Tanya sighed tiredly, which was something she had gained an unhappy familiarity with during the last years of the war and that she was being acquainted with now.
Just as she had thought, she had only been able to sleep for two hours before being interrupted.
Walter had shown up with more problems. Gerrard had shown up and helped them out too, but she, Lorelei, and Viktoriya were beginning to lose their energy. They would need to resort to drastic measures soon, like juicing herself with Reinforcement Spells to combat sleep deprivation.
It was fine, though. Today was a new day.
That statement was usually followed by some kind of happy platitude that things were in the past. While that might be, that just meant that today had its own problems – Lorelei was asking more pointed questions about their pasts that Tanya didn't really want to lie about anymore, and she had to drop another million Eris on the Foundation – as well as the problems carried over from yesterday. They would hopefully get some help at the Adventurers Guild today, which would be enough.
If it wasn't, then finding all of Alderp's old servants would be next. She wasn't sure what she would do after that, but she had a few ideas.
She smiled as they walked past people slowly meandering home in the dying light of the sun. She had managed to do one good thing.
She had called for a bookmaker in Axel to come to her, and given him an offer to print the many leisure and learning books she had taken from the vault of the Royalty. She hadn't been able to offer him too much – she hadn't had much time to translate yet – and she had thought that things would go poorly, despite – or maybe because of – her status and how new she was at this.
However, he had agreed the moment 'vault of the Royalty' came from her lips. Apparently, some other Hero Candidate had done much the same, even if they claimed to have written them himself. She had suspected much the same with Shakespeare floating around, but it was nice to have confirmation.
She had signed a deal to take a cut of all the profits he made in return for translating them, and he got exclusive rights to distribute the book. Hopefully, once she had a bit more time, she'd be able to sit down, translate the books, and actually hold onto a bit of her hard-earned wealth long enough to invest it somewhere other than Axel.
They arrived soon enough, passing by regular townsfolk, worried adventurers, and an odd pair of dirty people stumbling towards the construction efforts near the gate of the city – complete, as of two days ago, but over budget, as the reports she had received told her – and out on the plains near large craters that had begun to pop up.
She glared at the air in front of her, and the light foot traffic coming out of the guild suddenly evaporated. She didn't much care what other people were thinking of her, however, since she was unhappy.
Someone was supposedly creating them using Explosion magic, and she wanted them to stop.
They were causing all sorts of problems – nearby lakes, rivers, and ponds were becoming polluted from all the extra runoff, the various guilds were complaining about their hunting and fishing being disturbed, and the townspeople were also frightened by it – and she would be having some words with whoever it was.
Wordlessly, she pushed through the doors, noting, for a moment, that the sunset's light coming through the colored windows looked rather nice.
She groaned. She didn't have the energy for things like that. She needed to get her help and then leave.
She searched, for a moment, and then nodded to herself. They were here.
She walked forward, hoping that the other two were following her. Soon enough, they came up behind the black-clothed woman with her back turned to her. She was speaking animatedly to her two companions – Shizuka and Takashi – who had both noticed her and her friends.
"…that we should leave? The guild's asking me to do actual work instead of sitting around, even though they promised me a stipend. I really don't see why they didn't just feed that potion to some animals, though, considering… why are you two looking behind me?"
Tanya smirked. It sounded like she was having a problem. "Aya. How nice to hear your… lovely voice again. Are you having problems with the guild?"
She spun around, her face going white as a sheet as she jumped from her chair. Then, she glared at her, attempting to hide her fright. "Jeez, don't sneak up on me like that. You'll send me to an early grave."
She chuckled at her own joke, and Tanya gave her a bored smile. "Yes. Well, I was going to offer to help you with your trouble, but I can just find someone else to help me."
Tanya was bluffing, of course – she didn't really have anyone else to ask, besides Mitsurugi, if she could ever find him – but they didn't know that.
She stilled, and the whiteness of her face faded as a scheming smirk took its place. "Well, I don't know how much you could do, seeing as you just got back, but-"
"Listen. Tanya is now Governor. She could have you locked up and executed on a whim if she wanted. We are tired from trying to run the whole of Axel and its surrounding lands." Tanya blinked in mild surprise. She would have been to sit through Aya's attempt at haggling. It seemed Viktoriya wasn't
Tanya turned to send a perplexed look at her friend, who was staring coldly at the table. "Agree to help Tanya and she'll fix your problems with the guild. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, and pray to whatever God you believe in that she won't destroy you for refusing."
Aya looked – as obviously intended – rather intimidated. Viktoriya stared at the other two. "The same goes for you. Help us, get rewarded with whatever, or sit there."
Both jumped up. Shizuka's head was bent down, while Takashi was staring defiantly into her eyes. Tanya shrugged.
Tanya sat down at the table and tried to ignore how odd – and not entirely horrible – it felt to have Viktoriya run things, even for a few seconds. "Explain what the guild's doing to you," she asked Aya.
Lorelei also sat down. All three of the others turned to her, and then to Tanya.
She shrugged. "Takashi, Aya, Shizuka, this is Lorelei. She comes from… near the capital?"
She looked to Lorelei, who nodded and seemed content to lean back and watch them. Tanya turned back to the others, gesturing towards Lorelei. "She got in an accident and was forced to be an adventurer. Insult or demean her and we'll extract retribution."
All three of the others flinched at the bluntness, while Lorelei rolled her eyes fondly. Tanya continued to talk with them. Takashi as first. "I might be financially secure because I resold that staff, but…"
Viktoriya scanned the guild. While these two were who they were mainly looking for, she was wondering…
She blinked. Yes, Mitsurugi was indeed there. Good.
She'd drive off those stupid thoughts about Tanya soon enough, now that she had time to focus on other things with how relatively easy Belzerg's 'war' with the Demon King was.
Like how she loved it when she called her Visha. Or how she loved that glint in her eyes when one of her plans were working out exactly as she thought. Or how her eyes lit up whenever she made her coffee or surprised her with chocolate.
She paused in her walk towards him. Wait. Was Mitsurugi in a relationship with those two friends of his?
She glanced at them. He was drinking a pint of ale. Dust was staring enviously at… well, she wasn't sure if he was staring at his money or his drink, but she was sure he was envious of something. The other two…
Both were staring at him, but neither seemed to be all that interested in making a move. Besides, Tanya had muttered something about them probably tearing each other apart if one of them were actually his girlfriend, and if they were in a relationship, they'd probably be…
She shrugged her shoulders as she walked past a pair of oddly familiar black-haired Mages that were leaving. They would probably be holding hands or making out or… something.
She wasn't exactly experienced in those sorts of things.
The war hadn't been a good time to get acquainted with other soldiers, and Weiss had admitted to her that none of the men had dared approach either her or the medic for fear of being given extra time training for thinking of anything but the 'glorious march on Moskva.'
"Ah, Mitsurugi! How nice to see you again!"
Viktoriya jumped as Tanya's voice sounded to her right. She looked around, and saw that Tanya was looking as pleased as punch.
