Once Lia and Rose had left, Alia turned to a nervous-looking Connie. “So,” she said, “I need to make sure the feeling I was getting was right.”
“What feeling?” Connie asked warily.
“You’re in love with Lia, aren’t you?” Alia asked bluntly.
Connie made a choking noise. “I-I am not!” She sputtered, face growing red. “What gave you that idea?!”
“The way you were acting around her, and the look of longing you had on your face when you were talking about Lia’s lovers.” Alia said. “Are you seriously denying it?”
“You are super projecting.” Connie said fervently. “Our relationship is completely platonic. Love between a god and a mortal is a bad idea.”
Alia gave her a flat look. “And if you weren’t in love, you wouldn’t react like that, I don’t think. I’m no expert on feelings, but I’m pretty sure most people would just say no if they weren’t in love, not…whatever that was.”
“I’ve been getting that from a few different people recently, and it’s getting on my nerves.” Connie said. “I’m sick of hearing it, it won’t work out.”
“So…what you’re saying is that you do love her, but you’re worried about the whole god slash mortal dynamic.”
“Like I said, I don’t love her. She’s just a good friend, and that’s all it is.”
Alia sighed. “I’ve seen that look in your eyes before, Connie. I’ve had that look in your eyes. Why are you so adamant that you don’t love her?”
“Because I don’t. And how could you know that look in the eyes?” Connie said frustratedly. “As far as I know, you haven’t seen soone you know for sure has unrequited love for Lia, and you can’t have seen your own eyes when you had that look unless you were specifically using magic to, which I find incredible unlikely. Look, let’s just drop it, and you can go have a good ti with your girlfriends, okay?”
“Fine.” Alia said. “Just…take so ti and seriously think about it, okay? I’m sure that the whole god and mortal difference is sothing we can work around, so don’t lie to yourself because of it.”
“I’ll give it so thought, but I’m not in love, so it won’t go anywhere, okay?” Connie replied. “Now shoo.”
Alia decided she wasn’t going to make any more progress, so she slipped into the hallway and began to look for the dressing room. Fortunately, it was labeled, so she found it without issue, went in, and began to undress. As she did, she thought back on her conversation with Connie; she hadn’t been fully sure that Connie held any sort of feelings for Lia going into it, but she brought up the subject just in case, and now she was completely convinced.
And now she had to make sure this at least had a chance to go sowhere, instead of being locked away by Connie’s inhibitions; after all, if they could introduce a god into their relationship, that was essentially the sa as having a god completely in their corner, no questions asked. If they were really lucky, they could even convince Connie to be converted, and even if Alia wasn’t sure how that would work with a god, it couldn’t hurt to try.
Of course, bringing her into the relationship would have its own issues; Lia would insist that she loved everyone else and that they loved her in return, and that wasn’t an easy feat. Alia’s own feelings were, of course, the least troubleso part of the equation, she was more than happy to make herself love yet another person for the sake of her lovers, and even if they disagreed with it, she really was just shortcutting the “natural” process.
Lia could probably fall in love with Connie, they got along well enough, and Connie clearly had feelings for Lia. The real question was how Rose and Connie would get along; as far as Alia knew, the two of them had had little interaction, but they were generally affable people, so her hope was that they would get along well.
She finished undressing, grabbed a towel and tied it around herself, and then stepped through the door to the hot springs proper. Waiting within were Lia and Rose, also with towels wrapped around them, though Alia couldn’t help but notice that Rose’s towel was quite a bit more stretched out around the chest than Lia’s or Alia’s own. It was an entrancing sight, one that instantly made Alia’s choice of facility worth it.
“Well?” Lia said, a blush spreading across her face. “Are you going to join us?”
“Y-yes!” Alia stamred, lowering herself into the water. “I can’t believe I’m getting to do this with the two of you, it’s fantastic.”
“Believe it.” Rose said, smiling slightly. “This is your reward, and you’ve earned it.”
