Surveying the surroundings, Saint Sang suddenly felt as if she was experiencing a mirage.
Before coming, she had prepared herself to witness the human suffering within this city occupied by the demon race.
After all, in her memory, a demon city was bound to be saturated with evil energy; otherwise, it was hard to explain why humans would willingly stay inside and continue serving the demons.
Yet, upon truly stepping into this city, she found that it was hardly different from the original Saint Anso City.
Within the city, many of the locals still lived their lives.
From their expressions, there was no sign of injustice or mistreatment.
The street vendors continued their business, and the farmers going back and forth were still selling the vegetables harvested from their fields.
It looked much like any human city.
In fact, near many ruins left by the war, numerous people were busy rebuilding their already damaged homes.
All of this challenged the adjudicator’s understanding. In her experience, cities conquered by demons rarely had any good outcomes for the civilians, let alone coexistence with the demon race.
This was not mere alarmist propaganda from her church; on other battlefronts, massacres following the capture of human cities had become commonplace.
But here, it seemed as if the war had barely left its mark.
Infiltrating the city was not difficult.
Indeed, the city was under demon occupation, but that did not mean it was completely cut off from the outside world.
She had been brought in by a merchant caravan.
Clearly, the demons guarding the city did not find the influx of outsiders particularly strange, but neither did they make things difficult.
They simply verified her false identity, under which she was an apprentice learning commerce alongside the merchant caravan.
Now, the caravan intended to keep her behind to gather commercial intelligence within the city.
After the verification, she was allowed in without hassle.
The church’s identification was fake, but in Saint Anso City, there was indeed such an apprentice.
However, that caravan apprentice had died halfway fleeing the city long ago.
The church had found these identity papers among her belongings, which had become the source of Saint Sang’s current disguise.
Fortunately, Saint Sang was a master of disguise.
Thanks to her superb skills, she convincingly resembled the girl in the identity papers. Since the documents were genuine, no one doubted her identity.
“What should I do next…”
Saint Sang’s mind rapidly searched for her next steps.
Years ago, the church had already prepared a contact point within Saint Anso City.
Now, she needed to locate that place quickly and await further instructions.
However…
Looking at the surrounding vendors, Saint Sang decided to put the meeting on hold for now.
Before anything else, she wanted to understand the city’s situation better.
She hadn’t been here in a long time, and after demon occupation, the internal order certainly wouldn’t be as peaceful as it appeared on the surface.
Her gaze landed on the street vendors.
Every so often, a demon would pass by, but they seemed completely indifferent to a newcomer like her.
Casually, she entered a bakery, bought a piece of bread, and took a bite.
“…Looks like at least they’re not living too badly.”
Just from a bite of the bread, Saint Sang could tell the standard of living here.
The bread was made from relatively refined flour, and she could faintly detect a small amount of milk added.
Although it wasn’t as good in taste or price as the dessert breads she had at the church, this kind of staple bread clearly indicated that while the citizens might not be living luxuriously, they were not severely lacking food either.
Like a curious child, she strolled casually through the streets.
As the sun was about to set, she finally arrived at the rumored meeting spot.
“Wildcat Café” — a somewhat distinctive coffee shop.
The sign hanging outside featured a snarling beast, indistinguishable as either a tiger or a cat.
To her, this street corner location felt somewhat out of place.
Establishing such a café in a demon-occupied area was indeed unusual.
After all, it was rare for someone to leisurely enjoy coffee, and for the owner to continue making coffee, in a place controlled by demons.
Saint Sang pushed open the door of the Wildcat Café.
The moment she entered, her gaze was drawn to a large cat that looked extremely unkempt.
Indeed, it was a big cat, its fur messy as if no one had groomed it for ages.
Yet from the cat’s nonchalant attitude toward visitors, it was probably a permanent resident here, comfortably living from morning till night.
“Hello, what would you like to order? Due to some restrictions on import and export goods lately, some coffee varieties may not be available at the moment…”
The café owner came out from the kitchen, smiling politely as he served the customer.
“A cup of coffee with no sugar but extra milk. If possible, please do a latte art of a teacup.”
Saint Sang smiled and said.
“Sorry, we don’t do latte art here. I only know how to brew coffee, not latte art.”
The owner replied smoothly.
“My birthday is September 5th. Please learn latte art and make me one then.”
Saint Sang said, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention, then lowered her voice and asked the owner:
“I’m new here. How are things lately? How many humans, and how many demons?”
As she spoke, her eyes flicked cautiously over the people nearby, ensuring their conversation was private.
“Right now, about forty percent of the city is human, the rest mostly demons. After the Demon Lord Via conquered the city, the rebuilding was mainly done by demon troops. The reconstruction was just recently completed, so demons have started moving into the city.”
The owner lowered his head, seemingly focused on grinding coffee beans, yet still quietly shared the information.
“The Saintess is here?”
“…The Saintess is here. She’s currently Demon Lord Via’s regent. Recently, she’s been responsible for managing the allocation of resources among the humans in the city.”
The owner suddenly paused mid-sentence.
The café door opened again, and the visitor’s golden hair fluttered in the sunlight, radiating an aura of nobility and sanctity.
“Good morning, boss.”
“Good morning, Lady Cecilia.”
…Better to arrive at the right time than too early.
Saint Sang thought to herself.
Behind her, the Saintess’s lips curved into a faint smile.
Her gaze lingered briefly on the previously unseen “guest” before quickly shifting away.