NOVEL WEB Chapter 115: Interrogation(?) and Homecoming
Amelia waited impatiently for the platoon to finish converting. The sooner they were part of the swarm and could explain what they were doing, the sooner Amelia could go home. So, she waited out in the courtyard where the platoon was converting, ready to interrogate them the moment they finished.
The fort’s defenders kept giving her nervous glances, but she didn’t really care. She just wanted to be done and with her lovers as soon as possible. So, she sat and waited, and eventually the platoon finished its conversion.
“Alright, who was in charge here?” Amelia asked.
“I was.” The woman who attempted to commit suicide with the mage said. “What do you need of me?”
“What was your game coming here?” Amelia asked. “I couldn’t figure it out.”
“Reconnaissance.” The woman replied. “We chose to bring a larger troop in hopes that we would be able to deal with any scout parties that came our way without losing too many soldiers. Though…it seems you found us well before we found you. How did that happen?”
Amelia stretched out an arm, and called for one of the owls to perch on it. “Birds. We have aerial views, and you can’t detect them the normal way because they technically haven’t been magically modified. But, back on topic was there any specific purpose to your reconnaissance? What would you have done if you actually encountered a scouting party?”
“If there was a purpose other than determining if everything was as we expected it to be, then we weren’t made privy to it.” The woman answered. “If we had encountered a scouting party, we would have killed them if the party was small enough, or fled if it looked like we would take casualties.”
“I assume you were part of some army, right? Care to give the details?”
“We were part of a cohort from the Sapphire Empire.” The woman said. “We were given no details on overall strategy, likely for this very reason. Our cohort had yet to meet up with any other unit, but we did set up camp a dozen or so miles away. We can show you the location if you would like to counterattack.”
Amelia shook her head. “That’s not for me to decide.” She said. “Take it up with the head of this fort. And…while I’m here I might as well give you remind you of your rights; I know some of you didn’t wish to fight your family and friends. As promised, you are free to retire and settle down in our territory, but if you wish to continue being a soldier, you will be added to the defenders of this fortress, effective immediately.”
There was a silence, and then the mage spoke up, hesitantly. “Can I sit out for just the campaign against the Sapphire Empire?” She asked. “Though I would like to help in this war, I do not wish to fight my countrywomen, and I do not wish to make a residence here when we will be liberating my old home soon.”
Amelia was almost surprised by how quickly the mage had acclimated to the way of thinking of the swarm, but that had been how she had built the swarm to function, she had just lost sight of it after most of her personal dealings had been with people who had much stronger wills. Even so, it still thrilled her to see her creation working as intended, and she couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“That is acceptable.” Amelia said. “We can find work suiting your talents, or you could remain part of the defense force of Aura or the Glens, if you wish to maintain a military lifestyle. Speak with the captain here and we’ll set something up for you.”
“Thank you.” The mage said, a relieved look on her face. “I’ll talk to her when we’re done here.”
“Well, we’re done here now.” Amelia said. “I have to get back to the capital and give my report to the Queen. I’m sure people will be here shortly to help you get settled.”
She didn’t allow time for a reply, teleporting herself back to her house. She didn’t bother announcing that she was home, everyone was likely asleep, so she was surprised when Connie exited one of the rooms, giving Amelia a big smile and rushing over for a hug.
“Welcome back!” Connie said in a hushed voice. “Everyone else is asleep, but I figured you’d be coming soon.”
Amelia happily returned the hug. “I’m glad you’re here.” She said. “I’ve been so lonely these past couple of days, and having someone welcome me back is…nice.”
“How was it?” Connie asked. “Did everything go well?”
“You’re a god, shouldn’t you know?” Amelia asked, giggling slightly.
“I was only keeping an eye on the general movements of troops, I wasn’t watching you every hour of the day.” Connie said. “I wanted to give you the chance to explain things to me.”
“You’re sweet.” Amelia said, walking Connie over to the living room and pulling her onto one of the couches. She took a moment to snuggle up closer to Connie, then continued talking. “It was a lot of sitting around and waiting for something to happen. And then, when we finally did encounter them, it was even more waiting while everyone geared up and made their way to where we sighted them.”
