Chapter 12: My new friends keep teasing me (theyre nice though, i promise!)

Lower Wind Month, 21st Day, 600 AGG

"You and the queen shack up yet?"

"Huh—?!" Vicente knocked the distracted angel to the ground and sighed as he glared at Mira.

"Mira. That is highly inappropriate."

"Oh, shut up," Mira waved dismissively at him. "I wasn't asking you. So," she looked at the angel—Yuriko, Vicente corrected himself—who was busy wiping her dress off. "Any developments?"

"W-W-We are not shacking up or st-stuff like that," Yuriko stammered. "We talk and hang out and eat meals together. That's it."

"Sure that's not the only thing you're eating?" the Royal Guardmage suggestively wiggled her eyebrows.

"Mira!" Vicente angrily shouted. "Think of who you are talking about!"

"What?" she looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. "I'm just gossiping with my friend about their love life. What's wrong with that?"

"You…" he was at a loss for words. The angel glared at Mira, but everyone present knew she wasn't actually angry.

That would have been fucking terrifying.

"There's no love life to gossip about," Yuriko insisted. "We just—"

"Talk and hang out and eat meals together," Mira did her best to copy Yuriko's voice. She failed miserably. "In your own words by the way. You know what that sounds like?"

"Not what you're thinking," the angel muttered and kicked the grass.

"Sounds like you two are courting. Literally everyone else thinks you're a couple," Mira smirked. "So, when's the wedding?"

"Stop," Yuriko half-heartedly warned her. "She doesn't see me that way. And we've only known each other for like two weeks."

"Na," Mira scoffed. "I've seen how you lovebirds make googly eyes at each other. I'm pretty sure Her Majesty does see you that way."

"Well, you're not her, and you don't know what she's thinking," Yuriko unconvincingly retorted. "If she—if she wanted something like that, she would've told me."

"Uh huh," Mira sarcastically agreed. "You know, I sorta mentioned it to her once, and she started blushing and stuttering like you wouldn't believe—"

"You did what?!" Vicente and Yuriko shouted in unison, voices filled with disbelief.

"Helping you out, you dunce," she got up from where she was sitting with a grunt and rapped Yuriko's forehead with her knuckles. "It's really annoying to watch you two beat around the bush all the time."

"Mira, gossiping is one thing, but you are out of your mind if you think directly meddling in Her Majesty's personal affairs is acceptable—!"

"Vicente," she gave him a deadpan look. "No one asked for your opinion. Again, please shut up."

"I think Vicente has a point," Yuriko spoke up in agreement.

"Yuriko, your judgment is obviously flawed in this case," Mira shushed her. "That's the entire reason why we're talking about this right now."

"Just leave it be, Mira," Vicente asked—begged almost. "There's enough to worry about as is."

"What I'm saying is," the audacious guardmage ignored Vicente. "Just ask her out. You can trust my judgment; I've been guarding the queen for years."

"I," Yuriko looked down at the ground. "I can't. I know I'm the main line of defense for the Draconic Kingdom right now. It's not right to ask her about something like that when," she vaguely gestured towards her surroundings. "Everything is in danger."

Yuriko turned her head away from the two Royal Guards and whispered. "Holding that over her head… it's just—It's just not right. It isn't."

Mira's eyes softened at Yuriko's reply. "You're a good person, and I think Queen Oriculus would be more than happy being together with you. Don't sell yourself short."

"Thanks for saying that, I guess," all good cheer had evaporated from the angel. "Really, I appreciate it. I-I just remembered that I had to tell Draudillon something. I'll, um, see you guys later!"

She put the practice sword back on a rack before hurrying out of the private sparring grounds and towards an entrance to the interior of the castle. Once she was out of sight, Mira leaned in towards Vicente and mumbled.

"They're going to go have lunch together again. And they've been doing this every day, every meal for the past week. Ever since they got back from Mohajar."

"I didn't ask," Vicente groaned. "What are you expecting from agitating her that much?"

