bullshit! No fucking way I was gonna believe that bullshit. I swear there’s no way a pair of heavy drunkards would get that hard of a fucking hangover! Before I could lash out and call out their crap, Hartwin frantically continued.

“I-I swear that bar put something in the drink…”

“What…?”

“We tried a new kind of drink, the people said it was something new! But… um… it would seem it hit us hard.”

“Seem…?” he sounded unsure. I turned a confused look at Taneva. “Even you, Taneva?” This motherfucker had drunk basically all the liquor there could be, so I was quite in disbelief.

“There are always surprises in life, huh?” He laughed ever so casually, and his behavior quite pissed me off.

“The hangover is not the worst thing, though…” Hartwin continued. “We, um… woke up around noon with headaches and…” He hesitated, avoiding eye contact.

“And…?”

“We… lost the money.”

“WHAT?!” Oh my, the stress was making me feel dizzy.

“But we got it back!” he quickly added. “... We had to find the ones who took it. So everything’s fine. All coins are accounted for! I… I think…” he wryly smiled.

Don’t fucking smile at me, you idiots!

“What exactly happened that took you a whole day?” I kept my calm, at least the money was still there.

And thus, they began to describe what happened. They essentially had to get back to the bar they had gone to and investigate what had happened. Eventually, they discovered it was all the doing of some kind of criminal group. They laced the drink with some kind of drug, and once it took effect, then they stole their money. Apparently, it was a usual criminal activity. Mainly the targets were tourists.

Of course, it was a hell lot of money they took, so the two of them really went out of their way to retrieve it. Some time during that, they met up with Nira. It took some time… but from what I was hearing, it was chaotic… I think they may have destroyed this group of criminals unintentionally… They um, killed a lot of people.

I palmed my face. “To think that so much happened in such a short amount of time.”

They had their own side story going on right there! They had their hangover movie moment! Yeah I saw that movie, only the first one though…

“At this point, I’m going to assume you haven’t done your shopping yet?”

Hartwin awkwardly chuckled. “We have not…”

I frowned. “Such an intense hangover moment I least expected from you, Taneva.”

“Hey now, I heard of a new kind of liquor, of course I’d try it. Didn’t think they added some drug though, strong enough to even affect me.”

Maybe Hartwin was lucky enough that he didn’t die from it or something.

“Apparently, it made us incredibly high or something,” Taneva added. “So we couldn’t remember what we did the whole night… But strangely, there were a few people that knew us.”

Fucking knew it, a hangover moment! Dammit!

“Don’t tell me either of you accidentally married someone,” I said.

“... Doesn’t appear to be.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, whatever. Liquor is banned for now. Continue your shopping tomorrow. We’re leaving the day after tomorrow.”

“On the bright side,” Taneva said. “We did consider coming to help you… But I knew you could handle things if it all went wrong.”

I wanna point him a middle finger so bad! Fuck you.

***

A group of demons lingered on the outskirts of the Nishinoan capital city in the cover of the night. The imp dread lord, Trigel, looked around at the army of imps and ravagers itching to move. According to their intel, the young goddess was moving with a human named Miyako. Apparently, she was the daughter of Nishinoa’s lord.

Trigel found it quite interesting that the goddess was going with such a significant human. But considering that was the case, it could mean that eventually the goddess would end up in the capital city. Bakin coordinated with the imp assigned to the Hokunoan criminal syndicate, and learned where they had landed. The imp then learned that the goddess rode with the lord’s daughter heading for the capital city.

They quickly conveyed the information, but Trigel already surmised that they would be heading for the capital city and had thus already taken action to move. Although they were not as quick as he had hoped, given that the ravagers were with them. They crushed a couple of villages running here as quickly as possible. And they had just arrived today.

Trigel turned towards Bakin. “Isn’t there an imp working here?” He could recall hearing about it some time ago.

Bakin nodded. “Yes, but it’s not really easy to find them. I never met them directly. We communicated and received intel through messengers.”

There were a lot of imps all over the archipelago, and they were not exactly coordinated on who to send where, and where they should be. Imps were mostly free to do what they wanted. So, figuring out the identity of the imp working here would be difficult unless they show themselves.

“Does not matter, scout the city and we’ll plan ahead. Meanwhile, send men tomorrow to confirm the goddess’s presence and where she could be. It shouldn’t be that hard to ask around the palace about a white-haired girl. Afterward, we’ll attack at night.”

“Understood.”

It was then a giant walked up to them, his steps let out thuds as he left small craters on the ground. “Aren’t we attacking yet, Trigel? It’s right there.”

“Not yet, we need to be meticulous.”

“Imps and your tendency to complicate things. Just assault it directly and it will be over quickly.”

Trigel resisted the urge to sigh. Ravagers were commonly impatient creatures. “Patience, Ongrus. Remember that she escaped Rytus, and we don’t know how. We must be careful. Additionally, she has allies, we don’t know what they’re capable of.”

“The best way to find out is to fight them!”

“You will have your time, I promise you. For now, let’s be careful and plan our actions properly.”