The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

About half an hour later, two figures appeared at the western gate of the Capital as they moved further into the distance.

After watching Lucy move forward in a seemingly directionless manner, Shien finally spoke up.

"Speaking of, just what are you planning on doing?"

Shien wasn't able to guess at Lucy's motives.

Lucy didn't turn around. She just continued to move forward as she started to finally explain.

"Actually, recently, the demonic beasts around the Capital showing unnatural behaviors."

Lucy suddenly explained.

"Demonic beasts?"

Shien blinked.

"Yes." Lucy nodded, "Originally, there's always been all kinds of relatively high leveled demonic beasts nesting near the Capital. They're also the main targets that the adventurers of the Capital tends to deal with. There are even some of the demonic beasts who might try to attack the Capital, so for the Capital, they count as something of an average source of danger."

Since the Capital has a barrier for protection, and the walls and gates are all constantly patrolled by the knights. Then there's also the fact that adventurers will go out and hunt for various kinds of quests. All together, the demonic beasts all around the Capital don't count as that big a danger. Rather, their materials are in quite the demand for a lot of people, so the Capital has never really considered pushing them all away or subjugating them all.

But recently, there were some unusual changes in their activities.

"Based on various reports from the knights and adventurer's guild, the demonic beasts near the Capital have changed in behavior. Some left their nests. Some became extremely agitated, like they hav detected some kind of terrifying threat and are terrified of getting close to the Capital. There were even cases where they left the vicinity of the Capital altogether. All in all, this caused some minor shortages in demonic beast materials for the Capital."

Lucy quietly explained.

"Besides that, there's recently often been reports of suspicious figures around the surrounding areas. The palace believes that this isn't something that can be ignored, so they decided to start an investigation.

And the results of that investigation had put the palace and even the royal family on guard.

"Some have even claimed that the suspicious individuals around the Capital seems to be the demons who have come as representatives of the demon race this time."

Shien was quite surprised at Lucy's words.

"Are you talking about that Demon Commander named Jacinta?"

Shien remembered that somewhat frivolous looking demon youth who rewarded him with that powerful magic staff.

"Yes, that's him." Lucy turned serious, "Originally, after the audience was over, he, as a Demon Commander, should have gone straight back to the demon world without hanging around the Capital. But for some reason, during this bit of time, he had continued to stay in the Capital, unwilling to leave. Even when people asked him for his reason, he'll always end up making up some excuse."

Now that's a bit troublesome.

"It's due to the matter with the Old Demon Faction that we organized that audience. We had thought that would be the end of it, but the Demon Commander refuses to leave and is simply hanging around. And during the time when he's hanging around, there's been unnatural phenomenons near the Capital."

"Add in the fact that the suspicious figures spotted near the Capital being them, this issue really could end up being either a minor or big issue."

"At the very least, right no, within the palace, there are already people who believes that that Demon Commander is planning some kind of evil plot. There are already rumors circulating that he's acting against the Kingdom."

Lucy turned and looked straight at Shien.

"If this matter isn't properly dealt with, it may very well end up a diplomatic issue between humanity and the demon race."

Therefore, this matter must be properly investigated, properly dealt with, and properly resolved.

Otherwise, even putting aside the diplomatic issues, the unnatural phenomenons around the Capital have already made a lot of people uneasy.

"Father is treating this matter very seriously. In this period of time, he's been continuously monitoring Lord Jacinta's movements. Elder sister is also trying to make contact with the demons in the hopes of gathering information from them or just getting the people from that side to reign Jacinta in and call him back."

Lucy so explained.

"And my responsibility is to fully investigate the unnatural phenomenon in the Capital's surroundings. This is why I've left the city."

In response, Shien signaled his comprehension.

Only…

"For something like this, even if you want to do something about it, you should at least have brought some more people, right?" Shien spoke uncomprehendingly, "This is the first time that I've even seen something like a princess running off into the wild on her own to investigate stuff."

The surroundings of the Capital is vast after all, so where is she even supposed to start investigating?

At this kind of time, the best way to deal with this is to use the power of numbers, right?

Lucy of course understood what Shien was trying to convey.

"But we've already tried that several times. We went out the knights to investigate several times already. However, Lord Jacinta's people are also quite competent, so every time they detected any activity, they'd hid themselves away ahead of time, so we weren't able to get anything out of it." Lucy spoke resignedly, "Without any other recourse, our only choice left is to use only a few individuals to investigate in secret in order to avoid alerting Lord Jacinta's people."

Thus, this action was basically born of desperation.

"But that still doesn't require the princess to personally run off to investigate, right?" Shien still didn't quite understand and so made that known, "You might be strong, but your skill set is all based around close combat skills. You don't have any skills for detection or investigation work, right?"

Given that, Lucy running off into the wilds to investigate on her own really isn't something that Shien could understand.

Of course, there is in fact a reason for that.

"This time, I'm the one who volunteered." Lucy so explained, "You should know that I have the blessing of the Goddess of Fate, right?"

"Yeah." Shien nodded, puzzled, "What? Does it have something to do with that blessing?"

"Basically." Lucy smiled, "Due to the fact that I've gained the Goddess of Fate's blessing, I too have somewhat gained some benefits from fate. If it's something that I have to deal with myself, then via the guidance of fate, I'll somehow, through various accidents and coincidences, end up coming into contact with the source of the issue."

"In other words, not only am I lucky, it's to the point where I would often end up stumbling into the core of the issue and thus end up resolving it." Lucy gave Shien a meaningful look, "Being able to meet you and finding out about the things behind your summoning may also be due to the guidance of Fate."

"Here's hoping." Shien rolled his eyes, "Then, what you mean is that if you just run about randomly out here, then you'll likely end up finding some clues somehow?"

"That's how it is." Lucy spoke seriously, "Don't go thinking that it's unreliable now. In all these years, every time I wanted to resolve something, I'll end up successfully coming across the means for it. This time will likely be the same."

Shien really wanted to tell her that he's rather amazed at her naive confidence.

It's one thing to say to just test one's luck, but this is the first time that he's ever heard it put in such a way.

However, since it did involve a god's blessing, then he can't really dismiss it all that much either.

Otherwise, he's going to be the one ending up embarrassed, and not this unhinged princess.

"But what if I want to leave though?"

Shien started sighing.

Having to waste his valuable studying time for something like this. I'll seriously get you for this later, grr.

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