Chương 56: Chapter 54 - Demon Child with Orange Eyes

For what felt like the millionth night in a row, Bodarex did not visit her dreams. Chelsea lay awake staring at the ceiling, her thoughts drifting in circles. At first, she had been relieved whenever the god failed to appear. His presence was overwhelming even at the best of times. But now the absence bothered her more than she wanted to admit. Had he lost interest in her? The thought sat poorly in her chest. Technically, she already had what she needed from him. His blessing, his title, and him turning her older.

Yet somewhere along the way, their conversations had become something she looked forward to. That realization was weird. Chelsea shifted slightly beneath the blankets. Then froze. There was a strange sensation between her legs. Warm. Familiar in placement, yet foreign enough in this body that it took her a second to process what she was feeling. Her eyes widened instantly. Slowly, very slowly, she reached downward beneath the blanket. A hand. Not hers. Stuffed directly between her thighs.

It wasn't touching anything too risqué. Even so, heat exploded across her face, ears, and chest all at once. Chelsea turned her head toward the sleeping elf beside her.

"Ivy," she whispered. No response.

"Ivy," she repeated a little louder. The elf twitched slightly but remained asleep. Chelsea stared at the ceiling again for a brief moment as if hoping the situation might somehow solve itself naturally. It did not.

"Ivy." Her eyes finally cracked open blearily. For a moment she looked completely lost, still caught halfway between sleep and consciousness. Then she noticed Chelsea's expression. Then she realized where her hand was. Her entire body jerked.

"Shit." She yanked her hand back so fast she nearly rolled off the bed.

"Shit, shit, shit, Chelsea, I am so sorry." Chelsea immediately covered her face with both hands as nervous giggling escaped through her fingers.

"You have to know that wasn't me trying anything," Ivy said in complete panic.

"My hand was cold and apparently sleep-me decided that was the warm place to go." That only made Chelsea laugh harder.

"Nope. Nope. It's fine," she said quickly between giggles.

"Please let's never talk about this again. It didn't happen." Ivy looked horrified.

"Agreed." They both lay there in silence afterward for about three seconds. Then Chelsea started giggling again. Ivy groaned into her pillow.

"I'm going to die."

"Aren't you two cute in your little outfits?" Bea teased as she approached the table where Chelsea and Ivy sat surrounded by carefully organized stacks of guild requests.

"Are you really going to make us wait in line?"

"Nope," Chelsea replied without looking up. She slid a stack toward Bea.

"Top is for the lovebirds, second is for you, third is for Edgar."

"Yes!" Bea snatched the papers immediately.

"Still my favorite sister."

"I know," Chelsea replied calmly as she continued sorting through the remaining jobs.

"Adriane, how long until nine hundred?" Adriane glanced toward the large clock hanging near the guild entrance.

"About thirty minutes."

"Perfect. We'll be done way before then." Chelsea tapped the table twice to get the attention of her two students.

"Alright, you two. While I finish sorting these, I want both of you memorizing the first six letters of the alphabet." She pointed toward several sheets she had pinned up nearby with large letters written on them.

"Conveniently, they also happen to be the six basic guild rankings." Ivy leaned forward immediately with interest while Adriane looked significantly less enthusiastic. Chelsea handed them each a blank sheet of paper alongside a quill and small bottle of ink.

"I already organized the jobs by rank," she explained.

"Highest here, lowest there. I want you to write each letter over and over while saying the sound out loud. If your hand learns the shape and your mouth learns the sound at the same time, reading becomes much easier." Ivy nodded thoughtfully and immediately dipped her quill into the ink. Adriane, meanwhile, stared at the paper like Chelsea had personally insulted her.

"Why do I have to write it?" she complained.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just recognize them by sight?" Chelsea pointed her quill accusingly at her older sister.

"That is exactly why you have to write them. Reading is recognition. Writing is recall. Recall is harder." She smiled proudly at herself for the explanation.

"If you can pull the symbol from memory and reproduce it correctly, then recognizing it later becomes effortless." Adriane frowned at the page.

"That… frustratingly actually makes sense."

"Of course it does," Chelsea replied smugly. Ivy carefully wrote the first few letters while whispering them under her breath.

"A…" she muttered quietly. Then another.

"B…" She paused before looking up toward the papers again.

"Why do B and…" She squinted toward the next letter.

"E… look so similar?" Chelsea immediately smiled and pointed at her.

"Excellent question."

"You know the answer?"

"No idea," Chelsea admitted cheerfully. Ivy stared at her.

"Then can't you just change them?" Chelsea laughed.

"Unfortunately no. The alphabet is kind of established already. That would be like deciding fire should be called something else and expecting the entire world to agree." She deliberately chose not to mention that E and F were actually the most annoying pair. One crisis at a time.

"Miss Wixx?" Chelsea looked up from her sorting. A man wearing heavy plate armor stood nearby with a massive shield strapped across his back. Unlike most adventurers in the guild, he didn't look nervous approaching her.

"Yes?" She noticed Ivy and Adriane immediately lower their heads back toward their papers and continue practicing more diligently the moment someone approached the table. Chelsea hid a smile. The armored man glanced uncertainly toward the organized stacks.

