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Luka's Story-Paradox	By : Ditmag Category: +M through R > Monster Girl Quest Views: 2709 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Monster Girl Quest Paradox is the intellectual property of Tortorro Restistance. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 89
- 90
- 91
Since the Pocket Castle was in the line of sight from the wreckage of the Demiurge, getting me home was simply a matter of helping me get outside, at which point Alice teleported me to where the castle was. My injuries had been so severe that Ilias’ initial healing had an almost critical ecstasy-style effect on me, making me feel weak and tired. And we weren’t even close to done. Alice carried me into the nearest bedroom, set me gently into the bed, and left so that Sonya and Ilias could go to work. I fell asleep soon after Alice left.
I woke the next morning, still naked. When was the last time I’d worn something? Two days ago? Three? I understood why I hadn’t been clothed. They had been working on my injuries for quite some time. Probably most of the night, as evidenced by the two sleeping forms in the bed with me, Ilias and Sonya. I felt like the luckiest man in the world at that moment. Not because I was a naked man laying between two lovely women, but because I was with people who cared about me. After the trauma of the previous days, I felt safe and protected. I felt an itch on the side of my head and rubbed it. I frowned when I found there was still no ear there. What’s more, I was still missing a finger!
“Oh, hey Luka,” Ilias yawned, her mouth gaping as if she was a lamia trying to swallow me. She never had learned to cover her mouth, but I guess since yawning was new to her, why would she know that?
“Ilias, have I lost my missing parts forever?” I asked.
“Oh, you mean your ear?”
“And my toe, and my finger, and my nipple…”
“Oh, no, you’re fine!” Ilias said. “It’ll just take a lot of healing sessions to get you back to the way you were. If I was a full goddess I could have done it in two seconds, but…. Well, you know how it is. At least I’m not a twenty pound weakling anymore.”
Sonya stirred as well. Seeing my ear on her side, or the lack thereof, she placed her hand where it was missing. I felt soothing healing magic flow into me.
“I still can’t give you that ear back, but that should calm the itching,” Sonya said. “The wound is mostly healed, but it was developing a bit of a rash.”
“You rest today, Luka,’ Ilias instructed. “We can’t spend the entire day working on you, but we’ll be back.”
“Ugh, I can’t take days off anymore!” I protested. “My world! It doesn’t have much time left!”
“Luka, you have friends! Allies!” Ilias scolded. “Is there something you had in mind that only you can do?”
“Well…. Not exactly. But I have to do something!”
“And if you think of something, tell us!” Ilias replied. “If we think of something that requires talents only you can provide, we’ll tell you! Until then… rest!”
“I need to tell Promestein about the negamite,” I said.
“She already knows,” Sonya said. “She figured it out after running some tests shortly after you left on your last run for the day.”
“You did the best you could, Luka,” Ilias said. “You helped evacuate your old world. Everyone survives. Sure, it would be great if they had homes to go back to. And no one is giving up on that. But it’s not worth us losing our best hope of victory because you went off to battle in no condition to fight!”
“All right, all right,” I said, surrendering to reason. “I’ll rest. But I don’t feel too bad anymore! If there’s anything you guys need from me, please come and get me.”
“We promise,” Sonya said, kissing me where my ear used to be.
There was a knock on the door and Alice peaked in. “Hey, how are you doing, darling?” Alice asked.
“The pain os gone,” I said. “These two were apparently up all night healing me. They say I need more bedrest, of course. They always say that.”
“We’ve patched you up enough times on this adventure to know,” Sonya chuckled.
“What was the extent of his injuries?” Alice asked. “I didn’t get a chance to give him the once over. I know he lost an ear.”
“A finger, a toe, a nipple, and some really deep cuts on his back,” Ilias said. “His face was pretty smashed up as well.”
“I saw that last part, but… a nipple?!” Alice exclaimed. “I can’t believe any Tamamo would do that.”
“She’s a special case, that’s for sure,” I said.
“Please tell me his penis is intact,” Alice said to Ilias.
“We found some minor bite marks, but those healed in like three seconds,” Ilias reported. “It doesn’t look like she bit down. Just nibbled a little.”
“Oh, praise Ilias,” Alice breathed.
