Four men in simple clothes watched the palace from a distance. Two wearing hats, while the other two wore their hood, all of them hiding the features that differentiated them from humans. At the moment, deep in the night, they observed the kingdom’s palace, as they usually do so.

“Dammit, still can’t forget how we left the princess alone when she’s so clear in sight.” a particular bulky man wearing a hat begrudgingly said in a rough voice. “We were this close!” he showed his fingers an inch away from touching each other.

One wearing a hood placed a hand on his shoulder. “Lower your voice, Felsurd.”

“Henfred, you should have gone against Arnaut’s decision.”

Henfred shook his head. “I still won’t be able to change his mind, he was given an order to stay low for a while.”

“That was such a wasted opportunity.” Felsurd clicked his tongue with an annoyed expression.

“We cannot go against ambassador Lieren’s orders. Whatever that is, I’m sure it would help in our goal.”

“That’s right, Felsurd. We cannot mess up the plan the ambassador has concocted.” chimed in the other hooded man, Isen.

“What even is the new plan? They never said anything.” the other man with a hat asked, named Welmut.

Henfred shrugged. “We weren’t told.”

“And you’re fine with that?” Felsurd scowled as he asked. It didn’t sit right with him.

“Of course. If this plan is sensitive as I believe, then it should be best if we know nothing. Otherwise, if we get captured, we might spill the beans.”

Welmut shook his head. “Do you really think we would just reveal everything if we get tortured? Don’t underestimate us.”

“Of course you’re not being underestimated.” Isen bitterly smiled. “It’s just being more careful. After what happened to the team that was meant to extract Oryn, can’t blame them for being more careful than before.”

Welmut lowered his gaze and sighed. “It’s tragic what happened…” he was close friends with one of the team that was supposed to get Oryn, and it grieved him the next day that they haven’t returned. “Who would have expected that…”

“But still! It sucks knowing nothing.” Felsurd crossed his arms with a displeased expression.

“We just have to be patient. Trust the ambassador.”

“That plan of hers better be worth it. Best if it would burn this kingdom with it.”

“I agree.” Isen nodded. “Best to get rid of the traces of those deities,” he said so with apparent disdain.

The deities he referred to was the two gods that Wisteria worships. Their entire race carries grudges to the two of them because of their history. But even more so to the goddess who was the most prominent figure in their tragic history. It would please them if the land they treasured was destroyed as revenge. But such a thing would be difficult and require a lot of resources. Realistically speaking, it would be best to just live in their thriving homeland than waste resources in the human lands for a war. But that didn’t stop them from wishing.

“As for me, I just want to go home.” Welmut scratched his cheek. “It’s been too long.” he sighed. “If only the Cursed Children stopped interfering, we would have been done with it.”

The cursed children swarmed the palace, making it nigh impossible to assault the palace and go straight for their target. They could try but that would require more men, and the power of the cursed children was not to be underestimated as well.

Even now, they could see dark fogs surrounding the palace, blending in the darkness. They could be lurking in the trees, the dark corners of the walls, or high above. If even one race of mystic stepped in there, the fog would swarm them in no time.

The darkness of the night would be an advantage to the mystic race, but the night was even more advantageous to the cursed children. Although, if more men were sent, they would have gotten more options. However, options were even more reduced after the loss of one team.

Now they had to rely on the plan being set by their superiors.

Felsurd, while looking at the palace, narrowed his eyes and took a step forward. “Speaking of the cursed children… Welmut, look there.” he pointed at the palace.

Welmut squinted his eyes. As one of the beastmen, both Felsurd and Welmut could see in the darkness to just enough degree to see far to the palace. Welmut curiously tilted his head.

“The fogs… they are moving away?”

“Moving away? Are you sure?” Henfred asked.

“Yeah.”

“They have never done that before.”

“Do you think something is going on?” Isen tried squinting his eyes towards the palace, but no use. He couldn’t see that well in the dark.

“Dozen of them are moving away from the palace.”

“Dozen? Something’s definitely going on.”

Indeed, a dozen of them moving at once was too interesting to be disregarded. It was strange that they would remove that many when they were supposed to be guarding the person most important to them.

“Should we tell Arnaut?” Welmut asked.

“Do we really need to?” Felsurd looked at them. “He’ll just tell us to step back. I suggest personally taking a look, we will definitely find something.”

“That’s risky.”

“Of course, but we’ll just be scouting. I have a feeling it will be valuable to us.”

The others looked at each other, hesitating.

However, Felsurd merely shook his head. “Fine then, stay here and be cowards.”

“Wait Fel—”

Before they could stop him, Felsurd had already begun sprinting towards the palace with great speed.

Henfred clicked his tongue. “Let’s catch up to him.”

***

There were a group of people casually sitting on a balcony of a building, with one sitting on the railing fearless of falling to the ground. There were four in total, three men, and one woman. They all looked like completely normal humans.

One man clapped his hand one time and stood up from the chair. “Alright, as always, boring. I’m getting some sleep.”

