Apparently, I ran pretty damn far since we were now halfway back to the main road. It would certainly explain why my legs felt like death. Bea took my shift on watch while I passed out for twelve hours. There was no sign the undead were getting closer, but they were always looming in the corner of my mind.

We really needed to get back soon. It would take time to mobilize enough people to handle that disaster, and I had a sinking feeling that the village we had been going towards was dead. If a necromancer was among them, this had the potential to snowball into a calamity.

When I woke up from my much needed rest, my legs politely reminded me that they hated me for yesterday and screamed in pain the whole day.

I also made sure to talk to Bea about yesterday once we got back on the road.

“Sorry about having Corb throw you at me like luggage. I know you are very particular about your private space. However, I felt like there weren’t any other options, and I couldn’t waste time arguing. I don’t regret doing it, but I don’t like making you feel bad.”

She shook her hands at me.

No, I understand! Please don’t apologize. You both saved my life. I’m sorry I ended up being a burden again.

“Are you kidding? If you were cool with it I’d be hugging you right now! Your magic is the reason Corby is alive right now. You saved our asses there.”

Bea kept blushing.

We kept a brisk pace on our way back. Fortunately, we had just killed most of the monsters near this path. Ideally, we wouldn’t have hit any trouble on the way back given how urgent our message was.

We weren’t that lucky.

A group of humans walked towards us as we got on the main road . There were six of them; they didn’t have interesting haircuts, so I just mentally labeled them Weirdos 1-6. Their body language screamed hostile, hands at their weapons and clearly tensed. Weirdo 5 had a bow and arrow.

That’s where I go first. I can’t focus on Bea. I’m not equipped to defend; I’ll leave that to Corby.

“Hello, travelers,” Weirdo 2 started.

Seems like he’s the leader. Upgraded to Weirdo 1 then.

He looked malnourished. Hell, all of them did.

Weirdo 1 asked, “What are you folks doing on this road?”

“Just on a job. Adventurers.” Corby pointed at his badge as we talked.

“Why would anyone hire you creatures when citizens like us need work?” Weirdo 4 chimed in, not bothering to hide his disdain

“You adventurers, too?” I asked.

Weirdo 3 spit. “No we ain’t some bum fuck ‘adventurers.’ We were soldiers! But they said they didn’t have the money anymore. So they just gave us the boot. No warning, no compassion for years of service, no nothing!”

Weirdo 3 was drunk. This did not bode well for peaceful negotiation.

“That’s unfortunate. But I’m afraid we need to get going,” Corby said.

“But won’t such kind and selfless adventurers give us some food and coin? We are ever so hungry,” Weirdo 1.

“I’m afraid we can’t help you there. We’ve been scavenging our food and are fairly broke ourselves. Best of luck, but we’ll be on our way.” Corby tried to take steps backwards.

“Now, is that any way of treating people who protected the kingdom for so many years?” Weirdo 1 had a creepy grin on his face.

I got tired of beating around the bush. I stepped forward a bit, and Corby followed suit. I got them within range of my aura. “You guys hate us and plan to just attack us regardless of what we do or say, right?”

Weirdo 1 calmly said, “Of course, you filthy beasts.” He blinked, confused as to how those words escaped his mouth.

I don’t give them time to think about it. I leapt at Weirdo 5. She had enough time to dodge my first attack as I kicked out in the air, but failed to dodge the follow up as I sweeped her legs. I stomped my foot down and slit her throat.

The other Weirdos began to react; Weirdo 4 tried to take my head off with an axe. I ducked and tried to sweep his leg as well, but was not strong enough. He buckled, but didn’t fall. He swiped up at me, and I tried to roll out of the way. He sliced along one of my arm nubs.

Not like I was using it anyway, but still. Ow.

I yelled at him. “My friend’s axe is bigger than yours.” He didn’t seem bothered by the insult, but the magic behind it threw him off a little. I was able to land a kick into his gut, bringing him to his knees as he tried to shake off the head fog.. I lined him up and punted his head, jamming the knife in deep.

I guess the insult thing is useful, but making them puke is pretty much always better. Wait, shit. Focus!

I looked around and got my bearings. Weirdo 3 was dead in a pool of blood. Weirdos 2 and 6 were fighting Corby, pressuring him back. Weirdo 1 was chasing Bea.

Fuck.

I started to sprint towards Bea and her attacker. Bea had fallen over, and it became clear that Weirdo 1 wasn’t just intending to kill her.

Oh I won’t even lose sleep about killing this one.

I was about to leap at him when he caught fire. Bea rolled out from under him and continued roasting the man, crying silently. Weirdo 1 on the other hand was not silent; in fact, he was screaming his lungs out. I cared less about that. He might have been crying, too, but I couldn’t really tell with all the fire.

Check on her later. Help Corby.

I skidded to a halt and headed towards Corb and the remaining Weirdos. He was looking banged up, but nothing too bad. I opted to slide into Weirdo 2’s leg.

I really like taking people out by the legs. It works so well. Huh, is that a finger?

I slid past the detached digit and rammed into Weirdo 2. He collapsed, and Corby took the chance to remove his head.

Head removal does seem more effective, but still not as fun as chopping legs.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

We both started pressuring Weirdo 6. He was blocking Corby’s strikes, but couldn’t do that and keep my attacks completely at bay at the same time. I cut and sliced him a dozen times before Corby finally got a clean hit and killed him.

I surveyed the scene to double check. All enemies were dead and Corby wasn’t in immediate danger. Bea was…not great, but not physically harmed. I gave Corby a heal to fix up his minor injuries before hurrying over to Bea as Corby started to inspect bodies.

