[Zalgnity POV]
"My God, this girl is going to be a danger." Sirius said, causing Sylvia and I to laugh a little at the situation.
We were inside the main observation room in the mind realm, just watching what my successor was doing, as usual. We had turned off voice communication, so we could say whatever we wanted without him hearing us.
I was behind a makeshift bar that had a few drinks for me, Sylvia was sitting in a bar chair next to me, while Sirius was lying relaxed in a comfortable armchair. In my hand I had a glass completely filled with a mixture of vodka, blood and wine. Sylvia was drinking a slightly sweet fruit juice, with no alcohol in her drink.
The situation we were seeing was Luz being with that girl, Kathyln. I started to feel sorry for him, because I knew very well how this situation could end, and it wouldn't be a good thing.
"I thought she was cute, I wish them both luck." She said with a slight laugh and then looked back in my direction. "Zalgnity, that drink you made for me this time is amazing! What fruit is that?"
"Hm... I think the correct name of this fruit is Wumpa. It's amazing to eat a cream of this mixed with milk. Maybe I'll make it for you later." I said fixing my uniform.
"Of course, I'd love to~" She said with a sharp look in my direction. Those purple eyes, analyzing me, while she had a sweet, playful smile.
"Hey! I would like something like that too! Oh wait, your food is awful!" Sirius commented on our conversation and I took a deep breath, firmly taking one of the bottles of vodka.
"Zalgy..." Sylvia said, still smiling and taking a good look at my hand holding the bottle.
"Heh, it's just that I still find it annoying that this brat over there keeps saying such things just because of that day..." I put the bottle back on the table.
"Well, don't fret, that was my fault." She gave a light laugh that actually seemed to calm me down a bit.
This event that happened was one involving me cooking for the two of them. But because I was paying more attention to the conversation with Sylvia instead of the kitchen, I ended up burning the food to the point of almost turning to coal. The worst part was that the food I was making actually had a dark hue naturally, so we only noticed how burnt it was when we tasted it. I still remember this little brat spitting in my face after the first bite of his plate, while Sylvia, who had barely started to eat, started laughing non-stop.
"Fuck... That was hell." I said picking up my glass and gulping all my drink down, starting to refill it for me. Using a bottle of vodka and wine for this, the blood used was inside a bag in a little fridge nearby.
Wait, there was a small detail in this situation. Since Sylvia entered this castle, she barely saw any traces of technology, it was something that Luz asked to hide from her, after all she was from a medieval world, showing her advanced things could scare her.
But it all went downhill from there when those damn Velvet Residents decided to introduce these concepts to my adorable and beautiful lady dragon. Why did I let them talk to each other!?! Anyway, Sylvia was pretty curious about these things, but I asked her never to ask too much, unless I talked about it myself.
And why am I mentioning these things? Because at the exact moment I took the blood bag out of the fridge, the dragon was staring at the device for a while and then she had a calm and innocent expression as if she hadn't been doing anything, going back to drinking that juice of hers.
"Sylvia... I already told you, this is a device that sucks heat and leaves the internal environment cold to preserve food. It's the same thing as some of your spells..." I said, putting some of the blood in my cup.
"I know, but it still amazes me that there are ways to make things cold without using mana or ice itself." she said as she watched me filling my glass.
I started to take a few sips, and when I noticed her gaze at the time, I giggled slightly. "Do you want some?" I offered my glass, and she simply took it, took a small sip, and then set it on the table, pushing the drink away from her, like what normally I would see in a cartoon when a child tries to drink something that couldn't.
"How do you manage to drink something like that?..." She asked, shocked and seeming to fill her mouth with Wumpa juice, to take away the taste of blood with wine and vodka.
"It must be because I'm super used to it. And because all the offerings I received in my churches were just these three drinks... Of course, the blood was from sacrifices... I wanted so much that they just took the blood out of the body to put it in a container. I kind of hate remembering when dead bodies showed up in my office just because there was such an offering." I commented taking a long swig from my glass, already leaving it half full.
Sylvia got up and walked to the other side of the counter, getting much closer to me. From inside the glass shelf, she took another bottle of Wumpa juice and set it on the counter, filling her glass. While she was doing this, I was studying her body.
