FSE

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Despite what I'd done, or ordered to be done, some of my monsters were still 'sealed'.

I found it unacceptable. Or at the very least, the power behind their creation did, urging me to correct this injustice, to respond to this attack. In hindsight, it made sense that something that threatened the cycle of respawns the power replied on would be considered an existential threat.

However, the situation wasn't that simple.

Between a trace of guilt for the deaths we caused, and the strange subconscious drive to free my imprisoned girls, it was the realisation that I didn't have any meaningful information about this area that stopped me from rushing forward.

I should be wary of the unknown. The very ability that brought me there was one, one I hadn't expected to be met with, and had blindly rushed to solve, leading me to yet another fight I wasn't really planning to take on.

Aside from the general direction, I simply wouldn't know where we would be going.

Impulse that guided me towards the caster didn't really reveal anything about the dangers lurking ahead, and I couldn't rule out the possibility that chasing after her would only lure my monsters into another, even deadlier, trap.

I cared about them, as strange as it was.

Looking around, I wasn't even certain where the village we took was in relation to the only landmark I was familiar with: the pagoda in the forest. It wasn't visible from there, and neither was the castle I had heard about.

I made a couple of steps forward through the settlement, with Miwah and Tama flanking me, and a small retinue of the devoted 'Eviscerators' along with their recently evolved 'Alpha' following a few steps behind. Then I stopped and glanced back, trying to not pay attention to the chaos that was my hyperactive furry horde.

Instead of focusing on them turning this place upside down, I focused on combating my mild disorientation. In the end, it was what prevented me from continuing the chase, along with determination to not subject my monsters - my girls - to more suffering.

"Could you please dispatch scouts to give us the layout of the land?" I asked, "Make sure all 'Eviscerators' remain unseen, and don't take any chances. I don't want to lose more girls."

"Yes, Master." Miwah and Brave answered in unison, with the latter taking turns to explain quickly easing in her commanding role.

"There is a river running through there." She said, gesturing somewhere in front of us, and then at both sides. "It's wide and seems difficult to swim across. So humans will probably come from the direction of the fortress, or from behind us. But besides that, we don't know."

"Thank you. Continue and let me know." I nodded, and once again checked my surroundings. My monstrous menagerie rummaged through the buildings, without the single hesitation to loot, and few already found the clothes they wanted to keep, or tools we needed.

One Purifier even showed up to me with the blouse she stole, almost like she was trying a new outfit at the store asking for her opinion, not showing any care where it came from.

"Nice. Suits you." I replied automatically, without putting much thought into what I was encouraging. A little vulpine seems pleased by the praise, happily yipping "Master!" in response. The little one ran off to cause more mayhem.

"Tama," I said. "Make sure we have guards around so humans won't jump on us again. No pit traps."

"Yes, Master." She replied immediately, still looking suspiciously alert. It seemed the experience of 'sealing' left some mark upon them.

The rest of the monster horde wasn't overly upset, at least.

It would be for the best if they didn't overindulge in pillaging the place, at least before we could assure it was indeed safe. Though it seemed I successfully drove most humans out, my monsters still made far too much noise, and I couldn't be quite certain what was going on. Only thing I could do was to trust them with handling it.

"Make sure we cleaned out everything, too. I don't want anyone to catch any disease..." I said, "We might have to stay for the night."

My monsters didn't need a reminder, though. They already started working on it, anyway. The stench of blood and burning in the air was still quite pervasive, but I attempted to pay it no mind as much as I could. It wasn't easy, but it was terrifyingly easier than it used to be.

"Yes, Master." The fiery vixen replied, and after looking around once again, it didn't take long until she returned to her flirty nature and added: "I'll find us a bed for three too. I still wait for the reward."

Even exposure to something clearly unpleasant didn't suppress that part of her. I wanted to see it as a good sign. Bad side was the 'me' part.

I paused. Tama pushed herself close, and Miwah didn't exactly stay behind either.

The most terrifying part of this was that I didn't find them, or even their average kin, exactly unattractive now, creating a certain sense of paradoxical alienation between the current and past me I didn't exactly know how to react to. I wasn't sure how to come to terms with that.

Luckily for me, I didn't have to deal with it for too long.

What saved me from further internal conflict was the interruption from the three small 'Corruptors' carrying the big jar made of pottery, visibly struggling with its weight, and attempting to not break it. They put the container down when I noticed them, cheerfully announcing themselves with the typical "For Master!" cry.

