Consequences

The silent hour of the night was the one I love the most, for the blissful dream may arise embracing my mind; however, that blissful dream turned chaotic as it became one of the most erotic dreams I've ever had. Clara was on top of me with her eyes filled with lust, staring at my eyes as her lips were pressing against mine.

"Mhmm! Mhmmm!"

Out of instinct, I push Clara away from me and teleport myself to the door of my room, far away from her. Then I ran off outside while screaming.

"Lily! Lily! Lily! Lily! Heeelp—!"

Heading toward Lily's room, upon opening the door.

"W-What!?" Lily exclaimed.

"Help! Clara's at it again!"

I immediately embraced Lily and burying my head on her bountiful breast while she's wearing nothing other than the white towel around her body. Obviously, I got a slap on the face because of that. At the same time, I thought to myself. 'Nice~'

*Slap* "Puuh—!"

"Don't barge into my room! I'm dressing! Learn to knock!"

"The door is unlocked, how would I know!"

"That's the point of knocking!"

After a week of recovery, I'm finally able to move again because of the 'healing' process of Master Irene and Clara. It may be arousing, but it works superbly. However, during those times, Lily needed to use her ice to freeze Clara if she goes over the line because her self-control is horrendous—She doesn't really need to because of the spell under her. Regardless, I'm still thankful for Lily.

The reason for Clara and Master Irene acting like that is because of their succubus nature. Master Irene told me they have had no problems controlling their urges recently; especially before my spirit ceremony, but it got worse after that. The sole reason they're ignoring the week after my spirit ceremony was to control their urges of strong lust.

Clara and Master Irene are different from a normal succubus, as they're incredibly the opposite of that. Instead of absorbing, they need to release the 'life essence' out of their system because of their unique soul and body constitution. But from Diana's explanations, it's actually divinity. That's one of the reasons why Master Irene was recruited by the pope herself; it's my conjecture.

They're overflowing with 'life essence' which can be dangerous for one's body, that's why they need to release it by masturbating frequently—That's what they believed in. I don't really know, but I feel like it's more because of their lust not because of that.

My situation isn't that bad because they'll only have lustful thoughts whenever they would heal me. Plus, it's a huge benefit for me. It does give me benefits, but the only problem behind it was the aphrodisiac that is coming from their saliva and their scent.

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After last week's incident in the city of Seva in the kingdom of Maiveil. The entire city went into lockdown because of the danger that still lurks around the city.

Master Irene told me there was an explosion that came from sewers and those specters emerged from it, wreaking havoc in the city. Also, they're specifically targeting me, which added more to the confusion to both me and Master Irene.

The Krishna Council is investigating those creatures on where they came from and their purpose, but since they're unable to get some samples from the monsters, it made the investigation difficult. The Krishna council is an association that maintains the peace and order of the continent; a higher order of justice that handles kingdom affairs.

Not only that, but Master Irene also said something that was carved inside of my head because the casualties from my fight were more devastating than I initially thought. At that time, I'm not focusing on my surroundings as I'm too focused on saving my life and killing the specter as soon as I can.

But of course, that didn't go as planned, which's resulted in one of my despairing blunders. In the fight, at least 15 were wounded and I don't know how many were killed. Not everyone was evacuated because there are still some people inside the buildings. Master Irene didn't mention how many, but she said there were some.

In that situation, it might be better for her not to tell me because I'm having a hard time dealing with it, but I know the message she's sending from it. That's the reason I've been depressed lately.

"You can't do anything other than to minimize the casualties. Once you see the world, you'll realize that life and death are part of reality. The harshness of reality is what you need to accept. Your actions at that time are totally logical since you're on the verge of death. Of course, you can't think of anything other than thinking about how you can get out alive in that situation. We can't do anything about it, Claude. What already happened, happened. You can't turn back time. Remember that." Master Irene said to me.

I completely understood all of that, but the guilt still remains inside my chest and the frustration at how narrow-minded I am when fighting. Logically, what I did was correct for the benefit of my own self. I did try minimizing the casualty, but as the fight got longer; I lost track of everything around me.

I don't know what to do with this guilt inside my chest.

I want to cry, but I'm unable to do so.

Even when I tried to act normal, the thing inside my chest wouldn't say the same.

I tried to cope by using humor with Lily, but even with that, it won't work.

