-“Yahhh! Take this!”
Nova screamed every time she stomped her feet down to the herbs to crush them. Around her, several more soldiers were helping out.
Though most of them did it since she commanded them to, some did it voluntarily because of how cute Nova looked while she was doing it.
Ria was no exception. She would’ve helped if her sister hadn’t pulled her away from the herb-grinding group.
“Riri…” Hannah said with a sigh. Briefly glancing at Nova, she continued, “what did you do? Why did you choose that little girl as your liege?”
“What’s all this about? I thought you hated me?” Ria frowned.
Hannah scratched the back of her neck, not sure what gesture she should back right now.
“W-Well, the bet with that little girl got me thinking. Maybe I was too hasty in judging you…”
Before Ria could voice her surprise, Hannah quickly continued,
“D-Don’t get me wrong! If you didn’t abandon your hatred to directly serve a Noble for a very good reason, I-I’ll still be mad at you!”
“It’s good enough that you finally give me a chance…”
Then, while twirling her hair and trying to keep heat from rushing into her cheeks, she mumbled,
“ᴵᵗ'ˢ ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ᴵ'ᵐ ᶦⁿ ˡᵒᵛᵉ.”
“Huh? What was that?” Hannah frowned and tried to strain her ears. Although Ria’s voice was small, she could hear some of it. And by God, did she hope she just misheard.
Burying her face in her hands, Ria screamed,
“It’s because I’m in love with my Mistress!”
Hannah widened her eyes in surprise. She was so shocked that her body physically recoiled. Calming herself down, she approached Ria and caressed her cheek.
“Riri…”
“Big sis…” Ria leaned more in Hannah’s hand.
“...You fucking idiot.”
Hannah pulled on Ria’s cheek, hard.
“W-What?”
“What are you, twenty-three, twenty-four? Doesn’t matter! You shouldn’t be in love with a little girl!”
“W-Wait!” Ria could sense that her sister was under a severe misunderstanding. “My mistress is not the young miss! It’s her mother!”
“Oh,” Hannah dumbfoundedly muttered, letting go of Ria’s cheek.
Then, she sighed.
“Riri, I hope you know what you’re doing. If your mistress doesn’t reciprocate your feelings, you’re just going to end up hurt.”
“I know,” Ria nodded. “The mistress knows of my feelings, and she accepts them.”
“R-Really?”
“Y-Yes,” her face turned red once more. “Every night, we—”
“Okay, okay! I don’t need to know the details!”
Hannah sighed for the umpteenth time and reached into her pocket to take out a cigarette. Realizing that she’d run out of it, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“Anyway, who’s your mistress?”
“She’s H—”
“Ria.”
A dull voice interrupted Ria’s answer.
Both of the sisters turned around, only to see Nova standing there with her arms crossed; the tip of her tail covered in green, possibly because she also used it to grind the herbs.
“Y-Young miss?! H-How long have you been standing there for?”
“I just arrived. You’ve slacked off for long enough, help me crush the herbs now.”
.
.
.
.
As Ria followed me back to the herb-crushing area, Avaron spoke up.
{Are you not going to confront her about…that?}
‘Nah.’
{Seriously? She just admitted to fucking your Mom every night.}
‘It’s not my place to intervene.’
Though…
‘I might start calling Ria “Mom” soon.’
{I can already imagine how awkward it would be. Do it. Do it. Do it. D—}
‘Shut up.’
Grabbing Avaron, who was in her stick form, I used her to crush the herbs. I originally did it to shut her up, but upon seeing the never-seen-before efficiency, I continued using her for hours on end, until all the herbs were no more than piles of mushy green.
{Sobs…an Archangel like me being used as a mere herb-grinder…}
‘Don’t worry. I’ll find you some Mana later.’
{R-Really?}
‘Don’t count on it.’
After that, I commanded the soldiers to take the mushes and simmer them for a whole night. The next day, I helped them feed the end product to the patients.
“...They should fully recovery in three days.”
“Are you sure about that?” Hannah raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.”
“Huh…it seems like the bet will be over sooner than I thought.”
During the three days of waiting time, I didn’t sit around and do nothing. After all there were many things to do inside this infected village.
Though, the activity I participated in the most was—
“Y-Young miss, are you sure you want to do this?”
“...I want to help.”
“But there are other things…”
“I want to help.”
After hearing my firm answer, Ria sighed and left me on my own devices. Finally, I could focus on moving the dead villagers to the fire pit.
During epidemics, it was common sense to burn the dead bodies of the infected so that the disease couldn’t spread any further; and this town was no different.
However, I didn’t do it purely out of good-will. Secretly, I was drawing blood from the body to repair Kirion.
