Shortly after king Arthur gave an official speech in the town of Welst, announcing the change of regimen, he decided to scurry off when he was supposed to be a guest in the pace, the idea of being stuffed inside all day and cared for was asinine to him, something he regretted as in his youth, the freedom he had as a prince was rger than what he has currently, now as an even more important figure, he was constantly guarded and treated with such overbearing care, this whoever didn’t stop him from going out to meet with an old friend of his, Arthur despite his appearance, is a seasoned fighter and mage, so hiding his identity and navigating the streets was an easy task for him, disguised he entered a pub, one he used to visit often to discuss and talk to what once was his tutor and now, his best friend.

  “Long time no see friend, I knew I’d find you here”

  “I could say the same thing, I’m amazed our little spot has sted for so long, I’m gd to see it’s as popur as ever”

  “That it is, despite everything, the town has managed to stay afloat, a testament to the legacy that was left to us”

  “I’m aware friend”

  The king said, serving himself a gss of liquor, probably the cheapest stuff the pce sells, this helped to cover them up, to the rest of the world, they looked like two poor drunkards, still, Arthur was grateful and used to such a type of life, the man he talked to carried himself as well in a certain commanding attitude and posture, despite knowing of his companion’s real identity.

  “I heard the news, the king appointed a new town lord, shocking news”

  “That he did, maybe he saw that it was time for a new wind to blow in town”

  He said, downing the whole mug without a second thought.

  “I wonder, people are rather unhappy about change, although not as much as I expected, could it be that they were getting tired of Gwendal after all?”

  “I was, he needed to go, still I can’t feel but feel remorse, like I failed an old friend of mine”

  Arthur mentioned, a sadness and regret filled his voice as he mentioned those words.

  “Don’t be, I’m sure if he was still around, he would beat him senseless into shape!”

  “Maybe you’re right, maybe you are...”

  Arthur said, taking another chug of the alcohol the two men were sharing.

  “Don’t pce the whole bme on your shoulders my friend, you have the bad habit of doing so”

  “I have responsibilities that I can’t shy away from, this was just another one of them”

  “Hey, I requested an audience with the town lord as well and wasn’t allowed past the gates, at this point it’s HIS fault, he should grow up and take responsibility for his actions instead”

  “Wow... I wonder where everything went so wrong...”

  The two men pondered, before serving themselves again and the man accompanying the king raised his cheap wooden mug.

  “We did what we could, all we can do is honor his legacy, I see this town as his true descendant after all”

  “To what he accomplished, may his name be immortalized for eons within this town!”

  And so the two men cshed mugs and after a minute of silence, they chugged down their beverages once again.

  “So, who do you think it’s the new town lord?”

  The man asked the king, knowing perfectly that he knew the answer.

  “You probably wouldn’t know her”

  “So a she, if the king trusts her then so will I”

  “She’s rather special, still, being part demon would get her in trouble so I see the need for her to be kept anonymous, at least for now”

  “Ha! A part demon girl, it rings a bell, a rather bold one came to my establishment not long ago and scared the living lights out of my training employees!”

  “What would be the odds I wonder?”

  “She was a little short, had red hair and different colored eyes, very hard to miss in a crowd”

  “...well, that’s something!”

  “It’s her isn’t it?”

  “That she is, funny, I didn’t knew she went around the guild terrorizing people like that”

  “Are you sure about this? She seems rather immature”

  “That she is but, she has something that this kingdom needs more than anything, and that’s potential”

  “Potential huh... I remember when you were the new hope for the kingdom, I still think the king does an excellent job”

  “He does what he can, still, the time to pass down the torch it’s rapidly approaching”

  “Is that another one of your premonitions old man? Is there a pce for old coots such as ourselves there?”

  “That I don’t know friend, all I can say is that the cogs of history are moving once again, the things legends are made of, let’s just be gd to be part of a new era, god knows I’ll do everything in my power to make the best possible outcome”

  “I can live with that, for the future then!”

  The two men gave one final toast, before heading back on their ways to their respective abodes.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  “Guild master!”

  “Hm?”

  “Wake up already, the sun rose a while ago!”

  Back on the guild, Delia prepared for her duties as the guild receptionist, as well as waking up the old master that oversees the pce.

  “You reek of alcohol! Were you drinking again st night!?”

  “Yeah, I found an old friend in town and we catch up”

  “Geez! You’re getting up there in years, you can’t be doing this anymore, go wash your face at least while I open the guild”

  “Will do, thanks Delia”

  The life of the guild continued as normal, and Delia did as she did everyday, truth be told she has all but forgotten about the whole deal with Marisa, she continued receiving request by people, assessing ranks with the guild master, helping the other receptionists with material sorting and taking diplomatic interactions with the other guilds, her work was exactly the same, and she did it with care and professionalism, as best as she could.

  “Did you hear...”

  She also, heard all the rumors that happened in the guild lounge, people gather here and it’s obvious that she would, although unintentionally, listen to rumors of all kinds in her position, more so when she had to break fights and such occurrences in the guild.