“Oi, Droz! You slept first last night too. So this time, stay awake and I sleep.”

“Fuck you, Venzus. Chew on a stick or something.”

Without waiting for another word from Venzus, Droz promptly went inside and probably jumped directly unto the bed. Venzus sighed and leaned back.

“So much for a special operation. I thought we would be getting some action! Not this.”

Venzus upon being assigned to a mission in the human lands felt very excited the first time. He believed it would have been a thrilling experience, but to his disappointment, it was not that at all. Instead, this mission almost felt like a common reconnaissance mission.

They called their group the “Imp Special Black Ops Company” which was unofficial of course, it was a stupid name. It was made as a joke by their leader, which became their pseudo-official group name for some reason. Their leader at the moment was tapping his feet on the wooden floor while staring at the palace of Wisteria, the group was annoyed at first by all the tapping but they got used to it.

They had to stay up all night watching the palace to wait for an opportunity. They could do that with no trouble, their kind can keep on going for days without sleep. Droz was an exception since he wanted to go to sleep whenever things get boring. Indeed, no rest they could handle, but the boredom was something else.

“Rytus,” Venzus called to their leader. “You should try removing your eyes away from the palace for once.”

Rytus, almost looking like he never blinked, glared at the palace and it was a bit disturbing for Venzus. He was too diligent.

“I’m alright, not like there’s anything else we could do. It’s more entertaining to gaze at the palace than doing basically nothing.”

“You need to redefine what you mean by doing nothing.”

Him staring at the never changing scene of the palace was akin to not doing anything. He might think he was doing something because he was watching out for anything, but if nothing was happening, then he was doing nothing, basically.

Rytus shook his head and turned towards Venzus.

“... I need to watch out for any opportunity, even more so when it’s this nation’s festival. You should remember that the fate of our god rests on our shoulders.”

“Yeah, no pressure.”

Venzus turned his head to look at the woman sitting on the railing, munching relentlessly on the food from the basket on her lap. She was full of smiles and was consuming a large amount of food in one bite. She appeared to be enjoying herself, complete in contrast to the others.

“Arashia, slow down or else you’ll choke to your death.”

While her mouth was still full, she responded to him. “Hah! As if I would die becau— Gah!”

And indeed, she choked. She slammed her hand on her chest while coughing.

“Oh no, she’s going to die…” Venzus sarcastically said.

“W-Water!”

She fell to the floor right before Venzus as she reached out her hand.

“What’s that?” he placed his hand on his ear.

“W-Water.”

“Uh-huh, and what do we say if we ask for something?”

“P-Please…”

“There we go! Now then, where’s the water…?” he acted as if he was looking hard for water but stayed in his seat.

“Stop teasing her Venzus, she’s actually suffering, not like it would kill her, but still a painful experience. Spare her.” Rytus said.

Venzus chuckled and grabbed a cup of water. Arashia aggressively chugged in the water.

“Aaaaah. Much better.” she glared at Venzus. “Would you please stop being an asshole for once?”

“What? I help you didn’t I?”

“You’re just jealous I’m enjoying myself!”

Venzus bitterly smiled, feeling surprised at how she got to that conclusion. “I am not. Perhaps I just want you to stop eating through our budget as well!”

“We have plenty!” she said with a grimace then grabbed another batch of food she bought from who knows where. “Besides, don’t you think we should at least enjoy the festival? The food is great, much greater than what we go back home.”

As much as Venzus hated to admit it, it was true. Humans were certainly skilled in making food that it almost made him feel jealous. Unlike demons, humans carefully season their food, add necessary spices, and so on. The demons just do the minimum and eat — well, perhaps it was a bit different for the high-ranking demons but the point still stands.

“Here!” Arashia shoved food into Venzus’s hand. “As thanks for the water.”

“Wow, you? Giving food for free? Haha!” he laughed.

“It’s not free, payment for the debt of helping me. Debts should be paid, as dad always says.”

“Alright, whatever you say.” Venus took a bite and found it delicious.

It was then that Rytus suddenly stood up and squinted his eyes. “Hey guys, you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Venzus looked at the palace, the same place that Rytus was looking at — Arashia on the other hand was busy eating. Venzus took a while but he saw something weird. “The Cursed Children are dispersing? That normal?”

“Not dispersing, dividing. Something’s up.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Let’s get a closer look. But remain vigilant and stealthy. The last thing we want is the two factions becoming aware of our presence.”

“Alright. Oi, Arashia.” he snatched the food from her hand and stole her basket. “Focus, we’re gonna be working.”

“Aaaaaw, fine…” she begrudgingly stood up.

Venzus entered the room and placed the food on the table then headed to one of the beds where Droz was sleeping. He vigorously kicked him with the bottom of his boot, causing Droz to fall off the bed.

“Wake up you shit bag!”

“What the fuck’s wrong with you!”

“Shut up, you’re too loud. And be serious, we’re gonna be working.”

Droz got up and glared at Venzus before scratching his head. “Got it, I’ll pay you back later.”