Meili POV
Survival.
Death.
Assassination.
Sister.
Mother.
Mission.
Many words describe Meili Portroute's life, yet none of them really fit.
In many cases, young girl has had more experience than many adults. Meili barely remembers any part of her early childhood, due to the fact that she was mostly raised by the mabeasts who followed her around.
Back in Priestella, Meili heard from one of her pets that a man in a white cloak was supposed to have a connection with her, along with another person called Milan. She believed it, since Mother did mention the powers of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony and their ability to perfectly steal memories.
Now, why did she not seek the man known as Dynas out? She's obviously not scared nor anything, Meili's apathy made sure of that. Of course, she's not a hopeless monster, probably even better at handling emotions than her sister Elsa. If she was fearing for her emotional side, she could've asked Y/N to help.
Maybe she wasn't ready to face her past yet.
Meili does not remember much about her past.
Or her early, early days, that is.
Her memories pick up somewhere after Elsa found her, and that they were sisters ever since. But there are fragments of memories seen through her photographic eyes slowly returning.
Meili Portroute was born with a powerful that allowed her to manipulate the behaviour of man-eating predators known as Demon Beasts. She was abandoned by her parents and subsequently grew in the wilderness surrounded by Demon Beasts that protected her. As a result, Meili was a feral child incapable of basic speech and etiquette. That's what Elsa told her about, when she found her.
Her Demon Beasts were definitely her best friends. Rock Piggie-chan and Flying-rat-chans were both very cute and probably one of her first supporting mabeasts. The feral girl, Meili, was then abducted by Elsa who inducted her into her —the Assassin Organization.
She was taught many things by Elsa, including how to talk and behave properly. She quickly became an operative of the organization who used her control of Demon Beasts and deceptive youth to execute her targets. She was frequently paired up with Granhiert on missions, whom she considered an annoying older sister of sorts. Portroute, like most members of the organization, feared their leader known simply as 'Mother'.
When Meili spent her first days with Elsa, she remembered sitting on a couch, shivering from her slow recovery from insanity. No, Meili never considered herself insane, but Elsa often referred to her early days this way to point out the distinct difference between her past and now. She drank milk and ate bread that Elsa provided, probably from stealing in the capital.
She quickly became an adept assassin after figuring out her powers. Her Divine Protection of Magic Manipulation is definitely a unique power. Meili gathered tens of mabeasts after her debut as an official assassin as a partner to her onee-san Elsa, who was already quite high in the rankings.
Meili definitely did not expect a very scary meeting with their leader, contrary to her excitement she felt when she became an assassin.
Mother was terrifying. Everyone in the organization knows it. It's an iron rule that all must follow Mother's orders and carry them out without fail, or your free trial of life will be immediately terminated by her. In the Assassination Organization, failure is not an option. The first time Meili failed to complete a mission perfectly, Mother turned her into a pile of frogs for a few hours. As much as Elsa-nee wanted to help her, she couldn't do anything.
Did Meili despise Mother? To some extent. Not to the point of direct hate, but the fear of her definitely contributed to the fact that she was terrifying. When Elsa did a little digging and found out Mother was also the Sin Archbishop of Lust of the Witch's Cult, Meili fainted on the spot. There were more monsters out there like Mother. What a cruel world this is. Of course, Mother never knew that they knew of her official position, or else they would've been piles of meat already.
And so, the killings of Meili's career continued for 8 long years, and the gears finally started to shift when one day Elsa came back to their temporary hideout, her clothes tattered as an indication of her clear loss.
The ruins that Elsa had been hiding in was one of the safe houses prepared in the capital.
Meili was one thing, but Elsa really wasn't in a position where she could stay at an inn. If we say that papers containing her name and description were distributed by the guard station, you can understand the reason. Regardless, the safe house was available as a result. Several of this sort of hideout were prepared in the nearby towns and villages, but this one was valued for it's location. However...
"Well, we won't be able to use this place anymore, wi~ll we. The smell of blood is really strong, and though it's too dark to see, I'm sure there's blood all o~ver." Meili remarked as she saw her sister come through the door.
"Oh dear. It almost sounds like you're saying I've used it poorly." Elsa said, a little unhappy with Meili's tone.
"How else should it so~und? It's Elsa, after all, so you were dancing here all covered with wounds, ri~ght? There's no doubt blood was flying everywhe~re."
"You sound like a child who's come to see how things are. ...Well, I won't deny it." Elsa sighed in exasperation, lamenting a little over her loss.
Meili sighed at Elsa's giggling, cheerful words. Then, the girl softly extended her hand between the bountiful twin hills of Elsa's unclothed body. There, a long, vertical, painful-looking wound was carved, which even now was still bleeding rapidly.
