December 2nd, ? ME

Mamono Realm Floria

Elise Maxwell?

I got up from my spacious bed, my husband having already woken up before me to make breakfast. While I was somewhat upset that I was denied the pleasure of waking up in his arms, I was happy that he was making breakfast for my forty-fifth birthday.

I went to our bathroom, outfitted with new water distribution technology courtesy of a gremlin I hired a year ago. The citizens of Floria were so friendly. I felt honored to be part of such a kind community. I looked at a portrait of myself next to the mirror, taken from the Order's file on me long after they had been driven out of Floria. I could recognize myself, but it still felt surreal. There was always this strange disconnect between Succubus Elise and Human Elise. It felt like we were two different people, even though we weren't. I stared at the picture for a little while longer, a question echoing in my head.

"Why did I ever deny myself this?" I whispered. "So, so very foolish of you, Elise."

I looked into the mirror, two red eyes staring back at me. Atop my head sat two curly onyx black horns. My husband loved to tease me by stroking them while we were having sex, not like I was opposed to it. The best way to describe the feeling was that it made my head feel warm. Moving down my body, were two dark red batlike wings protruding from my hips, alongside a similarly colored tail. I was in my mid forties yet I looked like I was in my early twenties.

"Mamono mana does wonders." I thought to myself. I was glad. My human body had been fragile, vulnerable to aging. Now, I would always look my best for my husband.

My sensitive tail accidentally brushed against the cool floor, causing a tiny yet startling stimulation. I washed my face, got dressed, and went downstairs to our kitchen. Immediately my nostrils were filled with the scent of freshly baked egg tart, mixed in with the salty smell of bacon.

"Good morning Elise! Happy forty-fifth birthday!" Two voices, one a young female and the other an adult male said in unison. My five year old daughter came practically rushing into my arms. "Thank you so much, both of you." I smiled happily.

My husband joined in on the hug, the three of us enjoying each other's embrace for a few seconds. Eventually, my husband pulled away to check on the food. He took the tart out of the stone oven, and placed it on our counter to cool down.

"Thank Lilith you finally woke up. The rest of your family is coming to visit you. You want to look presentable to them, don't you?" My husband asked. I looked down at myself. A while ago I had changed all of my clothing to fit the mamono style, that being more skin being shown.

"Yep. I'm more presentable than ever." I answered, causing my daughter and my husband to burst out giggling.

"They should be here any second now." My husband looked down at my daughter. "You want to greet them?"

"Yes! I want to play with grandma again! It was so fun last time!" She answered excitedly. As if on cue, the doorbell rang. My daughter made use of her small wings, boosting herself down the hallway like a projectile. I hurried behind her, making use of my wings too. My daughter answered the door and was greeted by four people. My dad, Allen, an undead incubus alongside my mom, Ariana, now a lich.

Next to them was my brother, Eryn, alongside a Kikimora.

"Happy birthday!" All four of them yelled simultaneously. I thanked all of them for coming, and took the gifts they had brought for me inside. My husband had insisted they come for lunch, but I was so excited to see them that I convinced him to let them visit for breakfast. I led them to the kitchen and had them sit down at the table, all of them taking a bit of egg tart and bacon and digging in.

"Can we sing the happy birthday song?" My daughter asked.

My husband shook his head. "Not yet. We usually do that over cake." The young succubus aww'd in mock sadness before going back to happily eating her food. But suddenly, Eryn began coughing, dropping his fork. His Kikimora wife immediately went to his side.

"Oh no. No, no, no…" I mumbled under my breath as I joined her.

"Sorry about that. I'm alright. I ate too quickly and some food went down the wrong pipe. False alarm." Eryn took a long sip of water before sighing. I too let out a sigh of relief. It had been years since Noble's disease had been cured, and despite Amaya saying that it wouldn't come back, I couldn't help but feel a little bit of fear that it might.

