Chapter 38: Omigod i dunno how i should feel right now there's so much going on

Upper Fire Month, 24th Day, 600 AGG

"Alright~! To the dungeons with you two!" The human guard—Mira, the one who had tried to make that wager earlier—led them and the angels into the lower elements of the castle. "Sure glad Vicente didn't take me up on that bet…"

"How long will we be detained?" Varush forcibly calmed himself from the harrowing experience they had just escaped. "Seeing as your queen has given us what? Thirty or so days? Thirty or so days to complete our task."

"Sounds like a 'you' problem," Mira walked them past the cell of an aarakocra—wait, an aarakocra? "Well, it'll probably be better for you if you stayed in the pits, honestly—"

"A Shadiya? Here?" Ithit halted in his steps and peered into the room. "A prisoner of war?"

"Eh?" Mira side-eyed the Orthrous with a raised eyebrow. "Nope. Just some guy who thought he could peep in on the castle. Pretty ballsy though, now that I think about it… or maybe just dumb?"

Ithit ignored the mumbling of the guard and called out to the imprisoned aarakocra. "You! Who are you?"

"Ah, fuck, can you bastards get any louder?" The aarakocra forced his eyes open and glowered at the new inmates. Upon seeing who they were, his eyes widened even further as he straightened up as much as his restraints allowed. "The High Vizier? And… I don't know who the hell you are, but the High Vizier?"

"That's me," Varush nodded in acknowledgement before motioning at the Orthrous. "And this is Vizier Veejanu."

"That group of tree-huggers? Didn't think one of them would make it all the way here—"

"Alright, that's enough out of you three," Mira poked one of the angels with her foot, pushing them back into motion. "Into your temporary new home you go~"

"Shit," Ithit grumbled, allowing himself to be shoved into a chamber by an angel that followed him inside. "Just what does Queen Oriculus want out of us?"

"That's for her to know," the guard stretched her arms while Varush was placed into a separate confinement cell with his own winged jailer. "And for you to find out. See you guys around! Or not."

Mira spun around on her feet and walked out of sight, leaving the three beastmen and their wardens behind in the silent and dismal corridor.

"So," the Shadiya clansman broke the tense atmosphere. "What brings you two here specifically? The leader of the Council himself and a sitting member with no detachment or emissaries sent along. Makes no fucking sense if you ask me."

"Pleading for mercy," Varush bluntly answered. No point in pretending otherwise. "The Council, save for a few others, didn't agree with our course of action. The rest is history."

"Wow," the aarakocra whistled. "What did she say?"

'Referring to Queen Oriculus, I'm assuming,' Varush grimaced at the reminder of her ultimatum.

"Vassalization and death to all who've eaten human flesh. Ah, except for the children."

"The hell?" The aarakocra's eyes boggled in disbelief. "I don't know how big this human kingdom is, but it's definitely nowhere close to the Republic. How's she gonna run everything if she kills—oh, I don't know—nearly all the major fucking clans?"

"She likely has replacements already prepared, or in the process of being prepared," Ithit broke into the conversation. "And then she'll have the surviving Viziers acquaint them with the Republic and all of its nuances. After that…" the Direwolf Orthrous snorted. "Who knows what will happen to us?"

"It'll take decades for any replacements to understand the workings of the Republic on the same level that we do," Varush banished the pessimistic thought. Things were bad, but he didn't think Queen Oriculus was that blinded by a thirst for vengeance. "We're more likely to die from old age than something more… violent."

"Probably die from overwork," the aarakocra huffed and leaned back against the surprisingly clean wall of his cell. "That'll be one for the records, eh?"

"We would just be resurrected in that case," Ithit snarked. "You've seen the beastmen return from the recaptured cities, haven't you? Apparently a few of them were killed and brought back from the dead if their stories are to be believed."

"Thought those were just rumors… shit, she makes all the other clerics I've seen look like complete jokes. How do you even resurrect so many people that fast? We don't even have casters like that, at least ones that aren't crazies living in the hills."

"If only she stuck to the healing side of the clerical profession," Ithit unhappily grumbled. "Then perhaps we would not be cursed with such an unenviable position."

