Cultivating Anthro CEO RPG Hero Harem Reincarnation In Another World

Meanwhile, while Zhao and Chunhua were settling their dispute the only way Cultivators know how...

Akira had just retrieved the giant golf ball disco ball thingy, called a [Mermaid's Beacon], against Vash's advice. When suddenly, a woman's booming voice could be heard from on high; like it was addressing Akira directly from the heavens:

"Aha! This is a pre-recorded message. Whoever you are, you've—like—totally found my favorite pearl! So now, you've gotta bring it back. To my temple. Right NOW."

It was a bubbly, ditzy voice: sounding like any one of those gold-digging girls who used to somehow get ahold of Akira Maximilian's personal phone number, just to make unsolicited advances toward him. Only, this time, it wasn't so much annoying as it was incredibly poorly timed: the disembodied voice being met with a piercing shriek from the Guy Fly dragon, followed by the sound of its wingbeats growing louder…

Vash and Akira barely had time to exchange fearful glances, before the house they were sheltering in promptly came awash in a breath of fire.

"Damn it!" Vash said. "The dragon knows where we are because of that thing!"

Akira frantically tried stashing it in his inventory as the pair proceeded to run from the house, just before it completely collapsed in on itself, yet still the "pre-recorded" voice continued to prattle:

"So like, I need you to bring that pearl—my pearl—back to my place at Mt. Killcreep, so you can clear the place out of these guys that showed up one day and…"—the voice sighed—"okay, so maybe ya girl messed with the wrong guy. And maybe ya girl knew this, going in. But in ya girl's defense, she was looking for something a little...different, ya know? She didn't know what to expect from dating a Kelpie." She chuckled. "Long story—"

"Shut up already!" Akira raged, not that it was of any use; the voice serving to paint a big red target on their backs for Guy Fly to...target, as they were forced to continually hide behind cover from its infernal breath.

"I told you not to pick it up, didn't I?" Vash returned frustratedly.

"Yeah, well you never mentioned anything about an annoying bitch's voice that won't shut up!" Akira said. Then, gingerly poked his head out from behind a stone wall they'd found to barricade themselves behind, to see if the coast is clear, only to nearly have his eyebrows seared clean off as a result.

The valley girl voice was ceaseless. Grating. Her words, utterly nonsensical as she went on further and further tangents from her original message:

"Which reminds me, I met this sailor once…"

"Shut up! Shut up!"

"Bloated, like a manatee. I'm talking HUGE. We were the perfect fit, though. Until he…"—she sighed—"got caught in some kelp while we were swimming one day, and drowned."

Akira pulled the beacon from her inventory to repeatedly smash it against the wall, trying to get it to stop, but to no avail.

"There's a huge fort on the other side of the village," Vash said. "I saw it as we were first coming in, and I think it's where the soldiers were taking all those people earlier."

"Okay," Akira said. "But first"—she lifted up the [Mermaid Beacon] in one palm, smirking—"we'll need a distraction."

"It's like that time I tried sleeping with a Snow Troll!" the disembodied voice continued, sweetly oblivious to the hateful glares it was receiving. "It was AWFUL! I mean, he was even bigger than I expected, but a real grabby Gus!"

Moments later…

The dragon was circling overhead, knowing—by ear—exactly where its prey was hiding, smartly using its attacks to attempt to flush them out of their hiding place, like a family of mice from their den, out into the open where its jaws could get them.

However, as it so happened, Akira had left the [Mermaid Beacon] behind and crept onward, with Vash—proceeding entirely unnoticed by the deathbringer drake!

"Isn't it weird how even our [Mementos] are gone?" Akira mused aloud.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Vash answered. "Perhaps the rules in this world are totally different from Nirvana, considering that so much else about the world is different, down to even the UI of the inventory menu."

"Do you think we'll be able to find a way back?" Akira wondered, his brows furrowing with seriousness. "I still had some unfinished business."

"One step at a time, Akira. We'll figure all this out."

It wasn't long until they reached the fort, which had managed to endure the attack remarkably well: showing only small bits of crumbled rock from its outer walls; its tall, wide, wooden doors letting in a flood of survivors at the signaling of Zhao, and a group of other soldiers. 

