"It is so early in the morning, why are you barging into my room already? How did you even enter? It's locked."

"I need your help, also I have the keys to every room in the castle just in case."

"In case for what?"

"That's a secret. But yeah, I need your help."

"What now?"

The energetic princess is as lively as ever, first thing in the morning and she is already making a ruckus. She is wearing her usual outfit but she seems to be holding a letter.

"I need you to find someone."

"Nope, I am not a detective."

"Listen to me first."

"Go on."

"I have a friend from Huenida who needs help finding her sister."

"Still a nope for me."

"Aren't you the hero? Don't you want to help people?"

"Hero is just a title and only Lytron recognizes me as 'the hero' for other countries I am just 'a hero'. "

"You are not important in other countries?"

"No, I am not. The only reason I am a big deal here in Lytron is because this is the first wall against the demons."

Being the hero sounds amazing at face value but the whole world does not recognize you as such. My value differs depending on where I am. The areas closer to Lytron treat me more favourably because of close proximity however the countries further on the back will not even bat an eye to me because they have a false sense of peace. Demon attacks usually get stopped by Lytron or the few countries close to Lytron so the countries who are not often involved in battle do not even know the possible severity of the situation. It does not help that it keeps on being passed around that the demon king is killed 'only' by a kid, some countries took that as a sign of my strength but the countries at the back took that as the demon king being a non-threat all along being beaten by a 10-year-old.

"Come on, I know you are someone who is trying to break the stereotype of a hero but can't you do this for your fiance?" -She uttered those requests while trying to make a cutesy face.

"Huh?" - I just responded with a disgusted face.

" You making that face hurts you know. Come on it's just that her sister has run away for 3 months now. for the first week, they were able to track her through her necklace but for some reason after the first week the signal from the necklace disappeared."

" Sounds like a lost cause if it's been 3 months now."

"Yeah, but last week the signal from the necklace returned for 5 hours and then disappeared again so hope have been regained that she is alive."

" What is the colour of the necklace?"

" Blue? It was given to her mother, stepmother."

"This girl is adopted or remarried parents?"

"She was adopted at the age of 4 and she should be almost the same age as us."

"Why did she run away?"

"It's because her sister got engaged to the man she liked."

"Okay then, I am taking this request."

"Seriously? Thank you~" -She tried to show her gratitude with a hug but I stopped her.

"Hold on, do not be so grateful yet."

"What?"

"While I am taking this case I will be gone for a week so do not think that you will be doing nothing while I am gone."

" You are making me do something for you to do this request?"

"Of course, I do not work for free."

"Wow, what a hero."

"Shut it. I want it so that by the time I come back next week, you and Marcel are on a speaking term already."

"What? You can't just make us talk suddenly."

"You already took before you literally just have to open your mouth and utter words, it's not that hard."

"But I get so nervou-" -She was stopped by me.

" One week. If I come back and you two are still not talking I am going to punish you."

" You can't do that to a princess."

" Sucks to be you since the hero has a higher status than a third princess in this country."

"Fine fine. One week I will show you that we will start talking."

"Good, also what is that letter on your hand right now?"

"Oh yeah, this letter is actually for you. It's from Leatus Village from the very northwest."

"Oh, gimme that. You should have opened with that letter."

"Is that letter important?"

"Kind of. We are done here now. One week I find that girl and one week you learn how to talk."

Normally I do not want to take on a task relating to selfish action such as running away for what I would consider a dumb reason but for this particular case, I might be the actual dumb one. After collecting some information about this it just keeps on getting clearer and clearer that I may have made a massive mistake. The forest that they saw her necklace detected was the same forest that I was in almost 3 months ago and the most important thing is that I did meet a girl while I was in that forest. Now that I know that I might be involved in this I want to make my way to at least confront the girl I met in the forest. Before all of this though I need to go to the academy first to check on Marcel.

The academy was something I was aiming for back when I was still a kid but my priority changed after I was 10. Both my parents were adventurers so they did not have a permanent residence until they moved to Inaris region. Inaris region while is not under any nation is full of resources but no one dared stay in it because it is considered a dangerous area but my parents at least put in some work to make the house and land around it safe. My parents do not go to the market to buy ingredients for foods but instead, they forage and hunt them in the Inaris region itself. Since no one but us lives in the Inaris region, it is no surprise that I had no friends of my age so I was hoping studying at the academy would let me meet and maybe befriend more people of my age but in the end I never got to enter here because I chose to travel and learn from different countries instead.

"It is currently 11 AM so he should be in the practice ground but I did tell him to not train for a week."

