The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated
chapter-177

Looking at Lucy's regretful expression, Shien actually wanted to make a certain comment.

"From where I'm standing, you're not all that different, princess."

Right?

Although she's not quite at Diere's level, Lucy is also the kind of person who pretty much completely lowers her guard against someone that she trusts, right?

Otherwise, how could Lucy be acting so casually toward Shien?

Strictly speaking, Shien has only met Lucy the once. And yet, after just that once, she could already get physical with him to the point of pouncing on him to steal his stuff. Is that really something that any other princess could just carelessly do?

Of course not, right?

Never mind the fact that Lucy's the world's number one princess at that.

Therefore, Lucy really isn't all that different compared to Diere.

(In time, this girl might even come over to help wash my back at some point.)

Shien thus quietly commented in his mind.

Then Shien thought of Melika.

(That girl isn't really any better.)

She was so guarded against Shien before, to the point where she didn't even want to get near him. But recently, she's gotten more and more defenseless toward Shien, to the point where's she's nearly turning into a stalker. Could this be what it means to become what one once hated?

(Aren't the women of other worlds a bit too easy to conquer?)

That's what Shien felt like.

Of course, Shien was just randomly mouthing off. It's not like he actually believed that.

He knew full well that the reason that things turned out this way was mostly because those girls simply kept too much of a distance from the other sex in the past. One can even say that they had no relationship of any kind with those of the opposite gender. That's why they're acting like such pure maidens. They just didn't have any experience in understanding the appropriate distance to keep with a man.

Now, that's naturally not something that applies to other males.

Those girls all have the personal reservations, embarrassment, and good rearing to know how to protect themselves. How to keep a proper distance from those of the opposite gender.

However, when a man who could get them to let down their guard and push into their world appeared, they'd be unable to properly readjust the proper distance, and so they might end up doing things that they normally wouldn't do.

Plus, Shien just has that kind of personality that makes it easy to provoke others and make them impulsive and reckless. All those reasons together all contributed to them taking relative intimate actions.

Perhaps they were just treating Shien the same way that they normally would to friends of the same gender, and it's just that they didn't realize that certain actions that are allowable between girls aren't all that appropriate towards boys.

(Although I say that, Lucy and Melika's actions are at least still within the bounds of common sense. At most, they're just acting a bit closer…)

But Diere is another story.

She'd share a bath with Shien every day. Even if she failed to judge the proper distance, she still shouldn't have just casually done that kind of thing, right?

(Is that what that princess meant by the fact that Diere might look cold on the outside, but her inside is completely different?)

But, this difference is a bit too much, isn't it?

(Well, whatever.)

He's the one who's getting the better end of the deal anyways, so why overthink it?

Let's just take it as one of the services for a transmigrator.

"Anyways, you don't need to worry about Diere. I'm properly looking after her after all. If you want to find out how she's doing, it should be easy for you to find out just by asking about a bit."

Shien pulled the topic back.

"I only wanted to say that now I understand what your relationship is."

Simply put, both Lucy and Diere are Hero descendants. Their families have known each other since forever as well, with very tight relations throughout the generations. Thus, it's only natural for the two of them to have known each other since they were little.

And Leili is also the descendant of the Latrard family. The Latrard family used to be an administrative official at the Hero Mitra's side, who, after Mitra brought up the concept of adventurers, took on the task of creating the adventurer's guild in the capital. Thus, it's also quite normal for the Latrard family to have had a close relationship with the Arbin family who protected the royal family."

Shien also heard from Vivian that in the capital, there's a saying about the brains of Latrard and the brawn of Arbin. Those two might just be nobles of the rank of marquis, but they're considers the two swords of the royal family.

Of the two of them, one controls the greatest organization in the mortal realm, capable of moving countless adventurers. The other controls the highest leveled knight order in the entire Kingdom, known as the final shield of the Kingdom. Their statuses are absolutely not something that normal nobles can compare to, and not even the ducal houses who are blood relatives of the royal family would dare to take those two families lightly.

Or rather, if not for the fact that dukes can only be named from those relatives of the royal family, that only those who bears the blood of royalty may gain that noble title, then there's no way that the Latrard and Arbin families would only be of the marquis rank.

Those two families are the most influential people by the royal family's side. Thus Lucy, Diere, and Leili's relationship might be even more intimate than Shien might have thought.

However, later on, something happened with Diere and she broke relations with the rest of her family. Thus, Lucy could only watch as Diere became distant to her. Even so, she still worked together with Leili to help Diere in secret.

As for Vivian, she's actually not all that close to Lucy. She's Leili's childhood friend, so it's only through Leili that she ended up getting to know Lucy as well as Diere. The current relationships with her is due to her getting to know Diere later on.

As he thought that, Shien suddenly noticed a question that he hasn't considered before.

(It's normal for Lucy, Leili, and Diere to be connected, but how did Vivian end up becoming Leili's childhood friend?)

That's right.

Shien realized that he doesn't actually know what kind of status Vivian has.

(Given that she could become Leili's childhood friend, her own background must be pretty amazing too, right?)

But even though they've been in the Capital for several days now, Shien still hasn't heard any mention form Vivian about her own family. Instead, she just acted like the Latrard home was her own. Megis would also often look at Vivian with a very indulgent expression, much like as if he was looking at his own daughter.

(Could Vivian in fact be an adopted daughter of the Latrard family? An orphan that they took in perhaps?)

Shien considered it deeply.

Although Lucy, having no idea what Shien was thinking about, still had the same vexed expression her her face, she finally sighed.

"Just as you must have realized, Diere, Leili and I used to be very close with each other. If not for the fact that I ended up getting busier and busier, and the fact that some stuff happened with Diere, we might have turned out to be childhood friends who grew up together."

Lucy looked toward Shien.

"Since you already know some of Diere's situation, then please give her a hand when she needs it. Here in the capital, very few people are willing to help her. Most of the nobles in fact consider her as someone they have a feud with."

"Therefore, she's actually quite lonely."

Hearing that, Shien fell silent.

Lucy thus continued on.

"Now there's finally someone who she can let down a bit of her guard with. Perhaps this is a good thing." Lucy spoke as she glared at Shien and warned him, "However, don't go getting ideas just because of that. Don't say that I didn't warn you later. Even if her inner personality is quite different, at the same time, she's also merciless on the inside. If you really did try to assault her, then you'd best have prepared yourself to be stabbed."

This was something that Shien knew for some time already.

Why else would he have held back all this time?

"Plus, I have something I want to talk to you about as well."

"I've already gone to the divine realm."

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