Chapter 134: The Room – Part 3 Announcement
Happy New Year, fellow degenerates! And here's to a few more years of Rupegia!
Also, next week will be Ealy Chapter Review Week, so no new main story chapters, but you can check the discord server to know the small changes that I'm doing on the chapters. I need a few days to rest, but I should at least finish one chapter of the review.
"FUCK YEAH!" Hana roars spiritedly, and the knights reflexively cheer along with her like well-trained cheerleaders.
In my soul space, I feel a familiar pair of warm arms hug me from behind, making me pause. At first, I get the impression that it's the Goddess of Knowledge, but then Alissa's presence appears in my mind and does the same motion, leaving me with a feeling of déjà vu.
Wha-...
"This, I can support," Alissa whispers lovingly through our connection, dispelling my confusion, and I can't help but smile at the warmth of her presence.
Ciel closes her eyes, struggling to accept the audacity of my declaration, but then she nods as she accepts her role in this endeavor. She opens her eyes again and serenely affirms, "Perhaps it's time for humanoids to bring about an end to this failing of the Sins that the Gods refuse to right themselves. I pray that they listen to us, that they accept our desire for change and progress."
Aoi raises her sleek draconic head. She understands that a lot of my conviction comes from my love for her, so she feels compelled to chime in, "I know we can't convert every monster, but they don't deserve to suffer. It's not their fault that the God of Destruction made them that way." Her words are pure, and her wish is genuine. All she wants is less pain.
Roxanne stiffly adjusts her glasses as she becomes increasingly shaken. "My experiments... I-I should revise them, I should... do them differently," she dazedly affirms, the memories of what she did for her research flooding back into her mind. Though she often did use herself to test her antidotes, that wasn't always so, and it was because finding specimens was too difficult, not because of any sense of empathy or ethics.
But she's not paying attention to the nuance here. What Cleinias is doing is sadistic evil, which is different from her desire to save lives. "You're not part of the problem. All I want is for the Sins to apply regardless of who the victim is," I reassure her.
"For all of the humanoids to be held to a higher standard," Ciel adds as she grabs her hands to comfort her.
Lina smiles softly, her usual gloomy air gone for a moment. "This is what we do: we drag the Realm forward even though it's screaming that it doesn't want to," she confidently states.
"Gih," Gify soberly joins in. She's here because she believes in us.
Then all of our attention turns to Yunia as she stares at the abused monsters. She wants to use [Mask] to clamp down on the various feelings making a mess of her thoughts, but she doesn't need it as she still hasn't lost sight of her goal.
"Start the attack on Katasko," her cold voice echoes in my mind.
"What?" I hum reflexively.
She looks away from the dragon, unable to bear its unyielding gaze. "The kidnapping of their commanders, that's the one thing we can't screw up. Start it before they're alerted that we're plotting against Cleinias!"
My bold smile becomes strained as my idealism starts to deflate.
Yes, she's right.
Not even a minute after my declaration, and I'm already forced to compromise my values.
Nothing is ever simple, and being an obstinate, inflexible, righteous idealist only works in novels with plot armor. My life is obviously a cliché isekai story, but clearly not the innocent and pure kind. I'll never win through the power of friendship, or by being so uncompromising with my ideals that it's borderline suicidal. No, my struggle is about how to balance out all of my values without losing my sanity or being outsmarted by someone less scrupulous than me.
So, I send a message to Escanso to begin the attack.
I sit down on the sofa and have my wives cuddle with me while I collect my thoughts. No matter how enraged I am, there's nothing we can do but wait.
Ciel goes back to find Cleinias while Yunia sends the flasks with the mysterious fluids through my [Gate], and Roxanne immediately goes to work on the flasks.
She immediately confirms that their primary purpose is to increase fertility, giving me flashbacks of the lizard monsters practicing genetic engineering under Gnomeria, but there's no evidence linking the two... yet.
Yunia decides to use [Animal Tongue] to understand what the monsters went through. They don't speak very clearly, except for the dragon, who's smart enough to understand what's going on.
"What did they do to you?" Yunia asks the Amethyst dragon, and the spell translates her meaning into something that the monster can understand.
The snout of the beautiful purple beast is muzzled to prevent her from breathing fire, but she can open her jaws wide enough to speak growl-like words that the spell translates in Yunia's mind.
The dragon's voice sounds wounded, tired, but most of all, outraged. "Toy. Rape. Steal children. Hurt for fun. Corrupt our wombs. Birth strong children. Steal children. Steal children. STEAL CHILDREN!"
She rattles against her chains and breathes fire into her enchanted muzzle, then she winces in pain as her wounds reopen, and she bleeds steamy, red blood.
Yunia then turns to the other monsters. There are countless reasons for why someone would want dragon eggs, but not the children of other monsters. Are they just test subjects? What about the slime? It seems to be barely more intelligent than an amoeba.
This is also too small of an operation for it to be about money unless the dragon's eggs are extremely valuable, and I start to feel sick and tired just thinking about how we'll solve this abhorrent mystery. We can't even release them from this pain, not until we have Cleinias' head.
Ciel returns to the gathering, and she quickly finds out that Cleinias has left, so she makes a beeline for Alcander and asks him where the evil old fuck is now.
The pompous imperial hides his concern as he answers, "He left a moment ago. Considering how slow he walks, you should be able to catch up if you go through the main corridor."
"Thank you..." Ciel tiredly replies.
Alcander leans closer and whispers concernedly, "My Lord, is everything alright?"
She lowers her voice and does her best to remain impassive as she explains, "We're making our 'move,' but we'll explain everything later, so don't concern yourself with it."
He nods diligently. "Very well..."
She doesn't have anything to do, so she glances at Alcander's group of friends. "Do you think they'd be receptive to us?"
