บท 131: Chapter 128: Discussion of Suspicions
{Jinma}
I had to take a moment to calm down after the interrogation was over, splashing my face with cold water in the restroom before drinking some of it from my [Water Magic]. Kenaka followed me around and waited until I was stable enough for him to make a minor report. It didn't sound like there was anyone nearby looking for me, but he got word from Mametama that the girls were near done preparing themselves to visit Noire. Ume was one of the first to be done, which gave me a chance to talk to her about what happened, so I called her over to the back of the inn with my [Telepathy].
Moments later, I met her with Kenaka and Mametama joining us so they'd all hear of what happened, but instead of me explaining it all, Nyra proposed something different to save time and energy talking. After unsheathing the tanto at Nyra's instruction, she emitted the purplish-black mist from the blade, connecting Ume's, Kenaka's, and Mametama's heads to my own. I watched my wife and familiars show great surprise at what they were seeing while staring off into space.
This trick was something Nyra did to the last member of the White Rapture spies in Dondegarm that we took out single-handedly. I was able to see the memories that guy shared like I was standing in his shoes, experiencing it all firsthand as Nyra relayed them to me while she distracted him with a fear-inducing spell.
The difference between then and now is that Nyra was relaying my memories of the interrogation moments ago, from beginning to end, into Ume's and my familiars' brains. None of my memories were being 'transferred' like I would forget them immediately afterward. It was more like Nyra copy-pasted what I saw into their minds. The experience was still very weird, like jello jiggling in my head if I had to describe it, but it didn't hurt.
By the time the memory implant was done, my wife and familiars showed great discontent.
"That bitch!" Kenaka yelled.
"I knew there was something strange about her!" Mametama added.
"... Jin, this is a very serious matter. Are you certain we shouldn't kick Sue out right now, or at least tell the others what you saw? Can we really trust her words?" Ume asked with a furrowed brow.
<About that, there's something I've been meaning to mention that I noticed after the interrogation,> Nyra intervened, speaking to all of us in our minds.
"What's that, Nyra?" I asked.
<Sue's mood process after you left …>
Nyra then explained how she sensed Sue being briefly scaroused as I had her at knifepoint, followed by varying levels of concern, coming to some resolve, then quickly caving and breaking down sobbing from great distress and loneliness.
<And this was within the last three to five minutes since Jinma left her alone,> Nyra said, finishing her report.
"The heck? Was she doing all that while speaking to the Demon King?" I asked.
"And how are you so certain of what mood Sue's currently in when you're not in the room?" Mametama asked.
<Depending on the strength of the emotion, I could sense it from a few houses away, but … I may have left a teeeeeny tiny cut on the back of Sue's neck before I injected the wound with my magic,> Nyra answered.
"When the heck did you do that? And 'injecting magic' into people? Is that even possible?" I asked.
<I did it when you had Sue at knifepoint,> Nyra explained <While you two had that staredown, I made my move and borrowed your [Darkness Manipulation] to make the small cut on her nape. And yes, it is indeed possible to inject magic, or specifically the mana connected to your magic, into other people to do a number of things. I picked this up over the first couple years of my curse and found I could track people and read their emotions, no matter where they may run off to hide. Now, if we want to know where Sue is in case she runs off or how she's feeling, I can just track down her mana and find her in seconds.>
"I can't even find her with my [Insightful Mapping] skill, so you must have found a way to bypass whatever that was causing it! That's brilliant, Nyra!" I exclaimed with a great impression.
<Well, though she apologized, I still had my beefs about her messing with my head. With this, I think we can call it even, whether she knows it or not,> Nyra said before giving a mischievous snicker, <Still, other than her drastic change of emotions, there was one other thing that bugged me about Sue.>
"What's that?" Ume asked.
<Well … are Arch Imps' blood usually a mix of magenta and cyan colors?>
Nyra's question left all of us perplexed.
"That … should be impossible," Mametama spoke out first, "Some of the plant-type demon races would be an exception, but everyone else, no matter what race or kin, all the blood on Manara shares the same red color. Even magical beasts like Kenaka and I have that same blood color."
<Well, those were the colors that small drop of blood was made of when it formed on the wound I made. I may not have eyes right now, but I could still see very clearly, and I know what I saw,> Nyra argued.
"Magenta and cyan … you only see those colors associated together when the three kin's mana are involved," Ume said more to herself than anyone in the backyard.
"Magenta for demons, cyan for humans, and yellow for demis, right?" I asked for clarification.
Ume nodded, "Correct. Us Dragons are different, as our mana signatures only come off as blue. All the monsters in this world share the same red color in their mana signature."
"All of us magical beasts share the same green color for our mana signature," Mametama added, "However, something that I have learned recently, it seems that color blends with magenta whenever we change into our demon forms. I imagine it would blend with cyan and yellow should we change into human and demi forms, respectively."
"Cyan, magenta, and yellow for the three main kin, and red, blue, and green for monsters, Dragons, and magical beasts, respectively," I listed out. They seem to reflect the primary and secondary colors as listed in Earth's color theory. It also looks like there are ways for these mana signatures to blend together somehow, like Kenaka and Mametama's green having a magenta blend when in their demon forms.