“That’s…a lot of what I do, actually.” Connie said, shifting so that she was leaning on Amelia a bit more. “When abnormal stuff like this isn’t happening, I hardly ever need to intervene with day-to-day affairs. I just watch and make sure everything is going according to plan, then talk with my church when I need to. Um…how’d the battle itself go?”
“Well enough. We had a significant numbers advantage, and I could see where it was going, so I intervened and made sure we didn’t have any significant injuries or anything. Seems it was just an actual scouting party with nothing particularly notable about it. They came from a relatively small force, but it seems the higher-ups are being pretty tight-lipped about information in general to the rank and file, so we don’t have much else to go off of. I’d be willing to bet that they’ll pack up camp the moment they realize those scouts are missing too, so…yeah, nothing huge gained.”
There was a soft click from down the hall, and a moment later Rose walked into the room, rubbing her eyes. “I thought I felt strong magic.” She yawned. “Sorry it took me so long to come out, I had to make sure Lia didn’t wake up in case it was nothing.”
“It’s fine.” Amelia said. “I wasn’t expecting you to be awake anyway.”
“So, how’d it go?” Rose asked, sitting next to Amelia and joining in on their cuddle.
Amelia smiled contentedly. “Good, I think. At the very least, I feel like we’ll dominate smaller-scale battles so long as we can keep up a good supply of monsters. We’ll have to look into ways to farm dungeons for troops.”
“We’ll make plans in the morning.” Rose said, resting her head on Amelia’s shoulder. “For now, let’s just catch up, okay?”
Lia awoke to the feeling of something being wrong, and, after a moment, realized it was because Rose wasn’t beside her. That in and of itself normally wouldn’t be enough to wake her, but she could vaguely hear voices in the very edge of her hearing, so she groggily got up, made sure she was dressed, then headed out of the room.
“What’s going on?” She muttered, emerging into the living room. The conversation ceased momentarily, then Amelia lit up in a smile.
“I’m back!” Amelia said happily.
Lia, still half-asleep, took a moment to process that, another to see that Amelia, Rose, and Connie were all cuddling on the couch, and a third to join them. “Welcome back.” She said, snuggling up to Connie. “How was it?”
Connie gave a little squeak, but when Lia pulled back Connie grabbed Lia and pulled her back in. “Just surprised, not uncomfortable.” She whispered.
“I’ll give the full rundown in the morning, but I think in small scale battles we’ll win almost every time so long as we keep monsters around our units. And we can’t expect a huge amount of information from people we convert, either, they seem to be keeping the rank and file pretty in the dark about war plans.”
“I figured as much.” Rose said. “It’s the smart thing to do, unfortunately. But…let’s talk about that in the morning, I want to just relax with you guys for now.”
“We could take this to the bed.” Amelia offered. “I’m rather tired, and I wouldn’t mind just going to sleep with you all.”
“I’m fine with that.” Lia yawned. “We’re probably going to wake Chrys up if we keep talking here, anyway.”
“That sounds nice.” Connie admitted.
“Bed it is, then.” Rose said, standing and scooping Amelia up into her arms. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty to talk about in the morning.”
Lia stood, grabbing Connie’s hand and gently pulling her towards the master bedroom. Connie let herself be towed along, and soon all four lovers were in bed, sleep already beginning to overtake them.
---
Lia awoke to the scent of meat cooking. Looking around, Amelia was still fast asleep in the bed, but Rose and Connie were nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, Amelia was clinging tightly to Lia, which posed a slight problem; Lia wanted to get out of bed and see what the smell was, but she didn’t want to wake Amelia after Amelia had been up so late.
She thought for a moment, then eventually decided that the best course of action was to cast a quick spell that would teleport her out of Amelia’s arms, hopefully disengaging herself without waking Amelia.
That hope was quickly dashed as an overwhelming force clamped down on her spell, killing it before it could even have a chance to resolve. “Mine.” Amelia muttered, hugging Lia tighter. “You’re not taking her from me.”
Had…had Amelia just countered Lia’s spell in her sleep? Yes, Amelia was the most powerful and knowledgeable mage in history, and she used magic as naturally as she breathed, but even so Lia couldn’t help but be surprised. It was such a…casual indicator of how large the gap in magical prowess between the two of them was.
While Lia was thinking on that, Amelia’s eyes opened. “What’s going on?” She muttered.
