The two...or rather, three of us walked into a room specially prepared for our group. We sat down on the bed together and I looked over at Cassandra.
"Would you like me to let her take control, your Majesty?" Cassandra said with a smile.
"Do it. And don't interrupt us unless I ask for your input," I said.
Cassandra nodded and her eyes changed back to the icy blue of Isabella.
She frowned and cast her face downward.
"Mizik..."
"Let me speak first. Then we can discuss what happened. I'm going to just get this out in the open...I no longer have the ability or desire to remain completely faithful to only you. As much as I still want you by my side, things have become far too complicated. I am a new person. A new man. Things will change, whether you want them to or not."
"I...I know... I've already accepted that as part of my punishment..."
"Good. Now then...you were always so smart, Isabella. What happened back in Albatross castle? I want to hear the thoughts of the one known as Rose."
"We're still merging... But I'll try to put her actions into words... If someone came to you spouting nonsense while their actions clearly stated the exact opposite of their words, how would you feel?" Isabella said.
"I'm afraid I don't really-"
"Then listen! Please! I beg of you!" Isabella said suddenly with tears in her eyes.
"Go ahead."
"I didn't see you for a while after you married my sister. I had no idea what to think. She only mentioned that you weren't feeling well... She said you had an ability that caused mental strain or something during that time. Whatever...regardless, when you came to me, you tried to explain yourself in great detail."
"Yes. Why wouldn't I have done that? I wanted us to be together again."
"Of course you did. But you need to understand that as far as I can remember, even since before I became a full-fledged woman, I've dealt with numerous stalkers. We were pulled out of the royal academy because of many incidents involving boys sneaking into our rooms. Several of them even tried to violate us under the pretense that we would be 'just fine, since we were Victorias'. You know my mother's family has poor genetics, Mizik... Our fertility is extremely low."
"They weren't concerned with the punishments?"
"Of course not. They couldn't be since their uncontrollable lust was what drove them in the first place. My point is, aside from Arvild, both my sister and I have had numerous stalkers for a very long time. I was quite paranoid about it and closed off to the advances of men as a result. I wanted to find my own and pursue him myself. So, when you said those things to me, it was sort of a reflex... I didn't believe and assumed you had merely seduced my sister. And then..."
"The bit about mind control...? Isn't that ridiculous?"
"Ugh...not when you consider Cassandra suddenly doing a complete 180 in her entire personality and becoming obsessed with a man neither of us could have ever heard of, no. How does that sound to you? I mean no disrespect... But wouldn't any logical thinker believe something was wrong? I'm not a fool, Mizik. And it's precisely because I'm intelligent that I assumed something sinister was at work."
"And this was further proven when I..."
"...Made Valtheim devour my army along with Walter. And then...what happened afterward...yes. You looked like a demon to me."
Suddenly, things began to make sense.
Everything that happened was a gigantic misunderstanding. One that had caused a universal danger to the rest of creation as a result.
"I see...that puts things into perspective..." I said.
"I knew you'd see reason, Mizik... You aren't the man I love just because I find you cute..."
"I do see it. But that does't quite absolve you of your sins," I said.
She sighed quietly.
"I know... But please. I have more to say..."
"Continue."
"When I was placed back in the castle, the Oracle appeared to me in her spectral form. She used some sort of mind-control magic to influence my thinking. Somehow, I associated her with my own grandmother. And since I both trusted and loved my grandmother, I had no reason to deny her. My mind wasn't fully released after that until you...v-violated me..."
"I feel like I should apologize for that. I won't apologize to anyone for my actions anymore...but for you, I will still make an exception. The Oracle spoke to me in my mind before it happened. In the heat of the moment, I snapped and did something reprehensible-"
Isabella placed a hand on my cheek and smiled.
"Rose may have hated the experience, but it reminded me that I needed to fight harder for control. And...I-I...s-sort of enjoyed it, too..." She said as she suddenly looked away.
It was cute seeing her act flustered, but not when the subject matter was such a heinous crime.
Still...who was I to rate the severity of my crimes?
