Blanc stared at the kneeling girl.

"Well… I don't know about all that, but I'll settle for dinner and an explanation." Blanc said, confused. "...and can I stay at your place again? I kinda blew up my bounty."

Tabitha blinked. "...Okay."


The soup was nothing special but it was warm, and filling. Which is just the kind of thing you want to eat when you live on a mountain.

However, Blanc's spoon hung limp in her hand, and her soup had started cooling as Tabitha had slowly gone through her story.

It wasn't an easy story to tell, and Tabitha was not a great speaker. But by god was she trying.

"That's…" Blanc tried. But she didn't know what to say, what could she say? A conflict over succession, ended in the death of her father, the poisioning and insanity of her mother, and repeated attempts at indirect murder from her uncle.

Does she get angry on her behalf? Try and comfort her? Walk out the door and pound her uncle until he resembles a hubcap? Crack a joke?

"Can you help?" Tabitha said, filling the silence.

Blanc blew air, and started eating soup again. This at least, she knew how to answer. "It depends what kinda help you want. If you want some divine intervention, I'm all out of that at the moment. If you want me to march up to the castle and beat seven hells out of your uncle, that I can do. I also do good hugs if you need one. I have two little sisters, twins, and one used to be a bit of a delicate child, so I got a lot of practice."

"Mother?" Tabitha asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know any healing magic, a few buffs but no recovery magic… Now if I were back home, my Little sister Rom is good at that sorta thing, she could probably help your mother, or failing that Neptunes friend Compa…" Blanc blinked. "Shit I still gotta find that purple idiot don't I?"

"Your friend?" Tabitha guessed.

"Yup, Neptune, my fellow CPU from the nation next door." Blanc explained. "The portal was trying to grab her and I got pulled along for the ride. No idea where she landed, but I gotta find her before she gets into more than the usual amount of trouble, and if I ever have any chance of getting back home."

'And so she can make up for her shitty luck ruining our date… again.' Blanc thought to herself, seriously she loved her, but dating Neptune can be such a chore.

"Another Goddess?" Tabitha said, caught between awe and terror, at another being like Blanc was just running around, but at the same time, her head was processing the information given.

"Yeah, she's a little taller than me. Has shoulder length bright purple hair, purple eyes, wears a sorta dress parker… Ya know what, it would be quicker just to show you."

Blanc lifted her hand, her smartphone appearing. Nepgear may be able to do amazing things with her personalised N-gear, but the rest of us have to make do with good ol' consumer electronics… if you could compare the state of the art, custom built phone she had received right from the manufacturer as a gift to a run of the mill phone…

Not that it really mattered, since that was all Blanc used it for, just a phone, camera, music player and the very occasional game of tetris when she was really bored. She just never got the appeal of mobile games.

It was the camera that Blanc was looking at, flicking through the gallery for a respectable one of Neptune. She skipped past the lingerie shots Neptune kept sending her as a joke... then there was the beach party for Verts last birthday… some cute candid shots she took while Neptune was asleep… some pair selfies… some from the last CPU "Diplomatic summit" (read: sleepover)...

Blanc had more pictures of Neptune than she thought.

She finally found a good one she felt she could show off in polite company, a picture of Neptune posing in front of Planeptower, that Neptune herself had nagged Blanc into taking. She admitted it had turned out pretty good, and took a moment to set it as her wallpaper. After all, who knows how long it will be before they run into each other again.

She handed the phone over to Tabitha, who had been sitting confused at Blancs actions. Held the device like she had seen Blanc hold it, and her eyes widened at the image in front of her. It was no sketch or painting, that was plain to see, which only made it more wondrous. The girl, Neptune she supposed, was standing with a goofy pose, on what was clearly a city street... Except there was no pavement, she was standing suspended on a semi transparent hexagon, with another more solid looking street some distance underneath it, with yet more people on it.

