Chapter 1103: Chapter 1103

Reina had shown up unannounced for a private audience with the King of the Vatan Kingdom.

“Please stop the war.”

“What? Stop the war? Did I hear that correctly?”

“You heard right. Stop the war—”

The King of Vatan slammed the table in fury. “Do you even know what you’re talking about?! Those despicable bastards from Alberta killed Count Trink, and they even framed us for it! They then massacred our proud soldiers and citizens stationed at the border fortress, and now you’re here telling me to stop the war?!”

Even if the International Federation was working to suppress the outbreak of war, no one could blame Vatan if full-scale conflict broke out under the circumstances. Of course, that was assuming the situation was true to the reports. Neither Alberta nor Vatan had solid proof, making it hard to determine who was truly at fault.

“Since when did the title of Hero come with the authority to meddle in the internal affairs of whatever nation you want? I never agreed to anything like that!”

“You’re right, whether nations fight or not is entirely Your Majesty’s business.”

He was stunned at the sudden agreement. “What?”

“But I’m only asking you to wait just a little bit before it happens. You must have received reports about the monster that attacked the fortress,” she said firmly.

“There was a divine revelation in the Holy Empire. Since I’m burdened with the overblown title of Hero, it’s my duty to investigate and stop that monster no matter what,” she said, glaring at him coldly. “A few days. Just give me a few days, Your Majesty. If it turns out Alberta really is behind the attack, then I’ll lend Vatan my strength.”

“And if they’re not?” he cautiously asked.

“Well, if the monster didn’t come from human hands, then it’s none of my concern and you can do whatever you want. I’m not interested in complicated politics.”

What mattered to her was dealing with threats, as well as the forces that created or provoked them.

The King of Vatan stared at Reina for a moment, then nodded. He wasn’t completely satisfied with how things had turned out, but he decided to take advantage of the situation and gain something while pretending to give Reina the credit.

Since the monster clearly wasn’t something the king had ordered, there was no real reason for him to feel threatened by her proposal. He figured letting Reina take the lead for a few days and using the situation to his advantage wasn’t a bad deal. For example, he could leak false information for her to find linking the attack to Alberta.

“Three days. That’s all you get.”

“Oh, right. Your Majesty, I’ve handled quite a few of these kinds of matters before.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Her beautiful smile made the king momentarily falter, but he nodded in the end. “Mn.”

Reina reported to Davey, “I managed to get three days.”

“That should be enough.”

“I also passed along everything you told me to.” Her warning not to cross the line was actually something Davey had wanted to say to the king. “We should get the reaction we want. The King of Vatan might just take the chance to stir up confusion in my investigation.”

“The moment you say you’re connected to Alberta, Alberta loses any chance of getting support from the rest of the continent.”

Sure, there might be those willing to help, but that would cause the International Federation to shake. Tensions could break at any time, but Davey refused to let them snap over something this ridiculous.

Davey nodded in satisfaction. “All that’s left is to see whether he backs off and waits like a smart man.”

Reina let out a sigh. “Are you sure Alberta didn’t do it?”

“It's unlikely Alberta would pull something . Either way, it’s best to stop a war before it starts, don’t you think?”

“You're just using the war however it suits you, and now you're trying to stop it,” she said while giving Davey a sharp look. “That’s coming from you, someone who could stop it right now if you really wanted to.”

“The best strategy is to take care of all the foundational causes of war. If all you do is stop them as they happen, one will break through eventually.”

Alberta couldn’t immediately call for peace, either. Tsuna had to finish rooting out the real culprits, buying time to make sure the same kind of incident didn’t happen again.

The attackers at the border between Vatan and Alberta were gone, but their traces were still scattered here and there.

Frankly speaking, not even Davey knew why they’d attacked the border. Judging by the damage, however, it wasn’t done by humans. It looked more like a massive creature had rampaged through, from Alberta’s direction, by the looks of it. It wasn’t strange that suspicion had fallen on them.

Davey and Reina solemnly examined the ruins.

“By the way, how’ve you been, Reina?”

“Is this really the time to ask that?”

“You haven’t been very active lately.”

“True. It’s not job pays or anything,” she muttered bitterly.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Davey gestured toward a few people in the distance. There stood Illyna and Rinne, who had come with him on the trip. Nearby were Reina’s comrades Maximus von Terraria and Morziana el Contas, the minstrel and younger sister of Emperor Contas. Also present were the former Saintess and Lich, Iro.

