At this very moment, in the inner courtyard of the healing house, the Elf Queen stepped out of a teleportation spell. She walked up to the elven physician who was lounging with her legs crossed, blatantly slacking off, and placed a bottle of immunity potion on the table.
“Ruoye. Drink it, and prepare to start working.”
“Y–Your Majesty! Why do you have time to come here personally? I’ll start working right away—”
Ruoye rubbed her eyes, forcing herself awake, then turned to look at the table. “But what’s this immunity potion for?”
“Drink it first,” the Elf Queen said calmly.
“...Alright.”
Gulp, gulp.
Ruoye wiped her mouth and set the empty bottle back on the table. At this moment, she still hadn’t realized anything was wrong.
But in the next second—
Her hand froze in mid-motion as she placed the bottle down. Cold sweat seeped from her forehead, and a chill shot from the soles of her feet straight to the tips of her ears.
Ruoye instinctively flicked her ears, making the four-leaf-clover earring hanging from them sway.
“You’ve realized something’s wrong, haven’t you?” the Elf Queen said evenly, looking at the green-haired elf before her.
Ruoye was considered a veteran among the elves of the Royal Court. While her combat strength wasn’t particularly outstanding, she had always been meticulous in her work, responsible and serious, with knowledge and experience among the very top.
And yet, even so, she had fallen for it without realizing—she’d not only chased away Vieya when she came seeking medical help, she hadn’t even reacted when her own boss walked up and knocked on the table in front of her. frёewebηovel.cѳm
“...Your Majesty.” Ruoye opened her mouth, then fell silent for a moment.
This kind of situation hadn’t occurred since the Elf Forest sealed itself off.
After all, every elf living here was a pure-blood elf, with their information recorded. If any elf had an issue, it was nearly impossible to hide it from everyone’s eyes.
And recently, the Elf Royal Court had just received several guests from other races...
In an instant, the truth leapt into Ruoye’s mind!
You show up, and something happens to our Royal Court!
And you still say it has nothing to do with you?!
“My condition today...” Ruoye probed indirectly. “Does it have anything to do with Her Highness’s friend? Although, from what I recall, that little girl seems harmless to both humans and beasts, we don’t really know her background. And compared to her, I still trust our elves more.”
“You think it’s her?” The Elf Queen raised her eyes slightly and asked softly.
Ruoye was silent for a moment, recalling the dazed, foolish-looking Vieya who had come begging for medicine earlier. She shook her head.
“Doesn’t seem like it. That little girl was affected too.”
As she spoke, she sighed, her gaze falling on the backpack full of medicinal herbs on the table. “And she even left her things here. This backpack is filled with herbs she collected for her daughter. Sigh... she doesn’t look like someone with deep schemes.”
“But. While I don’t doubt that little girl, I do doubt the crippled Demon King she brought in.”
Ruoye stood up and pulled the key to Isabelle’s ward from a drawer.
“Her Highness said that Demon King was bought by the little girl at great expense from a human auction house. In other words, it’s a master–servant relationship formed purely through money and contract—neither solid nor stable, with the risk of losing control at any time.”
“Mhm.”
The Elf Queen nodded in satisfaction. “That’s precisely why I came to find you. Take me to that Demon King’s ward.”
As she spoke, her gaze grew deeper. “Demon Kings inherit the brutality and ruthlessness of monsters, yet possess the cunning and unpredictability of humans. If this truly involves a Demon King, then eliminate the threat.”
“But...” Ruoye froze.
“There is no ‘but.’”
The Elf Queen turned her head, casting Ruoye a flat glance. “If it truly comes to that, we’ll compensate her three times the Demon King’s purchase price.”
Ruoye said nothing. She knew that as a single elf, she couldn’t change Her Majesty’s decision.
Sigh... Princess, Shaman, please hurry over.
With unease in her heart, Ruoye used the key to open the door to Isabelle’s ward.
As expected, the moment Ruoye stepped inside, terrifying intelligence-suppressing and laziness auras surged at her from all directions! This was a level of horror she hadn’t felt at all outside—like the vast gulf between a musket and a Barrett.
