§
Even the next morning, I was just about dying of embarrassment. I absolutely could not believe Sen got naked and kissed, right there in the outdoors! She and Shindzha even groped each other a little! I know nobody but pixies could see her, but… well, somebody saw her, you know?
But Sen insisted I had to go speak to Ceria as soon as we returned in the early morning. Of all the people for me to have to face, after she did that!
But I did, in the end. I managed to ward off her usually lustful hands by fetching Melione and bringing her to Ceria’s tent with me. Sen was teasing me about it in the background, but I seriously have a hard time thinking while a randy catgirl is trying to flirt with me.
To be honest, I have trouble with the affection these Servants give me. There’s an artificial cause for it that makes me feel guilty to receive it. Although Sen assures me that they only feel ‘affection’ for us because they receive affection from us. If our thoughts for them were sinister, they would feel fear and hatred.
It feels like an excuse to me, but Sen says as long as I feel like I need to treat them well, even if it’s out of guilt, they will continue to feel affection for me. She does agree it’s messed up, but the only good way to resolve it is to do things like have them learn Mireia’s tricks and make them wear the bracelets, and, most importantly, continue to treat them well.
Once Ceria set up the connection, which ended up including not only Mireia, but also Rod and Tiana, I reported what we had learned overnight. Ceria’s and Melione’s eyes grew wide as they listened.
It wasn’t the news about the demonic monster tamers that shocked them, of course. Both of them had encountered such a thing before. And surprisingly, it wasn’t the part about Shindzha believing that the rebel side was actually under the command of a demon lord. Rather, it was one word in particular that came up in my conversation with Mireia that had their full attention.
When I finished my report and Ceria extinguished the Light magic, Melione grabbed my hand and Ceria crossed her arms.
“What?” I asked, uncertain about what they were so alarmed about.
“Hellspawn?” Melione asked, with a disbelieving voice.
“Didn’t Lady Serera tell you about her?” I asked, a little confused. I had asked her to.
“She told us you had an ally out there helping you, but not a hellspawn!”
“Whyever would a hellspawn be helping us?” Ceria demanded. The playful catgirl had suddenly turned into a deadly serious adventurer.
“Because she’s one of Lady Tiana’s Servants, just like you two,” I told them bluntly.
They both just kept looking at me, as if they were waiting for something more. Finally, Melione said, “I thought only mortals could be Servants?”
Ceria nodded. I just shrugged.
“Apparently, despite their appearance, hellspawn are just humans with demon fathers. The demonic physique alters their appearance, but their blood is mortal.”
<In fact, Fan Li thinks it might be possible to turn Shindzha into a proper mortal,> Sen noted. <Tell them that.>
They were still staring blankly at me, so I lamely added, “Also, it might be possible to turn her into a normal mortal. She can’t use Demonic mana anymore anyway. Her demonic physique forces her to drink blood from living animals, but otherwise, she might as well be a normal girl.”
They looked at each other, still uncomfortable, then Ceria asked Melione, “You want me to call Mireia again?”
Melione shook her head. “No, I… I don’t feel comfortable doubting Hiléa. I mean, she’s basically our Mistress in a different body, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve actually seen her turn into Lady,” Ceria confirmed.
Melione’s eyes grew. “You’ve what?”
“Could you show her, Lady?”
I was going to say no, but Melione’s hopeful eyes suddenly glued on me made me reluctant to do that.
<Sen?> I asked.
<Fine. Just for a bit,> she said, and took over.
§
I chose to become Physical Tiana rather than Physical Senhion, and I kept the Tia Mona outfit that Lhan was wearing, since experience had taught me that the juvenile Elder ‘sundress’ was dangerous around Ceria.
Melione’s mouth dropped open for a moment when she saw me. Then, in very Ceria-like fashion, she tackleglomped me.
“Woah!” I responded with a slight laugh. Usually Melione is more reserved than this. But I hugged her back, and then, upon seeing the jealousy in Ceria’s eyes, opened one arm back up to include her. She didn’t need to be asked twice. I let them both squeeze me warmly for many seconds.
After sharing a kiss with each one, I reminded them, “You two need to eat and then break camp, right? And I can’t stay here. I can’t risk others seeing me.”
With that, I mischievously put Lhan right back in the driver’s seat.
§
Suddenly physical again, with my arms full of girls, all I could do was squeak, “Hey!”
Sen’s delighted laughter echoed in my mind!
The two saw what was now in their embrace, looked at each other with twinkling eyes, nodded and kept their arms firmly locked on me.
“See?” Ceria demanded with a smug tone. “She’s really Lady! But ain’t she cute like this?”
“She is,” Melione giggled, and kissed my forehead while squeezing me. “I can’t believe how tiny she is!”