She was always wearing a beautiful black dress with white details that went down to her knees. She always walked barefoot and had a golden accessory in her loose straight hair. Even though I wasn't glued to her, I could smell her just by breathing in close, it was something that reminded me of the scent of vanilla mixed with some citrus fruit and red spider lilies.
"This offering thing must be irritating sometimes." She commented on what I said earlier and sat in a chair next to me this time.
"It really depends. That's why some gods stay in a weak humanoid form to interact with their own cults and then make them give specific offerings." I took a few sips from my glass.
"And why didn't you?... So you asked your cult to stop sacrificing whole bodies."
"This is very tiring, and my humanoid form has a slight passive effect that makes my surroundings corrupt." I scratched my cheek a little.
"Is that why the Luz's environment is different when he uses your power?" she asked and I nodded silently.
"Hm.... I thought of something so we can change our routine a little. How about we go out to see the city today? Of course, if you two want to." I spoke out loud and clear for Sirius to hear too.
"I'd like to, but we'd have to leave someone here in case Luz got into trouble, wouldn't we?" Sylvia commented.
"I think I can be alone here for good." Sirius said, walking over to us and getting some fruit juice to drink.
"Really? Last time we went out, you were the one who stayed here. Would you like to do this again?" the dragon asked, while patting Sirius' head.
"Yes. Why not? And I know very well that you would like to see more of the outside this castle. I, on the other hand, am okay with being here." the younger Vritra said while he was drinking his juice.
"If you say so... Okay. So let's go." I got up from my chair and walked to the main room door while Sylvia followed me.
Opening the door, I saw that semi-transparent protection, it existed so that beings without Luz's permission, could not enter the room. I crossed with Sylvia and we started walking through the castle's corridors. We saw some of the employees of the place along the way, Sylvia always seemed to greet them, while I ignored them, after all, for me they were just employees, between me and Luz, only he who treated them with respect.
Leaving the castle, we can see small portals around, they served to allow us to reach places in the Mind Realm faster. I gave a little sigh, already deciding where to take my guest. I took her hand gently and led her through a portal that had "Downtown" written above it.
As expected, we were now in the most populated area of the great city that existed around the castle. Why decide to take her here? There were a few interesting shops she might like in addition to a theater near the portal. I didn't know which piece they would have today, but being surprised is always a good thing in my opinion.
But what was not surprising, was when some people walking around noticed my presence. Immediately some bowed and others knelt, this made me give a little cough to get more attention from everyone there.
"No need to do that folks. I'm just here to visit and show the place to a 'newbie essence'. So please act normally." When I said that, everyone stood up, apologizing and seemed to return to their routines.
"People immediately show respect when they see you. How interesting." Sylvia started to look around as I led her through the streets.
"Well, I'm literally a god, even though actually the 'god' of this dimension is Luz, it's because I'm next to him that this whole place exists. So we could say that they respect me for being the 'co-founder' here." I made the comment as we walked down a street full of fancy shops.
"Sometimes I even forget that I'm in a dimension created to be the home of disembodied souls." she commented as she looked into a jewelry store window.
"To make things more comfortable, we created our own currency, planting areas, dungeon-like areas, and things like that. So that everyone can live as if this were a common world." I said as I watched her face. "Want some jewelry?"
"H-hm? Oh... Could be. So far the only things I have are my body accessories. It would be nice if we bought some things for me or even Sirius." She smiled at me.
"My god, that smile is so adorable." I thought as I agreed with what she said and we walked into the store.
It was a store that could only be described in two words, "prestigious" and "lovely." The primary colors of the place were a slightly pinkish white, a baby blue and a vibrant aqua green, which contrasted throughout the room. There were countless glass shelves, which had various precious jewelry, rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and even fake glasses.
Behind the counter where the cash register was, there was a woman in red clothes, red tiara and pink hair. Beside her, there seemed to be a helper, it was a little girl with long cream-colored hair, who wore an adorable orange dress.
The pink haired woman looked at me with a disgusted expression, but that soon changed when she noticed a person next to me. "Hello! Welcome to 'Jewels by Rose and Vanilla' what brings you here?"
I walked slowly towards her. "Hello again, Amy. How have you been?" When I spoke her name, I immediately ducked at an extraordinary speed, dodging the famous sledgehammer she always carries hidden.
"What are YOU doing here? And don't call me by my first name, you're the last soul in the multiverse I'd ever want to speak my name!" She said, already showing all the hatred she had for me.
