Arriving at Natash's office, s.h.i.+ro knocked on the door lightly.

"Come in." Natash called out.

Entering the office, s.h.i.+ro saw her sitting behind a desk full of paperwork.

"Seems like you're quite busy." She smiled.

"Hais… Unlike you, I have proper elder work to do. Ah~ I'm so envious of you." Natash replied while leaning back on her chair.

"Well too bad we didn't sign the same contract now did we?" s.h.i.+ro chuckled and glanced at some of her doc.u.ments.

"Hmm… seems like you're preparing everything for when the royals arrive."

"Yeah, we have to be careful about how we treat them. If it goes wrong, it might become a diplomatic issue and that's something no one wants. Plus, from what I can see on the doc.u.ments that they sent, they've got four level 100 escorts and one level 120 a.s.sistant following the royal that will arrive." Natash said, showing her the doc.u.ment.

"Hmm… four level 100's and one level 120. That's quite problematic." s.h.i.+ro frowned as the level 120 was the biggest problem.

"They should give us some face since the city lord is here after all." Natash reminded.

"But even then, we should be careful. They're a whole nation and we're just a faction." She sighed.

"Mn. I see." s.h.i.+ro nodded but didn't think much of it.

In the end, even if they were a nation, they probably won't spare too much manpower searching around the world.

". . . Please behave when we're meeting the royals." Natash couldn't help but smile wearily after seeing her expression. While she hadn't interacted with s.h.i.+ro for too long, she knew that the girl in front of her would cause all kinds of troubles.

h.e.l.l, last time she injured a large group of disciples and took their resources. No one had heard of an elder harming their own faction in this way.

"Who do you think I am? Am I someone to mess up such an important meeting?" s.h.i.+ro smiled.

'Yes!'

'Yes!'

'Yes!'

Yin, Lisandra and Natash thought the same thing when they heard what she said.

They knew that the day where s.h.i.+ro didn't cause trouble would be the day the world was going to end.

"*cough* What? Don't look at me that way, I'm not that idiotic as to ruin the meeting here." s.h.i.+ro coughed.

'I'll ruin it outside where they don't know my ident.i.ty.' She thought secretly.

However, the stares of suspicion from all three of them showed that they didn't believe her.

"Well just behave yourself please. They're arriving in 4 days and I have so many things to sort out." Natash sighed to herself and gestured for them to leave.

"Fine fine. Take care of yourself ok?" s.h.i.+ro nodded and left the room.

After s.h.i.+ro left the room, Natash looked down at a letter that she had received from the Faction Leader.

[Keep s.h.i.+ro out of trouble and make sure she doesn't stand out.

-Yuki]

'I'm afraid that's kinda hard, faction leader.' Natash sighed.

After leaving the room, s.h.i.+ro saw Lyrica, Madison and Silvia waiting outside of the tower.

'Have they decided on what they think of me?' She thought to herself.

"You two wait in my room." s.h.i.+ro said as she phased through the walls.

Looking at s.h.i.+ro who had left them alone, Yin looked over at Lisandra.

"Lil Lisa, why don't you com- GAH!"

"We're going back to our room like mum said. I'm not letting you cause her more trouble." Lisandra said, cutting Yin off by restraining her with a rope made from condensed mana and dragged her away.

"ABUSE!!! I call abuse! Do you not see me as your big sis!?" Yin cried out.

"I do but you should behave once in a while big sis." Lisandra smiled.

Meanwhile, s.h.i.+ro landed in front of the trio.

"So then, shall we discuss this in my room?" She smiled softly.

"Sure." They nodded since they understood that this was a sensitive topic. It would be bad if others overheard them.

As they arrived at s.h.i.+ro's room, they saw Yin restrained in the corner while Lisandra sat on the bed and kept a close eye on her.

"You're back mum." Lisandra turned to her.

"Mn. Say, why is your sister retrained in the corner?" s.h.i.+ro asked.

"She wanted to go elsewhere."

"Ah good job." s.h.i.+ro nodded as she instantly understood the situation.