"Um, I really do want them to tie the knot," Mira rolled her eyes. "She's strong, and the queen's capable. It'll practically guarantee the country's security for the foreseeable future. Plus, I don't remember a time when Queen Oriculus was as happy as she is now."

"Do you think our people would accept such a relationship?" Vicente wondered more to himself than to Mira. "They are both… you know."

"Pft," Mira snorted. "You're talking about the Lady of Wings! High Priestess! Lady Yuriko! People will lick the dirt she steps on; I don't think they'd care if she and Her Majesty get hitched."

"Must you be so vulgar?" Vicente exhaled in exasperation. "I suppose you do have a point, but aren't you afraid of what she'll do if she snaps when you push too hard?"

"She won't," Mira replied in a voice that allowed for no doubts. "It's funny, you know."

Vicente silently waited for the guardmage to continue as he tried to go back to practicing his stances and footwork.

"She's pretty much the closest thing to a deity there is," Mira wistfully stared up into the sky. "I bet those guys at the Theocracy are frothing with jealousy."

"You know that, yet you still act the way you do."

"Well," Mira shrugged nonchalantly. "She gives off that goddess vibe until she opens her mouth. I'm not gonna lie, she's kind of an idiot. I guess that's just the sort of thing the queen goes for."

"Can you—" Vicente huffed and gave up on trying to go through his exercises. "Forget it. You're not going to give up until they get married, huh?"

"Nope!" Mira stuck her tongue out. "I'm doing my part for the kingdom, how about you?"

"You're incorrigible," Vicente lightly whacked the back of her head. "I'm serious though. Don't go too far."

"Yeah, yeah, fine," she pouted. "Killjoy."

"Just doing my part for the kingdom…"

"Our supply convoys are all secured, Your Majesty," the minister of defense, Marquis Aliund, pointed out the supply lines on a well-used map. "The summoned angels have proven to be a great boon in discouraging monsters and bandits. In fact, I doubt even a beastmen raiding party would be able to overcome them."

"Excellent," Draudillon's heart warmed at the reminder of Yuriko. "With this, I believe we will cancel our tributes to the Empire."

"And what of the Theocracy?" Aliund asked. "I know not what the Treasurer's opinions on this topic are, but the amount we pay to them yearly is… staggering."

"We can't," Draudillon bluntly shut down the suggestion. "The Theocracy's clerics and paladins are too valuable to give up on now, even with the summons being gradually disseminated into the cities. They have a flexibility that the angels lack."

"Surely that flexibility isn't equivalent to the thousands of platinums' worth of supplies that we send them, Your Majesty! And anything they learn from their stint in our kingdom will surely be reported to their superiors when they return!"

"True," Draudillon readily agreed. "But there's political issues to consider here too. Consider why they've been requesting foodstuffs and minerals. If we revoke our deal with them while they're in the middle of a military campaign against the Elf Country, relationships will become… dicey to say the least. Not to mention that the Sunlight Scripture is already at Fort Adelemus preparing for a large-scale beastmen attack."

"Hah…" Aliund sighed and propped his forehead against a palm. "Would that our only concerns were monsters and demihumans."

"I'd rather have these problems than the ones we've had before," Draudillon admitted. "We can negotiate with the human nations. The demihumans saw our emissaries as snacks."

"I suppose so, Your Majesty," Aliund took a few notes on a piece of parchment. "Then I'll bring up the issue regarding the Empire with the Prime Minister later today."

"Thank you," she got up from her seat at the cluttered table, the minister of defense rising along with her. "I have another meeting to attend to, so I'll take my leave now."

"Lunch with Lady Yuriko?"

"It's a meeting!" Draudillon defensively replied as she coughed into her fist. "W-We talk about important things. Very important things."

"I'm sure," Aliund smoothly agreed. "I hope your, ahem, meeting is productive then, Your Majesty."

'Ugh, everyone keeps talking about it now,' Draudillon nodded to the Marquis before quickly walking out of the conference room and towards the gardens. 'It's not like Yuriko could possibly see an old hag like me in that sort of way. I hope she isn't bothered by all of the rumors…'

She arrived at their usual meeting place underneath one of the trees. Yuriko looked unusually somber, her brow knitted in concentration.

