The Fake Saintess and the Elf Warrior

Later, while working in a town to support her daughter Lutis, Luthus was spotted by an elite knight from the royal palace's adventure guild who happened to be passing through. The knight recognized her exceptional talent, meticulous work ethic, and strong sense of justice, and brought her to the capital to train her as a knight. Luthus lived up to his expectations. Now, she possesses superb martial arts skills. Joining the royal palace's adventure guild has also provided her with a stable income. Although her busy work schedule has led to less time for disciplining her daughter Lutis, and in recent years Lutis has often gone out without her mother's knowledge, as she has associated with some shady characters, their lives as mother and daughter have at least settled down somewhat.

For Luthus, her greatest goal is to use her own power to eliminate all evil and injustice, and to reduce the number of unfortunate girls like herself. Not only monsters, but also thieves who wreak havoc on humanity, and the children of high-ranking officials who abuse their power are Luthus's greatest enemies. Raising Luthus and providing her with a happy life is Luthus's only wish.

Until yesterday, she encountered the Demon King who destroyed everything...

At this point, Lucia suddenly knelt down before the Demon King and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Please! Demon King... no, Demon King! Ruth is my only family now. Even if she's that despicable man's child, she's still my own flesh and blood, my only solace... I don't want to lose her... I'll do whatever you order me to do! But this child... Ruth, please have mercy and spare her! Don't kill her! Don't order me to kill her, and don't turn her into this walking corpse I am now... I only hope that she can live out her life peacefully as my 'sister' until the very end...! Please, Demon King! I'll kill anyone else you order me to kill, and you can kill me as you please after I'm no longer of any use to you... but please, spare her!"

She had intended to keep these stories hidden forever, never letting anyone know. She broke this ironclad rule she had set for herself, telling the demon king everything, simply because she understood she was no longer in control of her own destiny. She could die at his hands at any moment. She wasn't afraid of death. But she didn't know how Rudis, having lost her own child, would survive after her death. She feared the very fate Rudis would face after her demise.

She knew that the decision was not in her own hands. But at this moment, all she could do was beg the Demon King for mercy.

"......."

Faced with her request and her tragic past, Naka simply rested her chin on her hand in silent contemplation.

Luthus was unaware that while she was cooking in the kitchen, her daughter had already clashed with Naka. Even without revealing her disguise, Naka's battle-hardened instincts, honed through countless battles, were more than enough to handle her, even though she was a saintess. In other words, Luthus was indeed incredibly vulnerable. As the Demon King, Naka naturally wouldn't stoop to the level of someone as lowly as an ant. Even if Luthus hadn't spoken up, Naka had no intention of killing her.

However, Lucis seemed to believe that Naka would likely kill Lucis's family as well after the deed was done. Before Naka could say anything, Lucis proactively expressed her sincerity. Although regardless of whether Naka killed Lucis or not, Lucis had no choice but to obey Naka's orders, since she had a misunderstanding, Naka ultimately decided it would be better to take advantage of this misunderstanding.

"...Sure. I can spare her life. Not only will I spare her life, but before I'm done using you and decide what to do with you, I can let you have one last meeting with her and have a proper talk. I'll give you time to take care of everything you want to do for her."

"Really?!" Lucia exclaimed with delight. Naka, however, abruptly changed the subject.

"But I have one condition."

"W-what conditions?"

"I told you about the Dragon's Fang yesterday, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes! But I really haven't heard of it..."

"I believe you haven't heard of it. But I have reliable information that its tooth is definitely in the capital, or has been in the capital before. In any case, there must still be people in this city who know the whereabouts of the dragon's tooth."

As she spoke, she held up three fingers.

"Three days. I'm giving you three days to gather information about this matter. No matter how much progress you make, you must at least get me some valuable intelligence. If you succeed, I'll use you a little longer, so you can spend more time with your daughter... no, your 'sister.' If you fail... I'll send you and your 'sister' to their deaths. Understand?"

"Yes, yes! I, I will definitely do as you say!"