"Blending colors, cyan and magenta … ah! Erizora!" I exclaimed, stumbling onto an epiphany, "She may not be able to use magic, but everyone has a mana signature regardless, right? While the majority of demons have a magenta colored mana signature, Erizora's was mixed with cyan because she's … half-human."
My wife and familiars widened their eyes at my observation, looking to not believe where I was going with this. I was questioning my own sanity for even coming to this theory, too, but I just couldn't rule it out. My blood ran cold for where I was even implying.
I looked back in the direction where I left Sue, "And if that were the case … then what the hell does that make Sue with cyan and magenta blood?"
"Blood that reflects the user's mana signature … I feel like I came across that somewhere in my books before," Ume said, looking deep into thought, "I may have to research this along with the Rune Craft in that message."
"Here is a thought," Kenaka said, "Nyra, you put the memories that Milord experienced in our heads, correct? Could you not do the reverse and extract Sue's memories for Milord to see what she is hiding?"
<I had considered that,> Nyra answered, <Though, since we're dealing with someone who could misplace or forget memories, she could easily remove what we just saw after the extraction. By then, it would just be an endless cycle of learning and forgetting if we try again. Honestly, it's amazing Sue didn't attempt to make us forget everything that happened in the interrogation.>
That was a valid point. Sue could have easily made not just Nyra and I, but everyone in the party forget about the existence of someone manipulating our memories.
{"I resolved myself to open up should something like this happen …"}
Sue's confession echoed in my mind. I didn't sense any hints of a lie with my [Intuition] skill. {Is she really intending to follow through with that?} I thought, {It may just be us five she's willing to confess to for now, but is she planning on doing the same to the others somewhere down the line? She seemed to be really careful of what info is okay to reveal, at least for right now. What conditions are needed for her to reveal more of what we need to know? Could she possibly do it if I cooperate with her on investigating this coup?}
Whatever Sue's reasons were for letting this play out like it did, I couldn't let my guard down around her. I fully intend to watch her every move, not matter how much of a creep that makes me look.
~~
The ten minutes were up by the time we finished our discussion. When I asked Nyra to see how Sue was doing, she reported that the 'Arch Imp' hadn't moved from the room since we left her. After she finished bawling her eyes out, she went back and forth from being melancholy to optimistic. Nyra couldn't tell whether Sue was like that towards the Demon King when she contacted her, or if she even made any at all, but I guess this info was as good as we can get.
By the time I knocked at the door to check in on her, going by the sounds that were made inside, it seemed like she was lying on the bed before I came up. When I went inside and put up a [Soundproof] bubble, she was almost standing at the exact same spot as I left her earlier, with a smile on her face.
"Your ten minutes are up. Have you said what you needed to the Demon King?" I asked her.
"Yup! I was tasked to do my best to make peace with you and earn back your trust, and that is what I was planning on before Her Highness even brought it up!" Sue reported proudly while pounding her large chest with a fist, "Oh, and she said she'll be more than happy to welcome you to her castle and there was no need to rush. Just stop on by at any time and she'll answer your call immediately!"
<Hmm … her smile seems genuine, but there's still some conflicting feelings inside her,> Nyra reported in my mind.
<Yeah, and she seems to be telling the truth too,> I replied, raising a brow before answering Sue, "I don't suppose you can tell me why she's so willing to put her important royal duties aside for someone like me, at any time I feel like coming?"
"Sorry! That's classified!" she answered with delight in her tone.
<Should have figured,> Nyra and I said at once.
"You can guarantee that Her Highness will provide royal treatment for you and your party upon your arrival though," Sue continued, "It will be her way of apologizing for the trouble she's caused you, as well as saying thanks for your valiant efforts in saving Dondegarm from the White Rapture raiders. On an official standpoint, though, it will lean more towards the latter for the sake of keeping appearances among the public and nobility."
I waved a hand to brush it off, "Sure, whatever, she better be prepared for the questioning I'll put her through when we get there."
"Her Highness will be more than ready to answer anything you may have for her, I assure you," Sue said.
"Ume and my familiars are aware of the situation now, and no one else, as we agreed on. Just to make sure, you won't try anything to make any of us forget about what transpired this morning?" I questioned her with a raised brow.
"Nope!" she answered before raising a hand and resting another on her bosom, all with a serious expression on her face, "I, Sue, solemnly swear that from this point on, I won't do anything to the memories you or your party holds, and I will be as honest and straightforward as I can be until we get to Her Highness' castle."
I was surprised at the resolution in her promise, especially when my [Intuition] didn't pick up any lies.
"I also swear that should it be necessary to gain your trust, I will submit my body for you to use as you see fit … and I won't fight back," Sue continued, with her voice straining slightly as she hesitated speaking the end there.
<She seemed resolute, but that rise in anxiety there tells me that she hopes to not resort to that, not out of disgust, but for something else … I can't comprehend as to what,> Nyra informed.
<Really? Not even you, an expert on emotions?> I asked.
