by J. J. Pavlov
Hmm, I don't feel sleepy at all. Daica's rhythmic breathing and her large heaving chest tell me that she has fallen asleep soon after I put out the candle. She must have been really exhausted from worrying all day long and crying after the heartfelt reunion.
Suddenly, I hear a slight creaking noise inside the room, and my eyes are wide open. I turn my head to look in the direction where it came from and almost scream at the sight.
Senka is sitting on her chair like a puppet with its strings cut, eyes wide open, staring right at me.
Stop it, that's not creepy-cute, but just creepy! Is that resentment in your gaze? Do you hold a grudge against me for not letting you sleep on the bed as well? But it's already quite cramped with the two of us. I'm sorry, please don't curse me!
"Senka, can't you at least close your eyes?" I hiss in her direction. She doesn't react. Damn you, you're actually mad about me leaving you out in the cold, aren't you? "Please, I can't sleep, if you stare like that..."
I'm sure she's laughing at me on the inside, about how I'm scared of her, while my real appearance can literally cause people to die from fear. But I'm still not good with her kind of horror, especially under these lighting conditions.
Kamii stirs, and I look down to find that she has turned her head to stare at me questioningly. Her mesmerizing amethyst eyes glow even more in the dark and give her an otherworldly appearance. I hug her and kiss her hair, smelling the scented soap we used in the bath earlier. It has a calming effect, and I feel myself growing sleepy from the tranquility of this situation.
I'll have to teach her about Senka sometime, soon. She doesn't feel any aversion in regards to her appearance, but it may still come as a shock to learn that she's able to move and speak.
"It's nothing. Sleep, my dear." I pet her hair and give her another kiss, this time on the forehead, upon which she closes her eyes in enjoyment. It's really strange, but I feel myself hoping for her happiness from the depths of my heart.
Soon, her features relax and I can hear her breathing slow down. It means that she's feeling safe enough in my embrace to fall asleep like this. I must have been able to transmit my emotions to her well enough that she would begin to trust me completely almost right away. I had expected that she would never trust anyone ever again, but she seems to have quite the childlike personality, so maybe it's easier for her to see through someone's motivations instinctively.
Well, I believe my motivations are pure, so everything is alright.
I must have fallen asleep while in thought. When I wake up, I find that the room is basked in the twilight of dawn. Must be my usual sleeping rhythm that caused me to wake up at such an hour. I turn my head to look around the room.
Damn it, Senka! You're still staring at me like that!
Raising myself up a little, I notice that Kamii has turned over in her sleep and is holding her right arm behind her in an awkward position. It doesn't look very comfortable, but she did it so it wouldn't bother me. What a sweet girl. I lightly touch her hair, and she stirs a bit but doesn't wake up. This is giving me a fuzzy feeling.
Sitting up fully, I begin to recall everything I experienced in my short new life in this world so far.
I apparently died in my previous life and was reincarnated into this fantasy world. Not as a human, but as a so-called 'Cosmic Horror', according to Senka. I'm the daughter of the demon queen, who has quite the straightforward personality and sometimes shows a ditzy side unbefitting of a monarch.
The day I woke up, that demon queen, whom I call 'Maou-mama' now, gave me a human's variously prepared body parts for breakfast. When I ate it, I actually enjoyed the taste.
Maou-mama accidentally sent me to a dangerous place called Yagrath, the Dark Continent, where monsters are incredibly deadly even by demon standards. She came a while later to save me and brought me back to the demon castle.
We then went to meet a humanoid crocodile by the name of Nilotec, who runs the Blood Pits of Rodens, a collection of arenas where humans are made to fight demons for sport and training. There, my resolve to kill humans was tested, and I learned just how heartless they can be.
In the following weeks of training, I lost any signs of hesitation when slaughtering those who try to attack me. I haven't become entirely heartless though, and would still try to talk things over first, if possible. Only that it wasn't possible in all those cases I experienced, where the humans came at me with pure hatred and killing intent.
