I sent out the call just as Illsy taught me. Red for nothing important and Green for very important... or was it the other way around? Well, it did not matter. Since I had won this duel now, every single demon and demoness within the Demonarkiar Empire would learn that the Weakest Daughter of Akardia was not that weak anymore. I was all grown up and with more power at my fingertips than they could dream of.

Upon arriving on this island in the middle of nowhere, which could only be described as some sort of forsaken land of the dead, I found myself acting not as a savior in shiny armor but rather as the witness to my wife’s prowess. To be honest, I was expecting her to come out victorious in this battle, but I wasn’t expecting her to humiliate the Phantom Rage Guild Master in such a way. She didn’t spare him a moment and didn’t even bother to go down and face him in her real body.

The battle between me and the Guild Master resumed, but this time, with an intensity that was fiercer and far more merciless than before. The obsidian sword fueled by his Dark Magic released an ominous aura, while his attacks were all aimed either at my joints or vital points. I had to do my best as well to block each and every one of those strikes. My body moved on its own most of the time, but thanks to my speed, I could avoid all the more dangerous ones.

To be completely honest, I had no idea where Nanya was getting her confidence from. This battle was not going to be an easy one. As far as I could tell from both the rumors and all the information I asked my subordinates to gather on this High Demio, he appeared to be someone who managed to reach the impressive level of 2000 and was known to have succeeded in subjugating all sorts of monsters.

Cold winds were howling like angry beasts, while the ocean was more and more wrathful. The waves that crushed against the shoreline had grown by almost half a meter in height, and the clouds above the island have gathered like angry devils who planned to rain down only suffering and abysmal hate upon us. It almost felt as though the souls of the recently departed were screaming at the heavens for justice and retribution against me, the one who took their lives with unimaginable ease.

Yet, I felt no fear or worry from them. It was... their fate.

“I-I’m happy you are alive, you foolish daughter of mine.”

These words of hers sent a shock through me. I did not even know what to say or to believe when I heard them. I always thought that whatever happened to me was not something either my parents would care about. I was just that weak daughter of hers, not even worth looking at when comparing me with my older sister Entupia, not to mention my older brothers. They were the true pride and joy of this family, the ones who succeeded far more than I ever did in the demonkind’s eyes.

An Empress or a Queen, to the demonkind, this was merely a title granted to the demoness who ruled above them all. If I would have been a demon, then I would have been called an Emperor or a King... Maybe even having my own species’ name as a Demon Queen rather than a Demon was just a cruel joke played upon me by the gods?

For centuries I’ve wondered whether or not my role on this wasteland planet was nothing more than that of a ruler, a shepherd for the tormented demons and demonesses who lived on this vast continent?

The Phantom Island had many facilities hidden under the guise of this endless barren wasteland. Scattered behind the cliffs of the mountains and stretching through intricate tunnels all the way deep underground, there were numerous caves created with the special purpose of hiding and training the deadliest assassins within the Phantom Rage Guild.

The weakest assassins that could be found on this island were of at least a lower Godlike Rank in terms of strength alone, which meant that the more powerful ones could reach lower Supreme Rank. They didn’t even compare to those found in the hideouts outside of Phantom Island, which I had encountered so far.

The Supremes who stepped up to challenge me were weak and lacked the skills needed to entertain me even for a couple of seconds. The three draconians who refused to fight me turned against the Royal Guards and the other Supremes, helping me restrain all of them in no time at all.

This gave me the freedom to head up and witness Ayuseya’s battle.

Did it hurt?

Yes.

Was it something I wished for?

No.

Then why did I let it happen? Why did I let this bastard kill those innocent draconians? Even if they were nothing more than living hosts for his fiendish curse, they were still part of my family... True, they were part of the family I had cast away, but even so, I couldn’t deny their existence since they themselves never did anything bad to me. They weren’t my enemies, they weren’t my friends either, but letting them die simply because this monster of a draconian thought that they didn’t have the right to live was too much.

If someone were to ask me if I could imagine how it was like to have my entire family slaughtered in a manner of seconds just to satisfy the desire for power of a madman who was the incestuous parent of half of them, well... I probably would reply that I had no idea even where to begin to process this complicated mess of an emotion, yet right now, this was what my beloved Ayuseya was going through.