<Sometimes people are so conflicted with many emotions it's hard for us to tell what's going on. It's like multiple swords constantly clashing in their minds, making too loud a noise for us to even hear which blade stands out more,> Nyra explained.
I looked to the side in thought, <Well … I don't want to come off as something scummy, but I'm glad Sue's actually feeling anxious about that. I would question her mental health if she said all that while thinking everything will be hunky-dory.>
<Oh believe me, I hear ya,> Nyra agreed, I imagine a figure in place of her nodding to show her agreement, <If there's one thing I learned over the years being trapped in the tanto, it's that some people try really hard to keep their true emotions bottled up, and that's something I've never seen from other Pixies. It's amazing that they don't realize how important it is to let those feelings out, or it would destroy them from the inside out. I sensed Sue feeling a lot over the past ten minutes, but I think she hasn't got everything out of her system yet, like maybe she wasn't satisfied with how she vented those emotions.>
If it was Nyra saying that, even if Sue was somehow aware of how she was being observed, I don't think anyone could really fake those emotions, and I'd love to see whatever cheat item one can use to accomplish that. Maybe in her own strange way, Sue really was reflecting on her actions.
That didn't get Sue off the hook for me though. I was still going to observe her like a hawk, like she may have done the same to me, even if they were under orders of the Demon King. As for the Arch Imp submitting her body for my leisure … I knew from our time last night that she doesn't want to be kissed on the lips or have sex yet. She'd want to save those for her potential significant other, so those would be the boundaries I shouldn't cross under moral/ethical reasons. Was I going to take those away from her as recompense for her messing with Nyra's and my own memories? I may have been given that right, but that doesn't mean I'd take it, especially since I knew Sue wouldn't be into it.
I don't know, I just didn't feel right using sex as a form of revenge. Other people might say otherwise if the person on the receiving end deserved it. I've glimpsed at some doujinshis where that was the theme, and it really depended on the degree of wrong where that method of revenge would be acceptable. For Sue's case, other than how she messed with our memories—which, if viewed from an objective standpoint, she didn't do very much of that compared to what she could have done with us—that she wants to make up for, I haven't seen or heard her commit any further wrongs so far since we met yesterday.
Nyra has exacted her revenge by inserting her mana in a wound she made on Sue's nape, giving us an edge of where she is and how she's feeling at all times. If I had to come up with some form of punishment, the best I could think of is take advantage of my [Sweet Spots] skill and keep Sue on the edge of climax, probably for an hour or two, but never let her cum. Then she'd just watch me give my other girls the climax she desperately wants right in front of her.
<Ooooh, I would hate you all of the next day if you did that to me,> Nyra commented, reading my thoughts.
I'd have to think about it, but for the time being, I'll just help myself to touching Sue's soft and firm body whenever I feel like it. She seemed fine with it last night, so there's no reason for me to take advantage of that during the day too. There was just one thing I wanted confirmed, however.
"Regarding our memories, you only messed with what happened sometime after I fell asleep last night, right? Was there anything else during that same time you messed with that we should know about? Like … how you gave me that blowjob," I specified.
Sue shook her head, "No. I only adjusted what happened before you fell asleep last night, and I only replaced Nyra's memory of interfering my mission with knowledge to release her curse. Everything yesterday, from the moment I first laid eyes on you, to before you fell asleep, really happened. I'm … pretty sure I told the truth the whole time too." She looked up in thought, trying to remember.
"Do you lie often?" I asked with a raised brow.
"Only to people I don't have my full trust in … and there are quite a bit," she admitted while looking down to the floor.
"And you think that despite what you did to me and Nyra, you can fully trust us, which includes following through our deal?" I asked with suspicion.
Then, much to both Nyra's and my surprise, Sue walked up and wrapped her arms around me, pressing as much of herself—especially her large melons—as possible, with a strength that was too strong for a girl of her stature. I was reminded of how short the Arch Imp was, shorter than Ren, as she placed her forehead right on my sternum, her face impossible to be seen from my perspective. Judging from how Sue's wings quivered while the tail curled between her legs, though, she seemed afraid. It was like she was trying to keep me from disappearing on her for whatever reason.
"I want to trust you, more than anyone else in the world …" she muttered, tightening her hold around me even more than I thought was possible for her.
Nyra and I were left speechless, with me as stiff as a statue, while Sue prolonged this awkward embrace. There was a shaky breath coming from the Arch Imp like she was trying to push down her fears and anxieties. Her quivering wings and tail curling between her legs also showed how scared she seemed. The Pixie in my mind confirmed the emotions Sue were experiencing were very legitimate.
Satisfied with the embrace, Sue pulled back, shook off her nerves, and cleared her throat before looking back up to me calmly, "Now, may I have a chance to freshen up before we go?"
"Uh … yeah, let's get Ume to help me escort you in the restroom," I answered.
"Yes, Jinma."
Sue then took initiative to grab her things and leave the room first before I followed along.
<... Yup, that settled it. This girl's got issues,> Nyra declared in my mind.
{Seriously, just what do you even say to that?}
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