She looked back at the table to see that Lorelei appeared to be grilling the three Reincarnates about their lives. Aya looked calm, but the other two betrayed the nervousness she was also probably feeling.
The armor-clad Reincarnate turned to them, blinking and then smirking. "Degurechaff! Fancy running into you here."
She smiled at him. "Yeah. Trying to run Axel isn't exactly fun, rewarding work right now, but I'm hoping it gets better."
He winced. His two friends noticed that he was talking to Tanya and were glaring at her, but Viktoriya just glared right back.
"Hey," Tanya asked, suddenly interested in the conversation, "you haven't met Darkness, have you? I want to ask for her help, but I haven't been able to find her."
He shook his head. "Sorry, I haven't. And what's with that name? Was she cursed or something, and now she carries the name as a symbol of her pain?"
Tanya grinned, but Viktoriya tuned the conversation out. She needed to ask him if he was seeing anyone. Considering how jealous those other two were, she couldn't imagine that either of them were in a relationship with him; otherwise, they'd probably act a little less defensive about him.
Unless, of course, they thought he'd run off after anyone that looked halfway decent. She blinked.
Maybe this wasn't a good idea? There wasn't exactly anyone else, though-
"EVERYONE!"
Viktoriya turned to the front desk, startled out of her thoughts. Tanya ceased her conversation, Lorelei stopped trying to grill the three – people? Hero Candidates? She wasn't exactly what they were – about Japan, and Mitsurugi stopped trying to talk about one of his efforts to locate a nearby Dragon and take it down.
Luna was standing in front of the bulletin board, waiting for everyone to look at her. Soon almost everyone was looking. She gave an exasperated look to Taylor, who roused a nearly passed out Dust, who looked around with a start.
His eyes landed on Luna, and they wasted little time looking her over lecherously. She just sighed.
"Everyone, it has just come to my attention that a Greater Devil is in the northern forest. All quests in the area are hereby rescinded, and nobody is to approach the area."
With that, she retreated back behind her reception desk. Tanya looked to Mitsurugi. "What threat does a Greater Demon pose?"
Mitsurugi looked at her, confusion on his face. Even his two sycophants were staring at her warily, as if she were completely insane.
"Uh… it's in the name, right? They're ridiculously strong, have more magical and physical power than most anyone besides the Demon King's Generals, and they can wipe away the lives of any who dare approach them," he explained slowly.
Tanya tilted her head. "I heard that the more powerful a Demon is, the more pain they feel from physical attacks. Is that incorrect?"
He shrugged unhelpfully. "No, but they've lived for so long – over ten thousand years, at the very least – so they're not unfamiliar with pain. They're so experienced and powerful that some of them gain extra lives by dealing with other Demons or powers of precognition to predict their opponents movements or even histories."
Tanya nodded uncertainty. She would probably be able to handle it, but she'd stay well away from it.
It sounded like he might be on either Verdia or the Amalgamation's level, and she had been able to destroy one of those… with a bit of trouble. However, she didn't have the foggiest idea of what went on in hell.
For all she knew, there could be thousands of little girls with mental and gender identity issues and too much power running around down there, ready to back this Demon up if Tanya killed him.
Besides, he was probably working for the Demon King, and she didn't want to anger him, since she was trying to work wi-
She winced, and then she waved away Mitsurugi's concern. "Well, when you put it like that…"
He shook his head. "That isn't to say they can't be defeated. They obviously don't deal well with Priests, and-"
Her interest in the conversation died, and she turned towards the reception desk. Luna was taking questions, and that meant she needed to hold up her end of her bargain with Aya.
She walked towards her. Viktoriya looked between Tanya and Mitsurugi, and chose to follow after her. Maybe she'd ask him about a date later.
She obviously didn't want to commit if it turned out he was shallow enough for either of his friends to not want to date him because he'd run off at the first sign of someone better.
Tanya smirked as the line dwindled away and she was faced with an exhausted Luna.
"Hello, Luna," she greeted her. She bolted upright, staring down at Tanya uncertainty.
"I was wondering when you'd get here…"
"Ah, you've heard of my new appointment? That makes this a lot easier," she said, staring at the woman. She frowned, but she held her head high and replaced her unpleasant expression with a fake smile.
Tanya rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to fire you. I want you to treat the people who took that potion better."
She blinked. "What? Why-"
Tanya cut her off. "'Why should you' is a valid question, and I'll gladly answer it. I'll go to the various guilds that might not appreciate you telling them to stay out of the closest forest and smooth things over, and I'll provide the guild with a bit of extra funding."
Luna blinked, apparently surprised. Tanya didn't care to mention it and continued. "Besides, with the Greater Demon in the area, you'll probably have to rely on the 'Monster Rush' system a bit more, right? If you don't treat them right, they might not be cooperative when you need them."
Luna nodded slowly, and Tanya smirked. "Lovely. Send a request for additional funding to me through official channels and I'll get to it soon. I have a lot of work to do, and I doubt I'll be out of Alderp's Mansion for a while."
With that she turned around. Viktoriya didn't move, and Tanya turned to look at her. She smiled kindly at Luna.
"If you see Darkness, would you tell her to seek us out? We could probably use her help."
She nodded uncertainty, and they headed for the exit. Lorelei soon jumped up from the table she had been sitting with the people – she knew they were Hero Candidates, even if she couldn't tell what that odd Takashi fellow had – and followed them out.
She would regret not sticking around for a bit longer. The next week would be… hellish.
-OxOxO-
Darkness smiled brightly as she walked down the street. It had been a busy week for her, but…
She was fine, now. Better than fine!
She felt rejuvenated, completely and utterly. Things were going better than ever.
The thought of her current affairs darkened her mood only slightly. There was a slight problem, but even that was negligible compared to all the good.
Axel, as a whole, had been improving. The lights that lined the main roads were making their way down smaller, less important ones. The guards and police weren't allowing shady merchants and other characters into the city as much anymore. Buildings had been improved, and everyone had begun to look happier.
She had figured out the cause of all that after finally breaking her father's resolve. He had revealed, after a few hours of patient needling, that Alderp was dead, his brother had had his titles and privileges stripped, and his son was helping the new Governor run the town as penance.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to extract what it was that killed Alderp, and considering none of the other nobles knew when she asked, it must have been very secretive. Still, she hadn't minded much, and since her father didn't have anyone else lined up to wed her, she had been off the hook.
She'd been amazed by all of the improvements, and she had wanted to figure out who the new Governor was. Unfortunately, she was impaired by meeting a certain someone.
She grimaced as she walked down the lane containing some of the most opulent mansions in Axel.
Chris…
With Tanya and Viktoriya gone, Darkness had gone to search for a new party. The Thief had approached Darkness and asked to be allowed to explain herself. She claimed to be under the influence of Demons, sent to assassinate Hero Candidates.
Darkness hadn't exactly bought it at face value, but even she knew of the growing presence of Demons in the town.