“Telling me to ask her directly? You really are cruel. She’s another version of me, one who got the future I couldn’t have.”

“You’re not Illyna anymore, so just think of yourself as someone else.”

“That’s not so easy.”

“By the way, when did Iro join?”

The lich was carefully channeling holy power, worried about losing a few strands of hair from her head.

“Saint Lena from the Holy Empire recommended her to me recently. She seems to know a lot about you.”

“I thought you hated demons.”

“At least I’ve learned not all demons are the same. Plus, she doesn’t really count as a demon.”

She was different from the First Lich, Nyx. In Reina’s view, most liches were a source of trauma and fear. It was only natural, considering she’d been taken prisoner and abused after the world fell to Nyx in the parallel world.

“I can’t stay afraid forever.”

“I guess so. By the way, wasn’t there supposed to be one more?” Davey questioned.

“Yushir isn’t here. Hah, she’s the real demon.”

“Yushir... Yushir? Oh right, the succubus.”

Yushir was a demon succubus. She was the one Davey had encountered while dealing with the Queen of Succubi, also known as the Succubus Queen. The only one among them who held real power.

She had supposedly helped the Queen to find someone—someone Davey would only learn about later.

“She’s in the western continent on a separate investigation,” Reina explained.

Davey scanned the area around the fortress.

Maximus, the man who insisted he was Davey’s best friend, shouted from nearby, “Davey!! I found something over here!”

Everyone turned toward him before he casually lifted a huge boulder with his armored gauntlet and tossed it aside, revealing traces hidden beneath. There was a wooden floor, stained with a purplish bodily fluid. Davey figured there used to be a building there before it was reduced to rubble.

“What... is this?” Morziana asked as she pinched her nose at the strange smell.

“Looks like bodily fluid?”

“Bodily fluid... But this stuff seems pretty fresh, right?” Maximus replied as he reached out.

Morziana instinctively stepped back from him. “Yeah, it looks like it hasn’t even dried completely.”

He unhesitatingly smeared the fluid on his fingers before rubbing them together, then stood up. Morziana and Iro both stepped back even further.

“Don’t come any closer.”

“Ahem! Even as a lamb of Goddess Freyja, this is a bit much...”

He casually wiped it off on his clothes, looking puzzled. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Wow, you’re really dealing with a lot with these people, Reina,” Davey replied.

Maximus asked Davey, “Do you know what this is?”

Davey silently stepped forward and stared at the substance. He then answered flatly, “Looks like... the attacker’s droppings or something?”

Iro and Morziana’s faces instantly twisted in disgust, while Maximus just stared at him blankly.

“Hey, what kind of nonsense is that?” he said, walking towards Davey.

“Don’t come any closer, Maximus. If you take even one more step, I can’t be blamed for my actions.”

At his warning, Maximus hesitated, startled. “Y-You’re messing with me, right?! You are, right?!”

“Yeah, I’m just messing with you,” Davey smirked.

Davey couldn’t believe Maximus had such a vulgar mouth despite being a prince. Ignoring his furious outburst, he looked toward Reina.

Ignoring the commotion, she was silently gazing at Illyna.

He wondered how she must feel looking at her, seeing the version of herself from a parallel world who had gained the life she never could. He figured seeing Illyna so happy must’ve been even more confusing for her.

Just as he was about to ask her opinion, he stopped and stood up. “Let’s split up.”

“Is that necessary?” Maximus questioned.

“I want you all to check out a few other places. If anything seems off, just handle it yourself.”

“Not even saying empty words to help, eh? Oh, by the way!”

“My sister... Is she doing okay?”

Davey recalled their recent encounter. He had gone to show her a blueprint, but there had been five people there.

- Wow, this is amazing!!

At the scene were the youngest sister, Aeonitia; Tiara, the granddaughter of the Technical Advisor Edison; Maximus’s sister, the Princess of Terraria, who was currently a graduate student under Baron Gorneo; Princess Maria, who resided in the Moon Forest; and Tanya.

- So, how does it work?

- That’s for you all to figure out.

He distinctly remembered how, with just that one sentence, Princess Terraria had frozen up while Aeonitia and Tiara’s expressions went dark.

“She’s doing... fine,” he hesitatingly assured.

“Good. That’s a relief. I’ll bring a gift and visit her sometime.”

