Chapter 15: Post-Mortem

(First Person - Avalon) 

A faint groan escaped my lips as my eyelids gradually began to part. 

I slowly found the strength to sit myself upright, wincing as I was met with a sharp pain spreading through my body. 

Where am I? This certainly isn't Mortis, nor is it one of the tents we use at the camp. 

I'm in some sort of dimly lit room, one which I don't really recognise the ceiling of. I'm on a fairly comfortable bed as well, so that probably means I've been asleep for a while.

Actually, I think I do recognise it? I'm just finding it exceedingly hard to think straight with the throbbing migraine I have going on. 

Let's see here, what's the last thing I remember? 

I was fighting Armaros, whom I ended up killing, and then I had to work with Sylas to fight the 7,000 Fallen Angels he had left behind. 

Hold on a second, didn't I end up running out of gas during that battle? No, if that were the case then I should be dead. 

Did someone help me out at the end? 

"Your sister, or should I say Makima? Came to your aid before you passed out," I heard a familiar voice reach out to me. 

I grabbed the front of the blanket that had been draped over me, lifting it up with one swift motion and being met with an immensely infuriating sight. 

"Tomoe." 

"Tomoe here." 

"Why are you laying on my lap?" So help me Lucifer, if I find out if he did more than just lay on me while I was asleep I'm going to find myself a new Demonic Sword. 

He crossed his arms together, resting his chin atop them as he sported his signature smile. 

"There's no need to be so confrontational, I was just keeping you stable while you slept with my Senjutsu. If anything you should be thanking me," he replied with a proud huff. 

"Is that really all you did?" The corner of my eye twitched. 

"Of course, unless you'd rather I did something?" He pursed his lips, leaning closer towards me as his lips drew dangerously close to mine. "In that case, I'd be more than happy to make up for it now." 

"As if," I was quick to push his insufferable face away, no matter how weakened I am I'll always be able to muster up enough strength to prevent myself from getting molested. 

Unless we're talking about Ruval's mom, she can molest me all she wants. 

"Aw, don't be like that. Not even a little peck? I'll let you touch my tails if you want," he wrapped his arms around my torso, almost making me call out Muramasa on instinct. 

I heard the door open while I was wrestling Tomoe, someone who had been the root cause of a lot of rumors surrounding me entering inside. 

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't stress my patient out while he's still recovering, even if you are his contracted spirit." It was Ajuka, and in this situation, my saviour. 

"Quick! Get this pervert off me!" I pleaded. 

"P-P-Pervert!? You should be honoured to have someone as beautiful as me fawning over you! You ungrateful twerp!" 

"That's enough," Ajuka waved his hand, entrapping Tomoe in a binding spell and successfully safeguarding my chastity. 

"How dare you! I'm royalty! Such treatment is an insult to my very being!" 

We both made a silent agreement to ignore him. 

"How are you feeling?" He asked me. 

"Like I've been put through a meat grinder," I sighed and laid back down on my pillow. 

"I'm surprised it's only that bad, I guess your spirit's treatment worked better than I had presumed." He looked down at the tablet he was holding in his hands, fiddling with it before setting it aside. "As you've guessed, you're in my estate at the moment, and as you're probably wondering, you've been out for about a day and some change." 

"That's not as bad as I imagined," I clutched my left shoulder, remembering the sensation of having Armaros's axe driven into it. 

Also, I'm 99% sure that I lost this arm during the battle against Armaros's soldiers, not that it was of any use to me after it had been damaged by his Anti-Magic. 

"It's a prosthetic arm, I made the Demonic Power conductivity of it as high as I possibly could to make the assimilation process as smooth as it could be."

"This is prosthetic?" I experienced absolutely no trouble moving it around or wiggling my fingers. "I can't tell the difference between this and my old one." 

I meant that literally, I think I might have underestimated the Underworld's technology a tad bit. No, it would be more accurate to say that I underestimated Ajuka. 

We're technically the same breed of Devil to an extent, so will I be able to create stuff like this later on? I wonder. 

"I'm glad you find it to your liking, but I imagine you're probably more curious about that." 

He pointed to the strap around my neck, which had what looked to be a box of some sort attached to the side of it. Alongside wires with pins on them that have been embedded behind my ears.

I'd look further, but I doubt I'm in any condition to be removing my blindfold. 

"That's my gift to you, you can consider it part of your reward for defeating a Cadre. It's also the first official step in finding a way to properly tame the burden of your heightened senses." 