“I’m right here, Alice. And are you okay?”
“I’m fine, now that I know my Luka is at least ready to go in one respect,” Alice said, crawling onto me. “Does darling need some lovey-wovey?”
“You’re just hungry!” Ilias said accusingly.
“You aren’t wrong. But I know my Luka. He needs someone who loves him to pleasure him after what that filthy kitsune did.”
Alice pulled down the covers and licked my chest, focusing on the nipple that was still there.
“Alice!” Ilias scolded. “We’re right here!”
“This room belongs to me,” Alice said, sucking on my good ear. “You can leave anytime. Or stay. I don’t really care. It might be fun if you watched.”
“Alice, since when do you like an audience?” I asked.
Alice paused. “I… I guess that wasn’t me. No, it was me, just not the me you married. Oh my goodness, this is so frustrating!”
“Ilias, I really think we should go,” Sonya said. “You two lovebirds have fun. You have an hour. We’re going to get some breakfast. After that, we’re coming to heal him some more whether you’re finished with him or not.”
“Oh, it never takes even close to that long,” Alice said, a lewd smile on her face. Something about her behavior seemed very off to me. I wondered if I should be worried that the woman on top of me was not actually my wife.
Ilias and Sonya left. Alice giggled and grabbed my penis with her hand. “Ooh, you’re ready to go as always!” she laughed, then gently coiled around me and pushed me into her.
Her pussy began rhythmically stroking me inside her. Just like… Oh crap. I struggled and broke free. Her hold had been gentle and she didn’t try to hold me down.
“Luka, what’s wrong? Did I do something?!” Alice asked.
“That’s not one of your techniques! You’ve never done that before!”
“So?” she asked. “It’s a basic lamia technique. If I’ve never done it before it’s only because I usually hit you with much more advanced techniques. I thought I’d be gentle since you’d been through hell, that’s all.”
“Alice, something else happened while I was there on Monster World.”
“Besides Tamamo?” she asked.
“How I was captured…. They found a variant of you to entrap me. Her name was Allison. Alice, have you felt any new presences in you? Does that name ring a bell at all?”
“No, Luka, it doesn’t, honestly. Do you think they might have killed her to get her merged with me? Is she evil?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so. I don’t think she had anything to do with trying to trap me, she was just an unwitting pawn. But she did try to eat me.”
Alice laid down next to me, covering her face with her hands. She took a deep breath.
“Luka, I’m so sorry!” Alice said. “Believe me, there’s no Allison in me. And I have a LOT of names! That really was a basic lamia technique that every version of me knows. I just forgot that I’ve never used it on you. But you’re not wrong to be concerned. The exhibitionism, the basic technique, the praising Ilias…. I’m having a really tough time keeping it together.”
“It’s okay, Alice,” I said. “You can still feed. Just… do what my Alice does.”
“I don’t really feel comfortable going that nuts on you right now,” she said. “I really think I should keep it simple. We’ve had a lot of great times in bed, but this time should be relaxing. Gentle. Maybe I should do human form?”
“I love your human form, but right now what I want is you. My cute, lovely lamia.”
She laughed and kissed me, which also freaked me out a little since she almost never kissed.
“So tell me what you want,” she said.
“I have a crazy idea.”
“Ooh, is it kinky?” she asked.
“The opposite, actually. Although I hope it won’t offend you. You said keep it simple. Can I talk to Ariana?”
“Ariana?” she asked, frowning. “That’s not how it works, Luka. I’m not like you. I don’t have another Luka running around in my head, coming out whenever he feels like it and submerging himself when he doesn’t. I am Ariana. I’m also your wife. I’m also the Alice who was born on this world, who you’ve been traveling with. And some day I’ll even be this Allison character.”
“I know! Well, I don’t really, it’s very confusing.”
“Tell me about it.”
“What I meant was, Ariana was a gentle and unsophisticated lover. Maybe if you focused on her memories, tried to sort them out from all the others, you’d be more Ariana than anyone else. Just like you’ve tried to be more my wife than anyone else when we’re alone.”
