บท 221: The Gifts

After returning to Asora Alex immediately went to the training area with Kuroka and Grayfia following him. As they arrived they immediately saw Seekvaira who seemed to be waiting for all of them, and Alex turned towards Grayfia and said,

"After I start working on my project you'll go with Seekvaira to talk to our new guest. Tell her the reason we spared her and what we intend to do, you'll also bring Nyx and use this as an example of our seriousness." Alex then handed her something that caused Grayfia's eyes to widen, but she quickly regained her composure and said,

"Yes my lord." After giving Grayfia her task, Alex then turned to an empty space and said with authority in his voice,

"Nyx!" A second later the black haired goddess appeared as her master summoned her, but what surprised everyone present was that she was naked and soaking wet with suds in her hair. It took her a minute to register what was happening, but when she did she screamed and tried to cover herself while her face turned Crimson from either shame or fury, or most likely both.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Alex sighed at the typical anime trope as gryafia stepped forward and used magic to dress her. Nyx then spat out,

"You bastard! Not just once, but you shamed me twice!" Alex arched an eyebrow and said,

"I didn't do it on purpose, I have something I need you to help Grayfia with so you'll be going with her, you can return to your bath after." Though Nyx kept glaring at him and muttering obscenities under her breath, she didn't argue about doing what Alex asked even though it wasn't an "order". This made him pleased as it meant he wouldn't have to order her to do every little thing. He then turned to Kuroka and asked,

"So what are you going to be doing?" She smiled evilly and answered,

"I saw something interesting earlier so I want to train for a bit, I'll also spend some time with Shirone before going back." Alex was curious about what she wanted to try, but let her keep her secret for now and went to his own training room to start working on a project. He then took out some metals and other materials before saying,

"Let's get to work!"

***

Cattleya sat in her 'room' bouncing what seemed to be a ball made of stuff she had never seen before. This had been how she spent most of the last week that she been stuck in this cavelike room she was in ever since she had woken up. She hoped she wouldn't get taken prisoner after being petrified, and had been terrified after she woke up, but no one ever came to interrogate or torture her. Instead the room she was in had a fairly comfortable bed, a couple sofas as well as an area to prepare and eat the food that was left in here, even if she was unfamiliar with some of the things around her. The worst part of her imprisonment so far was that there were no doors or windows and she'd been here for what she could only assume was a week now and there had no new information from anyone visiting her.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a door opening and turned to see three human women entering the room, two maids and a stern looking woman with brown hair and glasses. Cattleya assumed the stern looking woman was the one sent to interrogate her so she faced her, but the one that stepped forward was one of the maids instead, the one with silver hair.

"I am Grayfia, this is Seekvaira, and this is Nyx." The other two women inclined their heads a little at their introductions, while Cattleya was silent from confusion until she realized they were waiting for her to introduce herself.

"I am Cattleya of the glorious demon race, betrothed of Mikhail, and servant of the chosen of the gods Freed." Though she included the fact that she served her revered superior in her self introduction, all three of the women rolled their eyes at her words. She didn't mind saying this much about herself, as during the time she was sitting here she thought about the fight and deduced the only reason she lost was because the monster that defeated her was most likely a labyrinth conquerer like her revered superior. If this was the case then they most likely knew that the demon race had a labyrinth conquerer as well, so she decided to tell them the name of the one to defeat them, as no matter how strong they appeared she decided they would be no match against her boss. The silver haired maid, Grayfia, then said,

"Well Cattleya, let's get on with why we're here, and why you're still alive." Cattleya narrowed her eyes, and said,

"I'll never talk you know, it'll be better to just kill me now." Gryafia however shook her head and said,

"My lord doesn't want that, though I doubt you'll believe me he wants to bring an end to the conflicts between the races of Tortus such as demon race and the humans, and he wants your help to do so." Cattleya raised an eyebrow at her words and asked skeptically,

"Why would you humans want to end the war?" There was more she was going to ask, but before she could a terrifying pressure started radiating off of the three women in front of her, and Grayfia said,

"We. Are. Not. Humans!" While leathery bat like wings sprouted from her and Seekvaira's backs. In the face of such pressure and an overbearing tone from Grayfia, Cattleya fell back onto one of the sofas in brief fear. The three then sat on the sofa opposite of her and Grayfia continued calmly after making her point,

