Cultivating Anthro CEO RPG Hero Harem Reincarnation In Another World - Chapter 113

In the aftermath of the Guy Fly dragon’s rampage, all that remained of the village of Helgum was smoldering ash and crumbling ruin, its streets paved with blackened corpses.

Vash hurried through all this death and destruction, undaunted, with Kestrel trailing behind.

“Where to next, master?” she asked.

“Guh! I thought I told you to just call me Vash!” he answered, sheepishly grinning. “But anyway, my current plan is for us to wrap around and find the exit to the tunnel system Zhao was leading us through.”

Kestrel looked at him glumly. “To meet with that evil Akira again…?”

“Akira…isn’t actually what I would call evil,” Vash said, staring contemplatively off into the distance. “His actions tend to lean on the side of villainy, but always with a pure intent: protecting himself and those he cares about, same as any Hero would.”

He turned back to Kestrel. “It’s just that…this time, he’s crossed the line. He’s decided to incorporate innocent people as part of his scheme.”

“So you’ll challenge him, right? Like hunting wild boar: kill while it is young.”

Vash said nothing for a while. As, in reality, he hoped this planned brush with Akira and Co. wouldn’t yet come to any harsh extremes—not so soon; before Akira had yet to fully color himself as one who is beyond all hope of redemption.

“No. I won’t fight him, for the time being. Not while there are still only ideological differences between us,” Vash said. “Unless I absolutely have to…in order to get Her back.”

From there, the two silently made their ways out to the hole in the wall through which the Stormfleeces, including the one called Rudolf, had previously been seen making their escape. Where now, two Stormfleece soldiers—both Norns—were boredly standing watch, trading yawns and impatient rumblings as their allies were combing the wreckage, looting the shambled houses and coffers of the fallen. Like a flock of crows, scavenging after the scene of a bloody battle.

“Hold right there!” commanded one of the Stormfleeces, drawing a two handed ax. “Cultivator scum!”

Vash quickly looked around, to be certain there was no one else the Stormfleece could have been talking to. Then, upon facing him again, innocently blinked while pointing to himself. “M-me…? But I’m not”—upon glancing down at himself, he remembered the Cultivator leather armor he was dressed in, and groaned. “Even though I’m dressed like this, I swear I’m not—”

The soldier let out a fierce battle cry before swinging his ax toward Vash, who could only react fast enough by holding up his arms to block his face as, fortunately, Kestrel was quick enough to intercept and block the attack

The Stormfleece’s jaw dropped. “Crap! It’s a Forbidden!”

The other soldier, standing back from all the action behind him, looked just as surprised. “Not only that, but she’s serving him as his [Pocket Maid]: even though most of them would rather die than be taken captive!”

Vash, while crouching in her protective shadow, gave a warm smile. “Kestrel-san…that’s the second time you’ve saved my life, now.” As the first Stormfleece, though pressing his ax as hard as he could against Kestrel’s parrying crisscrossed blades, still couldn’t manage to break through.

“Bas…tard,” the bear angrily growled. “Must be…real good in bed!”

Upon hearing this taunt, Kestrel let out a small gasp as her narrowed, focused eyes also promptly widened—representing a gap in her defense, just wide enough for the Stormfleece to slice the tip of his ax’s blade across her exposed shoulder.

“Look! I have something that’ll prove I’m not a Cultivator!”

“Oh, yeah?” The second Stormfleece had taken out a Longbow, and was now seen to be struggling to notch an arrow on the string with his hilariously large bear paws, saying “well, I suggest you make it snappy!” Followed by him grumbling to himself, “within the five minutes or so that it’ll take me to work this stupid thing.”

“Let her clear any of your concerns,” Vash said, hastily summoning Bridget from her [Maidé Ball].

The first Stormfleece had almost brought the blade of his ax to Kestrel’s neck, stopping when he turned and saw his comrade-turned-loli standing there with a vacant, mildly annoyed stare.

“Ah! It’s Captain Bridget!” said the second bear. “Only now, she’s way smaller and cuter!”

She bristled, her eye twitching. “Cute…?!”

“Gods, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to tease you.” Glaring, he then aimed his bow at Vash. “Now I’ll kill this heinous bastard who dared to steal your freedom away, and take care of you like you’re my own little sister!”

Bridget stood in front of him, holding her arms out. “Fool! I’m nobody’s little sister, and don’t you dare shoot at this man!”

“But, Commander…he’s the enemy!”

“I am…not so certain. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive right now. If not locked away in some dungeon, being tortured for information.” She turned, looking up at Vash inquisitively with one arm at her side and the other on her hip. “Because your quick thinking spared me before, I’ll give you five minutes to explain yourself.”

Vash nodded. “Well, for starters, I’m not even from this game world originally. I’m from a world called Nirvana, and right now I’m really in a hurry to get somewhere.”

“What’s this about a ‘game world?’” Bridget interrogated.

“Eh? Don’t you know…?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Know what?”

Vash froze. ‘Could it be that she really doesn’t know this is all virtual reality?’

Just then, Kestrel took a step forward.

“New Master is NOT a Cultivator!” she firmly said. “Kestrel would kill herself, right away, if she ever had to fight for a Cultivator!”

