“By the way, Kate… did Cassandra say when she’d be returning to the capital?”
Hearing Kate mention Cassandra made Eileen suddenly remember to ask. Kate had only said that Cassandra had gone to the Demon Realm on business, but hadn’t mentioned when she would be back. What if they arrived in the capital and Cassandra had already returned?
“I’m not sure.”
Kate shook her head. “Lady Cassandra left half a month ago to investigate the recent surge of high-rank magical beasts in the Principality together with the Demon King. Since the Demon Realm’s teleportation arrays can’t connect directly to the ones in the human world, the earliest she’ll be back is probably the end of the month.”
“That’s good…”
Eileen let out a sigh of relief. At least for the rest of this month, she could stay in the capital without worrying about running into her.
“Miss Eileen, why do I get the feeling that you’re quite afraid of Lady Cassandra?”
Atia asked curiously.
She wasn’t surprised that Eileen knew Cassandra. After all, Eileen was already acquainted with a legendary adventurer like Kate, and their relationship seemed quite close. Knowing Cassandra wasn’t strange either.
What puzzled her was why Eileen looked so fearful at the mention of her.
Everyone in the Navora Principality had a very good impression of Cassandra. Not only had she inherited her mother’s beauty, but also her kindness. Almost every year she donated large sums to help the poor, and she personally interacted with commoners without any noble airs.
For such a noble lady who served both the country and its people, what did Eileen have to fear?
“Well… it’s a bit complicated. It’s hard to explain…”
Eileen scratched her cheek awkwardly.
Back in the first playthrough, she had hurt Cassandra very deeply.
At the time, she had been sitting in front of a screen and found Cassandra’s repeated attempts to make her stay annoying, so she had said some very harsh things.
Now, putting herself in Cassandra’s shoes… if she were the one who had been deceived and had her feelings toyed with by a scumbag ex-girlfriend, only for that same person to appear in front of her again, she would probably want to chop her into mincemeat and feed her to the dogs…
But Kate didn’t know anything about the complicated history between Eileen and Cassandra. She simply assumed Eileen was still worried about the time she had publicly torn into Cassandra for nearly ten minutes.
“Don’t worry, Eileen. Lady Cassandra stopped caring about the things you said to her a long time ago. After she ran away from home and came back, she even said that you had enlightened her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have continued following in her mother’s footsteps despite all the obstacles in her way.”
However, Kate’s reassurance only made Eileen panic even more.
Back then, the key event that had triggered Cassandra’s route was her arguing with her father over an arranged marriage and secretly running away from the capital. She had wanted to retrace the path her mother once took as a diplomat. Unfortunately, she had barely left the Navora Principality when she ran into bandits.
At the time, Eileen had been busy with the main storyline. While traveling, she noticed a blue exclamation mark on the map indicating a side quest.
As a completionist who couldn’t ignore even question marks on the map, she naturally couldn’t pass up such an obvious side quest. She immediately turned her horse around and headed toward it.
By sheer coincidence, that side quest was to rescue Cassandra, who had been surrounded by bandits.
Although Cassandra and Kate didn’t get along, her character model was genuinely beautiful. Eileen’s sense of aesthetics had always followed her eyes. Thinking that she probably wouldn’t have anything to do with Kate in the future anyway, she quickly dealt with the bandits and saved Cassandra.
At first, Cassandra had been very wary of the woman who had scolded her for nearly ten minutes. Her words carried the unmistakable arrogance of a young noble lady.
Coincidentally, Cassandra was also a pure blonde, which matched her tsundere personality perfectly.
After completing the side quest, Cassandra became a romanceable character.
As the daughter of the Principality’s Duke, romancing Cassandra offered very generous rewards. Without hesitation, Eileen began her operation.
She had already romanced dozens—if not hundreds—of blonde tsundere young ladies like Cassandra. She knew exactly how to handle them.
On top of that, Cassandra had grown up in a sheltered environment and was unusually pure-hearted, which made things much easier for Eileen.
She once read something online:
If you meet a pure-hearted girl, take her to see the splendor of the world.
If you meet a girl who has been through a lot, take her on a carousel.
Clearly, Cassandra belonged to the former category.
She had spent her entire life following in the footsteps of her late mother. The reason she ran away from home this time was to retrace the path her mother had walked as a diplomat.
That made things simple.
In the days that followed, Eileen took Cassandra to various countries around the Navora Principality. She stayed by her side every step of the way and, using all her experience romancing blonde tsundere young ladies, managed to max out Cassandra’s affection in just two short days.
Once she received the reward, Cassandra lost all value to her. Eileen immediately dumped her without a second thought…
Thinking back on it now, Eileen really wanted to slap herself.
She really had been a piece of trash back then!
And now, her lover had turned into an enemy…
“Lady Kate, the teleportation array has been fully charged with magic power. Is there anything else you need to bring?”
Mia asked.
“Nothing else.”
“Then let’s go.”
Following Mia’s chant, the magic power within the array began to flow rapidly.
With a soft “whoosh,” the four of them vanished from the air in an instant.
……
Demon Realm.
This place had once been regarded by humans as synonymous with hell. For thousands of years, the human and demon realms had been hostile toward each other, sparking countless brutal wars.
But all of that had come to an end five years ago, thanks to the current Demon King—Amelia Windsor.
She advocated for peaceful coexistence between humans and demons. With thunderous methods, she purged all opposing voices within the Demon Realm and even took the initiative to extend goodwill toward the human world through the hands of the hero.
At first, the human world remained cautious. But after some interaction, they discovered that this new Demon King was indeed very different from her predecessors.
Through the efforts of both sides, the Demon Realm and the human world not only established channels of communication, but many merchants also began traveling between the two realms, bringing their respective cultures and gradually breaking down mutual prejudices.
In addition, various human nations saw the development potential of the Demon Realm and established diplomatic relations with it, sending ambassadors to engage in exchanges.
Cassandra Navora was the representative of the Navora Principality.
“Demon King, my country urgently hopes that you can investigate the cause of the magic power leakage as soon as possible. Recently, many innocent civilians and adventurers in our nation have died because of those high-rank magical beasts. Although we have been carrying out subjugation efforts everywhere, the speed at which they appear has already reached the limit of what we can handle, and the numbers continue to increase.”
Inside the Demon King’s palace, Cassandra’s expression was serious as she stared straight at the woman on the throne who represented the entire Demon Realm, waiting for her response.
“Miss Cassandra, I understand how you feel. But the cause of the magic power leakage is very complicated. We are already working overtime to investigate it step by step. As soon as we have results, I will have someone notify your country.”
It was the same old bureaucratic response, delivered with the same indifferent attitude.
This wasn’t Cassandra’s first time meeting Amelia, but that perfunctory attitude still made her blood pressure spike.
“Demon King, my country has already paid the price of over a thousand lives because of your side’s negligence. I hope you can take this matter seriously. This isn’t just a problem for my country—similar issues have appeared in other parts of the human world as well…”
“Reporting to the Demon King! There is an urgent matter!”
Before Cassandra could finish speaking, a sheep-headed demon rushed into the hall.
Amelia’s delicate brows furrowed as she coldly swept her gaze over him. “Can’t you see I have an honored guest? If you can’t give me a good reason for this interruption, you can report to Tartarus.”
“Demon King, this is something one of my subordinates obtained from a human merchant…”
Without offering any further explanation, the demon reached into his bag and pulled out a plain black ring with no decorations whatsoever. Its surface was extremely smooth.
In that instant, Amelia’s breath caught in her throat.
This was…
The ring she had given to Eileen five years ago?
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