Chapter 90: Chapter 86: Personification of the World Tree

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Lia walked down the street of a city. It wasn’t a perfectly ordinary stroll down the street, the occasional person would give their group a shocked look, and Lia could feel that the majority of women she passed were part of the swarm and, as such, were her subjects, which was strange, but didn’t take away from the refreshing aspect of the walk. Well, provided that you ignored the two unconscious women that were being carried by the group. That…probably accounted for most of the shocked looks, now that Lia was thinking about it, but still, the walk was nice.

It really illustrated just how life would be in the future. While she may not have known the names of everyone that was in the swarm after the civilians were brought to the dungeon, she at least knew their faces. Here…she had no idea who these women were, only that they were part of the swarm.

And, as she watched the people, she began to feel bad. Not because they had been converted, but because, they had, in a sense, been left hanging. Many of the women Lia passed were walking arm in arm or otherwise being intimate with men, men that Lia knew they just didn’t love in that way anymore.

The thought tugged at Lia’s heartstrings, and she made a note to check in with Alisha on the status of Aura’s conversion. Now that they had Ichiro, Lia felt a lot more comfortable allowing the full-scale conversion of the country to commence, and for the sake of the families who had been affected, she wanted to get it started as soon as possible.

She didn’t have much time to think on that, though. As she followed Alisha’s directions, the palace came into view quickly, and after no more than ten minutes they were standing outside the gates. As they approached, the gatekeeper’s eyes widened, and she hurriedly opened the gate. “My Queen,” she whispered as they passed, “it is an honor. If you have any wishes, please do not hesitate to ask. We will do our utmost to accommodate you, lacking though our resources may be for someone of your stature.”

“Thank you.” Lia said. “We just follow this road to reach the main entrance, right?”

“Yes, my Queen, Queen Ali– umm.” The guard floundered, searching for the proper term of address. “The former queen is waiting for you there.”

Lia gave her a smile and a nod, and the group continued on their way. When they reached the opulent double doors that were the palace entrance, they swung open, revealing a grand hall lined with maids, Alisha’s other body at the far end. “Welcome, Your Majesty!” The maids chorused.

Lia stopped in her tracks, the scene stunning her. This…this grand reception was for her. And she would have stayed transfixed for who knows how long, were it not for Ophelia giving her a gentle nudge.

“Go on.” Ophelia whispered. “Greet your subjects.”

“T-thank you all.” Lia said nervously. “We will be intruding on you for a while.” She walked forward, trying to keep a dignified posture as she moved to meet up with Alisha. As she did, she began to relax slightly, thinking back to her conversation with the gate guard. The poor girl had seemed unsure about how she was supposed to refer to Alisha, and Lia could fix that.

Amelia had talked with her and Rose a while ago, and they had just been waiting for a proper time to announce this, and this was as good as any. “Alisha.” Lia said stiffly. “You have been a great help to us. For your service, I name you Duchess of Aura, and rebrand this kingdom as the Duchy of Aura. Should you continue to perform admirably, we will see about further increasing your holdings.”

There was a pause, and then the maids erupted into cheers, happy their home was officially recognized as part of the swarm’s holdings. As they did, Alisha beamed. “Thank you, my Queen!” She said happily. “I will do my best to serve!”

“Good.” Lia replied. “Now, could you show us to our chambers? We need to let Amelia and Rose rest, and there is a discussion I need to have with you in private.”

“Of course, my Queen.” Alisha said. “The rest of you, prepare the dining hall, tonight we feast!”

Alisha led them through a mazelike series of opulent corridors, eventually stopping in a corridor that seemed ever so slightly fancier than the others. “This is the suite you will be staying in while you are here.” Alisha said, opening a door to her left. “The bedrooms are in here, might I suggest leaving the Mistresses on one of the beds while we have our talk?”

Lia nodded. “Good idea.”

“What should we do while you two talk? It’s private, right?” Ophelia asked, already moving her bodies through the door, Amelia and Rose on her backs.

“You guys can hear this conversation, I just didn’t want the maids around.” Lia said. “Didn’t want to give them false hope in case this doesn’t pan out.”

“False hope?” Meg asked curiously. “What do you mean?”

“After Ophelia’s put Amelia and Rose down.” Lia said, walking through the door and into a large living space. She located a couch and sat down on it, while Ophelia found a couple of bedrooms and put Amelia and Rose in the beds.

Once everyone had gathered, Lia turned to Alisha. “Alisha, how much of Aura is converted, do you think?”

“Hard to say, my Queen.” Alisha said. “As you’ve seen, we’ve got most of the women in the capital converted, and most of the remote parts of the kingdom are converted as well. The issue lies in the larger towns outside of this one; we’ve slowly been spreading our influence as travelers and merchants arrive here in the capital, but it’s slow going. I’d say…roughly half the women in the kingdom have been converted by now.”

Lia blinked in surprise. “That’s a lot more than I thought there’d be.”

Alisha shrugged. “I have a rather extensive spy network, which allowed me to sow the seeds of the swarm quickly. Once they were converted, I was able to begin converting the various nobles and rich merchants, who had easy access to the common folk.”

