Busted

Leaving Endora’s mobilization to Maya and Hollie, Seth went to Aleena’s room, where he found her lazying around on her sofa, holding a book.

Aleena felt the space rippling nearby and placed the book she was reading on the table, resting her back on the sofa, and smiled at Seth.

“You finally remembered to come to see me?” she asked teasingly as she watched Seth approach.

Seth smiled as he sat down next to her, moving a hand around her neck and pulling her to rest her head on his shoulder.

“It’s just one of me and so many of you girls; how am I supposed to split myself to spend time with all of you while also making sure this world won’t crumble upon itself?”

Aleena wrapped her hand around Seth’s body, nodding into his shoulder.

“I understand. I was teasing, hoping to get you to spend time with me, but if you’re busy, the books are just as good company as any. I also need to catch up with the rest in cultivation, so I have ways to keep myself busy.”

“That’s exactly why I came to see you. What do you think about going on a trip with me? Just the two of us.”

Aleena perked up and lifted her head, staring with shining eyes at Seth’s face. “For real?”

“Yes. I need to search for someone, and having you around might be handy where I’m going. That and the fact that we didn’t get to spend that much time together after, you know what...”

“I want to.” Replied Aleena with a quick nod. “Where are we going?”

“Cursed Kingdom. The Guardian of Earth, Panther, had left her physical body in slumber and returned her consciousness to her core and seal to keep the horrors there at bay. We need to find her and ask her some questions.”

Aleena kissed Seth’s cheek and ran straight to one of her drawers without saying anything. On her way there, she carelessly started removing her clothes, and by the time she reached the drawer was left buck naked.

After searching through her partitions, she started pulling out clothes after clothes, turning around in a completely different outfit in a few moments.

Her upper body was covered by a white top just long enough to cover her belly button paired with a brown leather jacket.

She wore tight black shorts and no stockings, exposing her long silky white legs. After tying up her long green hair behind her back, she smiled at Seth and asked: “What do you think?”

“You know you could have told me, and I would have made you the clothes myself?”

Aleena pouted and sprinted back at him, jumping into his arms and allowing her braless beasts to press against his chest. “I had Pearl make this long ago, specifically for our first adventure together. Can’t you say you like it?”

“I like it?!” muttered Seth, looking at her big puppy eyes from above.

“Could have been better, but I’ll take it.” replied Aleena with a big grin before asking: “Are we leaving now?”

Seth nodded and lifted himself from the couch with Aleena still hanging on to him before placing her on her own two feet. “Let’s go have Henri taxi us to Curse.”

After Aleena moved a bit further away from Seth, he teleported them both to Henrietta, who broke space next to the capital of Curse, allowing them both to teleport there immediately.

Since Seth had yet to learn where he could find Panther, he figured asking around the capital might point him in the right direction.

After they walked out of the space tear, Seth changed into casual clothes to match Aleena, and they both stopped to stare at the capital ahead.

“Why is it so… medieval looking?”

Seth understood where Aleena’s question was coming from, Curse’s capital being much more underdeveloped than places like Oath and Endora.

Starting to walk side by side with Aleena towards the main gates, Seth began explaining what Maya had told him.

“From what I know, after Leona took over the place, the entire population of the kingdom had fallen sharply, reaching about two-tenths of what it used to be.”

“With all the changes happening, their queen didn’t want her people to feel like they didn’t belong and asked Endora for more time so that her people could adapt as they regrow their numbers.”

“Maya has decided not to put too many restrictions upon them and allowed the queen to make her own decisions. The queen had made some comfort changes here and there but decided to let her people mostly decide how they want to live.”

Before even reaching the entrance, it could easily be seen that the capital looked more like a large rural town in the Empire than a city. There were fewer people in the Curse capital than in any other capital city, and they chose to live in wooden houses compared to towering apartment buildings. They also kept their old dressing style, usually wearing clothes made out of animal furs.

When they reached the two guards posted at the entrance, Seth and Aleena stood out from the ordinary citizens immediately, but the guard seemed used to visitors and still approached them politely.

“What is the purpose of your visit to our capital?”

“We’re ascended from Oath and looking for information about strange happenings in the Curse Kingdom.”

“Strange happenings?” repeated the guard approaching Seth, turning towards the other one, who shrugged his shoulders to show he didn’t know what Seth was speaking about either.

“Could you be more explicit?” asked the guard.

Seth pondered momentarily before saying: “Odd people appearing out of nowhere, asking for things, pestering others, and sometimes even… well, killing them if they didn’t receive what they asked for.”

A knowing look appeared in the guard’s eyes, and he exclaimed: “Oh, you should have said you’re here to see the fiends.”

“Fiends?” asked Seth with a raised eyebrow.

