The Fake Saintess and the Elf Warrior

"Me, and my dad."

"Only two...?"

This aligns with what she said before, which is inevitably disappointing for Naka, who was hoping to find more elves. However, it's good that it's been confirmed for the time being that no more elves have escaped.

"Is your father in here?"

Naka pointed to the cave entrance

"Yes. I wanted to tell him about this, but he didn't wake up all day yesterday. My father's illness is very serious; he sometimes falls into a coma for days on end. Sister Naka, please wait here for a moment. I'll go in and check if my father has woken up. If he has, I'll introduce you to him."

I think it's better if you don't do that.

"...I know"

Yesterday, she was only told that she was being brought to the base, not that she would be meeting the other survivors directly. Naka felt uneasy. After all, she knew Tatia before she knew she was an elf. And this was the first time Naka had met someone she already knew was an elf. She didn't know what to say.

To put it another way, just because her identity was exposed, Naka felt obligated to meet her father, a decision she herself didn't understand. Yet, Tatya made the decision despite knowing the reasoning behind it. Naka had no choice but to stop refusing.

"Please wait a moment..."

With that, Tatsia ran into the cave. Soon, a male voice came from inside. However, the voice was very hoarse and weak; he coughed three or four times after saying only a few words. Furthermore, Naka couldn't understand what he was saying or Tatsia's replies—their conversation wasn't in human or demon language.

"Your Majesty, they are speaking Elvish."

Just then, Farn sent a message. He overheard the conversation between the father and daughter in the cave through the cross. It was the language used by elves to communicate, and Farn, with his vast knowledge, understood it from the very first sentence.

"Can you understand what they're saying, Farn?"

"I know a little. I've dealt with elves before and learned a bit from them."

"What are they saying?"

"Well... just now, Miss Tatia asked her father if he was awake, and her father asked him how many days he had slept. Miss Tatia said two days... and then it was just some small talk and everyday pleasantries."

"I see"

Now that Tatia's father was awake, the conversation would soon turn to her. Naka used this time to think things through. The path to this cave was rarely traveled. Tatia had chosen this place as her base, presumably because she wouldn't be discovered. In other words, once Naka entered the cave, whatever she did inside would likely remain unknown forever.

"I'll first confirm if they're the only two survivors among the elves. If so, then today will be their death anniversary... What do you think?"

"That's a brilliant idea, Your Majesty."

"So, how should I bring up the question and ask them to confirm..."

Naka closed her eyes and pondered for a moment. But a sudden roar from a man coming from the cave, followed by the sound of something falling to the ground, startled her.

Although I couldn't understand the specifics of what Tatia's father was saying, his tone was hysterical, and his words were filled with disbelief and agitation. Even while coughing, he didn't slow down his speech. It was clear that he was extremely angry and almost on the verge of losing his temper.

"Fan, what's wrong? Why did he suddenly explode?"

"Miss Tatsia's father asked her where she got her fancy equipment. He said that since she had money to buy such dangerous things, why didn't she buy him alcohol and medicine? He called Miss Tatsia a spendthrift."

"..."

Just as Farn was translating the first few sentences, Tatsia's faint voice came from inside the cave. But this immediately drew a series of angry roars from her father. Farn immediately began translating...

"Then Miss Tatia said that her secret had been discovered by humans. But Your Majesty, the Demon King who knew her secret, didn't press her for answers, but instead tried his best to help her. He said you were a good person and wanted you to meet him."

Taqia had said yesterday that Naka was a bad person and that she would bring her to her base. Naka had also told her that she wasn't the kind of good person she imagined. But deep down, Taqia still trusted Naka 100%. She believed that this person who had destroyed her country, her homeland, ruined her life, and had been deceiving her was a kind and gentle person. To this, Naka remained silent.

"Then Miss Tatsia's father hurled a lot of nasty insults at her... I can't describe the specifics to you directly, but many of them were downright personal attacks. The gist was that Miss Tatsia was cutting off her own path to survival, a sinner against the elves, and had betrayed all her mother's efforts."

"Her mother...?"

As the one who summoned the Demon King here, the first two statements weren't entirely unfair to Tatia. But the last keyword immediately caught Naka's attention.

What efforts did her mother make?

"Well... they didn't say anything."

"..."

Just as Naka was pondering, the conflict seemed to have escalated completely. No one was speaking inside the cave anymore. Only the crackling of something breaking, roars, and, mixed in with the barely audible sobs of Tatya, which Naka happened to hear.

Naka judged that now was not the time to leisurely wait outside.

"You brat, if only you had died at the hands of those demon kings!"

Her biological father's words brought tears streaming down Tatsia's face. The exposure of her identity wasn't her father's fault, nor Naka's. It was all her own carelessness. If it led to any irreversible consequences, Tatsia knew she would be culpable even if she died a thousand deaths. Facing her father's raised beer bottle, she didn't flinch, kneeling on the ground and enduring his repeated beatings to her head. She was completely unaware that her head was bleeding. Grief and self-reproach had rendered her oblivious to the physical pain.