"You need to slow down and enjoy the food." His wife reminded him, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, she's right." Allen said, chuckling. "Wouldn't want our son to choke to death after surviving Noble's disease for almost three decades, right?"

"That wouldn't be a problem. I could bring him back to the realm of the living in a few hours if that happened." My mother said completely nonchalantly, "Of course, that would be more strenuous than the normal revivals I do. I would need lots of spiritual energy from you to do that."

"Always willing." Allen responded, hugging Ariana and kissing her on the cheek. For a brief moment, the Lich had a tiny smile on her face.

"You don't have to have such a serious face all the time, mom. Lighten up a little. Besides, we know you're happy."

"I… I am just satisfied knowing that my husband is prepared for such a situation." The Lich stuttered out a response. Me and my husband giggled under our breaths a little, my mom thankfully not noticing.

A while later we finished our food. My daughter wanted to play outside for a bit, so everyone headed to our spacious yard, decorated with all sorts of mamono realm flora, giving the otherwise plain front yard a few splashes of color. Me and my husband sat down under a mamono realm tree in the center of the yard, watching Ariana levitate a ball midair while my daughter flew around, trying to catch it. The young succubus finally managed to catch the ball after it got stuck in a tree, Ariana and Allen clapping and congratulating her.

"Isn't it beautiful? This life could be yours one day. You just need to wake up and stop burying your desires." My husband suddenly uttered.

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. "But-"

"None of this is real. I'm not real, neither is anyone here but you and your brother. You don't even know my name." The man said, staring straight ahead.

"What are you talking about?! I know you! Your name is… is…" My mind went blank.

"Observe." He said in Amaya's voice.

My husband vanished. My daughter vanished. Ariana and Allen vanished. Eryn and his wife vanished. My horns, wings and tail shrunk and eventually disappeared. The world shifted around me, the bright sunny day suddenly becoming a dimly lit cave. I felt something wrapped tightly around my body.

March 16th, 1566 ME

?

Elise Maxwell

My eyes shot open. My skin was dripping with sweat, creating an incredibly unpleasant feeling all over my body. I reflexively attempted to stand up, only to forget that I was tied up. I stared up at the cave ceiling, trying to make sense of it all. The dream had been so vivid that I thought it was real. What the fuck was that about? Were those visions of the future? Why can't I remember anyone's names other than Eryn and my parents?

Why was it so appealing?

I immediately shoved that last question into the back of my mind. I had come to a conclusion. The dream must have been Nikolas and Amaya were trying to manipulate me, get in my head, trick me into monsterizing. I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let that happen.

Speaking of which, the sound of moaning and heavy breathing mixed in with slapping reached my ears. I looked towards the source of the noise. Nikolas was pounding Amaya furiously on the cave floor several feet away from me. "aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHH!" Amaya screamed out, high on pleasure and Nikolas's spirit energy as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. I wanted to cover my ears but my arms were bound. I was forced to listen to them.

"Stop." I begged them. They didn't seem to hear me, or were ignoring me. Either way, they kept on going. "Stop!" I repeated.

"Stop!" I shouted at them, finally getting their attention. Amaya looked over at me, irritated that I had disrupted the mood. Nikolas shared her expression.

"Let me leave." I asked them as sincerely as I could. "I'm sorry for nearly killing your friend."

"Let you leave? No. Not anytime soon, I'm afraid. You're going to have to watch our little show until the image of me and my husband fucking is burned into your mind. Then and only then will we let you go." Amaya stated coldly.

"How… How long do you think it'll take for that to happen?" I asked fearfully. "You can't just separate me from my brother like this."

"I told you, Elise. Amias will be watching over him while you remain here. Besides, you had no problem leaving him behind while you went on expeditions for the Order, right? What's the difference between that, and this?" Nikolas criticized me, while still being on top of Amaya.

"At least back then he knew I was leaving! From his point of view right now I just vanished in the middle of the night!" I yelled back at Nikolas. "You can't do this to me. I need to see him! I need to tell him that I'm alive!"

