Chương 149: Chapter 141 - Menagerie Demon

Celeste"What… the fuck?" Celeste said slowly as she rubbed her head. Her fingers brushed against her horns, and she instantly noticed that they had changed again. She carefully felt along their length and found that they had returned to their original configuration.

"Yes!" She traced the familiar shape of her beloved horns before moving her hands across her face. Everything felt right again. When she held her hands in front of her, she found the smaller fingers and smooth skin she remembered. They were back in the child's body.

"Hey, Chelsea, what's going on?" Celeste waited. No answer came. She remained silent for a moment, waiting for any sign of Chelsea. Instead, several quiet voices reached her from somewhere nearby.

"Shh, shh. She's awake." Celeste's body tensed.

"Who's there? Chels? Please tell me where we are," she whispered quickly. A loud rumble answered her. The sound passed through the ground beneath her, making the stone tremble. Celeste pressed her hands against the floor to steady herself.

"Wh-who's there?" she asked. Fear tightened around her chest. Where was Chelsea? Whatever had happened, Chelsea would know what to do. She always found a way out, no matter how impossible the situation seemed. Celeste sat in an open area surrounded by darkness. Only a small amount of light reached her, but it was enough to leave her feeling exposed while everything beyond it remained hidden.

"Do not fear, little Empress," a deep voice said. The sound carried through the chamber and made Celeste's stomach vibrate pleasantly.

"I would never do you harm."

"Why did you call me Empress? And who are you?"

"Because you are the Empress," the voice replied.

"I will show myself, but please do not fear. I am your protector."

"Okay?" Celeste said with a shake of her head. Judging by the voice, whoever was speaking was a demon. A very large demon. The darkness around her shifted. Celeste hadn't realized that the shapes surrounding her were walls until they began moving away. More light entered the space, revealing the enormous creature that had been speaking.

"A g-greater dragon." That was all she could manage. The dragon's head alone was large enough to fill most of her vision. Scales covered its massive body, disappearing into the darkness beyond the light. Celeste quickly checked herself and discovered that she was completely naked. She tried to access the pouch where Chelsea kept their equipment, but that was missing too. She had no weapons.

"Y-you're not going to hurt me?"

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to. You are the Empress."

"You couldn't hurt me? Empress? Empress of what?"

"The Monster Empress. How do you not know this?" the dragon asked. Celeste opened her status, hoping it would explain what the creature meant.

[Status] Name: Celeste Race: Menagerie Demon Class: Shadow Empress of the Forsaken Behemoth Profession: Shadow Empress Title: — Current Companions: 11 Titles: 7 Level: 1 Attributes Physical Strength: 1 Dexterity: 1 Constitution: 5 Stamina: 2 Mental Intelligence: 3 Wisdom: 2 Psyche: 4 Social Charisma: 6 Luck: 14 Abilities Passive Fireproof (Racial) Attract (Racial) Active Monster Absorption Enhancements: N/A Ailments: N/A Celeste stared at the information.

They had far fewer titles than before, and she had no idea what to make of her new class. Their soul-marked ailment was gone, but The Perfect Outfit had disappeared with it. The last thing she remembered was fighting alongside Chelsea against those worthless Holy Knights. Then Chelsea had evolved their class. Was this what the evolution had done? Chelsea had said the Goddess of Love believed evolving during a desperate situation would fix whatever had gone wrong with them.

Perhaps it had transported them somewhere else. Unfortunately, that somewhere appeared to be a greater dragon's lair.

"Empress. Are you all right?"

"I, uh, yeah. Trying to gather my thoughts. I just… how did I get here?"

"That would be my doing, Your Majesty." Celeste recognized the quieter voice. It belonged to whoever had hushed the dragon earlier.

"I found you. You were alone and asleep in the bog. Luckily, a pack of swamp wolves had found you. They surrounded you and kept you safe from humans until I came across them. I informed your protector, and she brought you here." Celeste still couldn't see the speaker. She searched the chamber again, but the only visible creature was the massive dragon. It was difficult to judge its full size in the darkness, though Celeste suspected it was at least as large as the one she had watched Adriane Wixx kill.