You could practically taste them, even in the streets. Even the weakest Priest could sense that much, not to mention that she'd been asked about it by several church-goers in recent weeks.
Most adventurers didn't seem to care, and the Priests, though they'd raided the wealthier areas of Axel – the place where people with enough money to hire people to summon Demons for them might be – nothing had been found.
She also had heard the rumor that a Greater Devil was making use of the forest near Axel for some nefarious deeds.
She still hadn't believed Chris, not entirely, but a night's rest after speaking with her had done her well. She had received tidings from Eris, who had declared to her, in all of her glory:
"You must look past the mistakes of those around you and learn to work with former enemies in order to overcome a greater evil."
Darkness hadn't thought her connections to Eris was that strong, and she hadn't manually leveled into the more esoteric branches of the Crusader's skills to where she could receive portents of the future.
However, there was no mistaking the feeling of her Goddess.
After that, she had declared to Chris that she would give her a chance to prove herself, and the two of them had taken a few quests together for a few days.
Then, her father had upset her fun and called her back, a whole new selection of husbands to choose from, all of who fell quite far from her ideal husband.
Oh, they were all much better than that horribly perfect Walter, but none of them were abusive enough, horny enough, or dismissive enough to suit her tastes. Still, she might have taken a bit more time to get through them, if only to humor her father, but that vision she'd received had pushed her to ignore most of them.
Her father, after hearing the reason for her desire to brush them off, had only sighed and told her not to get herself killed under pain of his anger.
Then, today, after finally getting through all of them and getting access to her mail, she had heard the best news yet: Tanya was back.
She was the Governor, even. That had shocked her like nothing else, especially since Tanya had claimed she wasn't a member of the nobility.
The letter from her cousin – and how had little Sylphina even met Tanya, anyway? – had been proven true when Luna had gone on and on about how much Tanya was doing for the town in her new role.
Luna had told her she was staying in Alderp's old mansion, running the entire city on her own in order to prevent corruption from taking hold. The shining light in Luna's eyes had told Darkness that she wasn't lying and that she greatly admired Tanya for it.
The only complaint she had was that anyone that went into that mansion wasn't seen for several days, and that she was giving Darkness a quest to go get her so she could participate in the large attack on a Greater Demon that had been confirmed to be using the northern forests as a hideout.
So, here she was. Standing in front of Alderp's Mansion and looking for the people she had expected to come out to meet her.
Her eyebrows creased. Where were the guards?
She looked at the gate and at the garden beyond it, looking for… anyone. Gardeners, guards, knights…
Hell, she would even take Alderp, though she would be somewhat concerned that he managed to become an undead. Everyone knew that the dead needed to be put to rest, even if they weren't rich and wealthy.
She blinked, and then she licked her lips in anticipation at her earlier thought. An Alderp that was undead, totally unbound from his already loose hold on propriety necessitated by their positions…
She shook her head. No! She had to focus. If no one was out here, then it was possible that Tanya was in danger.
And if something was dangerous enough to take out all the guards and attack her, it was likely a worthy, dangerous, foe. Maybe if she traded herself for Tanya, it would give her away and subject her to whatever-
She couldn't take it. She roughly pushed open the metal gates, rushing past what were probably very beautiful trees and statues and flower bushes under normal circumstances. She ignored the fountains, reached the second, inner gate, and pushed past that too.
She was at the front door. This house, unlike the ones of other noble houses, included very few columns and pillars, instead choosing to take on an appearance much more similar to the regular houses in Axel.
It was obvious past that first glance that this place belonged to a noble, however. It had three floors and attic space, judging by the windows near the top, a tower jutting out of the roof for better defense on the off chance that invaders made it into the house. All of it had a nice, even coat of paint, something unthinkable for any commoner's house.
She knocked heavily on the door, waiting the customary five seconds before knocking again. She repeated the action twice more, hoping that no one would answer.
When no one did, she shook her head in complete, totally sincere pity. "Oh well. If a servant hasn't come to answer yet, it is my duty as a Crusader and a noble to ensure that the occupants of the house haven't become the slaves of a Demon or the meal of a monster. After knocking again, of course."
That she was ignoring her duty to inform the police – or anyone else, really – would tell informed listeners what she was really after, but she knew, after demolishing the door with a punch-like 'knock,' that no one else was around after one look at the foyer.
There were no pieces of artwork or expensive weapons and armor or even historical artifacts. Instead, the walls were barren. Even the lights were on the lowest power setting, and she could only really see thanks to the regular windows in the corridors.
All of that was technically excusable for very low nobles. Alderp wouldn't contemplate stooping so low, but Tanya was a fair bit more pragmatic than even the most frugal noble. Darkness could see her focusing so much on simply having a roof and walls.
What was not excusable was the air. The floor. The walls. All of it…
It was… dusty.
That was horrible, as far as nobles were concerned. If you couldn't afford servants to even clean your front living area, then you were quite pathetic indeed.
Even Tanya wouldn't let this happen; she didn't strike Darkness as a person who enjoyed living in their own filth.
She was spurred to look through the house by the lack of… anything. The famed – rumored to be abused – servants of the Alexi family were nowhere to be seen.
She blinked and began to pant as she ran through the house. Being a maid for that despicable, horrible man…
She shook her head. Even if she ticked off every box she had, he treated the people of the town unfairly. She couldn't excuse someone in power using their power to hurt people.
Unless it was her.
She shook her head and headed to the receiving room. Perhaps she would find some clue as to what had happened?
She roughly pulled the door open, expecting to find nothing and to have to find the dungeons that such a horrible noble would have.
Instead, she again at the sight in front of her. This was…
She blushed as she looked around the darkened room. This was not what she had expected.
Close to her, to the doors that she had pulled open and to all the walls of the room, were people. Servants and butlers and messengers and maids were huddled close to the doors and to the corners of the room.
Many of them were groaning or quietly praying under their breaths, but a concerning number of them were also completely silent.
She cast a quick glance towards the ones closest to her, that were clawing at her casual footwear like zombies clawed at flesh, and saw that their hands seemed to be rubbed raw.
Blankets and pillows seemed to be the only comfort for those that were passed out.
Closer to the center of the room, she could recognize people dressed in the chain mail and leathers of the guards of Axel. Among them were also a few of the higher-ranked personnel of Alderp.
Most of his higher ranked servants – sons and daughters of nobles that hoped to attach themselves to a different family and learn secrets through them – had left this mansion over a week ago, looking to rejoin their family or find a new family to spy on.
Still, she could recognize that those that had stayed within the mansion, presumably to work for Tanya, were among those clustered in a rough ring between the walls and the center of the room.
In the center of the room were four tables. She could see paperwork scattered across all of them, with pens, markers, and pencils laid forgotten next to the sheets.
Underneath one of the tables, the one closest to her, were three people. She vaguely recognized them as having watched Tanya demolish the Amalgamation over a month ago with her.
