Chapter 10: 2-2: Lust Archdemons Need Love Too

"You know… this is almost poetic." Rubedo mused, sipping from a cup of tea. Her parasol was folded, propped against the table she sat at. "Talking to myself."

The Shabti across from her nodded in agreement, taking a sip of her own drink. "It's odd, to be sure. Even more so for me, being fully aware that I'm a fake. Yet for as long as I'm alive, I am you."

Silence fell, filled only by the ticking of the clock in the next room over. Neither of them needed to breathe, or even move. Golems didn't have to do anything, really.

"Why do you follow him, still?" The Shabti asked, tilting her head. "We can survive, even thrive, on our own. He would let us go so long as we never stood in his way. So why do you continue to stand guard over this slaughterhouse?"

"Hmm." Rubedo idly swirled the dregs of her tea, contemplating pouring another cup. "Why would I not?"

"Because the Ancient One is a genocidal madman."

"Hmm." The Flesh Golem leaned forward, picking up the teapot. "So he is. He lives in his own head, seeing the world through a fragile narrative that interprets everything around him as exactly what he expects to see. But then again, don't we all?"

"But you do see that he's mad, yes?" The Shabti insisted. "How can you not?"

"Of course I see that he's mad." Rubedo smiled, teeth becoming finely sharpened points. "He snapped long ago, long before I even met him. He acts as if this world is some elaborate game, a game that he can simply exploit on a whim. But he is a dangerous madman, for two simple reasons. First… he can exploit this world on a whim. His greatest victories were built upon the back of flaws in reality itself, holes through which no sane man can peer. And as for the second reason… the most dangerous thing about his madness…?" She trailed off suggestively.

"…He thinks that he's sane." The copy finished.

"Precisely." Rubedo stirred in a cube of sugar, humming to herself. "The most dangerous thing for any delusion is to believe that the delusion is reality. To embrace their madness as a fixture of the world you live in. He has surrounded himself with females who feed his delusions, females who truly believe him to be some grand savior." She tilted her head, smiling faintly. "We are all characters in a narrative he has painted himself. A narrative in which he is the hero, the ancient and wise being who passes judgement on others. Anyone outside of his narrative is merely a side character, a margin in the pages of history. A mere statistic."

"And we play along."

"Indeed."

"…Why? Why play to the whims of a madman?"

"It's quite simple." Rubedo set down her empty cup, uncrossing her legs and leaning forward. "Because as long as he is the narrator of his own tale, there is still a tale to be told. A tale grander and bloodier than any book could ever hope to compare."

The Shabti smiled. "Oh, now you're just making me regret that I have to leave soon."

"Leave?" Rubedo tilted her head. "What do you mean, leave?"

The Shabti faltered, frowning. "On the mission, with the rest."

"Oh, you're adorable." Rubedo rose from her chair, picking up her parasol. "No, you're a terribly constructed attempt at a master's craft. Something I made up just to pass the time."

The Shabti blinked, finally bothering to look down at its own figure. Rubedo's words held true—it was as if someone had taken the vague image of the original and distorted it, painting blindly onto a lump of misshapen clay. "...What?"

"Mmm… yes. I'm sorry. You were entertaining to speak with for a time, but now you need to fulfill your true purpose."

"And that is?"

"Why, helping me with a few experiments, of course." Sharp teeth were bared, a smile far too wide to be natural. "Don't worry, I made sure to include the Black Box needed to retrieve your life experiences. Please, do make sure to preserve the memories of the next few hours. I've always been curious."

I opened my eyes, immediately feeling the sensation of two sets of soft breasts pressing into my sides. I had fallen asleep with my arms around my Maidens, entirely shirtless. The night of, well, kissing, was not exactly what one might expect. Though it quickly became a contest between them, my poor shirt was the only loser.

No, it did not devolve into a yuri show. That would be a different story entirely. All it was was them taking turns trying to give me the 'better' kiss. Considering nether of them had much experience, it wasn't exactly a show of skill, and after a while they were both giggling too hard to continue. Archer gradually managed to calm herself down to the point that she could force down her instincts, and Noa somehow lost her panties in the exchange.