Nikolas shook his head and got off of Amaya. "I said. Amias will be watching him. He will be completely fine. Calm down."

Amaya's eyes lit up. "Ah! I have something I wanted to give her." She waved her hand and a glowing miniature portal formed. She stuck her hand inside and fished around, eventually taking out a sword, my sword. I couldn't help but gasp. The royal blue hilt had been turned a demonic looking magenta, and the blade itself had been turned dark, dark purple with a few pink and red symbols glowing on it. The sword that was a reminder of a more carefree and unstressful time of my life had been ruined.

"What did you do to it?!" I screamed out in rage.

"Easy there. I've made some improvements. You should be happy to have such a magnificent weapon. Here, let me demonstrate some of the new powers." Suddenly Amaya swung the sword at me. It slashed across my chest and left a tear in my shirt, slightly exposing my breasts. My body was slowly filled with a sickly sweet buzzing feeling and I began feeling fatigued. My mind flashed back to what happens when human women are hit by mamono realm weaponry. I began panicking.

"Stop overreacting, you'll be fine. You're not going to monsterize, I made sure of that before we started having sex in front of you." Amaya let out a cruel laugh. "If I hadn't done that? Well, you would've broken out of the ropes and started masturbating, and we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Which reminds me, you're clearly single. Do you have anyone you like back in Floria? A crush? A childhood friend, maybe?"

"I wouldn't tell you even if I did." I spat back at her. I knew exactly what lilims did with that sort of information. Amaya sighed in frustration.

"Anyone in your entire life? No?" Amaya asked as annoyance began creeping into her voice.

"No. Nobody." Being a hero for the Order and taking care of Eryn left very little time for romance. Me and Nikolas had been good friends, until the past few months where his opinions on monsters had caused more than a few unpleasant arguments. Of course, him having sex with a daughter of the Mamono Lord and acting as a double agent for her had completely burned the bridge between us. Meanwhile, I didn't feel any attraction towards Kenton, and he didn't feel any attraction towards me. I was his captain and that was the extent of our relationship.

Amaya threw her hands up. "What a despondent life you must live. Don't you want to find someone to spend the rest of your life with? Maybe continue your bloodline?"

"I do, but my duty to the Chief God takes priority."

"...I can see why Druella insists on monsterizing every woman she comes across now. You humans always make things so difficult on yourselves. There are other things in life other than your worship towards some apathetic god that barely acknowledges your existence."

I can't let this monster insult the Chief God any longer. "The Chief God cares about me! She gave me her blessing!" I retorted angrily.

"But what has she done for you besides that? Have you heard her voice even a single time since then?" I looked down, causing Amaya to stoop down and force me to look at her. "Hel, Poseidon, Bacchus, Eros, the Fallen God, hell even Bastet communicate more with their followers than she does. I've read your file; You're one of the best heroes in Floria, one of the Order's highest ranking cities. When was the last time she talked to you?"

"She…" I trailed off. Amaya was right. I hadn't heard her voice in years. "I know she cares about me! She doesn't need to speak to me."

The lilim rolled her eyes. "Nikolas, tell her what happened a couple months ago."

NIkolas stood up. "Of course. I was taking a walk through the forests near Floria when I saw a black harpy. She had gotten hurt badly in a thunderstorm that had occurred the day before and couldn't fly. I felt bad for her, so I healed her wings and told her to stay away from Floria. The very next day, I realized I couldn't use the Chief God's hieromancy anymore. All because I tried to solve things nonviolently. It's what pushed me to betray Floria. What does that tell you about her, Elise?"

My eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't have done that. You broke the rules and you were punished. Simple as that."

Amaya said nothing, just staring at me for a second. "You have no idea how badly I want to monsterize you. The ignorant and dense types always have the most satisfying rebirths as Mamono. Hell, you need us. Your bloodline will end with you if you keep acting so damn prudish." She got up close to me. "Just accept it. It'll be the best decision you ever made."

"Over my dead body. And I'll marry when I damn please."

