The Crimson Tale of Conquest

Lucilla browsed through the bookshelves looking for anything that seemed interesting. Judieth was already sitting down at one of the tables books stacked around her. Most of them were about organic Biology and Magic Biology. Yuki was already bored and was messing with a plant nearby while Morella perused the bookshelves along with Lucilla. Other than them no one else was in the library this early in the morning other than the Librarian himself.

"Oh my, how interesting." Morella muttered to herself, pulling a book from the shelf. With a smile she started flipping through the pages.

Glancing over in her direction Lucilla noticed the book was about different techniques to improve one's art. 'Morella really hasn't had a chance to exercise her creativity in a while. Glad she found something about art after so long.' Lucilla thought with a faint smile. Anyone looking at her would've thought she was directing a mocking grin at the older woman as she glared at Morella.

Deciding that she wouldn't find anything interesting at this book aisle she decided to search in another area. She walked over to a section labeled 'Technology' and started browsing the selection of books there. Each book aisle opened up to the sitting area, so Lucilla was still able to see what the others were up to. She noticed Morella had sat down in another part of the sitting area that had two low couches facing each other with a coffee table between them. She seemed to have pulled a sketch pad from somewhere and had the art book open in front of as she began to sketch something in her sketchbook.

Eventually Lucilla pulled a book from the shelf labeled 'A Modern History of Old-World Tech.' Opening the book, she come to find its contents interesting. The book - just like its tittle implied - was about the technology in the era before Eldon Vesh and his wired vendetta against technology. The book mostly went into the types of technology that either survived till today or has been recreated. One of the leading examples was the air ships.

Until recently It was one of the most advance pieces of technology for centuries that had managed to survive. For a long while the world lost the means to properly maintain these air ships between the time periods 0 and 714 A.V. Another major issue was the fuel to power the airship engines. It wasn't till 624 A.V, where they were able to once again create the fuel needed, before that they had to dig deep into the earth to find liquid Mana and refine it to make it less volatile. By 713 the means to recreate these ships was once again possible, but the knowledge to do so wasn't known by the public till 796.

There were other little tidbits about other such technologies that the Church had figured out how to recreate but kept the knowledge to themselves and only revealed years later or the Empire had figured it out and gave the knowledge out to undermine the Church. She even learned about a long-distance communication device that is located in important locations across the world, and smaller things like a fridge, which used both an ice stone or crystal and a wind stone or crystal, was an invention from the old world as well.

As she read the book, completely absorbed, she had at some point moved to the couch Morella was located and was leaning against her shoulder. On her other side was Yuki who was conjuring shadows on her hand and playing with them. Judieth had also moved over to where they were and was sitting on the couch opposite of them reading her own books. Lucilla enjoyed the calm atmosphere as she continued to delve deeper into her reading.

"Hey Judieth, is there a place I can go to learn more about stuff like this?" Lucilla eventually asked looking up from her book. "I am interested in what I can do with this knowledge, and I want to know if there is someone that could teach me."

"... You mean, like, a school?" Judieth responded raising an eyebrow. In her hand was a book titled 'The Lost country and the Arachne Queen.'

"What's that?" Yuki asked in Lucilla's stead tilting her head to the side in a questioning manner.

"I, well... You see a school is-" Judieth then explained the very basic concept of a school to the two of them. 'Kinda depressing, they don't even know what a school is.' Judieth thought with pity.

"Oh that!" Lucilla quietly exclaimed after Judieth finished her explanation. "Mom didn't let me go there because it was too risky, so she taught me everything herself at home...." Lucilla spoke but started to trail off at the end. "She was finally going to let me go to school with the other kids after I turned ten..."

A heavy atmosphere descended on the group after she finished speaking. Not wanting Lucilla to dwell on something painful Morella changed the subject and asked Judieth what she's reading. Catching on to what she was trying to do Judieth turned the pages of the book she was reading towards the others. A picture of an Arachne covered one entire page, evidently this was one of the few books not about Biology she had.

"I was just reading up on the Lost country and the Arachne. I was raised there you know." Judieth said with a cheerful smile. Though Lucilla noted that it looked a little forced. "Well, I lived on the border between this country and that one. The cabin that acts as the entrance to my Lab is actually my childhood home."

"Oh? Is this perhaps the first time you told us anything about yourself?" Morella said with a teasing smile. "Careful, next thing you know we'll be swapping secrets with each other and braiding each other's hair while giggling."