"It is what it is," Varush tried to raise the moods of his compatriots. "We should focus on protecting our countrymen as best we can instead of bemoaning our situation."

"As if we can do anything," Ithit's ears twitched in the direction of the stairwell they entered from. "Someone's coming."

'Hm? I must be more distracted than I thought if he caught that before me,' Varush sat up and awaited their captors.

"Heeey~" Mira jumped off the last few steps and greeted the prisoners, a male guard closely following behind with an exasperated expression. "Boy, do we have some news for you—ow!"

"Get to the point, Mira," Vicente, Varush recalled, pinched the back of her neck. "We aren't here to play around."

"Ow ow ow ow, okay, okay, I get it, stop!" Mira rubbed the back of her neck and directed a scowl towards the other guard. "Asshole."

"Queen Oriculus and Lady Yuriko will be seeing you three shortly," Vicente ignored Mira's complaints. "It seems you all will be returning home sooner than expected."

"That's good to hear," Varush wondered why the guards needed to be sent to inform them if the human queen and Goddess were coming themselves anyways. "I assume there's tasks we've yet to perform?"

"Uh, we're just here so Her Majesty doesn't have to repeat everything to Martin, yeah?" Mira raised an eyebrow at Vicente.

"... No. Where did you even get that idea?" Varush felt a small amount of pity for the male. Thankfully, he'd never had to deal with her type. "We're here because…"

"Uh huh," Mira smirked triumphantly. "Na, we're here so Her Majesty can run off and do whatever while leaving us to deal with calming down everyone."

"Why do you sound so happy about that?"

"Huh? Because… Oh, hm…" Mira's face gradually paled. "We have to tell Martin. W-We need to run. We need to run before it's too late!"

It was too late though; Varush could hear two pairs of footsteps descending into the dungeon.

"A-Ah… it's over. It's all over," Mira moaned and covered her face while Vicente bowed towards the new arrivals that rounded the corner of the passageway.

"Your Majesty. Lady Yuriko. What would you have us do with the beastmen?"

Queen Oriculus's teal-green eyes leisurely shifted over to the prisoners before she opened her mouth and said something utterly ridiculous.

'This has to be a joke.'

"Back," Yuriko quietly said in a subdued manner. "Sorry for taking a while. I didn't see you in your room."

"I was thinking about the beastmen from earlier," the bedroom was too suffocating. "It felt easier to do that outside than in."

"Yeah," the angel walked up to her side. "Fair enough. I guess we were doing the same thing."

In the elevated yet isolated gardens, there was nothing and nobody to disturb the two. All the other residents of the castle had elected to stay inside given the unusual situation. Draudillon supposed she wasn't going to get a better chance than this for a good while.

"We had a talk about a month ago," Gods, it felt like an entire lifetime with how much had changed in that time. "The Greed Kings, Six Great Gods… True Dragon Lords. Remember?"

"Erm, a little bit?" Yuriko scrunched her face as she delved into her memories. "What about them?"

"I'm a True Dragon Lord. Dark Scale Dragon Lord, to be precise."

Draudillon waited for Yuriko's response. It was a rather well-known piece of information—one received differently depending on who you asked. Of course, the more… distasteful aspects of it were more obscure. Even if the angel knew she could use Wild Magic now, it didn't mean she was aware of everything that entailed. Few did.

"Okay?" Yuriko tilted her head in confusion. At least they weren't moping now? The dragon queen found herself unsure of exactly what reaction she was expecting. "Oh! Uh, I'm not trying to make it seem like it's unimportant. I think it's really cool!"

Draudillon swallowed the lump of nervousness stuck in her throat and forged onwards. She had yet to tackle the hardest part. What would someone like Yuriko think about the annihilation of souls?

"Before," she hesitantly continued. "I told you that Wild Magic was powered by souls."

"Yup," Yuriko nodded, unbothered. Draudillon prayed that they would remain so. "I remember that."

