The Demon Saint is Missing, so I Ran to Another World

Playing Politics (Part 1)

**Greg**

We remained for quite some time in that part of the desert where Lady Noir's convoy was ambushed. Not wishing to take any chances, her chamberlain, Shevaun, wanted to recall the other demon soldiers they sent to search for me before continuing on to the city of Darkmoor to the east.

"..."

As the undead dragon, Rosita, was the only creature among us capable of flight, she was soon tasked to find the demon soldiers, along with her pilot and the captain of Lady Noir's guards' retinue. Meanwhile, the Lord Vitalis and his motley army of ghouls stayed with us—not only to ensure our safety, but to also talk to the demon princess of House Usarved about certain matters.

"First things first, Lord Vitalis," she began in a high-pitched voice, obviously angry. "I don't like it when you refused to lend support to my brother, and stayed neutral. You see, we never favored people whose interests lie only to themselves."

"M-My apologies for that, L-Lady Noir," the leader of the undead kept on bowing profusely. "My clan...I-I'm only thinking of t-their well-being. Yo-You know what things th-the 'Knights' are capable with, and they h-have made our lands th-their own. Wh-While we certainly d-don't agree with them, the-their m-might are reason e-enough for us to leave th-them alone."

"That's why you ended up with your land taken under your rotten nose, you foolish ghouls!" Lady Noir thundered. "You're cowards who thinks they're still living!"

Kuh...I don't like those words, even if it's not pertaining to me.

"I-I-I'm re-really sorry, milady! Pl-Please understand that we do n-not like c-conflict; no one understands death more than our clan—"

"Are you saying that my brother and I are warmongers?" the demon princess of House Usarved repeatedly banged on the arms of her chair. "It's not us who started this fight in the first place! Are you implying that we do not understand what's going on, Lord Vitalis?"

"I-I-It's not what—"

"Silence! I had enough of your lies!" she bellowed. "I will hear none of it. Your fate will be decided by my brother and—"

Well, to be honest, this was the first time I'd seen Lady Noir Usarved act that way. Back in Chersea, she was gentle and could be relied upon at times. In fact, I was trusting her too much that I would become uncomfortable whenever she would leave my side, obviously to take her rest. However, this version of hers was kind of unsettling; it's as if we're dealing with a rich, spoiled brat, rather than a dignified noblewoman.

"..."

And so, I guess I should intervene on Lord Vitalis' behalf. After all, I still had a debt to him and his clan. Lady Noir should listen to me, anyway; I just saved her life.

"Milady..." I whispered to her.

"Sir?" Lady Noir's voice quickly changed from angry to gentle in a matter of seconds.

"Pwede ka makausap saglit?" (Can I talk to you for a bit?) I purposefully changed the language of our conversation to keep it private to others.

"Ah, okay..." she nodded and went with me to a relatively isolated spot, far from everyone else.

I could hear murmurs while we walked away, "That's really the human hero, Sir Kuro the Commoner General! He's even speaking the language of the old hero, Lady Cassandra David!"

"Can you understand it?"

"Not really. Only the scholars from the Conclave knew about it."