Maybe I don't want to be an asshole anymore?

Although the unexpected event took everyone by surprise, soon enough everything calmed down and both the harpies and the villagers of Happiness Village set up a banquet together for everyone to commemorate the day where they are finally together as one single community.

The villagers were dancing drunk in the village's square, children reunited with their brothers and parents and played with the harpies' chicks… Essentially, this was one big party, just like it should be.

There was a small group of harpies who were hiding behind buildings sucking off their husbands away from the children, but that is not Victor's business to care about.

"It's nice seeing this kind of atmosphere…" Luka commented as he sat on a chair near Victor, who is on his own wheelchair. "Humans and Monsters are happily enjoying their day together, and no one is complaining about the other…"

"Easy for you to say that, I had to do all of this myself." Victor replied with a tired tone. It has been a long day, but he could finally rest for today.

Luka chuckled. "I guess that's right, I have to thank you for this… Maybe I can let you handle other problems?"

"I'm going to break your kneecaps if you do that." Victor told him back with an equally cheerful tone, which made Luka laugh a bit.

"I'm joking… Even if it seems harder than I thought, my goal towards coexistence between humans and monsters should be done by myself. I can't just shamelessly ask for help if I can't do it myself."

Victor sighed and put his head on his arm which had an elbow lying on his right armrest. "Meh, I don't really care about this sort of thing as long as it doesn't kill my brain cells. I had my share of stupidity back at home, I don't want another share here too."

"Was your hometown so terrible?" Luka curiously asked, attracting Victor's blank gaze at his direction. "Don't make me talk about it; just bringing it back in my memory gives me a brain tumor."

"Hmm… By the way, I'm curious about one thing." Luka asked as he looked at Victor.

"Ask away."

"Can't you just fix your leg on your own right now? You were able to remove a poisoned arrow from the queen, so what is stopping you from fixing the position of your bones and let Alice or Eva heal you?"

"Well…" Victor took a deep breath as he stared at his bandaged left leg. "To begin with, even if I could indeed recombine the bone fragments of my leg, Alice and Eva can't heal me. Apparently, I am immune to magic, whether it is beneficial or harmful. Hopefully, I won't have to test the limits of this thing by getting a fireball shot on my face."

"Huh? That's really useful!" Luka commented. "I heard that there were some monsters out there that utilize magic to attack people."

"Hmm…" Victor simply hummed back. Though, that begs the question on why he is immune to magic.

Is it perhaps his constitution? He should have apparently survived a succubus' attack back when he was sleeping in Luka's inn. So this could be why he isn't sucked dry, although he can't really say it since he can't just ask a succubus right here and now about how they kill people…

Well, it would certainly help him against monsters who are able to cast spells on him. Unfortunately, his immunity works only on magic; stuff like poisonous mucus and a monster's pollen will still affect him since they are biological by nature.

"Anyway, besides that, there is actually one thing I want to buy, and maybe the money I can find in the Treasure Cave will let me get closer to that target. I don't want to risk it by buying something cheap that I can't throw away, so I want to wait and see first."

"What is it?"

"Stuff…" Victor vaguely replied. "Besides, I am already used to going around in a wheelchair, so I don't really mind staying here longer than I should."

"I see… Speaking of buying stuff, how much can you buy with your 'special ability' or whatever it is?" Luka's question made Victor raise an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I mean… You have bought a crutch, food, toys, and then you also bought a vehicle. I was curious about what is the limit of what you can spend money on, you know?"

Victor paused a bit, a bit uncomfortable with the question. "Ugh… I don't really want to talk about that now…"

"I understand." Surprisingly, Luka accepted Victor's negative answer. "Everyone has secrets, after all."

"At least you understand that…" Victor muttered under his tone before he shifted his sight to the village's plaza. Some seconds later, light footsteps came from his back before the familiar voice of Lucretia sounded out.

"Good evening, Victor."

Victor twisted his head around and noticed Lucretia standing behind him from the corner of his eyes. "Oh, good evening to you too, queen."

"You can just call me Lucretia. I might be royalty, but that is a concern only among harpies." Lucretia told him as she stepped at his side, while her left wing trailed behind Victor.

