Mowan followed the Princess toward the outskirts of the Holy City.
Even now, their group consisted of only three people.
Though Mowan could fight, she hadn’t been in a proper battle for three years, and more importantly, she had no intention of revealing her Demon Clan Battle Magic.
After some hesitation, she shared her honest thoughts with the Princess.
“Her Highness the Princess, I cannot fight. I am only capable of healing. The Saintess already informed you of this, didn’t she?”
“Of course!”
The Princess lifted her head, looking at Mowan with complete confidence.
“Do I look weak to you?”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just… there are too few people, and the team composition is incomplete. No matter how powerful a person is, their attention is ultimately limited. My previous team had six members: one mage, two warriors, two guardians, and one priest. During the three years I served in that party, we coordinated with each other and never had any accidents.”
“Don’t worry, my soldiers are waiting outside the city. If I marched through the streets with a troop of armored soldiers, it would be far too conspicuous.”
The Princess clenched her fist.
“Furthermore, my magic was learned from sister Iserin. It specializes in dealing with monsters, so you can rest easy. Yesterday was just an accident—an accident! I was careless; I didn’t expect such an unremarkable monster to be so poisonous!”
“If your magic was learned from the Saintess, then I am relieved.”
Mowan felt awkward saying anything more.
If the Princess dismissed her as a burden or a coward who tried to back out before even helping, her job would be at stake.
Before joining the Azure Crystal Party, Mowan had spent short periods in several Hero parties.
They all looked down on her for her lack of combat ability.
As the Priest of the group, she would occasionally express concerns before a battle, but her worries were often dismissed as signs of cowardice.
People always loved to praise and worship those Heroes who braved the thorns to turn the tide, but as for why the tide was turning in the first place—well, no one bothered to ask.
This was how Mowan’s contributions were gradually ignored.
Seeing that the Princess was the same kind of person, she felt a wave of sentimentality.
They rushed to the outskirts of the city without stopping.
As expected, a carriage and horses were prepared, but the group remained small.
Excluding the coachman and Mowan the Priest, only five people were actually capable of fighting.
The destination the Princess intended to explore was a hundred miles from the Holy City.
Mowan felt surprised.
For monsters to be running rampant so close to the Holy City was unexpected.
She didn’t remember the Demon Race being powerful enough to let monsters penetrate this close to the Holy City.
Because the strength of monsters shifted according to the overall magic level of the Demon Race.
If the Demon Race’s magic was strong, monsters could draw enough nourishment from the Demon Race’s Spirit Veins to enhance their own magic.
Mowan could feel that the Demon Race’s magic levels were weakening day by day.
Her departure had not improved the state of the Demon Empire.
Mowan shook her head.
Setting aside her worries about the internal conflicts of the Demon Race—she had tried to resolve them back then, only to be kicked aside by those old fogeys.
Whatever happened to the life or death of the Empire now had nothing to do with her.
Upon arriving at the wilderness where the village houses were sparse, the Princess took out the map Iserin had given her from a maid’s bag.
“Go this way, then here, and then, right here—this is where the monster frequently appears!”
The Princess unfolded the map and expertly traced the path with her finger, directing the road they were about to take.
“The villagers reported that an unknown monster is specifically killing farmers who go into the mountains to chop wood. According to survivor descriptions, it’s a humanoid monster. No one knows exactly what it looks like, only that it is covered in a dark, blurry substance.”
Was this map drawn by villagers?
Mowan caught a glimpse of it.
It looked quite clear and detailed.
However, if it was a request reported by villagers, it should have been sent to the Church.
Why was a request accepted by the Church being carried out by the Princess?
Weren’t a group of Honorary Knights just commissioned recently?
What were they recruited for?
“Furthermore, it’s said that a Hero party fell at the hands of this monster, so be careful!”
The Princess turned to her soldiers, warning them with utmost seriousness.
“Yes, Her Highness the Princess.”
The soldiers were on high alert as they followed the Princess deep into the mountains.
Hum!
It appeared!
Mowan heard a heavy vibration in the air and immediately became vigilant.
“In that direction!”
The Princess reached out toward the sunset, and a Silver-white Jade Scepter manifested in her hand.
The tip of the scepter instantly released a blinding light.
A pitch-black humanoid figure was forced out of hiding by the scepter’s radiance.
It twisted its body in the air like a fish in water.
Once its stealth was broken, it transformed into a cloud of black mist and struck like lightning.
The soldiers immediately raised their swords and shields to block, while the scepter in the Princess’s hand changed form, turning into a glowing blade.
The sound of hard objects colliding rang out continuously.
The black shadow flashed around, searching for a weakness in the soldiers’ shield formation.
Mowan held her breath.
Her intuition told her this monster was extremely dangerous.
In her three years of subjugating monsters, Mowan had rarely seen one with this kind of flight speed.
However, the Princess and the soldiers following her were clearly not pushovers.
They quickly adapted to the monster’s high-speed impacts and launched a counterattack.
Under their coordinated pursuit, the Princess swung her glowing blade, sending out a flash of sword light that struck the swift monster with a single blow.
The black monster floating in the air instantly lost its ability to move.
It fell limply to the ground, showing no signs of struggle.
“Phew!”
The Princess let out a long sigh.
“Once hit by my Holy Light Magic, it’s difficult for any monster to stand up again.”
She stepped away from Mowan’s side and walked toward the monster’s corpse step by step.
Mowan kept her eyes on the body.
She felt that the silence of the monster’s corpse was unnervingly strange.
In an instant, Mowan sensed a powerful surge of energy.
“Her Highness the Princess, watch out!”
Mowan shouted.
“Guh!!!”
The monster suddenly expanded, and beams of piercing light erupted from its body like stage spotlights.
These rays were incredibly destructive; the surrounding trees collapsed instantly after being pierced by the light.
The Princess and her soldiers were similarly pierced by the rays.
Mowan, who had stayed at the very rear, was not harmed by the light.
The maid, who was staying back to protect her, was also spared.
Seeing the Princess and the soldiers collapse after their bodies were pierced by the light, Mowan rushed to the Princess’s side, propping her up and using magic to heal her wounds.
Fortunately, Mowan’s warning had given the Princess and the soldiers time to react.
They were all capable of magic, and though they couldn’t dodge in time, they used as much mana as possible within their bodies to block part of the light’s impact.
Mowan’s emergency treatment successfully prevented the magical damage from spreading through their bodies.
Finally, Mowan slowly eliminated the magical damage they had sustained.
She sat on the ground, feeling somewhat exhausted, her internal mana nearly depleted.
As expected, there was no such thing as a free lunch.
The Princess’s mission was not easy.
However, what Mowan found strange was that while healing the Princess and the soldiers, she was able to analyze that the injuries they sustained were light-attribute magical damage.
Thinking of this, a theory flashed through Mowan’s mind.
Was it possible that monsters weren’t just things created by the Demon Race?
Could the Vissa People… have also had a hand in it?
If that were true, could the infamy the Demon Race had carried all this time finally be lightened?
Mowan looked toward the site of the monster’s corpse with some excitement.
The original mass of black sludge had been completely decomposed by the light, leaving not even a scrap of skin behind.
The evidence had vanished into thin air…