It was the day after Kai was invited to Agurys' castle. He was allowed to roam around the castle, save for a few restricted areas. It was a big castle, but it wasn't as refined as the ones in Alteria or the Empire. It might be just because of the aesthetic difference of demons and humans, or maybe Agurys wasn't the type to be concerned about such things.

Either way, Kai still had a goal he had to accomplish during his short stay here. There were people watching him from a distance, and it wasn't just one or two either. As far as Kai could tell, they weren't all on the same side considering that they're hiding from each other as well.

'But, it shouldn't be possible for Agurys not to notice them.'

Agurys was an S-class, a viscount. There were few things in the world that could hide from the eyes of an S-class. The council for example, though Kai was from the future, he still had to do many things to stay under their radar. And that was including the fact that he, himself was S-class at the time.

The ones who were watching him from the shadows were C to A-class. They were adept in hiding, but it was unlikely that they would be able to fool someone above their level.

Kai decided to continue on with his self-tour. He needed to find a way to contact the peaceful faction without exposing his own identity. If possible, he wanted them to contact him first, but they'd most likely stop after Agurys fails to gather any information.

That left him with only one option.

Agitate the hostile faction.

A smirk crept up on Kai's face, one that always came to him whenever he thought of something evil. He turned the hallway and suddenly disappeared. He bent the light waves to make himself look invisible, and he wasn't worried about them managing to sense his use of mana.

All of the people watching him were surprised and some of them even began to show movements. Kai did his best to filter out who was who and after finding a member of the hostile faction, he was dealt with. It would be a problem to leave a dead body here so Kai took it to his illusion world. Then, he walked to the other side of the hall he disappeared to, making it seem like he just walked through it normally.

The spies were confused, but they couldn't just abandon their mission partway. They continued spying on Kai after his strange disappearance. Some of them disregarded it as them just losing sight of him but the others decided to make a mental note.

After finishing his tour, he went back to his room and to the illusion world.

...

He disposed of the body that was in the world after checking for anything on his person. Then, he went to check on Akane who had her upper body raised on the bed.

"You're awake. How are you feeling now?"

Akane smiled wryly.

"I know you're worried but didn't you check my condition just this morning? Check again in a little while."

Though she said that, she was definitely feeling better than yesterday. After all, she could at least form whole sentences without running out of breath now. Kai just smiled and prepared some more food for her. While she could eat by herself, she was already used to Kai feeding her and just obediently opened her mouth each time the spoon came close.

"Mmm... Kai, I want to do... some exercise."

Akane said as he wiped her mouth with a napkin. Kai frowned and looked over her body again.

"You're in no condition to tire yourself out."

"I'm going to turn... into a potato at this rate."

Although she was doing fine earlier, her words were beginning to fragment. Looked like she could only stay awake for around half an hour or so while being stationary before she got tired. At that pace, she'd tire herself out exercising after two minutes.

"Then I'll turn you into the most loved potato in the world."

"..."

Akane flushed a bit and turned away.

"D-don't dodge the subject... That wasn't even that... good of a sweet talk."

Kai chuckled and held the side of her face. He brushed her hair aside to show her ear.

"Then, how do you explain why this potato looks like a ripe tomato?"

Akane turned to him and raised her hand. She playfully hit him a few times but that only served to agitate Kai further. He came even closer causing her to turn her head away even more. He neared her ears and whispered.

"I'll harvest you soon."

It took a few minutes for Akane to calm down completely in between slapping Kai's shoulder in embarrassment and panting in exhaustion afterwards. In the end, Kai left the illusion world in the best mood he's been since he arrived in the continent while Akane had to cool herself down with ice.

"Hmm..."

Erina tilted her head as she looked at the abandoned house.

"There's a bunch of people underground, I'm guessing there's some sort of pathway through here."

It was a couple of days after they caught some people stalking them. They had gotten the information that one of the factions that were watching them were stationed here. After talking with Kei for a bit, they decided to split up to cover more ground.

Kei was at another location doing the same thing as Erina, they were going to clear out their enemies.

Erina walked to the door and knocked. She was holding a parasol above her head and was wearing a dress, it wasn't attire fit for combat, but it definitely fit the noblewoman vibe. Erina wasn't the type to get held back in battle by the clothes she was wearing considering how she was more likely to be wearing a long skirt all the time. It was just a personal preference.

Yoko was the most practical, wearing shorts and sleeveless clothes with a vest over it. There wasn't anywhere to grab her from and there wasn't any place that stuck out. In contrast, Erina would most likely trip just by running if she were a regular person.