“And if I’m being honest, I’ve also been more Paradox Alice when we’re doing business rather than pleasure. No, Luka, I’m not insulted. It’s not like you’re asking to sleep with another woman. Ariana is me just as much as any other version. That was actually a good idea, Luka. You know, a lot of Alices… they hurt you. The version of me that is your wife even tried to eat you. Almost all of us tried to force you to kill us. And 99% of us treated you like dirt when we first met you. Ariana was… different. That version of me never hurt you. So if you feel safe with her, then Ariana is who I’ll be. And maybe it’ll be a good mind exercise to focus just on that side of me.”
Alice closed her eyes and concentrated. She wasn’t casting a spell. She was remembering. Sifting through her countless memories, sorting out the Ariana memories from all the others. It was probably the easiest of her memories to sift through, since Ariana was unique among her personalities. She was the only version of Alice that loved Ilias. She was the only version who had fought a war to protect humanity even though she had no power and wasn’t the Monster Lord. There were many versions of Alice that had never been Monster Lord, but those had all lived hand to mouth lives on the streets or in the wilderness, seeking nothing but survival. And lots and lots of food.
Alice opened her eyes. I’ve mentioned before how eyes are the windows to the soul. Somehow I knew I was staring into the eyes of Ariana.
“Thank you, Luka,” she said. “That mental exercise really helped. Ariana... I…. am such a unique version of myself that it’s an easy personality to focus on. I might focus on this one more often.”
“This is so strange for me,” I replied. “I’ve known three Alices well in my life. And… they’re all in one person now.”
“Strange for you? How do you think I feel?”
“Sorry, Alice, I was making it about me again. I know how hard it is right now.”
“Well, you’re the one who just endured the most awful torture, and now I find out some hussy named Allison tried to eat you. I’d like to say I’m surprised, but…. Even this version of me has looked at a man and wanted to gobble him up. I’m a glutton, what can I say? The versions of me that were uneducated, never taught any decent morals… we’ve killed people, Luka. Can you still love me, knowing that?”
“Have you killed anyone since you regained your memories?” I asked.
“Well… no.”
“I’ve befriended a lot of terrible people in my time. How you should pay for those past sins isn’t up to me. What is up to me is dealing with you are you are now. And right now, you are the love of my life, my guide, my rock, and the sexiest being to ever walk this or any other planet.”
“Well now you’re just flattering me,” she laughed. “I’m no Ilias, and on the sexy scale I’m no Alma Elma.”
“I can honestly say this, Alice. I’ve never been turned on or pleased better than anyone.”
“But most of the time I’m just eating you!” she protested.
“That’s pretty great too. You don’t know how much it turns me on when you give me that hungry look, your mouth watering. And then you just use me. But then those times you make love to me, or let me make love to you. The way you moan and tighten your coild around me when I mimic your magic and give you pleasure…. There’s just so much variety with you, so many scenarios.”
“And now there will be more than ever, since I’m so many Alices. But right now, I’m one in particular. So tell me Luka, do you want some boring sex?”
“I love boring sex.”
“Do you want me to suck you, my tongue NOT coiling around you or even really moving. Do you want me NOT deep throating you? Just boring bobbing up and down?”
“That’s the best.”
“Do you want me to get on top of you and ride you, using no special techniques whatsoever?”
“You know just what I like.”
Alice laughed. Then she paused and laughed again.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“While I’ve been sorting through all those memories, I recalled a funny one. I know it was a long time ago, but do you remember how some days we’d travel, and I’d just carry you around and use you as a thermos? Just suck on you every couple of minutes for energy?”
“It’s one of my fondest memories.”
“Don’t say that!” she laughed. “It was so disrespectful. That version of me may never have hurt you, but even she was rude to you.”
“Maybe that turns me on too.”
“Oh really?” she giggled. “Does my little idiot want a blowie?”
“Definitely.”
“Does my little idiot want to taste my sweet lamia pussy?”
“Always.”
“How about these breasts? What does my idiotic husband want to do with these?”
“Everything.”
“Well then let’s do something we don’t do very often. Since I’m using my Ariana personality, it might actually be a fair fight.”
Turning around, she went down on me, at the same time shoving her pussy in my face. I mimicked her magic and went to work. She stopped sucking almost as soon as she had started.
