Chapter 56: The Birth of the Shadow Fiend

At such a critical juncture, Mino actually went so far as to sell out intelligence regarding the Saintess just to secure money for himself.

Yet prior to this, Mino had never once brought it up... Could this truly be a coincidence?

Surely it couldn't be that the value of money had suddenly become crucially indispensable to Mino? The Demon King's Castle was not the Kuer Kingdom; gold coins functioned much more as a raw material rather than a universal currency.

The uses for gold coins, therefore, appeared simple and easily guessable...

Clementina's gaze turned slightly solemn.

She vaguely guessed the truth: Mino had been plotting this from the very beginning! His goal was to blatantly put forward his conditions at this unavoidable moment!!!

The other party had already found a way to escape the Demon King's Castle!

Looking at Mino's harmless and innocent smile, Clementina felt for the first time the boundless, blank abyss of wisdom hidden beneath it.

Just as she and the others were torturing intelligence capable of threatening the human faction out of Mino's mouth,

Mino had also unconsciously mastered the intelligence needed to escape the Demon King's Castle... Truly, he lived up to his name as the strongest hero in human history.

Clementina realized that the title of the strongest hero in human history was well-deserved. Whenever Mino did something she could not comprehend, attributing it to this title seemed to effortlessly resolve all her doubts.

Right now, the other party's open and forthright presentation of terms was clearly issuing a challenge to her!

Would they crush the human faction first using the intelligence he gave away freely, or would he first accomplish the miracle of escaping the Demon King's Castle... From beginning to end, the balancing scale of the struggle between humans and demons surprisingly rested entirely upon Mino, this hero.

In a daze, Clementina felt Mino's unwavering willpower, took a deep breath, and made her decision.

For now, weakening the power of the Saintess Lena was the only way to truly extend her reach toward the royal capital of the Kuer Kingdom!

"Fine, I agree."

Pulling a small pouch of gold coins from her waist, Clementina tossed it to Mino, letting him count them: "Here are one hundred gold coins, equal in weight to the currency of the Kuer Kingdom."

Clementina stared intently at Mino's face. Sure enough, the moment he got his hands on the gold coins, Mino wore an expression of overwhelming joy, as if he were about to break free from his plight.

Fantastic!

Holding the bag of gold coins, Mino felt his spirits soar. Finally... as long as he used a binding spell to alter the weather, his chronic "cold-weather backache" would never flare up again!

What? You ask what about Lena?

Pfft, she wasn't that blind-date big sis from the past anymore; she had probably long since moved past her psychological trauma...

The other party wanted Lena's weakness, but didn't specify whether it was her past or present self!

How could revealing the weaknesses of the former Lena possibly affect the current Ice Saintess?!

"Lena's most hated thing in the world is roses!"

With the look of someone whose master plan had succeeded, Mino blurted out the answer he had barely managed to recall this morning. Yet, he plastered on an expression of absolute familiarity and said with utmost conviction: "She told me herself that she hates those things so much she practically has psychological scars from them!"

"It turns out to be... roses." Clementina was stunned.

Generally speaking, most girls liked them... After all, roses carried a considerable amount of romantic symbolism. If someone truly hated them, it was probably just hatred for the person giving the flowers or receiving them at inappropriate occasions.

But since this came straight from Mino's mouth, the nature of the information was entirely different.

Come to think of it, it was quite normal for the cold and aloof Saintess Lena, who seemed entirely isolated from the world, to despise roses.

"Viewed that way, that Ice Saintess probably holds a particular hostility toward me, doesn't she?" Touching her cheek, Clementina gave a self-deprecating smile.

She did not harbor deep suspicions; after all, if she discovered that the intelligence provided by Mino was false, she could always just take the gold coins back later.

"Well then, I'll take my leave..." Smoothing out her formal dress, Clementina prepared to bid farewell.

Hearing a gentle "ding" in her ear, Mino felt the pain in his back ease considerably. He bent over slightly and picked up a stray rose lying on the ground:

"Wait, there's one rose left. You missed it."

Clementina glanced at it. A rose that could fall to the ground and not dissipate instantly was definitely not a lifeless construct condensed from her own power... Looking at the slightly dim patterns of the fiery red rose, she shook her head:

"That is a defective product, which is why it wasn't ignited just now. It's useless."

Mino shrugged, simply walking closer and casually tucking the flower into the locks of Clementina's hair. He rubbed his chin and said:

"I can't tell the difference, but it suits you quite well... doesn't it?"

"I am hardly worthy of these once-vivid roses." A flicker of helplessness crossed Clementina's eyes. With a trace of reluctance, she removed the rose and held it in her hand, on the verge of discarding it before seemingly remembering something:

"I was the one who plucked the roses down one by one with my own hands."

"So what?" Mino yawned, speaking with nonchalance:

"You don't know whether the rose would rather wither among the bushes or be plucked at its most beautiful moment, do you?"

The fingers holding the rose stiffened slightly.

She lifted her gaze, the mature detachment and wariness on her face gradually fading away, leaving her youthful features appearing somewhat naive and innocent.

Amidst the gradually quieting sound of the rain, she saw Mino smiling and pointing at the rose in her hand: "At least at the very moment you picked it, the rose knew it was blooming for you."

Rumble—

A distant memory was suddenly awakened deep within her heart alongside the final roll of thunder.

Clementina's pupils trembled slightly, involuntarily recalling memories that should have grown hazy before her birth—the previous Demon King's warm fingertips gently caressing her, filled with tenderness and blessing:

"Thank you for being willing to bloom for this child... One day, Mia... I leave her protection in your hands—"

Amidst her shaken thoughts, Clementina's figure dissolved like a shadow.

The shadow dispersed and re-aggregated like water, weaving through layers of flooring and space. The next instant, her exquisite figure materialized in the flower garden outside the Demon King's Castle.

Raindrops fell softly against her delicate hair and stunning face, and the shadow-forged body felt intensely real at this moment. Holding the rose in her hand, Clementina ultimately refrained from destroying it. Instead, she crouched down and carefully replanted the broken-stemmed rose back into the soil...

Staring blankly at it for a long while, Clementina shook her head with a wry smile: "I've gone and done something rather foolish."

The rose swayed gently as if stirred by a breeze. Clementina's gaze gradually filled with astonishment; no airflow was passing by, yet on the ground where the rose was rooted, the dark shadow of the rose was dancing and swaying as if cheering with joy...

Clementina felt an exceptionally youthful aura belonging exclusively to a Shadow Demon.

"It has been born..."

A look of astonished radiance welled up in Clementina's cherry-pink eyes.

It was foreseeable that under the accumulation of time and magic, one day in the future, another Shadow Demon would break through the soil.

She extended her delicate fingertips, gently stroking that still very young shadow, which affectionately and comfortably coiled around her finger.

A trace of gentleness crossed Clementina's expression as she softly murmured: "When the day comes that you grow up, I must trouble you to follow the De—"

Her words stopped abruptly. Deep in her subconscious, a somewhat hazy figure flashed past.

Her expression softened slightly.

"No."

Mirroring the sentiment, Clementina offered a tender blessing:

"Just follow the shadow within your own heart—"