In the Presence of Royalty
Millie walked into the room and waved at Idomu and me.
"Is that the new guy? I thought he would look different."
"Hey, Millie. Yeah, this is Idomu-san. He's actually a tanuki, which I guess is kind of like an Earth monster, but he can change shape. Anyway, I'll have to translate if you want to talk to him."
"There's no need for that, silly boy. I already speak his language. What do you think I've been speaking since I walked in?"
The damn auto-translation made it hard for me to keep track of what language I was using. I was surprised Millie already knew about Idomu since she wasn't around when Cordelia brought him out or when Gilda told me to talk to him in Japanese. I figured she must have heard from one of the others.
"Anyway, nice to meet you, Idomu. My name is Millie."
She reached out to shake hands, and my mind briefly recalled how Gilda had said to a succubus, sex was like shaking hands. That thought made me a bit nervous, but Idomu just shook her hand like normal, and the greeting was completed without incident.
"I have heard about you from Willie-san. He speaks highly of you."
"Oh? Did William tell you about our first kiss? He's quite the good kisser, you know..."
I jumped in to stop the conversation before it got too off track on some weird tangent.
"Sorry, Idomu-san, she's kind of a free spirit."
"Haha. That's quite all right. Millie-chan is quite the beauty and obviously fond of you. I'm glad you get along well."
"Yep, I love William. He's such a good boy. I hope you'll be good friends with him too. It'll be so nice for him to have another boy to play with."
I wasn't even sure what conversation we were having anymore. I couldn't keep up with how Millie saw me. Did she see me as a kid? She looked older, so maybe that was it. Idomu was just laughing, but then he suddenly became serious when Millie pointed toward an empty part of the room and asked me a question.
"So, is that another new friend? She's a real beauty."
Idomu was suddenly staring at Millie, wearing a tense expression. I wasn't sure what was going on because I didn't see anything where she was pointing.
"Um, I don't see anything, Millie. Are you feeling okay?"
"Hmm? Sure, I'm feeling just fine. So you don't see the small girl with white fur over there?"
Idomu transformed back into a tanuki and positioned himself between us and where Millie was pointing. He bared his teeth and tried to look intimidating, which, unfortunately for him, wasn't particularly scary because he was just a small furball.
"Wait a second! What the hell is going on, Idomu-san?"
Millie just seemed amused by the whole thing.
"Oh, William, you should never interrupt a man when he is trying to look cool for his lover."
"Lover? There's nothing there!"
"Yeah, there is. Can't you see her? She looks kind of like Idomu, except all white."
I squinted at the area Millie was pointing while I tried to ignore Idomu's attempt at intimidation.
"Nope, I don't see anything. Wait..."
As soon as I said that, another tanuki appeared out of thin air. This one was pure white, and I thought I could maybe tell it was a girl. This was obviously Byakuren, Idomuu's mate. I was shocked. I had no idea that she was there the whole time, and I doubted Cordelia or Gilda did either. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded like she was a bit younger than Idomu, and it had a very dignified quality.
"Idomu, there is no reason to be so rude to our hosts. I am in no danger here. Please calm down."
Idomu immediately relaxed and even got a slightly smug look on his face. The white tanuki walked up to stand next to him and bowed her head to us slightly.
"My name is Byakuren. I apologize for my foolish husband's over-protective actions. He meant no harm or disrespect to either of you. He was simply worried for my safety."
Before I had a chance to respond, Millie jumped right into the conversation.
"Oh, no problem, cutie pie. Men jump the gun like all the time, don't they?"
"Indeed, they do. Always eager to show off. Thank you for your understanding Millie-sama."
This atmosphere of girl talk made it hard for me and Idomu to jump in. Byakuren, who spoke in a dignified and respectful way, was the complete opposite of Millie, who was always laid back. But they seemed to have already struck up a friendly relationship.
"I also want to apologize to you, Willie-sama. I was only hiding my presence until Idomu was satisfied that it was safe for me to reveal myself. As I said, he is overprotective."
Idomu shifted back into his human form, where it was easy to see his dissatisfaction with what she had said. She transformed as well, although it was easy to see that she was less smooth at morphing than he was. As a human, she looked exactly like she sounded, dignified and classy. She was a bit younger than him and pretty, in an elegant way.
"Willie-san, she says that, but you have to understand that Byakuren-chan is a tanuki princess. I would be honor-bound to protect her with my life, even if she were not my mate."
I could see that Idomu was very proud of the fact that she was a princess. Honestly, I wasn't too sure about what being royalty meant in tanuki society but, I guess you could at least say that he married up. Meanwhile, she just rolled her eyes at him, which was a less dignified expression than I would have expected from a princess, tanuki or otherwise. Millie was nodding her head in agreement.
"Oh, Hey! I'm a princess too! I guess that means we can be princess besties."
Every time I thought there was no way Millie could say something more unexpected, she raised the bar further. I was already having a hard enough time figuring out how I should react to a tanuki princess, and Millie just lets slip she's a princess too?
"Wait, what? You're a princess, Millie? How come this never came up before now?"
Millie raised her hand to touch her chin in the classic thinking pose.
"That's a silly question, William. I hadn't met any other princesses yet, so who was I going to be princess besties with?"
Idomu had an amused look on his face, while Byakuren seemed to be taking Millie totally seriously. I wasn't sure that was the right reaction here.
"Millie-hime, is your royal blood the reason you could see through my illusion so easily?"
She made it sound like it was a big deal that Millie was able to see through her illusion. Then again, I definitely didn't, so maybe it really was a big deal.
"Hmm? Oh, maybe. I've always had strong illusion magic as far back as I can remember. But I lost my family when I was really young, so I don't remember if my mother was the same."
"Ah, I apologize for asking such an insensitive question."
I already knew Millie had lost her family as a child before she was bonded to Cordelia. She always seemed a little sad when she mentioned them, but when Byakuren apologized, she just leaned over and hugged my arm while wearing a big smile.
"No worries, Ren-chan. I have good people like this silly boy in my life now. So I couldn't be happier."
I was glad Millie felt that way. Honestly, I felt that way too. Millie and the others had helped me feel less alone, so I was happy to hear it worked both ways. Byakuren also seemed to like the nickname of Ren-chan that Millie gave her. Idomu watched warmly as his spouse struck up a new friendship. It sucked that I needed to be the one to mess up the relaxed mood.
"I hate to jump right back into this, but as I told Idomu, we are going to be fighting the Demon Lords soon. It might be best for you to move back into the safety of the core."
Apparently, that was the wrong answer. Byakuren's face took on a look of fierce determination, and she bowed to the floor deeply.
"My apologies Willie-sama, but I cannot allow my foolish husband to fight without me. I will be joining the battle as well."
Idomu didn't look pleased about that at all. I could understand his reasons. Especially after he tried to protect her from us.
"Are you sure? I think Idomu would prefer for you to remain in the safest place possible."
"Oh, I am most certain that is the case. However, my place is by my husband's side, and he knows better than most that I am perfectly capable of handling myself."
When I looked at Idomu, he just shrugged, as if to say it was true. If that was the case, then there was no reason not to get back to preparing for the coming battle. It was time to bring Gilda and Cordelia back into the conversation, so I contacted them via the mental link and gave them the rundown on what I had learned.