“You said you had travelers and merchants who came here converted?” Neph asked curiously. “Are they spreading to the other countries as well?”

Alisha shot her a glare. “Do not interrupt me when I’m speaking.” She said coldly. “As I was saying–”

“Actually, I’d like to know that too.” Lia said. “It seems rather important information.”

“Of course, my Queen.” Alisha said meekly. “They have been instructed to remain in Aura as much as possible, to reduce the risk of outsiders catching on to the fact that we have a presence in wider society, not just the dungeon. Those that must go out of the country are given strict orders to not convert anyone.”

“I see.” Lia said. “If we were to begin the full conversion of this country, including the men, do you think we would be able to do it with minimal conflict?”

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Alisha shook her head. “We just do not have the numbers for that yet. We can, however, begin much more aggressive conversions in an effort to lead up to the full scale conversion of the country. For instance, we can begin converting the entire army, instead of just the outlying, unnoticed parts of it. If we are discovered during this process, we can just shift to converting everyone, and hopefully by that time we will have the manpower necessary to make this transition bloodless.”

“Let’s do that, then.” Lia said.

“May I ask why the sudden interest?” Alisha asked. “You seemed to be rather in favor of a more conservative approach before.”

Lia scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. “On the walk over, I realized just how many families we were affecting, and I felt it was unfair to keep them waiting any longer.”

Alisha was silent for a long moment. “If it is your will.” She said reluctantly. “But I do think there wouldn’t be any harm in waiting a month or two more. By then, the full conversion of the kingdom would be more a formality than an undertaking. Surely the people will understand that a month more of waiting is preferable to a higher chance of their loved ones fleeing or dying.”

“Maybe we should talk about this once Rose is awake?” Ophelia suggested. “She’s probably the best equipped to tackle this sort of issue.”

“You raise a fair point.” Lia said. “And a few more days of waiting won’t hurt. Ophelia, will you make sure everyone knows what’s going on with us, so they don’t panic?”

“Already did.” Ophelia said.

“Excellent work, as always.” Lia said. “Now…since we have a bit of downtime before this feast, let’s get Yamamoto converting, shall we?”

Everyone indicated their assent, so Lia withdrew his cocoon and the cocoon of the partially eaten fruit from her dimensional storage, combining them and placing the resulting cocoon on the floor. “Now, let’s see here…”

She began to scroll through the options available to her, but…the more she did, the more she began to get concerned. “Why…why are none of these Heroic in any way?”

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Rose yawned, sitting up sleepily. What had she been doing again…?

She snapped awake as she remembered the situation she was in, and hurriedly began to examine herself for any changes. The first thing she noticed was that she was practically filled to the brim with power, the raw amount of which dwarfed even what she had had when she was the Ruby Emperor.

The second thing she noticed was the change to her body. Her skin had lost its greenish tint, instead it pulsed with a gentle white light, a radiance that shone from within her. After a moment of focus, the radiance faded, leaving her skin a deep tan, but one that you could see on any normal person. Her leafy clothing had been replaced with a flowing white robe, the type that you would see on stereotypical paintings of the gods.

Just like Lia, her body had become bigger in every way; taller, significantly curvier, even a little more toned with muscle. She realized with a start that that made her…happy. She was overjoyed to see her body become more womanly, and she got the distinct impression that it wasn’t because of the conditioning Amelia had built into the swarm.

In fact, that conditioning was the weakest it had ever been. It seemed tattered and frayed, the raging tempest of power within Rose degrading –

She prodded it gently, almost accidentally, and it broke, shattering completely. She could feel the last traces of it leave her mind, and she panicked as it became fully her own for the first time in…ever. And as the changes settled, Rose became more and more confused, frowning to herself.

She felt exactly the same. Or, no, not exactly the same, she was once again able to grasp the concept of conversion being immoral, but that was…basically it. She still fully intended to continue on this path, in pursuit of a kinder world for everyone, regardless of the questionable means. And, as the implications of that sunk in, Rose’s frown turned into a smile.

She…she was doing this because she wanted to. She, not he, liked being a woman, more than she had ever liked being a man. In her past life, the Urge had prevented her from having any sort of opinion on the matter at all, but this body felt more…natural to her. It was the body she had when she was reborn, the body she had learned to love in, the body where she had truly become herself, and seeing it grow and distance itself from how she once looked filled her with contentment.

Likewise, her love for Lia was the same. Or…no, that was a lie; her love was stronger. She hadn’t realized it before, but in the back of her mind there had always been a wall, built by the conditioning. As much as she tried to suppress it for Lia’s sake, she couldn’t see herself as Lia’s equal. And, for the first time, Rose felt like she could truly give back to the woman who had given her so much.

She would come clean to Lia about the mental conditioning being broken, of course, and…another shiver of happiness ran through her as her emotions acted up at the thought. She was confident that Lia would accept her anyway, not because the conditioning made her think the best of Lia, but because she trusted Lia, understood her in a way she had never been able to trust or understand her previous wife.

As she finished reveling in her delight, a window popped up in front of her.

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