All sin was equal in the eyes of the Creator, after all. And I had slaughtered millions.
Isabella looked back at me and took a deep breath.
"Mizik, when the Oracle gave Rose my body and powers, it was like waking up to find that I no longer had any control over my entire being. I had to watch as she slaughtered your family...even your father and Aunt...and Ignitus. Mizik, I loved Ignitus. I loved your family and I wanted to meet Ulysses so badly...but the Oracle's influence drove me to do terrible things," she said.
"I get that. But without you around to keep me contained...I lost it. And even now, I'm a monster. I won't stop until I've made everyone responsible for my suffering pay dearly. I'll destroy worlds and kill trillions if need be. Do you hate me now?"
She shook her head.
"If you're a monster, then so am I. I enjoyed when you violated Rose. It was nice to watch her get what she deserved...and nice to receive it..speaking as Rose. Ahem..."
"What bothers me is that I hurt someone I care about. I've accepted being a mass-murderer. But I won't harm those that I love if I can help it. You're back now, and that's all that matters. You can help minimize the great disaster."
"I won't do it."
"Why? Do you also hate creation?"
"I do. A creation that harms my beloved Mizik and won't allow us to be together for so long, doesn't deserve to be safe from you. Not when they've created the Destroyer, that is."
Words couldn't express the amount of adoration I had for her right now. I still had to punish her...but it was so refreshing to have her back.
Even just her presence was enough to quiet the maelstrom of hatred in my heart.
"Thank you... Now, I have questions about when your memories became unblocked."
"After I used Crown of the Hero for the first time, the old Isabella's memories...my memories...became unlocked. I did everything I could to force myself back into reality. But eventually, the Oracle took notice. She locked them away. And shortly after that, the Artificer left a device in my room on Excelsis...this room, actually. He did so in an attempt to secretly thwart the Oracle's control."
"A...device?" I said.
"Yes. I have no idea when he managed to sneak into Excelsis or how he evaded the Oracle's gaze. In fact, he may not have even been the one to accomplish it. But as soon as I touched it, my mind became chaos. Nothing the Oracle did could fully prevent me from reaching into Rose's mind. When Cassandra unlocked my memories manually on Daser just before...you know...I was nearly able to get out. And finally...I managed to call for help during our fight in the throne room."
"I think that just about covers everything, then. I should thank him later..." I said.
"He only did it to contain you. I have no desire to do as he asks... I only want to make up for my crimes, Mizik."
"Then I suppose I should get this over with. From now on, I am a King. You and Cassandra will be my Queens. You will be the first wife, and she will be the second. In that order. I'll remarry you both later...but I still want to give her a body. Your punishment is that you will no longer argue with her at all. You will not complain about your sentence. Until I remarry you, you are a slave. You will perform each and every order I give you without fail."
"Is that all?" Isabella said.
She seemed deadly serious. She didn't even bat an eye.
"What do you mean, 'is that it'?"
"I'm waiting for some sort of severe punishment."
"I'm not just your husband anymore. I'm also Cassandra's. Isn't that punishment enough?"
"Trust me when I say this, those words are agonizing to hear. But in light of recent events, I feel as though I've gotten off the hook..."
"You haven't. Until we remarry, you're a slave who only lives to serve me. Like Cassandra does...although with less perverted zeal, of course."
"Can you not think of anything else?"
Uhh...
I slowly shook my head.
"I really can't. I still want you to be by my side and I have to punish you somehow. This is the best I can come up with. Isabella, I don't actually want to punish you at all. After hearing what you had to say, I don't think you intentionally did anything wrong here. The fault lies almost entirely with the Oracle. Hell...I might even say Vengeance is being petty here. I hate punishing people for misunderstandings. It's why Aldaril got off the hook underneath the mansion a while back."
Suddenly, Isabella smiled.
Then...she laughed.
"Ahahaha... I can't help but feel relieved. I was terrified I would be thrown into a pit of fire or something. Maybe beaten severely... My apologies, Mizik. Not to assume you'd want to do those things, but I thought Vengeance-"
"Stop. I get it. Yeah, by comparison, only having to share me with Cassandra and being temporarily labelled as a slave is pretty light, considering the crimes."
