Chapter 187

PHA – Chapter 187 – This Little Girl Has a Bright Future

Although the Conference of Kings this time was held because of Alice, most of the conference was unrelated to Alice.

There was no helping this situation. The demons had yet to move against the human realm thus far. If they referred to historical records, the demons would typically start conducting small-scale invasions on the human border after the Demon King’s birth to test the human realm’s desire to fight back and the Hero’s reaction.

However, the demon realm was behaving uncharacteristically this time. Even though the Demon King had appeared already, the demons showed no signs of taking action. The only act of aggression the demons had conducted thus far was to surround the Elven Forest with an army and demand the elves’ Seeds of Nature. Even then, the situation had ended without an actual fight between the demons and the elves.

Since the demons weren’t moving, there was nothing for the human kings to discuss. After all, humans were the defenders in their relationship with the demons, not the aggressor. They had no interest in occupying the demon realm’s harsh environment. If they rashly attacked the demon realm, they would simply open themselves up for an attack.

Thus, after verifying Alice’s identity as the Hero and discussing some diplomacy and trivial matters between kingdoms, the kings decided to conclude the Conference of Kings this time.

However, before the kings left, Celtic heard a piece of surprising news from Alice.

“Hm? You want to go to Lord Hero’s side for some time, Lacey?”

Celtic looked at his daughter, standing beside Alice, in surprise, a sense of oddity in his voice.

It was fortunate that Alice was a girl. Had Alice been a boy, Celtic would’ve suspected whether the Hero was trying to replicate the casting couch with his daughter.

Recently, Hero novels in the human realm had begun taking an evil turn. Morally perfect Heroes could no longer satisfy the audience. Some novels had even taken to writing adult novels centered around the Hero. Meanwhile, seeing Lacey and Alice standing next to each other reminded Celtic of a scene…someone else had read in an adult novel.

However, Celtic’s thoughts did not shift toward those strange scenarios since Alice was a girl. If Alice’s gender was switched, Celtic’s face would probably become as dark as coal.

Celtic wasn’t completely devoid of feelings toward Lacey, his illegitimate daughter, unlike Alice’s assumptions. It was just that the attention he showed her was significantly less compared to his biological son.

Celtic was curious to know which part about Lacey had managed to catch Alice’s attention. However, he couldn’t afford to ask about it. If he were to ask Lacey something along the lines of “What is the Hero seeing in you,” he’d appear incredibly indifferent. After all, how could he not know about his own daughter’s specialty?

Even though this was indeed the case, he still needed to keep up appearances, especially when he was in the presence of the other kings. Thus, holding back his curiosity, he pretended to be calm and nodded to Lacey, saying:

“Go ahead. Make sure not to bring shame to the Ymir Kingdom’s royal family.”

Celtic spoke as if he knew about Lacey’s talent. If Alice hadn’t learned about Lacey’s situation from the girl herself, she would’ve most likely bought into Celtic’s act.

After today’s conference, Alice learned that every one of the human kings was more or less capable of lying through their teeth. It was probably also the case for Hatter. Only, Hatter didn’t have any opportunities to do so in front of her.

After all, Hatter didn’t have a wife.

Before the other kings left, they said many things to Alice. In summary, they implored Alice to visit their respective countries when she had free time and assured her that they would provide her with the best hospitality.

The Hero’s favor held great significance. Once the demons invaded the human realm, the country with the best relationship with the Hero would most likely receive the Hero’s help the earliest.

Something to note was that when King Haydn extended his invitation to Alice, Prince Etoria’s eyes remained glued on Alice’s body the entire time. Meanwhile, Alice, who had already heard from Luna that Etoria was a lolicon, couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable receiving his gaze.

If not for Luna verifying that Etoria had never done anything bad such as abducting girls against their will and that he was only a little eccentric in his sexual fetish, Alice would’ve probably let Luna send this prince to the mental hospital to recuperate for a few days.

After the other kings left, the only ones remaining in the conference room were Hatter’s and Alice’s party.

“What do you think of the other kings?” Hatter asked as he looked at Alice with a smile. Although he had just experienced an intense diplomatic discussion, he looked as leisurely as usual, evidence that he had already grown used to such high-intensity diplomatic affairs. “They might not be the best in combat, but they are the best of the best when it comes to government affairs.”

“I guess so… I don’t really know much about stuff like this,” Alice said, sighing. She truly disliked attending such events. However, since the other kings had already left, she could finally ask the question that had been plaguing her this entire time. “Has there been any abnormalities with the Rhine Kingdom’s royal family recently?”

“Abnormalities with the Rhine Kingdom?” Hatter was a little stunned by Alice’s question. Then, he shook his head and said, “I’m not too sure about that. The intelligence department might have learned something, but they typically won’t notify me about it unless it is something important. If you want to know about the Rhine Kingdom’s state of affairs, I can have the intelligence department send a report to you.”

Luna used to work at the Gryffin Kingdom’s intelligence department. However, it had already been several months since she started working as Alice’s maid, so it was natural that she didn’t know the intelligence department’s recent findings.

Since Hatter had offered to share the intelligence department’s findings, Alice held back the urge to investigate the situation herself. Although she had learned many taboos recently, none of these taboos could help her collect information. Hence, rather than waste time fumbling in the dark, it would be better if she left this job to the professionals.

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In the meantime, Alice could focus on helping Kristine recover her body. Now that she had obtained the Seed of Nature and tricked a budding alchemist into her service, she had met all the conditions to construct a new body for Kristine.

When Alice looked toward Lacey, she found the girl staring at Luna with a serious expression.

“What are you looking at Luna for?” Alice asked in confusion. She was certain Lacey and Luna had never interacted with each other before, so she couldn’t understand why Lacey was staring at Luna so intently right now.

“I’m studying the actions and behavior of a maid,” Lacey answered honestly.

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