ScarletThree days later

I stand at the top of a mountain covered in snow somewhere on the Eastern continent. From what I understand, this mountain used to have a name. One that was lost along with a lot of other names for landforms and continents. Mostly because tourism kind of became a dead thing that didn’t happen anymore.

If I remember correctly, it was called Mount Everest.

But what’s more important to me than the rather nice scenery of the mountains is the sight of the army of demons who are moving through the mountains thinking they’re being sneaky.

“Are you sure they’re there? I can’t see anything…” Allen mutters as he narrows his eyes while also using some cloaked drones flying high above the ground to search.

I glance at Allen, then back at the demons.

Okay, maybe they are being sneaky.

“You’re just a cheat with your senses,” Tar points out, making me purse my lips.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Anyways, I answer Allen while crossing my arms, “They’re using some type of shadow magic to cloak themselves with some of them using fire and ice magic to hide their biological signatures. And some other magics that I don’t recognize from this distance.”

I see Allen glance at me out of the corner of my eye before he shrugs and says, “Well, you’re gonna be dealing with them yourself anyways. So go ahead.”

That has me grinning slightly before I jump off of the cliff we’re on and transform myself into blood. Then I control the blood making up my body to fly through the air all the way till I reach them.

None of the demons are saying a word, staying completely silent as they move. And all of them are close to the peak of Class IV.

To my disappointment though there aren’t any Class Vs amongst their numbers.

Throughout my time in the war since it’s started back up, I haven’t run into any Noble demons above level 1100. Not even Satan has shown his face since, which probably has something to do with him having lost his position as the head of the army.

I do wonder whether The Reaper will be heading to Earth as they’d planned after all, considering the void invasion. But right now, he can’t come, and they only have a couple hundred Class Vs on Earth. Which still outnumbers the Guardians’ Class Vs by over twice as many.

That thought has me frowning slightly as I reform myself on the ground right in front of the demons, not really putting my care on them despite their obvious fear at seeing me.

“It’s the Princess!” “How did she find us?!” “All Hail Her Highness!” “Please don’t kill me…”

I blink at that last one, finding my gaze turning to a small demon in the corner. One that’s no larger than Tar, and is even fluffier than him.

Some sort of cat?

I identify the demon.

|Demon General – Subspecies: Sphynx – Level 1000|

Well that’s interesting.

And… if I’m being honest… adorable.

I kind of want it as a pet, but I also know it’s a sapient creature and not really a pet.

Anyways, as I’m thinking about this, I wave my hand, making chains of blood appear from Blood Chains that I then manipulate myself with Blood Manipulation to grow stronger. And if that weren’t enough, I use Blood Metallization on the chains to turn them into blood metal, completely binding the demons as I frown, raising a finger to tap my lips in thought.

What do you think, Tar?

“I think it’s adorable, but you probably shouldn’t keep a demon as a pet,” Tar says, sounding more than a little amused. “Then again, you’re a demon, so people might be okay with it. Especially since you have Princess’s Decree.”

But that won’t work on the kitty. It’s too high a level.

Tar appears in the air and sends me an incredulous look as he asks in my mind, “Did you just… call the demon a kitty?”

Yes. That I did.

Got a problem with it?

He blinks, then shakes his head, answering, “No. But I still find it bizarre how you don’t like dogs despite being a blood lycan.”

Hey! My species has nothing to do with my tastes in animals.

Dogs barking is one of the worst things in the world.

Wolves are cool though.

“Because they don’t bark,” Tar says with a sigh, having heard my spiel before.

Yep. That they don’t.

Cats are a lot quieter, so I like cats.

Unless you count foxes as cats. Then I don’t like them.

Kitsune ruined them for me.

“Actually, I believe foxes are considered canines, not felines,” Tar points out something he no doubt learned while watching TV at the base. Something he’s started doing from time to time out of boredom.

Really? That’s kind of surprising.

“Also, how long are you just gonna stand here pondering over cats and dogs and foxes while holding these demons in chains?” Tar asks, sounding like he’s more than a little amused by the situation.

Oops.

Well, these demons are all mostly too low level to actually give me any EXP. And there aren’t enough of them to give me a 10,000 kill boost in EXP either.

So I don’t really see a reason for me to kill them. Might as well just hand them over to Allen and let the people at the base interrogate them.

“You do know they’re just gonna call you in and ask for you to interrogate them instead?” Tar says with a snort.

Ugh. I don’t like that sort of work.

Even if it mostly just comes down to me telling them to answer questions and them immediately answering them only to prove that they don’t know anything important.

A rather boring process.

I finally look back to find Allen beginning to catch up with me.

Then I look back at the sphynx and tap my lips once more while tilting my head slightly.

Maybe Allen will want the kitty?