Bea was still on the ground. Before I could get too close, I was stopped by a wall of fire, followed by some flaming words.

Please don’t get any closer right now.

“Alright. But can I stay here with you?”

There was a pause before the word formed in front of me. Ok.

“Ok. Do you want to talk about it, do you want a distraction, or do you want silence?”

Another pause. A distraction for now.

“Okay. One distraction coming up.” I didn’t think anything I could say would take her mind off what just happened. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just started singing.

At first, it was just pleasant noise. My mind kept drifting back to yesterday and the attack at Laketown. Before I realized it, I had started singing about my siblings.

“I miss you, my darling siblings.

I miss catching you stealing thirds,

I miss your sneaky merchant dealings,

I miss us spitting at the sight of stupid birds.

I swear I’ll find you one day, Allie.

Thank you for being such a great sister.

I try to be the big sister that you were for me,

But it’s not the original; no one could replace her."

I missed them all so much. I sang about how Bellum would compete to wake up earlier than me to see who would make breakfast. About how Milly would climb on top of me even when she was taller than me. About how Allie’s face would light up whenever she made us happy. I really fucking missed her. I’d only had her around a few months spread out over years before she disappeared. Now she had been gone for over ten years, and it hurt so much.

When I stopped, I realized that my mana had tanked out. Corby was sitting next to me quietly and Bea had stopped crying.

“Ah, sorry, was that too much? I think I may have started airing my grief instead of distracting you from yours.” I went to scratch my head in embarrassment.

Damn arm nubs.

No. That was beautiful. Thank you.

“I’ll never get tired of listening to you sing. It’s late, though. Let’s move away from here and set up camp, yeah?” Corbin said.

I looked over at Bea, who weakly nodded.

We set up camp not long after, and we ate some of our spare rations. I healed Corbin and I up after my mana refilled, and we both made sure to keep a respectful distance from Bea. However, I made sure to always be hovering right at the edge of Bea’s personal space bubble for when she was ready to talk. Corby had the same idea as me, so I nuzzled into him while we waited.

Eventually, Bea started casting again. Sorry for freaking out earlier. I’m mortified that I was a burden on both of you again today.

“It’s no problem, Beakim,” Corby said. “We also struggled the first time we killed a person.”

It wasn’t my first.

Oh.

We let that hang there for a bit, and she started casting again.

One of the problems of my blessing is that when some people are affected, they get aggressive.

Ohhhhhhh. Shit.

I know my goddess doesn’t have ill intentions, but this blessing has been a heavy burden. Demons handled the aura well enough. After I left Dulva, humans and other species started to become a lot more aggressive. Even the ones that hate all other species still recognize a succubus when they see one.

Huh. She’s a succubus? …What is that?

I was so scared for so long. I had joined a party soon after I left home–two brothers and the oldest’s girlfriend. They were all very sweet, and they covered for me a lot. Bea looked happy for a moment, lost in a memory. But then she came crashing back down

But the aura started to affect the brothers. They started to compete for my attention, and sometimes it got violent. Zac paid less and less attention to his girlfriend. He even stopped covering her to check on me, and she got really injured. The girlfriend blamed me for ruining the party and stealing her man. She tried to attack me. Bea stiffened, struggling to continue.

The younger brother killed her as she was beating me. Then he came after me, demanding to be rewarded. He wouldn’t stop.

Bea was crying. The words got shakier and shakier.

I can still remember the smell of his flesh as I burned it. I ran away after that.

Bea shuddered.

Soon after, the professor found me at a library. My aura didn’t affect him, and he let me stay with him and study. He even helped explain my circumstances to the Guild.

“So the reason you want us to keep our distance is to stay out of your aura’s range?” Corby asked.

Yes. You have both been very kind to me, but I’m afraid that I’m just manipulating you just by being around you, and I’ll ruin your relationship. I don’t mean to!

“Well we’re both outside your bubble, and I can safely say I still think you’re incredibly talented and silly and so very cute. Corby would be dead without your help, and I can never thank you enough for that. You’re also hot, but that’s just an added bonus to an already amazing person,” I said.

“I have to agree with Nym on this one. You’re a brilliant mage and researcher. And I love talking about books with you, even if you somehow think Galo is a better match for Pablar than Mello.” Corbin gave her a reassuring smile.

I’m pretty sure I’ve sung that story before, and I still can’t remember who the hell they’re talking about.

Bea’s tail wagged a little.

I just don’t want to get in your way. You two are so amazing together, and my mere presence messes with all that and I hate it.

“Bea, listen. Even if we do end up attracted to you, and that’s not saying we will be, there’s nothing saying we can only be attracted to one person. Besides, don’t worry about horniness being a factor. This doofus has been bathing me for months without doing anything. I think his Willpower has bumped like five times from that alone since we started.”

Corbin was staring intently at the floor.

Stubborn, dumb cutie.

“And my Best Stat is high enough to resist whatever the fuck that freakish undead thing was, so I’m confident I can handle a case of the hornies. So at least until we get back to your professor, we are still your party. No need to keep yourself at aura’s length, but we’ll respect your wishes either way. A party has to accept one another for who they are.”

Bea nodded.

“And in case you need the obvious spelled out, we’d be happy if you decide to keep journeying with us after we’re done with this case.”

Bea looked up, more tears welling up in her eyes.

“Apparently the obvious did need to be stated,” Corby said, chuckling.

Bea looked super nervous. She took a deep breath and cast again. In that case, could I have a hug? She gave such an adorable, pleading face.

So. Dang. Precious!

We both got up and glomped her. We spent the night in a cuddle puddle, rotating out for watch shifts.