Author's Note: Not a lot to say right now. Please Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 47: The Sleeping Heroes on the Ship
There wasn't enough room in the lone quarters for all of the Heroes party members to fit into the room, though Raphtalia had been called in so that she could fill Maple in whenever she wakes up again. For now there were matters grave enough they could not wait.
"How seriously are they taking your sister's claims?" Tanya asked brow in the air suspiciously to wit Melty could only let out a sigh.
"Faubrey is in chaos. Father was king over there however briefly, and chose no successor before he abdicated." Melty stated and Tanya nodded in assent. "As his eldest daughter my sister does have the strongest claim to the throne."
"And you?" Katarina asked legit concern.
"A child with no actual ruling experience." Melty stated bluntly eyes narrowed. "I'm not a claimant, I'm the person who marries a claimant so that their position can be made stronger."
Which would still be a option, if most of the other claimants weren't already long dead, and feelings toward's Trash's bloodline right now weren't quite so bad for putting them into this position to begin with. The fact that both of these things indicated that they had another headache to deal with anyway, and their tank was in a coma, and under levelled on top of that, indicated that Faubrey would be a pain going forward.
"Are there any plans going forward?" Melty asked looking at the group vaguely interested.
"Fighting waves, Conquering dungeons, locating more powerful weapons to unlock, levelling up..." Tanya proceeded to list off a series of objectives but Raphtalia interrupted her.
"Maple told us she already beat a dungeon in Shieldfreeden, didn't say kind of magic she unlocked though." Raphtalia stated figuring that Maple simply needed more practice before she was ready to show off the fruits of her labour.
"Gravity, according to Elena." Katarina informed helpfully. "She thinks one of the past heroes used it to rip a castle out of the ground and set it flying in the air."
"That isn't the only rare magic that we've been seeing lately." Tanya stated looking displeased. "The magic used by that woman with all of the accessories, and the whistling that rabbit man was doing when he fought Rat."
There were similarities to the magic of this world in that it relied on sound to generate a supernatural effect.
"Therese's magic was vaguely familiar." Raphtalia intoned helpfully.
"But different as well." Raphtalia thought about it for a moment. "I have read and understood the origin of power." Raphtalia paused for a moment, to let the chant die. "Command the forces of nature..." I understand what you are and I hereby order you to follow my orders, magic built on a foundation of cause and effect to generate it's supernatural effects, but worded like you're speaking to some kind of living creature. Compare and contrast Therese's invocations. "O'magical Jewel, your friend beckens for your help." A magical chant that also treats magic as some kind of living creature, only instead of some primitive primeval force it's not only intelligent but also a friend. Compare and contrast the rabbit's whistling. "It isn't even a chant, but a song, notes taking the place of Syllables." Opposite to Therese we have cause and effect even more ruthlessly dissected, treating magic not like it's alive at all but rather purely a force that can be manipulated, unless it likes music for some odd reason, or has been trained like a animal.
"Too many questions, not enough answers." Tanya summarised as she let out a sigh.
That wasn't even addressing the information they found inside of the floating castle which suggested the cause of the wave was a split in the timeline creating two versions of the same world that are trying to take one another's place and were instead mutually destroying each other.
"We should investigate Faubrey's dungeon more thoroughly when we get the chance." Tanya stated. Maples short cut meant they possibly missed out on important information, assuming that she didn't destroy it outright in the process of making the aforementioned short cut. The other two heroes nodded their heads in agreement.
"We should see if we can do the same thing to Cal Mira's ruins." Katarina suggested helpfully. "I know that they're ruins but maybe if we apply a little bit of the time magic we learned..."
"Not until we can deduce how it works, and all the dangers associated with it." Tanya stated not fond of the idea of going from a eight year old to a eight hundred year old in a moment that would probably be both a instant and a eternity.
"Yeah. Figure out how the power to warp the fabric of reality works before we try stuff with it. I'm in favour with that." Kuro stated though the look on Tanya's face implied Kuro had no right to say that.
