Chapter 20: oops i forgot to tell her about the beastman-guy stuff

Upper Fire Month, 3rd Day, 600 AGG

"Excellent," Isoleiryx was pleased at the sight of the panicking Elder Lich. "The Variable Space-Disruption Propagator is working as intended."

"What have you done?!" the undead yelled at him as it prepared to cast a spell. "『Dragon Lightning』!"

The disgusting tier magic rushed towards him and harmlessly washed off his scales. "And the damage-mitigator is working as well. This has been much more than I've hoped for. It's limited to only a few types at a time, but it should be enough to deal with that filth…"

"You overgrown lizard!" the Elder Lich gnashed its teeth in rage for the humiliation it was suffering. "You dare stand against Qay—"

Brightness Dragon Lord absentmindedly stepped on the undead, silencing its annoying shouting. A spell to prevent teleportation that would theoretically work on even holders of the Dragon Emperor's detestable treasures and another spell that altered his body to be more resistant to a few select damage types at a time—though at the cost of making him more vulnerable to opposing damage types.

With these two techniques nearing completion, he just needed to further develop essence crystallization so that it could easily function on a larger scale. Additional live testing could be done after he fine-tuned that process.

'I need to find a suitable candidate to stress-test the Disruption Propagator,' he looked towards the northwest. 'Perhaps Vaision would be willing?'

It pained him to have to rely on that cowardly hypocrite, but his other peers were prone to wander off, making them difficult to locate. Compared to them, Vaision was more prone to linger around a number of select locations. The son of the Dragon Emperor was also much less likely to attack him for some inane reason.

"Yes," he rumbled to himself. "It is all for the sake of the World, so suffering such an indignity is a minor price to pay."

Isoleiryx tapped the Orb of Seeking, the magic item glowing as it turned on. He had made it a habit to check on II-25 A-H-4-3, but that useless spawn of his couldn't even stay close to the Player. It was very tempting to spend the time monitoring her on something more worthwhile, but the Dragon Lord forced himself to continue. Even the most minute detail could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Multitasking wasn't something beyond his capabilities anyways, Isoleiryx mused as he watched the soundly asleep A-H-4-3. The letter that the Player left on the table implied that they'll be regularly returning—a development that made future observation scheduling much simpler.

'There's no time to waste,' Isoleiryx thought while he deactivated the orb. He needed to fly to a safe location before committing to a chain of teleportations that would eventually take him just outside the boundaries of Vaision's current residence. 'At least he is not so foolish as to forgo teleportation wards.'

He unfurled his wings and flapped them a few times before shooting off into the sky. It was time to pay the Platinum Dragon Lord a visit.

"Huh?" Draudillon rubbed her eyes. She was still in her clothes, laying in her bed and before that… ah.

She moaned in embarrassment as she pulled the duvet over her head. Falling asleep in the middle of talking would be beyond shameful as is. Falling asleep while talking to Yuriko of all people fell into a completely different category of mortification.

'Must have left right after,' Draudillon forlornly thought. 'She took the time and mana to visit me, but I fell asleep.'

The dragon queen let out a sigh and dragged herself out of bed. She had longed for the angel to visit only to pass out in exhaustion when they actually did.

'No more using that much essence for practicing Wild Magic,' Draudillon swore to herself. Beyond being humiliating, it would also compromise her ability to rule effectively if an emergency came up. 'Stick to a little bit each day and maybe it'll—what's that?'

Draudillon saw a container on the table sitting atop a letter. Did Yuriko leave this before going back to her self-appointed job?

The dragon queen walked over to the table and picked up the letter, her eyes carefully reading over its contents.

hi and good morrning. you fel aslep so i put ou in bed but you were alredy on it so yeah. i left some food in contcontainer if you were hungry.

will come arouund at night if you dont mind and rememember to tak breaks :D (i told evryoone you were busy) also pleas wear the euquipment i gave you for safety :(

- yuriko

It was, without a doubt, a poorly written message. There were stray ink splatters all over it, several letters were scratched out, and many words were misspelled. Indeed, it was certainly written by someone who was just beginning to learn the common script.

Draudillon clutched the letter tight to her chest as her eyes grew slightly damp. To her, it was a greater work than any play from a master. It felt—she didn't know how to describe the feeling. It felt… nice, was the best way to say it. Like being wrapped in a warm hug from faraway.

'I wonder how long she had been practicing?' for Yuriko to reach this level of proficiency—as low as it was—in the short time they'd known each other in addition to all the running around they had been doing was astonishing.

"I-Idiot," she muttered even while she reread the letter with what she was sure was a big, stupid smile on her face. "You didn't have to trouble yourself like this."

