TOAD – Chapter 39


    My eyes fluttered open. Slowly, the memories began to return to me, and I quickly tried to survey my situation. I was in a room with no windows and a single exit. I tried to move, only to find that my body was strapped to a bed. Of course, I could escape these straps with ease. I could also position shift, but I also had a special ability that made it impossible to restrain me. Yet, I was still restrained differently.


    They had my child, and I didn’t know where he was. If I escaped, there was no saying what they would do to him. Thus, I had no choice but to act how they wanted. In the end, for all of my skills, they were rendered useless by the well-prepared. I had grown arrogant with the belief that I could handle anything this world threw at me. I had once again underestimated just how much this world wanted to take everything I had.


    I used Perfection to clean my body and remove my headache, and then I waited for whoever was going toe. I worked out a n in my head. I would slowly seduce them. This couldn’t be done quickly. They were assuredly watched, and if I gave too hard of a push, they’d get rid of them in the same way that killed that one man. There was no length these demons wouldn’t go. I just wish I knew who they were.


    I worked out the best n to seduce and slowly when the trust of my captures, and then fantasized about the moment when I could finally im my vengeance and they’d pay for daring to manipte my child and me. That’s the state I was in when the door finally opened, and a person stepped into my room. I meant to meet them with an aloof expression, but as soon as I recognized the person, I couldn’t help but sit up in my bed.


    “It’s you…”


    “Hello, Aria.” A skinny man with soft facial features spoke in a calm, low voice. “It has been a while.”


    “Reinhart.”


    Reinhart was the alchemist under the Hyburn royal family. He’s the one who had taught me everything I knew about alchemy. One could say that he had started me on this path. He was a demon spy pretending to be human, and I was a bandit pawn pretending to be a princess. In some strange way, we had a bit of a connection there. I had fucked almost every man I met, but for some reason, Reinhart had been an exception. Perhaps, that was because I had respected him and his talent.


    Reinhart had fled the city a bit before I had. He had been the smart one. If I had fled at that time, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up facing such a horrible fate. I still wondered if I should have just gone with him. No, it would have been impossible while I was still under Nova’s control.


    His appearance still left mepletely shocked. Of anyone I’d imagine walking through that door, I didn’t expect it to be him. He had changed a bit since I hadst seen him. He had lines under his eyes, and greyer in his hair. He looked like he had aged at least five years.


    “I didn’t expect us to meet like this,” Reinhart stated, looking just a bit awkward. “I must say, I expected you toe to me after crossing to the demon continent. I only became aware of your existence after the recent monster flood at the peace talks. The tales of the fairy of Whitewinter had spread far. Some imed you controlled an army of monsters.”


    “What is going on?” I demanded, my eyes narrowing slightly, ignoring his attempts to distract me.


    He watched me for a second and then sighed. “I want you to understand that I don’t make the orders. I was recruited into this research program after returning, and have little say in things. I know a bit of what you can do to someone. If they had valued my life all that much, they wouldn’t have sent me into this room.”


    “Are you afraid?” I sneered.


    He stiffened slightly. “I don’t want to be. I’d rather be visiting an old friend.”


    “Friend?” I made a face. “That depends on what you’ve done with my son.”


    “He’s safe.” He responded quickly. “They both are. The goblin hybrid had all of the arrows safely removed and he was healed with the best magic money could buy.”


    “Really?” I gave him a dubious look.


    “Aria, we want them to be safe. We have been keeping track of you and your children for some time. We have the other child in our care as well.”


    I straightened unconsciously. “Bree?”


    The name that Synaphony had given the little one came crashing home. While I had lived in the Typhon home, I had been uncaring and unloving of that little monster. I had thought of it as an abomination and even abandoned it. It wasn’t until I had King that my heart had seemingly changed. Ever since I had regretted letting another woman raise my child. I had hoped to one day return to the Typhon household and reim my child. The only reason I held back was that I feared it’d bring focus on the goblin colony and threaten King’s life. Now, none of that seemed to matter too much.


    “Yes, the one you left with Synaphony. After she found out her sons were dead, she started to lose her mind. She fired all of her staff and locked herself alone with the baby. The… um… child… killed her. We found it eating her corpse before we imed it.” He watched me carefully.


    “Where is Bree now?” I demanded.


    If he was expecting disgust, horror, or shame, he didn’t get any of it. Bree was the only thing that mattered to me. If Bree ate Synaphany, it was because she wasn’t worthy of taking care of my child. I was no longer revolted by anything my children did. I just wanted to hold them both, my precious babies. He finally sighed and rubbed the back of his head.


    “They’re both safe. They’re both in our custody.”


    “So, you’re going to use them to threaten me and force me toply?”


    “Hmm?” He looked up at me, his eyes holding a hint of surprise. “Aria, I think you are misunderstanding our intentions here. We didn’t take your children or you to force somepliance.”


    “Oh?” I leaned forward, not buying any of it. “Then try me.”


    “Aria… do you have any clue who your children are?” Reinhart asked, walking over to an adjacent desk, pulling out a chair, and then sitting down.


    “They’re mine,” I growled.


    “They’re demons, Aria, first-generation demons.”


    “…”


    “I’ve exined this to you once a long time ago. Monsters are strangelypelled to merge their genes with humans, and thus they often rape them. Once in a very rare opportunity, the woman bes pregnant and a baby survives. That baby bes a first-generation demon. After a few generations, their line stabilizes and they be a new line of demons.”


    “Why do I care?” I asked, still feeling bitter.


    “The demon race has been suffering from an ongoing crisis.” He exined calmly, taking no offense at my dark mood. “You see, the first generation of any demon linee out rather unstable. First-generation demons are somewhat feral, little better than monsters.”


