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Chapter 113 - The Crone
🕑 Added 2018-12-24 15:32:41 +0000 UTC
I wake up, not remembering when I fell asleep. There are no windows in this room, so I can't tell what time it is. Normally, I don't need to sleep, but maybe the activities last night were too strenuous while maintaining a human body after all.
The thick smell in the air tells volumes about what happened here, and I pity the maid that has to come in here to clean up; I wonder how the room is aired out usually.
Then I realize that I'm alone on the bed. Did Tahiri and Aratio wake up before me and already leave the room? I have the key somewhere in my depths, but they can both turn into air, so they must have exited that way.
Refreshing my transformation to be at my best, I stand up and create a set of clothes from the folds of my skin. With this, I look presentable to the public again. Unlocking and opening the door, I look back one more time to take in the evidence of our tussle last night.
The moment I exit the room a maid greets me. It's Keiza, who seems to be responsible for cleaning my room in particular; she must have been waiting here for a while, never knocking to ask for entry. She bows and tries to maintain a neutral expression, but the smell must tell her what we did last night.
But before I can say anything, I see the scenery outside the window and realize that it must already be past noon. We went at it for almost the whole night, but I didn't think I would sleep in like this. The morning meeting with the clan heads was supposed to be hours ago.
"A meal has been prepared for You, Chaos-sama." Keiza says in a throwback to my first morning in this world. This time she's much more composed when meeting me, especially since I look like a human, unlike back when I didn't even know I had reincarnated into a Cosmic Horror body.
"I missed my meeting, didn't I?" Walking up to her, I sigh.
"No, I have taken the liberty to reschedule it for the late afternoon. I hope I did not step out of bounds." She bows deeper and speaks in the manner of a trained secretary. Was that her role?
"Thank you. That saved me a lot of trouble." I pet her hair and reply with a breath of relief. The thought to appoint somebody to take care of scheduling never occurred to me. Up until now, I've been making do by remembering thing myself and going along with the flow. It also helps that I mostly have free reign because of my status, but planning for the war is something I can't just avoid with that.
Not that I would anyway.
"I-I shall clean Your room then, Chaos-sama." Without raising her head, Keiza continues to bow.
"Alright." I'm just about to walk away and let her do her job when I think of something. "Look at me, Keiza."
"W-why?" Refusing to do so, the ash-haired maid asks with a stutter. Without saying another word, I bring a hand to her chin and lift it so that I can look into her vertically slit pupils.
Her face is flushed red, and those very eyes are darting around, unsure where to look. She seems to have derived incredible joy from my praise and petting.
"Y-Your Majesty, I..." Trying to come up with a response and failing, she flaps her mouth open and closed without making any further sounds.
"You're so cute." I mutter and seal her lips with my own for just a quick kiss. Then I separate from her and look into her completely red face. But her hair suddenly turns red as well, and steam rises from it. The tip of the scaly tail that comes out from a hole in her maid uniform's skirt portion, which has been swinging back and forth in excitement, lights on fire. "Huh?"
"Ahhh, Your Majesty, I... I!" Holding her flushed cheeks and shaking her head as a halo of fire appears around it, she says in a quivering voice.
"Calm down Keiza, I'm sorry!" It's not that I'm especially afraid of fire, but the carpet, curtains, and furniture are all flammable, and I don't want the castle to burn down because my flirting went too far. "I should have asked for your consent first!"
"N-no, that is not it!" Her eyes are swirling in their sockets, and she's clearly confused, but the flames don't let up. "I am just... too happy! For Her Majesty to favor someone like me!"
"Alright, then you're happy that I did it. But calm down already!" I cover myself in dragon skin and hug her, but that was the wrong move. Her whole body bursts out in flames, which consume her maid outfit as well as anything flammable several meters around her. It's exactly what I wanted to avoid, but I instead made it happen myself.
"I am so sorry, Chaos-sama!" She apologizes in an almost hysterical tone - most likely because I'm embracing her like this - and keeps spreading her flames.
"Calm down!" I speak in a commanding tone, employing a little bit of my true nature in it. At the sound of it, the flames on her body die down in an instant and she begins to shiver all over from fear. "I'm sorry if I scared you..."
