Chapter 801: This Woman...
The work on the teleporting ships that would fly high up in the air once complete was going quite well. After the chaos of Eclanor had settled and the hero’s party had left for new, uncharted territory, Linkle, Shamisha, and Mono had begun focusing all their energy towards the ships. Well...at least two of them did, for the queen had other plans, leaving the two with her new student, Lutz. And as talented as he may have been, not knowing as much as Shamisha and Linkle, he was simply playing catch-up with the women.
Letting the boy twist some bolts, the two sat in a corner at the top of the spire. Watching him, they shared a cold glass of bubbling ale–something that helped quite a bit with how much idiotic mess Mono put them through quite often.
"Last I heard from her, she was asking me about world travel."
"What?" The sudden remark by Linkle almost made Shamisha choke on her drink. "Oh for the love of–"
"Yeahhh...I told her that I lost most of my trove of knowledge when the devil Tariyaan was killed, but that obviously didn’t stop her from prying." Taking a quick sip, Linkle leaned back on what was a lounging chair. "Still, I think she might find a way to cross worlds. Get to Gaia and all that, but even then she would have to deal with no magic, and since her body works on Mana, I asked how she would deal with a lack of it and still stay alive."
"Hmm..." Slowly turning her head, Shamisha began solving that problem herself. "I suppose it would either be using a mana reserve or getting a fuel source for magic like Amedith."
Shaking her head at how easily Shamisha solved that puzzle, Linkle knew that Mono must’ve already taken steps to work towards that goal.
"I did hear about her taking the party’s blood samples, although I doubt she can do anything with entirely biomaterial without any metal."
"Gods..." Leaning onto her knees, Shamisha put her glass onto the table. "Blessed by the goddess of absurdity."
Looking into the sky, she complained.
"Did you really need to make her worse?" But of course, there was no answer from Elenaria.
Following the bunny’s gaze, Linkle looked into the sky as well. However, her concerns were more concrete than the sorceress’s. A mortal who’d essentially made herself immortal, the cosmic wizards would happily help Mono as they did for the Crimson Witch not too long ago.
’She has been asking me about the blood rain in Aesteradia; obviously, she knows that something happened.’ The blood rain, the acquisition of so many refined clothing items, even purses that can hold a near infinite number of clothes–that was something that should’ve never been revealed to Mono. As an enthusiast of fashion, she quickly figured out that this surge of magical items was the work of an otherworlder, but since they were no longer here and Linkle didn’t wanna talk about the matter with her, the Iron Queen had nearly perfectly strung everything together by herself and made sense of what had happened.
"She’s one smart woman, but as demented as a blood fairy."
"Speaking of fairies, Mercedes and everyone have restarted the trading route. Maybe they know where Mono has been." Looking back at Linkle, Shamisha picked up her glass again. "That girl Lumines was here too. Her prosthetic needs adjustment, and the Twin, maybe she can tell us what Mono might do in a situation like this?"
"Maybe, but to be honest, I think I can probably take a guess as to where she is."
"What?" Squinting her eyes, Shamisha straightened herself. "Then why didn’t you say so until now?"
"Because I like the quiet?" Shamisha’s lips parted to retort, but Linkle’s reasoning was sound, given the chaos Mono causes on the regular. "Anyways, since she took Amedith’s blood. I’m pretty sure that she’s trying to find someone who can help her find out why the magus doesn’t need mana to cast spells. And if she succeeds in that, she won’t need mana to stay alive in that other world. She can just stay alive since her body won’t require mana, but can still draw energy from whatever the Magus draws his magic from."
"I hate how much sense that makes..." Not exactly thrilled about the whole situation, Shamisha took a quick sip from her glass and sighed. "Between her Twin, her own genius, the devils, and I’m assuming your powers, world travel almost sounds like child’s play for her. If only everything works as planned, that is."
"She may be as sharp as a razor, Shamisha, but her wisdom only rivals a child."
"And you think that will stop her from doing something stupid–" A sudden gust of wind cut Shamisha’s words short. Holding onto her Sunday hat, she turned her face away from the wind while Linkle looked straight at its source with a magic barrier to shield herself.
"Speak of the devil." She whispered, all the while, the voice of young Lutz screamed in the background.
Scurrying over to the girls, he quickly hid behind Shamisha. More than a bit confused, she finally turned her head to the front and witnessed Mono flying next to the spire’s terrace...while riding on top of a dark-scaled dragon.
"WHAT THE FUCK, YOU MORON!!" Jumping out of her seat, Shamisha found herself fuming. Her eyes went red, her fists balled up on their own, and her teeth clenched shut with another yell escaping through them. "WHY WOULD YOU BRING THE SWORN ENEMY OF OUR KINGDOM IN HERE?! AND WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN FIND IT?!"
To bring a dragon into a nation that had suffered years of oppression at their hands until the king of crows nearly drove them to extinction–was, needless to say, beyond a moron’s venture. Already the guards had been alarmed; already Regalia, who was just delivering another load of raw material from the island, had eyes dead set on that dragon’s heart. Many old veterans of the old war were dusting off their trusty arms.
"What? Gallaria told me I could keep it; I found it in that weird vault of hers." As Mono jumped off the dragon’s back, its body turned into ash and covered her right hand. Putting a glove over it, the queen hid the darkened hand and addressed the bunny girl again. "Besides, I brought it here so we can test how to keep the ships afloat with minimal use of magic."
"Oh, fuck off, you just wanted a dragon for a pet, I bet!"
"Hmm..." Shrugging her shoulders, Mono added. "I mean that too, but–"
"I’m going to kill this woman!" Lunging at her own master, Shamisha dropped with Mono on the ground.
Like cats, they fought each other, with some caution, of course. Watching them claw at each other and twisting and turning on the ground, Linkle hoped that this would be the extent of how Mono pushes her luck. But of course, her world travel was only a matter of time.
’What the fuck drives this woman?’ She asked herself, but then she was reminded of how she sold her body to a devil for knowledge once. ’Guess I can’t judge her.’
"UGHH! I THOUGHT YOU’D BE LESS UPTIGHT ONCE YOU GOT A BOYFRIEND, BUT YOU’RE STILL STUCK UP, SHAMISHA!"
"OH YEAH?! SHUT UP, YOU SEXLESS VIRGIN!"
"ASK YOUR MOM HOW SEXLESS I AM!"
"GODS, I HATE YOU!"
"NO, YOU DON’T!" Out of everything that was said and done, the only thing that got to Mono was Shamisha’s frustrated response about hating her. But since the girls were having a fight, they didn’t stress about anything and kept flipping each other on the ground.
Tugging the hair, hurling insults, and staring each other down, it continued for a while longer. Until their Shamisha grew tired due to her mortal form. Mono, on the other hand, simply let go because she’d had enough fun messing with her little girl.
Sitting with their backs to each other, they breathed out loud while Regalia and the others had only just made their way up the spire. Linkle tried to explain to them what had happened, and in the meantime, the girls had one last bit of chatter.
"Just so you know, I am and was a virgin by choice."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. As if anyone could handle your stupid fucking personality."
"Shut up, fake tits..."
"At least I have tits, real ones."
A moment of silence passed, and the bunny girl with self-enhanced assets and the asexual virgin began laughing at themselves.