With a happy woof, Liliana hopped up onto an empty chair, then leaned onto the table to lap up the tea they had placed in a saucer for her. She then turned her attention to the baked sweets beside it. Claire was right. They were delicious!
“It’s not too hot?” Layla asked. Liliana nodded with a happy bark. This was no problem. She felt like she had been forced to drink something many times hotter than this in the past. Something like boiling liquid poured down her throat against her will...or had she? She couldn’t quite remember, but either way the tea wasn’t nearly hot enough to bother her.
“The weather has started cooling off recently, huh?” Alex said, staring up at the stars outside the window.
“Yes. The dog and the snake are already so low in the sky. It won’t be long before they’re out of sight,” Layla replied, echoing the knowledge of the stars and constellations she had inherited from her father.
“Guess that means autumn is on the horizon.” Barbara sighed.
“And another year went by just like that. Time sure flies...” Hessel added, still munching on snacks.
Liliana gave a soft whine, poking Alex with her nose to ask for seconds. Alex responded with a smile, piling more cookies on her plate. She happily dug into her new haul. They were so good!
“Hey, Alex...what’s the demonic army up to?”
“Daiagias’s forces are pushing north through Areina. They’ll probably have the entire kingdom under their control before long.”
“The Alliance is putting up a better fight than I expected...”
“The Gigamunt family is incredibly strong. Not to mention Daiagias himself is something else. Goes to show Areina was right to have confidence in their military.”
They all started talking about something Liliana didn’t try to understand. After all, she was just a dog.
“And it seems they have gotten a considerable number of reinforcements from the Sacred Tree Alliance.”
Liliana froze in the middle of stuffing her face with cookies.
“And not just mages. Apparently, they’ve sent a large contingent of archers too. Word is, the Gigamunt family is facing losses on the same level as the Rage family’s during the assault on Evaloti.”
“If only Deftelos had gotten that same kind of support... But no sense complaining about that now.”
“Well, the western conquest of Deftelos was handled by the Izanis family. With them specializing in wind magic, forest elf archers are particularly ineffective against them. Areina meanwhile has tons of forests, meaning the forest elves have a better chance of bogging down the fighting there.”
“That sounds like quite a pain. Won’t the demons just avoid the forests then?”
“Avoiding a strong opponent would be ridiculed as a sign of weakness, so no. I heard that in those tough areas, Daiagias has taken it upon himself to deal with things personally. With the numbers he’s been up against, it’s almost certain he’ll be promoted to archduke when he gets back,” Alex said with a sarcastic laugh.
“A kingdom of powerful warriors, and a large contingent of archers...the demons have their hands full this time, huh?” Barbara commented.
“Problem is, once Daiagias pulls back, next in line is Rubifya. No number of archers will help if they just burn the whole forest down.”
Liliana wouldn’t understand. After all, she was just a dog.
She couldn’t understand. After all, she was only supposed to be a dog.
She wasn’t supposed to understand. After all, dogs wouldn’t understand any of this.
Looking down at her saucer, a reflection in the tea stared back at her. It was a face. Blue eyes. Short, neatly kept blonde hair. Long, pointed ears...
That wasn’t a dog. That was a woman.
Liliana’s ears twitched.
“Liliana?” someone called out to her. Layla was looking at her with concern.
Liliana looked up at her with a curious woof, an innocent smile on her face. And then she licked up the tea, not leaving a single drop behind.
†††
Back at the Demon King’s castle, a woman in a green dress stomped through the corridors. This storm of a woman was Nefradia Izanis, raging into her son’s room without so much as a knock.
“Oh, hello mother. Is something wrong?” that son greeted her, totally aloof.
“You...!” Nefradia’s face cramped as she saw him wearing his Bon Dage outfit...under bone armor. It appeared as though he was ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. “Stop this at once! What are you thinking?!”
“What do you mean? I’m just going out hunting,” he said, obviously lying through his teeth. In contrast, it took everything Nefradia had not to grab him by the collar and shake him.
For a while, she merely glared at him. Her son, usually so pathetic and servile, returned her glare with a stare of his own—totally unfazed by her anger. She knew about his trip to the Abyss and how he had gained some new power. But beyond that, she hardly cared.
He had said as much plenty of times in the past in an attempt to win back her attention, but she had long since given up on him. No matter how much stronger he got, she knew his limits. Or so she thought.
This was her first time seeing him since his return, and...something was very different. His skin was dotted by marks akin to scales. His eyes were now dominated by vertically slit pupils which regarded her coldly. But the greatest change of all? His magic. It was...enormous. Surely he hadn’t been this powerful before, had he?
“Anyways, I am leaving now.” As Nefradia stared, frozen, Emergias attempted to leave.
“Wait!” she shouted angrily, snapping back to reality and grabbing his wrist.
“What is it, mother?” he turned back to face her, an irritated look on his face.
“Just how much pain do you plan on putting our family through?!”
One of Nefradia’s men had just brought to her attention that her son was planning on launching an attack on Zilbagias’s fortress. It appeared there was a good chance Zilbagias’s research involved high-speed communication of some sort. If that was true, it would certainly be a huge threat to the Izanis family. But responding with violence while lacking confirmation was far too reckless.
“I’m doing this for the sake of our family,” Emergias responded to her reprimand slowly and calmly, like he was talking to a child. But Nefradia didn’t miss the hint of scorn underlying his words. “It’s just a hunt. You don’t know anything. Isn’t that good enough?”
“An excuse like that is unacceptable! If our relationship with the other heirs deteriorates any further—”
“Oh, so that’s what you’re so worried about?” Emergias’s face twisted into a smile. “You’ve become quite adept at cozying up to the other families, haven’t you?”
Nefradia’s vision went stark red. “And whose fault do you think that is?!”
She slapped him, doing so unwittingly. Normally he accepted her abuse without resistance, but this time he stared back at her, an unsettling calm in his eyes.
“Who the hell would bow to the Vernas family unless they had no other choice?!” she continued. “But now we’ve already thrown our lot in with them, so there’s nothing else for us! For once in your miserable life think about me! Do you not see what your recklessness is doing to us?! We wouldn’t be in this position if not for you being so useless!”
“Yes, it’s my fault, isn’t it?” Emergias replied, his voice a low rumble. “It’s all my fault. All because I was so powerless, completely unworthy of becoming the next Demon King. But now, I intend to make up for it. I have to.” His words were like the uttering of a spell, sending an indescribable unsettling feeling through Nefradia.