“Mm.” Alia murmured her assent, letting the warmth of the water spread over her body. “Um…I’ve been aning to ask, but…does your back hurt at all?”
Rose frowned. “Why would my back hurt?”
Lia raised an eyebrow. “Your chest?” She said. “Your breasts are in the running for biggest I’ve ever seen, and a few of my friends who weren’t half as well-endowed as you are complained about back pain.”
“Oh, those.” Rose said. “It’s a benefit of the body, I think. They’re still uncomfortable if I don’t have proper support for them, but I don’t think they’re going to give back problems.”
“Lucky.” Lia grumbled.
“Are you telling you’re not the sa?” Rose said curiously. “I assud you would be.”
“No.” Lia said. “Mine aren’t incredibly large anyway, so it’s not a huge deal, but it’s still annoying at tis.”
“You could always just transform yourself so they’re smaller.” Alia suggested. “That would solve the problem.”
Lia paused. “I could.” She admitted. “But I feel like that’d be unfair to Rose.”
“Unfair to ?” Rose said, taken aback. “Why’s that?”
“Because you like them so much.” Lia said bashfully.
Rose’s face grew red. “I…can’t deny that.” She admitted. “But if they’re causing you problems, I would much rather you deal with it.”
“It’s not that much of a problem.” Lia said. “Plenty of girls deal with it. Proper support and the occasional bit of healing magic to remove soreness is all I really need.”
“If you say so.” Rose said. “Don’t make yourself miserable on my account, though.”
“I’m not.” Lia assured. “I’m just complaining to complain.”
Alia made a note to look into a way of alleviating back pain for people with large chests. She had assud that it would co naturally with evolutions, but it appeared only so evolutions did that, and she wouldn’t let people get away with reducing their breast size because of sothing as trivial as back pain; that went against the entire purpose of subtly making people’s proportions better when they evolved. The fact that that happened was one of her little secrets; she had wanted people to look good, and this seed a rather easy way of making it happen.
Even now, after her morality lessons, it was sothing she couldn’t bring herself to see as wrong. If people really disliked it, they could see a transformation mage and get it fixed. Otherwise, it was just a nice bonus, and no one liked being ugly. Probably. But, again, if they did, they could just see a transformation mage.
“Just making sure.” Rose said, bringing Alia’s attention back to the conversation. “But…anyway, this hot spring is a lot more comfortable than I thought it’d be.”
“Have you never been in a hot spring before?” Lia asked curiously.
“Once or twice when I was Reuben and the Urge was still making unable to appreciate sothing like comfort.” Rose explained. “So, as far as I’m concerned, this is my first ti.”
“Speaking of Reuben, would you mind handing the Ruby Armory?” Alia asked. “I want to do so tests with it, see if I can make it safe for Alisha to absorb. Or, even better, see if I can skip the process of giving it to her and directly integrate it with you like I did with Rose and Izumi’s Hero status.”
“We could just reconvert with it.” Lia suggested.
“Doesn’t work that way, sorry.” Alia replied. “You’re a special case, and with the way I’ve constructed conversion it would result in all sorts of nasty side-effects, so I made you in particular immune to the process. It’s probably also not wise to reconvert Rose or myself, either; with our current resources I doubt we’d be able to create a significantly more powerful race than what we currently have, and we’d reset our experience and levels if we reconvert.”
“Well, the thought was good.” Rose said encouragingly. “And Alia, let know if you need any help with it. I may not be anywhere near as gifted as you in this area, but the weapon seed to…recognize in so way, so I might be able to help sohow?”
“Worth a shot.” Alia said. “I’ve never dealt with sothing like this before, so it might well be helpful.”
Lia waded over to Alia, took out the Ruby Armory, and handed it to her. “Here you go.” She said.
Alia grabbed the weapon, and her eyebrows raised in surprise as she felt sothing…familiar in it. In an odd way, the weapon felt alive, but not in the way that soone with a soul or even a monster was alive. It was as if it had a purpose it was supposed to fulfil, and it couldn’t show its true power unless it was serving that purpose. “Are you…sure you can make stronger stuff than this?” Alia asked, looking up at Rose. “This is…different.”
