“All you have to do is to stand at the back and take potshots until you reach moderate mastery.”

  That was Wilhelm’s advice to Alexa when she asked him how she could improve her 1st magic circle’s mastery to moderate. She wanted to complete her tutorial quest fully at this point because it would mean that Alexa would unlock ‘Rose Eyes’ and ‘Civila Mandato’.

  Apparently, before demons emerged from the Great Dungeon, everyone heard a young girl bragging about something. They heard it not with their ears, but with their minds. Even soldiers at the far outskirts of Perlenstadt managed to hear it. Of course, not many except for those who can somewhat recognize Alexa knew who did that…

  But Alexa knew clearly that it must have been her work when her ability was momentarily activated earlier. She had a working hypothesis that she therefore might, might, have a connection to one of the ancient heroes of mankind. If she could use whatever ability that was, she could definitely help big time at turning the tide of this battle.

  Unfortunately…

  What the hell is that? I have to take potshots at that?

  Alexa felt her knees and legs tremble as she watched a distant, floating young girl approach them. She was near Anastasia’s age in appearance—thirteen years old to be specific. Yet Alexa doubted this girl was anywhere close to that age.

  She seemed to be entirely unmoving, a creepy smile gracing her childish features, as her hair, black as the night carried her. The length of each strand and the number of them were so long, that it was as if she had a hundred tentacles protruding out of her head.

  “My, I see…” the girl said, her voice reverberating in the city with a sinister timbre as she laughed as she advanced. “So you’re here…Your Imperial Highness!”

  “What—?” Alexa nearly tripped on the rooftop she was standing on, only to bump into Adele behind her, who was equally nervous. “How does that creepy brat know me?”

  “Creepy brat?” the Archdemon laughed as she eyed Alexa. “Is that supposed to be aimed at me? My, my, you royalty are truly a special breed. Let’s see, I am looking around this city. It must have been so prosperous, so peaceful, so liveable, yet now, it’s a deadly place to be. Is that the work of a good royal?”

  Alexa remained silent. Then, the demon laughed, her voice high-pitched as she finally moved her hand, her index finger pointing mockingly at Alexa.

  “Of course not! You, you, you little brat, a spoiled, naive, foolish, weak, pathetic, sniveling, incompetent, whiny, sloppy, and most of all unworthy royal are at fault for all deaths around you! You let so many monsters kill your subjects, for you have no foresight of your enemy’s arrival. You have not even made an ounce of preparation to avert this. You covet the throne yet you possess no qualities of a true leader. Indeed!”

  She looked up at the moon in the sky, as tears made of blood dripped down her pale skin.

  Yet, she was smiling.

  “…You, dear princess, are quite the slothful one.”

  “D-did you just call me lazy! You have more hair than monkeys! Have you even combed them once? How do you even have the right to speak when you’re closer to an animal than a human?! I’ll let my lowliest, dirtiest peasant hug me first before I let your greasy hair touch me, you disgusting creature!” Alexa shouted, as down below, Wilhelm, who was instructing his men to calmly assume defensive positions laughed.

  “Well, Lady Alexa certainly is triggered by that,” Wilhelm nodded to one of his officers. “But Her Highness’ presence bought us time. Gentlemen, get me that hair sample I need. For the eternal defense of mankind!”

  “For the eternal defense of mankind!” all of the soldiers shouted, as lights suddenly flashed everywhere.

  From ruined houses, alongside the roads from all four directions (Sloth stood in an intersection), spells and arrows began flying straight into Sloth’s lithe form.

  Earlier, Alexa saw those hyped up shützes being deployed. Not the long-range ones, but the short-range ‘direct fire’ ones named as L?wes. They were heavy, cumbersome, and were fitted with these massive firing crystals. The only way to transport them was by having a powerful land-dragon pull it, or in the field, by having teams of mages lessen its weight with levitation magic.

  But in any case, Wilhelm moved and positioned them precisely for this trap. He said that the Archdemon was directly searching for Phoebe, therefore, he dangled her as bait again. He also made Phoebe a ‘more encouraging bait’ by letting Phoebe heal everyone to her heart’s content until she was knocked unconscious.

  Alexa was initially outraged by it because of how callous it was, but, well…now, she was watching that plan come to play.

  The Archdemon was struck with so many attacks that her shield spell shattered within five seconds. Alexa and Adele joined in, sending as many basic fireballs as their magic circles’ mana could let out without knocking them unconscious. The L?wes, around six of them scattered in hidden positions around Sloth, also joined in, firing powerful beams of light that seemed to slice through her.

  She let out a pained scream, sending her hair into a rampage. Soldiers close to her were grabbed by it, before being crushed, their blood pooling in the fields. First, it was a three or four, then, there were dozens of them dangling high in the air by Sloth’s hair.

  Some were crushed, some were thrown away, some were bashed into the buildings or the road.

  Alexa grimaced as she watched that. Every time she saw one of her people die, always, for some reason, a stabbing pain always ached in her heart. She was their Crown Princess, their future Empress, yet she could barely do anything to save them.

  No matter what, she kept her attacks up. Even if it was weak, even if all it did was scratch and annoy her, Alexa had to fight right here, in the thick of the battle. She may be so afraid that she wanted to run, but no, she had her pride.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Damn you! You ugly cretin!”