“Oh, my goddess!” she gasped. “That’s so not fair!”
“What?!” I said, muffled by her body. “You have powerful magic! If I don’t do this, I’ll get off five times before you do!”
“It’s so good! I can’t believe how good it is! Luka, lick harder! Harder!”
She still wasn’t sucking me, but that was fine. I was with someone I loved. It didn’t matter what we did together. And making her crazy was one of my favorite things, since I rarely got the opportunity. Alice liked control. She liked dominance.
“That is so weird!” Alice cried.
“What’s weird about it?!” I asked, still muffled as she ground her crotch into my face.
“I remember you doing this so many times, but it feels like the first time! Is it because Ariana never experienced this? I don’t think I ever have! Oh, Luka, faster! Faster! Make me come!”
I didn’t say anything so as not to ruin the mood, but I had experienced the same thing with Sonya when I’d let the other Luke control my conscious mind. I had felt everything he felt, but from his perspective it was so much more intense, and so new.
Alice screamed as I focused on her clitoris. Normally such direct pressure would be too much for a woman, but with me using monster magic it was only the most intense pleasure, with no discomfort whatsoever. Monster magic sure made it easy to be a great lover. Sometimes I wondered why monsters even bothered to get good at sex. The magic did most of the work for them.
When Alice finished coming, she dove down onto my penis, sucking enthusiastically and furiously. There were no special techniques due to Ariana’s unique religious faith, but there didn’t have to be. I felt her cheeks as she sucked violently, as if trying to suck my penis right off. In less than a minute, I sent streams of semen into her mouth. She took my penis out and gulped it down happily.
Alice turned around and mounted me, wasting no time getting my still sensitive penis into her vagina. Her vagina itself did nothing. She had never learned such techniques, not even the most basic ones. She made love like a human woman, moving slowly at first, pleasuring herself as much as me since the magic I’d copied was still in effect. It was boring sex of the best type. It was love and intimacy, not a technical exhibition. She looked into my eyes as she moved, breathing hard, sweating, biting her lip. She ran her hands up and down my chest.
Bending down, she put a breast in my mouth. She started moaning in pleasure from the twin stimulation of my dick and my suckling. I began to feel my own orgasm rise, not so much from the rather pedestrian stimulation(at least by my standards), but from just how hot this all was for me. In a way, I had the best of all worlds. I had a thousand lovers in one.
When my hot cum splashed into her, she began coming as well, her vagina tightening considerably as she pumped harder. When we were both finished, our sweaty bodies just lay against each other, exhausting from the lovemaking and the critical ecstasy.
“Oh, we are so doing that again!” she exclaimed, breahing hard against my chest. “Luka, I say this honestly. No jealousy at all. Every version of me loved that! Request any personality you want in the future!”
Patting my chest, she pushed herself up and got out of bed.
“Leaving already?” I asked. “Sonya said she’d be back in an hour. We still have forty minutes.”
“Sex makes me hungry,” she replied.
“Everything makes you hungry.”
“But especially sex. I’m getting breakfast.”
And then she faceplanted halfway to the door. “Okay,” she said. “Maybe I should wait until the critical ecstasy passes.”

We both waited, cuddled up tightly, for a couple of hours, then headed to the dining room for breakfast. Or more accurately, brunch. The automated maids worked 24/7, providing adequate meals to anyone who came into the dining room at any hours, but Alice and everyone else missed my dinners. It had been awhile. I resolved to make dinner that evening for everyone.
Tamamo seemed to be present around the castle a lot more often. She pulled me aside as I was wandering the castle, stretching my legs. I was obeying Ilias and Sonya’s command to rest, but laying I bed all the time grew uncomfortable. So I would take light walks around the castle when I got tired of laying around. Tamamo found me on one of those walks.
“You’ll be seeing a lot more of me from now on,” Tamamo said as we walked together through the castle halls. “I stayed away because first, I needed to concentrate on the other Tamamo, and also I didn’t want to complicate your life since I knew you were married to another counterpart of mine. But the terrible Tamamo isn’t going to be a problem for awhile and I’ve been told you have reunited with your other wife. So me being here doesn’t really add much to your problems anymore.”
