59 I’m Fine Being a Salted Fish

After being convinced to release Kretea from her bindings, Astur takes Ystur around both the City of Aeternum and the forest surrounding it. Beyond allowing Ystur to get used to her new surroundings, Astur also used this trip around the Sea of Trees to introduce Ystur to both the citizens of the Holy Oulvgar State and the players. Ystur was a little taken back by the response from everyone else, but Elizabeth and Kretea had remained calm the whole time, with the response from the two groups meeting their expectations. Astur on the other hand had tried and failed miserably when trying to deny her parental status over Ystur.

While most of the Demons and other Non-Oulvgar citizens just took Ystur's debut as the Queen showing off the Princess, the Oulvgar were a different story. It didn't take more than a few minutes before all of the Oulvgars were aware of Ystur's identity as Astur's daughter. Despite Astur herself denying it, the Oulvgar could clearly see the similarity in their appearances and they also noticed that the aura or feeling the Ystur gave off was incredibly similar to Astur as well. As the Oulvgar evolved from regular monsters by drinking potions made from Astur's blood they can instinctually recognise her, and because Ystur is was made using Astur's blood as a base the Oulvgar can feel a similar connection to Ystur as well. So despite the strong faith, they have in Astur, none of the Oulvgar believed her when she denied their relationship. This was further cemented after Astur gave trying to explain, having come to the conclusion that after a zealot has decided something, trying to convince them otherwise is impossible. Eventually, Elizabeth got the Oulvgar to disperse and return to their work, but the noise had been made and the players arrived soon after the Oulvgar were cleared away.

The players were much more manageable in Astur's mind, but at the same time, they also managed to infuriate her further. For the players, Ystur's debut was the introduction of a new cute and pretty NPC, at the start anyway. Astur introduced Ystur to Blaze while her stream was on, and since her appearance is essentially just a smaller version of Astur, Ystur quickly gained some fans amongst the players. And as her presence grew, more of the players came to see her, and despite the growing crowd, the players weren't nearly as rowdy as the Oulvgar, although most of this could be attributed to the players speaking within their party chat, the forums, or stream chats. But just when Astur thought things were calm and she didn't need to do anything, trouble came knocking.

Ystur, still being level 1, is highly susceptible to the player's inspection skills, giving them a near perfect view of Ystur's status. And this includes her title that was generated by the System. When looking at her status, the player's see Ystur's name as 'Ystur Sera Kojuuin, the Artificial Daughter of Astur'. A title that Astur wouldn't like people to see. While the players interested in lore made some noise from seeing the title, what got most of the players' attention were the abilities that Ystur has, name the inherited Divine Authorities. As soon as news of Ystur's status spread, the players become even rowdier than the Oulvgar had been. But as Astur's patience hit its limit, she took out several Blast Balls and under Astur's threat, most of the players dispersed, but not before Ystur secretly gave out a quest to a large portion of the players to push Astur to publicly recognise their mother and daughter relationship, a quest that was happily received by many of the players.

After both the previous experiences, Astur was hesitant to go out into the forest to look for the Forest Guardians. But she figured it would be annoying if they all barged into her house after finding out they weren't introduced while everyone else was, so she reluctantly went out and called for the Guardians. But seeing the calm responses from the Five Forest Guardians, Astur was relieved that she didn't have to do any more explaining.

Returning to her house after what she believes to have been an absolutely exhausting day, Astur collapses onto her sofa face down, unwilling to get up and move another step.

"This shut-in…" Elizabeth mutters.

Although Astur heard what she said, she doesn't feel like putting in any effort to refute Elizabeth.

"Over the past six months, I can probably count the number of times you left the house on one hand. You should get out more," Elizabeth says.

"Naaaah, I'm fine being a salted fish," Astur says lazily. "You're all here to do everything for me, so why should I need to do anything. I can just give out the orders and everything will fall into place."

Crossing her arms in dissatisfaction, Kretea says, "That's not a good attitude to have. You should have some ambition."

"I do have an ambition, it's to live a peaceful slow life. And don't worry, I have some things in mind, but the time isn't yet ripe. The current order needs to be even more destabilised, and a big destabilising factor will be making its appearance soon," Astur says, with her voice being muffled by the sofa.

Elizabeth and Kretea are a bit unsure of what Astur means, but Ystur becomes a little suspicious.

"Is mom talking about the official release of Eternal Universe Online?" Ystur silently wonders.

Having gotten over the novelty of her novel like situation, Ystur's more rational mind came online and soon came to the conclusion there is definitely something more to what she knew and understood as the game Eternal Universe Online. In the grand scheme of things, this matter is actually of little importance to Ystur. For her, the most important thing is that she's alive and even has a family now. Finding out the truth behind what Eternal Universe Online is, this matter can at most be considered a side project of Ystur's that she pays little attention to.

While ignoring the complaints and questions from Elizabeth and Kretea, Astur sees the countdown on the System Interface only has half an hour left, indicating that the game of Eternal Universe Online is almost completely open to the public on Earth.

"Seems like I had lost track of time. The destabilising factor I was talking about will be arriving in less than an hour," Astur says, prompting a knowing look from Ystur and faces of confusion from Elizabeth and Kretea.

As she sits up, Astur feels her phone vibrating in her pocket. Picking it out, Astur sees an incoming call from Glacia.