I look around, and she does so too. There's a circular area around us that has been completely burned down to the naked stone of the castle, and even the window panes have bent under the heat. It's not at the level of Felgar's phoenix body, but would still be dangerous for other living beings in her surroundings.
Now that I get a good look at her naked body, I discover that her arms are covered in gray scales, all the way up to her shoulders. She was wearing gloves before, but now I can see that her hands are clawed. The same scaly skin covers the hips halfway down the outside of her thighs, where they wrap around her legs completely like thigh-highs suspended from garters. Her feet are also clawed, although they look more humanlike than reptilian.
Her entire lower back is covered in scales as well except for what looks like her buttocks, where the skin is like that of a human's. There's also a narrow patch of it running down between her small breasts and splitting up to form something like a natural shelf bra.
She's an exotic kind of beautiful, and it looks like she's wearing seductive lingerie.
From the other side of the corridor, a group of maids comes running in our direction. They must have heard the uproar and thought somebody was attacking the castle, but when they see me embracing the lizard maid, they stop dead in their tracks.
"T-this is not what it looks like!" Keiza tries to explain the situation, but her wording only makes it worse.
"Come clean this up." I order the maids and pick the one in my arms up into a princess carry. If I didn't have something to do soon, I would have taken her into my room and spent the rest of the day with her in there without hesitation. But I can't waste away my time doing the pleasurable things in life when other peoples' lives are at stake. I'll have to postpone this for another time.
I still carry her inside my room though, to find her a clean set of clothes from inside the wardrobe to wrap herself in. They're all beautiful and high-quality dresses that must have been prepared for me to wear once I returned from my three-year journey. Keiza repeatedly refuses by saying that she's not worthy of wearing such expensive outfits, but I eventually force her into one that exposes her arms and legs sufficiently. The short skirt and her natural thigh-highs form a perfect absolute territory too.
She seems to have a complex regarding the scaly parts of her body, even though it's natural for her clan. Her time around girls with smooth skin must have caused that to develop. The uniform rules in the Maid Corps are pretty lax, and many have modified outfits that show more skin or have decorations on them. She might be the only one who usually wears something that covered all signs of her heritage - aside from Rewera, who is a paragon of professionalism.
"You're beautiful the way you are. You should show it more." I whisper into Keiza's pointy and scale-covered ear, which she kept hidden under her perfectly combed gray hair before. Then I take hold of her right hand and lift it to my lips. The dark gray scales are a little rough, but they have a sheen that makes them look different under various lighting conditions. I kiss the back of it and smile at her.
"I-I am not worthy of-" She begins, but I stop her with a finger on her lips, before caressing her cheek.
"Have more confidence in yourself." Once again, I curse myself for having such a tight schedule even though there's not really much to do. The meetings simply take time because of all the deliberation we have to go through.
The smell in the room doesn't help alleviate my lust after having seen her naked appearance either, but I keep my libido under control with a lot of willpower.
"Let the others take care of things here. Come with me." Pulling her along by the hand, we leave the room and walk past the maids cleaning the aftermath of Keiza's flare of emotions outside my door. They glance at us, and I hear giggling and encouraging whispers. It's good to see they're getting along; I had considered the possibility that the others were bullying her for her lack of self-confidence.
When I enter the dining hall with Keiza's hand still in mine, I see two other maids waiting there already. One is the frog girl I seem to remember seeing on my first morning in this world, and the other is very clearly a lamia. But she has snakes for hair, so maybe it's a subspecies called medusa. This is all just from my fantasy knowledge, and I don't think that's what they're actually called here.
Nobody from my entourage is present though. Since it's the early afternoon, they must have already had lunch. Usually, I'd see somebody hanging around though - mostly Tokomaha, who has a very healthy appetite despite her size.
"Where is everyone?" I ask the frog maid. Her name was Amerega, I believe.
"They are watching the Guardian of the Soil till the Fields of Huwinn, Your Highness." She replies with a bow, her eyes glancing over me holding the lizard maid's hand without showing anything on her face. But she's clearly thinking her part.
"Exla is holding a show of her powers, huh?" I didn't see her from the window of my room, so she must be working on the other side of the castle right now. "She should have told me."