Before becoming a knight of the kingdom, Lucius was, after all, a mother and a "sister." To save the lives of her loved ones, she was now willing to betray the kingdom that had raised her. Without hesitation and without pretense, she obeyed the Demon King's orders.

"Don't forget you still have my enslavement magic on you; you can't lie to me. As long as you can get information from the palace, even if it turns out to be false, I won't hold you responsible. That is, you yourself don't know the truth of that information. So don't slack off by thinking about making up some information to fool people, and waste this chance to save your and your 'sister's' lives. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

Finally, Lucia faithfully kowtowed to the Demon King once more.

.......

However, Naka lied to Lucy.

"You have three days to produce the information, or I will kill you and your daughter together."... In fact, even if Lucy couldn't produce the information after three days, Naka didn't really intend to kill them.

For an adventurer of Lucy's caliber, uncovering such a crucial secret within three days was an unrealistic expectation. The probability of failure was extremely high. The reason for this was simply that Naka intended to take other actions on her own within those three days.

Finding Oz or sending Lucius to gather information was a difficult choice for Naka. Ultimately, she realized it wasn't a simple black-and-white dilemma. She could pursue both simultaneously and achieve the same goal. While sending Lucius to gather information within the palace, she would use her ability—the "Demon King's Power: Wormhole"—to search for Oz's whereabouts. This would save time and money, and ensure immediate action was taken once either method made clear progress, preventing her from missing the optimal opportunity. If no valuable information was found after three days, Naka figured she could simply find another excuse to prolong the search. In any case, killing Lucius after three days and then searching for other ways to gather information from the palace was never part of Naka's plan.

Besides that, there was another factor that had been constantly weighing on Naka's mind...

"...Is this the bond between mother and daughter?"

This wasn't the first time Naka had witnessed the interaction between human parents and children. About three years ago, she had already observed human families at the home of her first friend on Earth: Saint Jasmine. But having lived with her parents for years without any conflict, they seemed like just an ordinary family to Naka. The preciousness of the mother-daughter bond, the selflessness and sacrifice they showed, wasn't immediately apparent. But today, Lucy's story deeply moved her. Even though she maintained a blank expression throughout, her heart was filled with complex emotions.

She never imagined that a mother could go to such lengths for her daughter. To be able to say so casually, "I don't care if you kill me." To be able to so readily betray her country. In her eyes, Ruth was not a child worthy of Ruth's love and sacrifice. But in a mother's eyes, at least in the eyes of a responsible mother like Ruth, her child was priceless, more important than her country, and irreplaceable.

And... what about myself?

Naka ignored Lucy kneeling on the ground and looked up at the clouds outside the window. Naka's 'daughter' was also under the same blue sky. She gazed intently, unconsciously uttering her 'daughter's' name.

"Mayera..."

Reserve Knights

"Drink! Ha!"

In the northwest corner of the capital, countless young men clad in silver armor roared in unison at a precise frequency on a vast training ground, wielding their wooden spears with synchronized power. Each thrust of their spears into the air produced a deafening, resounding boom across the training ground.

On the platform in front of the playground, a man armed with gold armor unlike the young people's, stroked his sideburns and beard, watching the young people sweating profusely.

After the morning training session ended, everyone put away the weapons they had used during practice and assembled in five rows of ten in front of the platform. The man on the platform cleared his throat, then opened his mouth wide and shouted a battle cry that rivaled the young men's.

"Thank you all for your hard work today! But listen! You are noble and valiant knights, loyal to the kingdom and the king! I hope you will maintain this momentum, diligently hone your abilities and minds, and graduate from the reserve force as soon as possible to become full members of the knightly order! Although you are in the reserve, you must not relax your standards! Caring for the people and eliminating evil are your supreme doctrines and missions!"

"Yes, sir!"

The freshmen in the audience responded with firm voices.

This facility, directly established by the kingdom, serves as a training base for knights, one of the adventurer professions, to cultivate talented individuals from all over the land. While those gathered here are not members of the royal palace's directly affiliated adventurer teams, but rather trainees as a reserve force, it is still the primary source of talent for elite adventurer teams. If one were to determine who is most likely to become a member of the new royal palace adventurer teams, the first choice would be among these young people nurtured by the kingdom itself.