Amaya tilted her head. "You want to become an undead? I can arrange that."

"No, god dammit! I want to stay human! Why can't you accept that?"

"We're not getting anywhere with this, Amaya. We have places to be. Let's just leave her here and let her think things over. King Emyr is expecting us at his castle to go over the surrender deal." Nikolas gently pulled Amaya away from me.

"He can wait a little longer. I want to check up on Delilah. She has to be conscious by now." Amaya objected, flying to another outcropping on the cavern wall where the injured Malef Dragon was lying down, leaving me and Nikolas alone.

"Captain… No, Elise. Whether you monsterize or not is your choice. But I want you to listen to me. You can't be lost in the past forever. You need to move on. Floria is changing whether you like it or not. You can either adapt, or be left behind." He paused. "Oh, and I suggest you break that habit of calling Mamono 'its' and start referring to them as actual people. It'll save you a lot of arguments in the future."

"Can you at least get me something more comfortable to rest on?!" I shouted to him. He looked at me, irritated, then yelled for Amaya to come over. The lilim created another portal, this one bigger. A soft looking mattress floated out of it and dropped right next to me. Amaya grabbed me and threw me onto the mattress.

"Get some rest and think about your next move, Elise." Amaya grabbed Nikolas and flew out of the cavern, seemingly phasing through a wall.

At least I wouldn't have to listen to them having sex anymore.

The mattress, despite being bare, was infinitely more comfortable than the stone floor. My entire body ached with minor injuries from my battle with Delilah, and being wrapped up so tightly didn't help either. The Order had told me that Arachnes would brainwash their husbands into enjoying being wrapped up in their silk. It made sense, because no human would enjoy this without their mind being tricked into thinking they were enjoying it. I desperately wanted to stretch, but I couldn't.

Falling asleep wasn't an option. Nikolas and Amaya weren't here anymore, but that didn't mean I was free from their dreams. Everything in the dream had been so vivid, so realistic. That terrified me more than anything else. I tried to keep my mind busy, so I wouldn't fall asleep again.

"Look who it is." A deep, angry sounding voice said from up above me. I turned my body to face upwards, seeing none other than Delilah hovering above me. She flew down and leaned towards me on the mattress. Despite her smug expression, she was clutching the wounds I had given her. "Was it stabbing me in my sleep worth it? Did you succeed?" The Malef gloated.

"Fuck off and leave me alone." I muttered.

"So disrespectful. You know me and Amaya are going to be the new leaders of your city very soon. You'd better fix your attitude when you come back, because I don't know how much more Amaya is going to tolerate your behavior." The dragon spoke with a tone far removed from the enraged shouting I had seen from her yesterday. "That reminds me. Amaya told me I could punish you any way I wanted as long as I didn't monsterize you. I'm already thinking of so many fun things I could do to you. I could force you to be my maid, or maybe make you teach some of the new Mamono recruits how to fight. Wouldn't that be so delightfully ironic-"

"When are you going to stop talking?" I glared up at the dragon.

"Fine. Act that way. We'll see who's laughing soon enough." Delilah flew off. I exhaled in relief. After a few minutes I decided to take Nikolas's advice, staring at the ceiling and reflecting on my beliefs. After a painfully long hour of self searching I decided to try and fall asleep despite my mind warning me not to.

The dreams had to be caused by the mana Nikolas and Amaya were emitting, right? Now that they're gone, they shouldn't happen again, right? I rationalized as I closed my eyes.

March 16th, 1566 ME

Amaya

Outside of Order-Controlled City of Floria

"This is as far as we fly. Any closer, and we risk the citizens seeing us and losing their minds. If that happens the surrender deal would be jeopardized." I explained to Nikolas as I landed behind a large tree about a mile and a half away from Floria. I gathered my magic and began changing my outward appearance, my horns, tails and wings vanishing and my white hair turning a soft red. All of the tattoos I had engraved on my body to make lovemaking with Nikolas more pleasurable disappeared as well. I donned a simple cloak that adventurers typically wore to complete the disguise.