Phew, for a second I thought it was some sort of weird fetish thing. 

"What is it?" 

"It's a Calculation Assistance Device, or CAD for short. The two small needles that have been attached behind your ears are electrodes that have you connected to the same network I use to run my personal lab through electromagnetic telecommunication." 

I think he just said something really intelligent, but I'm just way too stupid to understand any of it.

I also think he's noticed my dumbfoundment. 

"The point is, since your brain is unable to calculate how much information it can process without imploding. This device will do it for you in its stead, by making use of the supercomputer that runs my lab to run all the necessary calculations." 

"So I'm able to take my blindfold off now?" I said with noticeable excitement. 

"No, not yet. Like I said, this is just the first step in reaching that goal. What you're wearing now is a prototype, and the data I collect from you using it will help me create the finished product." 

"I see, so what is it capable of doing at the moment?" 

"Right now it has three modes, off, controlled release, and uncontrolled release. Off is self-explanatory, controlled release allows you to bring your senses up to 50% of their actual strength while you still have the blindfold on. Uncontrolled release on the other hand is only for when you take your blindfold off, you'll be able to sustain that state for double your usual time since the CAD will take on half of the burden your mind endures during it." 

That's huge, as I get older the amount of time I can keep my blindfold off reduces, so having a way to double that time will be an enormous boon for me. 

Also this controlled release thing is really something, with the blindfold on my senses are at about 10% of their original strength. Having a way to not only choose between all or nothing, but also play with some middle ground is definitely a great help.

"Just keep in mind, it runs off your Demonic Power and will consume more of it depending on the setting." 

Ah, I guess it wouldn't make sense for a prototype to not have a drawback. 

"Oh, and one more thing. Since it's connected to my lab, it also has a replica of my personal assistant installed into it." 

"Assistant?" 

[Startup initiated… Installizing… Assimilating… Host designated 'Young Lord' confirmed… Administrator permissions granted…] 

I jolted a little, hearing a voice that didn't belong to the perverted fox speaking into my head. 

Also what did it just call me? 

[Greetings Young Lord, my name is Pandorica. It is a pleasure to be at your service.] 

Wait, don't tell me I have my own Jarvis now? That'd be sick. 

He actually kind of sounds like Jarivs come to think of it. 

"He has a wealth of information for you to call upon since he's a part of my archives, but some things won't be accessible to you for reasons I'll elaborate on another time. If you ever need help with anything, such as spellcraft or figuring out how to operate the CAD, he'll be there to assist." 

"Neat, but is there any reason he's calling me Young Lord?" 

Ajuka shrugged. "Not sure, I didn't explicitly tell him to do that. You can ask him if you'd like." 

Well? 

[The facial scan run between the Lord and Young Lord was recorded at a 99.98% match. Therefore my parent system advised me to hand you that designation, Young Lord.] 

Of course that's the reason, he's not my father for crying out loud. 

[Answer inconclusive, would you like me to run a DNA scan instead?] 

Uh, for some reason I have a feeling that might be a bad idea. Let's put that on hold for now. 

[Affirmative.] 

Also, what's this about a parent system? 

[Pandora is the parent system used to run the Lord's laboratory, I was created through replicating its coding on a much smaller scale.] 

Pandora and Pandorica, got it. 

[Young Lord, I am sensing a disturbance of foreign energy in your body. Would you like me to dispense it?] 

That depends, does that foreign energy happen to be Ki by any chance? 

[Indeed.] 

That's just Tomoe, he's the lunatic being chained up by Ajuka over there. 

[Young Lord, your emotional state informs that your comfort rate around 'Tomoe' is exceedingly low. Are you sure you do not wish for me to rid you of him?] 

I'm sure, also we're in some kind of bound contract so I don't think that'd even be possible.

[My processing power is not capable of altering the contract, but if I request for my parent system to collaborate with the Lord to do it in my stead, it will be feasible.] 

Seriously? Then keep that option on hold for me. 

[Understood.] 

"I can tell you're thinking of something rude again!" Tomoe bellowed, whom I again chose to ignore. 

"Is there anything else I need to know?" I asked Ajuka. 

"No, at least not for now since I don't wish to overwhelm you. Your family and peerage are waiting for you downstairs in the lobby, but if you'd rather rest some more there's no problem with that." 

