Forty-ninth Encounter
“Lily, we won!” (Lane)
“Uh, won? What happened?” (me)
“The war is over! The Lily kingdom is established! Can I be your queen?” (Lane)
“Uh, how can I be a king if I’m not actually in charge of anything?” (me)
“Oh, uh, I guess in name only?” (Lane)
“Calling it the Lily Kingdom is silly when I am stuck in this room and rule over nothing but this room.” (me)
“Is Mason dead?” (Sam)
“Oh, uh no. He’s still alive, and still wants to kill you. However, we did negotiate a peace treaty!” (lane)
“For one year.” (woman 1)
“... yeah. Kinda not much of a peace treaty. Stupid demon army showing up and messing with what should’ve been our victory.” (Lane)
“What happened, Lane?” (me)
“Ugh, we were winning. We were gonna crush Mason’s army, but then a demon army showed up, led by one of the four demon generals. With demons on our flank, we couldn’t risk pursuing Mason’s retreating army.” (Lane)
“Why would the demons show up?” (Sam)
“I wish I knew.” (Lane)
“The demon generals shouldn’t be making big moves like this if there isn’t a demon lord.” (woman 2)
“What about Lily?” (woman 1)
“If Lily is the demon lord acknowledged by them, they wouldn’t be helping Mason.” (woman 2)
“Someone already confirmed that Lily isn’t the demon lord.” (Sam)
“Enough about that! I wanna celebrate the end of the war with Lily!” (Lane) Lane then ran into my embrace. “C’mon you two! You should join in! Lily’s really good!”
“I already told you, I’m not really into that kind of thing. I’d much rather spend time with her boyfriend.” (woman 1)
“Um… are you willing to be our partner?” (woman 2)
“Me? You want to be with me?” (Sam)
“You’re much more my type… wait, Daye, is that lust poison you’re taking out?” (woman 1)
“Well, there’s so many rumors about it really helping to spice up sex.” (Daye)
“Um… why me? Pretty sure lust poison would let you desire anyone you chose to use it with.” (Sam)
“Because you already have someone, so I don’t have to worry about you thinking this is a prelude to something more. So many guys take even a little friendliness as a sign that I want to be their girlfriend, that I dread to think how they’d interpret something like this.” (Daye)
“Uh, I… I hope I’m good enough for you.” (Sam)
“You look nervous. C’mon, why don’t we just relax a bit in the bath, and get to know each other a little more first, and put that lust poison away, Daye.” (woman 1)
“Oh, alright. I guess you’re not used to being the one pursued like this?” (Daye)
“Well, not by women, and not in a good way.” (Sam)
“Oh, you mean… men, trying to just use you?” (Daye)
“Yeah.” (Sam)
“Ooof, sorry to hear that.” (Daye)
“Maybe we can just spend some time together and help you build up some better memories of company and attention.” (woman 1)
“Yeah, this doesn’t have to be a sex thing. We can chat. Might be nice to hear a little of the other side of things here. I don’t have many male friends to talk to.” (Daye)
“You want to be friends?” (Sam)
“Sure! You seem pleasant enough. Besides, how many guys have managed to marry a dungeon floor boss? You’re probably the only one.” (Daye)
“Oh, uh, I hadn’t really thought about it like that before.” (Sam)
“That’s ‘cause you’re not used to thinking about your accomplishments. It’s important to know how to appreciate what you’ve managed to accomplish. Not just worry about your failings. Gotta have balance in your thoughts.” (Daye)
As I played with Lane, and enjoyed her reactions, I also listened to Sam’s conversation with the other two, as they went to the bath. It was nice to hear Sam make new friends and have a good time. Their conversation lasted much longer than Lane did, so I ended up falling asleep together with Lane in bed, as Sam and Daye and that other lady continued to chatter in the bath. I hope they enjoy their time.
***Author Note***
I don’t know why the demon army intruded either. The dice just demanded it somehow. Rolled a few times and the conclusion was: Demons saved Mason. Seriously? Wtf? This complicates things. How did Mason do it? How did he get help from Demons? *sigh* Now I have to figure these things out. Frankly, it’d have been easier to figure out if he’d been saved by monsters, but no, that’s not what the dice said. Darn dice.
I'd imagine that the demon army sees Lily as a threat. After all, she's essentially a newborn monster (being a year old?) and can clearly hold her own, but is also capable of and willing to learn from humans. The same humans who keep something of a stalemate with their army. Now add in a potentially hero-class, or even demon lord-class, dungeon boss that is allying with some of the humans? They'd want to get rid of her- or at least get an edge up on their long standing enemy (humans)- before Lily can appear at the warfront.
So why not use humans against humans? Mason doesn't have a hero-class ally on his side (as far as we know) unlike Lily and the hero party. If the demons can 'help' Mason kill the hero and Lily then two MAJOR threats will have been erased, at the cost of... the enemy's troops.
It's quite an economic move, and one easily pulled off by a certain succubus visiting Mason's personal chambers at least once, if not staying by his side to make sure he moves according to plan. Once the two threats are gone, she'd just need to off Mason while in bed and they'd have a huge advantage.
Muahahahaha!!! The Dice have spoken! (If you need a reason, didn't that Succubus say Lily wasn't the DL or something however long ago that was? Probably her fault)
Ouch, yeah that'll be a hard one to write in. Still it's nice to see Lane back I hope she gets some more screen time, let us get to know her some more
Dice are fun storytellers.
Lily's kingdom is really just the start of a third monster/hybrid kingdom isn't it?
honestly my take mason still being in play will create disunity in the human forces meaning more confilt meaning weaker human armies. also more chaos more fun
Yeah. If mason had been properly defeated, the kingdom would remain united afterwards. Instead it's on the path of splitting permanently into two kingdoms. This really messes with the balance of power.
Isn't that a good thing for the demons who are humanity's enemy? There have been plenty of times that an outside force has supported one side of a civil war
@Kldran Welp, I think it’s about time Lily starts to build a hive or something...
@Kldran or you could say that mason was a deep spy from the demon's side and they were just recovering him for any of his collected info on the human kingdoms.