Gesturing for the three of them to sit down wherever they want, s.h.i.+ro sat on her chair and crossed her legs.

Taking a deep breath, Lyrica looked at s.h.i.+ro with determination.

"It doesn't matter what race you are. The fact that you have done us all a big favour in our lives in unchangeable. As you've clearly demonstrated, you're not like other monsters." She smiled.

"Uhuh. s.h.i.+ro, honestly, while your race did come as a surprise, it was more like finding out that your friend is royalty or something." Madison chuckled as s.h.i.+ro's smile twitched slightly.

"And what about you?" s.h.i.+ro turned to Silvia.

"I'm the same. I'm also a part of this party and I'll support it to the end. Plus, it doesn't matter if you're a monster. I mean, some people see Lyrica as a monster since she's an elf and we clearly know that she isn't a danger to humans." Silvia chuckled softly.

"Mn." s.h.i.+ro nodded as her smile grew. It wasn't the insane s.a.d.i.s.tic smile she had when facing enemies, nor was it a polite smile that she would put on when talking to people. No, it was a genuine smile that had fully blossomed on her face.

One that made people think that she was free of worries and had nothing trouble her in her life.

"Screw it. Come here you lot." s.h.i.+ro chuckled and decided to do something a little out of character.

Walking over to the three, she brought them in for a hug with her mana so that they couldn't reject her.

"Wah! s.h.i.+ro! Ah!" Lyrica panicked as her face became red.

Madison and Silvia were the same since they never imagined that s.h.i.+ro would hug them like this.

Lisandra smiled softly as she was happy that s.h.i.+ro managed to get this weight off of her heart.

As for Yin, she was the same but she had bigger problems at hand. She could no longer feel her legs as they became numb.

"Um… s.h.i.+ro? I'm afraid we'll have to cut this hug short since Lyrica might pa.s.s out in a second." Madison s.h.i.+fted her body and pointed at Lyrica.

"Mn? Ah right." s.h.i.+ro nodded and let go of the three.

"Say, Lyrica, are you bad with women? Is that why you can't handle close contact?" s.h.i.+ro asked with some confusion.

"Ah… Um. Yeah." Lyrica nodded as she tried to calm her heart rate down.

Seeing this, Madison glanced at Silvia and sighed at the same time.

'This clueless idiot that only knows how to fight.' They thought.

However, little did they know, they were wrong about s.h.i.+ro.

She could tell what the duo were thinking but said nothing and only smiled.

'I guess I'm a little dense but I'm not THAT dense.' She thought to herself. Understanding that Lyrica may hold some feelings for her, she could only let it develop for now.

Whether or not it was feelings of dependency due to her being Lyrica's first friend, or the fact that it was real romantic feeling could only be revealed with time.

As Lyrica met more people and had some time away from her, s.h.i.+ro knew that it would become clear. Plus, there were so many other questions regarding her ident.i.ty and potential enemy that she had to set this aside for now.

'Kuromi had an enemy that was able to make the B ranked Yuki warn her about his danger. Until I understand the full picture, hidden dangers lurk everywhere' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself.

If she wasn't careful, they could potentially be hunted by an A ranked individual. In other words, a tier 5 powerhouse.

"Ah speaking of which, Madison, you know what you said earlier?" s.h.i.+ro asked as she turned to Madison.

"Mn? What did I say?" Madison asked as she was a little confused.

"Regarding how me revealing that I'm a monster is like a friend saying that they are royalty. Well, it turns out that Lyrica is elven royalty. Not only that, they're visiting us in 4 days and I can say that there is a high chance that they hold some hostility against Lyrica." s.h.i.+ro said, dropping this bombsh.e.l.l on them.

Even Lyrica was surprised since she didn't know that the royal family was coming for her in 4 days.

"Hah?" Madison widened her eyes.

In less than a day, they found out that s.h.i.+ro was a monster and that Lyrica was royalty.

"Holy c.r.a.p. If they're hostile, that's bad for us isn't it?" Madison forced a smile.

"Yup."