"Typically, when casting a spell via Wild Magic, you'd use your own soul," Draudillon held out a hand and formed a wispy core of externalized essence. "But when attempting to cast—"

"You use your own soul?!" Yuriko grabbed Draudillon's hand, causing the essence to dissipate and send a small wave of fatigue through the dragon queen. "Isn't that really dangerous?! I, I thought that you meant like, ambient soul!"

'What the hell does 'ambient soul' even mean…' Draudillon fought the urge to deadpan even while her heart skipped a beat at the angel's concern. "It's only dangerous if I expend all of it. Given time, my soul will recover as long as I don't strain myself."

"Okay," the angel released her hand with a troubled expression. "Okay. Be careful, please?"

"I plan to," Draudillon coughed into a fist in an attempt to hide a mild blush. "Anyways, as I was saying; when attempting to cast a spell that requires more essence than one has—"

"You can take it from other people?"

"Yes, I can take—wait, how did you know?" Draudillon's blood ran cold, colder even than when she presided over the beastmen. Who had told her? Someone from the Theocracy? Mira? Martin? How long had she known?

"C'mon, I'm not that dumb," Yuriko puffed her cheeks. "Sure, I didn't know what you meant the first time you brought it up, but I can figure stuff out too, y'know?"

"Sorry. You… You're probably upset that I didn't tell you before. I didn't plan on keeping it from you for so long, but there just…"

'No, that's a lie. You had plenty of chances prior to this.'

"I'm not upset," she wasn't? But… why? "It's something that bothered you, right? Like you told me—not everything has to be shared. If you weren't ready to share it, then you weren't ready."

"This doesn't bother you at all?" Draudillon was more than a little incredulous. "It doesn't bother you that I can rip someone's soul straight out of their body and consume it like some, some…" She couldn't finish the sentence. Didn't know how to.

The ability to use Wild Magic was incredibly rare; it was a gift that she should've been immensely thankful for. To access the birthright of primordial Dragon Lords with only a fraction of their blood was unheard of ever since the era of the Greed Kings if great-grandfather was to be believed. Hell, full-blooded dragons born in the current era didn't have that privilege.

Even so, Draudillon couldn't bring herself to feel appreciative of her Talent and lineage. Maybe in the past when she was younger and could leisurely explore the facets of soul-magic with great-grandfather, but as she was now…

It was just another constant reminder of the burden she bore. Every soul, a reminder of what could be lost. Of what could be torn away at any moment for the express purpose of slaughter—

"It's not like I'm any less dangerous, y'know?" Yuriko tried to cheer her up. "You can take away people's souls, well, what about me? One word—one thought—and, and I don't even know how many people die."

"Souls that are consumed don't return to the World," Draudillon numbly refused the consolation. "In other words, no resurrection. You simply… cease to exist."

"But you haven't done that," Yuriko's misplaced confidence in her was like a knife through the heart. "That's something to be proud of, right? Y'know, being able to do something but choosing not to."

"I wonder," she bitterly laughed. "If we never met, that's exactly what I would've ended up doing. Snuff out a million or so lives and kill a few thousand—maybe tens of thousands—beastmen before they overwhelm the kingdom anyways."

"And you didn't do that," the angel argued back. "You held on, didn't you?"

"I still could," Draudillon muttered, one arm hanging loosely to the side while she gripped it with the other. "Just because I didn't have to this time doesn't mean I can't."

"Then I'll make sure you never have to make that decision," Yuriko seemed to mull over something for a moment before proceeding. "And i-if you do, you can just ask me for mine if you really need it!"

What?

"What?"

"Agh… that sounded a lot better in my head…" Yuriko scratched the back of her head, face reddening at the same time, and frantically mumbled to herself. "No, c'mon! No turning back now. You got this!"

Draudillon watched in disbelief while the angel hyped herself up. What was going on?

"S-So I know we've only known each other for," Yuriko began counting off on her fingers. "Two. I mean almost two! Almost two months!"

'What is she trying to say?' The dragon queen decided to keep quiet and wait for the angel to gather their wits.

