Chapter 19: i miss draudillon :(

Upper Fire Month, 2nd Day, 600 AGG

'Ugh,' Draudillon woke up with a pounding headache. 'I shouldn't have drank so much.'

She grumbled as she threw the covers off herself and crawled out of bed, taking a quick glance at the Lesser Antidote on her night stand. Deciding to not consume it as she had forgotten to purchase more, the dragon queen reminded herself to tell someone to restock her personal supplies later.

'Need to find more administrators and figure out logistics for occupying Almersia after we retake it,' she absentmindedly thought as she took off her sleepwear and activated the magic items on the bathtub: the blue gem for『Create Water』and the red for 『Temperature Change』. 'I wonder what Yuriko is doing.'

Ever since Yuriko came, the thought of having others attend to her in the morning felt… uncomfortable. Even when the angel wasn't there.

Draudillon submerged her body in the hot water with a sigh of satisfaction. After all the revived beastmen had been dealt with, she finally couldn't put off returning to the capital anymore. Not holding court for over a week was bad form for a monarch after all.

'I miss her,' she felt a little emptier with the absence of a particularly energetic individual. 'She said she'll probably stay in Caldevera for another month…'

Draudillon sank deeper into the bathtub. Of course, with spells like 『Gate』at their disposal, distance wasn't really an issue, but still. Only now did she realize how large of a part the angel played in her life since their arrival.

The dragon queen peeked over the edge of the bathtub and at the unassuming stick Yuriko had left with her before they temporarily parted ways.

'This is enchanted with, um—『Refuge』? Yeah, 『Refuge』. So anyways, if you call out my full name and break it, it'll instantly teleport you to me. J-Just in case anything happens!'

Draudillon giggled at the memory of the angel blustering as she gave her the gift. She felt a little less empty.

"Your Majesty," a muffled voice called out from behind the door. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes," she replied with a wry smile. With multiple Cherubim Gatekeepers guarding her room alongside her Royal Guards, it would take a truly catastrophic threat to cause her any harm. "I'll be prepared in a moment."

She felt her body heat up even more, seemingly surpassing the temperature of the bathwater. Devoting these summons to her safety might have been a trivial task for Yuriko, but the consideration still made her feel fuzzy on the inside.

"She's working hard," Draudillon carefully scrubbed her body with a washcloth as she hummed to herself. "And so will I. It's only a month."

A month couldn't come fast enough. Before, she would have dreaded the passage of each day, sitting in fearful anticipation of whatever terrible news made it to her ears.

It was funny how one person could change all of that.

Draudillon tapped the purple gemstone enchanted with『Destruction Water』and stepped out of the bath, drying herself off before putting on a bathrobe and sitting down in front of her vanity. She took a glass container filled with powdered herbs mixed with rose water and sprinkled it throughout her hair as she combed through the black locks.

"I wonder if Yuriko would comb my hair if I asked," she mumbled to herself, ears turning slightly red at the audacity of the thought. "No—that would be weird. She'd hate me."

It was a quiet day. She couldn't remember the last time that didn't bother her, the last time that didn't fill her mind with worse and worse what-ifs.

It was too quiet. Draudillon sighed and put the comb down. Well, this was a better problem to have than worrying about losing another city to the beastmen.

'Right,' she got up from the chair and went to change into more formal attire. 'One more city to go. Then we can deal with the demihuman leadership.'

They were close. Close to ending this long, long nightmare. But for now?

It was just another day at work.

'At least I don't have to parade around as a kid anymore. Or in those gods-damned clothes.'

"Your Majesty, we cannot spare any more qualified people to manage Caldevera," one of her courtiers begged. "The nation is recovering, this much is true, but it will take time. Forcing the aristocracy to manage a devastated city on top of their desmenses is…"

"Nothing short of a disaster in the making," Draudillon kept up a facade of serenity. "Alternatives are currently being considered."