"You still look absolutely beautiful." My husband remarked as he looked me up and down. I blushed, my cheeks matching the color of my hair. I allowed myself to kiss him on the cheek, making him smile.

I put my hand to my chest. "I'm glad you like it so much, husband. When we get back from this, we can try to have sex while I'm in this form. Maybe it would be more tolerable for Elise. She seemed distressed when she was watching us."

Nikolas snickered. "I'm not sure you would last too long in human form. Five, maybe ten seconds, tops?" He grinned. I gave him a playful pout, knowing he was right. I wasn't at the level of magical skill where I could remain in human form while having sex.

"Hmph. Well, let's just deal with the surrender business first. Here's to hoping the king isn't going to freak out too much when he sees me in my base form." I began to walk over to the front gate. "Hold my hand, Nikolas." I requested my husband. Nikolas gladly obliged.

As we got closer to the front gate, one of the guardsmen recognized Nikolas. "We are glad to see you return, Hero Nikolas. Has your business venture been successful?" The guard asked. The man turned to me, observing me. A brief moment of panic came over me. Had I forgotten to hide a feature of my monster body?

"Who's this?" The guardsman asked. "I've never seen her before."

Nikolas didn't panic, instead coming up with a convincing excuse. "Her name is Amaya and she's a friend of mine. She asked me to take her here. Do you have a problem with that?"

The guardsman quickly shook his head not wanting to incur the hero's wrath. "O-of course not, Hero Nikolas. Come right on through." He got out of our way. I was surprised that was all we needed to enter the city. I nodded to the guard to show my gratitude and made a mental note to find him a nice monster for a wife when Floria became friendly towards monsters.

It was my first time in Floria. The city was relatively clean and good looking, if not a little generic looking and lacking color. It all lined up with the information my Ratatoskr spy had given me, before her untimely demise. I had been incredibly upset when I had found out what happened to her, but I suppose it didn't matter in the long run. We had more than a few experienced necromancers on our side to bring her back.

Nikolas and I traveled over to one of Floria's nature parks and sat down on a bench overlooking a small pond to relax a little before we went to King Emyr's castle to discuss the terms of the surrender deal, when something caught my eye. Across the small park, I spotted a blonde haired woman surrounded by a group of people. She was shaking her head at the people, holding her hands up. The poor lady looked terrified. Observing the situation a little more, I began hearing shouts of how the woman was a monster, and how she deserved to die. Intel from our spies had said that this was a worryingly common occurrence in Floria, and a few people had already died because of it. I shook my head in disbelief. Every monster is a beautiful woman, but not every beautiful woman is a monster.

I pointed to the conflict. "You see what's going on, Nikolas?"

"Yeah, I do. Gotta be careful of having a slightly above average appearance in Floria, or else you'll get accused of being a monster. It's what happens when people take the Order's teachings way too seriously, although something tells me that some of these people are just insecure about themselves." Nikolas explained.

I got off the bench, but before I could take another step. Nikolas grabbd my arm. Surprised, I turned around to face him. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Allow me to deal with them. They might get suspicious if another good looking woman that's actually a monster gets involved." Nikolas got up and approached the crowd. I trailed behind him eager to watch everything unfold, and help my husband if need be.

"What are you people doing? Leave the poor lady alone." Nikolas demanded. The crowd all simultaneously turned to look at the hero, some sporting expressions of fear while a select few began looking relieved.

"Thank the Chief God you're here, hero. We suspect this woman is a Doppelganger." One of the people laid out their accusation. "She is imitating Miss Maxwell! She vanished last night and this monster is trying to take her place to uproot Floria!" I got a good look at the woman. She did look similar to Elise, but that was no excuse for their actions.I shook my head. I knew Elise vanishing in the middle of the night would draw some suspicion, but I thought we would at least have a few days before people started getting suspicious.

