Chapter 14 - "I like it when you smile, please don’t be scared."

Lilith

Trying to reclaim my former persona, I bring back my green outfit in full, and do my best imitation of a commanding royal stance, and look toward the now naked, former top hat man, and ask in a cold, formal tone, “Now that your desires are sated, I ask of you, what are you auctioning this night?”

He tries to look at me but doesn’t completely manage it, oops, maybe I overdid it. Well, I did want to put him out of commission for a while to ensure an easy escape. Just when I think he might not respond, he begins talking with a low raspy sounding voice, “Three items, the Queens’ Staff of Asogalla, the Heroic Sword of Mylla the Blue, and the rarest piece, a rare forbidden Miscreation child of an improperly sterilized Miscreated Fang-Rabbit Mother and a Human Father, raised to adulthood and trained to be an excellent slave maid by Headmaster Ives Maycaster, of the Belleview Servant Academy.”

As he begins to speak, my first thought is he could use some water or something, followed by, feeling a bit disappointed, it seems like it’s just a boring, ‘staff and sword of power’ or some such thing, but when he gets to the third thing, my heart sinks a little, of course it would be foolish to think slavery of some kind wouldn’t exist, hell it’s still a struggle on modern earth, just in different forms.

What really pulled upon my spirit was the fact it sounded as though she was taken from her parents and raised to an adult to be… well my imagination was running wild thinking of what sick things some crazy people on earth might do if they had an obedient adult bunny girl that would cater to their every whim.

In fact some very specific memories come to mind and it was difficult to not just break down into tears right there as I recall the scene in my head. A few years back, I was at a convention with my best friend at the time, Evelyn, she was cosplaying Black Rabbit, from the anime we were watching together at the time, ‘Problem Children from Another World’ or something like that.

For most of the convention we were sticking together, but we both separated to use the bathroom, at the time I was not really ‘out’ in any public sense so I was not going to the same one she did. Hmm, I seem to have issues with bathrooms, speaking of bathrooms, I haven’t used one yet, though I’ve only drank blood and magic wine so far, hmmm. Anyway, out of the 4th wall and back to the present… or... past? Past in the Present? Arrrggh.. whatever!

One of the worst days of my life followed, as when I found her, she was being accosted by three dudes, one was very big and scary looking, they were trying to get her to go with them and she was resisting, and they were becoming hostile in tone, one of the other two, smaller guys, even tried to yank her purse away.

Of course I rushed up somewhat blindly and asked if she was ok, she immediately ran towards me, and we tried to run away from them, and we did manage it, sort of, we made it to an area with a lot of people. But no matter where we went they were following us, except for whenever we went to look for security, somehow they would ‘magically’ vanish until the security person was no longer around then they’d find us again.

Eventually we came up with a plan, that she would come with me to my car, that was parked in a public spot, and I would drive her to her car that was in a parking garage. She was scared to go there, as not as many people would be there, and we would be outnumbered. I thought about trying to call the police, but I wasn’t sure if it would do any good if they just vanished again, nor if they would arrive in time if we were followed in the parking garage.

Looking back, I wish I had just tried, best case they could have maybe driven those guys away or escorted us, worst case is they got angry or fined us for wasting their time if those guys vanished again or maybe they might have taken us away for some stupid reason, even that's better than... what actually... happened. Ugh, Anyway.

We hoped that if we drove away in my car, and took a roundabout path, that they wouldn’t be able to follow us and she could get into her car safely. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t realize the guy who grabbed for her purse had snatched her parking pass for her hotel nearby, that was in one of the outer pockets of her purse.

I dropped her off at her hotel thinking she was going to be safe. Sadly she was not. She was assaulted and raped, the words “fuck bunny” were written on her forehead, and she was in the hospital for 3 weeks, they had broken one of her legs, and fractured her jaw. It was injured in such a way that she could not talk the same way anymore. Not that it mattered, she barely spoke after that. We didn’t go to another convention together for like, 4 years, and she stopped cosplaying entirely.

I begged her to press charges, but the men were not from the state with the convention and none of it was caught on camera, and those stupid, overly pompous idiots who had the power to help, be in police or convention runners, etc. Blamed things like her quote ‘skimpy outfit’ and that if she had been nicer maybe she could have had a nice evening or some bullshit that I didn’t try to remember because it melted my brain cells too much.