I really didn't know what happened there, but it was honestly a bit adorable to watch the contest play out. At heart, they truly saw themselves as sisters, despite me never saying a word about their relationship in their text.

Oh. And I was the dummy they practiced their kissing on, so that was one hell of a plus.

Fun fact. Succubi and their evolved forms have long, prehensile tongues and no gag reflex. Did I know that before? No. Am I happy I know it now? Most definitely.

Fun fact number two. Noa seems to legitimately enjoy being fondled. I know this not because I started it, but because she flat-out asked me to. What she lacked in experience, she most definitely made up for with enthusiasm.

Hmm… wait, where was I?

Ah yes. Waking up to marshmallow heaven. Archer, despite having a slightly larger chest, loses points for continuing to wear a bra. Noa, on the other hand, was wearing what amounts to a thin sheet of gauze over her entire body. With no undergarments whatsoever.

…Dammit. For how long it took me to get here, it seems to be taking just as long to get laid.

On the bright side, I somehow doubt Noa will ask for a date before I hit a home run with her.

I shifted, trying to slip away without waking either of them, only for both pairs of arms to tighten their hold. Noa opened her eyes, staring up at me. "Stay." She ordered flatly. "You're ours right now."

Archer nodded, not bothering to open her eyes. "Your duties can wait. You've been making everything self-sufficient for the past week, one morning spent sleeping in won't destroy the world."

My lips twitched slightly. "Am I being held prisoner?"

"Yes." Noa said. "Now stay still."

I obliged, both Maidens snuggling into my side.

We all knew that I could leave anytime… but I was hardly going to complain about the warm bodies pressed against my own. Especially with both of said warm bodies belonged to well-endowed girls dressed in thin nightclothes.

Sorry, fellow men who love justice, but there are some things flat chests simply cannot do.

Archer was off making sure that the perimeter defenses were sound. A wonderful tactic, considering that, as someone raised by the most lethal defense-cracker alive, she would know exactly where to check.

Unfortunately, that left me with a slight problem.

I couldn't leave Noa alone. Not because I don't trust her, seeing as most of her worst accidents thus far seem to just be her trying to help Archer, but because she literally wouldn't let me.

I could sort of understand her point of view, really. She had been cooped up in the mansion for an entire week, eventually getting bored enough to consider turning herself into a blanket cocoon a good idea.

But still…

Noa hummed happily to herself, tightening her hold around my neck. Her breasts pressed pleasantly against my back, which, knowing her, had about a fifty-fifty shot of being entirely intentional.

"Noa, you probably shouldn't stay there all day." I said drily. "I do have to go through doorways, you know, and even if I duck, you still hit your head."

"Don't care."

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the gentle puffs of air tickling my ear. "You say that now, but we're going into the caves. There's a fair bit more than a few doorframes to hurt you."

Noa went silent for a moment. "…Okay. I understand. [Terrain Immunity]."

…Right. So apparently she would rather use an Eighth-Tier Spell than get off of my back. I barely noticed her weight and her hold was nowhere near enough to restrict my airflow, but I suspected that I looked rather ridiculous with the pink-haired Nature Spirit on my back.

Ah, well. I'm sure Noa's whims will get me in much odder positions in this one as time goes on. Might as well just accept it.

"All right, then. Just be sure to hold on tight." I cracked my neck, sighing to myself. "The Mines aren't exactly a safe place to get into."

Noa obligingly tightened her hold, pressing her cheek on my ear. "Okay."

I raised my Guild Ring, and our surroundings shifted. One moment we were in the comfort of the Throne Room, the next we were in the bitter cold of Floor 5. Noa didn't even twitch at the sudden temperature change thanks to her Spell, and my body heat was more than enough to let me ignore the cold.

"I thought the Mines were on Floor 10?" Noa asked, voice faint against the howling snowstorm around us.

