"The answer isn't obvious? I treated him that way because...he's completely disposable, his life serves me no purpose, to waste even 1 second on him is a waste, it's quite simple to understand, if you have trash in your house you discard it, you don't keep it."
"Now get out of my castle, I don't know how you got in but you shouldn't be here."
I'm surprised, outraged and filled with hatred at her making this comparison, she just said that her own son is disposable trash.
"You're a monster Aurora, you're someone who never should have had the chance to have a child." I say as I run out of the room, soon after I reach the little Valac.
He sees me and is slightly surprised, while Leviathan looks at me with confusion and doubt, a different reaction than I expected.
I run to Valac and hug him, just like Leviathan, this little Valac didn't do anything to me and didn't deserve what Aurora did to him.
'If Aurora had taken good care of them, they wouldn't have ended up that way in the future.' Valac hugs me, then starts to cry in my arms.
"M-Mommy hates me? D-Did I do something wrong?" He says with a voice broken by crying.
"No Valac, you didn't do anything wrong, it's Aurora who's wrong."
"B-But s-she said I-I'm a f-failure..."
"She's wrong, she doesn't know what she's talking about, don't pay attention to what she said, you're not a failure." I never thought I'd be in the position of comforting someone when I can't even overcome my own problems.
"Do you want to play with me? So you can get distracted a bit." Valac nods, wiping his tears.
"Let's play hide and seek, you hide in the castle and I'll go look for you, okay?" I tell Valac, he nods and runs to a place to hide, and I start counting.
After counting for 1 minute, I go out to look for him, I know my actions here are useless and won't change anything in the present, but I still feel bad for them.
'Do I have Stockholm Syndrome?' I should hate Valac and Leviathan, I can't believe I'm sympathizing with them, I must have some kind of problem.
'I can't believe I'm so sad about their past...' in the end they are still monsters, my sadness for them doesn't even make sense, someone's past doesn't justify their crimes, they still did horrible things to me.
I walk through the castle to search, and it's so peaceful to search knowing I won't suddenly fall into a trap. I look in several rooms and regret having chosen hide and seek.
"This castle is so big..." I forgot the fact that searching for something without knowing where it is in this castle is almost impossible.
I search for Valac for several minutes and find nothing until I enter a room.
"...My...room..." I feel a strange nostalgia and longing as I enter one of the rooms that coincidentally is my room in the demon lords' castle.
"Nothing has changed." The same aesthetic, it's slightly different from the normal rooms, even the furniture looks the same.
I go to the bed and run my hand over it.
'The Aetheris used to be in this place in the castle...'
"BOOO!" Suddenly Valac pops out from under the bed.
"Kyaaa!" I stumble in fright and end up falling and hitting my head on a part of the wall.
'Ow, ow...'
"S-Sorry, I-I didn't think you'd fall," Valac apologizes in a slightly guilty tone as Leviathan comes out from under the bed.
"I-It's okay...w-what..." The wall I hit my head on starts to open.
'A secret passage? There was a secret passage in my room all this time?'
"..."
Valac and I just stare at the secret passage.
'I wonder what's inside?' I start to walk inside with Valac and Leviathan following. We begin to descend an seemingly endless staircase, the place is dark and has a humid feel.
We stay on this descent for what seemed like several minutes until we reach the ground, we have lighting thanks to Leviathan using magic to illuminate. It's kind of cute to see the little dragon Leviathan with a floating ball of light above his head.
The little Valac clings to my leg while trembling slightly.
'I wish they weren't like that in the future...'
Soon we reach an illuminated area and what I see is...
"Disgusting..." A repulsive sight, there are several large glass tubes with things inside, they seem to be monsters but they are incredibly deformed, this scene reminds me of those human experiment laboratories seen in anime and games.
The deformed bodies float in a greenish water, but this bizarre appearance of them is simply too disgusting for me.
"Perhaps...chimeras?" I remember Uriel said that Aurora did a lot of experiments related to chimeras.
'But...why is this chimera so deformed?' The Librarian is a chimera and yet he is beautiful...
'Is it because it's a chimera of monsters?' The Librarian is a chimera with the exterior made of parts of various races while the interior is made of monsters.
I start walking and see a long row of these giant tubes, all of them have horrific monsters inside, they are so deformed that it creates a scene straight out of a horror movie. I even tremble with fear at seeing this frightening scene.
There are some plates in front of each tube, I follow looking and reading them while Valac and Leviathan come behind, Valac seems scared while Leviathan doesn't care.
On each plate there is a number and it is written what the flaw represents, I see that with each tube the body is a little less deformed, but this is practically imperceptible.
I see a book on a table in front of a tube, I open it to read it to myself and Valac.
[Test 89]
Flaw = High magic concentration caused the body to collapse.
Solution = Replace the non-magic resistant part with a golem part.
Goal = Create a complete chimera
Long-term Goal = Create a perfect chimera.
Final Goal = Creation of a chimera with a perfect body and soul.
