NOVEL NEXT 63 – In Search of Pride
"Why?!"
Bran complains, doing his best to hide behind the tiny body of
Mei-Mei as our group trudges along through the thick of the woods.
"Why do we have to travel with
Lust
now?!"
Apparently we're travelling with
Lust now for some reason.
"Because
Biscuit wanted to," Mei-Mei sighs in response, also seemingly
annoyed by the decision but a lot calmer than the man shouting behind
her.
Apparently we're travelling with
Lust now because Biscuit wanted to.
Not
long ago, we were all gathered in a grand abandoned church being used
as a hideout for a bunch of bandits in the middle of the woods. Until
some crazed, giant woman came crashing down through the treetops and
turned it into a craterous pile of mossy rubble.
Of
course, that crazed, giant woman turned out to be Lust. The same Lust
we recently shared our goodbyes with in the city because she said she
had something she needed to do, but then just ended up wandering
around in some bug-infested forest for a few days instead for some
reason.
Well,
though she doesn't realize it yet, the reason is clear to the rest
of us.
The
reason she left the city in the first place was to look for her kid.
The kid she hasn't seen in nineteen years. The
Child of Lust.
Unbeknownst to her, that kid is Biscuit. And because the one she's
looking for is Biscuit, Lust immediately forgot what it was she was
looking for the moment she left the Adventurers Guild. Knowing she
was looking for something
but not knowing what, Lust ended up wandering around in aimless
confusion until she eventually picked up the faint whiff of animosity
wafting through the air and followed it. That animosity turned out to
be a bunch of breast-hating bandits who obviously weren't a fan of
what Lust was packing and planned on ambushing her later.
Unfortunately for them, that feeling is exactly what lured the woman
into crashing through their roof like a meteorite and blowing their
little hideout to a bunch of little pieces.
Feeling
guilty and not wanting Lust to be stuck in endless and aimless
confusion, Biscuit decided that we should go with her. Because as
long as Biscuit is around, Lust won't forget what it is she's
looking for. But, at the same time, Biscuit simply telling her that
she's the kid Lust is looking for would also solve that problem.
But Biscuit doesn't want to do that for some reason. So now we're
following her. Though, I'm not really sure to what end. Because if
we get to where we're going, Lust is going to find out anyway.
So...?
Ah, whatever!
Either
way, I've got zero
problems
with following Lust around! Unlike Bran, who definitely seems to have
several problems with following Lust around. Problems he is very keen
on sharing with the rest of us.
At
the head of our little group, Lust leads the way through the thick of
the forest. Though the thickness of it is kind of irrelevant with
Lust taking the lead because she simply brushes aside everything
standing in her way with relative ease, leaving a freshly trampled
trail for us to follow in her wake.
"Gyahaha!"
Lust laughs, effortlessly swiping aside a tree many times her size
with the back of her hand, sending the creaking trunk collapsing
noisily across the forest to her side. "The more the merrier! 'Tis
not something I am accustomed to, travelling with others, but I
welcome the experience!"
"The
m-more the merrier!" From atop Lust's shoulders, Biscuit sits,
her fluffy white tail excitedly sweeping the air behind the two of
them.
"If
nothing else, 'twill definitely be an amusing one, for sure!"
"F-for
sure!"
For
the meantime, Biscuit seems to just be enjoying her time with her
mom. I'm not sure what she plans to do when we get to wherever it
is we're going, but I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge
when we do get to it.
"Gyahahaha!"
"Gwa-ha-ha-ha!"
It
looks like she's having fun mimicking her mother, right down to the
laugh. Though, a forced laugh like that does sound pretty awkward
coming from somebody as meek and timid as Biscuit. Definitely super
cute though!
"Ugh..."
A defeated sigh from Bran signals the end of his tirade of complaints
and the reluctant acceptance of his fate to continue following
another's whims against his will. "You said we were trying to
find Pride, right?"
"Correct!"
Lust answers back, still enthusiastically trampling her way through
the woods ahead. "Twas he whom I left to care for my newborn son,
and so, to seek out the Child of Lust, we must first seek out Pride
of the Seven! It should not take long for him to find us!"
"Okay,
but exactly
how
long is... Wait. Find us?
Aren't we
the ones looking for him?
And if he's
looking
for us,
what
the hell are we even doing out here in the first place then?! We're
we're going, right?!"
"Correct!
You see, Pride has an overwhelming desire to kill me, moreso than any
other, and so I am always aware of his general presence! However,
considering his skills, 'tis much quicker if he find us instead! I
suppose you will see it for yourself once I feel we are within his
range. The Pride of this era has a very amusing skillset, I think
you'd agree!"
"I
don't think I would!" Bran complains back at her. "I think
anything you'd
find
amusing is bound to be the exact opposite! Ugh...
How long until we're within 'range' then? Whatever that
means..."
"Hmm..."
