Chapter 7: Three Hundred Years

There were five people there.

One was a gray-haired girl standing in front of the house, intently observing the battle in front of her, occasionally showing a thoughtful expression. Next to her was a slime girl, partially cloaked in a cape, her exposed body shimmering with blue and gold like jelly, already sensing and casting her gaze toward Vilyric and the others from a distance.

Not far from them sat a pink-haired butterfly girl, with four thin, wing-like translucent wings sprouting from her back and tentacles atop her head. She appeared to be deep in meditation, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings, entirely comfortable.

In the wider open space ahead, a man and woman were engaged in an intense offensive and defensive clash at a speed unrecognizable to the naked eye.

The man seemed to be in his early twenties, dressed in simple clothes, wielding a long wooden sword. His agile gray hair bounced with his movements. Although he struck with lightning speed, he was clearly on the defensive.

The other combatant, a tall woman with gray hair, executed a fierce assault.

She swung a wooden sword, striking it against the opponent’s blade with a sound like thunder, not merely relying on brute force, but skillfully targeting the gaps in the man’s defense with pokes and deceptive kicks that seemed random yet were highly threatening.

Had it not been for the latter’s experience, always managing to respond unexpectedly yet correctly in critical moments, he would have likely already been defeated.

Though the wooden swords they wielded glimmered with the aura of magic, Vilyric could tell that this was clearly not intended to increase lethality—merely there to protect the fragile wood, ensuring it wouldn’t snap in such an intense battle.

In other words, this was a spar.

Without rushing to interrupt, the Priestess simply moved a short distance with her companions and quietly observed.

Noticing their arrival, Miss Slime quickly weaved around, jogging to the side of the black-haired girl.

“Lady Vilyric, you’re here.”

“Good job! Have there been any developments during this time? Have those two made any moves?”

Xiao Lan, who had volunteered to accompany Lulu to monitor the dimensional changes and assist Min Chen in guarding the two captives, shook her head.

“According to Lulu, the dimension is currently stable, and there shouldn’t be any issues in the short term. As for Sylvania and Aileen, I closely observed for a while and didn’t notice anything unusual. They haven’t secretly contacted anyone as you were concerned.”

“Hmm…”

Vilyric nodded thoughtfully.

After defeating Sylvania and temporarily killing Aileen under Min Chen’s insistence, the Priestess, Tiyelu, and Gatekeeper had a discussion and ultimately decided to imprison those who stole the Demon God’s authority at the gateway and assist in guarding the entrance to the dimension.

Indeed, this was a special measure taken considering some of their actions and underlying motives, but both Vilyric and the other two believed that killing the two wouldn’t benefit the current situation. Although Sylvania and Aileen had only obtained a small portion of the Demon God’s divine spark, their death would undoubtedly make the situation worse.

Neither Sylvania nor Aileen objected to this decision after their defeat; they accepted it quietly and didn’t resist while forming a binding contract with Tiyelu. So for now, they shouldn’t pose any significant threat.

The contract’s duration was temporarily set at three hundred years.

Aileen and Sylvania were both descendants of Min Chen; however, not just one from the maternal side. Ignoring the generational issues caused by lifespan differences between races, they could basically view each other as sisters.

Half-demons already have a long lifespan, and with the inheritance of Demon God power, they no longer need to worry about aging. If they could guard the dimension seriously for three hundred years without any malicious intentions and redeem their wrongs, a second chance might not be out of the question.

As for why these two descendants of Min Chen would gather together to plot for Demon God power, Vilyric had figured it out after detailed questioning.

Sylvania’s goal was straightforward—she wanted to defeat Min Chen and then take the Gatekeeper, who had once abandoned her mother, to her grave to repent. Perhaps the description of her mother’s unmatched power and the subsequent abandonment created a strong rebellious spirit in the girl.

Thus, she needed even stronger power.

Aileen’s thoughts were a bit more complicated.

Growing up in Demon Town, Aileen was able to conceal her half-demon identity well enough that no one persecuted her. However, she witnessed countless human and non-human conflicts along the way, which filled her with fear and a secret rage and led to her dissatisfaction with the United Kingdom and humans.

This emotional turmoil intensified when her bangs-wearing figure, the brother she viewed as such—Cyril, who had grown up with her—went missing more than a year ago during a poaching endeavor in the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons.

At this moment, Sylvania arrived in Demon Town, and by chance they recognized each other as half-demons. They quickly hit it off and decided to join forces.

What Aileen wanted was a fundamental resolution to change the distorted discrimination towards non-humans in the United Kingdom, and her means were violent and direct.

The long-standing conflicts between humans and non-humans were essentially expressions of differing ideologies. Such contradictions couldn’t simply be eliminated out of thin air, but they could be redirected.

Indeed, that was a common and sufficiently strong external enemy.

Just like in many storybooks where nations that have fought each other for years band together to form alliances and cooperate against a terrible enemy after a Demon King rises to decimate several of them…

While stories can be fictional, their causal relationships are reasonable.

So, Aileen decided to become that Demon King.

As long as humans face truly painful harm and existential crises, they wouldn’t have the leisure to oppress any non-humans, leaving cooperation as the only option. Thus, many professions and dirty dealings that thrived on such conflicts, like poachers… would naturally cease to exist.

Perhaps this would need a long process, and Aileen’s hands would surely be stained with blood, but she believed this was the only way to resolve the conflict fundamentally.

However, she could not just allow the kingdom to be completely destroyed, which was why she suddenly backstabbed the evil god Chiyan who aimed to come into the world, attempting to stop him at the gateway, preferably leading to a mutually destructive showdown with the Gatekeeper, allowing Sylvania to succeed.

Yet Aileen never expected the Gatekeeper would personally arrive in Demon Town, nor could she have anticipated his terrifying power, which overwhelmingly defeated her, leaving her plans to become the “Demon King” in tatters.

As for the tomes stored in her basement, including notes in the language of Blue Star regarding the travels of otherworlders exploring the dimension, they were all painstakingly collected by Sylvania over a century, despite their efforts to decipher them yielding only a general understanding.

At this point, the purpose of doing so was clear.

Even if they possessed the Demon God symbols, they had to answer at least one riddle correctly before the second question posed by the white-clad youth who called himself Wenqu; otherwise… they would completely lose their qualifications to move forward.

   

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