SHK CH 375 (Patreon)

The carriage was advancing slowly through the street as the second day of the festival continued in full swing. Looking at the people singing and dancing, with joy evident on their faces, Pandora couldn’t help but feel a little bit envious of this wonderful kingdom— which was pretty normal with the Sin she bore with her Blessed status.

Envilya was a country no less developed than Lustburg and in fact, it was more advanced, all things considered. After all, demons were also divine beasts in the distant past. Though now, they were stuck in the Mortal Realm.

Even so, despite their technology, the life of the citizens was not particularly great.

This mainly came from the fact that Envilya was full of undead beings and undead mages who didn’t mind massacring a village or two to get the materials they needed for their work.

As if that wasn’t enough, the rift between the royal family and the church caused many repercussions, to the stability of the kingdom, which made protecting the citizens a far more complicated process. After all, the church of kindness and faith could only come from destitution and poverty.

Only those who could give everything they had could be accepted in the Heavenly Kingdom of Goddess Humanitas or so they preached.

Pandora found this to be utter garbage of a propaganda. But there was nothing she could really do about it. The Supreme Daughter of Humanitas was from the Nightmare Queen’s generation and that bitch had the power to evolve and regain her divine status at any given moment.

The only reason she did not do so was that she decided her mission was to stay in the Mortal Realm and guide the poor people who were drowning in ignorance and aggregate them under the light of the goddess she worshipped.

‘Sigh. I hope Sol won’t disappoint me.’

The alliance with Lustburg was very important to her. She had worked hard years ago to make it happen only for everything to crash down because of some assassins mixing into the delegation and nearly killing Sol when he was a kid. [1]

Even though they were able to retaliate thanks to this and worked alongside the Crown’s Shadow of Lustburg to kill off a few heirs with great potential among the supporters of the church’s side, all talks about a true alliance had been pushed off.

This was why this time she came in person. She was ready to use all her charms and wits as well as pull her old relationships in order to succeed in forming this essential alliance.

“Now that I think about it, how is the Queen doing? My mother asked me to inquire?”

She was still playing the role of her daughter. Thus she needed to be careful in choosing her words. With the level of acting and experience she had under her sleeves, it was not much of a problem.

Ketia, who had been staying silent all this while, simply bowed her head before speaking, “Her Majesty is doing well.”

‘Hmmm… A well-trained maid. Adept at fighting too. An assassin?’

She mused as she observed the maid wearing clothes so revealing that she almost wondered how she could work in them.

“I guess this is Prince Sol’s taste?”

Ketia stayed polite and shook her head to deny her, “His Highness did not grace me with his seed. Nor did he ever impose any dress code on me. I simply like such clothes.”

“Heh…”

‘I guess I shouldn’t waste time with this one.’

Pandora had the power to dream walk. If she so wished, be it by using her charm or hypnotizing the woman and entering her dreams, she could obtain any answers she wanted.

Sadly, she knew that professionals like the maid before her generally had a way to tell if they have been compromised by a succubus.

She didn’t want to set off any alarms and risk destroying her second chance that she salvaged after having toiled for years for it.

“We have reached our destination.”

Once the carriage stopped, Pandora walked out the door and gazed at the huge tower which was the Tower of Babel.

‘As impressive as I remember.’

It was hard to think that such a gigantic monument had been created simply to imprison one witch.

‘Speaking of the witch, her name was Edea, right? I wonder if she is still imprisoned or if she had finally left her self-imposed imprisonment.’

She knew that Mars had received some teachings from the witch locked inside the tower. But despite his innate charm, he had never been able to make her walk out.

It was quite a shame. Persephone alone had been a huge help during their adventure. If Edea had joined, then many things would have probably gone down a different route.

“Princess. Why are you standing still? Is anything bothering you?”

Ketia’s voice woke up Pandora from her reverie.

‘I don’t know why, but I really don’t want to enter inside that tower.’

She suddenly felt like that coming to this place hadn’t been such a good idea after all. No matter what she tried to do, her body seemed unwilling to listen to her and advance inside.

‘But do I even have a choice?’

She gritted her teeth and for the first time in her life, refused to listen to her instincts as she entered the courtyard of the tower.

———

“Welcome, Princess Anastasia.”

The first one to greet her was a woman with voluptuous features no less impressive than that of a Succubus. Her charms were undeniable but seeing that it was just a cow beastwoman, Pandora was about to dismiss her when she felt a chill run down her spine.

‘Dangerous.’

She looked deeply at the maid and slowly became bewildered,

“Hello…?”

‘What the hell? A Duke?’