I’m not sure how much time passed as all that flashed back before I found myself back in the room, my entire body felt like it was on fire, I was crying with tears of mana, as it poured out from my body involuntarily imbued with my emotions, it felt as if my perception was filling up the entire room in some way I didn’t understand, I could feel the pleasure that had permeated the room be sucked away from its occupants as it was replaced with a fear that somehow tasted delicious to me.

I can barely avoid shaking as I try to reign in my fury, probably more afraid of myself than the people in this room are of me right now, I look toward the naked, former top hat man, and demand of him, “There will be no auction, bring them to me, I am releasing the girl from your care,” my voice wavering as I struggle to maintain my coherence and calm myself down as I begin to take many long deep breaths. 

The room seems to freeze around me as stillness takes over, it’s occupants unmoving and silent. Eventually, I realize nothing is really happening and my frustration breaks the stalemate as I clench my fists tightly and simply ‘shout’ one word as loudly as I can with all of my intent, “NOW!”

Finally things begin to happen as I can hear some of these ants begin to scurry to obey my command. About time. Right now I feel as if I could kill the lot of them on a whim. Yet they just stand there and gawk at me as they cower in fear. If I could go back to earth I would make all of those people who hurt me and Evelyn feel the suffering they caused others, over and over, I would make it become their entire existence, they would only know their suffering, that which they inflict upon others. If only I had this power then, I could have saved… saved... I… saved Lilac.

I look over towards Lilac and feel a little calmer as I try to smile at her, I lean closer to her and she recoils away from me in fear like the rest of the people here. I realize right away I’m losing myself and my entire purpose here was to save Lilac, just what the fuck am I doing now?! And what am I becoming?!

As I myself recoil away, I stare at her meekly, ashamed of myself. I notice she has a collar around her neck and remember back to when I first noticed it as a spider, and could nearly slap myself on the head. I gesture meekly towards her neck and ask, “I don’t want to hurt you, I… uh… does that collar hurt?” my hand is shaking as I worry about what sort of monster I am. I feel so ashamed of scaring her, am I no better than when those men were scaring Evelyn?

I was brought back to the present again as Lilac replied, “No, but it prevents my use of magic. I would prefer it removed.”

I snap my fingers as I flare my intent to the former top hat man and order, “Have her collar removed, now!” 

His condition seems to have worsened as he is barely able to even sit up as his head hangs down, bobbing up occasionally only to fall back down, drool spilling out from it as he sits slumped, still naked, in his chair. Upset at him, and myself, I glare across the table looking for volunteers but they all recoil away from me, as I scan the room most people do the same, a few even hide under their tables. I feel proud and scared at the same time. Izanami help, I’m afraid.

One man runs out of the room butt naked, and I almost cackle until I realize no one is going to help me and a frustrated growl escapes my throat as I look back towards Lilac. I take a deep breath and try to calm myself, as I approach her, I try to reassure her by telling her as gently as I can, “Try to be still, I’ll do what I can.”

I reached out to Lilac’s neck and gently felt around, examining the collar and her neck, to make sure it was not attached to her in some way I could not see. After I figured out it was freely movable and not stuck into her with needles or some other crazy thing, I spun it around slowly. As I examined the collar I noticed a thicker portion with a flat edge, closer examination revealed a faint line separating it into two halves.

As I peeked underneath I saw a small pinhole, but as I looked around for something to use there seemed no obvious way for me to activate it. I am somewhat afraid of some protective mechanism hurting Lilac, though this collar looks cheap and somewhat flimsy to me, maybe because on earth brass jewelry seemed ‘cheap’ compared to gold or silver plated things, solely by looks and the upsell by the clerk.

That said, I had little real experience in my previous life, it was only within the past year I had even begun to dip my toes into jewelry at all. Maybe I should try to find a nice bracelet or something later?

I was brought back to reality as Lilac shivered, as my arm had wandered off during my musings and was now sliding across her chin. I pulled it back, fast, but not too quickly, not wishing to scare her further. ‘Ok Lilith, concentrate!’ I think, as I focus myself, Looking at the mechanism again, I decide to see if I can feel anything if I try to flow some Mana through it. Placing my thumb and forefinger from each hand on opposite sides, I start imagining my mana flowing through it like a current to see if I can notice anything.

I stare intently at the necklace with my ‘night vision’ as well as trying to ‘feel’ for anything I can. I notice that my Mana is not flowing out one hand and into the other, as I had attempted, but is instead, flowing out of both hands into the collar, and being ejected out from the flat portion quite forcefully. The mana coming out of it somehow seems far more translucent than what I release directly.