"Where are you?" she asked as she looked around again.

"Above you, Your Highness." Celeste tilted her head back. The source of the light floated directly above her. It was a tiny, adorable will-o'-the-wisp.

"I see," Celeste said. She lowered her head and pressed one hand against her empty stomach. Now that the immediate fear had eased, hunger made itself known.

"You don't happen to have any food, do you?" she asked, looking between the dragon and the small light hovering above her.

"I don't," the dragon replied.

"But I can have some brought to you. What do you prefer?" Celeste sat on the stone floor, still trying to understand everything that had happened.

"Uh… organs. I'm not picky about where they come from. Hearts, livers, tongues, eyes." The dragon remained silent, apparently accepting the request without question. Celeste pulled her knees closer to her chest. She had been transported to a bog somewhere she couldn't identify. Now a greater dragon was guarding her because she had somehow become the Monster Empress. None of it made sense. Celeste opened her status again and examined it more carefully. The first thing she noticed was the name. Celeste. Not Chelsea.

There was no Wixx family name either. She tried to surrender control of the body, but nothing happened. There was no familiar shift and no sense of Chelsea waiting behind her thoughts. Celeste opened her titles and searched through them. With Multiple Personalities was gone. Had she somehow regained full control of their body? Was Chelsea dead? The thought left an pressure in her chest. Celeste had spent months resenting Chelsea, but that had changed. She had finally begun to tolerate her.

More than that, she had started thinking of Chelsea as a stupid little sister. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. It didn't matter. She was a demon. Demons didn't have… Celeste's attention stopped on another part of her status. Menagerie Demon.

"What the fuck is that?" She selected the race, but no description appeared. The System offered nothing beyond the unfamiliar name.

"You seem confused, Your Majesty," the tiny ball of light said. Celeste snapped her head upward.

"You think? Of course I am. This last fucking year has been nothing but one insane experience after another, and now here I am, naked and alone beside a greater dragon who, according to my stat sheet, is some sort of fucking pet." She gestured toward the enormous creature beside her.

"Yes. Confusion is a great word for it." Chelsea Kira's eyes widened as she absorbed the information.

"So, I'd be… like a real princess?"

"Technically, I think you're a princess already," Chelsea said with amusement. Kira didn't hesitate.

"That one. I choose that one." Would you like to select the class Knight Princess of the Holy Church? Y/N"Not even going to let me read the description for it?" Chelsea asked with a giggle.

"Oh. There's a description? Please do."

"All right, let's…" Chelsea focused on the class and tried to open the additional information. Nothing appeared.

"Huh. Never mind. It's a new class. There is no description. I guess there's never been a Knight Princess before. Makes sense. When has a royal ever adopted one of their female knights?" She released a quiet laugh.

"So I can pick it?" Kira asked.

"Let's go talk to Liam and get his opinion on it," Chelsea said. She examined the rest of Kira's information while she still had access to it. She noted it didn't say slave anywhere in her screen so either she hasn't actually been a slave or Chelsea adopting her overrode whatever it was that signified slave.

"Hmm. You have no blessings either. When you pick that class, you'll probably get one pretty quick." Chelsea removed her hand from Kira and lifted her wing away from the girl.

"Do we have to get up?" Kira asked. Chelsea looked down at her.

"I'm not raising a lazy princess. Up, up, up."

"Fine." Kira reluctantly pushed herself upright. She sat beside Chelsea for another moment, still processing what the title and class meant for her future.

"I'm really a princess now?" she asked.

"Yup. I plan on marrying you off to some foreign prince the first chance I get, too." Chelsea stretched her arms above her head. When she looked back down, Kira was staring at her in horror.

"Oh, gods, I was joking," Chelsea said with a laugh. She placed one finger against her chin as she considered it.

"Though, the Junstruce king does keep trying to marry the prince into our family."

"Do I get a say?" Kira asked, worry clear on her face.

"Of course you get a say. You get to say how much of a hunk Prince William is." Chelsea laughed again, but Kira didn't appear reassured.

