The following day, after cooking up some plans for the inevitable clash between the elves and the dwarves which would probably involve a lot of nasty things on our side, I decided to drop off on Miss Priscilla’s place…basically the temporary base of the Dragon Capital.

To avoid needless commotion, I warped outside the walls of the city but remained myself known to the watching guards. Sure enough, they recognized me and they immediately let me in without the mandatory inspection.

After all, I am quite famous and added to that, I’m pregnant, which I would say, it shows now on my appearance.

As I enter, I immediately walk towards Miss Priscilla’s temporary office where she does all operations regarding the Center Continent and the rebuilding the Dragon Capital. I find it quite difficult to manage both tasks that solely depend on the management of thousands of personnel. Miss Priscilla’s skills at managing and leading to developing new things are astounding.

Even as I observed the city, it’s clean and a lot of the houses are remodeled to a weirder state where it was built rectangular and triangular roofing. Everything was brightly painted and the streets are sparkling with clean and well-fed civilians.

Despite the continent being known for its drastic hot temperature, this city, Aldeva, has snow falling gently. I remember when I heard about it, I had a gaping mouth, however, it was actually Cattleya Scarlet’s disaster magic. She had altered the weather in this region temporarily, which I find amazing.

Considering the situation, if Cattleya doesn’t go out of the fairy continent, we can utilize Mimi as the next ascender to the throne of the Demon Lord. It’s impossible to look such an opportunity to get a hold of the Demon continent resources. Though they are bouncing back from Baal’s tyrant ruling and famine, they still have a lot of worthy runes to be investigated and the continent is where best the Etherians built their research facilities.

Even if I try planning far that ahead, what Higanbana said rang like clear water inside my head. If Asagao ever finds out about my plans, it feels like unseen retribution shall befall on me. What’s worse is that both my heard and my mind acknowledge such repercussion.

Asagao’s importance is a matter I cannot ignore. Her existence, as it dawns me, is what makes this world spins.

Yes, …it’s like…we are in a story with her as the lead role. But…as many lead roles out there…Asagao seems to have put in a drastic role…to carry on a lot of burdens. Even if I plan accordingly, if Asagao started involving herself, a lot of fluctuation in the events happens. That’s why the plan we made involves a drastic measure both to the war and to Asagao.

After walking for a few minutes, I immediately saw a constipated mansion. I said constipated because right now, there are even people running back and forth inside while holding a stack of papers or huge books.

Ah…!

They just bumped each other on a rush… but they quickly fixed themselves and left with just a short apology. The guy who is holding some rolled papers inside a box walks towards my direction so before he passes me, I called out to him.

“Excuse me.”

“Ah, eh, hey! So…Yes?”

“What are you doing? Why is everyone on a rush?”

“Yes, yes! Weird, right? We’re all working hard because we’ve been given a work we actually like and it pays well. If we do good on our job and done a lot in a day, we get some incentives.”

“Incentives such as?”

“It’s for official residency on the center continent and some fair lift on our daily taxes. We also get free lunch every day and that’s what makes us rush.”

“And the one who Implemented such revolutionary act for labor is…?”

“It’s Miss Priscilla…Ah! My apologies! I’m on a rush! Goodbye.”

Usually, such reform on labor rules doesn’t sit well with the majority of the nobles and traders as it promotes so many negative factors such as plundering and tax evasion. I think holding the continent’s whole treasury helps a lot for Miss Priscilla as she’s the only with access to it.

Ashfon and I did such strategy in the past but fair enough, we didn’t get any better results. The ratio of gain and loss was heavily tipped on the gray side. Some noble ended up holding off bonuses for their workers in their territory.

Miss Priscilla effectively employs such strategy so I guess that’s somehow incredible too.

I entered the mansion and met with tables and chairs lined up with people talking and debating. There are a lot of maps and layouts lying on those tables together with piles of books. Even though they are arguing and shouting, it seems they are doing the work with utmost excitement.

When I look over on one of the maps, it was a blueprint of a building or some draft for the establishments to be made in the center continent. All in all, this place is somewhat the headquarters or intelligence office for such a task.

I called out to a woman that seemingly trying to figure out how or where to draw a line in the map.

“Excuse me.”

“……”

“Excuse me…”

“……”

“Excuuuuse me.”

“Ah!!”

“…? Are you okay…?”

“Who are you?”

“I’m a friend of Miss Priscilla.”

“Huh?”

The woman looks at me suspiciously. When I mentioned I am friend with Miss Priscilla, she retrieved her glasses from her breast pocket and stares at me once more.

“Ya should know tis ain’t a place for a pregnant woman!”

“I am here precisely for a meeting with Miss Priscilla.”

“Ya know ya should go back ta yer nanny or somethin’! We’re quite the busybody’ here.”

