Interlude Girl talk
Translated by SoundDestiny
Edited by Kaepinned
“Imperial-style Holy Sword Art【Raiden】”
“『Oooooooooooooooooooooo!』”
A bluish-white lightning shot out from the sword she wielded. The lightning shot straight ahead like an arrow, piercing through the black, unmoving human form and a bitter, agonised cry rumbled out.
“Now…… you’re done!”
The girl – Celia Von Arslanian – closed the distance with the enemy, taking advantage of the opportunity when the opponent flinched.
In front of her was an eerie humanoid figure that looked like a congealed black haze. Her holy sword of thunder pierced through the centre of the faceless monster.
“『Ooooooooooooooooo!』”
The black humanoid reached out its right hand to grasp the sky and…..disappeared as the clouds were drowned out by the wind.
“Fuu……it was pretty strong but at least I managed to get rid of it! Mission accomplished!”
The monster was struck down and Celia wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her dress.
Celia was in the royal capital of the Kingdom of Zain, standing in a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital. Around her were countless gravestones lying in disarray, and the ground was overgrown with weeds.
Today, Celia had received a request from the Adventurers’ Guild to exterminate a high-ranking wraith that had appeared in this graveyard.
There were many demons classified as 『ghosts』 but wraiths were the most powerful kind. The wraith was a monster that arose when the souls of the dead accumulated grudge memories over a long period of time and absorbed other weaker ghosts.
This might be due to the fact that the cemetery had not been cared for for many years. The wraiths that lingered there had accumulated tremendous power and had grown so powerful that ordinary priests and adventurers were unable to exterminate them. If the wraith had been in the capital, many people would have lost their lives because their souls would be sucked out.
However, even though it was ……powerful, that was only from the point of view of 『ordinary adventurers』. For Celia, one of the chosen heroes who was chosen to hold the Holy Sword, the enemy was only 『moderately strong』. She might sweat a little on her forehead but there was not a single scratch on her body.
“Thank you for your hard work, Adventurer.”
After confirming that the wraith had been defeated, a man hiding behind a nearby tree appeared. The bald-headed old man in monk’s robes, holding a staff, stepped forward and slowly bowed his head.
“Thank you for cleansing the souls that cannot be saved. Now they will be able to return to where they belong peacefully.”
It was a priest from a nearby church who asked Ceilia to exterminate the wraiths. The priest had recently been assigned to the church, and had found that the previous priest had neglected to take care of the cemetery, resulting in an outbreak of wraiths, so he asked the Adventurers’ Guild to exterminate them.
“I am sorry to make you do this. Our priests should have exterminated them. I can’t do it myself since I’m too old for that. If I were twenty years younger, I would have undertaken the purification myself……”
“I don’t mind. If I’m in trouble, you’ll be the one who will help me. So it’s mutual. More importantly……can I leave you to clean up after this place?”
Celia asked apologetically. The cemetery was a mess with fallen headstones here and there as a result of the wraith’s rampage and Celia’s wielding of the holy sword. It would have been awkward to leave the clean-up to an old man with a bent back.
“’No problem. I’ll hire a few young men to do something about it.”
The old priest smiled hawkishly as he tapped the damp ground with his cane.
“I’m ashamed to expose my people, but the budget for the maintenance of the …… cemetery came from above, but the priest before me seemed to have embezzled the budget and neglected to maintain the cemetery. That priest has also been punished, and the cost of repairs has been paid out of his hoarded wealth. The guild has also deposited the adventurers’ rewards, so please accept them.”
“Then there will be no problem…….I’m going home. Call me if you need anything else.”
“Oh, wait a minute. Since we’re here, would you like to have tea at the church? I have some tea and cakes.”
“Umm…….”
The priest tried to entertain his benefactor to the best of his ability but Celia tilted her head as if she was troubled.
“I’m happy for your offer but……don’t you want to go home early and wash up? I mean, they were undead and their smell was awful.”
Because of the fight in the cemetery, Celia’s clothes and body had a peculiar smell of decay and death. As a young woman of her age, she wanted to cleanse her body as soon as possible.
“And……I have an appointment with a friend afterwards, so I have to go.”
“Oh, your friends? Are you going to play somewhere?”
The priest stroked his beard and asked, and Celia smiled like the sun.
“Yes! A tea party between girls… In other words, it’s a girls’ party!”
〇 〇 〇
A few hours later, after returning home and washing herself thoroughly, Celia visited the garden of the mansion.
“Mmm, so delicious! And the cookies over here are great too!”
The mansion given to Raidorl by his brother had a large garden. Seasonal flowers were planted there and three women were sitting at a round table in the middle of it, where a small tea party was being held.
