Thankfully they had managed to get a map.
Which showed that they were in the northern end of the Kingdom(Theocracy) of Lescatie, with its Capital Leodonia being a two week treek down south, it had four other large cities to the east and west, the east one being a major port city. With the rest being farming villages and towns spread across where there was fertile land. With the forests, like the one he had landed actually having an Elf Village in it somewhere.
Further to the east was the land of Zipangu, a country which was made out of an archipelago, and further east was the Mist Continent, which was an entire nation(The China Expy, Kris assumed) Which the Order of the Chief God had no influence on. Further to the south was the Country of Dragonia, a land ruled by Dragons. Further to the west was the Demon Realms, where the most number of Monster Girls lived and where the Demon Lord's base of operation. But between it and Lescatie was the Desert Region, Which contained the Desert Kingdoms, many of which were currently going through a massive change due to the appearance of Monster Girls. There were of course other countries up further north, but they were not really relevant at the moment.
The main interest in their quest was, of course, Makai, the Demon Realm, home of the Demon Lord.
Even stepping foot in such a place could corrupt those of lesser strength and willpower, so they were assuredly not heading their first.
But the goal lied in the heart of Makai, the Succubus on her throne, the so-called Betrayer Hero she had claimed as her husband to protect her.
So they would not be just facing a Demon Lord, but a former hero empowered by said Demon Lord.
Kris had his luck cut out for him, it seemed.
And so, the plan was, in the short term, to travel around, gather power and assist where they could, until they were strong enough to stand a decent chance of at least surviving, if not winning, against the Demon Lord and her husband.
And in the medium term, taking down any Generals they could as they went. Two of the four were widely known- Baphomet, Demon General of Magic, a mystical powerhouse that would prove a nightmare for the mystically-challenged Kris to fight, and the other was…
Well, Kris had been confused when he'd first read the name, and had asked Hilda for confirmation.
Her other known general was apparently Krampus, which was…
Kris's only real coherent response amounted to asking if Santa Claus was real.
There was no such thing, unfortunately, but apparently there was a Saint Nicholas said to help the poor and needy, especially children.
Regardless, the short term goals could be summed up in 2 words.
Git.
Gud.
Which was exactly what they set out to do.
And so, they were heading to a small village nearby to assess the situation, since the Order hadn't heard anything from them in a while.
But their taxes were still paid on time(Which it had been doing so for the past thirty or so years, meaning they didn't care at all. And they were also short on manpower since many of their troops had a habit of being seduced or converted, so they were on the defensive. Despite it being only a day's travel away), which meant it wasn't destroyed, so Kris decided to investigate.
And so they followed the road, a dirt one that had been created through sheer usage. Which passed by the river they had seen on the map.
"So, Hilda." Kris asked as they rode onward, the large . "Do you know anything about this village?"
"Not anything in particular, I have only been in the human world for a little over a month," She answered.
"Right, sorry, I keep forgetting, you're just so… worldly, you know?"
"Hey don't lie," She responded with a pout.
"Smart?" Kris tried instead.
"That is more appropriate," She responded.
Kris almost felt bad for that.
Almost.
Further thoughts were stopped as he heard a splash of water, and the shout of. "HUSBAND!" And they saw in front of them a blue Slime Girl come out of the water.
"Hiyah, Butt Stallion, hiyah!" Kris pushed as they veered away from the slime and sped past her, not even giving her a glance. A moment later, Hilda joined alongside him.
And behind them a loud "HUH!?" was let out.
"I'm too attached to this outfit to risk fighting a slime." Kris said at Hilda's questioning glance.
"Yeah they do have a habit of dissolving clothes," Hilda said in understanding. "It is a very nice outfit you have, the dragon symbolizes your strength."
"Yes, I'm very proud of it." Kris said, not mentioning it was an almost decade-old souvenir from a beach hotel gift shop he'd taken very good care of over the years.
The rest of the journey was mercifully uneventful.
They passed by the fields, which seemed to primarily contain Wheat, corn, and another grain he didn't know what, a more droopy and spiky version of wheat.