"Is there something going on, Lucretia?" Victor asked curiously, since he couldn't really see any reason for her to visit him.

She smiled and told him. "It's nothing to worry about, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. Without you, using a recovery spell on me would be impossible, since carelessly removing the arrow would leave permanent damage in my neck."

"It wasn't really much…" Victor politely replied, but Lucretia shook her head.

"I already came to hear about your unique ability. You spend Gold to acquire items and abilities, so I am sure that your help came in for a great cost. Because of this, I wish to give you back what you spent for me and even more, to thank you for your selfless actions."

"..." A chuckle escaped from Victor's mouth upon hearing the last part of her sentence. "...Wow, now that I think about it, I really did something big… Saving a life, huh?"

"Something's in your mind?" Lucretia asked.

"Well…" Victor scratched the back of his head in an awkward manner. "It's just that sometimes I would hear news about people saving cats, or even weird ones such as prisoners helping their guard from being choked to death. I would call myself a really selfish person, but I really did something as selfless as saving your life… Now that it came in my mind, it seems more of something surreal to me."

Lucretia giggled at Victor's speech about himself. "Well, it looks like you have changed now. Isn't that right? Anyway, I brought my gifts here to you."

She walked in front of Victor while holding something with her right talon. She lifted her right talon upwards and handed him a pale lilac pile of feathers… No, it wasn't just a pile of feathers, it was actually a closed fan.

"This is a feather fan made out with my own feathers. Not only is this a very durable item, but it also possesses a great affinity with the wind."

Victor picked it up. It was as long as half of his arm, but it was also very light. He wouldn't have any trouble using it with one hand. Before opening it, he casually tried to break it to test its durability, and the only thing he felt were the feathers bending a bit, but not breaking at all.

After that, he opened the fan, revealing a half circle made out of beautiful and soft feathers. Just touching the surface gave him a comfortable feeling on his fingers. Even though it was quite feminine, Victor didn't mind that and simply stared at the fan in awe.

"The second thing I want to give to you is this pendant." With the same right talon, she passed on Victor a silver pendant with a cartoonish wing hanging on it. "This is a symbol of respect among Harpies. As long as I am the Queen, there won't be any Harpy who will inflict harm on you, whether they are from my village or external tribes. Of course, that only counts for Harpies who actually respect my rule, unlike Diana."

"So it is basically like a VIP ticket pass?" Victor curiously asked as he lifted the pendant. It was crafted very well, and there was something familiar about it… Not familiar in the sense that he had already seen it before, but it gave off the same feeling of the fan. Was it something about magic?

"That's right." Lucretia nodded at Victor's question. "As for the third and last gift…"

She gently grasped Victor's arm with one of her wings and pulled it upwards, before she used her other wing to stroke his arm all over it using the tip of her wing, where her bone is supposed to be.

Surprisingly, whenever the tip of her wing passed, a light green trail was left behind, forming up some kind of magical tattoo. While she was drawing on his skin, she also spoke. "I don't know how your immunity to magic works, and probably you also don't know. However, if you ever learn how to use magic in the future, this Wind Symbol will bless you with a great affinity to wind.

I'm sorry if you had expected me to give you money, but Harpy Village currently lacks it. However, thanks to your assistance in unifying the two villages, we might be able to gain a greater amount of money that isn't obtained through dirty methods such as looting and stealing."

"Money isn't really a problem now, since I can make it appear out of nowhere with time. Don't worry about it." Victor commented.

"Thank you… And done!" She let go of Victor's arm, revealing a wavy green tattoo that enveloped his entire arm. Victor blinked in surprise as he stared at the Wind Symbol on his arm, which surprisingly began to shift like a snake and it enveloped his arm in a spiral-like shape.

"What the…" Lucretia also stared at the Wind Symbol which shifted around from its previous cloud pattern into a spiral extending from his elbow to the back of his palm. Apparently, that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Neat…" Victor commented with stupor, looking at the magical symbol on his arm with a thin smile.

"Hold up, what happened? This isn't the Wind Symbol, but…" Lucretia could simply pause and stare at Victor with surprise. "...Weird, it still works…"

Some seconds later, she sighed. "Well, it might be related to your unique constitution. But as long as it works, I'm happy about it."

