Charlotte

I tore through the forest, breaking my way through twigs and branches as I careened my way through the trees and towards the scream I’d heard. I didn’t give a damn about the dude I was on my way to save, but I’d still feel pretty terrible if he died as a result of me sending him off alone. Especially since I’d sort of been expecting this outcome when I did it. 

Thankfully, the asshole hadn’t wandered too far from us before running into the rat king. If I had to guess, the thing had probably been watching him and Ruby for a while before we showed up… probably waiting for the right time to strike.

“Get off me!” the douche screamed, yanking a rat off his chest and throwing it into the woods. More were already on him, though - clambering up his clothes, running between his legs, and just generally trying to trip him up and drag him down. They were everywhere, swarming a large patch of ground around him, climbing over each other in an attempt to get to him. Surprisingly, though, they didn’t seem to have bitten him at all.

If I had to guess, that had something to do with the big boy in the back - a rat about the size of a pitbull, with beady little eyes and a long naked tail that whipped back and forth through the air behind it. There was intelligence in its gaze, and glee when it saw me. It occurred to me a little late that the damn thing had probably been hoping more people would hear the idiot screaming and rush to help, using him as bait. As for why… Well, that probably had to do with the waves of rats that were now swarming out of the bushes and dropping out of the trees in a wide circle around me. Hundreds, if not thousands, of the things.

It was a trap. A clever one, too, by rat standards - or at least I assumed it was. I wasn’t actually sure how intelligent rats were? Possibly something to think about later when I wasn’t surrounded by swarms of tiny homicidal rodents.

“Oh, Goddess…” he muttered, finally seeming to understand the situation that he was in. “I’m gonna-”

“Be perfectly fine?” I interrupted, rolling my eyes. “Not that you don’t deserve a bit of a scare, but it isn’t like I’m going to let you die or anything.”

Even as I was speaking to him, electricity began to light up my right hand. Pointing a finger at one of the rats, I shot out a bolt of lightning, causing the poor thing to stiffen even as the bolt shot from it to the next rat, and the next, and the next after that, spreading through the circle surrounding me and homing in on the big rat that was leading the pack. Damn thing never stood a chance. Before it could even think about running away, its muscles were already seizing up from the electricity I’d sent pumping through it.

Of course, I couldn’t zap all the rats like that. Putting aside the sheer number of them, there was the small fact that a lot of them were kinda piled on top of the douchebag, and I didn’t exactly trust my control when it came to not letting it accidentally spread through him by contact. In fact, the vast majority of the rats went untouched by my lightning. I’d only hit enough rats to relay my blast to their leader, which meant that we were still pretty much surrounded even after said leader went down. That shouldn’t have been a problem, though. I mean, without a leader they were just a bunch of normal rats - they should have been running away from us, the moment the rat king fell.

So… why weren’t they?

It was at that moment that something rammed into me from behind, causing me to stumble forward. Rats jumped up from the ground to grab at the sleeves of my clothing, pulling me off balance and causing me to stumble to the ground where they quickly swarmed me. They didn’t let up, either, covering every inch of my body, their little claws scratching at me, their teeth biting, as they worked their way into my clothing to better attack me. I opened my mouth to complain, only to have a rat jump into it, wriggling down and trying to cram itself into my mouth.

It was trying to suffocate me. It couldn’t - I didn’t actually need to breathe - but the feeling of it in my mouth, trying to force its way down my throat was just… Ugh. I think I suddenly understood Mama’s vitriolic hatred and disgust of the vile things.

I considered clamping my jaw shut on the rat in my mouth, but I didn’t particularly wanna bite it in half. That sounded like a nightmare, so instead I used a bit of magic to expel it before clamping my mouth firmly shut against further intrusion. Pushing my hands against the ground I stood up - there was no way a bunch of normal rats could hold me down, after all.

Of course, there was a much bigger rat on my ass, literally, but even something the size of a dog couldn’t actually keep me down. No more than it could keep my tail from wrapping around it and flinging it in the air. It twisted, turned, and squealed, but as I stood I swung my fist straight towards its head and splattered the thing.

The rats froze, but just for an instant. Then they scattered, running in every direction. I considered zapping them, blasting every last one of them to ashes for the crime of having violated my mouth, but in the end only one of them was guilty. That one I still had hanging in the air as it desperately tried to escape.

“I should feed you to my bunny…” I muttered, glaring at it for a moment before releasing it. “Ugh. I don’t even wanna look at you anymore… scram.” 

The rat did.

Unfortunately, the dude I’d just saved didn’t.

“That was… You’re…”

“Incredible? Deadly? Cool and scary as fuck?” I supplied. “Yeah, I am. So get out of my sight before I decide to throw you into some other pack of monsters.”

“Wha-” he asked, blinking at me. “You’re going to just… send me away after that!?”

“Duh? I already saved your ass - there shouldn’t be anything else in the forest you can’t handle. Assuming you’re actually as good an adventurer as you seemed to think you were when you got the idea of leading my sister into a rat infested forest?”

“My buddy told me the rat thing was just a rumor,” the guy muttered, kicking at the ground. “And I didn’t… I mean, I thought maybe you and I could-”

“Nope,” I interrupted. “Not interested. Get going. Out. Away. Before I do to you what I did to that rat.”

He stared at me for a long moment, before sorta… deflating. “...Fine. I’ll leave. I don’t need your company anyway, I can easily get back on my own!”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, rolling my eyes and turning away from him. With luck, I’d never have to lay eyes on the asshole again. Though I could certainly feel his stare as he watched me walk away.

