After lunch, Lilith finished showing Lily through the castle while having some small talk, and while they sat in some chairs in the garden with some tea and snacks, the topic of elves suddenly came up

"Right, will you finish telling me about elves, Lilith?"

"Oh, right... I guess I can tell you, but there's not much more than what I already told you."

"Please tell me! I want to know more!" Lily was excited to learn new things and Lilith was happy to humor her now that she was acting her age

She giggled, "Sure thing, my daughter. No one knows exactly how the elves came about, but we do have records of some of the first Demon Lords trying to speak with them. We don't know much about how that went, though. Some believe they were sent by the gods to spectate the never-ending war between humans and demons, while others believe them to be just a third party that doesn't really have anything to do with it. What we do know is that they're very territorial and rarely leave their forests, but they're not completely against speaking with outsiders, they do some trade with both humans and demons and don't seem to be particularly interested in our conflict. They're a long-lived species, so they have lots of skilled craftsmen."

"Oh, I heard about that! Apparently, the first Hero's sword was forged by an elf!"

"Right, something like that. The metal used was supposedly blessed by the Hero himself, and holy fire was used to forge it. It was a holy sword passed down to quite a few generations before it finally broke down. It's quite fortunate for humans and demons alike that the elves don't make holy swords anymore. The elves have always been a neutral party, so when the Demon Lord heard about the holy sword, he went to the elves to make a dark sword of his own, and the casualties from both sides were astronomical. But nowadays the conflict is usually resolved with a one-on-one fight with the Hero and Demon Lord, so the casualties are kept to a minimum." Then Lilith giggled and said, "It's quite ironic really, that I am explaining this to you."

"Mhm, I never knew about a bunch of this stuff! but I'm glad that there aren't as many deaths now..." Lily looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "Hey, Lilith..."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Wouldn't there be fewer deaths if the Demon Lords and the Heroes stopped fighting?"

Lilith smiled at her, "Of course, dear. But things aren't always so simple. Heroes nowadays just follow whatever the church tells them to do, and there's never any opportunity for some actual negotiation between us." Lilith stood up and picked up Lily into a deep hug "But haven't we already achieved that? Who knows, maybe if the Heroine vouches for me, I'll get to speak with the church and we can negotiate something that would satisfy both sides."

"Hmm, maybe..." Lily mused about something

Currently, it was already nighttime when Lilith was sitting on her bed while pampering Lily, who was sitting in between her legs.

"Um, Lilith, are you sure this is alright?"

"What is?" 

"Don't you have important things to do as the Demon Queen? Should you really be spending time with me like this?"

"Mah, I'm not that busy, plus, Melania is my spymistress but she's also basically my assistant, she does most of the work that I don't feel like- that I can't do. Besides, I told you I would convince you by the end of the week. I have to do at least this much for my daughter." After speaking, she started petting Lily's head softly

"Mhh" Lily's eyes started to droop, and she quickly fell asleep after a few more minutes

She sighed, "Lania?" Lilith called out

"Yes, Lith?" Melania suddenly appeared at the bedside and spoke

"Did you do what I asked yesterday?"

"Yes, I've sent orders to one of our elite groups in the human continent to go figure out what's happened with the church. We should be hearing back from them soon"

"Thank you, we need to figure out why the church just abandoned their hero suddenly. Considering there weren't even any tracking spells on her, it seems they just left her alone in the demon continent."

"Hm, I've thought about it as well, and I do have a few guesses."

"Oh? Out with it then."

"If we compare the records from the previous generations, the new heroes have been getting weaker. And I believe the reason is that the church has been giving less and less support to the Hero, not to mention how they keep hurrying to fight the Demon Lord as fast as possible as opposed to letting the Hero gain more strength first. For example, Lily's mother wouldn't have died if the church did as they were meant to and protected the Hero's family."

"Sure, that does seem to be the case, but even so, why? They should be trying to make their Hero as ready as possible to face the Demon Lord, not the other way around."

"While I can't be certain of their motives, knowing humans, I have a pretty good guess... It's greed. Because whenever they sent the Hero to fight against the Demon Lord, it always ended up in mutual destruction. No matter how good the armor, or how sharp their sword was, there hasn't been a single Hero who has managed to beat the Demon Lord without sacrificing themselves, and vice-versa. So the church has been investing less and less on the Hero, since they believe that even if they only give them some basic weapons and armor, it would end up with the same result."

"That's..." Lilith had a solemn expression, "Let's wait for confirmation from the spies first. Once we get concrete information we should discuss this further. Besides that, make sure that ritual I asked for has been properly researched and checked by the end of the week, alright?"

"Sure thing. I'll leave you with your daughter for now, we wouldn't want to wake her up accidentally." Melania gave a soft laugh

"Mhm, you're right." Lilith said while lying down with Lily and covering them with a blanket "Good night, Lania."

"Good night." She said, disappearing into the shadows.

Nory

Well, that took a while, huh? I didn't expect to procrastinate that hard, but things happen, I guess. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.