"I'm not going to pawn you off. Don't stress. You're going to have a ton of brothers and sisters. Shoot, your older sister Lindsey would probably love the chance to be a Junstruce princess. Plus she already lives in Junstruce."

"Lindsey? How old is she?" Kira asked.

"I don't actually know. Early twenties?" Kira's concern gave way to amusement.

"You really adopted someone older than you?" Chelsea reached into her pouch and pulled out the dress she had torn the previous night. She slipped it over herself. The Perfect Outfit restored the damaged fabric as soon as it settled into place. The dress changed with it, becoming a formal gown suitable for an Empress seated upon a throne. The fabric fit Chelsea perfectly, and the design carried enough authority to match the light surrounding her. Chelsea opened the Domain Menu and placed a mirror nearby.

She stepped in front of it and startled when she saw her reflection.

"Ah! I keep forgetting I'm blonde." Her pale hair fell around her horns and against the formal gown. The dress was exactly what she wanted to wear when she returned to the cathedral. Chelsea turned toward Kira. The girl's mouth hung open as she stared at her.

"You look… like I imagine the Holy Empress should look," Kira said.

"Thanks? Though, considering how the stories make my predecessors sound incredibly evil, I'm not sure whether that's a compliment." Chelsea smirked before looking over Kira's tangled hair.

"You, my dear, need to go take a bath. There's a fenced-in grotto. It should still have my shampoo. Feel free to use it. There's an old woman in a small village who makes it and she is a master at her craft." Chelsea paused as a thought occurred to her.

"You know, she might be a witch. But who cares, right? The stuff is too good to worry about such things."

"Am I that gross?" Kira asked.

"You got dirt and grass in your hair when we sparred last night, and I can't present you as a princess with twigs sticking out of your head." The two left Kira's room together. Kira headed toward the fenced grotto while Chelsea stepped into the open field and stretched her wings. After sleeping in the same position all night, the muscles along her back felt stiff. Once she had finished stretching, Chelsea crossed the domain and stopped outside Liam's room. She knocked twice.

The door opened only a few seconds later.

"Miss Chelsea. I hope you slept well," Liam said.

"I did. We need to talk." Chelsea nodded toward his bedroom. Would you like to force target to become your love thrall? Y/N Chelsea stared at the prompt. Damn dress. She dismissed the question before she accidentally selected anything. Liam stepped aside and gestured for her to enter. His room looked almost identical to Kira's. The furniture Chelsea had created remained simple, but everything was clean and comfortable. Liam closed the door behind them, and Chelsea turned to face him.

"It seems something strange has happened."

"If you think it's strange, then it has to be," he said. Chelsea smirked at him.

"Cute. No, but seriously. Kira got a prompt to evolve her class."

"Oh?"

"To Knight Princess of the Holy Church," she said simply. Liam's eyebrows rose surprisingly high.

"Ah! I see. There has never been a Holy Princess before. Not one where a class existed. There have been children of former emperors and empresses but they never received a class for it. Has she evolved yet? Does she have the light?"

"She hasn't evolved. I sent her to bathe while we talked." Chelsea folded her arms, but the concern that had brought her there remained.

"This worries me. What if my other children evolve into princes and princesses? The ones in other lands could be targeted."

"I thought of that too. If one is held for ransom, how far will you go to keep them safe?"

"Right." Chelsea sighed.

"As far as I have to. Maybe I shouldn't go around adopting so many children." She grabbed her horns and held them in frustration.

"That's what my class expects of me, though."

"You could be putting them at risk by adopting so many," Liam agreed.

"Is there any sort of limit on the number you can adopt?"

"Not that I've seen. For each one, both they and I get stronger. In theory, if I adopted, like, eleven thousand kids, my attributes would be ten times what they are now, and theirs would be something similar." Liam studied her for a moment, likely trying to decide whether she was seriously considering adopting eleven thousand children.

"For you, I don't imagine you need the attributes."

"No. It's fun seeing the numbers go up, but I don't have much need for them being any higher at this point," Chelsea replied.

"Though, at over one hundred, twenty thousand Strength, I could kick a pebble at a greater dragon and kill it."

