Chapter 131 The Need To Survive

Priscilla stood on the balcony of her office as she watched the soldiers training down on the grounds. She was wearing a large fur coat to protect herself from the cold and she held onto the railing of the balcony to support herself because of how tired she was. Ever since she summoned the hero three months ago, she has been very tired. In the last three months since the hero came here, Priscilla has only left her bed five times for all that time and it was only recently that Priscilla got permission from her doctor and she was finally able to move around again without help from anyone.

The amount of magic that went through Priscilla during the month that she spent summoning heroes made her magic core very weak and the doctors told her that she had to rest unless she wanted to lose her magic core forever. Priscilla had no intention of ever losing her magic, so she had to obey the doctor's order. She gave the Grand Commanders temporary control of the kingdom and she rested for three months.

Priscilla suddenly shivered as a cold wind blew across the balcony. The air in the kingdom was getting colder because it was getting closer to winter. There were already signs of snow in the kingdom and it would only be a matter of time before the lakes freeze over. Priscilla knew that the winter period this year was going to come in with full force and that was why she had to get out of bed and come back to her office because there were a lot of things she had to handle before winter. The most important thing was the food that her people would eat.

During winter, the crops don't grow and there were no merchants that could bring in food for them during that period. Ever since Priscilla closed the border and prevented anyone from entering the kingdom, the kingdom has been surviving on the food reserves that they stored from the last harvest and the reserves were already running low. It would not be possible to leave the borders closed for much longer! If they don't open the borders as soon as possible, there will be mass starvation during the winter and even though Priscilla cared more about herself than the kingdom, she still didn't want the people to starve. If they starve, then there is a higher chance of a revolution or a riot. I can't lose my kingdom because these animals are too hungry.

But before she can open the borders, Priscilla had to make sure that the hero was ready to help them. Priscilla was a very careful person, she didn't do anything without planning things out properly. It was because of her careful planning that she was able to take this kingdom from her elder brothers and sisters and it was also because of her planning that no one knew she was the one that got rid of the hero a hundred years ago. This situation would be no different.

? Priscilla knew that things have become very complicated now that the hero was here. Priscilla needed the hero to kill the demon lord and Priscilla was willing to provide anything that the hero would need for that. But the name that the hero gave her was still bothering her. The hero called herself Quinn Demonheart. This hero had the same last name as Floid. What kind of trick is destiny playing here? How could they summon two heroes from the same family? And not only were they both from the same family but they were also siblings. It would have been better if they were from different generations, but Destiny couldn't be that kind to her! They had to be from the same generation.

Priscilla didn't know what to do now. How would Quinn react when she finds out that Floid is now the demon lord? It was something that made Priscilla mad with annoyance every time she remembers it! She wasn't sure if Quinn would be willing to kill Floid.

But there was still a slight chance.

Priscilla could tell that Quinn didn't like Floid. Priscilla and Quinn have spoken before and Priscilla remembers how Quinn looked when she was talking about Floid. Quinn spoke about Floid in the same way that someone would talk about a stranger. Quinn was cold and distant anytime she spoke about Floid. It was obvious that the two siblings were not close and it didn't look like Quinn had any sort of familial love for Floid and Priscilla was happy about that much at least. But Priscilla was still cautious. Even though Quinn didn't like Floid, would she be willing to kill her brother for the sake of strangers that she just met a few months ago?

Priscilla shook her head as she cleared her head of the annoying thoughts. She already planned to tell Quinn who the demon lord was by this week because she had to send Quinn out of the kingdom before the winter season comes.

Quinn needs to start her crusade against the demon lord and push him back enough so then we can open our borders for the time being. The demon lord will be too occupied with Quinn and he wouldn't have time to attack us. If this works, then we can stock up on food for the winter and then close the borders again. I just need Quinn to cooperate.

Down on the training grounds, Quinn was busy training with one of the Grand commanders in swordsmanship. It was obvious that she wasn't as good as the Grand Commander. The Grand Commander was a bulky man that uses a great sword that was larger than Quinn's body. Quinn was using a simple two-handed long sword and she was being pushed back with every swing from the Grand Commander. But even though she wasn't better than the Grand Commander, it was obvious that she was far better than three months ago. In fact, she was probably an A-class already! Quinn was only an F-class when she came to Rivalle three months ago, so for her to grow this quickly in that short time was simply prodigious!

Priscilla was very impressed by her growth and Priscilla knew that it was only a matter of time before Quinn would break through to S-class and even SS-class. By then, Quinn should be able to handle the holy sword. The holy sword is the sword that every hero that they summon uses. It was covered with hundreds of blessings from many priests and no demon can survive a cut from that sword.

That holy sword was the reason why Floid was able to fight against the SSS-class demon lord, Ophis when he was still an S-class. If Quinn has that sword and she continues to grow at this speed then she would become even stronger than Floid was when he was the hero!

Priscilla watched as Quinn dodged a slash from the great sword and she slid under the giant man. He stomped his feet on the ground and sent another hefty strike in her direction and Quinn turned a little and merely allowed the sword in to pass in front of her and destroy the ground! She dashed forward and sent a slash straight for the giant's stomach but he pulled his sword back quickly and used it to black her slash before he tried to swat her away like a fly! Quinn placed the tip of her sword in the path of his hand and the sword stabbed straight into his palm! Quinn felt happy with the hit and she expected him to stop his swing now that he was stabbed, but instead of stopping he continued the swing and slammed her away with intense force!

Bam!!

Quinn grunted as she slammed into the far wall! The Grand Commander stabbed his great sword into the ground before pulling her long sword out of his palm and throwing it to the ground in front of her. He gave her a disapproving look.

"Don't think you won just because you delivered a non-fatal stab. This isn't your previous world where people are soft and they cry when they are only slightly injured. This injury is nothing to me and it will be nothing to the demon lord. Finish what you start before you rejoice."

Quinn huffed and she forced herself up to her feet. She picked her sword up and got back into a fighting stance. She looked to the side to see what her notification bar looked like.

Name: Quinn Demonheart

Rank: A-class

HP: 560/700

MP: 35,000/47,000

Job Class: Hero

Artifacts: Holy Sword

Skills: [Horizontal Slash - A] [Rapid Strike - D] [Flame Lance - B] [Eagle Sight - A]

Hax: [Blessing of Fire] [Blessing of God]

Quinn was now far stronger than before but she still didn't feel like it was enough. Right now, she couldn't even fight for more than an hour before she runs out of breath. She remembers the stories she heard from the other soldiers and how they were telling her about what happened to Aquinas. Some of the stories she heard were unbelievable. The worst of them was that the demon led a covert mission and he was able to destroy an entire kingdom in just one day. He didn't even need a full day, he did it in a few hours. If Quinn was going to fight someone like that, she would need more power. A lot more power. Quinn dashed in for another clash!