Draudillon carefully put the letter into her Bag of Holding before wiping her eyes and opening the container. It was some sort of creamy cornmeal porridge that gave off a mildly sweet scent.

She took a few bites, savoring the comforting taste of the sweetened pottage. 'Honey. I wonder when she got that—perhaps a gift from her beneficiaries?'

It was unlikely to have been from Caldevera for obvious reasons, so that left Mohajar and wherever else in the east she may have wandered before they had met. Just how large was that Item Box of hers?

'I'll ask her when she comes around later,' Draudillon finished the porridge and put the empty bowl in her Bag of Holding. The angel would probably want the enchanted container back. "I need to focus."

'Yuriko will come back at night, right? She said she would in the letter.'

"Focus," Draudillon shook the thought out of her mind, taking out the panoply the angel had gifted her a few weeks prior. At the time, they were in too much of a rush for her to consider its aesthetics but now— "Wearing this feels a little excessive…"

It would be the equivalent of wearing full-plate armor—which was probably the point, wasn't it? Draudillon half-smiled in resignation before undressing and equipping the magic items.

'This looks really over the top,' she looked at herself in the mirror. 'Maybe that was the point of Yggdrasil. To have everything be flamboyant in order to contrast from the dreary realities of life.'

Powerful magic items usually had this sort of appearance anyways, so maybe she was just overthinking things.

"Let's go," she beckoned to the Gatekeepers. There were logistics to figure out, petitions to read, aristocrats to keep happy, and a beastman to interrogate. All in all, a typical day.

"Your Majesty," the guards—Mira, Vicente—outside her room bowed as she stepped out. "A diplomat from the Baharuth Empire arrived late last night."

"Is that so? Thank you for notifying me," Draudillon mentally grimaced. A visit from the Empire wasn't unexpected per say, but she would've been much more prepared if only she hadn't fallen asleep so early yesterday… "I'll see her now. And what of our beastman guest?"

"Your girlfriend made him spill the beans," Mira suddenly sounded suspiciously excited while Vicente seemed to hold back a sigh. "She's really amazing. Isn't that right, Your Majesty?"

"She's not my g-girlfriend," Draudillon coughed into her fist and shot a half-hearted glare at the impertinent guardmage. "What did he say?"

"Dunno," Mira shrugged. "Ask your angel later. You still want to see the beastman?"

"Yes," she wondered how Yuriko managed to squeeze crucial information out of the scout. "I believe I do."

"Oh, but didn't you want to meet with that diplomat first?" Mira looked at her with wide, innocent eyes. "Maybe you want to meet them together?"

"The Empire's emissary can wait," Draudillon refused to rise to the bait. "There's no love lost between Jircniv and me anyways."

"Because you gave all that looove to Lady Yuriko, right?"

Draudillon ignored her and tried to walk past the two Royal Guards to no avail; their physical conditioning afforded them stamina and speed far beyond hers. "Your Majesty~ Don't ignore me—ouch!"

"Apologies for her behavior, Your Majesty," Vicente had struck the back of the guardmage's head. "I will be sure to ask the Guard Captain to discipline her later."

"Good," Draudillon arched an eyebrow at Mira. "A little difficulty now might save her from a lifetime of hardship later on. Unless you think it's too late, hm, Mira?"

"It's too late!" Mira groaned in an over-exaggerated fashion. "I won't stop until the kingdom gets a royal wedding—ow ow ow stop!"

"Please go ahead, Your Majesty," Vicente was twisting Mira's arm behind her back. "We will send our colleagues to replace us."

"Thank you," Draudillon relaxed her shoulders. Thinking about—stuff like that tended to put her in a rather self-conscious mood. "Do try to avoid hurting her too badly though. She still has duties to dispense, after all."

"Your Majesty! You can't stop the inevitable—OW!"

The dragon queen chose to take what Mira said and dump it into the deepest recesses of her mind. 'Inevitable,' how laughable.

Indeed. Laughable.

Draudillon pursed her lips and descended into the depths of the castle, where the dungeons were located. It was less dreary and filthy than she thought it would be; maybe the castle attendants had been bored and decided to clean it when she wasn't unaware.

'Or maybe Yuriko told people to clean it up along with her angels,' that seemed a lot more likely. Draudillon huffed in amusement. Blessed was she among rulers, to have a clean and well-kept dungeon.

"What do you want?" the aarakocra tiredly looked up at her from behind worn bars. His hands and feet were pinned together with glowing, ethereal nails that strangely seemed to cause little discomfort. Now that she looked at him, there wasn't any bleeding where his appendages had been spiked through either.

"Last night someone came down and talked with you," Draudillon tore her eyes away from the holy nails. "Correct?"

"You're a fucking monster," the dragon queen didn't expect the sudden vitriol. "You don't have any idea what kind of crazy you're playing with."

