In the dimly lit room, a thin girl lies quietly on a large bed, her long hair spread out on the pillow.

The only light source in the room was the moonlight squeezing in through the narrow panes, and the cold moonlight shone on the girl's face, outlining her face.

She looked seventeen or eighteen years old, and her delicate face still showed a little childishness, but such a girl lay here quietly, her face was pale, and she couldn't find a trace of life, as if she had long since died, but as if she had never lived.

However, the most obvious thing is her right hand, which should have just been cut off, the sleeve tube is empty, and there are some blood stains oozing out.

I don't know how long it took, the girl finally opened her eyes, and as she woke up, the oil lamp on the wall of the room instantly burned, illuminating the entire space.

At this time, I could see that there was still a person standing in the room, he was looking at the girl on the bed in a daze, and seeing the girl wake up, his eyes became brighter.

"Great, Elena, you're finally awake, I'm scared to death." The man gripped Elena's remaining left hand tightly.

"Fuck off, I'm going to see my father." Elena grimaced and pushed him away.

Although the man looked exactly like his father, she could tell at a glance that it was a stand-in, and she knew very well that even if she died, her father would not be able to look at her more, so how could he stay by the bedside and wait for her to wake up.

However, the aura of that stand-in suddenly became stronger unconsciously, which meant that the real Cornes occupied the consciousness of the stand-in.

Although Elena's mind was still foggy, after sensing the traces of her father's magic, she subconsciously knelt on the ground to salute her father, but because she had just woken up, she stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Yes, I'm sorry, father, I lost my temper." Elena hurriedly apologized and quickly straightened her body.

Looking at his daughter, who was humbly kneeling on the ground and struggling to keep her balance due to the loss of an arm, Cornes was still expressionless.

"Looks like you're losing a lot."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so useless, please kill me, I just hope to calm your anger......"

Before Elena could finish her sentence, she heard a "snap" echo in the room, and she suddenly felt a burning pain in the left side of her face—Cornes slapped her.

"Fool, have you forgotten the task I gave you? I dared to act on my own, and as a result, I also revealed to the emir that I was still alive. ”

“…… I, I just can't swallow that breath," Elena said indignantly, covering her face, "those humans actually caused you to lose so many stand-ins, and that's your hard work." ”

"Ugh."

Cornes sighed, then crouched down beside Elena and gently touched her head.

"Father? You ......"

"Needless to say, remember your mission, and you don't have to worry about anything else."

"But...... Are you really not mad at me? I'm a disgrace to you. Elena looked at her father with a puzzled expression.

"Hehe, you mean to say that losing to a human is a disgrace? And where did you put me? ”

"You didn't lose, after all, you survived those despicable humans, didn't you?"

"My stupid boy, if you lose, you lose, there's nothing to quibble, and this failure just shows that it's useless to seize the power of the Demon King, if you want to conquer this continent, you still have to rely on wisdom, otherwise what can I do even if I defeat the human race? After that, I have to fight the Elf King and the Dragon King, my great Demon King couldn't beat those guys a thousand years ago, how can he beat them now? ”

"Yes, I see." Elena bowed her head.

"Just understand, don't excuse me at every turn, I won't kill you until your mission is complete," Cornes said lightly, then after a pause, he added, "After all, you're my only precious daughter." ”

"Thank you very much for your attention." Elena suddenly showed a flattered expression.

"Hmm...... It looks like it's time to carry out that plan," Cornes said after a moment's thought, "now it's okay, your mission will be accomplished in no time." ”

"Well, what should I do next?"

"Go to the Academy of Magic, whatever you do, and help me steal a key."

"Understood, then my mission would have been accomplished, wouldn't it? You're going to be impressed with me, aren't you? ”

Cornes shook his head and said in Elena's dejected gaze.

"Of course not...... Don't worry, we'll talk about it then, but at least I'll be happy if you can do it. ”

"Really, really?" Elena's eyes lit up, and although the wound on her right arm still ached faintly, she broke out in a cold sweat, but after hearing such words, her heart was full of happiness.

"Of course it's true, my silly boy, when have I ever lied to you." Cornes smiled kindly, and in order to hide his eyes, he now took the form of an old man.

His smiling face was quite permeable in the light of the lamp, but in Elena's eyes, her father was radiating a dazzling light at this time, dispelling all the gloom in her heart.

"Don't worry, father, even if you spell it...... No, I'm sure I'll get it done. ”

……

On the other side, due to Elena's departure, the barrier on the outskirts of the town has also disappeared.

The emir waited until it was completely dawn and resumed his journey to Castia.

