At the Gabriel Empire’s capital, nearby Gabriels City (Sword Capital), downstream of the Claudine River, at the base camp of the rebel forces where the Southern Alliance led by Bella was stationed, the Burwell Defense Line. The infected had stopped their attack, for now, seemingly having switched their targets to the defenses of the three other princes instead.
It didn’t take long for the princes’ defenses to collapse. They only had bows and arrows and none of the firearms of the Southern Alliance. They were utterly unable to put up a defense against the charge of the infected. After shooting a few rounds of arrows to no avail, they quickly retreated and withdrew to the outer area of the second moat, using it as a barrier.
There was more than one moat in the Gabriel Empire’s Gabriels City. This capital city was built shortly after the construction of the original Claudine River, and an artificial moat was dug around the outer area. With the three princes’ retreat, the infected began focusing their offensive on the Burwell Defense Line again.
At this moment at the Burwell Line, things weren’t as tough, despite facing around double the numbers before. They had all their artillery calibrated for the right range. And, with the airship fleet in the sky providing timely support, the defense trench on the frontlines was stabilized again.
The Southern Alliance’s position became the frontline in the war, and the objective temporarily changed from the pacification of the rebellion to the suppression of the infected. In order not to cause any chaos, nobody called them the infected, tacitly agreeing to refer to them as a mob. The word mob was not as scary as infected. Before finding any mage support, the other three princes could only withdraw from the core of the defense and watch the Southern Alliance fight across the moat.
Bella wasn’t in the base camp of the Southern Alliance. The one staying in command here was Princess Kriss and a special envoy sent by the Imperial Union, Dragon Knight General Olya. After handing over supreme command to Kriss, Bella planned to infiltrate the imperial city again to get rid of the first experiment subject.
Kriss had to stay put in the command center. There wasn’t actually any need for her to give any specific commands. After putting on her armor, she just sat there on the exclusive watchtower of the marshal and watched them fight. It was enough for the soldiers participating in the war to know that their general-in-command was present for them. For controlling the fight, there were many high-ranking generals of the Southern Alliance, so Kriss was functioning there mainly as a mascot to raise morale.
Bella was able to learn of a secret passage to the imperial city from Sword Goddess Claudine. She brought Lost Demon King Hailey Layman, Creation God of the Darkness Dimension Mary Rose, and Creation God of the White Dimension Mary Lola with her. Since Bella was the only person who was able to see the two Gods of Creation, the four-man party looked like there were only two people.
Bella was the only one who knew of the existence of these two Gods of Creation at this moment. She was originally going to bring Lolita along, but it was good enough with the Gods of Creation by her side. Their combat ability might not be as insane as Lolita and the other two evil dragon lolis, but this dimension was created by them. This advantage alone was something that Lolita and the others couldn’t compare to.
Lost Demon King Hailey Layman took Bella’s hand and went forth with her. With three days worth of cakes, Bella was able to trick this loli Demon King into becoming her helper. Hailey Layman could not see the two Gods of Creation, so in her mind, she and Bella were the only ones in this party.
The secret underground passage Bella took the girls to was not really a special escape route; rather, it was an underground drainage channel similar to the sewers on Earth. The human cities in this Other World were built with their own underground drainage systems. Here in the imperial city, there were also sewer outlets for the palace area. After getting a hint from Sword Goddess Claudine, Bella quickly found the above-ground entrance of the underground waterway.
There was no difference between this waterway and a sewer; it was just another name for it. No girls by Bella’s side would be happy to come to this waterway with her, as the smell here was too horrendous. All the wastewater from the imperial city passed through here. The design of the sewers was said to have been bought from the Manasvir Empire from back then.
The design of this underground waterway was most likely the work of one of the transmigrators, Empress Manya Felan. The layout was quite similar to the ones on Earth. The only difference was that unlike Earth, where garbage littered the whole planet, only sewage was found here, which did not look as disgusting.
Of the three girls who came along with Bella, only the loli Demon King Hailey Layman found the place too revolting. As a Demon King, it was the first time she had ever stepped into the sewers of the Human Race. The foul smell was extremely disgusting, and she had no idea what use this waterway was. She could only take Bella’s hand and have her lead the way.
Mary Rose and Mary Lola, the two black and white God of Creation sisters, did not react too much to the place. Even though they had never seen an underground waterway, a product from another dimension, they were unable to feel anything about that disgusting smell. As Gods of Creation, there was practically nothing they had not smelled. This stench was not enough to gross them out.
“Bella, why are you taking a road like this? That Sword Goddess wasn’t lying to you, was she?”
“Hailey Layman, do you not believe in my interrogation abilities? Don’t worry, Big Sister Claudine even told me all the bad things she did as a child. There’s no need for her to lie to me about this much.”
