"Hmm, so these few books are missing?" In the archives, Leticia quickly found what books had once been placed on that bookshelf. After comparing them one by one with the books she remembered seeing on the shelf, Leticia obtained the titles of those missing books.
But that was about all. The contents of the books weren't recorded, because those books were actually just ordinary books that could be easily bought on the market.
Even their originals were still preserved in the Demon Realm's great library.
It was very normal for a noble's house to have these books. Even if they didn't read them, they had to be placed there for appearances, to show that the family's master was a learned person.
"Why would they specifically take away those few books? Is there some secret in them?" Leticia touched her chin thoughtfully. This possibility was quite high; otherwise, it couldn't explain why those two mysterious people would take away these specific books.
Wait, weren't there three sets of footprints on the ground?
Why were there only two people in black who escaped at that time?
Something was wrong. There should have been another mysterious person there, but only two people in black ran out.
The first one might have been the person who took away those books.
The timeline should be like this: first, a mysterious person came here and took away the books, then shortly before Leticia arrived, those two people in black came here and summoned that giant monster using some unknown method.
Leticia was the last to arrive and also the most confused one. She knew nothing, just felt that place had problems.
Facts proved that place indeed had problems.
That giant monster was the proof. Would a place without problems hide such a big weapon?
Even beneath Leticia's Demon King Palace, there was no such thing.
"Your Majesty, I heard you were attacked?" Hearing that Leticia had encountered a monster attack on this trip, Xue'er hurried over to inquire about the situation.
She hadn't followed Leticia, first because Leticia said she didn't need her to follow, and second because she was still working hard to search for Mo Zili's parents in the complex blood bank.
Yes, almost all demon nobles had had portions of their blood taken by Demon King Palace personnel when they weren't paying attention, preserved in the deepest room of the Demon King Palace.
They were the Demon King's final trump card against the nobles. Only Leticia and some of her close subordinates knew of this place's existence.
Yes, even Qila didn't know.
"It's nothing. That kind of thing was solved in just a few moves." Leticia said proudly. She was super strong, after all. "How's the progress on your end, Xue'er?"
This question made Xue'er's expression worsen somewhat. She sighed and shook her head. "There's no match. She's not any noble's child."
Not a noble's child, yet possessing such beauty and talent—this was somewhat incredible.
It wasn't that Leticia thought nobles were naturally superior to commoners, but that's just how it was on the demon side. While bloodline couldn't be said to determine everything, it basically determined ninety-nine percent.
"Hiss, could she really be a bastard?" Leticia muttered quietly.
"Your Majesty, you can't say such things carelessly." Xue'er said helplessly to Leticia. Calling someone else a bastard was quite an insulting behavior.
The Demon King had different opinions on this matter. She felt it was just a simple descriptive word. Besides, even if she really was cursing someone, as the Demon King, she had that qualification.
Let her curse if she wanted to. If they had the guts, let them hit her.
"But she really doesn't seem like a child that commoners could give birth to. Xue'er, I have a bold idea." Leticia's eyes rolled, and she proposed a guess. "Could she be blood-related to me?"
"Um, the previous emperor only had you and Princess Qila as children. This is certain." Xue'er denied Leticia's guess, and besides, the characteristic of Demon King bloodline was that it would make bloodline bearers develop slowly. That Mo Zili obviously developed quite well.
This conspicuous girl couldn't possibly be a bearer of Demon King bloodline, and although her talent was quite good, compared to Leticia and Qila, it was still far inferior.
Demon King bloodline wasn't that pathetic. It was legendary that even touching a bit of it could leap from ordinary talent to top-tier talent—an ultimate bloodline that wouldn't manifest as 'ordinary' as Mo Zili.
But Leticia didn't mean that. She wasn't trying to say Mo Zili was her biological sister from the same parents, but rather, her never-seen father might have left offspring outside.
It wasn't that Leticia was using malicious thoughts to speculate about her father. It was mainly that this Mo Zili really didn't look like offspring that ordinary demons could produce.
Either her father or her mother had to be someone very powerful, and now all the nobles had been eliminated as suspects. The remaining suspects were just those few.
Among those few were several of Leticia's distant relatives, but they were basically confined to their own territories and unlikely to throw their children onto battlefields.