"The dungeon in Siltvelt?" Tanya asked somewhat aware of Maple's and Kuro's failed attempt to breach it.
"Big ugly shapeshifting slime monster in the forest." Kuro stated bluntly.
"Has a whole four cardinal beasts thing going on for it." Kuro explained and Tanya crossed her arms in thought.
"Katarina, have you a portal set up to reach this floating castle?" Tanya asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, we can take it as soon as we're done in Cal Mira." Katarina replied bluntly.
"Next wave to drop should be in Siltvelt though." Kuro stated and Tanya nodded her head.
"Siltvelt first, we'll see if we can kill this boss before we tackle their wave." Tanya stated and the others nodded. "Shieldfreeden afterwards, we enter the castle and see if we can learn this gravity magic." The others nodded their heads in response. "Then this meeting is adjourned." Tanya looked to Melty and cocked a brow suspiciously. "Are you going to report what we discussed back to your mother?" Tanya asked brow raised suspiciously.
"Um no. After the wave she and Dad are turning in early for the night." Something that sounded suspect but after the day they all had she can sympathised with wanting to go to bed early. "Mom suggested I sleep with you guys tonight." Using three super powered heroes and a small army of their party members as the royal guard of the princess. Sure why not?
"I have a proposal written up for the world leaders that I would like delivered to them in the morning." Tanya informed before she rested on her side and went to sleep.
Melty had to get changed from her princess gown first of course, she wasn't sleeping in that big heavy thing after all, and so was now wearing a nightgown when she entered Kuro's room. Why her mother suggested the Sword's room specifically she wasn't sure, there was a couple of reasons she could think of. For starters she was arguably the strongest of the four, though not most influential that honour went to the one with proper military experience and tactics Tanya. The other possibility was the belief that two of the sword's companions, the Hakuko siblings, were her father's niece and nephew and hence a chance to meet with a family member that didn't not-so-secretly want her dead, which was a good thing.
"Good Even-" Melty paused with what she saw.
What little Kuro was wearing evoked the image of a cat Hakuko, specifically the tail and ears, which was more then what could be seen on Atla, which from what Melty could see consisted of a single golden ring, to be fair it's twin appeared to be in Kuro's mouth while her fingers were making wet squelching noises. Slowly Melty closed the door, and then opened it again a crack looking and listening to Kuro and Atla, before holding her own mouth closed and turning away from the room. Then she looked down and saw the night gown that was mostly see through and thus while it did it's job adequately also left little to the imagination, and then recalled that it was most likely her mother who had picked it out. And why was she starting to feel warm?
"It's like this every night with these two."
"GAH!" Melty shrieked a little and jumped over noting Chem who had just appeared next to her.
"They're both very fond of each other and have had little reason to believe they would live up to this point in time, so having been given a second chance at life they have seized it by the horns and are riding it as much as they please." Chem explained though noting the Melty hadn't quite calmed down yet, and was also blushing. "You can ask them if you want to join in but I draw the line at watching them while they're in the middle of their private time." Chem emphasised his point by closing the door.
Melty wisely opted to turn around and leave.
Tanya wasn't up to her knuckles in one of her party members but that was only a mild improvement considering that she was clapping as she performed push ups.
"What are you doing?" Tanya asked having not looked at Melty when she came in.
"I was going to stay with Kuro and my cousin but..."
"Fair enough." Tanya replied having not looked up at the other girl as she continued with her exercise routine. By now Tanya had moved onto doing squats which to Melty had prompted a serious question.
"How long are you going to keep doing that?" Melty asked looking legitimately worried.
"Few more hours yet." Tanya only sleeps three hours a night anyway, and being a formerly underfed orphan she still had to work a lot harder to put on any form of actual muscle mass as well, she wouldn't even put it past Being X to have done something weird to her body just to keep her in this girlishly scrawny and uncomfortable form. "If you think it'll disturb your sleep I suggest going to Katarina's room instead."
Melty took a look around the room, at the Hero who was noisily working out and the lights she had on because she didn't want to work out in the dark and opted to seek the spear Hero's bed room out instead.
