Although Shaman did not seem to enjoy the teasing, it was rather the opposite as it was a nice break away from the stressful situations she has constantly been through.
'It's hard to tell whether Freja is joking or not, so I better not let my guard down just to be safe.' Although Shaman considered it joking, just from last night's vocal performance, Shaman did not put it past Freja to follow up.
'I should warn Clara, but right now the bed is calling and seeing as we have a bit of free time.' Shaman wanted to relay the information to everyone, but her bed looked too good to turn down.
'I'm going to sleep.' Shaman placed the new clothes on the couch and crawled back into bed into Elysia's embrace.
***
<Freja POV>
In a room that looked like a study that had a massive window behind a desk appeared Freja standing in front of the window. Books lined the walls head to toe with varying topics and on the desk could be seen some books alongside experimental technology that resembled parts of an engine.
"Pffhaha, thank you cutie~." Although Shaman was unable to hear Freja she thanked her for calling her a bitch.
'Now that Shaman is safe, the only thing that remains is to free her parents. I should pay a visit to the research team at the barrier.' Freja opened a blood portal and a system menu came up.
[Choose your location]
Shiroi palace
Barrier lab
Kiruya's bedroom
Marsh's bedroom
…
Different locations appeared on the menu and Freja clicked onto the barrier lab, activating the portal. The blood began to swirl and Freja walked into the blood portal, shortly after she walked in it closed without leaving a trace.
*
In an underground lab, many hawk beastmen were examining a black smokey barrier. The barrier that held Shaman's parents had also reached underground which made it easier to study it without attracting attention. The room did not have much else aside from ancient books and notes scattered across the many workspaces.
The hawks had great vision and an innate ability to be able to see things almost as if through a microscope. With this ability, they can examine the barrier and read parts of the magic circle maintaining it through the flow of mana. Currently, what occupied most of their time was decoding the runes and learning how to arrange them in order to recreate the circle.
A red magic circle lit up at the end of the room and a blood portal opened up. All the hawk scientists quickly lined up before Freja walked through.
Freja stepped through the portal. She appeared before them wearing her usual black and gold emperor clothes. Everyone was intimidated by Freja but they also adored her. Although she had the presence of a harsh ruler she was always fair and as long as you went by the rules you would be treated with respect.
Everyone in the forest knew not to get in the way of Freja as those who have tried to oppose or fight her have not been seen since.
In contrast to the harsh personality she projected on the outside, Freja was quite the wild one on the inside of which the general public was mostly unaware. Although, she was a common subject in many outrageous rumours spreading among the empire's women.
The rumours claimed among other things that many women of the empire have been taken by the empress, but the majority of the populace found it unbelievable. Although she was known to have many women by her side no one thought she would dare touch another person's woman.
Freja in reality did not care for what people thought of her and she did what she wanted without being ashamed or worried about her people's opinions. However, when it came to ruling and getting work done she was deadly serious. Those who have worked with her know that everything must be done to perfection and she won't accept anything that is below her standard.
Each of the hawk scientists hired for their great eyesight was nervous as they were given a very important task of decoding the dark magic that surrounded the palace. They had made progress but it was slow and if things didn't speed up it may be too late by the time they finish.
Freja walked up to the line and the sound of her boots echoed throughout the room. Everyone could feel the pressure and they hoped the work they had done was good enough for the empress.
Freja reached the end of the line where one female hawk was holding a clipboard with all their new findings. Freja grabbed the board while slowly caressing the hawk's hand causing her to blush and look away.
Freja smirked and walked back to the middle of the line while reading their discoverings.
"So far we know it's a time barrier and that only certain types of people are allowed to enter the barrier without being affected by the time-stopping effect."
"And the only new discovery we have made in the last month was a sentence that indicates a condition for activation? This pace is far too slow, you guys need to put your foot on the accelerator otherwise, the next thing your eyes will only be seeing is pitch black!" Freja did not yell but everyone could tell she was angry.
Freja did not show it but she was enjoying seeing the fear on their faces and had only sounded angry so she could see their reactions. She stood by her statement that things were slow but she knew they were working their hardest so she couldn't blame them for the slow progress.
