Miss Demon King, Please Endure a Little Longer - Volume 3 Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Reconnaissance
***
To be fair, when Aira heard the words “demon invasion,” her left brain attacked her right brain.
The Demon King was currently on a diplomatic visit to the elven race, and the demons invaded?
You’re treating the Demon King like a stress ball.
Isadora didn’t dare delay and immediately brought the girls… back to the tree house.
The forest was vast and sparsely populated, so they needed to find others to discuss and arrange defensive deployments first.
On the way, Celeste asked worriedly, “If we give up the sealed land, will the demons accidentally cause Sissa to come out early?”
“No, the time of her awakening is already set in stone. Whether delayed or advanced, we cannot do it, and neither can the demons.”
This was good news amidst the misfortune.
Aira ignored the voice in her head saying “You can advance this time, you know, just with one word.”
With military urgency, the elven scouts rode deer to notify others first, while the girls followed Isadora. The return journey still took nearly an hour. When they reached the vicinity of the tree house, they found many more people had arrived.
Besides the familiar faces from the diplomatic mission and that rather fierce-looking elder, there were many others.
In the end, 5 elders had gathered here, along with various prestigious middle-aged elves. Young talents like those from the diplomatic mission had to stand at the outermost perimeter.
The girls also stood on the periphery.
Being far away and with many people present, they couldn’t hear clearly what the elders in the center were discussing. Aira didn’t use her abilities to eavesdrop, there was no need.
“Why did the demons suddenly launch an attack, and why didn’t our first line of defense send out an alarm?”
“Because of the guard shift change, they hit right at that timing.”
“Who arranged the shifts? How could such a major oversight occur?”
Several elders looked toward Trinia together.
At this time, another person helped explain: “These past few days we’ve been arranging exchanges with the human race, which affected the scheduling.”
Unexpectedly, after this explanation, everyone still looked toward Trinia, because she was also the first to propose exchanges with the human race, with even Isadora only seconding the motion.
“Rather than discussing this, let’s talk about how to respond.”
Meeting the gazes of several elders, Trinia said calmly, “I propose we immediately mobilize all tribe members and throw ourselves into this battle for survival.”
An elderly male elven elder said, “But we haven’t figured out yet what this invasion is about, what scale it is, or what the demons are planning.”
“Yes, and we still have to face the Sacred Spring matter in half a month.”
“I think we should plan for the long term.”
Trinia chuckled lightly: “The Sacred Spring matter? Do we have any preparations for solving the Sacred Spring issue? What have we prepared? We’re just doing nothing and waiting for that day to come.”
“Don’t say that. You proposed inviting human assistance, and we’ve already brought people here.”
“Yes, and then what?”
“Enough, the important matter comes first!”
After arguing for a while, both sides eventually compromised and raised the combat readiness to medium level.
Low level meant doing nothing and waiting for further developments. The highest level was full tribal mobilization, with everyone immediately stopping everything they were doing and throwing themselves into war.
As for medium level, it was between the two, having most tribe members stop and wait for news, ready to join the battlefield at any time. Additionally, they would dispatch an elite squad to gather intelligence.
This elite force would consist of ranger teams skilled at moving through the forest. The young elves from the diplomatic mission with decent talents… weren’t included.
“Elder, we’re ready to contribute our strength to protect the forest!” Trika said. “Please let us go!”
Normally it would be fine, but having been frustrated by Aira and the others these past few days, she was eager to prove herself.
Just as Trinia was about to speak, Isadora said sternly, “No, this isn’t something you can handle at your current level. If mistakes occur, not only will you lose your own lives, but you’ll also harm your well-trained companions!”
This was the first time Trika had seen Isadora be even more strict than Trinia, and she was too scared to speak.
“Let us go along too.” A girl’s sweet, soft voice came from nearby. “We often deal with demons and are very good at protecting ourselves.”
“But you can’t keep up with the rangers’ movements…”
“It’s fine.” Aira bowed slightly. “We’re already a flexible and mobile squad ourselves. We can act independently and will share any information we gather with you.”
The elders exchanged views with each other, mainly worried about whether they might be colluding with the demons. After thinking it over, it seemed unlikely, since they’d heard at the medal ceremony in the royal palace a few days ago that these girls had driven away the Demon King and slain tribal leaders, their grudges with both sides were massive.
After figuring this out, the elders agreed to her request.
Since their riding skills weren’t proficient yet, the Hero Party wasn’t assigned Whistle Deer, only given a map of the northern forest area, where the defense line had been invaded by demons and was already in a semi-fallen state.
On the way to the north, Vina couldn’t help saying, “I feel like the demons are always haunting us. No matter where we go, they’re always there.”
Looking at the Hero Party’s actions since their debut, the first two times went without saying. Last time they went to Harbor City, they found independent demon forces in the mountains to help. This time they came to the elven race for friendly exchanges, and again there was a demon invasion of the territory.
Lia was slightly stunned: “Now that you mention it, it really is true.”
“Maybe it’s because after the Demon King fell, the demons are internally chaotic, so they’re everywhere… By the way, what do these symbols on the map mean?” Aira shifted the topic away.
The girls discussed the map for a long time, not recognizing most of the symbols, so they finally chose a relatively conservative target location, high ground without shrubs.
“About 2,000 meters from where we are.” Celeste gripped her sword hilt with one hand. “We might encounter demons on the way, so everyone be careful.”
“Okay~”
Walking on the path to the high ground, Aira’s mood was complex, with scenes flashing through her mind.
“Demon King, why not attack the Central Great Forest? There are only tens of thousands of elves, their reproductive ability is weak. In terms of war potential, we would definitely win.”
“There’s no need. Forcibly attacking the elven race would do us more harm than good. First, we lack the ability to develop the Central Great Forest. Occupying an area we can’t utilize properly would force us to push forward blindly, at too great a cost.”
“But that’s the elven race! One of the continent’s most ancient intelligent species. Defeating them would make the demon race famous.”
“That has no practical meaning. Fame would only bring bad consequences. Don’t say anymore, my mind is made up. The current focus is the human kingdom.”
“Io, you’ll regret this!”
“How dare you, I am the Demon King!”
…
“There’s movement ahead!”
The girl’s voice pulled Aira’s thoughts back to the present. Looking in that direction, there were indeed several figures approaching them.