Isabella breathed a sigh of relief.
"You know, I was actually conditioned to live this way when I was younger. I had to prepare for it since Arvild had multiple wives. But...I'm relieved it's with you and not him. And that the only other wife is my sister, of course. Although...do you have plans to take more wives?"
"Not at the moment. I'm not a pervert or anything. But who can say? If I feel it necessary, maybe I'll take a concubine or two. Hm...actually yeah. No more wives. Only you and Cassandra will have that right. If I choose another woman, she'll be a concubine. You get to be head wife, but only later."
"That is still quite the favorable position... And I want you to know that Rose is sorry for doubting you," Isabella said.
"That's alright. Now then, your first order of business is this," I said.
I reached into my inventory and pulled out the now-reformed Bravery. Then I handed it to Isabella.
She gave me a confused look as she accepted the sword.
"Mizik, I don't think Bravery will allow me to use it anymore..." She said.
"Bravery, I order you to select Isabella as a wielder," I said.
Immediately, Bravery began to glow.
And I heard her speak out loud.
"Beloved Overseer, I cannot allow this false wielder to-"
"You will select Isabella as a wielder. End of story," I said.
"But Overseer! Because of her-"
"That was the Oracle's fault. I have judged her worthy of your power. Now...you WILL listen to me and do as I say! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?!?"
"...Yes Overseer. It may take some time before I can allow her to use my fourth form, however..."
"I don't care. You'll let her use it anyway! The Oracle's meddling got in the way of things. That wasn't Isabella's fault and you know it, so stop whining and let her pave things over with you."
"It will be done, Overseer..." Bravery said.
Isabella unsheathed the sword and smiled.
"Thank you, Master. It looks like Bravery is being very compliant right now. I can even use her fourth form..." Isabella said with a solemn smile.
"Uh...Master?" I said.
"I'm your slave, right? Or should I call you 'your Majesty' like Cassandra does?" Isabella said.
"I'm pretty sure she does that because she gets off on it or something..."
"She absolutely does. But a King should be respected as one, yes? Especially my own Master. And besides...it's sort of fun. Like roleplaying, almost."
"Sure...whatever... Ugh...damn that Oracle to hell..." I said.
"Master, she's still alive, right?" Isabella said.
By the gods, I hate it when you call me that. But I don't care anymore...
"Yeah, and I plan to make a spectacle of her later. I'll reveal her failures to all of Excelsis before I kill her a thousand times."
"Cassandra told me... There were a thousand of you in this...graveyard?" Isabella said quizzically.
"And some of them even worshipped you. You were the one thing we could never have across a thousand lives..." I said.
I saw Isabella shaking with rage out of the corner of my eye.
"Evil bitch... I'll do anything I can to make her suffer..." Isabella said.
I couldn't help but smile wide.
I was starting to enjoy the agonizing pain in my head. It reminded me of how much I would enjoy murdering Difar once I could finally challenged him for real.
Regardless, I had a lot of things to do before then...
I looked at Isabella and she seemed worried.
"Master, please try not to smile. I know it hurts your head."
"If you insist..." I said.
I felt a light tingle of healing magic envelop me.
"I don't have the right to give you orders, but I can make suggestions. Please keep yourself contained, Master."
"Hm. Alright. Now then...I need to discuss some things with the Artificer."
"Understood, Master. Would you like to rest first? If you like...I can comfort you," Isabella said as she narrowed her eyes.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Perhaps... Can you blame me? I watched you die, Master. Then I was forced to aid that monster in ruining your life. All I wanted to do was drop everything and run to your side. I at least wanted to tell you that everything would be okay...and that I loved you more than anything. I couldn't even do that much, sadly..." Isabella said.
"Then we'll comfort each other. Come here," I said.
Isabella leaned on me until she had successfully pushed me down. Then she smiled.
"Please leave everything to me, Master," she said with a wink.