Chapter 36 - A Fool’s Delusions

Fayette closed the door behind her and entered the bathroom, what she found was the delicate image of Vera washing Valentine's body.

He is with his belly on the ground and she sat on his butt, scrubbing his back, if one looked closely, she is slightly blushed and her hands are quivering!

"Everything is okay?" Fayette raised her eyebrows, detecting the little anomaly.

"Yes! Sorry, I didn't wait for you… perhaps it's better to do it quickly, we don't know if the city will be too dangerous for you once you get out." Vera smiled and continued scrubbing.

Bollocks.

"I see, how considerate of you… I thought you would want me dead…" Fayette smirked and moved into the bathroom, but her comment made Vera gape slightly before her countenance returned to normal.

She stopped.

"I would never do that, Faye…" She said honestly, despite whatever feelings she might harbour inside her heart, she truly doesn't want to cause Fayette any harm.

"…" the blonde listened attentively.

"I love him but… I… wouldn't ever try to harm you."

"… so you're going to admit it?"

"… isn't it obvious by now? Look where I am sitting… do you really think, the relationship of the three of us is common?" The Russian beauty actually smirked, she hadn't considered it until now.

They have tried to survive to the extreme.

Shared their pee, cleaned each other's bodies, drank and ate each other's flesh… in the midst of survival, she hadn't caught up with what their relationship had turned into.

It had gotten twisted to the point that Fayette considered the current situation normal.

And that's also the other reason why she just couldn't throw Vera away… in the current situation, sharing sounded like the most appropriate thing to do, but… why?

Why can't she accept it?

Valentine has also shown his loyalty, time and time again... during the entire year, Elka hasn't been the only girl they 'saved' but they never took anyone with them after taking Vera, this was his idea, not hers.

His eyes seemed to be only glued to the two of them, but even with that, she still can't accept it.

Vera sitting on Vale's butt, naked, cleaning his back.

For some reason, she couldn't associate this with 'cheating'.

But kissing and, more… that's another matter.

…

Eventually, the blonde sighed and moved behind Vera, she took one of the soap 'bars' and started to clean valentine's feet.

She didn't ask Vera to move away.

"I'm sorry Vera, I have to… think about this a little more." That's all she could say, the same thing she had done for half a year, stall.

"I understand… I'll wait Faye, the one that's invading your relationship, is me anyway…"

The girl smiled self-mockingly.

"… you're not Vera, back then…" Fayette's gaze grounded and she stopped her scrubbing.

"…?" Vera listened attentively.

"I think that we made the right decision, taking you with us…" The ex-Commander finally sighed and said honestly.

"R-Really? Haven't I been a bother?" Vera bit on her lips, perhaps not wanting the answer to that question, despite the fact that she has been getting stronger and clever, she's still too far behind them.

Like a bag of bricks.

She can adapt quickly to the situation and be clever, it's what she had done most of her life after all, but she's not a soldier.

"No… when we took you in we had expectations of you… you're not a combatant, but you have exceeded our expectations, so… no, you haven't been a bag of bricks, Vera, you still have to improve some things but, with enough time... you will achieve it."

Naturally, when they took her in, they expected her to become strong enough to fend for herself, it was but an act of humanity.

She had gotten stronger, she had even killed some wolves by herself in the forest.

"Thank you… it really means a lot, I know that sometimes we don't speak to each other honestly, and there is always this tension but… I… love you too Faye, you're like the sister I never had, a big bully of a sister, but a sister nonetheless~" the girl managed to giggle and continued her scrubbing.

Hopefully, she stalled enough time, but truthfully, those are her feelings.

"… I see." Fayette curled up her lips and didn't say anything else, continuing with her scrubbing too.

"What are we going to do now? They're going to go after us…" Vera now took a topic of relative importance to them.

It prompted Fayette to lift her gaze up in contemplation.

"I don't know, this anti-violence city doesn't seem to be what we expected, if Vale hadn't been skilled enough, he might be dead… leaving the city seems to be the wisest option, but we don't know anything about how the outside world is like except for the next city's location and this 'Blood Maiden Forest'… for all we know this place might be a 'secure haven' within hell."

The two thought that possibly they have been rather lucky, or more like, due to their skill, they had it easier than most.

"Just going by the classification, we only managed to come here due to our score, if we weren't that skilled to leave that forest in a single year who knows where we would have been sent to" Vera started to scrub the back of Valentine's arms while Fayette nodded and finished the right feet.

She always wondered, who exactly does the assessment? could it be that 'demon' that was standing in front of them before?

"When he wakes up, it's better to start planning our escape, we don't know what's outside those gates but we can always learn, seriously, it can't be worse than that forest…"

"…"

What can be worse than sulfur raining on your body and melting it over and over?

"Turn him around, let's clean the front." Fayette sighed and said that only for Vera to start quivering slightly.

"O-Okay."

…

'What hasn't it gone down!?'

Vera and Fayette started at the object that stood up proudly, perhaps seeking some attention.

It resembled a rebellious penguin looking for a fight, it seemed to be saying 'Who's going at it first, huh!?'

Vera rocked her head to get rid of the stupid thought while Fayette threw a deadpan, restraining her anger a bit, it's not like that thing can stand on its own, right?

"… sorry." That's all Vera could say.

Fayette sighed again, she's been doing that a lot lately.

