Chapter 43: Chapter Forty-One: Catching Up

I shifted my weight as I waited for my mother to begin to speak. We had switched our seating arrangements, with the dark-haired woman seating by herself on the loveseat and the rest of us on the sectional.

Well, rather Master and Ms. Myri were sitting on the sofa. I attempted to do the same but was swiftly scooped up and deposited on the dragonoid’s lap. She then proceeded to play with my hair.

“Where should I start?” Mama murmured, seeming to be thinking out loud.

“Maybe the beginning?” Ms. Myri interjected gently.

“Right!” Mama snapped her fingers. “I’ll just tell you about my beginnings, as telling you about these two would likely take a while, and they probably would like to tell you themselves.”

I saw Ms. Myri’s head nod and felt master move behind me, probably signaling the same thing.

“Okay, in that case. I’ll keep it brief in the parts that don’t matter as much…you can always ask more about them later.”

“Mhm,” I replied.

“Alright, so after I passed away on Earth, I was reborn here.” Mama continued. 

‘Duh! What am I going to do with this airheaded mother of mine…’

“Don’t look at me like it was obvious. I know it was. Anyways, I was born as an orphan in a small village a little ways away from here.”

“I’m sorry, Mama.” 

“It’s fine.”She waved my apology off.” As a matter of fact, shouldn’t I be the one apologizing?”

“No? What did you do wrong? You must’ve had a rough time…and now that I think about it. I need to apologize for something else… I couldn’t even fulfill the dying wish you made to me.”

“Did nothing wrong? I left you with that scumbag. Ri, when I say this, I truly mean it. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for dying and leaving you alone. Forgive me, please?”

Her ears drooped as she asked.

‘Even if I was mad, there’s no way could stay that way when she looks like that. A cute mom should be illegal!’

“I never blamed you in the first place, but I forgive you anyway, Mama.”

Her ears perked up.

“Thank you! I don’t know what I would’ve done if you said no… Now, what’s this about my dying wish?”

“You don’t remember?”

“...No?”

I facepalmed.

“Rio, you know your mother’s a bit of an airhead. Don’t feel too upset about it…hehe.” Ms. Myri laughed nervously as she tried to placate me.

“Haah…of course, you forgot. You made me promise to live a long happy life…and as you could tell from my story…that didn’t happen.”

My mother’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, that! You actually took it as a promise? And you didn’t keep it?”

I gulped as her voice became unsettlingly calm.

“You…you’re…” her head dipped and her body began to tremble. “Yep. I thought this before, but you really are the cutest thing ever arent you?”

“Huh?” I let out.

She got up from her seat and snatched me from the lap of the dragon, planting lots of kisses on my face.

“You’re not mad?”  I asked.

“Not in the slightest,” she replied, sitting back down and placing me on her lap. “ But if it would make you feel better, you are forgiven. Actually, let’s make the same promise again, in this life. Think you can keep it this time?”

“I’ll try.”

“Hehe, that’s good enough for me,” she giggled. “It’s my responsibility to make sure you can keep it after all.”

“Ahem!” Master cleared her throat, looking pointedly at the two of us.

“Ah, went a bit off-topic there didn’t we?” the dark-haired lady asked as she brushed a bundle of hair out of my face.

“Yeah, but it feels so good to have that off my chest.”

“I feel the same,” she grinned. “Now where was I…ah! Right so I was an orphan, but that honestly didn’t bother me much. With my cherished memories of my mother, it would have been more of an issue if I actually had parents.”

‘Grandma, huh? I never met her, but Mama loved her to death…’

“Do you think that it’s possible that Grandma is in this world too?”

“Very possible, that’s actually something that you might be able to help me confirm, but I save the specifics for afterward.”

‘What’s that mean…I guess I’ll just wait for the end.’

“Needless to say, while it didn’t bother me, my time in that village was still rough. I frequently got into fights, went days without food, and all that jazz.  So when a mercenary from the Guild came to the village on a request I…coerced them into bringing me back with them.”

“...Coerced.”

“D-don’t sweat the details…anyway from there I joined the Guild and quickly gained attention by completing loads and loads of requests. Not that that that was my intention, or that I was even aware at the time. The jobs were easy and the money was good, so I just kept going. Eventually, I became extremely popular, to the point that Guildmasters want to see me. From there I met these two bone heads.”

“Hey!” the two ‘bone heads’ protested in unison. 

“One thing became another, and eventually we used our fame and gained fortune to found this kingdom. We made it a meritocracy, which worked very well with the beastmen’s instinctual urge that only the strong should survive. Well. in this case, that desire changed from surviving to ruling.”

“So anyone regardless of whether they were born a commoner or not, have the ability to rise in rank and status, as long as they can contribute meaningfully?” I asked with my head titled.

“Right. Because of this, a lot of the nobility is made up of people from humble origins, who are likely to be more thoughtful with the people they are presiding over. As for the people of older lineages, let's just say they probably think twice before screwing someone over.”

“Huh…that’s honestly not that bad at all.”

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She patted my head, her smile widening. 

“I know, right? It went swimmingly for a while. But just as someone could rise in rank, the loss in power could make one fall.” Mama said ominously. “Other than a few scuffles, our rule was going great for the first couple of hundred years. The kingdom was thriving. That was until it happened…the Asterian and Aurelian Civil War.”