"Well, as you can see, I have a lady with me. Her name is Sylvia, she is one of the newest essences within our beautiful world. And I was just wanting to take her for a walk around here." while I was saying this, the little girl in the orange clothes was approaching Sylvia.
"Hello. Sorry about the problem with the place manager. What would you like?" She had an equally adorable voice from the looks of it, I knew she acted with a 30 year old mentality, even though her body made her look like she was at most 14.
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"Fine. I'd like a necklace and a ring if that's okay. Zalgnity, what colors do you think suits me?" the beautiful dragon asked me as I got up.
"I think gold, violet and blue." I replied and she just nodded, making the little girl go get some necklaces and rings that had jewelry those colors.
"Hunf.. So, a new essence here?.. Has it been what? 500 years without someone new?" Ms.Rose asked me, while the dragon was busy choosing what to buy.
"Yes. You know that the only ones who are brought here are people that 'he' adores and to see that they died unfairly. Besides, the world that 'he' is currently in is completely different from the others we've been in." I made a comment, while I secretly took a cigarette from inside my suit, Rose glared at me, until she saw that it was one of those cigarettes that don't produce smoke.
"Completely different? How?" she asked, with a curious look.
"There are alternate forms of mana in the same world, aside from having a sort of 'sentient magic form'... I mean. We never really come into contact with anything that is actually sentient when it comes to this subject. And apparently, she and people of the clan she was in, manage to influence this sentient magic to a certain degree." I spoke a little lower, I didn't want to spoil the experience of the beautiful dragon.
"Hmmm...? What is she by any chance? I feel like she's not human, but she doesn't look like she's wearing a 'humanity stone'." Rose raised an eyebrow.
Humanity Stones are items that Luz and I created. They are for essences with non-human appearances to have a human form of their own. We did this because we knew how strange it would be for some essences with human appearances to interact with essences with more animalistic appearances. And by the way, both employees of this establishment wore this stones. Their actual forms were that of a hedgehog and a rabbit, both anthropomorphic.
"She's a dragon. In her world, species like dragons are seen as deities by normal beings. The human form is what they use so they don't spend too much magic power." I mentioned the things I knew initially and the store manager seemed to understand the situation well.
"I wish 'him' luck. I know very well how bad he is when he encounters things he's never seen before." She made a slight comment that made me chuckle weakly.
"Hey Zalgnity! Can you see if it's looks good in me?" When I heard the dragon's voice, I looked in her direction. She had picked up a black necklace with a gold jewel, and a ring with a red jewel.
"Oh, it looks beautiful.. But why red?" I was curious, but my answer came when she approached me and gave me a ring identical to hers, only with a golden color in the gem.
"To suit you, silly. I will wear this red ring and you will wear this gold ring." At her words, I felt a slight heat in my cheeks, but I shook my head a little.
"Oh sure! Yeah... That's lovely to say. So, girls, how much is it?" I asked looking at the manager.
"Hmm... 500 rubriks.... For the necklace and 100 rubriks for each ring." She said already showing the palm of her hand and I gave a sigh.
"Does it work on the card? Or does it have to be in coins?" I said with a slightly irritated look, because I know she was at least overstating the price of the necklace, but I don't want to start a fight today, I want Sylvia's day to be great.
"Card." She said showing me a card reader that was shaped like a small book and I took a reddish card from one of the inside pockets of my suit, swiped the card next to that book and then put it away.
"Okay, you can take it. Will you want it wrapped for a gift? Or...?" She kept talking.
"We will use them now." Sylvia said smiling and then looked at me, taking my hand.
"Yeah...until someday." I said being pulled by Sylvia out of that store.
Outside, we walked a little further along the street, until I was pulled by her again, this time into a clothing store. There were several models, there were so many options that one could say that there were common clothes and noble clothes. Unlike the previous store, this one clearly seemed to be more crafted, not in a tidy sense, but in a technological sense, which was one of the reasons my dragon friend was drawn here.
"Ooh! Zalgnity-sama! Good to see you here! You're really an old man who never leaves the castle, huh?" I hear a female voice calling me and I turn to see who it is.
That person had long pink hair with a white streak, wore a modern uniform mixed with medieval, had black bows in its hair and seemed to have a smirk that would never leave its face. That same person was approaching us, and that's when I remembered who this being was.