‘Yeah, she seemed fine to me, at least.’

When Reina’s group split up to continue investigating the ruined fortress, Davey took Illyna and Rinne and headed into the forest that stretched from the fortress to the border.

“You think it might be out here?”

“No, I just came to check and make sure.”

Once again, Davey had realized there was no good in keeping Reina and Illyna together for too long. Every time Illyna smiled, he figured it must’ve stirred up a bitter feeling in Reina. He’d thought she was past that pain, but clearly she wasn’t.

“Master Davey, Rinne has found traces here.”

Just as he’d expected, the forest was stained with piles of that purplish bodily fluid in several places.

“Master Davey, Rinne reports analysis of the fluid. Rinne reports its composition to be extremely complex.”

Illyna mumbled in confusion, “Complex? What do you mean?”

Davey pointed toward the far end of the forest and muttered, “I bet it came from that bastard over there.”

A violent gust exploded outward before something camouflaged in the distance burst apart. Illyna rushed over to examine it.

Her face pale, she then froze and muttered, “This is... a c-cockroach?! Why is it so huge?!”

Davey had figured something was hiding around, but it was even worse than he’d expected. Then, as if to prove it was no ordinary bug, the crushed ‘cockroach’ began to squirm and melt. Soon after, its body rippled like clay and began reforming itself.

“Genetic modification... Totrias...” Davey muttered as he watched the transformation.

Its back split open, revealing wings.

Illyna screamed and hid behind Davey, trembling, “W-Wings? That’s too much!!”

“Interesting response for someone who didn’t seem scared before,” Davey teased.

“I really hate cockroaches!”

Seeing her on the verge of tears somehow made her look even more adorable to Davey.

- Bzzt!! Davey, we need help over here! Aaaagh!! Run!!

Maximus frantically cried over the communication crystal.

Davey could feel the overwhelming presence of countless creatures approaching from all directions.

He couldn’t even fathom just how many of them had shown up.

Davey unleashed the 8th Circle Prometheus spell directly onto the monster he first saw. The creature thrashed violently, writhing and twisting before it finally began to die. Its form slowly returned to what must’ve been its original shape, with an almost translucent, purple and worm-like body slumping to the ground.

“Totrias, courtesy of the Vatan Kingdom.”

Everything had been fine when he took out the creature at the ancient ruins, but it would appear there had been something else left behind there that Davey hadn’t noticed. Still, he couldn’t understand why the totrias were moving to Vatan instead of toward Alberta, which was closer.

He knew there was something off about their behavior.

Hordes of cockroach-like totrias swarmed in from the distance, and Illyna, tears streaming down her face, threw herself into his arms, bawling uncontrollably. Her disgust toward cockroaches was far more intense than he'd expected.

Davey picked her up and soared into the air. Smiling slyly, he asked, “What’s gonna happen if I drop you here?”

Tears still falling, she whimpered, “Y-You’re not really going to, right?”

She then went into freefall. “Kyaaah!!!”

Of course, she didn’t fall all the way down into the middle of the swarming cockroaches. She stopped midair. Panicking, she reached out and grabbed him. “Don’t drop meeee!!!! I said don’t drop me!!!!!”

Her terrified flailing was quite the amusing sight.

Chuckling, Davey caught her again, and as if waiting for that moment, the swarm of creatures suddenly unfurled their wings and launched themselves at them.

He also wasn’t down to touch those things directly. He knew it was time to call in someone to handle them.

His spirit mana surged. “Ifrit. Lavatein.” Official source is NoveI-Fire.ɴet

Soon after, a massive storm of flames erupted, engulfing the wave of enormous cockroach-like totrias swarming toward them. The fire moved like it was alive, sweeping through the air and incinerating every last one of the approaching totrias.

Each of the things was weaker than the totrias he knew. Their defense was utterly pathetic, making him think that the ones he had first met must have been especially strong ones.

“Nothing beats fire for pest control.”

It was a relief that they were that weak, as he knew it could’ve been worse. Now that he knew the things were totrias, he couldn’t just let them be.

Rinne reported, “Master Davey, totrias are evolutionary organisms that absorb and apply genetic—”

“Rinne analyzes that they have absorbed cockroach traits. Rinne reports their rate of reproduction is...”

‘Oh, please. Please, not that.’

Shortly after, they discovered that totria attacks had already begun in cities throughout the Vatan Kingdom.