“They are exactly what you described them to be. Apparently, they have been roaming the lands of our Kingdom for a long time, but no one ever cared about or noticed them until Queen Andrea took the throne.”

“Her highness had called them the Cursed Fiends and had created a set of laws on how to interact if ever approached by them. Since sighting reports must be filed by law so we can have people avoid the areas roamed by them, you should be able to find more information about them at the guardhouse, but take it for me: It’s better if you don’t. Others have been coming here out of curiosity, never to be heard from again.”

Seth nodded and thanked the guard before asking for directions toward the guardhouse and proceeding to enter the capital with Aleena.

“It looks like this might be easier than we expected.” muttered Aleena, looking disappointed.

“Leora should have informed that queen of the horrors locked in here, and she tried to find a way to stop it from feeding on her people. Not a bad solution, too bad that the more they starve, the more active they will become….”

“That queen? You don’t know her?”

“Never met her. Leora was in charge of this kingdom, and I never had the time to visit.”

“Want to go now?” asked Aleena with renewed excitement. “We can keep pretending to be simple ascended looking to help; she might have more information.”

“We’ll see after visiting the guardhouse. If we don’t find what we need there, we could pay her a visit, but I doubt it will be so easy without revealing our identities.”

After arriving at the guardhouse, Seth and Aleena used their identities as Endora ascended and quickly gained access to those sightings reports. Since their sheer numbers were nothing short of overwhelming, filling an entire room, Seth asked for the ones in the last two months and used the system to skim through them quickly.

“Anything?” asked Aleena after Seth placed down his last report.

“Maybe. The horrors mostly appeared around the border with Pain, meaning that the horror in pain might be looking to break out of its cage.”

“Does this mean we won’t get to see the queen?” asked Aleena with a pout.

“Why do you want to see this queen so much? You’re pretty much one yourself.” Asked Seth.

Aleena lowered her head, fiddling with her fingers and rubbing the back of her hand in embarrassment. “I thought that if we tell her we have a way of dealing with the Curse, she might give us a quest to do so. I always wanted to receive a quest from a king or queen...”

Seth barely managed to contain his laughter, but as Aleena appeared even more ashamed, he sighed and nodded: “Fine. I’ll try to get an audience with the queen, but they will most likely decline. Since we can’t afford to waste too much time, if we can’t get one right away, we’ll just leave, okay?”

“Really? That’s enough.” said Aleena with sparkling eyes, and Seth just grabbed her hand, dragging the giddy girl towards the guard that allowed them entry to the reports.

“Excuse me, but how long will it take to get an audience with the queen?”

The guard, a tall woman with a stalwart look on her face, frowned at Seth’s words and said: “It’s Queen Andrea, not the queen. Also, you need a reason and to first issue a formal request for an audience.”

Seth turned towards Aleena with an ‘I told you so’ look, but Aleena ignored him and bowed before the guard.

“I apologize for my companion’s rude words; he’s more of the brawn of the party. We’ve been sent here to end the fiends plaguing the kingdom under Her Majesty Empress Maya of Endora’s orders. Can you please let Her Highness Queen Andrea know we need an emergency audience?”

The frown on the guard’s eyes eased up, and she gave Seth an unfriendly look before saying: “I’m sure Her Highness will be more than happy to help you if it means ridding the kingdom of those fiends. Can you two head for Her Highness’s quarters while I send someone to announce your arrival?”

“We will. Thank you very much.” Replied Aleena with another bow, dragging Seth by his hand past the guard.

After they exited the guardhouse, Seth raised an eyebrow and asked: “Did you just call me stupid?”

Aleena giggled before shaking her head and burying her head in his arm.

“Not exactly. After you antagonized the queen, I just needed to place myself on her good side.”

Seth sighed while rubbing her head and didn’t comment on that. He was just happy to see her smiling and having fun.

The palace stood out in the same way Aleena and Seth did in the capital, being a tall building made of concrete and even having multiple floors.

Besides the guardhouse and the palace, they only noticed a handful of other buildings that seemed to have been built according to the Empire’s modern techniques. If Seth had to guess, he figured the queen wanted the people to understand that technology and change were not necessarily bad.

While they were staring at the queen’s quarters, the guards at the front approached and invited them inside, informing them the queen had agreed to grant them the audience.

After walking a long corridor, the same guard led the duo to a large room with only an oversized couch, an armchair, and a table inside. On the armchair, an old woman was sitting with a small smile plastered on her face.

After the door opened, she raised her eyes which widened briefly when they landed on Seth and Aleena before turning towards the guard. “You can leave us.”

“But, Your Highness…”

“Don’t worry, Neil. If the Emperor of Endora wanted to kill me, I doubt you could stop it.”

The guard turned around with an astonished look toward the duo, dropping to knees shortly after, while Aleena immediately pouted.

“And... we’re busted.”