After Tryn left Princess Shea turned to face Caroline, "Do you know where they may have taken the body? At the very least we should give him a proper funeral and see if he has any relatives."

Caroline shrugged, "One of the guards took care of it, probably dumped in an alley somewhere?"

"Oh," The grunt that was about to be taken out the door spoke up, "Are you talking about Jeremy? He was taking something that looked like a body towards the beast pens."

"Do you know the way Caroline?"

"Ye-yes, but the beast pens..." Caroline had a disgusted look on her face.

"Let's hurry then," With Caroline in the lead the Princess and her guards headed towards the beast pens, where giant monsters of various shapes and sizes were.

Caroline wrinkled her nose at the smell of the place as they entered the area of the beast pens. Although the condition of the cages weren't terrible, they weren't great; having so many in such a crowded area did not help to make it any better. Already there were some soldiers here making a list of the various monsters that resided in this part of the wing, stopping their work to greet the princess.

"You don't have to make that face Caroline," Shea smiled a little.

"But the lack of formality and discipline, this isn't how one should greet a superior never mind the princess."

"Maybe for a normal army or group but we're all friends and family here, there's no need for pompous formality." Shea looked around, "There doesn't seem to be anywhere that they could have put the body..." Her face darkened, "Unless they fed it to one of the beasts already."

"There's a room on the far side that has stones that cool the air, that's where the meat is usually stored." Caroline stopped and looked at the princess, "But doing something like this... the nobles aren't going to just let it go."

"They won't like it and will hold a grudge against the royal family but that's about it. There's no profit for them to rebel right now especially since the royal army is the one holding back the beast men in the west." Shea shook her head, "The nobles seek power and fortune over anything else, as long as they don't hold anything in terms of agreements with the elves and dwarves, they won't do anything rash especially since we have plenty of evidence here."

"That's a pretty fragile defense you have there... It's true that nobles are self serving but it's also true that when they feel threatened they'll fight back. It wasn't just a merchant or lesser noble you arrested this time Princess, it was the Baron; meaning that none of them are immune to your investigations."

They stopped before the door to the meat room, the wooden door leaking cold air out, "It's simple then, they just have to do everything legally." Caroline felt a headache building, are the royal family just ruled by naive idiots or just strategists she couldn't tell. On one hand the Princess prepared all evidence so that there wasn't any way for the Baron and Dooza to escape legally, on the other hand they leave a lot of things to luck and hope that nothing goes wrong.

Aeran drew his sword as he walked up to the door and slowly opened it, releasing a wave of freezing cold air into the area, carrying with it the smell of raw flesh. "Wha-" Standing inside of the room was a naked man, not a trace of the wound that was previously on his chest could be seen. The guards took up position in behind Aeran as he raised his sword at the man.

"Get down!" Aeran suddenly shouted out as he ran at the man, the reason why was only clear to three of them in that room. Princess Shea who immediately started casting a shielding spell with a red face, Aeran who ran at the man and the man himself who was using casting a magic spell.

The spell was completed without a word being uttered by the man and at a speed that is unobtainable by normal mages, sending Aeran flying backwards into a slab of hanging meat as a torrent of wind and dust spontaneously spawned inside the room. "Lesser Barrier!" A blue dome of light about 3 meters in diameter came into being with Shea at the center, protecting her, the two guards and Caroline from the dust; although a little late as their clothes are now covered in dust and they were pushed out of the room. "Aeran are you okay?"

Although muffled a positive reply came out from the room, Shea turned to Caroline, "I thought you said he was dead."

"I-I'm positive he was, I stabbed him through the heart and checked for life." Caroline's face was although to a lesser extent also red like Shea's.

"Undead then? But I don't recall any undead being able to cast spells except for... Liches" Shea's face looked grim, "If that's true then we have a problem."

Shea's barrier dispelled itself before the wind ended, but since it was deemed that the dust storm wasn't harmful aside from it getting inside your orifices Shea didn't cast it again and simply retreated further into the room where soldiers were gathering. Aeran came out a bit after the barrier was gone with dust trailing behind him, coming out of every opening in his body and armor. The storm itself ended about ten minutes after it first started and when the soldiers went in they found nothing but meat that now had a crust of dirt around them.

