I was so tired of false mirages and delusions.
Around me the realm had never looked more bright and peaceful. Paved paths of smooth obsidian ran across bridges over the clear stream and around large tree roots. That grove was a village of monsters that all saluted me as I passed.
Not just me. Fluffy monsters spent their time meeting each other, offering each other gifts and playing together in silly games.
Yes. Yes it had come to this. In a dying realm where the mana drain was going to wipe them all out, they busied themselves by bumping a ball on their head.
And they had built a windmill!
So I was accompanying the human who had orchestrated this whole farce all the way through that insanity, out and into fields of flowers. Their petals still flowed around in a quiet wind.
"I made the blades!" What had been a colport proudly said.
The caricature of a belbec added: "He did! He is so good with crafting!"
"It's amazing!" The human praised them. "And you chose such vibrant colors!"
She had named the one on the left Mikan, the one on the right Kinako. There was a whole crowd of those petty monsters everywhere the human went and I could not be bothered to remember all of their pet names.
"With this, we will produce perfume for everyone!" Whichever one it was boasted. "And nobody has to work for it!"
And the crowd cheered. Monsters cheered enthusiastically for perfume.
Because it was all appearances. Behind the cute fur and big eyes boiled the actual creature, thoughts of rage and vengeance. They were enslaved, forced to play along in a mascarade where perfume was desirable.
And because of the human's system, that mockery had found a new twist.
"I am so glad you found a friend, Mikan!" The woman praised her pet. And to the other pet: "He is not too much trouble?"
"Oh, you are infinite trouble you rascal!" And the beast gently slapped his companion. "We are quarreling all the time, that means we are friends!"
"We even fight from time to time!"
The human rolled her eyes and patted them. "You two are adorable. You should rest after all this work! Oh, we should make you some meal!"
"I will!" Some other slave shouted from the crowd.
A change of pronoun. The twist was just that, a change of pronoun.
In slavery, the slaves said you and the slaver said I. But because the system had promised to generate mana through a spell, a... skill... it called soulmate, that required a perfect relationship between two monsters, now the slaver said you all the time.
Instead of being forced to serve one person, the slaves were ordered to serve each other. Hence the gifts, the politeness and the perfume.
A commotion spared me more of that misery.
The hunters were back. They had named themselves that but hunting was forbidden. What that group really did was look for monsters that had yet to be enslaved. Pacified. Turned into puppies. Enslaved.
At their head was the sky lynx, that looked nothing like a sky lynx and was now closer to a bear with four pointy ears and that absurd mane on its back. It organized the search, then helped catch the monsters and bring them back.
To the human.
We passed the bridge and approached, the court of beasts with us. Inside the wooden cage was a menilis. The cat-like creature fought furiously to break those bars but the wood was deceptive: it would not cede.
They were pushing that cage on a cart, stopped when seeing us and waved, all proud.
While the human praised them and all patted each other on the back, I approached the trapped monster. I passed my clay hand through the bars to touch it. It leapt on it to bite with its rat fangs, failed to harm the clay plate.
My fingers grabbed its head. I pulsed the spell through. Reading!
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Meniles were among the last monsters that still escaped the human's reach. They were weak and, when alone, reluctant to fight. That had made them last the longest.
"Leave it alone, Kaele!" The human scolded me, then approached and the monster fled to the other side of the cage. "It's okay, little one! Pacify!"
I turned around and walked away.
I was a clay golem. I had better things to do than any of that.
"Wait! Eh wait!"
The sky lynx had caught up with me. It wasn't hard, that creature was built for speed.
"Why are you always so grumpy? Don't you want to help Yuitsu?"
I had no reason to talk with that vermin.
"Haven't you heard her? If we reach soulmate, we can save the realm! Don't you want that?"
It could walk on four legs, it would have been more natural for that monster, but of course it forced itself to keep pace on two.
Which it struggled to do.
None of this was helping. None of it.
First, no one could create mana. Soulmate was a lie. At best what it could do was draw mana from elsewhere to feed its casters and that was likely from the local pool of magic, meaning the meadow, meaning it was completely, utterly useless.
Second, how much mana? Even if an antiquated human relic had a spell that defied human knowledge, how much would it produce? A spell that consumed mana would produce how much?!
And third!
You! Could! Not! Reach! Soulmate!
It was mathematically impossible! Just unlocking that spell through the system would take either pacifying more monsters than there likely were in the entire realm! Or getting the entire meadow, every single monster here! To reach a perfect relationship!
Whatever that meant!
And as the human herself had admitted, most of them were lingering in the low ten percent. The whole area would be a flat, dry landscape before they could even taste soulmate!
That stupid pet knew it, it was there when I yelled all of that at her!
But of course, as a good slave, it could not contradict its mistress.
As a good golem, neither should I.
