After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

"After all, rushing won't do any good, right? And if Mr. Yang Hao can treat this place as his own home, it's not impossible..."

The black dragon remained unusually calm. Perhaps, to her, such calamities were already commonplace in the history of Isgard, and there was no use in being anxious, so she could only wait calmly and patiently.

As for Yang Hao, after receiving a promise from Margarita and realizing that he really couldn't do anything but wait, he was at a loss.

He finally had time to ask Lalumia what her goal was...

After returning to where Fen and the others were, Yang Hao found Lalumia. Before he could even speak, he saw Lalumia gently touch her lips with her hand:

"Besides the cookies Theresa gave you, I came here mainly to remind you of something—about Gaia."

"...Um?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, she's on this continent—her real name is [Gaia, the World Goddess], and only she has the ability to pull you from another world... But right now, let's not get distracted, okay?"

"...I see."

This is indeed major news that requires Lalumia to come and negotiate in person.

Yang Hao nodded, deciding to put the matter aside for the time being.

Chapter 8: [Mutual Learning Between Demons and Humans] - 8K

Margarita acted much faster than Yang Hao had anticipated.

In less than a day, the investigator he needed had arrived. Accompanying him was an old acquaintance, Sirinho, with a puffed-up face and something like a band-aid on his forehead.

Black Dragon joked that Kino had been beaten by her family. Kino just grunted in response, looked around with Miss Margarita's file in hand, found Yang Hao's location, and then walked over with several detectives, their cheeks puffed out.

"Ahem, well, this is the authorization letter that the President asked me to give you... But Your Majesty, I hope you can understand the situation on site before we start working—otherwise, if we dig into a dangerous geological layer, we might be doomed."

Kino carefully handed the authorization letter to Yang Hao, who didn't even glance at it. He stuffed the perfunctory letter into his pocket, then pointed to the burning mine in the distance and said:

"In short—can you find a mine tunnel or cave deep underground that avoids going through the fire?"

His words immediately silenced the previously noisy camp.

Looking at the flames shooting from the mine pit in the distance, and then at the trembling explorer with a troubled expression, everyone could only express their sympathy.

For the people of the United Nations, their goal this time was to fight the demons, not to rescue survivors—even if they were to do such things openly, no one would think that there were still survivors active deep in that mine.

That's constantly burning natural gas! Those safe houses at the bottom of the mine, originally intended for self-protection during collapses, must have turned into ovens under the scorching heat.

Rather than rescuing survivors, it would be more practical to wait until the natural gas was completely burned out, then dig out the coke and put it in a box for future generations to admire—but even so, everyone knew they still had to put on a show.

And now? His Majesty actually says that while the natural gas is still burning, these poor explorers should be sent to search for other tunnels leading to the bottom of the mine?

The soldiers of the United Nations shrugged: Had these scouts offended His Majesty? This sounds like a one-way trip; how could it possibly be completed!

But considering Sirencino's situation as a "native"...

Fine.

The soldiers chose to trust Yang Hao's judgment. For the people of Isugard, however, this was a truly incomprehensible situation.

"No, that's impossible! No one could survive in such a godforsaken place!"

"Even if we find new mine tunnels, who knows if those tunnels are also covered by natural gas layers?! It's impossible!"

"I...I have a wife and children, please let me go..."

Some jumped around in agitation, others tried to argue, and still others almost knelt down—in short, they didn't understand Yang Hao's meaning, but the sirens realized the problem.

What Yang Hao was looking for was not the new tunnel leading to the bottom of the mine.

What he was looking for was a tunnel leading deeper, one that completely avoided the gas and oil reservoirs. However, everyone subconsciously assumed he was genuinely trying to save the impossible survivors at the heart of the fire...

Thinking of this, Kino sighed heavily;

“Your Majesty, avoiding the natural gas and oil layers is possible... but we cannot guarantee that, with the natural gas layer burning violently, the temperature below will still allow normal life to carry out its normal activities.”

"Hey?! What are you saying—"

"Shut up. I've already told you, His Majesty isn't looking for the path to the fire, he's looking for something deeper, much deeper!"

Kino smacked one of the loudest detectives on the head, then straightened his blue hair and shrugged at Yang Hao.

"Ahem... So I understand what you mean for now—but I can't risk the lives of my people until I'm sure you have a way to get underground. Do you really have any units that can handle working in high-temperature, high-pressure environments? I mean, apart from the gigantic Golems."

"Of course."

"Then I'm relieved... Alright, let's get to work—by the way, I need to borrow Lady Nia for a bit."

"Then take her with you. Anyway, Nia doesn't seem to have anything else to do here besides freeloading."

Thanks!

Kino left the camp with the explorers and Black Dragon. They were to search the nearby mines to ensure Yang Hao's safety while exploring downwards.

A group of soldiers from the United Nations followed closely behind, their purpose being to ensure the safety of Kino and the others—though this was unnecessary, it was still necessary to make a political statement.

After they left, Finn pulled Elena aside and said that at this rate, they might have a hard time finding the location of the Demon Mother's Nest before the end of the year.

"...Elena tried to use magical technology to survey the fire. I also tried to calculate the current output of artificial magic... If we want to put out that fire, it will take at least two months—even with magic, it will take more than a week."