But that paled in comparison to what was behind the girl. Jutting out from the unfamiliar skyline, was what could only be a tower as tall as a mountain, it stood in purple and silver, dominating even the sky, dwarfing everything. Tabitha knew that even if a thousand years were to pass, none in Tristan would never be able to build such a monument.

"What's wrong?" Blanc, who had caught Tabitha's surprise.

"That tower…" Tabitha said, breathlessly.

Blanc raised her eyebrows. "You mean Planeptower? ...Yeah, I guess I can see where you are coming from, that thing is huge to the point of being impractical. I honestly don't know what Neptune does with all of that room, but I guarantee it's mostly dead space."

"What is it?" Tabitha said.

"It's a tower… although if you want to be more specific, it's Planeptune basilicom, which where I am from is a nation's centre of government, as well as the home of their CPU and their staff… and in Planeptunes case, several residential areas, some parks and the CBD, I honestly don't know what Neptunes predecessors were thinking building something that big. Mine is far more sensibly sized."

"Can I see?" Tabitha said.

Alright, sure." Blanc said, after shrugging and taking back the phone. Maybe Tabitha had an interest in architecture.

She quickly scrolled through her image gallery trying to find a shot with the Lowee Basilicom in it. There was less than she might have expected, but then again, how often do you stop and take pictures of your own house?

She found one of her sisters at new years. They had been at a park away from the city center to get a different view, and they said that the Basilicom had looked very pretty surrounded by fireworks, and that they wanted their picture taken.

She passed the phone back over. Tabitha still stared in amazement, while it wasn't as big as the ridiculously sized planeptower, it still dwarfed any castle she had ever seen. The strange glowing crystal constructions, combined with the fireworks made it seem like it was right out of a fairytale. She noted the two girls in front, their resemblance made it obvious that these were the twin sisters Blanc was fond of mentioning.

"That's Rom and Ram, my sisters." Blanc said, confirming Tabithia's suspicions. "They are the CPU candidates of Lowee."

"CPU candidates?" Tabitha asked.

"Occasionally in times of high shares, a CPU candidate will be born, or in my case, twins. These act as… spare CPUs I guess. If I were to be killed, one or both of them would ascend to take my place… Hell, even I was a CPU candidate once..." Blanc said, gaining a faraway look in her eye.

Tabitha waited, but Blanc seemed to be lost in memories.

She shook herself, and returned to the conversation. "I feel like we went off topic."

Tabitha thought for a moment, before nodding "Neptune."

Blanc nodded in response. "Look, I'm willing to help you, you seem like a good kid who got a shitty deal." Tabitha noted how casual her speech had become, maybe Blanc had gotten comfortable with her. "But I'm gonna need something in return, I need you to help me find Neptune. Because with all the time I spend helping you with your problems is time not spent looking for her, and that could end really bad for me if she finds a way home without me, without realising I'm here. I literally can't get home without Neptune."

An unfortunately true fact, as Neptune, and Planeptune CPUs are the only ones with a connection to Histoire, the functionally omnicognicient, if slow, artificial being who functioned as an oracle of Planeptune since time immemorial... And probably one of the only ones who can find them and bring them back.

In other words if she doesn't find Neptune, who knows how long she will be stuck here.

Tabitha seemed to think about it, before nodding. "Oui. I accept."

Blanc stood up, her soup finished, and started rolling her shoulders. "Alright then, Now that that's settled Just point me in the direction of your uncle. Lets get this over-"

"Non." Tabitha interjected

"Non? You mean no? Why not, I thought you wanted him dead?" Blanc said, raising her eyebrow.

"More than anything." Tabitha said, "So it must be me. I want your help, but if it's to mean anything, I must face my uncle. Would also be risky to attack my uncle without first securing my mothers health."

Blanc sized up Tabitha, before sighing. "I get it, justice of kings and all that. But if that's the case, what do you want me to do?"

"Protection. I am not ready to fight my uncle." Tabitha admitted. "But more importantly I need to cure my mother."

Blanc frowned. "I can't do healing though."

"But your sister can." Tabitha said.

