Chapter 13: 13 – A Fated Rival

Loraine and I are passing the pipe I picked up from Oaks' place. According to Loraine, there are a whole lot of different herbs to smoke, but none of them gives the kick I'm looking for.

The brick of herbs I pinched from Oaks, however, is something else. One puff and I'm soaring. The two of us have only started pulling a few minutes ago, but I can already feel the effects. Best thing about it is that we aren't losing our minds. It makes the brain warm and floaty, and if I wanted to go do something else, I'm not going to keel over.

I pull one last time and set the pipe aside on the nightstand. "We should probably stop, or we'll run out of this."

"Aw, but I like laying here with you." Loraine pouts. "We've been doing so many quests that we haven't had a chance to just enjoy each other's company. Maybe you… want to have sex?"

I choke on the puff of smoke in my lungs.

"You're too— cough… open about that! You know I was a v-virgin before… we did that." I climb out of bed to empty the pipe out into the streets.

"So, it's a no?" She asks, the disappointment is palpable from where I'm standing. 

"Maybe after dinner. Can you put away the, uh… what is called anyway?"

Loraine hops out of bed. She wraps the brick in a dry cotton sheet and encloses it in a box before stowing it away in a cupboard.

"It's called chukashca," she begins. "It's also a highly illegal substance. If we're caught with this, we could end up in the stockades."

"Wait, I thought this shit was tobacco, not some other world version of cocaine. What the fuck?"

"Who did you say gave this to you?" Loraine asks.

"Some lion-guy named Oaks." I start pacing around the room. It's beginning to dawn on me. The shady location, shady banana stand, shady gambling den, shading big guys… "Did I beat up this city's drug lord?"

"Unfortunately, I don't know too much about Cynderace. Kain may know more," she suggests, heading out the door.

I grab her hand before she opens the door. "Let's not tell Kain about the chu...kasha?"

"Chukashca," she says, correcting me.

"Whatever."

***

We head downstairs to have dinner with Kain. Apparently he had holed himself up in the kitchen all day, slaving away at trying to perfect a certain recipe. The culmination of his and the house servant's hard work has yielded a surprisingly extravagant dinner.

"Damn, gofer. You went from baking cookies to a five-star dinner. Color me impressed," I say, not hesitating to dig in.

"The gofer part was unnecessary, but yes. Behold! We had to redo the entire pot because the ingredients were overcooked when I had to… bake your cookies. What did you do with those, by the way?" Kain asks.

"I, uh— I ate them all."

Kain eyes me suspiciously and then shrugs. He takes a seat, grabbing himself a bowl of stew. "You were fussing over them so much, I was beginning to think you were addicted to them like drugs."

"Cough— cough!" I spit out a mouthful of stew. I feel Loraine patting my back. "Drugs? Nah, got nothing like that. I was just craving cookies, is all."

He glances over to Loraine and sniffs the air. "What have you two been up to?"

"Making love."

"Napping."

Loraine and I glance at each other, then back at Kain.

"Napping," I say again, glaring at Loraine. "So this whole mana-infused thing. What's all that about."

"Ah. You see, as you eat the stew you should be feeling more rejuvenated. You and I won't notice the difference as much as Lady Loraine would since she's a mage," he explains.

Loraine finishes her bowl and slurps up the soup. "I do feel my mana being replenished. It's like I drank a mana potion."

"That's exactly how it's supposed to feel like! Our meals will be more nutritious from now on, and you should feel a lot stronger for some hours after eating this."

I don't feel it myself yet, but— 

"Whoa…"

It's like I just jumped into a pool of water and opened my eyes. The spoon in my hands is extending and shortening, and I'm seeing things jump out from the corner of my eyes.

"Lady Micchi, are you feeling alright?"

"Lady Micchi, are you feeling alright?"

My eyes snap to where Kain is sitting, and I'm suddenly seeing two of him. I rub my eyes, but his double is still there. "Huh?"

I turn to Loraine and also see double of her. She stares back at me, eyes wide and pupils dilated. A silly smile widens across her face.

"Ehehe… there's two Micchis. Will we be having a threesome tonight?" Loraine asks.

"Ehehe… there's two Micchis. Will we be having a threesome tonight?" Loraine asks.

I ignore her outrageous question and turn back to Kain.

"Yeah, I'm chill." As soon as I stand up, a wave of dizziness hits me. Two identical pairs of servants rush over to hold me up. The Kains shoot up from their seat to help me. 

"Oh, no. Is it my cooking? There shouldn't have been anything wrong with it."

"Oh, no. Is it my cooking? There shouldn't have been anything wrong with it."

Not only am I seeing double, I'm also hearing double. It can't be the food, but if it isn't the food, then…

The chukashca?

I push the servants away and lean against the wall to keep myself standing. "Don't think it's the food... "

The room is beginning to distort, and it's getting hard to focus on one spot for too long. 

"Maybe we should call a healer to check on the two of you."

"Maybe we should call a healer to check on the two of you."

"Maybe we should call a healer to check on the two of you."

Kain tripled.

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What the fuck did I just smoke?