"Hello young girl, I came to see some clothes... Do you have something that looks a little like this, only softer?" Sylvia said, turning slightly, wearing that black dress.
"Yes yes! Of course I can help! If you want I'll even find some shoes for you. Can you wait near the dressing rooms?" the person said walking away from us
"OK thank you." she smiled and I was guiding her to the indicated place.
"Sylvia.. That's not a girl." she got a super confused look when I said that and soon the effeminate came up again with a pile of 5 different clothes and two pairs of shoes.
"Here it is! When you're done trying on the clothes, just let me know so I know what you'll want to buy!" I stared at him who was smiling too much when saying that.
As Sylvia walks in a door to try on the outfit, I stared at that effeminate one for a full minute. "Astolfo... What the fuck are you doing here? Didn't you live... Like... 8 neighborhoods away from here?"
"*sigh* Master kicked me out of his house and now I'm living around downtown. I'm living on rent in the apartment above the store." He said it in a neutral way and looked at me with his eyes half open.
"Ah... Got it. Got it... Have done something these days?" I was uncomfortable around him, clearly.
"What? Well... I've been exploring a few dungeons and working here only. What about you? How long has it been since you left that cocoon you call a castle? A century or two?" He was still speaking in a neutral way and I didn't answer him.
A few seconds pass and Sylvia comes out of the dressing room wearing a lighter black dress and looks like she is wearing an equally black tights, in addition to a white ballet shoe. "What do you think?"
"Looks great." I said with a thumbs up as she went back to try on other clothes.
It was hell to hear that ex-knight trying to talk to me, but after 15 minutes, I was already leaving that store, carrying a bag with the clothes that Sylvia decided to have. Clearly I was the one who paid, as she didn't have any coins for the money we use here.
Besides that black dress. I bought her a pair of full white pajamas, a long-sleeved shirt, some pants that go down to her knees, and some fancy shoes that she thought were adorable. I couldn't help myself, having a slight smile on my face that didn't go away at all from seeing her happy.
It didn't take long and we headed towards one of the places I wished I had taken her from the start. It was a theater that was close to the portal to the castle, I went to see what was playing for that time and I noticed that it was a reinterpretation of one of the worlds that Luz was in, but in the vision of a person who came to this dimension of the "dead". So I decided to take Sylvia to watch this one, as it was one that I vaguely remembered taking place in a world that resembled hers, only with some differences.
Going inside, I paid for some VIP seats and we went to a private room above that had a balcony, on which there were chairs where we could sit and watch the play. There was also a small table with a leaflet of dishes and drinks, because for VIP people, this room also served as a kind of restaurant.
"Will you want something?" I commented as I handed her the menu.
"Ooh! Does this serve as a restaurant too?" She was curious.
"Yes, but only in the VIP rooms. And by the way, as we pay for just one play, when that one is over, we can stay here eating, while a kind of cloak will appear preventing us from hearing or seeing the next plays." That said, she understood that it was better to focus initially on the play that was going to take place, but anyway, we already ordered what we were going to eat.
We called an employee using a bell that was on the table. I ordered him a very succulent and rare meat, while Sylvia asked for a set of pasta, salad and grilled fish. To drink, she asked for a simple juice while I asked for a wine. With everything already done, we sat in the chairs that were on the balcony there, and the show seemed to be starting.
As expected, it was all in the eyes of someone who had been saved by my successor, and now he was here. The protagonist was a boy with defensive powers, but when he always tried to hit with his hands or using swords, the items ended up never seeming to do damage. He was from a world slightly similar to Sylvia's, the difference being that everyone was born with magic, which wasn't specifically elemental, and the deities of that world chose a person's class from birth, forcing them to always act like what those classes were.
Sylvia stared at the scene, completely focused on the different narrative for her. Mainly because of the idea that deities chose the class of people, but they didn't interfere with anything else in the lives of others, it was something else that restricted common beings more, but at the same time they had access to more magic than "lessers" from her world.
The protagonist would always be thrown aside, because in his world, there was a magic level system, and he couldn't gain experience by himself by not killing the monsters. But that lasted until he met Luz, my successor in that world was born being an unprecedented case of dual class, being placed as a fighter and mage, two of the rarest races in the physical and magical categories, respectively, which made him be called "The Arcane Punch". In this way, he, along with my successor and six other companions, went on adventures together, until a world event started, where the demon king of there began to attack all nations at once.
