After the meeting concluded, the party’s scout asked with a look of deep concern: “Lady Hadia, are you truly going to the battlefield?”
After all, from any angle, Hadia’s current psychological state was ill-suited for combat.
The probability of an accident occurring was incredibly high.
“If I leave now, I would truly be abandoning the Saintess. As the Hero, I must remain here… As for you, Ivuna and Bena, there is no need for you to accompany me to the battlefield. You should return to the Church as soon as possible.”
“No, Lady Hadia, how could we possibly leave you behind all alone!”
Ivuna was naturally quite agitated by Hadia’s advice.
After all, this was not the Demon King’s Castle, where they had been forced to abandon Emily.
Having already abandoned one companion once, Ivuna truly could not accept abandoning a second.
“…Very well, Lady Hadia. I will take Ivuna back.”
“Bena, why are you like this! I let it slide last time, but this time I will not listen to you! If we stay, we stay together; if we leave, we leave together!”
Listening to Ivuna’s words, Bena retorted with a helpless sigh: “Ivuna, why have you started getting so emotional too…”
“In this situation, how could you expect me not to be! If the Demon King takes the field, then Lady Hadia will be…”
“If I could, I would want all three of us to go back. But Lady Hadia has been morally shackled. It is a settled fact that she cannot leave. Those Imperial soldiers will not withdraw peacefully until the Demon King beats them into submission.”
“The Empire always likes to cause trouble… I don’t care, I am staying no matter what! If you want to leave, Bena, then go back alone.”
It was clear that as Ivuna said this, she looked down upon Bena.
After all, she had run away and abandoned companions twice in a row.
In Ivuna’s eyes, Bena was no longer fit to be a companion to the Hero and the Saintess.
“…”
Although she wanted to refute something, Ivuna’s words were the truth.
No matter what excuses were found, it could not change the fact that Bena had abandoned two companions in succession.
“Ivuna, just go back with Bena. You have more important things to handle; you are not running away.”
“Important things?”
“Passing intelligence to the Church, of course… Without our information, humanity will never be able to hold them off when the Demon King attacks. We must race against time to bring this intelligence back. Every day earlier is another day of preparation.”
Bena’s plan was to use the Church as a center to unite all human nations into a Demon King subjugation army.
As long as the Church provided unified command, they would not have to fear human nations falling into infighting.
After all, in a world where God truly existed, the Church’s control over other nations could be imagined.
Even the most warlike Empire was forced to heed the Church’s command.
“…Then Bena, you can just go alone! I will stay and keep Lady Hadia company!”
Watching the stubborn Ivuna, Bena felt a sense of helplessness.
After all, if either Ivuna or Bena failed to return, trouble could arise.
The safest course of action was for both of them to return together.
If Ivuna went back alone, she might not be able to explain the severity of this crisis to the Church clearly.
Convincing the upper echelons of the Church to unite all human nations to resist the Demon Race would be no easy feat.
Furthermore, those old foxes in the Church’s leadership were not the type of people that a straightforward person like Ivuna could deal with.
If she truly let Ivuna go back alone, Bena could only foresee a future where she was tricked and manipulated by those old foxes every minute, so she had to go and explain it herself.
However, letting Bena go back alone would also bring about another set of problems.
Bena, a magic-obsessed homebody, had the weakest physical constitution in the Hero’s party—even inferior to the Saintess, Emily!
After all, to maintain her perfect figure, Emily was forced by God to exercise every single day.
To God, Emily could neither be too thin nor too fat.
A fat Saintess would ruin the image of God himself!
Moreover, Bena was not very good at dealing with traps or the like.
If someone laid an ambush for Bena on the road, she would fall for it in a heartbeat.
During battles against monsters, they would also face a difficult fight due to the lack of a vanguard.
Bena laid out all these thoughts to Ivuna in one breath.
“In other words, we really have no choice but to leave Lady Hadia behind alone?”
“Yes…”
“Rest assured, I will not engage the Demon King again… I will finish this battle quickly and then catch up with you.”
“Does Lady Hadia mean?”
“I intend to take this fortress from the Empire tonight.”
The Empire only requested that Hadia take the fortress to exchange for hostages.
Once the fortress was seized, the Empire would have no way to continue stopping Hadia from leaving.
“So you are only going ahead, and I will catch up to you very soon…”
“I understand…”
Hearing Hadia say as much, Ivuna could no longer insist and chose to return to the Church with Bena obediently.
Watching the backs of her two companions, Hadia gripped the holy sword in her hand.
She prayed that the dangerous Demon King would not appear during today’s assault.
As long as the Demon King was absent, Hadia had the confidence to take this border fortress within a single day.
While Hadia was parting ways with her companions, Emily was being led by Natalie to a place resembling an airfield.
Dozens of massive sub-dragons were lying on the ground in that area.
Seeing those sub-dragons, Emily swallowed hard against her will.
The sub-dragons were generally over 20 meters long, and a carriage-like structure was fixed to the backs of each of them.
It was clearly intended for people to sit in for flight.
Such a method of transport left Emily in disbelief.
In human lands, while they did domesticate flying monsters for aerial units, they were mostly mid-sized monsters like griffins.
They could only be fitted with a saddle, and at most, two or three people could ride at a time.
They were incomparable to these super-sized sub-dragons.
Emily even suspected that these sub-dragons could serve as bombers.
Naturally, seeing Natalie bring Emily to this place, Daphiel felt quite frustrated.
These sub-dragons were the Demon Race’s ultimate weapon—a masterpiece that had taken Daphiel over 10 years to complete.
After all, domesticating such creatures was no simple task.
With these sub-dragons, the Demon Race could surpass humanity in military technology.
Originally, Daphiel intended to reveal them to humanity during the final decisive battle.
If their trump card was exposed during a normal war, humanity would inevitably find a countermeasure.
And now, this military secret—the Demon Race’s greatest trump card—was being viewed clearly by the Saintess, Emily.
“Um, Demon King, you don’t happen to be planning on taking a sub-dragon to the front lines, are you?”
“I am. Aren’t you in a hurry? Is there anything in the Demon King’s Castle faster than flying directly on a sub-dragon?”
“Well, that’s true… but wouldn’t a griffin suffice?”
“Ha! How could an obsolete toy like a griffin be worthy of me! If I am to lead the army in person, I must take the strongest unit with me!”
“Understood…”
Watching Natalie’s demeanor, Daphiel had no choice but to yield.
Exposing their trump card early was still better than letting Natalie continue to stay in the room and cling to Emily.