After returning all of my Shadow Guards back into my shadow and getting everyone dressed up, I went to slap the Mayor awake.

"Hey, hey... Wake up, wake up," I called out, tapping on the sides of her cheeks repeatedly.

She mumbled something about something tasty before she sprung awake.

She would have smacked right into me had I not moved aside at the last moment.

"Waaahhh!! What? Eh? What happened?" She mumbled, looking around groggily.

I cleared my throat, "Ahem... Mayor?"

She turned to me and her eyes cleared up almost immediately, "Oh! Lady Aster! You’re here! Umm... What happened?"

"You passed out after trying to take me with your mouth... What do you remember?"

"Ah! That’s right! I remember that! That is so embarrassing! You just tasted so good that I felt my head overload with happiness and I passed out right after!"

At least she’s aware of that I suppose...

She then pressed her hands together, "Ah! Are you waiting for me to try again, Lady Aster? I may be inadequate, but please allow me to try again!"

I shook my head, "If you want to... Maybe at a later time, we have something serious to deal with right now..."

She tilted her head, "What can be more serious than letting me taste you, Lady Aster?"

"Did you forget about the demon lord problem?"

"Ah... Umm... I’m sure that can wait? Oh wait a minute... Smith!!"

She cried out, leaping up to her feet to turn towards the smith succubus who was currently blissed out on the chair with splatters of my honey all over her body.

The succubus stirred slightly and blinked, "Hmm... Mayor? What is it? If you are trying to give me your dick, I don’t want it anymore... Only Mistress’s cock can satisfy me now~ I belong to her now~"

"That’s not it!! I’m still not done with you yet!! I want to know all your contacts! Who else is inside this city that is planning this?!"

The succubus blinked again, "Oh? Ah... Yes, there is a group that is supporting us here. They have a hideout in the old districts that they are operating out of."

"The old districts? Wait... Is that why there have been such heavy opposition against tearing that place down?!"

"Hmm? Of course~ That’s where they conduct their activities after all. They just roused up the population to prevent it from being torn down or else they would lose their base."

"So all that preserving culture and stuff was all just a lie?!"

"Naturally. There’s nothing else there after all. What is there even to preserve there aside from some old buildings that were already neglected beyond repair?"

The Mayor cursed, "I knew it! Those bastards... Making use of those stupid excuses against us..."

I cleared my throat, "Ahem... The group you are talking about... Do they happen to be demon supporters?"

The smith succubus started swooning at me, "That’s right, Mistress~ Those succubi over there would know as well~"

She gestured to the five succubi who were now wearing maid clothes... And for some reason, those clothes made them look even more lewd somehow...

Unbidden, the former leader of those five succubi spoke up with a bow, "Mistress. We were indeed in contact with a group like that. They were demon worshippers who believe that they would obtain power and riches if they were to aid the demons in summoning the Demon Lord. If you would like, we can take you to them."

Wait... That’s fine and all but I just realised that these succubi seemed to be executing the same bowing action that the maids of our family would do when talking to me...

Did Katsuki recruit them to be part of our maid team and drilled into them the maid course in just a few hours? Surely not, right?

Then again... This is Katsuki we’re talking about so I would totally believe her if she told me that’s exactly what she did.

I turned back to the Mayor, "I suppose we should deal with those people then?"

She scoffed, "Of course we should!! Not only are they holding back the progress of this city, they are even actively trying to make it worse!! I will not stand for that when I’ve been working my ass off to make this the best city there is on this side of the continent!!"

Well... I have to admit that if what I heard about her is true, she has done a remarkable job with this city so far and it’s not just because she was using her body either.

So it definitely made sense that she had some pride in her work with this and would be angry that someone was trying to mess it up.

Well... I’m also upset that there’s people trying to ruin the World before I could even explore every part of it so we’re the same in some regards I suppose?

I had another question though...

"What do you know about the settlement outside the city? The one that is under the Tree of Death and seemingly surrounded by some kind of barrier that degrades anything that gets close?"

The Mayor blinked at me, "There is such a thing outside the city?"

"You weren’t aware of it, huh?"

"Well... No one goes to the Tree of Death anymore aside from researchers and enthusiasts... And it’s a designated no go zone because of all those Abhorrents around the tree but obviously we can’t stop everyone who wants to go there either... So it’s just something we’ve been ignoring so far since we can’t really do anything about it."

"There’s no one guarding it or something?"

"The best we can do is just watch it from a distance since it wasn’t like it was an active threat to us. Sometimes the odd Abhorrent or two might wander their way to our city walls but they can’t break through it and actively hunting them down will spawn stronger Abhorrents anyway so we just leave them alone instead. Assigning anyone to the tree would put them at too much risk since that would either cause stronger Abhorrents to spawn if they can defeat them... Or cause them to be taken and transformed into Abhorrents themselves."

I guess if she puts it that way... There certainly isn’t any benefit or reason for them to guard the tree.

I then gestured towards the Smith succubus, "She mentioned that there’s another charm that is located there that was shielded from being destroyed... So one of that is currently sitting outside your city walls right now and I don’t know how we can even get close to investigate."

She hummed, "You mentioned that there’s a barrier around it?"

I nodded, "Around the tree, there’s an area around it where the moment you step inside, your body will start to rapidly disintegrate to transform into one of those Abhorrents. Unless that’s how Abhorrents are created?"

The succubus Mayor shook her head, "From what I have read up on the records... There have been no studies on how Abhorrents are actually created. All we know is that Abhorrents will carry any life forms towards the tree and they would eventually return as Abhorrents themselves. If it was a simple matter of just dropping them in a close proximity to the tree, I would assume that this would be easily seen and recorded. There were, after all, expeditions who have reached the base of the tree itself and none of them transformed into Abhorrents by being near the tree."

I hummed, "Hmm... Maybe at the beginning... You have to be inside the tree to be transformed into an Abhorrent or something... But now the area of effect has grown such that just being nearby is enough to transform you into an Abhorrent?"

"If that’s the case... Is there even a limit to how big the barrier can grow? Would it eventually reach the city and then the rest of the World and turn this entire place into an Abhorrent apocalypse?"

"I don’t know... But there’s another thing though... We also encountered another demon when we were walking towards the tree and I believe that demon came from that settlement underneath the tree... So I have a feeling the demons are involved somehow..."

Both the Mayor and I turned to look at the six succubi and they shook their heads at the same time.

"If there are demons involved in that one, Mistress, we are not involved in it. We demons do not operate as a single group after all and there are multiple different groups also working in unison to achieve our former goal of summoning the Demon Lord. I suspect that this is another group of demons who have taken up residence there," The Smith succubus explained.

Well... I guess that’s somewhat of a good news that the demons aren’t united... But it still means that we have the problem of the charm being there and we can’t reach it...

What do we do now?