Gavin stumbled his way through the streets and towards his house as fast as he could. He had been starting to get drunk, but could feel himself sobering up remarkably quickly; his children were in danger, and he had to get there. He couldn’t let what happened to Mia and Lia happen to anyone else. The girl who had warned him that there was an intruder had left to get the guards, he just needed to get himself home before this intruder got to his kids.
After what seemed like an agonizingly long time, he reached his home, a hand resting on his sword. Of all the nights for his home to be attacked, it had to be one where he was away. Quietly as he could, he opened the door, listening for any signs of the intruder. There…was no sound, not even of footsteps.
He edged in, but stumbled over a stray shoe, and nearly fell over, but made a loud thud nonetheless, his foot landing hard on the wooden floor.
“Hello, papa.” A voice said. Gavin’s blood ran cold as he turned to face the voice. It…it couldn’t be her, that was just impossible!
And yet, as if to laugh in the face of that impossibility, a perfect recreation of his oldest daughter was there, smiling at him. “Please sit, we have much to discuss.”
Gavin closed his hand around his sword, drawing it from its sheath and rushing towards the phantom. He wasn’t about to give this thing wearing his daughter’s face the time of day. Suddenly, strength left his arms, and he couldn’t so much as maintain his grip on the sword. It tumbled to the floor, all the while the monster kept that warm smile on its face.
“Papa, you shouldn’t use weapons when you’re drunk.” It said. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“You’re not my daughter.” Gavin growled. “You’re just some…some thing wearing her face. I’m not going to talk with some faker!”
“I know it must seem this way, but I really am your daughter!” The thing said. “Amelia is a Hero, and she brought me back to life! We have mom, too, so we can all be a family again!”
Gavin froze, once again recalling that his kids were somewhere here. “Where are they?!” He snarled. “Tell me now!”
“They’re safe and sound with Amelia.” The monster said. “Please, calm down, I don’t want you to get hurt, but if you keep acting like this, I’m afraid you’re going to step on your sword or something.”
“Calm down?! You have my children, and I’m supposed to calm down?!” Though his arms remained useless, he continued on his path towards the thing. He still had control of his legs and head, and he’d bite the thing to death if he had to. He wasn’t about to let another tragedy strike his family.
The thing sighed. “I…look, I’ll give you one chance to come with me willingly, and if you say no, I’m going to have to take you by force. I know you’re going to say no, but I…thought I should give the offer, first.”
“No.” Gavin spat. “I’m not going to give in to threats, not when my kids are on the line!”
The thing sighed again. “An admirable mindset, but it does make things harder. Sorry, papa. We’re going to have to do this the hard way.”
“What do you…” Gavin trailed off. He was suddenly…so…sleepy…
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“What…what’s going to happen now?” Maria asked. She was scared, so scared, but…she couldn’t show it, not to Olivia. She had to be strong, for her sake, if nothing else.
“Now, we go back to the dungeon that I’m calling home.” The thing claiming to be Lia said. “It’s a recreation of my school, and we’ve got one of the dorm buildings cleared out. We’re going to be living there for the next while.”
“You…said you were going to make us like you?” Olivia asked. “And…you said you were Queen, right? Does that make us…”
“Princesses?” The thing finished, giggling. “If you want to be, sure!”
“We’re…are we going to be humanoid, still?” Maria asked quietly.
“Yup. I’m a special case, all the other people here are humanoid.”
“Other people?” Maria asked. “Who?”
The thing chuckled. “Well, mom, for one. But…trust me, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you who the others are right now. There are…” the thing paused, counting quietly to herself, “four others, not including mom. Rose, Chrys, Lily, and Violet. Oh, and one more that’s in the process of converting. It’s a long story, but I’ll tell it to you later.”
“And…we’re going to be monsters.” Maria said.
“Kind of yes, kind of no.” The thing replied. “It’s this really weird gray area. You’re not going to have a Job anymore, you’re going to just…pick up Skills by doing things. And you can evolve and change your race, which takes a little getting used to, but it’s honestly better than Jobs.
“Oh, speaking of, do you have any requests? When I’m first doing the conversion process, I can tweak things somewhat by adding stuff to it. For example, I can make a human into a ratkin by adding a rat, and I can make something better with magic by adding a staff, or good with swords by adding a sword…that sort of a thing. Basically, if you want to be good at one thing, or even want to change from a foxkin to something totally different, I can do that for you.”