And he smirks proudly. "For sure. These nobles aren't afraid of a little scheming."
Our two sneaky/assassin girls are busy, so I give Lina some points in [Sense Presence] and [Hide Presence], then I send her to go after Cleinias. True to Alcander's words, she quickly finds the dried-up cunt in the main corridor, leaving the Emperor's Throne at a snail's pace.
Now, when do we kill him?
Alissa and Yunia still have things to do in the mansion, so I can't leave yet because I have to keep watch on them, and nobody else has any useful assassination skills. We also can't kill him in the Emperor's Throne, and neither can it be done in the open, so we have to follow him until the opportunity arises.
But what I feared soon happens. Once he reaches the entrance to the main hall, he meets up with Sebastian, and the butler opens up a [Gate] for him and his knight, then the three of them disappear as they step onto it.
Dammit!
To avoid activating any alarms in the Emperor's residence, I quickly return to the embassy through [Gate] and summon a Holly there, then I tell it to observe Cleinias' mansion from afar and warn us when it spots the old fuck.
Alissa knows that he doesn't use [Hide Presence], so she'll likely detect him the moment he steps into the mansion, and once he does, I'll invade and finish him off myself.
Meanwhile, she continues the exploration of his office, and the information she collects starts to become slightly valuable as (with the help of the other golems) she begins assembling a picture of who Katasko's enemies and allies are. We're targeting the commanders that operate in the east of the Mainland and the elven territories nearby, but Alissa is also learning about Katasko's operations in the west of the Mainland.
We wait for several tense seconds, which stretch into minutes, then become half an hour of waiting with no sign of Cleinias anywhere.
He must've gone somewhere else, like a meeting with his allies.
It does seem that people are expecting shit to hit the fan after this gathering, so it makes sense for him to have a meeting right now. Everyone was waiting to see where our allegiances would fall, and after that incident with the handshake between him and Ciel, it's quite clear on which side we stand. So, now that the uncertainties have been resolved, everyone will be eager to start the Purification.
Little do they know that our kidnapping of the commanders will fuck everything up. There isn't a clear group that's made up of "Katasko nobles" because most of them have kept their links with Katasko a secret, so the cockroaches are expected to be spread out across multiple groups.
And I start to realize how sweet this will all be. Destroying Katasko in one move while killing the biggest villain among them in the next.
Soul InfoNameFaustus FluminisRaceHumanLevel55HP100MP5,210Magic Power2,730Strength11Endurance10
I remain impassive to not reveal my true feelings to any onlookers, but I lower my voice as I can't magically project it in the same way he can. "Certain things can't be forgiven. The 'filth' runs deeper than you think."
He stops playing with Piscilla's nipple as he stares intensely at me. Though he looks quite friendly, I get the impression that he's hiding his true feelings. Still, being in his presence is like staying too close to a bonfire, and I'd rather that he toned it down or simply left.
After a few seconds of deliberation, he soberly cautions me, "Do what you must, but remember that the Empire comes first."
I simply nod. For the Empire to progress, people like Cleinias must die.
Then he smiles softly, soothing everyone again, so I focus on the furry hotness beside him, and, noticing my gaze, she purrs seductively as she smirks at me. Her thin tail sways mischievously like a cat's, and we're allowed only a couple of seconds of flirty stares before he takes her away.
"Maybe we need a beastfolk woman for you?" Alissa whispers seductively as she pats the boner in my pants.
I huskily reply, "I'd love that. Hukarere, Kaatohe, and the Chimeras just aren't the same as a fully furry beauty."
She kisses my cheek, and we rejoin the ongoing conversations, but our social energies are running too low, so we soon retire from the gathering.
But there's still one last thing we have to do before we can sleep.
Caterina, the milfy golden elf beauty struts into the embassy. Her gait is confident and strong, and the red not-bikini she's wearing shows enough of her body to leave no doubt of her warrior background. But it's her gaze that holds the "danger" of a Punisher, and I lose myself in her eyes as she scans the room. Then her smirk quickly fades as she realizes that Hana didn't call her to party.
"Sorry for lying, but I didn't want people to suspect anything," Hana earnestly apologizes, and Caterina's subtly casual demeanor disappears, allowing for her usual poise to return.
She gives the guilty dragonkin a brief glare as she slowly warns, "I'll forgive you this time, but don't make it a habit. I hate the deceitful behavior of nobles."
I diplomatically interject, "I also apologize, but please, take a seat. I have a favor to ask."
She does as told and sits down, then crosses her legs and assumes a slightly haughty posture, something elves specialize in. "Very well. What scheme do you want me to take part in?"
I point to the fertility potions on the table between us. "First, let me tell you about something we've unveiled..."
Announcement
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Prince PreownedFIN.
Prince Owldente.
Lord Andrew Meyers.
Lord Novgarod.
Lord Michale Erwin.
Lord Bakerdea.
Lord Maurice.
Lord Mattirro Draca.
Lord Sean Drake.
Lord Mike Bartter.
Lord Warwulfv.
Lord Khristopher Welsh.
Lord DJ.
Lord Tenebris Lupus.
Lord Paul Daval.
Lord Paul Daval.
Lord AndreyUC.
Lord Tmac.
Lord School Work.
Lord Gwendolyn Simmons-LaRose.
Lord CopeyDunt.
Lord James.
Lord BlindTactic.
Lord The Tallest Joshua.
Lord Andrew Hebreard.
Lord litalmexy.
Lord Tyler Mills.
Lord Philip.
Lord Sam.
Lord Warwulfv.
Lord d3235.
Lord Ddraig Wynn.
Noble Salty Panda.
Noble Mild Fracas.
Noble Aclys.
Noble CarlBaxter.