Soon, two rat-like 'Defilers' appeared carrying a sack. Narita followed them, proud looking, carrying her polearm as it was the staff of the office.

It was at least a distraction from sorting the relationship part with Miwah, and possibly Tama, or even my budding identity crisis.

"Master!" Narita announced, "We found human-things' food storage."

"Oh." I said, freeing myself from the close embrace of Tama and Miwah, and aimed to inspect the large piece of pottery as the 'Corruptors' removed the lid, and I leaned forward. An unpleasant, yet unmistakable aroma of its content hit my nose. The odour was strong enough to beat the smell in the air, which, after the fight, wasn't the softest either. It made me cough.

"Fermented vegetables?" I guessed, quickly put the lid back on. "Can you even eat that?"

It certainly was a way of preserving food, but I knew only a little about it, and whether such a product would be edible for my monsters remained a question.

"Yes-yes. Master." Narita confirmed and pointed out towards the sack, continuing in her usual, fragmented manner of speech that made part of her identity by now: "There are unprocessed grains too. They had storage! Plants in the fields left too!"

This forced me to once again pay attention to the surroundings, then back to my small humanoid lizards. Finding the local food stores offered a certain promise, and our current surroundings with unharvested crops offered much more to us in the long term. Now it came to distributing them.

"Could you find some wheel carts?" I asked, "Some of it has to go to our mountain camp, too."

"Yes-yes, Master." Narita confirmed, directing her little kin to move. She, herself, stayed close.

"Corruptors take care of gathering some plants from the fields, and some logistics of it." I added, briefly regretting the number of names I gave to my humanoid-lizard followers and being unable to remember all of them. While certain I could call some of them by name, as I knew that the named ones were those that took the journey with me instead of watching over our mountain campsite. I wasn't still certain which one was which, embarrassingly enough, as over thirty of them were named by me.

"Could I rely on you?" I asked the little reptilians. The small, kobold-like 'Corruptors' were quite cute too, with their manes of feathers and scaly bodies. The trio of them, ones that brought me the jar to inspect, looked at me, nodded, and answered in the excited tone,

"For Master!"

They ran away, leaving the enormous piece of pottery behind.

"I wished Mai was there." I sighed. She would be much better in dealing with the whole question of agriculture after all, along with her smaller folk. Though they understood me, it was much better to have someone to talk with , discussing the details instead of guessing the answers. Despite the obfuscated, and often willfull, nature of the system, there was a certain logic behind the 'Alpha' variant being the coordinators.

"I can get Mai here later." Miwah offered, looking up at the sun still high in the sky, "Just need the right spot to start when shadows draw darker."

Unsure what she meant, it confused me even so slightly, though I quickly dismissed it thinking that it may be safer for them to travel under the cover of night. They could see in darkness, after all.

On the other hand I felt I would prefer Miwah at my side in the evening, a treacherous idea I pushed to dismiss as my relationship with her was tearing me inside. Part of me wanted to stay away from now white werewolf, while another portion of me sensed it as me being among my own.

It made me feel horrible again.

Luckily for me, I had something else to grab my attention.

Creepiest part of it was the only human in our midst, a dirty, homeless and probably slightly deranged girl sitting in a house's entrance, guarded by a few of my monsters. They probably didn't like it, but since she didn't bother to resist, they didn't handle her roughly either.

The human girl found the body disposal procedure quite funny for some unfathomable reason, though I had to admit 'Purifiers' also enjoyed any excuse to start a fire so it was probably unfair to call one crazier than other.

"Narita." I said. The rat-girl stood at attention.

"I'll have to leave the disinfecting of this place to you. Just burning the bodies probably won't do. Take care of it more thoroughly. We don't want to be hit by the plague."

In a world like this, the illness would be likely to be the number one cause of death, if one avoided a violent end with natives as aggressive as the locals were. It wouldn't hurt to be certain.

"Yes-yes, Master." She answered, once again in her typical fashion: "I know. Know what to do."

She spaced out briefly, ordering around her scattered people without the need to bark the orders, while I silently thought of the irony of asking a rat to prevent the plague. However, it may as well be that my monsters were actually more clean than the natives.

"Oh. Can you take care of the human?" I added, pointing at the crazy villager, "Make sure she's cleans, and give her some clothes found in the houses, but keep her under guard."

"You can't trust a human." Tama said, predictably, to which Brave and Miwah nodded sagely, though saying nothing.

By now, I was already quite familiar with their general misanthropic attitude towards the natives, and before they protested against it, I added.