The more the father hit her, the more agitated he became, instead of calming down. Finally, he grabbed the sharp end of a broken beer bottle and pointed it at his daughter. Having lost all reason, he didn't think twice and stabbed her. Tatiana witnessed this, but in despair, she could only obediently close her eyes and accept her fate...

"Sir, this is going too far. Someone could die."

In that instant, Naka's voice rang in Tatsia's ears. When Tatsia opened her eyes again, she saw Naka's hand gripping her father's wrist, which was holding the wine bottle. Even though her thin father tried his best to break free, he couldn't budge an inch.

"Na, Sister Naka..."

"I'm sorry, maybe I was being nosy, but I can't just stand by and watch my teammates get killed."

As she spoke, Naka surveyed the interior of the cave. There was only one bed—Tatsia's father's bed. A thin blanket lay on the uneven floor, presumably where Tatsia usually slept. A rope was tied to the cave ceiling, from which hung a tray with a half-burnt candle. This was their means of lighting.

Looking at the ground, it was littered with leftover food wrappers, animal bones, and countless beer bottles. Many of the bottles weren't even intact; they were broken and twisted. Naka had been hit by a pungent stench of alcohol when she first entered the cave. Now she finally understood why. The life Tatsia had endured, and her father's violence against her, truly exceeded Naka's imagination. Even she, the Demon King, couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"You...you damned human! Let me go!"

No matter how hard Tatsia's father tried, even using both hands, he couldn't shake Naka's hand off. This girl, who looked about the same age as Tatsia, was surprisingly strong. Enraged, he simply cursed her in human language.

"So you can speak human language after all. Then please, a gentleman, use words, not fists."

After snatching the bottle from his hand with her other hand and throwing it far away, Naka released her grip on Tatsia's father's wrist. With Naka in the middle, her father stopped scolding Tatsia. He rubbed his slightly numb wrist and turned his gaze to the uninvited guest.

"Where are you from? What do you want?"

"Nothing much. Your daughter invited me. I just wanted to say hello."

"Are you that damn saintess she was talking about?"

"Sir, a saint is a saint, not some worthless 'saint'."

"I don't care what you are! You humans and those damned demons are all the same! Once you find out that our elves haven't been wiped out, you'll be like wolves and tigers... cough cough..."

He became increasingly agitated as he spoke, and halfway through his sentence, he began to cough incessantly. Taqia quickly stepped forward to support her frail father, gently patting his back.

"Dad, don't worry too much..."

"roll!"

The daughter's good intentions were met with a push from her father. Since her father so disliked her, Tatsia could only bite her lip and refuse to take another step forward.

Tatya disregarded the blood streaming from her own head, only concerned for her father, yet she received such treatment in return. This unreasonable treatment prompted Naka to speak up again.

"Sir, I urge you to be kinder to your daughter. I'm her teammate, so I know all her efforts are for you. She risks her life fighting others for prey and battling monsters she can't handle. She covers her ears and identifies as a man, all to break free from her current life and try to cure your illness. The equipment she's wearing now is something I bought for her; I wanted to ease some of her burden. She shouldn't be treated like this by you."

How I treat my daughter is my family matter and my freedom! It's none of your business to interfere!

"You just tried to kill her. That's not a family matter."

"This is my territory! Get out of here!"

"I'm not one to listen to anyone. Please use brute force to get me out of here."

Naka and Tatya were naturally different. She wouldn't back down an inch in the face of her father's constant shouts and curses. Tatya's father had been bedridden for years due to illness, and now even walking was difficult for him. Although he was furious at Naka's provocation of "Go ahead and kick me out if you dare," he could only silently curse his powerlessness, slumping on the edge of the bed and sighing.

"Our elven race is no longer what it once was. I used to be a proud elven warrior, but now I'm powerless against a little girl like you. Sigh... You want to report us? Then go ahead and sell our lives for money. We can't stop you anyway."

"I've already told your daughter that I'll swear on my life I'll never tell anyone your secret."

"What good is your guarantee? Anyone can say nice things, including helping that girl hide her identity. I bet you have your own motives too."

"..."

Seeing that her father was less agitated, Tatia quickly said...

"Dad, whatever Naka's motives, she really helped me a lot in the end. I'm so grateful to her. If it weren't for her, I really don't know what I would have done back then."

"No, no..."

Naka knew she couldn't accept Tatsia's gratitude. Besides, if she hadn't kicked Tatsia into the water without a second thought and instead chosen another battle, Tatsia's identity wouldn't have been exposed. Naka understood perfectly well that everything now was her doing.

Tatia's father didn't say much. He simply waved his hand.

"Holy Maiden, please leave now. My daughter and I have some things to discuss. I won't hit her this time."

I hope you'll keep your word.

He did seem to have calmed down considerably. Naka decided not to bother him any further.

Before leaving, she walked up to Tatsia and asked softly.

"Is your head alright?"

