Starchild Crusaders

by J. J. Pavlov

  She wordlessly touches my hand around her waist, and we share a short loving moment that is obviously ruined by my other half's lack of delicacy.

  "You two need to get it on already." Asoko comments with a sneer. It's not exactly the wording I would have used in that situation, but I know that if I were in her position of the third wheel, I wouldn't have kept quiet either. I do notice that she's far more promiscuous than I am, most likely due to her time living in a female-only harem.

  Then again, I did do it with Kamii almost every day when we were in Hovsgaerden, and even in the academy, we didn't exactly slow down. Only whenever Hestia stayed the night were we forced to hold back. I guess it's just how I am, and the little dark elf enabled it.

  The outer reaches of the mountain were still predominantly dry and rocky, but a few valleys in, the landscape had changed drastically. Greenery spreads as far as the eyes can see, and small lakes reflect the sky like mirrors. I'm sure people would have built settlements here if not for the threat from the giants.

  Shortly after noon, we land near the peak of a mountain and have a quick lunch. From our vantage point, and using the enhanced vision granted by Hestia's genetic template, I spot a large stag in the forest below. Aside from the fact that it has leaves growing from its antlers, it doesn't look any different from those in my previous world.

  I noticed that many animals in this world are nearly indistinguishable from those on Earth. Some have slight differences, others bigger ones, but they all boil down to the same templates. The laws of physics, climate, and air quality are pretty similar - only less polluted from industrialism but instead affected by corruption. It's obvious that the same kinds of animals would develop under these circumstances.

  Except for the cyborg dinosaurs in Yagrath; I still wonder how those came to be in a world that hasn't even invented gunpowder.

  Soon after our meal, we take off again. I kept my eyes peeled but didn't see any giants. One would think they're easy to spot, considering the name of their race, but I guess we're in a region they don't frequent, or they stay in caves during the day.

  While we fly deeper into republic territory, overgrown fortifications and abandoned watchtowers appear from time to time. Destroyed gates and checkpoints used to bar the way across larger mountain passes, and hints of old paved roads can still be glimpsed near them, yet to be entirely reclaimed by nature.

  It goes to show that there were border disputes between the nations in the past, after all. Maybe the giants didn't always live here, but their presence did influence international politics. The paths are now open to all travelers and merchants alike, so I feel that they are doing the humans a big favor.

  As the sun moves across the sky in the opposite direction that we do and begins to warm our backs, I spot a caravan traveling across a mountain pass. They're coming from the Mineva Republic and look pretty fresh, so we must be on the right track.

  A part of me wants to swoop down and ask them for directions, but Asoko points ahead, making my inner conflict about whether or not to reveal ourselves to the humans obsolete. She seems to have glimpsed the shape of a city in the distance and is excited to see a new culture.

  That should be Kalava, the nearest city across the border from Kherak. The journey through the mountains should take humans around a week, but we traversed it in less than a day. If we find an interactive leather map, the rest of the journey will be a cinch; at that point, we can travel towards Kongenssoevn in the most direct line - even if it means flying across the ocean.

  Kamii and I have been separated for fifty-two days now, and it's about damn time that I make great leaps toward reuniting with her.

  Judging by the aerial view, it's somewhere around the size of Kherak, so its population should be similar too. But from one look, I can tell that the living standards in the republic are higher than in the Kingdom of Lares, let alone those of the Khurut Sultanate.

  All buildings are made of stone just like in Kherak, but even in this small town, almost all the windows are covered with some form of glass. While it's not on the same sophisticated level of the practically modern-day windows of the Royal Academy, the Mineva Republic must be an affluent nation for ordinary folks to be able to afford such commodities.

  "Let's set down a distance from the gates. We won't hide your wings, Hestia, but I don't want to cause a scene by landing in the middle of town." I explain our course of actions to my two companions, who nod in assent. This will be the moment of truth; will her black wings cause problems or are people here too ignorant to know what they stand for just like in the sultanate?