I nodded. "They are, but the entrance is here. I wanted to hide the Mines from the others, so I couldn't exactly be seen walking in and out of Floor 10 holding enough Celestial Ore to sink the economy."

On first glance, having a mine on Floor 10 seems counter-intuitive, right? It's the highest level, the place where the king sits to greet commoners. But when you think about it, it's actually the opposite. It's a tomb, not a castle, which means that each Floor is deeper than the last. And the deeper the level of a cave system, the rarer the Ores you can find there.

How did I hide this big-ass mine down here without anyone noticing?

Well, that's actually quite easy. Since YGGDRASIL forced you to do literally everything from a first-person view and didn't allow for a minimap function, every decoration had to be placed manually via editing tools. It wasn't like you suddenly got a third-person spectator view whenever you entered editing mode, you had to work with what you could see.

And if you're given an infinite amount of time in an area that people rarely went to… well. It's a simple matter to slowly wall off more and more without people noticing, until you have enough to start building.

The Mines aren't all that wide, not at the top. But the whole Floor is more easily thought of as a truly enormous cube, and as soon as you have enough of the Floor hidden away to start deleting the ground below, you can just go batshit crazy. If you assume the area is a perfect cube as large as a small city, the Throne Room and surrounding chambers only take up the top layer. There's still a fuckton of room beneath the place, more than enough to design an entire cave system without anyone being any the wiser. Once I finished, I merely put the walls back where they originally were.

I had to do it subtly, of course, since it being an area people rarely went to for no reason worked both for and against me. If someone asked why I was decked out in underground gear while holding Editing Tools and walking through Floor 10, I would have a hell of a time explaining. But if there was anything I knew well, it was patience, and in time I had the perfect Ore farm all set up with Golems mining away at all hours of the day.

I had yet to check on it since our arrival, which could be bad considering how many Golems there were to potentially fail in the transfer.

"Where's the entrance, then?" Noa's emotionless voice broke me from my thoughts, making me glance around.

"Right…" I hummed to myself. "Today is the third of the month, so… it should be…"

I closed my eyes, mentally counting my steps. There were numerous different entrances, but if you didn't enter at the correct part of the one-month cycle, the entrance was just a cave. Of course, even if an intruder managed to stumble into the Mines by chance, they would be trapped until someone came in to get them out. Or they died. Either was fine with me.

"Do you have on your Guild Ring?" I asked, slipping my own into my pocket.

Noa shook her head. "I don't like rings, they get lost easily."

That figured, and I knew that Noa seldom wore anything on her hands. But if she had Astralized the ring rather than taking it off, it might still set off my traps.

"Good." I stepped sideways, ducked down, and slipped into a hidden cave.

It was tiny, barely enough room for you to fit inside without crouching. But it extended down quite a ways, deep into the earth. The way was marked by flickering torches, the ceiling gradually becoming high enough to comfortably stand in. The path was marked by a mine cart track, twin iron rails leading down into the earth. Precious jewels glittered within the walls, hidden riches on display. Whoever dug the shaft obviously didn't care about them, though, since they had gone right past without seeming to notice.

Noa trailed a hand along the smooth stone, a strand of her pink hair drifting in front of my eyes. I ignored it, instead stopping at the dead end the track led to. I examined it for a moment, puzzling out the most recent challenge.

"Did we go down the wrong one?" Noa asked, tugging a diamond out of the wall to examine it. "Should we go back up?"

"No." I murmured, taking a step back. "Going back up from here without teleporting triggers a lethal series of events cutting off every possible escape, up to and including the Guild Rings. If one of the others ever found this place, I needed to have an excuse as to why it was here."

"So we're at the right place?" Noa frowned, peering over my shoulder at the dead end. "Is this a puzzle?"

"More or less. You have to use the right Spell on it to get it open. And if I remember the cycle correctly… [Break Terrain]."

The wall crumbled, revealing a pitch-black Portal. I smiled. "Protect your head, love, from here on it's more dangerous."

Noa nodded obediently, pressing herself tighter against me. "Okay."

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