by J. J. Pavlov
Fear fills Lady Nightwane's expression, but I glimpse something else underneath it, too. There's a mix of anxious anticipation and excited expectation, waiting and hoping to see what I'm about to do with her.
"Could you not?" Senka's voice echoes through the room. Oops, I completely forgot about her. Turning my head, I see that she's sitting up on the bed and looking at me with an annoyed expression.
"H-huh?" The dark elf underneath me sees her, too. "Wh-what?"
"Shocking, right? As you said, I'm a cursed doll. And I bring death to those who mess with my body." Standing up with a creaking sound in her joints, the doll girl tilts her head and cracks her neck.
Lady Nightwane's goes pale at Senka's menacing undertone. Then her entire face flushes reddish-purple when she remembers all the things she did with - and to - this girl, whom she had thought of as a lifeless doll all along.
"... I was just getting to the good part." I stand up, loom over the doll girl and bring a fist down on her head. "Why did you stop me, Senka?"
"Because I don't want to watch you two going at it." Holding the top of her head with both hands in what I can only describe as a cute gesture, to show that my hit stings, she responds with a pout. Picking up Senka, I hug her to my chest. "Argh, stop it! I don't need a reminder that I'll be flat forever!"
"Y-you were a-alive all this time?" Lady Nightwane is close to tears, as she tries to make sense of this situation.
"I wouldn't call it alive, but yes." Senka stares at her in irritation. "All this time, everything you did to me... I was aware of it all."
"Ahhh..." And upon hearing these words, the dark elf faints.
"Way to clam jam me..." I grab the doll girl's shoulders and push her down on the bed, before leaning over her with an irked grin. "I don't feel like doing it with a passed out person. That's basically like doing it with a sex doll."
I pause for a moment and look at Senka in silence.
"... will you take her place, then?" I ask, half-serious.
"I refuse." She instantly replies with a straight face, as if she had expected that question. Then she somehow slips out of my grasp and disappears from underneath me. I look around the room but find that she's gone. Does she have an ability to go invisible or something?
I plop down on my bed and look over to the unconscious Lady Nightwane. It seems she slipped into slumber at one point, and her chest is heaving rhythmically now.
"Some other time then, I guess." Shrugging, I sigh and stand up, to cover her with a blanket.
Chapter 12 - What I Can Do
In the end, I was in the same room as Lady Nightwane for the whole night, but nothing happened, even though I wanted a certain something to happen.
Senka was back in the morning like it was the most natural thing in the world, sitting on the chair the same way she did in the dark elf's store when I saw her for the first time. I had actually feared that she ran away for good, but it seems she's somewhat attached to me because we can talk so freely. Of course, she would never admit it, if I asked her since she's very clearly a tsundere.
"Mhhh..." The dark elf, her mauve skin basked in the sunlight coming through the window, stirs in her sleep. We're in separate beds, but when I look over, it somewhat feels like the legendary 'the morning after' scene. I hope I'll be getting the real one soon enough.
So, what do I do about Rolan and the others? They didn't come after me last night when we separated on such a sour note. I don't want to be the one to start a conversation, so I'll just hope that they're in the guildhall right now and I can walk in pretending to have my own business there.
Really though, they let Lady Nightwane walk out on them, too. Didn't they take her to the guild for her protection? I guess she told them that she would come to me and stay the night in this room, instead of staying in the guest room of the guild hall.
"A lot of inconsistencies, aren't there?" Senka suddenly remarks, as if she read my mind.
"What do you mean?" I turn to look at her, and she shows me what I can only define as a smug expression, with one eyebrow and one corner of her mouth raised. Her scars still make her look like she's smiling all over, though.
"For one, how quickly she got swept up in your pace and ended up selling me to you." Looking at the sleeping Lady Nightwane, her expression grows serious again.
"Isn't it because her business was going badly?" I propose a potential explanation.
"No, the store wasn't that important to her. Especially since she heard them say that it would be burned down to cover her disappearance. If you hadn't shown up when you did, that place would have been gone." Senka's habit of talking without moving anything but her mouth is quite unsettling sometimes. At least it's better than her not even moving her lips like she did when she first called out to me. "She had every intention of abandoning her store to infiltrate the underground slavers."
"Well, but that went up in smoke, since we saved her, so she settled on getting a small fortune?"
"I think she wanted to use the money to investigate the slavers. Maybe she would have posted an official request to the guild."
"But we went to her place again, and brought her to the guild ourselves."
"That happened much later. She could have followed you on your way back and immediately made the request. Instead, you found her at home, enjoying herself."
"Hm... actually, I wanted to ask about that. Is it part of her curse? She can't touch anyone, but she has to relieve her stress periodically?" Judging by what Senka told me before, it sounds like she does it quite often.
"Nah, that's just her being constantly horny." Shrugging with a creaking wooden sound, she denies that theory.
"U-umm..." The person in question seems to have woken up and heard what we were talking about. Her face and the tips of her ears are reddened again, as she tries to find the right words, glancing at Senka and me.
"So, what do you have to say about this?" I turn to ask her naturally.
