'I can't believe I would spend my only momentary relief form the sea by working so closely to it!'
Midday all the saints went out to examine the landscape to ensure there would be no casualties in the coming battle. Though they could resurrect them, it would be pointless if any or all pieces of their corpses were washed away.
They were saints, beings blessed from gods not omnipotent. They cannot create things out of nothing. They could bring back the dead if only all of their parts are there.
Waves crashed on the beach Claudina was walking on. 'Ugh! Just…don't look at it and it will be fine! I think.'
Her bare feet shrank back every time the sea foam wiped her footsteps. Carrying her boots in one hand and running away from the waves, Anatole who followed her from afar thought she was slacking off when he came to check on her.
'Good thing I came here instead of Sylvester or Oriane. They would join her for the heck of it…' "Saintess what are you doing?"
"Uh…running away from the sea?" 'Gods I must have looked so childish in front of him! Running away from the sea?! Seriously are you out of your mind Claudina?! I am losing brain cells ever since I landed in this timeline! If I wanted to 'run away' I could simply walk further from the waves!'
He caught up to her. "Perhaps you are still a bit dozy form last night?"
"What? No!" she replied. "…But it's sort of nagging me in the head…"
"Understandable. It's not often when your stalkers are conspiring against you."
She looked in the opposite side.
After they broke into Lucas' room they found some rather unsettling things; a demonic spell book with enchantment and bewitching spells marked, letters addressed to Lady Rosalind Carlos the now ex crown princess and a summoning seal. It was an expensive magic tool and different form a teleporter gate which could send people to not very long distances whereas the summoning seal could send any object other than a living creature from one end to another.
When they used the seal they expected minuscule things or luggage. Instead what arrived through the seal were multiple corpses of women with their stomachs mutilated.
As for the letters Lucas and Rosalind knew each other for a long time and were conspiring against the Twi'ti and Halieas kingdom. Not only that both of their letters had the mysterious herbalist mentioned.
"Is that why you are frolicking around instead of working?"
A vein popped on her neck as she angrily smiled at him. "I wasn't 'frolicking'! I was drawing up ways to lure the sea monsters to the land!"
Anatole didn't look at her. "We can't afford to put the people of the island in danger. Or do you wish to raise the Holy power infused wave again? You had aftershocks while you were sleeping. Oriane had to wake us up in the middle of the night to stabilize you."
Claudina fell silent. "I will let you do whatever you want but the others will not. One more time your Holy mana is depleted your Forbidden magic will consume you now that it is also growing."
"…Fine. I will stay behind in the island to deal with stray monsters," she said in a small voice.
"Didn't know you could lower your pride for once."
She huffed in annoyance. "Shut up."
The first two nights there were only minor attacks which were quickly driven away. While the people were relieved the saints were skeptical. So they continued to keep watch forgoing sleep and rest. Of course Claudina grumbled about it.
Night soon fell on the third day. Sylvester and the rest were guarding the shore while Claudina herself patrolled the island. Something told them today there would be a big attack as the first were most likely some skirmish.
The people of the island stayed inside of their homes after a notice was sent to the island chief. They prayed the saints would be able to get rid of the sea monsters once and for all.
Claudina kept checking her pocket watch.
"Do they honestly believe that today won't be the same as the last two days?" She signed and put the watch back. Walking neat to a park her stomach grumbled.
She blushed and quickly covered her stomach. Searching rapidly no one heard it she slumped a bit in relief. "How humiliating it would have been if someone heard it…I doubt I could live down the shame."
The era where Claudina lived was endlessly harsh for women more so for the aristocrat ladies. From the slightest gesture to the moving of their pinky finger were heavily monitored by the men of their family. It was only during Claudina's generation where the young debutantes rebelled against the old customs. With Claudina and the first princess as the leaders the noble ladies succeed in getting freedom along with more rights. Though sometimes they couldn't help but fall back in the ways their parents had drilled into them.
The past however was held by the deep rooted traditions. Even if a toddler was seen running around in her chemise before bed time, it was looked upon disapprovingly.
