HNSW - Chapter 12 - A, like, Desperate Alliance

Lilussees now discovered…that hell had layers, for she had entered a new one. Her mother had gone completely insane after the important demon announced her as his fiancé or something. Her lessons with the demon increased dramatically, but that wasn’t the worst of it by far. Lilussees then discovered…that there were far worse demons, whose cruelty and malice could not be matched even by those she had already encountered. Whose sadistic pleasure in her torment were only matched by their cunning in devising ever new and more excruciating horrors.

What she wouldn’t give to poison these etiquette instructors.

And she tried, she really did. But the first demon remained alongside her horrid kin and used all the magic in her arsenal to defang Lilussees entirely. She was utterly helpless as the demons tore her from her beloved bed and dragged her into hell, where they forced her to apply unholy amounts of e-word into every, single, action. These monsters demanded e-word even in sitting still!

And all because of that stupid, evil, early-rising, e-word-loving important demon! Lilussees strongly considered killing him and being done with it. The consequences could hardly be worse than the torment he had already brought down upon her. If only she could determine what magical defenses he had in place and an effect means of applying the poison unseen…

Unfortunately, Lilussees had been deprived of so much sleep she refused to surrender even a single second of what she retained, not even to practice her magic or prepare for the assassination. Her only magic practice was under the watchful eye of the demon, who she could hardly let discover her plans. The evil demons truly had cornered her, she either had to cut her sleep of her own free will, or submit to their tortures for the rest of her miserable existence.

If only there was a way out of this predicament. Preferably one that would not result in death, either at the hands of the important demon’s guards or those of her mother.

Her only tiny glimmer of reprieve in the midst of this hell was her pillow. Her pillow was still allowed to accompany her, and they were allowed one tiny moment of sleep to account for her pillow’s physical condition. The sadistic demons wanted to deprive her even of that, but the demon fought them on it. Something about “social connections” and “faction building” and “avoiding complete sociopathy.” Lilussees assumed it was so that the demon could blackmail her into more e-word later, but she begrudgingly admitted the demon had at least given her a moment of sleep back. Lilussees would use a fast-acting poison on her for that.

And so it was that Lilussees clutched to her pillow one day, determined to wrest even one more moment’s rest from the claws of the devils haunting her. But, annoyingly, her pillow kept squirming around.

“Ugh, can you stop that?”

“Eek!”

Lilussees winced as her pillow screeched right into her ear. Her eyes shot open and she glared at her pillow.

“What was that for?!”

Her pillow’s eyes went wide.

“L-Lady Lilussees, y-you’re awake?”

Lilussees ground her teeth together.

“I can’t sleep with you screaming in my ear! What are you even doing?”

Her pillow stammered and her eyes went every which way. Lilussees held in a screech of her own. Was even her pillow going to betray her now?! Was every living thing in this hell determined to take her sleep from her?!

But then, her pillow burst into tears.

“Lilussees, I’m sorry!”

Lilussees narrowed her eyes.

“You should be! Do you know how little sleep I get these days?! Why do you have to keep me up too, Adelisees!”

But her pillow shook her head.

“N-Not that! I betrayed you, Lady Lilussees!”

Lilussees didn’t know what other betrayal could possibly eclipse interrupting her sleep. What she did know was that there would be no sleeping with her pillow wailing in her ear like that. So, she leaned forward, glaring at her pillow.

“Start. Talking.”

Her pillow’s sobbing only grew annoyingly worse.

“M-My father! H-He told me I have to betray you! I-I have to find your dark magic so they can call you a witch! I-I tried to tell him you’re not, but he wouldn’t listen!”

Lilussees frowned.

“Why would he do something dumb like that?”

Her pillow’s words came flowing out with her tears.

“H-He said we’re going to ruin your engagement with the prince and get your family punished! I’m sorry, Lilussees, I’m so sorry! I didn’t want to, I really didn’t! B-But…h-he’s going to punish me if I don’t…”

Lilussees was about to sigh at the stupidity of it all when she froze. Her eyes grew wide.

“Wait…he wants to…break the engagement?”

Her pillow was barely intelligible at this stage but she did manage to nod. Lilussees sat up and pulled her pillow up to, then leaned forward and stared the other girl in the eyes.

“What exactly did he tell you to look for?”

