"...I hereby declare the end of the Kel tournament"

the queen rose from her seat as all the demons in the arena bowed their heads to her and soon she walked out of sight and the arena began bustling with noise, many people talked about the matches but just as many talked about the wish Mars had made to the queen, Mars himself rose form the spot he was sitting and walked back to the old demon were Chloe, Elsa and Varvei also were standing and talking

"shall we leave?"

the old demon nodded with a happy smile on his face, he seemed like he was going to be happy no matter what happened for the rest of the day at least, soon the group left the underground river arena and began heading back to the old demon's courtyard to celebrate, on the way Mars received some rather hot stares from some young female demons which caused the 3 girls to swarm around him as they attempted to keep him for themselves, the group soon reached the courtyard were there already were prepared for a grand feast. The rest of the day was spent celebrating Mars' victory in the tournament long into the night...

The next morning Mars dressed up in his best clothes and walked into the city alone and headed towards the castle were he soon arrived, after a quick talk with the guard Mars was escorted into the castle where he walked tough a long hall with numerous paintings of female demons Mars didn't hold back his curiosity and asked the guard

"what are those paintings?"

the guard had seen yesterday's Kel tournament and had a positive impression of Mars so he quickly answered with a smile on his face

"those are paintings of all the former demon queens"

"I see..."

Mars looked at the paintings as they walked past them and soon they reached a heavily guarded door were the guard exchanged words with the other guards and soon the door was opened and Mars alone walked into the room and looked around, the room was elegantly decorated, mars looked over at the bed in the far end of the room and saw some teddy bears among with some other plushy's and gave a small smile and sat down in a chair and waited, soon another door then the one he had walked in by opened and a blindfolded demon with back length silver hair walked in Mars looked over the demon once before he focused on her shadow and gave a smile before he spoke

"so this is your new friend?"

the princess stopped and showed a confused expression

"excuse me, what are you talking about?"

"sorry princess, I'm not talking to you I'm talking to your shadow or rather, to Victoria"

the blindfolded demon's face shoved a trace of shock before she gave a smile and asked Mars

"so your Victoria's owner?"

"I'm not her owner, I'm her partner"

the blindfolded demon let out a small laugh

"you're just how she told"

"well thank you princess"

as the two of them spoke Victoria jumped out of the blindfolded demon's shadow, her ears were flopped down and she was clearly nervous

"are you... mad?"

"mad? why would I be mad?

"okay..."

Victoria lightened up again and walked over to Mars and began purring slightly

"my oh my, you really are her partner for her to be so happy when you meet"

Mars gave a smile and stood up from his chair and bowed slightly

"please sit princess"

the blindfolded demon gave a smile and sat down in front of Mars, Mars also sat down and for some time both of them just looked at each other, well the blindfolded demon didn't 'look' at Mars but he certainly felt a pair of 'eyes' looking at him and not just the hidden guards he clearly felt the princess was 'looking' at him

"let me introduce myself, I am Mars of Green rive.... I'm a half dragon"

"well met Mars of Green river, my name is Velvet the current crown princess"

Mars gave a grin

"do you mind if I ask a rude question Velvet? you see I'm not one to beat around the brush"

"....sure ask away"

"you're not really blind are you?"

"what? you think the blindfold is for fas.h.i.+on?"

"no I can clearly feel your 'eyes' on me, you can see just not like me am I right?"

"....well you are kind of right"

Mars gave a nod

"I knew it"

Velvet frowned slightly

"you are a bully"

"guilty as charged"

"well then.... Mars let us get to the main point, can you really make a trade agreement with Destra?"

Mars gave a nod

"sure I can, but would you not like to talk with the king of Destra in person instead?"

Velvet gave a sigh

"are you telling me to cross the wasteland? sorry but there's no way mother would allow that..."

"what if it only took an instant?"

"....what do you mean?"

"surely you have heard of s.p.a.ce time magic? I happen to be a s.p.a.ce time mage"

Mars felt Velvet's 'eyes' light up

"hmm.... in that case, is anyone there?"

as Velvet called out a servant entered the room and bowed to her

"please inform mother that I will be taking a trip to Destra"

"what?"

"as I said I'll be taking a trip to Destra real quick"

"o-okay I'll inform the queen at once"

the servant turned and walked out of the room, after the door shut Mars' ear picked up someone running at full speed, most likely the servant

"....I see you're a bully too"

Velvet didn't respond but let out her tongue before she asked Mars

"shall we get going?"

"sure"

Mars stood up from the chair and transformed his arm and slashed into the empty air with his claws, soon a rift opened and stabilized into a portal Mars then bowed and said with a teasing smile

"lady's first"

Velvet 'looked' at the portal for a moment before she gave a slightly nervous nod and walked through it, Mars followed after her and last was Victoria that jumped though it just before it closed...

"my oh my, is this Destra?"

on the other side of the portal Velvet stepped out and 'looked' around, Mars stepped out of the portal after her and spoke

"yeah this is king's city, the capital of Destra"

"my oh my"

is Velvet had a tail it would be wagging with near speed of light as she 'looked' around

"let's go to the castle"

"sure lead the way!"

Mars, Victoria and a very excited Velvet moved towards the castle but on the way Mars noticed a group of people that was keeping a close eye on him and got annoyed

"Victoria keep an eye on Velvet"

"okay..."

"my oh my, are you going somewhere Mars?"

"yeah I have to deal with something real quick"

"okay, but be quick about it!"

"sure princess"

Mars waved his hand as he walked away, as he walked away the group of people followed after him

'look at them trying to be sneaky...'

the group that was tracking him obviously had tracking experience but in Mars' eyes they were like children playing hide and seek, as soon as he reached a deserted ally Mars stopped walking and put a hand on the hilt of his sword while a confident smile formed on his face, meanwhile the group that was following him spread out and surrounded him from all sides

'looks like a party'

soon a group of rough looking people showed up, they all carried some sort of weird weapons that looked hardly impracticable to use in tight s.p.a.ces, if Mars were to describe them they then they were like extra long bladed scythes

"well h.e.l.lo there"

one of the rough men looked at at a piece of paper and gave a nod

"it's him"

"I knew it boss, let's get him and cash in that bounty!"

"quiet... there's a reason he has a bounty that high.... I don't spouse you Mars was it? want to surrender?"

"no"

"then there's only one thing that happens you die, we get rich"

Mars gave a sigh and activated [Instant movement], the next moment the heads of the group of rough looking men all fell to the floor

"and that's that"

Mars walked over and picked up the piece of paper that was half soaked in blood and read it

"400.000 cel huh... maybe I should deal with the empire soon..."

Mars gave yet another sigh and walked back to Velvet and Victoria

"I'm back"

Velvet was stuffing her face with some grilled veggies and gave a nod to Mars

"welcome.... back, how... was it?"

"it was just some fools blinded by greed, let's head to the castle"

Mars lead the way and soon they arrived at the castle