None of them were sleeping, but they appeared to be very frightened. They seemed torn between shaking their heads as if trying to warn her and eyeing the door, likely out of a desire to escape.
Darkness licked her lips again. This was…
Horrible.
Completely horrible.
Yep. Really, it was just not good.
She needed to save these people and take their place and get worked to the bone and forced to continue her work anywa-
At one of the three remaining tables, people were collapsed. She recognized one as the esteemed Police Chief that her father had often complained about being too independent. Another person she recognized was Walter, who had also collapsed over a piece of paperwork.
At the last table without people working, she saw-
She flinched. A beastman? Were they the cause of this?
But no, it seemed they were just as exhausted as Walter and the Police Chief were.
At the final table, two people seemed to be sitting quietly. The sound of paperwork being filled out reached her ears, but it sounded ominous compared to when Darkness did it near a window by the sun's light.
She recognized both at once. Tanya on the right, Viktoriya on the left, were filling out paperwork. They were turned away from her and towards a set of larger doors in front of them.
She stood there, for a few seconds, and nearly jumped when the monotonous scritch, scritch, scritch of their pens was interrupted by their voices.
"The police have passed more reports to Gerrard that the guards are getting sloppy. We'll have to give them a lesson in procedure when we get the chance."
"Yes, Colonel."
Darkness blinked as they continued, talking about meeting issuing another sum of money to some of the nobles and offices of Axel in order to lower the rent of various properties to attract business.
They seemed to be running things well, even if the room was a bit… spooky.
Her thoughts were interrupted as a guard jumped up. His face was panicked, and he wasted no time in trying to knock her down and flee from the room.
CRACK!
The telltale sound of the odd staffs that Tanya and Victoriya had echoed around the room, and the man collapsed to the ground screaming. Darkness stared down at him, and then looked towards the other two.
Viktoriya rose from her seat as Tanya spoke. "Now really. You know full well that I need all the help I can get, and you did agree to help me. It's your fault for thinking that I need protection beyond what I can provide myself and not realizing I had another duty in mind for you."
Viktoriya grabbed the man by the leg as he was dragged back to them. She gave Darkness a passing "Hi," and continued as if she hadn't seen her.
Tanya rose from her chair. "Heal. This would get done faster if you actually did your work, you know."
In an instant, the man's flailing and wailing quieted to sobs. Tanya seemed to deflate.
"Reinforcement spell: Pain-Reduction."
With that, she bolted upright. The light that shone from her chest whenever she did a lot of magic was flickering, but she seemed energized.
She shook her head and finally took the time to notice Darkness, who was off in her own world imagining what it would be like to be at the tender mercies of the two in front of her and loving the indignity of being ignored.
"Oh, Darkness. How good to see you."
Darkness was pulled out of her fantasies and looked at Tanya. She took a full five seconds to take in her appearance, and then she visibly winced.
Her hair was more unkempt than usual. It wasn't even in a ponytail, and it seemed to have taken a liking to sticking up in random places. Her clothing was unwashed, and one of her eyes was twitching.
Speaking of which, her eyes seemed to be seeing something she couldn't with how out of focus and glassy they were. The bags under her eyes looked heavier than any amount of shopping Darkness could do.
Darkness was quickly realizing they wouldn't be helping in the coming battle.
Tanya blinked at Darkness's lack of speech and then turned back to her work. "I was wondering, Darkness, if you could help us out. I would have asked sooner, but you never told us where your house was."
"Uh… it's rather close actually…"
The sound of the pens stopped, and the small girl shrugged. "Oh well. We don't have anybody that we can trust with lots of this work, so we've been having to do it ourselves. Viktoriya and I have been up for 72 hours straight, and we weren't exactly sleeping well before that."
Then the noise of the pens picked up again. Darkness walked closer, ignoring the soft warnings of those around her that she should leave.
One of the butlers near the door opposite of her cried out. "Please! Let us go! We've been working for a week without-"
Tanya interrupted him by throwing a knife Darkness hadn't known existed at the wall, embedding it next to another one she hadn't noticed.
The blonde girl continued her work even as she spoke. "You wouldn't have lasted a week on the front. This work might be a bit more taxing than watching a border for days without sleep, but we aren't even being bombed here."
Here, she stopped writing. "Of course, if you would like to continue working towards getting out of here, I could simply give you one of our Reinforcement spells."
He shook his head and laid back down. "Hell no! The last person you gave that to jumped through the ceiling. They're still in a coma, for crying out loud!"
Darkness stopped panting for a moment, blinked in surprise, and looked up. Sure enough, she had missed the hole in the ceiling.
Viktoriya spoke now. "You're just not used to the dosage. I promise that next time, something like that won't happen. Of course, your heart might explode, but we all take risks in the line of duty."
A number of people Darkness had thought unconscious groaned loudly, but they were silenced by a glare from Viktoriya and a wave of killing intent. Darkness began to mutter.
"Please… wo- would you let me take their place? I can't allow something like this to continue, and if I must sacrifice myself, then I will do so. As the people go free, I'll writhe under the punishments for not completing so much paperwork in time, and-"
But they didn't seem to be listening. They were talking to each other in low tones, so low she couldn't clearly make out what they were saying.
Darkness blinked and walked closer, and peered at the pair as she realized that she wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying, regardless of how close she got. They were speaking that odd language of theirs.
She was nearly at their table when a harsh, "Psst!" interrupted her thoughts. She looked down to see the tallest of the two women huddled under the table mouthing the words 'save us!'
She looked… completely horrible. Or, Darkness assumed she did. Darkness didn't think anyone should have bags quite that heavy under their eyes, and she was fairly sure that if eyes are windows into the soul, then this woman had bartered away her very being to a Demon with how empty they looked.
She looked up to see that both were still talking. She interrupted them. "Uhh… to be ignored so thoroughly is wonderful, but I am seriously concerned for a number of these people. Won't you allow me to help you and take their place?"
Both paused and turned their heads to her. Their pens were not yet down, but from what little emotion that was on their faces – besides tiredness and a small amount of misery – she could tell they were interested.
"Uh… my father is a rather highly placed noble. We run a lot of land on behalf of the King, and I could even ask for my Father's help, if you two want to lighten your load," she offered.
Hopefully, they would accept and she could spend more time getting punished by the two people as her father took over the work.
Serebryakov looked towards Tanya, who nodded after a moment. They both looked back down at their paper, and Tanya pointed a shaking hand at the table the beastman had passed out on.
"You can take over for her," she ordered.
Eyes sparkling with desire, she almost sat down when another loud, "Psst!" crashed her thoughts into the side of a mountain.
She looked back under the other table to see the other two – the small female with a wand she couldn't see and a well-dressed male – violently shaking their heads.
Her eyebrows furrowed, until the male spat out, "Make them deactivate their magic!"
The sound of the pens stopped, and Darkness became ramrod straight. She stiffly turned towards the questioning gazes they'd leveled at her.
