Areishia's Anxiety

Countless moons and stars in the sky decorated the night sky.

It's a shame, the continent's joint military forces don't care about stargazing. After the fierce battle earlier this afternoon, the survivors rested to recuperate.

Apart from Elementalists from various countries, the continent's combined military force consisted of ordinary people who took care of ordinary affairs such as cooking, washing, etc.

Of course they consisted of men. After all, the male caste is the lowest, and the country doesn't care about their life and death.

In the main tent, Areishia lay staring at the ceiling with a languid look. Beside her, Est stood still without showing any change in emotion on her face.

Areishia suddenly broke the silence.

"Let me ask you a question, Est..."

"Milady, what request do you have?"

"Are you willing to always be by my side?"

Areishia gave the gentle smile of an innocent shepherd girl. She didn't look like the Sacred Queen that people adored.

"I am your sword. I will protect you until the end of your life."

"You're right… You are my sword, and for now, that's all that matters."

At Est's emotionless response, Areishia gave a hollow smile.

"Milady?"

"But, one day, when the Demon King is defeated, when this war is over, I hope that you can become big brother Ars's sword."

Unlike humans who return to the ground, Spirits don't have a lifespan. No matter how strong the bond with a contracted spirit is, one must always part ways with them.

"I don't want to."

Est answered without hesitation.

She who had always been obedient disagreed with Areishia for the first time.

"Est?"

"I am your sword. I will not belong to anyone else."

"Est..."

"Milady, why do you ask such a thing?"

"It is—"

Areishia wore an uneasy expression.

Before she could say the reason, she heard a commotion outside the tent.

"Let's talk about this another time, let's see what happens."

Forcing her tired body, Areishia got up from the bed and came out of the tent.

"Big brother Ars? What happened?"

Seeing that it was Ars, Areishia hid her anxiety and showed a smile.

"I want to see you, but these two annoying women forbid me from entering."

Ars glanced at the two female knights in front of him.

"Men are prohibited from entering the Sacred Queen's tent!"

One of the female knights answered affirmatively, but on closer inspection, her hand holding the hilt of the sword was trembling.

Anyway, Ars' strength was clearly known to everyone. He single-handedly fought and defeated the Demon King's nine Contracted Spirits, which even the Sacred Queen had difficulty doing.

"Oh, if I force my way in, then what do you two want?"

The Sharingan in Ars' eyes transformed into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

In that gaze, the two female knights seemed to be standing in front of the God of Death.

"Stop scaring those two, big brother Ars. Everyone is tired, don't blame them."

The tense atmosphere was broken by Areishia's soft and warm voice.

"Big brother Ars won't do anything bad to me, Caroline and Alesya don't need to be vigilant."

She patted the two female knights on the shoulder, then channeled divine power into them.

"If the Sacred Queen says that." The female knight named Caroline glanced at Ars with fear in her eyes.

"Sacred Queen, please shout if this man misbehaves with you, we will enter the tent straight away."

Different from her counterpart, the female knight named Alesya dared to say bold words.

Areishia just smiled and didn't respond.

"Humph, as if you two have the ability to stop me." Ars snorted in disgust.

Even a patient man like himself would be angry if he continued to receive racist treatment from women.

Caroline lowered her head and didn't dare to look at him, while Alesya glared at him.

Ignoring the two lesbian women, Ars entered the tent.

"As expected of the Sacred Queen, the treatment you received was the best of the best."

The tent was spacious and equipped with a bathroom and bed. Rather than a tent, it's more like a hotel room.

Compared to Areishia's perks, Ars only got a shabby tent that couldn't even stand the wind.

Even though Ars had displayed extraordinary strength, the treatment he received did not improve, instead it got worse.

(No wonder Solomon waged war around the world... Given the biased treatment men receive, Solomon probably wouldn't be able to stand it.)

In fact, Ars really wanted to be on Solomon's side. However, not doing it for Areishia's sake.

"Big brother Ars, what are you doing here at this time of night?"

Stopping observing the tent, Ars glanced at Est who was sitting obediently on the bed, then turned his gaze to the smiling Areishia.

"Stop pretending in front of me, Areishia."

"What do you mean, big brother Ars?"

"Still dishonest? Don't think your fake smile can fool me."

The smile on Areishia's face faded, then she said sadly: "It turns out that I can't lie to big brother Ars."

Ars sat down next to Areishia, and ran a hand through her blonde hair.

"I have heard everything from Est... This is all Liana's fault, you are innocent at all."

Liana Ray Ordesia, Princess Maiden sent by the Ordesia Empire to participate in the continent's combined military forces, as well as a member of the Ordesia Empire's family.

According to Est's story, after Areishia defeated Vlad Dracul, Liana suddenly attacked Areishia with the intention of killing her.

Areishia's nerves were still tense at that time, she thought that Vlad Dracul had revived and made a sneak attack. Then she slashed at her attacker without hesitation.

When she saw that the person she was attacking was actually a human, Areishia's mind went blank.

"Why did Liana do that? Did I do her wrong?"

Looking at her two hands, Areishia still felt the sensation of cutting Liana's flesh and expression before her death.

"Envy and spite." Ars answered briefly while patting Areishia's back.

"Hah?" Areishia showed a confused expression.

"Listen Areishia, indeed many people admire and adore you, but there are also many people who don't like you. As for why? It's simple, because of your background as a shepherd girl."

"Is there something wrong with the shepherd girl?"

"Haaa… Areishia, you are too innocent. Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins of mankind. Those noblewomen had always thought of themselves as high and mighty, but one day a shepherd girl appeared wielding the Sacred Sword and became mankind's hope against the Demon King. How could they not be jealous?"

"I do not understand..."

Areishia shook her head, she had just been exposed to the dirty and dark side of humans, it was still hard for her to accept this.

"It's fine, you don't have to think much. As long as I'm by your side, today's incident won't happen again."

Ars wouldn't let Areishia fall into the schemes and schemes of the nobles.

Today was indeed his omission.

"Thank you, big brother Ars, thanks to you, my mood has gotten better."

Areishia felt warm in her heart.

"Alright, today's battle must have exhausted you, rest well."

Ars was getting ready to leave, but Areishia grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"Areishia?"

He turned and saw that her face was as red as an apple.

"Don't go... Big brother Ars, sleep here tonight."

"This... Okay."

Ars was not one to hesitate, then nodded in agreement.

...

Standing guard at the entrance of the tent, Caroline and Alesya suddenly heard a strange sound from inside. Out of curiosity, the two of them sneaked a peek.

Upon seeing what was happening, the two female knights' faces immediately turned red and hurriedly closed the tent.

"We're not mistaken, right?"

"No, I also saw the same thing. It turns out that the Sacred Queen and the Next Generation Demon King have such a relationship."

Recalling the union of Yin and Yang in the tent, even the sound of the mattress crunching was clear, both of them endured the heat in their bodies.