Chapter 60<div>
<h3 style="letter-spacing:-0.015em;margin:15px 0px"><strong><~> Chapter 60</strong>
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After our very refreshing bath the five of us changed into some light clothes and sat on the two beds in our room. We ordered a lot of food and talked about some inconsequential stuff while trying out different dishes. Unfortunately, I could only put off the conversation about my past for so long, it was too important to keep running away from. When we finished eating and the conversation reached a natural lull I decided it was time.
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I sighed. "Girls, it''s time I talk a bit about my circumstances."
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The atmosphere of the room immediately changed, all eyes were now on me the two twins looked equal parts excited and anxious. I quickly cast<em>[Zone of Silence],</em>the effect was immediately noticeable as the murmur of the world around the bedroom fell away.
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I steeled myself. "First things first, Do not reveal my secrets, or anything you suspect is a secret, to any one outside of this room. That is an order." The glowing blue of their cors intensified for a moment and both girls nodded resolutely.
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"I don''t really want to use your cors this way but now I can I fully trust the two of you without any reservations. The cor will force you to resist anyone trying to press you for information. I don''t like it but in a way I think it will protect you two. I''m going to talk a bit about myself now, if you two have any questions, feel free to ask, just know that there might be a lot to talk about so some things are better left till the end." The twins nodded their head in reply.
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"The best ce to start, which will likely inform the most about me, is that I''m a<em>[World Traveler]."</em>Morrigan and Torien both widened their eyes at the revtion but didn''t seem to doubt it so I continued. "Because of that, I don''t have any memory of anything from before about two weeks ago. ...That''s counting the days we all collectively lost in the dungeon. So in reality, I remember even fewer days than have passed since I''vee to this world."
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"Do you remember your past life?" Morrigan asked excitedly.
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I shook my head. "I remember lots of things from my past<em>world</em>but I don''t remember anything about my past life. Though it seems I may be able to remember some of it in the future. When I spoke to Charon, he told me that I shouldn''t fear trying to regain my memories."
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"Were you a Beastkin... or a Subi in your past life?" Torien asked.
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"I was a human in my past life, probably a m-" I hesitated. I suddenly didn''t feelfortable revealing that I used to be a man. "Probably an artist or an architect of some sort."
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Torien''s brows furrowed. "That does exin some things, like you not knowing much about various beastkin and their conflicts with one another but that kind of flies in the face of how you treat many of our kind. I''ve<em>never</em>met a human who is as open or kind to demi-humans and beastkin as you are. Saying you used to be human is actually the most unbelievable part of this so far."
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Iugh. "Well, that''s kind of a relief to be honest, I half assumed you wouldn''t believe any of this honestly."
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Morrigan had a grin on her face. "Are you kidding? You act<em>way</em>too weird, being a<em>[World Traveler]</em>really would exin a lot."
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"Anyway," I say. "I''m pretty sure the world I came from didn''t have<em>any</em>of the other intelligent races on it. No monsters or dungeons either."
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Torien sighed. "Sounds like a much more peaceful ce."
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My face turned grim. "Hardly. Frankly, humans treating Beastfolk like crap isn''t at all surprising to me. In my world we found plenty of reasons to kill each other, from resources, to money, to<em>skin tone.</em>We didn''t have monsters and dungeons but people<em>found</em>lots of reasons to kill each other instead."
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"So territorial disputes and the like, even though all of you were the same race?" Morrigan asked with a raised brow.
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I nodded. "Well, from our perspective, different skintones<em>meant</em>a different race. But we were all identifiably human. No beastly body parts, no pointy ears, nothing."
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"What about difference in magic?" Morrigan asked.
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"No magic, no system either."
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The twin''s eyebrows both shot up. Morrigan''s jaw even dropped, it was almostical but she recovered quickly and continued. "N-no system? How did people protect each other from the mons- oh..." She leaned back with a puzzled look on her face.
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I decided to keep going, "Right, so, humans fought and hunted withpletely mundane weapons. No magic, no stats, no system skills. Because there''s no magic, no monsters, no dungeons."
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"Huh..." Torien looked cupped her chin. "What about very?" she asked.
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"In most of the world very was abolished. Where I was from the entire<em>idea</em>of very is rather taboo. The only reason I''m interacting with this system at all is because I feel like I have to. First to free Be, then you two. I find the practice rather... abhorrent."
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Torien looked me in the eye. "Why is it that you have a gold ve token then, on top of what you spent for the two of us?"
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Morrigan frowned but looked intently at me, also waiting for my answer. Bile rose in my throat and my hands shook when I thought back to the events of my first night in this world. I thought about<em>Mark,</em>being held down... I opened my mouth and closed it a few times trying to put together a sentence but the words wouldn''te to me.
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Before I could put anything together Be answered for me. "The night Lilith freed me from very, the man who had owned me earlier that day got drunk, broke into our room at the inn, and raped her." In unison the girls gasped and covered their mouths. "I was in the other room at the time so I was able toe from behind and knock him out despite him being many levels above both of us. Lilith used a power... simr to the one she used on Mimi and we sold her into very as punishment."