Both of them are taller than Tiana, meaning they’re much taller than me. And age-wise, I’m just a kid to them anyway. I guess this wasn’t weird. But…
“You two need to get breakfast, right?” I reminded them.
“Not yet,” Ceria decided. “We need to tell Chiara first. Why don’t you run and get her?”
The you she meant in that case was Melione, but I shook my head.
“Nuh-uh. I know what you’ll do once I’m alone with you, Ceria. You go get her.”
Melione burst into laughter, then told Ceria. “She’s our Mistress, after all. You heard her.”
Ceria stuck her tongue out, then quickly slipped out of the tent. Melione kept her grip on me, then whispered into my ear.
“How come you think I’m any more trustworthy?”
For a moment, I was worried, but I relaxed immediately.
“You’ll do something like this even though I’m complaining, but you won’t keep going like Ceria would unless I start helping, right?”
She kissed me on the cheek and admitted, “That’s true. Ceria knows you won’t tell her to stop, so she takes advantage of it. But once you do put your foot down, she does stop, right? Like just now.”
I lay there in her arms for a bit, my mind still a muddled mess. Finally, I asked her, “Melione, why don’t you resent me? You know that if the bond didn’t make you like this, you wouldn’t be so… um… “
“Cozy with you?” she suggested, with a tinge of teasing in her voice.
“Yeah. I mean, it should at least matter to you which one of us is here. It’s not as weird to be like this with Lady Tiana, cause she was already your friend, right? Moving from friendship to becoming intimate with her isn’t so strange. But until a few days ago, you never even met me.”
Melione sighed, then nodded. With a more Melione-like manner, she conceded, “Yes, I suppose that makes sense.”
Then she kissed me on the cheek again.
“You’re making a silly mistake, though,” she told me. “You think you’re just yourself, even though you know it isn’t true. You’re connected to Lady Tiana and all the others, remember? We can tell that you’re all the same person. We can feel it.”
“Well, yes, but…”
“You’re all one soul, to which all of our souls are connected. Our connection is not to Lady Tiana, but to all of you.”
I frowned. “That’s what you’re supposed to resent, though! I’m somebody you don’t even know. I’m not even some ‘Lady’. I’m just a slave girl, you know?”
“Mm,” she responded with a mysterious smile. “Yes, you don’t understand. None of us hate it, so what is there to resent?”
“That’s the bond doing that to you!”
“No,” she stated flatly. “Oh, I can see how it would be something to resent, if we disliked you in the first place. If you were someone we hated being tied to, I agree that this would be an awful situation. But every single one of us has a reason to like having the bond we have with you.”
Sen weighed in at that moment. <You were a slave, and you are mistaking your condition then with their condition now. I don’t think either I or you is in a proper position to understand their viewpoint.>
<What about Mireia?> I fired back. <She went from slavery almost straight into blood bondage!>
<You probably have the least in common with Mireia. She was summoned into this world to be a weapon, and her arrival itself forced the original slave’s soul out of the body she’s in. Her situation before Diur broke in and freed her from it was truly awful. I’m not saying your situation of being a slave and a master’s pet was good, but it wasn’t as terrible as hers, especially her situation once she fell in love with Rod while hiding her status as a slave. It wasn’t me that freed her, but I welcomed her into our family so she could be with her love. She probably has more gratitude to me, to us, than anyone.>
“Mistress?” Melione asked, curious about why I seemed to be spacing out.
I sighed. “I guess you’re right. I don’t understand.”
Ceria and Chiara appeared shortly after this, and I spent time explaining the situation to her as well.
“I honestly don’t understand why Serera didn’t explain what she was,” I complained.
“Well, she did tell us that someone was there,” Chiara noted. “And warned us not to go looking for her, so we didn’t blow her cover. Maybe she was afraid we wouldn’t accept her if we knew about her being a hellspawn.”
“I can kinda understand that,” Ceria nodded.
I sent them to breakfast and sought out Serera to fill her in. I wanted to complain about her failure to explain Shindzha, but I simply confirmed that she had told the fairies and let her know the Servants knew now.
She turned out to be surprised that I told them, and I had to assure her that they would be okay . I decided to let the whole thing pass after that.
Since we were nearing the destination, we would soon be leaving the valleys and heading into the higher elevations the next day, but we had one more day of following the river valleys. We were currently following the third since entering the Kasarene Highlands.
When we broke camp and began the sixth day of our trek, I’m sure most of the expedition had the expectation of a similar result to the last five. And, at least through the morning, it worked out that way.
That peace ended abruptly, in the middle of a pause to water the horses and take lunch, with the appearance of a silver-haired beauty in fair armor ‘standing’ in the sky above our intended path, joined by four more dressed as knights and a skirmish line of at least twenty fairy warriors.