"I think you get the point, but back on track. Your wars between the humans and demon race, as well as the persecution of the demihuman races are the result of the God of Tortus inciting conflict for self entertainment. My lord intends to remove this tumor eventually, but he also wishes to undo the damage that has been caused by him such as the conflicts between the races." Taking advantage of the fact that Cattleya was still silent from the earlier display, Grayfia then launched into an explanation of Ehito's history and his involvement in Tortus. By the time she finished Cattleya mildly surprised them by saying,

"I already know about those lies, my superior warned me that the traitors who built the labyrinths would try to sway me from the righteous path we have set ourselves on." Gryafia was slightly surprised that Cattleya already knew somewhat about the truth, but her explanation made sense. She then said,

"This "righteous path" will only lead to the destruction of your entire people, either at the hands of the god you so fanatically follow, or at the hands of my lord if your people persist to plague the world after his death." Though Cattleya flinched when Grayfia casually mentioned her people being wiped out, she then stated with fervor,

"God cannot die! No matter how strong your master appears to be he will never rise to the heights of the almighty divine! And your words are cheap when you say you want peace then immediately turn around and state that you'd destroy us if we refuse to bow to your will!" Grayfia then replied coldly while pointing at Nyx,

"This is a God of the world we come from, and she is now simply my lords slave." As her words dropped Cattleya looked at Nyx in confusion while Grayfia took a jewel out of her personal storage and said,

"This is all there is of another god of our world, the god that rules the land of the dead even, after he made an enemy of my lord."Cattleya looked at the jewel with more confusion than when she looked at Nyx, while Nyx looked at it with a pale face. Grayfia then continued,

"Even if your God cannot die, he will still face defeat at my lords hands, and be sealed into a jewel such as this for the rest of his pathetic existence." Grayfia then stood while Nyx and Seekvaira also stood and started walking towards the door. She then waved her hand and a magic circle appeared that left a projector that started projecting images on one of the cave walls.

"These are past fights my master has participated in, and some of his opponents were other gods as well. Study them, and when we talk next tell me if you still believe your god is untouchable. Until then you'll stay here, Seekvaira will return every now and then to fill your food stores and you can tell her at those times if you're willing to cooperate." Leaving those words behind as the door closed, Cattleya was studying the images being played for her, as she watched the hateful man that defeated her turn into a giant apelike monster before swatting a supposed god out of the sky with ease before unceremoniously sitting on them. Not knowing that her room was placed in a time formation that would turn each day into an entire month, Cattleya's isolation began.

***

Shizuku returned to her room after trying to console Kouki, who had been brooding over Kaori's love for Hajime. She had tried to convince him to think more about his actions in the future and question his own sense of justice instead of simply assuming he was always right. As she dressed for bed Shizuku looked around and noticed how lonely her room felt since Kaori went to Hajime's room, then her face turned Crimson as she imagined what they were doing right now before shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts. After dressing she crawled into her bed, and not for the first she missed her stuffed animal collection as she fell asleep.

As the sun rose she got up and tiredly made her way to her trunk to get ready for the day, while also noticing that even now Kaori wasn't back yet. It wasn't until she started taking off her pajamas that Shizuku turned around and noticed several things sitting on the table that weren't there last night, three blades like katanas, a box, and a stuffed bear. Shizuku approached the table and examined the times with a sense of wonder, ignoring the fact that they were most likely placed here while she slept. There was a katana that seemed to be 80cm long, a wakizashi that was about 50cm long, and finally a tantō about 30cm long. Shizuku picked up the tantō and slowly drew it from its sheath to see that it had a black metallic sheen to it, as well as a magic circle placed at the very bottom of the blade. Though she was curious to see what it did she put it back in the sheath and swore to either test it or take it to an appraiser later. A brief examination showed that the katana and the wakizashi were the same black with magic circles on the blades.

Shizuku then opened up the box, and felt a sense of incongruity as she saw a set of ten kunai sitting within it. She couldn't help thinking to herself 'am I supposed to be a ninja?' Even though she still picked one up to examine. She then closed the box and turned her attention to the thing most out of place, the stuffed bear that had a cute design while it held a card. Shizuku picked up the bear and held it with one hand while the other opened the card and she read it,

-After our talk I figured you might want to use some real weapons so I prepared these last night. It felt kind of awkward to just give a girl a bunch of cold metallic weapons though, so I added the bear. You like things that are cute right?