I don't know what to do...

Then one day, I accidentally overheard a serious conversation between Clara and Master Irene, while I accidentally teleported myself into the closet of Master Irene's office. Indulging myself on practicing [Shifting Point] on only using my horrible spatial awareness—To forget the feeling inside me.

"Clara, have you gotten any information regarding the bureaucrat's son that Lily killed that day?"

"Yes, that bureaucrat was apparently trying to cut every connection of the Askar Kingdom on the both agricultural and industrial exchange between other kingdoms. Furthermore, he's threatening the Elven kingdom."

"Haah... A higher bureaucrat from the Krishna council. Even though, I took Lily in; the audacity of that bastard. We need to take precautionary actions for any situations."

"Yes."

"The fat bastard was persisting in giving Lily to him for the consequence of killing his son. In addition to that, we do not know what that bastard would do to my poor Lily. Recalling his disgusting gaze on me makes my blood boil, he's asking to be killed in front of me. In reality, he doesn't even give a shit about his own son at all."

"Please don't Madam, we can't afford to offend the Krishna Council. The temple is already monitoring every action of yours."

"Yeah, I know. The church shouldn't involve themselves in the government, but those bastards... They'll do anything for money. If I kill that bureaucrat, the church will use that excuse to strip me out of my title. Even the pope won't be able to save me."

"I can just continue investigating, Madam."

Listening to their conversation, I fell into deep thoughts.

"Claude, just get out there. We heard you."

Opening the closet, Master Irene has a small smile on her face, and Clara with her usual emotionless face; both staring at me.

"Why didn't you just call me the first time?"

"Nothing. I'm observing how long you're going to listen to us. So, what are your thoughts about it? And it looks cool, to be honest."

"Are all the things you said are true? Isn't the Askar kingdom a hidden kingdom of elves? The trading doesn't make any sense to me."

"Yes. It's quite irrelevant since they can handle themselves pretty well without the trades, but it will still hurt them regardless. But the main problem would be reputation of Lily. Well, there are rumors about war, but I doubt that would happen. From what I've heard, the Orcs and the Ogres are in agreement with the bureaucrat. It's still a rumor though. Also, the temple seems to be meddling on this matter too."

"Temple, you mean the church?"

"Yes, they have the same meaning; however, we use the term Temple for the mainland. Anyhow, you heard everything, right?"

"Yeah... You're going to tell me all of it now?"

"The thing is, after getting your spirit ceremony, you and I should be in the wilderness now, for your training. But unexpected predicaments happened way before that, which led to me taking in Lily."

"That's the only reason you chose her to become a disciple? To protect her from the bureaucrat that's searching for her? You know, just tell all of that in the beginning instead of doing all those conversations earlier. It's dumb. We already had this conversation last time." I knit my eyebrows.

"Now that I think about it, you're right... Sorry." Master Irene made an apologetic expression to me.

So cute...

"Haah... So, what do I need to do? Does she even know what's happening?"

"That's the problem. She doesn't know as per her father's request. However, the news is spreading everywhere in the city which bothers me. Sooner or later, she'll learn what's happening to her kingdom. And, I'm worried for her. Lily's mental fortitude is not strong." Master Irene gazes at the window.

"I've got a question. She killed that man at the party because of her distress, right?"

It's a conclusion that I came up with from remembering Lily's behavior in the game, but not to that extent where she would accidentally kill a person.

"Yeah. We're surprised by it too. We concluded that it must be Fenrir's influence because spirits act like guardians for us and they share our memories, too. This means, there's a possibility that when Lily felt threatened or when her trauma got triggered; Fenrir eliminated the root of it—Unfortunately, that's the son of the bureaucrat at the party who was about to assault her. Spirits share's the emotion and memories of their contractor."

Sharing one's memories and emotions...

(Diana, what is she saying??)

(Do you remember what I told you about soul linking?)

(Yeah, they use the memories of the contractor to create some sort of connection or bond with them.)

(Correct. It's the most common practice for spirits to do that because it's the only safest method. Unlike my method of merging, once their contractors die they'll just be sent back the Aether. My mother told me about it. She regretted not merging with her loved one because of it. That's why she told us to do that, for us not to leave our husband's side.)

(Ohh...)