It took a minute for Blanc to get where she was going with this. "Wait, so you want me to go and come back with my sister to heal your mom?"

Tabitha nodded, "Goals align."

Blanc thought about it. It's not as if Jumping worlds is that difficult anymore, considering that Human Neptune has Croire on a leash, it shouldn't be too hard to come back with Rom, once they know where they are going. even if Histoires exit is only a one way trip.

It also means that we can get to finding Neptune faster, so Blanc can relax, and maybe have a nice fantasy world date.

Besides, She liked Tabitha, or maybe Charlotte. Like she said earlier She seemed like a good kid in a shitty situation. She wanted to help, and it will make her stay a lot easier having a local helping her. Especially one who owns a dragon.

"Sure, I can do that." Blanc said, extending a hand, "I guess I'll be in your care for a while."

Tabitha looks at the hand, before standing up and shaking it. "Likewise."

There was a forlorn trilling noise in the background.

They both turn to Sylphid, who was puppy-dog eyeing across the room, her own dinner bucket empty.

Blanc figured she wanted more meat, but Tabitha got the deeper meaning. She shrugged and said "No harm."

Blanc was confused until the dragon spoke. "Can I call you Big Sister, or maybe Miss Goddess?"

"Eh?" Was Blanc's response. So it was apparently one of those monsters.

Oh well, at least it's cute.

"You know what, whatevers fine." Blanc said.

Tabitha felt like giggling.


As it turned out, helping Tabitha meant a low profile.

It made sense after all, if her uncle knew she had help, especially of Blanc's calibre, he might enact more measures to control her.

At the same time, Blanc needed to be at least nearby whenever there was another outrageous request was sent to Tabitha in an attempt to kill her.

This was why I was currently learning French, or Gallian as they prefer.

Now you might wonder why that might be, but as it turned out, Tabitha, on top of being a slave knight, was also a student.

A student whose second year was coming up as it happened.

Which meant that now they had to figure out an acceptable cover story for Blanc to be there, while pretending they don't know each other, at least at first.

Servant was out of the question, Tabitha hadn't even brought it up, knowing that Blanc's temper wouldn't survive five minutes of serving the entitled elite, nor would Tabitha be willing to subject an actual god… The subject of her new faith no less, to it in the first place.

Teacher or staff member was also out, as much as Osmand had a habit of hiring pretty girls without proper background checks, Blanc was not *ehem* mature enough to catch his interest, and without it, she had no chance with her lack of background, or youthful appearance.

That left students, and even then this would be a hard sell.

The current plan was that Blanc would be a girl who had been living in a cottage in the woods, that until recently had been living with a kindly old man who had looked after her and taught her until his passing, who learned ice magic from books. So while obviously of noble descent, she would have no idea about her family or even her last name. Tabitha would then call in a contact to pretend to 'discover' her, and sponsor her to go to a school to get a formal education, along with a letter of recommendation.

A similar trick is what allowed Tabitha to enter a school while bearing no last name, so while tricky, it might work.

The problem is they primarily spoke Gallian at Tabitha's school. They had chosen a Germanian origin for Blanc, because she thankfully was fluent in German, which after some tests, was found to be the same, so she might be able to get away with poor Gallian, considering her backstory. However she can't get away with no Gallian. Which was why she was learning.

A part of her is annoyed at Tabitha for not thinking of this earlier, but she knows this wouldn't have really changed her choice. Besides she learned German out of childish interest, surely she could pick up French out of actual necessity.

But still, despite how she had been basically confined to Tabitha's cabin on most days, at least Tabitha was honouring her side of the deal. She had been extending feelers into various people and contacts she had used in the past to try and find Neptune, often providing them with a sketch she had made based on the photo.

She even sent one to a friend from school, who was apparently the daughter of a Germanian duke and asked her to keep an eye out.

And while Blanc would rather be roving the countryside herself, she understood Tabitha's method was probably more efficient.

This did mean however that Blanc was spending a lot of time at their shared Cabin in the mountains, waiting for whatever mad quest the king would be sending Tabitha on next.

