Royal Princess of Blood

I was intending to sleep until noon or something, but something urgent came up, much to my annoyance. Apparently, the Cursed Children had something to report to me. Along with my crew, Heneis stepped into my room. Both Hartwin and Taneva were just about to leave to shop, but this was more important. I could sense this urgency coming from Heneis himself.

“So, what’s going on?”

“The demons are here.”

I subtly took a deep breath. “By that, what do you mean?” I wanted to be clear about this. Was it demons that heard about what happened to Isaki and thus came for revenge? What they were doing and so on. Or was this something else?

“Last night we saw imps scouting the palace, a few flying in the sky. There were several of them. We became curious, so we followed them and discovered an army of demons on the outskirts of the city, southeast of here.”

“An army?!” Hartwin exclaimed in surprise.

“Not only imps, this time there are ravagers.”

“Ravagers? What’s that?” I knew there were different kinds of demons, but I was not familiar with the specifics. Ravagers were ones I had not faced before.

“Basically giant demons,” Taneva answered. “They’re a savage bunch, leaving chaos in their wake. Be careful when you face one.”

I let out a sigh. “Well, took them long enough.” I had already assumed that the demons had taken notice of me back on Hokunoa somewhere. I’ve been expecting them to pop out anytime. And it took them longer than I first expected. “But bringing an army, huh…” That was a shock to me, and a great annoyance to discover.

“Why didn’t they just attack last night?” Velar asked.

“They’re strategizing, it seems,” I answered. “And they’ve just scouted, so they've only just arrived. They might still be confirming my presence here.”

Props to them for being more thoughtful about their approach. It would seem they were either planning to assault the city or the palace. However, assaulting the city would be a waste of time. I was their priority. Therefore, they would certainly go ahead and attack the palace. They have an army, but would they be sending all of them on the raid all at once?

“There are only a few that can use holy magic here,” Velar said. “If they attack, the people won’t stand a chance.”

“If they have not attacked just yet, they must be planning to attack tonight.” I clicked my tongue. “Collateral damage will be immense.”

“With the ravagers here, they could easily decimate a big portion of the city,” Taneva added.

Hartwin directed a worried look toward me. “What’s the plan?”

I closed my eyes, pondering hard about what to do.

Taneva could probably easily kill a bunch of demons. However, in the end, he was only one person. Something could still happen in other places. My crew couldn’t fight against an army. Even I had qualms about fighting for too long, I shouldn’t.

And this city… could be decimated. Even Miyako might suffer and die. All she did would be rendered pointless. Me helping her would be all for nothing and a waste of time, and that was an irritating thought. I hated wasted effort.

“Forget the shopping, we’ll get our supplies from here.” I shook my head. “Your hangover really hit us hard this time.” I stood up, opened the doors, and stared outside. “Facing an entire assault army here is out of the question, not when only a few could truly hurt these demons. What happens to ravagers when attacked without holy magic?”

“It’s hard to penetrate their skin,” Taneva answered.

What the fuck, that’s ridiculous!

“With enough strength, you could damage them, but they can easily shrug it off. And the warriors here… will be far from enough.”

Can these demons get more absurd?

Dammit. We have imps that could regenerate, now we have tanks?! Yeah, this city’s gonna be wiped off the map with that. Furthermore, if the city falls, I’d be surrounded in all directions. At that point, it would be extremely difficult to escape. There’s no doubt that Hartwin and Velar could die. The Cursed Children wouldn’t be much of help, they couldn’t kill demons without holy magic.

Taneva and I could probably escape. He could probably keep me safe… But, not like it was impossible to hold off an immortal while the demons snatch me away. The fewer people I have, the more dangerous it would be for me. Therefore, ultimately, staying here was dangerous for me. Confrontation was also not recommended for me, else I’ll vomit blood all over the place.

“I’m honestly surprised they’d bring those guys all the way here,” Taneva continued.

“They’re bringing out the big—” I was about to say the big guns. “... ones.” I took a deep breath. “Lingering here is no longer a viable option.” I turned towards my crew. “We run.”

“They will discover us eventually if we do,” Taneva said. “They’ll chase us down.”

“Better than being crowded by them.”

Taneva groaned. “We’ll need to slow them down, at least.”

I turned towards Heneis. “Heneis, you know where our destination is, right?”

“Yes.”

“You and Galik hold off as many demons as possible. Catch up on us on the way.”

“Two of us won’t be enough.”

“They are an army, I doubt they can move them out all at once for a pursuit.” At most, they’d send small groups to chase us, it would be hard to organize their army otherwise. And smaller groups can move faster. “We’ll try to lose them in the mountains. Do what you can. Taneva, how far are we to the thing?”