“Really, it never did,” I replied. “But I appreciate your concern. And I’m really glad you’re with us now. Between your power and your mind, you’re a valuable ally.”
“Why thank you!” she giggled. Then she turned serious. “I can’t stop thinking about what she did to you. Even at my worst, I could never have done anything like that.”
“She had her reasons,” I said. “None of them justified what she did, but she had them.”
“How did you beat her?” she asked. “There were no witnesses to that fight other than you and I only saw the very end when you were pummeling her.”
“Are you surprised that I beat her?”
“Not surprised that you beat her, so much as how you were doing it. I wouldn’t have expected a battle between you two to be that… physical. I prefer to attack with magic. Against her, I’d assume that would be your approach as well.”
“I think I just pissed her off so badly that she became savage. She was like a wild animal. I’ve actually never had a battle with you, or any other kitsune, that went that way.”
“She didn’t use any tail offense?”
“None.”
“See, that’s why she lost,” Tamamo giggled. “She didn’t rely on the fluffy. Fluffy tails are everything!”
Now that I’d thought of it, her nine tails had been completely wasted. I would have had no chance to avoid all of them, including her claws and teeth, had she employed them. She’d let her anger get the best of her. That was why she had lost.
“Tamamo, what do you think I should do next?” I asked. “For the past few weeks, I’ve had a n idea of where I was going. I was exploring the Monster and Angel worlds, then I wanted to collect negamite, but that turned out to be a bust. All the Tartaruses have been explored. And now I find out I have only a few weeks to save my home world. What do I do now?”
“The most obvious thing you need to do is kill Black Alice. I know you hate killing, but there’s no other way to end the threat that she poses.”
“Am I really ready for that?”
“No, and you never will be,” Tamamo said. “But you don’t have to face her alone. You have friends. But even we aren’t enough. What you really need are gods. They’ll be lesser gods, but they’ll still be a big help.”
“Sounds like getting Ilias back to her full power would help a lot.”
“Yes, but you also need the Dark God. A second Ilias at full strength wouldn’t hurt either. You might also want to grab your friends from your home world. Especially your wife. You can never have too many fluffy tails on your side!”
“And if we got the Dark God, two Iliases, three Tamamos, and every other powerful ally to face her, would it be enough?”
“Who knows? It’s not as if we know the full extent of her strength. She hasn’t engaged us directly. I know the theories around chaos magic. I just don’t know how much that multiplies her abilities. Presumably, combining holy and dark magic should be worth more than the sum of the parts. But does it triple her power? Quadruple it? Magnify it a thousandfold?”
“I guess we have to solve one problem at a time,” I said. “So how do we convince the Dark God and the other Ilias to work with us? Aren’t they going to be at each other’s throats?”
“I’m certain of it. I was just about to leave with Alma Elma. We need to do a quick run around the world to see what the consequences of your improvised plan are. Merging the three worlds was brilliant, but there’s going to be a lot of fallout. The angels and monsters from that world are used to having the world to themselves. They WILL fight, and humans will be caught in the middle, not to mention the monsters and angels that already lived on this world. Alma Elma and I need to do two things: first, map the new world so that we can teleport around it easily. Right now, we can only teleport line of sight. But most importantly, we need to see how much fighting there is already and where. Then we can decide what crises to deal with first.”
“Great,” I said. “Another war. And all while the world is falling into chaos. Please tell me they won’t be that stupid. Can’t they at least put their differences aside until we beat Black Alice?”
“They aren’t stupid, Luka,” Tamamo admonished. “But they have suddenly been thrown together, and not as two opposing fronts that can disengage if the orders are given to do so. They’re mixed in with each other. And we need to find out exactly how. Your report said that Grangold was a giant prison. Is it a prison now? Or is it whatever it was on Makai? Or is it what it was here? Is it all three? An amalgam? We won’t know until we check it out. But assuming monsters and angels from those opposing worlds are mixed up all over this world, fighting is inevitable. There will be a lot of fear and confusion.”
“And death,” I said regretfully.
“Less than there would have been if you hadn’t done what you did. Don’t start brooding, Luka. You can’t save everyone. But your actions are saving lives. Keep your chin up and you’ll save a lot more! Now go talk to Promestein. Oh, and get Sonya first! Promestein wants to see her as well.”

