Volume 7: Demon Nobilities - Invaders of the Labyrinth.
Prelude.
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--The Floato region.
--Radiance City.
The capital city of the Floato Region. Located at the top of one of the widest mountain in the Demon Continent, this city was one of the most naturally protected cities in the entire demon continent, giving the ruling family, the Jaxith family a huge advantage against land invaders.
However, this natural advantage that was supposed to serve as a deterrent against invasion from the neighboring regions, had suddenly become the most coveted thing among the more lower ranked ruling class nobilities.
After the defeat of the Great Demon King more than a thousand years ago, hundreds of noble families had been forced into a massive civil war that divided the nobilities into two categories.
The ruling class nobles and ranked or landed nobles.
For all those families that lost the war but not their lives, their titles could not be stripped from them as a demon nobles title came from their strength and not just their bloodline, a common misconception in the modern era.
As such, those who lost their territories would fall into the latter category as ranked nobles under the lordship of the ruling class nobles. While they may retain the rights to govern their previous territory as landed nobles, they were essentially just vassals to their Lord. Hence why it was forbidden to make demon Nobilities into slaves.
With that, the number of ruling-class nobles continued dwindling until there were no more than 77 of them strong enough to stand the test of time. In the same way, this was how the Great Five attained dominace over the demon continent till this day.
However, for the last few decades now, things were slowly shifting back in that direction albeit in a different way than in the past as wars were no longer blatantly fought in the open these days.
Yet with the movements of the largest families in the continent, it was clear to everyone, another Great family was about to be born.
After 800 years of being docile, the more powerful noble families outside the Five Greats have finally begun making their moves after collecting enough information on the Greats.
They've slowly begun their expansion as the previous 77 ruling-class noble families have begun to dwindle again. As such, smaller families like the Jaxith family have become a target in their ambitions. Hence why most low-ranked families like them had gone seeking an alliance with other high-ranked families.
However, due to the Jaxith family's natural defenses against invasions, they've been rather protected from the expansion. Yet, this safety was now increasingly coveted by their border regions who seek to take the mountainous region for themselves.
As such, the Jaxith family was currently engaged in war with the combined forces of the three other smaller noble families who were probably under the control of a much larger family.
There was also the possibility that they were attacking to stave of the influence of the other large families. However, the Jaxith family's natural defenses were almost too much to handle even for the combined forces of three other families.
Only about two months ago, did the family lose a battle at one of the border cities of the Floato region. Led by the first prince of the Jaxith family, that defeat had taken them by surprise. The city had been completely overturned by enemy forces, it was a complete and utter defeat.
As such, even the proud Jaxith family, had been forced to send a representative over to the Darknar region after news of a new Demon Lord appearing out of the blue to take the Demon King's castle from under the noses of the Great Five.
Such a feat was an incredible accomplishment even if this new Demon Lord was not a pureblood.
After rejecting the offers from various larger families to become their vassal state due to their pride, the Jaxith family was left with no other choice but to seek the aid of this new Demon Lord.
However, the representative that had been sent to ascertain the worthiness of this new Demon Lord had been a complete fool. Although he had not been so foolish as to dismiss the new Demon Lord as incompetent, he had still failed in negotiating a deal with him before the appearance of the Vampire Lord himself.
With the new Darknar family now invited to the great summit by one of the Great Five, any possibility for a reasonable vassalage had gone out the window.
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Deep in the plains closest to Radiance City, a few miles away from Ozark forest, the largest forest in the Floato region.
Situated atop a rather steep hill that overlooked the Riaz plains were four figures, staring silently at something from the overlooking view of the cliff.
The magic item in his pocket vibrated, and Bam -- a well-established knight of the Jaxith family, recently assigned to serve under the 5th daughter of the Jaxith family's purebloods-- took the item out and pressed the button.
It was a golden pocket watch, just large enough to fit into his palm, with three hands a€? the hour, the minute, and the second a€? which traced a halo of twelve numbers.
While each year on Neron took 395 days, and 396 on a leap year. The hours, minutes, and seconds were all the same as it was on earth, and Bam's new pocket watch only told the time but not the date. However, this was a rather expensive magic item that not many could afford.
Being a lesser demon and of common birth, Bam normally wouldn't be able to afford such a luxury item. However, fortune had favored him at birth as it blessed him with a rather useful innate ability.
Thanks to this, he had been able to climb up the ranks of the army to the point where he was able to distinguish himself in battle sometime back and was rewarded with a knighthood and taken in by the 5th princess.
Originally, he had been bitter about this as he felt the Jaxith family did not want a lesser demon amongst the Royal Knights so they simply assigned him away to the furthest pureblooded noble from the throne.