  "Leave stocking up on food and finding an inn to me then." Asoko says with a wink. She fell back slightly and did it under my wing so that Hestia wouldn't see it. It's obvious what she's implying with that.

  "Then I will stay with you, Chloe." The angel girl on my other side says with a charming smile. It will be the first time the two of us are alone since the day we were teleported to the desert. While it won't really be a date since we have things to do, we'll be able to enjoy each other's company without a pair of eyes on our backs.

  The town gate is open, and the guards are standing at attention. It's the first time since the citadel in Kongenssoevn that I've seen soldiers do their job properly. Upon our approach, they obviously stare at us. Hestia's wings are on full display, and while Asoko seems to have settled on keeping her skin dark, the two of us pretty much look like twins. Lacking any baggage, we must be making a surreal appearance.

  The black feathers attracted a lot of attention in the Khurut Sultanate, but very few people knew what she really was; everybody else most likely thought her a spirit or even a goddess. But I won't be so naïve to think that general education in a nation that predominantly speaks Imperian doesn't teach everybody about Fatas.

  But to my surprise, we're not hailed at the gates, and they let us pass under their scrutinizing gazes. Maybe it's our natural demeanor, or they're just stunned by Hestia's beauty, but I won't complain.

  Beyond the gates, we're greeted by a bustling main street that leads directly towards the small castle at the center of it. There are people wearing outfits from the sultanate, but the majority is clad in what I would consider medieval staples of light clothing fit for the warm climate. People wearing mismatched armor and carrying different kinds of weapons on their hips walk the streets; they're most likely mercenaries or adventurers, here to find work as caravan guards.

  There are permanent stores on both sides of the paved street, each specialized in certain products such as a bakery, a tailor, and a hardware store. Boutiques attract upper-class women in search for their next ball dress, gambling parlors are filled with deadbeat men losing their last coin.

  Our outfits are almost as eye-catching as Hestia's wings; during my stay in Mallabun Al-Majnun, I lost the red cloak as well as pretty much all other clothes I had saved. Thus I'm dressed like any other party-goer was in the Great Deceiver's castle. The same is true for Hestia and Asoko, making us look like a troupe of dancers of the more exotic kind. We're lucky he left us with at least this much instead of taking everything when his entire city vanished into the sands, or we would have been hard-pressed to appear among humans.

  But this is the perfect place to get back into regular clothing. I wouldn't care about going naked, but society does care, so it's best to conform as long as I still need something from it. After we get a map, I won't need it anymore until I find Kamii.

  "Let's go shopping" I turn to Hestia and Asoko with this proposal even though we just talked about splitting up to get things done more quickly. They look down at themselves and then back at me with a hint of incredulity. "Oi, don't tell me you want to keep walking around like that!"

  "I've been walking around like that for about half a year now." My other half shrugs.

  "I know you like to look at me like this." The fallen angel bites her lower lip and speaks to me softly. She's not wrong, but that doesn't mean I want the whole world to see her like t
hat.

  "We're getting new clothes, and that's that." Putting my foot down, I say and point at a clothes store. My date with Hestia will have to wait, I guess.

  I hope the currency from the sultanate is good here.

  The store I picked didn't have much in the way of an assortment to choose from, but at least it did accept the Khurut currency. I left Jalil with the vast majority and only kept a single leather purse of mixed money - including what I scrounged off Asoko - but that may have come to bite me in the backside here.

  Luckily, it turned out to be enough for three complete outfits, including the tailor's immediate modifications to accommodate Hestia's wings. But the whole thing left me with just two dhahaba, fifteen fidiyaton, and eleven nohason. For the first time in a long while, I'm near broke.

  The store clerk's accent was pretty difficult to understand, and he stared at Hestia throughout our entire stay, but I'm thankful that he was too stunned by her appearance to say anything about it. I'm not sure whether or not shackling her and hiding her wings while making her seem like a slave would have been the better option, but it's too late anyway.