I think I figured out what it’s been doing though, it seems like it’s sucking mana out from Lilac and ejecting it some form that’s difficult for her to use or control? I stop my mana from flowing into it, and decide to just try snapping it, but just to be safe, I am going to try something a little crazy to protect her from any booby traps.

Concentrating very intently, as I hold the collar away from her neck, preventing any contact with her skin, I imagine my wind and mana encircling the collar very tightly and thinly as a very close, but not touching distance, like a shield. With the intent that anything inside will be forced to stay inside. To do a small test of its separation ability, I try to use additional wind currents to maneuver one of her hairs onto the collar.

The instant the hair comes into contact with my barrier it flies off in a random direction away from it at high speed. I feel satisfied, thinking this is the best I can do for now. I’m still apprehensive, but I’ve come this far, and I feel like she’ll need her magic sooner, rather than later. I grit my teeth and hope against hope that I’m just overthinking things as I move my fingers to snap the collar.

The silence of the room was shattered with a deafeningly loud snap as the collar snapped easily within my fingers, feeling almost brittle. I wonder if it really was so fragile, or if I did something unknowingly? I feel some fear and do not want to consider that I am some kind of super strong monster. Not wanting to linger and scare her further, I back away from Lilac and toss the collar aside, wanting to be free of my unpleasant thoughts about my strength.

As I stand there concerned about my own worries, my eyes draw my attention away as I notice more of that strange translucent seeming mana forms around Lilac, being sucked into her as if she is a black hole. In some way I can’t explain, this mana, and that of mine still floating within the room, seems to pass through each other as if neither is there for the other.

I watch in awe as this new mana seems to condense out of nowhere, some distance from Lilac, and slowly becomes denser, yet somehow still more translucent than my own, as it approaches her. A thought about the WorldMethod and it’s one size fits all mana that Izanami told me earlier come to mind. I go to check the tutorial for that part again but oddly it seems grey out and I can’t open it?

The flow of mana into Lilac begins to slow, and she holds her hand toward her face and begins directing mana from her fingers with the precision of a surgeon and the flair of an orchestra conductor, as her wounds begin to be healed by a now much denser, opaque mana that is connected to her fingertips.

As I watch carefully I receive three ping sounds within my head.

I looked at the items in the cases I noticed the tan cloak man’s hand shaking as his head was raised, I looked in the direction he was looking to see the figure of his boss, slumped naked in his chair covered in blood. I immediately become worried and begin to prepare for an attack, as my ‘swords’ are a moment away from being drawn.

Looking back toward the man who is now screaming “Murderer!” at me, he is mid-charge already with the sword raised as if he plans to behead me. I duck sideways as I extend my now tentacle arm with it’s ‘sword’ end out to attack him in return. Pain floods my body, emanating from my shoulder as I wince and scream in a manner that sounds very unfit for my voice, in other circumstances it would probably scare me, but now, I don’t care how I sound.

I can feel my arm and ‘sword’ within him, as the blood from his body caresses it gently as it flows out and I begin to taste of it. As I stare into his stunned face, revering in the fear displayed upon his widened eyes I collapse to my knees and drink of him in earnest, as his essence flows into mine and the feeling of warmth and energy becomes the primary sensation in my mind.

Sitting there enveloped in the sensation, an energy to the side catches my attention, glancing up I realize what I felt was Lilac preparing to cast her healing spell on me. She doesn’t need to waste her energy on me, she needs to save it so we can get out of here, safely, hopefully.

I look up at her, as I see the emotion on her face, the fear and worry mixing together, I think about myself for a moment, and wonder, just what do I look like to her, to these people? The feelings I have been experiencing this past while, anger and fear, feeling excitement at other’s fear? What is becoming of me? I’m scared, of myself.

Staring into Lilac’s eyes, twinged with both concern and fear, painted across her face as her eyes are wide, her mouth half gaping open, sweat visible running across the side of her face, yet nevertheless a healing spell swirling about her hands, half in the making, I feel scared and ashamed.

“P- please, d-don’t. Save your- energy, I’m… I’ll be alright, I think.” I say to her, my mind’s voice flimsy and unassured.

I look down to the source of pain on my shoulder I had forgotten about, my arm is completely severed, blood covers the floor as if it had sprayed and splattered upon being severed. A slow, steady flow is making it way down my side still, as I trace it down to the floor, where my detached arm now lays. I retract my tentacle arm back as the man whose blood I just gorged upon falls limp upon the ground.