"Hello there Mr. Branton what are you doing here?"

" Yow, Marcel. I just wanted to check if you are actually is not training and from the looks of it you are actually just resting. "

"Yes, the professors have told me that you already informed them about my situation so they just let me sit out. "

" Cool."

I just find Marcel just sitting on the grass part of the training ground just watching the other students train, it does look like he wants to join in but he is still determined to actually complete the task I gave him. Looking around here sure enough there I see her, the energetic princess from what she said is her usual spot having a perfect view of this area. She has a book on her face right now but I can see that she is trying to steal a glance but since I am here she seems to be hiding her face more. I waited for her next move to actually look in this direction and I waved just to mess with her.

"By the way Marcel, I will be gone for like a week so I will not be able to monitor you but I am sure I can trust you in actually not doing any training this week right?"

"Of course."

"Well since I trust I am going to give you a reward in advance."

" A reward?"

"Yeah, I have a reservation on this one fancy restaurant that is good for 2 people but since I will not be here I want you to take it for me and invite anyone that you can think of."

"A fancy restaurant? I do not have the money for that."

"Do not worry about it, anything that you could possibly buy has already been paid for."

"Oh, so I can just invite anyone?"

"Yeah, you can but just so you know. There is a correct person to invite."

"You just have this reservation just to give me a reason to invite her right?"

"Excuse me. I had this reservation before I even know I am going to be engaged with the princess. This cost a lot just so you know."

"Okay okay, thank you."

"I better see you two talking already by the time I get back okay?"

After I said my piece I went on my way to the north exit of the country in order to make my way to the forest where I saw who I suspect is the same girl that the energetic princess want me to find. Normally other people with my status would just use a teleport circle to go to a nearby city and from there just go towards their destination but there is a reason I am taking the slower route which is just riding a carriage to the location.

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

"So, how long are you going to follow me?"

"You know?" -She revealed herself with a kind of sad face with disappointment.

"Yep, already saw you on my way to the academy."

" I wanted to surprise you but then I saw you going to the academy where your 'fiance' would be so I got curious and followed."

" Well I personally do not mind but just so you know that behaviour can be creepy to other people."

" I am sorry."

"It's fine. So do you want to go with me? I am going on a journey to the Mendak Forest east of Huenida."

"I can join? Also, what are you doing there?"

" You are the reason why I got this carriage right here also I am there to find a girl."

"A girl!?"

"Yeah, she has apparently been missing for about 3 months now."

" Oh you are just trying to find a missing girl."

" Yeah."

"You sure I can come? Isn't this a hero business?"

"Yeah of course I am sure you can come although you should still hide your horns and tails and wear more appropriate clothes."

Rosalie turned completely invisible in order to change clothes, of course, I have the ability to see her even if she is invisible but I did not use that to peep. When she got done changing she is now wearing an outfit that is more appropriate in a setting where we might have to run away. She looks happy with the clothes that I brought for her and is checking herself out as this is the first time she has worn such an outfit.

"Hey look, I kind of look cool in this haha." -She tried to show off with a smile on her face.

"You sure are." - I replied while having a proud grin on my face.

"With my horn and tail being invisible I really look like a human. If that is the only physical difference that we have then why are the demons and humans not getting along better."

"I think the problem here is more than what demon appears as."

"Is it really?"

"Well, enough of that for now. Let's get on the carriage and head to the forest?"

"Okay then."

Rosalie went to the back while I am on the front steering the carriage. It is a calm afternoon and if nothing goes wrong then we should reach our destination by tomorrow afternoon also. There is nothing special about this carriage but for some reason, Rosalie's face is full of excitement. She keeps on looking around the area full of enthusiasm but I guess this is her first time riding a carriage.

"So why did you decide to bring me along?"

"When we first met you went to Lytron to see more of the human part of the world right?"

"Yeah."

"Then what is the best way to see more of it than riding a carriage to a new area."

"So this is for me?"

"Well there is that but I also want to spend more time with you so it's a win-win."

Rosalie now is just looking at me with stars on her eyes.

"Btw speaking of the first time we met, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"I killed your father right?"

"Weird question to say to his daughter but the answer would be yes."

"How come you are okay going out with someone who killed your father?"

" Probably because my father has always been open with his potential to die any time."