Entering the park and finding a bench to sit on she took out a pouch filled with cookies. "To think the day would come where I of all people had to ration my sweets…"
She felt a pairs of eyes bore on her. Glancing at the entrance she saw two dirty children staring at her. Both the boy and girl had long dirty hair and nails. On their feet were worn shoes while their clothes sagged like rags.
'…Street urchins? Guess I should do some noblesse oblige.' She smiled at the children. They flinched. "Are you hungry?" she called out to the children who hid behind the pillar. "Don't worry…Come out…" she said in saccharine sweetness.
The children looked at each other before they slowly came out of their hiding. Taking tentative steps they stood beside her. Smiling warmly she gave them the pouch with the remaining cookies.
The moment they took it they ran in the opposite direction as fast as they could.
She blinked at their retreating figures before dusting off any crumbs on her hand. "Now back to patrolling!"
Light erupted from the shores. Claudina looked up. "So the fight's begun…" Distinctly she could hear the guttural growls and low hisses of the sea serpents.
She narrowed her eyes. "I think I should do my worth as a saintess." She ran headed towards the shore.
Unfortunately monsters shaped like worms but large as a goat with a snake head at each ends breached inside the barrier the islanders and saints set up. Sea Worms.
Claudina tsked seeing the weakest of all sea monsters was able to slip past five well trained saints with two of them having years of practice under their belts.
She skidded to a halt, her sword drawn by her side. She mumbled a spell. Six magic circles appeared behind her. Raising her hand she counted till ten waiting for the monsters to come close enough. The first head that hissed in her direction she pointed her raised hand to the monsters.
"Bang!"
A barrage of arrows pierced through the monsters. It was a bloody mess. Heider Spiders crawled up the wooden barrier and charged towards her. "σπечwert!" Baron in his original size stood in his hind legs glaring down at the monsters.
He started to growl. The monsters jerked to a stop, confusion in the air. Their pincers clicked together as if they were having an animated conversation.
Claudina smirked. 'Monsters cannot disobey those that are stronger themselves. A King grade demon against a group of S ranked monsters…it's clear who would win.'
Suddenly Baron roared and unleashed a breath of fire burning the spiders and the dead Sea Worms to cinders.
"heH HeE~ I deStroYeD aLl Of tHem~" He turned to Claudina. "I Did goOd diDn'T i DuCheSs?"
She smiled as he shrank to his smaller size. Chuckling she planted a kiss right between his ears. "Of course. You are the best after all~"
Baron giggled his ears flapping.
'So cuteeeee~'
"Oh right! How is the ownership mark? Does it still hurt?"
A crimson and blue mark the shape of a butterfly became visible on his underbelly fur.
An ownership mark; a customizable mark a human could put in to any creature of magic after said human has either defeated them in a battle or the creature willingly offering to have an ownership mark.
A few days ago while Claudina had been studying the Forbidden Grimoire Baron asked to get an ownership mark from Claudina who blinked and said, "You can't get back to the Void if you have the mark. You will forever be chained to me and die the moment I die. Are you sure?"
"bUt I LiKe tHe hUmaN reLeaM. sO mAny fUn ThIngS. I wAnt To sTAy wIth ThE dUcHess aNd sEe mOrE."
She signed before looking at him with fondness. "I did want to keep you by my side but this was certainly not the way I wanted it to be…what about your salvation then?"
Baron tilted his head. "mY SlaVatiOn wIll cOme iF I StAy bY YouR Side…"
She closed the book. "Alright…lie down and sleep. When you wake up you will feel the mark binding your soul with mine."
He did that and quickly fell asleep.
She loomed over him. She placed her hand on his underbelly.
Smoothing out the fur she closed her eyes. Then she poured her mana inside him while saying, "I command thy soul to leave the World Tree and conjure with mine. I command thee to obey my soul till death. I command thee to obey every one of wills."
As she said those words she imagined a ownership mark. 'Something elegant will be nice also that clearly screams I am the owner…Ah! How about that?'
Blood pooled up in Baron's fur making squelching sounds. It bubbled into a butterfly shape. All the blood froze in place before evaporating with a hiss.