"You're not going to fight a greater dragon." Chelsea crossed her arms and pouted at him.

"I'm the boss. I get to decide that. And if I can save the Church ten million gold on scales, I will."

"I think you should take a look at the Church's financial records. You'll be… surprised to find how small an amount that actually is," he said. Chelsea's pout disappeared. She furrowed her brows as she tried to imagine how wealthy the Church would need to be for ten million gold to seem insignificant.

"How much are we working with?" she asked.

"I don't know for sure, but it's a lot."

"And when I kill the greater dragon, we can divert an extra ten million in funds to orphanages!" she replied.

"Your Grace," Liam said in a sterner voice. Chelsea was preparing another argument when a different thought struck her. Her eyes lit up, and the greater dragon was temporarily forgotten.

"Oh, I've been curious. Here, catch." She summoned a Spectral Javelin and tossed it toward him. Liam reacted immediately. His hand shot forward, and his fingers closed around the weapon's shaft. Nothing touched them. The ghostly javelin passed through his hand and vanished before it could travel any farther.

"What was that?" Liam asked. His hand remained extended where the spectral weapon had passed through it.

"Just checking if you're adaptive like Sir Erik." Liam let out a laugh and lowered his arm.

"How did that test for it?"

"Psyche is the only thing that wards against my spectral weapons. If I wasn't afraid of hitting one of the other girls, I would really put it to the test." Liam glanced toward the wall separating his room from the others.

"What do they do?"

"Cause excruciating and debilitating pain unlike anything you've felt before. At least, that's how I've heard it described."

"I see," he said. His attention returned to Chelsea.

"And you just decided to throw one at me?"

"You didn't have to catch it," she replied with a laugh.

"You told me to!" he exclaimed.

"That's how this orders thing works." Chelsea's laughter faded as she remembered that her position had made even a casual request into something Liam might feel obligated to obey. She would need to become more careful about how she phrased things around the Holy Knights.

"So, what are we doing today?" she asked.

"You tell me," he replied. Chelsea groaned in annoyance.

"Seriously? Okay. Tell me, Lord Commander Liam of the Holy Knights, if you were the Empress, what would you do today?" Liam considered the question before answering.

"I would start with breakfast. Then I would send a delegation to every kingdom on the continent that we're allied with and invite them to your… my coronation." Chelsea's mind immediately went to the coronation scene from Frozen. She pictured herself in the cathedral wearing the dress she had found, surrounded by nobles.

"After that, I would request all of the prisoner files to review, along with the financial records. Maybe break for lunch. Then I'd start retrying prisoners, beginning with nonhumans." Chelsea pulled herself away from thoughts of crowns and gloves to keep her non-existent ice powers at bay.

"And why would you retry nonhumans first?"

"Because, as a Blessed Demon, I'd notice the discrimination against all nonhumans. They receive harsher sentences. There are things an empress such as myself wouldn't see as crimes, but as excuses to sell nonhuman citizens to slavers."

"I see," Chelsea said. She thought about Rose being imprisoned for unpaid taxes and Ivy being sentenced for helping orphanages. Both had been treated as disposable long before Chelsea arrived.

"But that's just what I'd do," Liam replied. A light knock sounded at the door. Chelsea moved to answer it, but Liam crossed the room before she could reach the handle. He gave her an annoyed look when he noticed her attempt.

"Sorry. Habit," she said. Liam opened the door. Kira stood on the other side wearing clothing Chelsea didn't recognize. The outfit fit her perfectly and looked nothing like the armor she had worn the previous evening. White fabric covered most of her body, with gold worked into the edges and across her chest. It carried a religious appearance without resembling priestly robes. Chelsea straightened and adopted her most dramatic voice.

"Sir Kira, it's a pleasure to have you grace us with your presence!"

"It's Dame," Liam corrected.

"She's a female knight, so it's Dame Kira." Kira's excitement faltered.

"You already told him, didn't you?" she asked, disappointed. Liam looked confused. His eyes moved from Kira to Chelsea. Gods bless this man.

"Told me what?" Chelsea gave him a knowing smirk. Then she looked toward Kira and tilted her head in his direction, encouraging her to share the news herself. Kira's eyes lit up again.

