"Shhhhh… Bad girl," The Empress whispered into my ear after drifting off into particles of snow and then reappearing behind me.

"Tch… Fine… Also, stop saying all that cringy shit…."

"No can do~."

"This motherfu-... *sigh*,"

…

The following week passed smoothly like butter, and I've already rekindled my relationship with Cora while also keeping a semi-decent relationship with the Empress.

She could have large mood swings where she looked like she was going to kill me from a piece of bad news or would constantly be trying to hug me because of some good news.

The massive fiery tree in the distance continued to burn brighter than ever before but a strange amount of pressure continuously leaked from underneath the tree.

I tried to get the empress to tell me about what was happening, but she would constantly just avoid the question or just outright say,

"Sorry, baby… You'll find out soon enough. The preparations are almost done,"

"Seriously? You keep saying that over and over again. I'm telling you, there is something under there, and it's bad,"

"Awwwww… Is my sweet little student worried about me?" The empress muttered before waltzing up to me and lightly tapping the back of my knees with a pole of ice.

I immediately stumbled backward, and just like the empress planned, she caught me like we were doing a ballroom dance.

"S-Stop! L-Let go!" I shouted as she dragged her finger up my belly and pressed her face so close to mine that I could feel her icy mint breath brushing against my face.

"Fufufufufufu… Alright, I guess I'll tell you something since my sweet little student made the request herself," The empress muttered before gently laying me down on a chair of ice she had just made and then waltzing back to her office chair.

She sat down comfortably and then expanded the crystal clear desk made of ice into something like a war table with mountains and a singular, giant tree far from what seemed to be a representation of a kingdom.

"Here is where we are,"

The empress pointed to the representation of a kingdom and then dragged her finger down to a representation of what seemed to be a dukedom of some sort.

"Here is where we need to defend. Fire giants are our main enemy but something we shouldn't only focus on. They'll be attacking this dukedom from what I've heard as they've gathered forces there. We've attempted to foil their plans, but they're too strong for us to make a secret move right now,"

The empress then dragged her finger seductively down to another dukedom even farther away from the capital, which was practically right next to the giant tree of fire.

"Dark elves and a mix of fire giants will attack this place. There are more dark elves, though, so we'll need tons of force. We could just send rank two to defend the first dukedom as I'm sure he could handle it, but right here is the problem?"

"Huh? Couldn't we just outnumber them?" I asked as I've dark elves normally travel in small caravans across their darkened forest.

"That would be the solution if only this wasn't here…." The empress said while flicking the tree of fire.

"Does it increase their power or something?"

"Yep… and by tenfold. It might even have the capabilities of debuffing races who specialize in ice powers which is why we've brought over the colosseum… understand? Now, if you want to suggest something, please go ahead,"

I pondered over the situation for a while before opening my mouth again.

"Have you ever thought of destroying the tree?" I asked, and the empress sunk in her chair a bit before glancing at the tree of fire.

"Yes, we have. I've even attempted to do it, but it's impossible. It was planted by a spirit, most likely so removing it would also make me their enemy… I'm not trying to make too many powerful enemies yet,"

"I see… Hmmm… Okay, well, I have nothing. You haven't given me enough information, but from what I've seen, we just need to place our pieces carefully so we don't get wiped out in one run," I muttered, and all of a sudden, the empress laid her seductive eyes on me.

I felt her pupils crawl up and down my body, and I saw her smiling widely as I glanced up at her.

"Babe, come stand beside me," The empress ordered, and her voice was commanding, something I could barely even resist.

"Don't call me babe. I'm not your babe,"

"Yeah, yeah, now come here," She said, and so I reluctantly walked to the spot next to her and stood beside her.

She was still a bit taller than me even when she was sitting down.

"W-What?" I asked as she looked at the war map with a blank stare as if she was thinking about something.

"Come, sit on my lap. I have to show you something," She said, but I immediately declined.

"How many times do I have to tell you! I have a girlfriend, so stop trying to do stuff to me! You also keep sexually harassing me!"

"Fufufu… Well, that was just a bit of fun, but this is actually serious. Come, sit here," She said, and she actually seemed genuine for some reason, so I reluctantly sat on her lap and looked at the board in front of us.

Her lap was just about big enough for me to sit comfortably, and it was strangely warm and relaxing despite her skin being ice cold.

"Alright, now you'll be going here. This is the place where the darkest elves will gather, and I trust you a lot, so don't fuck this up," She said as she reached her hand over next to me and pointed at a spot near the tree of fire.

I don't know if it was on purpose or if she did it subconsciously, but she began to run her fingers through my hair and slowly scratched the back of my head.

It felt good and relaxing, but I tried my hardest to stay awake as she explained the important parts of her plan and the sacrifices she was even planning to make.

"Lucy? Lucy? Are you listening to me?"

"U-Ugh, yeah… Yeah, I'm listening," I muttered while slowly rubbing my eyes.

"Oh, I thought doing this would help you relax and focus, but I guess it made you a bit too tired… Did I deactivate something with this? Did your girlfriend do this to help you relax or something?"

"Y-Yeah… Well, just running her fingers through my hair. That's all… and sitting in her lap… But she's much stronger, beautiful, and better than you!" I shouted, and the empress just chuckled a bit before speaking up again.

"Then I'll be your big sister and Teacher. How about that?"

"Humu humu… I don't care… I'm just going to… sleep a bit,"

"Then good night, my cute little sister,"

"Hm,"

…

When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar bed, but I saw a familiar face lying right next to me, slowly stroking my hair.

"H-Huh?! W-Why am I-"

"Shhhhhhhh… You can sleep some more…." The empress hushed me before pulling me back into the bed and into her collar bone, where she tried to calm me down… but she really sucked at it.

Her unconscious efforts were better than her conscious efforts, to be honest.

"Okay, that's enough," I said before pushing her away and quickly hopping out of bed, only to realize the sun was just beginning to set.

"Seriously? I had tons of things to do today,"

"Just do them tomorrow. The soldiers won't complain anyway,"

I stopped in place and sighed, deciding to give myself just a bit of a longer break as I was overworking myself the past few days.

I think I only had a few hours of sleep a night, so I guess this wasn't so bad.

『Status』

[Name: Lucy]

[Race: Ancient Tundra Snake (First Rank)]

[Level: 100/100] (250/250) XP Needed

[HP: 361/361  MP: 361/361  SP: 197/197] - Non Human

[Strength: 352] - Non Human

[Defense: 352] - Non Human

[Magic: 379] - Non Human

[Speed: 359] - Non Human

[Skills: [Necromancy] [Stolen Tundra Crown] [Aurora Borealis] [Snow Manipulation]

[Ice Reading] [Glacier Wall] [Ancient Sacrifice] [Tangible Bloodlust] [Small Quetzalcoatl's Fire] [Crown of Flames] [Gravity Press]

[Variant Skills: [Feather Servant]

[Passive: [Photographic Memory] [Black Drakes Blood] [All Language Perception] [Acid Immunity] [Black Drakes Regeneration] [Fire and Lava Immunity] [Death Immunity]

…

[Shop]

[Inventory]

[Map]

[Stored Souls]

[Blood Kin]

[Hivemind]

…

"H-Hey… Ummm… Could you let me evolve? Just give me permission to evolve, and I'll be able to grow stronger,"

"You need my permission?"

"I-I guess. That's one of the notifications I received upon hitting a max level and… I think our relationship is good enough, so I thought maybe you could let me evolve,"

"Honey, of course. Though, come here first. I want to help you with something," The empress said with a stupid expression as she gestured for me to go under the sheets with her.

"Ew… No, thank you,"

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