"Hey," Draudillon waved and tapped the angel's shoulder when she didn't respond. "You okay?"

"Oh!" Yuriko startled and gave an obviously fake smile. "Yeah! Yeah. I'm alright."

"You're not," Draudillon sat down on the blanket, her legs laid to the side. "What happened?"

"Um… I just recently realized that I could've reached Mohajar faster if I used 『Scrying』with 『Gate』," she clasped her hands together. "I wish I'd realized that sooner."

"『Scrying』needs a target you're familiar with. At that point in time, you weren't familiar with anyone in the city," Draudillon narrowed her eyes. "Yuriko. What's the real reason?"

"Just some things Mira talked about, I guess," the angel lacklusterly pulled out a container filled with a crumbled potato-egg omelette. "I messed up on this one. Sorry."

'Oh gods. Did that girl bother her about…?' Draudillon looked away for a moment in an effort to compose herself. "Don't mind her. That girl really has no control over her tongue."

"Y-Yeah," Yuriko handed her a plate and utensils before portioning out the massive pile of crumbled omelette and pulling out a bowl of soup from the Item Box. "This cold vegetable soup is probably better. Hard to mess up soup anyways."

"You still haven't told me what's wrong," Draudillon pointed out after swallowing a bite of the omelette. It was pretty good, appearances be damned. "And I think the omelette is quite good."

"Thanks," Yuriko cracked a small smile, more genuine this time. "You remember what I said around a week ago about the other world thing? Back in Mohajar?"

"If you aren't ready to talk about it, then you don't have to," Draudillon took a spoonful of soup. "I'm not so entitled as to believe I'm owed an explanation."

"I dunno," the angel muttered as she stared at a flower. "I've put it off for a whole week. I told myself I'd tell you the moment we got back, but I just kept making excuses and excuses and—"

"Breathe," Draudillon rubbed Yuriko's back. "Like I've said before, take as long as you need."

"Mm. It's, well. There's a lot of stuff to talk about, so it's sorta hard to know where to start," Yuriko set her unfinished food aside and took a deep breath in. "Alright, so, first of all there weren't any demihumans or heteromorphs or stuff in my world. Humans were the apex predators."

"And you used to be a human," Draudillon pointed out. Yuriko's distress and emotional breakdown in Mohajar made much more sense now. "Correct?"

"Y-Yup!" Yuriko tried to put on a brave front, but her worry was plain for all to see. "That's me! Ex-human Yu-Yuriko!"

"Yuriko," Draudillon shook her head. "Don't worry about it. You've been the same person I've known from the day we met, are you not?"

Yuriko silently nodded, relief showing in her eyes.

"Then you have nothing to feel guilty or ashamed over. Nor do you have anything you need to apologize for. But I'm curious about one thing though; if demihumans didn't exist in your world, how were you able to accept their existence so easily and even recognize them as such?"

"So that's the next thing I wanted to explain. There isn't any magic either."

"What?" Now, she was well and truly shocked. "Then how are you…" she gestured helplessly at the angel. Maybe this was going to be one of those days where she needed to get drunk. "You?"

"Since magic wasn't a thing, we just made, uh, machines and stuff," Yuriko's face flushed with the shame of one who was aware of their ignorance. "I don't really know much about it, but like, we produced electricity—I guess you could call it miniaturized lightning?—from fuel and used that to power things. Things that were sort of like golems that did a lot of work really fast but needed electricity and fuel to operate."

"I, I see," Draudillon carefully set aside her food as well, focusing all her attention on the conversation at hand. "And these machines… Would they be possible to make here as well?"

"As long as you had the materials, I guess," Yuriko shrugged. "It wasn't all good though. People just—they didn't care about the aftermath."

"You mentioned not being able to see the sky. That going outside without protection was to court death," Draudillon suddenly remembered their talk that first night under the stars. "Was that the aftermath you're referring to?"

"Yeah," the angel thoughtfully nodded. "Smog from factories for the air, chemical runoff and garbage for the waters, and well," Yuriko shrugged with a resignation that spoke of a lifetime of oppression. "What's left after that? People can't survive. Animals couldn't. And plants just shrivel up and die outside."