"Lord Commander, my mom used The Eyes and found out I have a new class evolution." Liam's eyes widened as he looked toward Chelsea in surprise. He was surprisingly good at this.

"What is it?" Kira could no longer contain her excitement.

"Knight Princess of the Holy Church." Liam furrowed his brows in disbelief.

"You're joking."

"Nope," Kira replied.

"I'm going to be a real princess."

"There's no such thing as a Holy Princess, though," Liam said.

"The class shouldn't exist."

"I know! I'm the first one," Kira replied. Her excitement only grew as Liam continued questioning her about the prompt. Kira repeated everything Chelsea had told her, while Liam tried to work through how the new class fit within the Church's established ranks. The conversation continued for several minutes before Chelsea decided to interrupt.

"Hey, what can you two tell me about the previous Empress? Whenever anyone talks to me for the first time, it's like they're terrified they'll upset me." Kira's earlier excitement disappeared.

"The Holy Empress of Purity," she whispered.

"Not many Empresses or Emperors are spoken of poorly. Many are beloved. Holy Empress Mary was not one such woman," Liam said.

"People attribute it to her class, but as you're well aware, your personality has a lot to do with your class."

"Right. Continue," Chelsea said. Liam took a moment to gather his thoughts. His expression tightened as he tried to explain the former Empress without openly insulting someone who had once ruled.

"She directed the Purity concept in a way that took the empire in a…" He trailed off, searching for words that wouldn't sound disrespectful.

"She wanted a cleansing?" Chelsea asked.

"Yes!" Liam seized upon the description with visible relief.

"Many of her ideals still exist today, including making living conditions difficult for nonhumans throughout the empire." Chelsea's eyes lit up with recognition.

"Like charging elves higher taxes when opening a dress shop and requiring them to keep paying those taxes after the shop is closed down?" Liam's silence answered before he did.

"You have some work ahead of you," he replied. Chelsea looked toward the closed doors leading to the elves' rooms. Rose's imprisonment hadn't been caused by a single cruel cardinal or an unfortunate misunderstanding. The empire had been built to place people like her at a disadvantage, and no one had bothered to remove those laws after Mary was gone. Chelsea woke Ivy and Rose, then gave everyone time to prepare for the day. Before leaving the domain, she instructed Kira not to evolve her class yet.

Chelsea had an idea, but she wanted to make certain it would work before explaining it. The group entered the hidden corridor and crowded into the elevator. It carried them down toward the Holy Knights' barracks and the mess hall they had visited the previous night. Once everyone had stepped out, Chelsea activated Call for Aid and summoned Freya. The Goddess of Battle appeared in the corridor and immediately focused on Chelsea.

"Oh, gods, I was wondering when you'd summon me again." Freya swept Chelsea into her arms and lifted her from the floor. Before Chelsea could respond, the goddess pressed her lips against hers. Chelsea forgot about the others for several seconds. She wrapped her arms around Freya's neck and returned the kiss, enjoying the familiar warmth after spending the night apart. Liam cleared his throat.

"Right," Chelsea said, pulling her head back slightly. She grumbled and rolled her eyes at the interruption, then leaned forward and kissed Freya one more time before the massive goddess finally lowered her to the floor.

"Freya," Chelsea said as she caught her breath.

"This is my new daughter, Kira." She looked toward Kira. The young knight stood with wide eyes and flushed cheeks, apparently unsure where she was supposed to look after witnessing the Empress kissing a goddess in the middle of the barracks.

"Dame Kira, this is my fiancée, Freya."

"Nice to meet you, Kira," Freya said, holding out one massive hand. Kira stared at it for a moment before placing her own hand into Freya's. The difference in size made the young knight look like a child greeting an adult.

"Nice to meet you too." Kira looked toward Chelsea, then returned her attention to Freya.

"You two were engaged before she became the Holy Empress?" she asked. Freya smiled.

"We were. She's an incredible person. I had to make her mine somehow." She laughed, while Chelsea felt her face warming.

"Okay, okay," Chelsea interrupted.

"Let's go eat."