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V2 Chapter 18: Reports I

The trip back to the ship was uneventful. Mostly because everyone had passed out. Even for the short trip over to the human ship. Sevs made himself stay awake. Even though he knew it wasn't exactly necessary, he still felt responsible for watching over his people. Maybe a lasting influence from Father.

He knew that Father was a system creation, but the way they had parted made it feel like it didn't really matter. Still, he hoped that part of the system persisted in some way. That Fathe...

Chapter 74: Ramping Up

Bee spent the morning reading through more books, trying to find as many ways as she could to awaken the demon when it was as weak as possible. Progress was slow, and she was getting frustrated.

There was no logic behind it, but she was having trouble staying focused. When reading about alchemy recipes, she lost track of time and could spend hours pouring over the instructions or reading about theory. However, demon properties just made her eyes glaze over.

Looking down, she figur...

Chapter 73: Immaculate

I didn't have anything to clean.

I had faced this issue repeatedly over the last few nights, but now the realization was hitting me in full. It was a difficult idea to process. It wasn't just that I had other, non-cleaning activities to get to, such as interpreting the humans written language. The floors were immaculate, the furniture was straightened, and even the lower sections of the wall were freshly dusted. No, there really was no productive cleaning that needed to be done.

I...

Chapter 72: Hazardous Waste

I stared at the towering heap of blackish-brown filth that stood before me. How something so disgusting had managed to pile so high unnoticed. My sensors moved upwards towards the ceiling and registered a bunch of small, furry black shapes. Eyes blinked open, and looked down at Beatrice and me.

The little beady black eyes blinked at semi-random intervals, creating a cascading pattern of winking stars above us. One of the creatures unwrapped what appeared to be wings around itself and th...

V2 Chapter 17: Homeward

Idly Soshal started swapping through the different feeds on the screen, seeing if they could get a good view of the borders. A view from the outer hall filled the screen as attack ships similar to that of the Tarlaki landed at a few points on the hull of their new ship. Sevs winced as they cut holes into the side of the ship. Still, he understood why it was necessary.

The enemy will likely be waiting for them at the hangars. He also didn't have time to take the ship slowly; the longer t...

Chapter 71: Workload Optimization

Harold sat on his horse as he watched the brigade march out of the capital's gate. He wasn't exactly happy, but he supposed this was as good as he was going to get. The report from the adventurer team had not been followed up with a more detailed report. He could only assume that the two remaining members had not been able to get away. This had worked against him in some ways and for him in others.

He had managed to convince the king that they needed to send troops. With the looming war...

Chapter 70: Clean Words

I supervised Beatrice as she spent several hours containing the fire elementals. It was fun to just hang out and clean together. Well, it was only sort of cleaning, more like fixing things. I had never been much of a handyman, but it was a lot more enjoyable than I would have ever thought. Perhaps I needed to expand my repertoire.

As we finished binding the last of the elementals, I noticed that Beatrice was starting to slow down. She was taking longer to speak, and her hands were much ...

Chapter 69: Nice Floors

Bee spent some time sorting through and inspecting all the alchemy equipment. So far, she had been making do with her small kit and whatever glass equipment she could get from the kitchen. She had thought about trying to use some of the metal mixing bowls and other tools. Still, the books had emphatically warned her about anything other than glass.

Searching through the cabinet, she saw all the equipment listed in her books - proper measuring tubes with better tolerances than flasks, va...

V2 Chapter 16: Escape

With the rest of the team doing their best to do the jobs of a dozen different positions that they had no experience in, Sevs didn't have many options. It wasn't always a good idea for the captain to leave the ship, but he had no delusions that he could be a captain as he was now. There were really no orders to give and nothing that he couldn't trust Soshal to handle.

Slipping through the pillars blocking the elevator off from the command pedestal, he ran to Robert's side. The doors had...

Chapter 68: A Step Up

Bee went with her master to check on the Lieutenant. Upon arriving, she found the black room spotless, as always. Her master did seem to like cleaning this room. It was perhaps the one that got dirty the most frequently; the castoffs of a powerful demon like the Lieutenant were nothing to scoff at. Also, she figured it probably helped Void keep watch.

She was hesitant to get very close. The statue seemed like it hadn’t moved at all; it still stood in its cage in the same position with...

