Starchild Crusaders

by J. J. Pavlov

  Eventually, we reach an inconspicuous wall covered in faded hieroglyphs. The corridor continues in both directions, but the two monks stop here. One of them touches a hidden pressure plate on the wall, and with a tremor, the wall slides sideways. Unlike the entrance to the transportation room, this one didn't require any magic to open.

  The other side is a perfectly straight path that disappears into the distant darkness. It's barely enough for two people to stand side by side with their shoulders scraping against the walls, and the ceiling is just centimeters above my head.

  "So this is it?" I ask, having Jalil interpret the question for me. The monks are pointing down the narrow corridor and don't look like they're going to lead the way, so this must be the secret passage Ilham was talking about. It does seem to go on for a very long way, so I can believe that it leads out of the city.

  "Way outside Qusantinah." Jalil nods in affirmation. "East of walls."

  "So not entirely out of the city after all." I comment but then shrug. Makes not much of a difference for me, as long as I don't need to fight my way out.

  I walk ahead and let Jalil bow and speak his respectful farewells to the monks. He's a religious person and fears that if he doesn't at least try to seem unrelated to us, he'll never be able to return to live with humans. It's of no concern to me because I don't intend to come to this nation again.

  With this, our long walk in the dark begins.

  "Can you put the collar on me again, Chloe?" Hestia asks before I even walked more than half a dozen steps, and I turn around with an eyebrow raised in surprise. Did she get hooked on that kind of play or why would she - oh.

  Her wings barely fit into the narrow pathway and may scrape along the walls. That was quick thinking on her part to utilize my convenient body like that. But from her somewhat excited expression, I can glean that she's looking forward to wearing a collar as well.

  "I can have you wear me too if you'd like." I lick my lips and grin, causing the angel girl to blush.

  "N-not now." Her old self comes through a little as she stutters in embarrassment and glances sideways at Fulanah, who has been quiet for a while now.

  "Oh? She's another me, isn't she? Why would you feel embarrassed about enjoying yourself in front of me?" Teasing her with a smirk, I poke her side, and she flinches. There are several ticklish zones on her body, with this being the most obvious one.

  "She is, but..." Hestia mutters with another glance at my other half.

  "She's different?" I turn to Fulanah, who has been following our conversation with a curious look on her face. "What do you think?"

  "Well, we only met a few hours ago, so I'm like a new person to her." Shrugging, my other half comments in the exact same way I would have in this situation. I've gotten used to what's practically a permanent out-of-body experience by now, but I wonder if she has too.

  "I'm just messing with you. Collar it is, my cute little pet." Putting an arm around Hestia's shoulder, I squeeze her to me and whisper in her ears. I grow a collar from the same arm and close it around her neck, from which the cape to cover her wings extend. When it's done, she's back to being a beautiful, human-looking slave girl on a leash held by me.

  "So dark." Jalil, who has gotten used to my relationship with the fallen angel by now, has been ignoring our conversation so far and is looking into the corridor with his eyes wide-open. He's the only one here who doesn't have any degree of night vision, so we'll have to create a light source just for him.

  "Circumluceo." I hold out my free hand and chant, creating an orb of light in my palm. Then I copy that hand, grow the wrist out, and create a bone staff from my matter, which I use as a walking stick.

  "You got to teach me how to do that." Fulanah stares at the staff that resembles the one Luna has. It's the one that best stayed in my memory, especially since we walked through Rathgolim using fire cast through it as a light source.

  "Considering where you've been ever since we split up, I know you haven't learned any magic." Turning my head to my other half, I deduce. "But I think we'll have plenty of time on this journey for me to teach you all I know."

  "That reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask: Where are we going?" It took her a while, but she finally decided to pose it. I was wondering when it would come up and expected it much earlier. She's been living a pretty carefree life in the harem and seems to have forgotten what it means to work toward a goal. I know I would have.

  "To a place very far from here." I reply, the images of Kamii and Daica floating into my mind.

