Jack, the Elder, and the three other members of the party stood in the Dungeon Lobby, staring down at the bag with the humanoid form in it.
"So you're saying that there is an elven princess inside that bag?" Jack's brow was raised, as he nudged the bag with his foot. Judging by the size of the being in fetal position, they had to be around the same height as Runa.
"Mmmf mm mMm," a muffled voice continued to emanate from the rough looking bag in front of them at their feet on the floor. Clearly unpleased by being nudged by someone's hard toed boot.
Runa stared at the bag for a few moments before looking over towards Jack. "Why was a Princess hidden under a wooden panel at an Inn?"
"Apparently she had been sent to the Village to administer Humanitarian Aid... Instead it seemed it was a ploy to eliminate her." Jack turned his eyes towards the Catfolk Elder who nodded in affirmation. "They probably kept her for other... Things..."
"How Quaint..." Nakajima commented with a shake of their head, leaning against the wall, one shin crossed over the other.
"So this was done because she was the Thirteenth Child and the Thirteenth Line of succession?" Runa asked as she looked over at the old humanoid looking cat, raising a brow.
"Yes," The Elder presiding let out a sigh. "Sun Elves believe the number alone will bring chaos to the country, Thirteenth Children are usually killed at birth, sacrificed."
"There's a Sun Elf in the sack…?" Jack wasn't to anxious if it was a Sun Elf in the sack. Their lore often indicated extreme arrogance and elitism.
"No, the Royal Family of the Imperium are Moon Elves, as least they have been for the past two hundred years or so..."
Hearing the Elder say this, Jack let out a sigh of relief. He already had enough with the Moon Elf even though she didn't seem to be actively trying to annoy him.
A Sun Elf probably would trigger their own death flag...
The Elder chuckled at this, probably understanding the pain that Jack was anxiously wanting to avoid.
"Then she's already stopped growing," Runa knelt down in front of the bag, lightly laying her petite hand on the top of the princesses head. Based on the game lore, female Moon Elves only reached up to five feet, males only five foot five inches. Wood Elves were half a foot smaller than them.
Sun Elves however, were capable of growing to six feet in height, being one of the tallest Elven species to evolve in the Game World, and probably this one was well.
The Elder looked over Runa who had almost saintly white skin, but it was clear there was an icy blue hue present. So this was a Moon Elf as well? "Hmm..."
Jack joined Runa, squatting down in front of the bag and undoing the tied end. The moment he did so, he caught a glimpse of black hair. It looked as if it had been cut with a dull blade, much like the man he had seen before, with several split ends.
"Mmmm!"
Jack's head lulled forward, his chin pressing against his chest as his hand reached into the bag. His thumb rested under the Princess's chin, his fingers grasping at the back of her head and her jaw.
With a light tug, he brought her out of the bag, as she lay rested in a fetal position.
Her arms, legs, torso were all covered in bruises. She had been stripped of her clothes and her short pointed ears looked like cauliflowers as if someone had sat there and repetitively clapped them with their hands.
She had the athletically slim build of a dancer, perhaps trained as a ballerina. This made her buttocks and bosom small and tight. Based on the degradation of visible muscle tone, he had to say she hadn't been regularly exercising for about a month or a little less.
Jack objectively looked over her, taking in all the details. She had plenty of welts in both her private areas, and common places. It was clear she had been sexually abused and used. She was looking up at Jack in fear as he looked human with his wings folded away.
Soon enough he could hear her whimpering, as he removed the improvised ball gag putting her, she started putting her fingerless hands over her head. The bitter smell of piss filling the air.
Runa's eyes couldn't stop staring at what she saw, the state of the Princess, it was horrifying.
Visual Evidence of physical and psychological torture, excessive anal abuse and humiliation was right there before them. The fear of men, people in general. No one present from the world known as Earth had seen this before. Her digits had been removed, her hair
This girl here, she had survived a fate worse than death.
"Bluh..." Nakajima lurched forward, dryly heaving at the sight.
