'I like this more than I ever liked being a Queen.' Calca thought to herself while she reached down for the foundation to put onto the face of the vampire guardian. It was so routine and automatic now that she could easily think of other things while she worked, and doing this now, with her, made her absently think back to the day it began. The day she died. What should have been her last hour of life, not long before dawn, she had lain in bed as an aged woman, awake but with her eyes closed, waiting patiently for oblivion to take her, only for nothing to happen...
'Was I wrong? Am I not dying?' She wondered when moments passed and nothingness did not embrace her.
"Yah gonna lie there till yah really die, or open yer eyes?" The folksy feminine voice was familiar, known but not heard in some time. She opened her eyes and found herself staring up at a demoness she knew. Her first thought was terror. 'How did I? What did…' The questions died in her mind, and a spoken one replaced them.
"Did I do something wrong...?" Calca squeaked out, and the demoness's face lit up with a terrifying toothy smile, the demonic golden face vanished and in its place was that of a charming, beautiful young woman who would have compared to Calca herself when the Queen was in her prime.
"No, Majesty, no. Yah did really... Scuze me." Vanysa said and brought her hand up to her mouth to cough several times. "That folksy nonsense sets people at ease, but damn if it isn't hard to get rid of. There we go." She opened her eyes and took Calca's hand, "You've done well for a lifetime, and His Majesty wants to reward you for it, you gave your whole life to his Empire, so now, if you want, you can get a chance to start over. To live a 'normal' life. You can be a peasant, a merchant, a priestess, whatever you like. You just have to help me with one tiny little painless experiment... and when it's over, you'll be a young woman again. Let's say… around the age of fifteen. You'd have to change your face a little, to make sure nobody knows who you were, but you'll get a tidy sum to start a new life for yourself. Of course, if you don't want that... you can pass away peacefully. The magic keeping you alive will last only another hour or so. What do you say?"
Calca could only blink up at the bright eyes hovering over her. It was a great deal to take in. "So... I'll get to live a life all over again, but with no Kingdom? No governing... I can just... do whatever I want? And I'll have enough to live comfortably? I could just, if I wanted, travel around the world free and clear?"
"That's right." Vanysa said, lightly bopping the old Queen on her nose. "There's a doppelganger in your place right now, you say the word, he'll come back, you'll be back in your bed, and that'll be that, you can pass away quietly in your castle and Neia's descendant will take the throne. Or, the descendant can take the throne anyway, and you... can have a life all to yourself again."
Calca nodded after a moment, "There are a lot of things I wanted to do, things I never could. I'd 'like' to start over again, if that's alright."
"Great." Vanysa clapped her hands together and began to take various crystals from off of a nearby tray and place them on Calca's body. "Just stay still, may not mean much coming from a demoness and all, but I promise this won't hurtcha." Her golden skin returned with her demonic form, and her wings batted back and forth as if they were waving in a friendly manner.
"OK, what do I... 'do'?" She asked, raising the wrinkled brow of her head, defying the request for total stillness without thinking.
Vanysa went over to a nearby cart and wheeled it close by. "What I got here are various mixes of Idun's apples. What I wanna know is if there's any residual mana from their use that leaks out of the body. And how it flows when they're consumed. I'm gonna give you varying doses of the juice to drink, followed by one whole apple. When all this is done, you'll be around the age of fifteen again, can't swear it won't take you back to thirteen... don't know when those grew in..." She laughed when she pointed to Calca's chest, "but you may have to do that all over again."
Calca blushed at the crude demoness's humor, but accepted it without comment.
"Now, here yah go, this one is nine parts water, one part apple juice." The demoness held out a labeled white cup, putting it to Calca's lips, she helped the woman drink down to the last drop.
She then went and checked each crystal, pursed her lips at whatever findings she had, while Calca watched with idle curiosity.
"Next one is eight parts water, two parts apple juice." Vanysa said, and put the cup to Calca's lips. Again the warm sweet liquid slid over her tongue, exploding with flavor until it slid down her throat.
So it went until the demoness sliced the apple into parts and placed one after another to Calca's lips. Little by little Calca's youth had been restored, by the time the whole apple was presented to her, the aged queen felt much like she had as a woman in her late twenties.
The explosive flavor was such that she could not resist letting out a deep, "mmmmm" noise when she swallowed, and the years melted away.
The demoness went around to the crystals one by one, labeled them, and set them on a tray. "Alright, that's it, thanks for your help there, Majesty. Hope you have a good second life and all, next we gotta stop by the throne room and say bye to your lord, they'll change yer face there and drop you wherever yah want."