"...That looks like it hu~rts."
"Yes, it's painful. Isn't it wonderful?"
"Don't be thinking I'll agree with that sort of twisted co~mment. But, whether or not it's wonderful, I'll agree that it's stra~nge. Is your 'blessing' not working?"
"It's 'that' sort of wound, perhaps. I wasn't able to have him use the 'Dragon Sword', so this should just be an ordinary wound, but... that boy himself must have that kind of power, then."
The flow of blood was indeed stopping, but there was no sign that the wound was closing. For natural healing ability that was a natural result, but both of them understood that nature didn't apply here.
The hinderance to that was the power of the individual who inflicted this wound on Elsa.
"So? You dueled with the 'Ma~ster Swordsman'?"
"Yes, that's right. He was just like the rumors... No, even better than the rumors."
"Wow, re~ally. Were the insides of his belly better than the rumors too?"
"Well, I wonder too. After all, I wasn't able to do a thing to him. Ahaha."
Why she would be smiling after suffering an entirely one-sided defeat, Meili couldn't comprehend. However, that wasn't all that Meili couldn't comprehend.
"...There's someone that even Elsa can't defeat, the~n."
Meili's long sigh attested to the unexpectedness of that fact.
"Somehow or other, since Elsa's been able to kill everyone up to this point, I was sure you could kill anyone except Mama~."
"You've overestimated me. Even I've lost, haven't I? It was a few years ago, but I lost to the kimono boy in the Vollachia Empire, after all."
"That fellow was just an escort; you killed the target just fine, di~dn't you? ...Also, I looked into it, and it seems he's the strongest person in the empire, you kno~w."
"Oh my. In that case, I've lost to both the strongest in the kingdom and the empire. Wonderful, how wonderful."
Elsa let out a warm sigh with her cheeks red. Rolling her eyes at Elsa's reaction, Meili took a small bottle out of her clothing, and began applying the white mucus in it to Elsa's wounds. "Now that I think about it, there was another interesting person in that place I went to."
"Oh, rea~lly?" Meili said. "Was it because the insi~de of his bellies that looked wonder~ful?"
"No, not really. He was a weak person, that's for sure. But he was able to stall attacks from me until the Master Swordsman arrived. I've never seen anyone do that, you know?"
"Tr~ue. Do you maybe want to see how his bowels fa~re?"
"Most definitely, haha. I look forward to seeing him again. Maybe we can fight him together, you know, Meili?"
"No than~ks." Meili huffed. "I'd rather not see all the unnecessary bl~ood."
That was the first time Meili heard about Y/N. A figure who was able to stall her. Although not able to defeat Elsa, he was able to hold her off of her target for around 10 minutes. Not even Meili can do that. She felt like maybe she needs to get rid of that person before he got too powerful that he'll cause further missions to fail.
And the chance came soon enough. She was hired by the margrave of the mansion, the same person who hired Elsa, to unleash a pack of doggies onto a village. She even found the boy who seemed to be 16-17 wandering around the forest looking to hurt her doggies. She pretended to be hurt, and wanted the boy to fall into her trap. Instead, he came up to her and noticed she wasn't asleep right away. She knew because he didn't immediately tell his friend that she was in danger, instead he just told his friend to carry her away.
So she had to run. If she didn't, that means that the mission is failed completely and if she lands into the custody of others, even if Elsa-nee comes and saves her later, Mama will definitely punish her by transforming her into something hideous again. But she need to make sure that onii-san dies, or else he will be the death of them later on since he already almost ruined two of their missions.
Time came and went, and it has been around a month and a half since the last time she heard about the onii-san. Mother was apparently angry for some reasons, and Elsa wagered it was probably somebody up in the Witch Cult that caused some trouble. A boy in tattered rags came into the complex of assassins yesterday, and Mother called him Roy, who was a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.
Apparently around a few days ago, there was a huge mabeast known as the White Whale that appeared. Meili has heard of the White Whale and the other two of the Three Great Mabeasts. The three were too great in terms of raw power and mana that it's impossible for Meili to tame them. And what's even more surprising is that onii-san was one of the people who contributed to its downfall.
Maybe if we recruit him to our side, could he be our savior instead? I'm pretty sure even Mama can't even defeat the White Whale or the Great Rabbit, so could we stand a chance, perhaps, with him by our side?
Meili immediately wiped away that thought as she shook her head and focused on her mission. This time, the margrave wanted them to burn the mansion down and assassinate every resident in the building. Huh. Maybe the margrave is more crazier than what everyone thinks. Who burns down their own mansion?
When they arrived, however, onii-san was waiting for them.
Onii-san lured Elsa into a trap immediately, and set her on fire with magic. Noticing that Elsa was cornered, I immediately sent Rock Piggie and Black Lion to help her, but the two demi-humans stopped me.