"I was wondering if maybe…" He hesitated awkwardly.

"If I could possibly get a job now instead of waiting? I'd be happy to pay you for the trouble. I need a super fast one because i have do to something…. Later." His voice slowly quieted as she was gazing up at him. Chelsea tilted her head thoughtfully for a moment. Then she smiled.

"I'm very sorry, but I'm not assigning jobs quite yet," Chelsea said politely. The armored man's shoulders visibly fell. Chelsea immediately softened.

"Wait. Before you go, what's your role and rank?"

"Guardian and D-rank, Miss," he answered quickly, hope immediately returning to his voice. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Solo adventurer or looking for a party?"

"Solo." Chelsea nodded thoughtfully and began rifling through a nearby stack.

"You'll still need to wait in line," she explained, "but don't worry. I'll set the perfect one aside for you." Then she gave him that smile again. The one that seemed to short-circuit people's brains. The poor man straightened so fast his armor clanked.

"Th-thank you, Miss Wixx. Thank you so much." Chelsea leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice conspiratorially.

"Hey. Don't tell anybody." His eyes widened.

"Of course, Miss." He bowed weirdly formally before hurrying off toward the forming line. The moment he was gone, Ivy looked up from her letters.

"You know him?"

"Nope," Chelsea replied casually. She pulled one particular request from a stack and moved it a short distance to the side. Ivy stared at the motion.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"You just promised special treatment to a complete stranger." Chelsea continued sorting papers without looking up.

"All I did was move a job eight inches to the right," she explained.

"Now he thinks I personally helped him." She shrugged lightly.

"People remember things like that."

"That seems manipulative." Chelsea considered that for a second.

"…A little," she admitted.

"But it's also okay to just be nice to people." She grabbed another posting, skimmed it quickly… Then froze. The change in her expression was immediate enough that Ivy stopped writing entirely.

"What is it?" Chelsea slowly held up the paper.

"This says someone is searching for an orange-eyed infernal hellspawn child." Ivy shrugged.

"Okay?" Then she noticed the look on Chelsea's face. Adriane noticed it too. The older sister stood so abruptly her chair scraped loudly across the guild floor. She snatched the notice from Chelsea's hand, scanned it once, then immediately headed upstairs toward the guild offices without another word. Ivy looked between the sisters in confusion.

"What's going on?" Chelsea lowered her voice instinctively.

"I think it might be the other kingdom looking for me." Ivy frowned.

"I don't understand. What even is an infernal hellspawn?"

"The type of demon I am," Chelsea whispered.

"And…" She leaned closer.

"A week ago, I was an orange-eyed child." Understanding finally hit her.

"Oh."

"Yeah." Ivy immediately tried to reassure her.

"It could still be someone else. Right? Another demon child?" Chelsea wanted to believe that. Instead, she forced herself to continue sorting jobs. People were already forming a line near the entrance. Adventurers were depending on her. Panicking in front of them would help nobody. So she kept working. Fifteen tense minutes later, Adriane finally returned downstairs. Chelsea looked up immediately. Adriane sat beside her with a quiet sigh.

"It isn't Nordrak." Some of the tension left Chelsea's shoulders.

"Willow is getting one of the voice replicators for me," Adriane continued.

"But according to the information she has right now, the request came from a private party." Chelsea frowned slightly.

"Private?" Adriane nodded once.

"She thinks it may actually be a demon family. Based on where it came from. It arrived by messenger." Chelsea sat there quietly for a moment, another job half-sorted in her hands.

"We'll know more once we hear the recording," Adriane replied calmly. Chelsea nodded slowly and forced herself back to work. The remaining stacks disappeared quickly after that.

"Alright," she finally announced after setting the final request into place.

"I'm basically done here." She stood and stretched her arms overhead before unfurling her wings slightly behind her. Several nearby adventurers immediately looked over.

"Maybe get back to practicing your letters," she added while pointing accusingly toward Ivy and Adriane's papers.

"I'm going to go stretch my legs and wings for a minute. I'm not leaving the guild, so nobody panic." Chelsea did exactly that. She stood from the table and wandered toward the open area near the center of the guild hall while the line continued forming near the entrance. Since nearly everyone had gathered neatly into place, she finally had enough room to fully stretch her wings without knocking over furniture or clipping some poor adventurer in the face. That job posting still sat heavily in the back of her mind.

Orange-eyed infernal hellspawn child. Chelsea flexed her wings again, trying to physically shake the feeling loose.

"You can fix this, Chelsea," she muttered quietly to herself.

"That's what you do. You fix problems." When she glanced up, she noticed Henry watching her from behind the clerk desk again. The moment their eyes met, he straightened so quickly he nearly dropped the papers in his hands. Chelsea gave him a small wave. Henry immediately waved back with the awkward enthusiasm of someone who had just been acknowledged by royalty. Chelsea smiled despite herself.

"It's about that time," Adriane called from the table.