“I want to be a princess knight, like in the books!” Olivia said excitedly. “I wanna be strong and cool like that!”
The thing chuckled, stroking Olivia’s hair gently. “Sure.” It said. “Amelia, can you get some actual knight’s armor and weapons?”
“Yeah, I can handle that no sweat, I’ll send it with you when I send you back.” Amelia said. “Let me know anything else you want with the conversion, I can do it.”
“Thanks, Amelia. Maria, what about you? I know you’ve always wanted to be better with magic, I can arrange that.”
“I…I’m fine.” Maria said. She still didn’t trust this thing, but didn’t want to make it mad, especially now that she was so far away from the safety of the town.
The thing frowned. “Alright. I’m going to put you two to sleep until the process is done. I know it’s scary, but…when you wake up, we’ll be a family again, alright?”
“Wait, I–” Maria opened her mouth to protest, but a wave of sleepiness washed over her, and a moment later she was out.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
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“Amelia, get some good mage’s gear.” Lia said. “I know Maria said she didn’t want it, but that’s because she doesn’t trust me. I could see the desire in her eyes when I mentioned it.”
“I figured as much.” Amelia said. “What are you going to do about Robin and your dad?”
“Robin always wanted to protect all of us, so…shields, and armor, maybe? And papa…well, a bunch of nice weapons should do it for him. We’ll just make him better at what he already does.”
“God it. Any other requests before I fetch that?”
“Um…is there any way you can remove the whole…absolute loyalty to me thing? I want them as…close to their normal state of mind as possible.”
Amelia frowned. “Not…really.” She said. “I kind of baked that into the system. But what I can do is put a block on them that will prevent them from seeing you as the queen. They’ll still be completely loyal to you, but you’ll just be their sister or daughter, like you always have been. It’ll have to be done after their conversion is finished, but that means I can also do it for your mom, too, if you’d like.”
“Yes, please.” Lia said. “I’d like that very much.”
“Your wish is my command.” Amelia said. “I’ve procured the items you asked for, shall I send you back to the dungeon?”
“Already?” Lia asked. “How? When?”
“A lady has her secrets.” Amelia said, putting a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. “I’ll be back down to check up on them after their conversions finish, and then I’m going to get a two-way portal working between the dungeon and the place I wanted to send you all, and after that we’ll have you convert me, alright?”
“That…sounds good to me.” Lia said. “Thanks, Amelia.”
“Of course. Everything I do is for you, after all.” Amelia replied. She gave a small bow, and then Lia found herself and her family back in the dungeon, in the encampment in the market. A moment later, a pile of stuff fell to the ground, clinking and crashing as the various weapons, pieces of armor, and other things Amelia had sent over fell into place.
Another few moments after that, and Rose was there. “What’s going on – oh, Lia!” Rose rushed over to Lia. “Is this your family?”
“Yep! And the stuff there is stuff we’re going to convert with them. I want to help fit them into the roles they always wanted, so I asked Amelia to get some stuff for me.”
“What’s going on?!” Mia yelled rushing into the clearing. She froze as she caught sight of the people on the ground, then fell to her knees. “They…it’s them.” She whispered. “They’re really here.”
“Yup. I’m going to convert them, and we’re going to be a family again.” Lia said, walking over to Mia. “Do you…remember their names?”
“The…my husband, he’s…Gavin. The girls…the older one’s…Maria, and the younger is…Olivia, I think. And the boy, that’s…Robin, right?”
“Got it in one.” Lia said. “Maria should be fifteen now, Robin’s thirteen, and Olivia’s nine. They’ve grown since you last saw them, but…now you’re back. You can be there while they grow up the rest of the way.”
“That…I look forward to it.” Mia said. “I see we have some stuff near them, is that going to be used in their conversions?”
“Yeah. Olivia wants to be a princess knight, Maria’s going to be a good mage, Robin always wanted to protect all of us, so I’m giving him shields and armor, and dad…well, he was always good with weapons, so I’m giving him a bunch of them and hoping he gets something that really highlights that.”
“Are…we going to convert them now?”
“I don’t see why not.” Lia said. “We’ll get the process started, and we can carry them over to the dorms while it’s going. Oh, and speaking of the dorms, I’d like to start officially moving everything into the dorms and making them our main base of operations. I’ve had just about enough of living outside.”