Her pillow hiccupped and leaned back at the intensity of Lilussees’s glare, her sobbing suddenly halting. She withered and her tears kept falling, but she answered with a tiny voice.

“E-Evidence of forbidden dark magic. Curses, or undead, or blood sacrifices or something.”

Lilussees began to mutter.

“Curses…not obvious enough. Blood sacrifice…too messy, too much e-word. Undead…hm…maybe…”

Lilussees stirred up her mana and called out to the spiders across her home, empowering them with her magic. One of them soon found what she needed and soon, spiders crawled into the room, pulling along a dead mouse wrapped in webs. Her pillow nearly screamed again when she saw it but Lilussees covered her mouth and shushed her, not wanting to subject her ears to yet another assault.

She then reached out with Dark mana. The demon hadn’t taught her necromancy, because of course that was very forbidden and not at all proper, but she had described it so that Lilussees would know what would get her in very deep trouble if she tried it. Something about creating a facsimile of a soul based off the remnants left in the body by the departed to restore a twisted mockery of life, then binding it with the ensnaring chains of dark magic.

That sounded like a lot of e-word, though, so Lilussees just bound the corpse with a web of dark magic. She twitched a finger and the mouse’s paw twitched. She suffused the mouse with dark magic so that parts of its body and its eyes glowed with dark power.

“There.”

She held it out to her pillow, who unhelpfully attempted to scream again. Fortunately, Lilussees caught it and covered her mouth in time, then glared at her.

“Hey, stop that. This is what you were looking for, right?”

She slowly removed her hand. Her pillow managed not to scream, but was now trembling violently.

“L-Lilussees…y-you’re…y-you’re…”

Lilussees sighed.

“A witch, or something? Sure. Whatever gets me out of this hell. Now take this and give it to your father, or something.”

Her pillow froze and glanced down at the mouse. She grimaced and then looked up at Lilussees, blinking. Lilussees frowned, tired of the e-word of holding the mouse up already.

“What? This is what you need, right?”

Her pillow’s face contorted in…what was the word…concern?

“Lilussees…a-are you sure?”

Lilussees nearly screeched. Just how much e-word was her pillow going to force today?!

“Obviously, or I wouldn’t do this!”

Her pillow frowned.

“B-But…you’ll be punished…and you’ll lose your engagement with the prince!”

Lilussees rolled her eyes.

“Yes! Exactly! Now take this and let’s go to sleep, while we still can!”

Lilussees had reached her limit and thrust the mouse into her pillow’s hands and then promptly dove down back into the pillows, shutting her eyes. Her pillow didn’t move, but Lilussees had already lost too much sleep on this conversation.

“…thank you, Lady Lilussees.”

She chose to ignore her pillow’s mutterings and drifted off to what sleep she could get, dreaming of her escape from hell…

***

Later that day, Adelisees climbed back into the carriage that would take her home. Once inside, she reached into the secret pocket sown into her dress and pulled out the mouse. She frowned, it was still extremely gross and unnerving to look at the mouse twitch with its glowing eyes…but she still looked at it.

This, after all, was her friend’s sacrifice. Lady Lilussees was giving up her engagement to the prince, the dream of every noble girl, her own reputation, and maybe even her life. All to…spare Adelisees pain?

Adelisees looked down. Could she really go through with it? Could she really ruin her friend’s life, even with her permission?

But if she didn’t…Adelisees began to cry once more.

But as she did, the carriage flashed with light. Adelisees’s head shot up and she glanced around. She was going to check outside the window, but then remembered she needed to hide the mouse in her hand first. She glanced down…and gasped.

“N-No!”

The mouse…crumbled into dust.

Author’s Note:

And we’re back with your semi-annual spider villainess story, as requested by Tsorov! That’s, like, the maximum safe dosage of silly non-bees, after all.

Ah, yes, Adelisees. Lilussees is definitely making a heroic sacrifice on your behalf. She definitely isn’t just taking the opportunity to escape queen lessons. She definitely isn’t reaching the critical levels of e-word where being punished as a witch is starting to sound appealing. She’s definitely a kind and selfless lady, noble in both heart and demeanor, and not a witch. Definitely not.

 Anyways!

Can Lilussees escape this new hell? Will Adelisees’ family save her from this torment? Who has dared to interrupt her plans? Tune in next time, to find out!