“As for the ‘male lead’ you mentioned, Lady Yumo... if our deductions are correct, then the Crown Prince of the Snow Night Empire should be the person you are searching for.”

Saiboke-Baniya spoke respectfully.

Upon hearing his words, the sisters Liyu and Limo, who had been quietly listening from the side for quite some time, suddenly fell into a strange silence and exchanged meaningful glances with one another.

“I see~”

Yumo replied lightly.

Although her tone sounded calm and indifferent, the blood butterfly formed from Yumo’s consciousness fluttered wildly through the air in excitement, completely betraying her true emotional state.

!!!

‘The female lead! The male lead!! After all these years, there’s finally news about them!! This is amazing!!’

At long last, she no longer had to keep stupidly waiting around!!

Though Yumo maintained an outwardly composed appearance to preserve her dignity as the “parent” figure, inwardly she was already cheering with joy.

In order to complete the trial objective—

She absolutely had to nurture the male and female leads, the Child of Destiny and Child of Fate of this world. And to help them grow properly, she first needed to find them.

Because of that, starting several centuries ago, Yumo had sent out several of her children, along with humans who had successfully accepted her power, to search the continent for information regarding the protagonists.

However—

That search had lasted for hundreds of years.

From beginning to end, Yumo had failed to obtain even the slightest clue.

The eager anticipation she once possessed had long since disappeared, replaced by growing frustration and depression.

Of course, Yumo never blamed her children. After all, simply hiding the aura of Abyss Demons was already difficult enough for them. Asking them to search an entire continent for information was probably far too harsh...

Even so, Yumo still couldn’t help feeling disappointed. She often spiraled into overthinking.

‘Could it be the story hasn’t started yet? Has the trial not begun yet?’

If that were true...

Then how much longer would she have to wait? 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

How many more years would she remain trapped inside this forest? Several more centuries? Thousands of years?

Come to think of it, that girl who threw me in here never told me when the trial would even begin in the first place!!!

Every time she thought about it, Yumo would fall into this exact emotional spiral and become utterly depressed.

At every waking moment, she longed to receive information about the protagonists.

Therefore, after finally hearing relevant news from Saiboke-Baniya today, it was only natural that she felt overjoyed.

If she still had a physical body, she would probably already be dancing from excitement right now.

—

Watching the blood butterfly surrounded by an atmosphere of happiness, Saiboke-Baniya smiled faintly.

He saw through everything—

But chose not to expose it.

A short while later, after finally calming herself down, Yumo forced herself to speak in an artificially calm tone.

“Mm. Very good. You’ve done well.”

“Thank you very much for your praise, Lady Yumo.”

“Enmm, right. Didn’t you say earlier that you had several matters to report to me? Is there anything else?”

“Yes. There are several additional matters.”

Saiboke-Baniya nodded slightly.

“Then go ahead and say them~”

Yumo’s voice noticeably brightened.

That guy Xiao—

Every single time he sent someone to visit her, they always brought good news~

Let’s see what else there is this time~

Thus, under Yumo’s expectant gaze, Saiboke-Baniya cleared his throat and slowly began speaking.

“Additionally, Lord Xiao asked me to convey his gratitude to Lady Yumo. Thanks to the magic crystals you provided, our Black Rose family has successfully unified the southeastern region of the Safik Empire. One-third of the empire is now under our control. Lord Xiao himself has also risen from Marquis to Duke, his status now second only to that idiot emperor.”

“At the same time, our intelligence organization has already completed infiltration into the surrounding minor kingdoms, and we have now begun establishing footholds inside the Red Lotus Leaf Empire.”

“Ohh? Not bad.”

Yumo replied with satisfaction.

At the same time, she felt rather emotional inside.

‘Wow... Heize’s grandson is actually pretty incredible.’

After all, Yumo still remembered clearly that when she first rescued the ancestors of the Black Rose family, they had merely been a declining baron household in eastern Safik Empire.

Yet after several generations of development, they had actually become dukes?

If she remembered correctly, the entire Safik Empire only had two dukes in total, right?

That kid Xiao really deserved a reward.

Yumo silently added the matter to her mental memo list.

“Very nice, very nice. Once your influence expands, gathering intelligence in the future should become much easier.”

“Yes. Please rest assured, Lady Yumo. Our Black Rose family will absolutely do everything in our power to gather information regarding the ‘main protagonist group.’”

Saiboke-Baniya spoke respectfully.

“I know.”

Yumo replied casually.

Every heir of the Black Rose family had been trained under her care since childhood. They were practically children she had personally watched grow up~

Naturally, Yumo trusted that family greatly.

Though... most of the time, anyway...

“Then, is there anything else?”

“Yes. There is one more major matter. Lady Yumo, are you aware of the elves’ Holy Sword, Yixiu Feier?”

“The Holy Sword? Of course I know it.”

Several hundred years ago, someone had even used that sword to slash at her.

How could Yumo possibly not know it?

“What happened to it?”

“The elves used a secret technique to give birth to a sword spirit within the Holy Sword.”

“Oh? A sword spirit? That’s pretty interesting. Sounds nice. If a Holy Sword develops a sword spirit, its power should probably increase dramatically.”

If the protagonist group could eventually equip it, their combat ability should rise quite a bit too.

As a villain who constantly worried about the protagonists’ growth, Yumo silently made note of this matter as well.

However—

Upon hearing this, Limo tilted her head in confusion.

“A sword spirit isn’t exactly some shocking news though? We’ve seen weapon spirits like that before. What’s the big deal? Why are you acting so serious about it? Saiboke-Baniya, what’s with you?”

“I wasn’t finished speaking yet, Lady Limo.”

“Hm? Then what else is there?”

“Even for a Holy Sword, a sword spirit itself is not especially unusual. But the important point is that, with the help of the elves’ secret art, this Holy Sword possessing a sword spirit successfully transformed into human form.”

“So what if it transformed into a human? What difference does that make? That’s not really important at all~”

Limo replied dismissively.

Saiboke-Baniya: ......

Limo being a bit dense didn’t mean everyone else failed to understand.

After hearing Saiboke-Baniya’s explanation, Liyu immediately rejected her sister’s statement, her emerald-green eyes overflowing with excitement.

“No! This is absolutely important! To a certain extent, a sword spirit is basically the management consciousness of the sword itself! Isn’t that exactly like Mother?!”

As she spoke—

Liyu excitedly turned toward Saiboke-Baniya.

“Then if Mother used this secret technique, wouldn’t she also be able to transform into a human form?!”

“Eh?!”

Hearing her younger sister say this, Limo suddenly realized the implication. Her fluffy ears instantly stood upright.

Then she immediately rushed beside Saiboke-Baniya and grabbed his collar violently.

“That’s right!! If Mother can use it, then Mother could finally have a body!!”

Then they would be able to cuddle with Mother without any restraints!!

“Saiboke-Baniya, Saiboke-Baniya, Saiboke-Baniya!! Then why are you still standing around here?! Hurry up and bring that secret art over already!!”

“Alright, alright, calm down, Lady Limo.”

Saiboke-Baniya replied with a helpless bitter smile.

“Don’t worry. Lord Xiao has already ‘peacefully’ obtained the secret technique from the elves and instructed me to bring it here and deliver it to Lady Yumo.”