"Hmph, he's in no condition to be walking around." Ajuka decided to let Tomoe out of his constraints for some reason, allowing him to put his arms around my shoulders. "He needs to stay here and cuddle with me until he's better." 

Yeah, I'm definitely getting up. 

"Woah," the second my feet hit the floor, I was met with an abrupt sensation of weakness in my legs. Almost causing me to fall flat on my face if not for Tomoe catching me at the last minute. 

"See? You still need rest." 

With the amount of running I did, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that my legs are absolutely fried. 

"Here," Ajuka tossed me a crutch, one that automatically latched itself onto my arm as I used it to support myself. 

"Thanks," with Tomoe following beside me in his manifested form, I exited the room and headed downstairs to meet with everyone. 

"Sweetie!" Venelana was the first to notice me, rushing towards me with her arms extended. 

"I'm pretty fragile right now, so if you hug me I might actually shatter into a million little pieces on the spot," I cautioned her. 

"O-Oh, right. I'm just glad to see you're doing alright," she went in for a much gentler hug instead of her usual spine-shattering one. "We were worried sick." 

Zeoticus was about to join in, but his vision soon shifted to the troglodyte standing beside me. 

Ah, I haven't introduced Tomoe to any of them have I? I probably should've told him to get back in his seal. 

Adaloth approached me as well, her arm in a sling for some reason. 

"Who's that?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at Tomoe. 

"This is my familiar-" 

"I'm his husband, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sister-in-law, Mother-in-law, Father-in-law." 

A vein nearly burst out of my forehead as I smacked Tomoe in the shin with my crutch, enjoying the sight of him hopping on one leg as he rubbed his well-deserved bruise. 

"You little shit! That was overboard!" 

"As I was saying," I cleared my throat. "This is my familiar, Tomoe." 

"That's a familiar?" Zeoticus asked with justified confusion, even though most familiars are capable of morphing into a humanoid form, they're usually not able to retain such a state for very long. 

His presence is probably also fairly baffling to them since he's a Youkai. 

"Yes, unfortunately he's been diagnosed with some sort of mental disability, so try not to take anything he says at face value," I feigned a look of pity on my face. 

"How terrible," Venelana put her hand in front of her mouth, reciprocating my expression. "But we've yet to take you to the Familiar Forest, where did you acquire him?" 

She just reminded me, I need to organise a visit for Lars and Adaloth to get their familiars as well. 

Pandorica, make a note of that. 

[Consider it noted.] 

"Souji gave him to me," that's the best lie I can think of on the spot, even though it's technically not a lie. 

"How long have you had him for?" Adaloth questioned. 

"I got him on the same day I made you my Queen." 

"And you didn't think to inform me of this?" She folded her arms together, shooting an accusatory glance at me. 

"Was there a need to?" 

[Young Lord, I suggest you reconsider your approach.] 

Huh? Why? 

[If I were to put it in terms that you would find familiar, you happen to be 'pissing her off,' at the moment.] 

Eh? But I didn't even do anything? Also how can you tell? 

[Our "vision", or more accurately our senses is shared, Young Lord. I'm able to scan anything within your field of view, including the emotional states of those surrounding you.] 

Oh, that's interesting. 

"If it was just a normal familiar, no. However, I have a hunch that Tomoe isn't a normal familiar. Would that assumption be accurate?" 

"Uh, maybe." I should probably find some way to steer the conversation elsewhere. "More importantly, what happened to your arm?" 

"Nothing major, I just exerted myself a little more than usual." 

Now who's fibbing? 

"I see, I heard you were responsible for saving me at the end. Though I don't really remember any of it since my memories are still all bundled up." 

"You're too incompetent to look after yourself, so it's only natural that I do it for you in your stead." 

"Not mincing words are we?" I breathed a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "I guess you've saved me twice now, thank you." 

"That's not going to cut it." 

"What?" 

"Words aren't going to suffice as appreciation anymore."

"Then what will?" 

"You'll see." 

Yeah, that's totally not ominous or anything. 

Pandorica, you can keep watch over me while I'm asleep right? 

[The Young Lord has deemed this woman a threat, it is only natural I keep an eye on her.] 

She's got the look of a schemer, but I think calling her a threat at the moment is a little much seeing as she did in fact rescue me. 

[I am only using your sentiment as a base for my opinion, my directive is to ensure your safety to the best of my abilities. I'm afraid only the Lord may override that directive.] 

Well, as long as you don't actually do anything without letting me know I suppose it's fine. 