“I’ll go grab Lily, then.” Rose said. “You two handle your family.”
“Thanks, Rose.” Lia said. “Mom, would you cocoon them while I sort through this stuff?”
“Of course.” Mia said, moving over to the pile of sleeping people and carefully separating them.
While she worked, Lia worked on sorting the pile of stuff Amelia had brought. Fortunately, they had each been helpfully labeled with which family member they were for, so it didn’t take long at all to group them into piles.
For Olivia, there was a sturdy looking set of knight’s armor and a sword, as well as a poufy blue dress and a tiara that seemed to be inlaid with gemstones. For Maria, Amelia had provided a set of robes and a staff, as well as a few gemstones that Lia wasn’t…totally sure the purpose of, but Amelia had always been better with magic than her, so she trusted her judgement.
For Robin, there was a set of shimmering armor, a tower shield, and some sort of…mace that was inlaid with all sorts of runes. And, finally, for her dad, there was almost every weapon Lia could think of, all of exceedingly high quality.
Once the piles had been sorted out, Lia cocooned them and looked over to her mother, who was waiting patiently next to four other cocoons. They combined the cocoons containing the people with their respective sets of gear, and then Lia began to look through the available options.
She decided to start with Olivia and work her way up. There were a fair few options, but the only one that really mattered was towards the bottom.
Lesser Swarm Princess Knight (Foxkin):
The Swarm Princess Knight is a race that is not dissimilar to the Swarm Battlemaster; it allows for wide ranges of conversion options when converting other creatures while having not insignificant combat capability. Furthermore, the Swarm Princess Knight has capabilities to buff those fighting alongside her, greatly strengthening any force she is a part of.
Seeing as how that was exactly what Olivia wanted, she got Olivia converting and moved on to Robin. There were a few interesting options, but she eventually narrowed it down to one.
Swarm Protector (Foxkin):
The Swarm Protector is a race that boasts superior physical and magical defense. To add to this, it obtains abilities that allow it to shield its allies, and even reflect damage to opponents or heal itself, making the Swarm Protector an ideal choice for any prolonged engagement.
With that out of the way, she took a look at Maria’s options. There were a multitude of magic based options, but one stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Swarm Archmage (Foxkin):
The Swarm Archmage functions near identically to the Archmage Job, providing large boosts to magic and access to all basic types of magic. Furthermore, like the Archmage Job, the Swarm Archmage is capable of learning additional types of magic and adding them to its repertoire, as well as combining known types of magic to use advanced types of magic it normally couldn’t.
Which only left her father. There were quite a few different options, most of which were things like “swordswoman” or “spearwoman” or similar, but Lia ignored those. It took her some time to decide between her different options, but after a couple of minutes she was able to decide on one.
Swarm Battle Master (Foxkin):
The Swarm Battle Master is a race that is proficient with all kinds of weaponry. With the ability to intuitively grasp an effective way of using anything as a weapon, and bonuses to combat of all kinds, they are a force to be reckoned with, even in the absence of a traditional weapon.
“Alright, they’re converting.” Lia said. “Mom, will you please help me take them to the dorm? We’ll get them set up in the lobby for now, and when they finish converting, they can pick their room.”
“Of course.” Mia said, bending down and picking up the two larger cocoons. “How are we going to get the other two over?”
“I’m going to call over some foot soldiers and have them carry them.” Lia replied. “Are you sure you don’t want me to get a foot soldier to carry one of those for you?”
“I can handle two no sweat, it’s a benefit of having four arms.” Mia said. “And I’d prefer to be the one carrying them, it just feels…like I have more control of their safety, you know?”
Lia nodded. “Yeah. If would rather, we can leave the other two here for now, and you can come back and pick them up yourself. I’d watch over the ones in the dorm while you went and got the ones here, so they wouldn’t be left unattended ever.”
Mia took a moment to think that through. “Yeah, let’s do that.” She said. “Thanks.”
“Oh, and just so you know, once they’ve converted, Amelia’s gonna be stopping by. She’s gonna help tone down the mental changes to them and you, so you guys don’t see me as Queen, but just as…you know, family again.”
“I…I see.” Mia said. “That will be…nice. I admit it has been…harder than I thought to not call you Queen.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about it after this.” Lia said. “So…are you ready to get going?”
Mia nodded. “Yes, let’s be on our way.”