Chapter 1: Part 11 – . . . and they have such sharp Thorns!
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3223 words for you my dear little reader!
Enjoy . . .

Part 11 - . . . and they have such sharp Thorns!

When I finally made my way to the actual bathing area, I was more than a little surprised. Because despite my initial doubt about this place, seeing as my first impression of sanitary technology had been a damned wooden bucket, I was proven wrong about losing all my hope. As, much to my joy, it seemed like the servants were treated way worse than I had initially expected. Even though that may sound cruel, the reason for saying so had almost made me scream out loud in joy. While there were still buckets this time metal ones though, there was also the distinct addition of flowing water and steaming hot one at that.

Apparently magic allowed for far more luxury and therefore social disparities for the ones that can use it in comparison to the ones that can't than technology could or at least did provide in my world. While back on Earth, the Middle Ages had been a time of massive knowledge loss, where almost no one cared for hygiene, personal or otherwise, here it seemed they did, in fact, indulge in copious amounts of hot water and scented soaps. So if they actually had a proper bathing culture, maybe it was too soon to say that they were on the cultural level of the Middle Ages, it actually might be more like the early 16th century?

Whatever the case may be, I would have to gather more information about their social life and their weaponry to properly make an educated guess. A culture's military could say a lot about the people making up their society and of course their level of technology. As of right now, I had basically no actual information to go on, and the existence of magic didn’t exactly make any of this easier. Confused about the possibilities that power might bring with it, I turned back to my task at hand namely bathing! ‘Seriously I can feel my damn fluids drying between my thighs and on my tail . . . just, ugh.’

Having a mission to fulfill or rather wanting to feel clean again, I looked around for a free spot. I could have either run straight into the bath area or use the little alcoves; seeing as I really wanted to escape the clutches of the clingy pervert I, wise as I was, I chose the alcoves. Maybe later I would try the little pool they had; it would certainly be nice to relax a little in the hot water. Ignoring all the stares and comments about my presence in the bathing house I soon found myself in one of the empty stalls.

Happily smiling I looked over the shower and immediately frowned at what I was seeing. While the thing definitely looked like a shower I didn’t quite understand how it worked. I mean, there was bronze showerhead with about a dozen holes, and there were two round metal spheres set in the wall, one coloured red and one blue. But when I tried to get the water to flow nothing happened. I tried pushing the button like stones, I tried twisting them. I pulled them, in short, I did everything I could think of; I even glared at them, motivating them to do something by the force of my will. Sadly it was not to be, nothing I could think of worked. So I did the only logical thing, I lifted myself up onto the sidewall and peered into the cabin next to me, much to the dismay of the current occupant. The girl in question proceeded to shriek as if she had seen a demon . . . which she probably had.

“Hi there.” I raised a hand in greeting.

“Wha-Wha-What are you doing!?” The now rather flustered looking girl tried to hide what little of her assets existed behind her arms.

Smirking like the little shit that I was I answered her. “Well, I’m leaning on a wall. I thought that would be quite obvious?”

“That is not the problem! What do want from me!?” ‘Hmmm, no need to get all pissy.’

Instead of answering her directly, I used the situation to figure out just how dextrous my tail was. In one smooth motion, I raised it from the ground of my alcove and plopped it into the girl’s space. Seeing as the thing was with about two-meter, way longer than it had any right to be, I allowed myself a bit of fun before actually asking what I needed to know about. The girl's expression became one of shock and she went little teary-eyed, as the triangular tip softly slid across the front of her chest and wandered upwards to her cheek. A quick poke later I turned my tail towards the two coloured metal spheres.

“Those, how do they work?” To emphasize my question I pointed at both of the two knobs with my tip.

“Huh? What? How do you not know this? Don’t demons bathe?” She grimaced in disgust, looking down her body. I had a hard time keeping the laughter from my face, as I knew all too well where that tail had been just a short while ago.

“No, we don’t. Instead, much to our amusement we find another demon and lick each other clean, or we jump straight into churning lava pits and burn everything off.” Somehow I had managed to keep a straight face throughout the entire lie.

“Is that . . . so?” ‘Ah, these girls’ faces are the best. They are just so easy to trick!’

“Yep! All true. Now, how about those showers?” I tried to sneakily poke her in the side but she was faster than expected and deftly stepped out of my reach.

“Simple just pour your mana into either sphere, the more mana the more water . . . I don’t have to explain that red is for hot and blue is for cold, right?” ‘You . . . just did though?’

“Thanks!” I swiftly dismounted from the wall and turned back to my own shower

With now hopefully enough information I went back to inspecting the knobs. ‘Mana . . . hmmm. Yeah. About that, I have no clue on how to do that!’ As my first and only experience in things having to do with my own magic was the mishap in the gardens I shrugged and kind of tried the same. Surprisingly it worked, only this time I managed to not burn half of my face away. There were only two problems between me and the shower now. One was that I felt what I took for my Mana flow excruciatingly slow, and the other that despite me having clearly managed to get a stream of water going, no matter how small it might have been it also wasn’t really hot? A more accurate description would be lukewarm. Seeing as all I understood about magic could be put into the circumference of my pinkie I did the only thing that seemed logical; I pushed more of my magical juices into the red knob, for everyone knows, more fuel equals more power. What I had not expected was for the entire bath to fill with a thick steam cloud or the amount of verbal abuse flying my way!

