“Your Highness, you have been staring in the direction of the Empire for quite a while now.”
Seeing the Second Prince leaning against the window and staring blankly in Camillaya's direction, Zona reached out and pulled him back.
Kainster, sitting back on the bed, finally snapped out of it.
“Sorry, Zona. I just had a bad feeling.”
“It was especially strong when I looked toward Camillaya.”
“Especially right now. For some reason, I feel like something terrible is happening in the Empire.”
Sitting on the bed, Kainster felt an inexplicable anger swirling in his chest.
His hands clenched into fists.
“Your Highness... but haven't we already escaped?”
“Please don't think too much about it right now. Your mood has only just managed to recover.”
Seeing that Kainster was about to spiral into his usual inner turmoil again, Zona reached out to pry open the prince's clenched fists.
Truth be told, Kainster's grip wasn't weak at all.
“I heard the demons have prepared some activities today. Why don't we join them to relax a bit?”
Zona recalled what the Demon King had said back in Mrs. Nashi's kitchen.
“I heard that with the Saintess's help, the demons' crop production has begun to exceed their daily consumption. It seems they plan to use the surplus crops to host a banquet.”
Zona handed Kainster the schedule the Demon King had given her.
“A banquet?”
“Tonight?”
Kainster scanned the schedule in Zona's hand. The activities listed were not much different from a royal banquet.
“Yes, because the Demon King came to ask me about it earlier.”
“She said the demons haven't had one in a very long time, so they didn't really know how to go about it.”
“Wait, Zona.”
Kainster suddenly seemed to think of something, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Zona.
“Are you saying that my soulmate resolved these issues for the demons?”
“Eh? Y-yes.”
Seeing the prince suddenly regain his energy, Zona was caught slightly off guard.
“How much more do you know, Zona? What else have you found out about my soulmate during this time?”
Seeing how excited Kainster was, Zona hastily pulled out her notebook.
“Miss Saintess should be the Hero who went missing from the Holy See.”
“Furthermore, based on the Holy See's appraisal back then, that Hero's stats shouldn't have shown such extraordinary performance as they do now.”
“However, according to the Demon King's Castle's Recorder, Phelan, the Saintess seems to possess an incredibly powerful deception artifact that even the Demon King cannot see through.”
“Yes, exactly!”
Kainster grabbed the notebook from Zona's hand and began flipping through it rapidly.
“How could I have overlooked this?”
“Though compared to the strange phenomena in the Demon King's Castle, the appearance of two Saintesses is a minor matter...”
“...even Leticia, who possesses an extraordinary amount of mana, couldn't use her magic after coming here.”
“Yet my soulmate was able to use Levitation Magic, a highly mana-consuming spell, in a suppressed environment!”
At this thought, Kainster handed the notebook back to Zona and walked toward the door.
“Y-Your Highness.”
“You didn't happen to see any of my... private notes, did you~”
Just as Kainster was pulling open the door, he felt a massive force clamp down on his shoulder.
“W-Well, Zona, the thing is, I'm a pretty fast reader.”
“So, I didn't see any of those notes about 'shackles', 'confinement', 'secret rooms', or those stalker-like entries about Phelan, okay?”
“Y-You saw everything!”
“Zona, believe me, I will forget it! I'll forget all of it, including the words like 'tentacles', 'confinement', and 'secret rooms'!”
Kainster looked solemnly at Zona, whose face was now completely flushed red.
“Your Highness, you will forget it very soon.”
The next thing Kainster knew, the world spun upside down.
Thud!
“What was that noise?”
Lin Ling, who had just returned from exercising below, heard a dull thud coming from the window of a room in the Demon King's Castle and looked up in confusion.
Looking up, she saw a hand reaching out of the window, only to be swiftly dragged back inside by something.
Just as Lin Ling was about to go up and take a look, Zona poked her head out of the window.
“Ah, it's Miss Saintess.”
“Good afternoon, Miss Zona!”
“Was that just now...”
“It's nothing. I was just handling some large items.”
“Do you need any help, Miss Saintess?”
“No need. Just look forward to tonight, Miss Saintess.”
With that, Zona slammed the window shut, and another dull thud soon echoed from the room.
“What exactly is happening tonight?”
Lin Ling still had no idea what everyone was planning.
Today, Miss Saintess hadn't run into any of the demons during her exercise.
Little Niya was actively avoiding her, and even the Demon King had barely shown her face today.
“I hate these riddle-speakers the most!”
Lin Ling puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, but deflated again after a moment.
“My body feels so bloated. I've absorbed a bit too much magic lately.”
To focus on physical training over the past few days, Miss Saintess hadn't properly released the magic she had absorbed.
This feeling made Lin Ling highly uncomfortable.
“Is something troubling you, Miss Saintess?”
Phelan suddenly appeared behind Lin Ling, with beads of sweat on his forehead for some reason.
“Whoa! Phelan, if you keep doing that, the Demon King's Castle might really lose its Miss Saintess, you know!”
“I am terribly sorry. That was my mistake.”
Phelan looked up at the now-quiet room and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Um, Phelan, you must know what's happening tonight, right?”
“As for that, Miss Saintess will find out when evening comes.”
As Phelan answered, he happened to look up, locking eyes with Zona in the window.
Seeing Phelan standing below, Zona blushed instantly and shrank back into her room.
Phelan looked down at Lin Ling, whose expression was now filled with immense grievance.
“Oh, by the way, Miss Saintess. It seems the Demon King is looking for you.”
“Really?”
“As a Recorder, I rarely lie.”
“Then I'll go find Ivelia first!”
Watching Lin Ling trot away, Phelan let out a sigh of relief.
“Though this time, I really am lying.”
Looking at the recording stone in his hand, which had captured Zona's crime scene, Phelan wiped the sweat that kept pouring from his forehead.
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