"The woman is one hundred percent human. Do you just go around the city harassing anyone who looks slightly attractive on the account that they're a monster?" NIkolas asked, raising an eyebrow.

"But… She has her appearance! Look at her!" One of the men pointed at the woman with a broom handle, pushing her into a wall and making her cringe in fear. "At least check if she's a monster or not. You can do that, right?"

"Already did. She is human, you idiots. Leave the poor lady alone and go home." Nikolas gave the crowd a dismissive gesture. Some of the less zealous of the crowd slinked away.

"You barely-"

Nikolas grabbed the man by the scruff. "I have caught approximately three hundred monsters during my time as a hero in Floria. I am the most experienced at telling whether or not a monster is disguising themselves as a human or not. I am more qualified for what you're doing than you are, so believe me when I tell you that the person you're harassing is completely human. Understood?!" He suddenly yelled. The man, now humbled, nodded his head. Nikolas let go of him, pushing him a few feet away.

"Good. Now get out of here. All of you." The crowd fully dispersed, leaving only Nikolas and the woman.

"Thank you, hero! Is there any way I can repay you?" The woman asked, her voice full of gratitude. She took her coin bag out, but Nikolas simply shook his head, telling her not to bother. He casted a minor healing spell on the woman.

"I suggest wearing something to conceal your appearance in public for the time being. I assure you, in the next few days something will be done about this. I'm terribly sorry you had to go through this." Nikolas helped the woman up and walked off. Once again, I was reminded of why I had chosen this man as my husband. He truly cared for his people and wanted them to be safe. I almost wanted to tackle him to the ground and have sex with him right then and there to reward him for his efforts, even though that would probably get us killed.

"The sooner this place becomes friendly to monsters, the better." Nikolas said to me, sitting back down on the bench. "Every time I come here I'm reminded of why I asked for your help."

"And I promise Floria will get the help it needs." I responded, grinning. "We should get going. King Emyr is expecting us, and I don't plan on being late."

Nikolas nodded. "Of course."

The two of us arrived at the king's castle about a half an hour later. The guards opened the door for us, greeting Nikolas and reminding him that he had an appointment with the king. Neither of them said anything to the red haired woman next to him, hugging him closely. One of the maids had even congratulated Nikolas on his marriage, none the wiser. I made another note to offer the maids the chance of monsterization for being so friendly.

We reached the office where King Emyr had agreed to meet us. Nikolas knocked once on the door to let him know we had arrived.

"You may enter." A muffled voice came from inside.

As I entered the office, I got my first look at the ruler of Floria. Nikolas, being a trusted friend to the king, had described him to me. He was a relatively tall and muscular man with short, curly black hair and green eyes. My husband had also said that he was unmarried, which had caught Delilah's attention immediately. I decided that if the surrender talks went well, I would try and talk to him about his upcoming marriage with Delilah and if he was approving or not.

King Emyr turned towards me. "I suppose you're the Lilim Nikolas was talking about? Your name is Amaya, right?" He asked.

"Yes, that's me. Forgive me but I had to wear a human disguise on my way here. Right now, people seeing my true form would cause widespread panic and chaos." I explained. "Do you wish to see me in my true form?"

"I would like to, after we explain the surrender deal." King Emyr responded. "I don't know much about Lilims, but I do know that their aura can have strange effects on human males. I want my mind to be clear for our meeting."

"Amaya is perfectly capable of controlling her aura, if that's what you're scared of." Nikolas explained, taking a seat in front of the king's desk.

"I would like her to remain in her human form for the duration of the meeting, if that's fine with you." King Emyr requested, taking a sip of his drink. "Anyways, has Nikolas informed you of why I want to surrender Floria to your monsters?"

"Yes. Widespread riots, a divided population, and lack of attention from the Chief God's High Council were two points he had mentioned. You are aware of us monsters' true nature right?"

"I have been, for a long time. I read the works of the Wandering Scholar, away from the eyes of the Order."

