Lust Knight



After embracing Maya to her heart's content, Nea leads her and Eve's group to a special building next to the royal castle.

The place is made with architecture different from the rest of the city and has chairs, as well as other furniture considered normal by humans and other similar races.

"This hall is where we welcome our guests like you..." Nea comments as she smiles at Angela and her daughters. Their life mana makes the Mermaid Queen naturally more fond of them.

"And we haven't used this place in tens of thousands of years." She comments. "Our people didn't even know what it was like to have guests in our city anymore, but it's a strange coincidence that two months after a human appears here, a group also comes..."

Nea looks at the faces of Amelia, Donna, Sophia, and Naomi before looking at Eve. "And you are so similar..."

It is evident that Nea, although very kind, is not as naive as Maya. And because of the way she talks about the other human who arrived at the Mermaid Kingdom before them, Eve concludes that she's talking about Claire.

Eve and the Sins don't want to lose the advantage of Naomi being friends with Maya, but if she tries to hide her connection to Claire, they could lose Nea's trust.

"She could be our sister." Eve comments.

"Naturally." Nea smiles.

"Or just someone who looks like us," Donna speaks. "We have a very common face."

"Hahahaha..." Nea starts to sarcastically laugh as Eve shakes her head at Donna. "You are the most beautiful humans I've ever seen, so no, you definitely don't have a common face."

Nea has no doubts about Claire being Eve's sister, but Maya is confused. "Why didn't you mention that sister before?"

A part of Eve feels bad about lying to a kind and naive creature like Maya, but she doesn't hesitate to do anything for the good of her family.

"We weren't sure if she was in this world, and we need to find our brother first due to the situation he is in." She tries to convince Maya with something true and false in the same sentence.

"Hmmm..." Maya wants to find anything wrong in that story, but that feels real to her. "And does that sister also is with one of the Seven Deadly Sins?"

When Nea hears those words, she quickly becomes alert and summons her glowing blue spear again, while Eve can't even blame Maya for being so frank.

"The Seven Deadly Sin?!?!" Nea is shocked while wondering how she trusted Claire so blindly. "What do you mean?? Are you demons??!"

In a flash of white light, Pride appears between them. "Put down your weapon, fish-lady; we have no intention of harming you or any of your people."

Pride's words sound like absolute truth, and Nea instinctively starts to lower her spear. "But… but what do you want with me?? Why did Claire come to me??"

"Stay calm, Nea." Sloth appears and speaks in a gentle tone. "You have the capacity to see the kindness in people's hearts; that's why you like Maya so much, so you know we don't have bad intentions toward you."

Nea looks into the eyes of the Sins, Lucien's sisters and wives, only to see the same concerned expression. In fact, all her instincts say they have no evil intentions toward her, but something still feels odd.

But Nea remembers something, a request someone made over a thousand years ago. Then she sighs as she dematerializes her soul weapon. "Alright, I will listen to your story."

Eve doesn't waste time and starts telling their story from the moment they arrive at the Blue Star, avoiding revealing any important secrets, of course.

The Leviathan part shocks Nea, but not as they expected. In fact, she seems to have understood something or found an essential piece of a puzzle.

"And now we need your help to reach Lucien deep inside the ocean." Eve ends with a sincere request from the bottom of her heart because she, above all, is more concerned about her little brother.

Nea makes a sorry expression as she looks at Maya. "I can't even imagine how hard it must be for you to have the two people you love the most kidnapped..."

Maya sighs while her heart still hurts a lot because of her daughter. "But the boy saved Kayla, so I owe them a debt of life. Also, Layla was also taken by the Nagas, so our goals lead us to the same place."

The Mermaid Queen's eyes sparkle as she speaks. "At other times, I would tell you not to get your hopes up. Even if I wanted to bring an army to the heart of the Naga Kingdom, I could convince my people to do it, but..."

She looks at Eve with a thoughtful expression. "Your sister's influence on my daughter motivated her to take her place as Queen finally, and together they have already initiated a counterattack to retake our territory."

"Really?" Maya is surprised. "I didn't think you were actually going to attack the Nagas. You know what their real situation is, so..."

"Yeah, we all have our problems…" Nea looks sad when she thinks about Mira's situation. "But we cannot let our world be destroyed by one man's greed."

"Tyrion..." Maya's eyes burn like living flames. "I would have gone to him before, but you know, I would lose my power before halfway to the Naga cities, and he won't come to me until he is sure I couldn't even hurt him."

Nea nods."But if we start taking his territory, he'll be forced to come out from behind the protection of that barrier, and then... I'll kill him."

Although she seems determined, the group of Eve and the Sins can't imagine Nea killing someone as her aura radiates kindness, and she seems increasingly amiable.