"Your Highness, what do you wish to eat for... breakfast?" The lamia maid whose name is Nesis - as far as I can remember - inquires, making a noticeable pause to sarcastically imply that I got my sleep schedule out of whack. She's quite bold.
"How about you..." I begin and make a pause, causing all the maids to stare at me with big eyes. Nesis' are filled with a hint of doubt and fear, trying to guess whether that was a joke or not. "... bring a selection of food along. We'll have a picnic on the northern battlements and watch a goddess do her work."
"I shall have someone bring a table and a chair." Amerega suggests, but I wave her off.
"What do you need a chair for? You have me." The moment I speak the words I realize their implication. So do the maids, as they stare at me wide-eyed once again. But not letting it get to me, I walk ahead to choose our picnic site, burying the shame welling up somewhere in my unfathomable depths.
On the battlements, I look across the Fields of Huwinn on the northern side of the castle. There are many people watching from the city walls below, as a massive cloud figure walks across the lands a short distance outside the city, turning the earth under its feet with every step.
There's no immediate effect, unlike how I expected things to go; I thought greenery would sprout behind her as it did for a certain nature god in a movie I watched as a child. She wasn't kidding when she said she needed some time, but I hope it's not the god kind of 'some time' when considering how long she stayed on the Dark Continent.
"This is incredible." Keiza says next to me, her red slit eyes staring at Exla in awe.
"Come, sit down." I gesture for her to take a seat and let myself fall backward. Tentacles sprout from my back and take on the form of a chair. I extend them around me to create a circular table as well as three more chairs, all standing in a half-circle so that we can watch the scenery.
The lizard maid looks at my creation with a skeptical expression, but eventually brings it over herself to sit down after all. Soon after, Amerega and Nesis come up the stairs with baskets and stare at the furniture in surprise. They must realize that those are part of my body.
With the breakfast unpacked and arranged on plates before me, they stand aside and wait for further instructions. I thought the additional chairs would be an obvious sign for them to join me, but they didn't take it that way.
"You two sit down and relax too." I smile at them, and they exchange a glance. The reaction I expected from them was to refuse politely while referring to the difference in our standings. But they actually sit down - in their own individualistic ways; Amerega perches on her chair as a frog would, and Nesis coils around hers before sitting down with the part that corresponds to a human's backside.
This is my definition of a peaceful morning - or afternoon, I suppose. Watching a massive cloud being till the fields outside a city with beautiful but dark architecture while sitting on top of my very own castle's walls with a few maids, eating a variety of high-quality dishes of which some are made from human meat. I don't know how else to describe this as but 'perfectly demonic'.
"[So that's where you were.]" Tokomaha comes up the stairs and calls out to me.
"[Good morning.]" I spread my arms, and she jumps into them naturally. She has completely discarded all the tsun in her and become a full-on dere even in front of other people by now.
"[It's way past noon already.]" She comments while sitting down on my lap. "[Are Tahiri and Aratio still asleep?]"
"[Huh? They woke up before I did.]" Just as I'm about to hug her she asks me, and I stop.
"[I haven't seen them all day.]" Shrugging, Tokomaha answers. Somehow I have a bad feeling about this.
"[Have you seen Tahiri and Aratio today?]" I ask the maids, and they shake their heads. "[Stand up.]"
The moment they do so, I retract the chairs made from my matter, as well as the table with all the things on them, into my body, and stand up myself.
"[What's wrong?]" The little goddess who was sitting in my lap slides down, turns around, and looks up to me with a worried expression.
"[Hopefully nothing.]" With these words, I take off in a hurry and fly toward Exla. I really hope it's nothing.
But the God of Storm and the God of Whirlwinds have both disappeared from Arkaim. A search turned up nothing, and nobody saw them leave, but that only makes it more obvious that they did leave.
Why though? Why would they leave after spending such a night with me? Was it something I did?
Wait, don't tell me it was because of my words about Tahiri surrendering herself to me. We did it until she passed out, so did she take it as her loss? Is there a concept of 'the little death' in the Adanak culture as well, and she considered our duel to the death her loss? Did she return to her nation because of that?