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"He deserved worse than that." Morrigan said with an uncharacteristic amount of venom in her tone.
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Be nodded. "Well... I won''t argue against that but the changes Lilith made were... significant. From the outside it might have looked like a mercy but I was there, she made sure his punishment would fit the crime. Regardless, the auction apparently went well and it gave us the money to get the two of you instead."
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All of the distrust that had shown through Torien''s expression was gone at this point, reced with a sympathy that made me even more ufortable.<em>It made me feel weak.</em>
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I took a shaky breath. "A-anyway, so that''s the first secret, let''s talk about the second one now."
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I took a moment to collect myself, put my thoughts in order, and tamp down my emotions before I continued. "My race, ording to the system, is a Subus. Though apparently it has a skill that disguises me as a Beastkin in the system. I also have the<em>[Origin of Subi]</em>title, meaning I''m the<em>first ever</em>subus in this world."
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Morrigan was paying rapt attention but Torien jumped to ask the next question. "So... is a subus a type of human from your world then?"
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I shook my head. "No. Subi were fictional creatures in my world. In the world I came from, we had fictional stories about a lot of things here. Monsters, dungeons, elves, demons, just like magic, all of these things were just fictional. Although the stories about this kind of thing were quite widespread. First as superstition and folktales andter as entertainment. From our stories Subi were demons that thrived on sex."
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Both of the girls immediately look guarded in a way they hadn''t been before this point. Torien red at me. "I thought you said you weren''t a demon. Did you lie about that?"
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I smiled and shook my head. "No. When I first came to this world, I had been summoned as a demon. The person who had summoned me, apparently, drew too much blood from himself as part of the ritual and died. I<em>had</em>been a demon up until we entered the dungeon together. However, after our first encounter with an<em>actual</em>demon, the way that I saw demons and how I saw myself were too far apart and my Origin title altered our race from a Demon with a subrace of Subus to just Subus alone."
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"Your title is powerful enough for that?" Morrigan asked.
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Be cut in, "Remember the story about the Origin of Moraley?"
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Morrigan looked deep in thought for a moment before she turned to me with wide eyes. "Oh shit..."
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"Yeah." Be nodded. "This secret is actually much more dangerous than<em>just</em>being a world traveler."
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"Moraley?" I ask.
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"That''s not important right now." Torien nced at Be for a moment before returning to me. "What were you nning to do to us in the dungeon before that?"
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I frowned. "Nothing. I<em>am not</em>a demon. I have beenpletely truthful with you. Other than allowing you to continue to assume I was a Beastfolk, I haven''t lied about anything. My Origin title even keeps recognizing my actions as neutral or positive and seems to support my race moving farther and farther from what the definition of a demon is here. All of my traits have begun to no longer support evil actions and instead only support good ones further."
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"W-wait back to a thing you said earlier!" Thankfully Morrigan decided to change the subject. I looked over at her and she was mildly blushing. "You said that Subi are demons that thrive on s-sex. What did you mean by that?"
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I looked away and blushed a little myself. "Well, where I''m from there''s a lot of conflicting stories about Subi. The<em>one</emmon factor is that they always either need sex to live, or are empowered by sex. Even though they''re usually depicted as some form of demon, their intentions are all over the ce. Some are evil and lure people into sexual encounters that drain away all of their essence, some are neutral and trade favors for sex, and some are cooperative and help people... usually in exchange for sex."
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Morrigan was mumbling to herself before looking up. "Sex to live... Is that why you weren''t eating in the dungeon? WAIT, WAS THAT WHY YOU TWO WERE HAVING SEX IN TH-" She cut herself off and covered her mouth, blushing red.
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I nced at Be who was even more embarrassed than I was at this point. Torien looked around. "Wait, you two had sex in the dungeon? When was this?"
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Morrigan looked away. "I... saw them through the door when I was going to ask about looking for valuables... I told you I couldn''t find them but they were... busy."
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Torien looked over to me with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know how incredibly dangerous that was? Even more so in retrospect, since weter found out Mimics were pretending to be the furniture."
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I looked over to Mimi who actually blushed in response... her reactions were bing more and more natural by the hour.
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Torien followed my eyes to Mimi. "You''re not saying you were there Mimi?..."
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"Yeah! I watched them having fun on the bed,st night I got to join them too!" When she replied any form of embarrassment dissolved as if it hadn''t been there. Or, well, maybe she was just<em>mimicking</em>it in the first ce.
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Morrigan gasped and looked wide eyed at Mimi. "Y-you got to join them?... both? ...<em>a-at the same time?"</em>
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I needed to change the course of this conversation a little before things got out of hand. "Look, that''s n-not important. Subi have a trait called ahem...<em>sexual appetite</em>that basically reces our normal sustenance. We<em>can</em>eat normal things but it doesn''t actually satisfy our appetite. We have to...<em>have sex</em>in order to sustain ourselves and if we don''t we get too horny and make bad decisions... We needed to have sex in order to continue on, so we would be clear headed. Especially since we weren''t sure how much longer clearing the dungeon would take."
