In a castle, a lady is taking a shower. It is something that very few people have in their home, as it is lost technology made by the ancient civilization. The lady is washing her long dark hair that goes little over her waist.

The lady says "Question. What is one of the greatest fears of intelligent life?" And soon the lady hears a familiar voice calling for her. "Miss Elis. The Royal family is coming closer as the king expected. We need you to be ready soon as possible." Elis then says from the shower "I'll be done in just a minute Lily. Prepare my usual outfit for dealing with unwanted quests." Lily says "As you wish Miss Elis."

After Elis is done in the shower, she goes to put some clothes on with the assistance of the maid Lily. Lily is from a shadow fox clan and has pure black hair and tail. She has the ability to traverse through shadows and by the shadow realm, something that most other people cannot do.

As Lily is helping Elis to dress up, Elis says "So these quests that are coming, they are the godkin that supposedly are immune to illusion type spells?" Lily answers "That is if we can trust information supplied by our agents." Elis says "That will make things more bothersome if what they say is true."

Lily asks "What are you going to do Miss Elis?" Elis answers "Since the Royal's are a family of godkin that support the human realm, I have to make sure that they don't cause too much trouble. Has Henrietta done the things I asked?" Lily answers "Yes. She has prepared a meal worthy of the king himself." Elis says "Good" and then Lily points a mirror to Elis, who then sees how the backside is. Elis looks and says "This shall do" and then looks at her own face a little closer.

In the mirror she sees a young looking woman who has two violet eyes. Her skin is white and smooth to the touch. Lily was going to put lipstick on Elis' lips at the beginning, but Elis didn't like using any of the beauty products, so she often goes without any of them. She is naturally beautiful, but due to her use of illusions, she rarely lets anyone see her true beauty. She turns her head a bit and she sees her ear is a bit pointy and it has a small earring with a small violet gem embedded in it. She looks at her other side and sees an earring on top of the earleaf that curves alongside the pointy bit of her ear.

Elis mutters "I wonder what race I'll be called this time?" Lily hears this and says "Don't mind their ignorance my lady. They are but trespassers invading our land and they know not of your magnificence." Elis says "It's not about that. It's… nevermind."

Lily does her finishing touches and Elis is looking like a beautiful young lady. In terms of natural beauty, she is on top of her class. The dress also amplifies the beauty that Elis shines.

Another maid named Alise comes to the room where Elis is getting ready. She says "Miss Elis, the Royals have arrived." Elis answers "Tell them to wait a little longer and that I'll be there shortly." Alise answers "Right away" and leaves to inform the guests.

Elis looks once again at the mirror and then says to herself "Another bothersome task to deal with. Maybe this time they'll actually pose a threat." Lily takes notes of her master's words and says "As expected of Miss Elis. You already have a plan in motion." Then Elis leaves to greet the guests in the house.

When she gets to the entrance, she bows and says "Greetings dear guests. I hope that your trip here wasn't too troubling." A man with snow white hair and neatly trimmed beard says "Not at all. As you may know, our kin is immune to your measly illusions. I hope that you know what that means, demon lord Umbra."

Elis says "Of course. I've prepared a meal for all of us as we will be discussing the details of what will happen. If you would be so kind as to follow me to the dining room." Elis starts to guide her five quests. As she is walking, she asks the patriarch "If you would humor me, what is the color of my hair?" The patriarch says "It's black. Beautiful for a vampire like you." Elis says "Is that so" and thinks to herself "They are definitely looking down on me since they know that I can't use any illusion type magic. The evidence is that they didn't even bother to tell me their names."

After Elis guided the Royals to the dining room, she had her servants pull out their chairs as a show of respect. The Royals seem to like this and go along with it.

Elis sits at the end of the table and the Royal family head sits on the other end of the table with all of his family members sitting on the chairs next to him. Elis thinks "As expected" and snaps her finger to signal the food to be delivered.

The food is exquisite and all Royals have a slight grin on their faces that tells Elis they think they are on top of the situation.

After they have eaten some of the food with minor chit chat going on at the table, they finally hit the expected topic after one of the younger Royals says "So now that we have conquered your territory, we request that you remove your measly magic off the surrounding area so that the humans can pass to the demon realm without any resistance."

While Elis is cleaning her mouth with a handkerchief, she says without hesitation "And why would I do that Michael?" This sentence makes all the Royals stop eating and look at Elis in confusion. Then the head of the family says with a quite strict, but yet calm, tone "You know that your territory has been conquered?"

Elis says with a quite bold and demeaning manor "By whom? You? Don't be ridiculous. You are merely guests at my territory. Nothing more, nothing less."