I found Sonya and together we walked down to the lab. I hadn’t been there in awhile. I had just been too busy. Promestein was always busy, so never really noticed that I hadn’t come to see her as often.
“Luka, I’m glad you’re here!” Promestein said. “Would you mind teleporting me to the Demiurge?”
“Whyyyy?”
“Because we’re going to use it.”
“Use is how?” I asked. “That thing is a murder machine.”
“Yes,” Promestein agreed. “But it is a technologicall advanced murder machine.”
“I think the murder machine is the more significant part of that.”
“What if I told you we could make it do more than murder?” Promestein asked. “You managed to make it do more than that.”
“Are you suggesting I get hooked up in that thing again?”
“No, no, of course not. That must be avoided at all costs! They could have killed you! And not the kind of death you come back from!”
“What do you mean?”
“So you know how you’re power is you, not just something you have?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’ve never understood it well, but I know that.”
“Well, the way they were drawing it out of you, from my early inspection of the weapon earlier today, they were actually tearing apart your soul. You could have died. A real death. No merging with another Luka somewhere else. No afterlife, even.”
“I wonder if that’s why the weapon wasn’t working until she tried to trick me into putting more of my power into it. I wonder if I was unconsciously resisting it.”
“It’s an interesting possibility,” Promestein said. “But our top priority is to appropriate that weapon and turn it to our own purposes.”
“Like what?” I asked skeptically.
“I… don’t actually know yet,” she admitted. “But given what a marvel it is, I’m sure I can think of something. At the very least, that place is a gold mine of data. The experiments on chaos done at that facility alone may advance my work by leaps and bounds.”
“You mean the experiments done on angels.”
“Yes, those. Since you won’t let me do experiments of that nature…”
“You mean since I won’t let you do inhuman experiments on unwilling subjects?”
“Exactly. But the work has already been done!” she said excitedly. “A whole horde of kitsunes are already combing through the Demiurge and bringing anything that looks valuable on paper back to my lab! It’s too bad you wrecked so much of the server room. A lot of the data is probably stored electronically.”
“Actually, I might be able to help with that if we can get power over there.”
“It’s not really necessary,” she said, waving me off. “You have more important tasks ahead of you. The kitsunes are doing just fine licking all the disks.”
“Of course they are,” I sighed. “Speaking of power, isn’t that thing totaled? Even if you employed every kitsune on Hellgondo, they’d never get that thing rebuilt in time to do any good.”
“I have no intention of using the entire Demiurge. It was built as it was to be a kind of subspace battle station. I’m not sure what I want to use it for, but I can imagine several applications that don’t involve moving it from where it is now.”
“Isn’t there a risk that they’ll try to take it back?” I asked. “If there’s valuable intelligence there, they’ll either want to take it back or destroy it.”
“Tamamo judged the risk worth taking. With the Demiurge ruined, it’s not a high reward objective for anyone. It’s also not clear that they would attack it, per se. They haven’t declared war on us. Their enemy is the angels. So we’ve been ordered by Tamamo to surrender it immediately if any Ancestors come to claim it. Unless of course I get it operational again, in which case it becomes an objective to be defended at all costs.”
“I see. Okay, let’s go then.”
“Why do you want me along?” Sonya asked.
“You’ll see,” Promestein answered, smiling. “It’s a surprise.”
“Wait, before we go,” I said. “What about Tamamo? The bad one? Is she still there?”
“She teleported out when she was strong enough. We locked her in a storage room. Fufufu. When the kitsunes went to go feed her, the door was still locked but she was gone.”
The woman was crazy, I thought. Teleporting from a storage closet out into a world she had no familiarity with was a great way to get killed. I half expected that she was buried alive in the middle of a mountain. I didn’t expect getting rid of her to be that easy, however. Like a bad penny, I was sure she’d keep turning up.
I sighed and teleported Promestein and Sonya into the main battle chamber, or at least what I assumed was the battle chamber. It was where I’d been held and where I’d powered the weapon. The place was as messed up as when I left it. Some things had been removed from the room, but no attempt at repairs had been made. The window that provided visibility to the outsidewas still broken and a large amount of soil had poured in.