"Okay!" Chelsea folded her wings back behind herself and returned. The line ended up moving even smoother than she had hoped. People approached nervously, explained what kind of work they preferred, and Chelsea sorted through the requests with surprising speed. She asked practical questions too… travel range, party size, preferred combat style, tolerance for escort missions… and by the time each adventurer walked away, they looked genuinely excited about whatever task they had been assigned.

More importantly, they looked grateful. Chelsea noticed something else too. Ivy's brother and his usual group had deliberately avoided the line altogether. Well. Most of them had. One person eventually stepped forward near the end. Easton.

"You could've made several gold off this line alone," he said smugly as he approached the table.

"You're walking away from money. Funny, considering merchants supposedly worship the stuff." The four women lingering behind him laughed obediently like he had said something devastating. Chelsea looked up pleasantly.

"Good afternoon, sir. Rank and role?" Easton's eye twitched.

"You think you're funny, don't you, you little succubus bitch?" Chelsea slightly raised her voice while pretending to shuffle through the remaining requests.

"Your role is 'little bitch?' Hmm. Not familiar with that classification, but I'm sure we can find something appropriate." Several nearby adventurers immediately looked over, laughing. Easton's face darkened.

"Let's see how long you can keep this up," he sneered.

"Guild pay is only seventy-five silver a day. You can't survive off that." The women behind him nodded along enthusiastically. Chelsea blinked once.

"Oh. I'm not making any money from this." That actually caught him off guard.

"What?"

"All the money I earn doing guild work is being donated to a local orphanage," Chelsea explained casually.

"I'm mostly doing this because I needed somewhere quiet to teach my sister and assistant how to read." She smiled brightly toward the women behind him.

"Actually, have any of you been offered that opportunity? If not, you're welcome to join us. Lessons start every morning at eight." The women looked startled enough that Easton immediately snapped his head around toward them.

"Why would you give this away?" he demanded, turning back toward Chelsea.

"This kind of influence? This power?" Chelsea's expression softened slightly.

"And you think you deserve it?" The guild hall quieted a little at that. Chelsea continued sorting through papers as she spoke.

"I took this position because this guild deserves better than you." Her eyes flicked briefly toward the women behind him.

"Honestly, they deserve better than you too. They just haven't realized it yet." Easton scoffed loudly.

"You're still just a disgusting demon. You'll never have what I do." He gestured smugly toward the women behind him.

"You'll never find love like this." Before Chelsea could respond, Ivy spoke up from beside her.

"Miss Wixx is too kind to say it directly," she said calmly, setting down her quill, "but you're a small, insecure man hiding behind a djinn and a skill Miss Wixx surpasses in every possible way. If you genuinely believe you're superior to her, then you are not merely wrong. You are a fool." The volume directly around them lowered. Easton slowly looked toward Ivy. Then he smirked.

"The favored morale boost speaks." Chelsea's expression darkened immediately.

"Tell me, whore," Easton continued cruelly, "can she satisfy you the same way Chadwick did…"

"You piece of shit!" Chelsea snapped, shooting to her feet so quickly her chair nearly toppled backward. The sudden outburst drew immediate attention from the line. Two broad-shouldered adventurers who had just received separate B-rank requests stepped out of line for the clerk desk and approached. Chelsea recognized one as a Guardian from earlier and the other as some kind of heavy melee fighter.

"Everything alright over here, Miss Wixx?" the Guardian asked carefully. Chelsea never took her eyes off Easton. His smug expression made her blood boil.

"Everything is fine," she said through clenched teeth. Then her expression sharpened.

"Leech, you are never speaking to Ivy Leaf again." Easton's smile remained firmly in place.

"If you do," Chelsea continued, her voice dropping lower and colder, "I will call in every favor I have in this kingdom and personally dedicate myself to making your life as miserable as possible. Do you understand me?" His smirk widened slightly.

"We'll see." He turned and walked away. Three of the women immediately followed after him without question. The fourth lingered for half a second longer with an uncertain look on her face before Easton barked over his shoulder.

"Tali!" She flinched and hurried after the others. Chelsea slowly sat back down and grabbed both of her horns near the base, squeezing them in frustration as though physically containing herself.

"Thank you so much for checking on me," she said to the two adventurers. Then she gave them that smile again after taking a breath. Both men immediately relaxed.

"Of course, Miss Wixx." They returned to the line. Chelsea let out a long breath before turning toward Ivy.

"You okay?" Ivy nodded, though she looked unsettled.

"Yeah. He just…" She rubbed her arms slightly.

"He makes my skin crawl." Then Ivy glanced toward Adriane. The older sister was calmly continuing to practice writing her letters as though nothing had happened. Ivy looked back at Chelsea in confusion.

"She didn't do anything?" she whispered. Chelsea followed her gaze toward Adriane before answering quietly.

"It's not her fight. She's not going to step in and solve every problem for me," Chelsea explained.

"That would defeat the point." She took another steadying breath before nudging Ivy's arm lightly.

"Alright. Shake it off. We've got a meeting with a king in a few hours, and I refuse to let that scumbag ruin it." Ivy smiled weakly and nodded. Chelsea leaned back in her chair dramatically.

"I just really hope this king is nicer than the last one I met."