Chapter Forty-Five Ivy and the New Manor (Patreon)

Ivy followed the young dungeon down the path. All around her were poorly dressed young demons. Some of them were even naked. She sighed. That wasn’t the worst of it though, as she glanced at a statue. It depicted a pair of young cat girls, their breasts bare, pressed against each other and sharing a kiss. Just one more reminder of how lewd most of the art in this castletown was. The art was just the most visible sign of how different this place was from what she was used to. The architecture was also different. It wasn’t the elegant elven architecture she was used to, nor was it the much rougher style favored by humans. She had not seen demon architecture before but the style certainly seemed to suit the demonic races.

They turned a corner, leaving behind the shops. Making their way into an area lined with nicer houses, proper manors as they drew closer to the castle. The castle itself was an intimidating structure built of dark stone with sturdy walls. Above the castle she could see harpies flying about, naturally they weren’t wearing much. At least they were far enough away that details were not easy to make out. She sighed. This was definitely not the kind of place she imagined raising her daughter. Her impressionable little girl was being exposed to all these lewd demons. How she was going to manage this she didn’t know. Ivy didn’t want to just take her daughter away though, she was clearly quite happy with Misaki and the young dungeon seemed quite taken with her. A part of her knew that leaving wasn’t in the cards but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Misaki pulled her towards a manor. It stood out from the others, seeming cozier and more elegant at first glance. But as soon as she noticed the garden alarms were ringing.

Misaki waved her arm as if to show it off, “May I present your new home!”

Ivy blinked “New home?” she glanced at the fountain, the most egregious item here. “What if Lily saw this! Do you want to poison her young mind!”

Misaki giggled, “A bit late for that. You don’t really know your daughter that well do you?”

Ivy turned red, “She is my daughter! I know what is best for her!”

Misaki shook her head, “I suggest you try to adjust your approach. She isn’t the innocent girl you think she is. Never was. Did she ever tell you what we were doing when we died?”

Ivy gave her a look, “um no. Why ask?”

Misaki sighed, “Never mind, if she hasn’t said anything. It is not my place to reveal it. Let’s go inside!”

With that Misaki walked inside. Ivy stood there staring at her retreating back for a minute or two before hurrying after the young dungeon. Mentally she made a note to have a chat with her daughter later. This little talk had raised a few questions that had her... worried. As she stepped onto the porch, she noted the pillars. They were just as bad as the fountain. Hopefully her daughter hadn’t seen them. That would give her some time to make them a bit more presentable. She just had to give the one some kind of bottom and the other needed a top.

She didn’t have long to think about that. As she was closing the sturdy outer door behind her, Misaki turned, “I’ll show you around the floor, but please try to be quiet. Lily is upstairs sleeping. Ivy blinked for a moment. She didn’t know what to think or say in regards to that. She frowned, “Wait? My precious Lily is upstairs?” she pointed behind her, “In other words she saw that… that...”

Misaki nodded, “Yep! I gave her a tour of the place first. Well tried to. She tuckered herself out playing Trap and Tickle with my Arachne demons on the fourth floor.”

Ivy gave Misaki a look. “Trap and Tickle?” she sighed, “Hopefully they were wearing clothes. Proper clothes.”

Misaki shrugged, “Well a couple of them were naked.”

Ivy groaned, “This place is terrible! Why can’t anyone dress sensibly?”

Misaki chuckled, “You know Lily is going to fit right in....”

Ivy missed that as she slumped into a sofa placed in the foyer. An action that brought her gaze to the ceiling which featured a painting of young girls playing in a garden. A bunch of naked young girls and their equally nude mother. Along with another naked adult. The two of them were enjoying each other’s bodies in full view of the young ones.

Ivy groaned, “What kind of art is on that ceiling!”

Misaki smiled, “You like it? Asarya helped me with that one. Reiko too! She helped me with the garden. Give it a proper Elven feel.”

Ivy sighed, “Put some clothes on them at least!”

“Why? Lots of Elves go around naked.”

“No they don’t!”

Misaki waved her hands, producing a stack of thick books. “Not according to every source I have looked through on Elves. “Outside of the major cities and border towns most Elves don’t have a problem with nudity. In fact it’s seen in a positive light due to associations with nature, and how it aids nature mages for example with their magic. Care to produce something to dispute this?”

Ivy didn’t say a word. As much as she wished otherwise, Misaki was right. With a sigh she dropped it and tried to think of a better argument.

Before she could, Misaki said, “Oh yes. Before I forget there is something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Ivy gave the demoness a look. Something about her demeanor had changed. She suddenly seemed more serious. Ivy gulped, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Several things. Most importantly schooling.” she paused holding up her hand, “I know you might not be comfortable with it and while Asarya has taken on the role of teacher for her. She needs an opportunity to make friends. I’ve built a school already, summoned a few young girls to attend and some teachers. I was hoping you would approve of Lily’s attendance.”

Reiko leaned back. She liked this spot. It smelled good, the flowers were pretty and it was warm. The fake sky above wasn’t that interesting, but at least it had a nice sun to go with it. She pouted. Her mistress wasn’t here. Misaki was with that weird Ivy and didn’t want her.

