“Then we shall also lean towards accepting the treaty. However, Hero Akira, you seem to be looking for more than that.”

“Yes, I believe humans and demons can achieve more by joining together, I’m not saying to immediately allow each one to enter the other’s territory, I believe there will still be people who can’t accept that from both sides, so we can take our time. But technology, resources, knowledge could easily be exchanged in some other way.”

“I see, what does Princess Vermillion says about that?”

Vermillion heard that and sighed.

“I don’t really like being called a Princess, but I will let it pass for now… Akira has shown us the potential, so we all agree with that, however, my father is currently dealing with the tribes to accept it, I believe that the human side may also need some time like that?”

[Milly, I think you may have misinterpreted something.]

“Hum? And what is it?”

[This is not the representative for humanity, just the humans in the Norrstvo Kingdom.]

“... And what does it mean?”

[It means that this treaty… Let’s see how do I explain it… It’s a treaty with a single tribe of Humans.]

“Hmm… How many tribes are there?”

[...]

The Prince, who had approached Akira and Vermillion, looking at their interchange started to laugh.

“Hahaha, oh dear, it seems you came with a misconception. Did the Hero lie to you?”

“... No, he didn’t lie, I think I just understood it wrong… I wonder if Papa got it wrong too… But so, what can I do?”

“Don’t worry Princess, you didn’t do anything wrong. Our Kingdom is one that borders the Ice Lands, hence why you came here. You could say that from now on, if you negotiate with other ‘tribes’, you can use our name to make it easier on you.”

“... So I still have a lot of work to do...  But I have to return soon...“

[Milly, what the prince says is correct, we accomplished what we came to do.]

“So is this all to be done here?”

“I would say so. We can still talk to discuss some extra details, but the main part has been accomplished. Congratulations on your first diplomatic work.”

Prince Orlando seemed quite friendly with Vermillion now, while Princess Ulrika was right behind him, but averted her gaze everytime she was looked at. Vermillion rummages on her luggage that she had placed by her side, opens the freezer, and takes a small container, a really small container for her hands.

“So maybe it’s time for festivities?”

It’s the middle of the night, the knights are still keeping guard, and the bonfires are still on, guaranteeing some luminosity. When Vermillion places the enclosed container in an empty area, the Prince doesn’t know what to do, and the Princess and her Knight were just as confused.

“Well, I saw the knights drinking and having fun before, so I thought maybe we should do the same again?”

The Prince glared at the knights (How could they be having fun with a potential powerful enemy right next to them?), who just averted their gazes. Akira sighs and opens that container that is a tad little too small for her to open by herself.

“I see… Thank you, for this... Drink?”

A knight comes with Cups for the Prince, Princess and her Knight, when Prince Orlando looked around, everyone was already holding a cup. The liquid is brown colored, if anything common-sense has taught him is that this color is bad, but the smell is quite good. The Prince fills his cup with the Coleite Milk in the container, and takes a little tip first. Soon after he drank the rest.

“Oh, this is great! What is it?”

“Fufufu”

Vermillion seems satisfied by another compliment, he takes another cup, but gives space for the Princess and Knight Anastacia to try it themselves. The two try it and have a similar reaction. Akira sighs.

“Mama’s tribe has a special fruit that we use to make a sweet we call Coleite, this is not that, but is somewhat similar.”

“I understand what the Hero mentioned about exchanging food and resources now, it seems we can indeed learn from each other.”

“I agree that it’s such a sweet taste. I never had anything like it, what is it?”

The Prince and Princess seemed to have approved it, Knight Anastacia also tasted it and was resisting the urge to splash herself in it.

[I thought you would be more reserved about this, when your mother talked about it you were all embarrassed.]

“Hm? I don’t like that Mama likes to tell that story to everyone, but I’m quite proud of my Milk, you know.”

Hearing the two talk, the Prince tried to rationalize the information he had just heard.

“I see, this must be Milk from some unique beast that exists in the Demon World, if the Princess can milk it, I can imagine it being quite big.”

“That’s just milk. Her milk.”

Akira revealed it to the Prince.

“Here, it comes from my tit.”

And as Vermillion takes out her right breast from out of her large shirt. The royal trio stopped drinking.

“Everyone, please drink, I have more, but also, if there is anything left I need to store it back or it may go bad, so please do it fast.”

And all the Knights moved to get their own cups filled, the Prince looked at Vermillion, then holding the cup on his mouth, drank the rest.

“I see…”

The princess looked at her cup, then at Vermillion, then touched her own small breasts. She still drank it, but decided to leave. Knight Anastacia, who is accompanying the Princess, goes after her, but first she takes the princess own cup, and hastily fills it up together with her own, and uses some Ice magic to stop it from dropping.

That night was festive for the knights.

------------

The Prince and Akira had were discussing extra ideas, but Vermillion was also listening to everything to ensure nothing went against what her Father has explained to her, and Princess Ulrika was by the side, but not saying anything, just sitting and staying quiet. Before departing, Demon King Ignis had called Vermillion for a discussion.

