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In practice, however, it\'s not that simple.

A good example of how both these aspects can fail is Beatrice.

Her loyalty always appeared high, as much as Anna and Ellie\'s and I\'m sure she would defend me and the kingdom with her life if need be. But that loyalty was a result of the kingdom and I providing her with conditions for her research and lifestyle that she would not find anywhere else.

[Knowledge] was always her greatest desire, and that was the only thing the kingdom would show in the [Desires] tab, aside from a few moments where it would change to everyday things such as food or rest.

Thus, her loyalty existed due to the benefits she gained by maintaining herself as a citizen and having a close relationship with me. Which led to her feeling like she had to hold on to this acquired position. And in her mind, by watching me and analyzing my behavior, she decided that one path she could take to secure her position was to make me addicted to her.

Of course, she miscalculated tremendously, but the point still stands that a [Citizen] who is both loyal and doesn\'t have any desire to inflict harm against the kingdom, can still plot against me to a certain extent.

Those two are more useful as a metric of how satisfied the citizens are than how much they are under control... when the population increases, I have to make sure to remember that.

While still on the topic, Elizabeth offers a similar challenge. When I look at her [Desires] tab, it shows that she wants [Prosperity]. The word alone leaves open a lot of possibilities, but the kingdom also doesn\'t specify where that prosperity is directed.

It might be that she desires to acquire a higher position, above the other girls, thus, prosperity to herself.

It might be a desire to see the kingdom grow and become stronger. It\'s also possible that it is directed to me, as king and man, or at a third party, perhaps, she wishes well for the Caravan and its members.

In the end, it is hard for me to determine exactly what her desire is due to the lack of a description.

It doesn\'t help that her [Loyalty] is not as great as Beatrice\'s either. It is not in a bad spot, but it\'s definitely not safe either, dangerously close to the middle.

In this state, I can\'t help but be more cautious when dealing with her.

Miwen: "Hm... the forest seems a bit closer than before."

Elizabeth: "I think the trees are absorbing residual mana from the air and the ground. It\'s how they were able to keep up with me last time."

Miwen: "But they eventually ran out."

Elizabeth: "Yes. I don\'t leave too much residual mana myself, so they could only replenish with what was already on the battlefield. Surprisingly, the redhead is also not so wasteful. Well, in her case, is almost like the mana desires to be fuel for her flames, but intentionally or not, the result is the same."

There are hundreds of soldiers in the field alone, and quite a few more in the cities\' walls. I\'m assuming they also rotate in and out since they are not yet in siege distance, or at least, both cities have yet to show signs of damage.

With this many people, there must have been quite a lot of residual mana for the elves to draw from, but it\'s obviously not close to the amount Elizabeth can use.

Forget about just the residuals, even if this forest was draining everyone\'s mana pool, it wouldn\'t even count as a fraction of Elizabeth\'s.

I don\'t know how to feel about my little demon yet, but I feel sorry for the elves. I can sympathize with how unfair it feels to fight against a mana pool that never ends.

Still, their hate right now was probably directed more at Claire than her, as she was the one responsible for controlling the forest while we had our lunch.

This time, I made sure to define our objectives/excuses for being here. It\'s basically the same as I told Elizabeth before. I want to make our presence and power known, and I also want to make the forest retreat to the starting line it had yesterday.

I\'m planning on using this to create a stalemate narrative.

This way, it\'s possible that both sides will give up on the war, and I might have a better chance of acquiring whoever is behind this for myself as they might lose their value without an ongoing war.

The second possibility is that the elves decide to keep going either way. In this case, I can then present us as the biggest obstacle in their way. After we become enough of an annoyance, I can just offer Elizabeth\'s services in exchange for their trump card.

I\'m almost sure that she is much more effective, and can probably end both cities in a day.

It\'s probably a good deal for them as they would achieve whatever objective it is that they have without even risking their lives in battle anymore.

The bargaining chip that I\'m going for requires the current method they are using to be proven ineffective, and then, I just need to give them a good alternative in exchange for acquiring their "useless" asset.

Though the elves don\'t really matter to me. Frankly, I couldn\'t care less about them except for that one I really want dead.

Whichever way the negotiations with them go, my kingdom will not be losing anything either way. I\'m only interested in Elizabeth\'s behavior during all of this.

Whoever is responsible for the forest advancing, might be able to bring the [Prosperity] she seems to desire.

it would enable the kingdom to support a bigger population, which might enable her to regain a position of power It would also give me a new subordinate, strengthening me as the king.

What will Elizabeth do to satiate her desire? How far is she willing to go? Will she try to take charge, or will she follow me?

This situation presents a good test scenario to see what actions and decisions I can expect from Elizabeth and where her desire might truly lie.

Miwen: "Oh yeah, I ended up so distracted by your naked body and our playing around in the bath yesterday that I ended up forgetting to ask, but how did you acquire your [Mark Of The Demon Lord] skill Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth: "...Did you really have to say all of that... Oh, I see... it was on purpose... It\'s no wonder Mia hates you..."