She cleared her throat. "Perhaps… you should deactivate your magic? It is seen as somewhat, um… odd to be using magic in the presence of a noble if they haven't requested it."
Serebryakov jumped up indignantly, but Tanya put a hand on her arm. "No, she's right. We'll work without magic for a little bit so we can use more later."
With that, Serebryakov sat back down, their backs still turned away from her, and began to fiddle with something outside her view.
A moment later, both collapsed. Not in a cute, resting-your-head-against-the-table kind of way, but in more of a fall-to-the-ground-and-hope-you-haven't-broken-something kind of way.
With the sound of their fall, everyone in the room – even the man who had been wounded by her odd staff – looked towards them. Not a word was spoken, and before Darkness could say anything, a butler stood up.
"She can't get all of us!"
With that, a flood of people rushed towards the door she had come through and the one across the room, not even fighting each other to get out. They seemed united by a single cause, and the room was mostly empty a moment later.
Even the people under the table only spared her and the others a single worried glance before leaving as fast as their tired feet could carry them.
Those that were left were her, the two that had just collapsed, the Police Chief, Walter, and the beastman.
The latter three all rose with a groan. Walter seemed to be the most able, as he was the one who spoke first. "Thank you, Lady Dustiness, for your help. I'm afraid that they might have ended up working themselves to death if they'd continued."
She winced momentarily, and then she began to imagine herself being forced to work in some long-forgotten mine of the Demon King for the rest of her life, having to use her body to get even the most meager of supplies and eventually-
The other two soon rose as well. The Police Chief straightened out his blue clothing, even if it didn't seem to help all that much in banishing the state of disarray he was in.
He walked around the table and bowed to her. "Lady Dustiness, I thank you. We've been pretending to be asleep for over six hours. If you hadn't come in, they probably would have used that magic of theirs on us again."
They and the beastman shuddered in unison. The Police Chief shook his head as he made his way to the door. "I'll never do her another favor. Nothing would be worth it. I'd rather be fired, in all honesty…"
With that, Darkness, Walter, the pair of Adventurers and the beastman were left. Walter, after sending one last look at the two collapsed on the ground and the beastman, who was rubbing her eyes, cleared his throat.
"Well, I need to… attend to the house. Requisitioning food for them and… something else… are musts right now, so with your leave, Lady Dustiness…?"
She nodded slowly, and he too took off, leaving her alone in the room. It really did seem that she wasn't going to be able to get them to help in the coming march into the forest. She'd simply take her place. Maybe-
"Sorry about not helping out earlier, but we were getting worked to the bone, whenever they forced us into working and didn't believe we were sleeping anymore."
Darkness blinked and looked at the beastman. She tilted her head as the woman extended a hand towards her. "I'm Lorelei. They, uh, recruited me on the way to the capital. They mentioned you a bit while we were there. They seemed fond of you, if exasperated, for some reason."
Darkness smiled at their supposed admission, and then stared at the hand. For a moment, she thought about doing what most nobles would do.
Instead, she hesitantly took it. "I'm Darkness, if… they didn't tell you, I guess." Darkness ended the conversation there and stared at them.
Lorelei nodded and followed her gaze. She sighed. "Yeah, they did. It might have been very… dreary to do so much work, but I think they'll be fine if they only have to deal with running Axel. They seem used to having a close watch on everything going on under their watch and don't really want to trust in people they don't know or that they feel are… grossly incompetent. Which includes… a lot of people."
Darkness nodded absently, mentally noting that her father should provide them with advisers for running the town.
Lorelei continued. "Don't get me wrong, they could probably run this place better than anyone, but I think they have other plans that they want to get to."
Darkness tilted her head. "Why did they even get so much land? Neither of them are nobles, but to be handed the land Alderp without a second thought is extreme."
The beastman looked at her in confusion. "Well," Darkness began, wondering why this beastman was so nosy, "Alderp wasn't a grand noble, but he was very influential, and the King probably would have elevated Walter to that position due to how much money Alderp extracted and the importance of Axel in training Adventurers."
Lorelei nodded. "I don't think they were expecting all of this. When they saved Iris's life-"
"What!?" Darkness was now looking away from Serebryakov and Tanya, staring at Lorelei. She blinked at the sudden outburst and continued talking.
"Yeah… uh, the party that Iris had to celebrate getting Elroad back on Belzerg's side was being manipulated by a Demon. She almost put on a Divine Relic of unknown origin. Tanya figured everything out and executed Alderp."
Darkness looked back at the two on the ground, speaking mostly to herself. "Why didn't my father tell me any of that?"
Lorelei continued where she had left off. "Yeah… neither of them seemed to be expecting so much, but they also didn't want to refuse it. Claire and Rain were both very…"
Darkness looked to her, and she sighed. "They looked quite murderous," she said, giving up on trying to put things nicely, "and Tanya and Viktoriya were complaining about not being able to set up their 'factory' like they wanted."
Darkness shook her head. "Yes. The Shinfornea family has always been rather… zealous in their duties."
Darkness looked to the beastman, only to squint her eyes in confusion at the raised eyebrow on the tall woman's face.
"Yes…" she provided. She busied herself tidying up some of the papers.
If what Tanya had said about the Dustiness heir – that she took sexual pleasure from doing her Holy duty – was true, and Darkness thought that Claire was zealous, then Lorelei had been underestimating how far Claire's devotion for Iris went.
"Anyway, they were starting to seriously consider execution for people that were 'treasonous' and 'incompetent.' They said something about Axel being backwards, but…"
She trailed off, glancing at them in confusion, before just sighing exasperatedly.
Darkness nodded in understanding. Axel, while not especially large, wasn't a backwater by any stretch of the imagination.
It had lighting for its roads, large festivals for every occasion, and even a large noble population. It had at least a few representatives from the Capital for its largest duties, and a good portion of the travel into Belzerg first passed through Axel.
Just how advanced were Japan and the Empire that they considered this place backwards?
She shook her head. Both Viktoriya and Tanya were often surprised about the simplest things, things that even Darkness, with her sheltered background, knew about. It was probably just something to do with different cultures or something…
Darkness looked to the beastman to see she was looking at her curiously, her head tilted. Darkness sighed, and she answered the unasked question about what she knew about them.
"Tanya and Viktoriya are from a distant land. Tanya supposedly comes from 'Japan,' that place where the Hero Candidates come from, originally, and to have moved to the 'Empire,' where she met Viktoriya, though I do wonder what those places were like…"
Lorelei nodded uneasily, digesting what that meant. "I'll tidy up in here. Uh… send over that help you mentioned soon, alright? And thanks."
Darkness nodded, and she was halfway through turning around when something caught her eyes.
She spun back around and squinted at the beastman, who seemed surprised by the sudden scrutiny. She followed Darkness's gaze, and then began to blush.
"Ah… I was complaining about being a bit stiff, and they suggested that I not try to cover up my tail," she said. Darkness nodded slowly, and then, in an unmistakable movement, she moved a hand to the hilt of her sword.
