“Right, those Beastmen, they haven’t caused you any trouble, have they?”
“They have.”
Xuefei rubbed her head, looking extremely troubled.
Far from just causing trouble… they had even wanted to start a massive brawl right there in the Evil Dragon Palace. Even the Hero Party during the first playthrough hadn’t been that reckless. I had truly underestimated the Beastmen—at least when it came to their nerve.
“They even showed up on the wedding day. Fortunately, things have been quiet since then.”
“That’s hardly surprising. The Beastmen have been incredibly brazen lately. They’ve even started stirring up chaos in the Elf Kingdom.”
“The Elf Kingdom?”
Xuefei couldn’t believe her ears.
The Elf Kingdom was one of the oldest and most enigmatic races on the Camiran Continent. Their domain—whether the Northern Great Forest in the central plains or the Ice Plains ruled by the Winter Queen and her Ice-and-Snow Elves—was no place for parvenu Beastmen to provoke. Unless they had made enormous strides in a short time, but that old man couldn’t possibly have managed it.
“Here’s the thing,” Mitrice replied. “Lately, many vassal states along the Northern Border have sought aid from the Demon Race. The Beastmen trample and ravage everything in their path—of course, that includes those filthy pigmen.”
“It’s probably because of the Heavenly Wing Clan.”
Leia spoke up suddenly.
“The Beastmen greatly fear those kings of the sky. For them to dare go to war with the Elf Clan, they must have the tacit approval of the Wing Clan on the Demon Race’s northern flank…”
“Indeed. So what prompted the Wing Clan to pull back their forces? Was it the Elf Kingdom effectively curbing their range of operations? But those two races maintain a considerable distance from each other. They might posture with drawn swords on the surface, but they rarely encroach on one another’s interests…”
“It’s the Hero,” Leia said, propping her head on her hand as her scarlet eyes roved across Xuefei’s face.
“Do you remember, Mitrice? Xuefei? The Hero Party’s route—after the Snake Demon Country, where do they head next?”
Xuefei pondered for a moment, her eyes widening.
“I recall… the Mermaid Kingdom, and then the Elf Kingdom? But they’re supposed to retrieve the Heart of the Ocean first to build up some combat experience…”
“That’s the logical path, but with the Gods’ meddling, the Heart of the Ocean may already have vanished from the Hero’s journey due to some interference,” Leia said, resolving Xuefei’s confusion. Then, as if struck by a crucial realization, she added, “Besides, there’s more than one Hero Party. Orman’s group has gone missing for now, but speculation suggests the Beastman Kingdom’s rapid growth stems from assistance by another Hero team.”
“If that’s truly the case—and assuming the Hero Party is operating on mutual benefit—we can’t rule out that their target is the Heavenly Wing Clan. That would align almost perfectly with the Beastmen’s own interests, though. Uncovering the truth will take more conjecture.”
“So, our next stop is the Elf Kingdom, then?”
“Exactly. After all, we’ve collaborated with the Elf Kingdom’s northern ruler, the Winter Queen, on several occasions.”
“…”
As Mitrice spoke those words, the three women fell silent.
The Demon Race, cooperating with the Winter Queen…
Even back in the first playthrough, that Queen had mercilessly betrayed the Hero Party, plunging them into two grueling months of battle before they fled in disarray and regrouped. Her supreme magic—turning the forest in an instant into shatter-prone ice sculptures—remained etched in their memories to this day. Had she been an outright villain, she would have been the second most formidable foe after the Evil Dragon.
Of course, the Winter Queen was just one of many entities unknown during the first playthrough.
—After all, the Camiran Continent wasn’t some idyllic world brimming with love and adventure. It was a place designed to wring every last drop from its living resources.
“We’ve already dispatched an ambassador. We can only hope for a signal soon. For now, all we can do is wait patiently. Above all, don’t give the Gods any openings to exploit,” Mitrice said gravely. Evidently, she had long since realized that the Gods were nothing but irredeemable lunatics.