Rose frowned. “Does it really go beyond that weird sense of belonging it had? I thought it was just a…conceptual link, I think you called the phenonon? And that it would cause Alisha problems because it had a super strong conceptual link to or sothing?”
Alia shook her head. “I wasn’t sure until I touched the thing, but it feels like it’s going to be a lot stronger than it used to be, but only when it’s leaning into its conceptual link, in this case being your weapon.”
“I suppose I can give it so tests.” Rose said. “How much would the performance degrade if Lia used it?”
“chanically speaking, it would function the sa as when you used it in the past.” Alia said. “But it will probably feel strange to use, no matter how much she trains with it, at least until it’s conceptually linked to her stronger than it is to you. I can probably fix that with so tinkering, but I don’t know how that would affect the performance.”
“Honestly, I would prefer it if you used it.” Lia said. “It just feels…right. Plus, I’m still learning to fight like you, so it would be wasted on anyway.”
“If you insist.” Rose said, then waded over to the two of them, grabbed the Ruby Armory and put it in her dinsional storage. “Now…let’s stop talking business.” She said, a smile growing on her lips as she grabbed her lovers, gave each a quick kiss, then pulled them close. “I’m sure there’s all sorts of fun stuff we can do in here.”
“Well, if we must.” Alia giggled, snuggling up closer to Rose. Yes, the hot spring had been the correct choice; it was a feast for her eyes, and her mind was racing thinking about what kind of “fun” Rose was talking about. She could think about other stuff later, for now she was content to just enjoy the mont.
“Are you sure it’ll be okay?” Izumi asked nervously. “I don’t think I made a very good impression last ti I was here.”
“Izumi, for the millionth ti, it’ll be fine.” Chrys said, rolling her eyes. “Just be sincere, and say sorry. I’m sure they’ll forgive you eventually.”
“With Chrys here, the worst that happens is that they yell at you.” Ophelia added. “Though I doubt they’d try violence in the first place.”
It was a few days after the start of their journey, and they were about to enter the town that Izumi had attacked. After only a day or two, Chrys had decided that she wanted to be done with this trip as soon as possible, though she wouldn’t say why, and they had rented so horses. With the horses, they made significantly better ti, and the day had finally co for them to arrive.
The village, visible in the distance, was looking different than it had the last ti Izumi was there. The fortifications they had been working on had taken shape, and the wall looked surprisingly sturdy for sothing made by people who presumably hadn’t built a wall before.
As they approached the wall, a bearkin woman, the head of the guard, peeked her head over it. “Travelers, state your purpose!” She called out.
“I am Chrys Yggdrios, Crown Princess of the Swarm!” Chrys yelled back. “We have co to check the progress of the town!”
“Ah, Princess, we’ve been waiting! Please, co in!” She turned back to the other side of the wall. “You lot, open the gate!”
After a mont, the gate opened, and Izumi’s group rode through. The head of the guard, instead of getting down the wall the normal way, jumped off of the wall, landing gracefully on the ground next to them. “Princess, it’s an honor to receive your visit. How may we help?”
“What is your na?” Chrys asked.
“Amy, Princess.” Amy replied.
“Well, Amy, my companion here has so business with you.” Chrys said, motioning towards Izumi, who was dismounting from her horse.
Amy frowned, inspecting Izumi closely. “Do I…know you?” She asked.
Izumi sighed. “Unfortunately, yes.” She said, giving a deep bow to Amy and holding the position. “I was the man who attacked you and your daughter a few weeks ago. I wanted to co and give my apologies; I was blinded by emotion after my companions disappeared, and I did sothing truly terrible.”
Izumi couldn’t see Amy’s face, but the surprise in her tone was evident. “That was you?” She said. “I’m glad you’ve co to apologize, but it’s not you need to apologize to. I was doing my job, just as you were doing yours.” She paused, then continued. “Soone go fetch Misty for , and you can raise your head, it’s going to be hard to talk if you’re like that. You can bow again when Misty gets here, but for now get up.”