The tuft of white sticking out of her pants reminded her that the thing in front of her was a beastman. "I would like to remind you that if you attempt to sell them out to the Demon King, I will have to defend them, at which point you'll have to tie me down and punish me with your superior strength to stop me from ensuring your death."
Lorelei sighed. She'd stopped listening halfway through – she was probably insulting her for daring to walk around despite being obviously forsaken my Eris – and she was reminded, yet again, why Tanya and Viktoriya were weird.
Darkness blinked as she finished her rant, and, seeing that she was visibly cowed, the Dustiness heir walked out of the room, to participate in the coming attack on the Greater Demon. Maybe she'd be tied up and forced to become a hostage and tortured for information and-
Then, however unfortunate she would be if she wasn't captured, she was going to find out why her father kept the information about Iris from her. She had stayed at that castle for years playing with Iris! She deserved to be informed of her well-being, as both a grand noble and as her childhood friend.
Lorelei, meanwhile, was already trying to ignore Darkness's words and her ever-present fears – Maybe they'd abandon her now that they had their friend back? Maybe they'd pick Darkness, a noble and a Crusader, if forced to pick between them? Maybe – and was instead looking at the two women sprawled out on the floor.
She narrowed her eyes. They had said, many times, that they weren't Axis Cultists. But…
Maybe they didn't know what being a part of the Axis Cult meant?
Yes, they were supposed to be from some faraway land. She'd heard Tanya mention Japan when she'd served ramen during their trip, and Viktoriya had even taught Lorelei a few words of 'Germanian' from the Empire that both had mentioned a few times.
She blinked. Tanya definetly had to be gay, then. She'd said such a thing about the Succubi, and she hadn't even tried to defend herself.
Besides that, they had odd weapons that made loud noises and that did a lot of damage. The explosions had, in fact, rendered portions of the monsters they'd killed on the way to Elroad unsalvageable, not that they had noticed.
Darkness had confirmed that they were from a faraway land through their conversation, as poorly as it might have ended.
If they had such odd ideas, and even a different language, maybe they didn't have the Axis or Eris Cults?
Looking down at the two, she nodded to herself. She'd try something to see if maybe she should direct them to the Axis Cult. They might have a different Goddess than she did – and who did these two worship, anyway? – but Lorelei still tried to do her best as an Eris Cultist despite being ineligible due to her supremely unlucky accident.
If they wanted to join the Axis Cult and be gay, who was she, an unlucky Eris Cultist who'd been turned into a beastman, to judge?
-OxOxO-
As they trekked through the forest, Kyouya was deep in thought, trying to puzzle through the information he knew about Degurechaff and Serebryakov. He wasn't even really focusing on the coming fight, despite how important it was.
He was interested in Aqua, and her Cult hated Demons. They were allies of the Demon King, so he was here to help destroy them, along with nearly a hundred other adventurers.
He knew, based on all of that information, that he should be focusing on his present quest.
"Man, I can't believe we really let her trick us into doing all that work," grumbled someone off to his right.
He gave them a glance. He now knew that not following the request of the receptionist Luna to check up on Degurechaff had been an incorrect move.
He wanted to find out more about them. The information that Viktoriya had given him during that party at the Princess's castle was… very troubling, and now that they were in Axel, he could try and figure out more.
Even as small monsters – Rookie Killers and Horned Rabbits – assaulted them, he was thinking about them instead of the fight.
"Kyouya!" He looked up, turned, and saw his teammates in danger of being attacked by a slime. He spared a few seconds to utilize the Cursed Sword Gram to destroy the slime threatening his teammates, and then he was ruminating once more.
He was fairly sure that, despite Degurechaff's mastery of Japanese, they weren't from Japan.
Oh, he knew they didn't look Japanese – they looked like textbook westerners, if anything – but he hadn't been willing to simply judge them based on their race.
Serebryakov had given him enough information to piece his conclusion together, however.
Her questions about Japan could technically have been a curious citizen from the past wondering how their country could develop. However, they had been phrased as if she hadn't even the slightest clue about Japan.
Additionally, he had told her that Japan had never been very isolationist, and that the British opening up their ports with gunboats had been unnecessary.
That had been a test, and she had failed. The Americans forcing a very isolationist Japan into the open was a basic fact of Japanese history, and that she had accepted his story at face value told him that she wasn't from Japan – like the rest of the Hero Candidates – especially a Japan where that event had been even closer to the present.
He shook his head and looked around. They weren't being attacked by monsters anymore, and the other Reincarnates were talking again.
He hadn't been able to party up with them – and how he had wanted to finally get a Mage – but Shizuka and Aya had politely declined, stating a desire to keep Aya company and a need to stay in Axel, respectively. He thought he had also heard them mutter something about 'conceited pretty boys…'
He sighed. Maybe keeping up that act wasn't worth the effort…
He shook his head and continued to think, even as his teammates talked to him about something or other, but he knew that they let off a lot of hot air when they were talking. He filtered out what they were saying and focused on the much more interesting conversation going on nearby.
"And really, how were we supposed to support them all that much when half their orders were in German?" asked Aya. Takashi, sword in hand, just shrugged his shoulders, while Shizuka tilted her head.
"That was German?" she asked. Mitsurugi blinked, and he prayed that Aya would say she had misspoken.
"Well… it wasn't exactly German, but it was very close to it. I took a course in foreign languages, and…" Aya went on, but Mitsurugi didn't need to focus on them anymore.
His worries had been confirmed. If they spoke German and they fought in war with the technology of the second World War and the ideology of both.
They might be Nazis.
He really hoped they weren't. They looked nice on the outside, and nothing they had said thus far showed any desire to kill a ton of people just because of their religion.
Perhaps Tanya was the daughter of a German ambassador to Japan? That would explain her knowledge of his language, since the two had been allies in the second World War.
He gulped. If they really were Nazis, and they were trying to spread their ideology of intolerance to this world, then he needed to stop them.
As another monster – this time, a slightly more intimidating Griffin that he sliced in two with a magical slash of his sword – came towards him, he knew he couldn't jump to conclusions.
It was entirely possible they weren't Nazis, since he vaguely remembered that one of the World Wars didn't have Nazis…
Probably. He just didn't know, and he was hit by an odd, long-forgotten longing for his homeland, even if it was just so he could open a history textbook to try and contextualize their arrival.
If he was ever able to get information from them – perhaps by working with them, if they ever got rid of the beastman his teammates seemed so worried about – then he might have to stop them.
He scowled. How was he supposed to stop them? If they had bullets and guns, then would even Adamantite armor work against them?
He shook his head. He needed better armor, then, but he didn't have a clue as to where he'd find something stronger than Adamantite. Perhaps the weapon of another Reincarnate that had been slain in battle?
"Look out!"
He looked up from where he had been thinking to see someone else, clad in armor and yellow leathers, taking a hit from…
He steeled his nerves. A Demon, black as night and gleaming metallically in the light on the midday sun, was brandishing its claws at him, eyeing the person who had just taken his attack.
