Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 289 - Confronting On All Fronts - Part 1
"What were you thinking about taking Stella to that lab in Laria?" Sitting atop the Hestemian throne, Margarette began showering Fay with countless questions. "What the hell were you trying to achieve, Fay Rue? Did you even think about what Haruki would say when he returns? Evidently not!"
Slamming her fist on the armrest, Margarette tried to keep herself from losing sight of reason. The stunt by Fay had everyone enraged, most of all the people who were closest to the slime girl. And as the same attendants in the castle hall hurled their piercing gaze at Fay, she felt more than a bit threatened.
'Don't be intimidated, you didn't do anything wrong.' Fay told herself before speaking to the temporary council.
"I did what I had to prepare that body, now, unfortunately, it didn't work, but I only had good intentions," her answer, however, didn't carry much weight since the council had already made up their mind over Fay's crimes.
They cared not for the traveling merchant's reasoning, but only for the threat she forced Stella to go through. For all they know, they could've perished in the blizzardic storms of Larian land or perished to some monsters since Fay wasn't all too apt in fighting.
"And what do you have to show for your good intentions?" Asked the queen of goblins seated at the sides on a counselor's chair. "I don't mean to be stringent, however, it doesn't seem your secretive expedition bore any fruits."
Turning her head towards the queen of goblins, Fay scowled at the sight of her green skin. Not only had their relations worsened because of the tension since Haruki's death, but their hatred for each other was also growing further as they had begun to see everything through a racial lens.
"Mind yourself, queen," said Fay to the goblin queen, raising some eyebrows from everyone around her.
Stomping her lance on the ground, the queen of Arachne warned Fay with a razor glare. The tension rose further when Fay conjured her scarf wolves and let them slip down her shoulder to keep a watch on the queens. While she turned to face Margarette again, the wolves kept growling through their teeth to make sure everyone stayed away from their master.
"Fay, again, why did you do it?" Margarette asked, her patience running low.
Rolling her eyes to that question, Fay let out a scoff and even spun around on the spot she was standing on. Patting her sides, she let her hands fall back down as she looked right at Margarette again.
"I told you why I went there, to do what I had to!" She exclaimed, wearing a scowling grimace.
"And that included turning your daughter into a monster?" With the light from the windows retreating away, Margarette's eyes lit up a bright crimson red as she looked down at Fay in utter disappointment.
"A monster? In case you've forgotten…" Walking closer to the crimson queen, Fay moved over to the steps to the throne and whispered to her slowly. "We're all monsters."
"Is that so?" Getting off the throne, Margarette let the clanking of her heels echo through the room as she descended down the steps to the throne. Getting inches close to Fay, she placed her left hand under her chin and from her chin alone pulled her even closer. "When was the last time you saw Haruki experimenting on children? Or torturing them? Care to refresh my memory?"
A sigh from the sidelines broke the tense interaction between the two. Shifting their gaze in the direction of the sound, they were both looking at Riley slowly making her way towards them both. Getting closer, she pulled Margarette's hand off of Fay and separated the two by moving between them.
"Nothing ended up happening to Stella, and nothing will happen now that she's back here in the castle," glancing between the two, she nodded looking right in their eyes one after the other. "We'll worry about what kind of punishment or whatever happens once Haruki wakes up since it's mostly likely better to leave these things in his hands."
"I suppose that's been working wonderfully so far, leaving everything in his hands," shocking everyone with the comment, Margarette turned around and scaled up the steps again. Feeling everyone's gazes on her back, she was ready to intercept in case dare they try to rebut.
"What the hell do you mean by that Margarette?" Fay asked, squinting her eyes in disbelief.
Settling into the throne, Margarette was reminded of her time as the queen of Daria. Resting her hand on the armrest, she tilted her head to rest it over her palm. Peering right down at Fay, and Riley, her mind wandered through lost ambitions that she'd been so capable of conquering in the time Haruki's been gone.
"What do I mean, you ask?" Pressing her lips together, she wore a loathsome look. "Everything has gone perfectly so far without him, but the moment he returns all of a sudden we're not allowed to do shit and have to wait for orders even though he might not wake up anytime soon."