Jack would gently move his hand from her neck, to the top of her head. Stroking her choppy hair. "Shhh..." He sounded as she weeped, casting the spell known as『Master Heal』, her digits returning to her, all the damage except the cutting of her hair was reverted.
Slowly the girl stopped weeping, her malachite green eyes stared up at him, the man that fixed her. Yet she didn't move, still frozen by the fear of him and the others present.
Then that's when his holy arctic white silvery wings spread behind his back. All six of them, embracing her sight. Her eyes would widen and she would let out quiet grunts, her hand reaching out for his wings as they illuminated everything in a pale glow.
Fear turned to calm, her weeping resumed, but not because she was afraid.
She had been saved. She had been saved by an Angel. A real angel… Beings thought to not exist in this realm at other than in the scriptures of religions and fables.
Choking on her own delightful sobs, she went silent the moment she felt his hand around her throat, surprise in her eyes.
Was she going to die now? Was he going to be merciful and kill this young Princess?
No, she didn't feel her air ways being constricted. Almost masterfully, with the gentle touch of his hands, he swept her body across the floor and soon felt her back pressed against his soft holy robes.
His wings curled inward, as if the shield her from the natural flame-lit lobby she found herself in.
Seated between his legs, facing away from her savior, the Princess's big green eyes stared at the statue upon the altar which loomed over them all.
"Runa," Jack turned his head to look over towards the party member, "Do you have any extra clothes in your inventory?" He was pretty direct about it, holding a hand out to her.
Runa blinked a few times, having witnessed his actions.
The Elder, who was also watching, was rather intrigued on how the Angel was holding the girl. It seemed protective almost, but it didn't seem done out of consideration, but more of an automatic response. "Hm..."
Shuffling through her inventory, "I should still have the blue and white Hemp Mage Tunic from the tutorial." Runa would finally respond, taking out a scratchy looking piece of clothing.
It was framed in blue dyed strips of hemp cloth, over a silver-white base.
The Princess's eyes seemed to get even wider at the sight of one of her fellow Moon Elves taking out a piece of clothing from what seemed to be from a void of nothingness.
The tunic was about four feet in length, though once it passed the length of the torso, the sides were squared open, somewhat similar to a slitted dress.
She blinked several times seeing the tunic, before it was suddenly shoved over her head. The Princess squeaked loudly and almost flailed until her head was pulled out through the collar of the tunic. Panting, she looked at Runa, trembling as her eyes burned from the salty tears.
"Are you going to be okay?" Runa asked as she fixed the tunic a bit, tucking the flaps under her bum which was on the cold floor.
Just touching her in places such as that seemed to trigger the Princess, causing her to suddenly start screaming her head off.
Jack's hand would strap itself beneath her Jaw, quickly silencing her, mercilessly. He could feel her trembling and her muffled screaming from her throat resonating against his hand.
"Jack! Don't do that!" Runa shouted before finding herself falling on her rear as he flexed his wings, sending a moderate gust of wind at her. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but just enough to make her lose her balance. "Hey!"
"Be quiet," Jack retorted as she looked down at the Princess in his arms. "You going to stop?"
She jolted her own head back, resting her scalp against his torso, her malachite hues looking right through him with her soft arched brows furrowed straight. "...Yshhhh..." When she answered as best she could as her teeth were forcefully clenched together, her jaw was freed.
"Good," Jack uttered quietly before standing up, dragging her to her feet.
For the first time as the girl looked down at her feet, all ten toes were there. When she looked at her hands, bringing them a foot away from her face, she had fingers.
A faint smile across her lips, she closed her eyes as her arms fell to her side. Turning to face him, her gaze was directed right at his chest before she looked up at his face. He was an entire two feet taller than her. Those wings outstretched, their complete wingspan being twice his size each.
"What is your name?" Jack inquired, staring at his reflection in her eyes.
Her eyes flickered to one of his eyes, to the other. "Vivi," she spoke quietly almost subserviently as she felt his fingers trace her round face. She could tell his touch wasn't affection, they had just met. This touch wasn't admiration either, though she could see the softness behind the layer of apathy in his eyes. He was evaluating her worth, the Imperium tried to kill her, but all the same she was royal blood.
