Katherine’s Shyness

"How strange," I said and removed my hands from the elves with a frown.

As soon as I stopped touching their foreheads, the two elves collapsed on the ground, dead.

"C-Claus!?" Katherine was startled when she saw that. "Did you kill them?"

I shook my head, but I did not explain anything. Instead, I fell deep in thought.

Just now, when I was investigating the truth about the elves' plans, their souls self-destructed.

That is not so strange in itself. In my many lifetimes, I have seen uncountable methods to guard secrets against soul scrying, and most of them rely on some kind of self-destruction.

What is strange, however, is the fact that their self-destruction was successful even when I tried to stop it.

Something like that should not be possible for two elves like them.

After all, with my understanding of the soul, few people can manage to pull out something like that in front of me.

And someone capable of that must be an–

"Immortal."

And one with pretty good knowledge of soul laws.

Someone immediately came to my mind.

"Is it related to his plan?" I muttered to myself. "Is he planning to arrive in this world using the elves instead of the daemons? Was my guess wrong?"

"Claus?" Katherine looked at me confused. "What happened? Are you alright"?

I shook my head. "I'm alright. I just found something interesting."

"Interesting?" Katherine tilted her head confused.

"Yes. Information related to the deaths in the academy…"

Katherine wrinkled her brows. Immediately, her expression turned cold.

"Did you find a clue about that man?"

I nodded. "I thought I would find clues about him with the daemons, but I never expected his plan to be related to the elves."

Yes, if my guess is correct, he is manipulating the elves to bring him to this world.

According to the memories of the two elves I caught, they were in a mission to recollect information on the Arcadian Empire and next to pass this information to the daemons.

However, the goal of the elves wasn't to destroy the Arcadian Empire or something like that.

No, their goal is to cause chaos.

Besides this team of elves, there are several more teams in other missions around the world.

Some of them are trying to incite the daemons to wage war against the humans, some of them are trying to cause civil strife between the human countries, and some of them are trying to spread plagues on the land.

Their only purpose is to cause chaos and death.

And after that, they will use an unknown method to collect the souls of the dead and then use these souls to power something.

All to achieve the elves' 'oldest dream'.

No matter how I look at that, they are being fooled by the immortal to bring him to this world.

Unfortunately, I was unable to learn the specifics of the elves' plan.

Part of the reason is that the two elves did not know much about it, but most of the reason is that when I tried to see the memories related to the specifics of the plan, I triggered something that caused the destruction of their souls.

Yes, just like when I discovered the seeds of the Immortal for the first time.

This time, though, the self-destruction technique is slightly different. That is the reason I was unable to stop it just now.

But I'm confident that if I face the same situation again, I'll be able to stop the self-destruction of their souls. I'm not self-proclaimed the best when it comes to souls for nothing.

But before that, I have to take care of other things.

According to the information I saw in the elves' mind, the daemons know everything about our convoy.

How many soldiers are there, who the general is, the strength of the soldiers.

They also know that I, Prince Claus, am part of the convoy as well. Hell, they even know about the deal we did with the Carmell family just now and the sets of military gear in our possession.

In other words, there is a high chance that we will be attacked before reaching the frontlines.

How interesting.

I explained the situation to Katherine, leaving aside some small details.

"In other words, the elves are the ones behind this war?" Katherine asked surprised.

I nodded. "Not completely, but they are fanning the flames behind scenes."

"Claus, what are you going to do then?" Katherine looked at me and asked.

I thought for a moment before answering her. "I think I'll find an opportunity to visit the Elven forest and investigate the situation. And if it's necessary, I'll stop whatever that man is planning."

Katherine fell silent for a moment. She then bit her lips and looked at me with a worried expression.

"Claus… Is it true the world is going to be destroyed?"

"So you finally asked about that," I said with a wry smile.

Last time, when the Immortal descended after killing two thousand people in the Institute, I told the goddess about the Immortal's plan to destroy the world in front of my women.

I did not tell her the complete truth and instead mixed some truths with lies. But the fact he is planning to destroy the world is true.

And Katherine, Dina, Rose, Evelyn, Alice, and Daisy heard about that.

During all this time, though, none of them have asked me about it.

It was in part because the opportunity never presented itself, but also in part because most of them knew they were not going to be very useful against that kind of enemy.

Only Rose and Evelyn know a bit about the enemy, but even they have remained silent, preferring not to talk about the topic.

However, it looks like Katherine is finally unable to remain silent.

"What do you want to know?" I looked at her and asked with a sigh.

"… How powerful is that person? You said something about him being an Immortal."

I thought for a moment about how to answer her.

In the end, I decided to tell her a bit of the truth.

"He is very strong. Stronger than the Goddess of Order. Much stronger than you think."

Katherine's expression turned slightly pale.

"But I'm stronger." I suddenly said.

Katherine was stunned.

"R-Really?"

"Of course." I walked towards her and grabbed her hands with a smile. "Don't worry too much. Even if that man plans to destroy the world, I will stop him. I don't want to brag, but your man is very strong."

A slight blush appeared on Katherine's face. But she then put on a determined expression and looked straight to my eyes.

"Claus, if you need help, tell me."

Hmm?

"That woman said that we were useless, that we were just a burden… I don't plan to be like that. Claus, I love you. And I want to be of help to you. I know I'm not strong enough yet, but even so, I will help as much as I can."

I smiled wryly. "You should not care about Ysnay's words. She is a psycho."

"Even so, I–"

"Shh." I said and put a finger on Katherine's lips. "But even so, I'm happy to hear your words. Also, this is the first time you told me you loved me."

Katherine was stunned. She then turned completely red and lowered her head shyly.

I chuckled and lifted her chin, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

"I love you too."

A dazed expression appeared in Katherine's face.

After several seconds like that, she turned red and looked on the ground embarrassed.

"Y-You know, I have nothing to do t-tonight, so if you want, y-you can c-come to visit me…"

Mm?

Is this an invitation?

Happiness came so suddenly!

Mm… How troublesome. I already have plans with Aunt Dayana for tonight.

However, Katherine rarely takes the initiative. I don't want to waste this opportunity.

How about this…

"I have to investigate some things about the elves' plans tonight, so I'll be busy after this. How about this? I'll go to your tent after midnight. What do you think?"

Katherine blushed even more and nodded.

"I'll wait for you."

...

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