Hailey Layman was only bearing with all this so as to keep up her image as a Demon King. However, she was already feeling regretful over deciding to come with Bella. Wasn’t it just a three days supply of cake? It was much better staying in her room than walking down here.
As for Bella’s words, Hailey Layman had no doubts about it. This Demon King had a powerful aura around her, and any girl she had her eyes on would not be able to get away so easily. Who knew what sort of erotic techniques she had used on the blue-haired Sword Goddess? She was able to get her to fold in just under a day.
Sword Goddess Claudine was now locked up by Bella in the interrogation room with Fire Mage Wendy. Bella had entrusted Time Space Demon Noesha, the erotic loli, to take care of her new girls. With Noesha’s continued “special teachings”, Claudine would be unable to escape. Bella just has to head back and enjoy the results.
The underground waterway wasn’t infested with any infected. Even in normal times, rarely anyone entered this channel. It seemed that there was no such thing as a sewer cleaner in this other world. After the underground waterway was built, not much maintenance had been carried out until now. Basically, nobody had done any dredging work. Bella just had to find the underground waterway location, and she could infiltrate the imperial city.
As for the two Gods of Creation, Bella would try to avoid using them as much as possible. The experiment subject no.1 they were trying to hunt down this time was a crafty one. If it felt the fluctuations of their powers, it was likely to escape, which would make finding it much more difficult.
Bella did not anticipate that Demonic Beings would also exist in this underground passageway. Not long after they came in, they were able to see several humanoid figures lurking about. Bella couldn’t sense anything human from them. Instead, they gave off the scent of a demon. Not that humans who had turned into demons did not exist, only, most of them wouldn’t appear in places rife with human activity.
These guys were all demonized Ratmen, rats turned into Demonic Beings. They were about as tall as humans when standing up, but unlike most other Demonic Beings, these Ratmen were not that strong in combat. They could even be called a disgrace among Demonic Beings. They were fond of stealing treasures and food. Because of their poor combat abilities, they didn’t dare to steal from the human empires’ treasury.
This time, due to the infection and the rebellion happening in the Gabriel Empire, nobody had been keeping watch on the treasury for a while now. These Ratmen took the opportunity to go down to the sewers and dig holes to steal the treasures from the palace. When Bella caught them, these Ratmen had already stolen plenty of treasures. They were currently moving sacks of jewelry, gemstones, and jade over to this side.
Due to the dim light in the underground waterway, the Demonic Ratmen mistakenly thought that Bella and Demon King Hailey Layman were also their “peers” here to steal treasures from the palace. They brandished the swords they had stolen from the guards in the palace and attacked Bella and the girls. They constantly let out squeaks similar to a rat.
Bella was not afraid of any opponent. In her eyes, it wasn’t even worth her time fighting these rats, but they were in her way. There was no going around it. Hailey Layman did not participate in the battle since she wasn’t holding any weapons. When she was sealed, her weapon was also seized by the infected Demon King. One of her purposes in coming with Bella was to retrieve her personal weapon.
Stepping forward, Bella quickly grabbed the blade of a Ratman and used it to cut the guy in half. The Demonic Ratmen were all wearing black cloaks, which provided ludicrous amounts of defense. After killing that Ratman, she ignored the others attacking her and didn’t even try to defend herself, slaughtering all of them directly.
The Demonic Ratmen were unable to stop Bella’s attacks. Their weapons couldn’t even break through the energy barrier around Bella, so she quickly finished them without even needing to block. After losing about a dozen of their brethren, the Ratmen finally realized they were beating a brick wall.
These Ratmen with almost no battle prowess were all turned into miserable wretches. They turned tail as soon as they realized they were no match for Bella. They didn’t even take away their scattered belongings on the ground. While Bella was hesitating whether she should give chase, the cunning rats triggered the traps they had laid beforehand. It wasn’t anything terrifying, just disgusting.
The originally closed drainage gates were suddenly opened, and a large wave of sewage gushed toward Bella. To think these rats could even brew up such a nasty trick. The waste was coming too quickly, so Bella was unable to dodge it. She subconsciously turned her body and pushed away Demon King Hailey Layman to the pipe on the other side.
“Bella, you’re really an… idiot. You could’ve avoided that yourself!”
Hailey Layman, who had fallen on the ground from that push, avoided the splash of sewage, but Bella wasn’t so lucky. Fortunately, the two God of Creations, Mary Rose and Mary Lola, couldn’t stand the sight any longer. They cast a secret technique so that Bella wouldn’t be touched by the sewage. Thus, in the end, she was able to avoid this disaster.
After the sewage water passed, Bella appeared in front of Hailey Layman, looking a little messy. Although this sort of trap didn’t pose any real danger, it sure got on one’s nerves. If the Gods of Creation had not intervened, then she would have lost face today. Bella didn’t want the humiliating title of being the first Demon King to be drenched in a sewage attack.