Kris ignored the corn to the best of his ability and hoped he would not be forced to consume the dreaded devil's teeth.
Easily enough they came to the entrance of the village, where they were immediately greeted with shocked looks.
"Shit, shit, shit everyone get inside!" A man shouted, and quickly the other men he could see and, around the corner he caught what looked to the rear end of a horse? Enter one of the houses. It was probably just a barn.
A man, a sturdy-looking farmer with a ho on his shoulder, approached them. He was dressed in well farming clothes, his hair was a dirty blond, cut short, a well trimmed goatee. Overall he kinda looked like a blond Robert Downey Jr.
"Hail, and well met, good man." Kris greeted in his loud, boisterous voice as their horses came to a stop near the gate- which Butt Stallion could have easily jumped, but it was presumably for smaller animals.
"So what is the Order visiting our Village for?" The man asked as he glared at Hilda.
"Worry not good man, I'm actually here to visit a friend, Lily, she helped me when I was lost in the forest and I wanted to thank her." Kris said, having put together based on the river and the landscape that this was the village he'd seen before.
"Lily helped you?" He asked questioningly before his eyes went wide. "You're Krissy?"
"So you've heard of me."
"I am her father."
"Oh so you're one of the people who raised her so well!" Kris said with a smile, quashing the degenerate comments brewing in the back of the brain. "I have to thank you, if you hadn't raised such a good girl I would be dead right now."
"I accept the compliment, I take pride in raising my girls to be good people, but I have to ask… she said you were a woman?"
"I've been struck with a curse that made me like this."
The man just gave a raised eyebrow.
"The curse was being born." Kris elaborated.
"Ah, I get yeah, so what is somebody like you doing in the presence of something like her?"
"Excuse me," Hilda said in an offended tone of voice.
"You know what I am talking about you Angels, and that order of yours with your zealotry," The man said.
"Sir, we're simply passing through on our path to Leodonia." Kris said. "You already know I have no issue with you and yours, and I'm not one to repay kindness with wickedness."
"Krissy!" Shouted a familiar voice. And from out of the window on the house to the left of them, flew out Lily. "You're okay, and you're still with Valkyrie… and more built. Woooow."
"Hey Lily!" Kris said cheerily with a wave. "This is Hilda, she's nowhere near as uptight as the rest of the Order people."
"...I would say that is out of line, but they can be… a bit too passionate in their faith towards our Lady Highest," Hilda said.
"Like I said paa, she was nice to me when she saved us, so don't be a meanie and let them stay for the night," Lily pleaded with her dad. Giving the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.
The father just let out a sigh, relenting under his daughter's eyes. "I could never say no to you, alright you can stay for the night. The name is Bob."
"Thank you Mister Bob." Kris said. "I'm actually eager to see what your family looks like, if that's okay, I've only really interacted with Orderite Humans and Hilda here, and most of that consisted of beating me into something capable of really fighting. So I'm curious to see a mixed-species family."
"Well I hope it will be an eye opening education for you," Bob said as he opened the gate to let them inside.
"Thank you." Kris as he rode in, Lily flitting around excitedly. "Do you have a stable we could use for our horses?"
"Let me take care of it, Lily escort them inside, I also need to tell the others that its fine," Bob said.
"Sure think paa, follow me you two, maa is going to love you," Lily said.
"Aight," Kris said as he dismounted and handed the reins off to him. "Just, be careful with Butt Stallion, she gets a little feisty."
"I can definitely see that she is a strong girl," Bob said as he took the reins of the two horses.
"Come on, come on!" Lily said excitedly, tugging on his shirt, not even budging him from his spot.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming, I'm coming."
And so he and Hilda was escorted to the house, it was a two story one, made from wood and clay, thatch roof with a singular chimney sticking out of it.
Lily excitedly opened the door. "Hey everyone we've got guests for dinner."
"Really?" A light voice responded and from one of the rooms down the hall flew out another fairy who looked nearly identical to Lily but her hair was tied into a ponytail, and did look a bit older. And she was wearing an apron.
And from what Kris could tell at this angle.
Nothing else.
"Hello! I'm Kris." Kris said with a wave.