Rolling her eyes Judieth turned her attention back to the book. "This image here is generally what Arachne looks like. Not many people have seen the Queen but a rare few that have seen her and survived said she doesn't look that much different from other Arachne. The only real difference apparently is that her spider half also has a head." Judieth said pointing at the detailed drawing of what is presumably an artist rendition of what the Queen may look like.

Her lower half was that of a large but seemingly fluffy spider, it even had a head with eight eyes and fangs. Yuki grimaced seeing that, Morella didn't react, and Lucilla just said, "Cute," with a deadpan face. The top half was in the shape of a humanoid woman with long hair; and starting at the corner of each mouth was a line stretching across her face. The picture was a sketch so there wasn't any color. Next to the image on the other page was extra details that didn't appear in the image.

"Oh my."

"Uhg."

"Thats kind of cool."

All three had different reactions to the information presented to them. Apparently, an Arachne's mouth stretches all the way across their face. While at first glance they appear to have a normal mouth with lips, scrutinizing them more closely one will realize something is off. Starting at the corner of their lips was what looked to be a groove indented into their face, that stretch to either side of their face over the cheek. When an Arachne decides to eat their pray, with the top half or simply to intimidate someone, they open their mouth wide to reveal a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

"There isn't really a lot of personal description of the Queen is there?" Lucilla noted. The book basically described a normal Arachne, apparently the only thing people could confirm was that she looked normal enough.

"No there doesn't appear to be any real descriptors. Apparently, she does sometimes show herself to the people of the Lost Country, but they are very tight lip about anything pertaining her when talking with outsiders." Judieth answered with a shrug.

"That makes sense, to them she's like their guardian. Making sure the roads are clear from danger like monsters or bandits and keeping the other countries from meddling in their affairs." Said Morella. "I've been to the lost country once. Very peaceful."

"But... she's a monster, isn't she?" The Silvered haired monster woman asked.

"Yeah, she is." Judieth confirmed. "Usually, an Arachne would be hunted immediately but she and her people are the exception. She's been around long enough for one generation of Demons to have already passed so most people there are used to her existence already."

"Really? But Demons live around 300 years! How old is she?" Yuki exclaimed, amazed someone whose species isn't known to be immortal could live longer than Demons.

"Who knows. People speculate she might have the Immortal gene." Judieth said, pushing her glasses up. "We believe you might also have the gene Lu- Ruby." Judieth quickly corrected herself remembering they were in public.

"Wait, what?" A shocked Lucilla said.

"Hm? Oh yeah Yuki might have it now too after the experiment."

"I'm already immortal so I guess we might be able to stay together for a while yet." Morella said with a warm smile.

With eyes sparkling Yuki jumped up from the couch and leaned over the table, her face getting closer to the Red-haired scientist. "So, I won't lose them, and I get to stay with them forever?"

"Well, all of you can still be killed. You just won't age though, so be careful." Judieth said."

"Oh. yeah." Looking as if she was told something devastating, Yuki sat back down, her earlier energy drained.

Seeing this, Lucilla patted the Demon next her on the head to comfort them. As she did, Lucilla suddenly got the feeling she was being watched. Taking a look at her surroundings she realized they were no longer alone in the library. That was fine, what wasn't fine was the fact the people around her had very weak presences and even their scents were faint. It was the same thing that Sara did only they weren't as effective as her.

"Looks like they found us." Lucilla muttered to herself.

The Hunters, and Mercenary Guild's have been sending people to monitor her for a while now. They would show up every once and a while and skulk around her and the others, which was really annoying. 'Hey at least pretend to read the book! Your eyes aren't even moving man.' Lucilla thought as she glanced in the direction of one guy sitting at one of the tables a little further away.

"Ayooooo!" It was then at that moment that a woman with short blond hair and blue eyes loudly showed up. She wore tight fitted pants with boots, rounded glasses and a Bellamy white shirt. At her side was a cutlass.

"Wait... Cr-"

"Yep, it's me Victoria!" Said the woman.

"Oh, yeah right." Lucilla said realizing the woman was keeping her identity hidden.

Despite the outfit change Cristina's face was still recognizable even behind the glasses and blue eyes. What clued her in more was the cutlass, it was the exact same one she saw when they first met, and she's never seen her without it.

"Why are you here... Victoria?"

"Well, I figured it was time for our meeting. I told you I'll come get you, remember?" Cristina whispered when she got closer to the others.

"Well then I guess it's time for us to get going." Judieth said closing her book.

"Let me check this one out first. I want to read more." Lucilla said carrying the book she was reading earlier in her hand.

"Sure, sure. Alright, onward!"

When they went to the front desk to check out, they got held up longer than expected. The librarian chewed out Cristina for her behavior for 15 minutes.