Chapter 34: Chapter 32: Survival Strategy

The carriages were all ready and packed for our departure. Lillian and Mellie would get into one carriage, playing the part of the two noblewomen, with Duncan driving the horses. With them was their guard, Erza, their mage, Sabine, and their pet. Tilly still wasn’t thrilled about that whole situation, but she wasn’t in a position to object. If she disliked being human that much, she was going to have to settle for being something small and adorable as a way to hide. I wondered briefly what the inside of their carriage would look like. After all, Erza wasn’t exactly small. Perhaps she’d take the one bench, and the three women would sit on the other with Tilly on their lap? Although the image of Cat-Tilly sitting on the armored Orc’s lap was also a fun one. 

 

The rest of us got into the other carriage. John and Elena took one bench, and I sat comfortably between Sally and Kazumi, both oddly different yet familiar in human form. I couldn’t help but notice that, despite the radical change, Kazumi still smelled the same. It reminded me of orchids. Realizing I’d just identified my girlfriend by smell, I couldn’t help but blush. Elena, opposite me, misinterpreted my visibly flushed cheeks and smiled. 

 

“Cozy, no?” she asked. John, trying not to understand what she meant, shifted uncomfortably in his seat and focused his attention outside the window, and I tried to do the same. I noticed Sally staring at Elena with a slight smile. She seemed to be taken in by Elena, and considering their tempers I wasn’t exactly surprised. I was saved by the sudden jolt of the carriage taking off. 

 

Kazumi was spacing out, looking out the window. I very gently nudged her hand and she smiled, took my hand in hers, and rested her head on my shoulder. It wasn’t until she did just that that I realized just how comforting a touch like that was. She’d leaned against me plenty of times before by now, but this was different. Feeling her hair brush my face was nice, the flowery scent even stronger when she was this close to me. 

 

Honestly, I missed being tall. I liked the power and beauty of my Demon Queen form and I reminded myself that it was still underneath, that this shape was just an illusion. But with Kazumi falling asleep against me, being able to properly hold hands, I realized that being small definitely had its advantages. 

 

I must have dozed off for a bit myself. When we woke up, we were already rolling through the countryside. We were making better time than we had been last time, but without a large escort, the drivers could hasten a bit. We hoped to be passing by Steven by the mid-afternoon. Outside, the morning was well underway, and I remembered the first time we’d come this way. On the way back we’d been too busy considering the letter and its implications, and we’d been in a hurry. It had been night when we came this way. 

 

But now that we had a plan, things seemed less bleak, and the surrounding landscape was beautiful to look at. It was a far cry from the way we’d left it. Between the help of Erza’s people and the increase in population, most of whom now knew what they were doing, the fields of mud showed the start of crop growth. I didn’t know much about crop rotation. I didn’t even know how long seasons lasted here. But it was good to see my lands so alive. There was a pang in my chest, knowing that if we failed, all of this could be lost again, but I tried to keep hope. I felt Kazumi stir next to me and saw that she was awake, too. 

 

“It’s beautiful,” she said, and softly squeezed my hand. I just nodded. The difference a few months had made had been drastic. 

 

“I know I haven’t caught up with… everything going on,” I said. “How are things now? The people?”

 

“Fed,” Kazumi said with a smile. “And more. Commerce is growing now that there’s more people. I heard Shereton is building a school.” She squeezed my hand again. “You did that, love.”

 

I made a soft sound. I usually did when she called me that, and Sally and Elena shot me a glance. I just stuck out my tongue. My girlfriend liked me, I wasn’t going to pretend that that wasn’t true. I hoped Sabine was doing well in the other carriage. While she was with her old teammates, her relationship with them was still mending. On the other hand, Erza was there to mitigate any potential damage. 

 

“Question, Eliza,” Elena said. I turned my attention to her. 

 

“Of course. What’s on your mind?” I asked.

 

She looked out the window. She must’ve seen the difference too, of course. She used to live out of an abandoned house, back when those were plentiful. Many families had been displaced before. I could only assume there was a housing shortage this time around. But with so many people, human and Orc, rebuilding settlements, I hoped the situation wouldn’t require my attention. 

 

“If this… if all of this works out,” she began, looking more contemplative than usual, “what then? What comes next?”

 

I followed her gaze, at a barn being raised by both Orc and Human alike. I noticed that there was a lot more livestock, and I wondered how the Orc had brought them with them from the mountains. There were the usual fare of cows, pigs and sheep, but also some more exotic animals, including what I assumed was a kind of goat. A roided-out, gym-bro kind of goat. Their horns were massive and spiked, and their coat was long and had shades of brown and green. Apparently their milk made good cheese. 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“If you get full independence. You’re a recognized queen. Your lands are yours, and even have a name.” She smirked at that last bit. “What do you want to do then? I’m assuming conquest isn’t your long-term goal any longer.” I shook my head. “So what? Peace? Vegetate? Let things run their course until you grow old?”