“The potion you drank just now was sap drawn from the World Tree. A complete Demon King aura would warrant some caution, but this one doesn’t,” the Elf Queen said.
With that, she stepped forward into the ward, pushing through the monster aura to arrive at Isabelle’s bedside.
The blue-haired, blue-eyed mermaid lay quietly on the bed, as serene as a sleeping beauty. It seemed that after going to bed on time last night, she’d never woken up. The aura around her body rose and fell erratically, extremely unstable.
A flicker of confusion passed through the Elf Queen’s eyes. Yesterday, the Demon King’s condition had shown clear signs of stabilizing—she’d even been able to manifest legs, stroll alone near the healing house entrance, and bask in the sun.
At that ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) rate of recovery, she should have been able to discharge smoothly within half a month.
So how had she suddenly lost control after just one night?
Suddenly, the Elf Queen recalled Aislin mentioning last night that the Dragon Sprout Grass had shown abnormal growth.
Could there be some connection between the two?
“Tsk...”
The Elf Queen clicked her tongue softly. Whenever she thought of Dragon Sprout Grass, she thought of the demon dragons that had been mortal enemies of the elves for generations. And whenever she thought of those enemies, she thought of that golden dragon Demon King—born innately evil—many years ago.
“...Since you’re a Demon King, then you should die. Don’t worry—I’ll compensate your owner for all the money she spent on you.”
She raised her hand and drew an exquisite silver dagger from thin air. If one looked closely, they’d see a line of tiny elven script engraved along the blade’s side. It meant “Mercy.”
She lifted it, aimed for the heart, and brought it down hard!
“—Blade, spare the fish!”
Bang!
The door was kicked open!
Phoenix burst in like a storm, snatching the dagger from the Elf Queen’s hand with a single slap. She raised her head, anger flashing in her eyes.
“Ale! What are you doing?!”
“As you can see, I’m removing the source of this chaos,” the Elf Queen said, extending her hand calmly. “Give me back the dagger.”
“No!”
Phoenix gritted her teeth, standing firm under the Elf Queen’s knife-like gaze. “At least wait until Aislin and that awful slime get here! Talk it over with them before making a decision!”
“Give me the dagger,” the Elf Queen said, impatience creeping into her voice.
Phoenix was nervous, but she still planted herself between the Elf Queen and Isabelle, refusing to yield.
“I don’t care! Today, you have to wait for our daughter and the partner she chose to get here! Otherwise, you’ll have to step over my body! On the ‘Everyone’s Library’ app, you can read the latest chapters of The Hero Who Became a Monster Girl Will Never Fall to Evil ad-free, with over a million books free to read. renrenshuku.com—full spelling dot com—to access the app’s official site.”
“......”
The Elf Queen said nothing. She simply looked at Phoenix—the first person who had ever dared to stand in her way.
Terrified inside, Phoenix still craned her neck stubbornly and added,
“Besides, she hasn’t caused any irreparable damage to the elves. She just lost control and leaked some incomplete Demon King power, making everyone temporarily lazier and dumber. There’s no need to get serious!”
“And our daughter has already gone to find her partner! They’ll be here soon... If you can’t hold back now and kill this Demon King who can’t even fight back, this kind of ‘execute first, report later’ behavior will only sour the relationship between our daughter and her partner!”
Phoenix grew more and more impassioned as she spoke. “Ale, do you really want to ruin our daughter’s future happiness just because of your own actions?!”
Hearing this, the Elf Queen wavered—and took a step back.
She paused, then added, “Fine. I’ll wait for them. But you must understand—killing a Demon King is easier than pulling a Demon King back from this state.”
Heavens above—Phoenix had never imagined her tongue could be this sharp, talking even the stone-hearted Elf Queen into backing down.
She nodded repeatedly at once, saying she understood.
“Don’t worry, Ale. I’ll always stand on your side!”
“...You’d better.”
At the same time—
Outside the door, Ruoye also let out a breath of relief, beginning to pray in her heart for the Princess and the slime to hurry over and save the situation.
“Moon Goddess bless us, World Tree bless us—and yes, may the god Kulkan bless our elves too!”