    “My son is no monster!” I snarled.


    “Yes… um… a goblin/demon hybrid. Goblins have long used humans, elves, and any other hominids as breeding stock, but never before have I seen a sessful demon fusion. Since they already were half-breeds, I believe that he is a bit more mentally mature than most.” He noticed me staring at him and cleared his throat. “The point I’m trying to make is that the demon line stabilizes after a couple of generations and that eventually is where we get the demon species. However, continued breeding with humans dilutes the bloodline. Although, that’s not all of it. Even the demon lines that have remained stringent in only breeding between each other have found themselves declining. Some believe the mana in this world has been decreasing ever since the death of Bahamut. Most demon lines don’t even appear any different than humans. I should know, I’m one of them.”


    He paused for a second, so I raised an eyebrow. “You still haven’t answered my question.”


    “Right, well, the rest of it would be easier to show you.” He stood up. “Come with me.”


    He turned and began walking to the door, only noticing as he opened it that I wasn’t following him. He looked back and noticed the restraints holding me to the bed. His face turned red.


    “R-right… I’m sorry about that. Some of the others aren’t as… trusting, as I am.” He took a step forward.


    “Don’t bother.” I snorted. “I’ll let myself out.”


    I pulled and the restraints came undone somehow. It was much like a magician’s trick. The restraints were still locked, but one second my arms and legs were tied down, and the next they seemingly passed through the restraint without issue. I brought my legs over the edge of the bed and casually stood up. Reinhart had an expression on his face like he might get sick, but he quickly covered it up. Without a word, he opened the door, and then I walked out of the room as if I was taking a stroll.


    I wasn’t wearing the clothing I had originally been wearing when I was knocked unconscious. Someone had cleaned me and dressed me since then. I wore a very simplemoner’s dress. I was used to finer clothing, and so it felt a bit scratchy. I came out into a long hallway that was filled with doors. This ce looked like a maze. If I wanted to escape, I didn’t even know what direction to go.


    “It’s just over here.” He gestured, leading me down one of the hallways.


    He stopped in front of a long piece of nk wall. He then reached out and touched a stone that had been embedded into the wall. The wall disappeared, and behind it was another room not unlike my own. Inside it was a woman. She was pregnant, and there were several healers nearby. It appeared that she was inbor, her legs spread open and her mouth wide. There was no sound, but if I listened carefully, I could hear her wails from behind the wall. By the looks of it, this invisible feature only went one direction, and the room I hade from had a simr function.


    We didn’t have to wait long. I looked down at her stomach. It was moving and shifting strangely. The doctors backed away as her stomach suddenly started to swell. A momentter, it ripped open, and a hundred spider creatures began rushing out. Suffice it to say that the woman didn’t live much longer after that.


    Although Reinhart looked a bit sick, the scene didn’t bother me much at all. I had seen such a birth before. I had allowed several of them when I formed my army of monsters. I had stopped shortly after, realizing it was impossible for the women to survive, no matter what I did. They also didn’t create any demons. One of the healers walked up to us, as if he knew we were watching, and then shook his head sadly.


    “Why are you showing me this?” I asked.


    “The organization I work for has only one goal. We want to create a new demon line. In a world of declining demons, we seek to keep them alive. So, womene in. Some were raped and impregnated… those women we found in the keep are currently here. Others are just ves, or broken people, whom we experiment within a more… controlled manner. However, over 1000 women have passed these doors, and not a single sessful demon line has been established.”


    “A… monster rape farm?” I frowned.


    He turned to me and shook his head. “No… aboratory… a ce where demons fight back against our inevitable destruction. We seek the answer to our dilemma, and I believe we found that answer.”


    “Me?” I stepped back, for the first time surprised by the direction of these events.


    “The first demon baby could have been a fluke. That put you on our radar, but we still needed more proof. Then, you had the second. Two sessful monster fusions in under a year, that can’t be an ident! One of your special skills allows you to make demons. You’ve be some kind of… demon queen, capable of merging your humanity with demons.


    “You see, we don’t want to kill your children. We want to raise them. We want to turn them into new stable lines. We’ll give them food, women, shelter, and safety, and all they need to do is make babies for us.”


    “And what about me?” I asked suspiciously. “Am I going to end up as some kind of test subject?”


    He shook his head. “Not at all. All we want you to do is what you were already doing when I first met you. Remember my dungeon, remember those monsters you yed with? All I want you to do is that again.”


    “And get pregnant!”


    “You won’t have to grow it. We can take out the fertilized egg and put them in another woman’s womb. After all, we wouldn’t want to risk you dying in childbirth. One of the reasons I hadn’t pulled you in when the first baby was born was because we had heard you were paralyzed at birth. That won’t happen again.”


    “This…”


    “Every month, you drop an egg, and that means every month, we can potentially get you to merge another demon line. You’ll be more like a donator. You won’t even need to bang the monsters if you don’t want to. We can acquire and insert the semen other ways. Plus, we’re prepared to allow you to continue your potion research. You can get even more samples and event new recipes. You donate for us, and your babies can have whatever you want.”


    “What about Prince?”


    “Safe. He was already extracted. You are no longer pregnant, but another woman will have him.”


    “Can I see my children?”


    “I can take you to them right now…”


    I puffed out my cheeks. “You know, you could have led with this. A lot of people died…”


    Reinhart gave a helpless shrug. “We did try… twice. You were surrounded by a goblin army and a jealous goblin hybrid withbat equaling an S-ss. We had several parties end up dead. We weren’t able to get close to you.”


    Either way, things weren’t as bad as I feared. It seemed like I might be staying there for a while.


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