However, things changed the moment he set eyes on the princess. Perhaps one would say it was love at first sight but frankly, it was more than that. What he felt was beyond anything that could be described by mere words or comprehended easily.
Just one look into her emerald green eyes and he understood something. Behind her exterior beauty and elegance. There was something incomprehensibly hidden behind her every word, smile, and expression. Something he found himself longing for and devoting his entire existence to that pursuit.
"Hm? Is it time already? That was fast..."
Those words came from the person standing beside Bam with a bored expression on his face.
"It seems that way," Bam answered the young demon named a€? Blane, the most recent addition to his lady's retainers. As far as he knew, Blane was originally from one of the Brimstone family's branch families.
He was a handsome young demon with long black hair and green eyes. Wearing a black body-fitting suit with dark green metal greaves and Vambraces, he gave off an impressive aura that kept Bam constantly on his toes.
He wasn't sure how he had found his way in the service of the 5th Princess of a small yet ancient Family like the Jaxith family but he knew he could be trusted to put his lady's best interest at heart.
Taking that into consideration, Bam no longer concerned himself with that as he turned his gaze forward.
Closer to the edge of the cliff were two female figures. One of them sat leisurely on quite the fancy stool and the other stood to her side as she leaned on the metal spear she had plunged into the ground next to her.
The one sitting on the stool was none other than his mistress, the 5th princess of the Jaxith family -- Athena Fleur Jaxith.
Next to her was the leader of one of the strongest Hunter parties in the entire demon continent. The leader of the Quantium-ranked Hunter party "Evident" -- Aurora Hue Bario.
Originally based in the capital city of the Brimstone family, they had suddenly decided to make Radiance city their second home around the same time as Blane if one would add.
While Bam felt that there was more to the recent changes that had begun to occur around his lady. He knew it wasn't his place to inquire about anything and revel in the opportunity to finally see what his mistress was made up of.
Bam took several steps towards the pair ahead. They had simply been stationed a few paces behind them to protect their flanks from any stray beasts or monsters coming from the forest.
As he came closer to the two extremely pretty demonesses at the edge of the hill, Bam's eyes naturally got a glimpse of the battle happening on the plains just below them.
Currently, Over twenty monsters led by a single magic beast were being fended off by only four individuals.
This was a situation not usually common along these parts but due to the current war between the Jaxith family and the neighboring regions, a lot of monsters had been chased out of their homes and rampaging in many of the surrounding villages.
The various Hunter guilds in the city were currently swamped with quests and requests to eliminate hordes of these monsters but they are unable to meet so many requests that the cities needed to send their guards to patrol along their cities borders to give the Hunters so more freedom to complete the quests.
As there was constantly a possibility of another battle in the war, the cities could not afford to send any of their guards or knight to partake in any of the hunts and were forced to leave everything to the Hunters. It didn't matter if they decided to abandon one or two villages.
However, this was where the Quantium-ranked Hunter party, Evident, began to show its usefulness to the 5th Princess of the Jaxith family.
Perhaps using the word usefulness was a bit extreme as given the current state of the Jaxith family with their funding being stretched out by the war, the family itself wouldn't have the money to hire Quantium ranked Hunters much less the 5th daughter who was not entitled to any special fundings and had to pay her retainers from her monthly allowances.
Frankly speaking, they were simply doing the princess a favor in exchange for certain considerations, and all this was thanks to the princess's sudden friendship with the leader of Evident.
As the intense battle on the Riaz plains continued, Bam arrived beside his mistress and spoke:
"...My deepest apologies, my lady. It is time to return to the castle."
"Is that so~ Then, my friend, although I deeply appreciate your hard work in lending a hand in this respect, I'm afraid I must take my leave."
Princess Athena spoke sweetly with an apologetic expression as she addressed her friend leaning on her spear beside her.
"Is that so? Well, I suppose there is no point in prolonging this battle much longer, we've already attracted as much of the stray beasts in this area as possible. Just give me a minute."
"Hmm... Yaeeee... Do I finally get to see Aurora in action, I can't wait."
"You're getting too excited. Stop it, it's weird. "
With such a backhanded comment, the red-haired beauty named Aurora easily pulled out her spear that had been so firmly plunged into the hard rocky ground and jumped off the hill.
Clad in reddish-black body fitting armor that was engraved with magic runes, she had dark brown eyes, and her hair was tied in a neat ponytail as she was wrapped in a golden aura as she descended on the battlefield like the goddess of war.
Bam, being a warrior himself could not find any flaws in her movements as he watched her presence instantly change the outcome of the battlefield.
This was the power of the leader of one of the few Quantinum ranked Hunter party in the world.
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