"This would go so much easier if you didn't fidget around so much." Elena stated as she brushed Katarina's hair in anticipation of tying it up into buns before they go to bed for the night so that her hair isn't a tangled mess come morning.
"Sorry for fidgeting so much." Katarina stated looking legitimately guilty about everything that was going on.
"Still upset about the wave?" Rino asked looking at the girl sympathetically.
"That obvious?" Katarina asked smiling bitterly. It was no secret to the girl that she was less than useful during the wave, even after whipping out the weapon of last resort in the cursed series the most that she could do was melt Maple's face off and force her to go back to normal body, but didn't do anything to keep her from attacking them again.
"Tomorrow I want to try experimenting with time and creation magic." Katarina stated, aware that she needs to get her act together.
The door knocked and Rino opened it up to reveal Melty who took one look at the group before releasing a sigh of relief.
"Finally one of you is normal!" Elena, Rino, and Katarina all blinked simultaneously in surprise.
"I sense you want to sleep in here tonight." Elena stated prompting a sighing nod from Melty.
To be fair she was able to do just that. At first. However she probably should have taken Elena and Rino stuffing wax into their ears as a sign.
"WWWOOOZZZ!"
It was one thing to be tired and going to sleep, it was another when you were already asleep and rudely awakened in the middle of your sleep cycle. The cause as it turns out was Katarina's boat shaking snoring. Melty saw the wax left behind for her on the bedside but opted not to sleep with something uncomfortably stuffed into her ears and instead went looking for somewhere else she can sleep instead. Ultimately Melty ended up settling on the coma patient's room, figuring that she at least wouldn't be kept awake for most of the night or be suddenly woken up in the middle of the night in a unconscious person's room. The Ship's medical ward wasn't made to accommodate so many people flat out drunk or being affected by all the curses that were being flung around the battlefield during the wave, that was on top of Maple's party sleeping in and around the medical ward protecting their hero. Melty found a semblance of a unoccupied bed, some kind of large fluffy thing, and soon moved over to make herself at home, only to sink inside of the ensuing fluff, only to discover it was way to warm. So, perhaps disarmed by Kuro's and Atla's display earlier, Melty stripped down to the nude and then went into the nice and warm ball of fluff. When the group did awaken the next day they were treated to the sound of vomiting, though they didn't know who or why until they eventually found someone sticking their head out of the window.
"Maple?" Raphtalia asked looking at the person in question who was hanging from the window, and in turn collapsed limply on the floor.
"Water..." Maple's hoarse voice weakly called out. Fatigued and physically weak in spite of sleeping for over a day, excessively thirsty and mouth dry, head, muscle & stomach aches, nauseous and vomiting. Now take into account what she did the day before and the situation becomes obvious.
"I can't believe one of the past Heroes smuggled coffee into the world." Tanya stated watching Maple drink a mug of coffee while wearing some sun glasses.
"I believe it was a similar product created using selective breeding and alchemy actually." Rat stated as she checked over Maple's blood work, or rather alcohol work given how much of it was in her body.
"That's even worst." Tanya snapped glaring.
"Can you guys keep it down?" Maple asked as she continued to down the hangover cure before her face scrunched. "I need to pee." Raphtalia helped the other girl use the chamber pot while the others took note of a situation that had appeared.
"I know that we're all relieved that she's okay and all that but..." Keel held up a blue night gown that someone left on the floor, leading to the highly relevant question of where it came from and who it belonged to.
"Huu. Let's have a look around." Eclair stated as she let out a sigh. "Filo you're a little cumbersome in that form, turn back and get dressed for the day."
"Okay~!" Filo poofed returning to her human form in the process, and causing the little girl who had sneaked into her feathers to fall out with a thud and hit her head.
"Princess Melty!" Elcair exclaimed in shocked surprise.
After Melty was in a semblance of properly dressed the group began discussing their plans for the days to come in Cal Mira, now that they arrived again.
