Edwin stood still as his knights killed the demons in front of him. Ermengarde, watching this grew even more enraged.

“What are you fools doing? I ordered you to Kill Him! Why are you the ones dying?” She roared.

“Are you coming down? Or should I come up?” Edwin Teased 

“You bastard! You dear? All forces deploy!” The order Ermengarde just gave was directed towards the demons still within the city.

Ermengarde had thought that her plan was perfect and opted to not deploy all her forces. The fact that she now had to call upon them was a huge embarrassment for her, however. 

‘No matter how powerful those knights are, they cannot overcome these numbers. I need only watch out for what those flying ships can…’

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

'Eh?'

A loud explosion within the city disrupted her train of thoughts. Ermengarde turned towards the city before looking further out at sea.

“What are those?” she asked loudly

From the depths of the ocean large sea ships appeared.

These were Edwin’s latest creations. Spirit planes were useful but for a full-scale invasion of the demon continent, he needed something bigger to carry heavy equipment and personnel.

The solution was simple. Large sea ships that can carry a large number of people and equipment. While he was at it, he also designed some attack ships that could be sailed over and underwater. 

When Prime Minister Clark first heard of this bold idea, he frowned. “And exactly how are the knights going to be able to breathe underwater?” he asked.

“Who said anything about the knights being human?” Edwin replied with a mischievous smile.

The ones operating the fairy queen named spirit ships, were merfolks and laminas. 

“Open fire on the city. There is nothing but demons in that city so don’t take your time aiming… just fire.” Duchess Rania commanded

“Yes, Ma'am” some merfolk sailor responded before cannons on the ships fired.

Duchess Rania was taking this battle seriously and the reason for that was because she had just been made the second, secondary-Queen of Highland.

It was something that she believed would never happen but two factors played in her favor.

First was her friendship with the first secondary-Queen, Maureen. She had advocated for Rania to be made a secondary-Queen, like herself. Rania never encouraged such a thing and was shocked that her friend had suggested it.

The second reason was the negotiation skills and connections that Rania had. In Edwin's or Clark's absence, she was the next most qualified person to hold negotiations. That being said, it may have been difficult for her to seen as representing Highlands will if she still had title of concubine. Even if she was given a special title outside of secondary-Queen, there would be those who would suspect Highland was simply setting her up for a fall, considering the history between the kingdom and the duchy.

Of course, only the most paranoid of nobles and royals would think that, but Edwin and Prime Minister Clark both came to the same conclusion that making her a secondary-Queen would save them a lot of trouble down the line.

When Rania heard the news she couldn’t believe it. By becoming more than a concubine her position in the royal family of Highland had risen... which in turn, secured the future of the duchy which was now populated with merfolk and lamina.

All that was remaining now was to pour cement on this future, to make sure it never moved.   

Her first action was to have Vidfamne absorbed into Highland.

When Vidfamne  became a vassal state of Highland, it was agreed that the duchess would remain in complete control until her child with Edwin took over from her, but that was no longer necessary in her mind.

Her children with Edwin will be recognized as legitimate members of the royal house of Highland by any standard, which meant that she was now, a full member of the royal family.

The right to govern Vidfamne as dukes or duchess, would be theirs from birth and that could not be challenged.

Realizing this, she now set fourth in earning as much achievements as she could. Just because she was made a secondary-Queen, doesn't mean that her past treatment of Highland would not comeback to haunt her or her future children. She need to make sure that her contributions to Highland could not be ignored.

For this reason, she still held on the title of Duchess of Vidfamne and preferred to be called that, rather than Secondary-Queen. 

“Duchess Rania. Queen Maureen is asking if her forces can make a move.” someone asked her

Rania sighed before thinking, ‘She still as impatient as I remember.’

Rania was hoping to earn more achievements in this battle, but her impatient friend would probably do something silly if left on the sidelines for too long.

“Launch one more volley and give the command for the laminas to attack.”

“Yes, Ma'am!”

After the last volley landed, the laminas appeared from the waters. Queen Maureen had a scary look on her face as she eyed the panicking demons.

“You lot had a lot of nerve to send a demon to control my mind and make me attack my family and love. I will pay you back tenfold.” She declared before raising her new weapon in the air.

It was a trident with a lighting spirit core infused into it. She wore red armor with two-spirit cores. One for fire and another for air.

“Kill them All!” she yelled before the laminas charged the demons.

“What the hell is this?” Ermengarde yelled. 

Her forces in the city were under siege from the sea. This situation was something she never accounted for.

She was so distracted that she only noticed Edwin when he got too close. 

 “< Demon Lord, Three Layer~>”

“Too late” Edwin uttered before punching her in the face. Ermengarde was sent flying through the castle wall.

She fell into what appeared to be a large hall where the king would welcome guests. There was a throne behind her and she stood on a blooded long, red carpet.

Edwin floated down from the hole Ermengarde made when she flew through the wall.

“You bastard… You dare hit me again.”

“I will hit you as many times as it takes until you surrender or die.”

“Surrender? I would never do such a thing.”

Edwin shrugged his shoulders before pointing his blade at her, “Death it is…” He replied

“You really believe you can kill an abyss king! Don’t be foolish. We have conquered many worlds, fought many heroes and none of them stood a chance against our power.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, however, you forgot the part about there being a first time for everything.”

“There will be no first time…” she angrily replied before attacking