Turning my arm back to normal, I reach out and pick it up, imagining if I hold the severed parts together, I can knit them back together just as I do with my shapeshifting creations. While it feels sloppier than normal, and somewhat, off, in a weird way, I am able to reattach my arm without incident.

I sit there, for some time, simply breathing, in, and out, trying to calm myself, in and out, I’m still here, and alive, everything is ok, in and out, Lilac seems fine, I haven’t become a monster and murdered everyone, in and out, things are fine, in and out, it’s all going to be alright, in and out, just be calm, in and out.

Nearby movement catches my eye as I look up to see the Maid girl elbowing her retreating escort, breaking free and beginning to run for it. I freak out, not wanting her to get hurt or worse by, whatever is out there, outside, I can’t be worse than it? Please don’t run! PLEASE!

“PLEASE STOP! NO ONE NEEDS TO RUN!” I cry out with my mind.

As I stand up I find myself somewhat horrified to find the majority of the room is now on their knees or completely on the floor. A few, like the maid girl, were on their hands and knees. I felt a slight bit of relief that Lilac at least was standing, but I quickly rushed over to help the maid girl up. As I approached her, she was sobbing and crying uncontrollably.

“Please, mistress, I beg of you to spare me, I will not try to escape again, I can be useful please…” the maid girl was begging repeatedly as I kneel near her. I feel sick. What the fuck is wrong with me? I try my best to console her. 

“Please, there is no need to cry, please stop.” I say to her with my mind, while I can barely withhold tears of my own now.

She looks up at me, her eyes filled with such fear, I… a part of me wants to enjoy it as it had with the man who attacked me, but a much greater part felt utterly repulsed by the whole affair. She is no longer sobbing, but her eyes were still filled with fear as her body trembled. I had to look away, I look down to her hands, and grab one, and begin to lift it slowly, as it trembles with mine.

Her hand felt cold as it sat within the grasp of my own, her heartbeat could be felt in the stillness of the moment as I sat there, her hand in mine, the whole world nonexistent to my mind. Without looking at her, I did something I haven’t yet attempted. My head leaning nearer to hers, I focused myself with all the intent I could, through my telepathy.

“I never meant to scare you, and I don’t intend to hurt you. I… had hoped to save you.” as I communicated this, I pushed my thoughts and memories with all my intent, flashing through my life, before and now, my friend Evelyn, my own demise, Izanami’s offer. All of it. I feel mentally exhausted now, my head aches and feels warped in some way, as if I forced something through a place it was not meant to be.

As I look back to her, her face seems gentler somehow, no longer contorted in fear. Her ears perk up slightly, as she meekly tells me “I… I… I will g— go with you.”

I help her stand up, unsure how much of what I tried to convey actually made it through, but it seems like enough did. I hope I don’t regret sharing so much, but what else could I do? I fear she would think of me as nothing but a monster otherwise. I glance over to Lilac as I slowly walk back, holding hands with the maid girl, hoping she will not fear me as a monster too.

I reach out my hand to Lilac as we stop beside her, and she meekly holds her hand to mine, with a smile across her lips. I feel as though a weight is lifted from my spirit, at least she seems ok. I hold up both their hands as we face the room. Despite my worsening headache, I push out my intent further within the room, stirring the remnants of my mana within the smoke.

I project my ‘voice’ to everything in the area as strongly as I can stand, “Please forget everything that happened tonight, and you never saw either of these women beside me. This party was fun and going wonderfully until the guard got too intoxicated and attacked—“ I realize I have no idea what his name is, the man in charge. I glance around the room looking for any clue, a name, maybe a house name, anything. 

Unable to find so much as a hint I look to Lilac, and lean close to her to whisper, out of habit. I ask her softly in my mind, unable to avoid the feeling I need to whisper, “Uhm, Miss Lilac, forgive me but… what is that guy’s name? The one in charge? The uh… naked man.”

I nearly blushed at the question. Her reply was quick and curt, “Roulant Goodmond.”

Standing back straight, exuding false confidence I did not really have, I continued my faux act, as I worked to finish my command, “Until the guard was intoxicated, unruly, and attacked Mr. Roulant Goodmond here. He was healed by a mage, but is quite weak, and could even enter a coma— Er I mean he… he may not wake up for some time. Understand? Fun Party! Guard Intoxicated! Bad Guard Attack! Roulant Injured! No wake up!”