The person in front of him was able to remain standing for a moment more, but she collapsed. He heard someone cry out. "Darkness!"
He looked down at the woman. He couldn't see her injuries – he must have damaged her front – but she was still breathing, if shallowly, which was a testament to her strength and armor.
He looked up at the demon, who was eyeing him alone. The other adventurers – the twenty of them that were here instead of… battling monsters, by the sounds he could hear coming from elsewhere in the forest – were surrounding him.
"Foul Demon! Return to the master you serve and leave this town in peace! There are only a few teams with the strength to stand up to you, and-"
In a blur of movement, he had moved towards him, bringing both hands down in an attempt to smash him.
He glared up. Fine, if he didn't want to live for long, Kyouya would gladly take care of him now. "Stance Change!"
His movements were enhanced, and he brought his sword up to block the attack. The fists sounded against his sword, and Kyouya brought up a foot to kick him.
"Ha! I know your tricks, Kyouya Mitsurugi!" His eyes widened as the demon grabbed his sword with the hands he'd forgotten about, attempting to rip it from his grasp.
Thankfully, he had enhanced strength from wielding the sword, so-
"HYAA!"
Kyouya realized that it had not been the demon's intention to take his weapon. He and the sword were flung through the air, crashing to the ground in a heap.
"Bind!"
Chris attempted to use Bind on the hulking, insufferable, disgusting demon in front of her. He held up an arm and let it hit him. She smirked, but her smile fell as the cord bound itself around the arm and nothing else.
His booming laughter echoed around the clearing. "You have to hit more than one part of me if you wish to bind me, stupid Thief!"
She snarled, but a groan caught her attention, and she realized Darkness was still on the ground, bleeding heavily.
She grimaced, but the other teams were distracting him. She weaved through the battlefield, trying to make her way to the Crusader.
The gigantic, hulking Demon named Hoost, meanwhile, was having a blast. It wasn't often he got to smash small fry into the ground, but he could now. Honestly, it was kind of cathartic after being ordered around by that small – not puny – Crimson Demon for so long.
He finished bashing another pair of adventurers – a puny pair of Warriors – and turned to his next foe.
Three tired faces stared at him, and he almost dismissed them. Then he caught sight of their hair, and the weapons in their hands, and he scowled.
More Hero Candidates, then. He rushed forward, to destroy them before they could attack him.
"Lightning!" came the cry from the shorter of the two girls, while the male, simply stood between him and the women, sword in hand.
He brushed past him, attempting to get to the Mages first.
His fist pounded into the ground, missing both.
He stood up to his full towering height. He looked down on the three. None were moving, too intimidated by what they assumed was a fearsome glare of hate, but Hoost was mostly confused.
How had he missed?
He squinted, looking towards them, and his eyes landed on the weapon of the taller woman dressed in black.
Now, he really did glare. That weapon had caused him to miss.
Again, he tried to swipe at her, and again, she was able to dodge out of the way, a smirk slowly working its way onto her face.
He scoffed, and turned to the other two. If he couldn't hit her…
Then, he felt a presence approaching him from behind. He turned to see Mitsurugi again, screaming as he flew through the air in an attempt to take off his head.
Hoost smirked and dodged out of the way, using his wings to propel himself towards the group of adventurers he had already lightly wounded.
"Snipe!"
He turned away from the wounded adventurers – who had caught the eye of a Priest – to see a group of Rangers raining arrows on him.
He rolled his eyes. "Hurricane Barrier!"
A wall of howling wind diverted the path of all of the arrows and came rushing towards them, picking up branches as it flew towards them. It was weaker than Tornado, despite the name, but it would protect him and do damage in a single direction instead of causing a lot more chaos.
He gave one last look at the wounded adventurers, and then he turned to Mitsurugi and the other Hero Candidates. He needed to take them out first.
Then, his hearing picked out sounds coming from the forest around him. The other adventurers were beginning to come towards their fight, likely to either watch or attempt to harm him.
He began to calculate the odds. If he wanted to get Lady Wolbach, he needed this muscle-brained idiot out of the picture. If he wanted to wound him, however, he'd have to take damage. There was no way he was going to get in enough damage to stop him otherwise.
With a sigh, he raised his wings up, preparing to charge. They readied their defenses, and-
"Flash!"
Everyone cried out, and Hoost chuckled to himself as he flew towards Mitsurugi. He wasn't affected by such magic due to his body not being the real deal, and he landed a blow on the exposed head of Mitsurugi.
His sword began to glow as he prepared a blind attack, and Hoost lowered his right wing to take the blow, even as he reared his head back.
Everyone was regaining their senses, and all of them saw the Greater Demon cry out in pain as his right wing was sliced cleanly in two. Chris almost cried out in triumph.
Then, his head set at an angle, Hoost lowered his head at a speed hardly anyone there could track.
With a sickening squelch, the horns on the side of his head pierced the armor on Mitsurugi's body, slipping easily into the Adamantite. He let out a cry of pain, and Hoost backed off.
He panted. That… that had hurt.
He was used to pain, however, and he let out a triumphant roar as the two females that often accompanied that Mitsurugi descended on him, dragging him towards the Priests.
Hoost looked towards the other Reincarnates. "Would you like to fall like he has, or will you retreat? I, Hoost, have more important matters to attend to than the goings on of pathetic rookie adventurers."
Takashi opened his mouth. Tanya was in town again, and she could take him on. Not easily, but she might not even have to resort to her worst weapons.
He knew it, and-
Aya bowed her head, as did Shizuka. He looked around, and he realized that they wouldn't survive long enough to get Tanya if they didn't bow out.
He lowered his head too. Shizuka muttered to him, her words calming his temper. "Degurechaff's not at full strength right now. My wand only works once thanks to breaking that contract. Don't make me waste it on you."
Deep booming laughter echoed around the clearing that had been made by the magic and Mitsurugi's sword. "Leave me. If you attempt to find me again, I shall burn down this forest, and anything else surrounding Axel. I will ensure you adventurers will never be able to work again."
With that, they scattered, carting away the wounded and trying not to feel too horribly bad. They were all alive, and since they didn't have an Archpriest, that was the most important thing.
He blinked. Wait… hadn't an Archpriest come in a few weeks ago? Where had they gone?
Grumbling to himself about unreliable people, he wondered how long it would take Tanya to defeat this Demon. With how much Mitsurugi had damaged him, he wasn't betting on it taking long.
His thoughts ground to a halt, and then he sighed tiredly. That was, of course, if she even fought him. It was entirely possible that her desire to not die – a rational thing to have that many adventurers seemed to lack – would push her to find a solution that was technically fine but would confuse or anger people.
He shrugged. It would be humorous regardless.
-OxOxO-
As Megumin dragged herself back to her room, she wondered what they were supposed to be doing.
