Skuld stood up and with her arms akimbo, placing her hands on either of her sides, “Now then, everyone… I am sure we have already established the fact that all of you guys' puny existences really irks me to no end. I wish you could all just drop dead any moment or it would've been better if you were never even born in the first place.
“Likewise, I do not need you to like me nor do I even expect you to like me. If I had to be honest with you guys, man, I hate all of you so very much. If it was in my power I would have killed nearly all of you with a single snap, I am not joking about that. But I'm sure that you guys already know that part, don't you?”
There were only a few girls, among the ones sitting in this bath with her, that Skuld considered extremely useful and beneficial to Sol and his future plans. If she had to say something about the rest, then it would be that they were mere redundancies that Sol could honestly do without.
In fact, they could just go and die on an abandoned ditch somewhere for all she cared. Sadly, their deaths would make Sol unfathomably sad which went against her very goal of bringing him happiness. If Sol were to be sad and wrought with grief, then her very existence held no meaning anymore, and neither did this timeline, at least that was her consensus about this matter.
This time, hearing the venomous words of the pink-skinned Titaness, packed with the craziness that could make even the worst of the worst lunatics give a run for their money, the luscious girls, naked and resting in the bath, were all so very surprised that they were simply left speechless. They just couldn't find any words among themselves in this situation.
And to be honest, how could they even…after the words Skuld directed toward them. Like...it wasn’t every day that someone literally told you they hated you straight to your face like that and merely wished to kill all of you. Moreover, the mad lunatic in the name of a woman said everything, every single fucking thing without exception, with a soft smile hanging on her face.
However, none of them could even feel the slightest bit of killing intent coming from her and this made this situation all the more frightening in a certain way.
“Some people would say that I am a crazy bitch and perhaps, after all the things and all the timelines, I probably have gone nuts already. After all, no matter how I spin the matter in my head, why would I just go and tell you guys about my wish to kill all of you otherwise? Wouldn’t it make you antagonize me even more? And as expected, from those lovely expressions coming from your face it's easy to understand that…that particular ship has set sails already. In the end, this was the case. But you, I don’t really want to kill you like that.”
“Hmmm…? But, you just said…”
“I know what I said, dear Isis, you need not remind me about that. The thing is, of course, I really really want to kill all of you. I want to do that with my own two hands. But no matter how much I want to do that, I also don’t want you guys to die. After all, if you guys die, then Sol will be really unhappy and will enter a path of self-destruction so fast and with such surety that I could do nothing about it.”
She sighed theatrically, even going as far as to make all the sounds and gestures, before finally revealing the rest of her speech, “So you see, what I really want doesn’t matter now, does it? What really matters is that I would do anything and I mean any…thing possible, just to be of use to Sol and I realized—”
‘After fucking it up in a few possible futures.’
“ —That the best way to be of help is to keep everything in harmony.”
Isis’ lips twitched violently hearing the last bits of her venomous speech. She couldn't help but retort, “So your best way to keep harmony between us is to insult us or threaten our lives?”
“Like I said little Isis, this is where you are wrong. I believe that we should all be honest about our feelings toward each other. We love Sol. Loving Sol doesn’t mean we have to love each other though. But it certainly means that we have to work with each other to some extent. Knowing each others' true thoughts will put our minds at ease…
“I believe he would be happier if we all appreciated each other though. Your reasoning just feels wrong.”
Skuld smiled toward Nefertiti, it was a smile of pity, “Your naivety is so cute little Nefertiti. Now now…don’t be offended but, do you seriously think that it’s possible? Let’s see here, could all of you seriously be able to say that you like me? What about those two?”
She said as she pointed toward Nent and Kiyohime, “ —You might not know about the matter but they have quite the history with me and this is without even counting the ones back in the mortal realm. The women there are pretty damn dangerous, to say the least.”