  "Why do you have to go there?" Fulanah asks, frowning at the mysterious air I appear to be putting on.

  "It's a long story." Muttering without turning around, I sigh.

  "But this is a long tunnel." We then say in unison with perfect timing. Now I turn around, and we grin at each other. I was prepared to tell it anyway and only wanted to fulfill all conversational clichés when sharing one's story.

  "This is incredible." Hestia comments with an awestruck expression. "You really are the same."

  "Not entirely." Both of me reply at the same time. I don't actually have a mental connection to her like twins seem to when depicted in fiction, but our thoughts do overlap in many areas.

  "I'm the one who made you what you are today." I continue while my other half remains silent. But I don't doubt for a moment that if we were to transform into the exact same appearance, then spun around each other a few times, nobody could tell us apart without asking questions that may reveal who is who.

  "Our memories define us. And you two have shared some together that I haven't." With a thoughtful smile, Fulanah gives her reply.

  "Speaking of memories. I'd like to hear the rest of the story of how you ended up in the harem before I tell you mine. You did leave out the most important part." I turn to my other half with an inquisitive look. Knowing myself, she skipped it because there was something embarrassing she doesn't want me to find out. And knowing myself, she's going to tell me after just a little bit of prying.

  "Well, I may have made some mistakes. At the slave market." She begins, and I'm all ears. Did she unleash the Cosmic Horror when she saw the injustice of people in chains? Never mind Hestia following us on a chain. "You see, there was a harpy girl on sale-"

  "There was a harpy girl?" I interrupt in a pitch higher than I intended it to be. Hestia looks up at me with a pout, and I scratch my cheek. I wasn't lusting for a harpy girl, but I can see why it may have come across that way. On our journey, we didn't see any signs of demi-humans or even demons living in this nation, so I was only surprised to learn that there was at least one of them after all. And I did want to see one myself.

  "I know, right? Just like our mother's maids!" The other me replies with glittering eyes, misinterpreting the reason for my interest just like Hestia did. "She was adorable, so I wanted to buy her and then set her free."

  "How noble of you. No ulterior motives at all, right?" I toss her a sneer, and she apes me with one of her own.

  "In either case, I didn't know the language - and still don't - so I couldn't tell them that I wanted to buy her." She continues her story as we walk through the darkness illuminated by the orb of light in my hand-cane.

  "Don't tell me you attacked them and tried to steal her?" I wouldn't ever do something so stupid in a crowded place.

  "No, I wouldn't ever do something so stupid in a crowded place." Mirroring my exact thoughts, she replies. Then she clicks her tongue. "I really didn't need to say that out loud just now, did I? You are me; you already knew that I wouldn't."

  "Yes, I did. But it's fun watching myself talk to me."

  "I think the same, but it slows down the conversation."

  "Sorry." I apologize and gesture for her to continue.

  "I was already standing right in front of the slave trader, in my shabby and torn clothes, by the time I realized that I couldn't even ask him how much she cost. And from my appearance, he thought I was an escaped slave." Fulanah explains
, but once again, it seems like she's leaving something out.

  "That can't be all of it?" Tilting my head, I raise an eyebrow once again.

  "Well, he smiled at me and said something I didn't understand, so I thought he was trying to communicate." This seems to be the part she didn't want to tell because it's a blemish on her record. "By the time I realized that he was only distracting me, an enchanted collar was put around my neck that gave me an electric shock whenever I tried to touch it."

  "I didn't know there were enchanted collars." That sounds like one of those electric dog collars used in inhumane training methods. Though enchanted items are quite expensive, most likely even more so in a nation where magic is limited to the select few and never taught outside of the capital. Then again, whoever can afford to trade in demi-humans or demons must be able to afford those too.

  "They seem to be used for slaves suspected of having escaped before." Fulanah explains while shaking her head.

  "Why didn't you just turn your head narrower and slip it off?" Asking as if doing that is a matter of course, I scrutinize my other half's reaction.

