"Who are you!? What are you doing to the queen!?"

"This is not what it looks like!"

I got caught by a group of well-dressed people, I don't know who they are but they certainly do not look like guards, some are too young and some are too old, and none of them is carrying weapons.

One old man in particular steps forward, he's all red in the face, is he angry about something?

"Princess Nera! What is the meaning of this!? What do you think you're doing to your mother!?"

"I didn't do anything! It was all her!"

"Hey!"

"Not that she did anything wrong either! This is just a misunderstanding!"

Some of the people on the back are nervously glancing at each other and seem to be planning to run away.

"That woman looks dangerous..."

"We need to call the guards"

'Shadow bind'

"Aaah!!!"

"I'm sorry, I won't keep you like that for long"

"This is an outrage! Princess Nera! Release us at once!"

The old man from before is getting even angrier...

"I cannot release you, she would not let me..."

"Hey!"

"Luna these are all people in high positions in the country, I cannot let them think badly of me" Nera whispers in my ear.

"That doesn't mean that you need to throw all the blame at me..."

Among the people I tied up, there's a young girl that keeps staring at the unconscious queen and seems particularly terrified.

"What... what are you going to do to us?"

"Ah, don't worry, I promise that I will be gentle with you"

"Nooooooooo!!!"

She's crying...

"Eh!? You don't want me to be gentle with you?"

"Eeek!!!"

And now she crying even harder, what does she want from me? I don't get her...

"How can you talk like that to such a young girl!? Do you have no shame!?"

I have to give some credit to the old man, he does not seem to be scared like everybody else, perhaps his anger is overshadowing his fear.

"Are you also the one who activated the barrier earlier?"

"The barrier? What barrier?"

"The one who surrounds the city! We saw it get activated just a moment ago, and the water filter was turned off"

Taking a look out the window, I can see that the city has been covered by a semi-transparent dome that seems to be made of water, don't tell me that I did that when I was trying to guess how to use the controller...

"Nera, what is that water filter he was talking about?"

"Oh, it's a part of the magic circuit that turns seawater into drinking water, most people in this city get their water from it"

Did I turn that off as well?

"For the time being, let's take your mother to that room over there so we can finish the search"

I open the closest door to us and drag the unconscious queen there, which means that I'll leave these other people alone for a bit.

"Everyone, listen, I'll be back soon, do not try to do anything weird"

Nera enters the room with me and helps me search for the 'contract crystal' but we cannot find it, no matter how hard we try.

"Luna, it's not here, what do we do now?"

"Well, I do not want to kill the queen, but I'm sure that we can find a better way to do things"

That said, there's another thing to worry about.

"But before we do anything else, I need to figure out how to use this controller. I activated the barrier and turned the water filter off, at the moment, nobody can leave the city or get drinking water"

"Yeah, that's a problem, but can't you just reverse what you did?"

"I need to make sure that I understand how this works first if I do something wrong, I'm afraid that I could even end up sinking a part of the city into the sea like your mother threatened to do earlier, better not do anything reckless"

"But what if more guards come?"

"Don't worry, even if someone comes here there's no way they'll be able to beat me"

"That's true..."

"Actually, do you know if we could ask anyone to do it for us?"

"I'm not sure... all the people who take care of this stuff are demons and I don't know any of them personally, do you remember how I told you that Kalroth had sent some of his assassins here? I even met one of them earlier, I'm afraid that we cannot trust any demons we don't know"

"That does seem dangerous, yes, demon lords have several skills to control their underlings even if they are not close, any demon around here could potentially be a spy..."

"So, will you be able to figure it out on your own?"

"Don't worry, everyone will have water to drink again soon"

"Wait... Luna, that mirror over there... this is the broadcast room!"

"Broadcast room?"

"It's like a transmitter mirror, but this one sends images and sound to a bunch of panels placed around the city, it's meant to be used to make general announcements to the city, and it seems like you activated it by accident"

"Eh!? So did everyone hear our conversation just now?"

"Well, you need to be right in front of the mirror for it to work, so maybe not... or, since you were moving around so much, perhaps only parts of it were heard..."

"Uh, I hope that nothing was..."

It would be very embarrassing if everyone heard me having no idea what I was doing...

---

 

-Silvea-

After a long and difficult battle, we were able to defeat and capture the assassin, however, Ranna disappeared without a trace, there were a few things that I wanted to ask her...

But before we could think about celebrating our victory, something strange happened, the entire section of the city we were in suddenly rose into the air! And after just a few moments it went down again, that was scary! What was that about? Wait, why is there a barrier surrounding the city now?

"Paula, do you know what just happened?"

"Of course I don't, why are you asking me?"

Well, she's, usually the one of our group who knows things...

After that we make sure that everyone is safe, fortunately, the people in the mansion did not get caught in the fight.

"Now we should try to find Ranna, but where do you think that she went?"

When we were about to start discussing what we should do next, a large panel attached to a tall building illuminated, and the face of the queen of darkness appeared on it, what is going on?

"Everyone, listen ... do not try to do anything weird"

What? Do not tell me that she's planning to make some sort of announcement to the city.

"I do not want to kill the queen, but I'm sure that we can find a better way to do things"

I can see an unconscious woman next to her, her clothes are on tatters, is that the queen? Is she threatening to kill her if people don't do as she says?

"I activated the barrier and turned the water filter off, at the moment, nobody can leave the city or get drinking water"

Eeeeeh!? How did she do that? Does that mean that everyone in the city is her hostage now? Could she be trying to take over the kingdom?

"I could even end up sinking a part of the city into the sea ... better not do anything reckless"

Sink the city!? How can she be so ruthless... was what happened before just a demonstration? Someone needs to do something, if she's in the castle there should be many strong guards and knights around, maybe they can stop her...

"Even if someone comes here there's no way they'll be able to beat me"

Ugh, that's true...

"Demon lords have several skills to control their underlings even if they are not close, any demon around here could potentially be a spy..."

She even has spies in the city!? Don't tell me... the reason why she destroyed that mountain and intimidated all those demons back then was so that she could get the demon lord title? She must have wanted some servants to help her take over this city... this way we won't even we able to trust the people in the city...

"Don't worry, everyone will have water to drink again soon"

And with that the announcement ends... wait, the wait she talked about everyone drinking water don't tell me...

"Guys... do you remember when she did something to the water in that town back then? She didn't seem to accomplish anything and we couldn't figure out what she was after... and now, she has access to the water supply of this city..."

"It can't be... are you trying to say that that was all a test for what she was planning to do here?"

"What... we need to warn everyone! If the people in the capital fall under her control she could end up taking over the entire country!"

"How did she manage to pull this off, wait, wasn't the princess there with her?"

I believed that she had kidnapped the princess because she wanted to use her as a hostage, but could it be that she was actually after the information she had on the workings of the capital and the castle?

Uh... to think that everything she had been doing since the start was part of her master plan to take over this country... the queen of darkness is even more fearsome than I thought...