The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

"You mad?"

Seeing Shien show a super unhappy expression, Lucy instead spoke like she's seeing something funny.

"Duh." Shien was continued to show an unhappy expression, "Although I don't exactly care that much about rewards or merits, the fact is that I did still subjugate Jillian, Baydr, and all their Old Demon Faction members. Those are clearly merits, right? But is this how you're supposed to treat people who achieve merits?"

Be it Baydr, Jillian, or their Old Demon Faction subordinates, all of them were clearly the wanted criminals who had turned the Capital to hell ten years ago. The various nobility of the Kingdom were greatly harmed, and thus hates them greatly.

But now?

Shien was the one who took down said criminals, but not only did he not get any rewards or thanks, he was instead pulled into those boring intrigues and suspicions?

Those guys frankly deserved to get butchered by those Old Demon Faction.

But that's the nobility in a nutshell.

As the saying goes, those not for themselves will be destroyed. For some things, the more widely it gets, the more it will end up intersecting with various thoughts and interests. In the end, there's no way to avoid something that no one wanted to see originally.

To add another saying here, reality is often more cruel than one might think. As various interests and intrigue collide, all kinds of unexpected happenings and variables will appear.

Didn't even the omnipotent Highest God end up having a natural enemy in the form of the Demon King?

That just goes to show that not even a god could have everything go exactly as they will.

Thus, Lucy tried comforting Shien.

"The Kingdom would obviously not treat someone who has earned such merits shabbily. After all, no one would be willing to serve the country then." Lucy grinned, "Don't get too mad either. Although there are some people with impure motives, there are also a lot of people who are on your side."

"Is that so?" Shien was stunned for a moment.

"Of course." Lucy spoke with absolute conviction, "Like me for example. Or father. Or elder sister. All of us want to confirm your merits and recognize your potential. Given that, there's no way you'd miss out on your reward. If things go well, you may even be granted a title of nobility and thus be made into a noble."

In response to that, Shien just grimaced like he disapproved.

Become a noble?

The Kingdom's just planing to bind him down in this country and force him to work his ass off for them, right?

Although they'd definitely not treat Shien badly, their actions are still motivated by the royal family's own considerations. Thus, rather than feeling happy about it, Shien instead just finds it annoying.

"There's also the Latrard family. Lord Megis should probably also be on your side. With that, all the Latrard's various vassal families and their allies will also be on your side."

Lucy simply laughed as she spoke. It's unknown if she noticed Shien's annoyance.

"Besides that are those families who are very loyal to our royal family. Since the royal family is supporting you, they'd definitely also stand on your side. Then there's a good portion of the rest of the nobility. They really are thankful that you took revenge for them and annihilated the Old Demon Faction. Besides that there are those with a good impression of you, or have expectations for your future and want to form relationships or invest in you ahead of time. There will also be plenty of people like that too you know?"

Lucy did her best to build up Shien's confidence.

Yet, Shien only spoke a single statement in a dark tone of voice.

"You sure that there will still be nobility with a good impression of me after having met you?"

That single sentence completely shut Lucy up.

Yeah.

Will there really be nobility with a good impression of Shien?

It has to be said. Given Lucy's popularity, the number of nobles who dreams of arranging a marriage alliance with Lucy number over 99% of the Kingdom's.

Add on that there are also nobles who believe that the princess should marry the prince of some other nation or an important personage of another race in order to strengthen the Kingdom diplomatically. Could those nobles have a good impression of Shien after learning that he, as a lowly adventurer, is so overly close to her?

Heck, even for those families who are very loyal to the royal family. Although they might follow their lead on the surface, it's completely unknown just how they'd really think or act when out of the public eye.

It's exactly because they're loyal to the royal family that those families will view the question of Lucy's partner as a matter of particular importance. Thus, there will definitely be quite a few who don't look on Shien kindly.

It's very possible that during the upcoming audience, Shien will end up stabbed in the back by someone ostensibly on his side.

Something like that… Yeah, it's definitely not going to feel good.

As she realized that, Lucy's expression turned awkward. Her gaze instead gave off a kind of cowardly feeling.

To describe it in a few words, it'd be "weak and helpless".

Thus, Lucy tried to continue weakly.

"How about then you can try and reveal your status as a Hero?"

If it's a real Hero, then that status would unquestionably be absolutely worthy of Lucy.

If it was in the past, just the status of being the Hero could get countless nations to present their princesses forward for the taking. They'd likely even beg the Hero to take them in fact, right?

But now…

"I don't really mind either way." Shien readily agreed, "I'm an otherworlder after all. So even if the gods and demons decided to seriously go to war and kill each other in a bloodbath, that doesn't have anything to do with me. I'd have already done all I'm obligated to do."

Right?

Shien didn't want to expose his status as the Hero for two reasons. One is that he didn't are for the troubles, but the other is that the didn't want to cause others major troubles either by shattering the thousand year peace between the gods, mortals, and demons.

But if the one involved themselves didn't mind that, then why should Shien care?

"… Please forget I said anything."

Lucy practically started closing herself off.

"Sigh…" Shien sighed before talking to himself, "Well, whatever. If something really did happened that I really disliked, then I'll have my own way of dealing with things.

Those words just then instantly gave Lucy quite a shock.

"You… What are you planning?"

Lucy was a bit terrified now.

It can't be helped. Although she's only known Shien for a short while now, Lucy already has a basic understanding of this guy's base personality.

And that is that he's a guy who loves doing the unexpected, with all sorts of weird ideas at that. When he's being good, he's quite good, but when he's decided to be naughty, he would definitely do stuff that could practically break everyone's minds.

Yet, a guy like that is the genuine Hero at that. His fighting power doesn't lose even to herself, and even his Holy Sword seems to be far stronger than her ancestor's Holy Sword.

If he really does go wild, then who knows what's going to happen?

"Now, just calm down first. Don't overreact. We can take our time to talk about this, right? Right?"

Lucy couldn't hold herself back from saying such things. She even grabbed one of his hands as if trying to keep him from doing anything crazy. She even nearly bodily stuck herself to him.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything. You know me, right? I'm quite the principled guy after all!"

Shien was of course showing Lucy the facade of being a good boy.

But Lucy just wanted to curse.

You? Principled?

If you're principled, then the Old Demon Faction are good guys who maintain the peace and safety of the world!

Lucy suddenly felt like the worst person in this upcoming audience may not be any of those nobles, but instead the man in front of her.

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