"But in those almost-two months, I think I would've had a lot more regrets if I never met you," Yuriko awkwardly fidgeted with her hands clasped behind her back, but assiduously kept her eyes on Draudillon in spite of that. "I know I'm kinda of an idiot and ask a lot of dumb questions, but you've always been super patient with me. Plus, you work so, so hard for everyone, you're smart, b-beautiful, and…"

The angel took in a deep breath. "What I'm trying to get at is, I l-love you!"

Was this really happening? It couldn't be. It must be some… some cruel prank. It had to be. She couldn't let herself believe otherwise. She couldn't. Musn't.

"This isn't some kind of joke Mira put you up to, is it? I can't say I find it all that funny—"

"I'm not joking," Yuriko's lips trembled as her eyes grew ever-so-slightly wet. "I'm being serious. I love you. I know I'm from Yggdrasil, and people like me might've screwed over True Dragon Lords like you in the past, but—!"

"It's not about you being from another world. There's—you're making a mistake," Draudillon smothered the hope budding within. The angel was only trying to comfort them during a troubling time: nothing more, nothing less. "You know I've hid things from you. Worked you to the bone for nearly nothing in return. You once said that you've received more than I've realized. What do I have that you couldn't simply find elsewhere?"

"You're an idiot," her heart caught in her throat as Yuriko hugged her from behind. "You shared those secrets with me just now, didn't you? I chose to work that hard because I wanted to. And…"

Yuriko's voice dropped to a soft whisper.

"You have you."

'She… She loves me. Me. She loves me. Honestly and genuinely,' Draudillon's mind slowly caught up to the revelation, heat flooding the entirety of her being. 'W-Why? How could anyone spend that much time with me and still decide to love me? I don't deserve it.'

"I kinda dropped this at a bad time, huh?" Yuriko loosened her embrace while letting out a strained and nervous laugh. "Please, um, d-don't feel like you're forced to say it back. I'll still stick around and protect the kingdom even if you don't—"

"You're not joking? Y-You're not saying it just to make me feel better?"

"I'm not!" Yuriko vehemently denied. "I know it's only been like a month-and-a-half since we met, but, but I thought that y'know, maybe it was a good time to ask anditprobablywasn't—"

"I love you too," Draudillon placed her hands over the ones that rested on her stomach, voice breaking under the weight of her emotions. She didn't want to turn around, not with the unsightly expression she was sure she was bearing. "This is… you really love me?"

"I do," Yuriko held her even closer, their clothes beginning to feel more and more like obstacles rather than the protection they were meant to be. "I love you—only you—and I'll tell you until you get tired of hearing it."

"You'll be repeating it a lot then," Draudillon murmured, leaning into the angel's warmth while her tears threatened to spill over. "Sure you won't get tired of saying it first?"

"Not if you say it to me too," Draudillon turned around and beheld Yuriko's crimson face. The dragon queen was sure that her own face wasn't faring any better. "U-Um, sorry. That was a little too much, wasn't it?

"I love you," Draudillon cupped Yuriko's face in her hands before pressing their foreheads together. "I love you, I love you, I love you—"

"O-Okay!" Yuriko pouted, the expression melting Draudillon's heart even more than it already was. "You don't have to tease me like that…"

"I wasn't teasing," she resisted the urge to giggle. Forget Yuriko's strength; her cuteness alone surpassed the effectiveness of siege machines. "I really do love you too."

"Mm," Yuriko's pout slowly curved into a smile. "So, um, this is my first time doing something like this, and uh… I guess what I'm getting at is—"

Draudillon's blood rushed through her veins and pounded in her ears, completely chasing away the memory of chilly hatred and sinking worry that had plagued her since speaking with the beastmen.

"Do you wanna be my girlfrie—no, sorry, that's wrong. That is, would it be okay if I c-courted you?"

"Courting," Draudillon wanted to jump up and down in elation; an impulse which she kept under control, of course. Courting—marriage—this was Yuriko's first time, and they wanted to be with her. The angel could have their pick of anyone in the world, but they chose her. Draudillon Oriculus. "You are aware of what you're asking? I don't mind if you want to take some more time to think about it."

"I am," Yuriko determinedly nodded her head. "I'm not playing around. I'm serious about you. One-hundred percent!"

