Seeing Ailya’s reaction, Charlotte asked:

“Did she not know about her father?”

“No… well she knew his name and that he was supposed to be famous, but I don’t think she knew that he was supposed to be the strongest in the world.”

“And how exactly did her mother hide that? They’re both famous adventurers who repelled an invasion by a demon general just a few decades ago.”

Speaking up for the first time in a while, Ailya asked Charlotte with a perplexed on her face,

“Was my father really that strong?”

Responding to her, Charlotte put on a serious expression as she said:

“Yes, you’re father is an amazing person.”

“Then, why didn’t he come to save mom?”

Hearing her question, I hugged Ailya tightly as Charlotte answered with a simple “Who knows?” as the room momentarily became silent.

Ending the silence soon after was Charlotte surprisingly, as she seemed to show a shred of humanity by attempting to comfort Ailya as she said:

“Well, you’re father disappeared a few years ago, actually around the time you should have been born, so there’s a chance he didn’t know about what was happening to you and your mother.”

At Charlotte’s explanation, Ailya lowered her face as a complex expression adorned her face. Seeing her like this, I tried my best to comfort her as Charlotte continued:

“Anyway, we can’t really expect to fool those people directly, which leaves us with a big problem.”

“...”

“...”

“Oh, uh, wait, do you want me to say it?”

“Yes.”

How the fuck was I supposed to know that?"

“Well… what problem is it?”

“Can’t you think about it? It’s pretty fucking obvious you know.”

No it’s not.

“Uhh, the fact that there’s another hero?”

“Ohhh good guess for someone like you. Yes, at the current moment the other hero is our main concern. If we want to successfully pull our little lie off, then we have to make sure that no one gets their hands on the other hero.”

Guess it was pretty fucking obvious, but then why ask?

“And how are we supposed to do that, do you know who the other hero is?”

“No, but we don’t need to know who they are. Ailya most likely ended up coming across me as a result of our shared fate, and the same should work for us in this case. Actually, the fate between the two heroes should be even stronger. So, as long as we have Ailya, the other hero should eventually find his way to us. Then we can deal with them.”

“And how will we deal with him?”

“Guess~”

Oh come on, stop draggin this shit.

“Subordinate him like Ailya?”

“Mm mm. Not a bad proposition. But it’s wrong!”

“Then?”

“We kill them.”

“Kill them?”

“Well yes, there can only be two heroes after all. So so long as the other hero lives, there will always be a chance that someone will discover our little lie, no matter how hard we try to hide it. And you can BET that someone will discover it eventually. So it’s better we deal with the problem from the beginning and not create unnecessary trouble for us in the future.”

“I-I see. But are you sure that we’ll be able to kill them? What if they’re super strong? After all you said that you couldn’t even take on a few level 200’s. If they’re not alone we might be in trouble.”

“Don’t count of it. I doubt they’ll be as weak as Ailya, but unless their fate activated, they shouldn’t be have gained too much strength. Even if it did, unless they had the right environment to foster their power, they shouldn't be at a level where I couldn’t deal with them easily.”

“But what if they did have such an opportunity?”

“Then it means someone already found out that they’re the hero and our little plan no longers work. At which point it’ll be a lot easier for me to just kill you than deal with making the world my enemy. So you better hope that that scenario hasn’t happened.”

Gulping at her words, I prayed to whatever god or cosmic law governed this world that no one had discovered the other heroes identity yet… Wait, isn’t fate the law that governs things here? Can you even pray to fate? I’ll just pray to whatever Lady those dudes at the church were praying to. ‘Oh dear lady, please don’t let anyone discover the other hero so that we can…’ Actually, let me not finish this prayer in case I just anger our dear Lady and make things worse for myself…

“Anyway, there’s a lot we need to do in order to not get you killed and keep our little hero under control.”

“You want Ailya to stay under my control?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Don’t worry about it. Worry instead about the fact that you’re super weak and vulnerable at the moment, and that you have very strong enemies waiting for you in your future.”

“Well, I am trying to get stronger, it just takes a while.”

“Yes you’re right. No one can become strong overnight. Not even the heroes. That’s why, I’ll help train you so that you can actually defend yourself and maybe carry out your plans.”

“Why are you so willing to help me?”

“Because I’m bored and want to. Now stop asking too many questions if you don’t want me to simply hand you over instead.”

Man she really likes to threaten people.

“Anyway, before I help you. Are you sure you’re still not being influenced by that something you claimed has been trying to control you since you were summoned here?

“Yeah, I can’t feel it anymore.”

“Is that all you’re basing your reasoning on?”

“Well, I felt the connection cut off after my [Powerful Will] went to tier 2. And I can only feel it when I activate [Veritas], so I’m pretty confident that I’m mostly free from it.”

“And are you sure that you can’t feel anything trying to control you?”

“Yes, I’m sure that…”

Immediately activating [Vertias], I was able to observe that Charlotte had somehow managed to successfully ‘charm’ me with her [Persuasion] and had gotten me to fully disclose my plans without me thinking that there was anything amiss or even questioning my actions. At this realization, I felt a bitter taste in my mouth once more as a feeling of vexation I hadn’t felt in a while returned to me once more.

Seeing my eyes turn yellow and the reaction I had following that, Charlotte smiled as she said teasingly:

“There’s still a lot you need to learn about the world my foolish little Demon Lord. But don’t worry, the greatest mage in the world is here to help you!”

Despite what she most likely delude herself into thinking were encouraging words, I could only feel a deep hatred rise inside of me towards this witch after hearing them as the trauma I had of being controlled by someone resurfaced in my mind…