  "Turn my head narrower?" Blinking with an apparent lack of comprehension, she tilts her head the same way I would do. It seems she didn't experiment with her body much because she never learned to do so from Maou-mama. Truth be told, I wouldn't have tried any of the things I've done in the academy - such as turning myself paper-thin or growing stilt-like extra limbs - if not for my lessons with her after getting rescued from Yagrath.

  "I have a lot to teach you, it seems." I sigh and reply.

  "In either case, I was sold from place to place because my face was so exotic." Pointing a finger at me, she continues. "Because I only thought about changing the color of my skin, just like you did."

  "And my hair." I let my fingers run through my now blonde hair.

  "Eventually, I ended up in the harem of a court official. He was a real pig." Shuddering, Fulanah recalls that episode in her life. "But he was lucky that another court official of higher standing visited before he could try anything, and took me off his hands. This guy then brought me before Malika, and the rest is history."

  "Did any man..." I leave the question unfinished, but she shakes her head in a silent reply. Since we're both me, our preferences are mine as well. And I like women, not men. "Then you were quite lucky yourself."

  "I would have fought tooth and nail to kill them, even if it meant getting electrocuted." With a determined expression, Fulanah raises her hand and transforms her nails into sharp claws.

  "That's a great way to put it." Thinking back to my first day in this world, when I fought for my life against the vularen whose template I'm now using at every turn. I've come a long way since then. "That's the perfect segue into telling you my side of the story. But before that... what should I call you? Are you fine with Fulanah?"

  "What do you mean? I'm Kuroe Makoto." Replying in a matter of fact tone, my other half blinks her eyes.

  "Please consider the situation of there being two of us." Massaging the bridge of my nose, I sigh.

  "Ohhh." It seems she really only just now realized that this may be confusing to others after all. But considering she never got the chance to introduce herself to others with a fake name like I did, she didn't put much thought into her identity.

  "Well, there's nothing wrong with Fulanah, but it doesn't suit me. Since you're my lower half, your nickname shall be..." Scratching my chin, I think about it a little.

  "Please, no!" Just before I can say it, she raises a hand and exclaims.

  "Asoko - huh?" But my mouth was faster than my reaction to her preemptive protest, and I blurt it out anyway. Why not? It even sounds like a proper name.

  "Oh. Well, that could have been worse." My other half says in surprise. It takes me a second to realize what she thought I was going to name her, causing me to stare at her with a deathly glare. She turns her head away and avoids my eyes. Is she more perverted than I am because she's my lower half? While the nickname I gave her does refer to that part, I would have never used the word that came to her mind first.

  "Then let me formally introduce you to each other." Now that this has been settled, without actual consent from my other half, who now seems to accept it as a lesser evil, I turn to my entourage. "This is Hestia, she's my-"

  "-slave in body and heart!" The fallen angel finishes my sentence with her own words, an excited blush on her cheeks.

  "-girlfriend." I finish the way I intended to while completely ignoring Hestia's interjection. Then I gesture at the skinny man with the pencil mustache, who has been silently following our exchange while trying to avoid drawing attention from both of me. " And this here is a normal human, Jalil. He's-"

  "M-master's slave." Our guide bows with a nervous stutter, now that he does find himself at the center of attention anyway.

  "-our guide and interpreter." Ignoring him just like I ignored the angel girl, I finish their introduction. Then I turn to the two of them, eliciting a charming smile from Hestia and a quivering gaze from Jalil. "This is Asoko. She's... something like a twin."

  When we first met, we talked in Japanese, so nobody else understood what we were saying at the time. For now, I want to keep the fact that she's actually another me a secret.

  "You got two slaves, huh?" Asoko's condemning gaze tells me that she's not happy about that. Knowing myself, she hates slavery just as much as I do.

