The next morning, Julius woke up to a rather pleasant sight. Eisha was sleeping soundly with him nestled in between her breasts.
Julius was pleasantly surprised. When he tried to move away in shock, he noticed that he was held in a firm embrace by his maid.
“...”
‘W-what do I do…’
Julius was a healthy young man so naturally, he had the reaction that any other young man would in this situation. However, he tried to suppress it because he treated his maid like a sister.
She was very precious to him and he didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize their current pure family relationship. Naturally, Julius didn’t know about what happened the previous night.
Eisha was already ready to take it even further, but Julius… well, he couldn’t be blamed. The young lady in front of him was the person who practically raised him. It was a given that he would treat her with the respect that a caring older sister like her deserved.
Julius was rather conflicted because Eisha’s pink cherries were right in front of him. If he moved forward even just a little bit, he could easily nibble on them. Light was able to pass through the fleshwall so the cave wasn’t completely dark anymore.
He respected her, but his temptations got the best of him. Julius moved in a little and carefully licked the cherry in front of him. He looked up to see if Eisha stirred at his actions but seeing as his maid was still soundly sleeping without any reactions, he moved in again.
He rolled his tongue around her cherry a few times before taking it into his mouth. He didn’t know why, but it tasted really good. He began sucking on it carefully, making sure he didn’t do it too hard that it would accidentally wake Eisha up.
Julius began massaging her other mound with his hand while occasionally pinching her n****e gently with his fingers. He rolled the cherry in his mouth with his tongue and out of passion, he sucked on it hardly.
“Ah!”
“!”
Julius immediately heard Eisha’s moan and quickly stopped. He looked up to see the maid’s teary eyes and immediately misunderstood.
“S-sorry! I’m so sorry Eisha!”
Julius stood up and sprinted outside. The fleshwall opened and let him through, leaving Eisha behind inside the cave.
“P-Prince!” Eisha called out. She released an exasperated sigh and mumbled, “Prince is too innocent…”
She looked down at her chest and smiled a little. There were plenty of red marks on her chest from last night. They were all caused by Julius. She turned around to find that the homunculus was by the hatchery feeding it something.
The hatchery, which was in a slightly withered state began to change back to its previous ‘healthy’ form.
Eisha was curious about what the homunculus was doing and when she subconsciously looked down at her butt and remembered what it did to her last night. It felt incredibly good but after remembering that it had injected her with something, she frowned.
“Surely not...right?”
“[Status]”
[Status
Name: Eisha
Race: Human (Fiend - 12.5%)
Level: 1 (0/1000)
STR: D+ (C)
AGI: D+ (C)
INT: D+ (C)
Skills: [Quick Step E], [Frenzy E]
Additions: [Fiend’s Zeal]
Condition: Healthy
]
The percentage on the fiend label next to her race had risen by a few digits. She was already informed by the collective consciousness that her body was slowly being transformed into that of a Fiend’s.
Last night, there was a long explanation during the moment when the homunculus had injected something inside of her. She noticed that after last night, her stats had risen by a minor grade.
No wonder she felt full of energy despite going through that exhausting ‘exercise’ last night. The collective consciousness also notified her that the changing process would hasten if the Fiend Lord, Julius, injected his life energy inside her.
Eisha sighed when she remembered this. Although she would very much like to be injected with Julius's 'life energy’ and enjoy the process of it, her Prince seemed to be of a different mind.
“Am I... ugly to him?” Eisha pouted a little when she thought of this. She stood up and walked over to the pool of water and looked at herself in the reflection.
She couldn’t objectively grade herself but she was indeed a beauty. She had a beautiful face and body. Any man would happily say that she was an attractive woman and the bastard who married her in the future would undoubtedly be a lucky man.
“Hmmm… I hope I’m okay...I don’t like the thought that Prince Julius might be taken away from me one day…”
Back then, this thought was something she kept hidden inside her heart. She dearly loved her prince and didn’t want anyone to take him away but with his status as a prince, eventually, he would have to marry a lady of similar status as him, a princess of another kingdom.
A maid like her could only become a concubine if his partner agreed to it and if not, she could only become the prince’s s****l outlet having no status whatsoever. Eisha had resigned herself to this but after her prince was banished from the Empire, losing his peerage and essentially becoming an outcast, which of course she thought was definitely horrible, however, Eisha was still somewhat glad because this gave her the opportunity to be with him without having to worry about the difference between their status.
She returned and picked up the mantle that was laid down on the floor, just as she was about to put it on, the homunculus came over and handed her something.
“Hm?”
