A Request

“Man, I should have expected there being something as strong as a forcefield around the capital of the kingdom…”

“No need to worry my lord, you only need to get stronger,” Epsilon stated while patting my back.

We sat together inside a spectral-drawn cart outside the entrance to Imp City.

“It's really a shame that we missed them. They were really just here.”

“The Imp Lord was just slain so it's only a matter of time before they return, my lord.”

I shook my head. I really needed to get out of this funk. I stood up and looked into the distance. The sky was painted dark and full of dazzling stars. It was something I never got to see due to the disgusting light pollution back in my world. I never really thought about it, but I really did always want to see the stars.

“Once they come here, we will dispose of them swiftly—well, the Savior in particular. I want you to capture that bat girl. She will be mine. Oh, by the way, I'm hungry so I would like some chicken.”

She bowed. “Very well, my lord.” She shot a small metal tin out of her small mouth and into my arms.

“The fork and knife too, if you will.”

A fork leaped into my hand. I love having my own inventory. 

I opened up the container with my unarmored hands to reveal a chicken roast wrapped in parchment paper. It had been a while since I was able to dine like this, but in this world, it was rather easy to eat what I wanted—as long as I prepared, of course.

“Soon a confrontation will occur and I shall squash the Savior under my boots. Wow, that sounded straight out of a villain monologue from a movie. I'll make sure to hit him where it hurts and bestow upon him my greatest creations. This is going to be a good night.”

I sat there with my follower eating chicken while staring at the stars. It was nice.

————————————————————————————————————————————

When I woke up from sleep, it was afternoon. The teleportation circle had taken us into some old ruins that were clearly in the Beast-Kin Warped Lands. When I rubbed my dry eyes and looked around, Raze was still fast asleep. He really did lose a lot of blood last night, even after I healed him. Now we were in unknown territory, just the two of us. The sky was cloudy but still felt cool with the gentle breeze. I rubbed my shoulders to stamp out the pain from sleeping on the rocky ground. Raze slept like a baby, though, casually snoozing on top of a rock bed without a care in the world.

“He almost looks like a nice guy, but I won't be fooled. I should wake him up soon…”

He wouldn't be too happy either. All our food and water remained in the carriage outside of Imp City. Well, we couldn't do anything about it now. I took this chance to look at the new ability Raze had acquired by looking through SkillShare.

“Hmmm, [Gluttony], huh?”

Gluttony: Ten-hour cold down per user. Once activated, if the user kills an opponent who possesses a Skill that they don’t possess, they will acquire one from the fallen opponent at random. You may choose the Skill at MAX rank.

So it's a Skill-taking ability, huh? That would come in handy in the future, but I wish we were able to get one of those great Skills from the Imp Lord…

“I can't dwell on that now, though.” I sat down to take the time to look through all my stats and that's when I saw something that made my eyes grow wide.

“What the….hell?”

[Name: Komoria Vato]—[Class: Beast-kin Sorceress]—[Level: 32]

[Skills:Skills: Soul Link (MAX), Fireball (Rank 9), Healing ward (Rank 9), Flight (MAX), Blazing Spirit (Rank 2), Night Vision (MAX), Skill Share (Recipient)]

[Status: Nervous‘ (Unknown affliction’ Stage 3)]—[Attack: 300]—[Defense: 400]—[Magic: 1250]

“'Unknown Affliction Stage 3'…. When did I get this? More importantly, what exactly is it?”

I patted my chest before trying to feel my heartbeat.

Normal.

I then took a deep breath and exhaled as naturally as I could.

Also normal.

The only other thing I could do was look around my body to see if I got an infection or something of the sort. I checked all over even in more...private places. I was grateful Raze was still sound asleep, but I don't think he would care even if he saw me. There was no way he viewed me as someone of the opposite sex and that was fine by me.

At least he uses my name now. It was pretty hard to be called bitch or bat or hoe all the time…

“Ugh… soooo where the fuck are we? I'm starving.”

It seemed Raze had finally awoken from his long sleep. It might have had to do with all the sound I was making from my personal check-up. By the way, there was nothing strange or out of the ordinary on my body. It makes me both relieved and worried at the same time when I think about it…..

I decided to take my focus off it for now and answer Raze’s questions.

“First of all, we are in the Beast-kin Warped Lands. It consists of rocky terrain or flat lush meadows, mostly. There's even a chance I have been over here before.”

He said nothing, just staring at me as if waiting for me to continue with my explanation. Then his stomach made a loud groan.

“Oh, right! We don’t have any food so we better seek refuge in a village or go hunting. I'm sure someplace will take us in."

“I see.” Raze was sitting crisscrossed and pounded a fist into his open-palmed hand.

He seems awfully mellow…..

