"While I may not look it, I am one of the Darknar family's Six Great Generals, The Lightning General, Rain Darknar. You can address me however you wish."
"I see... "
'Lightning General? Is that even a title? Still, so there really were six such beings working under the Darknar Demon Lord? If every single one of them is at the same level as she is, just how terrifying is the Demon Lord himself.'
Reynald's thoughts ran rampant as several scenarios played through his mind before he finally snapped himself back into reality.
"Then, General Rain, permit me to escort you to the Emerald Palace. There are guest mansions in the Capital where I hope you will take residence for the time being. My mother ― Demon Lord Keyrille is currently occupied with the war efforts, so she assigned me the task of meeting you at the gates. I pray you will forgive us this slight."
"That's fine."
Her smile had not changed at all.
Normally, she should have been thanking the Prince for his efforts. However, he could clearly sense who was the superior party from her attitude.
Not to mention, she was a dark elf, a race widely known and feared for their innate talent at assassinations. The fact that he could not sense her aura proved how dangerous she was just standing in front of him. Despite his confidence in his strength, he instinctively knew that if the thought of killing him ever crossed her mind, his head would roll before he even comprehends what happened.
'And yet, I have no choice but to lead her straight to our Lord. '
Of course, they were not on bad terms with the Darknar family despite their representative lack of brain cells. Still, if the Darknar family decided to take advantage of their weakened state and assassinates their Demon Lord with the excuse that negotiation had broken down and she was only defending herself, it would not go against the war pact of the demon continent and worst of all, there would be nothing they could do to stop her.
"…Normally, we would announce your arrival to the entire city and celebrate your welcome but due to our family being caught in a war as you know there has been a lot of tragedy, so please forgive us for not doing so. We will also be taking more secure routes as the common folks are not aware of your presence."
"Of course, it is not a problem."
The real reason for this extra level of precautions was to prevent the spies from any other family from attacking the diplomats in an attempt to prevent any sort of alliance with the very dangerous Darknar family.
After all, none of their current enemies would be confident enough to attack a family under the protection of a dangerous wildcard like the Darknar family.
Goes to show how the appearance of a single Great Family, could shake the entire demon continent to its core, forcing everyone, including the seven Primordial Behemoths, to rethink their plans and strategy going forward.
As for Reynald himself, the reason he didn't think it was a good idea to inform the masses of the arrival of Emissaries from other regions was so as not to give them false hope if their talks, unfortunately, ends up in failure.
He knew just how hard it was to maintain public order during these trying times and had been forced to allow his sister, Athena's sudden growth just to placate the citizens. Which was why he had insisted on not announcing the Emissaries' arrival even at the cost of offending the envoys.
This was also the reason why he had worn the family's ceremonial armor and personally escorted a welcome party to meet the envoys at the gates, hoping to placate the impact of taking such an important guess through the back roads of Radiance city.
However, it appears luck was on his side as the dark elf did not appear offended by this and simply maintained her charming smile. It didn't take long after that for their discussions to end after relaying to her everything she needed to know before she returned to her coach and Reynald, to his horse.
For a moment there, he thought he had seen her shadow move weirdly but on further observations, he was clearly mistaken. It seems he has been under more pressure than he thought as his mind was playing tricks on him. Even his magic sense hadn't reacted so clearly, this was all in his mind.
Fortunately, she didn't turn out to be as scary as her presence made him feel so as long as everything went smoothly, there shouldn't be anything for them to worry about.
The itinerary for the next few days included her attending a dinner party held by the Jaxith family and the various ranked nobles under them, then giving her a tour of the city the next day. Then they would attend a theatre show before a more private dinner with only a few of the Jaxith family members before finally, any diplomatic talks could be had.
????????
"Hmph... seems everything is going smoothly for the Jaxith family so far. How nice for them."
"Hehehe... To think the proud and ancient Jaxith family would suddenly become cowards and call for help, how hilarious."
"What a joke for a family. They should've just surrendered earlier if they can't fight. Idiots."
"Well, they are facing off against the might of three families from all fronts at once. If anything, I'll say we're the cowardly ones here, don't you think?"
"Huh?"
"What did you say!"
"You bitch!"
Gathered atop one of the guard towers on the wall surrounding Radiance city, a combined team of six individuals stealthily observed the crown prince of the Jaxith family meet up with the diplomats from the Darknar region, three of which, mocked the Jaxith family for seeking aid when they were one of the few families that refused to acknowledge the rule of the Great Five.
However, there was one of them who seem to think otherwise as the others lashed out at him for speaking up.
Currently, three families were allied against the Jaxith family, and to keep an eye on each other, they had all sent two assassin's each to eliminate the envoys from the Darknar family behind the walls of Radiance city, thereby incriminating the Jaxith family in the process.
It didn't matter if everyone knew the assassins were sent here by the three neighboring families and were not part of the Jaxith family as their failure to protect the diplomats would be frowned upon by the entirety of the demon continent as a whole.
