Chapter 16: Miss Ice Lily, Could You Do Me a Small Favor?
A rumble echoed through the air, and the battered restaurant, weakened by Xu Bai and Ice Lily’s fight and the owner’s desperate escape, finally collapsed.
Two figures, one tall and one small, emerged from the dust cloud. They didn’t resemble the monstrous Fallen Demonspawn, but the surrounding City Guards remained tense.
The restaurant owner, still on the verge of a breakdown, didn’t even register the destruction of his livelihood. His only thought was to escape.
He had witnessed Xu Bai and Ice Lily’s fight, the terrifying patterns spreading across their faces reminding him of the demonic images propagated by the Empire.
Terror gripped him, overriding all other thoughts, compelling him to flee.
But no one paid attention to the distraught owner. The City Guards braced themselves for another demon attack.
As the dust settled, Xu Bai stood motionless, her face blank.
Ice Lily remained beside her, her posture unchanged.
“It’s her!”
Despite the slight differences, the City Guards instantly recognized Xu Bai as the demon girl from the wanted poster, gripping their weapons tightly.
“It’s her! The demon who attacked our protector, the knight!”
“I…” Xu Bai opened her mouth, but seeing the fear and hatred in the guards’ eyes, she closed it again, defeated.
Ice Lily’s cold, sharp voice cut through the tension. “I don’t understand. Why do you insist on denying your demonic heritage?”
Xu Bai remained silent, her face expressionless as she looked around. Everywhere she looked, the City Guards and civilians regarded her with either fear or hatred.
She had seen those looks before.
It was the same look the knights she fought alongside had given the demons at the city gates.
But now, those looks were directed at her.
This was why Xu Bai had hesitated to return to human territory after her transformation, why she had been so reluctant to face her own reflection.
She felt a pang of irony. She had spent her life fighting against demons, and now she was being treated as one.
She was the invading “demon.”
Having seen the “demon” in person, perhaps realizing she wasn’t as terrifying as they imagined, the crowd’s fear morphed into intense hatred.
“Kill the demon!”
Initially just a few scattered shouts, the cries quickly escalated into a deafening roar.
“Kill the demon! Kill the demon!”
But the City Guards hesitated. Unlike the civilians, they knew that these two beautiful demons were not as harmless as they appeared.
Although generally weak, the City Guards were veterans of war, some having even faced the demon legions on the front lines.
The truly terrifying demons weren’t the grotesque monsters, but those like these, with appearances closer to human aesthetics, yet far more ruthless and cruel.
Those were the demons that truly chilled them to the bone.
“Why isn’t the Garrison here yet…” The City Guards gripped their weapons, sweat beading on their foreheads.
Only the heavily armed and powerful Garrison Knights were equipped to handle demons; the City Guard was merely a peacekeeping force.
The crowd was becoming increasingly agitated, some even trying to push past the guards, brandishing crude weapons, intent on killing the demons.
Ice Lily remained silent, indifferent to the growing unrest, her cold gaze fixed on Xu Bai, as if deep in thought.
Xu Bai also stood still, her face slightly pale.
“No Garrison…”
Only the weak City Guard was present; the powerful Garrison Knights, the true demon-fighting force, were nowhere to be seen.
This meant that, from the beginning, the Garrison had no intention of intervening.
Xu Bai knew what this meant.
“Are these people… expendable to him…?” Xu Bai looked around, a sense of despair washing over her.
The City Guard was clearly no match for a demon attack.
And now, with the capable Garrison absent, “his” intentions were clear.
“He’s not ready yet. He doesn’t want this farce to end too quickly, even at the cost of countless lives.”
Such ruthless tactics… several figures flashed through Xu Bai’s mind, finally settling on one.
“It’s you, isn’t it, General Glaimond…”
General Glaimond, the Eastern Front commander, renowned for his cold, calculating strategies. In his plans, anyone, no matter how many, could be sacrificed to achieve his objectives.
Glaimond had once used two outlying settlements as bait to lure a small demon squad deep into enemy territory, then annihilated them in an ambush.
It was a rare victory for humanity, a complete annihilation of a demon squad. But behind this glorious achievement lay the slaughtered populations of two settlements, no survivors.
Although impeached countless times, his brilliant strategic mind and undeniable strength had only elevated his position within the Knights.
This situation clearly bore Glaimond’s signature, and with his ambition, a plan to assassinate Commander Lugner and inherit his position wouldn’t be surprising.
“Miss Ice Lily,” Xu Bai turned to Ice Lily, her voice calm. “Could you do me a small favor?”
Xu Bai’s eyes met Ice Lily’s, and for some reason, she noticed a flicker of hesitation in her gaze.
“Tell me,” Ice Lily averted her gaze slightly.
“Can you get me out of here? Without harming these humans?” Xu Bai asked, her tone even.
“I understand.”
Ice Lily nodded, stepping closer and scooping Xu Bai into her arms, just as before.
Countless ice particles swirled around them, refracting the light.
As the ice spread, their figures gradually disappeared.
“The demon is gone…”
The nearest City Guards watched Xu Bai and Ice Lily vanish, but they didn’t pursue, instead breathing a collective sigh of relief.
The surrounding crowd continued their deafening chants of “Kill the demon!”
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