"Your mother wants you to hang out with us today?" Eclair asked looking at the youngest member of the royal family. "She thought it was a good idea to get to know the four heroes better." Melty stated smiling neutrally, even as the thought of Kuro suckling and toying with a girl she now understood to be her cousin, or the fact that both girls seemed to be better endowed then she was, and why was her face getting hot again?
"She preferred that the process starts after the meeting we all had last night but..." Kuro is a pervert, Tanya a work out addict, and Katarina snores. "I thought it would be good to check in on the Shield Hero before I went to bed, and found next to her bed side what I thought was a empty bed." Melty however rather than complain about the sleeping habits of the saviours of her world instead chose something much more diplomatic to say, before turning to face Filo. "No offence."
"None taken." Filo replied simply. "We still need to work on getting Maple's level back up today." Rifana stated indicating the red waters outside of the ship.
"Agreed." Sadeena was lounging about on the floor, flask in hand. "I'll be out in the water, lots of fishing left to be done."
"Then the islands for the rest of us." Keel stated, though their grinding wouldn't be as efficient without Maple and her shield.
"Someone needs to stay with Maple for the day." Raphtalia informed bluntly. "As soon as her hangover gets better I'm taking her to the hot springs so that we can start to manage the curse on her and her shield." The others nodded in agreement.
"Should I go give my mother Tanya's outline going forward?" Melty asked though she had yet to read it herself.
Basically during the wave proper Tanya saw the... less than stellar performance of the three armies. Outside of the roughly five hundred that Tanya trained personally the tactics and training employed by the four armies were less than stellar by her note, mostly dumping themselves into the area and doing whatever they like to the enemy forces. This would have to be rectified if they were expanding their operations to include Shieldfreeden and Silvelt on a permanent basis. And if they were going to take shots at Faubrey again. Plans decided on the group dispersed to finish their business. Kuro and Atla fell asleep in the middle of their nightly routine. To be more specific Atla passed out after Kuro pleasantly tormented her into submission using her tongue and Atla's rings. The Hero was the first to awaken, imagining her PJ's around her while looking down at Atla Kuro got to work with her regular check up. Nothing from a health point of view, even with Kuro reinforcing the other girl's growth hormones, at her request. Aside from what Kuro had been inducing in her there was still no sign of sudden levelling induced growth spurts that is a normal part of being a demi-human. The Micro-Avalon's showed all the signs of behaving themselves, unlike what the real Avalon did to her brother after he awoke to the full power of the Unlimited Blade Works, but she had the Excalibur's to keep her stable. She also showed no sign's of somehow or another mutating into Artoria like Kuro had initially feared, other than the golden blonde mixing in with black stripes and platinum blond hair that is, which also meant the other girl was still blind as well. That said...
"Guinevere... I'm sorry..." Atla was getting Artoria's memories, they weren't overriding her own near as Kuro could tell, and it was something that truly vexed Kuro regardless in so many ways. In part because the only parts of the world that Kuro would be able to see was that of Artoria's worst moments, but the other.
"Oi..." Kuro picked up one of Atla's rings and gave it a twist.
"Gah!" Atla nearly sat up straight at that but Kuro stopped her first.
"Why are you talking about someone else's woman after we have sex?" Kuro's face twitched in clear anger with the other girl who could only gulp.
"Sorry." Atla replied in a weak apologetic tone as Kuro thought about what she was going to do in response.
"Show them to me." Sitting in a kneeling position Kuro summoned Vivian and Morgan, the holy and demonic blades made in the likeness of Excalibur.
Likeness, but the two blades had nothing in common with the third. Their shape was closer to one handed Katana's than anything else, Morgan even less resembled Excalibur with it's clearly demonic leanings with blacks and purples as opposed to Vivian's blue and gold. This was in line with the concept of 'Artoria as an Assassin' that was now part of the core of Atla's being, which as something that never existed Atla was free to fill in the details. That didn't mean that Kuro wouldn't be working to suppress Artoria's influence in Atla by as much as possible, no matter how good she looked with blonde hair mixing with white and black. Take last night for instance.