That\'s what you get for playing with fire. It doesn\'t matter if you have a low sense of shame, I just have to make the situation drastically more shameful. bashful

I hope this is enough for her to learn her lesson and become more cautious and conscious around men.

Elizabeth: "...I suppose you still require an answer, yes? Let\'s see... I obtained it either after my father\'s death or upon becoming ruler of my nation. I don\'t remember exactly since it\'s been so long..."

Miwen: "Hm... Mia has a similar skill... but I can\'t acquire either of yours. It\'s not normal for my Gift to restrain me like this, so I was wondering about it."

Elizabeth: "I\'m sorry, I don\'t know the precise requirements for acquiring it, it just became available for me one day... It\'s obvious that it\'s intended for those who rule or have the potential to rule over a group from a determined race, but that\'s about all I know."

It\'s about what I expect from it too, but Mia is a bit of a wrench in this theory.

She didn\'t become the ruler of her people, and even though Melissa believed her to be capable of acquiring it, she never did until I transferred the skill to her using my Gift.

If I take these two samples, the only thing in common between them might be the faith that others had put in them.

Elizabeth\'s is very obvious, as the daughter of the previous Demon King, she was a prodigy with an unbelievably strong Gift, so she quickly became the hope of her kind.

I can fit Mia under the same logic if I make certain assumptions about her case. While this is not ideal, I believe the assumptions themselves are not so farfetched.

I didn\'t get too much information on the feelings of the members of the Snow White Wolves, but I think it\'s safe to assume that, as Melissa was being pushed back, faith in her began to waver and decline.

As such, there\'s a strong possibility that as the next in line and the best candidate, their expectations might have started to shift toward Mia as the symbol of hope for the next generation of her tribe.

It\'s hard to determine anything with just two samples, as a lot of the similarities between them might just be coincidence, but for now, this is the best I can come up with to make sense of both of them.

However, as they are technically different skills, there\'s the small possibility that their requirements are also different, but I\'m a bit doubtful about that as they seem to have the same effects.

Speaking about playing with fire though...

Claire: "...Listen to the cries of Abdure! Let the flames that rejoiced in freedom become my wings as I embody his last armor! Annihilate them all, fiery angels!"

That one is new... wings of fire started to form around her body, together with a complete fire armor. The vivid colors looked straight out of a painting. Her figure was nowhere to be seen anymore as the armor enveloped her completely.

It was incredibly intricate, but she didn\'t use it the way I thought she would.

As soon as she had finished... this unexpectedly became a bombardment. The winged armor of fire left her body, only for a new one to form around and also fly in the direction she was aiming.

After the first one, the others came in quick succession, and about twenty of those were launched in what felt like less than five minutes.

Anna: "...The sunglasses were a good idea."

Miwen: "Right?"

I at least came prepared this time.

Elizabeth: "...Abdure... familiar name... I think the Caravan\'s musician fought against him..."

Miwen: "...And who won?"

Elizabeth: "Abdure did. But then Pris arrived and he fled. At least it\'s how I remember the story goes, but the one who told me about it was none other than the Merchant, so..."

So it is pretty much a 50/50 whether it happened or not. And it\'s further up in the air if it went as he told her in case it truly happened.

More importantly, the forest suffered tremendously from Claire\'s last attack. I made sure to tell her to give the elves time to get away, but she\'s pushing that to its limit. I think the cheers she\'s receiving are getting over her head.

Miwen: "Did the wings and the armor need to be so detailed though?"

Claire: "The coolness makes the magic stronger."

Miwen: "Pfft, no it doesn\'t-"

Bea: "It does..."

Elizabeth: "Absolutely."

Licia: "It\'s really important Miwen."

Et tu?

I think this is just a joke, but the best mages in our party were all in agreement about it, so I\'m not completely sure.

The only ones who didn\'t comment on it were Ellie, Anna, and Mia. And while the three seemed confused, I know for sure that Mia would take any chance to gang up on me, so I think only Anna and Ellie are on my side in this one.

As such, it was best not to engage since I would definitely lose a discussion with them.

Miwen: "Oh yeah, gather around. I\'m going to share some skills with you all. I recently asked Claire to use her Gift to enhance [Pursuit Of Knowledge] and [Angels\' Blessing]. They are level 15 and 10 respectively, so it will be a good boost for us."

These two passive skills directly affect the status, and [Pursuit Of Knowledge] not only increases the mana pool of everyone who has it but also the strength of the magic.

With Elizabeth around, I can grab her levels in [Fire Magic] and have Claire save some points for less common skills, then, I simply make up for her by either acquiring [Fire Magic] and [Magic Control] levels on the Gacha, or straight sharing Elizabeth\'s.

While I could exchange 100 out of the 107 tickets I had stored for an uncommon one, I didn\'t want to waste the opportunity to use more than a hundred tickets at a time. It felt like a bit of a milestone to me.

I was also going to acquire at least 57 today thanks to the level-ups anyway, so it was fine to use the stored ones like this, and the result was actually pretty nice...

