In the end the empire didn’t, or rather couldn’t attack again, so I dismissed the adventurers, kept our remaining military forces as guards and asked Celestial to guard the pce, now that that’s settled I must carry this pn to completion, a teleport to the western border and I’m retively close to where I was stationed this morning, I would go directly to Heather but going to a pce that I’m unaware of how it looks like is nearly impossible, anyways, for now I took a deep breath, realizing that I could smell the faint scent of Heather in the air.

  And so I followed the trail of Heather scent to know exactly the route she took, man Heather smells so nice, compare that to the awful smell of the piggy and it’s night and day, anyways, it’s te, the sun is about to set and I have a bit of ground to cover, so I’m hurrying ever so slightly, although, when was the st time I wandered an unknown pce like this? When was the st time that I was completely alone? I pondered, it’s certainly a nostalgic feeling but I don’t care too much, I want to see Heather, and I want to help Rushka as well, so I can’t afford the time for introspections.

  This is? A broken down fort? They must’ve gone through here, wait I know this pce, it’s the one I sent Lassie over to poison the water supply, it looks very different when it’s just rubble.

  “Hey you!”

  Hmm? I was called over by a couple of soldiers, it seems they’re trying to get the fort back up, there’s quite a lot of people, which tells me Heather passed through here with minimum casualties probably, great news, she did it better than me.

  “Are you lost? It’s dangerous to wander in such a secluded pce at night”

  Oh, the army people are treating me like a lost child, well it’s fine, I don’t want to make them suffer more casualties after the desert, so I’ll py along for now.

  “Sorry, I seem to be lost, do you know where the next town over is?”

  “This pce is dangerous for the demonkin, you better go back to where you came from little one”

  “Nah, I’m trying to get to a city!”

  I for the life of me can’t remember town names, but I can still follow the fresh stamps of my army, they’re quite obvious now.

  “Is that so? But it’s dangerous to travel at night, at least stay over the night”

  He’s concerned for me, genuinely as I don’t feel any malice from him, this is why I hate wars, good people doing the wrong thing, why can’t we just solve it in a 1v1 with the emperor, whatever.

  “It’s ok, I’m pretty strong! Look”

  I said showing my guild card, it is an international association or so they told me.

  “Ah, apologies, carry on then”

  Hmm...

  I just nodded and said thanks, then I turned around and a second ter, I tilted my head, for an arrow flew straight next to my cheek.

  “Monster! You’re part of the kingdom of Aldrid, or am I mistaken!?”

  “You are indeed mistaken, I am the ruler of my own country, now if you excuse me, I have pces to be”

  The soldiers began to gather, I really didn't have time for this, so I left them behind by dashing towards Heather’s location, they didn’t bother to follow me afterwards.

  A rather small town this is, actually it’s about the size of my own town on second thought. I can see Heather in one of the rooms from what I guess it’s the pace of this pce. I didn’t even bother entering through the door, I missed Heather so much I just jumped up and entered through the window.

  “Heather!”

  “Wha!? Marisa!”

  “You did it! I knew you would! Oh you’re just reading that? Well no biggie just-“

  “You dummy! What are you even thinking! What did you do!?”

  I was so excited to see her I was gonna jump on top of her but she’s just hitting me with the rolled up letter I wrote.

  I think she’s mad... maybe, she looks adorable when she’s mad though, I can’t help but be infatuated by her angry face. For now I’ll let her just calm down, she’s saying things I barely understand that almost sound like bbbering, but I’m just getting that she’s angry. Once Heather finally calmed down, I simply replied with a single word.

  “Sorry...”

  “Hmm... well... it’s fine I think...”

  Eh? Is she blushing? I... I spped my cheeks to snap out of this bubbly atmosphere, there’s work to do sadly.

  “Ahem, sorry your time ruling was so short, but there’s things to do”

  “Eh? But what’s happening!? How did you know about the ck of soldiers! What did you do!?”

