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Chapter 188 - For the Record
🕑 Added 2024-09-17 12:18:19 +0000 UTCHyperion.
Her new name is Hyperion.
Unsurprisingly, I had no trouble at all getting Izzy or Livvie to agree to help, since I still consider my former hero as part of my family. She’s been a good little sister.
Although her grim dedication to the thought of having to kill me to protect… I don’t know what, was both respectable and depressing.
Another strange emotion, of course. What’s the point of feeling sad or disappointed or whatever about things I don’t control? It makes no sense!
And yet here I am. At least she took my suggestion… although to be fair, I’m not sure she had any limit on her lifespan as one of my retainers (sort of) to begin with, or even from her race.
“What’re you thinking about?”
I glance at my little sister, her gleaming scales sharply reflecting the moonlight.
And emitting a great deal of light themselves. Which I suppose makes sense.
One of her Mantles is the Domain of the Sun. Ironic that of the gods close to me, one is the moon and the other is the sun.
“Not much. Just musing about everything that’s happened recently. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, dear.”
I reach across the table with a feeler and pat her head. Even now, as my proverbial equal, she reflexively leans into it.
…
Maybe I can find more dresses that work for her… with the shape of her new scales, I’m fairly certain the old ones just won’t fit anymore… especially considering they were made before she was even a nox draconis.
…
Dresses?
Oh.
Oh no.
I’m turning into Olive.
…Why do I keep calling her that? Her name is Artemis.
…
…
Maybe it’s just because of how long I knew her as my System Assistant and demure maid…
And lover…
…
I still wish I could feel those emotions for her. The memories… aren’t enough. I wanted them to be, and still do. But…
I don’t know what to do about it.
“What’re you thinking about now?” my garden companion asks, blinking her brilliant golden eyes.
She’s lighting up my entire garden. I’m sure anyone on my plane can see it for miles, assuming they don’t have the vision skills to see the rift high above us.
“Olive, mostly. And enjoying my time here. Oh, and possibly getting you more dresses if you want them.”
Hyperion blushes faintly. “I’m… not sure they fit me anymore… I mean, I’ve been a warrior or whatever for centuries now… I dunno if I can even do that anymore.”
“Well,” I reply with a light shrug, “we can always try it. You never know… I’m sure it’d still look fine on you.”
“I don’t mean looks.”
“Do I look good in a dress?” I ask, quickly changing into one of the fancy frilly sets that my fox wife dressed me up in not long ago. Dimensional storage is so ridiculously convenient!
“…”
She doesn’t respond for a moment, and then glances down at her juice. Despite everything, she still struggles to hold a teacup and can’t quite bring herself to enjoy tea or much of anything brewed.
Just fruit juice. Which is fine, there’s plenty of fruit on my plane, even if it’s probably strange compared to most other planes. Night blooming plants produce differently, and most of them are technically monsters to begin with.
“I’m literally a plane-eating monster. I’ve killed millions… or… well. A lot of humans. Mortals. And I still look good in a dress. I know you would too, have some faith in yourself.”
…
“Huh.”
“What is it?” she asks.
I rub my chin. “Well, I was just wondering. What happens when a god has faith in another god? Do they still get divinity from it? Does it transfer between them, or is new divinity generated from it? Maybe we should test it sometime.”
Hyperion gives me a partially confused look, and then looks down at her drink thoughtfully again. Then scratches her head, glances sideways to scrutinize some of the flowers, looks thoughtfully up at the rift, and then starts counting on her fingers and picking at one of her claws…
“Do you have any idea about it, then? I’ve never tested it.”
“Well…”
Ah. I recognize this, I’ve been here before.
“Nope! I have no idea!”
I sigh into my tea.
Yeah.
Some things never change.
***
“You’re still welcome to live here, you know,” I say as I lead my guest through the castle toward my reception lounge. When I’d rebuilt it, I’d done so without my usual divan, instead going with a pair of matching couches. I’m far more terrifying than I used to be, so even pretending to be on an even playing field would be beneficial to my interactions with my more ‘distinguished’ guests…
Or at least that’s what both Vivi and Tathra said.
