0137 Clearance and the Journey Home

"Your Highness, the troops have assembled. Do you have any instructions?" The loyal beast-man uncle bowed as he reported to Lancelot, who was standing by the window, waiting for further orders. However, several minutes passed after he spoke, and Lancelot remained silent. The puzzled uncle could not help but glance up at his master, fearing that something might be wrong.

Lancelot, however, paid no mind to the uncle’s movements. He stood quietly before the newly installed floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the scenery outside. It could hardly be called scenery; currently, the architecture of Eicassia was a chaotic mix of ruin and repair, with abandoned structures and intact ones scattered randomly. The sight of a thousand glowing lights had been replaced by the torches used for street illumination and the constant passing shadows of beasts, a far cry from the majestic beauty it held when the beasts first conquered it.

Watching his master stare blankly out the window, the beast-man uncle spoke again, softly: "Your Highness, the troops have assembled. Do you have any instructions?"

"Abel, do you like Eicassia as it is now?" Lancelot did not answer the question directly. Instead, he posed a strange query, watching Abel’s face with keen interest, awaiting his reply.

Abel maintained a composed expression, his head bowed, and answered honestly: "I do."

"Why?" Lancelot pressed. "Does the current state of Eicassia not violate your aesthetic standards?" As he spoke, he gestured toward the house he occupied. While Lancelot had ordered the renovation, every detail—from the location to the interior design—had been handled by Abel. The decor was exquisite; from the smallest napkin to the overall room style, everything was meticulously crafted. Lancelot had no idea how Abel managed to find such rare, tasteful, and stylistically consistent furniture in a single day, yet he had, placing each piece in the perfect corner. The daily cleaning was equally meticulous; Lancelot had never found a single speck of dust in the two-story house, which spanned over two hundred square meters. Even the kitchen, which should have been greasy, was impeccably clean.

That a man so fond of cleanliness and order could say he liked the current Eicassia left Lancelot looking at him in disbelief, awaiting an explanation.

Abel sighed, looking helplessly at the young candidate for the Demon Throne before him. "Your Highness, I am merely an advisor and butler assigned to you by the Demon Emperor. My job is to execute your orders and provide timely advice. Ultimately, you are the one who makes the decisions. You decided to conquer Eicassia, and now that you have achieved your wish, I naturally like the Eicassia that fulfills your desires."

"So, even if you knew my order to assemble the troops was for a trivial reason, you didn't stop me." Lancelot turned his gaze back to the window. Perhaps by coincidence, the only floor-to-ceiling window in the house faced the southern border between Eicassia and the Beast Forest. The night was too dark to see much, but Lancelot stared intently at every corner, never relaxing his vigilance.

"Unless it is a critical matter—like the last time, when we had to incite the humans to surrender or you would have been in danger—I will never act without your orders, nor will I randomly obstruct your commands," Abel said, bowing respectfully toward Lancelot.

"Even if I were to bring home a human woman to marry, just like my father did, you wouldn't object?" Lancelot joked, his face as cold as ice.

"If your position were as stable as your father's was at the time, I would have no grounds to object. But please, always remember what is most important," Abel replied respectfully.

"Family legacy, of course," Lancelot finally revealed a faint smile. Though it was impossible to tell how genuine it was, neither man cared. Lancelot walked away from the window to his desk, picking up the documents he had yet to finish. Before reading, he added, "Since the soldiers are already assembled, it would be a shame not to do something. Why not have them race around the city of Eicassia? A mysterious prize for the winner, how does that sound?"

"Understood." Having received a clear order, Abel nodded and posed the next question: "How would you like to handle the gate guards who were frozen in clay?"

"In that case, change the rules of the competition. Let them race to see who can reach the border between Eicassia and the Qilin Pass first, and carry one of the clay statues back to the medical ward completely intact. The winner gets the prize. Any beast that breaks a clay statue will be punished by kneeling in the square for three days. How is that?" Lancelot said calmly.

"Understood. I will handle it." Ignoring the slightly mischievous tone in Lancelot's voice, Abel bowed stiffly and turned to leave.

On the other side, having managed to escape Eicassia, Huan Luo and Mou Mou finally stepped onto the grassy plains of the southern forest. Feeling the soft grass underfoot, Mou Mou’s mood improved significantly. She pulled two maps from her bag. The first was a rough sketch she had prepared earlier; the second was a version she and Huan Luo had extorted from Andy after joining the "Save Liang Yin Project," which Huan Luo had corrected based on Xia Kui's descriptions.

*Swish.* The crisp sound of paper unfolding echoed. Mou Mou seemed to have lost all the vigilance she had shown in Eicassia. She stood there, boldly unfolding the map and using the golden light from her earth element to illuminate it, comparing and studying it carefully.

Though the dark forest made observation difficult, there were still visible landmarks. Seeing Mou Mou so earnestly identifying their location, Huan Luo found it hard to interrupt her thoughts, despite her own inner doubts. Furthermore, Huan Luo roughly knew who had given the order for the sudden assembly of the beasts, and understood that since that person had given the order, he intended to let them leave Eicassia without further pursuit. Thus, she allowed herself to relax, following Mou Mou’s lead as she scanned their surroundings.

Neither of the two, now at ease, noticed that not far behind them, an almost inaudible rustling sound was steadily drawing closer.