But…after the thirtieth body, Kirion wasn’t healing anymore.
‘I guess that’s the limit.’
If I could make Kirion stronger by killing low-ranked Monsters, then I’d have done so instead of hunting strong Monsters in my first life.
Eventually, it was the third day.
I sat in the medical tents, watching the patients.
I waited for hours and hours. Day turned into noon, and noon bled into night. However, the patients were still not cured. T-Their symptoms didn’t even alleviate!
As I was wondering what I did wrong, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“You lost.”
It was Hannah.
Despite her victory, she sounded more disappointed than happy.
As she was about to open her mouth to presumably reprimand me, a soldier rushed into the tent.
“Commander! Urgent!”
Hannah nodded. Then, she lifted me up by the armpits and sat down on my seat. Then, she placed me down on her lap and began touching my ears.
I purred as a happy feeling coursed through my body; though, I could still make out their exchange.
“Tell me, what’s so important that made you barge into the patients’ tents?”
“Commander, we got reports from the other villages. They say that the cure they were instructed to make was effective! Practically everyone was cured!”
Hannah hung her mouth open in disbelief. All the while, I was standing up in her lap, crossing my arms to show off my superiority.
“B-But how? The cure didn’t work here!”
Her words snapped me back from reality. The smug feeling of triumph soon disappeared from my mind and was replaced by confusion.
‘It worked in other villages, and I’m sure I didn’t get anything wrong. Just wh—’
“Cough!”
I suddenly went into a coughing fit. It got so violent that Hannah had to hold me down while I coughed into my hand.
Eventually, the fit was over. Removing my hand, I could see…blood trickling through my finger.
“Are you okay?”
Ignoring Hannah’s concerned voice, I quickly rolled up the sleeve of my right arm.
Nothing.
Then, I did the same thing with my left arm—
“N-No…”
—Only to reveal a pea-sized black patch.
A f*cking variant
Delta
Maybe because she used the mana eating sword to do the herb grinding? Magical disease, magical cure - won't work if its magic has all been sucked out.
@Allarielle That makes sense now that I think about it but no. Avaron can choose whether to eat mana or not
Wait- If Ria is now her mom too, wouldn’t that 18+ chapter be incest?!?!?! (I’m jk I know 1- that chapter wasn’t cannon 2- that’s not how incest works)
OMG NO COOKIES?!?!? WHAT WHY?!?! OKAY I'LL REVIEW!!
Double feature today?… pls
no :(
suffer from the cliffhanger
@APieceOfRock wahhhh
just a passing by reader.
Bot
Also hopefully some interesting special abilities from absorbing so much infected blood while rebuilding sword 🗡️
Sorta annoying that they have amulets to protect themselves from diseases only to get infected by the first disease they come across.
‘I might start calling Ria “Mom” soon.’
{I can already imagine how awkward it would be. Do it. Do it. Do it. D—}
I don't like agreeing with the bit*h-stick () but... Do it! Do it!
the tip of her tail covered in green, possibly because she also used it to grind the herbs.
That means the debut of the Iron Tail skill was grinding herbs, right?
‘I might start calling Ria “Mom” soon.’
But calling both "Mom" would be confusing. How about calling Ria something different from the first syllable like "Mama"?
Thanks for the chapter
off-screen debut. How sad.
Using the fluff for something like this !
Blasphemy ! Heresy ! Burn the witch !
@APieceOfRock Tail of the fluff needs to always be in peak condition ! Don't let it happen again or i will gather the mob of unwashed masses to protest against this sacrilige
@Rosier1389 fluff while dying.
@APieceOfRock Btw does her senses of smell also increase now that she is a demi ?
@Rosier1389 maybe idk if foxes' sense of smell is as good as dog's
@APieceOfRock Should be still greater than humans
"Vertical pupils are typical for creatures that are active at night (nocturnal). Foxes see well at dim light. Besides good night eyesight, foxes have an excellent sense of smell and hearing. They use these senses to detect the prey.
One sense for the red fox that is surprisingly less keen is the sense of smell. The red fox possesses a less keen sense of smell than most dogs; however, with such keen hearing, these creatures are able to hunt efficiently in the dark without reliance on a super-sensitive sense of smell."
Says they can hear a mouse from 100 feet - 30 meters and it says above less keen than Dogs meaning still far greater than humans and some other animals
@Rosier1389
@APieceOfRock Huh... for some reason I had got it into my head that Vulpini was adjacent to Canidae rather than under it, but yeah, foxes are very much in dog-like family so their senses are probably on par with a lower wolf breed. They're just more prey-adapted than predator-adapted.