Scarlet

I blankly stare at all of the messages in the livestream as Amelia finishes up her explanation of the prophecy, basically just outlining the thing without telling any of the specifics except for what has already occurred up till now. But no matter how long I stare, I can’t wrap my mind around how everything has transpired.

The way I thought this would play out is all of the humans immediately turning on me and hating me for being a demon and the granddaughter of the Demon King. And now? Now most people at least publicly seem fine with me again while they’re instead hating on Amelia…

Just… how?

“If I had to guess, Amelia probably had everything planned out to the last detail about your reveal,” Tar comments from his place on my shoulder as I continue sitting on a tree near the ash-covered crater I made with the Red Knight.

Yeah. She had to have. There’s no other possible explanation.

But… to take all of the blame on herself? Did she really have to do that?

“There might’ve been other ways to handle it, but this was the fastest and most efficient method,” Tar says. “It’s also a way for her to punish herself for what she did to you.”

A way to punish herself…

I purse my lips at the thought before leaning back on the tree and staring up at the full moon in the sky.

This is a lot to take in at once.

“You can think about how to treat Amelia after this later,” Tar suddenly says, making me glance at him with confusion etched onto my face. “For now it’d be a good idea to head to the main battlefield, otherwise the demons and humans will start fighting again after the demons calm down.”

Right. I almost forgot about that.

Can’t waste the momentum Amelia just made.

With that thought in mind, I begin running towards the main battlefield. While in my lycan form, of course. Because I don’t want to aggravate the humans there.

I arrive on a mountainside overlooking the main battlefield, only to find the demons and humans having separated on both sides of the battlefield. And while the humans are all discussing things amongst themselves, mostly about Amelia and how she ‘betrayed both humanity and her own daughter,’ the demons are all cheering for ‘The Apex Predator and Princess of the Demons.’

Overall a rather odd sight to behold.

Particularly because they aren’t attacking each other.

All of the sapient demons are tightly holding the reigns of the non-sapient ones, meanwhile the Nobles are holding the reigns of the sapient ones likely to lose control of themselves in a battlefield to their Sin.

Not that the Nobles need to restrain them considering how even those demons are cheering their hearts out.

“So you came?” I suddenly hear a familiar voice, making me look over to find both Red and his son Blake standing several meters away from me, the two of them somehow having arrived without my knowing. And the sight of Red being there makes me quickly look at the livestream, only to find that the only Knight still there is Amelia, who is calmly answering questions from the chat.

I look back up at the battlefield again as I mutter, “Yeah. Can’t waste the opportunity Amelia gave me.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a smirk stretching across Red’s face. A smirk that honestly makes me want to punch him.

But I can’t. Because that would be a death sentence.

I can punch him when I’m strong enough to not have to worry about his retaliation in the future.

“Wow, great compromise there,” Tar says with a snort. In my head, of course.

Yes. That it is.

He snorts again.

“In that case, let me help you,” Red suddenly says, making me blink in surprise before turning to look at him. “Apex Predator.”

Then a geyser of black flames suddenly shoots up from beneath my feet, carrying me up into the air without harming me somehow. And at the same time, it manages to gather quite the number of gazes. And the owners of those gazes then point me out to everyone around them, making me the center of attention from almost everyone after just a short period of time.

Silence soon fills the entire battlefield, following which the geyser holding me up comes back down and I land firmly on my feet back on the ground. Then, as if he hadn’t just done that, Red just walks up with a smirk on his face and hands me a microphone while patting a massive speaker that had appeared out of nowhere. Probably a spatial storage.

Although why he had one on hand I don’t know.

I take the microphone before turning to look at the hundreds of millions of people who all have their eye on me. And despite all of their gazes, I don’t feel nervous at all. But then again, I was never particularly shy. Just that I dislike dealing with other people, so I avoid them.

If I were to get shy though, this is probably the time I’d expect it.

But nope. Nothing.

I step forward with the mic in my hand, the eyes of millions of people following my every move from all across the massive battlefield. A battlefield that’s so massive that the only reason I can even almost see the other end of it is because of the very large mountain we’re standing on.

Being nervous and knowing what to say are two entirely different things though.

Tar snorts, making the corner of my lips quirk up ever so slightly.

I let out a short sigh before raising the microphone to my mouth and narrowing my eyes before saying, “Hello, my name is Scarlet, but many of you here now know me as Scarlet Art Asger de Archeron, The Apex Predator, Daughter of the White Knight of Humanity, Princess of the Demon World, and Scarlet Wolf.” My voice resonates throughout the entire massive valley and the mountains beyond, whatever speaker Red is using obviously being a piece of magi-tech equipment.

But I ignore that as I smirk slightly and say, “And I have a proposition for you all.”