A Claudina butterfly was now gracing on his white fur.
Satisfied, she woke Baron up.
"iT DoesN't hUrT anYmOre." Baron scratched at the mark but it reappeared back on his underbelly.
Claudina brushed her fingertips on the mark. "That means the mark and my mana has settled in our body."
Loud growled sounds came from the barrier.
A sub species of Goral Wolves bared their teeth at them. Unlike the usual monsters they were smaller in size with fins where the mane was supposed to be. Their paws had webbed under layer while the large protruding horns were now sharp corals. The flaming tail was replaced with a whale tail.
Claudina drew out her sword. "Shall we deal with the dogs that dare to show teeth?" She sneered at them eyes glowing.
Beside her Baron grew up to his original size again and got ready to attack.
The monsters were the first to attack.
Claudina sliced two monsters together while Baron crushed the skulls of the monsters using another smaller one. A monster near her crept and bit her arm. Claudina yelped and glared at the monster before cutting it down. Holding the sword with her injured hand she healed her wound with the other.
She grinned when an idea came into her mind. Chanting the same spell, she directed the magic circles to be right under the monsters. When it was ready she released the barrage of arrows. The monsters' innards were pierced through not expecting an attack from beneath them.
In an instant Claudina took down more than half of the monsters and she could still use more spells.
Soon the number of monsters dwindled as Baron no longer fought them but rather started to eat them. This sent them in a crazed scramble to run away but he continued to chomp on their legs.
"Phew!" Claudian wiped the sweat from her head. "That takes of it!" There were no more monsters coming out of the barrier and all that was remaining were being eaten by Baron.
She came up behind him. There were a few wounds on him. "I wonder what that taste like?"
"tHiS dUchEsS?" he asked holding up the head of a monster.
"No all the monsters in general."
He appeared to bein deep thought before replying. "iT haS nO tasTe. It'S quItE bLanD bUt thE teXtuRe iS fiRm."
"I see..." 'Monsters taste like tofu? Funny...'
A sharp spike of Holy magic entered the area. Claudina side eyed over her shoulder. Her own Holy magic was tingling.
"dUchEsS tHeRe iS a pResENce."
"I know. It's one of the saints but which one…ever since I got my Grimoire I think my Holy magic is dwindling."
"tHaT's bAd."
"Yes however should I do a large scale magic involving my Holy powers it returns ten fold. When I practice Forbidden magic the Holy powers decreases."
"yOu jUst nEeD tO BaLancE thE TwO."
"Mhm...Anyhow quickly enter my Ancient Power. It will be bad if it's Sullivan, he dislikes you the most."
"sHoUld I Go bAcK iN tHe nIcE plAcE?"
She blinked. "…I didn't know my Ancient Power is a nice place."
"iT Is. aLl bRigHt aNd CleAn. sO maNy fLowErS ANd mIcE…" he said dreamily.
"Mice?!" She hastily started at the brand on her hand. "There are mice in here?! Eww!"
"dO yuO NoT lIkE miCe?"
Shuddering she said, "It's not about liking them...I just don't like the way they chew through everything."
She shook her head of the nasty thought that came into her head. "W-well whatever! Go back in and rest up, okay?"
Baron nodded, tapped his head on her hand and disappeared in a blue light.
"Mice…there are mice in here…" She grimly gazed at it. "…I am never storing my clothes in there ever again."
"Claudina!"
"Hm?" She turned to see Sylvester running towards her.
Though, he skidded to a halt when he noticed the dead monsters. He whistled before grinning at her. "Thought you could use some help but I guess it wasn't needed in the first place."
She smirked. "Who do you think I am that I would need help?"
He nodded sagely. "Yes, yes~ you don't need help. You are the greatest of all the saints~"
"So…I assume the sea monsters were taken care off?" She sheathed her sword back.
"They are all taken care of. The islanders have no reason to be scared of them anymore."
"So no more stakeouts?"
He chuckled. "Yes, no more stakeouts…"
She closed her eyes. "Then let's head back together. I am starving."
Sylvester quietly followed beside her.