This is where she discovered Tabitha's love for literature.

Or more accurately, their shared love for Literature.

Or more more accurately, Tabitha's love of reading, and Blanc's love of writing.

This was the first time someone had been so enthusiastic about what she wrote. Tabitha managed to pick up Written Gamindustrian very quickly, and has already consumed about a quarter of the books Blanc had with her, even some of her more… adult works.

The Memory of Tabitha, face pressed into a book, what little of her skin that was visible bright red, while both funny and adorable, had made Blanc feel slightly self conscious about her own writing. She knew that her adult books often sold well, but were they really that titillating? She only started writing them as an experiment in the first place. She didn't expect them to be her most popular works.

Her musings were interrupted, when Tabitha came back in from… wherever she had been, dragon in toe. She had a handful of books in her hand, which she dropped on the table in front of Blanc as Sylphid curled up on her pile of bearskins.

"More language study?" Blanc said, dreading it already.

"Non." Tabitha said. "Magic study."

"Eh? Magic Study? What for?" Blanc was nonplussed.

Previously Tabitha had discouraged Blanc using any of her monster strength, at least where anyone could see it. However they deemed that her magic, while nowhere near as effective as smacking stuff with her hammer, would be enough to pass as Brimiric magic at a glance, while still being effective enough in most situations.

The Lack of levels or stats in this world was strange to Blanc, but it did explain why she could so easily smack around those bandits earlier. Either way, it means that her meagre INT growth was readily compensated by her high level.

"Some spells all mages should know, not knowing would be suspicious." Tabitha supplied "Plus, test to see if you can learn Brimiric magic."

Blanc looked down at the pile of books, and sighed, god she wished she was as quick a study as Neptune, her and her all nighters. "I wish you could think of this stuff sooner."

Tabitha's expression didn't change, but her cheeks flushed ever so slightly. "A lot to think about."

"Right, right." Blanc said, picking up a book to read.

"Also, you must attempt a familiar summoning." Tabitha said.

Blanc looked up at her, eyebrow raised. "What? I thought you were supposed to only do that in your second year? Present company excluded."

"Only an academy guideline, mostly based on emotional maturity, and is dangerous to do unsupervised, and is therefore discouraged. Special circumstances allowed." Tabitha said, a textbook 'special circumstance' as she had summoned her Familiar a few years ago, the strangely affectionate talking dragon, Sylphid. It had happened after she had become a chevalier, and had used the status to rush her familiar summoning as extra precaution against her uncles sucide missions, and had lucked out with both a dragon, and an endless font of unconditional love, That Tabitha had really needed in that point in her life.

"We can excuse you, due to living in the woods." Tabitha, "But more importantly we need to find out if you can."

"Is that really that important?" Blanc said.

"Could get you kicked out of the academy if you can't." Tabitha said.

Blanc gave her a blank eyed stare. "You really need to think of these things before I spend two weeks learning Gallian."

Tabitha flushed again. "A lot to think about." She mumbled.

Blanc sighed, and got back to reading. This had better be worth it.

But before she could really get absorbed in her studies, she was interrupted by Tabitha, who had been fidgeting for a while, with a question she had been struggling to ask for some time now.

"How do I worship you?"

"...Come again?" Blanc said, looking up from the book, raising her eyebrow.

Tabitha hesitated, she had hoped it would be self explanatory, and now she wasn't sure how to proceed.

"You're a goddess. People worship Goddesses." She tried.

Blanc stared blankly, before something resembling comprehension dawned. "Oh yeah, I remember you said something about wanting to devote yourself to my faith or something."

Tabitha nodded.

"Well… you are doing it." Blanc said.

Now it was Tabitha's turn to blink in incomprehension.

"Yup, I've been feeling a trickle of shares pretty much ever since I agreed to help you." Blanc said, before shrugging. "Not sure what else to tell you."

"That's all?" Tabitha asked, who felt instinctively there must be more than that.