  That is until Marisa barged back in, which made Delia remember the whole fiasco the first time she was around. She used the opportunity to enforce the guild rules and appropriately punish her misdemeanor for the st time she was here, however the guild master intervened and you know what happened next.

  ...

  ...

  “I can’t believe she’s the new town lord…”

  “Me neither when I first heard of it, but, such is the way life works”

  “How did you find out?”

  “That is something I will not answer, and speaking of silence, you better keep this information under the rug, or I’m firing you”

  “What!? Ok, I will! geez, why is she so important anyways?”

  “I ck the full context but I feel like I pieced quite a bit together, I can say however that maybe the king took the right choice, although it’s too early to tell”

  “He must be out of his mind putting HER as town lord”

  “Oh you’ll be surprised, for now let’s do what we were instructed by the town lord and do our job”

  “Will do!”

  “And before you go, can you formally request Adele to join in, oh and call her to my office, there’s something I need to discuss with her”

  “Adele? She never picks any request unless it’s specifically dungeon or ancient history reted”

  “I know, still, I need to talk to her, and if my hunch it’s correct, she’s the one to get information from”

  “If you say so, she is older than everyone in the guild so she probably has information about what’s happening, I seriously doubted her credential join date the first time I saw her”

  “Don’t call our guildmates old, that’s all for now, feel free to go back to work”

  And so Adele was called as per the guild master’s order, and she entered the room, covered head to toe as not even an inch of her skin is visible as always, despite her appearance, she was a 3 gold star adventurer and as such, was respected by everyone, the guild master included.

  “Odd for you to look after me, what happened?”

  “Some stuff, as always, for now I want to ask your consultancy, would this be enough?”

  The guild master mentioned pcing a pouch of coins on the table, same pouch that Adele took and after checking the insides, she asked once again, what was it that the guild master wished to know.

  “Old mythos, everything you know about the campaign against the demon lord of legend”

  “Oh! Is this about the rumors? They said that there were sightings of the divine dragon in town, is that true?”

  “Perhaps, I’m unsure of the validity of said rumors”

  “Well, I can give you the information but I don’t see why you didn’t check the old history books to begin with? There’s something you want to know in specific, don’t beat around the bush”

  And so, Adele and the guild master discussed private matters for a long while, did he manage to find the information he was after, or was he going in circles once again, the conversation stretched for quite a long time, as Adele went over the ins and outs of what she knew of history’s past.

  “There’s also-”

  “Ok, that’s enough I think”

  The guild master interrupted her, as she tends to go on big tangents and loses focus when asked about things of such topics. The guild master got the info he thinks will help him, and he’ll figure the rest out by himself.

  “If you say so, you’re the one who paid me for the information”

  “Yep, and speaking of requests, there will be a guild request to gather adventurers to defend the border, I would appreciate if you took it and inform me of what happens”

  “Blegh, I don’t like fighting, can’t you have someone else do it?”

  “I think it might be worthwhile for you”

  “Why?”

  “A hunch, nothing substantial, still I would appreciate if you were there”

  “I’ll think about it, only if the pay is good enough!”

  “Ha! It comes from the town lord, I doubt it’s gonna be just spare change”

  And like that, the meeting between them ended and a week ter, the fateful day for the empire’s defeat came about, the guild master waited for the adventurers to return, he waited all night long worried about their well being, but they ended up returning the day after, he made a quick headcount, everyone was there except for a newbie demon girl adventurer, this made him feel relieved for a second, and after a not so quick expnation of the happenings by Adele, he understood everything that occurred on the desert that day.

  Delia on the other hand, was livid at the logistics nightmare that this situation turned into, she went to ask about it to the guild master, as many people and guildmates were a bit unhappy with the situation.

  “Delia, come in”

  “Master, we can’t keep letting that girl get away with things like this! Have you heard what the people of the guild are saying!?”

  “No, but I can imagine”

  “How is she even our town lord!? Is the town gonna be ok!?”

  “Yes Delia, in fact she did the right thing, you’ll see in due time”

  “But misuse the guild resources!? AND the management as well! Isn’t she just wasting taxpayer money!?”

  “Not at all, plus even if she did Delia, it is not our concern as the guild to intervene in political affairs, not more than what we already kinda did”

  “Grr! Seriously that girl! She’s gonna make my hair turn white! What will happen with the war now!?”

  “All we can do is wait and see, however, I think she did an excellent job, more so than what Gwendal would be able to achieve, I can see now why Arthur put her in charge”

  And just like the guild master said, Delia swallowed her own words when the end of war was decred around the kingdom, all thanks to the efforts of the new town lord of Welst.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  “Do you think this it’s gonna happen everyday?”

  Back on the pace, two maids were arguing between each other, the reason was the loud moaning echoing from the master bedroom, this wasn’t an odd occurrence to them, as Gwendal would bring consorts constantly, however, ever since the demon girl came by, she and the ex-captain of the knights spend the nights with such embarrassing actions.