"If I may be so bold, what are these alternatives, Your Majesty?" the man just seemed glad that she hadn't insisted on piling on more work for the noble houses. He probably wouldn't be glad for long.

"We retrain the beastmen previously in charge of managing the city and put them back in charge."

"Y-Your Majesty?!" the courtier's eyes nearly bulged out at the insanity of her words. "That is—!"

"Utterly insane, no?" Draudillon calmly looked him in the eyes. "Understand this, we lack options. I dislike the idea as well, but we cannot afford to discount it."

"The people will riot!"

"The people don't have to know," Draudillon lightly tapped the armrest of her throne. "From what I've seen, many of the beastmen weren't very patriotic. As long as they're given proper compensation, they will work equally as hard for us as they had for their previous masters."

"Even still, this is," the man rubbed his eyes. "… insane. Your Majesty, I will ask around again and relay your words to them. I don't believe they'll disagree, but affairs aren't going to run smoothly."

"Then we just have to make them aware of our need to leverage every resource we have. How goes the disaster relief in Mohajar?"

"Ah, I believe my colleague is more aware of the going-ons in that city," the courtier gestured to one of his peers. "If he may, Your Majesty?"

"Of course," Draudillon dismissed the man before her as another took his place before the throne. "Speak."

"All goes well," the courtier genuflected. "As I'm sure Your Majesty already knew, there was not much damage to be repaired in the city proper. Even the farmsteads surrounding the city were left relatively untouched."

"Indeed," Draudillon recalled the time she flew to the Bafolk in the barn. "Go on."

"Yes, Your Majesty. Clean up is essentially done, and clerics have performed last rites on the corpses before burying or cremating them. Aside from that… I suppose only time can heal the rest."

"Was anything else requested?"

"No," the courtier shook his head. "Mayor Montoria wished to express his gratitude for the angels sent and the aid they have dispensed."

"I see," artisan work was outside their scope, but summons were perfect for heavy, menial labor. Though there was the question of the angels taking over jobs… something to consider for later. "Then we move on to the most important topic. Almersia."

The mood in the room instantly dampened. Almersia, the first city to be taken by the beastmen, and the first to be subjected to the horrors she had bore witness to Caldevera. Only this time, the beastmen had more time to finish constructing their necessary infrastructure.

"Even if we retake it…" the courier who had objected against sending more administrators grimaced. "Who would want to manage it?"

"I could," Draudillon mused to herself. It would be a great excuse to be with Yuriko too—no, this was a serious situation. "Unless you all have changed your mind about training demihuman administrators?"

"Your Majesty—you cannot!" someone else cried out. "To set foot in such a dangerous place is far too risky!"

"I wouldn't be in any danger," the eyes of her courtiers flicked to the angels floating by her side. "And perhaps all of you are correct when it comes to the unfairness of forcing my people to work in places that harbor such terrible memories."

"Please do not concern yourself with our comfort, Your Majesty," the courtier before her touched his forehead to the ground. "We will surely find the appropriate personnel for this task!"

"Your words gladden me, but a leader should be able to make such decisions in times of crisis, no?" it felt a little hypocritical saying that; after all, hadn't she cowered in relative safety while her people died by the thousands in the frontlines? "Once Caldevera is in a state where it no longer requires intensive oversight, we'll deal with Almersia. Begin training more administrators—take second, third sons or daughters at this point—and grant titles to the capable among them. It'll be too late for them to assist with the present, but we won't be forced to hobble along like this in the long run at the very least."

"And you will choose to remain here, Your Majesty?" Draudillon almost felt bad for needing to snuff out the hope in the man's voice.

"No," she bluntly replied. "I will head to Almersia once it's recaptured."

"But that's—"

"That's only fair," Draudillon interrupted him. "All of these tragedies… they are my responsibility to bear."

"Then surely the rest of us are equally as guilty!" the courtier pleaded. "Your Majesty, please reconsider! You are needed here in Oriculo as well!"