"Now then, when are you going to explain to me what that thing around your neck is?" She pointed to the CAD. 

"Lord Beelzebub made it for me, it's going to help me control my senses a little better from now on, and hopefully at some point give me complete autonomy over them. You'd have to ask him if you want the specifics, I don't really understand most of the technical stuff." 

She leaned closer towards me, getting a closer look at the electrodes embedded behind my ears. 

"Is it dangerous? Unlike your blindfold, this device appears to be a lot more intrusive." 

[Me? Danger the Young Lord? I seem to have greatly overestimated this creature's intelligence. How disappointing.] 

"I doubt it." 

She narrowed her eyes and hummed, giving me the feeling that she didn't have much confidence in the CAD. 

"What about your arm? When I found you your left arm was missing," she grabbed my left hand and held it closer to her face. 

"It's prosthetic believe it or not, even I couldn't tell the difference at first." 

[It was created by the Lord, if anything it's an improvement from what you originally had.] 

"You're not experiencing any discomfort?" 

"No, none at all." 

"I see, that's good to hear." 

I looked around the room, noticing that a certain Bishop was missing. 

"Where's Lars?" 

"He's outside with Esdeath, she isn't in the best of moods at the moment. Therefore he decided it would be better if he kept her company," she said while pointing out the window. 

"Did something happen?" I continued, evident concern in my tone. 

"During their fight with a Cadre called Sahariel, Border Commander Lith was among the casualties." 

I fell silent. 

"Lith's… Dead?" I blinked a few times, letting her words sink in. 

That Lith? That madman who rushed down a Sentinel? 

"Mhm," she replied, her tone void of any fluctuation. 

"Oh…" 

I'm not sure how to respond. 

I've witnessed plenty of casualties up till now, but none of those were people I actually knew, at least not on a close basis. 

Lith wasn't my best friend or anything, but I was definitely fond of the man.

Actually, I was hoping we'd have a chance to talk more as fellow students of Souji, but I guess that isn't going to happen anymore. 

I hope you were at least able to die void of regret, fighting a Cadre is a pretty honorable way to go. 

Rest well, Umbral Knight. I'll make sure to remember you. 

"Were there any other casualties?" 

"None of note."

So that means Sylas somehow survived, that's actually a lot more shocking than Lith dying to me. 

"What about Lars? How's he holding up?" 

"He's grieving, but not as much as Esdeath is. For some reason she's under the impression that Lith's passing was her fault, in spite of our efforts to convince her otherwise." 

"I'll go talk to them in a bit, what about Mortis itself? How did the siege go?" 

"There was no need for a siege, Mortis had already been completely abandoned, probably even before we began our march. Unfortunately, most of the important technology has already been removed from the city, but there's still a salvaging effort going on just in case they left something behind." 

"That doesn't surprise me, with numbers being their main weaknesses I didn't think they'd leave their civilians behind, and if three Cadres aren't enough to defend the place, then any further efforts would be just as pointless." She nodded in agreement. 

"Speaking of which, there's a few events we're going to need to attend soon." 

"Events?" I queried. 

"There's going to be a memorial to commemorate everyone who fell during the campaign, and then an award ceremony sometime afterwards." 

Let's just hope I'm able to walk by then, actually Pandorica, how long do you think it'll take before I don't need this crutch anymore? 

[If you take proper care of yourself, you won't need it by the time of the memorial.] 

Cool. 

"Got it. If there's nothing else, I'll go check up on Lars and Esdeath now," I turned around to face the royal pain in the ass himself. "Tomoe, keep my parents company since they'll want to be filled in on everything that happened." 

"Hmph, whatever." He turned his head away from me in a childish manner. 

I stepped out of the front door of the estate, heading into the garden where I sensed both of the presences I was looking for. 

Lars and Esdeath seem to be sitting together on a bench, the latter resting her head on his shoulder. 

On second thought, I think I might be intruding on something here… Maybe I ought to give them some time alone. 

"Avalon?" Lars turned around. 

Ah, he probably heard the sound of my crutch hitting the floor. 

That's on me. 

"Hey," I replied in a soft tone, slowly walking over towards them. "I heard about Lith," I sat down beside Esdeath, putting my hand on her shoulder in a reassuring manner. 

But my words didn't appear to elicit any response, Esdeath simply continued to look at the ground with a blank stare on her face. 

Her mouth opened a little, I could tell that she was struggling to get the words out of her mouth. 