Three weeks later, and just seven days ago, I was sent to some random place in the world, and ended up in this human nation called the Kingdom of Lares. The first night it rained, and I took shelter under a tree, sleeping there while naked and surrounded by colorful sheep.
The morning after, I met Rolan and his party, among a collection of houses called the village of Birkas. I went along with his party on an extermination quest to see how strong human adventurers are, as opposed to drafted peasant soldiers. They're all quite weak, except for Luna's magic.
Five days ago, I left the village with them, and after traveling for two days, we reached this city called Hovsgaerden. After we had a great meal at a tavern called the Dancing Dragon that night - the one we stay in even now - the bard acted like an actual bard and related a story about the city's legendary lord from a long time ago.
Yesterday, I went shopping with Gram and learned that he's quite the gentleman. He bought me a delicious puff pastry called Rjoma. In the afternoon, I joined Luna on her shopping trip, and we visited a strange store owned by a dark elf called Lady Nightwane. That trip was cut short when three kidnappers attacked us there, and I learned about the fact that illegal slavery exists in this nation.
Luna was put to sleep in a single punch, and in the ensuing one-sided slaughter I found out that my appearance alone can give weak-willed humans heart attacks.
In that store, I also met a cursed doll-like girl who seems to have come from a different world just like I have. She even has a Japanese name: Ootsuki Senka. I bought her from the store owner with the money swiped from the three kidnappers I ate.
Said store owner, Lady Nightwane, has a bombshell figure, which turned out to fall within my - admittedly quite broad - strike range. And that same evening, I made a promise with her to find the person she was desperately looking for, in exchange for her becoming mine unconditionally, without specifying what exactly that means.
Just today, I helped in a raid on an underground slave trade ring and freed a cursed dark elf child called Kamii. She has a huge crab pincer in place of her right forearm, and cuteness that equally falls into my strike range.
And she also happened to be Lady Nightwane's older sister, who had been trying to find the former for the past eleven years. They met in a tearful reunion that affected even me, despite my current mentally quite cold and calculating condition.
So many things happened within just one month since my reincarnation into this world.
That was a more eventful month than I can say about the last year in my previous life. Honestly speaking, I'm not necessarily as grateful for this experience as I may sound, but if I had to choose between nothingness after death and this... then yeah, I'm grateful for this experience.
I had to fear for my life, and I'm still not completely out of the woods as long as I don't have a full picture of the strength of humans, but this new life is fascinating. I'm meeting interesting people and all kinds of fantasy beings, and I'm living an adventure - although it's different from how I would have liked it to be since I'm not a human.
"Creepy smile." I hear Senka whisper. Am I smiling? And damn you for pointing it out like that!
"I really don't know where all this will lead me to, but I think I like it here." I say to nobody in particular. Yes, even while surrounded by people who would turn hostile against me, if they knew what I really am, I'm feeling quite content with life.
"You're quite lucky with what you ended up as. Imagine if you had been a completely powerless human. Or if you only had the power to
return to a seemingly arbitrarily set save point whenever you died. As a simple high school girl, you would have faced despair a lot." Senka rains on my parade.
I'm fully aware of how lucky I am. While the second scenario is weirdly specific and I don't know what she's referencing with it, I've already imagined the first scenario. If I had been reincarnated as a powerless and talentless human in a world filled with magic and monsters, I don't know what would have happened. I might even have died as a baby, because in a world without medical technology, infant mortality is very high.
And I most definitely wouldn't have been able to meet this creepy-cute doll, or Daica and Kamii.
"But that's not what happened." Ifs, would haves, none of those matter. Only the present is of importance. I'm a powerful being, I have incredible talent in magic, and I seem to be quite lucky most of the time.
"Yes, it's not what happened... Just don't become too optimistic. Reality likes to slap overly optimistic people in the face when they least expect it." With a creaking shrug, Senka brings me back down to earth. It sounds like she's speaking from experience.