“Bella, you’re the first Demon King to…”
“Enough, Hailey Layman. I clearly wasn’t touched by the sewage at all. I’m warning you; don’t run your mouth out there, or your cake is void indefinitely.”
“I won’t say anything, Bella! And also… Thank you!”
It was the first time Hailey Layman had ever thanked anyone. As a Demon King, she never bothered to say warm words such as thanks, but her gratitude really did come from her heart this time. If Bella hadn’t pushed her, she would have been the one drenched in waste. She said her thanks very quietly, and Bella, who was still thinking of a way to get revenge on those Ratmen, didn’t manage to catch it.
After solving this minor issue, the relationship between Bella and Hailey Layman wasn’t as hostile anymore. They quickly arrived at the imperial city area, directly below the Empress’s Stardust Palace. The girls found the tunnels dug by the Demonic Ratmen and successfully infiltrated the Stardust Palace through the underground waterway.
Besides dealing with experiment subject no.1, Bella also planned to confirm Emperor Alfred the Third’s condition. She could possibly face the infected Demon King. Among these tasks, recovering the experiment subject was a top priority; the others weren’t as important.
The Stardust Palace was filled with the familiar scent of the birds of paradise, and there were no changes since their last visit here. Bella and the girls appeared in the courtyard of an imperial consort who happened to be out. After they came out, the first thing they did was walk to the fence and observe the situation outside through the slit in the door.
The tunnels dug by the Ratmen were near one of the palace’s treasury. These Ratmen loved stealing treasure, so they had opened an exit here. Earlier, they were emptying the personal belongings of this imperial consort and were just about to go and raid the palace’s treasury. However, they didn’t expect to bump into Bella and get beaten. Hence, their tunnels ended up benefitting Bella instead.
The last time Bella came to the Stardust Palace, it had left a deep impression in her memory. The fair and delicate bodies of the maids and guards here were a delicacy for her eyes. However, things were different now. There were still nude bodies, but not the bodies of women this time, but demons.
There were humanoid demons roaming around everywhere in the harem zone, all standing more than two meters tall. They did not have any facial features and looked like mixed demonic beings. Bella wasn’t interested in the fanservice of these demons, though. These modified demons looked to be the subordinates of that experiment subject. The subordinates of Demon Kings all had the mark of that Demon King. No matter what happened to the Demon King, the fact that their subordinates carried their mark would not change.
“Those are unsuccessful clones of humans. They are very strong and good at fighting.”
Dark Creation God Mary Rose quickly came up to clear Bella’s confusion. These humanoid demons did not have any gender, so the highly toxic fumes emitted by the birds of paradise did no harm to them.
The appearance of demons in this harem zone indicated that even the last inch of pure land had fallen. The Darkness Church, which controlled and operated the harem area, had lost its dominion over this place. And, so as to not alarm anyone, Bella did not even try to borrow the power of the Gods of Creation that was able to make a map of any place at will. She chose to observe things in the most primitive way.
The location of this imperial consort’s courtyard was very close to Queen Deborah the Fifth’s chambers, the Star Rain Palace, which was right next door. They were only separated by a wall that wasn’t all too tall. In order to confirm the situation of the Darkness Church, Bella directly climbed the wall over to the Empress’s Star Rain Palace. Meanwhile, the loli Demon King Hailey Layman, who came with Bella, chose to stay here in the courtyard to watch the exit.
The harem was dominated by humanoid demons, so no infected existed here. Hence, Bella won’t be able to make use of the loli Demon King’s power for now. She also acquiesced to Hailey Layman’s proposal to let her keep watch here. Eventually, Bella took the two black and white Gods of Creation with her towards the Star Rain Palace.
The Star Rain Palace was empty. Not a single person could be seen around the area, not even a corpse. Since there were no patrolling demons here, Bella didn’t even have the chance to catch a guard. Undeterred, Bella ran back and forth. She noticed the black rose petals on the ground, which had left some impression. They were present on the clothes of the heir of the Darkness Church, also the one who was pretending to be Empress Deborah the Fifth.
But other than the black rose petals, Bella didn’t find any traces of blood. The Darkness Church had set up many people here. If there was a battle, there would have been some traces. But right now, Bella didn’t discover any of that at all, so she couldn’t help but wonder. She also didn’t sense the air of the Dark Space in here. The people from the Darkness Church shouldn’t have hidden in the Dark Space.
The only trace was the dark rose petals left behind by Lisnell. Following the rose petals, Bella walked to a huge mirror in the Star Rain Palace. The mirror, which stood three meters high, was somewhat exaggerated and bizarre. No ordinary human would need a three-meter-tall mirror. And, the black rose petals led all the way to this mirror before breaking off.