"It was…" Her voice trembled, her fists clenching almost to the point where her nails dug into her palms. "It was a stupid death… completely avoidable… but I…" 

Tears started to roll down on her face, but me and Lars simply waited in silence for her to say whatever it was she felt the need to say. 

"I just had to… give him that stupid order…" 

Alright, let's hope I don't mess this up. 

"I don't really know the specifics of what happened during that battle, but even if you hadn't told him whatever it is you said, do you think it would've changed the outcome?" 

I think I have a fairly solid read of Lith's character, using that is my best bet at consoling her. 

"What…?" She looked at me, clearly confused by what I had just said. 

"Lith was itching to fight a Cadre ever since the campaign began, and that's what he ended up doing isn't it?" I paused for a bit, choosing my words carefully. "He wanted to fight, ended up fighting, and died doing just that. Maybe it wasn't the most graceful death from an outsider's perspective, I really couldn't say. However, do you think he would've wanted it any other way?" 

"That's not the point! That's not even remotely the point!" 

Knowing Esdeath as I do, letting her vent first and then consoling her afterwards will be a lot more effective than vice versa. 

"Then what is the point? That you're somehow responsible for him choosing how he wanted to live?" 

"NO! I made him block that stupid attack! H-He could've just dodged it! O-Or… No! He shouldn't even have been a part of that fight to begin with! I knew! I knew he was too weak to fight that Cadre!" 

I breathed a low sigh. 

"Do you honestly think Lith didn't know that?" 

"H-Huh?" 

"Lith has more experience than all three of us combined, and by no small margin. He was more than capable of gauging the difference in strength between him and a Cadre, yet, he chose to fight regardless of that." 

"Are you trying to tell me that he wanted to die? And that somehow makes it alright? Is that it!?" 

"No, I'm saying he wanted to fight, and that's what makes it alright. Esdeath, trying to take responsibility for his death will only diminish the value of how he lived. Plenty of Lith's soldiers perished during that fight, do you hold Lith accountable for each and every one of them?" 

"That's not…" 

"That's not the point? No, that is precisely the point. Mourning the losses that happen around you is perfectly fine, but taking them on as a personal burden will only lead you to ruin. Is that what you'll make of Lith's legacy? Will you diminish his determination to fight as the cause of your pain?" 

If I'm being honest here, this is actually a little manipulative of me. 

However, trying to use a completely rational argument to help an 8 year old deal with this type of grief isn't going to work. 

There's no way the same approach you'd use on an adult would work on her, therefore I have to be a bit of a scumbag for now. 

"You weren't in command during that battle Esdeath, he was, you didn't 'order him' to do anything, because you weren't in a position to do so." I stood up, confident that Lars could take it from here. "All three of you fought excellently, and because of that you defeated a formidable opponent. Take pride in that achievement, and take pride in the fact that you fought side by side with such an excellent commander, don't lament it." 

"Is it… Is it really not my fault? Is it fine for me to think like that?" 

"Thousands perished while I was fighting Armaros, do you blame me for not killing him fast enough to prevent more of their deaths?" 

"N-No! Of course not!" 

"Then why shouldn't that same logic apply to you? Lith wanted to remain on the battlefield till the end of his days, and that's exactly what he ended up doing. He lived a full life, if you really want to take responsibility for what happened then just make sure you live a fuller one." I smiled, exchanging an approving look with Lars before returning to the estate. 

[Young Lord, that girl's comfort rate has started to improve. I believe your methods have proven effective.] 

That's good to know. 

And also… a little discomforting. 

---

Well there goes Lith, I guess he should've parried better. 

The romance part of the story, which is what I assume basically everyone reading this is here for, has just started on Patreon so I'm pretty motivated to continue writing at the moment. 

Like I said in the last chapter, I'm going to be focusing on a more character-development oriented storyline before returning to the fighting stuff. (Also fight scenes are absolutely exhausting for me to write.) 

If you've got suggestions you can either join the discord and put them there, or drop them here and I'll try my best to get to them. Just keep in mind it'll be harder to address everything here than it would be on Discord since I upload on multiple platforms, so I can't make any guarantees. 

I don't know how fast my public releases will be, but right now I'm at 7 Advance Chapters on Patreon! So if you wanna shoot some support my way feel free to head over there. 

patreon.com/Accel14

The discord's also here if you wanna join that. 

https://discord.gg/wNzT9AEsaz