I sit in the meeting room and bounce my leg restlessly. The clan leaders know the reason for my impatience and are trying to keep things short, as they give me a breakdown of the time and resources required for the large-scale evacuation I ordered yesterday. The state coffers have never been as drained as they are now, and this maneuver will cost much more.
"I'll do something about funding." I reply when Oquachit continues to list the areas where money is needed. He's the old turtle demon and clan leader of the Kirali, to whom Ophalen and his son Nilotec belong. "That won't be a problem. Next."
I have half a mind to transmute a huge pile of gold right now, but that's not a solution. It would collapse the economy and do nothing but speed up the downward spiral of the Dominion. I'll just have to go and take it from the humans then.
"Who goes there?!" Rewera suddenly exclaims, and everybody in the meeting room turns their heads to see the maid leader look in the direction of the window behind me.
Jumping up and turning on the spot by rearranging my body, I look outside with my night vision. Even then, all I can see is the dark scenery beyond the brightly lit city below.
A rustling sound causes everybody to start looking around, as an eerie breeze blows through the room. Within, black feathers dance like ash. They don't belong to Hestia, who's sitting in the seat next to mine and focusing her senses on our surroundings.
"Poor soul." An old woman's voice echoes through the air, seemingly coming from everywhere at once. "A lost soul that has transcended space and time, seeking the warmth of others and losing them one after another."
"Show yourself!" I command in a firm voice, but the storm of feathers only grows in intensity.
"One, then two, with two more pieces. Freed a beautiful child of the night, corrupted an angel of light." The voice continues in a mysterious tone, but it's obvious that she refers to me. How does she know about Asoko and my children? "Lost the night, but found the other half."
"Who are you?!" I focus my Chaos senses on our surroundings, but it feels like each feather is a living being. The voice is talking about how I was sent away from the academy and lost Kamii, but discovered my other half on our journey back from the Khurut Sultanate.
"Plucked a heart of gold, but discovered a lie-ridden truth." She now refers to how I met Aurelia, who's listening with an intent expression. And the lie-ridden truth is Juzual teaching me about the self-proclaimed gods being sorcerers from a far-away nation. I now know that was only half the truth. But that happened on the moon, how could this voice know about that? "A glorious return, a regret for a lifetime."
"Enough of this." I turn myself into the Chaos warhead form and open up the various plates covering my body to suck in the air around me - along with the feathers.
"Ah, I understand." The old woman's voice finally replies to what I'm saying and the eerie wind slows down, causing a multitude of feathers to fall. Just as one passes my eyes and blocks my vision, an old woman clad in a black-feathered robe appears out of nowhere, sitting right in the middle of the long table. "Youngsters are so impatient."
"Who are you?" Ophalen jumps up from his seat and wields his cane like a club. But when he realizes that the old woman's milky white eyes are blind, he stops for a moment.
"What do you want?" I cut to the chase and ask her directly.
"I am here to tell your fortune." Without a care in the world, the old crone gives me a toothless grin and points a bony finger in my general direction. "You have lost somebody, and you wish to find her."
"Who are you?" Preparing to create a spike from any point on my body and run her through the head when something feels off, I ask in a low and menacing tone.
"I am but an old seer, here to guide you onto a better path. It is up to you to accept my visions. Kekeke." She explains mysteriously and then cackles with a rasping sound in her throat. "Go south. Seek the worshippers of the sun, but do not trust those that would dedicate a temple to it. There, you will find whom you are searching for."
"You..." Aurelia suddenly stands up, and blades of gold appear in an array around the old woman, pointed at her face. "You are Shelnir!"
"The Guide of Tomorrow?" The moment the golden girl nods in confirmation, I turn the crone into a pincushion without any hesitation. The entire front of my body turned into a more focused Hedgehog mode and extended at her at blinding speed without even making a sound.
Everybody in the room stares at me in shock, not thinking I would act this swiftly. But I know that this alone won't be enough to kill an Old Human. As expected, her body turns into an explosion of feathers, as her voice echoes from everywhere once more.
"Go south, to the capital of the sun. To Zohigal." She repeats herself but adds a very real place name. Then her cackling fades away as the feathers slowly disappear without leaving a single trace. Even those I swallowed earlier seem to have vanished from reality.