I heard him muttering, too. “…Stupid… can’t even thank someone properly after she saved your life… Maybe I should have apologized for being such a jackass? Now I gotta make it home on my own… Better pray to Liz that there aren’t any more monsters in the area.”

I paused for a moment, before shaking my head and continuing on my way. Like I’d said - I didn’t want to lay eyes on the man, again… but it probably wouldn’t hurt to keep an ear out for any additional screams, while I was in the area. 

***

Mikaela

***

“So, tell me again why you joined us in the air instead of bringing us down to the ground?” Singh asked.

“Because I felt like it,” I replied, fully aware of how lacking my response was. In truth, there was no logic to it - I’d simply leapt upon the opportunity to give my baby sis a piggy back ride. The girl was so difficult to pin down sometimes, even for a simple conversation! Yet if I were to say that aloud, she’d probably just give me a look of disgust and accuse me of lording my power over her or some such…

“Personally, I’m just enjoying the view,” Reckt supplied. “And I don’t just mean the treetops, ladies~.”

I shot her a look for that - as did Singh and Ruby. Secretly, though, I felt a little grateful for her for taking the heat off of me. I’d have to return the favor at some point.

“Hey, look!” Reckt exclaimed, seemingly unperturbed by our combined irritation. “Charlotte’s coming back!”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure what Reckt meant. There was no sign of her flying in through the skies. Then I saw it - a disturbance in the trees, the tops of which were trembling from the passage of something that seemed to be gracelessly barreling through their canopies.

“I’m back~!” Charlotte called out, bursting from the tree tops below us. “And with two dead rat king tails!”

“...Ew,” Ruby said, speaking for all of us as she wrinkled her nose at the sight of the two severed tails. At least they’d been cut clean off with a blade. Knowing Charlotte I’d been half afraid she’d just rip them off the damn things through brute strength.

“Wait… did you say two?” I asked.

“Yup! Guild gave us bad info again.”

“At least this time we’ll be able to make them pay for it,” I remarked coldly, eyeing the second tail. The request - and listed reward - had been for dealing with a single rat king, so surely there’d be some form of extra reward for dealing with a second one, right?

“You do realize you sound like the bad guy when you say it like that, right?” Singh asked. “I mean, making them pay for it? Seriously?”

“I… don’t know what you mean,” I replied, wishing I could banish the faint blush from my cheeks. Alas, while being a demi-goddess gave me a vast amount of control over my senses and sensitivity, it did precious little to help with controlling actual biological functions like that.

“Does it matter?” Charlotte asked. “I mean, she actually does have a point. This is the second time we’ve been put in danger because of the guild’s bad info.”

“Uh, hate to say it, but I really don’t think you were in any danger,” Reckt pointed out.

“…Well, no, but almost anyone else would have been! There’s gotta be some sort of accountability for that, don’t you think? Even if it’s just paying extra for damages!”

“...Do you even need money?” Ruby asked pointedly. “There’s no way your parents set out without riches, is there?”

“Well… We’re certainly rich in supplies, but… in terms of actual money…” I shrugged, helplessly. “It’s not as if the tower contains a vast treasury of human currency.”

“Plus, I’m pretty sure Dam thinks earning our own way is part of the point,” Charlotte remarked.  “I mean, it’s not like we’re in any danger from lack of funds. We’ve got food, clothes, tents…”

“And the ability to go home whenever you want,” Ruby pointed out. “You know, for family dinners? Or just to check in? Maybe leave a letter, so that random bards who are just trying to live their own lives aren’t turned into messengers?”

“Right…” I murmured, trying not to wince. I really needed to use my sendstone more. Though… “Couldn’t they have just sent us a message themselves?”

“Sure, but your Mama doesn’t wanna bother you, and she made the others promise not to bother you on her behalf, which led to my Mom deciding to take things into her own damn hands and assigning me this journey so that you can all have some proper communication!”

“Right…” If Aunt Chloe was involved then it made sense. Nobody was better at getting people into a room together to talk about their issues than her.

Which just left us with one final little problem. One my sister decided to bring up with all the tact she could be bothered to muster.

“So, do we trust Singh alone with Reckt? Or are we gonna bring them to meet Mama?”

“The Demon Queen?!” Singh demanded. “No! No way! No way in hell!”

“Yeah, I’m not sure about this…” Reckt replied.

“What do you mean?” Charlotte demanded. “You’ve already met her!”

“Yeah, but that’s back when I thought she was just my dam’s weird friend… Now I know she’s the Demon Queen!”

“Which is exactly why you’ll be meeting her!” I declared, deciding then and there to put an end to this.

“Wait, what?” Reckt asked.

“You heard me. Or do you think I’ll let your fear of Mama stand?” I asked, eyeing her cooly. “Quite frankly, I’ve had enough of you two shivering in your boots about one of the kindest, most caring people you’ll ever meet.”

“The Demon Queen?” Singh asked, clearly suspicious. “Devilla Satanne?”

“The one and only,” I confirmed with a nod. “Trust me - once you’ve entered her presence you’ll never dare to think of her the same way again!”

Somehow, that didn’t seem to reassure either of the two… Not that I particularly cared.

~~~

Author's Notes

Well, with chapter 19 finally finished, I went and poked FallingLeaf about editing 17 - many thanks to him for doing such a good job with it!

Not sure when I'll be writing chapter 20, but I think I'm at least mostly past my writer's block now so I'll be adding it back into the irregular rotation. (Posted a chapter of My Own Villainess today, so I'll be sharing this chapter with the public tomorrow I think.)