Like demons, beastmen were composed of more than a hundred sub-races. Still, she knew enough about them to know that cow beasts were only the lowest of the low among the races of beastmen. Did they even have access to elemental magic in the first place?

How the hell did one become a Duke?

In the first place… Why in the goddess’ name was a Duke class being working as a mere maid?

“Princess?”

Shaking off her surprise and showing none of it on her face, Pandora returned the greeting.

‘Well, mutants and exceptions always exist in this world.’

“I am sorry. I was just a little surprised. My mother always told me how impressive the Tower of Babel was and I realize her words weren’t enough to do it justice.”

‘Yes. Let’s stay calm. It’s just a Duke after all.’

“My name is Milia. I am the head maid as well as His Highness's personal maid. I will take care of you during your stay here. if you would?”

Pandora nodded and began following behind Milia. It was then that the sound of sword clashing caught her attention.

“Can I take a look?”

Milia hesitated before nodding. “As long as we don’t disturb them.”

Pandora was quite happy as it would help her gauge a little at the way the knights trained now compared to the past.

But when she reached the training ground.

All she could see was two young girls moving faster than the speed of sound as they repeatedly clashed their swords.

Pandora’s eyes twitched a little when she realized that one of them was a Duke and even more so when she realized who it was.

‘Lilin?’

She had fought with Lilin during the vampire invasion in Southern Pride. So she was less surprised. At the end of the day, Lilin was of royal blood and Lilith’s daughter.

But the one keeping up with her was….

‘A storm wolf?’

All storm wolves were part of the royal family of Wratharis.

“Who is that wolf?”

“She is Setsuna. His Highness’s knight.”

“*Cough* *Cough*  What?”

A member of the royal family was working as his knight?

Pandora felt her heartbeat accelerate as her instincts once again began screaming at her to leave this place and flee as far as she was able to and this time she decided that perhaps she should listen to them, after all.

But it was then….

“Oh! Milia! What brought you here? We were just about to wrap it up.”

Pandora realized that she had been unconsciously ignoring the presence of a third person.

It was another maid.

“Who is….”

Her voice slowly drifted out and she had to summon a will of steel to not take a step back in fright after seeing the person she was witnessing in front of her.

The one who had spoken was a young girl with red hair and red eyes wearing a cute maid attire. She was a young beauty with a pubescent body that had not yet fully developed and matured into that of a woman’s.

But if that was all, Pandora would have never been surprised. After all, there was nothing new about a young maid being cute.

But…. But…

“This….”

‘Oh, my goddess.’

For an instant, Pandora began to wonder if she was currently trapped in the dream realm of another succubus.

This was the only way to explain what she was currently seeing.

After all. What else could explain the fact that a King rank being was working as a maid?

‘This…This doesn’t make any sense.’

“Princess?”

“Hahah… Sorry, sorry. I am just feeling a little dizzy. Could we just please go to my quarters?”

Milia seemed puzzled but nodded nonetheless. “Kali. I am taking care of a guest. Don’t push Setsuna too much.”

“Heh, I know how to take care of my railgun.”

‘Kali….? No. This isn’t possible. I am sure I just heard it wrong.’

Pandora began to walk even faster. Nearly walking past Milia.

She needed to take some distance and breath in an isolated place to think things through. She was beginning to feel a little suffocated.

But it was then…

“Hey! Why don’t we go to the festival again!? Sol said we should do some shopping too while we’re at it.”

“I am not interested. Let’s wait until he comes back.”

Pandora stopped short when she gazed at the two women walking out of the tower.

This time, the fact that they were two Dukes did not even register in her mind. Nor was the fact that one of them was a fairy. Nothing mattered before the level of existence the other women wielded.

‘How is this possible!?’

She felt like all her common sense was being challenged at this day.

Demon, as they were now, was nothing but a devolved form of the pure demons of the past. Those who were able to stand as Divine Beasts.

Even so, sometime, some demons could get back their original bloodline and become True Demons.

The difference between a True Demon and a mortal one was like the difference between a commoner and an emperor.

They were two beings of completely different states. There was an absolute difference in pedigree.

Pandora had to bite her tongue to fight the innate desire to kneel down in front of that woman as a sign of respect.

‘Why? Why is a True Demon here!?’

Pandora would never forget this day.

Even more so since this was just the start of her surprises.

After all… She had not even stepped into the Tower yet.

———

[1]: CH 21: Bath and Politics. Man. Reading my old chapters makes me laugh sometimes. Mainly Vol 1. there are so many things I changed from the earlier plot. It’s a wonder I managed to keep everything logical.