As for Leticia's father, since that guy could be chosen by Leticia's mother to give birth to two daughters, he naturally had his own exceptional qualities.
And he was of common birth. When he was young, his parents had already died, which was why Leticia's blood bank contained no blood of people related to him.
Of course, the main reason was that Leticia herself could obtain blood of those related to him.
That would be herself.
"I'm talking about my father." Leticia spread her hands and used magic to prick a small wound on her index finger, extracting a drop of blood.
The round blood droplet was controlled by Leticia to float in mid-air. Even after leaving her body, Leticia could still manipulate this drop of blood that belonged to her.
Xue'er took out the ice cube, then was surprised to discover that the blood sealed within the ice cube began to become agitated.
Yes, agitated.
"This reaction, it's my first time seeing it." Leticia's eyes widened in surprise. "It's not the reaction of blood kinship, but more like... mortal enemies?"
Mo Zili's ancestors had a grudge against the Demon King?
What kind of super development was this?!
"Xue'er, do you have any guesses?" Leticia cast her puzzled gaze toward Xue'er. Whenever she encountered something she didn't understand, her first thought was always to ask Xue'er.
In her eyes, the maid knew more than she did.
But this time, even the well-informed Xue'er was bewildered. "I don't know either."
"Strange, this kind of situation has never appeared before, right?" Leticia grabbed her hair and muttered to herself. She had considered the possibility that Mo Zili was her little sister, but the current situation really exceeded her expectations.
Enemy bloodline—but where did the Demon King have enemies? At least in the history Leticia was familiar with, Demon Kings had no enemies.
Most Demon Kings were quite dedicated, working diligently to maintain demon strength and striving tirelessly to make demons more powerful.
Leticia and her mother were anomalies among Demon Kings. Both were slackers, one more than the other.
In comparison, Leticia had at least been a wise ruler in her early period. Her mother was thoroughly focused only on hooking up with guys.
So Leticia's current slacking was entirely due to her mother's genetics. Yes, that's right!
Absolutely had nothing to do with her own reasons.
"Should we summon the sages?" Xue'er inquired.
Once they encountered things the Demon King didn't know, those bearded sages would come in handy.
"Mm, first summon those few who are knowledgeable about history. I feel this might involve things from very, very long ago." Leticia nodded. After she came to power, the sages had almost all fallen into a state of idly waiting to die.
Though these old people were basically in this state anyway. When Leticia's mother was around, they were even more idle because Leticia's mother completely ignored these matters.
But summoning them would also take considerable time. After all, these old people weren't always on standby here. Generally speaking, when Leticia gave orders at this time, she could only see the sages in the Demon King Palace tomorrow.
So now, Leticia was free.
With clues cut off, she could only wait for the sages' arrival and hear if they had any leads.
"Let's leave it at that. This blood sample... wait, am I stupid? I have her blood right here. Can't I just track her directly?" Leticia waved her hand, planning to go home and lie down first. Then after Xue'er turned around, she suddenly remembered she had a big weapon she hadn't used.
Mo Zili's blood was still with her.
With blood, finding the blood's owner could only be described as easy.
At least in Leticia's view, it was easier than drinking water.
She wasn't bragging—give her a drop of blood, and she could find that person's current location within half a minute.
She hadn't thought of this method before entirely because she forgot she had this option available. She had almost never used this method to find people over the years, so not reacting immediately was quite normal.
And now, she had reacted.
"Oh right." Xue'er also softly exclaimed following Leticia. She had actually forgotten about this too.
Mo Zili had disappeared, and after her disappearance, that house had been invaded, and a giant monster had appeared. Although they couldn't find the connection between these two events, Leticia had a feeling that Mo Zili couldn't escape involvement in this matter.
Reaching out to take the ice cube from Xue'er's hand, Leticia gently tapped it, melting the ice. The blood that had been agitated just moments before immediately calmed down once it fell into Leticia's hand.
A small magic circle appeared below the blood. Accompanied by magic power consumption, a faint red light pointed toward the distance.
"Found the direction!" Leticia smiled with satisfaction. Her magic indeed didn't disappoint her.
After finding it, what to do next was naturally to chase after it.
"I'll go chase them. Xue'er, you stay here and continue checking materials." Leticia dropped this sentence and rushed out of the archives without looking back.