"Hm... Wow, what an amazing story. But this 'levels'... It's weird... It's like the Fate particles are all seeing the world and having fun with the show." Sylvia made a comment, which made me laugh.
"You would be surprised by the number of worlds that have this level system. I think it's amazing, the narrator of this play is explaining about it to those, who came from worlds where this concept doesn't exist." I commented as I watched our food being served, with staff coming with trays and setting our plates and glasses of drinks on top of a small table that was between us.
I take a canteen of blood from my suit pocket, put a few drops in my glass and start drinking a little, while Sylvia ate very little of her food, because she was extremely focused on the story. I remembered very well what that time was like, but seeing it through someone else's eyes is sometimes a little hilarious. At one point, the protagonist mentioned how brilliant one of the ideas Luz had was.
"Heh.. Brilliant? That was literally betting on our luck, and the enemy not realizing he was concentrating a magic attack." I thought as I chuckled a few softly so as not to disturb the beautiful dragon beside me.
The play was reaching its climax, with two of the total eight members of the main group being killed in a fight against a necromancer, who was seen as the general of the demonic army. Soon the stage where the play was being made seemed to change shape drastically, apparently there was someone with space magic among the people who ran this show. This was done because it was one of the final fights in the story and also the last one in which we would have the point of view of the director of that show.
Sylvia was curious to see that kind of magic, from what I understood, in her world, this level of magic can only be done by beings considered "asuras". What made her maybe see her world as really one between a million and not something in the spotlight, and that dragons like her might not be much against "lessers" from other realities.
That choreographed fight was interesting to see, especially as the person acting as a necromancer was actually a being with luminescent abilities, meaning all the special effects were being done by him while that battle was happening. But everything went dark, when the character who represented the narrator of the story had a knife hit on his head, while protecting one of his companions. The rest of the scene was all dark and the sounds of battle going on in the background, representing someone dying listening to the rest of the battle that they could never see or assist again.
We could hear a few people crying in the audience below us, while Sylvia's eyes were wide open, seeing what the performance of a dead man in the middle of a battle was like. After a few seconds, the play ended with a narration recorded by Luz himself, narrating the rest of the scene as he remembered it at the time. That narration demonstrated that there was not a completely resolved ending, as he himself had died during the real last battle against that demon king.
But by the time the play actually ended, people in the audience clapped and others spoke in unisom. "Let's hope that the enemy perished!" this made the beautiful dragon look in my direction confused.
"Well, it's just that some essences have created the habit of saying this whenever happens to Luz die without completing his goal in that world." I answered her.
Then she looked at her plate, she still looked confused, maybe because she didn't even realize she was eating while watching the play. That made me laugh a little while she was pouting, with puffy cheeks, but then she was laughing about it too.
"Want to go back to the castle?" I asked, smiling as I finished drinking the bottle of wine that was there for me.
"Sure, but what about desserts?" She said staring at the list of desserts on the small table between us.
"We can ask them to pack it and then we'll eat it at the castle. What would you like? Or do you want me to choose it for you?" I gave a gentle smile.
"Hm, I want something really sweet and cold, and okay, you can choose what we bring." She said continuing to smile at me.
We ordered four cupcakes with strawberry icecream and after we had our dessert in hand, we headed out towards the portal to the castle. I was carrying all the bags while she walked a little ahead of me. I activated the portal and we appeared in front of our destination, entering while some of the employees of the place helped me and were putting the bags with Sylvia's purchases in her room, leaving me only with the bag having our desserts packed.
"Hey, how was your date? Did you kiss?" I hear Sirius saying this as we enter the room, causing Sylvia to blush a lot and my cheeks to heat up slightly.
"Boy, look at your mouth! If you talk more nonsense like that you'll be locked in your room!.... Oh and we brought you some desserts." I said putting the dessert wrappers on the counter of my little bar there in the main room.
"Great. And just to let you know, nothing much happened with Luz while you were gone." He informed us, while Sylvia, still red as a tomato, started to eat her dessert, to forget about the situation.
I sat in my chair, watching my dessert and Sylvia's face. Soon the boy's comment was echoing in my mind, making me just put my hand in front of my face and take a long breath.
"It would never really work.. Or would it?" was the only thought I had, before putting ice cream and drops of blood and wine on top of my cupcake. Eating my dessert to try to think that nothing weird happened today.