"For the last time, I apologize, but I don't have any small medals to give to you, and I wish to be left alone…"
Minelli was enclosed in her chest. The mimic girl was trying to hold her rage against her interlocutor back. Attacking the Grand Noah Queen could only lead to troubles: First, she was one of the more popular residents in the castle, and secondly, her skills were dangerously above her own. Even a surprise attack was likely to end badly for her.
"I couldn't help but notice that every mimic was carrying around a small medal for a reason. I only wish to collect them, and I am ready to pay a good price."
"I already gave mine to Luka when he recruited me." She sighed. "Now please, go ask Amira, she gave ten of those to the little hero."
"I apologize for disturbing you then." The queen bowed. "I will see by myself if she has anything for me."
The mimic girl came out of her chest when the queen's step reached the stairs leading outside the cavern that made for her usual hangout in the Pocket Castle. She could feel her stomach rumbling. A part of her wanted to jump at the first monster to eat her, but her brain kept telling her that this was an awful idea once more. After several minutes of angsting over hunger, she decided to go for the armory. Maybe someone would fall for her trap there. That way, she justify herself with saying that it happened in the heat of the moment.
A few hours later, she was in the armory, closed, her trap ready to spring. She heard some noises from time to time, but nobody was apparently curious about the chest that recently appeared here. Actually, the more she stood there, the more she felt like people were actively avoiding getting anywhere near her. After a while, she felt someone actually coming to her chest. The heat was increasing gradually, as her new potential target was getting closer and closer. Based on what she could feel, it probably was a powerful monster, which would mean she could feed on a lot of energy… However, her target kept itself just out of her optimal attack range. The monster remained there for one minute, two minutes, before her voice resounded in the room.
"You know nobody is going to fall for that, right?"
Minelli tried to leap at her target. Unfortunately, she was fully extended mid air when she noticed said monster was a fire covered Salamander. The Fire Spirit nonchalantly stepped back, letting the mimic fall down head first ungraciously on the hard, rocky floor. After a minute, the chest monster looked up at the Fire Spirit. Salamander was looking down on her, with her arms cross and a mix of scorn and sadness in the eyes.
"This is the kind of thing that I expect from a young monster, not from someone who's been travelling with us for months. Besides, I don't think Luka would appreciate having you eat one of his allies." The spirit grinned. "Also, I'm indigestible. You can ask… way too many monsters on the matter actually."
"Gah! This is impossible! What am I supposed to eat then?"
"Have you considered non-sentient food?" Salamander was giving the mimic a sidelong glance. While a part of her wanted to help the mimic only if to avoid another petty conflict in the bowels of the Pocket Castle, another wanted to just let her reap what she was trying to sow. The latter option was tempting, but the Fire Spirit was afraid that her victims might end up including one of the younger monsters. Those were quite naïve, but they had a lot of potential, and, more than all, a desire to better themselves that was sorely lacking in quite a few of their elders. "The Pocket Castle has some of the best cooks that walk this world. I don't understand why you'd hunt for a random monster in a cavern when you can get the best steak around for almost free."
"But where's the joy of seeing your victims struggle when they dissolve?! It's so boring!"
Salamander looked at the chest monster dumbfounded, blinking twice before the realization finally hit her. "I forgot what this was really about… Look, I do understand the thrill of the fight and the bliss that come with exercising the right of the victor, but what you're doing…" She shook her head disapprovingly. "At least don't target allies or innocents. I can understand that it's difficult for predatory monsters to live with Luka who's a goody two-shoes. In fact, I'm surprised that so many joined without realizing that it more or less meant giving up on eating other people alive. I have more to tell you on this, but let's go to the dining room first."
The strange duo started wandering toward the back of the castle. On the way, Salamander kept lecturing the mimic, which started to get on the chest monster's nerves. On their path, they had to push away a few of the cobwebs that had started filling the castle.
"Look, I know you would be fine with just satiating your hunger, but you should learn the discipline required to overstep this hunger. It would serve you in battle to surprise your opponent."
