Chapter 387: The Leader of the Merchant Guild

"Revenge? Of course not," Beatrice replied indifferently to the fear the prince was showing. "Such a trivial feeling does not drive my actions, as I said. I am merely following my lord’s orders."

For her, what happened in the past near the Varlylon dungeon had lost all importance from the moment Ryan saved her life and gave her a new purpose in his kingdom.

Observing Kowarre’s subordinate and noticing not a single trace of dishonesty or hidden anger in her gaze, the fire dragoness could not help but feel surprised.

"Impressive, she is serious. So, you don’t hold a grudge against us?" Irnina commented, not expecting someone who was on the brink of death because of the royal family to be able to leave that matter behind so easily.

Solaris observed Irnina for a moment and then looked back at Beatrice. Despite her proud character, she did not seem sure what to say to such a cold and focused response.

Then Beatrice responded calmly to make her group’s stance in that territory clear.

"As long as you fulfill your agreement, I have no reason to hold a grudge against you. No, not even a single inhabitant of Kowarre would have a reason to make enemies of any of you. Because of that."

Beatrice raised her right hand to the level of her face and held her chin, evaluating for a moment what to do with the intruder who was still tied up in front of them before continuing to speak.

"I will overlook this prince’s behavior and pretend this incident never happened, but if he fails to understand the warning and insists on coming back with bad intentions, I will not hold back."

After making that warning clear, Beatrice lowered Lighter a bit with her threads and brought her hand closer to the prince’s face, who shut his eyes tightly out of inertia, expecting to receive a direct blow that would finish him off.

Behind them, Solaris and Irnina silently accepted the demon’s conditions, agreeing to honor their agreement to the letter and treat the whole incident as a misunderstanding caused by Lighter’s recklessness.

When Beatrice’s hand was close enough to the prince, instead of hitting him or causing further damage with her threads, she calmly began searching through his clothes around his chest.

"I suppose it should be around here," Beatrice murmured as she checked through the torn garments of Rohan’s son under his bewildered gaze.

"What are you supposed to be doing?" Solaris asked, puzzled to see that she had no intentions of attacking him.

Then, after searching for a few more seconds, she pulled a small portal stone from the inner pockets of Lighter’s clothes, knowing beforehand that royals always carried an escape method with them for emergencies.

"Just as I imagined, here is one," she said with a smile as she held the artifact between her fingers before staring fixedly at her prisoner. "There’s no point in you staying here, but I hope you reflect and understand it well; the next time you try to mock my king, I will not be kind."

Having said that, just as the prince opened his mouth to respond or complain about the humiliation he had suffered, Beatrice activated the portal in her hand. The prince disappeared from the room in a flash, along with the threads that instantly retracted.

Once the room fell silent after getting rid of the intruder, Ryan’s subordinate looked toward the two women remaining in front of her.

"That portal took him to Demon Hells, right?" Beatrice asked, referring to the capital where Demon King Rohan resided.

Solaris nodded, confirming that those types of stones were linked directly to her father’s castle.

Even though the conflict had not escalated thanks to Beatrice’s intervention, the princess knew they could no longer justify spending the night under that same roof after what her brother had tried to do.

"Yes, I truly apologize again for all this, I believe we overstayed this hospitality. It would be best if we also left," Solaris said, preferring to retreat to a secluded area to continue the surveillance from the outside, and turned to look at Irnina. "Get ready."

"Yes, my lady," the fire dragoness replied, understanding that it was the most prudent thing to do at that moment.

Then, Irnina pulled out a portal of her own from her belongings to return together or move far away from the cabin, while Solaris turned back to Beatrice to seal her commitment before leaving.

"Don’t worry, I swear in the name of the demon king that we will not take anything that happened here into account, and also, if my foolish brother wants to cause trouble again, I will stop him even if it costs me my life. Are you satisfied with that?" Solaris spoke with complete seriousness, taking responsibility for keeping Lighter in check so as not to compromise the peace between the two nations.

Beatrice nodded with a slight smile, seeing that the princess understood the importance of the agreement between their rulers. And just as Irnina raised the portal in her hand to activate it, Beatrice spoke once more, stopping them for a moment.

"Princess Solaris," Beatrice called out in a tranquil tone.

"What is it?" Solaris asked, turning her face with curiosity before the teleportation stone was activated.

"If you truly plan to face Helen someday, you must know something," Beatrice commented, remembering what Lighter had mentioned minutes earlier about the unfinished fight in the dungeon.

Seeing that they had brought up that topic in front of her, Solaris averted her gaze a little, trying to hide her personal interest in that combat.

"Uh, those are not really my motives for being here," Solaris commented somewhat nervously, trying to maintain her official posture.

"There’s no point in lying, Lady Solaris, you won’t be able to fool that woman," Irnina intervened at her side, reminding her that Beatrice had already listened to their entire previous conversation from the shadows.

Faced with such a direct response from Irnina, Solaris clenched her fists in resignation upon seeing that it was useless to keep denying it.

"Fine, I admit it, I do want a rematch with that swordswoman, what am I supposed to know?" she said, staring fixedly at Beatrice with the hope of obtaining some information about her rival.

Beatrice nodded slightly, acknowledging her sincerity, before warning her about the level of strength they had reached in Kowarre.

"Helen is much stronger than I am. Do you understand what I mean?" Beatrice said bluntly, letting the princess herself draw her own conclusions after having seen up close the ease with which she had subdued her older brother.

Solaris did not respond immediately upon hearing that revelation. She stood processing the enormous difference in power that those simple words implied after having witnessed Beatrice’s manifestation of darkness, and then murmured quietly while Irnina stared at her with concern.

"So that’s what it was about..." Solaris sighed, understanding that at her current level she had no chance against the human swordswoman, and without saying anything else, Irnina activated the portal and both disappeared from the room.

Barely a couple of seconds after the portal’s glow faded in the room, the wooden door opened and the group’s mage poked her head in after having come up from the first floor.

"They left already. But are you okay with that?" Karol asked, just walking through the door after finishing getting ready downstairs.

"Okay with what? I just did what I was supposed to do," Beatrice replied naturally, as her only task was to maintain order in the camp without starting an unnecessary war.

"Yep, you’re right," Karol replied with a smile upon seeing that the whole nighttime problem had been resolved quickly.

Once the cabin was cleared of Ignis’s visitors, the demon turned her face toward her companion with every intention of resuming the routine they had maintained during the day.

"Alright, now let’s train," Beatrice said, ready to continue perfecting the control of her birds of darkness for the rest of the early morning.

Karol wiped her smile away immediately upon remembering all the accumulated fatigue she was already carrying after having been with Ryan a few minutes ago.

"No, no. Not at all, not today, definitely not," Karol refused, backing away quickly toward the hallway to lock herself in and sleep before her companion could force her to work again.

...

And without imagining anything that had happened at the extraction settlement after his departure, Ryan arrived back at Kowarre along with his three companions.

They had barely crossed into the cold climate of his territory and started walking toward the main entrance of his castle when Alicia appeared to greet them. She had been waiting for his arrival to bring him up to speed on the latest developments in the city.

"Your Majesty, welcome back," his assistant spoke with a formal bow in front of the doors before looking up to give him the report of the day. "The hero William is back, and he brought the merchant leader with him just as you requested."