Today, the demon lady had truly gone dark, cursing that unfilial brat ten thousand times in her heart, she simply could not understand why he was so obsessed with becoming an adventurer, she had already prepared an official position for him, all he needed to do was study magic properly for a few years and he could directly become a teacher at a magic academy.

Xidis could even use her wealth and connections to smooth the way for him, sending this guy straight to the Imperial Capital Magic Academy as a grand instructor, wasn’t a life where you sit in a magic tower every day and still get paid great enough, why insist on becoming a Hero!

‘Damn it, this is making my chest ache with anger!’

Xidis shot Lisea a fierce glance, thinking about properly teaching this unfilial brat a lesson, but just as she did, she met his burning and pure gaze head-on, it was exactly the same as when Lott spoke about his future plans during his adventures back then! That kind of behavior driven purely by passion without any thought was just like his mother Alicia.

As the saying goes, a pure and righteous gaze can kill demons, even the Prince could not withstand this, forcibly swallowing the insults that had reached her lips and instead changing the subject.

“Lisea, I am not denying your dream, but with your illness, how exactly are you supposed to become an adventurer? You probably don’t even reach the level of Orichalcum, do you?”

In this world, there was no official ranking of strength, people usually measured one’s ability using adventurer ranks, which from lowest to highest were Orichalcum, Mithril, True Gold, Crimson Sun, Silver Moon, Radiant Star, Legend, and above that was Saint, which was the holy rank recognized by the Church.

Hero Lott was the strongest among the Saints, and those heartless companions of his were also at the Saint level.

Saying that Lisea was not even at the level of Orichalcum was already a very real and cruel assessment, yet the boy scratched his head proudly, exchanged a glance with the maid beside him and shyly explained.

“Hehe, to be honest Lady Xidis, Sister Rong’an already recommended me to the Adventurers’ Guild, when you went out a few days ago I took the test, I already have Mithril-level strength, dealing with a goblin is no problem! As for the illness... it’s just asthma, taking medicine on time is enough!”

Crack crack crack...

Xidis slowly turned her head toward Rong’an, her beautiful golden eyes devoid of all emotion, because she had realized that the two children she raised... might be a bit too rebellious.

“Rong’an?”

“In reply to Lady Xidis... I couldn’t refuse Lisea’s request either...”

Rong’an guiltily turned her head aside, the meaning in her words was simple—if you were faced with that hopeful pleading gaze of his, you wouldn’t be able to refuse either.

Seeing this, Xidis let out a long sigh, thinking to herself that she had treated this brat too well, why had she arranged such an obedient maid for him?

Rong’an was the only daughter of the neighboring Viniya couple, smart and talented since childhood, but her family had been unfortunate...

Her mother had been taken away by a noble, her father fell into despair and developed a gambling addiction, after losing all their family property he even sold Rong’an to slave traders, fortunately Rong’an and Lisea were good childhood friends, so Xidis spent a large sum of money to redeem the girl.

Since then, this short-haired blonde beauty became the exclusive maid of Xidis’ household, and also took responsibility for supervising Lisea’s studies while Xidis was busy writing, teaching him noble etiquette and language skills.

Rong’an’s talent was monstrous, knowledge that ordinary people needed a year to even begin learning, she could grasp very quickly, so Xidis treated her as an excellent student and taught her quite a bit of basic magic.

And in the end, this was how these two unfilial brats repaid her!

With no other choice, she could only find another excuse to question him.

“Hmm... but you’ve never received a blessing from the Holy Spirits since childhood, so why would the Church invite you to participate in the Divine Grace Test?”

“The priest of Silver Star Town came to find me, saying he received a dream from the Holy Spirits, that I must go participate in this Divine Grace Trial!”

‘Nine Holy Spirits... you all deserve to die!’

Right now, Xidis only wanted to beat up those so-called supreme beings, they hadn’t intervened when the Hero was betrayed, how could such vermin be trusted to let a child place faith in them?