In the warm sunlight, Celia popped some of the sweets on the table into her mouth and then let out a cheerful cry.
“Neimilia’s familiars are very good at making tea! Even the maids working in the imperial castle aren’t able to make such delicious tea, you know?”
“…………”
“Oh, the cakes here are so good too! Come on, come on, Neimilia, you should try some!”
“…………”
In a cheerful voice, Celia spoke to the person sitting in the chair next to her but there was no response from Neimilia, the second participant in the tea party. The dark-haired girl in a maid’s outfit was lying face down on the table, her eyes lifeless like a dead fish.
“A day has passed since Master disappeared. Two days. Three days. Four, five, six days……”
A voice like a spellbook leaked from Neimilia’s mouth. The sound of despair echoing from the depths of the earth was like that of a ghost under the grave. It was a voice like that of the wraiths she defeated a few hours ago.
“Uuー……Aaa,Mouuu! You’re so depressing and annoying!”
Celia finally couldn’t stand the gloomy maid sitting next to her and tapped on the table.
It had already been a month since Raydor left on an expedition to the East. The maid girl, who was ordered to stay behind after her master left, was completely downcast.
Even though a girls’ party was held today to cheer up Neimilia, the person in question was incessantly counting the number of days she couldn’t see Raidorl. The people around her became more distressed.
The humanoid shadows were walking around Celia and her friends, looking somewhat perplexed on what to do. They were shadowy messengers summoned by Neimilia. It was also this messenger who devotedly prepared the girls’ party by baking sweets and making tea on behalf of the depressed maid.
“It’s been a long time since Onii-san went on an expedition! Get used to it, for goodness sake!”
“….. There’s no way I’ll ever get used to it! Uuu…… master. I don’t think I have enough Master’s ingredients.”
Celia’s encouragement did not seem to have worked, and Neimilia was weeping like a waterfall.
“Celia-sama. Please leave this to me.”
Celia’s shoulders slumped in resignation, but……here the last of the tea party participants proceeded to come out.
A classy-looking woman in a purple dress held out a white cloth to Neimilia, who was crying her face off on the table.
“This is …….”
“Neimilia-sama. Please wipe away your tears.”
The name of the woman who offered the cloth to the depressed maid was Mertina Marcell. She was the daughter of the Prime Minister, Lockwood Marcell and a childhood friend of Raidorl.
She abandoned her childhood friend, who was once banished to the frontier and was also responsible for the plot to bring Raidorl back for the war. Her treachery led to her being taken prisoner by him and she was the victim of 『discipline and training』 by the witch’s hands.
With her long purple hair flowing, Mertina turned her gentle smile towards Neimilia.
“There is a saying that time spent not seeing each other nurtures love…… His Highness Raidorl will surely return to Neimilia-sama. For now, let us pray for his safety and think together about what we can do for His Highness.”
“Uuu……Mertina is right. Master is fighting hard and I can’t be crying about it! I have to do what I can for Master to praise me……. Sunsun! Haaahhhh!”
Neimilia stopped crying and pressed her face against the cloth she received from Mertina and repeated her breathing over and over again.
While Neimilia was making rough breathing noises, as if she were excited, which frankly sounded like a perverted noises, Celia asked her suspiciously.
“….. That cloth seems rather large, is it a handkerchief?”
“No, it isn’t.”
When Neimilia unfolded the cloth she was pressing against her face……it was a man’s underwear.
“Fuufu…..it’s an underwear soaked with Master’s sweat! It’s the one he wore when he trained with the holy sword and it’s a holy relic that hasn’t even been washed!”
“That’s disgusting!!”
Celia’s face was drawn back and her body was bent over.
“Why is the maid sniffing her master’s clothes like it’s normal? And where did Mertina hide such things?”
Celia asked the obvious question but Mertina and Neimilia nodded deeply together.
“It’s for emergencies. We have no choice.”
“Yes, that’s right! We have no choice!”
“I don’t understand at all!!? I really don’t even know what you guys are talking about!”
She felt like there was an insurmountable wall between her and these two people – Celia felt a shiver run down her spine with unidentified fear.
“Now that Neimilia-sama is feeling better……let’s get back on track and continue with the tea party.”
“Yes, that’s right! It’s the first time we’ve had tea together and today we’re having a girls’ party! Let’s have some girl talk!”
“…..What am I to do? I’m getting really worried. Do I really want to live with these people?”
Mertina with a gentle smile. Neimilia with a full smile like the sun. Only Celia’s expression clouded over and she took a bite of a cookie to cover up her inner anxiety.
“Isn’t it fine? With the addition of Mertina, the three of us are now living together. Let’s take this opportunity to deepen our friendship.”