  “I don’t know, but I didn’t know Heather could make such noises...”

  “Yeah, let’s just, pretend we didn’t hear anything”

  And yet, they didn’t pretended anything, needless to say, the rumor of the wild nights coming from the new town lord are a commonly known fact by all the workers within the pace, this came even more of a shock to Doe, as he couldn’t possibly believe the rumor, that is until one day, looking to report something, he accidentally heard them as well, realizing that it wasn’t a rumor after all, in reality it broke his heart ever so slightly, still, he was happy for her, but rumors turned dangerous when Marisa was pced in the position of the town lord.

  The rumor of Heather being the wife of the new town lord started spreading, and with such rumors, the thought of unsavory people targeting her were something that worried him, it worried all the pace guards in fact, they knew Heather ever since she was very young, her sister as well, so they decided to protect them now that it was their official job, more so given the situation of the sisters, still, Heather is strong so, this worry of them was slightly unfounded, but it’s the thought that counts, on that note, they don’t even bother to worry about Marisa, she’s more than capable of caring for herself.

  The people of the pace were in a weird position, Marisa doesn’t ask them for anything outside their station, and in fact, she tries to never rely on them, she simply expected them to keep the pce clean, and that’s pretty much it, they were grateful to not suffer the harassment that Gwendal used to give to the maids, still, more and more people working in the castle started disappearing, not so much that something happened to them, they simply left, this was more apparent during the end of the war, the remaining workers had no idea why but they had a solid guess.

  And speaking of people that were moved, the little vilge that Marisa created it’s still going strong, they managed to survive on their own, but Marisa visits them every now and then to check how they’re doing, slowly but surely, it’s growing to be just another part of the kingdom, they however are still grateful to Marisa for her aid, as is a little farmer girl and her dad, who continue to live peacefully, even to this day.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  “Can you believe this Sarel!?”

  After the meeting of the town lords, two siblings were discussing between them about what happened that day, Adan was rather lucid, he didn’t believe his father’s words, not so much that he’s bothered by the prospect, even if he slightly is, but the fact that no king in the kingdom has received the crown without their predecessor being under the ground, which only helped magnify his fears.

  “Don’t let it bother you Adan, dad just likes to do things in unconventional ways, you should know this better than anyone”

  “Still, the town lords gathered made me feel nervous, did that not affect you at all?”

  “Not really, I knew almost all of them from before, they’re mostly good people, dad picked almost all of them after all”

  “I-if you say so...”

  “The only outlier is the demon girl, she’s an oddball, but I don’t think she means any real harm, even if her attitude it’s quite questionable”

  “Yeah, she seem nice”

  “She really got you hooked huh?”

  “N-no! No she didn’t!”

  “You can’t hide anything from me little brother”

  “What about you!? Are you not worried you’ll have to marry one of them!?”

  “I made my mind not long after mom died, such is our life and there’s nothing more we can argue about it, our lives have been put in pce for the better of the people, the same is true for dad”

  “I know... still, I wouldn’t want to marry someone I don’t love!”

  “Same, which is also the reason why dad presented us perhaps, he wants us to pick someone ourselves first and foremost, before handing us away or something simir”

  “Is that so...”

  “I think so, there’s been something weighing down on dad’s mind tely, could he be worried about something”

  “D-don’t jinx it like that!”

  “Sorry, you’re right, it’s time for peace finally, let us not worry about such matters, not yet at least”

  “Sarel you’re as gloomy as always!”

  “I just want to keep myself grounded, There is something that is nagging at me more than the meeting itself”

  “A premonition like dad calls them? Is it something bad?”

  “Nah, I don’t think so, don’t worry about it Adan, let’s wonder how to get you and that Marisa a date together instead~”

  “Sarel!!”

  And so the two siblings carried on, Sarel is not fazed by the occurrences, still she decided to lie to her brother, for the feeling of gloom is real enough that she’s unable to think of nothing else, she’ll continue pretending for the sake of her family, even if she knows her dad is also withholding information.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  “Are you ok?”

  In the middle of the desert, two cloaked figures talked with one another, the woman was bleeding from the arm, or so it looked to onlookers, the fact is that the wound has all but healed, and the blood is nothing but what was left when the injury was still there.

  “Absolutely, this is just a scratch”

  “If you say so, at least we managed to complete our mission”

  “That we did~ should we go after the princess? She headed towards the dwarf country”

  “No, we were told to leave her to her own devices unless she interfered with the pn”

  “I know, I just want to tease her a bit more”

  “Do you want to risk an extensive search from Celestial? The only reason she doesn’t hunt us down completely is her fear of leaving Marisa alone for long”

  “She really is a pain to deal with! I hope we can get rid of her soon enough”

  “Patience, we have our orders, let us go back to report our lord of the situation”

  “Sounds great, let us go then”

  And unceremoniously, the two figures opened a portal to teleport away, disappearing without a trace, getting ready for their next orders.

  Joanne_carper