"Mother!" Riley yelled, knowing things would escalate too fast if she kept going.
"Am I wrong, Riley?" Margarette was visibly annoyed by her daughter's raised voice against her. "I know he's important to us, but without servant status, I can think much clearer, and following him blindly is what has led us to this situation in the first place!"
Stomping her staff on the ground as loud as she could, the queen of Arachnes moved forward with raging eyes. Walking in the very middle of the assembly, she held her staff pointed at Margarette before growling out her heart.
"Another word of blasphemy and I'll march my soldiers against you and not with you!" As the room sat in a moment of silence following the queen's words, the goblin queen set off her chair and joined the Arachne by standing behind her.
"We didn't come this far to be disappointed, unlike you, our children, our own flesh and blood died fighting these battles you've been mercilessly directly with no regard for their lives!" Reaching into her waist pouch, the goblin queen took out an advanced control ring for demons she'd been working on in secret. "Master is now a demon lord, something we, the monsters, were aiming to get him to be, and now you want to strip us of the benefits it's bound to bring?"
"Wait, both of you-" Holding her hand towards the queens, Riley tried to calm them down, however, the moment the ring was on the queen's fingers things turned a lot more serious.
"Wait for what? We didn't serve him because of some bond, we did it because we believed in his vision and the promise of safety," The queen of goblins growled, moving in front of the Arachne queen, ready to intercept any demons who try to do anything funny. "If that promise is no longer there, and you want to replace him, then you bet your life we're going to tear you apart for betrayal!" 𝚋𝚎ｄ𝚗ｏｖ𝚎𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖
Clicking her tongue, Margarette let her eyes burn into flames and sparing back out of her seat. Moving her hand over her chest, she ran her fingers through the fire spirit ring to rival the queen ring of control. Even if she tried to manipulate Margarette, the spirit not being a demon would defend its master from any threat.
"All I'm suggesting is that we carry our own burden rather than rely on one man whose competence as of late could be considered far more than questionable," enraged still by Moriyana's death, Margarette couldn't help blame herself as well as the man who brought her back dead. "After all, if your concern is safety and the continuation of your tribe, then would you not want him to prove he can be relied on without pulling us under his demonic spell as servants?"
Hearing Margarette's reasoning not so long after seeing Moriyana's body, the queens felt some truth in her words, and decided to sheath their weapons. The love had shattered with the loss of the servant status and now their master needed more than his likeness to prove himself to his people.
Reaching some level of agreement, the room fell silent once more, however, that silence didn't last long as a squeamish sound came from the doors. Opening by the weight of her new adult body, the gates gave in and sent Stella crashing headlong into the floor. Thankfully her body turned into a semi-solid before her head hit the ground.
"Stella, what are you doing here?!" Fay exclaimed, furiously rushing towards her daughter.
Even though she'd been caught listening, Stella kept her slime-form face pushed against the ground so she wouldn't have to face her mother. That ingenious strategy didn't last long as Fay took out a pair of gloves from her ouch that she'd made especially for times like these. Putting them on, she reached for Stella's ears and pulled her up without phasing through her skin.
"OW! OW! OW!" Stella squealed, acting like a child still.
"I told you to stay in your room, didn't I?" Fay complained, dragging her out of the room with her ears.
"Aunt Riley, save me!" She pleaded, but Riley simply looked away as it wasn't her place to police someone else's child.
'This is gonna end horribly…' Letting out a tired sigh, Riley hoped things would get better once Haruki was back on the throne as their master.
'She heard everything, didn't she?' The three queens, however, had someone on their minds. 'Master won't like what happened here, especially not with her listening to it all.'
Thinking along the same vein, the queens decided to dismiss themselves from the room and return to their duties. Riley too left soon after, but not for work but to make sure Stella wouldn't get in too much trouble with her mother.
In the time the events in the room transpired, Rose too had her handful from dealing with Merciella, and when two titans clashed there was bound to be fire.