  “Right, you deserve an expnation, so what happened was...”

  And so I expined the whole pn to Heather, for more details refer to previous discussions and monologues, anyways.

  “You poisoned our troops...”

  Heather has one hell of a face, maybe I should’ve told her from the start...

  “Uh... a bit, they’re fine, both sides, it’s mostly harmless, besides we saved more lives like this don’t you think?”

  “Sigh...”

  “Sorry, I should’ve told you it’s just, I was a bit worried since you’re so honest that you would end up saying something and ruining the pn...”

  “Do you not trust me perhaps?”

  “I do! Of course I trust in you, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have given you this mission, I-“

  “It’s fine, just... I wish you would’ve told me beforehand...”

  “I’m sorry! I swear I won’t do it again! Please don’t give me the puppy eyes!”

  I can’t, I really feel like shit right now! Please forgive me!

  “Sigh... well that’s just how you are, I already expected something like this”

  Eh? Heather lifted my face since I was looking at the ground while I apologized in a little bow, only to see her face up close, to which she then proceeded to kiss me.

  I... uh...

  “W-what are you doing!?”

  “It’s my revenge for making me worry!”

  “Y-you lewd woman!”

  I don’t know why I feel so flustered, but it’s not a bad feeling.

  ...

  ...

  “So what’s next?”

  “It’s simple, we threaten the empire, is there any empire soldier remaining that could double as a messenger?”

  “There should be a few prisoners of war, we could take one”

  “Ok, let’s do that”

  The message and pn it’s pretty obvious, the herald goes to the capital and tells them that I want to have a chat with the emperor, or is it king as well? ah who cares, people in charge, and if they don’t meet my demands I’ll continue my assault to the capital.

  “Is that all?”

  “Yep, I’ll let you go scott free so expedite things will you? If I don’t get an answer by tomorrow afternoon as a deadline the attack shall continue”

  “Y-yes ma’am!”

  And I let him go to the capital, to my surprise he was the town lord of this pce, better to be influential to be heard I suppose.

  “What if he comes back with an assault?”

  “It’s fine, this is my town for now, and I’ll defend it if it comes to that”

  “But it could be the whole army...”

  What army? The other guy razed it to the ground, honestly I don’t think they have many soldiers left, they would have to send civilians, which I hope they don’t do.

  I spent the night in this pce, the idea of railing Heather in an unknown pce was so exciting, I head towards the room with an ear to ear smile, only to see her sleeping like a log, she didn’t even took her armor underclothes completely off, she must’ve been very tired huh?

  I simply accommodated her hair and pced the quilt to cover her.

  “Good night~”

  And so I left her to get a good night’s sleep. As for me, I sat on top of the pace, more like a mansion, it’s tall enough where I can see the whole town, perched up here. I waited patiently for the messenger to return, hopefully with good news.

  The sun began to rise on the horizon, truly a beautiful moment that I couldn’t care less about, not long after that the messenger came back with a small army, it’s more like a ptoon, so it’s obvious that they’re not here to fight.

  “Heather, wake up!”

  “Wha!? I fell asleep!?”

  It seems she didn’t realize it, quite funny, at least she slept properly.

  “Yep~ now get ready, the messenger it’s coming back on the horizon, he should be here soon”

  “R-Right away!”

  ...

  ...

  “The emperor has accepted your request, if you would accompany us to the capital”

  I went to receive him with Heather, she is my assistant after all.

  “‘Request’ he says, Heather, do you want to come with us?”

  “Eh!? Me? But-“

  “I’ll be more at ease with you there, Doe can take care of things here”

  “O-ok...”

  “Great, take us there then”

  It seems the ex-town lord is angry regarding my manners, dude, you were a prisoner hours ago, don’t act all haughty!

  It took a while but we were received in the capital and the proper pace. This pce it’s huge and rather well adorned. We're in a throne room, literally an elevated chair at the end of a hallway, get a load of the self centered architecture.