It was always nice seeing a member of the Order actually research monsters beyond what the Order told them. Despite the Wandering Scholar's books being plagued with bias and misinformation, they at least depicted us in a better light than the Order. "Good. I've prepared a list of terms and conditions of the surrender deal. Me and Nikolas created it together, and we would like for you to go over it before we agree to anything." I took a large scroll out from my cloak and placed it in front of the king.

The man picked up and unrolled it, the room going silent as he went slowly from top to bottom. A major part of the surrender deal was allowing worship of the Chief God to continue as long as their followers weren't hostile towards monsters, as well as allowing monsters to worship the Chief God and any other god that they wanted.

I had also made sure to include how Floria was not to become a Mamono realm unless the citizens wanted it. Related to that, I had a blacklist of any Mamono that would be a large threat to the purity of Floria's environments, like Dark Matters, Malef Dragons aside from Delilah, and Khepris. I knew they were capable of controlling themselves but one accident would be devastating. I refused to take any risks.

Monsters were to be given the same rights as humans, on the condition that they didn't attempt to forcefully transform human women or rape human men. This point had proven to be incredibly controversial amongst my troops.

Why? We know that deep down, they want it! One of my troops, an Ogre if I recalled correctly, had protested.

So earn their trust, then. Show them that they can't hide their desires from us. Was my response to that. A few of my troops had even deserted after that, and more than a few had expressed extreme amounts of frustration.

I noticed Nikolas tightly grasping the armrests of his chair, to the point where he began leaving indents on them. I silently gestured for him to hold my hand, which seemed to calm him down a bit.

King Emyr finally finished going through the surrender deal, rerolling the scroll and giving it back to me. "You must have put a lot of time into this. Did Nikolas help you create this?"

"He did. In fact, he created half of these points as well as offered input to me. I figured since he was a longtime resident of Floria, he would know what was best for the city." Nikolas beamed with pride at my praise. "Is there anything that you'd like to further discuss with me?" I offered.

"None."

"A-are you sure?" I asked, shocked. "I'm glad you're willing to cooperate but are you sure there's nothing that you want us to revise or anything?"

"No. It's a solution to everything I've been struggling to fix."

"Okay… That's settled, then. There's one more thing I would like to discuss with you." The king's head perked up. "There is a certain monster that has taken a great amount of interest in you."

The man had a look of anxious curiosity on his face. "Who?"

"One of my subordinates. Her name is Delilah, she is a Malef Dragon from-"

The ruler interrupted me. "Hang on, Malef Dragons were on your blacklist. Why does she get an exception?"

"...Delilah has proven to me that she is capable of handling herself. She has agreed to only give out her blood to human men and women that want it. If she breaks the rules I have asked her to follow, I will not hesitate to punish her. She is my friend but she isn't above consequences." I explained. Delilah hadn't been thrilled about this but she had agreed, albeit reluctantly, to follow the rules.

"I see… And what does she see in me?"

"She believes she is the perfect match for you. I couldn't bring her with me for this meeting, since she recently suffered an… Unfortunate accident, and is recovering from her injuries." I panicked a little. I didn't know how Emyr would react to Elise walking into the woods and stabbing Delilah. "You'll get to meet her in a few days."

"...Is she friendly?" King Emyr asked anxiously. "Dragons have been known to look down on humans as inferior beings."

"Malef Dragons don't do any of that. They are very, very protective and loving towards their mates. You'll have everything you could ever want at your fingertips if you decide to marry her." I tried to imagine what Delilah would say in this situation.

"What if I don't want to marry her?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to. But I do want you to give her a chance. She is very friendly once you get to know her. Besides, you want someone to continue your bloodline, right? She'd be more than willing to do that."

"I-I guess you're right." Emyr cleared his throat. "Thank you for meeting with me. I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing by inviting you here, but you seem like you have our best intentions in mind."

"Thank you for listening, King Emyr. I promise you, Floria will be better under our control than the Order's." Nikolas and I got up, and left the room.