Every morning, the prospective members would practice like this, personally supervised by Mr. Bulwer, a 55-year-old elite knight from the Royal Palace Adventurer's Guild. After the morning training, Mr. Bulwer would address these new generation talents, reminding them of the inescapable responsibilities of a knight and a human being.

After a brief speech, Bulwer announced the disbandment of the group. The young knights dispersed in an orderly fashion.

Bulwer was to the knights what Frost was to the heroes. His mere presence boosted the morale of the young knights. Even though they saw him every morning, he only appeared before them at this time each day. Those few minutes each day filled the knights with immense anticipation and excitement.

Unlike adventurer schools, the elites trained by the Royal Palace Adventurer Guild don't just learn theoretical courses or undergo simulated training with non-lethal weapons. Even those in reserve are ready to be deployed at any time and immediately thrown into real combat missions. At dismissal, the knights were all high-spirited and eager for battle. Encouraged by Bulwer, they were ready to face today's mission in peak condition.

But there was one person who seemed different from her colleagues. She walked listlessly, head down, constantly sighing.

"well...."

The morning exercises weren't overly strenuous, and she didn't dislike Bulwer. On the contrary, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Bulwer, who saw her potential, brought her from a poor village to this bustling capital, and arranged for her to train in the reserve knightly order, giving her the skills and opportunities to earn a living, was this woman's greatest benefactor. Her despondency, however, had other causes.

"Hey, Louise. What's wrong? Why do you look so gloomy?"

Her demeanor was strikingly different from the others. Soon, someone noticed her odd behavior and patted her on the shoulder in a friendly manner. The dejected female knight, Lucius, turned to see a young man named Hormon, who had joined the preparatory knightly order at the same time as her.

Hormon is twenty-one years old this year. While not exceptionally handsome, his appearance is above average for a man. Coupled with his cheerful, sunny, and helpful personality, he often exchanges ideas with his fellow knights and solves various tricky problems together. Therefore, he is quite popular among women. Lucy has met him a few times and chatted with him a few times; they are not exactly strangers.

However, Lucia couldn't confide in anyone about the problem that was troubling her. A demon girl claiming to be the Demon King had taken control of Lucia's body, casting a spell on her that would force her to reveal her identity as the Demon King to others. She had also usurped her home. And yesterday, without any mercy, she had given Lucia an extremely unreasonable order.

"You have three days to extract information about the Dragon's Fang, or I'll kill you and your 'sister' Ruth..." That's what the Demon King told her. To protect her nominal sister, who was actually her daughter, Ruth had no choice but to accept the condition immediately. But how could she extract the information? She had absolutely no clue.

If the Demon King hadn't told her about the Dragon's Fang, Lucius wouldn't have known such a thing existed. If it was true, it meant the Demon King was referring to high-level secrets that even a reserve officer like herself wasn't qualified to know. In that case, how could someone of her status ask, or who could she ask? If she leaked the secret and aroused suspicion, she wouldn't be able to obtain any information at all. Then, only death awaited her and her daughter. Therefore, Lucius desperately tried to think of a way to obtain the information the Demon King wanted without arousing suspicion.

However, such a perfect solution didn't come to her mind so easily. From yesterday until now, Lucius couldn't find a clear answer. Recalling her years of wandering alone with her illegitimate child, the hardships of raising Lucius, Lucius's recent rebellious phase, the demon king who had taken away her home, life, freedom, and dignity, and the reality that prevented her from speaking of these troubles... so much misfortune and pain made her lament her tragic fate. Even with such immense pressure, she had to keep it a secret from everyone and bear it all alone.

Seeing that Lucy only sighed and didn't answer, Hormon's eyes darted around. He suddenly changed the subject.

"By the way, your silver hair looks pretty good! What hair dye did you use? It doesn't have any pungent smell. But I still think blonde suits you better. After all, natural is best."

