Chương 299: The Face Of Me

I had thankfully begun renovating and refurnishing some of the rooms in the Gravescape, so there was a place for me to take Mari to once things began heating up… If I had to describe how Mari behaved once I decided to pull her in and share our first kiss together–I would describe it as 'playing possum'. She just let herself be carried along for the ride. I honestly thought she had passed out at one point, but no. That was just her normal reaction, apparently. … Not quite normal, I would say, actually.

In any case, Mari was definitely a lot less 'aggressive' than Leou when it came to such things. In fact, my dear mechanist was completely docile, but as I already knew, she was also a freak… Once things were done, and we both lay in bed. Mari seemed to get an idea after snapping out of whatever dimension her mind had been transported to. Her chest was heaving up and down, and her face was so red that it almost seemed like she might be suffering from heatstroke.

I could tell that she could hardly believe that what had just taken place had actually happened. She had gotten used to only admiring me from a distance and only being able to touch me when trying to install a new upgrade into my body, and she had definitely believed that nothing would ever actually happen in between us. I couldn't blame her for believing this.

Until recently, I had no intention whatsoever of doing anything with either her or Leou, but the acquisition of the 'Gynoid Form' had changed a lot about how I viewed things and opened windows I hadn't suspected could ever be opened. Still, it was hard to believe that I, who had sought a husband for so long, would end up with two girlfriends instead. For some reason, it didn't feel that weird to have more than one. Even though I would definitely find it very odd to have more than one boyfriend.

I'm not sure why exactly, I am no expert on such matters. Regardless, I was now a woman with two lovers, a daughter, and several little sisters–And for all intents and purposes, I was the one filling the role of the patriarch here. If my past self had heard about this, I never would have believed this shit for even a second… Life truly is unpredictable.

One other thing that was nice about my 'activities' involving Mari and Leou was that it was allowing me to learn how to save energy while in my 'Gynoid Form', which would definitely come in handy in the future. One bad side of these activities was that my lovers were a bit… I suppose the right word would be 'needy'. After about a week following my first kiss and such with Mari, here I found myself. Lying in the middle of Leou's bed, with the snow leopard flanking my right, and the mechanist flanking my left.

These girls got used to this way too easily. It was actually quite off-putting how they truly didn't give a single damn about the fact that they had to share me. Even if they had claimed that they didn't mind, I had been expecting a little bit of tension. A bit of rivalry. Something! But no, they didn't give a single shit. Am I really that great that they think not being the only person I love is more than enough?

I am quite touched, and I would say that I am indeed a great woman, but I wouldn't go as far, personally… I mean, I can feel negative emotions, and there is none in the air when they are with me. I even snuck around to see how they were when they thought I wasn't around, but they didn't even ignore each other. They had become best friends overnight!

I had truly found myself romantically entangled with some psychos, but I supposed that, as sane as I was, that also counted as a psycho, so I guess we were lucky to find each other. The only place in which they struggled was to find their place when it came to my little sisters and daughter. Although my adorable, ghostly girly pops were my little sister, we very much shared a mother-daughter relationship nonetheless.

Which I had to say was not surprising, considering the role I had taken on with Leton following the death of my parents. To me, being a big sister and being a mother were basically the same thing, but because of this, Mari and Leou were in a bit of a difficult situation, as they had basically become step-mothers to eight girls in the blink of an eye. They were both quite used to Xlown at this point, and although she often acted mischievous, Xlown was, in fact, a young woman with a mature mind.

She didn't seem to take anything seriously, but she understood everything that was told to her and had a good grasp of how the world worked. Besides, just like Nara, she had been conspiring for me to get together with Mari and Leou… … So she had been expecting them to become a proper part of the family.

That was not to say that my spectral darlings weren't aware of what was going on or that they weren't grown-up enough to understand the world, but although they might qualify as young women for the most part, they were still young girls overall, even Poppy. They didn't know how to behave with my lovers. Interactions between them had been limited previously, and it would take a while, as such things couldn't be rushed. As expected, though, it was the youngest ones who acclimated the quickest.