Skuld massaged her neck on reflex as she said those words. She really didn’t want to meet those women. They were all insane in their own way. She didn't want to have a battle of insanity with them in this timeline too.
“Long story short, us liking each other is simply impossible. The fact that some aren’t killing each other already is practically a miracle. This is the simple reality.”
Sol had the knack for getting emotionally broken but very powerful women to fall in love with him. If she didn’t know him, she would think he was doing that intentionally in order to get women that would be easier to control. It was uncanny in a certain way but Skuld didn’t care about that.
What she cared about was that…with so many powerful women all bonded to the same man, friction was literally destined to happen. From what she knew, there was currently no truly powerful woman among them that could silence the dissension and take control of the entire harem.
The bigger the harem became, the more problems would rise among the participants and the time Sol could spend with each other would drastically reduce as well.
How could any of them be happy about that?
“I believe you are wrong. My Lord would wish for all of us to stand together and take care of each other.”
Skuld chortled at her words, trying hard to keep the tears from falling off from the corner of her eyes, “But we don’t have to like each other to do this now, do we?”
“You want peace through compromise, but I believe true peace would bring him more happiness.”
“Then tell me, how do you plan to get all of us to really like each other?”
“I believe you have the right approach. Opening up to each other is certainly a good way. But just supporting each other is not enough. Sooner or later you might snap and commit the irreparable or someone else might end up doing something regrettable.”
Nefertiti spoke calmly, her eyes clear and her aura was unwavering even though she was facing a King-ranked Titaness.
She gently caressed her neck, feeling the mark Sol imposed on her. She was in no way a naive woman. That's for sure…
She knew very well that this so-called “slave seal” had basically no binding powers to it. After all, there was basically nothing in her knowledge that she wouldn’t do for him. With or without the seal.
But this seal was a type of proof. A wedding ring of sorts, that appeased her and gave her the courage she did not know she lacked.
Nefertiti was still feeling vastly inferior to the others.
This would not change as she might really be the weakest in Sol’s harem currently.
But she knew she could do better. Unlike before when she was walking in the midst of a dense fog, the moment Sol gave her this seal was like a revelation to her. Her Name whispered to her with words of power.
She now had her own goals and even a direct path of reaching the King rank. This was more than enough for her to grow some much-needed backbone.
‘Slave’ she might be but only for her Lord and only he knew about it. This was their little secret and simply knowing that she shared something that no one else had made her the happiest woman in the world.
“Since we love my Lord, then why maintain a rift between us? Loving and appreciating each other may perhaps be really helpless. But it would be a sin for us to not even give it a try.”
Skuld narrowed her eyes, “The way you talk about Sol is really interesting you know.”
“I have simply realized my own path.”
The smile that tugged on Nefertiti's lips was so very bright and beautiful that for an instant, even Skuld felt her heart miss a beat from pure awe.
Her eyes widened and she immediately looked aside, unwilling to look at her face. Skuld immediately realized what that smile meant and she wasn’t the only one.
Kiyohime and Nent both stood up at the same moment, eyes opened wide in realization as they remembered one man from their distant memories.
There could be no mistake. The aura the little girl was emanating right now was unmistakably the one and the same.
He was one of the very first Divine Beasts of the day. Maybe, he was the very first Divine Being to come into existence alongside the likes of Lucifer, Asmodeus, Gabriel, and the others.
He was once one of the strongest Demigods there ever could be. So strong that even the False Gods would flee at the mere mention of his name. His unfathomable, heaven-shattering might was enough to make everyone shiver in fright.
His words alone could take down a whole nation as he instilled the greatest feeling of faith and reverence in others.
To this day, he was the most devout and pious divine beast. The one who held the greatest feeling of adoration toward the goddesses.
His name was Michael… The one and only messenger of the goddesses and his concept…was that of blind, relentless, and unbreakable…
….<<Servitude>>….
(AN: I have been setting up this moment with Nefertiti for quite a long time. I wonder who saw this coming?)