As I let go of their hands I step forward and accidentally step on the handle of the sword the man sliced my arm with. Thankfully I avoid falling over, hoping no one noticed, I bend down to pick it up, as if I had planned to all along. As I stare at the blood soaked blade, I think that I cannot put it back into its case without wiping it off. Looking around I see Roulant’s clothes nearby and grab his undershirt and wipe off the blade with it.

I place the sword back into its case, and close both of the cases, for it and the staff, best leave these things alone, or actually, I could bring them along, probably better to not let them float around the city all willy nilly. As I finish that and stand back up to look at Lilac and the Maid Girl, I notice she has a collar like Lilith did. I stop for a moment and look over it closely, it looks nearly identical to Lilac’s, perhaps I can snap it off too?

I raise my arm to point at her neck, and the collar, as I ask, “Is that uncomfortable?”

The Maid Girl nods her head. I can still see her shaking slightly. Despite everything she still looks a bit uneasy. I hope this won’t be a trend for me, with people. I reach out slowly to the collar, trying to smile as gently as I can, while I glance between her eyes and the collar. After finding the flat side with the thin line separating the two sides, I place my finger and thumb from each hand on either side of it, and apply force. 

It snaps with a loud crack that echoes around the room, just as the previous one had. The girl winces at the sound, but seems fine otherwise. As I smile at her she smiles back, and I unwittingly raise one of my hands and pat her on the head. 

She winces and jerks away from me on contact, and I quickly pull my hand back and apologize, “I erm, I’m sorry, you just looked too cute there. I… like it when you smile, please don’t be scared.”

She relaxes as I speak and smiles at me again, I refrain from patting her head a second time. Instead avoiding her gaze as I spin around to face the two weapon cases, and briskly walk toward them. At first I plan to just pick them up and carry them out myself but then it occurs to me, if we run into trouble I’ll need my hands free. Not to mention I want to sneak back up and grab my bag before we leave this building behind.

I’m not even sure where we can go, I didn’t think that far, though, I imagine Lilac likely has some place that we can stay at for at least a short time while the next steps are discussed. I am hoping she will be grateful and allow me to stay, and the Maid Girl too, as I presume she has nowhere to go, besides back to some cell, or some creepy dude’s house? We can discuss it once we’re away from this room, and these people.

I spin back around to the two ladies I intend to “save” as I nearly laugh at the thought, and myself, what am I even doing? I stare at them for a second, oddly both seem reasonably calm and more accepting of this situation than I feel I would be, or that they have any reason to be. Gah. No time to think. We should leave.

“Might I ask you two to carry one of these, each? And, I’d prefer to have a bit of a chat once we get out of here and find some privacy.” I say in as polite a tone as I can muster.

The Maid Girl, nods and swiftly acquiesces my request in a manner befitting her outfit, as I try to avoid letting my jaw hang open. Knowing about maids and butlers, and seeing them in action are two very different things. It’s obvious to me she has practiced intently every motion of her form, just as a dancer might spend years honing their craft. Color me impressed.

Lilac brings me out of my thoughts as she stands beside me with the other case and asks, “What do you plan to do with these?”

I think for a moment before just telling her how clueless I am, “Mmmm… I really have no idea, we can decide later. For now I just want to get away from here so we can talk in private, please.”

Looking at the people still around us, seemingly frozen on their knees or on the ground, still breathing but... out of their wits. I shudder slightly, fearing myself, before trying to shake it off. Hopefully these people will be fine, someone should come looking for them eventually. I step up to the longcoat man and fish in his pockets for the keys, planning to lock the iron bar double door as we leave. 

I’ll leave the keys behind nearby, so whoever looks for them can extract everyone safely. I say to myself, as I try to change subjects in my mind and be oblivious to the not very nice things I have been, am, and plan, to do. ‘They’ll be fine, someone has to come find them.’ I think to reassure myself, as we exit the room.

Freesia.Cutepearl

Yay! Part two done!

I hope you all enjoyed things so far. This was fun but also exhausting to write. I wanted to have this out earlier today. (Eastern Time)

Ah well, sometimes you can't get what you want. ? But if you try sometime you find, ? You get what you need ?

Sorry, I can't help myself. ha ha... ah.... ha.... *sigh* no...? Ok.

Anywhosit...

Thank you for reading and have an absolutely gorgeous day~! <3