"I’m glad we have come to an agreement, your Majesty."

Hmm?

I just finished the sweets that have been laid out in front of me and it seems like Emilia and the King had already come to an agreement.

Just by looking at their faces though, it looks like the King and Queen seemed to be unsatisfied with what had happened while I was busy eating the sweets.

The prince, on the other hand, looked like he hadn’t even been paying attention to the conversation and had just been watching me eat the sweets the entire time.

Then again, the other girls looked like they were also guilty of the same thing.

Emilia stood on her feet, "In that case, we shall be taking our leave, your Majesty. We trust that you will uphold your end of the agreement."

I understood that was the cue that it was time for us to leave and I got up on my feet as well.

Remembering my manners, I quickly curtsied to the monarchs in front of me, "We thank you for your hospitality for the past few days, your Majesty."

The prince also quickly got up to his feet and gave me a polite bow while the King only nodded from where he sat.

"And thank you for all you’ve done for our Kingdom, Lady Aster. Do come and visit us when you are free."

We left the room and were guided out of the palace by the same maid.

Instead of returning to the inn though, we headed directly towards the gates of the city and left through the checkpoint.

"So err... What did I miss?" I asked after we finally stepped through the gates.

Emilia gave me a peace sign, "Don’t worry, Boss! I got them to honour their part of the deal and they also agreed to pay us bonuses for helping them deal with every single one of those outposts last night~ There’s going to be a lot of money to be made here!"

"The King doesn’t seem that happy though..."

Lisa huffed from the side, "He tried to give you a reward of having the ’honour’ of marrying the prince again but all of us shot him down. He then tried to guilt trip us by claiming that he would lose his dignity as the King if he doesn’t reward you with something appropriate."

I grimaced, "And what happened?"

Emilia smirked, "I told him that he can send his gifts directly to the Nilm Family for the head of the Nilm Family to receive and that shut him down pretty quickly~"

Well... That’s to be expected... I bet he was trying to push this proposition on me so that he can claim that I was the one who accepted it and Mother wouldn’t say anything in protest. But if he were to send a marriage proposal directly to Mother, she would have just torn it up and ignored it.

"So what were the agreed upon terms in the end?" I asked.

Emilia made a circle with her thumb and index finger while giggling, "Ehehehe~ We basically got the ok for us to have a monopoly on several different industries within their Kingdom, Boss~ From there, it’s going to be a matter of time before we penetrate into the Elhiria markets too~"

Well... I don’t really know the details but it sounds like everything ended up being fine like Emilia had assured me so... Yay~

"What about the prince though?" I asked.

Emilia tilted her head, "What about him?"

"I thought he might ask for something since... You know... After what happened yesterday."

She shook her head, "He did not join in on the conversation at all. I believe you have expressed your disinterest in him perfectly, Boss. Even when the King brought up the engagement, he neither tried to push the matter or back down on it."

Hmm... I guess he accepted my rejection in that case?

"Alright, so... Katsuki? Do you know the way?" I asked, looking at my Inugami maid lover.

"Of course Mistress. We shall be heading to Elhiria Republic right away. Our next destination would be Ertpytgya Town."

I blinked at her, wondering just how she managed to pronounce whatever that name was.

"Ert... Pit-gah?"

"Ertpytgya, Mistress."

"Yeah, I’m not even going to try... So anything we should know on the way there?"

"The monsters in this part of the forest would be more dangerous than the ones that we may encounter while heading towards the Nekinumi Kingdom, Mistress. Especially since we would be in the deeper parts of the forest now."

"Huh... Any monsters in particular that we should pay attention to?"

"Nothing that should require our special attention, Mistress."

I understood that means that we would most likely be able to beat most of the monsters that are present in this forest.

Once again, we were on the road again~

Katsuki led the way as the dirt road leading out of the city quickly turned into untamed forest trails and we were soon without a clear way to know where we were going.

Despite that, Katsuki knew what to look out for and was guiding us through the forest with no hesitation.

Like before, we spread ourselves out instead of travelling all bunched up together like we would while I had my Shadow Guards follow us at a distance on our flanks and our back.

We barely left the city for half an hour before my Shadow Guards got involved in a fight with some monsters inside the bushes.

From what I can get via my link with them, it seems like there’s several wolves as well as some goblins which were all easily taken care of before they even reached us.

We went further and not even ten minutes passed before another group of monsters came to attack my Shadow Guards, this time it was some kind of giant snake monster that could camouflage itself on the tree trunk as well as some giant spider that dropped down from one of the tree branches.

Still, despite the surprise attack, my Shadow Guards managed to react in time and slice the snake and spider into half with their blades before moving on.

Then five minutes later... Another Shadow Guard was attacked, this time by a rock golem which she punched away.

Katsuki probably sensed the disturbance and paused to look around.

I guess she must be thinking that we were going to get attacked so I should just assure her that my Shadow Guards took care of it.

"Don’t worry, Katsuki. My Shadow Guards took care of the monsters there."

She shook her head, "That’s not it, Mistress... It feels like there’s someone watching us but I don’t smell them..."

I frowned, "Since when have they started watching us? Don’t tell me it’s since we left the palace? That would mean it’s most likely someone sent by the King to spy on us."

She shook her head, "I only got the feeling a few moments ago, Mistress. And it’s unlikely that the King would send spies after us and even if he did, we would know."

I’m assuming the reason why we would know was because we have people infiltrated in their spies as well...

Odeta looked around, "Where is this person?"

Katsuki shook her head, "I am not able to pinpoint their location. I can only feel that there’s someone or something watching us."

Minnera materialised a pistol in her hand, "Should we return to the city perhaps? Or should we just press on?"

"I sense no malice in the gaze so it might just be a monster that is watching us from a distance and unwilling to engage us in a fight... Or it might be others who are watching us pass by. Mistress?"

I tapped the side of my cheek, "I suppose... It’s fine. Let’s continue onward. If anything changes, let me know, Katsuki."

"Of course, Mistress."

We continued walking though the forest now felt a little more oppressive since we knew that there was someone watching us right now.

I was honestly expecting something to just pop out from the trees without warning but nothing happened...

Since we had set out pretty late in the day, we were unable to reach a trading post before it got too dark to travel so I decided that we should just find a spot to set up camp.

We eventually reached a clearing which we decided to spend the night in and I got my Shadow Guards to watch the surrounding area for any monsters.

Despite it being so dark, Katsuki still told us that the feeling of being watched never went away so we were most likely still being observed at the moment.

I got my Shadow Guards to do a sweep around the area but they found nothing so we’re not sure where the gaze was coming from.

Just as I was suggesting all of us to retire to the tent for the night, black smoke suddenly rose up from the ground at the edge of our campsite.

My girls quickly leapt to their feet and surrounded me as the smoke wrapped around our camp in a vortex of smoke, cutting us off from the outside.

Our campfire was also snuffed out, plunging the entire area into complete darkness.

I was going to cast [Spotlight] to illuminate the area when the black smoke suddenly converged on us and covered all of us.

I tried to swat the smoke away but it was too thick and it separated me from my girls.

When it finally cleared, I found myself standing in a completely empty clearing with no camp and no girls in sight.

Where the heck am I?