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Be cut in, "In hindsight it was really dumb to do that there but we were already having trouble thinking straight because we hadn''t had sex for a while by then... I didn''t even realize how much it was affecting me too until afterwards. Plus weter found out Lilith''s cursed sword eats her sustenance..."
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Torien looked exasperated by this point. "Wait... you''re telling me your cursed sword that is supposed to make you hungrier makes you...<em>hornier?"</em>
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I clear my throat. "I um. I can confirm that it does seem to work that way."
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Torien just sighs and shakes her head.
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I scratch my horn. "I uh... didn''t expect this conversation to go this direction."
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There was a pause before Morrigan finally asked a question. "So you are<em>actually</em>not a demon right? Even if you were, you aren''t now?"
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"Yes, I''m a Subus. Because of my Origin title and apparently by my own perspective, I am not a demon."
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Morrigan nods. "You did help us destroy a demon spawning crystal. Even though Demons care little about killing their own, destroying a spawning crystal would still likely be... unpleasant and counterintuitive for a regr demon."
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Torien looked over to Mimi. "So, what did you do to Mimi? You said you turned her into a Subus too?"
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"Yup! My race says Subus Mimic! Just like I said before."
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Torien smiled at Mimi. "I believe you, I doubt you''d be one to lie about that."
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Mimi tilted her head. "Why?"
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Torien smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, no reason. I just don''t think you would bother lying about it."
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There was silence for a little bit until Morrigan looked at me and asked another question. "What''s it like being a beastkin now? You don''t seem to dislike beastkin but do you like being one yourself?"
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I looked down at myself before answering. "Truthfully, I kind of really love how I look and feel. While I''m... not exactly sure what my old body was like, I think that this new one feels much morefortable and... sexy than my old one." I said with a bit of a blush.
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"W-what about attraction to others, who do you find attractive?"
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I could tell Morrigan was fishing but I didn''t mind. "I think I like humans, beastfolk and demi-beastfolk, as well as both men and women. I wouldn''t say that I''m not picky, I do have preferences, but in terms of categories, everyone is on the table for me so far."
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"R-right." Morrigan said with a tiny smile.
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Iughed a little. "You know, this kind of ended up as<em>girl talk</em>by the end huh?" the othersughed with me, I felt a little relieved I was able to cut the tension a little bit.
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"Th-there is something else I''d like to say." Be said.
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The four of us turned to Be.
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She looked a little on the spot but continued despite that. "I um. I also haven''t always been a beastfolk or a... a girl either. When Lilith did the thing she did to Mimi to me earlier, I transformed from a human man to what I am now. I um, maybe it''s not important but I wanted you all to know..."
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Be looked really vulnerable, almost on the verge of tears and afraid of rejection. I could see that I wasn''t the only one to notice.
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Morrigan got up and sat next to Be before pulling her into a hug. "It''s okay Be, I don''t think any differently of you, neither does Torien, I promise." She sniffed and returned the hug, a smile on her face. Torien nodded along and confirmed Morrigan''s words. I teared up a little just from watching, I was happy and relieved that these two would ept her. It stirred up some bittersweet feelings inside of me but they were just echos of the memories that were lost. After a while Morrigan let go of Be, the room had been quiet till Be had calmed down.
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I stretched, already feeling fatigued from the long and rather stressful day. "So, do you two have any more questions? It''s... been a rather long day for me."
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"Just one more thing..." Torien hesitated. "Do you... want us to be subi like the three of you?" she asked.
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I shook my head. "Not unless you want to."
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Morrigan looked up "What if it allowed us to take off our cors?"
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I was sure my mouth hung open...<em>I never considered that possibility.</em>"I... well, that would be fortunate. But the oath has its own obligation... If you decide to be subi I won''t object. I don''t know if it would allow you to take your cors off or not though.<em>If it does work that way,</em>I promise to free you two, you have my word. But ultimately it''s up to you two."
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The twins looked at each other before Torien looked back. "Give us some time to think about it."
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I nodded. "Of course, there''s no rush. Consider it an open offer."
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The four of us got ready to sleep and we split up between the two beds. I sighed and slid under the covers with Be, d to finally lie back and rx after the long day. Mimi stood next to the bed on my side and looked nervous, trying to figure out if it was okay to join us. I smiled and waved her over. She beamed back at me and quietly joined us under the covers, snuggling into my side. Be seems extra clingy right now too, so I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to me. "You were really brave tonight," I whispered to her. I kissed her on the head but she seemed to already be softly dozing. I closed my eyes and let all of the tension flow out of my body, rxing between the two girls on either side of me. After a long day I passed out.
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