Gigi and Ophelie didn't seem to have any trouble warming up to my lovers. Nessa and Anathema were simply naturally awkward around people… And as for Poppy, Annie, and Elowen, they were simply in the same spot as any other girls like them would be if their mother or father got a new partner. They were so used to only having me, so it required quite a lot of work for them to now get used to their big sister having two girlfriends. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

As for Coco… I don't think he would care even if I showed up with a devil from the depths of Hell. I literally caught him building a shrine to my greatness the other day. Which is weird, but also very flattering. All that to say, he very clearly views me as a superior being who created him, like how it is said that gods created all sorts of creatures. As such, he definitely wasn't going to question anything I do, unless he thought that it put me in danger, I suppose. Things would take a while to work out…

In any case, since I was currently trapped between a beastfolk and a human, neither of which were going to let go of me any time soon, I could only go into the Mindscape to check on the progress of certain things. Well, I could just break free of their embrace, but I didn't want to. Leou was purring softly in her sleep, and although Mari was pretty much silent, she would sometimes mutter incomprehensible nonsense to herself before tightening her embrace as though I were a plush.

Not only did I not have it in me to leave these cute girls without a word, but I enjoyed the embrace far too much to break it without a very good reason. Anyway… In the Mindscape, currently sitting in an area that was not attributed to any of my little sisters, there was an individual who, by all means, shouldn't be here.

"How are you doing, Gilepre?" The former agent of Lunovis didn't respond immediately.

"... Fine…" Mmh… He lost a bit of cognitive abilities… The mask and pool had worked. The two brought together had allowed me to turn Gilepre into something else. A physical being whose body was deeply infused with negative energy–My negative energy. This was the work of the pool for the most part, but without the mask, the pool would have killed him without the shadow of a doubt, and besides, the mask was what was required to make him obedient like my spectral servants. Its purpose was very simple.

It stuck to the subject and, over time, fused their mind with that of several spirits. These spirits were pretty much completely blank slates, but even blank slates were hard-programmed to obey me once they were properly disciplined using the furnace. The same obedience was imparted onto Gilepre whilst he was still alive, but the mask also helped him survive the infusion of negative energy, and those two things together resulted in what was now sitting in the tall grass.

This being wasn't really Gilepre anymore, even though all the pieces that made him the person he was were still there. They had been warped and twisted to the point that it wasn't inaccurate to say that Gilepre had died, even if the thing in his place looked exactly like him. Most of all, he was able to be summoned into the Mindscape and recalled just like any spirit. He could use his magic, his combat capabilities were unchanged, and although he struggled to speak and lacked a true sense of self…

These weren't really flaws. The latter was by design. I didn't want to risk the possibility of him regaining his senses, so I scrambled not just his mind, but his soul, spirit, and the like as well. Just like his physical body, they were irreversibly tainted. Nonetheless, although Gilepre was the biggest leap in this experiment, I still had to get more subjects.

While it was all nice and dandy that I could create obedient drones that were living, physical beings, the original point of the mask and pool wasn't actually to create such things. It was actually a sister experiment to that of the suits, with both aiming to achieve the same goal, but as it was going, the suits were much safer but provided very little other than the bare minimum I was seeking, while the mask was riskier, but promised greater strength as it came alongside a trip to the pool.

Although the masks were technically better when they worked out, I was still gravitating toward the suits for what I wanted to do. The idea was merely to allow living beings to get into my Mindscape without having to kill them. I strongly believe that Xlown and Coco will be able to do so naturally with time, but whom I wanted to be able to put into the safety of my Mindscape were Mari, Leou, and Rose.

Naturally, they would never be able to set a single toe into the Mindscape, but the Mindscape was not only a safe spot, but it was also where my little sisters lived. They had their own spots, and there was even a big mansion clearly intended to welcome a big family. It went without question that Mari and Leou were family now, but although Rose wasn't going to become one of my younger sisters or anything like that, I had still decided to take her in as my protégé, and to me, that was the same as us being family.

Just like how I considered Jinine to be family, even if I hadn't seen the demoness in a very long time, and even if, by now, she believed that I was nothing but a murderous monster. There was nothing that could sever such bonds. Nothing… … Once my girlfriends freed me from their affection, I headed into the Gravescape.

Rose didn't spend all of her time there, but it was where I continued on instructing her in various ways, not just in combat, but also doing my best to teach her about anything she might possibly need. Rose believed wholeheartedly in the lies I had fed her about why she was here and why she needed to stay hidden, but I was not one to lie to family, and it was time for me to come clean. Instead of my knightly form, I used the 'Gynoid Form' to appear as my human self.

Despite this, it seemed like Rose immediately realised that it was me.

"Miss Maya""You can call me Mara, Rose. My real name is Mara Maeve Maya Nebulo""That's… That's a lot of Ms…"

"I know, but I was told that it was a coincidence when I was little…" I focused my gaze.

"I view you as family, Rose, so I must be honest with you: I have been lying to you. The system fundamentalists didn't kidnap anyone, I did" Hopefully, she takes it well…