"Oh you're Krissy aren't you?" The woman asked as she flew over, making it even more obvious that she was wearing nothing but an apron.
"Yes ma'am, I am." Kris said. "And this is Hilda, she's a friend."
"Good evening ma'am," Hilda said politely along with giving a bow.
"A well mannered girl, is she your wife?"
Kris wheezed in laughter, while Hilda sputtered.
"No maa, they aren't husband and wife, Krissy just said they were friends," Lily said.
"Oh," The mother responded. "Well Kris, Hilda, I am Matilda, and… girls we have guests come and greet them," Matilda said in an authoritative voice.
And a second later a choir's worth of voices responded. "Coming mother." And so Kris watched as girl, after girl, entered the hall until twenty Leanan Sidhe's were flying about. All of them sharing facial features with Lily but having different fruit flavored outfits, different styled and colored hair.
And a chorus of helloes followed right there after.
Kris tried to say hello to all of the different flower-named fairy girls, but very quickly got overwhelmed by the sheer number of new names combined with them all having the same exact face meant the only one he could pick out was Lily and her mother.
They ended up ushered to the dining table, a long table with one part having 6 normal human sized chairs and the rest of it being designed for people around 1-2.5 feet tall, Kris trying to deal with the sensory overload of all them asking questions and talking, no individual words actually being comprehended in the jumble.
"Okay everyone, no need to overwhelm our guests," Came Bob's voice as he entered the dining room. Making them all go quiet. "Thank you."
"So is everything good now dear?" Matilda asked, as she telekinetically lifted a pot onto the table which from the smell and looks seemed to be a stew of sorts.
"It is, it was just these two causing a little stir," He said with a smile as he took a seat next to a much taller, smaller and fancier chair that was probably Matilda's.
"They probably would, we don't get any visitors here," Matilda said.
"That's actually what drew us here before I realized this was Lily's, your village." Kris said. "At which point I just wanted to thank a kind stranger."
"My village, technically my Great-Grandfather founded it," Bob said. "And good on you for doing that, she has been talking incessantly about you for the past month."
"Paa," Lily said embarrassingly, causing all her sisters to giggle at her.
"Aww, you remembered me?" Kris said, touched.
"Of course I would, you're the first new person that wasn't born in the village I met in twenty years." Lily said. "And you were pretty damn cool fighting those Death Dogs."
"Yes, thank you for doing that actually, that pair had actually been harassing our livestock for two months before you took care of them, they always managed to run away before Samantha could take them down," Bob said.
"Oh of course, thankfully I'm a lot better at fighting now than I was back then, I only survived because of Lily… and if you don't mind me asking, who's Samantha?"
"She is basically the guard," Matilda answered as she began to fill bowls for everyone.
"Ah, I see. Is she the centaur?" Kris asked, having put that together.
"Yep, and she and her mallet can send fools flying," Bob said.
"Nice, I'll have to say hi later." Kris said, keen on meeting friendly fantastical creatures whenever it was possible.
The conversation lapsed into eating the quite good stew and a bit of small talk, before a question burned forth from Kris's mind. "So uh, if you don't mind me asking, how did you too meet?" She asked, motioning towards the two with the spoon.
Matilda hohohoho'd at that. "Well that is quite the story, it starts funnily enough the same way you and my Lily met."
"He got summoned from another world by a faulty summoning ritual that put him several miles off target and lost in the woods only to meet a friendly fairy face through sheer happenstance and otherwise would have died?"
"Only the later half, he was lost in the woods hunting a dear, while I had just left my home to find a hubby, we met and got beset upon Death Dogs, but unlike you, he just grabbed me and ran with his tail between the legs," Matilda said with a laugh causing Bob to sigh. "It was a very manly escape though, as he ran at full sprint for an hour until we were out."
"Wow." Kris said, genuinely impressed. "That's impressive, what happened after you guys got away?"
"Well, we talk, got to know each other, and then we had deeply passionate sex," Matilda said. "Not that we stopped having that."
"Honey, not while the guests can hear." Bob said with his head in hand, as he tried to hide the second hand embarrassment. While his daughters just laughed at his misfortune.