"Then how did humanity even survive?"

"Machines," Yuriko wryly smiled while her hands played with a blade of grass. "Technology. People got really good at making weird artificial food—don't ask me about that, because I don't know—and devices that filtered the air.

"It's kinda funny in a way," she blew the bits of torn grass off her palm. "We kept on making things that made it easier to endure the consequences of our actions, but never really tried to fix the problems. Wars, greed, just… not caring enough."

"So even without powerful enemies to plague them, humanity still wastes away from the inside," Draudillon bitterly laughed. "Some things don't change, no matter the world, it seems."

"Yeah," Yuriko stared off into the distance with an oddly nostalgic look. "There was cool stuff too though. We managed to fly all the way to the moon. We made giant domes for rich people where plants and animals could still live even with the shitty air and water. We made bombs that blew up entire cities in one go. Well, the last two aren't really cool, but you get the idea.

"And," the angel turned her head towards Draudillon. "We made the neural-nano interface."

The words were spoken with a strangely heavy weight, one that made Draudillon unconsciously lean forward, spellbound by the angel's incredible descriptions.

"So like," Yuriko spread her hands apart. "Think of a machine that you put on your head—and then you put tiny machines into your body that calculate stuff or whatever—and this machine, how do I say it? It puts you in an illusion. And there's these companies that run all kinds of illusions where you can be everything you're not and forget about how awful life is for a while."

"And that's where your magic comes from?" Draudillon quietly asked—no, confirmed. "An illusion where magic was real?"

"Yeah," the angel nodded her head with a look of guilt. Draudillon didn't understand. What did she have to feel guilty over? "There was a game—it was called Yggdrasil—and players could pretend to be a super overpowered warrior or spellcaster or whatever based on what classes you leveled up in. I guess it was kind of like this world but more… over the top?"

'Leveled up? Is that Yggdrasil's equivalent of gaining strength?'

Yuriko chewed on her lower lip. "The last day of the game… after it was supposed to shut down, it—I don't really understand what happened. One moment I was in the game, and the next I was in some random forest."

"Then you wandered around for a few days before breaking into the castle." Draudillon finished for her, holding in her amusement.

"A-Ah!" Yuriko blushed and pursed her lips while rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry about that…"

"It's fine," Draudillon smirked and rubbed the angel's hand. "You've already been forgiven for that. Anyways, you seem fairly familiar with the magic in this world, no?"

"Uhhh, yeah?" Yuriko frowned for a moment before her eyes shot wide open in realization. "Wait, but that means—never mind, I dunno."

This time, Draudillon couldn't hold back her laughter. Yuriko pouted at her. "You don't have to laugh at me, y'know?"

"S-Sorry, sorry," she wiped a mirthful tear from her eye. "It's just that—y-you're so cute."

Yuriko's face turned bright red with an impressive speed, and Draudillon's as well once she realized what she had unwittingly blurted out.

"I—" the dragon's queen mouth grew dry. She didn't want a mere slip of words to cost them their friendship. "I'm so sorry, that—that just slipped out."

"N-No, it's fine," the angel swallowed thickly. "It means a lot to me, coming from you."

An awkward silence filled with a strange sort of tension pervaded the air between them. Draudillon noticed that it felt much warmer than she recalled it being just a few minutes prior.

"Draudillon?"

"Yes?" she felt a mixture of dread and anticipation in equal measures as her heart sped up.

"When the war's over, do you maybe want to—" and then they were interrupted by a courtier barging in on them with a serious expression on their face. Draudillon faintly realized she had never truly understood frustration until this moment.

Desperation she was well acquainted with, and fear a familiar friend, but this? This was something else entirely.

"Your Majesty!" the courtier gulped as beads of sweat rolled down the back of his neck. From the queen's glare, he realized that his interruption was not being gracefully received. "E-Envoy's from the Theocracy! The Cardinal of Fire, Berenice Nagua Santini, asks for an audience with Lady Yuriko present!"