The next day, when those several bearded old men saw Leticia, they were all startled by the Demon King's expression.
Today's Demon King had a gloomy face. The faint smile that had always been there completely disappeared from her face. Although she didn't show any signs of anger, everyone knew that today's Demon King was probably not in a good mood.
"Your Majesty, we have found answers to the questions Miss Xue'er asked us yesterday." The eldest among the sages felt that he needed to tell some good news to make Leticia happy.
There were answers? This was indeed good news and did make Leticia's mood improve somewhat.
"Let's hear it."
"Yes." The sage bowed slightly and presented a earth-yellow book with both hands. "This contains various records we found of those connected to the Demon King. According to our analysis, only one matches Your Majesty's description."
"When our demon race was first established, there was a bloodline that competed with the Demon King's ancestors for the position of Demon King. In the end, they were defeated by the Demon King's ancestors. In jealousy and resentment, these people betrayed the demon race and threw themselves into the embrace of an evil god."
"They released the evil god, wanting to slaughter all demons who wouldn't submit to them, but the Demon King's ancestors stopped them."
"That Demon King fought the evil god for three days and three nights, finally resealing that deity in what is now the outskirts of Demon King Castle. Those who betrayed the demon race were also ordered executed by that Demon King."
"Originally we thought those people should have been completely cleaned up by that Demon King, but unexpectedly, their bloodline has survived to this day."
Hiss, related to gods? Leticia drew in a sharp breath. Her speculation was indeed correct—that woman brought Mo Zili here to use her as a sacrifice.
So long ago, Mo Zili's ancestors had connections with deities. This seemed to also explain one thing—gods had always been seeking opportunities to break their seals.
The Prophecy Books appeared recently, but divine artifacts had always existed in the world.
There would always be people seduced by divine power who would do things that betrayed their own camp.
The only thing that surprised Leticia was that her ancestor was actually so fierce, really managing to hammer a god back into its seal. This strength was a bit too outrageous.
Anyway, the current Leticia couldn't do it. She would be defeated after fighting a god for half a day, let alone three days and three nights and still winning.
The sages naturally knew about divine matters, or rather, they were the first to know about divine affairs.
Qila wasn't very good at clerical work. Things like translating Prophecy Books could only be entrusted to these respected sages. Therefore, these old people's understanding of deities was probably the most profound among the demon race.
"If the blood Your Majesty obtained really came from descendants of those people, then we suggest Your Majesty immediately execute that person." The old sage said solemnly to Leticia.
"Mm, I understand." Leticia didn't say things like "maybe others are also good people." She knew that as the Demon King, she shouldn't say such things.
She needed to protect the entire demon race. She couldn't take risks, especially in such matters. She couldn't let personal emotions affect her decisions.
Yes, Mo Zili was very innocent and very cute. Leticia believed this girl wasn't a bad person.
Those ancestors who died without even leaving ashes couldn't affect Mo Zili, or rather, Mo Zili shouldn't suffer unwarranted blame because of the bloodline flowing in her body.
Purely from Leticia's perspective, she didn't dislike Mo Zili. She even thought this girl was quite nice. If they spent more time together, maybe they really could end up together.
After learning that Mo Zili's ancestors might be demons who had competed with the Demon King for the throne, Leticia didn't feel there was anything difficult to handle. On the contrary, she found Mo Zili even more pleasing to the eye.
How noble this bloodline was! Anyone who could compete with the Demon King for position definitely wouldn't be weak. The children she and Mo Zili would have could combine both their advantages, right?
How wonderful.
But all this had to be built on the foundation of there being no deities. Now the demon race's greatest crisis had appeared, and the best way to resolve this crisis was to firmly grasp Mo Zili in her own hands.
That woman could indeed use divine artifacts, but just using divine artifacts was completely insufficient. If she dared to cause trouble, Leticia would dare to bring the Heavenly Kings to deal with her.
Even if she could injure the Divine Throne's Divine Envoy while holding a divine artifact, when facing Leticia, the Demon King, that little bit of power couldn't stir up any waves.
Although divine power was strong, it hadn't reached the point where it could let a weak person leap to the level of defeating Leticia in one step.
Trading a few moves might be possible, but victory? That was in Leticia's pocket.
But if she had Mo Zili in her hands, that would be disastrous. This girl's ancestors had released deities before, so her descendant doing it again wasn't impossible.
It wasn't that she definitely could, but this possibility existed, and the possibility wasn't small. Otherwise, why would that woman bring her here?
"Xue'er, go arrange things. It's best if you can get that Bai person to bring Mo Zili over." Leticia turned to Xue'er.
"Yes."
After giving one order, Leticia handed the diagrams she had obtained from Bai Ling yesterday to the sages. "Take a look at these things. What's drawn on them?"
The sages respectfully received the diagrams and began examining them.
Subtle discussion sounds began to appear, but out of respect for the Demon King, the sages deliberately lowered their voices.
This whispering made Leticia slightly irritated. She coughed twice and said to the sages: "Speak louder. Your chattering makes me think there are mosquitoes flying around here."
Having received Leticia's permission, the sages immediately stopped suppressing their voices. They began loud arguments, and the hall instantly changed from having mosquitoes flying around to being like a marketplace.
Who knew how these old people maintained such vigorous energy?
Leticia's eye twitched involuntarily. She hadn't expected the unleashed sages to be so noisy.