"We need to check on his background." Shea turned to face Caroline, "Dooza said something about a vampire right?"

"He did, it seems he wanted us to kill the man so that he can enslave the vampire. But if the vampire hunters are there then there most likely won't be anything left."

Shea stood there silently thinking for a bit before motioning to one of the soldiers that was trying to clean up the dust, "Search up his background if you can, maybe the inn keeper or one of Dooza's men knows something, let me know if you find anything." Shea started heading towards the exit of the place, "For now I need to get cleaned up."

"And me?" Caroline looked around in confusion as the soldiers ignored her and continued walking, Aeran and the two guards that were with them heading in the same direction as Shea.

Despite the dust covering her dress, hair and skin, Shea's smile still made her seem like most beautiful thing there is, even to Caroline, "You're coming with me of course."

The baron definitely had a luxurious bath, spacious and decorated with gold statues and patterns it was something Caroline hadn't experienced even before she became a slave. She could almost completely enjoy her first hot bath in a long time if it weren't for the dozen armed maids that were waiting at the edge and the three annoyances that were in the bath with her and the Princess.

"You don't have to be shy." Medline was all over Ran's struggling body, it was a mystery how Medline a mage was able to hold down a martial artist like Ran but it was something Caroline didn't want to look into. Rin who was standing a bit away from the two kept speaking in a barely audible voice with broken sentences to try and stop them.

"I'm not being shy! Get away from me you pervert!" The splashing they were making in the bath was loud and echoing off of the high ceiling, completely unfitting of the atmosphere.

"Stop this at once, you're in the presence of the Princess!" Unable to hold it in any longer Caroline stood up with an loud outburst temporarily creating a moment of silence.

The first to break the silence and the stares directed at Caroline was Medline, "That's quite a lovely body you have there," Blushing Caroline sat back down again, hiding her body like she had previously been doing.

"It's fine isn't it?" Shea gave them a bright smile, "There's no need to mind me. Ah, Merilyn that will be all for now, Tryn should be back soon." The head maid gave a bow then left with a stack of papers, even in the bath the Princess was working on the issues in this town, although most of it was issues because of her arresting the Baron. "Take you time please, rooms and clothes have been prepared for you and if there's anything you need please ask the maids." Flashing another bright smile the Princess left with all but four of the maids.

Medline quickly went back to her antics as Caroline sat there thinking about the Princess's proposition, certainly serving her wouldn't be bad at all, it may even be better than when she herself was a noble. But... serving such a master will certainly end in trouble, the royal family can't be that ignorant or naive to think that the nobles will put up with this forever.

"You shouldn't think so much about it."

"Eh-?!?!?!" Medline was all of a sudden really close to Caroline's face.

"You were thinking about what the Princess offered weren't you? I think she's a nice person and the offer isn't bad at all you know." Medline opened her hand and cold air started concentrating there and from it was a pair of birds spiraling upwards following the path of the steam. "It's not like there's anywhere better for us out there."

"We don't have a home or anywhere to go to so we're going to be accepting it." Ran was sitting there in a guarded position with Rin behind her nodding.

"Maybe... if you three weren't tagging along." Caroline stood up and got out of the bath, she didn't think her thoughts was that readable but it was true that she also did not have a place to return to. A small smile was on her lips as she started drying herself, maybe it won't be so bad.

"Dooza's thugs were killed and we found two of the vampire hunter's corpses inside the inn, one of the rooms was filled with blood."

"And the vampire?" Shea did not look up, on top of the desk were stacks of paper regarding contracts between the Baron and various merchants within the city as well as tax and other miscellaneous stuff that would have been originally handled by the Baron and his men.

Tryn shook his head, "No where to be found, I presume though that most of the blood inside of the room belonged to her... The tools and weapons found in there indicated that, the vampire hunter was torturing the vampire. There were also a couple of civilian casualties." Tryn was sitting on the other side of the desk with a handful of papers in his hand, "The investigation of the man that was supposed to be the master of the vampire and the one you saw in the meat room lead no where. All we know is that he registered in the guild under the name Shin two days ago, took a request to look into the disturbance in Wuldrud Forest and came back with a lot of trophies for the reward earlier today before being taken to Dooza's place. We know nothing about him or his company before he arrived here with his group."