"Bah! Why should I bother? It's not like I accompanies the hero much in his travel! He only took me to explore that damn technological temple and a few caves!" Minelli looked around her all the while, more bothered than anything by the spirit's words
"First, even if you are on the bench, you should never let your instinct control you. And second, most predatory monsters managed to restrain themselves. You don't want to be the ugly little duckling because you couldn't, do you?"
"...No." The chest monster left silently. She looked ashamed, but her behavior made it clear that she just wanted to get away from the Fire Spirit. Salamander decided to let it slide, and to exploit her free time to check on how the monsters in the arena were doing. That young silver kitsune showed much promises, but needed a little push, and her seniors were having difficulties with her.
On her way there, she had to regularly remove cobwebs. Did nobody make the effort to maintain the place? There were a few monsters who were oriented toward housekeeping, but with the sheer number of mouths to feed, it was no surprise that they had difficulties keeping the castle clean.
When the Fire Spirit reached the barracks, she noticed a distinct lack of clashing metal, and several monsters were discussing near the entrance leading to the caverns. Said entrance looked barricaded by a thick barrier of strings. A sudden feeling of fear seized Salamander's heart.
"What's happening? Why is nobody training.
Izuna, the fox samurai turned toward the newcomer. As usual, most of her face was concealed by one of her tail, but even then, Salamander could clearly tell that the kitsune was not happy with the current situation at hand.
"Spider Princess is once again trying to catch preys within the castle's inhabitants. Her behavior had been tolerated so far as she told Luka she would reform herself after he beat her, but I guess it had the value of a drunkard's oath. We caught her trying to grab Kitsu and Kamuro. We freed them before she could do anything but she left them and barricaded herself in the caves."
Salamander snarled. Way to lead by example. She recomposed herself. Even amongst monsters, spiders were a particularly predatory specie and were looked down upon for this reason. Spider Princess further pushed them in their direction, inviting them to indulge in devouring anyone and further driving the specie down the path of isolation. The only thing she had going for her were raw martial skills, which were enough to give her access to the insect queen throne, but didn't allow her to keep it in any way. She had been ousted by the others, and Luka supported their decision.
The Fire Spirit gestured for everyone to move away from the silk wall blocking the way to the caverns down below. This was not mere thread, but a magically woven material reinforced by the skills of its maker. A single thread would be able to block a sword blow, and a wall like that could endure several hours under attack. Focusing herself, Salamander aimed a concentrated beam of fire at where she guessed the door frame was. Gradually, the web there disappeared, and she proceeded to cut a doorway through the web. The wall itself fell down without burning, confirming its magical nature. The hall behind it was unnaturally dark and was once again filled with cobweb. None of the numerous soldiers present considered the idea to rush inside. Izuna threw a talisman which lit up the path, but even then, visibility in the hallway was almost nonexistant.
"So much for the truce." Salamander looked at Victoria. The silver angel was swinging her sword, readying herself to unleash divine justice on the offending monsters. She herself was hesitating between signaling the situation to Luka or Mephisto and letting them sort this out, or go in herself to give Spider Princess a much needed lesson and to keep the illusion that everything in the castle was always going well.
"Wait. Come shield me up just in case." Salamander leaned toward the entrance while the valkyrie positionned herself in front of her and assumed a defensive stance. "Come out Spider Princess! We can talk about it, or get you humiliated once again! So please, step out now!"
There were no answer for a minute. Noticing a sudden glint in the darkness, Victoria raised her shield and summoned a barrier to protect the ones behind her. The atmosphere suddenly felt heavy as time in her immediate vincinity slowed down, before a few small projectiles bounced on the shield. At the same time, a cold, sadistic laughter echoed in the darkness. Said laughter ceased as soon as Salamander threw a fireball into the darkness. She sighed, as it was confirmed Spider Princess was once again out of control.