I understand. I understood ever since I was sent to Yagrath that one time. Something wholly unknown and far beyond my abilities could spell my end anywhere, anytime. That's why I'm remaining quite careful while among the humans so that I can live a modestly exciting but long life. That way, I may even be able to do something to change this world for the better.
Who knows, maybe there's a way to reconcile humans and demons? Well, if push comes to shove, I'll unhesitatingly side with the demons, that's for sure. After all, I'm one myself.
"I know. I'll just give it my all and live in this world the way I want to." Shrugging, I state the obvious.
"Mahkotoh?" Kamii seems to have been woken up by our conversation. When she opens her eyes and doesn't see me right in front of her, she quickly leaps up in a panic. Realizing that I'm sitting on the bed beside her, the tension leaves her body, and she throws her arms around me in a tight hug.
I almost dodged when I saw that she was using her giant crab arm without thinking, but that would have broken her heart. The inside of the pincer is smooth, so I won't get skewered - not like it would hurt me if I did.
"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." I pet her hair. I don't mind Kamii finding out about Senka since I can ask her to keep it a secret. Though I guess I should do it when she's not still half-asleep. Her eyes are falling shut as she nuzzles into my chest, and she begins to slip away into slumber again.
Well, no harm in staying in bed some more. I'll let her rest for as long as she wants to. We don't have anything planned for today, and I feel like lazing about for a while longer, now that I reviewed everything I've gone through in the past month.
The second time, I'm roused by Luna.
"Please wake up, Miss Marcott." She's leaning over me and shaking my shoulder softly. Apparently, there was something planned after all - something I wasn't told about, even though I'm an official member of their party now.
"Just five more minutes..." I mumble on purpose and keep my eyes closed. I've had a good night's sleep, so this is just messing around with her.
"Come on, wake up. We are having a meeting. Now that you are part of our group, you should attend." Luna shakes me again, a little more forcefully this time. I turn to look at the window and see that the shadows are quite short. It's almost noon already, huh?
Kamii wakes up from me stirring and rubs her eyes with her one good hand. When I think about it, that must be quite inconvenient. She must have led a harsh life even outside of being treated as an outcast and a slave. Big sis is here for you from now on, so you don't have to worry anymore~
Daica is up already and sits on her bed quietly. She's been like this since last evening when she reunited with Kamii. I'll ask her what's on her mind later after Luna leaves us so that we can do our morning wash first.
In the end, the big dark elf somehow evaded me, and I didn't find time to speak to her. I don't even know how she managed to do that, considering it was just us three - four when including Senka - in the room, for what must have been at least ten minutes. That would be some serious avoidance skill if it was intentional.
She doesn't have the most outgoing personality anyway, but her behavior has taken on a whole new level of depressed. I can't tell what's on her mind, but I'd prefer to know rather than watch her trying to sort it out on her own. Though I assume, it has something to do with the fact that Kamii seems to prefer being with me rather than her sister, whom she hasn't seen in such a long time.
But I can't ask her now, in case it's something personal and requires time to talk about. Thus, we make our way downstairs, out the tavern and across the city square towards the guild hall, in complete silence. I'm feeling a little awkward, but for now, I'll have to bear it.
When I look at the statue of Gulbrand glistening in the sunlight, my worries feel like they've been blown away. I'm inspired to do something adventurer-like today. Let's take a quest for some herbs-gathering or something like that!
Ugh, I'd rather sit around and do nothing, than take such a cliché beginner quest.
The party meeting is taking place over brunch. Kamii is on my right side so that she doesn't bother me with the spikes on her cursed arm, and Senka sits in my lap like a child - though she's obviously not moving and acting like a doll. Daica is on my left, picking at her food while deep in thought.
A flower in each hand! All the adventurers' eyes are on the four of us. Especially the dark elf's huge pincer is the center of attention, with the creepy doll coming in second, before they finally notice Daica's beauty.