"No, I think we just need to sleep this off." I try to grab one of the three Loraines but miss and fall to the ground. 

"Lady Micchi!"

"Lady Micchi!"

"Lady Micchi!"

"Lady Micchi!"

Four Kains help me to my feet. I manage to grab the right one by the shoulders. "I'm tripping out, man. You're gonna need to stop making copies of yourself or I'll go nuts."

All four of them give me a confused look. "Excuse me, what? Okay, that's enough. We're getting you upstairs and fetching a cleric—"

"No, don't do that!" I grab his shoulders.

"Ow— owowowowow! Lady Micchi… my shoulders!"

I let go of him not realizing I was squeezing hard. "My bad. Can you just get us to our room? I wanna ride this out."

Kain doesn't question me any further and has the servants carry me and Loraine to our room. I don't remember what happened after my head hit the pillow, but I'm pretty sure I blacked out.

I wake up the next morning laying on top of Loraine. We're both stark naked and hair a disheveled mess. The good thing is I'm not seeing copies anymore. I crawl out of bed and open the cupboard containing the box of chukashca.

"Holy shit this fucked me up. Probably shouldn't smoke too much next time."

The sun hasn't come up yet, and there's a nice breeze coming in once I open the windows. I get dressed and pull the covers over Loraine since she's still sleeping. I'm about to head downstairs when a deep horn echoes across the entire city.

 Down below, people are racing back inside and locking up. A number of guards are racing towards the southern part of the city. The ground begins to shake and dark clouds pull over the sky.

Kain bursts through the door. "Lady Micchi, Lady Loraine!"

"The hell is happening outside?" I ask. Loraine is now waking up from the commotion.

"Our court mages have detected a monolith," he explains.

I throw Loraine her clothes and pull Kain outside, shutting the door behind us.

"Where?"

"At the city gates," he says, scowling.

We head out to three horses already waiting for us in front of the mansion. One of the guards pulls up the reins and bows.

"Your Highness, King Allo has mobilized the entire guardhouse and a unit of soldiers at your disposal," the leader of them reports.

"We mustn't leave the royal manor unguarded. Return the soldiers and have them standby," Kain orders after thinking for a moment.

Three of us race down Cynderace's thoroughfare on horseback, a large number of the city guards gather on our rear, and mages follow behind them. We reach the front of the gates in time to see a large obsidian monolith rising from the ground. This one is way bigger than the one I dealt with in the Rolling Plains.

Does this mean I'm finally going to get a good fight out of this?

The stone splits open, and an army of demons pour out— wolf-like creatures, horned humanoids with red and black skin, and even demon giants.

"Steady!" Kain calls out. 

He rides around handing out orders to each group. Despite how scared they look, there's no question in their organization that they've been preparing for this. 

"Mages focus on long-range bombardment and enhancing the frontlines. Vanguard, do not charge too deep. Stay together!"

There are mages at the top of the walls along the battlements. From the looks of it, there are plenty of warrior classes like myself down here. Loraine may be the only mage not in the backlines.

"You will want to change into this, brute." Mildred shouts from above. She tosses a glinting gem. 

As soon as I grab it, I'm bathed in warm light. A nostalgic sensation envelopes my body. Once the light fades, the dress I was wearing the past few days is gone, replaced by my usual jacket and sarashi.

I throw Mildred a thumbs up. Aside from my legs being a lot lighter, it doesn't feel like anything has changed at all. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

"You sure you don't wanna be up there?" I ask Loraine.

She shakes her head. "My place is by your side, Micchi."

I'm a lot more at ease to hear it. After facing a demon giant alone, I'm not at all scared, but even I think this might be more than we can handle.

I punch Kain by his breastplate. "Where the fuck are those adventurers?"

"I'm not sure. They were instructed to stand with us in the event of an attack," he says, the concern on his face is beginning to show.

"I'm gonna have a nice chat with them after this," I say, cracking my neck.

Kain sighs. "You're welcome to do so if we survive this. Wait— where are you two going? Stay with the frontline!"

"You guys do what you wanna do, just let me go wild." I continue walking forward and Loraine comes up right behind me. Sacchan ignites with blue flames as I come face to face with the demons. I stop short of a stone's throw away from them. "All of you are gonna look a whole lot uglier after I'm done with you."

Nothing but growls and snarls answer my taunts. The monolith flashes a blinding light, and I hear light footsteps skip out from it.

"Is that who I think it is?" A familiar pitchy voice, tinged with excitement, calls from behind the army of demons. The sound of her voice makes my eyes twitch.

"Yui…?"

The girl pushes her way to the front of the horde, her signature nunchaku in her hands. "I knew it! It is you! I'm so glad I get to see you again. You'll be kissing my feet when this is over."

This changes everything.

This feeling of hesitation inside me, the very real possibility that I can lose here, the thrill of getting another chance to beat her down. A smile creeps across my face as Sacchan's flames grow to an inferno.

Am I excited to see her?

It would be a lie to say I'm not.

I take a step forward and point my bat at Yui. "Lion of Saitama, I'm putting you in the ground."