[Ice Veil] x6, [Increased Climbing Proficiency] x6, [Voice Of Command] x6, [Enhanced Drop Chance] x5, [Culinary Arts] x5, [Eagle Eye] x5, [Fire Magic] x5, [Ice Magic] x4, [Stealth Strike] x4, [Swordsmanship] x4, [Last Man Standing] x3, [Faster tree climbing] x3, [Greater Might] x3, [X Slash] x2, [Reading speed up] x2, [Better Crafting] x2, [Mana control] x2.

[Improved Artistic Skill] x2, [Focused Breathing] x2, [Better Mana Regeneration] x2, [Mana Shield] x2, [Angels\' Blessing]x1, [Spiritual Communication] x1, [Block Analysis] x1, [Focused Strike] x1, [Wind Magic] x1, [Earth Magic] x1, [Light Magic Resistance] x1, [Heat resistance] x1, [Sight Enhancement] x1.

As for new skills: [Weather Forecast] x7, [Master of Disguise] x3, [Axe Mastery] x3, [Shield Arts] x2, [Dark Magic] x2, [Increased Riding Proficiency] x2, [Scent Tracker], [Longsword Arts], [Curse Resistance], [Poison Resistance].

The [Fire Magic] I acquired from the Gacha was not enough to match the amount of levels Claire could have put in it, so I gave her a few of Elizabeth\'s to make up for it.

It didn\'t look like she minded having her skills shared around too much, but she did make ask for something in exchange.

Elizabeth: "Can you have your bird make a temporary contract with me too? It\'s annoying that I cannot see him."

She\'s the only girl that Apollo has not approached at all. He was probably still traumatized after our battle since he\'s such a coward.

Miwen: "I\'ll try convincing him."

The little guy acted as if he was gonna die by entering a contract with her, and resisted with all his strength.

Which amounts to almost zero, so after I forced him to get close to her a bunch of times, he eventually conceded and accepted a temporary contract with her.

Surprisingly, Elizabeth seemed overjoyed.

Now that I think about it, I didn\'t see any spirits with the Merchant last time he showed up, so perhaps they dislike her to the point of not even getting near.

As for our little friends in the forest... They had a very funny idea. Instead of having the forest act as a frontline, they focused it as a spearhead, coming in our direction.

Elizabeth: "...Foolish, it will bear the same result."

She was already preparing a few fireballs but I had to interrupt her.

Miwen: "Wait a bit..."

After a few minutes, the forest had reached and surrounded us. We couldn\'t see outside of it at all, but since we hadn\'t moved far, I at least knew we were close to the dungeon gate.

Miwen: "Mia, do you sense anyone around?"

Mia: "No... there\'s no smell or sound..."

Miwen: "Ellie?"

Ellie: "I\'m seeing no movements either..."

The two of them are impressive when it comes to detection. Even if someone had a Gift for stealth chances are they could still catch them.

Miwen: "We are being tested... or provoked. In which case, it\'s fine. You guys can do your thing."

It was either an attempt to scare us or to confirm our abilities. We could deal with it quite easily though, and no matter how many times the trees tried to regenerate themselves, the fire from our mages kept coming, so it eventually gave up, and we burned the trees down until they reached the place we had left it at yesterday.

As for the broader battlefield, without the cover and with a greater distance, the elves stopped firing their arrows against us and the armies, which allowed some soldiers to approach us.

They recognized that we were the same guys from the last time and invited our party to a tavern to thank us for the help.

Sadly, I ended up refusing since it would probably take the entire afternoon, and maybe even the night.

However, I did ask to hear about what was going on here in return. It might be useful to know the circumstances when it comes the time to negotiate with the people of the forest.

1st Knight Commander: "...Long ago, there was a rampage in this gate that ended up destroying the kingdom it belonged to... After it was driven back and the land cleaned, our tree kingdoms divided the territory and took shared responsibility for the dungeon."

2nd Knight Commander: "The problem is that this gate offers some valuable resources on a few floors, so the elves have decided to take complete control over it. The pact stated that their territory would only go as far as their forest... so they decided to expand it. This was obviously a violation, and so..."

And so the fight started. They probably want to encircle the dungeon with their forest, monopolizing the resources available in it...

This would also explain why elves with a higher level were scouting a noble on lower floors, they were just getting a look for themselves on the resources of the dungeon.

Well, I\'ll need to hear their side too to form an opinion, as this might just be propaganda or an entirely made-up story. Still, at the very least, it makes for a comprehensive motivation.

After the woods stopped playing with us, there wasn\'t much more to do since we finished our lunch too, so I gave my farewells to the commanders of the two armies and told them that we would come back to check for a few days, and then, we headed back home.

Today was Anna\'s turn in the bath, and she was looking forward to it quite a lot as she made me join her as soon as we got home, without even giving me the chance to check on the kingdom.

Once inside her, we ended up wasting a lot of time in the bath, but it was pretty fun to take care of my high-maintenance girl.