"Your petition has been noted," Draudillon rose from her throne. "I need to—hm?"

Both of the Cherubim Gatekeepers by the throne had closed in around her, forming a defensive position. She suddenly noticed that there was now an angel-sized hole in one of the walls of the room, along with a missing Gatekeeper.

"What the hell?" she muttered out loud, a sentiment seemingly shared by everybody else in the hall. Were they under attack?

She didn't have to wonder for long as the missing Gatekeeper dragged back a birdlike demihuman—an aarakocra if she wasn't mistaken—with its limbs twisted into unnatural positions.

'Her summons are a little overzealous,' Draudillon couldn't imagine Yuriko doing something like that. In all likelihood, it was probably a case where a vague overarching command had been given. "Why are you here?"

"O-Ow, fuck," the aarakocra groaned in pain. "Am I dead?"

"Your Majesty, we must kill this impudent interloper immediately!" someone in the room was shouting to murmurs of acclamation. "How in the name of the gods did he even—?!"

"Call a cleric over," Draudillon commanded one of the Gatekeepers. "He can hardly answer our questions if he's delirious from agony."

"Healing him would be too dangerous!"

"I never mentioned anything about healing," Draudillon sat back down on the throne. Despite the situation, she didn't feel that afraid. Was it the sense of security the summons provided? Or was she perhaps getting used to situations like this? "Merely something to relieve pain."

"Of c-course," the same man bowed his head in embarrassment. "Forgive me for my outburst, Your Majesty."

"There is nothing to forgive," Draudillon waved her hand and took a closer look at the birdman. Her instincts were leaning towards 'strong,' or at least stronger than the Kshatra's of Clan Vadh. "It would be unreasonable to expect any of us to remain perfectly calm in a situation such as this."

'Impressive. So that's what? Above a mithril-class adventurer?' Was this some sort of decapitation strike against the leadership of her country? No, Draudillon frowned. With the strength of arms and magic that the beastmen were capable of, they should surely have the information gathering apparatuses to know that such an attack would be an exercise in futility.

The Gatekeeper returned with a sweating cleric from one of the local temples. Yuriko's summons didn't have the proper toolkit to effectively deal with a situation like this. Well, aside from intimidation and the promise of violence that is.

"Y-Your Majesty," the cleric looked shaken from the unplanned flight. "I was called?"

"Can you cast 『Dull Pain』?" the birdman on the ground was still moaning in pain. "『Zone of Truth』?"

"Both of those are within my abilities," the cleric carefully stepped towards the demihuman. "I assume Your Majesty wishes for me to cast both upon this subhuman here?"

"Demihuman," Draudillon corrected. The foes that had driven her kingdom to the brink of annihilation were detestable, but calling them subhumans felt like spitting on the sacrifices of those who had sought to halt their advances.

"My apologies," the cleric didn't sound very sorry. "『Dull Pain』, 『Zone of Truth』."

A field of light emanated outwards around the birdman and angel beside it, the moans of pain gradually dying down at the same time.

"Fuuuuck…" the birdman struggled to lift his head. "I messed up, didn't I?"

"That's putting it lightly," Draudillon calmly answered. "I'll repeat my question: why are you here?"

"I was—shit," the birdman made a face, his attempt to lie prevented by the spell. "Was told to."

"By who?"

"People," Dammit, Draudillon suppressed the urge to groan in exasperation. This was going to take a while.

"So he was just a scout in the end," Draudillon grumbled as she flopped face-first onto her bed. "Makes more sense than assassination, I suppose."

A scout sent by the Beastman Country with express orders to not engage in combat. That was the only information they had managed to squeeze out of the birdman. Draudillon had briefly considered torture but immediately discarded it. Given how dedicated the demihuman was to keeping his mouth shut despite the vastly superior Gatekeepers hovering over him, it wouldn't be a surprise if there were curses in place to prevent him from leaking too much information.

'Yuriko would hate it if I did that,' no, her personal feelings definitely did not play a role in her decision.