"The request from Sveinn has been voided, so we'll have to look for something new." Rolan brings up the first point of the party meeting.
"So he was involved with smuggling the slaves after all, huh?" I mutter, but apparently loud enough for the leader to hear me.
"Yeah, Vigi caught him trying to escape out of the city on his own. He even went so far as to leave behind his prepared carriages." He explains the circumstances. In the end, I never even got to see that guy, although I would assume he looks similar to that Mogens bastard.
"What do you have in mind?" I ask, seeing as I'm sure he already looked at the request board before we arrived.
"Before that, there's actually something important I want to run by you all." Rolan looks serious as he addresses the whole party. "I'm thinking of relocating to the capital soon."
Oh? Now that's what I would call plot development.
"Huh?" Luna blinks in surprise and turns to her sweetheart. "Is this because of the recommendation to the Royal Academy?"
"That, too. But I'm sure we'll find a lot more work in the capital than we will here. Then you and Miss Chloe can enroll at the academy." The leader states with a confident smile. I think that's a pretty good suggestion; I really want to go to the magic academy and learn how to counter magic. "However, our funds are quite low right now, and the journey will require plenty of supplies."
I'm sorry I'm a glutton. Now that Kamii and Daica have joined the party, there are three freeloaders. I'm going to be doing work with my magic though, so I shouldn't count myself as a freeloader here.
"Well, Lady Marcott can find employment as a healer at the church." The bard interjects. I don't know about that, considering I'm a demon and supposedly spread corruption. Although a saint was unable to notice mine, so I question the veracity of that claim. "But since Miss Kamii will be hard-pressed to find any work, you will have to work for her part, too."
Why does he make it sound like it's something I don't intend on doing already? As the big sis, I have to carry the weight of the family - even though both she and her little sister are most likely older than me. It doesn't change the fact that I feel more mature than either of them.
One question I have in my mind is what Daica can bring to the party. Considering she's a full-fledged member and not my protégé, I need to expect something from her. If she can't fight, do heal
ing, or at least collect information like the bard, she won't be very useful.
Well, I could take care of her expenses, but she would have to pay it off with her body~
In regards to Kamii, I doubt she has any fighting capabilities despite that powerful looking cursed arm. Her physical strength is as one would expect from someone of her petite stature. When she slapped me that time we first met, it was a pretty weak impact. I found out that it's incredibly light, weighing about the same as her normal arm.
I won't make her pay with her body - I promised that I would take care of her after all.
"Yes, I intend to see this matter through to the end." I respond to the bard's quip with a determined expression, as I pet Kamii's hair. Don't feel neglected, Senka; I'll keep carrying and hugging you, too.
I turn to look at Daica, but she quickly averts her gaze.
"Is it really alright?" Luna sounds concerned. What, you don't believe I can earn money to support my little sister? "Leaving Hovsgaerden for who knows how long... are you fine with that?"
Oh, that's what she meant.
"Think of it as the first big step towards our goal of defeating the demon queen." Rolan pumps his fist. I suppress the urge to punch him on the spot for talking about killing my mother. "We would have eventually moved to the capital anyway. We're just going ahead with it a little earlier than planned. Don't you want to improve your magic as quickly as possible?"
"But what about going on requests?" Luna brings up a legitimate concern. If we're enrolled at the academy, I doubt we'll have time to leave for days on end. The subjugation of the wulfar took at least seven days, considering the journey from the village to Hovsgaerden alone already took three days. I don't know how the academy functions, but I'm sure they wouldn't allow their students to miss classes for that long.
"I don't think the capital will have many subjugation quests in the surrounding areas. We'll mostly explore the Lost Tombs, so that should be alright." Trying to relieve her concerns, the leader mentions something interesting in passing. Those 'Lost Tombs' sound a lot like a dungeon. I'd love to take a look inside a fantasy dungeon. "Don't worry, Runa. We'll be even stronger after your graduation, and taking down the demon queen should be a piece of cake."