"Anything on his group?"

"It seems he arrived with a wagon and four girls, one of them a child. Some people recognized the girl as the child of a small merchant who has been running some trades between Kane and the villages in the area. One of them had a hood on most the time and was dressed in all black, we presume the vampire was the one dressed in red leather armor and we have no information about the other one." Tryn shifted the papers and held up another one, briefly scanning it. "The guild seems to be preparing a group to go see what happened Wuldrud Forest about the situation there and to confirm that he had completed the request properly, they should be departing in a couple days."

"What about the request to the mage council? Will they be sending anyone?"

"Because of the nature of the request it seems like they will be sending Elder Durmez, he will arrive in about three days time." Tryn shifted the papers again and started talking before Shea could ask anything more, "Most of the slaves have accepted the proposal with only a few of them wanting to go back to their families, we have found suitable areas for most of the monsters to return to and will be releasing the mermaid near where she was captured with an escort. The beast girl is temporarily under watch in a guest room, she will be moved to the castle later when we depart, the vampire's thrall only condition was that she will leave our service once she has found her mistress."

"That is fine," Shea looked up and smiled at Tryn, "But you're always so prepared, thank you."

Tryn shook his head, "I'm just doing my job, rather than having you handle multiple reports it's better to get it all done at once."

"Princess!" Urgent knocking was heard, from the voice.

"Come in, what is it Aeran?" With Shea's permission Aeran opened the door and walked in, there were some traces of the dust but most of it had been removed.

"Dooza... has escaped." Aeran bowed deeply in apology, "His maid suddenly turned into a monster and broke him out of jail."

"How is the injuries?!?" Shea stood up concern on her face.

Aeran stood in shock for a second before answering, "There were some wounded but nothing major, the damage to the jail cell however will take some time to repair." It was not the first time but Aeran would never get used to how much concern the Princess showed to the soldiers, normally the status of the prisoner or blaming of the guards would be first but to her those weren't even comparable to the safety of the men.

"Thank goodness." Shea sighing sat back down slowly hand on her chest, "Tryn can you send a group after him, please be very cautious however."

Tryn stood up and bowed, "Of course." leaving the room with Aeran he quietly closed the door and started walking towards the place where the soldiers were staying.

"I-I'm sorry," Tryn turned around to see Aeran bowing deeply to him, "I couldn't do anything earlier today and Dooza even escaped."

"There's nothing to apologize to me about, there were no major injuries and everyone's safe. The Princess doesn't blame you or anyone else for it and neither will I, duty is important but don't throw away your life, she'll be sad." Tryn put a hand on Aeran's soldier, "Let's get to work now, it'll make it easier on the Princess if we do our work properly."

"Ye-Yes!" As the two were having their conversation the Princess inside the room was working under the candlelight, there were lots of problems with the management that needed to be fixed, sighing she resigned to having no sleep tonight.

"I can't believe this!" Caroline was scolding Shea who was smiling weakly while laying in bed, she had collapsed earlier from the exhaustion of working several days with little or no rest. "You need to take care of yourself better, and the work can be done by someone else. Also you people need to pay more attention and make her rest when she's pushing herself so hard." Throwing rank and formality out the window Caroline was yelling at not only the Princess but also the head maid and Tryn.

"There's no stopping the Princess once she gets like that, the best we can do is support her." Merilyn calmly replied as she supported the Shea's head and brought a cup of tea to her lips.

"And don't you trust us to be able to handle all of the paper work?!!? Why did you do the paperwork usually done by a group of people youself!?!"

"They're just minor issues, it's not like I have anything better to do."

"Tea parties, meeting with nobles, there's plenty of things for you to do that's more befitting a Princess."

"Well if there's nothing else, then I have to leave there's a lot of work to be done." Tryn bowed his head slightly with a smile on his lips before moving to leave the room.

"Don't push yourself too hard." Shea waved from the bed.

"You're not one to talk!" Caroline stomped out of the room, "I'll make some tea that's good for resting for you so stay there!"

"She changed a lot since she started working with you," Merilyn was laughing at Caroline's behavior with Shea.