"Yup, pretty much, Shares, or faith if you wanna call it that, are more gratitude than anything else."

"Gratitude?"

"Stuff like: Thank you White Heart for keeping us all safe, thank you White Heart for providing us with quality consoles and games, Thank you for Saving my life, or in your case, Thank you Blanc for helping me deal with my complicated family issues." Blanc said.

"Ceremony?" Tabitha asked.

"Nope." Blanc said.

"Prayer?"

"If you like."

"Priests?"

Blanc gave her a look. "Now what would I need priests for?"

"To spread your word?"

"I can spread my own word pretty well, and my Oracle if I'm not feeling up for Public appearances."

"Oracle?"

"Sort of a cross between a secretary and a prime minister." Blanc said, before sighing. "I get this might be a little strange to you, but our 'faith' is fairly uncomplicated. Our people decide who they like best, based on our appearances and actions, and that's where the majority of their faith goes. We don't really do commandments, evangelising, or religious scripture. We just do our best for our people, and they pay us back in gratitude, that in turn gives us the strength to protect them."

Tabitha almost blinked at how… fair, that sounded. In fact it seemed that the people got more out of it then the CPUs did.

"Don't you get anything else?"

"Plenty, we live in the basilicom, we get a strippened, and plenty of free time." Blanc said. "But honestly, the Gratitude is often more than enough. It's nice to be appreciated."


More weeks had passed by, and it was getting closer to enacting their plan, all Blanc needed to do now was to hopefully summon her familiar.

She by now had gotten good at fudging Brimiric magic, using her own magic to mimic it, to the point where she could blend in well enough, managing to emulate many basic water, wind, and of course Ice spells, and many of the basic cantrips that all mages basically know, like levitate. So that combined with her native magic, she could fool people into seeing her as a magical prodigy, despite being the complete opposite.

But now it was time to see how good her fudging skills had gotten, let's see if she could fudge a summoning ritual.

They had stood in a field as far from anything as they could be bothered flying. And together, they had drawn the best summoning circle they could manage out of a book. Thankfully, Tabitha had done this before, and has good confidence in her work.

The ritual had been prepped, the regents added, all that was left was for Blanc to power it.

Blanc prepared one of her more caster focused hammers, and began chanting.

Now apparently, the chant itself was more important than the words in it, and allowed for a degree of personalisation, and after some discussion with Tabitha, Blanc decided to see just how personalised. She had her pride after all, and she didn't want to summon a familiar in the name of any god other than herself.

"By the power within me, as Blanc, The Lady White Heart, CPU of Lowee, I call forth a mighty beast, worthy of my divine blessing, come forth and appear!"

There was a moment where blanc wondered if that was too personalised, when the circle flared to life. Instead of the normal flash of summoning however, there was a flurry of the square motes of light that Tabitha was only now growing accustomed to. It flared up to massive size, spinning like a tornado, only to recede in an instant.

Tabitha stepped back, while Blanc blinked.

It was an Ice Fenrir, a boss monster from back home. It was a massive pale blue maned wolf, with sabretooth teeth, two huge clawed gauntlet-like front paws, and odd blades attached to its back feet.

The beast seemed stunned or disoriented, but Blanc remembered from her study that this won't be for long. So she acted quickly.

Tapping it lightly on the head with her hammer, she quickly intoned. "By my power as CPU of Lowee, I bless this humble being, and make him my familiar." and she kissed the wolf's nose to seal the contract

Now this was a bit more risky as the binding ritual was often less personalised, but it thankfully worked. There was a glow on its right paw, as the runes burned into the metal claws. Written in Gamindustrian, were the words 'Fimbulwinter'.

After a moment, after the Fenrir gained its bearings, it stood up and tilted its head curiously, like a cattle dog waiting for something to do.

"...sit." Blanc tried.

It sat.

"Lay down."

It lied on its belly.

"Roll over."

Blanc and Tabitha felt the vibration of the wolf as it did as it was told.

"Good boy." Blanc said.

It licked her face.