Neimilia said in a relaxed tone.
Mertina was once an enemy who betrayed Raidorl but was now completely submissive to Raidorl and Neimilia. Her voluptuous flesh was carved with a number of curses that completely controlled her mind and body. For Neimilia, she was not an object that would make Neimilia be wary.
“By the way….what should we talk about at our girls’ meeting?”
“Hmmmmm……. I don’t know either.”
Neimilia and Celia both tilted their heads. With the special titles of a witch and a princess, they had no friends of their own age. They had no experience of participating in events such as girls’ parties.
With a question mark over their heads, Mertina gently interrupted them from the side.
“I don’t know much about it myself, but I’ve heard…. that a girls’ gathering is when women gather around a table, enjoy tea, sweets and have a good chat or Koibana.”
“Koibana means……talking about love, doesn’t it? I don’t have a fiancée or anything and I’ve never been in love……”
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Celia scratched her cheek with her index finger with a delicate look on her face. For Celia, who had wielded a great sword such as the Holy Sword, love stories were her least favourite thing to talk about.
“Koibana banter! Isn’t it nice? It’s wonderful!”
In contrast, Neimilia’s face lit up and she clasped her hands together. She looked at Celia and Mertina alternately, her golden eyes shining.
“Let’s do it, this Koibana! First of all….. yes. Shall we talk about our favourite positions?”
“Position…???”
Celia tilted her head, unsure of the meaning of the word. She put her mouth on the teacup and sipped her tea, wondering if it was a word about love.
“I like to do it with a frontal embrace but what kind of sex do you two like?”
“Buawh!?”
Hearing the word 『sex』 even Celia, a sheltered girl, realised what the topic was. She spit out the tea in her mouth and turned her voice inside out from the turmoil.
“WhaWhaWhaWhaWhaWhaWhat are you talking about……!!? How am I supposed to know that?!”
“…..I prefer to be done from behind. It’s even better if I can have my hands on the floor and have my collar pulled while His Highness treats me like an object..”
“Why do you even answer that question, Mertina? I don’t want you to explain everything in detail!”
“I am sorry. For various reasons, I am unable to disobey the orders of Raidorl-sama and Neimilia-sama. When they ask me questions, I cannot help but answer them, whatever they may be.”
Celia exclaimed as if she were bubbling. Mertina stroked the collar fitted around her neck with a troubled, ambiguous smile.
From the first time they met, Mertina wore a dog-like collar and Ceilia thought that there were some unusual fashions, but….. here she finally realised that the adornment was a tool for such usage.
She was the daughter of the prime minister but she was treated roughly in an interrogation to extract information and inevitably developed a taste for extreme play.
“Aaa, Master usually acts like he doesn’t like it but when he’s ready, he gets really hard. He’s a secret sadist.”
“True. It hurt me at first too, but after….. Raidorl-sama left the frontier city, the days without a spanking have seemed insufficient.”
“I like being smacked too! The pain is only at first but it’s surprisingly addictive.”
“Will you stop talking about it?! Please!”
The only virgin among the members. Celia, who had never had any experience with male, held her ears and screamed.
Neimilia and Mertina – two 『sisters』 in a sense – sighed together at the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with teary eyes.
“This is just my gut feeling but I think it’s only a matter of time before……you too, right? Celia-san?”
“I can’t think of a woman who wouldn’t lose her heart after getting involved with Raidorl-sama. I also resisted, but in the end it was no good……If this is the case, I wish I had discovered his charms earlier. If I had, our relationship would have been different….”
“I, I, I’m not going to let that happen!!! I’ll never …… have a man-woman relationship with Onii-san!”
Celia’s face turned red and yelled. She shook her head and her pony-tailed blonde hair swished wildly like a dog’s tail.
“Well, Celia-san has said her piece….let’s change the subject, shall we? What are we going to do for Master now?”
Neimilia uttered such a thing while tilting her head slightly as if in trouble.
“It’s good that Master has entrusted me with the 『take care of the Royal Capital』……and so on, but what am I supposed to do? I’m a bit tied up with just managing the mansion.”
“…..Neimilia-sama, you basically let your familiars do the housework.”
When Mertina looked a little further away, she saw jet-black-skinned humanoid figures pruning garden plants there. They were not human beings, but shadow monsters created by the magic of the【Shadow Servant】. Numerous Neimilia’s familiars were unleashed in the mansion, performing a range of household chores such as cleaning and laundry.
“I want to achieve more achievements in order to receive a reward from Master who hasn’t returned, but…I can’t think of anything else to do.”
“……Aa, then how about being an adventurer with me? I think Neimilia would be very useful.”