*Sigh* "I will try to see if I can hire more people, but keep working, I don't want to see any of you resting till you fall over from exhaustion." Freja walked back through the blood portal tossing the clipboard back to the female hawk.
Some of the hawk scientists fell to the floor as they were holding their breath the entire time. The pressure of just being around the empress was exhausting. Although they were threatened it had motivated them to work harder as all they wanted to do was meet the empress' expectations.
***
"Hehe~ now that Shaman is asleep and no noise to stop us, surely I can help myself." Elysia had woken up and saw that Shaman was fast asleep in Elysia's arms.
Elysia got Shaman on her back and went under the sheets so she could have her afternoon meal. But once again Elysia was interrupted as someone knocked on the door.
"Hey, it's Clara, did you guys want to look around seeing as we have some downtime." Clara was at the door and Elyisa felt like exploding, even though she had forgotten the fight she still couldn't bring herself to like Clara.
Shaman had woken up from Clara's voice and sat up letting out a yawn.
"Sorry, what was that? I just woke up." Shaman was still a little dazed and hadn't realised where Elysia was
"Did you want to hang o-"
"AHH~" Shaman yelped, cutting off Clara as she felt something lick the inside of her thigh.
Shaman quickly lifted up the sheets to see Elysia between her legs.
"Elysia! What the fuck are you doing!" Shaman was not expecting Elysia to be so feisty in the morning, especially with someone at their door.
Clara who heard the yelp started to blush as she could only imagine what Elysia was doing to Shaman.
"Hehe~ let me continue." Elysia was hoping she would drive Clara away but Shaman seemed to have other plans.
"Elysia, not right now I have something important to tell everyone. Freja came by this morning while you were asleep with information about Himeko and my parents." Shaman would have let Elysia continue if it was any other situation.
"Hmph." Elysia pouted and she retreated her assault for now.
"Sorry Clara, let us get changed first, then there is something you need to know about Himeko." Shaman hoped Clara hadn't run away, and the latter replied she would wait.
"Phew, come on Elysia we have some new clothes to try on." Shaman patted the pouting Elysia before leaning in.
"Tonight I promise, just hold on a bit longer." Shaman whispered into Elysia's ear before jumping out of bed to try on the new clothes.
Elysia's face went red and her mood instantly went back to normal.
'Hehe~' Elysia was feeling happy and she got out of bed to change.
*
Shaman had gotten changed, although it was a battle and a half as Elysia still tried to pounce when Shaman was half-naked but was dodged. Shaman eventually had enough and tossed Elysia in the bathroom to change in peace.
Shaman had gotten into a rather similar casual outfit with a pair of black shorts that were embroidered with gold on the sides. A pair of black thigh-high socks were given to Shaman leaving a small bit of her thigh exposed. Shaman's last piece of clothing was a baggy long-sleeved white top that had a black collar. Although the sleeves were not long enough to cover her hands, She found the body of the shirt goes way past her hips.
'For a different world they have similar clothes to mine, don't tell me Freja is also another person that has been transported here.' Shaman knew there were others but had no way to tell. The influence of her world is everywhere making it hard to tell how much of it originated from her world.
'I guess I could try to see if she has a system.' Shaman figured any person with a system must have been either transported from her homeworld or knew someone who was, just like Elysia and Clara who have been granted a system.
Elysia, who had been shoved into the bathroom so Shaman could change, jumped out in her new clothes.
She was given a black skirt which may have been considered too short as it was dangerously close to showing off her underwear. However, it was countered by the pair of black stockings making the skirt less dangerous. Elysia was given a blood-red shirt that matched her tipped hair and eyes. Elysia upon jumping out did a twirl showing off her outfit and giving Shaman a good view.
"Looking amazing as always. Clara! You can come in now." Shaman complimented Elysia and called for Clara who was sitting just outside the door with Wolfy.
'I wonder how Clara is going to react.' This was Shaman's burning question as she knew Clara was rather conflicted.
'Let's hope for the best.' Shaman hoped Clara would lean towards trusting Himeko as if what Freja said was true, Himeko was never there to harm them and she might have had a good reason to kill Clara's parents.
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