Rosaria
Something has been running amok, and I don't like it a single bit.
The alarm was raised no more than a few moments ago, howling about how a Spriggan went out on a rampage, but that wouldn't be the worst of it I'm afraid. A blazing fire had sprung from out of nowhere, razing tent after tent in its wake, destroying a whole host of supplies until a passing Jack Frost managed to extinguish it using magic.
Though that may be the case, the problem itself still persisted, what caused this in the first place?
Flying towards the epicentre, I cautiously inspected the area, finding that it occurred near mother's tent and spread out from there. Luckily, her belongings were left untouched thanks to the wards imbedded into the fabric. Can't say the same for the other folks though.
Around five tents were lost in the fire. Nobody was in those tents mind you, nevertheless, there were still rations, raw materials and supplies inside that could have been used to keep someone running for just a bit longer. A gross mishandling of the situation, but nothing the group can't recover from, a setback if you would.
Searching the remains for anything salvageable, I happen to chance upon a rather peculiar sight. A living cockroach that had managed to somehow survive the accident, with only the clumps of ash surrounding it to show for the deed.
Strange. Very few of them come to show up here despite being an insect, seeing as they usually huddle around the concrete wastelands of the once vibrant cities (on account of those who lived during that era). So, to find one here meant one of two things.
A: It wandered in here by accident and happened to be at the right place and the right time for me to encounter it. Or b: it was the elusive cockroach mother's been heavily obsessing over these past few days as part of her research.
Whatever it may be, the little insect has little use outside of baseless theories. And it would be in my best interest to report this before another one shows up. Encapsulating the little bug in a sphere of densely compacted air, I flew over to mother's work area, which also happened to be the infirmary.
Though, plans would have to change slightly as she was able to meet me at the halfway point, likely to better assess the situation with first-hand experience as opposed to catching the odd hear-say that was being passed around.
"Mother! It would seem as though Christmas has come early this year!" I proudly announced, hiding the insect behind my back. "An important gift has landed right at my feet and you need to hear this."
"Oh, really now? What could be so important that it would halt progress on my investigation? Did the king suddenly drop all his work to spend a day with all of his children? Darling, we both know those silly tricks of yours have no effect on me. Give it a few more decades of practice and you might just get one on me eventually."
"But it's actually important! Very much so." I protested, standing my ground against this thousand-year-old woman. "Look, all you have to do is scan the ball behind my back, I swear it will surprise you, from the bottom of my heart."
"Fine, fine. I'm sure it won't take longer than a-" She paused, her jaw dropping down as she analysed the object within my grasp. "So, he's finally returned, how wonderful. Rosaria, dear, could you lay it on my desk and keep watch? Wouldn't want a repeat of last time, but right now, I have some important business to attend to."
"You're not surprised?" I gasped. "Weren't you searching for the entirety of yesterday, or did you perhaps leave your mind in the hell that is paperwork?"
"My sweet child, you know how busy I get, right? Plus, that thing should be the least of my worries in all honesty. A fight is on the verge of breaking out, and I can't have my subordinates clashing because of a misunderstanding, now can I? Be a good little girl and do as I say, or else, I won't get those pastries you love to get in the capital."
Swaying the sweet dessert over my head was dirty, very much so. But it did do the job it was supposed to in getting me to agree. Damn you old lady for making very delicious foods at such a low cost, curse you!
…
Curbing my gluttonous desires into the dirt, I directed my gaze over to the contained creature, now inside of a glass box. Staring at it for a few more moments before dissolving the ball and letting the mana dissipate into green motes of light.
The cockroach did look livelier than earlier it seems, skittering around in circles due to its new unshackled state. Though, that expression didn't last long, cowering in fear, its legs failing to support its own weight.
"Wha- what do you want from me now!?" A voice shouted in my head as I jeered towards the sound. "A-are you going to torture me? Because I-i- I'm not backing down without a fight!"
A telepathic message? But from who or from what? None of the demons from here even have the capacity for that type of mind magic, barring mother dearest for being the old hag that she is. So, there was only one answer to this question. It had to come from one of the prisoners of the war!
That made much more sense than having it come from the inside… I have to tell father of this news immediately, or else he might lose more of his troops than he already has!
A silence erupted following my thoughts, deafening to the point where a pin dropping could set off an explosion. "You're not here to kill me?" The person on the other end asked, with absolutely no stutters and optimism brimming his voice.
"Wrong connection? Don't worry, our king Oberon and his men will save you and the rest that have been captured soon enough. I swear it upon my name, it will happen." Reassuring him was the best that I could do in this situation, seeing as running in head first would only result in my death.
"Oberon? No, I'm sitting right in front of you, idiot! Are you so blinded by your arrogance that you ignore me?" A twitch struck like lightning and my face contorted like shattering glass. -What did he just say?