After that, she smiled at Victor and told him. "Anyway, this will be my gratitude to you. I would have added a fourth gift to you, but… I don't think it would be right for me to steal my subject's husband. Have a nice time in our village, travelers. You will always be welcomed here, both of you."

Lucretia winked at both Victor and Luka, although it seemed to be aimed more at Victor. He simply watched Lucretia flying away, joining the party with the other harpies and humans.

Victor looked at the gorgeous fan he was gifted and used it to wave wind at him. It is a really nice fan… For pure curiosity, Victor checked his system to see how much it could be sold for, and blinked in surprise at what he had found.

6'332'102 Gold Coins… That is the amount he would get by selling the fan. He would be immediately a millionaire with that amount of money, which he can use to buy more stuff and upgrade his hourly production by a lot.

"...But…" Victor muttered under his tone while his eyes showed hesitation. It was a gift from Lucretia for saving her life… It would be really rude to turn this into money, even though he has the full property over it.

If he really sold it just to obtain money he could get by simply waiting for a bit, he would really become an asshole of the highest caliber, and that didn't sit right with him… Yeah, it was hypocritical of him to think about that if he thought about his own past, but what about it?

It's not like anyone can force him to continue to be an asshole, right? Even someone like him has feelings. Besides, if the price of the fan was so high, it means that it can be turned into a powerful weapon if used in the right manner.

Yes, he can get 6 million of Gold Coins by selling this fan. But if one thought about it in the reverse manner, he would need 12 million Gold Coins to buy this fan!

He got this thing that costs way beyond what he could permit just by spending some money for Lucretia's surgery, isn't that awesome? She also said that it possesses magical properties, so he simply needs to learn how to utilize it.

And in combination with his Wind Symbol, he can unleash powerful wind spells, right? Or so it should be. After all, both the Wind Symbol and the fan were made by the Queen, so they should be overpowered to a certain level.

Maybe he could ask one of the Four Spirits for assistance on how to use wind magic, like Sylph. That, or he can buy his knowledge from his system…

Anyway, Victor decided to close the nice-looking fan with both hands and place it within his inventory for future uses.

Thinking about it, couldn't he disguise his telekinesis with the fan? He will have to find a way around that tomorrow.

"Hello!" Another familiar voice came from his side, and Victor turned around to see Olliana smiling at him.

"Oh, hey." Victor greeted her back as she skipped right in front of him.

"So, I saw the queen with you, what happened?"

Victor showed her his right arm and told her. "She just thanked me for saving her life, nothing much."

Olliana looked down on the arm and raised an eyebrow. "...What is this?"

"Well, it is a Wind Symbol, but it changed shape after she finished drawing it."

"Ohh…" Olliana admired the drill-shaped tattoo. "This is a weird one… Anyway, want to join me in the party?"

Victor shook his head in response. "I'm not really a guy for parties, I prefer staying with a few people…"

The smile on Olliana's face widened a bit while her eyes narrowed into a lewd expression. "I see, you want to stay with a few people… In that case, how about we go to celebrate by ourselves? Me and you alone."

Victor shrugged with a clueless expression. "Sounds fine to me."

After that, Olliana pushed Victor's wheelchair far away from the previous location. Behind them, Luka could simply sigh and shake his head at Victor's disrespect to Ilias' five commandments.

It would sound weird at first, but when relationships come in, Victor can be a bit dense depending on the situation. There are cases where he knows what is going on, and other cases where he would think that everything was a set-up prank… That's what he gets for being so antisocial in his childhood.

If it was a normal human, he would think they were just getting friendly with him. After all, he didn't feel any of that kind of love back on Earth. Even if they would slap him with a 'I love you' signboard just to tell him about the girl's love for him, he would ignore that and slap back the woman.

But if it was someone like a succubus, even he would know what is going on. This, however, fell on the first category, with Victor thinking that Olliana would want to be a bit alone and nothing else. After all, she was so affectionate with him, and this would be the last day for now they will stay together.

Anyway, even if he missed the underline below her sentence, he will certainly understand what is going on soon, and he will be able to enjoy it for the entire time unlike the last time when he got the fever…

…

It was the morning of the next day, the party ended long ago the previous night as everyone returned to do their own work. Now that men were also there, Happiness Village became more active.

