Mages Are Really Weird, Huh?
Mages are really weird, aren't they? The two of them stared at the puddle Serianne had left behind for a while.
The brief silence ended, and Eli spoke up.
"Shall we head to the magic tower first?"
"We can just go straight there?"
"Well, she didn't say when exactly to come."
"I see."
"Yeah, that's how it is."
They stepped out onto the street. Joining up with Karni, who had been waiting outside, the three of them arrived at a fountain in one of the capital's parks. It was a quick stop on the way to the magic tower—specifically, the Blue Tower—to take a breather.
As the sun began to set, painting the sky in sunset hues, Kairan spotted a blue-haired woman walking off in the distance.
"...Isn't that Lady Serianne?"
"Huh...? Yeah, it is?"
Blue hair, huge tits and ass, blue eyes. No matter how she looked at it, that had to be Serianne.
"I can sense traces of mana too. It's almost identical to Lady Serianne's."
With Eli's confirmation on top of that, it was settled.
"Lady Serianne!"
Eli waved her hand wildly and shouted at the woman they assumed was Serianne.
Then—
"Eeeeek!!!"
"Huh?"
Instead of the expected reaction, she yelped in terror and fell backward.
As they approached, she freaked out even more, her eyes spinning in their sockets.
"Lady Serianne?"
"I-I-I-I-I-I'm n-not...!"
"Ah, hold on. She's trying to say something, Lady Serianne."
"Karni, come here too."
With Karni joining them, the presumed Serianne's face filled with even deeper confusion. Her mouth hung wide open, eyes spinning wildly. She hissed like a cat and recoiled whenever they got too close.
They waited patiently as she stammered.
"I-I'm... I'm... Ahhh...!"
"Yes, we're listening."
"Eeeeek...!"
Eli giggled merrily, clearly amused, as she watched the presumed Serianne.
"This isn't Lady Serianne."
"...For real?"
"Yeah, I've met her a few times, and I've never seen her act like this. The mana feels subtly different too?"
"Maybe it's a clone or something? Like just now."
Kairan whispered to Eli, who nodded. Even before transmigrating, she'd seen plenty of people whose online personas clashed wildly with their real-life selves. She figured this was just another case like that.
A clone's demeanor couldn't possibly match the real thing's, after all. Clones were usually a bit more outgoing and proactive.
"I-I'm...!"
"Yes, yes, we're listening."
"I'm not your master! Clothes!!!"
"...Huh?"
Of course, what the presumed Serianne actually said was pretty shocking.
"You look exactly like her to anyone."
"Th-that's... M-my master and I just... kinda look alike. B-but? I'm not her. I'm really not."
"Then... who are you?"
"I-I'm N-N-N-N-Nia! ...Hic."
Introducing herself as Nia, she swallowed a sob and continued.
"I-I'm just running an errand for my master... B-but who are you? Friends of Master...? No. Master doesn't have friends. That masturbation addict couldn't possibly have friends. She only ever kept me around. Her tentacle fetish is a bit weird, but I'm the only one who puts up with it. She's my master. Mine."
"N-Nia?"
"Y-yes? Wh-what?"
Nia's eyes had gone blank for a moment. Kairan patted her shoulder and called her name again, snapping her dazed gaze back to clarity—though her eyes were still swirling like whirlpools.
"Could you guide us to the Blue Tower?"
"T-to Master?"
"Yes, Lady Serianne told us to come to the Blue Tower."
"Uh-uh... She's busy right now... No. Y-yes, l-let's go..."
Nia rolled her eyes around frantically as she stood up, hunching her body and bowing her head low.
The magic tower, known as the guild of mages, was a treasure trove of knowledge dreamed of by wizards across the continent. An endless research collective pursuing novelty through the invention of new hypotheses and the collective death of old ones.
Among them, the Blue Tower was a gathering of mages who primarily researched and wielded water-attribute magic.
"M-Master's upstairs."
"Got it, thanks, Nia."
"Eek...!"
Kairan smiled at her. Leaving the slightly blushing Nia behind, Kairan and her group knocked on the door to the Blue Tower Lord's chamber at the very top.
"Mmmph! C-coming~!"
A voice that sounded somehow urgent. After a short wait, the door flew open amid a clatter of noise.
"C-come in? You got here fast... Haah."
Heavy breathing. A flushed face and body slick with sweat. Scorching heat wafted right up to their noses.