‘Asterian? I’ve heard of that before…but where.’

A certain redhead’s infectious grin popped up within my brain.

“The Asterians are the starfish people, right?” I attempted to confirm my suspicion.

Mama nodded.

“And the Aurelians were the moon jellyfish-kin. We received word about the monstrosities they were committing a bit after the war initiated. The absolute slaughter of entire villages and towns, among other despicable things. The most insane part was there were no signs of either side being angry before it did…haah. Needless to say, when we received the information, Myri and I decided to move out ourselves. By the time that we were properly equipped and had made it to the region, the place was almost barren. The two sides had whittled down to only a couple of platoons holed up in bases across from each other.”

“What happened then?” 

“Myri and I split up…and let’s just say we…finished what they started. As I finished up with my ‘work’ on the Aurelian side, I found something that surprised me. A baby. A beautiful girl with silvery-white hair and pretty apricot eyes. I took the girl with me and reconvened with Myri…only to find out she had found a child as well. A redheaded child with deep violet eyes.”

She took in a deep breath, pulling me closer to her.

“We were spent, physically and emotionally. Our Soulia was all but depleted. Wordlessly, the two of us agreed to take the children and head back to the capital. So we began to do so. As we neared the city, we were attacked by a group of assassins. Generally, it would have been a cakewalk to annihilate them all but we were low on energy and had people to protect. We fought back anyways and killed several of our assailants, but not without receiving severe injuries that persist even to this day.”

“But the two of you look fine to me?”

“Right, take a closer look.” She said.

So I did so, carefully scrutinizing the appearance of my mother. I took in everything from the color of her hair to the weird-looking stretch marks that wrapped her body.

 “Still stumped? It’ll probably be easier if I tell you my species. I remember reading those books about marine life to you. I know you enjoyed them as much as I did. I am a special type of Cephalopodian called an Infernia Vampyrus.”

“A vampire from hell? You’re a vampire squid-kin?”

“Bingo!” Mama grinned. “ See these stretch marks?”

“Mhm,” I nodded.

“They’re actually not… they’re tightly wound tentacles. I shape my body out of them.”

To demonstrate, she stuck her hand in between the groove in her chest, opening it. Within was a glob of shiny material. Her soul core.

“And now you can see what happened. If you remember cephalopods from Earth had three hearts? I myself had three soul cores. Until they ripped them out and ran away with them.”

‘Oh man, that’s rough.’

“And I’m a Pycnogon,” Ms. Myri suddenly spoke up. “Or a sea spider-kin. During the fight, one of my horns, or rather my chelicerae was broken.”

She pointed to the appendages protruding from her forehead.

“As an important part of my physiology, the damage to it caused the amount of Soulia I could use to dwindle significantly. It also made my natural abilities more difficult to use. Especially this one.”

“Kyahaha!"

She rose from her seat and I squealed as another set of arms popped out of her body.

She scooped me up from my mother's lap, holding me with one set of arms and pinching my cheeks with the other.

‘Mama always had so much compassion and heart for others, to the point her heart couldn’t take the strain, literally and figuratively speaking. So in this life, she had three. And Ms. Myri yearned to keep all those important to her within her embrace, so she got more arms to do so. This world is quite poetic.’

Swatting away both my idle thoughts and the hands pinching my face, I asked.

“So the damages to both of you significantly decreased your power levels…and you said before that was vital in one’s standing within the kingdom…” 

Mama’s smile faltered. 

“Yes, we’re still royalty, but only in name. In actuality, we have the authority of a Viscount.”

‘That low?’

“So how can I help?”  I looked at the two of them.

Mama’s smile all but vanished.

“I’m sure you’ve thought of this yourself seeing as you heard the origin story of this world and are quite bright…and I alluded to it earlier…but I say it anyway. Ri, I’m almost certain you are either the reincarnation of the tree or the spirit of it. I know it’s a hard ask, but I’d like you to take us to the tree, to see if it might be able to help us?”

‘Of course, I’ve thought of it…but it's still monumental to hear it out loud. My own mother essentially said that I am the creator of the universe…’

“This is a lot to take in, but I don’t mind taking you both. Rather, I’d be glad to…but can I let this all digest in my brain?”

“Of course, sweetie,” Mama said. “I didn’t mean to imply that we’d leave right now. We’d actually need some prep time before we go. I’m rather embarrassed to ask my own child for help like this…but thank you.” 

“I have one more question, did you ever find out who tried to kill you?”

“Haah…after some investigation yes. Marquis Shelkier, a long-time ally of ours. Or at least we thought he was…the ugly loggerhead. Come to think about it, I heard about one of his sons going missing.”

She looked towards Murua, who had nodded off sometime during the conversation.

‘Loggerhead..like a turtle? And son going missing? Why do I feel like I should know something about that?’

“Marquis Shelkier…I’ll be sure to remember it…” I said as Ms. Myri set me down. “Can I go out for a walk to gather my wits?”

“Sure,” Mama replied. “Just be careful, and stay close to this property.”

With her approval, I left the room and walked out of the building, greeted by the night sky. I walked aimlessly, mind completely in thought. 

“GOTCHA!” A voice yelled.

Suddenly the night sky got a bit dark as my vision blurred, my consciousness following it.