To be honest, seeing Shizuka and Kanami didn't surprise Duanmu Huai, but the appearance of one other person really did catch him off guard.
"What's going on here?"
Looking at Magico standing off to the side, Duanmu Huai asked curiously. Magico, however, didn't want to talk and turned her head away. Shizuka also raised a hand to her forehead and shook her head, then made a gesture toward Kanami. Left with no choice, the latter reluctantly opened her mouth and reported the situation.
In the end, it was all Leah's doing.
Simply put, after the incident in the Kingdom of Seth, Leah became worried that Duanmu Huai would keep running around everywhere. After much deliberation, she made a decision.
That was to build a castle specifically for Duanmu Huai at the border where Rance, Seth, and the Free Cities met. It would be given to him as a gift, and she herself could live there in the future as well.
It had to be said, Rance really was rich. Buying land and building a castle was something they could just decide on the spot without any hesitation.
As a result, King Gandhi of Seth found out about this and immediately clapped his hands, saying that Duanmu Huai had rendered a great service in saving Seth. Thus, they generously set aside a portion of their own land as well and expressed their desire to jointly construct it with Rance. And as the representative of the Kingdom of Seth, Magico was unceremoniously shoved over by her father like a duck being forced onto a perch.
"Lady Leah said that if similar incidents happen again in the future, this place would serve as a very good venue for discussions...… so she agreed to it..."
"Mm, she really is thoughtful..."
After hearing Kanami's explanation, Duanmu Huai could only shake his head helplessly. He had to admit, this queen was really proactive—practically a female simp. In the past, Duanmu Huai had only seen men simping for women; he'd never seen women simping for men, let alone simping this hard, and doing it to him of all people. It really left him at a loss as to how to deal with it.
But to be fair, if Leah really wanted to turn that castle into something like a United Nations-style dialogue platform, that wouldn't be bad either. At the very least, it would definitely be more convenient than him running from one country to another.
"So, Princess Magico is here to...?"
"I'm mainly here to take a look."
As she spoke, Magico turned her head away and curled her lips. In truth, the Seth princess was just as depressed inside. She hadn't wanted to come at all, but King Gandhi insisted. Compared to other nations, Seth really wasn't very favored at Duanmu Huai's side. Kanami was from Rance, Shizuka and Maria were from the Free Cities Alliance—if Seth didn't send someone to stay by Duanmu Huai's side, they'd be forgotten entirely.
And so, King Gandhi sold his own daughter.
Magico was unwilling a hundred times over, but since this was a political assignment, what else could she do?
"How's Saisel? She didn't cause any trouble, did she?"
"No. Lady Saisel is stationed in the nearby mountains with her subordinates and hasn't taken any action."
Duanmu Huai hadn't brought Saisel back, instead leaving her there. After all, while the Demonkin's invincible barrier was useless against Duanmu Huai, it was still very effective against others. His original plan had been that if Kanami or Shizuka ran into any trouble, they could directly summon Saisel over. But it seemed they hadn't encountered any major problems.
After Kanami finished her report, Shizuka also reported a few matters. Her younger sister still hadn't been found. As for the AL Church, it was said that the previous Pope had died a few days ago, and they were currently selecting a new one. It would likely take some time before there were results. So during this period, the AL Church was rather tense, with no particularly noteworthy intelligence.
As for the Little Demon King...…
"There are reports saying she was seen heading toward Tenmabashi. She may have gone to O.J."
"O.J is... oh..."
Duanmu Huai thought for a moment, then recalled what Yue Huasha had told him about the island nations to the east of the continent. There were two island countries there—one was B.J and the other was O.J. B.J was Yue Huasha's birthplace, a modern civilization island nation, while O.J was an island nation stuck in an ancient Warring States era.
"Lady Leah said that if you want to go to O.J to look for the Little Demon King, the Rance army is on standby at any time."
Kanami chimed in at this moment.
"...…"
To be honest, being simped on to this extent made Duanmu Huai feel a little embarrassed.
"There's no need to make it that dramatic. I'll just take a trip myself."
Duanmu Huai had no intention of actually letting the Rance army invade O.J. He figured Leah was just giving him an option. Otherwise, with O.J being so close to Rance, if Rance wanted to fight, they would have done so long ago—why wait until now?
The reason Duanmu Huai cared so much about the Little Demon King was that he had previously heard Saisel say that those who inherited the Demon King's blood would gradually become insane, dark, and filled with destruction and murderous intent. In fact, it wasn't that there had never been Demon Kings friendly toward humanity before, such as Demon King Guy, who sealed Jill. But even he couldn't resist the corrosion of the Demon King's blood, eventually launching repeated attacks on the human world.
So this Little Demon King was the same. Even if she herself might not wish to harm humans, since she had inherited the Demon King's blood, being corroded by it was only a matter of time. Coincidentally, Duanmu Huai was free during this period, so he planned to head back and take a look, see if he could find the Little Demon King. If he could find her... that would naturally be for the best.
After some consideration, Duanmu Huai still called Yue Huasha over and told her about it. However, Yue Huasha didn't seem to care much about the situation over in O.J. So in the end, Duanmu Huai didn't bring anyone else along. He followed Kanami, Shizuka, and Magico through a teleportation gate and returned to their world.
"This is the place."
Under Kanami's guidance, Duanmu Huai and the others arrived at a border town, and Kanami excitedly began introducing it to him.