"Ah, yes, of course." Calca said and flung herself over the side of the table she sat on. When she did, she finally noticed the manacles at each corner. 'There's an unpleasant thought if ever there was one, I would 'not' want to be forced to be a guest here.' She thought before noticing that her clothing was flopping about.
"I hate to be a bother but..." Calca raised an arm up, showing that the far end of her sleeve hung down, draped well past her hand. "This no longer fits."
Vanysa touched a hand to her own lips to suppress a laugh. "Sorry, I just assumed you'd be wearing magic clothing... ah, not sure if there's much that would fit you... no wait... Lady Shalltear would have some."
Calca suppressed her shudder.
"Don't be like that, she's alright once you get used to the funny stuff she's into. Though you don't want to have to clean up after her, no I do not envy the maids on that job." Vanysa chuckled and let out a melodramatic faux shudder of her own. "C'mon, I'll take you to her, she owes me a favor since I modeled for her back when she went to the Baharuth Academy for the Arts."
The demoness exited and Calca tugged up the dress to follow, kicking off her now oversized shoes with annoyance, the cool stone was comfortable against her feet, which was pleasant enough, but more tantalizing was the last thing the Demoness had said.
"What did she study?" Calca asked, trying to picture the loli vampire monster doing anything other than killing.
"Painting and fashion actually, and she did very well. It turns out that she, Neia, and Leinas all had some talent for it. I did some nude modeling there both as a human and as a demoness." Vanysa giggled, "The looks on those poor faces when I 'shifted' in front of them will never not make me laugh."
Calca found it hard not to picture the scene, dozens of youthful men and women, more than a few probably ogling what they assumed was an ordinary peasant woman hired as a model... only to instead find themselves faced with the golden skinned demoness with sharp teeth, talons, and curved horns, perhaps flapping a bat wing teasingly toward them.
"It must have been chaotic." Calca said while she tried to repress a snort of laughter, and largely failed.
"Yeah, fun times. I did it a few times for Lady Shalltear, we get along pretty well these days, but it was rough going when I first came here, didn't like me at all, neither did Lady Albedo, neither did most of em really. Even Demi thought of me as just a tool at first, but..." She shrugged, "I don't blame em, whole world woulda killed everyone in here if it had the power, so of course they didn't trust outsiders. You pretty much gotta die for His Majesty for em to give you the time of day. Anything less, at best, they don't much care about you."
That was a somber thought Calca had long held but never really voiced, and it was the cause of anxiety in her now youthful mind, it was so obvious that Vanysa recognized it.
The demoness stopped and flashed a friendly toothy human grin, "It's fine, everybody knows my experiments are dangerous, and you gave him a kingdom, that ought to count for something, besides, you're with me, and everybody knows who you are too, nothing to worry about, I promise. It's just your brain getting used to being an anxiety riddled horny teenage girl again."
"Ah, I'm not horny..." Calca flushed beet red.
"Maybe not, but I remember that age, an it don't take much." Vanysa laughed as she mocked the old woman in the youthful body and resumed the walk while a flustered Calca scurried after her until they reached the door of Shalltear's quarters.
The sound of screams and cries of bliss were heavy from within, but it didn't stop Vanysa from forming a fist and pounding on the door three times in rapid succession.
"Shouldn't we come back later?" Calca asked, suddenly uncomfortable and wringing her hands. Her eyes darted around for somewhere to hide.
"No, she does this all the time, just go with it, and try not to stare, otherwise she'll take that as an invitation, and you're now more her type." Vanysa winked, and the bright red blush on the Queen's face was joined by the dropping of her jaw and widened eyes.
She didn't have a chance to ask if the demoness was kidding when the door opened and a nude vampire girl stared up at the statuesque blonde. "Couldn't resist, could you, I knew it!" Shalltear pointed up at the blonde woman's chest, "Trust me, I'm stronger and more creative than Demi, I know everything about what to do with those things. Nobody knows a woman, like a woman."
Vanysa bit back the taunt of, 'even one that is still child sized?' and smirked instead, "Thank you for the offer... again... Lady Shalltear, but I'm afraid I'm calling in a favor, I need some clothing for her." The demoness stepped aside to reveal the short blonde Calca in the oversized clothing that hung down around her.
Shalltear laughed at the ridiculous sight, her head bobbed madly, unable to stop herself or her cackle, and unwilling to even try. "Oh my, you do look ridiculous, come in, come in, I do owe that one a favor, and it looks like we're about the same height, besides, almost all my clothing is enchanted anyway... but no... no you're leaving here, best not to stand out too much."