Rosalie has explained to me that his father is not a mindless war-loving creature as what the humans proclaim he is. It is true that he can be ruthless but he is also ruthless to himself. He does not disillusion himself by pretending that he is the good guy in his story but instead, he just treats those who win as the ones who have the right to decide anything. The late demon king knows that he has done horrible things but for him, it is alright because he is the winner what he explained to his daughter is that if he ever dies is to not treat it as something she has to take revenge on but instead as a sign that one cannot simply win forever. A demon's usual desire is power and there is no greater sign of power than victory. Rosalie does not hate me for killing his father because according to them it is her own father's fault that he died and lost to a 10-year-old. I am the winner of our fight so no matter if Rosalie is angry or not does not change the fact that his father is still the loser.

"Why did you not try to at least win a battle against me?"

"Well I won you over, didn't I? Hahaha." -She said the comeback with a grin on her face.

"You got me there."

"So do you have any information about this girl you are trying to find?"

"Well, I am trying to confirm if she is the same girl I met almost 3 months ago."

***

On my way back to Lytron I wanted to camp out in the Mendak forest for a week, I planned it to be just me trying to survive with only hunting and foraging for my food because for the past years, I may have grown accustomed to buying my ingredients. My alone time was disturbed though when a girl in drab clothes approached me and it looked like she was starving so I gave her food from what is left of what I hunted. Apparently, it has been a week since she got lost in the forest and was only able to survive barely through the random berries or fruits that she found. She told me that she is on the run from her pursuers, she chose to hide in this forest because it is known to make people lost. I have no problem with this for my eyes can let me see the right path easily.

She told me that she had some sort of tracker with her in the form of her necklace. I asked her why not just ditch the necklace but she said that she did not want to let go of it because the necklace was from her mother. Since I felt bad about her starving already while being lost and also having people who is trying to hunt her I offered to tweak the necklace in order to at least interfere with the tracking. On my journey, I learned how to tweak magical items since that is one of the things my father was interested in. I managed to get accustomed to tweaking magical items because my eyes actually have great synergy with this with how I can see the mana circuits easily by being able to see through what would block my vision. I managed to tweak the necklace to stop the transmission of the tracking but I am not an expert at this so I was not able to disable it entirely. The necklace is still technically trying to send her location to whoever is the receiver of the information but with my modification, it would make it so that the transmission would constantly fail.

This forest is dangerous though aside from people constantly being lost it is said that there has been a rise of people just disappearing in the forest recently. Despite that, she still feels that she is safer inside the forest because at least in here she can shake off her pursuers. Since I am in this forest anyway to work on my survival skills again I decided to also teach her how to survive on her own. For the whole week, all we did to survive was get our own food and also manage the campfire and correctly identify a good place to rest since in this situation we need to constantly change our place of sleep just to be safe from the pursuers. I should be strong enough to fend off any pursuer that might appear but in the end, we manage to not spot any of them. After a week of surviving in the wild we managed to get through it with no problem and she also managed to pick up the lessons I gave her about surviving. Since I only planned to stay in the forest for a week I offered to at least bring her safely to another city but she chose to stay in the forest, she is free to choose to stay there so I did not try to convince her otherwise and I just left.

***

"So you were alone with a girl your own age for a week in a forest where it is pretty much just the two of you."

"yep."

Rosalie is just staring at me with dead eyes.

"So she is just trying to escape those who are trying to catch her?"

"Yeah or at least that's what she made it look like."

"What do you mean?"

" She might be lying all this time because her sister told a different story."

The reason I accepted this task is not so that I can save her if she is indeed in danger but to confirm if she lied to me or not.

It is now almost dark so we decided to make a stop on the side and I prepared dinner. I made roasted eggplant mash for dinner and ate it with Rosalie.

"Hey, bran."

"Yeah?"

"When we went to that restaurant before, you told the waitress that you hate eggplants were you lying?"

"Nope, I do hate eggplants."

"Then why did you make an eggplant dish then?"

"A week before I became the hero I wanted to learn how to cook my favorite dish, a burger steak but my mother did not want to teach me meat recipes before I learned a vegetable one."

"Your mother taught you how to cook?"

"Yeah, she did but as for her condition, I need to learn how to cook a vegetable dish first and also that I will eat at least one vegetable meal a week."

"Okay."

"That week she taught me how to make this. I really hated this dish because I do not like eggplants but I still eat it because this is her cooking. This eggplant dish was the only dish she managed to teach me so sometimes I just cook this because it is what reminds me of my mom's cooking. "

"I am sorry."

"No need to be sorry. I hate this eggplant but still, sometimes I just feel the want to eat this dish." - I said this with a sad expression.