Salamander looked behind her, and saw that around twenty monsters were now waiting behind her, expecting to see what would happen next. The hallway looked like a deathtrap and spiders were great at fighting into confined spaces. A direct assault could lead to actual deaths, which was the last thing everybody present wanted to happen. She looked at valkyrie when a strategy started building itself in her head: If a few fire magi incinerated every web systematically while protected, the spiders would find themselves cut off. A few other monsters behind could put out possible fire should they grow out of control.
When she put her plan in action, the group progressed slowly and was sporadically attacked by rogue spider girls. They easily managed to neutralize them when they didn't surrender immediately. There also were a few other preadtory monsters supporting the movement, but they gave up as soon as they noticed the seriousness of the situation. The more the group progressed, the clearer it was that their opponent had no real strategy in their fighting. Soon enough, Spider Princess was cornered. She tried riposting by using a few talismans, but was instantly countered by the wave of attacks that came from her opponents. Barely a second later, she was laying down with Victoria's sword at her throat.
As the group watched over Spider Princess, several monsters came by to heal the wounded, scold their kin for their reckless behavior or clean the damages done. While the fight was barely a skirmish with only a few wounded, it had brought up a buried issue to the surface. Eventually, a frowning Mephisto arrived in front of Spider Princess who glared at the unofficial regent. THe yoma gestured at Victoria to invite her to take a rest after the fight, which the latter graciously accepted.
"I don't think your bethroted would approve of your little tantrum should he learn of it." Spider princess turned down her gaze, ashamed. "But he didn't hear about it yes. Now, would you kindly care enough to explain what by the Six were you trying to do?"
Spider Princess snarled. "You would never understand. We're predators! We feed on the weak! If we were successful, we would have feasted on them!"
"And then?"
"And then what?"
The two monsters looked at each other silently for a minute before the realization hit Mephisto. The yoma inhaled longly before launching herself in a tirade in a sing song voice, smiling all the while. "And then should you and your co-conspirators have been successful, you would have gotten a few preys. Then everyone in the castle would have turned on you, with your bethroted first and foremost as he would have seen that as a sign that he could no longer trust you. I was about to say that you would have been kicked out, but I'm pretty sure that what would remain of you after that would fit in a flask. A small one."
Spider Queen inhaled as she prepared a scathing retort, but she gradually deflated as the realization hit her. She got the Arachne Queen throne by pure force, was denied the Insect Queen one by someone stronger, and was living under that someone's rule. She never was much of a strategist. Her reaction didn't escape Mephisto's eye who hesitated to hammer the nail further down, but decided to actually throw her a bone.
"You are right on one point though. There are a lot of predatory monsters living in the castle, and there's a noteworthy minority who's displeased with the current handling of the situation. While most moved on and are happy with the hiqh quality meals prepared, there are a lot that are having difficulties handling that change in management." Mephisto turned away dramatically while raising her voice for all to hear. "So here's my offer. We will get sure that Luka never hears about that small incident and that you and the more unrestrained monster got a chance to feed. In the meantime, we'd like to develop our supplies of silk and maybe get some on the market to fill the castle's coffers."
Spider Princess recoiled with a disgusted expression. "You want me to give away a part of my body like a slave?!"
"Consider this a reimbursement for what you've done, as well as an occasion to think over what you did."
The arachnoid monster thought over the situation. This was disgracing, but she wanted to stay close to her bethroted at all cost. Eventurally, she relented, clearly unhappy with the deal she was offered.
"Very well, I accept."
"Good." In that case, I will let you reflect on what you've done.
As soon as Mephisto started leaving, Salamander got close to her. "That's wrong on so many levels."
Mephisto smiled at Salamander. "Yes it is. But this is the only way to placate them. We'll have to talk with the hero when the occasion present itself about issues with predatory monsters in the castle."
"I don't even know why he accepted them in the castle! I mean, he never brought some of them on his adventure! There's no reason besides the one that they're monster girls."
Mephisto raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me that Luka would have recruited them just for the off chance that he wants to see the pleasures they can offer?"
Salamander and Mephisto looked at each other. They thought the situation through and thorough, and had to admit the evidence.
There were no other reason.