V2 Chapter 15: Stranded II

It was a bit of a conundrum. They're in a formation, so if Sevs had them leave, the other ships would surely be wondering what was going on. He also didn't just broadcast out a message without having it be at least known to the rest of the Tarlaki that he was sending a message using their ship. That would be quite suspicious.

The risk was the other ships all around him would start firing at them. He wasn't sure about ship capabilities here, but the concentrated fire of all the ships wou...

Chapter 67: V is for Vacuum

I followed Tony and Beatrice as they left the library. But they headed for one of the nearest smaller bedrooms. When we got there, I watched with a mixture of horror and interest as they removed a mattress from the bed. I didn't know beds worked that way. Did they just destroy the bed, or are they disassembling it? What are they doing with it? Amidst my confusion,they carried it back to the library together and set it down on Beatrice's charging spot.

Oh. It dawned on me. Beds were the ...

Chapter 66: Cleared Up

"You're pulling my leg, right?" Tony chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "How much of that was actually true? I mean, you almost had me till the whole stairs thing."

Bee ran a hand down her face. She was well aware of how ridiculous her story sounded. And the worst part about it was that Void had devoured all the proof. His cleanliness had made it really hard for her story to be corroborated with any demon or skeleton remains. After all, who would believe a story about a teenager figh...

Chapter 65: Coming Clean

Bee was horrified. First, Tony gave Void pats like a dog, then he called it cute? He didn't seem to notice her expression, though, as he was too transfixed with Void. Tony leaned down close to examine Void more closely. He reached out like he was about to cradle an adorable kitten. Bee began backing up to give them some space. She didn't want to be any more involved in this than she absolutely had to.

Bee feared an eruption like the last time Void had seemed angry when the thre...

V2 Chapter 14: Stranded 1

Soshal quickly ran up and started fiddling with the screens on the command dais. Sevs wasn't sure what she was going to be able to do. However, it only took a second. "We need to find the captain. His uniform should have an insignia that looks like…."

Sketching a symbol in the air, Soshal sent them to dig through the enemy's corps. While Sevs and Jason got their hands dirty, she refocused on one of the other terminals. After flipping a Tarlaki over, Jason looked over at Bexy, who was ...

Chapter 64: Cooped Up

Bee greeted her master. She found that she had honestly missed Void during the brief time that she had been gone. Tony followed her inside a second later. Glancing at him, she supposed it was time for introductions. "Tony, this is Void. The other one staying here in the castle with me. Void, this is Tony."

Tony looked up to the top of the stairs and saw Void waving its claw and beeping excitedly. He responded by staring in utter bewilderment. Uncertainly, he looked back down at Bee. Sh...

V2 Chapter 13: Counter Attack V

Jason managed to speak jovially despite his situation. Sevs took in the four members of the squad as he dove for cover. The room was a wide semicircle with arcs of desks facing the windows at the front of the ship. Each ring was lower than the inner one before it. Sevs and his team had come out in the middle of the flat section. There were a few lone pillars blocking the captain's chair from being directly visible from the entrance.

It seemed to be a good security feature as it stopped ...

Chapter 63: Home Sweet Home

As they made their way to the castle, Bee formulated a plan to explain the situation to Tony. He had gotten quiet after seeing the smaller girl’s little demonstration. Quiet enough that they just walked along in silence for the next 10 minutes or so. Eventually, he seemed to have processed his thoughts. "So what have I got myself into?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure I know why all of the other inhabitants of the castle ran away. And it wasn't because they were called somewhere else." Bee was...

Chapter 62: Acceptable Deviations

Bee went to bed exhausted. It had been a long argument, but in the end, she was pretty sure that she had won. At least she had gotten them to keep the purse of coins, as stubborn as they were about returning it. But despite the supposed victory, she was still on edge about it. Bee made a mental note to check her bag in the morning. She wouldn't put it past Mary to try to sneak it back in when she wasn't looking.

Amazingly she had a room all to herself. Granted, it was rather cramped, bu...

Chapter 61: Dust in the Wind

I continued to play along with the cat’s pursuit, content to just work in silence. It wasn't the same as having a companion like Beatrice to help me actually do the work, but it was nice in its own way. Though honestly, Beatrice was about as helpful as the cat. I know she tried, but the amount of cleaning she actually managed to get in was easily offset by the amount she got in the way. The only material contribution was her ability to clean surfaces that I couldn't reach. Now with my contr...

