It was only minutes ago that I had been discovered. I had believed my escape plan had just failed like that, with a single man hearing my barks and discovering me in my makeshift hideout. I had believed he would bring me back to my rooms and confine me there or, far worse, lead me to the king who would present me to the gathered masses of strangers.
There had been no way for me to escape the fate of being made into the prince's betrothed and it was only a matter of time before I would not only be forced to marry him but also to... be his wife. And then she had appeared, just like that, to end all of my fears by just being here.
Cilia didn't even have to say a single word. After stealing my dress and underwear to protect her bare body, and complaining about how tight it was in the chest area, she simply picked me up from the ground and carried me away just like that.
The man didn't even think about stopping her. After the initial three or four seconds it took for him to overcome his surprise, he immediately knelt down without ever daring to look up further than Cilia's knees. He didn't even utter a single word to her, though I could hear him mumble a series of prayers.
His comrades were far harder to deal with. Some of them knelt down to honor the goddess and pray, others, however, immediately began spreading the news of her appearance in the midst of the palace garden. I heard the shouts of the men traveling through the buildings, reaching further and further, until they were almost inaudible.
It only took minutes for this little information to reach the wrong ears. Before we had even seen the gate that would lead us to freedom, a large group of guards and familiar faces appeared in front of us. They blocked our way, some by standing, others while kneeling down.
The king seemed shocked to see the vixen in person, but even he soon bowed down to show his respect to her.
“Did they all see the figurine? What did they do with it? Display it for all to see?! Why does everybody know how she looks?!”
It took Hensin only a few moments to regain his usual calm. He slowly raised up to face Cilia who stared at him as if he was the sole warrior protecting an enemy castle.
“Your holiness, please wait,” he begged her.
“You dare to block my way?”
I looked at Cilia in disbelief. Her voice was entirely different from the one I had grown accustomed to. It seemed dominant, self-confident and... looking down on them?
That had to be it. She was treating those men and women in front of her as lower beings, as insects she could easily trample into dust should she decide to do so. And the king believed her. Not only him, but all of his guards, too. I could even see a few of them shaking in fear.
There was only one single figure that didn't seem to be frightened, one that knew me well enough to judge that I would hold back Cilia should she try to go on a rampage. Laurin stepped forward, ignoring the words of his father who tried to hold him back.
“You will take her away?” He asked, his voice growing weaker with each word he spoke.
“I will not accept a mere human to ask for the hand of my daughter!”
“I never tried to hurt her!”
“She did not wish for it!”
“But I,” he hesitated for a second, “I love her!”
It was only now that his father dared to step forward. He once again bowed to the goddess, completely lacking the boldness of his son, before he spoke up in a quiet, but collected voice.
“Your holiness, I never wished for your daughter to be displeased. I only tried to make the best decision for both her and my people.”
“Why would that mean to marry her to your son?”
Hensin placed his hand on Laurin's shoulder. “My son will be the king of Aurent, the greatest of the Eleven Kingdoms, and she will be at his side, as his queen. She will be loved by the masses and receive all the honor she deserves. There can't possibly be a better man for her!”
Cilia answered him with a threatening silence, clearly showing what she thought about his 'generous' offer. Hensin, however, didn't accept her rejection just like that. He kept pushing forward, trying to protect the precious jewel named 'saint' or 'fox' he had managed to grasp for himself.
“We will dedicate shrines to your holiness,” he promised, “not only the one in the palace!”
“Shrines…”
I could almost hear Cilia thinking. If there was a single thing that could bribe her, it was shrines or anything else that would increase the number of believers that fed her with faith.
Hensin wasn't blind enough to miss the change in her expression. A faint smile grew on his lips before he continued his attack.
“Your holiness! I have personally ordered for the palace shrine to be dedicated to you alone! It has your statue. I have prayed to it each day without a fail! Everybody here has!”
“...”
“Your daughter will receive everything she ever wished for. Nobody can ever make her happier than my son!”
“...”
Cilia considered it, she really did. That meant until I helped her find a decision by chomping down on her, or rather my clothes.
“He- he isn't the best,” she stammered.
“How can there be anybody better?!”
“Is he strong?”
“Strong?”
“He has to be stronger than everyone! How else could he ever hope to protect her?”
“The Royal Guards are-”
“They will not be with her when she sleeps next to your son!”
“I can arrange that they guard her!”
“You want them to be around when they love each other?!”
Yep, there it grew again, that tomato-face of Laurin. Deep inside of his head, he already saw me lying next to him. I could swear he did.
“Don't try to imagine it! WHY?!”
Upon seeing this reaction, even Cilia could realize that she had said something stupid. She went silent for a moment, lost in thoughts, before coming up with a new and better excuse or rather a lie, one that even the king would not be able to ignore.
“Rika will become a goddess herself. How can she accept her children to have a weak father?”
“A goddess?! Why didn't she use that excuse from the start?!”
Hensin needed some time to come up with an answer, but in the end, he could only make more promises that solely relied on her trusting him.
“I will make Laurin the strongest man there ever was! I will host a tournament and have him defeat everyone daring to challenge him! He will prove his worth, as a king and a man!”
“A tournament?”