 

I shook my head again. “What’s next is prosperity, Elena. We’ve basically been fighting uphill just to get this… well, this country to a baseline of, … I don’t know. Something. To a kind of decency. But we can go up from here. Where I’m from... I’m just saying things can be better. For everyone. And we can start here and work forward. Be an example.”

 

Kazumi looked at me. “You mean the world we saw through the portal, right?” she asked. I nodded. “It looked so different from ours. More angular, I think. And cleaner.”

 

I nodded. “Running water is one of the first things I want to figure out. I don’t know the first thing about architecture, but I want to at least get a sewer system going.” I paused and bit my lip. “I’ll try to remember some things about medicine and stuff. There’s… there’s a lot that could be better here.” I missed showers, but explaining that would take too long. “Maybe, when all this is over, we can open the portal again, ask Daniel and Lisa to look some things up for us.”

 

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“So you want to revolutionize everything, is that it? Make this world like yours?” Elena looked at me with a smile but there wasn’t any humour in her eyes. “That sounds like conquest talk to me.”

 

“No, that’s not… I don’t…” I paused. The Industrial Revolution had pretty much ravaged the planet back home. To say it was in recovery was lying. A large amount of people in power were still in denial about the whole thing. I wasn’t going to inflict that kind of damage on this planet. No coal power, no power at all until I figured out a way to generate electricity without burning fossil fuels. I was going to have to ask about that, too.

 

“I want this one to be better. The best it can be. Not through violence. Not where I can help it. Just lead by example.” It was the best I could do. 

 

Elena nodded. “Good enough for me,” she said, and looked out the window again. “You really think you can do this, don’t you?”

 

I nodded. I wasn’t very well suited to be an evil Demon Dragon Queen but I wasn’t looking to be one. Perhaps, once schools were established and we had some basic literacy going, I could look into establishing a democracy. But without some proper research on that front, I wasn’t going to set up a system. Heck knows things weren’t doing great back home either. I’d get started with some basic social welfare, at least. And healthcare. Healthy people meant a healthy country, so I needed to get these people to wash their hands. It had been harder to get them to do that than I thought it would’ve been. 

 

“I do,” I finally said. I recognized the area around, but only barely. We were going to come up to the place we’d picnicked last time, and I gently nudged Kazumi to point out the spot. She just leaned on my shoulder again, sighing softly. I still didn’t really get what she and Sabine saw in me, but I was past the point of questioning it and just enjoyed the weight of my girlfriend on my shoulder. Soon we’d be at Shereton, and our journey would begin in earnest. I was scared, of course, and I felt more than a little trepidation. But I was also excited, despite myself. I was going on an adventure. 

 

---

 

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Daniel asked, and then paused. He put his hand on Lisa’s shoulder from behind the couch. “Are you?”

 

Lisa nodded. Obviously, it had been a confrontation, seeing herself, her old self, like that. But she nodded because despite all of that, it had also been liberating. It was good to know she’d outgrown her horns and her fangs. She was better, here. Happier, certainly, but also better. A more whole person. She touched Daniel’s hand softly and looked up at him. 

 

“I am. And they will be too. But there’s one thing that bothers me.” She leaned back against the back of the sofa and tilted her head back.

 

“What’s that, Lisa?”

 

She grinned, and that grin was still hers, something she’d brought with her from the old world, something Liz could never inherit. It was mischief and power and all hers. She grinned, and looked up at Daniel.

 

“We were ever so rudely interrupted.”

 

It was a blessing from every single god she could think of that he got the hint and leaned over her to give her a kiss. It was upside down and it was awkward and she enjoyed every second of it, and she lost count after two. It was a kiss that could go on forever, and the glass of wine in their system hardly hurt the floating feeling of forever. But it had to end, because both of them had to breathe.

 

“Are you crying?”

 

“If you say something like that again I’ll murder you in your sleep,” Lisa said with a smile, and she wiped away the tear. “Is there anything in the game that might help them?”

 

Daniel got up and walked over to the computer, and woke it out of sleep mode.

 

“Nothing I can think of. It looks like their world has diverged a lot from the one we remember.” He looked at her, over his shoulder. She was taller and larger than him and yet, the way she looked at him, her legs pulled up underneath her, he wanted nothing but to pick her up and carry her… somewhere. He shook his head and typed in a search query. 

 

“The only thing that comes close… but… this can’t be right,” he said, looking at the screen. 

 

“What is it?” Lisa got up and joined him, leaning a little too close, deliberately too close, he could smell her, her neck was right there, and looked at him innocently. “Is something wrong?” 

 

“I -- I just… have you ever heard of fanfiction?”

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