I'll give him one more try, just to confirm his identity. "Perhaps I am mistaken. You're telling me the little bug, who is attempting to climb out of his cage as we speak, is you? Frankly, I find that hard to believe, outlandish even. To the point where it sounds like you're reciting the plot of a fiction novel."
"Yes! That is me! Now, can you please just let me out? I just want to get out of this hell at all cost. I will even become one of your subordinates if I have to. Serving you to my dying breath if it means refuge away from here." He pleaded for the second time, an audible desperation too obvious for me not to notice.
Realising the situation comfortably laid before me, a mischievous smirk appeared at the corner of my lips. This was going to be fun. "Is that so? Then you won't mind if… I don't know, I let you rot there for the rest of eternity?"
"Do you really think of me as a toy meant to be played around with?" A bit too far? "It wouldn't be too hard to get myself out of here, you know? A simple spell and all of this glass can go flying at you and I wouldn't care if you bled out screaming in front of me. In all reality, I simply need a guide to direct me to the main headquarters, and you seemed the most rational of the bunch. But, I might have overestimated the mind of a demon such as yourself. So, to answer your question, yes, I wouldn't care too much. I just knew, from the bottom of my thirteen-chambered heart, there would have to be some way of getting out of here without fighting the immensely powerful woman.
"Now, could you please let me out of here or do I have to break out on my own? Who knows how much damage I would cause before they'd catch me? Better yet, how long would it take before they noticed their food supply run dry from my pestering? So, pixie, do we have a deal or not? My patience can only stretch so thinly."
Cold and condescending. A full one-eighty compared to just earlier. The cold visage of a high-ranking demon from both sides appearing behind him as he sternly made his demands. Shit. Jumped the gun too soon and now I have to pay the price. Wait! If I just accept his offer, then there is a possibility of this going smoothly, right?
Let's first think this through properly before making another rash decision. For one, he definitely has magic, that's easy enough to discern based on previous research. He harbours some ill-will towards mom, and there's likely no way of clearing up the misunderstanding without her here to say the words themselves.
The best I can do in a circumstance such as this is biding as much time as possible.
"Alright, I see your point in this, there's no need for reasonless bloodshed. We can talk like reasonable adults, correct? What is it exactly that you required of me to do exactly? Work as a chaperone? I can do that without issue, as if this place was the back of my hand." Nervously jesting, I dramatised my voice to echo an idea of grandeur of sorts, a premium.
Entering the forefront of the glass, the insect began to float in mid-air, incorporating a sort of wind spell alongside another I couldn't make heads or tails off. "You are indeed correct. However," Pausing in between his sentence, he flew up closer, stopping right around my chest area and on the length of my index finger, causing shivers to reverberate throughout my spine. "how can we trust each other if we haven't introduced ourselves yet. It is only right to do so as simple etiquette, is it not?"
"T-true." I croaked, feeling the pointy spines of his legs latch onto my skin. "M-my name is Rosaria, daughter of Oberon and Vivian, pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Hm." He hummed in what seemed to be acknowledgment. "Then mine is Skye. A cockroach who has no title whatsoever. Where are we right now, partner?"
"Partner?"
"Is there something wrong with what I said? A simple quarry even you can't answer? Aye aye aye, something is very wrong here. And with parents such as those… did they not teach you well enough?"
An insult to my pride, just grin and bear it for now. I don't exactly have the luxury to rebuke that statement. "We currently reside in the fairy forest like the majority of my race. War has broken out between the two sides and, from what I have heard at least, we've been mostly on the fence about it, taking neither of the two and fighting on our own. But, I don't think it will last for long."
"I see. Where in the world are we? The planet in general I mean."
"The British Isle if I recall. Why do you ask?"
"Huh, things have just gotten more interesting. Go on, ignore my prior question."
"Right~. Anyways, our current location on the map is called sector six, or just southeast of the capital. That should be all the necessary basic info, yes? Or is there more that you wish to uncover?"
"Give me a full deep dive on the current political landscape of this place. Any little tidbit will be very useful." Oh, for the love of-
…
Skye
Maybe asking too many vague questions was a mistake. But, I was able to learn what kind of bread the duchess in the north loved to import from the Filipino pantheon, very useful information indeed.
Ha~, what am I doing with my life? When I said I wanted to better myself, this was the first that came to mind. Better yet, why the hell did I make that speech sound so edgy! Urgh! I makes me sound like I was twelve again… those were darker times, weren't they?
Yikes.
Moving on to a more interesting topic was the elusive Black Maria. From what I remember of my extensive wiki dives, she's a mid-game demon with strength relative to that of a Throne or even Loki. For what reason she started appearing is unknown, however, it likely has something to do with a MacGuffin that will inevitably have an immensely profound effect later on.
Or not. Wars have been fought over less, especially when two drastically different ideologies come clashing with one another in an endlessly war for who gets to control the barren post-apocalyptic wasteland once it's all over.