"H-huh? I-I'm not constantly horny!" She raises her voice in defense of her good image, even though she never really had a good one, to begin with.
"That's not what I was asking about." Sighing, I stand up from my bed and look down at her with a judgmental gaze. "Why didn't you tell us about your plan when we freed you? You even let yourself get talked into selling Senka to me."
"... b-because I felt that the chance had p-passed and I had to wait for them to c-come again." With downcast eyes, Lady Nightwane responds in her usual forlorn tone.
"Oh." I turn to Senka, and it seems we both came to the same realization. Of course, she wouldn't leave the store to go to the guild, if she thought that they might come back to get her. After all, she was thinking that they had only been scared off, instead of having died. "Though that still doesn't explain why you would go through the trouble of making money if you were hoping for their return."
"... I-I hid the money so that after e-everything, I could return and r-rebuild my store." So, she was being unexpectedly optimistic about things and did care about her store to a certain degree. "B-but they never came."
"Well..." I don't know whether I should tell her or not, but if I'm making her mine, I might as well. "... remember last night?"
For some reason, Lady Nightwane becomes flustered and blushes. Guess she's remembering something other than what I'm referring to.
"I promised to be yours in exchange for your help." But she looks me in the eyes and speaks without her usual stutter. I suppress the urge to lick my lips at the implications of her words. She's determined to see this through. Well, she did say that the person who got kidnapped a long time ago is someone very important to her.
"Don't go back on those words, or I'll eat you." For a moment, the dark elf looks at me with an awkward smile, as if she took what I said as a joke, but when she sees my seriousness, her expression freezes over. "Those kidnappers who came to your house - I killed them all."
Her eyes go wide at this sudden revelation, but she remains silent. I lea
n in on her, and my lips crack into a grin at the fear that's emanating from her and pouring into me like the warmth of a hot spring.
"Now that you know, there's no going back." I whisper into her long ear. "Don't tell anyone, especially Rolan and his group. If you do, I'll have to kill them, since I don't want people to know just yet. Understood?"
I draw back and look at her coldly. She's trembling all over, and tears have formed in the corners of her eyes. But she nods with an audible swallowing sound, and I feel relief. If she had been defiant here, I would have been in a bind: I don't want to kill her, but it would be easier than to kill everyone she speaks to; the problem with doing so is that people know she's with me, so they'll be suspecting me if she disappeared. In either case, it would have been troublesome.
"Good. After all, Rolan and the others want to catch these kidnappers and slave traders. In other words, they'll be helping you, too." Stroking her cheek softly and speaking in a warm voice, I smile at her. My sudden change of attitude takes her by surprise, but I can see that a part of her revels in the sensation of being touched by someone directly. "Let's go have breakfast."
Yeah, her curse doesn't do anything to me, other than a slight tingling sensation in my skin. It even feels weaker than last night's, too. My theory that demons - and especially a Crawling Chaos like me - are immune to her curse is most likely correct. So, I'll do a little more with her tonight, then.
It seems that in the mornings there aren't many people in the tavern. I guess it's because it doesn't offer breakfast to it patrons. Rolan and his party are gathered at a table and most likely waiting for me when I come down the stairs with Senka in my arm and Lady Nightwane in my wake.
What should I do now? After the awkward situation yesterday, I can't just go and join them as if nothing happened. While I did purposefully overreact, it was Rolan's fault for making it sound like he didn't want me around. I'll leave it to him to try and make amends.
Thus, I ignore his presence and walk towards the exit.
"Miss Chloe!" Rolan has noticed me and quickly comes over to stop me from leaving. Gotcha! "I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you last night."
"... it's alright. I overreacted." I'll take a step back here and make myself appear like a magnanimous person. Somehow, I still can't believe that I've become so manipulative in such a natural way. But after learning how humans in this world really tick, I can't ever consider them equals anymore. "If you don't mind, I would still be delighted to join you."
"Hmmm..." The leader makes a difficult face and scratches his chin. "Let's go to the guild and discuss this after breakfast."
"So, about me joining you." Laying down the cutlery after finishing my normal-sized meal of scrambled eggs and ham, I touch upon the topic Rolan postponed earlier. I purposefully held myself back so that I wouldn't appear like a glutton again.
We're sitting at a long table in the guildhall, which is somewhat bustling with activity at this time of the day. Many other adventurers are having breakfasts, and an overall murmur plays in the background like ambient music.
"Are you certain you want to do this?" He asks me with a serious expression. The others are looking at me intently as if to gauge my determination.
"Yes, I am. I don't want to be protected forever, and I want to earn money for myself." Considering my setting is that of a noble's sheltered daughter, that decision should appear like one that I've come to after long deliberation; in their eyes, I must have led a life without hardships before.
"Don't you want to return to your home?" It's kind of the same question as the one he asked me last night. I do want to return, but I have quite some time before the deadline. But they don't need to know that, and about the fact that this home is the demon castle.
"There is no home for me to return to. It disappeared with my parents..." I avert my gaze to make it seem like this is a sensitive topic. While it would make sense to return and claim the fortune my parents left me - if the story about me being a noble were true - I can say that I have no attachments to my past life now that they're gone.
