There was a young lady casually sitting down on the tree branch, a bag of food beside her. Although she was not truly human, she was a lady nonetheless. If one would ignore her gluttony. She wore an athletic outfit that covered her entire body, dark pants, and a shirt covered in leather.

With a self-entertained smile, she grabbed a piece of bread from her bag as she watched over the Wisterian palace. She has been doing this for weeks now. Which she was glad of doing, it was boring in their lodging.

With her sharp eyes that pierced through the darkness, she gawked at the dark fogs floating above, blending in the dark night. Reason for her being here was because she was looking for a weak spot. A spot where they could perhaps sneak inside and also easily sneak out.

But the Cursed Children were making it practically impossible. Not only that, there were the human guards. Which were not exactly going to be hard to deal with, but still troublesome. They had to kidnap the princess flawlessly, at least close to that.

Often if the princess goes out though, she is guarded by many knights, all elites. Plus the tailing Cursed Children. Add to it the most terrible thing, the Church. The imps didn’t want to face the Church fighters that wield the holy element. Something that could harm them.

Personally, she had never been hit by any holy element. But she heard it was truly terrible for demons to be struck by it. It easily pierces through their skin, and it burns, and it stops their natural healing. They were weak to it, thus they had to absolutely avoid it.

It has been some time since they observed all the occurrences in Wisteria. And they were being patient with their hunt. They didn’t mind the wait, at least the patient ones, which were the majority. Arashia didn’t mind it though, she loved the food.

In any case, things have been escalating in Wisteria, with that, there may come an opportunity. Which was why Arashia was here, with her sharp ranger and tracking skills, with her top tier stealth ability, she was the perfect woman demon for the job. But all she could do was eat most of the time.

How do we even drive those fogs away…?

They needed something to disperse them or anything.

She munched her food.

What would Dad do?

She pondered. But stopped shortly after when she remembered it wasn’t her job to think of strategies or anything. She’ll leave it to the other guys.

As she continued on with her food, she paused when she saw a small dot flying up from the palace. It was a bird.

A lone bird flying away late in the night from the palace.

It wasn’t the first time the same thing happened recently. It made her feel suspicious. Thinking about it, there were some humans from another nation there. Which she heard from the leader that they were Wisteria’s enemy.

She quickly swallowed the remaining food in her hand. As for the rest, she made sure the bag wouldn’t fall before standing up and stretched.

Okay, guess I’ll follow that bird.

With incredible dexterity, she jumped down from the tree branch and landed on the ground with complete silence. She tracked the flying bird and sprinted with tremendous speed. When she reached some buildings, she promptly jumped up to the rooftop and seamlessly jumped from one to another.

She had to be careful with the guards patrolling. But she didn’t have to be so stressed about it. She could avoid them with ease, and not like the humans would just look up at the rooftops. That said, she still had to stick to the shadows and occasionally drop into the small crevices.

She was closing in on the city walls, she easily scaled it up and stealthily avoided the guards. She went by so fast that if there were any that saw her, she would be but a passing shadow.

With excellence, she gracefully landed on the ground, and she immediately continued tracking the bird.

I hope it doesn’t go to the next town.

It would be too much and too far if that were the case. She would then perhaps need to give up. It flew across the Elgion forest, but thankfully not deep into it. Still, it shouldn’t be that dangerous for her. She could perhaps handle a few Elgion forest monsters, or better, she could sneak by them.

As she got into the forest, she lost sight of the bird under the tree shrouds. She pouted in frustration, but the bird was going in a straight line, so there was a chance she could manage if she just went straight.

She sensed the gazes of lurking monsters in the darkness, with some she could spot. But she ignored them. As long as there weren’t any strong monsters that leapt out in her way, or she kept avoiding them, she should be fine. Otherwise, she would have a hard time explaining the situation to the leader. And explaining while in trouble was a bother.

A moment later, she was reaching the edge of the forest, where beyond should be a main paved road.

“Hm?”

Roughly at the edge, she stopped, and crouched on a tree branch. There were two human men standing by the trees. One was thinner, while the other was muscular. In the former’s hand was the bird. And the bird was speaking in a man’s voice.

“... Once he’s out, preferably night time, then we begin operation.”

It would seem that she only got to hear the end of the message.

“You heard it,” said the thin man.

“Well, there are plenty of monsters to choose from in this forest.”

“We’ll need one powerful enough to warrant the king’s power.”

The muscular man leaned his back on a tree. “It will be difficult to capture a monster of that scale. All we can do is lure it into the open.”

“Hm. We’ll discuss this back at base.”

“Is this going to work?”

“Hope so.”

“Luring the king out is one thing. Wreaking chaos in the Wisterian palace, that really is something.”

“Well, it is the Emperor’s order.”

Emperor? Could they be from the nearby human empire?

The current visitors in Wisteria were from the nearby empire. It would seem they have a devious plan to do.

“It will be a good opportunity to execute the mission. But, what if it fails though?” The muscular man crossed his arms. “That would be an astounding failure.”