Victor, Luka, Penny, Alice, Granberia, and Eva were standing between Happiness Village and the forest behind them, watching the village chief with his wife and Lucretia greeting them.

"We are indebted to you, travelers." The old woman bowed her head in gratitude towards the group, Victor in particular, since he was the one who did the most of the work. "You will be welcomed to our village whenever you wish, so please do visit us often."

Lucretia followed after her. "Even though we were clearly in the wrong, you still had the heart to forgive our actions towards the village and also fix everything that was wrong with the situation. I wish you all a safe journey."

"Thank you for your hospitality!" Luka replied to them, while the others either gave a nod or didn't answer at all.

"...Queen Harpy, I have a question about a particular subject." Alice suddenly asked out, and Lucretia shifted her attention to her.

"Ask away, Miss Gourmet."

"What will be your judgement on the Sky Knight you captured yesterday?"

Upon hearing that subject being brought up, Lucretia couldn't help but sigh and shake her head. "Her crimes are attempting to murder the queen and inciting violence. Also, we had found out that she was actually hiding one of the travelers that previously came here to fix the problem in the past, and he seems to have received a trauma from her sexual abuse."

"That's horrible!" Luka commented in shock as he listened to the second part of what Diana had committed.

Lucretia nodded. "She is too powerful to be kept in a prison for long periods, and she will certainly not change her point of view even after this time. In the end, I decided to pass down the death penalty."

Alice blinked in surprise at Lucretia's merciless judgement. "Won't that make the other Harpies and Sky Knights have a negative opinion on you?"

After taking a deep breath, Lucretia replied. "I am not just the leader of the Harpy Village, but I am the leader of the entire species of Harpies. Whether it be the Natural Harpies here or the greater Harpies in Sentora, every action of mine will be seen and judged by everyone. I can't just make everyone happy, there will always be that group of people against my actions no matter what.

Being a Queen isn't about simply leading your species or creating descendants, but it is about being a paragon, an example for everyone under your wing. No one would wish to follow a person who says 'Yes' to anything no matter what, but everyone would be against you if you merely satisfied yourself in a selfish manner like a tyrant."

Lucretia held a serious expression as she stared at Alice, who was left in a trance upon hearing her words. "Miss, although I don't understand your point of view, I'm more than happy to tell you about mine. A Queen must both take in consideration her feelings and her subjects to be a real Queen. If you do too much only for one of them, you can either be a dictator like Refletsia, or a martyr.

My decision to execute one of my Sky Knights, for example, comes from my selfish part of my job. I could have easily let her free and exile her from the village. However, if I thought more about her rather than myself, I would be seen as a queen who is willing to be stepped all over without retaliating back.

The greatest weapon of a Queen is not her strength or agility, neither is her bloodline. What a Queen uses to submit her entire species under her rule is reverence and respect; these two alone are stronger than any weapon existing as long as you have enough of them."

When she finished speaking, Alice merely stared at Lucretia with a surprised expression in response. However, some seconds later, she closed her eyes and thought about what she listened, before she let out a sigh. "Thank you for sharing with me your point of view, Queen Lucretia."

"Hmm." Lucretia nodded at her with a smile on her face. "I wish you good luck for your future, Miss."

Alice nodded back at her before she turned around and glanced at the rest of the group. "Let's go, we are done here."

"Hold up…" Victor told her back before he looked at the Village Chief. "I almost forgot to ask, but where is the beehive of the Bee Girls? You know, for the thing about teaching the harpies…"

"Oh!" The Village Chief's eyes lightened up as he pointed northwest. "They are in that direction, about 6 hours away."

"Can you show it to me on the map?" Victor wheeled closer to the old man before pulling a map and a pen out of nowhere. After getting the indications, it was truly time for everyone to leave.

"Thank you! Come to play with us again!"

"Please be safe!"

"Come and play again! We'll be glad to be your partners…"

"Victor!"

Upon his name being mentioned, Victor turned his wheelchair a bit and looked back, seeing the familiar figure of Olliana waving at him. Victor smiled and waved back at her before he returned to his way.

He merely glanced at his side, and noticed Granberia reading the book he lent to her yesterday. A smirk appeared on his face as he asked. "You seem to like that novel a lot, Granberia."

