Lily lay on her bed, although it was still daytime, she felt like taking an afternoon nap after a big meal, or well, its equivalent, she hadn't had any lunch. As it turned out, the most efficient way to absorb mana from monsters is technically by eating its meat, however by the time you treat and cook the meat, most of the mana will have dispersed, not to mention her dark arrow ate away a good chunk of the bear, so Lilith taught her that she could focus on her demonic constitution's natural mana absorption, and by touching the bear's body, she was able to absorb its mana before it dispersed. Sadly for her, however, she now felt more energetic than ever, compared to her earlier drowsiness, so although she wanted to nap, her body felt refreshed and ready for anything. Sighing, she decided to get up to search for some snacks in the kitchen, maybe she could find some cookies. Hmm, cookies...

While she was on the hunt for some cookies, she passed by a red-haired maid... Wait a second, "Melania!?" she did a one-eighty to check she wasn't seeing things, but it really was Miss Melania, she hadn't seen her in a while, but it seemed like she was back. Although...

"Hi there, Lily." Melania answered back with a small smile

"...Why are you wearing a maid uniform?" Lily was confused, normally Melania wore tight clothes that had a professional grown-up vibe, but how come she was wearing a frilly maid dress instead?

"Ah, this? Don't worry about it" Her smile cracked, and now that she took a closer look, her smile didn't quite reach her sharp eyes...

"No, no, I am definitely worrying about it!"

"Don't. Worry. About it." She smiled even wider, barely showing her sharp canines.

Lily might have been curious, but she didn't want to upset Miss Melania, so she just nodded and turned around to start walking away again at a totally-not-brisk pace. Not because she was scared of her or anything, she just wanted to reach the cookies faster.

Lilith cackled at her best friend's misery "You should've seen your face, Lania!"

Melania stared at her friend's face, promising herself she'd get back at her one day. "Is this really necessary?"

Lilith smiled, "Of course, you were the one who decided to check on the castle's servants every year, wasn't it?"

Melania's eyes twitched, "That's not what I meant, and you know it. Why did you make me wear this stupid uniform? I could get the job done significantly faster by just sneaking my way around."

"Because it's more fun this way, duh."

"..."

Lilith coughed, "On a more serious note, any news about the humans?"

Melania adopted her usual blank expression, reverting to the usual overly serious personality she used for reports. "Yes, it took a bit longer than expected, mostly because there wasn't much info to gather at first, as you already know, Lily went back to her hometown, but after discovering her mother's death, she fled to the demon continent in search of death." Lilith's expression hardened at that, "But besides that, it was quite hard to find any more information, as the church simply lost track of the hero for an entire week. Though the underworld seemed to be keeping a keen eye on her until she crossed the border. However, not long ago, one of our scout teams saw Alice Rose, seemingly on the way to the capital"

Lilith's eyes widened at that, "You mean that Alice Rose?"

Melania nodded, "Yep, Alice Rose, the Silver Witch. Upon further inspection, one of our infiltrated succubus spies in the church overheard Alice snapping at the Head Bishop. It was for not taking proper care of Lily, apparently."

Lilith scoffed at that

Melania sighed, "And lastly, it seems like the church is looking to cause some trouble again..."

Alice sighed, she thought that the church couldn't do anything too stupid to fuck things up any further, even if she let slip that the little Heroine met the Demon Queen, she was confident that between the three of them, they could all deal with any unwanted guests sent from the church, so she decided to leave the human continent quickly, but after thinking a bit more about it, she decided to play safe and leave a spirit to spy on the church just in case they pulled some hidden card, while she waited on the outskirts of the kingdom inside some random inn for a couple of extra days. However, once she heard back from the little spirit (and got rid of a few nuisances that couldn't keep their hands to themselves), she wasn't sure if she should be impressed or fucking pissed off at what she heard.

"I mean, seriously, summoning a new Hero? Why are humans so damn stupid?"

Apparently, not long after she left, Glenn received an emergency report that the hero's stone shattered, which can only signify the death of the Hero. And so he decided to get ready to perform 'emergency procedures', and that apparently means summoning a Hero from another world unto ours, to avoid catastrophe or whatever, seriously, sometimes she has to wonder where they get this shit from... Summoning magic is a thing, of course, but it normally involves summoning animals or small monsters as familiars, while it's possible to summon sapient beings, it normally involves an equal contract and willingness from both parties, to summon a human from another realm without their consent is bound to either fail, or work... at a cost. And that's just a normal human, how exactly they plan on making them the new Hero was beyond her, but she really wished it would just fail so she could go back to her goal of visiting the little Heroine. She could probably stop them if she cashed in some favors from the spirits... but the truth is she was also quite curious as to how they'd do it, so she sighed once more and left the inn, deciding to leave it to fate. She always wanted to try kidnapping a Hero...

Nory

Plot twist, it's a reverse isekai in the end! But frankly, I was quite excited but also scared to post this chapter, as from now on we'll get quite a few chapters with a new character as a secondary protagonist. Don't worry, Lily is still the Heroine of this story, but I just had to try this concept that I thought would be quite cool. Also, I already have a good grasp on what our new Hero will be like, and I'm sure it'll be a novel experience for many of you readers. If you don't like the way the story is going, I apologize, but I promise that this new character won't be like your typical isekai protag. I hope you'll all like her! Hehe...