"You could at least help catch the strays! God, you're impossible!"
And the sky lynx leapt away in a flash.
It probably left me not due to my silence but because I had reached the ship and, as an unspoken rule, no monster was allowed onboard when their mistress was away.
The Parao floated lazily on the stream. Moorings creaking a bit. I removed a few petals on the ramp, then on its deck. Then headed for the hatch.
For once, the legged rapt that took shelter there didn't bother me. It was pretending to be asleep under the steps.
Back to reforging my armor.
I had not just lost a whole arm in battle but several other plates had suffered. And it was taking too long to repair all of it. By now the torso was somewhat fixed and so, rather than deal with the leg, I was focused on a new arm. Or two.
And the helmet, well, the helmet would be delayed forever.
Not that any of it would help the human, but of all the pointless tasks I could figure out this felt like the most urgent. The faint thought, lost somewhere on the stone tablet that animated me, that the next one...
In the middle of my work, the rapt came to rub my leg.
It was scared, because it could hear the menagerie coming onboard, the human's court as she returned for a meal. Not that they hadn't built a house for her in their village but the ship's accommodations seemed more to her taste.
Another faint thought, lost somewhere on the stone tablet that animated me. If I could read my own thoughts, what would they look like?
Reading your own thoughts and meeting a completely different person...
Anyway, I had to make her a meal. The monster still followed close to me, silently unwilling to let go of my presence. Up and through the dozen of beasts that filled the lounge, to the dining room.
The human was there, joking with a hunched lizard with fur on its maw and arms that insisted on standing on two legs.
"Oh, Kaele!" The woman chirped. "Daichi wants to teach me cooking!"
"It's just an idea..." The lizard shied away at my glare. "I thought it was a friendly thing to do."
"You don't have to force yourself." She pushed him. "But yes, I would like to learn."
I cut their talk with a tad of annoyance.
"What's the system's reward for pacifying me?"
She looked at me, then apologized to the lizard for something and had it politely leave. Then she crossed her arms and gauged me from feet to badger mask.
"You are already pacified." The human explained.
"Then what is the system saying about me?"
"Where is this coming from? I remember you saying it was all... what were your words again..."
"You need a billion points for your inanity. What's the bounty on my head?"
That took her by surprise. But she quickly recovered and calmly looked away.
"There really is no need to talk about that. How about making dinner for everyone?"
"How high is it?"
"Well over twenty billion." She finally admitted. Her eyes were probably on the actual number. "Give up on it, it's not happening."
"Why? Because you should kill me?"
Her sudden chuckle nearly turned into a burst of laughter.
"You really live in a different world, don't you? No, it wants me to reach a perfect relationship with you. Just reaching twenty percent would net me half a billion points."
Before I had the time to think how low that had to be, she raised a hand to stop me.
"The catch is! You are at negative two hundred." Her smile was warm as the sun. "No other monster goes negative but you, anything I tried only made it worse."
"Sounds like the system is toying with you."
"It does, doesn't it?" Her head rolled for a bit, to stretch. "The world is what it is, Kaele. We play the cards we have. I don't mean to be rude but, you still have this habit of blaming yourself for everything. It's a bit childish. And you are already suffering enough as it is."
I was not suffering. Okay I was suffering but that was irrelevant. The relevant part was she needed mana and I had nothing better than soulmate to make it happen.
All I had to do was figure out how to gain two hundred and twenty some points of something. Play the system's sick game and...
Another commotion. The beasts were leaving the lounge and filling the deck, saying "it's Sora!" and "Sora is coming!" with concern.
I followed the human outside, saw the bear-like sky lynx just in time before it leaped among us. It still had sand on its fur, along with grass.
And it was carrying another monster that it let fall on the floorboards.
"Quick!" The sky lynx pleaded. "It's dying!"
The human threw herself at the beast's side. A magnal. Great cleaners of the old times. The lizard had curled up. The heavy scales forming its shell could not hide a pale scaly skin under which the veins still pulsed.
"Heal!" The human shouted.
A magic circle flashed in front of her hand before the monster coughed and regained some life. Its mouth ran down from the sharp shelled muzzle to the base of its neck. It sucked its preys dry and the rocks for mana.
And the sky lynx had carried that on its back.
"Careful!" It said, its paw forcing the human back. "She is not pacified!"
The lizard was waking up, felt the wood under its claws, saw the crowd close by, squirmed and hissed for an instant before calming down.
"Mana..." It started to talk.
Not with a voice. It used its thoughts. Monsters never did that! Not unless they wanted to boast for supremacy! Or as a form of complete capitulation.
Here it was, thinking aloud for a whole mass of beasts surrounding it.
"So much mana... The legend is true, the oasis exists! Please!" The magnal addressed the crowd. "Let me join you!"