Mars gave yet another sigh

'she sure is excited'

"yes princess this is the castle, shall we go inside?"

"yes let's!"

Mars lead the very excited Velvet into the castle and quickly found someone to announce his presence to the king meanwhile they were lead to a waiting room were they waited for about 20 minutes until a knight came and escorted them to the audience room were Mars ran into a familiar person

"h.e.l.lo there kitty cat"

"HHHIII!!!"

letting out a scream Mich.e.l.le ran away from Mars without looking at him leaving Mars looking rather awkward, he suddenly felt a cold stare and turned around

"what?"

Mars asked Velvet that was coldly 'staring' at him

"....nothing, just didn't think someone could actually be so tormented that they ran away from a person just by hearing their voice"

"well... she did try to kill me"

"....if you say so"

"well she did and she was not nice about it, so there you have it: try to kill me and one might end up slightly traumatized"

"....if you say so"

Mars waited with Velvet a few more minutes before they were allowed into the audience room Mars as usual didn't knell and neither did Velvet, she simply picked the sides of her traditional demon dress and bowed slightly to the king while she introduced herself

"my name is Velvet, I'm the current crown princess of Froset, the capital of demons"

"well meet Velvet, let's move to a slightly better location and talk"

"certainly"

the king gave a nod to Mars with eyes filled with grat.i.tude before he left with Velvet, Mars gave a slight smile before he turned and left with Victoria, once they was out of the audience room his way was suddenly blocked by a group of knights

"you sure it's him Jim?"

"yeah I'm sure"

Mars gave a sigh before he asked

"just to be sure you're after the bounty right?"

"d.a.m.n right!"

"just quietly hand over your head to us"

Mars gave yet another sigh and put a hand on the hilt of his sword

"you guys know I have just done your king a great favor and this is how you repay me?"

"who cares about that?"

Mars smile widened as he saw that the knights eyes were blinded by greed and mumbled

"you should think this was the capital of demons..."

Mars didn't care to look at them any more so he simply activated [Instant movement] and... knocked them all out with the back of his sword

"why... didn't you... kill them?"

"well because I'm sure that when the king finds out what they have done they will live a life worse than death"

Victoria's eyes brightened as she looked over the knocked out knights again and nodded her head

"I see... Mars... you're... so smart"

"why thank you Victoria"

Mars kneeled down and petted Victoria on the head until a maid pa.s.sed by

"excuse me miss maid"

"yes, what is it?"

"could you inform the king that this group of knights just tried to kill me?"

"...they did what?"

"tried to kill me and take my head as a trophy"

"....I-I see, I'll have someone bring them to the dungeon at once"

"thank you"

after Mars thanked the maid he and Victoria wandered around the castle for a few hours before a maid found them and informed them that the king had finished talking with Velvet

"I see, thank you"

"please follow after me, lady Velvet is waiting"

"sure"

Mars and Victoria followed after the maid and soon they reached the outside of the room were Mars had talked with the king last time, the maid gestured to the door before she gave a bow and left, Mars opened the door and walked into the room were the king and velvet was drinking tea

"your majesty, princess"

"oh Mars there you are, I heard about what happened be relieved the offending knights will be stripped of they t.i.tles and thrown out into the streets"

Velvet stopped sipping her tea and showed a surprised expression

"my oh my what happened Mars?"

"well..."

Mars took a seat and poured himself some tea before he spoke

"some of the knights ganged up on me and tried to kill me"

"oh my..! and why in the world would they try to kill you like that?"

"well the 300.000 cel bounty on my head probably had something to do with it..."

"3-300.000 cel?"

"yeah I p.i.s.sed of the empire, now there's a huge bounty on my head... I might destroy the empire soon"

"d-destroy the empire... surely you are joking right?"

Mars gave a sigh before he gave a wide smile and spoke

"nope I'm starting to get real annoyed by the bounty"

"I-I see... well good luck with that"

"thanks"

after that there was a few moments silence before Mars downed his tea and stood up

"well then princess let's get going"

"sure..."

Velvet stood up from her chair and gave a bow to the king before she spoke again

"I hope what we have talked about today comes into function soon"

the king also stood up from his chair and reached out his hand to Velvet

"sure miss Velvet I'll send out the first trading caravan tomorrow morning"

Velvet gave a smile and reached out and shook the king's hand before she turned to Mars and spoke

"let's get going Mars, I'm sure my dear mother is furious"

"what you're saying and you smile doesn't match... well whatever, stand back"

Mars transformed his hand and slashed out into empty air with his claws soon a rift in s.p.a.ce opened and stabilized into a portal where Mars gestured to with a teasing smile on his face

"lady's first"

"....s-sure"

Velvet stepped into the portal and disappeared, Mars then gave a nod to the king before he also stepped though and last but not least Victoria jumped through the portal right before it closed...

In Froset, more precisely in the crown princess room a portal opened scaring the servant that was waiting in the room awake, as the servant saw the portal she ran out of the room to inform the queen. Soon Velvet stepped out of the portal and 'looked' around before she gave a sigh and walked over and collapsed face first into her bed, when Mars saw her like that he commented

"that's not a very ladylike posture princess"

in response to Mars' comment Velvet began rolling from side to side in her bed until finally about a minute later she suddenly stopped and got up from the bed, them Mars' sharp ears picked up someone moving towards the room with hurried footsteps

"Velvet!"

as soon as the door was opened the queen walked in followed by numerous servants and yelled her daughters name

"dear mother"

Velvet lowered her head, meanwhile the queen walked up and embraced Velvet

"are you okay?"

"I'm fine dear mother"

the queen looked over Velvet a few more times before she turned to Mars and asked with a smile on her face

"I trust the talks with the king of Destra went well?"

Mars gave a nod

"it did, the first caravan will be sent off tomorrow"

"that's good... sorry Mars could you leave I need to have a talk with my daughter"

Mars gave a nod before he bowed to the queen

"at once your majesty"

leaving while ignoring the non-verbal pleas for backup from Velvet Mars walked out of the room before he grew out his horns and left the castle before he headed back to the old demon's courtyard were he found the girls laying in the sun seemingly very relaxed, Mars gave a wry smile before he spoke out

"I'm back"

"welcome back Mars"

Chloe rose from the blanket she was lying on and walked over and gave Mars a hug, Elsa followed after her and also gave him a hug, meanwhile Varvei was still sleeping in the sun Mars put on a teasing expression and walked over to her and squatted down next to her before he started slowly poking her check

"umm...."

first came a unladylike sound before she turned her head to the other side and kept sleeping

Mars stood up and walked to the other side before he squatted down next to her and poked her again

"umm..."

this time she slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times

"It's Mars~"

then she grabbed his arm and pulled Mars down next to her before she hugged his arm and fell asleep again

'good grief...'

"that's no fair!"

Elsa protested and lay down next to Mars and hugged his arm close

"me too then"

Chloe lay down on top of Mars and curled up on his chest, like this the afternoon pa.s.sed with Mars spending time with the girls

'well this is fine once in a while... besides i don't think I'll be able to see them a whole lot in the immediate future, after all I have a empire to dismantle'

Mars' eyes shone with a cold light, for annoying him the empire was going to fall