『Appraise Character』Jack would cast, his eyes flashing green for a moment. This Elf was level ten, her attributes were all in Intelligence and Wisdom. She had no brawn, no muscle. Useless in combat situations unless trained in magic, and from what he could see, she wasn't.
It also seemed that Royalty, of the Fae Imperium, forsake their surnames.
Other than her name, her blood, Vivi had no use.
Unlike Runa though, her skin was a bit of a darker blue, but still considered pale. If compared to a stone, she had a hue similar to shattuckite, a pleasantly bright blue copper silicate hydroxide mineral.
Runa, and the other three party members, also used『Appraise Character』and almost cringed. The girl was even more useless than themselves, taking the same notes as Jack did.
Pinching her chin between his thumb and index finger. He drop his thumb towards her mouth, almost as if conditioned, she opened her mouth to receive his finger willfully.
Jack frowned, it appeared as if she had lacked self-worth as well. It was hard to see her as royalty, unless she be a puppet or toy of his own. His eye twitched, slinking his hand away from her chin and pressing a finger to her forehead, causing her to gasp in surprise.
"Wha-what're you..."
She didn't get to complete her question when suddenly he cast a spell,『Divine Fealty』, which would cause a golden circlet to appear around her head with a sacred stone embedded with in it.
Divine Fealty was a spell used by Divine-aligned player races in the Game World to forcefully subdue willing and unwilling lower level NPCs into their 'household' should they want to collect pre-made unessential ones that roam the world. On the upside, they could be heavily customized later on. This spell could be used on weakened stronger NPCs as well, even non-dark aligned Dungeon Bosses. It kept their personalities intact, but added an unspoken loyalty into the algorithm of their central processing program.
When used on monsters, it essentially made them pets.
It also allowed NPCs to surpass their original bottleneck limit. If a NPC species could only reach level fifty, they'd be able to reach level one hundred under the tutelage of a player.
In the game, Child NPCs were immune to this, as they were protected by the magic system itself.
Due to the Divine Alignment of the Subjugation spell, certain buffs would be present such as Experience Boosts, a constant Divine Ward and if taken into battle, they gain Experience through their master's victories. Essentially making them a loyal party member.
The power behind the constant Divine Ward depends on the level of the caster who subjugated the NPC. It would protect them against simple melee and projectile attacks, but also Dark-Aligned attacks.
It also allowed for remote resurrection via spell or magical item.
Jack would lower his hand from her forehead, the circlet vanishing from view of others as he did so.
"Did… Did you just swear the Thirteenth Moon Elf Princess under you?" Runa asked rhetorically, flexing her eyelids at Jack before looking over towards Princess.
Monotonously, he gazed over towards Runa, wondering if he could do the same to the other players in this world. "Yes. I did."
Though before he let himself try it out on them, he seemed to doubt it would work on them as their minds might be protected from it. The last thing he needed was to be judged for practically assaulting them.
Vivi blinked a few times, as if she had just been spaced out and glanced around the room. "What.. Just happened?" Her green orbs wandered the room before focusing back on Jack.
"Welcome to the Party," Jack flicked her nose, causing her to instinctively cover it with her hands followed by a relatively surprised squeak from the action.
Vivi raised puckered her left eyelid, raising the opposite brow, confused. "...Party?"
Jack turned his eyes towards the Elder Catfolk, who took a step back.
"This Old man will pass this one's offer," the Elder seemed to chuckle nervously.
"If you prefer… I would like your people to guard the entrance of this… Lobby."
"Lobby?"
"It's an entrance to a Dungeon. Sacrificing an item to the Altar..."
"A Dungeon!?" The Elder stared at the platform in front of the statue, seemingly knowing what it was. "They've been appearing across the Continent for the past millennium!"
"Has anyone ever come out of them when they appear?"
"No… Why do you ask?"
Jack nodded slowly, as that answered a thought that was aching at the back of his mind, about other possible players being here. Apparently that was not the case, they could be the first or even the only players that will ever appear here.
"No reason."
The Elder squinted his eyes at the winged being in front of him, not believing those two words.