"Then if you've made up your mind," Draudillon channeled her bliss into squeezing the angel between her arms. She had known them for less than two months, but it felt right. Besides, that's what courtship was for, wasn't it? To get to know each other better. "I'd love that. I accept your offer of courtship, Yuriko Hanami."

"Waaa… So formal…"

"I-Is there something wrong with that?" Draudillon's face flushed, but this time in embarrassment instead of excitement. "Was it done differently from where you came from—?"

"No, no!" Yuriko's eyes widened in panic. "That's not what I meant! It's more of, like, I just wasn't expecting it, y'know? It's not bad, I like it!"

"Hmm," Draudillon narrowed her eyes as she stared into the angel's. "Well, I'm glad if that's the case."

"It is the case."

"Is it?"

"It is—you're teasing me again," the angel's tone made it clear that she wasn't asking. They didn't sound mad though; in fact, Draudillon could visibly see the tension and anxiety bleed out from Yuriko's posture.

"You don't seem to dislike it," she innocently played with a strand of pale-gold hair. "Should I take that as permission to continue?"

"F-Fine…" Yuriko grumbled, though not unhappily if the blush on her cheeks was anything to go by. "So we're c-courting now."

"Mhm."

"Um, so like I said, since this is my uh, first time," Draudillon held herself back from pinning the stammering—was it okay to call them her beloved?—angel against a tree. There were steps to this process after all; she couldn't just jump into carnality from the get-go. "If I mess up on anything, then please tell me, okay?"

'It's fine if I think of her that way, right? We might not be at that point yet, but maybe eventually—'

"I promise," Draudillon shoved away the unchaste fantasizing that she had denied to herself for so long and focused on her beloved's eyes. "Although…"

"A-Ah!" Yuriko winced. "I messed up already?"

"You were right when you said it probably wasn't a good time to ask," Draudillon laid an affectionate hand atop Yuriko's chest. "This was a terrible time to ask. Immediately after the audience with the beastmen leaders? Moments after I dumped a confession of my own? Honestly, I would be furious if it were anyone other than you."

"Sorry…"

"But I'm not angry though?" Draudillon rested her head upon Yuriko's shoulder. "I believe I've said as much."

'It would be rather hypocritical of me to get mad at you for that anyways,' the dragon queen wryly thought.

"Y-Yeah, you did," Yuriko moved a hand up to the back of Draudillon's head and gently rubbed it. The two lovers peacefully stayed like that for a few minutes until she spoke up again. "Hey Draudillon?"

"What's wrong?" Draudillon asked with no small amount of concern, noticing the worry that now suffused the angel's words.

"About the beastmen… If… If I told you that I wanted to not get rid of them, would you hate me? Not that I'm planning on changing my mind, but I was just wondering, and…" Yuriko trailed off, shame joining the distress already present in her voice.

"I wouldn't like it," Draudillon removed her head from her beloved's shoulder and matched their gaze with hers. "But I would never, could never, hate you. Earlier today, I asked you to tell me if something felt like it was too much to handle, no?"

Yuriko wordlessly nodded.

"Thank you for telling me," Draudillon gave a reassuring smile that her companion timidly reciprocated. "I know you're saying you aren't planning on changing course now, but we can talk things out together if you ever do. Come to a compromise or something of the like."

'It's odd,' the dragon queen contemplated while stroking the side of Yuriko's face. 'Being so comfortable with the fact that I can compromise with her. When it comes to it, she could do whatever she wants, and damn anyone who says otherwise.'

It made her all fuzzy and warm on the inside to be given another reminder of how the angel not only wanted to be with her, but trusted her. Trusted her to do right by them, to employ their power and influence for the good of others, to make things better and not worse.

She didn't want to let Yuriko down. If that meant she might have to give up on vengeance for her people… well, they would cross that bridge when they got there.

"Right, talking. I can do that," The angel's reply snapped Draudillon out of her thoughts. "And um, one last thing."

"Go on," Draudillon encouraged them. Whatever was on Yuriko's mind, they were clearly struggling with putting it out into the open. "I won't get angry."

"Could I, maybe—if it's okay with you—go to the Beastman Country with them?"

She got angry.