I realized that on this world so far, this was the only place I knew to teleport to, because it and the castle were the only places I’d actually been. Well, I had to start somewhere.
Promestein opened a drawer and pulled out two thick binders that looked like they weighed a ton. Since Promestein was an angel and much stronger than she looked, they posed no problem for her. When she handed them to Sonya, Sonya nearly dropped them.
“That’s your surprise,” Promestein said happily.
“These are… technical manuals,” Sonya said.” I guess it counts as a surprise. Not a very pleasant one. Why are you giving me these?”
“To read!” Promestein exclaimed. “I’ve already browsed them briefly. They make for incredibly engrossing reading. But unfortunately I don’t have time to read them as carefully as I’d like.”
“And why do you want me to do that? I won’t understand any of this.”
“I think that you will. My older counterpart said that you’re a genius. You may lack formal education beyond what Iliasville can provide, but I suspect that you will understand those manuals a lot better than you think. Read them, and memorize as much as you can. I want you to be my assistant and my handy reference when I have a question.”
“Well…. All right,” Sonya said uncertainly. “I don’t feel that smart.”
“When you’re done with those, I have more for you.”
“More?! How many more?!”
“Those are just for operating this room,” Promestein replied. “Every room in this facility has two to four manuals.”
“Luka?” Sonya asked. “Are you sure there are no battles I need to risk my life in right now?”
“I have to admit Promestein is right,” I said, giving Sonya my most sympathetic look. “As of this moment, we have no battles to fight. So this is how you can do the most good.”
“But your healing isn’t complete!”
“Ilias can handle my healing, Sonya.”
“Sonya, in all seriousness,” Promestein said, putting her hand on Sonya’s shoulder. “If you’re as smart as my counterpart thinks, your boredom will turn into fascination in no time. So I’ll make a deal with you. Read the first ten pages of either manual. If you don’t understand any of it, you’re relieved of this duty. I can enlist Nanabi for that duty. I give it to you because I think you’ll be better at it, and because I think you’ll love it. And for selfish purposes, I’d love someone to talk to who can understand all my jargon.”
“O-Okay,” Sonya replied. “I’ll do my best.”

I returned to the castle, leaving Promestein and Sonya and who knew how many kitsunes to their work. As always, I returned to the foyer. In contrast to my return from Angel World, when nearly everyone had left for the MS Fish, the foyer of the castle was in its usual busy state. The imps and Pochi were playing together, the imps throwing a ball, trying to play keep away. Pochi never seemed to get frustrated no matter how futile her chasing of the ball was. Mary, to my disappointment, was smoking outside the open gate. I thought she’d quit? Eva was with her, also smoking. Sigh.
Kitsu, Fumi, and Kimuro were talking animatedly just around the corner. It was good to see that Fumi was making friends among her people. She’d been so lonely and desperate, but she was bouncing back quickly. And looking better and better. It looked as if Kitsu had given her a bit of a makeover, grooming her hair and shaving some of the fur off of Fumi’s body, more consistent with the style preferred by Yamatai kitsunes. Kitsunes were naturally hairier than they often appeared. The Hellgondo kitsunes especially tended to go au natural, with fur covering all but their face and breasts. Yamatai kitsunes, by contrast, and probably because of the preferences of Yamatai males, shaved most of their body hair, leaving mainly the hair on their heads and their fluffy tails. Tamamo had adopted this style herself at some point in her life. Nanabi, on the other hand, was proud of her bestial form.
It was wonderful to see everyone so at ease despite the crisis. The castle monsters had been less involved in daily missions than our core group, but they were not unaware of the danger, and always stood ready to serve. Every single one had been willing to put themselves at risk for me. I was proud to have them as my companions, even the weakest ones, the imps.
A commotion at the gate caused me to turn my head. Alice quickly slithered into the foyer, probably summoned by a telepathic message. She could to that again with her Heavenly Knights now that she was back at her full power. The Knight she had probably communed with was Granberia, who staggered into the Pocket Castle looking like hell. But at least she was conscious and on her feet. The lamia that she was carrying, unconscious and wrapped around her powerful body, looked almost dead.
It was Alice’s mother.
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