"Are you sure father?"
"Yes, I am. We will recognize the Galactic Empire as proof of goodwill to this Dax, and the church. Go immediately and draw up a treaty with them, bring only a single royal knight to be with you at all times."
"Understood."
Leaving her father's personal office at the top of the central castle Teresa was smiling from ear to ear.
(If at least half the things Dax told me turns out to be true that'll propel the Kingdom to the foremost power on this continent!)
She quickly made her way to the royal knight captain's office in the castle and requested a knight to be assigned, then headed for the carriage area where she met up with a royal knight.
"Please join me inside the carriage"
"But my princess I can't keep you safe like that, and are you sure that you'll go with only me as your protection?"
"I am certain. This is a visit were we can't be allowed to appear hostile, besides I really like the stories of your people you told me last time Sophia."
With those words the second princess assumed the discussion to be over and went into the carriage, leaving the door open. Giving a sigh Sophia carefully stepped into the luxurious horse carriage like it was made of glass. The inside of the carriage was normally in the part that it had a central table flanked by two benches, but that was the only normal thing about it. The benches were covered in super expensive looking linen with elaborate embroidery. Even the table was luxurious, made of some sort of hazy white crystal, with one end being a minibar filled with different coloured liquids in crystal pitchers. Sitting down extremely carefully as the carriage started moving Sophia immediately asked a pressing question.
"Are you sure it's fine for me to be in here?"
As the royal knight nervously stepped into the luxurious carriage she took off her full mail helmet and revealed her obsidian skin and bright red eyes.
"It's fine yeah, you are here only in case we get jumped by some sort of bandit before we get close to the church."
"And after that?"
"Then I don't believe you could save me even if you sacrificed yourself to do so."
"In that case!-"
"This is a mission of goodwill, such risks are involved. Now tell me more about your tribe!"
Finally showing her true colours and acting her age, Teresa eagerly asked Sophia details about her tribe.
Arriving at the central church Teresa stepped out of the carriage to find the church doors wide open and not a single church guard or cloaked figure in sight.
"This is quite the empty reception compared to last time."
"Please stay close, something feels off…"
As the royal knight diligently surveyed the surrounding area she found no threat, but was still quite on edge.
"Perhaps it would be better to return at some other time?"
"We can't, his majesty told me that this new treaty should be drawn up immediately. Besides this is the central church, it's the safest place in Kingsted after the castle."
Walking along as she said that, Theresa made it to the stairs in front of the church door before stopping as she steeped in blood.
"What is this?"
"Blood! We need to leave now!"
Seeing the trail of blood that led to the church Sophia panicked as she grabbed the princess's arm and turned back towards the carriage, only to notice they had been completely surrounded by cloaked figures.
"Seems like we can't do that... Let's just see what they want."
"But!-"
"That is a royal decree."
"Okay, but stay close."
Not really pleased with the situation, Sophia did her job and lead her princess up the blood soaked stairs. As soon as they entered the church the knight and princess froze in terror. Inside the church, the blood trail ended in a massive pool a few meters in, but either of them hardly noticed that as their eyes were drawn to the main altar. On the most sacred altar made of pure white marble lined with gold sat a nun that released a large amount of bloodlust as wings made of golden crystal slowly formed on her back. Next to her was the man Theresa went to the church to find originally, but he didn't look pleased with their arrival either.
"I am!-"
"This country's second princess right? Why are you here?"
As the princess tried to announce herself she was interrupted by the nun that asked her reason for coming in an annoyed voice.
"I-I'm here to draw up the base for a treaty of cooperation between the Kingdom and Galactic Empire!"
"..."
Being initially meet with silence Teresa started to grow nervous until the nun suddenly got up from her seat as her wings disappeared.
"You handle this."
As she left with those words the attention of the knight and princess pair turned to Dax that had up until now been silent. Without saying a word Dax tossed some sort of metal collar covered in blood to Sophia as he finally opened his mouth.