  “They didn’t even give us a chair! Cheapskates”

  “Marisa, we’re gonna talk with the emperor, have some manners!”

  “Why, he’s just another man, I didn’t put him in power”

  I was interrupted mid snder by a burly and tall looking dude that simply entered and sat in the throne, there’s guards everywhere, he’s seriously looking down on me, how-

  “What’s a lowly demonkin doing here!? I thought the leader of Aldrid’s army demanded an audience”

  “I-“

  “Silence you filthy wench! Guards execute her at once, I’m done here”

  I felt a vein popping in my head, the guards are as dumbfounded as we are, I’m this close to say fuck it, and just kill the guy, but I have to remain cool or Celestial is gonna get mad at me, for now I simply waved my hand and a gust of wind killed the guards that came our way with their spears.

  This caught the attention of the shitstain that’s the emperor, I hate his guts, at least the king from our pce is just obnoxious, this guy’s just a dick.

  “Ahem... I’m Marisa, Lord of Welst in the kingdom of Aldrid”

  See I learned the names, I definitely didn’t ask Heather while we were coming over to the residing of this asshole I swear. You can’t prove otherwise.

  “Ha! That Arthur and his crazy stunts, he never ceases to entertain me, putting YOU as a town lord, it must be a joke!”

  “Sigh... whatever, I came to negotiate, you want your city back or what?”

  “We’ll take them back no problem, there’s no need to negotiate”

  “Oh yeah, you and what army?”

  “You’re a funny one demon girl”

  As he was saying that, with a stupid smile on his face, the man next to him, I’m guessing his advisor whispered something in his ear, which made his smile turn into a frown.

  “You-”

  I interrupted his next sentence to talk to Heather.

  “Heather~”

  “Y-yes!?”

  See, you’re not the only one that can talk to his assistant while on a meeting, I’ll ignore him for a second~

  “Get up, you’re embarrassing me~”

  She’s been on her knee the whole time, so I want her to stand up like I’ve been doing the whole time.

  “But Marisa! He’s the emperor!”

  “So? You work with me, so bow to no one, not even for me~”

  “B-but!”

  She’s having a hard time deciding, but ultimately got up as well.

  “Ahem! Are you done?”

  “Oh sorry, were you talking?~”

  I love the smug aura, I shall make it my signature, jokes aside, I really need for this conversation to go somewhere productive.

  “Insolent, but with the way you act, I have no doubt anymore that Arthur pced you in charge, you manage to get under my skin just as well as he does”

  “Please don’t compare me with Arthur, our goals aligned for a hot second, is all”

  “As you say, were you the one responsible for the massacre at the desert?”

  “That! Kinda, it wasn’t me really, more of an accident and a third party that got involved, not directly me, but still, an oopsie”

  I really didn’t mean for the army to bite the dust, casualties.

  “You clearly show hostility, how can I believe you?”

  “You’re the one who attacked first”

  “We will never fold for violent ransackers and bandits, much less for bloodthirsty barbarians, The empire is big, bigger than the kingdom, we can respond with force if needed!”

  You’re literally losing right now, how can you say that?

  “Aren’t you mistaking something? The one being threatened here is you!”

  “Oh, and what are you gonna do then!?”

  “Sigh... you just never learn do you”

  I simply blew up the upper half the pace, enough to make the city and surroundings visible since there’s no walls anymore, rubble rained on top of us and around the vicinity of the town, I covered Heather with magic, as she tried to dodge the mortal rain, the guards headed to protect the emperor and to try to minimize the damage.

  “Impressive party trick, but you just confirm my assessment! Everyone, attack her!”

  The emperor yelled, but before any of the guards could react, I looked around the open pace, and pointed over at the horizon.

  “Look over there”

  It’s a mountain, a little far away but still visible to the naked eye. I see nothing but greenery and the like, I took a deep breath and concentrated ALL the mana I had, if Celestial csses work for something now is the time to show off!

  “Mountain begone!”

