The Demon King's Paladin Part 2. All Out War.

Chapter 454. One Goal, No Matter What

" But Sire, we need to allow the Royal Army a chance to achieve glory as well, the soldiers are becoming restless."

" I understand that lieutenant General Balan, but the Hero Party is tailor made for dispatching Demons. Just like the Adventurers that we've lost recently, lieutenant General. Why waste our soldiers in what would just be one of the opening salvos of the Demon's offensive? All of the Hero Party has made it back from fighting an even bigger enemy force of Demons than we even thought would be possible. That tells me we need to put our faith in them again, lieutenant General. At least this time."

" Sir-"

/ Rumble!/

Finally, the gigantic doors opened up. We had to wait for the guards to push them open. They were quite big, about the size of 3 2 story houses so they definitely weighed quite a large amount. During the time it took to push them open, Jaime, Ashley and I could hear the King arguing with Lieutenant General Balan. Balan... He's been another thorn in our side in a way. He's been quite vocal about the Hero Party not being worth the effort, but from what I hear, it's because he's a glory hound more than anything else. Apparently he's from a Knight House and has been able to raise himself to a Viscount Title through his work in the military. He's apparently good enough to be made a Lieutenant General, which means he's more or less 3rd from the top in the military's chain of command. Only being beaten by the General of the army and the King's own wishes. Having said that, it hasn't stopped him from quite loudly going against the King's wishes when it comes to us.

" Ah! Good of you 3 to join us! As you can see, Hero Luke and Jessie are already here at the table, please, sit with us, Cleric Laura, Monk Ashley and Wizard Jaime."

We follow the Kings invitation and we sit at the table. There was a a gap in our seating arrangement as we sat however. The seating for us went like this from left to right. Jessie, the fool, Ashley, Jaime and then me. There was an empty seat between the fool and Ashley. That's where Lucy usually sits. It seems wrong to fill in that spot by any of us. Also, we just don't particularly want to sit next to him either. The fool seemed annoyed by this, but why would we care at this point?

" Are you sure you want to leave a gap, Hero Party?"

" Lucy, the Hero's sister usually sits next to him, Your Majesty. They'd like to respect their friend's hard work this last campaign and not fill in her seat like she's easily replaceable, Your Majesty. I'm sure even the Lieutenant General can appreciate loyalty to your teammates, right?"

Jessie quickly makes excuses for us as to why we've chosen to sit apart from the fool. It helps that he's quick on his feet. He's grown used to having to explain why it is we girls tend to act the way we do. I mean, after we've spent more than a year being split between the men and women, you'd think he'd have at least 15 excused planned for any occasion. It makes me think back to all of the dinners we had to attend to attempt to drum up any faith in us as a group. However, the idea that the hope that people placed in us when we set off for Diablos to just come back after what happened... It's a silly idea, we said as much to the King and the fool, but they were so dead set on believing that words could get people to believe in someone... No, I suppose I was guilty of that belief at one point as well... Now though, I know that actions are what's important. That's why we've been taking on requests and the like. We needed to build back the trust that we lost bit by bit until we could return it to what it was... If only I knew how important actions where before... Maybe then I wouldn't be so unsettled by those dreams of mine?

" Oh... Well, I can't argue with that. She's certainly did more than her fair share of the work during the attack against the Demons. I assume her recuperation is going well?"

" Yes, Your Highness. She was still awake when we left to meet you all here. Speaking of which, why is it that you've called us, if I could ask?"

Jaime answered the King's question and asked one of her own. Jaime has taken to learning the manners of dealing with the Royalty, so she usually deals with any Royalty or Nobility that we have to deal with. She's become a pro when it comes to all the decorum and manners that are needed for interacting with them. The King seemed more than happy to answer Jaime's question. Granted the news wasn't something that I would say was worthy of being happy to share.

" After you all had left once the meeting was over in the morning. The Intelligence Division of our army brought us a new report. Demons have been spotted in the Western region of Prometheus. Right outside of Phoenix Wing."

The King informed us of some very tiring news. I guess the looks on our faces said it all as King quickly began to speak again.

" So far, no deaths have been reported and the sightings have been made by Hunters looking for game for the coming winter months. Because of that, we want you to leave after Thief Lucy heals from her illness however we'd like you to start your journey around 1 month from now. That should give Thief Lucy time to heal from her illness and allow you all to come to grips somewhat with your new Jobs and abilities. Do you have any questions about what I've said so far?"

" Will our supplies be given by the Crown, Your Highness?"

" Of course, you won't need to lift a finger, we'll also be assigning you a retinue to travel with for extra protection. They'll be skilled recruits who haven't seen battle, but they're all the best preforming Squires of this year's batch."

" Are we to train them?"

" No, they're all trained already, they just lack battle experience. Take them with you when you engage the Demons and allow them to learn through their own experiences in the battles that they'll be taking part in. We need them to learn as quickly as possible, since it looks like we'll be having to deal with more Demons in the future than we all thought possible. I only wish I wasn't so focused on making Diablos pay and focused more on protecting my people. Please, Hero Party. I need you to help me correct that mistake."

" Understood."

Jessie answered for us. I don't particularly like the idea of having to deal with a bunch of soldiers heading into this next mission. General Balan's opinion on the Hero Party isn't exactly the minority opinion in the army. I can understand why, I mean, we're a bunch of strangers that were given major social influence as soon as we arrived here in Gaia. Then we failed miserably when we needed to succeed and since then, we've more or less have just been operating as an above average Adventurer Party... Well, I suppose 2 Adventuring Parties seeing as the fool and Jessie more or less go on their own to different dungeons and requests. It acts as  good training for a novice Hero. But it looks like we're going to need to watch each other's backs a bit more than usual. I'd rather we not end up being betrayed by some soldiers thinking that they'd like to prove themselves to be " greater" than the Hero Party. It doesn't matter how much the King may support us, the bottom line is that there are more enemies then we first thought. With no one adding on to what the King said, the fool began to speak.

" With that being said, Your Majesty. Is there any other information about the Demons that the reports mentioned? Any physical descriptions?"

The fool actually asked a decent question. It doesn't matter much to me, at the end of the day, I'll either kill them or they'll run from me. That's how all of my fights will go from now on... Until I can finally return to John's side... So I can apologize to him, I can't have him thinking that I care more about others opinions than his own. I made the mistake of not telling him about what My Parents wanted me to do... I won't make that mistake again, I'll apologize, I'll confess, he'll accept and we can finally be happy. That's all I want, that's all I need and anyone who gets in the way of that, is going to lose... No matter who it is. With my ultimate goal returning to my mind, the King began to speak again.

" With that, good luck to you all. I'll refrain from calling you to the Royal Palace unless something urgent comes up. Grow stronger and be true Heroes just like those great people in past!"

And with the King attempting to inspire us, he called off the meeting. We could finally return to Lucy and explain everything to her.... Then we can finally get to figuring out what exactly these new Jobs do.