The oldest looking woman says to Elis "You know that we are immune to all of your methods? We can quite literally crush you." Elis says in a tone that is both calm yet mocking "Is that what you think?"

Then there is silence for a little while, then Elis says as if she realized something "Oh, now I get it. You think that this meal is to get on your better side after your walk in Semita's passage. Oh no, my poor guests, you are merely guests in my house and you are given the respect you deserve after walking this long. After this meal is concluded, you will walk back to whence you came with an oath to your godhood that you'll never involve yourselves in Semita's business."

Michael rises from their chair and shouts "You dare to look down on us you measly bloodsucker! We are godkin and we are immune to your little tricks. If you apologize to us right now, we might consider sparing your sorry excuse of a woman."

THen Elis asks "Do tell me Michael Royal, how do I know your name?" Michael says "Of course you dag on our details when you heard that we were coming." Elis then says "That is a fair argument. Counterpoint though, Gabriel, what is the color of my hair?" The head Gabriel is about to say "Bla-" but stops for a moment and then says "Blue."

Before now Elis only had a neutral or a slight smile on her face, but now, she is smiling ear to ear as she says quite excitingly "It's that so? I wonder how that happened?"

Gabriel then shouted "Kill her!" and after that order, all the Royals rose from their chairs and started casting spells with an intent to kill. As the spells landed on Elis, she was being turned into shreds, and soon there was nothing but a bloody pulp that once was Elis."

Then Gabriel waits for a moment before he says "Good. Now let's…" Then a familiar female voice started echoing in Royals' heads that said "Nice one. Although it is in vane." Then the room turns to black for a moment and when the lights turn on again, all of the Royals are sitting in the same position they were before and they look at each other in shock.

Then a voice came from the other side of the table "So how about we discuss our little deal?" All of the Royals look at the other end of the table and see Elis sipping some fine wine nonchalantly. Gabriel then says "So you can manipulate time as well."

Elis then says with a disappointed voice "Is that your conclusion? Honestly, I expected a little more from the famous Royal family who has watched this world from the heavens for quite some time."

Then Gabriel casts a spell that makes a shockwave that disables all magic in the area. Elis' eyes look up at the ceiling for a moment and then take another sip of the wine. After she has swallowed the drink, she asks "Tell me Gabriel, what is the color of my hair?" Gabriel then takes a closer look and says "Pi- pink." Elis responds with a quick yet uncaring "Is that so?"

Gabriel then says "Kill her. Now that all the magic is nullified in the area, she can't pull another trick of that scale."

Then one of the male members of Royals takes up his sword and cuts Elis' head off. The effect of the blade starts to make Elis' body and head burn. Then Gabriel looked closely at Elis' body and deemed that she was indeed dead. Then he says "Let's clean the rest of the place up."

Then the woman who spoke with arrogance earlier says "Patriarch! The door won't open!" Gabriel says "Just break it with force." The woman then proceeds to punch the door open, but it remains unphased. The woman says "What do we do patriarch?"

Gabriel says "Impossible. If she could make a pocket dimension of this size, I would have noticed it by now. And besides that, I don't sense any way out of this room."

Then the man who cut off Elis' head says "Patriarch, the room is shrinking!" Then the rest of the family starts to panic.

Gabriel lifts off the nullification field and puts up a barrier around him and his family. It seems to stop the room from shrinking for a moment, which gives a sigh of relief to the family. But then the barrier breaks and the room starts to shrink again. The rest of the family is shouting "Patriarch! Patriarch!" But no matter how many barriers Gabriel puts, the room won't stop shrinking.

Eventually all the family is gathered in a group as the walls have shrunk to the size that doesn't let any room to not touch someone else. It seemed to stop there, but then the room started to shrink even more and the bodies of the family started to break little by little. Eventually the room has shrunk to the size of a cube that is 1 cm on all sides and there is no one alive in that cube.

Then a female voice is heard saying as no one is there to see anything anymore "So now that we got that out of the way, how about we talk about the deal I proposed?"

Then all the family members wake up sitting in the same position they were before. Sitting on their seats. Some breath heavily for a moment and some touch their own face to make sure it is real. Then Elis says from across the table "So are you more cooperative now?" as she stirs the wineglass on her hand.

Gabriel thinks for a moment and then says "Reality marble. You can create a reality marble." Elis sighs and says "So now that you realize I can create reality marbles, what is your next move?" Gabriel thinks about it for a moment, and then says "Everyone, get close to me. I'm going to teleport us back to the real world."