"Reminds me of you when you first started."

"You were a handful even back then," Merilyn looked out the window at the bustling city, "One day the world will be changed by all the effort you've put in."

"It will take a lot more than just effort the change the thinking of an entire race," Shea sighed and relaxed into the bed, "There needs to be something or someone that can cause an effect as big as when we were at war with the other races to unite us properly."

The sound of wood and stone being broken apart woke Shea up suddenly, blinking the sleep out of her eyes she got dressed in simple cotton clothes that had good mobility before heading out the door towards the sound smiling warily; Caroline's going to scold her again for dressing like that.

"What's happening Tryn?" Meeting her at the front door Tryn was ordering several soldiers around.

"A giant bird crashed into the wall just now creating a big fuss, for now we've cleared the nearby area of civilians, it seems the bird is unconscious and there's a girl on top of it. From the clothes we've identified her as one of the priestesses in a temple to the south, there were reports that the place was attacked by a demon recently."

"Demons!? Why wasn't I notified of this?"

"You were sleeping from exhaustion when the report came in, we also had another report of a demon attacking a village to the south where Captain Kal was stationed."

"What... is happening?" Demons haven't been seen for ages, not even by the elves or dwarves. First the case of Shin coming back alive and using magic now this? A commotion near the gates drew her attention away from her thoughts. "What's the problem there?"

A soldier ran up to them and saluted, he was a regular soldier of the city, "There's a man saying he knows the bird."

"Let's go meet him then." If there's someone with information about the situation it'll make things faster. Tryn shrugged at the soldier who was looking at Shea's relaxed remark.

"Pri-Princess Shea!" A man with short grey hair and beard promptly bowed his head at her arrival.

"No need for the formalities, I heard you have information about the bird?" Shea had a kind smile on her face.

"Ye-yes! Her name is Scarlet and she was a bird that my brother saved while she was adventuring, the streak of red feathers on her tail is unique to her... and I believe the girl would be his daughter, my niece." Despite what Shea said he was still talking in a reserved tone. "Scarlet won't hurt anyone I promise... ar-are you going to kill her?"

Shea turned to look a Tryn before looking back into the man's sincere eyes, "I wasn't intending to kill her either way, Tryn please make sure their wounds are treated, I would like to hear more about Scarlet if possible."

"Of course! Tha-Thank you Princess, thank you!" The man was bowing over and over again as Tryn left to make preparations.

"Found you!" Caroline was running out the front door, "What are you doing dressed like that and in such a dangerous place?!?!"

"Uh.." Shea smiled awkwardly, "I think we'll have to talk later, Aeran please guide him to a guess room I think it will take me a while."

"It seems like Shea has her hands full" A well endowed woman was polishing a great sword while talking to someone through a mirror.

"You're quite busy too Princess Gwyn."

"So?" The Princess moved around a bit as she reached for a cloth to wipe her sword with, long red hair swaying, "Do you need me to come back right now Tryn?"

"I'm only letting you know just in case, while there have been witnesses and various evidence of a very strong monster we have yet to confirm them as demons, we have requested the aid of some adventurers and the mage council. Besides it's not like you can leave the front lines right now."

"It's not like I'm taking the troops away, besides the attacks have begun to lessen so the old man can take care of it by himself."

"Calling the general old man is not very nice."

"He's and old man so what's wrong with calling him that?" Gwyn sheathed the sword, "Well greet my sister for me alright? And tell her to stop over exerting herself."

"I will... you should also take a bath, it's unbecoming of a Princess even while at the front lines to be covered in blood."

"Yeah yeah, later." Gwyn scratched her head as she looked into the mirror that no longer held Tryn's face but her own. "It's not that bad is it?" In the soft candlelight the blood covering her reflected the light almost as if it was on fire and coupled with her dark crimson eyes she looked like a demon from hell. Certainly it was a look befitting of her nick name of 'Princess of Hell'.

Note* Sorry this was delayed a bit, my mouse registered a double click and closed the tab yesterday effectively deleting most of it. On a side note I hate kids, annoying little shits. There were some minor time skips here but next chapter will be after a much bigger time skip, Shin's chapter!