Moreover, if those people from the Church set their sights on Lisea, his identity as the Hero’s child could very likely be exposed, this fool was far too easy to manipulate, and history might repeat Lott’s tragedy.

But Xidis could not directly crush his enthusiasm, so she put on a cold smile and nodded.

“In that case, I won’t interfere with your life any further, Lisea... pursuing your dreams is a very beautiful process, so please don’t give up.”

Phew...

Lisea let out a long breath, he had originally thought Xidis would reject him outright and ruin everything, he knew very well how much the girl before him had sacrificed for his future, and by pursuing his dream of becoming a Hero, he was essentially turning all that effort into nothing.

If Xidis opposed him, he would immediately return home obediently to continue studying magic and take the academy’s mage exam.

But if he could receive her support, that would be the best outcome, unable to hold back, Lisea rushed forward to hug Xidis, crying as he spoke.

“Waaah, Teacher is the best! I knew you would understand me, don’t worry, I’ll become a famous adventurer, earn lots and lots of money and let you live a good life!”

At that time, he would become Lady Xidis’ pride, maybe he could even make her show a genuine smile.

Xidis always wore that signature fake smile, for over ten years he had rarely seen her truly happy expression, it must be very beautiful.

“Having a dream and striving for it is a good thing, you must persist no matter what, anyway Lisea just work hard, I’ll go out for a walk.”

With that, Xidis, her face darkened with frustration, pushed him away and stood up to leave the dining room, not in the slightest mood to look back at the two unfilial brats.

She could not refuse Lisea’s request, but she also did not want to see him truly become an adventurer, such a dangerous profession, nor did she want him to become a devout believer of the Nine Holy Spirits.

Not to mention that if word got out that a mortal raised by an Abyss Prince became a follower of the Nine Holy Spirits, it would be laughable, just the fact that Lott had been killed because of them was enough for her to never allow this brat to go to the temple for the trial!

Now, it was time to solve the problem using a demon’s method.

* * *

Three hours later, at the night market behind Silver Star Town, a mysterious figure wearing a complex rune mask and a black robe entered a tavern, the muscular bartender pouring drinks immediately broke into a cold sweat upon seeing her and quickly brought over a glass of wine to greet her.

“Damn... isn’t this Lady Xilrodiel, what brings you to my humble shop?”

Xilrodiel was a renowned Archmage throughout the southern Empire, active across various regions since eighteen years ago, and had sold a great number of magical item patents to major merchant guilds, most of which were things people had never even heard of.

For example, lamps that did not require magic crystals and could draw mana from the air with just a switch, lightweight magitech prosthetics, mechanical horses and so on, greatly contributing to the Empire’s magitech development, yet no one could sense even a trace of mana from her, like the mythical “Silencer” who nullified magic, thus she was also called the “Pioneer of Silence” by many mages.

The Pioneer’s movements were always mysterious, many people had tried to track her down, only to vanish from the world without a trace, people only knew that this master liked to sell all kinds of strange items in the black market of Silver Star Town.

With Lady Xilrodiel appearing, the bartender immediately became alert and took out a bottle of fine wine to offer her.

She accepted the wine, her beautiful index finger lightly tapped the lower part of the mask, with a click, the mask opened from below, revealing her alluring red lips. Seeing this, the bartender could not help but sigh inwardly.

They all say this Archmage is an incredibly beautiful young girl, maybe the rumors are true.

After drinking the wine, Xilrodiel paused slightly, then the ring on her index finger emitted a strange dim glow, and three dazzling gold coins inlaid with mithril cross stars fell onto the counter.

The bartender froze for a moment, then held his breath and sighed—these three were imperial commemorative coins, minted in the year of the Hero’s death, only a thousand existed in the entire Empire, their value was immeasurable.

For Lady Xilrodiel to throw down these three coins, she must be buying someone’s life...

Gulp... the burly owner swallowed nervously, then heard her issue a cold command.

“One is for you, help me find a reliable insider, the other two are your reward... I need someone to do a little something for me within the Adventurers’ Guild and the Holy Spirit Church...”