“Look, I just want to ask where Miss Priscilla’s office is.”

“Well, if ya go straight from here, you’d find it quickly.”

“Thank you…err…wait…that’s another exit…”

“Ya…!”

Rude…

I just puff a sigh and turns around to find another one to talk to. I spotted a man in his mid-thirties tinkering on some machinery in another set of tables. I approach him and gave a light tap.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Excuse me, I’m finding someone.”

The man looks at me up and down and frowned hampers a frown on his face. He stood up from his chair and surveys his surroundings and shouts.

“Hey, which one of you is this girl’s husband?! Show your face you lucky bollock!”

“I’m not anyone’s wife here.”

“Blah! Then who are you looking for?”

“Miss Priscilla.”

“Is that so? You’ll find her office on the second floor. Take the stairs over there and find the room with the biggest door. You won’t miss it dear.”

“Y-Yes…I understand.”

These people are mixed with rude and brisk…

I walk with haste to avoid any further interaction and before I knew it, I arrived at my destination, in front of a large door. Being brisk and rude are all traits of dragon kin but sometimes, if a human or any other races stay for too long here, they adapt such characteristics.

I just shrug and proceed to know on the door. As per rule on someone’s personal space, it’s a three knock and a greeting.

“It’s me, Miss Pris--!”

Before I could even finish, the door promptly opens and I was greeted by a new main unknown to me. She has dazzling flaming red hair and proportions that talk adulthood. However, those didn’t bother me.

What immediately bites into my skin is that her presence is extremely familiar but that presence…I couldn’t grasp much because it’s either just leak or it’s just too small but for someone as strong as me, I easily detected it.

“My mistress expected your arrival.”

“Well, she’s aware and yet didn’t meet me at the front.”

“She’s rather busy to move right now, my apologies.

She bowed apologetically as she made a way for me. Once again, I just shrug it off and enters the room.

As I entered, I immediately saw mountains of papers laid down not only on one table but all three tables lined up together. On the middle sat the person I am supposed to talk to, Miss Priscilla, however, I immediately noticed the two other girls doing some paperwork on their own. Like the girl earlier, these two are also on their young adult life. One has a cerulean blue hair and one has silky jade hair.

“My deepest apologies as I couldn’t meet you right away.”

“You are rather hoarding a job there.”

“Yeah.”

“What are these papers for?”

“Projects, guidelines, work distribution, profiles, and a lot more concerning both the work that I needed to do to establish a new Dragon Capital and for the Center Continent.”

“I see…but…what’s this one with machinery blueprints?”

“It’s for the upcoming project to develop technology through the samples you’ve shown me last night. This is about replicating the Etherian technology and using for our own advantage.”

“You…have thought that far….”

I could say that how her office looks right now directly contradicts here obsession for cleanliness, however, seeing how many plans and projects she’s already dishing out, I do not think any criticism can actually shame her.

In all honesty, I’m impressed.

This workload isn’t something I could handle, not in my current pregnancy. I heard she’s also dealing with shipments and trading between the human kingdom and the dragon kingdom. She also bridges and does some minor work for the routine trading between other kingdoms.

Even with Fon’s current kingship, we shouldn’t be able to handle the sharp upkeep with our destabilized economy due to the devil’s last wave and accusations regarding Fon.

However, that was not the case… the trades are going smoothly even though there’s a risk regarding interacting excessively with other kingdoms, especially the currently sensitive war between the elves and the dwarves. I should also count that the human and the demon kin have a long history of war.

“Well, how’s the pregnancy?”

“Eh..? Ah, well, I had a professional actually look into it and they said the baby is clinging tightly, which is a good sign, I guess?”

“I see. Do you want me to write you up for time table too? I’ll make sure you’d get light exercise and eat the prescribed food for the nutrition of your body and for the upcoming baby. I am a licensed nutritionist and a certified midwife and obstetrician.”

“I think I don’t mind you assisting in my childbirth. But for my diet, I think I’m good.”

“What a shame. However, I am quite happy for you accepting my offer.”

I didn’t understand what obs—tet-risan? Well, it should most likely be similar to a midwife. There’s no reason for me to decline her offer.

Before I notice it, there was a chair behind me and a small table in front of me with served tea and chiffon cake. Of course, with my increased appetite, I could drool from the smell of the chiffon alone.

“Miss Priscilla, thanks for this, however, I’d like to proceed with today’s matter immediately.”

“I see. Well, if you will, can you transfer the content from your dimensional storage to my own pocket dimension?”

“I’m hearing something new again but alright, I’ll transfer now so hold out your storage.”

I hold out my own dimensional storage that exudes blackened mist and an abyssal hole in it while Miss Priscilla’s storage exudes chaotic sparks that seemed more sinister than mine. Asagao’s dimensional storage is a slate of light by the way.