Shalltear was a whirlwind of energy, and the pair of guests stepped into the room, though Calca did so with some trepidation... the wave of sex fumes hit her almost immediately.
She did her best to ignore it, but could not ignore the tied up vampire brides bound to the bed and moaning for the guardian.
Calca found the wall opposite the pair of bound monsters to be suddenly very fascinating while Shalltear clawed through a wardrobe. The sound of sliding hangers going back and forth lasted for several minutes while the diminutive vampire grumbled about what would 'work best' and setting aside each option.
"Lady Shalltear, you're torturing the poor Queen, she just came back from the brink of death and got her youth back, besides, Lord Ainz is waiting for her." Vanysa pointed out, and they heard a little 'eep' noise made from within the deep black wood wardrobe.
"I used this one... oh... decades ago, on a trip from E-Rantel to Baharuth, nobody thought much of it, and you don't want to draw a lot of notice. It's a bit out of fashion now but... that's normal for people who aren't nobles." Shalltear said and tossed a simple, functional garment over to the Queen. "Leave your stuff here, I might have a use for it." Shalltear commented, and the Queen quickly set about changing clothes.
'How Vanysa is so comfortable in 'this' I do not want to know.' Calca thought as she dressed herself for the first time in decades, and faster than she'd ever done before.
"A little tight in the chest..." Calca said, and Shalltear crossed her arms over her own with a sound 'harumpf' and a glare.
Calca realized her mistake immediately, "No, no, never mind, it's just perfect! Actually maybe a little loose there..." She stammered out, and the vampire guardian took on a twisted smile on one side of her mouth, her eyes went heavy lidded and half closed.
"Need some help? You're not used to dressing yourself..." Shalltear offered with clearly faux hospitality.
Calca shivered and pretended not to hear the growing moans from where the vampire brides lay waiting.
"No, no it's fine! I'm fine! I'm very grateful! Thank you! Thank you! Let me... let me repay you!" Calca cried out and waved her hands frantically in front of her adding, "I can help you with your makeup!"
The moaning cut off, Shalltear froze, and you could have heard a pin drop.
"What is wrong with my makeup...? That was left behind by Lord Peroroncino himself! My very creator!" Shalltear's jaw tensed, and Calca's danger sense dialed up to a thousand.
"No... no, it's fine, it's just... ah, I'm a master of that kind of thing, decades of experience, and you're... well the quality of the stuff is good, but there's problems with how you're using it!" Calca squeaked out the answer, and Shalltear's clenched jaw turned into pursed lips.
"Explain." Shalltear commanded and began to tap her foot.
"It'll be easier to show you..." Calca replied with more confidence as she entered a realm where her knowledge was absolute. "Please, sit, I promise you'll like the result."
Shalltear glanced over to the demoness. "Is she serious?"
"I think so, she had a reputation for this kind of thing, go ahead, worst case is removal and reapplying, right?" The demoness replied with a shrug.
"Fine." Shalltear said and went to sit primly in a red velvet chair.
Calca did her best to ignore the nudity and looked over the nearby makeup counter. "See the secret of makeup is to make it look like it isn't actually there... if it is obviously worn, it's not properly used..."
Within twenty minutes, Calca was holding up a mirror in front of the guardian's face, who was touching her cheek, making kissy faces to check the makeup, and then looking up at the Queen.
"I'm impressed." She said with a little reluctance. "That isn't easy to make me say. Vanysa, I still owe you one, those clothes were a good trade for this."
Calca's face was alight with a proud, broad grin. She'd even forgotten the lewd scene at her back that lay frozen as if a time stop spell had been cast.
"Thank you, Lady Shalltear, I'm happy to help. Thank you for the clothing." She made to curtsy with a lowered gaze, and the nude little guardian waved her away.
"It's fine, but... I will hire you as my on call makeup artist when needed. Now get going, don't keep Lord Ainz waiting." She waved them off again, holding her gesture toward the door, and the pair hastily vacated the room.
It shut behind them and from within they heard the shout, "Now who is hungrier?!" Followed by the resumption of longing moans.
"Can we... ah, yes, hurry, I don't want to keep Lord Ainz busy..." Calca squeaked out, and didn't wait for an answer before she began to rapidly stride away from the room with Vanysa laughing behind her, all the way to the throne room.