Lust thinks for a moment, before turning a grin back our way. "'Tis
difficult to tell! Perhaps I could do so, if it were not for the
killing intent being directed at me from your new companion. 'Tis
quite the distraction! Gyahahaha!"
All eyes turn to our 'new companion'
following along beside the group, her angry glare fixed on the side
of Lust's chest. With each step Lust takes, I can see our new
tagalong's eyes twitch with bitter disdain.
"..."
Biting her lip in frustration, Pan begrudgingly tears her gaze away
after being called out. "... Sorry."
It's the bandit leader, Pan.
After
Lust's grand entrance and Biscuit's decision to have us follow
her, we couldn't exactly just abandon our original bandit-hunting
quest after coming this far, so it was decided that Pan would come
with us until we were able to turn her into an Adventurers Guild. As
for the rest of the Sisters of Struggle, seeing as the group was
disbanded, they stayed behind to salvage anything they could from the
destroyed hideout, before planning to set out to the nearest town as
free women. As promised, Pan will be the only one that ends up seeing
punishment for the crimes of the Sisters. But that punishment can
wait until we're done following Lust around, I guess. Though, it
looks like just being around Lust is already quite the punishment for
her.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Eventually,
the sunlight peeking out from above the canopy of trees begins to
dim, turning the forest ahead a pitch black. Though, as Lust
continues to happily trudge and topple her way onwards through the
trees, the gentle blue glow of the moon soon becomes our guiding
light instead. Clearly not the best of guides, however, as a blinded
Lust soon finds herself tumbling down a sharp ravine. Laughing all
the way, of course. Fortunately, the wolfgirl resting atop her
shoulders seems to carry a little more awareness than her bumbling
mother, and was able to nimbly dismount just in time. I can't help
but notice Pan smirk a little at the continuing sounds of Lust taking
a tumble in the dark.
Carefully
navigating the blackness of the forest to regroup with the
disoriented woman somewhere below, a concerned Biscuit and a
complaining Bran eventually convince Lust to make camp for the night
and continue the search for Pride in the morning. Biscuit's
concerns being out of kindness, and Bran's being because he was
tired, scared, and his feet hurt.
After
a few good hours of arguing over sleeping arrangements, we eventually
came to one that everyone could at least mildly
agree
on. With Bran not wanting to sleep anywhere near Pan or Lust, but
close to somebody strong enough to protect him from potential threats
lurking in the woods. Me wanting to sleep next to anybody except
Bran. Pan only
wanting
to sleep next to Bran for some reason. Mei-Mei wanting everybody
close together to ensure she not be dragged off into the night by
another wild animal again. Biscuit preferring to continue sticking to
Lust like glue. And Lust not wanting to sleep at all, loudly boasting
that the time she was asleep in the Spire was enough to last her for
the next half-century.
In
the end, nobody was completely happy about the arrangement, but we
eventually made it through the night to see the dim light of a new
dawn peeking through the canopy, signalling for us to push onward
once again. And so we did.
"Gyahahaha!"
Lust laughs, giving the dejected wolfgirl at her side a firm pat on
the back as she leads the way forward. "'Tis nothing to be
ashamed of! A weakness of bladder has no bearing on strength of
character! You need not pay it any concern!"
"..."
All Biscuit can do in response is pout as she shambles alongside her
mother, the two of them sporting a new change of clothes due to
Biscuit having an unfortunate 'accident' during the night.
"Think
nothing of it!" Lust continues to reassure her. "In fact, I often
find myself awaking to having soiled my bedding and garments just the
same! 'Tis perfectly normal!"
"R-really?
Even s-someone as strong as you still wets the bed...?"
"Of
course! 'Tis not uncommon an occurrence to be in the midst of a
most thrilling battle to the death against my beloved Gluttony, only
to be woken from such a wonderful dream by a pleasant burning in my
loins, and wet bedsheets!"
Mei-Mei
sighs in annoyance. "That's... That's probably something
different, idiot. I don't think that counts as wetting the bed. And
also I'd appreciate it if you didn't corrupt the tender mind of
the only other competent member of our party with your perverse
nonsense."
"Fwah!
It happens to me too!" I add, joining in on the attempt to cheer
Biscuit up. "Sometimes I wake up and my pillow's all squishy and
wet! Throat's usually a bit sore too! It's really weird!"
"That's
obviously just drool!" Mei-Mei complains. "Perhaps if you weren't
such a mouth-breathing meathead, you wouldn't be having that
"Oh..."
Bran chimes in. "Actually, almost every night since we've left
the Spire, I've been having these weird dreams where I'd wake up
with wet sheets too. The dreams would start off normal at first, and
then suddenly everything starts flashing red, the walls and ceiling
start collapsing, and I'm forced to run but my legs won't move
and it feels like I'm wading through jelly. And just as everything
starts to crash all around me... I wake up. Totally drenched."