He told Lilith to speed as fast as she could, for he was already dizzy from hunger, and if he didn't find a populated spot in time, he might faint from hunger.

Although he ate the food provided by Elena, he didn't know what kind of poison it was, and after the attack, his stomach was instantly emptied.

Along the way, Cosette complained that Emir had used the Elven Fountain in her kettle too much, or she could have given them a share of their hunger.

However, when she mentioned it, the emir looked embarrassed for some reason, and then muttered quietly.

"Who's going to drink your bathwater?"

“…… Belch. ”

In fact, Cosette didn't think of this at first, but now that she was reminded by the Emile, she suddenly realized that she had indeed let him and Ophelia drink the bath water before.

“…… I'm sorry, but I do have a fountain of spirits to drink, which can temporarily relieve my atavism. ”

As soon as he heard this, the emir suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, Your Highness Cosette, how often does this atavistic phenomenon of yours occur?"

"Well......" Cosette said after a moment of thought, "almost once a day." ”

"What?" The emir was amazed.

Because Ophelia had successfully poured the Elven Fountain on Cosette, he felt half as light when he picked up the kettle, which meant that at least half of the water in the kettle had been used, and he was a little worried about whether it would be enough for the future.

"That's why I said, you use too much, obviously I can last a month a day."

“…… So what to do? Ophelia realized that she had done something wrong and was immediately distressed.

Emir felt that she could not be blamed for this, after all, in that kind of emergency, no one could think of so much, of course, it was useless to blame anyone now, it was better to think about how to solve the problem.

"Haha, it's okay, it's okay, I just need to save some drink, and I won't have a seizure when I'm asleep." Cosette saw that the two of them were in a low mood and hurriedly comforted.

In order to help the emir fight, she did not hesitate to cut her wrist, which led to the later atavistic phenomenon, but she obviously swiped her finger at that time, and the reason why she did this was nothing more than to make the emir feel indebted to her, so that the other party would be more willing to do things for her.

In other words, the situation has become like this, Cosette herself is the most difficult to blame, drinking a little less elven fountain can indeed suppress the atavistic phenomenon, but she has to suffer a little, of course, she has to swallow her bitter fruit now.

Lilith had left the town and had flown east for several hours, and until noon they had not been able to leave the steppe, but the emir could faintly see a large crowd gathering on the avenue on the ground.

"Lilith, let's go down and have a look, maybe we'll find something to eat."

"yes, I see."

"Wait a minute," Ophelia called to her, "and if we go on like this, we'll be scared, and they'll be scattered, and we'll have no food." ”

"Oh, that's right." The emir nodded, and had to let Lilith fall away from the crowd, and the group walked towards the group.

When he got closer, the emir found that there were more than a hundred people here, a small number of them were richly dressed, presumably nobles, and the others were obviously servants, all of whom were gathered around a luxurious carriage, not knowing what they were doing.

The Emir asked the others to wait, intending to squeeze into the crowd to see what was going on, but Ophelia persuaded him again.

"I'll go, you're so hungry that you can't stand on your feet, how can you squeeze with them."

"Oh, then please."

Then, Emile looked at Ophelia's back as she easily squeezed into the crowd, and couldn't help but feel a little strange, she hadn't eaten for a day, and she had fought before, so she couldn't tell that she was hungry at all, but he understood that knights generally had a strong endurance, so he didn't think much about it anymore.

After a while, Ophelia squeezed out again, and there were a few more pancakes in her hand.

"Great, it turns out that the carriage is for sale." Ophelia rushed back, and shoved the biscuits into the hands of Emile and Cosette, but she did not keep them.

"Well, don't you eat it?" The emir asked abruptly.

"Huh? Oh, I forgot. Ophelia scratched her head in embarrassment.

"Poof!" As soon as Emir took a bite, he burst out laughing.

"Haha, Ophelia, you're too stupid, aren't you...... Ahem. Cosette laughed and almost choked as she ate the pancakes without disgust.

“…… Uh, is it that funny? I'm going to buy two more. Ophelia was puzzled, and walked back to the carriage.

After a few bites, the emir temporarily regained a little energy, and then he noticed a sense of disobedience, these baked cakes were not delicious, only the common people could not eat this kind of thing, but the people gathered by the carriage also included some nobles, and it stands to reason that they would not eat the things of the common people even if they starved to death.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for him to see someone in the crowd fall to the ground, still clutching half a piece of baked cake tightly in his hand, it was a nobleman, but he was gobbling up food that was difficult for ordinary people to swallow, which was not normal.

"No," said the emir, looking at the pancake in his hand, he stopped chewing, "I have a bad premonition. ”