“Nothing.” Lia said, gently trying to pull out of Amelia’s grasp. “Go back to bed.”
“Not without you here with me.” Amelia mumbled, holding Lia tighter. “I don’t want to sleep alone right now. I’ve been alone too much lately.”
“Alright then.” Lia said, letting Amelia pull her back in. “You’ve earned that much, at least.”
“Mm.” Amelia grunted. “I could never be lonely before, and now that I can, I hate it.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad.” Lia mumbled, closing her eyes again. “If Rose or I can go with you next time, we will.”
“Thanks.” Amelia replied. The conversation died, and Lia soon found herself drifting back off to sleep.
She woke up to Rose gently shaking her. “Wake up you two.” Rose whispered. “Breakfast is ready.”
Lia yawned, opening her eyes. “You didn’t have to make breakfast for us.” She said. “But I appreciate it.”
“Connie and I wanted to.” Rose replied, smiling lovingly. “Do you two need more time to sleep? We can always preserve the food magically.”
“I’m fine to get up.” Amelia said, giving a yawn of her own. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, pancakes…the works.” Connie said, walking into the room. “I wanted to give Amelia a big welcome back.”
“Thank you.” Amelia replied, sitting up. “That…means a lot to me.”
“Then that makes it all worth it.” Connie said, a blush rising to her cheeks.
Amelia got up, walking over and giving Connie a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You’re too cute.” She said. “I’m really glad that you’re allowed to be here with us.”
Connie, growing even redder, nodded shyly. “M-me too.” She said. “You don’t know what it’s like up there right now, everyone is constantly debating and trying to argue for their side of things and it’s so, so tiring. I escaped to the Dimension of Discounts for a while, but after a bit people started coming to talk to me about things there. I still have to go back every once in a while to talk with people, but now I can spend most of my time here in peace and quiet.”
“Do they really talk that much about it?” Rose asked. “Surely they’ve exhausted conversation by now.”
“You’d really think so.” Connie sighed. “But it’s more…on an individual level, people going around to individual gods, repeating their arguments, trying to persuade everyone they can to their side. Honestly, I don’t think that it’ll really matter one way or the other how many individual gods are for or against the swarm, but being a god is boring, mostly sitting around and doing nothing, so for a lot of them it’s just something to do.
“I mean…I guess it will matter some, if everyone is on our side then we get a lot more wiggle room with the things we can do, but even if everyone but me is against us, it won’t end us. Jerry isn’t going to let them shut us down, and there’s nothing they can do to change that, not when Jerry’s like this.”
“Us?” Amelia teased. “You already consider yourself a part of the swarm, then? We could make that official, if you wanted, I doubt conversion would affect your mind much.”
“I…I’m going to have to pass for now, sorry.” Connie said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I decided that I’d do it when you guys manage to conquer this plane. There’s just…not much of a change for us, and it’ll complicate politics a lot. Conquering this plane is a big deal for the gods, and at that point I won’t be making any of our detractors more wary.”
“I’m just teasing.” Amelia said. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, not now, not ever. Like you said, I don’t expect it to affect you, so there’s no real reason to do it.”
“I-I know.” Connie replied. “I just…want to show solidarity. If we’re still in a relationship in the few years that’ll take, then I’m pretty sure it’ll work out, and I want to support you, even if only symbolically.”
“That’s sweet.” Lia said, getting up from the bed. “But you being you is more than enough for us. You’ve been cooking fantastic meals for us, and helping lift our spirits in all sorts of ways. You don’t have to go that far if it’s trouble for you.”
“But I want to.” Connie said, tapping her fingers together shyly. “It just…feels wrong to not if it’s been that long.”
“Connie, you’re cute.” Lia said, causing Connie to begin reddening once again. “I’m glad you decided to put yourself out there, you’re fantastic.”
“I-I’m just doing things I read are good.” Connie admitted. “It’s not me.”
“It’s one hundred percent you.” Rose said firmly. “I’m guessing you read those just to prepare for this relationship? You’re playing an awfully good housewife for someone without much experience.”
“W-well, it’s all I can do, really. I can’t help outside, so I have to make your life in here as good as possible.”
“There you have it, that mindset is exactly what I’m talking about.” Rose said, gabbing Connie in a side-hug. “Now, let’s talk over breakfast, shall we?”