"I will not allow us to fail." Meili stated loud and clear. She wasn't going to lose this fight. After all, this is the last chance to get rid of onii-san. Elsa-nee is trying her hardest, so I should try to do so too.
However, the results weren't satisfactory at all. With their teamwork, the brother and sister demi-humans defeated both of her best mabeasts, leaving her at a disadvantage with only the cursed doggies, snakes, and flying rats. Within minutes, Meili was overwhelmed and the one called Garfiel lifted up the corpse of her Rock Piggie, and threw it at her. She ran with all her might and barely survived after one of her cursed dogs sacrificed themselves for her.
The demi-human walked over as he clanged his shields together, creating one last menacing sound before he raised his fist and lifted Meili off the ground, ready to bash her head in.
"Stop, Garfiel! Don't kill her!"
"Cap'n's buddy! Why are you with that woman?"
"We made a deal. They're our allies now. Now, put Meili down, please."
"Huh?" Meili coughed as the demi-human let her go. She fell to the floor in a daze, confused at what just happened. "Is this true, Elsa?"
"Yes, Meili. We no longer serve Mother. Y/N has offered us protection. We serve him now." Elsa replied as she picked Meili up as she examined her for injuries, before laying her down as she nodded at her new master.
Meili POV
"Why did you not finish him off and instead took him up on his offer, Elsa?" I asked as I watched the sleeping figure of onii-san, who said his name was Y/N L/N before he fell asleep.
"Because he promised to protect us." Elsa replied, her decision already set in stone.
"And wh~at? How is he going to make our lives better than what we already ha~ve? You even told us we had to survive on our own because we weren't 'loved' by the world or someth~ing."
"I'm gambling on fate, Meili. He promised me to protect us from Mother. Could you believe it?"
"Mother? How does he know of her existen~ce? I thought Mother said her identity was secret except to those in the Organization and the Cult..."
"I don't know how he knows, but do you think anyone who has been in the organization or the cult has the courage to even declare themselves an enemy of Mama?"
"That's tr~ue. However, you're really going to just trust hi~m?"
"He's a boy loved by the witch and the world. I don't know how else to put it, Meili, but maybe he can turn things around. After all, I still get my fair share of bowels to hunt and fights to play."
"Your priorities are weird, El~sa..."
"Just trust me, Meili."
"I'll have to wait and see my~self." I said to Elsa. "If he's truly worthy, then I'll help hi~m."
"Why are making yourself sound like a queen of sorts..."
"I am, sort of. A queen... no. A ruler of mabeasts, am I not?"
Throughout the next eleven months, Meili has kept a close eye on Y/N. She has completely had her view of him changed.
Rescuing villages? Does that seem something a top assassin would do?
Definitely not. But Meili was helping either way. Her mabeasts were a great source of transportation, and people started thanking her instead of fearing her. It felt unimaginably good to be praised.
Y/N dealt the final blow to the Great Rabbit, fought off the Black Serpent's poison, rescued a leader from the demi-human war, went head-to-head with the Sword Saint in a fight, aided the army in the Battle of Priestella, reformed Mother, revived a Witch of Sin, won over the strongest warrior of a country, formed a pact with a Great Spirit, and achieved many more feats within the short time Meili has been with him.
Maybe it's time I start supporting him the same way he supports me. Meili has had that thought for a long time, but this is the time that she believes is right.
"Thank you for holding your promise, Y/N onii-chan." Meili said to the sands in front of her. Julius Juukulius was taking a break in Y/N's advanced capsule along with Elsa, leaving her alone on the front lines just like she requested. They have a magic barrier around them anyways, so nothing can harm her at the moment. She connected her senses with the line of mabeasts she secretly left a trail all the way back to the start of the desert, where her own collection of mabeasts lie. She sent a signal to the first one, then the next one sent another, similar to a sculk sensor, and it reached all the way back to the horde.
Upon receiving the message, every single beast roared with compassion before dashing in the direction of her owner. Giant dust clouds were generated as all kinds of mabeasts rushed into the Augria Sand Dunes. Guiltylowes, Wolgarms, Orthruses, Black Winged Rats, Arkalbs, Wagpigs, Banassis, Spotted King Dogs, Knickerbockers, and Dimrils made their way across the desert, coming towards the group.
"Hm? What is that?" Emilia said as she looked out the window, and noticed the large crowd of mabeasts closing in on them.
I will ensure this mission's success. Meili thought as she stretched out her hand towards the sun, and made a grasping motion before giving the world ahead of them a smile.
"I am the 4th Member of the Liberator's Battalion."
"Ruler of Mabeasts, Meili Portroute, falling in!"