The draconian by the name of Brayden revealed himself to be someone else, but from the lack of reaction from both the guards and the two nobles by his side, I could only suspect that they were all aware of his true identity. Ayuseya, however, wasn’t. She was shocked by this; her fists were clenched tight, and her jaw locked so that she wouldn’t gasp in surprise. The tail covered with gold scales didn’t move an inch as though it was bolted to the ground.

“Oh~! I kind of like that expression of yours, my dear Ayuseya~! It’s shock... and... is that a hint of despair?” the draconian on the throne showed us a playful smirk.

With the generational curse removed from the little one and his mother, I waited patiently for Ayuseya to call me out, which didn’t take too long. With one last glance at barrier surrounding my sister-in-law, I walked up to the window and then jumped out.

I flew up into the sky until I reached good altitude and then stopped to look down at the capital city. Drakaros was gigantic even when compared with Aura, the capital of the Paramanium Empire. The vast city districts have been built over the course of thousands of years and spread out into the surrounding plains. It was easy to get lost among the streets, since they were built in a very organic way depending on how big or at what angle someone built their homes.

Just as I had thought, the official who handled my mother’s audiences was standing not that far away from the throne room itself. He had a desk and everything, and there was already a demio talking with him.

In front of the door stood two guards who were far more powerful than any of those seen walking about on the streets, but they were still considerably weaker than me.

The doors were huge, reaching at least ten meters high, but they were just an overzealous decoration. They were opened only during special ceremonies or when foreign royalties arrived. Everyone else just had to use either the normal door on the left or the one on the right of the big ones.

The doors to the throne room of the Teslov Kingdom were the same ones from thousands of years ago when the notorious Dragon Emperor ruled these lands. The arcade was made from pure gold enchanted with magic to remain sturdy and unchanging over the years. The doors were decorated with an impressive and rather big carved image of the Draconian Emperor who brought the Teslov Empire to ruin. Maybe because it still held historical or artistic value, no previous ruler dared to remove it.

As I made my way towards the Demonarkiar Palace, walking at a slow step on the main road, I tried to replay in my mind the words I wished to share with my parents once I had the chance to speak with them. It was a bit awkward to just go to them and tell them that they were grandparents, it probably was not something that unusual either given the fact that I wasn’t the youngest of their children.

There was nothing left for me on the Sorone Continent, and although I felt the faint desire to head over to my family in the Mondravia Kingdom, I felt as though this was not the time for such an uncertain reunion.

The last time my parents saw me was when I was but a little girl of no more than ten years old. In their minds, I died back then, and in a way, it could be said that it wasn’t far from the truth. The innocent child who loved to play in the gardens and chase after butterflies or listen to her mother as she read her stories in the warm afternoon was nowhere to be seen.

With my summon to the King’s throne room, the gears of fate that would bring about clarity to this nation’s future were finally set in motion. The dark clouds ever looming above the oppressed capital of Teslov crackled with the desire to let the rain pour down and drown all those below them who so much as dared to look up.

The history of this nation was never one of glory or prosperity, at least not in the sense that Illsy made me aware off. From the moment of its inception, the draconians had been cast in the jaws of war. With their powerful bodies and ferocious attitudes, they would sweep away the enemies who dared to stand before them.

Akardia was the name of the capital of the Demonarkiar Empire that spanned across the entire Demon Continent, but also the name of my own mother. It was located within a place called the Mirror Forest. The reason why it carried this name was because it was populated by a lot of sneaky monsters who took the shape and form of those who travelled through it. In a way, they were the best sparring partner for a demon who wished to go up in ranks, but when it came to someone as powerful as myself, these monsters preferred to stay away rather than try to mimic my form.

My trip to the Mondravia Kingdom was rather short. Unlike before, this I did not bother with scaring away or hunting down the wild beasts which prowled in the dead of night or the annoying bandits who sought out to plunder the goods of passing caravans. When I encountered them, I moved past them faster than the wind and released a pressure that numbed their senses and weakened their will to fight.