The Devil Duchess Adopts The Villainess

A week had passed, and Ashley soon became used to life in the castle with her new mom and family. She was the absolute darling of the servants and any request she made, even those mentioned in passing were immediately carried out.

Oh, the little duchess is hungry?

Five plates of different snacks and desserts were brought out.

Ashley complained offhandedly that the sunlight was a bit harsh that day….

Two servants ran behind her while holding an umbrella to keep the sun out of her eyes.

She was feeling a bit sleepy…

Suddenly a quilt was placed in the garden along with several fluffy pillows for her to rest.

It got to the point where Elise was wondering to herself who the true head of the castle was. Still she was glad that her daughter was not suffering from any homesickness after leaving the capitol city.

The strange dreams still haunted her at night but sleeping with Ashley was a godsend as the moment her powers started to go out of control, her daughter’s null magic would calm them down.

Usually Elise would spend most of her time outside of the castle and patrolling the borders while culling the occasional monster approaching the territory, but she wanted to stay with her daughter for the first couple of weeks.

Her time with her daughter was cut short by the arrival of a mysterious letter on her desk. Elise narrowed her eyes into slits as she opened the letter and scanned its contents. It was a report by the secretary of her peace corps detailing a dispute that arose between the demon tribe and the mermaids.

The letter continued on, saying that the reason for this disagreement was unknown, but tensions were rising steadily between the two tribes and he advised that the duchess go mediate the argument personally. Both tribes refused to contact the other without the duchess as a mediator.

“The demon tribe….” Elise muttered softly.

Elise was the only human in the dukedom capable of commanding the demonkin residing in the territory. This was not due to her ownership of the land nor her noble blood but the enormous strength that she possessed.

Demons were a war-like race with strong physical bodies that more than made up for their lack of mana. The representative of the tribe was called ‘Ares’ meaning god of war. The demon known as Ares was chosen after a fighting competition was held amongst the tribesmen every five year.

The church used the nature of the demon race as the standard for all the dark races and their horns were seen as the marks of the devil.

Contrary to popular belief, demons were willing to form trade and interact with humans and other races. However, there was a simple condition as they would only treat someone of another race as their equal if they could defeat the Ares in battle.

Elise smiled as she recalled visiting the demons when she was eighteen and the newly appointed duchess of the north.

(Flashback)

“My lady are you sure about this?”, Gerald asked in a worried tone.

“Yes. My father proved himself as the worthy ruler of the demon tribe and I intend to do the same,” came a flat reply from the young woman in front of him.

Eighteen-year-old Elise wore a frozen expression which made her seem like an untouchable ice beauty. Her hair was tied backwards in a ponytail and her youthfulness resembled a flower beginning to bloom. Her horse was a magnificent white stallion whose very presence emitted a fierce nature.

There was only a trace of sadness buried deep within her violet eyes that none could detect as the young lady was in a state of grief. Her father had gone on a journey to visit one of the lesser nobles in the western part of the kingdom to aid in a direwolf extermination.

Elise could still recall the confident grin on his face as he laughed heartily and promised to return with some necklaces from the western merchants.

He never returned.

A few weeks had passed since her father had taken the army and left for the west but there were no new messages from him. Elise figured he was busy with a new monster infestation and was in the garden practising her swordsmanship when she received the news.

It was a letter from the royal family informing her that she was now the official duchess of the north as her father had passed away in an unforeseen accident. His army were apparently all deserters and had been subsequently executed without trial by the order of the emperor.

This was all incredibly suspicious and Elise in her rage shattered the entire left section of the castle when the news of her father’s death reached her ears. Her magic rampaged out of control and it took her hours before she calmed down enough to stop her mana from activating.

She could not remember how she came to her senses but when she woke up, there was a black crow feather resting gently at the side of her head.

“Elise you need to remain calm,” Gerald abandoned formalities and gazed upon the little girl he had watched grow up ever since she was a child.

“There is clearly a conspiracy being covered up by the royal family or some higher power in your father’s death. We cannot afford to recruit more men for the army, or we will not have enough to survive the spring attacks,” he continued in a soft tone.

“You are the last surviving member of the Blackwolf House, and I will not stand by and watch you throw your life away.”

Elise stared straight ahead as if his words held no meaning to her, but the grips on the reins of her horse started to tighten. She was no fool and knew that flying into a rage would be playing into the hands of whoever killed her father.

But that was her dad.

The shadowy tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs in a comforting manner and her pupils became to shift slowly from the violet hue to a dark black. The whispers began to mutter slowly in her ears.

“They killed him.”

“They killed the only family I had left.”

“I will kill them.”

Those thoughts echoed around Elise’s head until they just became a chorus of rage screaming at her nonstop. Elise straightened out her back and nudged the hindquarters of her horse and set off in a southern direction from the castle.

“My lady! Where are you going?” Gerald called out in desperation.

Elise faced forward and the head butler could not see the look on her face as she gazed at the road ahead. He also did not see the tears shining unshed in her eyes.

“I know it is stupid and no sane person would ever follow me to the capitol,” she suddenly spoke.

Gerald sighed in relief as he believed his lady finally realised what a bad idea this was, but her following words made him gasp in shock.

“That’s why I’ll visit the demons and beat Ares to gain the right to command the tribe”