"Just don't do anything, it will go down eventually…"

"Huh? S-Shouldn't you like… relieve him?" Vera stuttered, perhaps eager for a little show or a hot party, opening a bottle of champagne and having it spill all over.

Several fun 'things' they could do.

"… what do you think this is? a 2020's porn movie? He's sleeping, he will calm down eventually…" Fayette just threw her 'sister' a deadpan and continued to scrub every single one of her lover's foot nails.

What's she expecting? a 3D porn show?

"…"

Disappointment.

She could only feel disappointment as she sat on the side, scrubbing her crush's chest.

...

"It's been so long since the three of us are together, but you still haven't told us what you were back on Earth, Vera." Fayette opened her lips with her same inquisitive gaze, after they have reached this juncture, she wants to know, it's of vital importance in order for her to keep trusting Vera, after all, between him and Valentine, they're not holding the secret to her, or at least she isn't, perhaps Valentine has one or two?

!!!

The sentence came so suddenly that it took Vera out of guard, she immediately started to shiver.

"W-Why do you want to know?"

By now she knows their identity, but it's impossible for her to feel 'frightened' or 'awed' at existences that she didn't meet or know back on Earth.

Valentines is a renowned serial killer, assassin, even a hero... but one that always fought for justice, he killed millions of innocents, apparently, but he also saved several dozens of millions... slaughtered and hunted hundreds of evil lords, those that made people suffer, it could even be said the world changed because of his actions.

Fayette had been a French military commander who at her time with her influence was no different than a Queen, likewise, she has killed thousands of innocents, but as a result, the French gained a position in Europe that it never had before.

So, yes... their presence in hell and their 'soul rank' can be somehow justified.

They were very prominent individuals back in their time, since they're not directly involved with her timeline, Vera is unable to properly comprehend the impact of their identities.

"I still don't truly understand how this 'rank' works, but I know that Vale, giving his actions might perhaps deserve a Golden soul, me, a silver… I'd say that I don't match for it, but again, I don't know what criteria are being used to measure this…"

"…"

"But you're a bronze soul… you're a person worth a hundred thousand Onyx souls, I don't know what that means, but you're clearly not a simple individual." Fayette concluded, perhaps Vera is not up to their standards, but there is no way she's a simple person

"…" Vera sighed, those disgusting memories, coming back.

"I don't like talking about it… but I can give you a resume… I was a spy."

!!!

"Oh?" Now she's interested.

"Since you're from the future, you might now I'm from the Russian Empire, the region of Ukraine… and during the last period of my life I worked as a spy for the Bolsheviks." Vera bit on her lips tightly.

"What!?"

'My god…'

She didn't expect to ever meet such personages in hell and also… no wonder, no wonder she can 'adapt' to everything so easily.

She's an expert in seduction and knows her ways with words, the qualities of a spy.

But still, she's somewhat oblivious to the big scheme of things, this is not something a spy would overlook, this increased Fayette's curiosity over Vera's past.

"I'm not proud… when I was still a child I got abused and introduced into that world by some bastard called Lev… he raised me for many years in a lot of ways until he gave me my last mission, the mission where I perished… I was in that mission for several years and I had to infiltrate the Russian royal family." Vera continued her 'summary'.

"…" Fayette couldn't believe what she was hearing, hell is truly not a place where one should judge anyone by their appearance.

'Lev?'

"I still don't know how anything that I did warrants me to have a bronze soul." Vera continued scrubbing Valentine's body, feeling slightly disgusted with herself, as if rather than cleaning him, she's staining him with her dirty.

But she had already learned to deal with that.

"When you say Lev… do you mean Lev Davidovich, Trotsky?!" The blonde immediately joined the dots, she still couldn't believe it, Trotsky, spy in the Russian Royal Family, no wonder…

No wonder she's a 'bronze'.

"Yes, could it be that the bastard become famous?" She smiled self mockingly once again.

Fayette nodded, "but not you… there isn't a Vera Sidorov…"

She's doesn't remember all the details of the bolshevik revolution, but there definitely isn't a Vera Sidorov.

"Perhaps because I wasn't using that name back then… Alexandra Tegleva or 'Shura', does that ring a bell?" She said neutrally, took Valentine's hand and cleaned between his fingers, one by one… expertly.

As if she has done this before.

!!!

"It… does… but... it can't be, I can barely remember you, you were their children's nurse... but according to the records, you survived the revolution, married..."

This is ridiculous.

Empress Alexandra of Russia's maid.

"That's a lie! I never married anyone! I was executed for 'treason' because I refused to let the Grand Duchess die... Anastasia... Olga... I gave my life away for them, but even then, I couldn't even save Olga!"

Sobs resurfaced and tears fell, Fayette realised that she went too far. 

She immediately stood up and hugged Vera tightly, "D-Don't say anything else if you don't want to..."

Vera's sobs continued for a while, "N-No... I'll tell you everything and leave my past behind... I have a future now, with the two of you, I can't be thinking about that again... what was in the Earth, should remain in the Earth."

The two of them released the hug and continued washing Valentine that after all commotion that seemed like he wasn't going to wake up yet. 

"I don't know if it has to do with anything but Alexandra Feodorovna and the entire Royal Family was canonised in the 2000s… you were the maid of a saint, is that perhaps the reason why you're a bronze?"

"HAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAH!!! SAINT!? THAT BITCH!? I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!"

"…"