Leaving the main room, Shiro looked at her older self with a raised eyebrow.

  Seeing this, the older Shiro knew that her younger self wanted to ask her something.

  Flexing her fingers, the necklace formed itself around Shiro’s neck once more.

  "Ask away."

  "How come you didn’t call yourself the spirit queen or sylph empress during the contract? Isn’t that our class?" Shiro asked curiously.

  "Oh that? That’s because I’m technically not a full queen in the new age unless I have an anchor and domain. Remember when we killed the Fire Queen? She said that she’ll be eliminated once we get rid of her anchor so you can think of the anchor being a Queen’s proof of identity as well as a participation ticket." The older Shiro explained.

  "I see. Also, why were you so quick in helping Misu? I thought we were here just to have a look at the current situation?"

  "That’s because there has been a slight change which pushes things forward by quite a bit." The older Shiro shook her head.

  Pulling out a tablet, she tapped it a few times before handing it to her younger self.

  Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked at what could have possibly happened for her older self to change her mind.

  However, the moment she laid eyes on the image present on the tablet, she understood exactly why she was hurrying up.

  "Is this real?" Shiro asked with a serious voice.

  "Of course. I’ve been keeping a tab on most of the queen’s with drones you know?"

  "Then I can see why you want to make that contract with Misu." Shiro sighed.

  On the tablet, they could see an image of the Lightning Queen greeting another woman, one with a familiar figure that Shiro recognises.

  It was Thiria, Queen of the Beasts.

  The Queen that had Black Monarchy under her services was still around and she was now seen communicating with the Lightning Queen. It could mean many things but none of them was one that Shiro looked forward to.

  "If the Black Monarchy and Thiria is getting involved, things are gonna be a bit annoying." Shiro frowned.

  "You have no idea. If I remember correctly, you haven’t had a proper full scale combat with them yet but let me tell you this, don’t underestimate them at all. Even the weakest member could turn things around if you’re not careful." The older Shiro shook her head.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Remember the hive of Death Worms that you had to exterminate before your first meeting with Thiria?" The older Shiro asked.

  "Uhuh. I do indeed."

  "Think of that but much much worse. They’ve managed to mutate the worms to the point where the weaker members could kill themselves and use their own body to summon around three to five a.d.u.l.t Death Worms. And let’s just say, having a group of black monarchy members kill themselves in a city and summon a horde of death worms was not fun."

  Hearing this, Shiro narrowed her eyes and contemplated about the information that she had just gathered. If she was correct, then perhaps her first priority should be getting rid of the beast queen when the new age begins. Hell, if she could figure out what she needed to do to set up an anchor and domain, she could attempt to fight Thiria while she was still weak.

  However, weak was a rather debatable term since she is by no way weak. The only reason Shiro called her weak before the age of demons and gods is because she’s only going to be getting stronger as the age goes on.

  "Question about the past. If I was to try to kill Thiria before the new age begins, do you think I can win? I know that she has just set up a domain not too long ago so I might be able to kill her while she’s weakened." Shiro asked curiously.

  "Damn, ok, we need a serious talk. I can say for a goddamn fact that you’re underestimating the queens a bit much. The Fire Queen was a goddamn pushover since she’s still new to everything but if you want to take out someone like Thiria, you cannot go with your current mindset. Let me put it like this for you. Everyone who became a queen means that they have the capabilities to lead their ’race’ or the thing mentioned in their titles. There are different grades of queens depending on their titles and the Fire Queen should have been much harder for us to kill but we caught her right after she lost a bunch of her strength to the anchor. There are small queens who govern a specific subject such as the fire queen. However, there are also queens who govern broader subjects where their powers expand over a multitude of things such as the beast queen. She governs all the beasts meaning dragons and such are no exception. As long as something is part beast, she can exert a certain amount of authority over them. Meaning, if Black Monarchy decided to slip an injection of beast blood into your body, you’re f*cked if you try to fight her." The older Shiro warned with a serious expression.

  "And you need to get one thing straight before you go back. You’re not the only one who’s talented. Each queen got to where they are because they proved themselves to be worthy and each empress got to where they are because they proved themselves to the world and to the system. You can imagine fighting against an Empress would be akin to fighting yourself but having a different skill set, one wrong move and they’ll turn your world upside down. As for how I know, let’s just say I underestimated one of them and even to this day, I haven’t been able to completely heal the scar that they gave me." The older Shiro shook her head before holding Shiro near her shoulder.

  Watching her older self pull back her dress collar slightly to give her a glimpse of her back, Shiro furrowed her brows before looking down.

  When she did, her eyes widened at the giant scar running diagonally down her back. She could clearly see that there seemed to be a faint aura around the wound which made it seem…… corrupted?

  "See? I’m you so I can say for a fact that you underestimate the queens a bit too much. Don’t make the same mistake ok?" The older Shiro smiled softly and let go of her dress collar, covering the scar once more.

  "Why can’t you heal it?" Shiro asked.

  With the myriad of healing spells that Silvi had and combined with the healing skills she could see, it should be a piece of cake for her to deal with it.

  "Unfortunately, this isn’t a wound that can be healed with conventional means. The attack was something damaging to the core of my being. Plus, it didn’t help that I was ever so close to ’falling’ so that slight corruption tainted the wound and now I have this ugly scar." The older Shiro sighed.

  "Eh? We almost fall again?"

  "Yup. There’s a lot we hold dear after all." The older Shiro smiled.

  "Please don’t tell me someone we care about died."

  "It was fine don’t worry. I was just too agitated at that moment and lost myself for a bit. Just make sure to trust in the party’s strength a bit more. They’re not baby birds anymore, they’re fully grown a.d.u.l.ts." The older Shiro reminded since it was something that could help Shiro avoid the same fate.

  "I see…… speaking of falling, is Aekari still around or have you dealt with him?" Shiro asked.

  "Heh, what do you think?" The older Shiro chuckled as she narrowed her eyes.

  "Gave him the old poke in the hole. It’s wasn’t exactly the normal kind of pokin’ either haha. But I’ll let you figure out the fun for yourself since it isn’t exactly hard to figure out once you’re in the situation."

  "I see…… Well I suppose I have something to look forward to. So where now?" Shiro asked.

  "We’re going to scout around the Lightning Queen’s domains and see which one which can target when the fight breaks out. I want to make sure we can actually manage a fight against her guards after all."

  "Mn, I got another question if you don’t mind me asking."

  "You have quite a lot of questions huh? But sure, go on." The older Shiro smiled.

  "Was I able to reach tier 5 before the new age?"

  "Yes. We did it with flying colours too."

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "You’ll find out. I don’t want to spoil everything for you now do I?"

  "Che, stingy." Shiro clicked her tongue as the two of them left the mansion.