"I feel so useless," Draudillon spoke into her pillow. If the angels weren't there, she very well could've just died along with the rest of her couriers. "Pft."

It was amusing in a sense—before, she was too little of a threat to warrant such an attack. Now, she doubted anything the Beastman Country could muster would be able to overwhelm the castle's sanctity.

Strength was the law of this world. Despite knowing that, she had neglected her birthright and Talent.

Wild Magic.

Draudillon sat up on the bed with a heavy heart. Simply using it was a sobering reminder of the lives that lay in her hands. Lives she could take away in the blink of an eye.

Yet it was the clearest path to becoming stronger. Becoming less of a burden. She honestly couldn't see herself becoming a sword master or some other sort of martial sage.

Yuriko would probably say that her strengths were in being a ruler and to not think too hard about her lack of combat capabilities. That was, if the angel wouldn't despise her for keeping such a secret from them in the first place.

Draudillon held her hands out and expelled a miniscule amount of essence—her own, of course—channeling it across an nearly invisible path as she slowly shifted it from one hand to the other.

It was a pretty sight. But that's all it was.

Draudillon forced more essence into the roughly sphere-shaped entity. She didn't really know where she was going with this. Great-grandfather had instructed her in the use of a number of spells, but none of them were usable with her soul alone.

'I wish he taught me more,' her chest twinged with regret. It was unlikely he would have allowed himself to be found, but the possibility existed. Draudillon formed another sphere out of her soul.

'What am I supposed to do with these?' her vision felt spotty as she stared at the balls of essence. 'Maybe try to reabsorb them?'

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face and—

"Hi!" Draudillon immediately dissipated the externalized essence back into the World as someone stepped out of the purple rift that had been ripped open in her bedroom. "Omigod, are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm—fine," wow, she was really woozy. Maybe it was a bad idea using up her own essence when she was already exhausted. She should have gotten that cleric to cast a『Lesser Restoration』or something on her.

"『Heal』!" Yuriko rushed to her side, radiant light washing over the dragon queen as the angel carefully laid her down on the bed. "Do you feel better?!"

"Don't shout," Draudillon winced. A good chunk of her stamina had been restored, but a bone-deep exhaustion still remained. It seemed even tier magic couldn't restore essence. "I'm fine. You don't have to worry."

"You looked really sick," Yuriko looked at her from above with worried eyes. "Um, I'll go make something! Sandwich? No, porridge is definitely—"

"Stay," Draudillon weakly tugged on the skirt of the angel's dress. "It's just been a long day. Besides, if I was sick, your spell would have cured it, no?"

"O-Okay," Yuriko sat down beside her. "So, uh, hm, wanna talk about it? Not if you don't want to!"

"Pfff," Draudillon couldn't keep a smile off her face. "I do want to talk about it. Though I also want to ask why you're here—not that I'm unhappy you are."

"Right, I," Yuriko looked away, her neck tinged with a hint of pink. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"O-Oh," she didn't expect that. It made her feel all sorts of fluttery on the inside. "Thank you."

"It's no p-problem," Yuriko scratched the back of her neck. "I'll be teleporting back later if you were worried about that. So, how was your day?"

"Mostly figuring out how to allocate administrative manpower to Caldevera," Draudillon resisted the urge to ask the angel to lay beside her. "And then…" her voice trailed off.

"And then?" Yuriko turned back around with a curious look in her eyes.

"There was an aarakocra scout," Yuriko's hands tightly clenched the bed sheets. "He was neutralized by your summons."

"Where is he?" Yuriko asked with poorly disguised anger. "If he even touched you…"

"Currently, he's being kept in the dungeons," Draudillon dryly replied. "He didn't touch me, and he won't be touching much for a while."

"Maybe I should just stay here instead," Yuriko talked to herself with furrowed brows. "Fuck, I should've been more careful. Left more summons or, or something."