As for the assassins that had been dispatched from each family. There were three male and three female demons.
Two of the three that were mocking the Jaxith family earlier were from the Adams family. As assassins, none of them used their real names as this was the first time they were all working together so they only knew each other by their code names.
The two from the Adams family were known by the codenames, Nyx and Seth. The assassin next to them was from the Vlad family, a female assassin, codename, Shiva.
Her partner was seated on the ground next to the window of the tower with her eyes closed, her face resting on the sheath of her long sword. Codename, Megai.
While the last was the guy who the earlier three were ganging up against and the last female in the group. Both were sent by the Bree family, they were known only as Karyan and Kerra.
As the two from the Adams family rushed at him, Karyan timidly tried to explain himself as they seem to have taken offense to his words.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling any of our families cowards, I was just trying to say that— huk!"
Before Karyan could even finish his statement, Nyx, the largest guy here, picked him up by his collar as his other hand moved to slam into his teeth when suddenly.
A scaly green tale moved around Nyx's neck as it yanked him back and slammed him into the wall.
"Don't lay your filthy hands on my brother you numbskull."
Suddenly standing next to Karyan, was the child-like girl with similar features as he knew only Kerra. Being demi-human relating to sea serpents or maybe even sea dragons, if they existed, their reputation as vicious assassins was known far and wide in the underground.
"Why you little."
Seeing his partner get shoved aside like it was nothing, Seth couldn't help but think they were mocking the Adams family even more and charged at her with his first balled up.
However...
eaglesnov?1,сoМ "That's enough."
The one who spoke was the girl that seemed to have been sleeping this entire time, Megai.
"We didn't come here for that. Even though we've taken care of all the guards on this tower, if you continue to make a ruckus, the ones on the other towers will soon notice us and if they sound the alarm, it's over."
As she said those last words, her eyes suddenly opened as she slowly stood up and walked to the window. The other assassins didn't argue the point as they all regained their composure and moved out of her way.
It was clear who was in charge here without anyone else needing to say it. They had all witness her might first hand and weren't foolish enough to challenge her a second time.
To accomplish their asigned mission smoothly, it was important to assign a leader but none of them would accept the leadership of anyone weaker than them, especially if they were from another family despite their alliance.
Which is why the family had left the position up for grabs and Megai and won it without even trying. Judging by their expressions, it was obvious how thoroughly she had beat the fact into their heads.
"Besides, it seems the prince is done greetings the diplomats and should be heading back to the palace now."
"Right, right, I wasn't being serious in the first place. Hahahaha..."
Standing up as though he wasn't the one that was just tossed aside earlier, Nyx dusted himself up and shook his head at Seth. There will be enough time to settle the score after their assignment was completed.
"Right. Still, I didn't expect the diplomat to be this strong. Moreover, their leader is a dark elf, probably more versed in all the known knowledge of assassins than any of us, and even the unknown ones. I doubt even a hundred of us will be able to take her out."
Understanding what Nyx had meant, Seth nodded as he immediately brought the topic to the mission at hand.
"That may be correct, but still, we don't need to kill her you know. I believe we were all given a black scroll from our families weren't we?"
Everyone quietly nodded their heads as Megai continued.
"Then all we really need to do is destroy those carriages and if we can wipe out the undead or inflict her with some injuries that will be a bonus. There will be no chance of an alliance after that."
"So what are we waiting for, let's go!"
"Right. We'll allow the carriage to move further into the city and then strike, so everyone, prepare your scrolls... huh? Everyone?"
Megai froze as chills ran down her spine.
The air suddenly went still and the temperature in the room dropped drastically in an instant, her heart suddenly began to race as her mind told her that something was horribly wrong.
Just as she had turned around to finish her statement, her eyes immediately widened as she could barely process the information her eyes were feeding her brain.
Only a moment ago she was speaking to a room filled with the finest assassins in this part of the demon continent, yet now, every one of them slowly dropped to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The best assassins she had ever met were suddenly all dead before any of them had even realized what had happened. She was sure none of them even knew how they died or even what the hell had killed them.
Yet, right now, Megai was wishing she had died the same way.
Her legs were shaking profusely yet she couldn't move a finger.
This wasn't because she was weak or had little willpower, rather, the opponent was just something beyond what she could understand.
After all, standing next to the now lifeless bodies of her companions could only be described as a monster, she couldn't even bring herself to believe it was alife.
"A-a devil?"
Standing casually in the middle of the room as its shadow spread across the room and the lifeless bodies of her companions sank ever so slowly into the blackened ground was a creature of nightmares even for demons.
A being shrouded in a thick aura of darkness as the strong stench of death that oozed from her very existence completely paralyzed her. With glowing green eyes and two sharp blades dripping with fresh blood.
It was indeed, a Green-eyed Devil. Or so it seems.