"..."

Hormon sensed the unspoken sorrow in her heart. That's why he tried to distract her and offer praise, hoping to make her smile through her tears... but little did he know that hair color was also a taboo subject. After all, it was related to the Demon King. Her silver hair was the exact same color as the Demon King's, proof that Lushus was no longer human, but a demon, a slave of the Demon King. Lushus felt no joy in it; even now, seeing her silver hair out of the corner of her eye made her feel nauseous.

Seeing that his approach hadn't cheered her up, but instead had backfired, Hormon had no choice but to say nothing more, simply offering her words of comfort.

"I know you still have to support your sister. But don't push yourself too hard. What will happen to Ruth if you collapse?"

"...Um"

It was common knowledge within the prospective knights that Lucis had lost her parents and was raising her younger sister alone. Hormon believed that if anything was causing her distress, it must be related to her sister. After this comforting remark, Lucis finally responded. She forced a smile and nodded to Hormon. Now, only Lucis was the last fragile pillar preventing her from utter collapse and despair. To save Lucis from the Demon King, she was willing to betray her country.

However... if she couldn't provide the Demon King with information within three days, then protecting Ruth would be completely out of the question. A day has already passed. Only two days remain until the appointed day. The thought that perhaps only these last two days were left for her and Ruth's lives brought a sorrowful expression to Ruth's face.

"Hormone! Louise! Come here for a second!"

As they walked, a messenger spotted them in the distance, calling out and waving to get their attention. Realizing someone was calling them, Lucia and Hormon changed their route towards the training ground exit and went to the messenger. Hormon asked...

"What's wrong?"

"Mr. Homon, you've just been given a mission. At noon today, go to the Loyal Dog Shijuro's place on the south side of the capital. Meet up with the Hero Reserve and the Saintess Reserve. There's an urgent mission that requires your participation."

The messenger then handed Homon a mission sheet. Homon glanced at it, and without much thought, nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I understand."

"Then you should hurry back and prepare. You're going on a long trip this time. Pack plenty of things for the night."

"it is good"

After receiving the mission, Hormon quickly left the training ground, leaving only Lucius behind. Lucius looked at the messenger; after all, he had called her earlier, which meant he also had a mission for her. So she silently waited for the messenger's message.

But the messenger didn't hand her any mission sheet. Instead, he whispered something in her ear.

"Lord Bulwer wants to see you..."

Bulwer's prestige and ability were beyond question. His gentleness and thoughtfulness made Louise deeply grateful to him. Upon hearing that Bulwer had summoned her, Louise naturally went to his office immediately.

However, the messenger deliberately lowered his voice when informing her of this, as if he didn't want others to hear, which made Lucy somewhat suspicious. He came here every day to relay missions to the knights, and this was the first time he'd acted so mysteriously. When asked what was so important, the messenger simply said he knew nothing about it.

Lucia stopped before a large sandalwood door. Only Burway, behind that door, could tell her the answer to her question.

Lucy raised her finger and gently knocked on the door, whispering...

"Lord Bulwer, I am Louise..."

Please come in.

After receiving permission, Lucy pushed open the unlocked door and entered Burway's office.

Actually, there wasn't just one person in the room. At this moment, Bulway was talking to a young girl dressed in armor similar to Lucius's. Lucius recognized her. She had only recently joined, but her name had already spread throughout the entire reserve group, and even the elite adventurers of the official group were paying close attention to her.

Because she was a freshman who had recently graduated first in her class from the Adventurers' School in Sunflower Town.

Recently, the Adventurers' School in Sunflower Town introduced a new policy: the top graduate of each profession will be directly dispatched to the Royal Capital's reserve force, becoming a reserve soldier. Even if not a formal member, it's still something to be proud of, something that would make one's family bow in gratitude and marvel at the good fortune of their ancestors. This is because it means receiving direct recognition from the kingdom and being able to serve the country more directly. Therefore, becoming a reserve soldier is not so simple. Even Lucy, who was brought here by Bulway, underwent quite rigorous training and assessments before finally becoming a reserve soldier in her fourth year in the Royal Capital.