She scooped up Mira, whose mouth was smeared with sweet crumbs, and gently wiped it clean with a tissue. With the butler and soldiers leading the way, she prepared to depart from the restaurant.
“I’ll make time to visit you all. Stay safe—don’t fall into any of the Gods’ traps.”
“Relax,” Xuefei said with a confident smile. “Why worry so much? You’re the ‘Ghost Shadow’ who dominated the battlefield, after all. And besides, you’ve surely surpassed your first-playthrough self by now.”
“The old me probably would have thought that way—rushing to crush enemies swiftly and such,” Mitrice replied with a wry smile. She patted Mira’s pink little head, which was dotted with question marks, and the two girls’ matching pink fox ears twitched in perfect sync.
“But now, we are of the Demon Race. Each of us has a family that must be filled with love. So if possible, I would prefer that the Camiran Continent—or any world, for that matter—experience as few conflicts as possible…”
Mitrice’s eyes drifted off to some distant point. She nodded once more, turned her back, and strode toward the front door without so much as a backward glance.
“That’s the future we all long for, after surviving countless battles.”
Xuefei understood exactly what she meant.
In the First Playthrough, the tragedies that struck again and again, the sources of all that pain—they all boiled down to one thing: getting dragged into the war between the Light Envoy and Dark Filth, reduced to mere cannon fodder in their endless clashes.
But now that they had become Dark Filth, that imagined future was no longer just a dream. Leia had made it real. Everyone could make better choices now, wiser ones.
Like staying home, quietly raising a few children, sharing spring and summer with their partner, facing autumn and winter side by side. That might just be the best, most beautiful path forward.
Xuefei returned the smile.
From the corner of her eye, Mitrice took in the sight of the two breathtaking Dragon Clan girls lounging in the sunlight, their interactions brimming with familial warmth and love. A rare, genuine smile of heartfelt warmth spread across her face. She hoped this scene would endure into the future—forever.
But if the day came when they had to face the Hero Party… could Xuefei truly be ruthless when it counted?
She hoped that with Leia’s help, the horrors of the First Playthrough wouldn’t repeat themselves.
~~~
Meanwhile, the Evil Dragon Domain continued to spread across the Demon Race’s territories. Gradually, the skies over the entire Demon Realm shifted to the gloomy shade beloved by Dark Filth… As the heavens transformed into a hue that felt like an invigorating paradise, the Demons—going about their usual work and studies in streets and alleys, rooms and attics—couldn’t help breaking into happy smiles.
This atmosphere, hellish to humans and ordinary creatures, was precisely the environment these wicked beings cherished most.
The expansion of the Evil Dragon Domain eroded the Light Envoy’s power in every living thing it touched, turning the land into a cradle for Dark Filth life. Ordinary creatures caught in its reach wouldn’t transform into Dark Filth outright, but prolonged exposure could taint their souls, twisting them into monsters…
Much like the butterflies and birds beside the palace, now transformed into young girls.
Yet the power of the Light Envoy could never fully cancel out Dark Filth. When vast quantities clashed, their mutual repulsion might unleash unimaginable energies…
At that very moment, along the Demon Race’s border in some forgotten mountain hamlet, the Evil Dragon Domain descended like a shimmering, semi-transparent wall, enveloping the site. But in the next instant, the ramshackle buildings of the little village began to shudder and topple in eerie fashion.
It felt like a localized tremor from deep within the earth.
At last, the secret buried there could no longer withstand the Domain’s pressure. It erupted in a volcanic blast of fury.
Farther out along the frontier, the Demon soldiers camped in the forest beyond the city walls caught sight first of a blinding white flash—one that would have seared human eyes blind in an instant. When they blinked their vision clear, a towering pillar of fire punched through the clouds, and a dark gray mushroom cloud blossomed on the horizon. Moments later, a ferocious gale roared in, fierce enough to flatten the woods—as if the end of the world had arrived…