Izumi obliged, straightening up and looking Amy in the eyes. “I would like to see what life is like in this village.” She said. “I want to know for myself if the things I have been told about bettering your lives are true.”
Amy raised an eyebrow. “You still doubt us even after conversion?” She asked. “Most of us here in the village understood imdiately after we were converted. I suppose you just haven’t lived the type of life we have, and aren’t able to grasp the imdiate benefits.”
“Such as?”
“Well, for one, dealing with monsters has beco a non-issue.” Amy said. “I’m much stronger than I used to be, and once we converted our first few monsters we were able to use them to convert more, and now they help in the fields or with hunting or quarrying rock or…most things. Our lives have beco significantly easier since we joined the swarm.”
“If they do all that, then what do you do?” Izumi asked.
“We oversee them, and make things in the anti. We built these walls at first because there would potentially be contention with the Glens, but now…well, partially just in case, but also because it gives us things to do. We’ve been practicing our carvings, and we’ve made so rather good murals, if you ask .”
“Mama, you needed ?” Misty asked, running up to Amy and giving her a hug.
“Yes.” Amy said, pointing at Izumi. “This lady has sothing to say to you.”
Izumi once again bowed. “My na is Izumi.” She said. “And I was the man who attack you and your mother a few weeks ago. I got too out of hand, and did sothing I really shouldn’t have. You were just trying to protect your mother, and I dragged you into my ss.”
“Oh, that anie.” Misty said, sticking her tongue out. “Well, at least you’re better now. You have to pinky swear that you won’t be an again, though.”
Izumi nearly looked up in surprise. “That’s it?” She asked.
“Mama told that it was because you didn’t know any better.” Misty said matter-of-factly. “So as long as you don’t do it again, I can’t stay mad at you.”
Izumi heard her Misty walk over, and looked up to see her offering her pinky. “Now, promise it won’t happen again.”
Izumi held out her pinky, locking it with Misty’s. “I promise.” She said.
“Good. I have to go make lunch now, but I better not hear that you were an again while I was gone, or I’ll be very upset.” Misty said, turning away from Izumi and walking back to Amy. “I love you Mama, I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”
“Okay, sweetie.” Amy replied, leaning down and giving Misty a kiss on the forehead. “I love you too.”
Amy gave a wave and headed off back in the direction she ca from. “See?” Amy said. “We’re just like we were before. I may not be her father anymore, but I find that being her mother is just as good, if not better. Really, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to our little village, and you’ll see that once we give you the tour.”
“Thank you.” Chrys said. “We know this is taking ti out of your day for us.”
“Of course, Princess!” Amy said proudly. “And, well, it’s not like we were doing much of anything important, so it’s no trouble at all.”
Amy proceeded to show the three around their city, and already it was shaping up to be nicer than many of the ones Izumi had seen in the Glens. It wasn’t quite there yet, but Izumi could see that buildings were being expanded, roads paved, wells dug, and general improvents were being made.
According to Amy, with their new free ti, excess labor, and freedom to plan their city without worrying about a noble complaining, they were able to undertake many projects that they had previously been impossible. And, what they couldn’t do now, they would be given aid with in the future, when Aura was completely converted and the swarm could freely exert their influence.
The tour finally fully convinced Izumi that the swarm was, in fact, trying to help as much as they could. Or…at the very least, even if they weren’t able to actually help now, the expanded abilities given to people upon their conversion made their lives easier by default. This was, indeed, a cause she could support, one that would make the world a better place.
Make this world and her ho world a better place; once they had defeated the Lord of Monsters, she would be happy to help plan the conquest of her own world. While life there was not as rough as life here often was, Izumi had no doubt that the benefits the swarm could bring, such as a huge workforce and willingness to cooperate, would still improve their lives. Hopefully, conquering this world and the Lord of Monsters wouldn’t take too long; the earlier this was done, the better.
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