Seeing the Demon King run off, the attendants who had been slacking outside quickly dropped their playing cards and hurriedly chased after her.
This made Xue'er shake her head repeatedly. These days, even Leticia's attendants had learned bad habits from Leticia. Their slacking attitude and speed of switching back to work mode were truly exceptional.
Here, Leticia was leading her four-person team to chase people, while Xue'er still had other matters to handle—or rather, she had very many things to handle.
And there were often sudden incidents that required her to deal with, such as now.
......
Not long ago, on the other side of Demon King Castle, Bai Ya was aimlessly wandering the streets with Elsa Priestley. Without Sister Qianqian's company, Little Ya felt her day's journey was missing something.
This also led to her being somewhat listless.
Elsa Priestley naturally noticed that the girl beside her was feeling down, but she didn't particularly like Bai Ya anyway, since her sister was her rival in love.
With these two people together, the atmosphere was predictably quite awkward.
"Our next destination is that place." Elsa Priestley looked at the itinerary in her hand and said to Bai Ya with dead fish eyes.
Bai Ya also nodded without saying anything else.
Anyway, it was arranged by Sister Qianqian, so she just needed to accept it.
"I remember there's a shortcut here that would be faster. Should be from here." Elsa Priestley stuffed the itinerary back into her pocket, then looked around and focused on the small path not far away.
Since there was a shortcut available, there was naturally no need to take the long way. Although this small path was literally small—almost only wide enough for two people to walk side by side—it was surprisingly clean inside.
No garbage or anything like that. It seemed to be cleaned regularly.
Perhaps at night, some energetic young people would wander here, but this was daytime. Demon King Castle's public security was quite good.
Although the name was Demon King Castle, which sounded like a villain's headquarters, it actually differed from Human Central City only in the difference between technology and magic. Other aspects were basically similar.
For example, sometimes in Central City's alleys, you might find a girl of unknown life or death lying there too.
"Eh?! Miss Elsa, why is there a girl lying here!" Bai Ya, who almost tripped over the girl on the ground, asked with some surprise. "What's going on here?"
What was going on? Elsa Priestley wanted to ask what was going on too!
Why would such a human girl be lying in Demon King Castle's alley? This was too bizarre.
Don't ask how Elsa Priestley knew the girl on the ground was human. The energy fluctuation in this girl's body was definitely not something demons could possess.
This was human supernatural power, so this girl was human.
"Cough cough, someone actually came by." The girl seemed to hear the movement nearby and opened her eyes, lingering on Elsa Priestley's and Bai Ya's faces for a while.
Then she seemed to think of something. "You are Elsa Priestley?"
"You know me?" Elsa Priestley frowned and asked.
Her name wasn't exactly classified information. Basically, anyone with status in Demon King Castle knew her name.
But hearing it from a human's mouth gave her a sense of discord. Why would this human know her name?
"You're quite the celebrity on our side, second only to the Four Heavenly Kings." The girl smiled weakly a few times. "Grand Duke, could you please deliver a few words to Her Majesty Leticia Infinoi for me?"
"Eh?" Elsa Priestley was confused. What kind of super development was this?
Deliver words to Leticia—why?
Why should she believe this suspicious girl? She was lying here heavily injured. Who knew why she was injured?
Perhaps she was caught trying to do something harmful to the demons and was beaten into critical condition.
She couldn't just believe her because she looked like she was dying. Elsa Priestley wasn't that naive.
"I don't have the strength to argue with you. Now, listen to me."
She paused, seemingly adjusting her tone. "I am a high-ranking Divine Envoy belonging to Divine Throne. Demon King Castle is currently facing enormous crisis. Someone plans to awaken and release a deity who is not friendly to demons. If her plot succeeds, Demon King Castle will be razed to the ground, and even the entire Demon Realm might be destroyed."
"I tried to stop her, but I didn't expect that deity already possessed certain ability to interfere with the outside world. With the other deity's support, I barely escaped."
After saying these words, the girl panted heavily for a while. "Tell the Demon King, it doesn't matter if she doesn't believe me, but this is a matter concerning the Demon Realm's fate. She shouldn't want to see demons destroyed in her hands, right?"