“Holy shit? Who the fuck is using so much hot water?” ‘Uh, not me?’

“I can’t see!” ‘Not my problem!’

“Fleur? Where are you? I want to wash your hair!” ‘Go away creep!’

“Okay, you dumb sluts; who dares to interrupt my bathing time?!” ‘Ugh, that girl sounded a lot more pissed and bitchy than the others.’

Deciding that the girls' comfort wasn’t my problem and because I still had blood and other fluids sticking to me I consequently ignored any attempt to find the steamy perpetrator and went back to my shower. ‘Oh~, yes! This is much more comfortable. Now that I think about it with this much steam, shouldn’t the water be at boiling temperature? So how in the hells am I standing under it?’ While I was certainly taken aback by my inhuman skin qualities, thinking about this brought me nowhere other, than that it must have to do with demons. Much to my demise it seemed that my blood was as heat resistant as my skin and only hard scrubbing got it off, to make matters worse I didn’t even have soap.

Sighing out my frustration I resigned to at least clean my downstairs area, I began rubbing away the gunk when I heard several people approaching. I turned around, my hand still buried in my snatch as an unseen force parted the steam and slammed straight into the wall behind me. My head impacted the stone with a nasty crack and vision went blurry for a short time. When the daze cleared I looked upon the person with the absolutely cutest looks I had seen in a long time, and she held the absolutely ugliest expression to match them.

“Why the fuck is there a demon whore pleasuring herself in my bathrooms!?” ‘What!? How can that face be so cruel?’ I only looked at the cat-girl confused. I simply didn’t comprehend what I had done that would result in her assaulting me.

“Oh, look she’s not only ugly but dumb too. What a surprise.” ‘Okay, that does it! No clue how or why she attacked me, but it is time to teach that bitch a lesson!’

“Who the fuck summoned this unsightly creatu-”

Before the girl could even finish speaking I had pressed my heels against the floor and pushed forward. I managed to clear the distance between us in a single jump and just as she was turning her gaze back to me, my fist connected with her stomach. The punch was apparently enough to send her collapsing to the ground in pain. As she sat there clutching her stomach I looked around. The two girls with her, one had bunny ears and the other what looked like hamster ones, were desperately attempting to hind behind each other, and several of the girls in the showers were now peeking out trying to see who was fighting. With a scowl, I turned back to my attacker. Just as I was about to speak up I saw something quickly flowing from her chest to her hand. More out of ingrained instinct than any actual reason I dodged out of the path of her hand swipe. And not a second too late it seemed! Where I had just stood, an invisible force pushed both water and steam away and impacted the wall with a loud smack. Alerted by this sudden display of what could only be magic I pressed down on the girl’s hands, holding her fingers in an iron lock.

“What the fuck was that!? Are you trying to kill me, bitch? The fuck did I ever do to you?” I yelled at her.

“Get off of me you damned Savage!” She struggled but my grip was far stronger than anything she could muster. Seeing her stupid face getting all worked up I couldn’t hold myself back and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Just so you understand if you ever try and fuck with me again, you can be happy when I do only that to you. . .” I stood up but kept my eyes trained on my opponent, I sure as the hells would give her the opportunity for a sneak attack. I was just about to call out for her when Aliyana appeared almost right next to me.

“That is some serious fog right here!” I scoffed at her choice of words. ‘Actually it is steam; the difference is the temperature at which it is created. So, you’re wrong, please fix!’ While I didn’t say it out loud, I really wish I would have. Instead, I simply moved to the exit, while keeping my gaze locked on to the cat-girl.

“We’re leaving little Missy. Now!” Much to my disappointment the dumb . . . well now that I think about it calling her a Bitch just wouldn’t work, anyway, the Kitty took this as an invitation to join our talk.

“You! Mureay! So that whore is indeed your summon! I’ll have your stupid head for that! You hear me!”

Aliyana only looked a little panicked at me and then at the girl again, before quickly following behind me. It was pretty clear that she didn’t want to deal with the situation right now. I just hoped none of that would have any long-lasting repercussions. Ah just who was I kidding, of course, it was going to come back to bite me in the ass. I was just the kind of person that magically attracted danger and misfortune. Now when you think about it, maybe there even was something like Luck or Fate-Magic. I definitely would have to ask Teril about that later! But for now, I had other things to bring in order.

And one of those things was meeting up with Teril. Well, I had expected her to instruct me a bit about the world and my current situation. What I had not expected though was for the supposed meeting to develop into fully fleshed out hour-long study session! Not only did she teach me about the World, which was called Magea by the way, no it was more than that.