  Asoko chose a colorful dress with a parted skirt that shows off her legs when walking. It's one of the few points either of me can take pride in; the toned legs from being an accomplished marathon runner. Her preferences are mine, but she doesn't hesitate to act on them; in my previous life, I would have wanted to, but still never picked what she did because I felt it wouldn't look good on me.

  I opted for the tried and true school uniform, with a white shirt and a modified short plaited skirt. To achieve the absolute territory, I threw in white thigh highs - although those are actually worn by men here. The store clerk stared at me with round eyes when I stepped out of the changing room, as this outfit is considered revealing. Tying my hair, which I've grown quite a bit even though I'm not actually growing naturally anymore, into a ponytail puts the finishing touches on my appearance.

  Hestia's dress is unexpectedly more reserved than Asoko's. She picked something reminiscent of the academy uniform, but with a little twist: She chose a frilly white shirt and a black corset on top of it; the collar is tied with a red ascot. But instead of a long skirt, she's wearing tight blue pants that look suspiciously like jeans but are of a softer material.

  "Damn, why didn't I think of that? School uniforms are one of the pillars of fetishism!" Asoko slaps her forehead in regret when she sees me. Then she tilts her body to peek at the gap between my skirt and the thigh highs, but I bop her over the head.

  "Anything looks good on you, but that really is a great choice." I keep my other half's head facing away while complimenting Hestia on her new clothes. She must have been feeling a little uncomfortable flying across the sky in the dancer outfit. The angel girl falls back into the demeanor she used to have before her corruption; she twirls her fingers while biting her lower lip nervously and blushing in embarrassment. It's so lovely that I feel my heart skip a beat or ten.

  With the shopping out of the way, we leave the store and its dazed owner behind to return to our initial purpose. Once we get a magic map and provisions, we should be able to make more progress in a few days than we have in the last month.

  An elderly man wearing glasses passes us by, and I'm reminded of Thorvald. He was the first and only person in this world I met who had those until the man just now. Then I remember that Hestia had an issue with her eyesight after she disintegrated Aldebrand with a glare. I forgot to pay attention to her condition because she never used it again.

  "Hestia, how are your eyes?" I turn to her and ask, catching her off-guard. From her reaction alone, I can tell that she's going to try and hide something.

  "T-they are fine." And her stutter confirms that they aren't. I recall that Asoko was the one who spotted this city first. At the time, I didn't use a Fata's template for my eyes because the zoom doesn't allow one to see one's immediate surroundings. It's not made to travel with other people in a close formation. And if I didn't use it, I doubt my other half did either, which would mean that her sight is even worse than that of an average human's.

  "We'll have them checked out." My tone leaves no room for the objections she clearly wanted to utter. I then imagine glasses framing the fallen angel's eyes. If it weren't for the fact that this is affecting her most important sense, I could even feel excited about seeing her in them.

  "You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?" Asoko asks while glancing at Hestia. I haven't told her about the angel girl's curse, so my other half may have misunderstood that I want to make her wear them for fashion purposes.

  "Of course. Who do you think I am?" But I still answer truthfully. Even if her eyes were alright, I'd find a way to make her wear glasses at least once to see how she looks in them.

  "Oh, I'm coming along." Asoko pumps her fist in excitement. Forgotten is the fact that she wanted to split up and procure supplies for the continued journey as well as find us an inn.

  "Excuse me, good sir." I turn on the spot and stop the elderly man with the glasses that passed us by moments ago.

  "Oh? What can ah do ye for?" He smiles and asks in a friendly tone. As with the store clerk before, his accent is awful. But at this point, I think that's just the dialect of Imperian that people in the republic speak.

  "Can you please tell me where you bought those glasses? A friend of mine needs them."