But she had just allowed them to discuss loudly, and now asking them to speak quietly again would be embarrassing. With no choice, Leticia could only cast a soundproofing spell on her ears.
The sages' heated discussion lasted about half an hour. After half an hour, they finally unified their opinions.
"Your Majesty, according to our discussion, these diagrams should only be corner pieces of a complete set of blueprints. We can't see anything useful from these." The old sage respectfully returned the diagrams to Leticia. "However, we can confirm this should be about using some mysterious means to create powerful monsters."
Powerful monsters? Like that guy she stepped on in three moves?
If these things could be mass-produced, they might have some small use, but something of this size didn't look like ordinary cannon fodder.
If elite monsters only had this level of strength, Leticia really didn't think her army would lose to them.
"What do you think these monsters are for?" Leticia leaned sideways on her throne, her finger lightly tapping the black-gold armrest.
Speaking of which, she remembered this broken chair was also supposedly a divine artifact according to legend.
If she had a divine artifact, couldn't she pin Bai Ling down and grind her into the ground?
She currently couldn't beat Bai Ling, but with the addition of a divine artifact's power, trampling Bai Ling underfoot and thoroughly ravaging her seemed quite hopeful.
But this was just wishful thinking. She'd been sitting on this chair for so many years, and this divine artifact never budged. The legend was probably just a legend, not worth believing.
"The purpose is hard to say, but it definitely won't be a good purpose." The sage replied. "Just from the fragments of words on these diagrams, we can feel the evil and strangeness of this method. The monsters it creates will only be more evil."
Evil? That was indeed evil. That monster looked like the very evil type.
It could serve as a big boss in superhero movies, the kind that needed to be fought by a bunch of superheroes together.
Looking at it made Leticia feel like she'd lose her appetite for the whole day, so she didn't bother keeping that monster alive and directly cremated it to avoid dirtying her eyes.
"I see. I understand. Now go find information about that sealed deity. I need it urgently." Leticia skipped the topic about monsters. With only such a small clue, dwelling on this problem was really asking for trouble.
That monster's combat power was just five—nowhere near as threatening as a deity.
Maybe this monster was originally that criminal's trump card, but he didn't expect Leticia's actions to be so decisive. Before he could play his trump card, Leticia caught him and chopped off his head.
"Yes, we'll search immediately."
"Alright, you may leave first. Report to me immediately if you find anything." Leticia waved her hand, letting the sages withdraw first.
After all the sages left, Leticia's shadow guard leader immediately emerged from the shadows.
"Your Majesty, following your orders, we have recalled Lord Aina from the front lines. She is expected to arrive at Demon King Castle tomorrow morning."
"Good, but why are you the one reporting this? Where's Xue'er?" Leticia asked curiously.
This person generally wouldn't show herself. Her position actually overlapped somewhat with Xue'er's. Normally, Xue'er should be the one reporting such matters.
But today, it was her.
"Lord Xue'er is busy with the matter Your Majesty assigned, so she asked me to convey this." The serious black-haired girl answered expressionlessly.
She had absolutely no dissatisfaction with the unparalleled trust Xue'er received, as if for her, being able to serve Leticia was enough.
Xue'er had also told Leticia that in the entire Demon Realm, no one as pure as this girl could be found.
"She is trustworthy." This was Xue'er's only evaluation of this girl.
"Then I won't disturb her. Uh, what was your name again?" Leticia was about to give this girl orders when she realized she couldn't remember the girl's name despite thinking hard.
"Tōri." The girl answered in a flat voice.
"Oh, Tōri, help me ask Candice when that Divine Throne person will wake up."
"Yes." The girl nodded and turned to disappear into the corner shadows.
After the girl left, Leticia began softly repeating the girl's name. "Tōri, Tōri... hiss, what was it again?"
In just a few breaths, that simple name seemed to be covered by a layer of fog. No matter how Leticia tried to recall, she couldn't remember the girl's name.
"How strange." Leticia knocked her head. Had her memory gotten this bad?
It was just a name—why couldn't she remember it?
When the girl appeared before Leticia again, our Demon King still hadn't recovered from her self-doubt.
"Um, I forgot your name again."
"Mm, this is the curse I bear. Even someone as strong as Your Majesty cannot avoid the curse's influence." Tōri wasn't surprised by this result. In fact, Leticia had asked her name many times, but each time Leticia couldn't remember her name.
Only she herself could remember her own name. Even if others repeated her name in their hearts a hundred times, they would forget this simple name the moment she left.
That Leticia could remember for a few seconds was already an extremely rare thing.
"Ah, who cursed you?" Leticia never expected this situation. Even she couldn't avoid being affected—this curse's level was a bit high.
She estimated that whoever cast this curse had to be a god.
"I don't know. I've lived in the Demon King Palace since childhood. I don't know the source of this curse either, but the teacher who taught me combat skills said this might be a curse passed down through bloodlines." Tōri answered.
She was an orphan—literally an orphan. Since she became conscious, she had always lived in the orphanage established by the Demon King Court.
And she was chosen to become the Demon King's shadow guard precisely because of the curse she bore. Someone whose name couldn't be remembered was very suitable as a shadow guard.
As for whether the curse would have any impact on the person she protected? Good question. Anyway, those friends Tōri made at the orphanage were basically all living well. Her curse seemed to only make people unable to remember her name.
"I see. I'll help you find a way to solve this problem in the future. Not being able to remember your name is never a good thing."
"Mm, actually I think this is pretty good."
"No good, I think it's not good!"