Point is, this society is on the brink of collapse or assimilation. With both sides breathing down their neck to come to a decision, the great queen Titania did whatever she could with the little power she can cautiously exercise without risking the lives of thousands, if not millions.
In all reality, the situation was tragic, to say the least. From the way it was described to me, it sounded like the aftermath of a car crash and all I can do is watch as the poor lad inside has to die of his wounds, never getting the relief he wanted.
Therein lays my call to adventure.
While, yes, I did reflect on my growing arrogance, that still didn't mean I'd abandon the isekai dream. Not only that, I also needed to prepare for the fight against Demi-Fiend. Which, won't come in another five years, mind you. But, it was better to prepare for it now than to just have it plop down at my doorstep.
" ? You've been unresponsive for the past five minutes, are you still alive?" Rosaria's voice echoed in my mind, followed by a few of her thoughts that managed to leak through into the connection.
"I'm fine, princess, there's nothing to worry about. I just needed a moment to unravel all of this before deciding my next move, that's all." I reassured, floating to the top of her not so spiky hair. "In more or less five minutes, we should be heading off towards this Black Maria everyone's been clamoring about."
"That's practically suicide!" She exclaimed, protesting against my choice. "Even if we were to combine our might and wits, there's nothing we can do to stop her. Let's not also forget those looking for the woman. It's better to just quit and find some other goal to achieve."
"And where's the fun in that?"
"Fun? Do you think any of this is fun? I didn't have all of my friends die in my arms just for you to have fun! I thought you were going to take this topic seriously… but apparently you only seem to ever care about yourself and how it benefits you specifically. So now where's my gift? Where's my pat on the back!? Because no matter how hard I look, the only thing I see are unmarked graves for those butchered like animals by demons who are naturally born with power."
"And you think you're weak?" I rebuked the fairy, staring up at her with my beady eyes. "Even from our basic conversation, I can easily tell you have the potential to be something great. Hell, people would do anything for even an iota of your strength, I would do anything for a fraction of that. So why feel worthless in your inability to do anything when you can grasp from what is within, sapping it till there's nothing left."
"Because I want more" Coming to a full stop, her words turned icy cold and struck deeper than any blade could wish to penetrate. "It's never enough. What substance does strength have to stand on when there are people far more powerful than you will ever be? Whether it be political or a more literal sense, you can never have enough.
"You hate it, don't you? The feeling of powerlessness. It was the exact same sensation I had whilst fighting the metallic killing machine. The searing hot pain of blood splattering across my body as his spear pierced my delicate flesh, I-I don't want to feel that way again, never. Mary, oh especially Mary. She didn't deserve to die, none of them did. It was all my fault. If only I had trained harder, just a little bit more to turn the tides of battle, I could have saved her then. But it's all in the past now. There's nothing I can do past ruminating to the point of depression and sorrow.
"That's why I want strength…To protect those of whom I care about. To stand above the growing sea of colossal titans, and propagate this wasteland into a utopian society, where nobody has to worry about death looming over their shoulder. It may be childish, you may even mock it, but this is what I believe in, and I will stand by that statement to my dying breath."
We were both left speechless, though our reasons were very much different. Mine was so that I could fully take in what she just said, doing my damnedest to find some sort of hidden meaning, using the fullest of my comprehensive ability to wrap my head around the situations. Hers was far simpler, having ran out of breath and gasping for air.
Without either of us knowing, another demon arrived at the scene, bringing with it a heavy pressure that made the very air around us feel like swimming in a vat of molasses, as if more gravity had exerted itself upon us. The air behind Rosaria parted in what I assumed to be the two parties talking to one another.
She seemed freighted for the most part, stuttering in her thoughts, like a child caught red-handed, almost embarrassed.
Cutting our connection, I reestablished a new link, this one connecting to the unknown figure.
"There is nothing with venting out your feelings, dear. I would honestly be more worried if you let those bottle up inside of you like a ticking time bomb. Wait, hold that thought for a minute, I think your little friend wants to talk to me." Oh shit.
"Neat little spell you have here. I mean, full uninhibited access directly to someone's thoughts? Colour me impressed, because frankly, I would never have thought a cockroach like you would learn such advanced telepathy that fast. But, I really do have to ask, what are you doing with my daughter?"
[A/N: Looks like he survived round one of misunderstandings, what about rounds 2-7? Find out next time on "I'm Reincarnated as a What!?"
In all seriousness, with Skye finally deciding to improve himself through the power of character development, I wonder how many mistakes he'll make due to having not been used to this type of situation? Whatever it may be, please do type your opinion of the chapter, it doesn't take long and it helps improve the quality of this and any future fics I write.
Besides that, I would also like to shamelessly plug my . You can help support… or not, it's all up to you really. There are no "real" benefits right now, but I will try to make some in the future. pa tre on/ balls1124
With that being said, thank you for reading, and goodbye!]