"Again,
you're not wetting the bed, idiot! You're waking up in a cold
sweat due to PTSD! And, honestly, you should seriously seek
professional help for that!"
"Yeah,
no thanks," Bran complains. "Therapists are bullshit. To begin
with, the only people 'mentally
qualified' to
be therapists are normies. But normies are objectively incapable of
feeling or understanding mental pain or suffering in the first place.
Their idea of 'depression' is just a mild case of melancholy
because their girlfriend left them or some stupid shit. Not even able
to comprehend what it's like for someone who never had one in the
first place! It's like a peasant having to pay a damn noble to tell
them how to stop being so poor! It's all bullshit!"
Walking
beside him, Pan nods with fervent agreement. I feel like, even though
their reasonings are pretty different to one another, people with a
strong victim complex seem to have a lot of things they can agree on.
Especially when it comes to hating.
"Keh!
I'm not talking about therapy, idiot. I meant that you should hurry
up and let me crack open that skull of yours so I can poke around
inside your brain and throw away all the parts that annoy me. It'll
be a lot more effective than therapy, I promise you."
As
we continue to boisterously carve our way through the forest towards
Lust's unseen goal, Biscuit's pouting eventually turns to puzzled
curiosity as I notice her sniffing the air once again.
"Oh?
What's up?" I ask. "You smell something? Is it Bran? Is he
peeing in bottles and carrying them around with him again?"
"You
already made that joke back in the city," Bran complains with a
sigh. "And it wasn't funny the first time either..."
Oh, right. I vaguely remember a
similar situation back at the Adventurers Guild where Biscuit said
she smelled something weird and I used that to make fun of Bran. For
what it's worth, I thought it was funny. Still do.
"It's...
a rabbit again," Biscuit answers, continuing her curious sniffing
as she looks out into the dense sea of trees at our side. "It's
coming f-from that
direction."
"So?"
Mei-Mei interjects. "Is there something particularly odd about
smelling wildlife in a forest?"
"It's
just really weird is all..." Biscuit continues as she stares out
into the forest. "Kind of like a rabbit, b-but not like an animal.
It's the same thing I smelled b-back at the Adventurers Guild. Is
it following us, maybe...? I'll catch up with everyone in a second.
I'm just going to go and have a look real quick— Huh?"
As Biscuit moves to run out into the
trees, she suddenly stops in place, before sniffing the air once more
and pointing across to the complete opposite side of the woods.
"N-now
it's coming from that
way. Did the wind change direction...?"
Flexing
my muscular nostrils, I try and get a whiff of whatever it is
Biscuit's picking up, but I just get bombarded with the scents of
my immediate surroundings all at once instead. An odd mix of sweat,
pee, gunpowder, milk, and whatever the hell Bran constantly reeks of.
Try as I might, I guess even the muscularity of my nose can't
really compare to the accuracy of a wolfman's.
"Huh..."
Biscuit shrugs. "Now it's gone..."
"Gyahahaha!"
Lust laughs, still trampling through the wildlife ahead of us. "'Tis
curious, but of little interest to me if it does not possess a strong
lust for battle. If you are scouring the forest due to restlessness,
fear not, for I detect we shall be entering Pride's range within
the hour! Gyahaha! Exciting, is it not? Come, let me tell you a story
in the meantime to quell your boredom."
"A
story...?" Tearing her attention from the surrounding forest,
Biscuit scrambles up to Lust's side, tentatively reaching out to
grab hold of her free hand that isn't currently swatting trees from
her path as if they were mere cobwebs. "A story about what?"
With a smile, Lust takes the girl's
tiny hand in hers, and even slows her stride a fraction to allow her
to keep pace.
"'Tis
a story about the fall of a kingdom, the slaughter of its people, and
the day of bloodshed and terror
that
gave birth to the one who would eventually become known as Lust.
'Tis quite amusing. Would you like to hear it?"
Clearly
interested, Biscuit nods with eager curiosity.
"Hoh?
Very well, I shall tell it then! But... Hmm. Where should I start?
Well, to regale the story of Lust, I suppose we must first start with
the birth of Gluttony."
"Fweh?
Mom's birth? Why's that?" I ask, moving closer to the two. Of
course, Biscuit isn't the only one who's going to be interested
in a story like this. Especially if it's going to involve Mom.
"Ah,
you see, 'twas the birth of Gluttony that gave birth to Lust. The
day Gluttony was born into this world, was the day I was too, in a
sense. 'Twas the day I became infatuated with her. The day I became
Queen of the Desert Elves. And..."
A
nostalgic smile crosses Lust's face as she recalls the memories of
her past.
"'Twas the day I witnessed
first-hand as she tore my father's head from his neck, slaughtered
every last one of my people, and crumbled my home into dust. Yes, let
me tell you the story of how Choco Valentine came to become Lust..."