[At Estel's castle]

[Diana point of view]

Seriously. One trouble after another. To think that Ash would kidnap the prince of the holy palace and asked a powerful monster, Yuki-ona to deliver it is just... I just hope he realized that what he did was nothing short than an act of international terrorism. And I'm sincerely glad that Yuki-ona manage to disguise her "special delivery" with a valuable ice crystal, Eternal Ice (and when we are carrying the "special delivery" away, people thought we are "only" carrying the Eternal Ice).

Eternal Ice, it is an ice crystal that would never melt, even if one to push it inside of lava. The only way to melt it is to continuously use high rank fire magic. Well, it will never melt but it's quite brittle, so a blacksmith should handle it with care. The block of Eternal Ice is now under my storage (If possible, I would like use it to upgrade my knight, Valkyrie, the orphans and the adventures equipment). And as for the prince of holy palace

(Seriously, what did Ash and Alaric do to make him so docile... Plus, why would they do it when Saint Louis is present? To think they drag the kind hearted Saint to do such nasty things. Ash is one thing, but it seems Alaric have also loses his common sense. I just hope Saint Louis will forgive them) [Diana]

~Door open~

"Princess, it almost time" [Qis]

"I see. Anyway, how goes the interrogation?"[Diana]

"The prince. He's a wimpy kid. The knight, they're a tough nut to crack" [Bladel]

"I see. Once they manage to extract every bit of information, then tell me" [Diana]

""Right!!"" [Qis, Bladel]

There are only few peoples who knew about the holy prince being abducted. Us who was there during that time, Valkyrie, father and the adventure guild master Ram. This matter should be kept as a top secret no matter what, especially from dear mother and dear step mothers. I don't even tell beloved dear step mother the fourth queen about it since one wrong move and they will have a legitimate reason to wage war with us. Plus, the second queen have a good tie with the old follower, so she will definitely use this info to her advantage shall she knew about it.

Last but not least, should I dispose of them after all is done? If possible, I would like to wring out every bit of vital information from them and then have them work with us. Be it suicide bomber or use mental hijack to control them from a far. I should consider various options to use them before eliminating them completely

"Such terrifying thought" [Qis]

"Oh please, your idea must be more brutal than I am" [Diana]

"I can guess what you two are talking about, but what is there to pity. They threaten us and ready to do something horrible, affecting our citizens, if anything, death is to light of a punishment" [Bladel]

"Indeed, just leave that kind of thing to us. A splendid soon to become queen like you should appear clean and noble in front of the citizen" [Qis]

"I'm counting on you, just don't push yourself to hard" [Diana]

""Yes"" [Qis, Bladel]

I say that, but my mind are still preoccupied on that matter until the carriage arrive in front of the adventure guild

"Sister Diana" [Charlotte]

(Charlotte! Don't!) [Elise]

"Don't worry Elise, I say that myself right, you guys can call me Sister Diana should you like" [Diana]

"BUT!" [Elise]

"Don't worry. Don't worry" [Charlotte]

Well, the only one that call me that are Charlotte and Cupid. Other, not so much. Singa and Savel still use princess and sister interchangeably, and it's cute seeing them like that

"Princess, Guild Master, Karon would like to talk something first, so can he do that?" [Rean]

"Sure""What is it Karon?" [Ram][Diana]

"Well..." [Karon]

That's rare. The usually quite Karon suddenly wants to talk something. Unlike Kara who is generally shy at speaking with stranger (unlike her younger twin Mara), Karon here rarely talk because, that's just who he is. I wonder what will he says?

"The serial killer dwarf, he's my father and..." [Karon]

"WHAT!" [All]

"Hold on, so the father that you mentioned during this morning training was..." [Rean]

"Yes. The very same serial killer dwarf" [Karon]

A sudden bomb of truth just explode. To think that our little quiet dwarf boy is actually the son of the serial killer dwarf is a shocking one indeed. I can see the faces of young and new adventures, knights and soldiers, they're all in terror.

