Miss Demon King, Please Endure a Little Longer - Volume 2 Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Baring Fangs

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Ami provided new information, making the girl realize that the mysterious organization’s murderous actions against the merfolk, aside from possible revenge motives, also had the intent to sabotage the ritual.

But that wasn’t their concern, so Celeste quickly returned to the main topic, hoping the other party would let them tag along to find the merfolk for communication.

Ami readily agreed, not even mentioning payment.

Birds of a feather flock together, and as a workshop apprentice, he naturally wasn’t looking for any big shots, but rather fellow errand runners. Getting the goods delivered to the fish stall would be mission accomplished.

A small fishman came out from behind, looking warily at everyone, then around, before carefully taking the snakeskin bag, counting the goods, and muttering:

“Damn heretics, attempting to sabotage our god’s descent, but it’s all futile. When the stars align, He will once again rule this world.”

“That’ll be 10 pearl shells for the final payment, thank you.”

After getting the final payment, Ami translated for the girls: “What it just said roughly means that the murder of its people has made it very angry, so it’s venting verbally, saying the ritual will ask their god to help them get revenge. You can just treat it as a curse.”

Well, when people are being killed in the streets, cursing a bit is pretty normal, and this was actually quite civilized cursing.

Celeste frowned: “It just said descent…”

“They say that every year, and it’s never amounted to anything.” Ami waved his hand dismissively. “Gods and ghosts, let them talk. At least the money and goods are settled.”

“Then what does ‘when the stars align’ mean…”

“No idea. It’s always around this time every year, but there’s nothing special about the stars in the sky. In fact, due to different weather, it’s often different. I remember one year the ritual night was cloudless and the stars were very bright, but the next year on the same day it was completely overcast, couldn’t see a single one.”

So it was just empty threats.

After hearing this, Lia became even more disdainful of their so-called god: “Facing such incidents, believers can only comfort themselves with harsh words. What’s worth worshipping about such a god? In contrast, the great Goddess of Light — once, an extremist organization caused havoc in the kingdom, infiltrated a believers’ gathering in the square, and turned their blades on the faithful in attendance.”

She puffed out her impressively sized chest and said proudly: “That day, over a thousand believers prayed together, and the divine blessings of light descended like a waterfall, making the attack attempt a complete joke.”

They kept attacking while we kept healing, guess what? Nobody died!

Celeste wanted Ami to help inquire if there were any merfolk with real authority locally, for diplomacy. After all, you need a counterpart to conduct diplomatic activities.

“You don’t need to ask them about that, I know. Their superiors are the merfolk who manage rituals, like priests in storybooks. But nobody knows where they are. Usually when purchasing these things, we just find errand runners.”

Ami gave both good news and bad news.

Celeste didn’t give up: “What about gifts? We could give them lots of pearl shells.”

“Don’t know, I don’t have those connections.”

Since that was the case, there was no other way. Before leaving, she gave Ami 2 pearl shells as payment for the journey.

“Thank you, big sister! Thank you all!”

Ami returned to the workshop, while the girls went to a tea house across the street to sit down and discuss their next arrangements.

“If there’s anyone in this city who can contact the merfolk priests, it would only be Governor Kru.” Celeste picked up the teapot and poured for the others. “I plan to go back and talk to him again.”

“That makes sense~”

“I think acting together is too inefficient.” Lia offered her opinion. “Since Zero is already handling things on her own, we can also split up. I want to try preaching.”

“That also makes sense~”

Vina clapped her hands: “Then let’s try that. I’ll go ask around at nearby workshops and shops.”

“That’s a great suggestion~”

“Stop that!” Lia’s beautiful eyes glared. “Speak properly! What’s your opinion?”

Aira, caught maintaining her soft persona, embarrassedly rubbed her hands: “I’ll follow Vina first, then come check if you need help later.”

Good girls are like bricks, move them wherever they’re needed.

After finishing tea, the group split up. Celeste went to the governor’s mansion to find Kru, Lia found a place to set up a preaching platform, and Vina took Aira to nearby shops.

That’s how it looked, but the little witch hadn’t walked far before stopping to look at the pink-haired big-breasted girl.

“Speak up, what’s the matter? I saw you giving me looks back at the market.”

As expected of a genius mage, such observational and comprehension skills.

Aira walked beside her and whispered: “After listening to your exchange earlier, I realized the situation is very troubling…”

“What? Speak louder!”

“I said the situation is very troubling! There’s something wrong with the merfolk’s god, and their theocratic system makes normal communication impossible. So religious war might be the only option.”

Vina crossed her arms: “But you said before that without military support, war would be difficult.”

It wasn’t that they couldn’t win, but that achieving war objectives would be difficult.

Aira pretended to hesitate, wanting to speak but stopping, stopping but wanting to speak, finally saying uncertainly: “Actually, that might not necessarily be the case.”

“Hmm?” Vina was stunned for a few seconds. “You can conjure up an army?”

“You know I’m the Demon King’s sister. When he was in power, I was involved in many affairs. In fact, we have a backup plan designed to let him make a comeback if he unexpectedly lost control of the demon territories, originally meant to deal with coups and such situations.”

After all, she herself had come to power through a coup, so as they say, when you’ve walked that path yourself, you have to guard against others following.

The little witch blinked, indicating she was listening and to continue.

Aira took a breath and spoke again: “The specific plan involves contacting loyal subordinates and having them operate with sufficient personnel in the demon territories’ borderlands, building up strength. To achieve this, we scattered and arranged them throughout the demon territories years ago. And the closest demon territories to here—”

She raised her pale finger, pointing eastward, where there was a mountain range that wasn’t very tall but stretched endlessly.

“On the other side of the mountains, I might be able to find an army willing to help me.”

Even the little witch, famous throughout the royal capital, was stunned for a long time upon hearing this.

Then she suddenly burst into laughter: “Wonderful! Excellent! Having demon forces battle heretical cults, how fascinating!”

I knew you’d say that.

Aira was delighted inwardly but appeared reluctant on the surface: “If there really was no other way, I wouldn’t want to do this either, and I don’t even know when I could make the trip…”

“No problem, you can find an opportunity to go tomorrow, and I’ll cover for you.” Vina grasped her hand. “You must succeed!”

She really wanted to see this happen.