Celia, who had been in the throes of confusion earlier, made such a suggestion. She was now happy that the topic had moved away from 『downstairs』 and tried to broaden the conversation.
“I’ll be the vanguard swordsman. Neimilia will be the rearguard wizard. I think we’d make a good team, wouldn’t we? It seems very strange that the holder of the Holy Sword and a witch would team up.”
While living together, Celia had already realised that Neimilia’s true identity was that of the 『Six Witches of Doom』, a natural enemy of mankind. At first, Celia was perplexed but her innate vivacious and open personality had already helped her to open up and there was no longer any separation between her and Neimilia, the Witch.
“Well…..that’s fine, but it’s no good to just help Celia-san with your work. If possible, I want to surprise Master when he comes back. …..”
“Well……how about something like this?”
Mertina opened her mouth as she tilted her teacup.
“How about using Neimilia-sama’s power to cut down the nobles in the Royal Capital? We should increase our allies in preparation for the time when Raidorl-sama confronts His Majesty Granard.”
“Increase our allies……?”
“Yes, Celia-san’s success as an adventurer has brought the support of the people to Raidorl-sama. What remains is the support of those in power at the heart of the royal court. Neimilia-sama and I will persuade the nobles of the royal court to side with Raidorl-sama.”
“Hmm, I don’t think there’s anything I can do, aside from Mertina-san, who is good at politics and negotiation……”
Neimilia had no skills in negotiation or political strategy. More to the point, as a witch, she was not familiar with the subtleties of the human heart. It was unlikely that she could help persuade the nobility, who were going through a political struggle swirling with power, intrigue and conspiracy.
“How about….using those servants over there.”
Mertina pointed to the working messenger with a gentle gesture. Neimilia blinked repeatedly with a curious look on her face.
“You mean the [Shadow Servant]?”
“Yes. Neimilia-sama must have a servant, who can sneak into any narrow space or sneak into a nobleman’s mansion and steal evidence that could weaken that nobleman, such as evidence of dishonesty or embezzlement. We can then use the evidence to negotiate with the nobleman and encourage him to switch sides from His Majesty to the side of Raidorl-sama.”
Mertina’s beautiful face turned rose-coloured and she smiled as if to reveal a secret mischievous trick.
“I know because I am also a nobleman……. There is no nobleman who is pure, clean and without a dark side. Every nobleman must have some kind of dirt. Let’s use that to our advantage and break up His Majesty Granard’s camp.”
“That’s a good idea. It’s a good idea but……”
Neimilia looked up and peered into Mertina’s face.
“Is that alright with you, Mertina-san? Even though you have sworn allegiance to Master, you are still the daughter of the Prime Minister, aren’t you, Mertina-san? Is it okay for you to do something that would drive your father away?”
Although Mertina was being held captive by Raidorl and used in a good way, she was a vassal of the king in the first place. She was on the enemy side. She was uncomfortable with the fact that it had cornered Granard and proactively made proposals that would benefit Raidorl.
“Why are you worrying about it now? Isn’t it Raidorl-sama and Neimilia-sama who made me like this?”
However, when questioned, Mertina sighed in dismay.
“You have carved the pleasures of womanhood into my body so that I cannot disobey you, and you speak so strangely to me? I have long since become incapable of living without Raidorl-sama.”
Mertina touched her richly-fruited breasts with the palms of her hands, caressed her slender waist and then put her hands on her……lower abdomen.
“My loyalty to the Kingdom of Zain has not wavered, but……I have become so maddened as a woman that I would choose Raidorl-sama in the process of leading our kingdom to prosperity. I once betrayed him, Raidorl-sama……and that is why I want to do everything in my power to regain his trust.”
Mertina’s face turned gentle, like that of a goddess of compassion, and she smiled at Neimilia and Celia.
“We have different positions, different titles and even different birthplaces, but our aim is the same. We will make Raidorl-sama king. And……to receive favour and affection from the one who became king. To achieve this, let us fight together now.”
“Rivals in love! I am seeing a new joy!”
“….. I don’t want you to include me so easily without my approval as a matter of course! I told you I don’t think anything of Onii-san!”
Neimilia’s eyes were burning with fire, and Celia’s lips were pouting in protest.
Then there was Mertina, who had given up on Granard and her father and was ready to make Raidorl king in earnest.
The three women then ran around front and back in the absence of Raidorl in the royal city, doing everything in their power to fulfil their respective wishes.
Thanks to their efforts, Raidorl had increased his fame and gained even more allies while he was away from Royal Capital.
But…..they did not know. Their successes would later bring great misfortune to the Kingdom of Zain, as they hunted down King Granard.
The hour of doom. The calamity of despair, after all, came to everyone equally.
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