The homunculus presented her with some kind of cloth that looked to be made from some kind of high-quality fabric. She didn’t know where the homunculus could have possibly acquired it but she took it and draped it over herself.
“Eh?”
The cloth immediately began changing in the next instant. It wrapped itself around her body and transformed into a simple dress. It was tight around her body but it was comfortable and not in the least bit restraining.
She smiled and thanked the homunculus who immediately turned around and walked back to the hatchery.
Eisha herself went to look for Julius. Thankfully, he was just outside the cave and hadn’t run off anywhere. He was staring into space and Eisha walked over to his side.
“...Prince?”
Eisha’s call made Julius turn to look at her. He had an awkward look on his face as he said, “Eisha...about earlier―”
“It’s okay Prince…i-if Prince ever wants to use Eisha’s body for anything―”
“Please don’t say that Eisha,” Julius cut her off and said. “I cherish you very much. You’re like a sister to me. So don’t say something like that.”
Eisha inwardly sighed. This was the barrier that Julius had set up and she needed to overcome it. She wasn’t disheartened though. Now that they were stranded together here in the middle of nowhere, she had plenty of time and opportunities to change his perspective of her.
“Eisha is sorry, Prince Julius. Eisha won’t say anything like that again,” Eisha apologized.
“Good…Now, we should get our priorities straight,” Julius seriously said. “We’ve found ourselves some water and shelter, now we need to look for food, but…”
“But what, Prince?”
“Look around us, Eisha. What do you see?”
Eisha looked around and only saw a vast expanse of barren lands. She couldn’t see any other color except brown on the land. There were no plants and certainly no animals anywhere as far as she could see.
“Nothing, right? It’s completely barren. No trees or grass, and certainly no animals except for those monsters hidden underground,” Julius sighed and scratched his head in exasperation.
Out of all the places they could have landed in after surviving from nearly being killed back at his Empire’s castle, he no longer had to worry about dying from swords and arrows. He had to worry about dying from thirst and hunger.
There was no way the water inside the cave was going to last them a lifetime. In fact, it could probably only last them a week or two. Thankfully, he had something that could help him.
“The power that I’ve acquired can certainly help us, but I can’t do anything if I have no resources…”
“What do you need, Prince? Let Eisha get it for you!” Eisha quickly volunteered. She wanted to test her new abilities. What better way than to test it while also being useful to her prince? Two birds with one stone.
“We can use many things, lumber, gold, metal ores, flesh, and blood… I know a good way to find some flesh and blood which is the most optimal resource that can create the buildings I need… but it’s a bit dangerous, especially since we don’t have a weapon on us…”
Julius turned and walked back into the cave. Eisha followed after him and the prince called out to the homunculus who was waiting idly next to the hatchery.
“Homunculus, come!”
“Yes, Lord,” It replied stiffly.
“[Objectives].”
[Objectives
Build 5 hatcheries (1/5)
Build 2 Creation Pods (0/2)
Build 1 Fiend’s Dwelling (0/1)
]
‘I was able to create a homunculus without a creation pod but at the cost of my flesh and blood… I need to create a pod so that I won’t need to use my body as a tribute to summon any more homunculi but in the state my body is in…’
It was hard for Julius to make this decision. The Creation Pod that spawned Homunculi required quite a bit of resource to create, not something he could shoulder using his flesh and blood. He looked at Eisha for a moment before immediately shaking his head.
‘I’d be an i***t if I used my most precious person as a blood bank…’
“It looks like we can only try attacking the monsters at night and take their bodies to use as materials.”
Eisha nodded and she felt motivated. It was time for her to show her skills. Her prince didn’t know, but she was ready to show it off. A normal human would have their stats range from E- to E+. Only trained warriors would have stats above that.
Fiends, however, had average stats like Julius, D across all his stats while D+ meant that Eisha had battle prowess that was at least on par with an average human warrior.
She wouldn’t be so helpless against the monsters that came out during the night. Julius, however, was quite perplexed. His stats were weakened because of his condition while he didn’t know about Eisha’s change. He worried quite a bit but the system reminded him of something.
[Hatchery’s energy at maximum capacity]
“Oh?”
Julius quickly walked over to look at the hatchery. He hadn’t taken a closer look before but it looked quite weird, like a bug’s egg sac. However, he remembered that Eisha had walked out of it completely healed.
“Eisha, homunculus, keep watch. I need to heal myself.”
“Okay, Prince.”
“Yes, Lord.”