Everyone in the family does so and Gabriel does what he proclaimed. Elis is not bothered by this and sips her wine and says "So what is the color of my hair?" Gabriel looks and then says before teleporting "Green." And so the Royals teleport outside where the moon is out.

The older woman says "What do we do now, patriarch?" Then Gabriel says "We will kill every servant of this household and make sure that the vampire will regret going against us."

Then the family hears a female voice in their heads saying "So if that is what you deem appropriate to those who look down on you, why don't I do the same to you lot."

Then the sword wielding man's chest is pierced by a hand and thrown to be eaten to shreds by wolves that seem to be in control of the perpetrator. The family looks at the perpetrator, and notices that it's Elis, and they quickly readied their battle stance. Elis says "That's one", licks the blood on her hand and says "Since you all seem to be of the opinion that I'm a vampire, why not do things that a vampire would do."

Gabriel shouts "Kill her!" and the family proceeds to cast multiple spells at Elis with the intent to kill. One of the spells binds Elis in place and lets other spells land on her. Elis now has burns and missing pieces of her body.

After the family launches another barrage at Elis, she disappears in a blink of an eye and decapitates the younger looking woman, pushes her body and soon the body explodes in bloody mess. Elis then says "That's two" and points at Michael with her index finger, which launches a cloud of bats that drain him from all of his blood. Elis says "That's three".

In a panic, the older woman puts a protective barrier around her as she says "No one has ever gotten past my barrier. You should…" and suddenly a sharp pike shoots from the ground and pierces the woman's body from bottom to up. Elis says "That's four" and then looks at Gabriel who shoots a spell soon after, but then Elis disappears and reappears behind his back and grabs his shoulders.

Then Elis says "Thanks for the meal" and bites down Gabriel's shoulder and sucks all the blood from his body in moments.

Soon after that, Elis drops Gabriel's withered out corpse and says "That's five. Now then…"

And soon everyone finds themselves sitting on that familiar table. Everyone is stunned for a moment, until Gabriel says "I'm tired of your tricks. I was reluctant to use this since it is a spell only gods can cast, but you leave me with no choice."

Elis casually says after sipping some wine "That's fine and all, but do tell me, what is the color of my hair?" Gabriel then says "Red. Now perish."

After Gabriel said that, a huge magic circle appears around the sky and Elis notices this, she tries to see what it looks like, but soon after a blinding light comes to destroy everything but the godkin.

After the dust settles, the older woman says "Was it really necessary, patriarch?" Gabriel says "It was, that spell goes beyond any magical barrier and beyond any reality altering gimmick. There is no way that she is alive now."

Michael then says "Why would you even ask that Olivia? You saw how that bloodsucker toyed with us. What? Are you worried that the heavens will punish us?" Olivia says "No, I just… you are right, it was a foolish question to ask." Gabriel then says "Let's get forward with the plan."

In the following days, the human realm managed to conquer the southern side of the demon realm with the help of the Royals. As the years went on, more and more of the demon realm's territory fell to the human realm and eventually humans conquered the demon realm.

Royals were praised as humanity's saviors and they soon went back to the heavens. There they gained more power as the belief of mortals is what gives divine beings their powers.

The Royals watched as humanity advanced their technology for thousands of years and could eventually travel beyond their own world. Humanity managed to build flying tubes that moved faster than the speed of sound, they created weapons that launched rocks at very high speeds and they created medicine that helped humanity to survive. All of this was credited to Royals who descended from the heavens in humanity's need to conquer the accursed demons and their followers.

Everything seemed to bode well, until all the Royals heard a familiar voice say "What is the color of my hair?" and soon they all found themselves sitting on the same chairs they sat long ago.

Gabriel answered the question reluctantly "White." Then the younger woman starts laughing maniacally, saying "I must be dreaming. This can't be real. There is no way all that was some sort of trick."

Elis says after sipping some fine wine "If you think that you are dreaming, just pinch yourself. Or better yet, why don't you try to kill yourself to see if this is reality or a dream. You'll get me what you want either way."

The rest of the family is in shock after experiencing a lifetime's worth of memories and being given the possible thought that it all might have been fake. Elis says "So how is it? Now you know how I feel on a daily basis. If you want my advice on how to deal with the existential threat that nothing you see is real, just learn to go with the flow of things. It is easier that way."

Gabriel asks "What are you?" To which Elis responds in an uninterested tone "That's up to you to decide, isn't it?"

