I decided to act as if nothing had happened! I'm not scared, okay? It's just… I'm not ready to fight the whole world!
"Well, it's time to head back to the castle. Tear your clothes to make it more convincing that you were kidnapped."
"Alright."
Rosia ripped her royal dress, making herself look utterly miserable. It was good, but not enough—her body was still too clean.
"You should be able to control your regeneration, right?"
"Yes."
Without another word, Rosia used her clawed hands to cut herself. She looked more wretched now, but there was still one last touch missing.
"You should be able to control my four little beasts, right? Have them throw dust on your body."
Rosia closed her eyes to feel the connection with the beasts. I was right: after all, my parasites had to go somewhere, now that I no longer had the trait. Besides, Rosia must have been at 100% already; otherwise, the beasts wouldn't have obeyed her so diligently. If I had known this, I would have infected humans! Oh well…
Once fully prepared, I slipped onto Rosia's shoulder to hide in her blonde hair.
The journey wasn't difficult. Between the four beasts and Rosia, killing animals was simple. I even ate quite a few beasts along the way, earning me a new trait:
[Quadrupedism - Small]: When you are on all fours, minimum, your speed increases by 5%.
Not bad. A speed bonus is always useful.
Our return was long, but once we arrived, Rosia began playing her role: weak, scared, miserable, etc. The guards immediately escorted her to the castle. Although her parents no longer spoke to her and probably didn't love her anymore after all the bad rumors, they couldn't just ignore this. After all, if attackers managed to kidnap the princess, it meant they could also target the prince, the king, or the queen! And that must never happen. No matter if the princess was disgraced or anything else, she was still part of the royal family, and no one could oppose the royal family!
Search efforts began to punish the culprits, but no one knew it was the princess herself who had orchestrated everything. And that upon her return, the princess was no longer even human.
Once in her room, I rushed to a dark corner of the ceiling to hide. The royal doctor entered and examined the princess. After inspecting all the injuries, he seemed relieved. He turned to the king and queen.
"Fortunately, it seems the princess escaped quickly, without too many injuries. The marks appear to have been caused by beasts or vegetation."
"The most severe injuries are those caused by weapons, but even they aren't very deep. Rest and healing cream should suffice."
Upon hearing this, the king and queen simply nodded coldly before leaving. The doctor followed, leaving the princess's maids to bring the cream.
I spoke to Rosia to see how she felt about this icy reaction from her parents—or rather, ex-parents.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, everything is fine, my queen. Maybe because I'm no longer human, but I felt nothing. On the contrary, I felt like I was watching three idiots who will soon kneel before me, begging."
Pfffff— I couldn't help but laugh. I felt the same way! It was reassuring. Even though Rosia is half Zerg, unlike me, who doesn't remember who I was, she still remembers everything. I was afraid that despite her evolution, her human side might eventually interfere with our plans. But now I know that the Zerg side becomes all-powerful once evolved.
"Good. Let's start our plan. Do you know Naturia's movements?"
"No. I only know that she works in the castle gardens."
"That's a start. Don't worry, we'll parasitize maids to monitor Naturia constantly, as well as gardeners."
"Yes, my queen."
Without delay, Rosia summoned her maid. As soon as she entered, I activated my Hallucinogen, which was already in her. I didn't create a magical, breathtaking scene, but used my power to conceal Rosia's actions related to the parasite while rapidly increasing the infection percentage.
I knew this first encounter couldn't directly reach 100%, but it would still enable swift progress. I watched Rosia cut her flesh to create a Love Parasite, which she discreetly dropped into one of the two cups brought by the maid. Meanwhile, I hid her actions with my Hallucinogen.
"Could you stay with me for tea, Marie? I'm a bit scared to be alone…"
Although the maid frowned, clearly reluctant to stay with this princess she deemed cunning, her role prevented her from refusing. Thanks to my illusion, Rosia genuinely seemed scared and fragile at that moment, which made Marie more lenient.
"Yes, Princess."
Feigning joy, Rosia served her tea. When Marie took a sip, she choked slightly.
"Are you alright, Marie?!"
"Yes, yes. I must have swallowed wrong."
Rosia sighed in relief. After several hours of tea and chatter, Marie finally left the room to resume her duties. I wasn't worried about losing control over her in future encounters because I had taken care to contaminate the castle's well.
"How much?"
"Surprisingly… 15%. She'll start obeying me more sincerely. But I still need your help to quickly increase the percentage, my queen."
"Don't worry. But we need to infect all your maids to ensure our safety."
"Don't worry, my queen. I'm ready."
Over the days, Rosia and I infected all her personal maids. We also discovered that the Love Parasite continued to increase infection percentages even when Rosia didn't directly interact with the targets. The process was slower, of course, but that wasn't a problem. It meant that as long as Rosia didn't deliberately lower the percentage before reaching 100%, it was only a matter of time before her targets became completely enslaved.
With Marie, we now had ten infected maids, with infection levels ranging from 5% to 25%.
Soon, we'll begin our plan: Naturia's romantic betrayal.