She seized Vash by the arm, gazing lovingly at his face while she gently stroked the back of his head. “New master…is kind. He will treat Kestrel even better than a little sister—as a fertile little wife, staying home all day, never having to hunt elk to eat again!”

Vash gave an embarrassed laugh, beads of sweat forming on his face.

“F-fertile? Why does that matter…?!”

“I see,” Bridget said, joining the Stormfleece soldiers in suppressing a laugh before abruptly regaining her seriousness. “Though, I’ve never heard of this ‘Nirvana,’ or ‘game worlds’ that you speak of.” She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “So, I’m not quite sure what to make you.”

“If you still have any doubts about my innocence, you can just ask a man in your army named Rudolf,” Vash said. “Or even Yorick Stormfleece, who were both there with me.”

“Very well, I shall do just that. Now, as for this place you’re off to in such a hurry—”

“It shouldn’t be very far from here. And you can even send some troops to follow my trail, just to be safe,” Vash said, before looking at Bridget directly. “As we speak, the group I was with before is passing through the Cultivator fort’s underground tunnel system. My plan is to intercept them, right as they’re making their way out, since there’s a chance they might have something…”—his breath briefly caught in his throat—”some-one, who is very precious to me.”

Bridget laughed. “That whole tunnel is crawling with our forces.”

“It doesn’t matter: they’ll kill their way through, if we don’t make it there in time,” Vash said urgently. “Trust me: their leader is someone who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals—no matter how many try to stand in his way.”

Meanwhile…

Akira had discovered something neat while navigating his new [Inventory] menu, to put on his not-so-shiny and not-so-new pair of cool, villainous black robes.

It came in the form of a tab in the menu marked as “Magic.”

“[Embers] and [Heal],” he read aloud from the menu, wondering—with a growing air of excitement—if this meant what he thought it did. And so, to test it out, when he tried selecting them he found he was able to apply one spell to each hand, or either spell to both hands simultaneously: taking the form of a glowing mass of flames and a shining, radiant aura respectively. “Oho! These are magic spells I now have access to?”

Through a bit of trial and error, he figured out that with Embers equipped he could extend his hand to cause a stream of fire to issue out from his palm. Whereas with Healing, he could raise his palm to heal himself.

Chunhua was watching him figure it out, wide-eyed.

“Outsider…you’re a mage?”

Akira laughed. “Not since last I checked!” he said, whilst letting the [Flames] spill forth from both his palms, into the air, with maniacal glee. “But I just checked the menu and saw these spells listed there, so I guess maybe I am now. Though ultimately, this discovery would only serve to make him sad; on account of him not being able to shake the thought of how awesomely sweaty his breasts would be right now, from the heat of his own [Flames], were he still in the body of a Squell.

‘I wonder, if in the event that I ever do find a way to return to my ideal form…”

Seeing that Akira was stroking his chin, thinking deeply about something, Chunhua moved toward him. “My Lord, if I may ask what is on your mind?”

“Oh, nothing…I was just wondering if one girl could make another pregnant.”

At this, Chunhua tried to exchange glances with Zhao, who was standing off at a distance away from her in shame—however, he only looked away as their eyes met.

She huffed. ‘So it’s like that now, is it?’

Knowing Zhao was sure to still be discreetly watching her, nonetheless, she returned to Akira with a fake, beaming smile.

“Why is it that you ask, my Lord?”

She seductively ran her hands along her own body—sliding downward from her non-existent breasts, across her slender torso, culminating at her slightly and perfectly oversized thighs.

“Could it be that you have some fun ideas in mind for this cute body?”

Akira frowned, being instantly reminded of Ai: specifically, of the time he’d lost his virginity to her. Albeit, while cosplaying as the fairer sex.

“Perhaps…” he replied. “Though, I’ve also an interest in learning necromancy.”

“Well, if there’s anywhere you can go to in Seaspan to learn more about magic, it’s the Mage’s College in Springhold.” She giggled, casting a look at Zhao through the corner of her eye. “I’ve no doubt my Lord will become the most proficient magic-user that has ever walked this planet.”

Akira scratched his head, only responding with a noncommittal grunt.

‘She’s so cute…but now I’m conflicted. My master plan demands that I be able to produce seed; but at the same time, I can’t deny that cultivation between two females is just too great. Especially when I’m one of them!’

To free his mind of these weighing thoughts, he refocused his mind on an experiment: to see what would happen if he raised his [Flames] palm up and shot his [Heal] palm forward, rather than vice-versa. Thereby discovering that, firstly, by wielding [Heal] in this way: he found he could spread its glowing effect unto any person he pointed at—watching the small cuts and scrapes on Zhao’s body disappear, as an example, when he sent it flowing toward them.

Content with these results, when afterward he tried testing [Flames] while holding his palm up—

BOOM!

It caused an explosion of fire.

Not directed at where he was pointing…but at himself.

“Heh. Oopsie!”—was all he could manage to utter, before then keeling over from the impact with his whole person covered in thick black soot, landing gracelessly into Chunhua’s awaiting arms.

“Master, no!” she squeaked. Then adding, under her breath: “serves you right.”