"Big sister, I-I think we should leave," the little Valac says fearfully. It's cute to see him calling me "big sister", it creates a great contrast with the adult Valac who calls me "little sister".
"Okay...I think so too." I agree, this is simply bizarre.
'The Librarian is not a perfect chimera...so what would a perfect chimera be?' I don't know this term, as far as I know the Librarian is a complete chimera, but this "perfect chimera" is something new.
I put the book back in its place and start going up with Valac to the surface, soon my body starts to dissolve.
'It seems my time has run out...I wonder what Aurora wants to do with a perfect chimera...is it related to immortality?' my body slowly dissolves into particles of light.
"Valac, I have to go...it was...fun to meet you," I say to the little Valac, it's not a lie, it was fun to see this childish side of him, it makes me see that they didn't become monsters from birth, but became that way over time.
I may not forgive them for what they did to me, but I'm also sad about their past, I think no one should go through that kind of thing.
Soon I wake up in the tent, I go outside and see that it's already day.
"Good morning Ayla, I prepared breakfast," Uriel greets me with a smile as he offers me some things to eat.
We have breakfast while he tells me a bit about where we're going, I also take the opportunity to give part of my meal to Aetheris, although he doesn't need it since he eats magic.
I also noticed that Aetheris can eat my magic on his own, although he doesn't do it, it must be that loyalty thing, so he doesn't take my magic without permission.
"Ayla, the place we'll be passing through is extremely dangerous, so you must not wander away from me at all. In the [Black Forest] I won't be able to run around with you, or it will attract the attention of monsters, so we'll have a long walk."
"Our goal will be to pass through the Black Forest to save time, if we went the regular route it would take almost a year to reach the human city, assuming we're not pursued."
"Why does it take so long?"
"Because we can't use magic...getting back to the subject, if we go through the Black Forest we can make the trip in 3 weeks."
"However, it is the home of several powerful monsters, and that's exactly why I can't carry you, they would be attracted by such movement."
"We have to go at night to enter the forest, okay?"
"Isn't it more dangerous at night? Like there would be more monsters and it would be hard to see."
"Normally going during the day would be the best idea...but without magic, that forest can't be accessed during the day...in fact, we're already close to the Black Forest border...and as you've noticed, this current place is a normal forest."
"This forest 'hides' during the day, and only becomes visible at night, you can see it using magic...but since we can't use magic, it's impossible to enter it during the day."
"That's why we have to get as close as possible to it now, and when it's night, we'll go in, okay? I know going to a dangerous place may not be the best idea...but on the regular route it will be almost impossible, since they are determined to catch you."
"I understand Uriel, thank you for helping me, I'll go wherever you think is best." It's my fault we're in trouble again.
We talk for hours, he told me about the state of the kingdom, and what he did while I was in the castle, basically he didn't stop killing monsters and demons the whole time.
And the situation in the kingdom is great, everyone is happy...that kind of hurts, my "family" is doing just fine without me, even though I was kidnapped, they don't even care.
Uriel is literally the only one who cared about me, I guess I'm very lucky to have an Uriel in my life, without him I would probably have stayed in that castle forever...
'This doesn't sound like a children's storybook?' A kidnapped princess rescued by the hero, they flee together and in the end they get married...
I blush at the idea, a marriage with Uriel, for some reason the idea doesn't seem so bad, my memories of this world may be a bit messy but my feelings are right, they are feelings that already existed before.
'Stupid mind, why are you thinking nonsense...' After nightfall we start walking.
"Uriel, the forest is kind of hot at night, isn't it?" I say to him as I feel the heat of the forest.
"Yes? Ayla, the forest is cold." Uriel says without understanding as we walk through the forest.
'It's...cold?' He said it's cold but I'm feeling hot, my body is heating up. We continue walking for a few minutes.
With each passing second, the heat increases.
"..."
"..." My tail sways as I follow Uriel, my cat ears are agitated and I'm starting to find Uriel tempting.
'I-I can't believe...I-I'm in heat again? Now?' It seems similar to when I was in heat in the castle, it's been a week since my heat ended, but I'm still in my fertile period, so it seems to have started again.
'T-This is a problem, w-what do I do?' As we walk, the heat only increases, my pussy tightens as the love juices start to drip in my panties.
"Haaa...Haaa..." I breathe heavily as we walk, the heat is now unbearable, Uriel stops and asks.
"Ayla, are you okay...your face is red and your expression...w-well...your tail is also...Ayla, are you in heat?" He says with an expression of understanding my problem.
"Huh? N-No, o-of course not," I say with a trembling voice.
"Ayla...I've seen other beastkin girls in heat, I know that's how they look...unfortunately I don't have anything to stop you from going into heat, normally there's a medicine for that...but we don't have a way to get it now and I never thought I'd need it, so I don't have it in my inventory..."
"Do you think you can handle it?...I'll set up a tent, maybe if you sleep it will help...we can go to the Black Forest another day." He questions as I see him start to take things out of his inventory.