Hearing no response from the other side, Erina placed her palm on the door.

BOOOOOOOM

There was a giant explosion of mana and a hole burst through the front of the house to the back. There was a giant hole that could be viewed from either side. There was a demon waiting at the back of the room and staggered when the wall was burst open.

Erina walked in nonchalantly with steady steps. Being the daughter of a duke, she was taught everything she needed to know about being a noble. She just chose not to apply them.

"Might I be able to inquire as to where your leader is?"

The demon glared at Erina and took out a hatchet.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Mmm... So you have no idea who I am?"

'Guess not all of them are aware of their targets... So it isn't an organization where everyone is involved?'

Erina walked forward normally, as if the demon wasn't aiming his sword at her.

"Let me ask again, may I inquire about your leader's whereabouts? This is your last chance."

"Screw you!"

The demon charged forward causing Erina to sigh. She lightly brushed her hand aside and turned the demon into an icicle who shattered upon hitting the ground. With her powers now at the peak of S-class, her control over her mana was better than it has ever been. In the instant that she waved her hand, she took control of all the moisture in the air around the demon and froze it.

Including the moisture inside the demon as well.

The demons below were alerted and were moving. Erina followed their path and found the door leading down the basement. She lightly opened the hatch and after peering down for a bit, she jumped. It wasn't that big of a distance and she reached the ground in less than two seconds.

Save for the hatch above and a ladder leading to it, the room was closed. The only way to go through was a closed door. She waited for the demons to go through but seeing as how they had no intention of going first, Erina knocked on it a few times before blasting it open.

"I swear, none of you have the courtesy to open doors."

"Attack!"

Immediately, a barrage of magic attacks arrived at Erina's position. The hall behind her was blown up and the ceiling caved in. There was a lot of dust scattered around and after seeing Erina disappear from the spot, the demons were relieved.

"That wasn't very nice."

Erina spoke from behind them. The demons turned around as fast as they could then looked back at the rubble, there were fragments of ice scattered around.

"[Fragile Steps]."

Erina thought for a bit. Earlier, when the demons attacked her, they had used a variety of elements, however, they were all dark.

"I wonder if they'll discover it from that... Well, I don't really need to mind it that much."

The shards of ice that were scattered around began gathering around the demons who tried all they could to resist. The ice became longer and longer until it managed to restrict all of their movements.

"Now then, would any of you mind telling me who your leader is?"

"Go eat a—!"

SHATTER

The demon who yelled at Erina was suddenly covered in ice and exploded into thousands of fragments. There wasn't any blood, just ice. It was an instantaneous attack made possible by the ice enveloping them. The other demons were sent into a panic and Erina calmly lowered her parasol.

"Well?"

"I never thought I'd see the day..."

Angie was riding atop a dragon. She was seated at its back and Date was behind her. There was a rider near the base of the dragon's neck holding the reins.

"This is... surprising."

Date muttered. After all, even Kai didn't know how to tame beasts—let alone dragons. Yet, here they were, riding a dragon without any hint of hostility.

"You two are the first people to ride this thing in years."

The rider spoke.

"Well, it was pretty expensive."

Angie answered back.

"So, how long will it take us to get to Goetia?"

"Around a week, we're pretty far."

"A week... can't we go faster?"

"Dragons could traverse the entire continent in a day without stopping. However, realistically speaking, they need three days to cover that distance including the time it takes to eat and rest. They can only fly for around eight hours a day."

"Then, wouldn't we be able to get there in two days at most?"

The rider chuckled and pointed at the distant mountain. It didn't take long for the mountain to come into view.

"We're already traveling several times faster than carriages do. You two might be able to take going faster but I would be torn apart by the winds. Well, in the meantime, do you want to know about Goetia? I don't know what you two plan to do there but you obviously haven't been there before."

"Sure."

Angie was a pretty friendly person to begin with. She got along with the rider pretty easily while Date was just watching them from behind and making queries here and there.

"So you're saying that... all of the Demon Continent's powers are going to gather in Goetia soon?"

"That's right. I heard even the Dukes are going to participate. They might be in a power struggle, but they aren't the type to cause a scene when in front of the Queen."

Angie tensed up. If what the rider was saying was the truth, then they couldn't have picked a better opportunity to go the Demon Continent. Inversely, however, this also meant that the moment they failed their mission, there would be no chance of escaping against the demons' highest powers.

The mission just became a whole lot harder.