"I do not take kindly to you bringing in someone else into our alone time." Kuro materialised a small pink device with a clip attached to it to her hand. "Put it on." And reluctantly Atla did so in the exact place she knew Kuro had wanted her to. With a snap of her finger clothes had materialised around Atla's body, clothes they both knew that if Atla were to be separated from Kuro by too significant of a distance would break down, the implication clear. "We'll be out in public so you know the rules?"
"Yes." Atla asked looking all demure. "Good. Provided nothing happens until tonight I will have forgiven you." And Kuro would be doing as much as possible to see to it that something happens, which would of course prompt a pleasant punishment tonight. Not here though, on the islands where they would have more room. And the more that they do this when Artoria's memories bleed through the harder Atla will work to keep that from happening. "What is it?" Kuro asked noticing something off about her partner, she was fidgeting more than usual.
"Um. You're always doing things for me, to me." Atla visibly blushed as she made the suggestion. "I'd like to do something for you tonight." A request, don't get those very often, consequences of a sadist dom dating a masochist sub.
"Alright." Kuro looked like a cat who caught the canary as she held Atla by her chin. "Provided that nothing happens today." And Kuro looked forward to watching her squirm all the more. "For now let's talk about your cousin." Kuro dissolved her sleep wear as she put on her armour.
"My cousin?" Atla asked brow in the air.
"On your mother's side, the princess." Kuro explained as she finished with undergarments and so moved on to armour.
"I thought the King reminded me of my brother." Atla noted head tilting to the side.
"She spotted us last night, but Chem chased her off." Kuro finished getting dressed with her coat. "Mind you I don't mind her accidentally wandering in on us, but if she interferes a second time well, a impromptu sex ed lesson might be in order." Melty would be getting off lightly in comparison, Kuro had like twenty magic rituals all built around sex dumped into her head when she was first 'born' at the very least. "My question to you is how do you feel about another joining in?"
"My everything is for you, you're more than I could ever ask for." Atla's ears drooped sadly. "I had hoped I would be enough for you..." Kuro silenced such thoughts by sealing Atla's lips with her own.
"You are more then I could ever hope for." Kuro pulled away and gave a Cheshire grin as Atla's tail swished excitedly. "But yes, bringing in a third can help provide spice to our night life, if done on occasion." Melty would apparently be grinding with Maple's party for the day to come so finding her as as easy as finding them.
"Good morning princess Melty." Kuro stated as she was in the middle of a meal Katarina had prepared. Apparently as soon as the glutton learned that her Spear could make food tastier she unlocked every food bonus she could find, and insisted on cooking up breakfast for everyone.
"Good Morning your Majesty." Atla stated giving the other girl a polite bow, and though the two lovers clothing had been done in a way that suppressed their curves Atla still caught Melty's eyes on where her rings were.
"I apologise for last night." Melty stated leaning her head towards the two of them. "No harm was meant."
"Which is why you left with all your clothes on." Kuro stated prompting a blush from Melty. "But now that you are aware of our nightly activities, I will interpret you appearing a second time as wanting to join in." Melty gulped audibly at that.
"I have no desire to interfere with your nightly activities hero." Melty quickly stated face more than a little red. "The Shield's party and I will be on the Dog Island."
"Then we'll be taking the ones with the penguins." And thus the plans were settled for the day.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: No. Sewing Kit, though I am fond of making fun of the fishing rod. Action and Adventure, skip romance. Because it's exactly the kind of thing that Malty would try to do.
Captain Imaginat: There're poisonous and disease spreading cockroaches my metaphor still stands. Eclair was more like Maple's Acquaintance from the castle dungeon, I'd say that Raphtalia was Maple's first partner. This again... Kingdom Hearts will not be appearing in this story! I have no plans for them, and I know too little about the series to do so if I did! Understand? Tanya is aware of all the world leaders of the world that she lives, but she doesn't know them personally, she's the top soldier of a country all of them are hostile to: if they did ever meet it would end with one of them trying to shoot the other in the head.
reinDank: I have plans in motion.
Nightshadegirl: One question answered with the other soon to follow.