“Find you here, first, to see how your mission is going.”
Sitting on the throne, Ouluola’s petite, flickering projection snapped her fingers.
A massive projection map appeared before Aimoer.
“Second, to give you a new mission. Since the Demon God outside the City of Purification has been dealt with, your remaining task is to locate the other Demon Gods left unresolved from the Previous Era, then eliminate them one by one.”
Ouluora lightly tapped the northwest corner of the map, then dragged her finger eastward, drawing a straight line across it.
The line started from the human city of Glory City and stretched all the way to the Angel capital, Weston Divine Palace.
“After the last Demon King, Sula, and Dula left their posts, they gave us very little information. Many things we have to explore on our own. And the Angel race’s Great Wisdom Palace just happens to record all information about the world, past and present. So I need you to go there and look up some materials for me, so we can proceed with our next operations.”
Ouluola finished speaking, smiled, stood on her tiptoes, and reached out to pat Aimoer’s head.
“The missions after this are almost all outside human territory. You’ve worked hard disguising yourself all these years.”
Aimoer looked up at her flickering hand, reached out to grab it, but grasped nothing.
“What about you? Still busy?”
“Ah, no help for it. The Demon Race is short-handed, and you’re not around, so I have to handle a lot of things myself.”
Ouluola showed a helpless expression, then gave her a gentle hug.
“Be good, listen. Once I’m done, I’ll definitely come find you. And by the way—”
She leaned in and whispered into Aimoer’s ear.
“I’ve been preparing a surprise for you lately, but I can’t tell you yet. It’s a secret.”
Ouluola finished, raised a finger to her lips, then waved her hand lightly.
The projection of the map behind her shattered.
Then she giggled, hopped back two steps, and pulled out a small paper bag and a bulging cloth sack from behind the throne.
“How much of the money I gave you last time did you spend? Did you secretly use the funds to buy lots of little cakes?”
At the mention of this, Aimoer felt a bit guilty.
She couldn’t exactly say she went out and provoked someone, then accidentally blew all the money.
“Well, I barely spent any. I was busy with missions, didn’t even eat many cakes.”
Aimoer decisively chose to lie.
She put on a pitiful expression and then complained.
“Let me tell you, those Church people are so stingy. After defeating a Demon God, they only gave me fifty gold coins. That’s not even enough for the mission, let alone extra for little cakes.”
Her performance was exquisite, even the final whine was perfectly timed, but Aimoer had no confidence at all.
“Mm-hmm? Really? A lying child will swallow a thousand needles, you know.”
Ouluola’s expression cooled slightly.
She looked at her with a hint of disappointment, and the immense psychological pressure made Aimoer surrender immediately.
“Well… there was a tiny accident.”
Aimoer pinched her fingers.
Ouluola looked like a little girl, yet somehow had a mind as meticulous as a mother’s.
Every time Aimoer tried to lie or fool her, she could see through it.
She pulled out the pitiful four gold coins from her pocket, not daring to meet her eyes.
Like a child who had done wrong, she shrank back.
“That’s all that’s left? What did you do?”
Ouluola’s expression grew even colder.
Her gaze at Aimoer was like she was sizing up some non-recyclable trash.
“N-no, it’s not that kind of thing. On the way to the City of Purification, I met a strange person…”
Aimoer told Ouluola everything about encountering the Green-Eyed Witch, including the subsequent confrontation in the church and even the abnormal weakening of the Demon God’s power.
“Exactly. This one has been bothering me for a while. The Church is wary of her too. Ouluola, do you know who she is?”
Aimoer looked at her gravely, but Ouluola made a face that said “Is that all?”
“Pfft, I thought you really ran into someone terrible.”
Meeting Aimoer’s puzzled expression, Ouluola took a pen, drew on a piece of paper, and flipped it toward Aimoer with a flourish.
“Take a look. Does she look like this?”
Ouluola smiled.
The image on the paper was exactly the Green-Eyed Witch that sent chills down Aimoer’s spine.
***
At that moment, sitting on the outskirts of the plaza, Aimoer nibbled on the crepe Ouluola had given her.
The fragrance of cream spread in her mouth, as sweet as ever, but this time Aimoer rarely showed a particularly bright smile.
“She is the sole disciple of the Seven Witches, Mistiko. Currently the world’s only genius mage to master Gene Key Technology. If I’m not mistaken, the abnormal weakening of the Demon God’s power you mentioned is most likely her doing.”
That was Ouluola’s answer just now.
Although she kept emphasizing that Mistiko was harmless, Aimoer didn’t think so.
‘She definitely has some hidden purpose. Otherwise, why would she keep talking in riddles with me every day? If she really had no agenda, she could have just turned and left, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop her.’
“Ugh, so annoying. The Naya problem isn’t solved yet, and now there’s an even trickier one. Is this my challenge to be the ultimate brain?”
Aimoer bit into the crepe angrily.
Now, with the 100 gold coins Ouluola gave her, she had a total of 204 gold coins and 3 silver coins.
With that much money in hand, Aimoer couldn’t think of any reason she could lose.
‘In my past life, I built my own world with just five hundred dollars. With such a good start this time, getting back on my feet should be a piece of cake.’
Aimoer was full of confidence.
She swallowed the crepe and decided to put aside all those messy thoughts for now.
Now, Ouluola needed her to go to the Angel kingdom to look up information on the Demon Gods.
But human magic circles couldn’t teleport her directly there.
She would have to pass through the Elf Kingdom to reach it.
So, the top priority was to come up with a reasonable reason to convince those old fogeys at the top of human society to let her enter the Elf Kingdom.
After all, she was now a person of merit.
Starting from that angle should make things much easier.
Aimoer quickly sorted out the current situation in her mind, then nodded in satisfaction.
‘Good. No time to waste. Now, let’s go buy some little cakes, reward myself, and then start working.’
Thinking this, she finished the crepe, licked the cream off her fingers, and was about to stand up when she suddenly heard someone shout.
“Wait right there!”
Aimoer hesitated, tossed the paper bag into the trash can, then slowly turned around with a puzzled expression.
Behind her, Jiyu stood with her hands on her hips, pointing at Aimoer, gritting her teeth in anger.
Beside her was Senteli, looking apologetic.
‘What’s this? Looking for trouble?’