"I see. Knowing you, that isn't all there is to say, isn't it" [Aries]

Mrs Aries appears calm. Not only her, the S rank sibling was surprised but quickly regain composure as they wanted to analyse what Karon is about to say

"Yes. I think it's safe to assume that my father is acting all alone. Not siding with the true beastman group nor with the dark guild or the traitorous princes" [Karon]

"Why?" [Kucin]

"It's just how he is. After mother's death, he become unusually reserved. Plus, if he were to side with either one of them, and their objectives were indeed to kidnap us all, then father would have managed to do so, and yet he didn't" [Karon]

"I see. Do you have any idea why he comes back though?" [Ram]

"That, I don't, but I do find something strange..." [Karon]

"And that is?" [Diana]

"Well, I'm not entirely sure but the number of cases, it's awfully low for someone like him" [Karon]

"Meaning?" [Anjin]

"I SEE!" [Lisa]

The scholar Lisa suddenly shout, and of course, it attracted the attention of all of us inside the guild. Karon stop speaking as to let her talk

"Karon. I'm sorry to ask this, but by any chances, is the first victim of your father killing spree happened to be a female dwarf?" [Lisa]

Karon looks pale. He didn't want to say it, and thus simply nodded to the question

"Sorry to cause you feel like this, but just like Karon said, we can rule out that the serial killer dwarf is working with them. In fact, for whatever reason, he is hunting them! At least the true beastman group!" [Lisa]

"Please explain it" [Alice]

"Right. I have been studying all records ever since the serial killer dwarf are said to come back once again at Estel. What I found was something odd. His first victim, while not conclusive, one of it was said to be the female dwarf that Karon validated just moment ago. The killing spree went on and on until it stop" [Lisa]

Lisa begin to explain it in details, and neither one of us wanted to interrupt her as we all sit down and listen to her theory

"Here's the thing that I notice. His killing spree, albeit a short one does cause a significant number of casualty to his target group. The first being multiple cases of female dwarves being brutally murdered before stopping for period of time and then he moves on to target his next group, the elves. This cycle of massive killing in short period of time before period of resting continue on and on until his failed attempts of group of nobles and royals, in which he failed on taking the live of the second prince of Estel, which lead him to flee Estel" [Lisa]

Everybody nod to her theory simultaneously, even Karon. Some even get the full picture as to why we can safely assume he's targeting the true beastman group

"And as to why Karon find it odd about the number of cases is relatively low, it's simple. His next target is that of a beastman, and not just any beastman, his target is beastman who is affiliated with the true beastman group! In other words, he is actively hunting those true beastman group!" [Lisa]

"If that's indeed true, then all the unique regress beastly transformation victims that were killed was indeed part of the group" [Ray]

"So the situation now is that the serial killer dwarf are actively pursuing the true beastman group, and the true beastman group are actively pursuing Farhah. It's becoming clearer now" [Muse]

"With that out of the way, we only need to figure out the objective of the traitorous princes" [Anjin]

All of them suddenly becoming restless. It's a huge step forward in solving the current situation, and no less thanks to

"Thank you Karon, for telling us this" [Diana]

"Aren't you mad?" [Karon]

"?" [Diana]

"My father try to kill your brother, so aren't you..." [Karon]

"Well, it's true that your father tried to kill my elder brother, but that was his sin, not yours. Plus, I consider you and the other as my siblings as well, so no big deal" (Plus, not like both my elder brothers never did awful things...) [Diana]

"I see..." [Karon]

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with us, and even if the second prince wanted to do something to you, I will not allow it! So rest assured about it" [Diana]

"Thank you princess" [Karon]

"Sister Diana will also be nice, but sure" [Diana]

Well, figuring it out is one thing. Best case scenario will be the serial killer dwarf wiped out all the true beastman group and then we safely capture him, but it's highly unlikely... Maybe the unique regress beastly transformation was due to how desperate they are so much so that they are willing to transform into something like a monster.

"Princess?" [Lisa]

"Sorry, in any case, we should still capture those from the true beastman group as well as the dark guild... I wonder if I can become a valuable lure and..." [Diana]

"NO WAY!" [All]

They're angry at me for making such a ludicrous idea... I'll appreciate if Ash is here with us, he will most definitely agree with it... Still, a lure...

"Haa!" [Diana]

"What is it this time..." [Qis]

"Listen, all of you! I got a plan on luring them" [Diana]

This might attract the dark guild members more than the true beastman group, but we still need to capture both, so it's worth the shot