"Wait, you're only rank 72? I thought the demon rank 72 had already died?" Imari asked in disbelief while trying to stand back up but failing due to her injuries.

"Oh they did die. I'm the new one." Madison shrugged as Silvia walked over and healed Imari.

Hearing her mention that she was the new one so casually, Imair was speechless since she hadn't seen such a carefree candidate before.

Each of the candidates would be on guard with one another and wouldn't be on good terms unless they were in an alliance.

This was the first time that a candidate would actively help save the enemy soldiers and even offer to heal the queen candidate.

Gritting her teeth from the shame she was feeling, Imari stood up and looked at Madison.

"What kind of demons are you lot. Most would just kill us since they can get followers if they demonstrate their power. There's no need to keep the enemy alive." Imari furrowed her brows.

"Pft, what kind of demons are we lot she says." Madison laughed while glancing back at the party.

"I'm the only 'demon' here. The rest here are humans, angel, she's a phoenix, she's a spirit and these two are elves." Madison smiled as Imari paused in shock at the diversity of the races in a single party. She knew that spirits and elves had a good relationship so she wasn't surprised but the fact that they even had an angel and phoenix was the most surprising of all.

Even the fact that a demon and human are in the same party was no longer surprising since there were more shocking facts!

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"Looking at her face, I'd say she's surprised at our races." Shiro laughed.

"True. But setting that aside, are you going to work under me?" Madison asked again.

"Are you going to kill me if I say no?" Imari asked while biting her lip.

"Mn, probably. But don't worry, even if you do work under me, I won't be interfering too much since I've got more important matters. As for your subordinates, if you say no and I kill you, I won't kill them." Madison replied with a smile.

"I see. What's your goal in all of this?" Imari asked.

"To become the queen so that I don't become a brainless b*tch for the demon king?" Madison shrugged.

Hearing this, Imari paused in understanding. For a person like her, she hated that she would become 'intoxicated' if a king ascended so the thought that Madison wanted to be the queen to avoid this was relieving.

After all, if the final victor is a queen, they would be spared the fate of wanting to become the king's wife.

"But honestly, if you don't want to work under me it doesn't matter since I can get someone else to look after the southern border. Balire is already working with me so getting her to rule the southern borders wouldn't be a bad idea.

Hearing this, Imari paused in surprise.

"Eh? Balire is working with you? I thought she was working with rank 49?"

"She was. But I beat her and it turns out she knows an acquaintance of ours so now we're working together. I'll probably eliminate rank 49 on my way up so it's up to you if you want to join but make your choice quick. We're on a tight schedule." Madison frowned as Imari thought about it for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the dark red sky that she had seen since her birth.

Staying silent, Madison understood that this was probably a hard decision for someone like her since in their mind, this was akin to becoming a slave. Sure she wouldn't do anything to her or kill her if she agrees, but the shame they feel was something she couldn't do anything about.

After a long pause, she nodded her head.

"I'll…. work under you." Imari said as she looked down at the ground with a sigh.

"Great. Do you need some help in escorting your soldiers back? We're going to be going to the eastern borders immediately so we won't have time to send them back gently. Plus, since you're working under me now, I won't do anything about the land that we have taken over. You can use them like you have before but they're essentially my land now, ok?" Madison smiled as Imari nodded her head.

"Understood. What should I call you?" She asked as she struggled for a moment but kneeled down in front of Madison.

"Just call me Madison like everyone else. I don't really care about formality. My main goal is to just become the queen." Madison shrugged before turning back to the party.

"Since she decided to work with us, let's go to the eastern borders." Madison smiled.

"Mn, it shouldn't take long. Since they're higher level at the eastern border, I'll do some scouting first. The highest rank should be 6 so I'll go challenge them and get the general feel of the demon ranks. I'll tell you if you can just storm in or if we have to work around a few things. While they're not proper kings or queens, you never know what they might have up their sleeves." Shiro shrugged as Madison nodded her head.

"Try not to alert the higher ranks if you can just in case. Normally, there is always a great disparity from rank 6 to the top 5 so if we alert them, there is a chance that things could go south for us. While you may be able to fight them yourself, having all of them gang up on you might be annoying." Madison reminded as Shiro nodded her head.

"Don't worry. It'll be rather shameful if I got defeated by a candidate after all." Shiro laughed. After all, she was an Empress class along with being a demi god. Even queens would struggle to fight her much less candidates so if she actually lost, she might as well bury herself in the ground.

Of course, this didn't mean that she would drop her guard. Much like what happened between Lyrica and Imari, a single mistake was all it took to end the fight. She had a few more failsafes but she couldn't be too careless.

Hearing that Shiro mention the candidates as 'mere' Imari couldn't help but wonder about the identity of the white haired girl.

However, remembering the power that she had demonstrated, Imari admitted that she was very strong. Strong to the point she could look down on the candidates which made her suspect that she was probably on the level of a queen.

Making a car for everyone to enter, Shiro left with the party towards the easter border, leaving behind Imari who was waiting for the soldiers and her assistant to wake up.

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"Mn…" Groaning softly, her assistant struggled to get up for a moment and panicked remembering the previous fight.

Looking down at herself, she was curious as to why she was in perfect form. If her memory was right, she should have several broken bones or worse, dead.

In front of her, Imari was sitting on the ground with a downcast expression.

"You're awake." Imari said as her assistance kneeled and nodded her head.

"Mn. If I may be so rude as to ask, what happened?"

"We were spared. The girl who defeated us was working with the rank 72nd candidate. Well… ranks are somewhat superficial since the strength she demonstrated was much higher than even the ones in the centre. They're moving towards the eastern borders right now. I think it wouldn't be long until we receive news of the eastern border's conquest." Imari sighed.

"We were… spared?" The assistant looked up in confusion since a battle between two candidates would end with one side being dead.

"Mn, we're going to work under her. We'll be looking after land like we have while she conquers the rest of the continent." Imari leaned back and glanced towards her long time friend.

"The fact that none of us have died is rather miraculous isn't it?" She smiled.

Nodding her head, the assistant stayed silent since she understood that Imari must be feeling a lot of shame right now since she agreed on working under someone. Plus, they were strong to the point that they didn't even bother assigning someone to keep them in order which proves how little they thought of them.

The only thing that she could do was try her best to support Imari from now on.

Little did they know, Shiro had already attached nanobots on them to make sure that they don't step out of the line since she wasn't that kind. If they plan on doing something that could be detrimental to the party, she would kill them immediately.

While they were driving to the eastern borders, Shiro couldn't help but think back to Verron.

Since she knows where his main anchor is, it might be a good time to go pay it a visit. Plus, she needs to take revenge on the guardian for almost killing her and Nan Tian back then.

Narrowing her eyes, her lips curled up into a grin as her next goal has been determined.

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