"I was attacked a few hours ago by a mind controlled royal knight, and 6 assassins all wearing these."
"A mind controlled royal knight?"
"Yeah, he was completely rabid so I knocked him out cold, but enough of that. Now for the important question miss second princess."
"W-what?"
"Does the Kingdom have anything to with the production, usage or distribution of slavery collars? Failure to answer, an affirmative or a lie will lead to your immediate death so take your time~"
While asking the second princess a red glowing blade slowly extended from Dax's artificial arm while Teresa and Sophia were surrounded by multiple golems.
"S-slavery collars? Is this!?"
Feeling immense disgust when she heard it being mentioned at first, it took Sophia half a second to realize it before she hurriedly rubbed the blood of the collar she had been thrown to reveal a runic pattern surrounding an ominous mana crystal, but Teresa didn't even hear her outburst as she bore the full brunt of Dax's direct bloodlust. It was nothing like the first time they had met, leading Terasa to believe that that time indeed had been a mare greeting. She felt her blood freeze as a chill went up her spine and her head turned hazy from her greatly increased heart rate and adrenaline as her legs almost gave out. 'This time he's serious, I'm going to die' went through her head repeatedly as her legs finally gave out and tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she finally answered Dax's question.
"N-n-no! W-we ha-have n-nothing to do w-with it!"
Half crying Terasa finally managed to deny the Kingdom's involvement with slavery collars as Sophia went in between her and Dax to guard her while explaining.
"An attempt on Teresa's life was the reason they were banned! We have nothing to do with them!"
In response to Sophia's outburst, Dax's arm went back to normal and the golems backed off.
"Then clean up your shit before I do it for you. The Kingdom have until tomorrow evening to hand overall responsibility for this pathetic and fucking disgusting attempt on my life or I'll take care of them myself. A treaty of cooperation can happen when you fulfil all parts of the Avoxaian treaty, now get the fuck out of my sight before I decide it's just easier to take control of this shithole."
---
Teresa didn't know how she got back to the castle after that, but she was later told that Sophia had carried her to the carriage and then called for an emergency gathering of the council regarding a document she had been handed on the way out of the church.
THIS IS A FORMAL NOTICE OF IMMEDIATE MILITARY ACTION WITHIN KINGSTED TO ERADICATE INSURGENT ELEMENTS.
ON THE 21ST DAY OF THIS MONTH AT SUNDOWN MILITARY FORCES OF THE 125TH HELLWALKERS WILL DEPLOY AND ERADICATE THE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION(S) AND/OR INSURGENT ELEMENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SALE, DISTRIBUTION, PRODUCTION AND/OR USE OF SLAVERY TYPE MAGIC TOOLS AS ANY TOOL THAT CONTRIBUTES TO A BREACH OF THE AVOXAIAN TREATY MUST BE PURGED, ALONG WITH ANY GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS SUPPORTING IT IF NEEDED.
IF THE KINGDOM WISHES TO AVOID THIS ANY AND ALL PERSONNEL INVOLVED WITH THE SALE, DISTRIBUTION, PRODUCTION AND/OR USE OF SLAVERY TYPE MAGIC TOOLS MUST BE HANDED OVER TO THE COMMANDER IN CHARGE OF THE 125TH HELLWALKERS BEFORE SUNDOWN OF THE 21ST DAY OF THIS MONTH AND ALL SLAVERY TYPE MAGIC TOOLS MUST BE DESTROYED.
"That is just a blatant declaration of war!"
"He has no respect for our authority!"
"I thought we already wiped out that organization when they tried to kill the second princess two years back!?"
"The 21st!? What the hell does he expect us to do in a single day!?"
"This is merely a ploy to take control of the Kingdom! We must kick him out at once!!"
"That's right! He must be plotting with the church and made up that pathetic reasoning!"
"He even traumatized the second princess so badly she couldn't speak!"
"Let's call back the prince and the elite forces from the north and use them to kill him!"