"What do you mean?" Elsa Priestley felt her brain wasn't sufficient. Why couldn't she understand what this girl was saying?
What deity, what Divine Throne—Elsa Priestley didn't understand, really didn't understand.
"My luck is quite good. I actually encountered you, someone who can speak to Leticia. Otherwise, by the time I recover enough mobility to find her, it would probably be too late." The girl supported herself against the wall and slowly stood up. "If you don't want to become a sinner of the demon race, convey my words to Leticia, or bring me to see her."
As she spoke, she tried to take a step, but her injuries didn't allow such intense movement. After grimacing in pain, she gave up her action.
"Sigh, I believe you'll make the right choice." Lying back down on the ground, the girl said sullenly.
Elsa Priestley was still struggling with what to do, but Bai Ya had no psychological burden and crouched beside the girl, asking about her condition. "Big sister, you look seriously injured. Lying here would be very dangerous, right?"
The girl lifted her eyelids to look at Bai Ya. "I'm not an ordinary person. My body recovers much faster than ordinary humans and demons."
As a fellow human, she didn't mind chatting with this cute little girl.
Anyway, Elsa Priestley over there was still struggling with whether to agree to her request. She currently had nothing to do, so why not chat with this little girl who was also human like her?
"Is big sister a hero from the Hero Association?"
"Hero? I'm not such a boring thing as a hero." The girl snorted coldly, obviously having quite strong dissatisfaction with the heroes Bai Ya mentioned. "I am a Divine Envoy, someone who possesses divine power!"
"Mm, don't understand." Bai Ya tilted her head and said. Deities and such felt like things that would only appear in stories. She didn't think there were beings like gods in this world.
Perhaps this girl was a chuunibyou? Always immersed in her own world, which was why she was like this?
"Tch, if you don't understand, don't ask so much. You, an ordinary human, are quite lucky to be able to make friends with demons." The girl snorted coldly. "Hey, over there, have you decided yet?"
"I'll help you deliver the message, but I think it would be better for you to speak with them face-to-face about this kind of thing." Elsa Priestley finally made her decision.
She didn't trust this girl, or rather, no demon would trust such a human, but what she mentioned couldn't help but make Elsa Priestley take it seriously.
Matters concerning demon safety really weren't something she could just ignore. She, a Grand Duke, didn't have the ability to resolve matters concerning demon safety.
The best method she could choose was to bring this girl over and let Qila and Leticia question her personally. That way, she would have no responsibility.
This was called risk transfer.
"Ah, couldn't ask for more, but in my current state, I'm afraid someone will need to carry me." The girl grinned.
This wasn't a big problem. Elsa Priestley clapped her hands and summoned the hidden guards following her.
Some belonged to her family, and some were sent by Leticia to protect Bai Ya.
These two groups of people looked at each other for a while, then cast their gazes toward Elsa Priestley. No one wanted to carry this human girl, so they'd let Elsa Priestley, the current leader, decide which unlucky person should do this job.
Elsa Priestley blinked and randomly pointed out someone from her own hidden guards. "You then. Carry her, we're going to the Demon King Palace."
Before departing, Leticia had told Elsa Priestley that if she wanted to find her during the day, she should go directly to the Demon King Palace. Leticia might not be there, but Qila and Xue'er would definitely be there.
With these two people, it would be enough to make decisions in Leticia's absence.
The hidden guard reluctantly carried the girl and followed behind Elsa Priestley toward the Demon King Palace.
But Bai Ya was now somewhat uneasy. The Demon King Palace—wouldn't that mean meeting the Demon King?
The Demon King really hated humans, right? If the Demon King knew she was invited here by Sister Qianqian, would it cause problems for Sister Qianqian?
"Um, Sister Elsa, should I avoid this?" So Little Ya tugged at Elsa Priestley's sleeve and asked quietly.
Elsa Priestley was also stunned, then realized this little girl didn't know Leticia's true identity yet. In her view, Leticia was probably just a noble young lady.
So now she was about to face the demons' supreme ruler, the Demon King. The little girl was naturally feeling anxious.
"Mm, but I'm a bit worried about letting Little Ya go back alone." Elsa Priestley showed a smile. "Don't worry, Her Majesty the Demon King doesn't like meeting outsiders. I'll take her inside, and Little Ya can wait outside."