She pulled her gaze away from the book and looked at Victor. "It is an actually interesting concept, even if fictional. Qi, Martial Arts, Cultivation Ranks, Spirit Roots, Alchemy. The main character is also fearless and can get the job done. Your hometown certainly has good stuff."

"Glad to know you like it, it is my favorite novel after all…" Victor replied as he looked forward. He took a deep breath and spoke to everyone. "So, we will be heading to the beehive first to ask the Bee Girls to teach the harpies how to do their stuff. I'm sure that Honey can help us with this. After that, we will head back to Iliasburg to decide our next actions. Sounds fine?"

Seeing that no one disagreed with his words, Victor nodded to himself before they went far enough from the village, where he summoned his car from his inventory and everyone entered it.

Once his friends sat in their respective spots, with both Granberia and Alice shifting back to their draconic and serpentine forms respectively, Victor turned on the car and pushed the accelerator.

…

Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Queen-class Monsters

I have mentioned many times about 'Queens', superior beings of their own species whose task is to guide their species as a whole in the right way. And now, I will explain to you who they are.

Queen-class Monsters are unique monsters born from a mutation that made them stronger than the average, or they came out from unique rituals like the Queen Ant that involve giving the monster in question certain privileges that mutate her even further.

Anyway, each normal Queen-class Monster has an overall power comparable to an entire city, meaning that it would take the manpower to destroy an entire city in one attack to hurt them. Either that, or they have a unique ability that makes them just as dangerous.

The Queens are the proxies of the Monster Lord, and people who keep their races in check in the Monster Lord's stead. After all, the Monster Lord is a mortal being, even though she has limits on how much her influence reaches. Because of that, the Queen-class Monsters exist to make sure that there isn't any rebellion in their own sections.

There are currently 21 positions for Queens:

The Queen Alraune, lord of the Alraunes and plant monsters.

The Queen Ant, lord of the ants.

The Queen Beast, lord of beast monsters such as minotauros, felines, and other mammals with the exception of Kitsunes.

The Queen Bee, lord of the bees and her own proxies on their respective beehives.

The Queen Elf, lord of the elves species and possible subspecies of this race, including giants.

The Queen Fairy, lord of the fairies and magical beasts.

The Queen Harpy, lord of the harpies and related subspecies.

The Queen Insect, lord of every insect-type monster and the one who rules over the queens of the bees, ants, spiders, and neutral insects.

The Queen Kitsune, lord of the kitsune species, governed for the entire time by Tamamo-no-Mae, and so it will remain in the future.

The Queen Lamia, lord of the serpentine monsters.

The Queen Mermaid, the lord of the mermaids and loreleis, and completely unrelated to the queens of the northern and southern seas.

The Queen of the Northern Sea, the ruler of the northern side of the world's sea.

The Queen Roach, the lord of the cockroaches.

The Queen Scylla, the lord of tentacular monsters.

The Queen Slime, the lord of the Slime species.

The Queen Slug, the lord of the land-dwelling species known as slugs.

The Queen of the Southern Sea, the ruler of the southern side of the world's sea.

The Queen Spider, the lord of the Spider and Arachne monsters.

The Queen Succubus, the lord of the succubi, and the person you must stay away from if you want to keep your soul.

The Queen Tanuki, the lord of the tanuki species.

The Queen Vampire, the lord of the vampires and empress of the night.

Although Queen-class Monsters are seen normally as extremely powerful beings just second to the Monster Lord, they are actually the line that separates normal monsters to the truly strong monsters such as the Ancient Gods, Mythological-class Monsters, the Ancestral-class Monsters, the Monster Lords, and their close generals such as the 16th Monster Lord's Heavenly Knights and the 8th Monster Lord's Three Nobles of Black.

No normal monster can surpass the Queen-class Monsters, except in the few cases such as Dragons, who don't need any Queen because they are all born strong, Kitsunes whose number of tails correspond to their strength, and chimeric monsters whose strength varies depending on how they are created and their purpose.

However, while no normal monster can go beyond that line, every monster that is beyond the level of a Queen is a noteworthy monster. However, we will be talking of the unique levels beyond them in the future.