Understandably the counsel was quite upset with that statement, and the discussion quickly heated up to unreasonable levels, making the king intervene.
"Silence! What is the church's opinion of this bishop?"
"The opinion of the church is to snuff out heresy without fail, but Solaris herself decided that this matter should be left to Dax after he talked Solaris out of paying a visit to this town and cleaning it in person."
"""In person!?"""
It had been close to a hundred years since an angel had left the sanctuary, but the records of the 'cleaning' of that time had been burned so thoroughly into the history books that everyone knew of the angels might.
"This might be a blessing in disguise.."
"Wha!- Princess, are you okay!?"
At some point during the discussion, Terasa had entered the council room, instead of her normal clothing she wore a pink nightgown and she still looked very pale, but her eyes showed her usual strong will.
"Are you fine?"
"Yes... Is what I would like to say guild master Max, but that hardly matters for I'm also a member of the council."
With those words, she was helped by a maid to her seat and the council momentarily turned completely silent to await the continuation of her earlier words.
"Um so were where we?"
"You said something about this entire thing being a blessing?"
"That's right. The Galactic Empire called us out on what they thought was us breaking the Avoxaian treaty if that turns out to not only be wrong and we turn over the masterminds we'll have leverage over Dax. If we do nothing he'll wipe out a criminal element from Kingsted, and still have to apologize when he finds out we had nothing to do with the attack earlier today. In either case, it's a win-win for us as long as we can save face."
"T-that's true… But wouldn't it be best if we catch the criminals ourselves and then hand them over for execution?"
"Indeed. For that, I would ask your highness to mobilize of the royal knights against suspect targets in a surprise raid tomorrow morning."
Having revealed her entire plan all eyes shifted from the second princess to the king that closed his eyes for a few seconds before handing out a decision.
"Very well, it seems that the group that tried to kill my adorable daughter popped up once more and attacked a foreign diplomat... I want them completely destroyed and survivors handed over as an apology. With that, this emergency meeting is over."
The following day would go down in Kingdom history. From early morning countless brothels, casinos and bars were raided by knight squads and a record arrests happened, but only a few arrested seemed connected to the incident that happened a day before. An hour before sundown that day 3 criminals were gathered up and transported to the central church, there they were lined up on their knees as Dax emerged from the church.
"We have gathered the masterminds!-"
"2 mid level cell leaders and a courier huh... They are hardly the masterminds, but this is good enough for now."
After looking the criminals over Dax walked up to the middle one and addressed the knight responsible for handing the criminals over.
"Can I do what I want with these?"
"Go ahead, we have already judged them guilty."
"Okay then. Those two are not as interesting, but this one is relatively unknown to me… Well, let's take a look."
[CONFIRMED, READY FOR DIRECT INTELLIGENCE EXTRACTION: ALL OFFENSIVE FIREWALLS READY.]
"That one burned all his documents as we arrested him so we planned to make him talk somehow."
"So he really knows something interesting... Good work, I'll handle it from here."
"IF YOU THINK I'LL TALK TO YOU LESSER!-"
As the criminal started to scream at Dax he was interrupted as Dax grabbed him by the head with his artificial arm and lifted him into the air.
"Who said anything about talking? If you wanted to keep your secrets hidden from the Galactic Empire you should just have stayed under your rock like the bug you are… ICI commence extraction."
[CONFIRMED, CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. NOW EXTRACTING CEREBRAL DATA.]
After ICI's report, the criminal suddenly started screaming in pain as he spasmed in Dax's arm for about 10 seconds before going limp as Dax tossed the now lifeless husk aside.
[RAW CEREBRAL DATA EXTRACTED, NOW PROCESSING 2.5 PETABYTES OF RAW DATA...…. COMPLETED. DATA SHOWS 4 ADDITIONAL INSURGENT ELEMENTS.]
"Fascinating.. If I was the Kingdom I would make sure that all civilians stay indoors for tonight."