  I went full on nuke on the mountain, nothing makes people lose the interest to fight like a vulgar dispy of power! I put my all, and they already see me as a senseless warmonger even though they’re the ones invading to begin with. The mountain is just gone! I leveled it to the ground, in fact the explosion was rge enough that the sound was deafening. It was hearable all the way here.

  “That will be your kingdom if you fail to listen to my demands”

  I’m dizzy, way too dizzy and I’m getting tunnel vision. Maybe I went overboard but I can’t fall down here, even if now standing it’s rather difficult...

  The emperor, now visibly shaken, just looks at me. As did the rest of the soldiers, now no one has the will to even come close to me.

  “Who are you?”

  “M-milord, she’s Marisa, the daughter of the demon king Maldi”

  The advisor mentioned in a loud tone, so he knew who I was but the emperor didn’t? Weird.

  “What!? That demon king of legends!?”

  “Apparently, though I’ve never met the guy himself, people keep telling me he’s my father or something”

  I interrupted them mid-talk, everyone got quiet at my words. Which is weird given the complete silence, made me realize I hear a buzzing noise in my ears, still I’m not gonna back down now!

  “Razing the empire is a task I could do with ease, but I have no interest in your shitty nd”

  Yet.

  “So I come here with a simple treaty”

  I said, showing a treaty I wrote with the help of Lassie, she has beautiful handwriting and Celestial proofread it too so I’m confident in the contents.

  “What ludicrous demands are you asking for demon”

  “It’s not much, read it”

  I handed the document to one of the guards, to which he approached me with immense fear in his eyes and then handed it to the emperor to read, the contents are quite simple, a ceasefire and end of the war, return of the city and towns taken on the st attack, and promise of non aggression towards us and the dwarves.

  “Hmm... there’s no validity in this document, for how long does this apply?”

  “Indefinite~”

  “Eh!?”

  “I met you now, and I expected you being like this, so there’s no dates, since there’s no guarantee you’ll even take the respect in it to follow the treaty, so I didn’t bother with those details”

  “What about you? What can guarantee you’ll respect your own treaty”

  “True, but you’ll just have to trust me, besides, I’m the one losing in this trade, since the town I took would be immediate compensation for you and at that point we’re back to square one, if I didn’t want to respect the treaty I wouldn’t even offer it in the first pce”

  “Hmm... and you say cease attacks to the kingdom AND The dwarves?”

  “Yep”

  “Why? What do the dwarves have to do with this?”

  “It’s simple, I don’t want you taking my prey~”

  I said as intimidatingly as I could, it was a bit cheesy but the dwarves are in my eyesight, actually more like a single dwarf, and more like her chastity in particur.

  “And what if I refuse to sign this?”

  “I kill you and take over the empire”

  The emperor looks to be contempting.

  “Look, I don’t care about this war or whatever squabble you have with Arthur, but Arthur nd became my nd, and I’m getting tired of you, so I’m giving you the chance to retreat peacefully, it’s your choice if you decide to take my charity or not”

  “Sigh... it’s fine, but this document doesn’t have any political stand just to let you know”

  “Why would that be?”

  “The king didn’t signed it, a town lord can’t sign documents like this”

  “Oh! Well that won’t be a problem”

  “Is Arthur coming here to sign it?”

  “No, it’s not a problem, because I really couldn’t care less, I said it, you and Arthur do whatever you want, but if you decide to attack and enter war with me then, well, let’s just say I’m not as compassionate as Arthur is”

  “Tch... fine”

  In the end he signed it, I did too, a copy too since one for them, one for me, and so on and so forth, I hate bureaucracy.

  “Great, that’s all for now goril emperor, I’ll remove my troops from your nd”

  “How dare you...”

  “Oh! And one more thing! You have moles in my nd, if you care about their lives have them retreat and never show their face in my territory again, or y’know, let them die, the choice is yours goril”

  It’s not even a clever insult but I like how angry he seems, plus it kinda fits his physique, for now I teleported back with Heather.