  "Didn't you hear what I said? Don't listen to them." I grumble while scratching my hair in annoyance. Then I glance at Jalil. "To be fair, he's here against his will. But he worked at a slave bar, on the side of the owners, and deserves it. When this is all over, I'll let him go and even pay him though."

  "Not against will. I gladly follow master." Lowering his head like a beaten dog, Jalil doesn't help my case at all by trying to appease me.

  "In either case, now you know each other. We're going to be traveling together for a while after all." Ignoring his statement once again, I conclude the topic.

  "And that's the cue for you to tell your story." Asoko remarks with an impatient expression.

  "Then I'll start from the very beginning." I start, take a long breath, and revisit everything that has happened to me so far from the moment the two of me became separated.

  As our walk through the dark corridor continues, I lead my captive audience on a mental journey of my life. How I ended up on Yagrath, the Dark Continent, and returned to the Dominion again. Learned what it means to be a Crawling Chaos and a princess of demons, and how to control my body and focus my mind. About Maou-mama sending me on a pilgrimage around the world to become worthy of being a ruler.

  I chose this moment to reveal to Hestia that I'm the child of Demon Queen Pelomyx and heir to the throne. Her surprised expression isn't on the level of shock or horror, so she may have already suspected that I'm not just a regular demon. Jalil, on the other hand, is shivering all over, and only fear is causing him to continue following us.

  "So both our remaining parents are the most important people in our respective homelands." The fallen angel says with lips curled up in amusement. Her gaze tells me that she cares about my past just as little as I do about hers, and only our present and future together is important.

  "What are the odds of us meeting, right?" I gently caress Hestia's cheek. "A Fata and a demon."

  "Yet, here we are." She replies, showing nothing but love in her gaze.

  Returning the look, I turn to Asoko, who rolls her eyes at our cheesy exchange. She'll learn soon enough what it means to be so in touch with somebody. After all, she's just me who hasn't met her Kamii, Daica, or Hestia yet.

  I continue my story, describing how I met Rolan and his party, then traveled with them to the city of Hovsgaerden. There, I met Ootsuki Senka, the living doll, who is a fountain of knowledge about this world and has helped me many times.

  "That's a Japanese name." Asoko interrupts me, deliberately speaking in our native language so neither Hestia nor Jali
l understand. So far, neither of us have revealed that we're reincarnations of a person called Kuroe Makoto - at this point, I can't say that I'm her alone after all. "Is she?"

  "No, it seems she isn't reincarnated like we are." I reply in Japanese as well. "She hasn't properly told me what she is, but her knowledge of the world from our previous life as well as this one is astonishing. I think she may be able to travel through time and space."

  "A goddess?" Scratching her chin, my other half asks with a complicated expression.

  "Quite possible." I think back to my first meeting with the doll girl. Something about her made me put my absolute trust in her as if I reunited with a friend I've known for all my life. And she hasn't done anything that would lead me to believe she would ever betray that trust. "At that time, she was the only person I could talk to as myself."

  "I see." Smiling to herself, Asoko nods in understanding. She saw right through my feelings about Senka; that her existence saved me from my loneliness. She became the only person in this world who understands what I really am, whom I can talk to without any restraints.

  "Though I have reason to believe that our mother is a reincarnator." I remember our conversation when I returned to the castle through the transportation network to warn her of Mithra. "But let's not jump ahead."

  With this, I return to speaking Imperian so that Hestia and Jalil understand me. I recount how I killed the thugs and met the tied-up Lady Nightwane, whose real name is Daica. We found out about the illegal slave trade being conducted in Hovsgaerden and started an investigation.

  When I expressed my wish to join Rolan's party, Saint of Luminosity Arcelia Crux approached me. It was there I learned that I had all magic affinities and was told to enroll in the Royal Academy in Kongenssoevn. But of course, we still had things to do in Hovsgaerden and didn't leave right away.

  Soon after, the investigation turned up information about the location of the slave trade ring. In an exciting and well-planned raid, we assaulted their fortress in the slums and freed all the kidnapped demi-humans.