  The town is pretty small, so it doesn't take us long to reach the place the man wearing glasses described to us. It's on the main street, though on the other side from where we first entered through the gate. The storefront is glass-covered and has various frames and shaped lenses on display. It also includes spyglasses and telescopes, though obviously not the modern plastic-covered ones.

  I haven't seen anything like this in the kingdom, so the republic's level of technology seems to be higher. Maybe the principal's glasses were even imported from this nation.

  When I push open the door, a bell rings and alerts the clerk behind the counter to our entry. He wears glasses, acting as a living advertisement for the products he sells. His eyes widen at the sight of a light as well as a dark-skinned version of me enter the store back to back, but his jaw drops when Hestia follows us in.

  "A F-Fata?" He mutters audibly, but then one eyebrow shoots up at the realization that her wings being black isn't just a play of the light.

  "Hello, sir. I'm afraid my cute little Fata here needs glasses." I gesture at her and say in an exaggeratedly sweet tone. "And yes, she's real."

  Not at all embarrassed by my way of introducing her, Hestia proudly spreads her wings which barely fit into the store once fully outstretched. As always, she's only bashful with me but doesn't hesitate to show off in front of people she doesn't care about.

  "B-but her wings...?" The clerk wonders, staring at her in awe. Her appearance must be quite intimidating for those who meet her for the first time. The reaction from those at the academy was different because they had seen her winged form almost every day, so white and black only made a difference in their perception of her purity.

  After all, everybody who knows what Fatas are should also be aware of the common idea that the whiteness of their wings is the symbol of their purity. Black spots are treated as a life-threatening disease, so how can she be okay with jet black wings? He must be thinking up an explanation on his own, so I'll keep acting like it's the most natural thing in the world.

  "Don't sweat the small stuff." I walk toward the counter with a friendly smile that suggests nothing is wrong with her having black wings. "Now, can you check her eyesight and fit the right glasses?"

  In the end, it took some nudging and convincing before the optician finally agreed to examine Hestia. The technology of this world obviously isn't advanced enough to have phoropters - those devices with the many lenses which oculists use to gauge one's eyesight - so things were done the traditional way: Testing out one lens after the other while looking at an eye chart.

  Eventually, the optician set
tles on one pair and proceeds to ask her what kind of frame she would like. The fallen angel turns to me as if seeking guidance, and I look across the assortment on the table. To not hide her beautiful face, something sleek and elegant would be best. The color shouldn't take the spotlight from her crimson eyes but still stand in contrast to her silver hair.

  Most models are made from metal, but there are some wooden ones painted in various colors. I spot a dark brown full frame that appears to be made from wood but feels cold to the touch.

  "I think this one should look good on you, my love." I focus on Hestia alone, and the world around me disappears as I look into her eyes while holding up the frame in front of her face. She blinks a few times, and her cheeks redden a little, but then she smiles and tries it on.

  Even without the lenses in them, I can tell that this is the right one. I feared that contrary to my preferences, glasses could be a blemish on her perfect beauty, but nothing seems to be able to detract from it. A part of me wishes there was photography in this world because the gaze she's giving me is one for the ages. Instead, I can only burn it into my mind before the moment passes.

  "Den ah'll grind it down to fit da frame." The optician's words break the moment, and we both turn our heads, visibly suppressing the urge to kill him. Ignorant of our thoughts, he gets to work.

  "I think you two have been holding back for too long." My other half comments with a sigh, and I glance at her to find that she's wearing a peeved expression. "There's been a lot of pink tension between you two lately."

  "You're seeing things." I try to wave it off, but am quite aware that she's telling the truth. Watching the orgy in Mallabun Al-Majnun for five days while holding back didn't help.

  "Here dey are. Dat's twelve asimi." The clerk soon comes back from the workbench and breaks the awkward atmosphere. I can almost forgive his earlier travesty.

  "How much is that in dhakka?" In the clothes store, the clerk directly asked for it due to our appearances, but we're now wearing Minevan clothes. I have no idea what asimi are, but I assume they're this nation's currency.