My Servant System

She said we were going to learn something from this, and yet all we got to learn was that the people who had come to rely so heavily on structure for their entire lives and every single minute detail within it, having that structure taken away brought them into a sense of despair that no amount of leadership could readily fix.

Apparently the Vizier was just that loved and that good at her job that the thought of losing her made everyone at the table sink into their depression even more, especially since they had already been drained of all of their energy thanks to someone sitting at the table right now.

Sla'Salaxi paid no mind to the mortals around her, instead focusing on trying to charm the Sultana so that she could accomplish... something; perhaps just a way to guarantee her continued existence, perhaps she wanted to bind herself to someone to someone strong to have a cozier life going forwards, perhaps she was just interested in making love to this extremely powerful woman.

Either way, her presence at the table confused and scared the people even more, so there was little that the Sultana could do to get them back into order without brow beating them and throwing her weight around, which was exactly what she did as she shuffled people's positions and responsibilities to make the city of Khisba return to a state of normalcy, at least somewhat.

It wasn't the show of diplomacy and display of charismatic skill that the Sultana had wanted to put on for us, but the meaning was still clear even as she dismissed the room; we were going to need to get accustomed to dealing with all sorts of people going forwards, and some of those people were going to be despairing the loss of someone or something important.

When they were dismissed, they trudged out without a word and made their way back to their rooms to mull everything over and deal with their grief in whatever way they wanted, leaving us alone at the table once more, though as soon as the Sultana began to say something, Leone's stomach grumbled, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment, though when Anput's stomach rumbled next the Vampire was relieved somewhat that everyone's attention was split.

"I would say let's eat, but..."

The Sultana looked around the empty room before pointedly staring at the empty table, which made me sigh as I stood up and asked "Where is the kitchen? I can cook while we chat; I feel like we aren't going to remain here any longer, right? So we should eat, refill our water pouches and set off for home."

"If that is what you would want, we can head on back to Muqai Al-Maedin; we would arrive by nightfall at the earliest, a few hours before midnight at the latest. Or you can remain here, in Khisba, before heading over to the next city that had a Fiend sighting."

Getting up from the table, the Sultana continued to ignore Sla'Salaxi even as the Fiend tried to hug her arm, which resulted in the Fiend pouting as she walked just behind the Jackalkin in hopes of getting her attention, ignoring the rest of us completely as she set her eyes on what she viewed as the only prize.

I exchanged a glance with Jahi when we both saw that, and the Demoness just smirked at me and shrugged as she said "Can't really blame her can you?", which made me shrug too since, well... I couldn't, not when there was a chance for that Fiend to secure her own safety amongst those that wouldn't mind harvesting her for parts...

I mean, after all, Anput brought up the excellent idea of making a full set of armor and weapons that I could use for my Lust Mana, gathering even more of that illusive power for myself and channeling it more efficiently in a set of gear tailored just for it.

So to say that I could understand why the Fiend would want to earn the protection of a stronger person to keep her safe from people who might want to turn her into parts would be an understatement, but as I listened to Leone's stomach once more I cast aside those thoughts and instead focused on getting to the kitchens to get to cooking a fulfilling meal for us all to enjoy.

As one would expect for a capital building that also housed all of the officials of the city, the kitchens were a large, well stocked place that made me feel an indescribable happiness as I began to gather a large quantity of ingredients whilst listening to everyone else converse nearby.

"What other Fiends have been seen nearby? We got some good parts from that Ka Fiend, and I think we have more than enough to make some special gear from that - so long as I get my skills up to snuff and feel comfortable forging with those parts. If there's even more Ka Fiend's around, I imagine we can even try to filter out their mana and figure out how to make use of it in everything else..."

"That is very risky though, playing with a mana type we don't know much about. But I won't say that the weapons wouldn't be very useful if you managed to make them properly. That sort of toughness and strength shouldn't be able to be equaled by any alloys for a very, very long time. Not unless you discover some new method or manage to purify and combined everything perfectly."

The Jackalkin rolled her eyes as she said "Thanks for that vote of confidence, Leone. Really appreciate it.", which made Leone smile at her wryly as she shrugged her shoulders, thought they both turned towards me as I asked "Either way, we need to start upgrading our gear fast, and the only way I can think of doing so would be to go straight to Fiend parts. How quickly can you get comfortable forging with them, Anput?"

"Maybe a week of just straight forging. I need to get back into it and become accustomed to the material before I get to forging anything complicated. Even a small dagger is so different when using Fiend parts. The difference between metal, bone and metal alloy, and straight bone is all very noticeable, and making things from them has upsides and downsides that need their own consideration."

"Well, still... that's not that bad, all things considered. During that time we can also get to work on coming up with other ways to strengthen ourselves, like spell crafting, tattoos, alchemy and more. But anyways, Sultana, what are the nearby Fiends? Do you know?"

"A few more Ka, a few Nua, and one that may or may not be a Tza. This one was an unexpected encounter, which only makes me wonder if there are more lingering around out there among the sands. I always advise caution, but even more so now; the Sultanate is already a treacherous place on the best of days, and currently... we are not so blessed as to be among them."

"Nua Fiends... what do you think we can do with Nua Fiends..?"

I glanced over at Anput and just said "I don't know, but shut up about them for now; I like having a semblance of an appetite.", which made the Jackalkin nod as she pivoted instead to something else, turning to Leone as she asked "You mentioned something about removing impurities in the body; would that actually do anything important?"

A slight groan escaped my lips at that, though I just focused on the cooking instead of thinking about how many pieces of media I had consumed mentioned removing impurities and how nasty and gross it seemed, especially since it was paired with a need to do it multiple times instead of just once...

"That, or empowering certain parts of the body gradually over time to improve yourself from what you are at the moment - strong, yes, but ultimately still rather fragile - into something more resilient and even more powerful. Either one is a good idea for us going forwards, and I have recipes and the ingredients necessary to concoct what we need, we just haven't had the time really... and you do also need to plateau physically before actually trying. Like... our bodies needed to stop growing before we could take those pills or use the powders."

"What about the tattoo idea though? Would that get in the way of using these alchemical products? I mean, if you enhance the flesh then how well will mana take to it compared to before? What about the tattoos that you already have?"

I glanced back at the Vampire, who shrugged again as she replied "I'm not to sure, but it should be fine; obviously I'll want to do some more research before hand, and ask Mother a few questions about it. She's told me she did those things before, so... yeah. And depending on what we get, I might even be able to improve the recipes some more with Fiend parts. That'd be nicer on Aunt Igna since for a long time there, the strongest 'creature' we could get ingredients from would be her..."

We all just stared at the Vampire for a few moments before shaking our heads and moving on to the next topic of conversation, all while the wonderful scent of spices began to fill the kitchen as I got our meal underway; quite a lot of food too since I didn't really want to be in Khisba any longer than we needed to be.

The city hadn't really enticed me, though that was through no fault of its own; I just want to move forwards now, I suppose, and I also wanted to keep exploring Anput's home to get to know my mate better.