Maya looks at Eve and the Sins with a thoughtful expression. "Maybe you don't have to do it; I mean, we have demons as allies now, and we need to help each other achieve the same goals."

Nea likes that idea and knows the fame of the Seven Deadly Sins, but she can also feel the girls' auras of power, which makes her doubtful. "Could you really kill someone from the Cosmic Realm?"

Eve knows she can't promise that because even the strongest women in the group like Genevieve and Daisy could face someone from the Immortal Realm Peak now, let alone a Cosmic Realm enemy.

And even though the Sins' demonic energies, especially Pride's, are making the group stronger quickly, their power without Lucien is drastically reduced.

But the girls' faith in him remains unwavering, so Amelia steps forward and speaks with determination. "Lucien could kill that man. Just give us some time together, and we'll bring his head on a platter for you."

Nea is even more curious about the person who caught a Leviathan's attention, but she remains neutral. "If he's now Tyrion's prisoner, how do you want me to save him without going through the Naga King and army first?"

That does seem like an impasse, but Donna also tries to argue. "If there's any way to rescue them, I guarantee he could solve all your problems."

"It sounds too good to be true…" Nea comments. "Yet, you forget that the Leviathan, an ancient world-destroying creature, also wants your brother, so what are the chances I can actually help him?"

Those words make all of Lucien's wives a little sad, but they don't accept that it is the end, especially because they can all feel that he's fine through their soul contracts.

As they try to think of something, Envy looks at Nea with a suspicious expression. "Yet, you don't seem worried about having a Leviathan in your world..."

Maya is also curious about Nea's lack of reaction, so the Mermaid Queen quickly starts to explain. "I already knew that such a creature had been in the Blue Star for thousands of years."

"But she has never shown any hostile intent towards the people of this world." She continues. "She just stayed in the central region, devouring powerful monsters that also live there."

"Yet, the creature was sleeping in the southern sea, not far from the surface, where there are no such monsters for her to devour." Maya comments.

Nea makes a thoughtful expression. "In fact, it's very strange that the Leviathan has left the central region after so many years and gone to a place like the south..."

Then she looks at Eve. "Unless the creature knew you were coming and that your portal would be opened in that specific area... But how could that be possible??"

"We didn't create a new portal; we used one that already existed," Daisy explains.

"A portal that already existed????" For the first time during that conversation, Nea shows real shock, which makes everyone curious.

Before Daisy can elaborate further, Nea quickly gets in front of her. "What was that portal like?!?!?"

She instinctively takes a step back while the other girls are alert, but Nea acts faster than everyone else and grabs Daisy's shoulders.

"Tell me!!" She looks really crazy. "Was that portal made of life crystals?!?!"

Daisy looks at Eve and Pride, seeking some advice, and they nod, making it clear that she can tell the truth. "Yes, the portal is made of life crystals."

"..." Nea doesn't know what to say. Her heart is beating very fast as thousands of thoughts run through her mind.

She flies backward and summons her glowing spear again while gazes at Eve and Pride. "What do you really want from me?!? Was that woman who sent you?!?!"

"Here we go again…" Naomi sighs.

"That woman?!?" Envy thinks aloud. "How many times have we heard of a mysterious woman manipulating everyone around us?"

Sloth looks at Nea. "Was that woman a demon?"

Nea doesn't know who to believe; everything to her seems confusing now. "A demon... yes, she was a demon..."

"Let me guess..." Pride comments in her arrogant way, as usual. "That woman helped you, right? But in return, she made you promise to do something in the future that you wouldn't know when precisely, did she?"

"Not really." Nea shakes her head as she makes a sad expression. "I wish things were like that, but in exchange for her help, I lost my daughter's life and soul..."

The girls, especially Maya and those who are mothers, can't help but be very sorry for Nea's situation.

But despite all the pain, a flash of hope appears in Nea's eyes. "I thought I would never find her soul again, but now I know where to find her... my beloved K..."

-------------------------

"Kaisa?!?!" Saria exclaims as she forces her blue sword forward against the Ghost Lady in Lucien's hand.

In the midst of a mad battle, where Mermaids attack Nagas, who do not fight back with the intention of killing and just try to defend themselves, Lucien and Saria lead the fight.

But the sudden appearance of the cursed sword causes Saria to completely lose focus as shock, joy, and confusion make a mess in her mind.

"Kaisa?" Lucien asks, also confused about that.

'The sword!' Lust speaks in his mind. 'Kaisa is the Ghost Lady, a member of the Blue Star's royalty, just as Adeline wrote in her diary; therefore, this Mermaid Princess must be recognizing her.'

Confirming Lust's words, Saria stopped forcing her sword immediately, fearing to do any damage to the Ghost Lady while also stopping attacking Lucien.