Did she already know what I would ask her for?

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"Alessandra was pregnant when she escaped from the guards, wasn't she?" I say, anticipating the answer Beatrice's going to give me.

"Yes, but I guess she had no visible signs of her pregnancy when she escaped. No one in the Drial Cenit kingdom imagined that Alessandra would have a daughter. Ha! What am I saying? No one in the Drial Cenit kingdom even imagined that she was alive until the merchant went to the royal palace with that information..." she says, and once again, a gleam of admiration appears in her eyes.

From the way Beatrice speaks, I think the fact that a woman alone and unaided could hide from an entire kingdom for so many years seems like an incredible feat to her.

And the truth is that I think so too.

After all, she was the bloody sister of a king.

How could such a person hide in plain sight?

The whole kingdom must have known about her.

"... The information about Alessandra's hiding place was revealed, but at the time it was only revealed to a few people close to the king," says Beatrice when she decides to resume the story.

'So it's true... There is no room for misunderstanding anymore. Then... is Alessia a... princess?'

"What did the king do with that information?" I ask, suddenly in a cold sweat from fear of what Beatrice might say next.

'This is... too much... How can I be so unlucky? A whole kingdom... How do you fight against that?'

"I see you're beginning to see the magnitude of the trouble you're in, you little phony..." says Beatrice, smirking.

"... I'm just one of many people who are currently looking for Alessia Addari. No matter how strong you are, sooner or later someone else will recognize her, and then-"

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION! JUST-RESPOND-WHAT-I-ASKED-YOU…" I scream as I repeatedly whip her thighs and forearms until the damn smirk is wiped off her face.

I am extremely irritated and furious, and although my anger is not directly caused by the paralyzed, pained woman in front of me, I use her as a means of venting.

' - The pain.... Have I gone mad? But no... No matter how much I want to, I have to escape as soon as possible.... Soon my information will run out.... and then my life will be in real danger. Haa... The pain is... so delicious. I don't know how long I can keep control of my mind.... as soon as my body finishes eliminating the paralyzing poison, I must escape.'

I continue with what I'm doing until....

'What am I doing? She can't even move.'

As I watch how tears of frustration and helplessness begin to roll down Beatrice's cheeks, my fury subsides a little.

' - I can't be wishing for it so much. It's... so humiliating. I hurt so much more from the need to have sex with him than from the physical harm. What has this jerk done to me?'

'DON'T BE STUPID! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO FEEL SORRY FOR HER. THIS WOMAN IS AN ASSASSIN TARGETING ONE OF YOUR LOVED ONES. REMEMBER THAT!'

"... Answer only what I have asked you, and don't make fun of my situation again..." I say in a monotone voice.

Suddenly, I find myself extremely tired.

I don't want to know any more about this thing I'm doing right now.

Nor about the Drial Cenit kingdom.

Nor about Alessia's past.

Nor of the beautiful red-haired girl in front of me, whom I will be forced to silence forever before long.

But I cannot ignore this problem.

"... Please."

The last words come out of me with a pleading tone that would seem strange to anyone watching the scene from the outside, considering the situation.

Beatrice is silent, looking at me angrily for a while.

' - Haa... Why the fuck am I provoking him? Have the blows made me stupid, or do I unconsciously want him to hit me? Haa... For a man to have to lecture me on common sense... But this man is unusual, in more ways than one.'

After a few minutes, the tears stop running down her cheeks, and she slowly speaks again.

"I suppose it's only fair... I just... But that doesn't give me the right. Haaa... Answering your question, the king sent to investigate the veracity of the information, and, when it was proven to be true that Alessandra lived in a village in the Castemira kingdom, the king's old demented 'love' was rekindled, and he sent a.... creature to convince her sister to return," says the spy, but stops when I signal her to wait.

"Creature?" I inquire, surprised at the extreme tone of disgust and revulsion expressed in the girl's voice at the mention of that word.

"A demon... The king has one working for him. It's one of his most effective dominance tools. It's something secret, obviously, but the point is that he has somehow convinced that... being to serve him," says Beatrice, and the repulsion that being inspires in her is reflected in her way of speaking.

"What exactly do you mean by demon?... " I ask, suddenly distracted by this strange piece of information.

"... one like in children's stories? With horns, bat wings, and a tail?"

"Don't be stupid. Those kinds of things don't really exist..." she says, laughing spontaneously at my words.

' - This man is very innocent.... in some respects. How can he think that a creature from children's fairy tales could exist? What an extraordinary man... I thought I knew men perfectly well, but now I see that there may be special cases. This piques my curiosity a bit'

Seeing how she can laugh like that, it would seem that she doesn't have the slightest concern for the situation she is in.

Upon witnessing this, a doubt begins to surface in my mind.

'Were the tears from before real, or was she just faking them to placate me?'

"... But there are demons. And what these beings do, say, and represent.... It surely gave rise to those stories. Demons are... people, or were at one time. To put it in a nutshell, they're like Saints, but in reverse..."

'Ahhh, great! As if things weren't weird enough, now it seems there's some sort of anti-Delia in all this'

"... On the face of it, they're normal.... people. But their entire magic, personality, and appearance represent evil and the intent to harm, control, and use their fellow men. They are disgusting creatures. I only had to deal with the king's demon once, when I was told the details of Alessia's information, and the experience left me with nightmares for months."

"Aha... And this demon, what was he supposed to do with Alessandra and Alessia?" I ask more and more apprehensive about this story.

The more I hear about the story of Alessia's past, the darker and murkier it seems to me.

If it were anyone else, I wouldn't dream of meddling in this bloody chaos Beatrice is telling me about.

But this is Alessia we're talking about, and, as Delia likes to say, our fates are intertwined.

For better or worse, my life is completely connected to hers and Delia's.

I don't intend to let anything bad happen to them.

And that's exactly why I have to keep listening to this damn story.

"He cursed her. Alessandra and a lot of people in the town.... I guess he just did it for the pleasure of doing it. Those beings apparently usually act that way. I don't know how the king can control him, as sneaky and slimy as they are. And I also don't understand why Alessia wasn't cursed along with the other people..." she says, sighing with a frown.

"... I only know that he told Alessandra that, if she wanted to save herself and the people of the village, she had to return to the Drial Cenit kingdom. If she didn't, she would die a slow and painful death...."

'Great, great! It just keeps getting better and better...

So, in addition to the damn king of an enemy kingdom, I have to take care of a person who kills just by talking....

By the way...

How do you kill a demon?....

According to the stories, demons are stupidly resistant to all kinds of harm, but that can't be true, can it?....

Yeah, surely it's not true...

Haa…. How screwed up can I be?'

"... But she stood her ground. She didn't let herself be bent by anyone, even when that decision led her slowly and painfully toward her death. So she died, to the surprise, fury, and regret of King Ronald..."

"But it didn't end there, did it?" I say, even though I already know the answer.

I feel the need to do or say something.

I feel myself once again being dragged into something I didn't ask for or imagine.

And I hate the feeling of not having control over my life.

"It would have been great for everyone if stupid King Ronald had decided to leave things as they were. After all, he already had a wife and a kid by then.... The fucker should have reflected on the gravity of his crimes when he finally murdered his own sister," she says as her eyes burn with fury.

"... But the king's madness and greed laid claim to anything that might remind him of his dead sister, and that included his niece..."

'She seems to hate her own king quite a bit.... So... why does she work for him?'