She sighed as she tried to order her conflicted thoughts. Traits were scary, she knew she should be happy to have some time to herself, but she wasn’t. Reiko wanted nothing more than to cuddle with her mistress. Instead she was out here in the gardens. It was a good spot, but she just couldn’t enjoy it.

Mistress wasn’t spending time with her. Instead she wanted to spend all her time with that new girl, Lily. Reiko pouted as she reached down. Lily wasn’t even old enough to have proper fun. Her fingers reached her exposed sex. Lightly she began to rub it. Imagining it was her mistress’s fingers. Why did the mistress keep wanting to be with Lily? Reiko didn’t understand it. She was a child!

Reiko slapped herself down there and winced. “Bad Reiko!” she spoke to herself. Just as her mind suddenly cleared up. For a moment she couldn’t believe that she was jealous of a kid. Her face flushed deeply. As she realized what she had been thinking of and how she was feeling. Idly she rubbed her stinging pussy while once again thinking about how scary traits were.

Her recent behavior was nothing like her. She was a princess! A royal, people should be serving her. Yet here she was acting like a glorified maid and daydreaming of her Mistress playing with her. She sighed, not that she ever quite got what she wanted. Yet she was somehow happy with just getting her pussy rubbed. Just one more sign of how scary those traits were. She shuddered. They were very scary, she was starting to lose herself. It didn’t help that her mind was constantly in a fog.

Suddenly a voice spoke up. “All alone are we?”

She looked towards the source of the voice. Standing above her completely naked like always was Meifa, the second floor boss. Reiko found her eyes locking onto the collar and leash she was holding. Suddenly she had a very funny feeling about this.

Slowly Reiko nodded, “Mistress wanted to be alone.”

Meifa smiled, “Perfect! That means we have some time.”

Staring at the collar and hoping this wasn’t going where she thought it would, responded, “time for what?”

“Why, training you to be a better pet of course!”

She gulped and jumped to her feet. Only to find herself in a vice grip before she could get more than two steps away. Then the collar snapped around her neck. Turning she was greeted with Meifa’s smug face. She had the urge to punch it, but stopped herself. Knowing it would not do any good. Reiko pouted, “I don’t want to be a better pet!”

Her protests fell on deaf ears. As Meifa dragged her away for... ‘training.’

Thomas groaned. They had set camp an hour ago. She wanted nothing more than to just relax, have a meal and crawl into bed. Not to mention she was trying not to think about the fact that she was wearing a dress. “But Amy!”

“Don’t ‘but Amy’ me! Now pay attention, this is for your own good!”

Thomas groaned again, “I don’t need a review of...”

“Yes you do!” came the unanimous shout from everyone else.

Thomas tried to shrink into her frame. Flushing a bit as she remembered the pit trap. It was embarrassing, very embarrassing. On one hand she was lucky that the dungeon wasn’t a true death dungeon. Imagine going before the gods after dying like that! It would be extremely embarrassing. Everyone knows that how you die matters. Not that anyone put much thought into it. Thomas had found herself thinking about it a little more lately. Especially seeing how she had that close call. Her new form being a very potent reminder of her recent change and brush with death. A change she still wasn’t sure what to think about. In fact she didn’t want to think about it.

In a quieter tone she replied, “I know, I know. I should have waited for Kei to check for traps first.”

Amy sighed, “I know you don’t really want to listen to this lecture again, but you are the only family I have left. And frankly I don’t want to lose you too.”

She nodded, Thomas remembered. It had not been easy, but at least they had each other. If they hadn’t, who knows what would have happened to them.

Amy stretched. Looked at the sky and then took a look at the pot cooking over the fire. She let out another breath, “I guess I can let you off for now, but we are going to resume this later.”

“I’m not going to walk into a pit trap again! I learned my lesson.”

Amy shook her head wryly. “Sure Thomas.”

Thomas sighed. It seemed Amy didn’t believe her, but to be fair this wasn’t the first time she had done something stupid and been stung. Worse, she had done the same stupid thing multiple times. Namely charging into danger. For some reason she found her past actions... cringe. Thomas wasn’t entirely sure why, but she was really regretting some of her past actions. The Armalisk and that pitfall both came to mind. Both of those incidents were ones that she found terribly unbecoming of her age, and rather embarrassing in hindsight. Especially the Armalisk. Charging the Armalisk like that had not seemed all that... smart and neither did trying to scout ahead without the right skills. In hindsight her past stupidity seemed very clear.

Not seeing a point in arguing, she stood up. Making her way to the pot. The light breeze quickly reminding her of the dress she was wearing. For a brief moment she had an impulse to shed the dress but as she caught sight of a moon, its familiar blue and green form lit prominently in the sky, she found herself thinking about Sunblossom town. The impulse to shed the dress vanishing as her mind drifted to the visit rapidly approaching. They didn’t have many nights left before they reached the town. She wasn’t looking forward to that. She turned red thinking about the encounters to come. That visit was going to suck.