There he explained who the enemy was, its abilities, what it was most likely trying to do, and why nothing could be told to Akira, so instead, she would receive the information and decide herself. He had little expectations of it working, but it seems that Prince was more compatible than she expected.

However, there was the problem of trust, as the Prince explained.

“In human politics, these alliances usually require some sort of guarantee, usually dealt with a marriage between the families. However, from what I understood, Princess Vermillion is an only daughter, and I don’t think there is a rule to dictate that the Demon King must be male.”

“The Demons are a tribal community, the Demon King or Queen is usually the strongest of all the Demon who is interested in uniting the land. As such, after my father, it’s likely that I may have the highest potential of being the next Demon Queen… Not that I have much interest in it right now...”

Vermillion replies without much interest, seems like she doesn’t really care about politics.

“Well, the idea, Princess Vermilion, was that one side would need to marry someone from the other side. If you are the likely Demon Queen, we are aware that you won’t be able to come to this side. It’s similar to how I, who is the heir to the throne, can only marry someone with no such responsibilities. I could ask you to marry a younger brother of mine, but-”

“Won’t work”

“Yes, I expected that answer. The other option, however, would you having a sibling or someone like that, and marry someone from our side.”

“I’m an only-daughter, but-”

“And it’s quite a coincidence, although nobody expected, Hero Akira seems to have left our side, and joined yours.”

“Hum?”

“What I’m suggesting is for Hero Akira to marry my sister, as he seems to be well trusted by the Demon King, besides, we already had that idea in mind from the start after all, every Kingdom would want to tie a summoned hero to themselves..

Hero Akira, would you marry my sister Ulrika for the sake of our worlds this time?”

“WHAT!?”

Vermillion seemed surprised at the unexpected proposition, but Akira who learned something that he was not aware about.

“I was supposed to marry this bullying princess?”

“Of course, it would be an offer, we would not enforce anything. Maybe it’s wrong to tell you all this, but considering the way things are, I see no harm in explaining, and I hope this may be used to express that I’m not trying to hide anything from you, Hero Akira.

My sister was tasked in trying to keep you in the Kingdom, and as someone who liked Heroes so much, our family had high expectations that she would be able to keep you around, when you fled, everyone was surprised, and she was heavily punished for failing in such an essential Job.

My poor sister lost most of her reputation, and came here forced simply because we heard you were here too.”

Akira looked at Princess Ulrika, but her head was lowered. That seems to be true.

“I can understand that my sister may be useless right now, but I guess I’m just trying to save her face. Maybe it’s just pity right now.”

The words of the prince were piercing him, he wasn’t aware of such circumstances, of course, he didn’t care much, the princess was pretty bad towards him, however, he could see that Princess Ulrika, upon hearing that, was receiving even more damage. Akira felt like he needed to stop the Prince.

“W-What the heck are you saying!?”

“The simple truth, I don’t know why your reaction is like that right now, but I’m being honest here, and merely trying to help my sister. How about this, think about this. We will sleep in the carriage, and in the morning we will go back to the castle to inform of my decision and start moving on our side. We can discuss more before we part, agreed?”

And the Prince was trying to push that with quite some strength, however, Akira still couldn’t fully process the data from now, and his past experiences in the castle, if she had the job to keep him on the human’s side, she was pretty bad at the job…

At such a moment, Vermillion comes to the rescue

“Why don’t you just accept it?”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

“What?”

The Prince, the Princess and Akira were surprised by her claim, the Prince had thought that maybe there was something with the Hero already, he forced this proposition to make sure to at least get the Hero card on his side. The Princess was already down from seeing the Hero on the other side, so this offer caught her off-guard. Akira just found strange why would she make such a suggestion in the first place.

“I mean, just give her a child and that’s it, right? She won’t even care or bother you anymore after that. That’s how it happened with Papa and Mama.”

“Hero Akira, what is she talking about?”

“Milly, you mother is an exception among exceptions, that is not what was being discussed here, ok?”

“Oh, I’m curious about this Demon Queen.”

“D-Don’t ask, just don’t ask.”

“Ha ha ha, you are making me more curious now, but so be it, my offer still stands, let’s talk again in the morning. Have a good night.”

Akira could just facepalm, but the third person that hadn’t said anything felt extremely insulted from such ideas.

“You slut thief! Who do you think I am!? I don’t know what sort of degenerates are your parents, but to claim that I would marry for such shallow reasons! Just die!”

Princess Ulrika started to cry, and ran back to her carriage. Knight Anastacia that was accompanying her apologized to everyone in her place.

“D-Did I say something bad?”

Vermillion was nervous, she wasn’t expecting such a reaction, she just thought about something that could help with their deals, but instead, she almost broke them.

“Milly… We need to talk…”

The Prince, also not expecting such a reaction, had something to say.

“... I apologize, I’m partially at fault for attacking her reputation right in front of her. I will try to calm her down, but this won’t cancel our deal in the morning, so think it over.”

The Prince left, the Knights around, who witnessed the event also apologized to the Hero and the Demon. And only Akira and Vermillion didn’t move, as the night got darker due to the lack of light offered by the crescent moon.