First was language meaning writing and proper speaking, as apparently the spell at my summoning only translates and I didn’t actually teach me the language, bummer. Next was a bit of history and politics, boring as hell, but at least I now knew that I was on the Arisen Continent, in the Andanian Empire and in a city called Neo-Thauma-Ákra. When I asked what happened to the old Thauma-Ákra she only shot me a pained look and said she was sorry for the day I found out. That was no ominous at all! Disregarding my suspicions Teril simply went on and the last thing she tried to push into my brain in a way too short of time was Magic-Control. At that point, my mind simply drew a blank and I stormed out of the classroom with a major headache. When Aliyana dragged me away to eat lunch together I didn’t even put up any resistance, my brain was simply jelly. Thankfully it was about halfway in that I was forcefully pulled out of my stupor.

“Miss Aliyana Mureay?” I looked up to the man addressing the little Missy. A black suit like attire and a plain face, if I were to take a guess, some sort of servant?  

“Yes? What is it that you want? Can’t you see I’m busy!” ‘Someone’s acting all haughty all of a sudden!?’

“Because of your Summons devious actions, you have been formally challenged to a duel against Lady Megan of the house Halle. Your presence is required immediately.” The man indicated for her to follow and turned away.

“Shit! Why did that bitch have to attack you!” Groaned my Summoner and did what basically looked like a facepalm. ‘Odd.’

“So little Missy, I punch some bitch and you get to duel her? Doesn’t seem quite fair to me . . .” I walked up to her side as she followed the plain man.

“And it isn’t! But she is from a higher family than me and therefore I can’t refuse. You noticed the people with animal features like her? Yeah, don’t fuck with them if you’re a tiny human noble. And now I’m “allowed” to fight her.” Okay, so Animal people are higher in Rank than humans . . . that was different. Still didn’t explain her apprehension for the duel.

“So is this like a thing to the death or why are you so grumpy? You managed to summon a demon, so you can’t really be that weak, right?”

“Of course I’m not! It’s just . . . I’m not really a combat mage?”

“Then what exactly are you?” From what I had seen killing people with magic didn’t seem to be much more difficult than with a weapon.

“I’m more into Illusions and Mind-Magic . . . like invisibility, sense deprivation, confusion spells . . . you know that stuff.” That was a rather questionable set of skills. But also very interesting, I was sure I could make good use of it, once I had broken her.

“So basically you’re like a magical stalker? Don’t you have any offensive magic?”

“Well, I can make ice blades and cold fog . . .” ‘Uhm, for some reason you now sound more like an infiltrator or a fucking assassin!'

“Say do you have to fight her personally? Or how does that work?”

“Well, we both get to use our magical knowledge to go at each other’s throats, until first blood or someone yields. So to answer your earlier question, no, it isn’t to the death, we aren’t savages!”

“Huh, your magical knowledge . . . Say you summoned me right? So don’t I technically fall under your magical know-how?”

“My what? But now that you say it you actually have a point! Except that you don’t know any magic right? How would you even defeat her?” A sly grin spread itself across my face.

“Don’t worry about that . . .”

“Fuck, okay but it’s on your head understood? You’re my summon so you aren’t allowed to lose!”

“Ha! I’ll try my best”

When we finally arrived in the as I called it "play pit", it probably was some sort of training grounds with the floor being made of sand and all, I was treated to the sight of several dozen boys and girls, as well as two of the teachers glaring at my mistress and me. I wasn’t quite sure, but I had the feeling that Aliyana wasn’t very well-liked at all. She didn’t even attack the cat girl and still this much animosity? Something weird was going on here. I would have to ask about it after stomping the little kitty into the ground. While I was looking around, the little Missy went over and declared that I would fight in her stead, which unsurprisingly was met with sneering and taunts. ‘Damn, they fucking hate her!’

“So the black sheep sends a demon instead of actually fighting herself!?” I glared at the noble girl, who was she to place herself over me?

“Oi! It’s me you’re fighting so eyes over here!”

“Hmph! Greetings again Demon.” She spat the word demon as if it was an insult which it, I admit, kind of is.

Bonjour, mon petit chat!

“What did you call me? Some sort of demon slur?” Huh? That was interesting when I thought about speaking French it actually wasn’t translated! Let’s try that again only this time with English!

Nothing my little Pet . . .

“Stop taunting me, you bitch! That was another slander wasn’t it!? I’m going to make you hurt savage!” Oh ho! Behold the powers of knowing different languages!

“Well if you insist, Milady.” I performed a mock bow and walked to the other side of the court. “There is just one little thing, pet! Before you can make me hurt, I’m going to make you bleed . . .”

My lips pulled into an unhinged smile as I nodded to the teacher acting as a referee. A light bolt shot from his fingers and fell down again. I readied myself and got into a kickboxing stand, this would be fun!

The duel had begun. May the best woman win . . .

Random Trivia for those people that may have wondered, while this is the first time seeing Fleur, actually speaking french, she does naturally have a french accent! And curiously that accent is still prevalent after the translation spell, as it translated the English she was speaking.

Pretty sure no one actually cared that much, but here you have it! :3

And as always, do leave a comment, otherwise, I might feel lonely, kay~? :3

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