Pov Athena:
We arrived in less than 3 days in the capital of the Black Empire, from the information we have this must be the place where Queen Melissa is hiding and Gregory Roux has already discovered this.
Our target must not be here yet, from the letter we found it will still take 1 day to arrive at least.
Entering this city was much easier, I borrowed a letter of introduction from Lilian before coming, this was to meet the people of the Empire to seek information if possible, but this time I need their help.
With this letter that bears the 7 horns mark on the flag of the Black Empire, the normal soldiers did not recognize it, but their commander was surprised to see the symbol and let us in, actually guided us personally to the second floor of a restaurant.
“I want your best fruit plate, I’m not a meat fan.” (I)
“Should you eat in that kind of situation?” (Angela)
“We must not fear them, besides, poisons from this continent will be useless against us.” (I)
When we reach the second floor we go to a VIP room where a middle aged waiter appears to take our order while the commander of the gate guards leaves.
“Athena is right, they have no reason to do anything against us and even if they did it would be useless.” (Darius)
“The best thing for us is to show that we are not a threat, we are here to do something that will help them, even if it’s another reason it doesn’t change the fact that it will help all of them.” (I)
“I’m curious to know how much of your words are true, I would also like to know where you got that letter.”
A woman appears to appear out of nowhere as if she’s been transferred here using space movement magic, but the truth is she was using magic to hide in this room before we even entered here.
“My name is Melissa, I am the Queen of this Empire.” (Queen Melissa)
“I already knew, nice to meet you, your majesty.” (I)
She had long straight black hair, golden eyes, snow white skin, and 4 Horns, 2 of these Horns are on the side of her head and the other 2 are on the corners of her forehead, the 4 Horns seem to form some sort of crown, I can’t see her wings and tail, but she probably has the common ability to hide these parts of her body.
On closer inspection, she doesn’t look weakened as the information we have claims.
“I wonder why people from the Church of Light came here, let alone a Celestina like you.” (Queen Melissa)
“Surprises me to be discovered so quickly, what gave us away?” (I) 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒆𝒕
“You can try to hide your strength, but that’s not an easy thing to do if you’re not able to hide your Auras completely.” (Queen Melissa)
“It was exactly their Auras that showed their strengths and the element of light that they all share.” (Queen Melissa)
“So you assumed we were from the Church of Light, not far from the truth.” (I)
“We used to be part of the Church of Light, but not anymore.” (I)
“You expect me to believe it? Why not kill all of you now?” (Queen Melissa)
“Because the magic you’ve been working on while trying to distract us with all this talk might destroy this restaurant, but it won’t do anything to me.” (I)
“Besides, if I wanted to do something, then I would have done it another way, I wouldn’t have to expose myself that way.” (I)
“…” (Queen Melissa)
I had already noticed the 5 ritual annihilation spells in this room being controlled by her, I learned early on to be sensitive to demonic energy and miasma, for me to feel these 2 types of energy is as simple as breathing.
“What do you want? How did you get this letter?” (Queen Melissa)
“We are on a mission, this letter was delivered by your aunt, you must understand the meaning of this, right?” (I)
“…” (Queen Melissa)
I must say that this ruler is well qualified, she possesses strength and intelligence, she has shown no reactions to anything I have said so far, and has been trying to find out the truth from my words and expressions.
I didn’t expect anyone to be able to see through my disguise so quickly and I’m glad she was able to believe Kinshasa’s words, I don’t want to start a battle in the middle of a city.
“How is she?” (Queen Melissa)
“As always, striving to serve the Blood Goddess alongside the High Priestess, furthermore she asked me to tell you which students of hers are with her now.” (I)
“I already knew that when they left with their families it could only be to be by her side.” (Queen Melissa)
She smiles as she talks about Lilian, but soon her gaze turns serious as she looks at me.
“I take it you are my aunt’s companion, right?” (Queen Melissa)
“Yes, we serve the same High Priestess of Blood, plus we live in the same city.” (I)
“(Unfortunately I can’t reveal more than that, I hope it’s enough for her to agree to cooperate in our mission.)” (I)
“Did you say something about some kind of mission, what is this about?” (Queen Melissa)
I spend the next few minutes explaining our mission to kill Gregory Roux, in exchange for their cooperation I’ll pass on important information about their troops.
“Just killing him is useless, otherwise I would have killed him a long time ago.” (Queen Melissa)
“I’ve waited a long time, even before I was crowned Queen of the Black Empire.” (Queen Melissa)
“I’ve waited for this idiot to try to take the throne all this time, it gave him plenty of opportunities he refused to take advantage of, unfortunately, I was caught off guard when he finally made his move this time.” (Queen Melissa)
“Did you want him to cause a civil war?” (I)
“No, I never thought he would have spread his influence so much across the Empire without being noticed, I’m glad that Monster Wave gave him the conditions to advance his plans, probably he wanted to wait until the turn of the year for the next Annual Monster Wave .” (Queen Melissa)
“But even if it was on a larger scale than expected, the result was still something good when they’re all dead.” (Queen Melissa)
“You mean…” (I)
“This whole uprising helped me find all the conspirators hiding in the Empire or at least most of them, thanks to Gregory Roux I can now openly attack to cleanse these plagues that corrupt this great Empire.” (Queen Melissa)