"Something happen?"
"Huh? No? Nothing?"
Serianne was acting overly suspicious. She ushered Kairan and the others inside.
"...Smells."
"Ugh, it really stinks."
"Rude much?"
Eli and Karni wrinkled their noses in turn at the thick female musk filling the room.
"Anyway, you really do look like Nia."
"Huh? You met Nia?"
"Yeah, she guided us here."
"Ahh... That's why you got here so quick."
Serianne finally seemed to get it and glanced at the floor. Kairan instinctively knew that gaze was directed at Nia downstairs.
"Serianne, I've got a question."
"What is it, Saintess?"
"The carriage—that was you, right?"
Serianne grinned and nodded at Eli's question.
"Yup. Need an explanation?"
"Yes. Just a little."
"Alright, I'll keep it simple."
"—And that's how it happened. Got it?"
"No."
"Not at all."
"This?"
"Yup, figured as much."
Serianne's explanation had dragged on for about an hour. If this was the simple version, Kairan wondered what the detailed one would've been like.
As if expecting that, Serianne changed the subject.
"Oh, right—say hi to the temple elders for me later."
"Ah, the lich showed up?"
"Yeah. Good thing we prepared; it was close."
"Mmm. Did you catch the slime?"
"Of course~?"
Serianne shook a small glass vial on her desk. Inside, green liquid sparkled—wriggling faintly to show it was no mere liquid, but a slime.
"Swamp... slime...? You don't mean Gratos, one of the Four Heavenly Kings?!"
"Yup, who else?"
"Y-you caught a Heavenly King that easily...?"
Karni stared at the slime in the vial with wide-eyed shock.
"...We've taken down Heavenly Kings too, you know?"
"I can kinda guess how you and Eli did it, so. Eh."
"Way too harsh."
Eli pouted and poked Karni's side with her finger. As if beating a succubus queen was easy.
"Heh, heh heh."
"Oh, by the way."
"Hm?"
"When do you lift the illusion?"
......
......?
"Huh?"
Crash—!
Just after Eli finished speaking—a very brief moment. The short silence ended with a panicked shout from Serianne and the shattering scenery all around.
"What?!"
"Thought I wouldn't notice?"
"How...?"
The landscape shattered like glass or ice. Massive cracks spiderwebbed across the surroundings, fragments breaking off and vanishing.
What emerged was a gigantic slime, swinging green tentacles—and a woman caught in them: Serianne.
"I didn't notice at first. But midway through your explanation? The mana felt off. Wondered what was up, and turns out it was that thing."
"U-uuu...!"
"Feeling good, Great Sage?"
Kairan cautiously turned to look at Serianne, buried in the tentacle mass. The one who'd been chattering away moments ago had long since melted into a puddle. The real Serianne was bound in those tentacles, her holes toyed with relentlessly.
"H-haa, w-wait...♥ Hiiiyaaah♥"
"That's... a Heavenly King...?"
"Ooooh♥"
Karni looked at the former Heavenly King—now the Great Sage's fucktoy dildo—with utter pity.
"My dreams and illusions are shattering one after another."
"What'd you imagine the Heavenly Kings as?"
"...Just like the stories from when I was a kid. The gluttonous queen who devours all, Queen Slime Gratos. The incarnation of lust and nightmares, Succubus Queen Bellamorta. The lich craving eternal life. The cruel sword saint, Dullahan Rahatrik. Those four Heavenly Kings and the Absolute called the Maou. And the hero Ilhae who defeats them. You know the tale?"
"Ah, the propaganda fairy tale from early in the war."
Karni nodded glumly at Eli's words.
"Yeah. My dreams of the war ending quick got crushed as it dragged on... but the Heavenly King fantasies lingered. Especially the lich—her name was never revealed, so I swore I'd uncover it myself..."
"Mm..."
In truth, they'd known her name ages ago and kept it secret for political reasons—words that danced on Eli's tongue. Barely suppressing the urge to spill, she gently patted the downcast Karni's shoulder.
She'd been shocked enough herself realizing Lich Seraphila was Onahole No. 2 from the dungeon.
'Better keep this quiet; truth might just annoy her.'
Eli resolved to bury the fact.
"So, what do we do with that?"
"Ah, just leave it. She'll come down when she's had enough."
Kairan pointed at Serianne without missing a beat.