"She's not crazy," Draudillon snapped at the beastman. "I don't see what you have to complain about; there's hardly any injuries on you."

"Easy to say from the other side, huh?" the beastman raised his head in defiance. "You didn't have to stare down that bitch."

"Easier still to make excuses, no?" a cold fury burned inside Draudillon. "You sold out your country so easily after a few measly threats—"

"I didn't have a choice!" he snarled in response before immediately deflating. "F-Fuck, I wouldn't have listened to the Viziers if I'd known this would happen."

"Which 'Viziers?'" she presumed those were the ruling members of the Beastman Country. "Ah, I suppose she would have already asked that."

"..."

"I think I can guess what she threatened you with," Draudillon snapped her fingers and pointed at the birdman. "You're someone in the Realm of Heroes, correct? No, not quite there, but almost. If it were just you, pain wouldn't be persuasive enough."

"Damn right," there was a hint of pride in the beastman's voice.

"So she threatened people close to you," Draudillon deduced. "Your family? Friends? Am I getting closer?" It didn't seem likely the angel would've followed through with any such threat. Maybe she could be intimidating when she wanted to? Draudillon found the image to be mildly funny.

"Don't you fucking dare," and now the pride had been replaced by fear. "S-She promised."

"But you're afraid that she won't stop me if I choose to go after them," Draudillon was slightly disgusted to have to stoop so low, but if it could bring a clean end to the war without forcing Yuriko to send even more summons as butchers—

Then it wasn't much of a choice at all.

"What do you want?" all bravado and defiance had leaked out of the birdman. "I don't have any blood curses on me or anything so ask whatever the hell you want. Just promise you won't hurt my clan."

'Nothing preventing him from giving up his secrets?' her respect for the beastman went up a notch. "I promise. Now, tell me what you left out when she talked to you…"

Tsaindorcus Vaision opened his eyes.

Again, the World shook in the wake of his father's folly. This time, a tremor—an Aftershock—from the northeast.

He had observed as best he could; the region was too close to the old stomping grounds of Brightness Dragon Lord. The two had their… differences that resulted in a split some hundred-or-so years ago.

'That region… his descendent rules over it, I believe,' a swell of pity welled up inside his heart for the poor girl. Her capability to use Wild Magic was nothing short of a miracle—there was no better way to call it—but she had been tossed away without a second thought the moment it was realized that such a miracle couldn't be reliably replicated. At the very least, she was fortunate to have avoided being repurposed like a number of Isoleiryx's other offspring.

Truly, it was enough good luck to curse the rest of one's life with the greatest misfortune. And perhaps what was about to come would be the greatest misfortune even among the ones she had already suffered.

A conflict was brewing in the center of the continent, to the southwest of the last vestiges of the Eight Greed Kings. The Theocracy continued to advance its goals with the human nations it had nurtured oh-so long ago as they marched upon the elves in a war of brutal retribution. Demihumans in the Abelion Hills gathered in masses under the banner of a new leader, while the demihuman nation Isoleiryx had founded on a whim found themselves stymied by a force from outside the World.

Sometimes, it was as if only Eryuentiu stood still and remained unchanging. Tsaindorcus supposed its era had long since passed, and now the only thing left for it was to slowly fade away into obscurity. How strange, for what once used to be the nexus of a new-age order decay into stagnancy.

A fitting ending.

He felt old. So very, very old. Two-hundred-odd World Items, the leader of the Thirteen Heroes had once told them. The Aftershocks would stop one day, once there were no more treasures to rip away from other worlds. He had to believe that. He had to.

A flash of essence appeared near the boundaries of his wards. Tsaindorcus slowly rose to his feet; his mighty wings unfurling as they filled the empty sanctum with their impressive span.

It was clear what his visitor wanted. Tsaindorcus's heart sank as he realized what would be asked of him. He would refuse, of course; the new Player was no threat yet, and there was no use in creating an enemy where one need not exist.

In the end, he knew it wouldn't matter if he refused; Isoleiryx arriving at his doorsteps meant the Dragon Lord had resolved themselves to see their path to the end. Tsaindorcus would not and could not stop him—at least not without killing him.

'Ironic,' the Platinum Dragon Lord mused. 'That he should seek to slay his great-granddaughter's benefactor—the one who saved her from another experiment of his own making.'

Perhaps it was an opportunity that could be used to patch—a wave of revulsion overcame Tsaindorcus. There was nothing good about a disaster that would claim countless lives and souls.

'It doesn't matter,' Isoleiryx was nearly at the doorsteps of the floating castle now. 'Whoever dies or lives, my duty does not change.'

And perhaps, he thought with a heavy spirit, it never will.