(To accomplish that, there's a price; the spirit must seal their emotions deep within their soul to create an emotional connection with them. As for the memories, spirit beasts are creatures that can inherit their contractor's memories without worrying about losing their identities. I can also do that too, but I can't because I chose to fuse my soul into you and I chose to separate our memories and emotions. My mother told me you need to love the person for who they are because it's their individuality that you will fall in love with.)

(Wow... That's so sweet of you~ I'm learning new things. That's so convenient. Thanks, Diana. I can't think of a world where I don't have you.)

(Hehehe~)

"Because of that reason...? What would happen to Lily?"

"There'll be a lot of complications behind it, that can be used against the Askar kingdom. They can use the mental illness of Lily to bring the reputation of the kingdom because Lily is the chosen protector of the kingdom—The thing we need to prevent at all costs. Right now, for the bureaucrat, he's gathering sympathy from other aristocrats. In addition, he has connections with the Media whereas I don't."

"He didn't even take this matter to the court of the council which stated the obvious, instead he threatened the Askar Kingdom to surrender Lily to him. Of course, her father wouldn't allow that. Now, because of that, it could backfire against them along with the reputation of the kingdom. As you may know, the royalties represent their kingdom. Also, fighting against the council would be devastating for the Elven kingdom. And, some kingdoms are taking advantage of this situation too. And, he's such an idiot to think he could threaten him like that. But it does make sense

"Why didn't you just stop it before? I thought that's all in the bag because you said not to worry about it." I asked.

After asking that question, I felt an arm wrapping around my abdomen and a chin in my shoulder. I glance at who it was, and it's Clara with her indifferent expression. I pat her head which she seems to enjoy it. It's pretty odd that Clara would do this when I'm having a serious conversation with Master Irene.

"There, there. Where were we?"

"We didn't even know that it's his son. Even if we knew, we can't prevent it because it's already too late. We only witnessed you two having a heated argument. There were few witnesses who saw everything." Master Irene was tapping her pen on the table.

"They told us, the person tried to assault her which can be interpreted as self-defense and there's alcohol in his system, making it more favorable to us. I did send my report to the Krishna Council about that matter and reported it as self-defense. Now, I only need to wait for their own investigation. The only problem was that the bureaucrat—He's from the Krishna Council. We don't know if he can bribe them or not. In addition to that, he's spreading false rumors about it. I'm already too late on that one."

During our conversation, Clara's hand slowly slid down to my crotch which I slap it.

"Bad, Clara. Can't you just threaten the guy with your title as the saint? Aren't you an influential person because of the title that was given to you by the pope?"

"I may have the title of the Saint, but that doesn't mean my influence in politics is great. They are two different things, Claude. The pope gives the title of the Saint, to the entrusted people. Moreover, the relationship of the Temple with the Krishna Council has always been bad since the beginning because some ideologies conflict with one another."

"If I created a scandal by killing or prosecuting the bureaucrat without any sufficient evidence; the temple would brand me as a heretic. The thing I want to avoid at all costs. Being an enemy of the temple would be worse than the death penalty. And, a lot of them wanted that to happen because of my race. Also, threatening him would be useless because he's from a kingdom that I have no influence on."

"I thought only a few people know about your race?"

"Not really, most of the higher-ranking people in the temple like the Cardinals or the Archbishops knew about it, but they're under the oath of the pope. That's the reason why I'm still alive right now. But of course, most of them wanted to kill me. Outside of that, there are more who wanted to kill me. I have a lot of enemies, Claude. If it wasn't for the pope, I don't know where I will be right now."

"Can't you just ask the pope directly?"

"The pope doesn't care about political conflicts. Her only main goal is the religion itself, Claude. Other than that, she will just overlook things. That's why I can't really rely on the pope too much than taking matters into my own hand."

"Basically, you and the king need to handle this situation, huh? What do I need to do?"

"Yep. Um... I'm here to ask you to protect Lily. If something happens. Both you and Clara will protect her. It's the request of my old friend." Master Irene smiled, but her eyes are filled with sadness and grief.

"Even without you asking, I'll protect her," I said in response, with a smile on my face.

"Thank you. I only need a bit more time to solve this issue. I'm worried for Lily because she's the most vulnerable one."

After the incident that transpired last week, there's another one that's been boiling in the boiler for quite some time now. What a life.