“Yes, your holiness! I will host it in the city for everybody to witness! There will be no tricks, no cheats, nothing!”
“I can see your dedication, but do you really think he will turn out to be the strongest?”
“I will make him the strongest for sure! If he proves his worth, please allow him to take your daughter's hand in marriage!”
“And if he loses?”
“He will give up on her.”
“Does that guy even have an idea about what he is talking about?! Humans are weaker than elves in magic, aren't they? And they should be weaker in strength compared to beastkin! And there are many other races!”
Not only that. If there were dragons and wyverns, there should be demihumans with their blood, too! My knowledge of this world was by no means acceptable, but going by logic alone, I was sure about Hensin losing this bet no matter how hard he tried. I felt sorry for his son.
Cilia, too, seemed to share my thoughts. She didn't even consider denying his proposal as it was the easiest way out of this mess and palace.
“My daughter will turn sixteen in spring,” she randomly decided, “she is too young to marry yet. Hold the tournament when she turns eighteen. I will personally give them my blessings should your son be victorious.”
“As you wish, your holiness!”
“Now step out of the way! My daughter needs her rest!”
“Where will you bring her?”
“I will bring her home, where she belongs.”
This one line was enough to break his remaining resistance. Hensin moved aside to free Cilia’s path and knelt down to once again honor her. His guards and his family followed his example, creating two lines for her to walk through. And she did just that.
Without saying a single word, she passed by them and exited the palace through the gate. Not the small ones that had been open when I had been brought here, but the giant one in the center of the two, the one that had looked as if it had never been opened in decades. Dozens of guards stood to both of its sides, all of them kneeling down to show their respect.
Naturally, all of this caught the attention of the onlookers that still were gathered in the courtyard. They didn't know about Cilia’s real identity, only seeing a white-haired beastkin instead. So while a few were kneeling down to follow the guard's example, others chose to do nothing but stare.
There were even some that dared to shout something, but Cilia didn't waste her time with them. Instead, she summoned half a dozen foxes to free her way from anybody coming too close. The voices reaching us soon drowned in waves of equally threatening and fake sounding barks. It was as if the foxes pretended to be foxes in the first place.
Still, I was saved.
I hope that Laurin loses the tournament if it happens and he gets shamed
I feel like there's a person with some very important opinions on this matter that everyone forgot to ask. Also I hope Mabel wins that tournament
Isn't the main theme of this story "screw the MC's agency"? Literally no-one in this story seems to care what they think, all decisions are made for them.
I don't know chiefs, she could literally said MC's experience when no one know she's a fox, and said there's no way in hell I'll trust humans race for that, wrong race? So if she's a wolf everything they're doing is justice? She doesn't even know the events that makes beast-man hated, and such, and she then blast a walls of soldiers and such and... I don't know, honestly, guess I'm just frustrated that the "Mom" Is even thinking about the Shrine offers, like, you could build one yourself, plus you can put it anywhere that way! If you can't, can't you just have your daughter, sorry I mean, kidnapped slave object of power source, do it for you. Feel like a shitty excuse to do tournament arc that doesn't even have anything good attach to it.
Cilia is pretty much evil at this point in the story. Deceived, mentally tortured, psychologically abused and manipulated the MC. Sure, it was in a effort to keep existing, but to what extent is directly overriding another sentient being's identity acceptable until you pass over into "demon taking over my mind" levels of f*ckery?
Not that she's much worse than literally every other character in the story that Riku tried to explain himself to and was categorically ignored, denied and threatened by, because they know who he is better than he does.
Honestly, the blatant disregard for the MC's will from absolutely everyone, including himself (it was established several times by now that he still considered himself a man, but the goddess just went ”lol u girl nao” and decided he was a woman for him and changed his name that he just went along with for some reason, never trying to correct it) makes it hard to take any of his struggles seriously. He complains - in internal monologue-style only - about his issues and then doesn't act on them and lets people walk all over him while silently bemoaning his circumstances but doing next to nothing about it. It feels like forced drama that could reasonably be avoided if this MC had even a hint of a spine.
Not him, but she. And what could she do with the whole kingdom? Or do you want her, like a typical hero, to cut open at the last moment a great power in herself and pave her way to freedom with corpses?
Was it not because Cilia had to make the body based on herself just younger?
@GigaDotti I don't contest that the body is female, just that the mind wihin it is on record stating he's a man, and hasn't rescinded that.
@Dodfiv Hardly. He's shown an awareness of the situation that indicates he knows how valuable he is to them, so they couldn't really force him outside of imprisonment, but he doesn't even attempt to talk to them? Tell the princeling he's not into men? MC's a wimp.
@Ayn Well you can control your mind to a level, but not much with your subconsciousness. you can make yourself believe what you want, but your subconsciousness knows what it wants. Its just not gonna tell you what it is and you have to figure that out yourself.
(am i talking about the right thing or am i wrong with how the mind works?)
@GigaDotti I doubt that the MC has had enough time for subtle subconscious effects to manifest, being juggled from one traumatizing event to another. I feel like there would be a whole assortment of more pressing mental developments than gender identity, considering the way the MC has been treated so far. Trust issues, paranoia, anxiety, dysphoria just to name a few.
@Ayn Yea the mind can be a sensitive thing.