Vaile took in the words of Zahra. Even without his prior experience with the other Tamed Beings he had come into contact with, Vaile could tell that there was a certain kind of affection within her eyes. That gaze was one filled with zealotry, fanaticism and no small amount of lust, and Vaile sighed inside his head as he realized that once again he would almost certainly have to eventually run for the hills, either to escape the clutches of the Raid Boss-turned-fangirl that stood before him or to escape the crazy rat ladies who were almost certain to find him yet again.

Still, perhaps Zahra wasn’t as much of a threat as those yandere rat monsters had been. Vaile subtly checked her level and-…

Vaile closed his eyes and sighed, this time quite audibly. He should have guessed that the supposed God-Queen of the Solusand Dominion would have, just like the Five-Clawed Paw, broken past the maximum game level cap. Unlike Seivalt or the Beastmen, she was an undead, and therefore did not have to worry about things like aging, illness, or even death itself for the most part. Add in the fact that she was, at least in the game, a rare instance of an undead who could use Healing, Light and other Holy-type magics and you had a being that was, in this New World, more than capable of going past the limits of what was possible in the game.

Vaile could not even see what her level was, as it was, to his eyes, obscured by question marks. These symbols designated a creature, entity or potential foe that was at the very least 50 levels above the viewer’s own. Also, since Vaile could only guess how much time had actually passed between when the game was supposed to end, when the New World began and when he was summoned from the game into the castle of Puke Princess, he figured that Zahra’s level would be at least over 500 - 700 levels higher than his own.

“My dear, what troubles you?”

Zahra’s voice sounded like that of a first-rate female voice actress filling the role of a seductress. Vaile was, thankfully, mostly unaffected by this, but he checked his status anyways just to make sure.

“Zahra?” Vaile asked.

“Yes, my love?” the Pharaoh replied.

“Why are you applying a passive Charm spell to your words?”

…

Zahra scolded herself inside her head. She did not expect that her lovely Vaile would have noticed the subliminal enchantment that she had been trying to apply to him. This was an annoyance, but not entirely beyond the bounds of her predictions. She had intentionally leveled herself up to the point she was at in a desperate bid to make sure that she would have the power needed to ensure that when her Vaile appeared before her, she would be able to swing him into her corner with absolute certainty.

Perhaps the smarter thing to do would have been to layer on seemingly insignificant stacks of her Charm, slowly building a force that would turn her Vaile into someone who would wish to be hers and hers alone. By the time those stacks would have worn off, Vaile’s mind, body and soul would belong to her only, thus giving her nearly complete control over the other factions formed by Vaile’s servants and allies that had risen from the chaos of the World Shift. With them beneath her, she could have easily-.

“NO!” she screamed in her head, banishing that train of thought once again. She had trodden down that dark road uncountable times before, the holdovers from when her ‘pet’ and living, mobile throne had seized her soul in its grasp. Damn him to the depths of Abyss! It was no thanks to that foul bastard’s trickery that she had to constantly fight the encroaching influence of the darker side of herself that had been unleashed during that shameful time. Worse yet, the shadow within herself had subconsciously applied a Charm spell to her beloved, which made their reunion get off to a shaky start!

“Urgh…” she moaned aloud. “Forgive me, my heart and soul, my one and only, for that transgression. I have reasons as to why that happened, but the explanation is best saved for another time and another place.”

“Really?” Vaile asked. It was the tone of his voice that caused Zahra to curse her weakness even further. Vaile obviously had lost faith in her, and there would be no way in Abyss that he would agree to-.

“My Lord Vaile, a word if you will.”

Zahra heard her greatest and most loyal servant speak up from behind her. She turned her head slightly to peek over her shoulder, but her headdress and hair got in the way of her vision and she could not see Ratams very well.

“Go on.” Vaile said, almost certainly doubting that Ratams had anything good to say.

“My Pharaoh, please forgive me for what I must tell Lord Vaile, but it concerns us all and it would be best not to keep him in the dark about the… curse… that you suffer from.”

“Curse?” Vaile asked.

“Yes, my Lord. It is due to the ‘incident’ that you rescued her from in ages past, after which she has regained much of her powers and sanity that were once claimed by the damnable mage who enslaved her to his will. After the event we refer to as the World Shift, she was fully unshackled and her mind, body and soul were purified. However, there remains a trace of the twisted darkness that the evil sorcerer infused her with that was left behind within her. It is a curse that cannot be broken, not without her final death. In essence, she is constantly forced to battle the lurking shadow that was forced inside of her, and even a slight moment’s lack of control can lead to that shadow encroaching upon her thoughts and will.”

Zahra jumped for joy inside her head while also being heavily embarrassed by the words spoken by Ratams. She had no desire to let Vaile know about this internal weakness, but Ratams had revealed it in a way that painted her as a tragic heroine, fighting a desperate uphill battle against the remnants of an evil thought long since destroyed. How would Vaile respond to this?

Vaile nodded to Ratams’s words, which gave Zahra hope that maybe, just maybe, Vaile would find it in his heart to forgive her.

“Understandable. We all have to fight the devil on our shoulder from time to time, and I can only imagine what kind of charismatic bastard of a devil you have on your shoulder, Zahra. Let’s just try and avoid stuff like this in the future, as I already have at least five people who have given in to the darker side of their love for me and want me locked up and used as a stud-horse. I would prefer not to have to add you to the list of things I have to keep running away from in order to keep my freedom.”

At Vaile’s words, Zahra nearly sang for joy while gripping her Vaile in the tightest hug she had ever given. Elated that Vaile chose to not just run away from her or even disown her, Zahra began channeling her awesome power into a spell.

“Then, please, let me take you from this place.” she said with an uncommon smile on her face. “I have so much to show you, my dear. Yes, so much indeed.”