She stopped when she entered, and there as expected, seated on the Throne of Kings, sat the one god and true ruler over the Sorcerous Empire in all his glory.
"So, you chose to live." Ainz said in the noble voice that never failed to enrapture the human Queen.
"I did... a second chance at life, to do things 'I' want to do without being bound to a throne is... I could not say no to that." Calca replied, "I am forever grateful, and as you've given me this life, it remains ever at your service. Tell me what to do whenever you're in need of me, and I will throw it all away to come to your service."
"A fitting reward is a life for a life, I will leave you to enjoy it, for as long as you can." Ainz replied, and then waved a skeletal hand toward the wall. "Tuare." He said, and the slender human maid approached holding a silver tray on which sat a small nondescript pouch. "Take it, Calca. There is enough there to do whatever you like for the rest of your days. Payment for a lifetime of service. The Heroic Age is coming to an end, not many of the mortals who lived through all those years are still with us. I admit, it pleases me to know that those memories will remain fresh in a mortal mind, a little bit longer."
"I... Majesty... thank you. Thank you for everything." Calca replied with a passionate voice filled with gratitude, and a bold look from her downcast gaze, up to the throne where the one perfect monarch sat in all his glory.
He didn't acknowledge the thanks, but instead gestured to the other wall. "Lupusregina, the scroll."
The bouncy red haired maid approached with a playful smile on her radiant tan face and extended the parchment to the Queen.
"You may modify your face as you see fit, and pick whatever name you like. It's all for you to decide." The Sorcerer King said when she reached out and took the scroll.
Calca took it up, pictured the face she wanted, and opened the seal. Blue flames consumed the scroll while it hovered in front of her, and the face of Calca was gone. In its place was a smaller nose, a lightly freckled face where the dots were like little beauty marks, violet eyes, everything just a little different from before.
"Where will you go?" The Sorcerer King asked when the transformation was complete.
"I think... there's a village, more like a town or small city by now I'd imagine, not far from the Papal estate. I think I'd like to go there. I have to say I'm a little bit curious to see what unfolds around that place... then maybe travel a little bit, there are so many places I'd like to see that I never could... it's still overwhelming, Majesty." Calca said while touching her face as the reality of it all set in. 'A second life... how do I...' She wasn't even sure what she was asking in her own mind.
"What will you do when you're there?" He asked her with idle curiosity.
"I think... I think I'll be a beautician, I've always had a talent for makeup both physical and magical, but could never use it on anyone else... till now." Calca's radiant smile grew somehow brighter as the understanding of her new freedom set in.
"If that is what you want, then I wish you well." The Sorcerer King said, and the gate opened at her side. The whorling void of purple and black patterns caused no fear to the now 'former' Queen. "You'll be dropped just out of sight of the town, a few minutes walk to the gate. Deposit your coins with the local bank under the name you choose, and live the life you want."
"Thank you, thank you again, Your Majesty!" The Queen said, tears breaking through and openly weeping, she did her best to wipe them away, and stepped through the gate.
"Do you think she will be alright?" Ainz asked the demoness who tended to her.
Vanysa answered with a vigorous nod. "Aye, I do, My Lord. I was a peasant once, and if you're doing what you want for yourself, it doesn't matter that you've got no title or manor, what you've got is yours, and you did it yourself, that's happiness enough for anyone, and I think she already understands that."
...Outside the town of Vaktin...
Calca looked around and took a long, deep breath, "Wow... a whole new life... a fresh start. No kingdom, no command, no servants or duties... just me and what I want..." She muttered and looked around her. True to his word, she was just outside of a forest, all alone, and a long road with a slightly glowing runic enchantment was just by her feet. The leaves were a bright green and provided shade over her head, nearby there was a small stone sign that read 'Vaktin, one mile".
Nobody was around her at that moment, and so nobody had seen her emerge out of the hole in reality, as far as anyone knew, she was just another new face. By now, the doppelganger would have faked her death, and her courtiers, from Robel's grandson to Baa's granddaughter, would be pledging fealty to Aurelius Baraja the First. A slightly malicious smile formed. "That's a nice 'fuck you' to the South... petty, very petty, but satisfying." She muttered, then stepped onto the road.
"They'll all be fine, I might not have been the best Queen, but... I left a good Kingdom behind me, and left it in good hands, now... now it is my turn, and I'm going to enjoy this, and milk my whole new life for all it's worth, right to the very end... for the second time in a row!" She proclaimed to the sky above and the earth below and the green around her as she stepped forward in the direction of Vatkin, savoring the grand adventure ahead.