"This border town belongs to Rance's territory. Across from it is land belonging to the Kingdom of Seth. Both Majesties have agreed to hand this area over to you. From now on, this will be the territory of the Inquisition on this continent. Lady Leah has already hired the best construction teams, and also..."
"Wah—————!!!"
However, before Kanami could finish speaking, a burst of shouting suddenly came from the plaza not far away, interrupting her. Everyone turned their heads curiously and saw a dense ring of people gathered in the town square, seemingly watching some kind of spectacle.
"What are they looking at?"
Duanmu Huai naturally had the habit of joining in on the excitement. He turned and walked over, and the others could only follow.
Reaching the outer edge of the crowd in the plaza, Duanmu Huai took advantage of his height to clearly see what was going on inside.
Surrounded in the center of the crowd was a girl with pointed ears, long blue hair, and a red crystal embedded in her forehead. She was covered in injuries and was currently bound with her hands tied behind her back, thrown onto the ground. The men around her stared at her with glowing eyes, chattering excitedly.
"Amazing, this is really amazing!"
"That's right, to actually catch a Karla—Ama Zisa Group is really badass!"
"Heh heh...…"
Hearing the praise from the surrounding crowd, one of the men in the center revealed a smug smile.
"It's all thanks to our boss's battle plan. And this isn't just any Karla—she's the captain of the Karla Forest guard! I heard she's a big shot who even serves as a bodyguard to the queen!"
Karla, huh.
Looking at the Karla girl inside, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly. Perhaps because of the Eldar, he basically didn't have much goodwill toward races that looked similar to them.
"What are they planning to do?"
At this point, the other girls had also arrived. Seeing this scene, Magico asked curiously. As the princess of Seth, she rarely even left her own capital, let alone traveled to other regions.
Shizuka, on the other hand, spat with a look of disgust.
"They're probably planning to rape her."
"Huh? Here?"
"Of course. You're a mage too—you should know how valuable the crystal on a Karla's head is, right? In fact, there's a rumor circulating among people that the more a Karla is violated by men, the stronger the power of the crystal becomes. So those captured Karla are first gang-raped by men, and only afterward is the crystal on their forehead taken and they're killed."
"How could this be...…"
Hearing this, Magico was completely stunned. Duanmu Huai, meanwhile, thought for a moment, then shoved aside the others and walked in.
Seeing Duanmu Huai approach, the people didn't dare stop him and hurriedly moved aside. Duanmu Huai walked up to the Karla, first reaching out to grab her head and carefully scrutinize her for a moment. Then he nodded.
"Alright, she's still within range."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai stood up and looked at the crowd before him.
"I'm taking this one with me."
"Wait, sir."
Hearing this, one of the men hurried over.
"She was something we worked hard to capture, and she's a big shot among the Karla. The price for this..."
However, before the man could finish speaking, Duanmu Huai coldly glared at him. In the next instant, a heart-stopping sense of terror erupted from deep within the man's soul. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, twitching a few times before losing all signs of life.
"Eek—————!!"
The others also felt the fear aura erupting from Duanmu Huai's body. Their legs went weak, and they collapsed to the ground.
"Listen carefully. If I ever see you daring to do this kind of thing again, I'll kill all of you."
Duanmu Huai spoke calmly. Then he grabbed the Karla and directly lifted her up, leaving the plaza.
Only after reaching the edge of town did Duanmu Huai untie the ropes binding the Karla and toss her onto the ground.
"Alright, you can go now."
"...…You don't want my crystal?"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, the Karla froze for a moment. Duanmu Huai glanced at her.
"No interest. And the reason I saved you isn't just to save you, but to stop their absurd, filthy, degenerate behavior."
"...…"
Hearing this, the Karla woman fell silent for a moment, then lowered her head toward Duanmu Huai.
"For saving me and not taking my crystal...… I offer you my thanks."
"You're welcome. But I hope your Karla race doesn't do anything that harms humans. Otherwise, I won't let you off."
"Of course we won't do such things."
The Karla woman shook her head.
"We've lived in the forest for generations. If those humans hadn't tried to capture us and take our crystals, we wouldn't have..."
At this point, the Karla woman stopped. She then carefully examined Duanmu Huai from head to toe for a moment before lowering her head again.
"Then, I take my leave."
After saying this, the Karla woman quickly departed, disappearing into the forest in the blink of an eye.
"Hmph... looks like you've done some good deeds after all."
Seeing this, Shizuka couldn't help but speak up. Duanmu Huai merely looked at Shizuka and shrugged.
"Just a daily good deed. More importantly, I don't want to see such corrupt and degenerate dark practices within the territory of the Inquisition."
Duanmu Huai wasn't wrong. The main reason he saved the Karla girl was that those people were trying to publicly carry out wild and extremely excessive acts. In the eyes of the Inquisition, that was unmistakably the depravity of the Sin of Indulgence, the evil behavior of worshippers of the God of Desire. It didn't matter whether their target was a Karla girl—even if it were a cow or a lizard, it would still be an evil and degenerate act that needed to be eradicated.
Of course, considering that the Karla's skull was still relatively pure, Duanmu Huai saved her. Otherwise, he would have cut her down as well.
With that, Duanmu Huai withdrew his attention.
"Alright then. Where exactly is that castle? Take me to have a look."
(The end of this chapter)