After finishing our food we slept through the night and when morning struck we set out again. From then It did not take us long to reach the the forest of our destination. We can't bring the carriage inside the forest so we instead leashed the horse near the grass on the side and I had Rosalie coat the carriage with invisibility. We walked inside the forest in order to find any trace of someone but finding the girl would be the best-case scenario. It took some time even with my eyes but we managed to find her taking a nap on a branch of a tree.

"Hoy! Come down here."

I tried to get her attention and it seemed to succeed as she jumped down from her branch onto my front.

"Woah Teacher Branton is that you?"

"I already told you before to not call me teacher."

"Who is she?"

"She is my current assistant."

"Oh, I thought she was your mistress or something."

"What do you mean?"

"Even in this forest news still reaches me and I know that you are engaged with Princess Maya so I thought you may be cheating."

"I would never." - I can feel Rosalie's stare behind me.

"Anyway let me introduce myself to your assistant. I am Yasmine."

"Sister of Carmen, right?"

"So you know?"

"That is the reason I am here, trying to find someone who lied to me."

"Look okay okay, let me explain."

She explained to me that she did lie about how she was running away from pursuers but it is true that someone is trying to capture her. She told me that the reasoning I heard from her sister is wrong because she did not run away because she is in love with her sister's fiance, according to her it is actually in fact the opposite. Yasmine has revealed to me that her sister's fiance is actually the one who is interested in her. The reason she ran away was because he kept on trying to make moves on her despite being in a relationship with her sister but since her sister loves him so much so she didn't want to make it more complicated and being only an adopted sister she thought it would be better if she just disappear and not get in her way.

Her plan was going well until her sister's fiance managed to follow her because he got the natural magic [Track Entity] which lets him track any entity that he can think of in a certain radius. Since the tracking makes it so that anything that he tracks needs to have some sort of magic for him to track them he had to imbue them with magic resulting in items being a magic items with mana circuits in them. From what it looks like, she has been applying the survival lessons I taught her since she looks so accustomed now to surviving alone.

While listening to her explanation I tried applying to my eyes the guy that he was describing and it turns out that he is in this forest right now. Yasmine requested to have some girl talk with Rosalie but it looks like she is not really up for it. I just told them to hang out while I take a walk but in reality, I am going to where the guy is in right now. I jumped from tree to tree in order to traverse the woods faster and not so long after I reached the guy's destination.

"Hey you, are you Robert? Carmen's fiance?"

"Yes, that would be me. What about it?"

"What are you doing in this forest?"

"Finding someone?"

"Who would that be?"

"None of your business."

He suddenly draw his sword and tried to slash me but I managed to dodge it just in time. I tried to fight back but he was managing to block my attacks, I am holding back because I am fighting a civilian right now but even still this is kind of concerning. While trying to fight him I noticed something malicious about him and it was not just actions, I just kept on sensing something nefarious on his arm. I managed to finally figure out what that ominous feeling was and it was a curse, a demon curse to be precise. Hoping for the situation to get better I used my hero's sword and slightly slashed the skin of his left arm in order to break him from the demon curse.

"I... I can move again."

"I broke the demon curse on your left arm."

"Thank you thank you. That girl is a monster."

"What?"

"Be careful of that woman!"

"Who?"

"Yasmine. Be careful of her."

"Why?"

"Because she is a demon with no horns or tails."

"What?"

"Everything about her is a lie, Carmen's family did not adopt her, she just suddenly wrote herself as part of her family and no one else seemed to notice."

"She told me you were obsessed with her."

"I technically am because I managed to discover that she is a demon through my tracking but none of them are of romantic feelings like what she may be trying to frame it.

"Maybe she is a good demon?"

"No, the reason the amount of disappearances has increased here recently is because of her so she is dangerous."

Tsk, I lost my sight of Rosalie because I am too far away now so I do not know their current location. I needed to hurry up and get back because things might get ugly, I took the guy with me carrying him by the collar.

***

On the other hand, while Branton and Robert are having a confrontation both Yasmine and Rosalie begin with their 'girl talk' but as it goes on something changes with the atmosphere around them.

"You know Rosalie I am kind of jealous of you."

"Jealous of what?"

"Your head and your butt."

"What?"

"As a fellow demon, I can smell that you are also one."

"Also what do you mean?"

"You can not fool me, you reek of a demon."

Rosalie just stayed silent but she has her defense up.

"I really am jealous of your head and your butt, well you see. I am a demon but I was born with no horn or tail. So if you are going to hide them anyway how about I take them instead?

As she revealed herself her face and aura went from someone that is innocent looking into a nefarious aura with a creepy smile.

"I am going to take them for I am sick of being a demon with no horns or tail."