Zhao's face brightened when he saw the two approaching, before stopping in their tracks suddenly with wary expressions. 

"Akira and Vash! Hurry inside."

"Just so your commander can arrest us again?" Akira said, scoffing. "Yeah, right!"

"I swear to you," he said, holding a hand to his heart. "Commander Chunhua has gone missing in battle. Which means, as her lieutenant, it grants me temporary command authority over all Cultivator business here." He paused, giving a light bow. Smiled warmly, before continuing: "so it is, by my current authority, that I declare any and all suspicions previously held against you are hereby erased. So that now, you may consider yourselves as free men."

"Don't listen to him, outsiders!" A familiar voice chimed in. "Life under Cultivator rule is a form of imprisonment in itself."

Akira and Vash both turned at the sound of the voice and saw, adjacent to the fort, there was a massive, gaping hole left behind in a destroyed section of the village's outer wall, formed during the attack. Through which the freed Stormfleece fighters could be seen staging their own escapes unmolested.

Among their ranks was Rudolf—the issuer of the prior warning to Vash and Akira, as he beckoned to them with one giant paw.

"Come with me, and know true freedom!"

"Friends...I would staunchly recommend that you do not"—Zhao, stern-faced, drew his saber—"ally yourself with terrorists."

"Hah! See how he threatens you?"

"Hmmph! 'Tis not a threat meant for them, but for you!"

Rudolf was practically pleading. "You've had but a taste of what life is like, under the rulership of those stuck up, sword-flying pretty boys. But...until you've experienced it yourself, you can't know what it's like to always be looking over your back: knowing you risk being put to death just for being spotted carrying around a stick, or a bloody friggin' cooking knife."

"Through such...admittedly, strict laws of restriction, there is at least order," Zhao countered. "And it is only through such restrictions that Seaspan remains protected from Faefolk rule."

"Lies! You Cultivators are such prissy cowards, even with the powers you wield."

"Oh? Do you Stormfleeces truly think the Norns stand any chance in an all-out war against the Fae?" Zhao laughed. "If so, you're every bit the tribe of dumb barbarian savages my peers paint you as."

"We've managed to fend off the Fae before, and we'll do it again."

"In ancient times, sure—but this is now!"

While those two resumed their bickering, Akira and Vash quickly convened: huddling close together, to confer with each other on the issue.

"The Cultivators, for sure," Akira said, his face then melting into a dreamy smile. "They're the ones enforcing the laws calling for the use of [Maidé Balls], and I've never been more in support of any law in my entire life!"

Vash groaned. "Could you quit it with the lewd thoughts, just for once, and treat this matter seriously?"

"No." Akira said simply, scratching his head.

"We're being asked to choose our faction in an ongoing frigging civil war!"

"Yeah, well I already told you my side"—his face melted, once more, as his voice fell to a pleasured murmur—"the side with the cute girls that'll call me 'master,' huhuhu."

"That makes things difficult, though. Because I'm much more inclined to side with the Imp—err, I mean...Cultivators."

Akira briefly stroked his chin in thought.

"Zhao did say he had the girls..."

Vash's eyes widened. "Ah! That's right. He said they would've been"—he cringed—" 'confiscated' by the soldiers who found us lying unconscious."

"He's our best lead right now."

Vash sighed. "Yeah. You're right." As much as he would rather be joining with the faction that was opposed to the maiden training...

Upon seeing his expression of dismay, Akira raised an eyebrow. "The [Pocket Maids] thing really bugs you, doesn't it?" he asked with concern, having never seen Vash look so distraught over something before. "I never took you for the type to be involved in political activism."

"I'm mostly worried about Kanna, and Kiki," he said, downcast. "Like, what if they're in the hands of some pervert right now?"

Akira merely shrugged it off. "She'll be fine! She's Kanna—the toughest girl I know." Yet Vash couldn't help but still feel a sense of unease as the two then began trudging toward Zhao, who greeted them with a smile and open arms. While Rudolf looked on with disdain, shaking his head wearily.

"Heed my words, outsiders: you'll come to regret this decision!" he called after them. "Yorick Stormfleece won't stop at nothing until all of Seaspan is free!'"