Chapter 54，Part2

After much thought, I asked Cam to exclude the [Not accompanying the inspection] option.

The best way to find out if they were really going to raid Daemon’s settlement was to stay by their side. And if they really were going to attack, I would have to stop them right then and there.

If I did stop them, I would have to consider the worst-case scenario…

Meanwhile, I should also prepare for the eventuality.

I collected many gold coins and food in the past 10 years, but I should also go all the way to a town near the border to exchange food and ores using high-grade materials that I did not put out until now with merchants from other countries.

Next, I would go to the Mage Guild and the Commerce Guild and buy everything I could afford in Spirit stones and other dangerous-looking items that could be used for the event.

Items that go into my [Bag], which was a subspace storage, were converted to data, so theoretically I could fit an entire country in there, but if I packed in such a large amount, it would indeed be [heavy] to open as data.

After that, stop by Daemon’s settlement… The population increased again.

I asked the Gatekeeper Daemon to call for the elder. The elder was looking old after 10 years had passed, but as expected of Daemons, who had a life expectancy of 150 years. The elder came sprinting from the back at an unbelievable speed.

“Oh, Carol-sama!”

“Nn.”

I wondered, since when did he start using [-sama] on my name?

Some Daemons kneeled and bowed when I passed by, and I wondered where [I] ranked among them.

“Let’s get the whole town ready for a banquet…”

“No.”

I grabbed the elder by the back of the head, and stopped him as he was about to turn on his heel and run off to prepare for the banquet.

“Is there somewhere you can evacuate the city’s inhabitants?”

“…Did something happen?”

“Nn.”

I informed the Elder of the possibility that the Knights of the Caenista Kingdom would attack, commanded by the Crown Prince.

“Oh, no! …We can go deeper into the Demon Forest from behind the ruins. There should still be Daemon lands that survived the previous war, but I don’t know what’s going on there anymore.“

“Meanwhile, please ensure that everyone can take shelter.”

“I understand!”

At least he had a voice that everyone would listen to.

Finally, I headed towards Cam’s mansion to meet him.

Cam himself came to greet us before we got off the carriage when I arrived at the mansion with Maia.

He escorted me straight away, and we sat down at a table set in the garden, where the crimson roses I previously requested were in bloom.

“Julio mentioned that they were going to ask for permission to bring you along. There will be a female student from the academy accompanying them, so they would like their friend, Carol, to come with them for her sake. If you are being coerced by Julio, should I say no?”

That Crown Prince, was he making the first move?

“But won’t that put Cam in a bad position?”

“…No problem.”

The brief pause said everything. He was shunned by the King, Queen, and Prime Minister, and who knows what kind of consequences he would have to face if he tried to overturn the Crown Prince’s order.

“I’ll be fine, Cam…trust me? No matter what happens from now on.”

“Of course. If there are rumors that you and the Crown Prince are in love, rest assured that I don’t believe a word of it.”

That’s not what I meant…

I wished I could tell him everything, but it wasn’t because I didn’t trust him yet; it was because I was afraid that telling him everything would put him in danger.

And then…the day of the Crown Prince-sponsored Demon Forest inspection arrived.