"A-ah, I can tell." Kris said, reddening, motioning towards the 20 daughters with his head.
"My pride and joy," Matilda said. "Though these are just the ones that haven't left home yet."
"Only Lily is old enough to leave," Was the immediate response from nineteen out of twenty.
"So Lily has left home?" Kris asked, before gasping. "Did you get hitched already in just one month?"
"No… I just turned twenty, so I can leave the Village if I want," Lily answered.
"Ohh, okay, happy late birthday!" Kris with her best smile.
"Thank you," Lily responded.
"Well, I hope you liked the food, I need to go and feed the youngest," Matilda said as she flew up from her chair out of the room.
"So, do you guys have a tavern or something in this town we can stay at?" Kris asked.
"No we do not, but you can borrow the guest room, which hasn't been used in years, but you can borrow it," Bob said.
"You know, I came here to thank Lily and you just keep giving us more and more kindness, I don't know what to say." Kris said, awed at the genuine kindness on display by the family.
"Just continue to be you, my mother taught me that kindness should be repaid with kindness, and you were kind to my daughter and ensured she came out of that situation alive," Bob said. "Giving you this is only appropriate."
"Well thank you for your hospitality, good sir," Hilda said as she wiped her mouth.
"Yes, thank you." Kris said, already planning on how to pay them back for all the kindness they'd been shown.
—
Much to Kris's pleasant surprise, there were in fact two beds in the guest room.
And then to their dismay, Hilda and Kris both realized that neither of the beds could hold either of them lengthwise (worse than even back home for sleeping in a double, these were more like twin beds), and after some sputtering and thinking they pushed the two together end to end.
"So, Hilda, what do you think so far about these people?" Kris asked, sitting on the bed facing away as she changed out of her armor. Kris was actually a little excited to see her in something other than the full-plate (as that monstrosity of an armor was apparently considered for an angel).
"...It was not what I expected…" She answered. "I know that not all Mamono, are sex obsesed, but they actually started out with a genuine relationship."
"That's actually why I asked, because the way the Pontiff talked about it, it was rape only, and I wanted to see for myself if relationships could occur naturally, without the influence of the Demon Lord overriding their actual opinions and stuff." Kris couldn't help but smile. "And they were genuine."
"That they were," Hilda replied.
"It gives me hope that, like, we won't have to fight every obstacle, you know?"
"I… I hope so too," Hilda said. "And I have changed."
"Oh okay." Kris said, turning around, Hilda looking almost like a different person, the warrior-angel being replaced with… just a normal blonde woman wearing a plain white nightgown.
Well, normal with small gold wings anyway.
And she looked… nervous? For some reason?
"Are you okay?" Kris asked worriedly.
"I am fine… just not used to sleeping in the presence of a human that is all, but it is something I have to get used to," Hilda said.
"Ah, are you worried my image of you will change if I learn you sleep like a normal person, your divine excellence?"
"No… I… shush you," Hild said as one of the wings smacked him on the arm.
Kris gasped at the contact. "Oh my god that's so soft, how are your wings that soft?"
Hilda did her best impression of a locomotive. "Sleep, yes let us just sleep."
Kris shrugged as she undid the ponytail and shook the wild mane of brown hair loose. "Okay, but you'll have to tell me some time if that's natural or if you have a care routine and if it works for hair."
"They are completely natural," Hilda said as she laid down on the bed.
"Aww darn, my quest for silky smooth hair continues." Kris as he laid on the other half, awkward positioning incurring with the overlapping. "Well, uh… goodnight, Hilda."
Instead of responding, the light effect she was creating blinked out.
And as Kris laid down on the bed, it was a bit different from what he was used to as it was now, very very quiet. No background noise of any-
"Yes."
"Harder."
"So deep."
"I love you Bob."
And about halfway through that, Hilda started snoring.
"...I wonder if I can knock myself unconscious…"
But thankfully, it only took about five minutes for the… noises to stop, leaving Kris with only the sound of Hilda sawing logs.
"...What I wouldn't give to be able to Trance right now…"