If it had been anyone else, it would have pushed them over.

"Congratulations." Tabitha said eventually.

"Yeah, never thought I'd get a monster from home." Blanc said, smoothing down the resulting cowlick.

"From home?" Tabitha asked.

"Yeah, it's referred to as an Ice Fenrir, they are pretty dangerous, they can secret poison from their claws, and can use limited ice magic." Blanc said. She regarded it critically. "...This is honestly pretty good. I can even ride him."

Tabitha stared warily at the creature. This kind of creature just exists over there? And considering what she has gleaned from Blancs past comments about her world, how strong does something have to be for the goddess to consider it 'pretty dangerous'?

But as Tabitha thought about it, was it really something to be wary about, when this thing was for all intents and purposes, on her side?

"Well done." Tabitha supplied.

"Yeah, I think I can be happy with this, it's like my own pocketed monstrosity." Blanc said, stroking the wolf monster's side. "You'll need a name though… How about Niflheim? Or Nif for short."

Nif Barked in approval… very loudly, he's a big dog after all.

"Gonna need to work on that." Blanc mumbled, massaging her ear. "Oh well, let's get moving, we still have a lot to cover before I head to Germania."

"Mn." Tabitha agreed, and mounted up Sylphid who had been watching the exchange with interest.

Tabitha then noticed that Blanc had not followed, and was instead mounting up on Nif.

At her questioning gaze, Blanc shrugged. "Well it's not as if Syl can carry him, and we can't expect him to follow us on his own, so I might as well get used to riding him."

"Yeah, Little bro looks a little too big to carry." Sylphid chimed in.

Tabitha considered this, and then nodded. "Good luck, I'll fly low."

"Thanks," Blanc said. As Sylphid took to the air.

"Well big guy, let's see how fast you can run." Blanc said

Nif made a 'wuf' noise, before tearing away across the countryside after the low flying dragon, with a mounted CPU clinging on for dear life.

It turns out, pretty damn fast.


Chapter Notes:

This chapter got long, it used to be a little shorter, but I moved a flashback I had written for chapter 6 here as well, so it got a little longer.

But yeah, I have run out of spare chapters for all the others now, only this one has extra chapters to burn, I will publish the remaining ones of this one over the next few days/weeks, then get started on the new chapters for Youkai of grudge and Path of a Magician, most of these stories, will just get chapters when I feel like it, although one or two might get promoted to main update status, once more, if I feel like it.

Now for actual chapter notes, has anyone noticed how stupidly huge Hyperdimension Planeptower is? Seriously it's so big, it's got skyscrapers on its sides. It's a bloody manmade mountain. You gotta wonder how many monsters died just to provide the construction materials for that beast, since there is no way that thing is made of normal materials.

As for the floating hexagon thing, it was a detail from the anime, they had these invisible moving walkways above the street, presumably for getting around the city quickly on foot. They were cool, so I thought I'd throw in a mention.

But yeah, Tabitha wants to kill her uncle herself (not necessarily alone, but she wants to be involved), but not before she saves her mother.

As for why they don't try Neptunia Healing items on her… Well, trying to treat something unknown without first consulting a medical professional is dangerous… Yup, that's my excuse. The Poison is pretty nasty though, because either its still circulating in her body somehow, or its caused permanent brain damage, and it might need more than a nep bull to fix that.

Also, I've noticed that in Gamindustri their religion is really informal, at least in the Hyperdimension (Superdimension was a bit more formalised). but it really makes sense when you think about it, why would you need priests and scripture, when god walks among us. It's a priest's job to interpret the will of the god, but with a CPU, you could just ask her, and she can tell it to you straight. And in an age of electronic communication, why bother with scripture, when she could just broadcast what she wants people to know. There is no reason why CPUs need a standard religious structure, so why would they have one?

And meet Nif, I thought about what Kind of Familiar Blanc would summon, and honestly it could only be an Ice Fenrir.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what Neptune would sumon if she tried the ritual? I'm thinking… Dogoo.