“Around several days away. It could be a different case if we run, but that has issues on its own.”

Fuuuuck.

Not like we could run constantly.

“At any rate, we’re running. We’ll rest once we lose them. Prepare for departure. I’ll go speak with Miyako to get some essential supplies.”

It would be best if we were to leave in a couple of hours. Once we left the palace, we could expect that they would have seen us moving. But let’s set that aside for now. I ordered everyone to prepare our things for our departure, then I headed for Miyako. I looked around at the palace workers in the surroundings, it could be any of them. Demons hiding in plain sight.

I found her in her office, along with Satomi. Her other two assistants were also in the room.

She directed a curious glance at me. “Estelia? Is something wrong?”

“We have a problem. The demons have found me.”

Miyako’s eyes blinked in confusion. “Found you, what do you mean?”

I sat down on the seat in front of her desk. “I have to make something clear… you know I was brought here by ship and I killed a demon to be free, right? Well, one of the reasons I’m here is that the demons are after me, and I mean all of them.”

“... Why would they want you?”

“They need me for something they are desperate for. And they’ll stop at nothing to get me. That is why I have to leave now. That’s why I wish to get essential supplies from you here in the palace for our journey.”

“If it’s demons, I’m sure we can handle it.”

I shook my head. “No. On the outskirts, we discovered an army of demons. And believe me, it’s not something your city can handle.”

Miyako and Satomi glanced at each other, troubled.

“To prevent a confrontation, it is paramount that I leave immediately.”

“... I-In that case, I’ll send guards to come with you and guard you.”

“No need, they will only slow us down. This is urgent, Miyako, we need the supplies.” Otherwise, we’d be dying of starvation out there.

Miyako took a deep breath and nodded. “Satomi, go and help them with the supplies.”

“Go and see my crew,” I said.

With that, Satomi quickly left.

“... Estelia…” Miyako lowered her head. “Looks like this is going to be the last time we’ll see each other, at least for the time being.”

“... Guess so.”

She leaned forward. “Let me help you. If they find you, we can help slow them down.”

“There is another kind of demon aside from imps, it will be a surprise.”

“I don’t care about that. You helped me, allow me to help you however possible.”

Considering the disparity in strength, I questioned how long they could hold them off. But Miyako was insistent.

“... Fine.”

Miyako smiled. “You’ll probably want your exit to be subtle and safe. We have secret passages for escape. Where do you need to go?”

“We need to go west. The demons are in the southeast.”

She nodded. “I’ll call for the strongest of my people to come with me.” She turned towards Shijo and Aeko. “Call ‌the military officials who fought with me against Isaki, tell them to prepare for combat and follow me. Get them ready now.”

“Y-Yes, milady!”

With that, they quickly left.

Miyako let out a tired sigh. “How far before you reach what you seek?”

“A long way to go.”

“To think they would go this far to get you…”

I stood up. “I’ll need to help with the preparation.”

“Me too. I’ll see you shortly.”

***

I made sure all my weapons were accounted for. The others were strapping their bags, now filled with food and some other traveling stuff. I was intending to shop for something that would make camping more convenient, but guess not.

We were pretty much ready, now only waiting for Miyako and Satomi to come and take us. I stared outside, observing the palace staff working all over. They were wearing pretty much identical clothes like a uniform, but an imp could easily grab those and blend in.

Well, not that I was planning to do anything in particular if I found one. Maybe kill them I don’t know. Taking the secret passage wouldn’t completely hide us from them. If the demons were smart, they would have eyes in the sky. Which, from the looks of it, they were acting such.

Sometime later, Miyako and Satomi arrived in their combat gear.

“Let’s go,” Miyako said.

We followed her through the palace hallways. On the way, I occasionally noticed people turning glances at us, but that was not completely strange. There were workers sweeping the floor, and I met eyes with one worker who glanced at me. Man, I hate it when monsters can blend in with humans.

I paused in place. “Miyako, how familiar are you with the faces of the staff here in the palace?”

“Hm? I don’t know all the names, but I am familiar with their faces. I usually walk around.”

“Then, with the servants here, are you familiar with all of them?”

She looked around, checking the nearby servants. “... I know them…” Then her eyes stopped at a particular man. “But that one, no. And I don’t recall hearing of hiring new workers…”

I swiftly drew a medium dagger and made a small cut on my finger, my blood attaching onto the blade. In one motion, magical strings attached to the dagger, and I threw it towards the man. The blade stabbed into the man’s shoulder. It was then that the wound started sizzling.

Miyako quickly placed a hand on her sword. “Demon!”