  Alexa was about to begin tearing through her paper glyphs before Adele held her back.

  “No, keep that for later!” Adele warned. “Wilhelm’s got us covered, I-I think…”

  Wilhelm approached the demon calmly. Sloth’s hair, which could easily pierce and crush even the powerful shieldguards, was unable to touch his shield. That, and papers were flying around him, dozens of them in fact. Each was circling him ominously, as he calmly stared at Sloth.

  Sloth’s giddy creepiness was now replaced by a glare. Wilhelm on the other hand was the only one smiling on the battlefield.

  “You again, Wilhelm von Eisen? Have you perhaps diligently prepared this grand welcome for me?”

  “Yes, great one,” Wilhelm nodded with faux-submission. “Had fun?”

  “What is it you seek again, fiend? You’ve stolen parts of my sisters many times already, is that why you bought me here?”

  “The bodily fluids, limbs, and organs of your sisters are certainly impressive. Matter of fact, I’m using one of those to power what I have right now,” Wilhelm laughed. “But, they won’t come close to that truly graceful and beautiful hair of yours. Will you care to share some samples? I mean, if your sisters can grow back a lost arm or two, I’m sure it’s the same with that hair of yours, oh great one.”

  “I-is Wilhelm a major pervert? That totally sounds like perverted things!” Alexa blushed red as she looked incredulously at Wilhelm.

  “He also harvests archdemons’ organs? N-no wonder even that demon girl is so scared!” Adele muttered in shock.

  “T-that’s it!” The Archdemon turned red too, sending sharp hair toward Wilhelm at incredible speed. “I’ll return you to that fake Goddess you fools worship, Laughing Fox!”

  But before her hair could strike Wilhelm, another barrage of light struck her, courtesy of the L?wes surrounding her. Then, she was struck by another volley of enchanted crossbow bolts and basic attack spells, causing the hair spikes headed in Wilhelm’s direction to change course in chaoticly different ways.

  Wilhelm looked at Sloth with a tiny, cheeky grin. Then, with a calm snap of his fingers, the paper glyphs circling him all activated, sending a hail of wind magic that sliced nearly half of Sloth’s hair, all of it falling to the ground.

  Bloodied, injured, and her main ability reduced in its power, the Archdemon pointed at Wilhelm angrily, screaming as she retreated.

  “Damn you, Laughing Fox. Why are you even here? You’re supposed to be fighting my sisters up north!”

  “Sorry. I just needed to try out a new gambit of mine.”

  “You’re going to regret this soon enough!”

  Then, she was gone, and Wilhelm walked toward one of the scattered masses of black hair around them, all of which oozed an ominous black magical shadow. He picked it up with a victorious smile, before looking up at Alexa.

  “...We’re close to winning, Lady Alexa,” he bragged, as he presented the hair to her. “You’re going to be able to enjoy the finest cake in your palace again soon enough, I assure you.”

  Alexa averted her gaze, squeaking fearfully, as if merely looking at that hair would mean she would be corrupted.

  “Don’t show that to me! It creeps me out! Damned peasant…you’re unbelievable.”

  And why is he bringing up cake at a time like this? I’m not that spoiled!

  +++

  Alexa curiously eyed those notifications as she sat at the cathedral’s mass hall, resting with Adele, who had been tapped out after using up most of her mana, and Phoebe, also blacked out.

  All that was left was Alexa, and all she could do now was to rest and check her progress.

  I did it…

  A tear went down her cheek. Why? Why couldn’t she have finished this much earlier? Back then, she would have complained about the fact that her hard work wasn't rewarded properly.

  But now, instead, those words by Sloth came back to haunt her.

  “You, dear princess, are quite the slothful one.”

  She now somewhat regretted not pushing herself further. Could she have changed anything? Maybe not, but still…

  She read her new, updated stats.

  Then, she looked at what her new skills entailed. They seemed to be truly special, as unlike normal skills, their rank wasn’t determined by Roman numerals. Instead, it was a simple omega symbol.

  As she read through her first skill, ‘Rose Eyes’, her eyes widened.

  The head? What? And domain skill?

  I see…so my first skill is a very special one that lets me be heard by everyone if I want, and the second one is a passive skill that makes them like me more?

  Now that she thought about it, since the battle earlier, it seemed that the soldiers around her were helping and cooperating with her more. They even began to take her opinions a little bit seriously, even if all she told them was to prioritize the injured first before pursuing Sloth.

  She chalked it up as a result of them seeing her fight side-by-side with them, but…she supposed this was another explanation.

  She turned to her side, noticing something.

  “W-wilhelm! Eep, you pervert! Why are you staring at me like that?”

  “Nothing. It just seems like you’re looking at your stat screens while your eyes are glowing intermittently,” Wilhelm stood up, before crossing his arms, placing a hand on his chin for a few seconds. Then, he nodded. “I see. So you’re not yet used to controlling it.”

  “H-huh?”

  “Also, there’s a white crown floating above your head,” Wilhelm added, finally smiling. “Mind explaining things to me? After all, I think we’ll find great use in whatever you’ve just acquired.”