Gabriel then asks "What do you say that you are?" Elis then puts the wine glass on the table, raises up from her chair and greets the Royals in a noble fashion "I'm the conductor of false sensory input. Everything that the mind can imagine is within my domain, so as long as you have a thinking organ in your body, I can manipulate it to my heart's content. But as that is an explanation given to people who existed long before your time, you may not necessarily understand what that means. So to put it simply, I'm the demon lord of illusions Umbra. And that is all that you need to know."

Gabriel then says "So you are from the time before the second seat of heaven was established. And to manipulate someone from the heavens, that means you are somewhat of a divine being yourself. You may even be a godkin yourself. Or a fallen one at that."

Elis sits back to her seat and says "Think whatever you will. The truth is, you won't leave this place until I get you to do what I want."

Michael then intersects "You are still babbling on about us making an oath to our godhood? Are you out of your mind?" Elis grabs the wine glass and stirs it a bit as she says "I think I'm being completely reasonable here, humans getting a favor from gods like this and all that."

Michael shouts "We will never stoop so low and give you satisfaction." Elis sips some wine and says "Oh Michael. My dear little Michael. I'm already satisfied by the fact that you think you have a choice in the matter. Though if I'm completely honest, this is quite a bothersome thing to deal with, so the faster you give up, the better. But I won't make a compromise no matter how bothersome this all is."

The family is silent for a moment, until Gabriel says "We'll accept your demands." All the Royals look at Gabriel in shock and the sword wielding man says "Are you certain this is the right thing to do patriarch?" Michael says "This is ridiculous. You think that we don't have any moves to make, patriarch?"

Gabriel says "No. The moment we entered this room… no, maybe the moment we entered Semita, we were checkmated." Elis then says "If you all do the thing, I'll let you go."

Gabriel nods and says "Everyone, make an oath to your godhood that you'll never involve yourselves in Semita's business." Everyone in the family looked reluctant, and Michael then says "You know what it means if we do this patriarch? If we ever break the oath and the god of contracts finds out, we will be stripped from our godhood and we'll become the forsaken."

Gabriel says "I'm aware of this, but it's either this or we'll have to wander in an endless loop which we have no escape from. If you don't want to experience multiple lifetimes worth of suffering, I implore you to do what I say."

Though reluctantly, Michael agrees to do it. So everyone in the Royal family says "For henceforth, I shall never get involved in Semita's business. If I'll ever break this oath, may my godhood be severed and may I become part of the forsaken." With this, souls of the Royals make an oath that makes them unable to go against Semita.

Gabriel then says "We have done our end of the deal, now you to yours." With one hand on the wine glass, Elis snaps her finger with her other hand and the door where the Royals originally entered opens and multiple servants are waiting for them to leave behind the door.

Gabriel and the rest of his family start to leave, but Elis says "One more thing before you all leave. What is the color of my hair?"

Everyone in the family has turned their head at this point and none of them turn their head to see the answer. Instead of answering, they continue to walk away from the room and soon the Royals have left the mansion.

Elis then looks at the wine glass, drinks the rest of it and says "Answer. To not be able to trust your own sanity." Then Elis gets up from the chair and Lily asks "Did everything go as smoothly as expected?" To which Elis says "Honestly speaking, I was expecting them to last a little longer. I guess that experiencing three thousand years worth of memories in real time and finding out it was all a dream made them lose their confidence."

Lily says "So that's how you got rid of those trespassers. As expected of Miss Elis. Not even the godkin can escape your illusions." Elis says "Those weren't illusions, they were simply controlled dreams imbued with a form of hypnosis. It's…"

Lily then interrupts and says "Combining words that I understand into sentences that I can't understand. As expected of Miss Elis." Elis then sighs and says "Tell Henrieta that the meal was great as usual."

Lily then says "Yes, I'll inform her when I next see her. As expected of Miss Elis. Hiding her disappointment through a compliment in a casual way." Elis says "I said that it was great, didn't I?" Lily answers "Yes, but you added "as usual" to the end, which implies that you were expecting more."

Elis sighs again and says "Just tell her that I enjoyed the meal." Lily answers "As you wish." Then Lily leaves the dining room and Elis looks out the window. Then she says "Maybe I should take a stroll through the garden one of these days. Or maybe I should visit some of the towns and villages. In any case, time to head to my room and read some novels."

Then Lily came back to the dining room and said "Oh Miss Elis, before you go to your room, remember to give your report to the king." Then as quickly as she came, she left.

Elis sighs and says "I guess I have to contact that person. I'll send a magical letter to him instead of calling him as usual, as I need to make sure I don't disturb whatever he is doing at the moment. Now then, let's get this over with."

And so the incident came to a close.