I transferred the etherian machinery into Miss Priscilla’s storage in mere seconds. After that, she just nods her head once and returned to her work.

“We are done now. You can eat as you please and order for a second or third serving if you fancy it.”

“I don’t think we can end this conversation abruptly. As you can see…”

“……”

I look at the three girls in dashing maid clothes and look back at Miss Priscilla with her ever disgruntled countenance. She heaves a small sigh while she drops her work again.

I once again look at the red-haired girl behind Miss Priscilla and our eyes met.

“..!!”

She immediately turned her head away from me. Half of her face was already covered by her short hair. The girl was quite bashful despite the maturity an adult should show.

I turn towards the blue-haired girl with a long braid. She immediately stops her hands in utter shock and her face goes pale.

“…S-s-s-sorry…!”

“For what?”

“I-I don’t know! I’m sorry…!”

She immediately covered her face with the paper she was writing on earlier. She mutters words of apologies.

Seeing that I lost proper communication with her, I turned to the girl with green hair fashioned with a ponytail.

“…? Uwaah! Hi! Hi! Heyoo!!”

“…”

Alright…she’s loud

She’s bright and cheery…too good to be true at this point.

After surveying the girls in maid around me, I turned to Miss Priscilla once again to confirm something.

“These girls…aren’t even human or any other races, yes?”

“That is correct.”

“What are they?”

“They are Synthesized Devils.”

My eyes darted to three of them and I bang the table in front of me in utter shock. I immediately release my magic limiter and glares at Miss Priscilla. A huge amount of magical energy immediately gushes out of my body that was heavily stressed with an illuminating chaotic purple spark around me.

“What’s the meaning?!”

“It is as said, they are synthesized devils.”

“HOW?!”

As I roared, my magic violently disturbs the whole place and the papers started flying everywhere.

“Hawawawa!”

“Kyaa!”

“Ehh!? Ehhh…?!”

The three girls in questions panic on their own. The girl with red hair immediately crouched behind Miss Priscilla. The girl with blue hair hides under the table with her hands on the back of her head while her shoulders shake and her teeth rattling. The girl with green hair has her back on a wall with an extremely confused countenance.

Seeing how they act and how childish I seemed to be, I slowly lowered the output of my magic. I look at Miss Priscilla and heave a sigh.

“I’ll fix this mess later. Tell me the start of this…”

“They were brought here by one of the Arcana Sins. They were brought by an Etherian. These three girls are Topaz’s sisters.”

“What reason they were entrusted to you? I don’t find any logic in there.”

“Why don’t you ask them? They are sentient, living being. It is not an issue for me whether they are devils or not. What I value is their entirety as something that helps me.”

“…I don’t have any external reasons to pry further into this. I shall trust your judgment, however, I shall keep an eye on them if they ever enter our kingdom.”

Those are my parting words with Miss Priscilla. I wave my finger in the air and all the fallen and scattered papers immediately stack themselves in the way they are used to be. I turn my back on them and starts walking away when suddenly…

“Umm…!”

“…What?”

I look back and saw the girl with blue hair eyeing at me despite her shoulders trembling to no abandon. Her shaking lips show how much I terrified her. To be able to show this much emotion even for a devil to this extent, they are quite well-made, just like Topaz.

“Lord Dylan…he actually admitted that none of us sisters are actually a perfect creation…that each of us has flaws. He sent us three together here, lost and confused…”

“…Even if that is the case…”

“But even so…the three of us desires and agreed on one thing.”

“…”

“We want to see our sisters…”

“I see…”

“……”

“Wait…sisters?”

“Yes…? Sisters.”

Something was amiss.

“Let me clarify this. The three of you that are currently here right now are synthesized devils, right?”

“Yes, pretty much that.”

“However, from what you said earlier, it seems that you are not just looking for Topaz but someone else too.”

“Yes, I did say sisters.”

“So…there are five of you now?”

“Yes. I am Sapphire. The one over there with red hair is Ruby. The one leaning on the wall is Emerald. The second to the last of us sisters is Topaz. The youngest among us siblings is Ivory. She was made after the destruction of Erestivatria.”

“Where is she?”

“We…got separated. Our only desire is to find them.”

“Wait, have you lost connection with the Arcana Sins?!”

“Yes…from what I’ve heard, ever since the destruction of Erestivatria, the Order of Arcana was effectively disbanded and all members’ last order is to do as they pleased before they leave the “stage””

“Stage…?”

“Um…the place where actors and actress perform …as they said…”

Upon hearing those words…I felt like I hit onto something hard…

Don’t tell me…

This war…the disturbance in the Beast Continent…Everything…Are they…setting up a stage on their own?

Those bastards…they rode through our plan and used it for their own plans!

……

And sure enough, as I returned to the Astlan Castle, Nil has already fled…