The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Second floor of the guild. Inside a private room.

They were once again gathered there, but this time, Shien was surrounded by the members of Vivian's party.

"Did you meet the mistress of that Flowersong Mansion?"

Vivian asked impatiently. She must have been waiting urgently for Shien's news for some time now.

No way around it.

"After we were transferred back to the adventurer's guild, we originally wanted to go back right away. However, given that the mistress of that Flwoersong Mansion doesn't seem to welcome us, we ended up choosing to wait for you here in order to avoid any conflicts."

Diere looked at Shien and told him about what happened on their side.

"Although I felt that it might have been dangerous…"

"Thank goodness they didn't plan to do anything bad to you."

Lumia and Melika said that. It was quite obvious that they didn't really agree with the plan.

After all, the two of them didn't have the same depth of understanding that Vivian and Diere did toward Shien. Even now, they still thought of him as just a level 10 newbie adventurer, so it was only natural for them to not feel comfortable with leaving Shien on the other side by himself.

Vivian and Deire did somewhat understood how special Shien was though, so they didn't worry as much and was why they ended up choosing to do what they did, right?

Shien understood everyone's thought right away, and after scratching his face in embarrassment, finally spoke up.

"I did end up meeting her."

Shien spoke vaguely like that, which made everyone look at each other.

"Can you tell me what you talked about?"

Vivian hesitated a moment, but she still ended up asking that.

It must be that Vivian actually did care quite a bit about this matter, huh?

"Actually, we didn't really talk about anything important." Shien hesitated a moment and chose to pick what he revealed, "Originally, I had wanted to try to get some information about her, but they claimed that Vivian already knew who she was, so she told me to come back and ask Vivian about it instead."

That statement made everyone shift their gaze onto Vivian instead.

That included Shien as well.

Vivian also fell silent at that.

That reaction told everyone that Vivian did indeed know their identity.

"Big sis Vivian?"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Lumia and Melika spoke up one after the other. One was confused, the other was suspicious.

Rather, it was Diere who kept her attitude of silence as always. However, that also showed to everyone that she might actually knew something about it.

That was quite normal too.

Based on Shien's deductions, Leisha's identity doesn't seem to actually be some huge secret. At least, it was more commonly known than he had thought. It probably wasn't that strange that Diere, who had saw Leisha's portrait as well as the person herself back at the foot of Mangir mountain range, would know her identity.

Shien even suspected that it was because Diere guessed Leisha's identity when she saw her that she had ended up picking up the invitation that Leisha had left after Shien had gone away. And why she had taken it out when everyone was looking for Leisha.

As for Lumia and Melika, they had never seen Leisha in the first place, nor did they even know what their target actually looked like.

Under this situation, Vivian was silent for a while before finally sighing.

"Actually, Lumia and Melika knows her identity too. It's just that since they haven't seen her, so they didn't know just who we were looking for."

Vivian said that as she turned towards Shien.

"I've told you before that Jillian was one of the three masterminds of the Old Demon Faction behind the mass assassination incident in the capital ten years ago, right?"

Shien didn't quite understood what the meaning behind that statement was.

"Why'd you suddenly bring up that poser?"

Shien muttered to himself.

However, right then, Shien suddenly though of something. His eyes popped wide open with shock.

"It can't be, right?"

Shien thought of a possibility.

"It looks like you've already guessed it." Vivian sighed, "Jillian was only one of the masterminds. Back then, there were two other masterminds of the Old Demon Faction that also participated."

Just who were those two?

The answer came immediately.

"According to the capital's records, back then, the Old Demon Faction that attacked the capital back then were lead by three demons over level 70."

"Of those three high level demons, one was a thin old man, one was a seedy looking man, and the final one was a beautiful girl."

"The man was Jillian, back then his level had already reached level 70."

"The old man's name is Baydr. He's the highest level of the three masterminds. He was the main force behind the assassination plot. Back then, he was also the one who killed most of the targets. From what we've heard, he was also the one who devised the plot, so he was basically the leader among the three."

"Finally…"

Vivian looked as Shien who had fallen silent from her words and gave a bitter smile.

"The final one, I think you've already guessed."

Or rather, it would have been strange if he hadn't.

At that moment though, Vivian sharply changed the subject.

"However, compared to the two before, although the last mastermind was involved in the incident, she didn't kill anyone at all." Vivian so stated, "Back then, she just directly infiltrated the palace. When everyone thought she was going to take action against the royal family and deal a huge blow to the kingdom, she didn't actually harm a single person. Instead, she just stole something important before running away."

"Stole something important?" Shien had a though and hurriedly asked, "Just what was that thing?"

Vivian's answer to that was unexpected though.

"As for just what the thing stolen actually was, I don't actually know." Vivian shook her head, "It seems to be something very important and secretive. Other than the royal family, it doesn't seem like anyone knows. However, the King himself personally warned that the object in question was extremely dangerous, and that it was something left behind from the war a thousand years ago. If it was used thoughtlessly, it would cause a great catastrophe. Thus, even compared to Baydr and Jillian, the girl who stole that thing was the one who was the most sought after."

It was for that reason that both Vivian and that knight captain who saw the portrait back then both recognized Leisha, right?

Shien felt like this particular incident seemed to be getting more and more troublesome.

That was because no matter how he looks at it, it sounds like a typical plot progression for a major reveal.

Vivian who didn't know just what Shien was thinking about continued her explanation.

"From then on, that girl seemed to have directly separated from the Old Demon Faction. She started a runaway life along with that stolen object. The Old Demon Faction had been sending people to chase after her since then too. From the looks of it, it seems like were trying to purge a traitor, but whether or not there were other goals involved in that is also something that deserves consideration."

"The Kingdom is also after that girl to try to recover what was stolen. However, the girl's abilities at running away really was just too high, and every single time, it was very hard to make direct contact with her. Second of all, the King had personally given the order that caution must be taken if she was discovered. Otherwise, if she ended up actually using that item, the consequences would be unthinkable."

"It's also for that reason that when we discovered her this time, the higher ups didn't dare to send anyone to try to apprehend her. Instead, they only sent people to make contact with her in secret to try to figure out her goals here in Lamdrion as well as if there are any danger. They'd only decide on what to do after that."

Thus, Vivian accepted this quest and lead everyone to the Flowersong Mansion.

Likely, after she had been transferred back, the reason that Vivian didn't dare to go find her again was because she feared that particular matter.

"That guy…"

Shien seriously kind of wanted to strip Leisha naked then.

What was with calling them the bad guys?

You were obviously one of those bad guys at one point!