"Don't," Draudillon warned. "I'll be okay here. That's why you left all these summons, am I wrong?"

"... no."

"You have your responsibility," Draudillon strained her arm and patted Yuriko's hand. The effort was such that it put her on the verge of passing out. "And I have mine. There are people who need your aid far more than I do."

"I guess," Yuriko frowned. "But I'm still worried."

"..."

"Draudillon?"

"..."

"Ah! She fell asleep."

The First Seat of the Black Scripture sighed as the doors of the meeting room closed behind him.

He had been hoping for a break after suppressing the Catastrophe Dragon Lord, but now they had been tasked to chase down the traitor Clementine.

Quaiesse hadn't displayed much outward distress at the news, but it was clear to anyone paying attention that he was upset. And why wouldn't he be? His sister had essentially spat on everything the Theocracy had given her for the sake of her own sick, perverse desires.

The First Seat resolved to talk to him later. It would be bad if a conflict of interest occurred in the middle of a headhunting mission.

"You," a person moved out from the shadows of the sanctuary. "How was it?"

"Relatively simple," he already knew who it was even before he turned around. "It really didn't look like a Dragon Lord."

"Huh," he could hear the clicking of the 'Rubik's Cube' in her hand stop. "Was it strong?"

"Our goal wasn't to fight it. To that end, the monster is now under the thrall of Lady Kaire," he wanted to say 'You would know this if you read the report,' but Antilene—Zesshi Zetsumei—was someone who never bothered with that. "We left it in Tob."

"Tsk," Antilene clicked her tongue. "Boring. Do you think it was strong then?"

"A dryad said it was a being that fell from the skies countless years ago," even he had been surprised at that information. It was unfortunate he had to dispatch the very same dryad, Pinision, in order to preserve the secrecy of their operations there. "An evil tree called Zy'tl Q'ae."

"A tree," Antilene snorted. "If any of you had died, I would've absolutely forced those people to go a few rounds with me."

The First Seat involuntarily shuddered. He could still remember the few times he had fought the Extra Seat. It was not an experience worth remembering or experiencing again.

"Anyways, I bet the old fogies are really happy, huh? To be able to command a giant… tree," a hint of mockery entered her voice. "How will they even mobilize it without the entire region knowing?"

He helplessly shrugged. When it came down to it, simply keeping a powerful and twisted monster like that in check was already more than enough. Wanting to utilize it as a weapon was far too greedy in his opinion.

"Figures," the Extra Seat scoffed with no small amount of derision. "Going on a hunt again?"

"Yes. The Fifth Seat's sister," the traitor who had stolen a Crown of Wisdom, driving the Miko Princess insane while slaying her guards. "They think they have an idea of where she might've gone."

"And where's that?"

"Southeast," he simply replied. "Towards the center of the continent."

Antilene whistled. "Wow. I'm jealous."

'What's there to be jealous about…?' he tiredly smiled. It all sounded like a troublesome affair, but he supposed traveling so far for an operation would be rather interesting to Antilene. "You could take my spot if you want."

"You know the old fogies would never let me," she rolled her eyes. "It's a shame though… perhaps I could meet someone strong there and have an exciting fight for once."

The First Seat's smile grew slightly brittle. "You could fight the angel that appeared."

"If only," Antilene leaned against the wall. "Eh, even if she really was strong, it's not as if the two of us would be able to bear children together anyways. Unless she's an angel with a body type we're unaware of."

"... Right," Antilene had those sorts of twisted desires. Sometimes he wasn't completely sure if she was serious or not. The implication that she might leave the Theocracy if she were ever defeated by an outside force was too disturbing to consider. "Either way, it was a useless suggestion; we aren't allowed to antagonize her."

"Whatever," Antilene seemed to have lost all interest in the conversation. "Have fun on your trip. If you find the traitor, try to leave her alive for me."

"We'll try. But no promises."

The Captain of the Black Scripture almost felt bad for the former Ninth Seat.

Almost.