V2 Chapter 12: Counter Attack IV

They all waited as the lift came. There was a suspicious lack of enemies trying to attack them as they waited. So much so that Jason actually commented on it.

"Yeah, I know," Sevs responded. "They want us to go into these lifts. There is either going to be a trap in the lift or when we get to the top. Unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice."

Right as he finished speaking, the elevator dinged, and they all filed in. The first thing they did was shoot at the cameras in the co...

Chapter 60: Running Amuck

Of course, the family didn't take the coins without protest. But it was a fairly feeble one, and soon she was able to press the sum into Trent's hands. Still, she managed to keep their pride intact in the process. Arguing that she had already received too much of their hospitality and couldn't take food without paying for it. Perhaps she was being cynical, or her father's business sense had rubbed off on her more than she thought. Still, she felt like she was using the skills he had tried to ...

V2 Chapter 11: Counter Attack III

The landing was a rough one. Their ship clunked into place, and it felt like a claw had grabbed them. The ship swiveled around quickly, and the door slid open without warning. It led to a small, empty room that looked like a staging room. Sevs was thankful for small mercies, but they had to work under the assumption that they were being watched by some sort of camera system and they would need to move fast.

Robert and Carl led the charge out. They checked the corners as they exited the ...

Chapter 59: A Bounty of Crumbs

Bee followed Tony into the house. She hung back, a little wary of stepping into the flurry of people scurrying about. The noise was slightly overwhelming to her after so much time alone. Though she wouldn't have been used to it even before her stay in the castle. Her father had been well off enough to hire a cook, so this chaotic preparation for a family dinner was something new.

Dinner was meant to be an uncomfortable affair with stern looks and boring adult conversations. More of a tr...

Chapter 58: Charging station

It was getting dark by the time the small gathering of huts came into Bee's view. The trail didn't lead directly there; instead, it led into a huge clearing in the forest and just kind of stopped. In the center of the clearing were small squat buildings with thatched roofs, but all around were fields growing crops. The trail took her a quarter of the way around the clearing before she found a clear path through the fields where she wouldn't trample over any crops as she approached.

It ...

Chapter 57: Sleep mode

Despite the amount of work I had to do and my newly set goals, there were still a lot of emotions I was trying to process. More than I was used to. I wasn't used to being worried about a human. Normally, I wouldn't give something as small as my human going out a second thought. At times, all the humans in my previous house had left for days, even weeks. They hadn't even left the television on to keep me company, yet I had never worried about it at all. I tried to take solace in that as I thou...

V2 Chapter 10: Counter Attack II

Gruesome task finished, Jason and Sevs turned to rejoin the rest of their team. When they got back, Robert slid down the wall to the inside of the planning ship as Jason took a spot. Sevs was carrying both the arm and the cards and brought them to the two women working on the controls.

Bexy took the forms of identification from Sevs. "I think we have an idea of how this works. Granted, I have never heard of anyone ever flying an enemy ship. But the system wouldn't have put cards on the...

Chapter 56: The Road to Salvation

I was still trying to figure out what I thought of Beatrice going to find help. I had several issues with it, actually. First, it meant she'd be going outside. Outside near the castle, that was reasonable since there were apparently helpful things, but farther than that would be dangerous. Who knew how much dirt would be there and how many other violent mess makers? Plus, every bad human I ever met came from the outside.

Second, who knows what kind of "help" she'd end up with? Based on...

V2 Chapter 9: Counter Attack I

Sevs had the crew form up in the hallway slightly off the main corridor. First things first, they needed to find a landing point. So, carefully and quickly, they moved. They all moved towards the corridor bordering the hull of the ship. Resistance was slim. It was clear that the enemy was aware of the ships coming to my house as much as they were. They only ran into a few small squads, which they had no problem taking out. But the first point they found where a landing ship had breached their...

Chapter 55: A Crummy Situation

Bee did her best to search for eggs while the chickens ate. She was lucky enough to find several that weren't too covered in droppings and filth. However, she had no way of telling which ones were fresh and which were not. She supposed she had two options: either leave them and let them hatch or collect them all, toss them and then wait for new ones to be laid. Though looking at how quickly they were cleaning up their feed, she wasn't sure how much food the chickens would require daily. Also,...