He jumps to his feet, his mind clear of any doubts. It wasn't something I was used to seeing from the time I had spent with him.

“Alright, well I guess we should look for a farm or whatever. They better treat the Savior well for killing one of the Generals of Terror or whatever.”

“The Lords of Tyranny,” I corrected.

“Yeah, whatever. Let's get going.”

————————————————————————————————————————————

The terrain gradually got smoother over time as we walked along a steep path. It seemed we were teleported into the mountains when we lept into the transportation circle. It had to be a random exit because there was no way the Imp Lord would want to come here out of his own volition. Well….unless he wanted to invade them…

“This place reminds me of outside my shitty home where we forgot those goblins.”

I nodded along, still lost in thought. “Yeah…”

The idea of invasion plagued my mind with dark thoughts. Even if the Imp Lord was gone, what is to stop the other Lords of Tyranny from invading? It really killed my good mood with that depressing thought. Hopefully, there would be something to get my mind out of the gutter.

At this point, we could finally see a small settlement surrounded by trees and grass. It looked rather small, but I knew what the beast-kin were like.

“That land is most likely part of a bigger tribe. It looks somewhat familiar too….”

“Do you know that person?” He pointed a hundred feet away where a person was running towards us.

I'm sure he couldn't see well with his human eyesight from that distance, but I could see her crystal clear. A girl around my age was running towards us with worry splashed across her face. She had fiery red hair with ears of the same color sticking out from above. The fangs that stuck out from below her lips were a clear indication of what type of beast-kin she was. It was even more apparent by the bushy tail that impatiently wagged from left to right as she ran.

A wolf beast-kin? Then my village should be….

My thoughts were interrupted by the girl's shouts and heavy breaths.

“Please...huff huff…..help...huff huff...my…..home….”

She dropped to her knees after saying that, extremely exhausted from running to us at full speed. I wanted to help her, but I knew the chances of Raze and I being on the same page were next to zero. I looked over to him to ask, but the answer was written all over his face. And yet he spoke to the pleading girl.

“I ain't helping with shit. Go find someone who cares to save your village, heh.”

I knew it.

He then stuck out his middle finger at her for some reason. I wonder if it meant something.

The girl's shoulders dropped as his painful words sank in.

“P-please….the other beast-kin tribes…..they are….attacking us….”

That put up a big red flag in my mind. Something was clearly not right here.

“Raze, this could be the work of another Lord of Tyranny. Don’t you think we should help?” I pleaded.

"I don’t give a shit. I'm hungry. I can do the good deeds la—”

His antenna started to ring.

“Fuck! One second.” His attention went to the display. “The fuck you want!? Yes, I have been doing my deeds. No, I'm hungry right now… Oh, it will count for two? Well, when you put it like that… I guess I can help the wolf out…”

Endina popped up on my display as well. “Hey Komoria, how are you doing? I hope you are well and your family too.”

I raised an eyebrow at the last part. “Why wouldn't they be ok?”

She waved her hand into the air as if to brush off the question before getting serious again.

“Oh, it's nothing… Anyway! The news I wanted you both to hear is that the king’s daughter went missing and there's a huge reward to find her.”

“The princess?”

“The smelly young guy has a kid?”

Endina nodded at both of our answers before she proceeded,” Yes, she has disappeared and it is unknown if it was a kidnapping or not. However…”

““However?””

“Yes, however, there's a good chance she was kidnapped by the Mind Control master, Basilisk Queen Elenora.”

I hadn't heard that name before, but I knew it was another Lord of Tyranny.

“What can you tell me about this new bitch?” Raze demanded.

“About that... We gods don’t have much information on her since she has never been seen outside of her own realm. We only know about her main source of magic since it's very rare. I can’t tell you anymore. You will have to find out for yourself, my apologies.”

“Tch, useless—Ahhh!” Raze furiously patted his puffy hair, static still shooting out of it.

“That's alright. I'm sure we can make do with this mind control information.

“Yes, beware of that, but I’m sure you will encounter it soon enough…”

I don’t like the sound of that.

With a short wave, she faded from our sight. We were left alone with the wolf girl who was still slumped below us. 

I spoke up for the two of us” Hey, don’t worry! We are here to help. Just tell us what's going on.”

“....” Raze was quiet for once, but I guess he had to approve.

My ears wiggled left and right with joy. I wanted to help out a fellow beast-kin girl if I could.

“We will help, so please take us to your village,” I spoke with a softer tone so the girl would be able to feel at ease.

She stood up and wiped her face with her sleeve. She had long bangs, but I got a quick look at her azure eyes as she stood up. They were rather pretty, even with the tears.

“T-thank you so much! I—I d-don’t know what we can do to repay you, but I'm sure the Elder will think of something! Please follow me.”

With that, we followed the mysterious beast-kin to her home.