“From what I was told, it won’t matter much. The two princes are only there to increase our chance of success by taking out the heads and utterly destabilizing Wisteria.”

“What do you mean it won’t matter? I don’t get how.”

“Oh, you don’t know?”

“Well, you never told me.”

“You never asked. I assumed they could have told you.”

The muscular man shrugged. “Then, I’m asking you now.”

“... Whether they succeed in their mission or not, the Empire will still attack the royal capital soon after.”

“The capital? Not starting the invasion?”

“Yeah, straight to the capital.”

“How soon?”

“Don’t know. After a month maybe.”

“How are they gonna do that? We can’t just sneak an army needed to assault the city and win.”

“They’re using the Dust.”

Arashia’s ears perked up.

“Oh, do we have that on hand?”

“Nope.”

“Then who got it?”

“Who knows. It’s not our job to do it, anyway.”

“... Huh, very well.”

“Anyhow, we’re done here.” He tapped on the bird’s head and whispered to it. “Understood. It will be done.”

And then he released the bird, and it flew back into the city.

“Let’s go.”

And with that, the two humans went on their way.

Arashia narrowed her eyes as she watched them go and contemplated what they just said.

Dust. This is big news!!!!!

Her heart almost leaped out in excitement. And she quickly ran back to the royal capital, intending to see her accomplices. But not before she retrieved her bag of food.

***

Three demon imps were lingering around a balcony of the building. Basically doing what they normally do.

Their leader Rytus was sitting down while occasionally watching the palace. He was more lax than before though, mainly because Arashia was there to take a closer look. The other imp demon, Venzus, was leaning on the balcony with a book in his hand. He normally never read books, but there was nothing else to fiddle around with.

The last demon, Droz, just got out from the inner room, coming in to join in on the balcony. In his hand was a cup with a steaming drink inside, it was coffee. Although such a human drink would barely affect a demon like him, there was still a mild effect. He had to drink it, as he was prohibited from sleeping tonight. Could that be punishment or just make him suffer? No one would know but the leader.

But he had been tasting such a drink for some time now. And it was actually decent to the tongue. He was currently looking forward to drinking it again tonight.

But then, someone came swishing down from above.

Too late did Droz realize it as he looked up. “Hah?!”

He was slammed down into the floor, his cup hurling the air, the coffee spilling out. Pain throbbed from his back as he was pressed onto the floor, someone landed directly on him.

“Big news!” Arashia shouted in excitement.

Droz groaned. “W-What the fuck?!”

Arashia cluelessly looked down. “Oh, oops. Sorry, didn’t see you there.”

She slowly stepped away, but Droz scoffed. “Screw you! You definitely saw me.” He slowly got up.

“He-he-he. Okay, yes I did see you.” Arashia wanted to act clueless so she would be spared any harsh scolding. “But you walked into it, so it was too late to change my trajectory.”

“And my coffee! You spilled my coffee!”

Arashia awkwardly looked away. “Not my fault, you let go.”

“The hell?!”

She rummaged through her bag, and with a pitiful face, she handed him a piece of bread. “Then have this in place for your coffee.”

With a frown, Droz received the bread. “Whatever.” Not like he could do anything about it anyway. His coffee won’t come back.

“You forgive me?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Arashia pouted.

“What news do you bring, Arashia?” Rytus asked.

That snapped her back. “Big news! Big opportunity!”

And thus she conveyed what she had heard from those two humans.

“The Empire is attacking?” Venzus put down his book, and placed a hand on his chin.

“After the princes’s mission…? Then they’re planning something in there.” Rytus glanced at the palace.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about when they assault the city, maybe we can take the chance!”

Rytus leaned back. “Yes. Amidst the chaos, the city is under attack. Human forces will scatter, plenty of distractions. Even the Cursed Children will disperse, where there could be a window for us. And the church will be too busy.”

“Definitely a good chance. Less forces to get in our way,” Droz added.

“And they’re using the Dust,” said Rytus.

“Like the one you have?”

Rytus pulled out a pouch, filled with dust. “Yes.” It was only one of the pouches he had in his person.

“But, just how much do they even have? Considering what they’re planning on doing,” Venzus asked.

“Enough for their mission, I suppose.”

“Where did they even get it? They’re hard to find.”

“Hm. I can only think of the mystic race having something to do with it. I’m not aware of humans knowing how to use it.”

“Then they will need a wide place to make the circle.”

“Yes… In any case, we can prepare for it. So once we heard that something happened in the palace, we can get ready for their assault.”

“What if the two princes succeed?”

“Our main target won’t be harmed, the Cursed Children will protect her. Hell, best case they might personally take out the enemy, resulting in the Empire to lose.”

“Then, our option is to wait for their assault?” Droz asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m in on that.”

“Me too.”

Arashia nodded.

“Good job, Arashia.”

“T-Thank you.” She giggled.

“Keep closely monitoring the palace.”

“Yes!”