"It's alright. As long as it lets Dad vent his frustrations, this little pain... Haha, I'm a hero, this little injury is nothing... What..."

The girl, her face already covered in blood, forced a stiff smile, but her increasingly weak voice betrayed her true feelings. It was truly heartbreaking. Naka gently placed her hand on Tatya's head, and began to gather magic power in her hand.

A white light flashed above her head, and at the same time, the pain instantly subsided. Tatya immediately understood what Naka was doing to her.

"...I'm sorry to have troubled you again, Sister Naka."

"It's nothing, it's what I should do as a saint."

After casting the healing spell and Tatya's wounds were mostly healed, Naka left the cave, allowing the father and daughter some time alone without her present.

Stepping out of the cave, Naka took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Ha...finally out of that place that reeks of alcohol. It really was tough on Tatia, having to live in that kind of place every day."

"Your Majesty the Demon King..."

"And her father too... He's so sick, yet he's still so irritable. I really don't know if he's mentally healthy or not."

"Your Majesty the Demon King..."

"But then again, that man's skin was sallow and withered, he was skin and bones, and his eyes were unfocused. He seemed to be terminally ill. And he lived in such a dark, damp, and sunless place. That man probably didn't live much longer."

"Karenra!"

Naka muttered to herself for a long time, completely ignoring Fan who kept calling her. Only when Fan finally started to adopt a fatherly tone did Naka reluctantly respond.

"what..."

"Nothing much... I want to ask you why you barged in, and why you said things that had nothing to do with our purpose. Didn't you say you'd kill them immediately after confirming their identities? Why did you come back empty-handed?"

"..."

"Also, why did you stop that man from killing Miss Tatsia? He'll regret it later. And you can use him to get rid of an elf. As for questioning him, you can simply use your power as the Demon King to force him to talk after he kills Miss Tatsia. As long as you're willing to torture him, he'll definitely talk."

"..."

"Nothing to say, Karenla?"

"Don't say anything more," Naka said calmly.

The questions Faen raised were also questions Naka herself kept asking herself. Why did she barge in? Why did she save Tatya? Why did she act so superior and lecture her father when she clearly had no right to lecture them?

To be honest, what drove Naka to do this was a feeling she had never experienced as the Demon King. Seeing Tatsia's smile, then her strength, then her sadness and despair, this feeling would surface with unusual frequency, disrupting Naka's train of thought. Because Naka was aware of her own loss of composure, she deliberately said some trivial things to deceive herself when leaving the cave, unwilling to confront her true feelings.

This feeling was different from Naka's feelings for Jasmine. She already knew that her feelings for Jasmine, in human terms, were a kind of feeling called "like." Although she didn't know the specific meaning of this word, Naka felt to some extent that Jasmine's feelings for her were the same.

But when facing Tatia, it wasn't that feeling at all. It was a completely different, unfamiliar emotion. "Liking" is mutual, but this feeling was unilaterally expressed by Naka. She couldn't sense that Tatia felt the same way about her. Yet, this didn't make Naka feel unbalanced or unfair.

Naka didn't know how to describe this feeling. Every time she saw Tatia, all the mockery and murderous intent she felt before meeting her vanished the moment she saw her. When she saw Tatia nearly killed by her father, her body acted first, grabbing her father's wrist in a preemptive strike.

Back then, I could have lost countless elves without batting an eye. But now, I can't bear to see an elf die before my eyes. It's contradictory, unbelievable, but also very real.

This feeling was extremely dangerous; it might even lead to disaster... Knowing this, Naka didn't reject the existence of these feelings deep down. She simply couldn't explain why.

Farn, too, was filled with mixed emotions about this.

After all, he was Naka's adoptive father, whom she had watched grow up. Faen understood perfectly well what Naka's current feelings were. Even though Naka was a Level ∞ Demon Lord with limitless power, in Faen's eyes she was still a child. What she gained from infiltrating human society was invaluable and necessary for Naka's personal growth. Her strength had already reached its peak, but encountering some difficulties and pain in her heart didn't seem like a bad thing. She was a Demon Lord, and before that, she was the most qualified demon to become one. Even if she encountered setbacks, they would eventually become her experience and abilities, laying the foundation for conquering the world in the future. He believed in Naka. Because of this, some things could only be left for her to understand herself.

Therefore, without explicitly stating his intentions, Farn ultimately chose to say this.

"Your Majesty, you've changed."

Naka chose to say this.

"...Yes, a little bit."

The girl's distress

Inside the cave, the sounds of two people talking could be heard intermittently, but this time the father and daughter seemed to be speaking calmly, and their voices were much softer than before. Even Fain, who understood Elvish, couldn't translate it all.

They seemed to be talking about something very important. It was noon when they arrived, and by the time Tatsia emerged from the cave, the sun was already setting. Naka sat on a rock outside the cave with her eyes closed. Tatsia quietly approached, intending to check if Naka was asleep. However, before she could speak, Naka spoke first to Tatsia, who had raised her hand to touch her.

"I'm awake."