Meanwhile, Omorth continues to simply follow silently behind me. At this point I don’t even remember what his personality was like before… he’s simply become a loyal knight in my service.
I wonder how much of that was Vivi’s training, and how much of it is simply the retainer bond.
No matter.
“I know,” my little sister answers. “But I have a home. Probably. If she’ll still let me live there, anyway.”
A quick telepathic conversation later I have her answer. “Yeah, Livvie is fine with it. Although I can’t help but think it’s a little strange that a sun goddess lives on the personal plane of a moon goddess, but that’s between the two of you. Maybe it’s just the image of it, I don’t know.”
…
I… bet she could actually bring the sun here…
But I’d prefer she didn’t. I’m comfortable here.
“Do you want the sun here? I think I could do that now, at least it feels like I probably could,” Hyperion ironically blurts.
Huh.
“Maybe not right now, sweetie, but I’ll think about it. Alright?”
“Okay.”
Actually…
I stop in my tracks, and instead redirect us toward the living quarters… more specifically the guest rooms, the ones not too far from my own bedroom. The ones where my other retainers live, probably in much higher luxury than most others on my home plane.
And then I pick one, a door behind which lies a room I know is unused.
“Here, I’ll tell you what. You don’t have to live here, but if you ever want to stay here, you can have this room. Think of it as a place for a change of scenery, if you just need something different for a while.”
She tilts her head, and then simply nods. “Okay.”
I smile back. “Good.”
…
“Can you teleport now?” I ask on a whim.
Hyperion rubs her chin as she follows me back toward our previous destination. “Nope.”
“Do you want to? I could probably give you something for that.”
Oh. I think that caught her by surprise. At least I’d assume so from how big her eyes got, before they were partially shaded by her deeply furrowed brow…
And she’s thinking an awfully long time again.
Huh.
“You don’t have to. If you want you could always try to will it into happening… Oh! Did I tell you about that? You’re a god now! You can will things to happen! Well, certain things anyway… probably related to your Domains… what are those again? The Sun and what else?”
“Uhm… The Sun, and War, and Vigi… Vigi… Watching for stuff!”
Ah, right. Vigilance.
That’s probably the reason why she’s Hyperion to begin with.
She wants to watch over me, to make sure I don’t do more things that other people would definitely regret.
Not me though. I still find it hard to care about most of it.
…
But I can’t really bring myself to care about that much either, that I don’t care about not caring, or… or I don’t know what.
I care about enough things. Enough things that actually matter.
Like my family.
…
…
Like my family.
I idly pull my little sister into a hug that she apparently wasn’t expecting from how stiff she suddenly goes, before eventually relaxing into and returning it.
“Don’t surprise me with that, you’re scary. I don’t know what you’re gonna do,” she quietly says.
I smile gently. “You’ll trust me again in time. I know you will.”
“Maybe,” Hyperion sighs. “Just maybe.”
***
After taking my youngest family member home the fastest way I know how, I return to my own.
…Not before setting up a portal connecting to her new room in my castle, of course; one not too dissimilar from the one I once had set up in Olive’s, the one neither of us needs now.
We can just go to each other whenever we want. Teleportation and teleportation-adjacent Skills and so forth are so convenient!
As I step through the rift, before I’ve even had a chance to completely close it, my fox wife is already in my arms.
Was she jealous? I don’t know. The feelings from our link seem at least a little jealous…
Or maybe envious.
…
I wonder how much of that is the Mantle of Envy. I didn’t realize just how much they can change a person until…
Until Izzy’s.
I’m not entirely sure why she still wants me to call her that. She doesn’t seem to like her new name much…
Either way. Her Mantle didn’t just change her. It changed me.
I’m not sure how to feel about that, but if nothing else it doesn’t feel bad.
Quite the opposite. Maybe that’s why I have trouble trusting it.
I wonder how much my own have changed me. I’ve definitely gotten more violent with the Mantle of Malevolence…
In a flash of her signature blue flames, Olive has already moved us both to the baths.
Our usual evening routine.
Relaxing.
Comforting.
…
Home.
It’s home.