That receptionist had told everyone that the expedition was a failure, despite the help of that famous hero with the magic sword. He'd been badly wounded, and the Priests at the Eris Church could only do so much to help him.
He was going to be there for a long time, and the other adventurers that had been wounded, while not completely out of commission, weren't faring too much better.
Furthermore, they weren't getting help. Other towns all throughout Belzerg were wary.
Several of the Generals of the Demon King hadn't been spotted for several weeks. This wasn't ordinarily unusual – some of them weren't seen for years at a time on the front, only to surprise everyone and deal a grievous blow upon their return. The most senior one had been missing for years now.
However, in place of the Generals, huge numbers of powerful and high leveled undead had begun to appear on the front lines. Everyone was having trouble defending against this many new combatants.
To make matters worse, word had reached those in the capital that a large number of those new undead had suddenly disappeared. No one had reported a large increase of undead attacking them farther away from the capital, which meant that a large number of undead were missing.
That had put many towns on edge, and they were unwilling to lend Axel any support, according to the receptionist.
She had said there was hope, however, by placing their trust in an Archpriest that had recently arrived. Megumin had spent a few hours looking for her, and had yet to find anything.
She scowled as the words of that supposedly famous Rex came to her mind. He'd asked if that Tanya von Degurechaff could do anything.
Megumin had almost unleashed her devastating and completely superior Explosion magic on the spot, but the receptionist had reported that a close friend of the new Governor of Axel said she was out of commission.
She dragged herself back to her room, wondering when Yunyun would be back so she could unleash her Explosion magic and prove anyone that thought that anyone was a better Archmage than this noble was.
-OxOxO-
Breathe in. Breathe out.
He was just… looking. He wasn't scouting out this area for the Anniversary. He wasn't trying to figure out if he could try and get out from the uncompromising thumbs of the Gods and Goddesses. He wasn't here to learn her schedule to try and sneak in.
He was there to… talk… to the newest angel. That was all. He'd seen her flying through one of their relaxation zones – an area he hadn't visited more than a dozen times in his centuries of existence, and an area that was nearly abandoned with the preparations for the Anniversary.
He wanted to talk to her and learn about her.
She did, after all, have a rather interesting-
"Is there something I can help you with, Duke?" came a question right in his ear. He jumped a foot off the ground, and jerkily tried to find the location of that voice.
He found it eventually, and he felt himself begin to sweat as he realized it was her.
"Uh… hello. I was… was wondering if you wanted to talk?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't blow him away. She was more powerful than even he was, and he wondered why she hadn't already been made into a-
She gave him a look. Skepticism shined in her eyes, and the way she looked him up and down made him think that she knew and he'd get reported and-
She shrugged. "Sure. Just to talk, right?"
He nodded slowly, and she touched the ground, no longer hanging in the air. She went into the vast space he'd been peeking at, and he hastened to follow her.
Like everywhere else in Heaven, this place was a… room of sorts. Everywhere was connected by vast currents of air that propelled people through hallways, and most of it could be avoided by using one method of teleportation or another.
This room was, as every room was, built for a purpose. He knew that purpose well, and with the Anniversary coming up, many were beginning to remember that it existed and what it was for.
It looked… breathtaking. Trees – fir and oak, primarily – were everywhere, contained in a private space for each individual specimen. Concrete sidewalks acted as lines separating the squares of the different trees, forming a great checkerboard of concrete and nature.
He could hear birds singing, and, though he couldn't see it, he could hear a waterfall.
Suddenly, some of the birds swooped overhead. Ravens and swans passed his head and flew away after dodging around the angel in front of him, making her smile.
He could hardly believe that all of this hid one of the most dangerous, taboo, and despised – in the eyes of the highest Gods – spots in all of Heaven.
Soon enough, they arrived at a square with a wooden bench instead of a tree. Items surrounded the bench, and he guessed that they probably had some personal significance for her.
Slowly, he sat down on the bench, while she sighed. "I know you're not here to talk to me."
The wonder he'd been feeling was immediately replaced by dread. "What? Of course-"
She glared at him, and the light above her head cast her brown, flowing hair in an intimidating light. "If any of you actually wanted to get to know me, you'd have talked to me in the few months that I've been here."
He tried to speak up, but she didn't let him. "I've had exactly one God to talk to this entire time. No Gods or Goddesses or angels either dared or cared enough to interact with me, until now. Now that I'm the one He put in charge of the Descent, people suddenly care enough to bother me."
He steeled his nerves – he was centuries older than this whelp – but another glare stifled his words. "You're the fifth angel to come speak to me here. It isn't exactly hard to guess why you all 'suddenly' want to talk to me."
He couldn't contain his anger any longer. He jumped up from the bench. "That's because you got special treatment! No one has gotten the treatment you have. You just fly around, doing whatever you want. Do you know what the other angels would do for something like that, instead of having to do backbreaking and thankless paperwork?"
His words sent her stumbling backwards, but she regained her stance quickly, glaring down at him. He shrank back.
"You think that I wanted this? I would much rather be with my father, but He decided that I would best serve Him here, and…"
She trailed off, and she sighed tiredly. She stumbled towards her bench and took a deep breath. "I… I never wanted this. I wanted to grow up and marry and have children and watch my parents grow old. I never got any of that."
He was quiet now, wondering what she would say. He realized, after that outburst, that insulting her would probably lead to him getting killed for plotting to leave Heaven.
She shrugged. "And I can't have it anymore, and I can't even get it back. That means that about the only thing I have left – since no one up here cares about me – is a chance to get revenge."
His eyebrows knitted together. She didn't mean…
He looked up from where he'd been staring at his hands to see that tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "Tell anyone else that wants to leave that as long as they can get here, I won't stop them."
He nodded slowly, and then he grinned. "Thank you! I think I must have underestimated you. Maybe you're not that bad after all?"
She smiled at him, and he took flight to leave, and then looked behind her. Through the rows and rows of trees, she could just make out the entrance to the Descent.
She breathed in. She breathed out.
Soon, she would leave, free to be her own person once more. She would leave, free from having to fight battles she hadn't wanted to take part in in the first place. She would leave, free to extract her revenge after gathering her resources and allies.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: And there we go! A bit of a shorter one, but we're getting into the meat of the Explosion spinoffs, as far as Megumin's story is concerned. Additionally, it seems that all that work piled up on poor Tanya and Viktoriya. It's a good thing that using a malfunctioning Computation Jewel to administer literally mind-numbing drugs to yourself definitely has no bad side effects, right?
Anyway, we also got a bit more on Mitsurugi, Megumin, as well as a bit of an update on the forces of Heaven. Wonder when an update about the forces of Hell will show up?
A/N 2: Ah, I haven't done a suggestion in a while. How about… Chronicles of an American Woman by Seng2? It's a pretty good start, and though it's different than the majority – it's more based on the writing style of the YS LNs rather than the Manga and Anime – it's a really good read and worth the investment!
A/N 3: (Responses to reviews coming soon)