—Situated in the Emerald palace, inside the Jaxith family's main castle.
A figure sat in one of the royal offices belonging to the crown prince of the Jaxith family as he scratched his head while going through the recent report given to him by one of his loyal vassals.
After reading through the report that simply stated his younger sister had returned, the Second Prince of the Jaxith family ― Reynald Ley Jaxith ― quickly departed his office to welcome her home.
The location and state of his elder brother who had been at the forefront of the battle at the border city ― Andrea Geld Jaxith ― was still unknown. Given that a long time had passed, his chances of survival were considered extremely low.
That being the case, Reynald was now considered the heir to the throne as his younger brother — Vaxil Leyroil Jaxith — was still underaged and studying magic in the Brimstone Family's Magic Academy.
Making Reynald the current crown prince of the Jaxith family and heir to the throne as the next Demon Lord. As such, he held the second highest position in the region and must carry himself as such, making the way in which he went to receive his younger sister entirely inappropriate, and one might consider it, demeaning.
While they were siblings, not only was there a clear distinction in their respective stations, but their level of existence itself was worlds apart.
This was not for the simple reason of him being the crown prince of the Jaxith family in succession to becoming the next demon lord if their mother — the current Demon Lord of the Jaxith family, Keyrille Mayz Jaxith— were to ever lose her life or retire.
Rather, this was also because of their current life rating. Being a protege on the verge of becoming a true Demon Lord level being by reaching the 6th Tier. He was already considered a Demon Lord in strength only and his younger sister, who had failed to even reach the 4th tier, could not be compared.
This was further enhanced by the Jaxith family's ancient bloodline which places more value in status and rank than any other family besides the Great Five.
Normally, the only families permitted to refer to themselves as royalties were the Great Five and any other family that was doing what the Jaxith family has been doing so far would've already been erased from history by the combined forces of the Five Greats.
However, the Jaxith family was a different story, being the only other family that had the right to do just that. The reason for this was their connection with the first demon king of the demon continent.
Just like the Great Five families were born from the splitting of the first Darknar family by the former Five Demon Generals of the Demon King after their betrayal, the Jaxith family had also been part of the Darknar family's outer families.
Making them truly one of the oldest families in the demon continent. Even when the Great Five had used their strength to rapidly expand their newfound families and expand their regions, thanks to the Jaxith family's natural territorial advantages and former connections with the Great Five Demon Lords, they were able to maintain their autonomy to date.
Hence why they had been so hesitant in allying themselves with any other large families or even expanding themselves as they had remained loyal to the first Demon King.
This was the main reason why they had sent a representative to the Darknar region during Paragon city's first opening, to appraise the worthiness of this new Demon Lord.
Unfortunately, the foolish representative they had sent had grossly misjudged the capabilities of the said Demon Lord and missed his opportunity for a favorable negotiation.
Still, that did not diminish the pride and prestige of one of the oldest ruling class noble families in the Demon Continent with the blood of the first Demon king flowing through their veins, making them just as qualified to call themselves royalties as much as the Great Five were.
All this was the reason why being the crown prince held so much weight, especially in the eyes of the landed nobles. Hence why it was so strange for Reynald to leave his office just to welcome his younger sister back home.
However, the reason why he had chosen to go in person despite knowing this fact was that he had a proposal he urgently wanted to discuss with her.
Reynald might not have been entirely willing to do so, but he had lost his closest confidant — his brother — in the war and thus had nobody else to turn to.
Soon, his younger sister appeared before him.
Her attendant, a young lesser demon named Bam ― clad in silvery white armor ― walked closely behind her. Wherever the young princess went, Bam often follows. He was like a stray dog attached to its new master despite the difference in both status and life rating.
The child his sister — Athena Fleur Jaxith— had picked off the streets and secretly enrolled in the army named ― Bam.
He was an orphan boy that had distinguished himself about a year ago in one of their many skirmishes with their neighboring regions. If he remembered correctly, his sister had once had a strange obsession with collecting random children off the streets and enrolling them in the army.
As they were often orphans and thieves, there was no complaint from the army commanders as they would often honor her request and continuously send the children to the front lines which were often to their Deaths.
That was until Bam that is, not only had he survived countless times on the front lines he had also managed to distinguish himself in battle and rise through the ranks.
Despite his appearance as a clueless kid, he held a vast array of experience on the battlefield and knew how to avoid fights he couldn't possibly win.
The funny part was, his sister had always found a way to do these using his authority by offering one thing or the other, hence maintaining her image to the public and to Bam himself.
Due to Bam's impressive potential for a lesser demon and the family's desperate lack of manpower after the countless losses in the last battle. As expected, Athena had managed to achieve her goal yet again and he was appointed as a knight only two months ago, allowing his sister to take him under her wing.
In the past, he had thought she must've had a megrim and picked him up out of a moment's fancy as he does have a childlike appearance despite his age.
However, after he came to understand Athena's strange personality and her incomparable intellect that maintained her relevance to the family despite her low magic potential, and after connecting most of the dots and realizing Bam was indeed the last orphan she had made him shipped into the front lines.
Reynald began to think she might have had a reason for going through so much trouble just to create a bodyguard.
And then, after the loss of their elder brother, the previous crown prince. The role of being the crown prince began to show its toll, and he slowly began to understand the meaning behind her actions.
There were very few warriors in this city who were stronger than Bam. Even among the men of his hand-picked warriors, one could count the number of people who were stronger than Bam on one hand.
In addition, there was the man called Blane, who had recently come out of the woodworks and joined Bam, as well as her close friendship with Aurora, the leader of the Quantium-ranked Hunter party called "Evident".
While they were permanently based in the capital city of the Brimstone family region, Sun City. They've recently set up a temporary base here and have formed a strong relationship with the 5th Princess of the Jaxith family.
Thinking of this, there was no doubt that his younger sister now possessed the most physical power in the Royal Capital, despite the limits her magic potential had placed on her since birth. It seems his sister Athena may be intentionally or unintentionally trying to change the very foundations that the demon continent was found in.
The fact that this had all come together almost too suddenly was the truly terrifying aspect of her genius. Taking advantage of their current predicament to root her foot in the family, avoiding the possibility of being used as a political tool and married off into an obscure branch family.
―Was she not conspiring to overthrow him with this new military force?
Reynald was right to suspect her of doing so, after all, his current reputation as the devious prince was thanks to her obsessions and why he did not have much support from his own citizens. Just how long has she been planning this? Or was this just a coincidence?
Even if Athena was not one to resort to such measures so easily, one still had to take precautions. Therefore, Reynald had begun to secretly build ties with Duranium and Tritanium-ranked Hunters from across the Floato Region.
Safe to say, this region did not possess any magic guild or institute, as those were resources only the Great Five were capable of providing. Thus, he could not build ties with any skilled Mages or Wizards unless he left for the Great Five regions.
Another reason why he needed to increase his connections with the landed nobles in the Floato Region as most of the nobles that had been supporting his elder brother, which was the majority of them, did not hold him in high regard. Again, thanks to his title as the devious prince.
Although the only positive in all this was that the nobles were sticklers for traditions and would never support anyone with low magic potential in becoming the next Demon Lord.
Reynald knew Athena was also aware of this fact, probably why she hasn't bothered getting close to them and was doing things in her own way.
Then again, there was a chance this was all in his head and his sister was just a weird girl with strange obsessions and a devilish personality. If he wasn't confident she was part of the Jaxith family, Reynold would've considered the possibility that his younger sister was a devil.
The very idea of such a thing was more than terrifying knowing full well what his sister was capable of. In fact, the truly terrifying thing was the idea that she was still capable of far more than he could ever imagine.
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