"Please, do it for me." I quickly continued, "We need to find out why that one isn't completely hostile to us."

While I had to ponder why it was the case, my monsters may not really put much consideration into it. Luckily for me, the cute rodent-girl understood.

"Yes-yes, Master." Narita replied, "Will take care of it. Personally."

She stepped out, and I watched her as she, along with the two of her aides she telepathically, called to herself, led the girl away.

The only captive which didn't struggle might be as well be half-insane, although seeing her made me wonder whether I wasn't too ruthless with the locals.

I wasn't so sure myself.

After all, they didn't release my monsters. They imprisoned nearly as easily as I released the humans we have caught, a consideration of which led me to the original plan to break the accursed 'sealing', ending this whole charade once again, freeing me to search for the way home.

Although I might kill the two birds with one stone here, metaphorically speaking. There might be an answer in that castle, or fort - in a world like this, educated people would likely stay at the court of the nobles, if there was any usual feudal order around here, as I imagined.

And people with education might speak several languages, but the sceptical part of me doubted they would be of much more use than the merchant was. Only well-travelled people experienced other cultures, so the caravan trader would be the best choice for this world. If the long distance communication was only possible by the couriers, well-travelled and knowledgeable people would be a rarity. How many scholars with the rich patron allowing for this lifestyle would I find in a place like this?

First, however, I had to determine what I was standing against.

"Brave, you saw the fortress, at least from a distance..." I said, briefly pausing. "Can you lead me to a place from where I can look?"

Miwah, protectively hugging me from behind, saying nothing, made me add,

"At least, at a distance in which archers can't hit us."

"This shouldn't be a problem." Both Miwah and Brave agreed.

"Let's go then, only a couple of us. Then Ravagers. And the Defiler, who can heal them." I said.

"Yes, Master." They confirmed immediately, while I came to regret my rushed decision quickly, as it actually relied on my ursine monsters shielding us with their own bodies. Even if I wanted to imagine them as our defenders, I found it cruel.

I silently hoped it would not be required as the handful of 'Ravagers' I had didn't have any protection aside from cloth and shields they picked. We didn't head into the unknown, but up the road we followed to reach this place, which made me optimistic. Tracing our steps back a little should be safe.

In between thirty assorted monsters which 'Alphas' deemed as the minimal security detail, nine of which were hulking ursine girls, not counting Miwah, Brave and Tama themselves, there wasn't much of danger unless the locals came back with a real host of warriors, and even then we could retreat to the rest of my creatures swarming the village.

"Where is Kuma, anyway?" I asked halfway up the small hill that obscure our view in one direction and looked over my shoulder.

"Coming, Master, coming."

The large bear-woman was puffing a few steps behind the group, with all her muscles she didn't seem as much of a runner, though her expression could be attributed to the ill-fitted suit of armour she, as the only of 'Ravagers' wore, as much as her lazy demeanour.

However, as I considered the source of her outfit fitting her considerable size, a small pinch in my brain interrupted me, with the usual red fog bursting out of the ground, materialising an 'Eviscerator'.

"Master!" A smaller werewolf cried.

Startled, I glanced around.

Then another 'Eviscerator' formed, reborn, agitated.

When I noticed the few figures uphill, Tama already lobbed a fireball after the enemies, with my smaller guards charging in the blast's wake.

Miwah quickly shielded me with her body, blocking my view of the entire situation.

"They are running away again." I heard Tama saying, and I also took a glimpse of the more of my monsters rushing by, in pursuit of the attackers.

"Let them. It's a trap!" I exclaimed. It must be. It was my first thought - lure the couple of girls away from the greater group and seal them, depriving me of their company step by step.

"Yes, Master." She replied.

Overprotective Miwah stopped holding me so tightly and allowed me to stand up.

"Sweep the treeline nearby for ambushers. Burn if you have to!" I commanded, gesturing around, without really thinking about the order, only to be reminded that 'Purifiers' never hesitated to burn things.

Relying on the fact that more monsters arrived to reinforce us, I rushed up the hill by the road, where Brave along with a group of her smaller werewolf kin awaited, quickly rushing past another dead soldier on the ground, killed along with his horse.

Another corpse awaited at the top of the hill, stomped by Brave.

I, however, focused on something different. Down the road, cutting through the fields, a lone rider galloped towards the large, stone fortress at the riverbank in the distance, and further away on the horizon, a city.

If we decide to approach the castle, we would be expected.