  “M-Marisa...”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re scary sometimes...”

  “You think? I thought I was pretty me at intimidating”

  “You had everyone sweating bullets!”

  “It’s fine, besides I’m tired of this fighting, for now I’m gonna need help with our next big project”

  “A checklist for world domination?”

  “Ha! Maybe ter, for now I’m gonna need your help since we’re taking as many orphanages under our wing as possible”

  “Eh? Orphanages?”

  “It’s a long story, for now let’s go back home~”

  And like that I single handedly stopped the war with the empire, or at least forced a ceasefire and peace treaty, so it’s not all bad. We ordered our troops to leave the city and go back home. I teleported one st time with Heather to our pace. I don’t remember much after that, I passed out on my bed as soon as I saw it.

  ...

  ...

  ...

  “Morning sleepyhead~”

  “Hnn? Is it morning already?”

  “More like almost night again, you slept like a log for a day”

  “Happens, sorry, I guess I haven’t rested in a while”

  “I imagined as much, Celestial left you this for when you wake up”

  Ah! Blood, thank god I’m starving, interesting that Celestial’s blood doesn’t coagute. After gulping it down from the container, I got up and catched up with Heather, entering into details now about my promise with Lassie and her part in this whole war.

  “And that’s the gist of it”

  “Well, I’m just gd that everything ended up peacefully”

  “Yep, F for the lost soldiers and casualties, but we must move on”

  “Ah Marisa! Before I forget there’s a messenger from the royal family, you should really see him”

  “Ugh...”

  And I just got the empire off my back, I thought I was finally free for a bit but this job never ends it seems. For now I got up and headed to meet the so-called messenger.

  “What is it?”

  “Ah! Lady Marisa I presume! The king has summoned a lordship meeting for this weekend, it’s imperative that you assist”

  “If I don’t want to?”

  “... uh...”

  “That so?”

  “B-but the king requested you specifically for this meeting and...”

  “And?”

  “Please, at least take the invitation, it’s really important that you assist!”

  “Ugh! I don’t wanna!”

  “Lady Marisa...”

  “Fine, I’ll see if I’m the mood by the weekend, now get lost”

  “Y-yes ma’am”

  Seriously, Arthur can get on my nerves as well, whatever, I completed my duty, so that’s that, I have more urgent manners, like Rushka for example.

  “Rushka!”

  “Marisa! You’re finally awake!”

  Rushka jumped on top of me as soon as she saw me, I’m just gd that everything panned out in the end.

  “What happens now?”

  Rushka asked, I know what she means, which is something I must apologize for.

  “You can go back home, sorry to keeping you here for so long”

  Rushka then shook her head from side to side.

  “It’s ok, you did it for my sake, I appreciate it”

  “Rushka, that too but, I still need to apologize properly, let me take you home”

  “Didn’t you just get called by king Arthur? Can you waste time like that?”

  “Ugh... maybe, but then again, I still wouldn’t feel comfortable with you going by yourself, I know, let’s ask Celestial to give you a ride”

  “Oh! I couldn’t possibly ask for so much! It’s-”

  “It’s fine dear, I doubt she minds, plus I can rest easy knowing you’re in good hands”

  “O-ok... if you insist”

  With that, we both went looking for Celestial, it wasn’t hard finding her in the pace, so I expined to her the situation.

  “Hmm, take Rushka to the dwarf kingdom? Ugh...”

  “Ugh? That’s not the answer I was expecting”

  Now Rushka it’s even more self conscious, weird that Celestial show’s such a distaste for something, I could see annoyance in her face.

  “No, sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude, is just, I don’t like the dwarf country, at all, nothing personal Rushka”

  “Oh, it’s ok, I know you barely visit us, is it too custrophobic?”