Furthermore, this new student enjoys a privilege that all the trainees envy: becoming a personal disciple of the royal palace's elite adventurers, receiving one-on-one teaching and guidance. While Bulwer is indeed very powerful, he doesn't personally teach the trainees skills and combat methods. Even receiving his direct instruction is enough to make all the trainees extremely envious. Compared to herself, who is already thirty years old, this child, not even twenty—frankly speaking, the same age as Lutis—has so easily surpassed her, receiving special treatment that many never receive. On the day she learned her identity, Lutis wasn't feeling too good either.

But Lucius had no right to comment on the kingdom's decisions. Bulwer, who had summoned her there, prioritized speaking with the graduate and didn't immediately entertain her. Lucius stood silently to the side, waiting for Bulwer to finish speaking with the top graduate.

Their conversation revolved around one-on-one tutoring. The girl seemed confused by some points, so Burway patiently explained them to her in detail. These were advanced concepts that Louise had never encountered in all the years she had been there. Even though she repeatedly told herself these things were irrelevant to her, she couldn't help but bite her lip.

The long conversation lasted for more than ten minutes. Only after Bulwer's repeated explanations did the girl finally understand and leave Bulwer's room. Then, Louise went up to Bulwer and bowed deeply to him.

"Lord Bulwe"

"No need for formalities..."

Seemingly because his explanation had left him somewhat parched, he responded to Lucius while downing a cup of hot tea in one gulp. Then, adopting a more amiable tone, he invited Lucius to sit down and continue the conversation.

After Louise sat down, he examined her head. His first words were also about her hair color.

"Lussie, why did you dye your hair like that?"

"Well... there's really no reason. It was just a sudden whim. I've been suppressing myself for so many years, and sometimes I just wanted to experience the trendy things that young people do..."

Unable to tell the truth, she had no choice but to lie to her benefactor against her will.

The preparatory group comprised elites from all over the country, and the people from different places had different skin tones and hair colors. Therefore, hair dyeing was not explicitly prohibited. However, Burway still suggested it to her purely from a personal perspective.

"I know that raising your sister for so many years has almost stifled your original personality. Indulging yourself occasionally can help relieve stress. I understand you... but I still suggest you dye your hair back. It doesn't suit you. I also don't want a similar trend to spread in the reserve team. If everyone dyes, perms, and adds accessories to their hair as they please, how can everyone concentrate on missions and training?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I obey..."

"Um"

The opening remarks were merely Bulwer's expression of concern for this lonely woman. After recounting this, he revealed his true purpose in secretly summoning Louise here.

He stood up, took out a mission order that hadn't been handed to him by a messenger but directly from the royal court's higher-ups, and handed it to Lucius. Lucius took it and glanced at it. It didn't specify the mission name, meeting point, destination, or difficulty—things usually detailed on mission orders. It only listed the team members: herself, a top graduate of the Adventurer's School named Herminu (from the Hero's Class), a top graduate of the Warrior's Class, and a top graduate of the Saintess Class named Jasmine.

"This is...?"

Just as Lucy was about to ask, Burwell was already beside her. He whispered in her ear as well.

"I need you to carry out a classified mission."

"W-what kind of mission?"

"Escort a valuable item"

Simultaneous Action

"expensive...."

Upon hearing this word, Louise was struck with a thunderbolt of shock. Her mind went completely blank.

The demon king, who had seized control of her family and held the power of life and death over her, had ordered her to find information about a valuable item within three days. Just as Lucia was at her wits' end, the word she had been eagerly awaiting suddenly appeared before her, leaving her completely stunned, unprepared for anything.

"Lussie?"

Ruth had frozen in place after hearing only the mission details. She only snapped back to reality when Burway called her name.

If she showed her wavering and excitement too obviously, the experienced adventurer, Bulwer, might notice something amiss. So, Lucia suppressed her emotions, trying to keep them from showing, and said with feigned composure...

"Is it expensive? Is it a valuable item? May I ask what it is...?"