Julius entered the hatchery by passing through the skin-like membrane. It felt really weird. When he passed through the skin he immediately noticed that it was full of some kind of liquid. Once he got inside, he couldn’t see what was outside since it was blurry.
The fluid inside the hatchery began filling up and he was soon engulfed. Julius struggled a little as he held his breath but once a little bit of the liquid entered his mouth, he quickly relaxed and fell asleep.
The healing process happened instantly. It wasn’t like Eisha’s since she had very severe injuries. Julius only needed to recover his unbalanced nutrition and the loss of his blood and flesh so the process was almost instantaneous.
Julius emerged from the flesh sac 2-3 minutes after he went inside. The energy of the hatchery fell to half after healing him. His clothes had also disappeared like Eisha, but the homunculus quickly brought over a similar piece of cloth and draped it over him.
[Status
Name: Julius de Ephalerith
Race: Fiend (Human)
Level: 1 (0/1000)
STR: D
AGI: D
INT: D
Condition: Healthy ]
Julius stood up after confirming his status. The cloth draped over him quickly began transforming. Unlike Eisha’s clothes which was a one-piece dress, Julius transformed into a loose, long-sleeved tunic and a pair of long pants.
It was easy to move in and comfortable on his skin. He couldn’t understand how the homunculus could make something like this, but he attributed it to the homunculus’s innate transformation ability.
He just didn’t think they could permanently transform an object. Also, he was curious where the homunculus even got the piece of cloth from.
“Finally, much better...I don’t feel so weak anymore,” Julius said as he clenched his fist.
“Alright, since I’m feeling a bit better, let’s try something. [Create Construct: Creation Pod].”
After he said this, Julius designated the area just next to the hatchery. He didn’t know how much blood and flesh he lost this time, but it was rather significant that his fully healed body immediately felt weakened again.
“Agh…”
“Prince!”
Eisha quickly stepped forward and supported him. Just like before, a small orb created from Julius’s flesh and blood formed in the air before it suddenly expanded and transformed into the Creation Pod.
It looked similar to the hatchery except that the pod was hanging from the ceiling with a fleshy gray cushion at the bottom.
Eisha and Julius both looked at the newly constructed building in a mix between awe and confusion. The two couldn’t understand how the building was able to form magically like that. It was different from any magic spell they knew of.
“Eisha...I feel weakened again. The hatchery’s recovery effect only works once its energy levels have completely recharged. I need to rest right now so please go ahead and do whatever you want. Just promise me that if you do go out, you won’t go too far from this cave…”
Eisha nodded and said, “Don’t worry prince...I’ll stay right here if you’re that worried…”
“I’m not trying to restrict you Eisha...Anyway, make preparations and find something, anything, that we could use as a weapon. We need to kill at least one monster tonight…”
“System? Nevermind, I’ll try and find something, Prince. Can I take the homunculus with me?”
Julius gestured at the homunculus and it immediately walked next to Eisha.
“Take it. If you run into anything dangerous, don’t hesitate to use it as a shield and abandon it…”
Julius prioritized Eisha’s safety above anything else. Naturally, it would be better if they didn’t run into any problems.
Julius went back to rest inside the cave near the pool of water after he took a long drink from it while Eisha and the homunculus set out to see if they could find anything in the barren wasteland.
Although it was barren, the fact that monsters still lived in the Shifting Hallows testified that it wasn’t completely barren at all. At the very least, there was something here in this deathly place that could sustain the monsters and let them thrive.
Julius hoped that they could find any sign of that and although he really wanted to come with her, Julius knew that with his body’s current condition, he’d just be a burden. He couldn’t even stand properly at the moment.
He also found out that 1 unit of resources was equivalent to one kilogram or liter of said resource. He had basically lost a kilogram worth of blood and flesh. Plus the after-effects were really unpleasant so he’d rather not have to use himself as a tribute to pay the resources needed to construct the system’s buildings.
Eisha and the homunculus had already left he was staring at the seemingly dormant homunculus Creation Pod and noticed that one of the flesh sacs embedded on the sealing began to wriggle and soon enough, the sac dropped down onto the ground and landed on the gray cushion below with a sickening splat.
Julius quickly stood up from his resting position and walked over to the Creation Pod. On the gray flesh-like cushion, he quickly found the broken flesh sac, and inside it curled up in a fetal position was a human―no, a fiend.
However, unlike the one Julius made using his flesh and blood, this homunculus didn’t have a face. It only had a head with a mouth on it with a long grey tongue sticking out of it.
It slowly stood up and turned to look at Julius who was slightly creeped out. To his surprise, it was actually able to talk.
“Lord, what is your command?”