  “No, it’s... actually I don’t know, I’ve been there before and there’s nothing wrong with it, I just feel disgust when I’m there, I really can’t pinpoint the reason”

  “The folklore maybe? It is the pce of-”

  “No, I heard the stories and I can’t find any trace of magic or anything of the like so it must be just folklore, I doubt it has anything to do with that”

  “I-It’s fine, you don’t have to”

  “No Marisa is right, just to be safe, I’ll take you over there, sorry for sounding rude”

  And with that Celestial made a portal towards a rather dark cave.

  “Well, I guess it’s goodbye”

  I’m a bit sad to see her go but, it’s not like it’s forever, plus I bet her family is worried beyond words, it’s the best for now.

  “For now! But I want you to come visit Marisa!”

  “Sure, I’ll be there when I’m done with whatever Arthur wants”

  “Un! I’ll send letters in the meantime! Don’t leave me waiting for long!”

  “Tell that to Arthur, It won’t be long, promise”

  “Un! Ah!say goodbye to miss knight and her little sister for me, I will also come visit whenever I can!”

  “I’ll be waiting~”

  And like that I said goodbye to Rushka, It’s only gonna be a couple of days anyways, and we both know it, so it’s not that sappy, Celestial continued trying to hide her disgust even after she left.

  “Heather! I want to do the nas-“

  “Marisa!”

  “Oh hi Ellie!”

  “Marisa! Do you want to py with me!”

  Ellie and Heather finally moved over to the pace properly, it seems they were a bit sad to leave their childhood home but they adapted quickly. Ellie is now a demon so not only can she now walk after getting past her curse, she has the energy of a nuclear reactor. By that I mean she moves and pys a lot.

  “Ellie, please don’t bother Marisa”

  “Bu... but I wanna py with Marisa!”

  “It’s fine, a little exercise wouldn’t hurt! How about it?”

  Ellie’s face just lit up.

  “Are you sure Marisa, you just woke up”

  “It’s fine, to get the bed stiffness away! How about a race from here to that hill over there, what do you say?”

  “Oh! I’m in! I’m in!”

  It’s a solid marathon, the hill I pointed to it’s visible from the window of the room we’re in.

  “To the hill and back by the way”

  “Un!”

  And like that I got to the entrance of the pace and we both ran to the hill and back, it took about 15 minutes of running. I'm gd Heather is letting Ellie have more freedom now that she’s healthy.

  I could’ve done the race in a minute or two but the point was entertaining Ellie, I obviously won by a hair, just to make it interesting.

  “Gasp... pant...”

  “Ellie, are you ok?”

  “Un! Gasp... Marisa... is fast!”

  “You’re really fast too Ellie”

  I’m not sweating or panting like Ellie.

  “Again! I want a rematch!”

  “You girls are having fun”

  “Eh?”

  Heather talked before we could run away at top speed again.

  “Big sister!”

  “Ellie, please don’t push Marisa so much, she just got up from bed”

  “Ok...”

  “Don’t give me those eyes, how about we py together tomorrow, what do you say?”

  “Un! Let’s!”

  “Great, but today it’s te already, why don’t you go to bed hm?”

  “Bu! But I’m not tired!”

  “Ellie!”

  “S-sorry...”

  And like that heather sent Ellie to bed. It is pretty te, the sun is already setting, so I can see why Heather wouldn’t want her running on the streets so te.

  “Mommy Heather is scary~”

  “Oh quit it Marisa! she’s still a kid, it’s important to sleep in order to grow properly”

  “I agree, but just like Ellie, I’m not tired either”

  I said, grabbing Heather’s waist, I also just woke up to be honest, so I’m not tired, and quite pent up actually.

  “Gee... you never get tired do you?”

  “I do, I got tired when I erased a mountain”

  Speaking of, Celestial is gonna give me an earful when she’s back I’m sure of it. For now I’ll enjoy Heather to my heart’s content! Albeit it’s getting frustrating with just her, I should redeem my prize from ending the war with Rushka soon enough. I can hardly contain my excitement.

  Joanne_carper