"I'm sorry..." Lowering his head in apology, Rolan shows full understanding of what I mean. Following this exchange, awkward silence lays itself over our group like a blanket. Everyone shares glances between each other, but nobody seems to want to speak up.
Finally, Lady Nightwane breathes in and opens her mouth like she wants to say something,
"In either case, I'll join you, so teach me how to fight." I preempt her on purpose and look at Rolan from across the table with determined eyes. The dark elf closes her mouth without making a sound but appears flustered. How cute~
"... have you ever wielded a weapon in your life?" Rolan takes a moment as if he had to think about how to broach the subject, before responding with a question.
Well, my body is a weapon, but I can't say that. I have some degree of combat experience, fighting beasts you would consider very dangerous, as well as slaughtering human prisoners. Still, my physiology made everything possible, so I wouldn't say I'm actually a capable fighter in my own right.
I shake my head in response because that's what he expects me to respond with anyway.
"Have you ever killed someone?" He inquires further. If I haven't wielded a weapon, how would I go about killing anyone? I should hesitate a little here and act as if the thought is foreign to me.
I shake my head again. From the corner of my eyes, I see Lady Nightwane staring at me silently, but not showing any reaction to my words. Good girl.
"Do you think you could kill a person?" Hat-trick. I have to be the frail girl in front of Rolan but also show determination. I shake my head for the third time.
"I don't want to take lives, but I still want to help you. You saved me when I had lost everything. I want to repay that debt." Speaking with an anxious expression, I act desperate. I'm getting better at this so quickly that it's scaring myself.
Before my reincarnation, I used to be the type who couldn't lie to save my life; everyone would instantly see through me based on my facial expressions. My newfound duplicity must be the result of this body's influence on my psyche, and Maou-mama's training before she sent me off.
Yet, I'm strangely okay with this change. As long as it serves me, everything is permitted.
The dark elf looks away, trying not to appear suspicious. She knows that this is all an act, but the fact that I haven't been exposed yet means that she either fears that I'll kill everyone here or she doesn't want to lose me - possibly the only person in this nation who can touch her without activating her curse.
"Hmmm..." Rolan crosses his arms and tilts his head with a frown, as he considers my words.
I don't know why he's hesitating when such a beautiful girl like me is asking to join his party. And it's not like he wasn't in my position at one point in his life; everyone starts from nowhere and learns how to fight - and to kill - when the circumstances call for it.
"I am sorry, but I overheard your conversation." A clear and almost ethereal-sounding female voice interrupts our discussion, and all our heads turn to its owner. Approaching us with a majestic gait is a woman with very long blond hair, dressed in a flowing white robe embroidered with golden threads. Her eyes are closed, suggesting that she's blind, but she isn't holding a walking stick. "My name is Arcelia Crux; I am a priestess of Belys."
Now, if that isn't a character, I don't know what is. Her job also sounds like the archenemy of demons, too.
"Huh?! You are Lady Crux, the Saint of Luminosity?" Luna is the first to respond, as she holds her left hand to her chest and performs a bow. Must be a religious gesture. "It is such an honor to make your acquaintance! My name is Runa Sigint."
Rolan follows her example, and so does everyone else around me. That includes even Lady Nightwane, who seemed more like the type to worship some unholy deity. But as I had expected when I heard that there's a church in this city, this nation, and its people adhere to some kind of religion.
And within this religion
, this woman is considered a saint? Well, she does have a saintly aura, and her closed eyes must hold some meaning.
"Young lady, you appear to have a selfless wish to help your friends. I can feel the compassion in your words." She's facing me, but with her eyes closed, I can't tell if she can actually see me.
Even if she couldn't, there are others around, so I have to hold back my laughter with everything I have. She completely fell for my acting! Selfless wish to help my friends? Compassion in my words? There's not a shred of it in my heart, though.
"With such a pure heart, you may even have a talent for the magic of light."
I can't hold in my laughter anymore and mask it with a cough. It would be the height of irony, if I could perform light magic, considering my true form is more like something from the darkest reaches of hell.
"Really? That would be incredible." Rolan seems to be amazed. Well, I can understand why he would be excited since Luna is already a black mage who can control the elements for offensive magic. Having a healer in the party would be really useful.
But me being a white mage? Nah, not gonna happen.
"I can ascertain it by holding your hand, young lady. If I may?" She stretches out her hand in an inviting gesture. I'd rather not since I feel like she might see through my transformation when she touches me. But refusing now would seem suspicious. What should I do?
I look down at Senka, not knowing what I'm actually hoping for; the bard is around, so she can't even whisper to me. And as expected, she doesn't move in the slightest. I have to decide for myself here.
"Please do." I'm quite nervous, but hold out my slightly shaking hand. I'm going with the risky move because it also holds more rewards. If I can find out what magic I can use, I can focus my learning. But if she finds out that I'm a demon and reveals it, all hell will break loose.
Arcelia takes hold of my hand with both of hers, and a warm light surrounds them. Is this healing magic? This feels pretty nice, even though I would have expected that light magic hurts demons, and especially my kind.