"Concerns: Besides the consumption of magic power and the cumbersome casting process, the more important issue is that we don't know the reserves of natural gas... or whether there are other flammable materials below. But if we don't consider digging vertically downwards from the center of the mine, we might miss the location of the Demon Mother's Nest."

The two girls whispered worriedly. Yang Hao glanced back at Lalumia, who had now turned to take care of Naruja, and shook his head.

“I know. Besides, we still have Lalumia, so finding a downward mine by the end of this year shouldn’t be a problem... The question is, will the Mother Nest take advantage of this? That’s a good question.”

The demon's lair cannot simply sit idly by and wait for its demise—Yang Hao understands this issue, but what the demon will specifically do remains an unknown.

In a sense, Yang Hao couldn't empathize with the demonic mausoleum's mindset. While he acknowledged the demons' capacity for sacrifice, he couldn't bring himself to adopt their thought process, to abandon an individual like Theresa for the sake of humanity...

He can't.

Because he couldn't empathize, he couldn't understand it. Because he couldn't empathize, Yang Hao found it hard to imagine what the demonic lair of Ysgard would do if it were buried deep underground.

...

All I can say is that he can be cautious and take precautions where he can.

Whether Miss Margarita can withstand the overwhelming public opinion and allow the United Nations' army to take further action is another matter entirely.

Thinking of this, Yang Hao couldn't help but sigh:

"Sigh... It would be so much easier if we merged."

...

"Sigh... It would be so much easier if we merged."

West City.

When Miss Margarita unconsciously uttered these words while leaning on the table.

She suddenly realized that she seemed to have changed. When had she ever been so cowardly? While it was true that she had objective material needs, why did she now constantly consider merging and asking for help from others?

...

Margarita got up from the table. After reviewing the even larger number of political decision documents in front of her than usual, she came to a conclusion:

"Perhaps it's because I haven't done any real-world investigations in too long? Sigh... It's terrifying. This kind of life where you only need to handle the politics, and then someone else takes care of the actual implementation and development planning, is just too decadent... Even I, a vampire, am almost corrupted. No wonder Gaia threw him onto another continent..."

Perhaps it's because we're really compatible.

Now, Margarita can focus on what she is good at, to the point that she subconsciously relies on Yang Hao's ability to take action.

But for Margarita, and for the future sovereignty of Issugard, this was an extremely dangerous signal. So, after much contemplation, Margarita decided: she should try to regain her former peace of mind first.

...She began laying the political groundwork for Yang Hao's work again. However, seeing the political factions taking advantage of the situation to fan the flames in the media, Margarita couldn't help but sigh: Why does this always happen?

It wasn't that Margarita didn't want to trust businessmen.

Rather, it was the various images displayed by the businessmen that truly opened people's eyes.

"Major businessmen began to call on the public to donate to private charitable organizations, and then they themselves called on the bourgeoisie to make huge donations to stabilize public sentiment."

In reality, the money donated by the wealthy and himself would return to their respective hands the following day. At that point, the public's donations would be split 30/70, and his own promises would naturally be forgotten...

It must be said that businessmen are profit-driven and short-sighted.

Any businessman with a long-term vision should know that as long as he actually keeps the charity running, even if he only symbolically spends less than 2% of the money on refugees each year, Margarita will tacitly approve of their greedy behavior.

But no one thought of that.

Everyone was thinking about embezzling all the money.

They greedily pocketed every last penny, leaving the donation box empty enough to starve rats.

They amassed wealth like madmen, yet were unwilling to distribute it throughout society.

In a sense, businessmen are objectively vital to the development of a country, but the group with the largest assets is also a cancer that hinders the country's progress.

Not to mention, the businessmen's behavior of profiting from national disaster has completely crossed Margarita's bottom line of tolerance.

Now they can exploit natural disasters to swindle money from the people.

Tomorrow they can create a disaster to legally obtain more funds from the government.

A few days later, they might even dare to betray their country for wealth that rivals that of a nation.

...Letting them live only increases the chances of the devil's victory.

So after some thought, Margarita decided that this time she had to take a hard approach.

"...The Trinity Guard, at most, only causes a few people to die."

But I want to ensure that their thoughts have absolutely no chance of sprouting in the next fifty years.

Margarita murmured.

She ordered her Trinity Guard to gather evidence of corruption and decided to use her charm ability to ensure that the bourgeoisie among merchants would never rise again among the people.

But before that, she calmly prioritized eliminating any political factors that might affect Yang Hao's work.

The Issugard government is operating smoothly under the personal control of the president.

Public opinion was quickly neutralized by the state apparatus. In an era where public attention could not be diverted without news of an explosion, Margarita's actions amounted to amplifying the misdeeds of the business class and bourgeoisie.

At her behest, the shady dealings between the merchants and the wealthy were quickly exposed throughout the streets and alleys of Isgard. Suddenly, apart from the relatives of the missing, no ordinary people cared about the devastating news from the mines.

They gathered together, condemning the misdeeds of the big businessmen while pleading with the Miss President to teach them a lesson.

"Therefore... I have decided to include the act of profiting from national crisis in the death penalty law of Issugard. Anyone who uses the nation's peril for personal gain will be considered a traitor to Issugard. What do you all think?"