Cecilia and Martin chatted for a bit before Cecilia thought of asking two important questions.
[How long have you been in this world? And have you met other people from DNS?]
[I've been around for five months now, and you're the first person from DNS I met here. But I think that soon the others will appear. We need to have our eyes peeled.]
[And where have you been all this time? I didn't hear about you, and I think that at least Aelindra would know if you were back.]
[Oh? And what would have happened if I appeared in Drakenhof? You saw my statue, didn't you?]
[Ehh…]
[I don't want to be roped into politics, thank you very much. I mean, I love some kingdom building stuff, but I don't want to become a faction competing with your daughter. But don't worry, we'll meet someday.]
After that, they chatted on for about an hour before weariness started to grip Cecilia's body.
Without sunlight, it was hard to tell night from day. But she had been active for a long time since her departure from the capital, and she only stopped to rest once, for a few minutes.
No level of Vigor would allow a person to go on without sleep for too long. High Vigor stats would alleviate some symptoms of sleep deprivation, but one would still need to rest properly at some point.
"Master? Are you okay?"
"Yeah… just tired. I think that I'll have some sleep."
"Not dressed like that, you won't. You even have dried blood tangled with your hair! Let me bathe you."
Mina took her to the bathroom, where a Japanese-style bath had been made out of a carved boulder.
The devs had added hygiene and other biological needs for NPCs, which meant that players who had NPC followers had to provide complete facilities. And Cecilia never delivered anything less than the best to her own followers.
She thought about complaining and taking a bath by herself, but the weariness hit all at once, like a truck. So, in the end, she just went obediently with the flow.
"I wonder who has been taking care of you, Master. You should fire them immediately, because this is not a state for you to be in."
She didn't dare to explain that she had been taking care of herself. Or trying to. In practice, the last time she took a bath all by herself, she was thirteen years old.
Mina washed her thoroughly, then dried her with a towel and took her to the bedroom, wrapped in the towel.
There, she selected a nightgown on the wardrobe, put it on a very compliant Cecilia, and helped her into bed.
:::
When Cecilia woke up, she was alone in the bedroom.
Remembering the pictures of herself that were on the walls didn't weird her out as much as she thought they would. If anything, they just increased her guilt for having taken so long to 'come back.'
She felt responsible for Mina. Even though she wasn't a 'daughter' in the game, she was still someone whom Cecilia created, wrote down the psychological traits of, and spent hours tinkering with the character generation screen until she arrived at the right appearance she wanted.
The game description making her a 'maid' instead of a 'daughter' did nothing to ease the feelings that Mina was, in a sense, her daughter. At least, her responsibility.
She stood up and walked outside the room. Everything was so clean that she could walk around barefoot, even though they were far underground.
She found Mina in the main hall. She was peacefully sleeping on a couch.
Cecilia approached her and sat next to her head. The girl had pink hair, and the fur of her ears and tail was also pink. Cecilia had designed her with the idea of creating a catgirl who worked at a maid café and made every customer fall in love with her cuteness.
She was barely sixteen when she created Mina, and she put into it some of her frustrations as someone who (she thought) would never experience romantic affection.
It wasn't laced with malice, nor did she make her sexualized or anything.
If someone asked her what she aspired with Mina's design, her answer would be just 'kawaii.' If they asked her to explain, it would be 'She has all the cuteness that life has denied me,' and then she would refuse to elaborate further.
And now she was being bombarded with said cuteness, as the little catgirl slept like a cat. So she couldn't help but reach to pet her behind the ears.
"H-hughwh…?! Master? Oh, I'm sorry I fell asleep!"
She jumped up as soon as she noticed Cecilia there, standing straight and gracefully.
"No, it's okay. You also have to rest. I'll create the teleport rune to come back here easily, then we go to Drakenhof."
"Yes, Master. My things are all packed and ready to depart. You slept for so long that I've already taken care of everything. Are you still living in the old house?"
"Uhum. Aelindra has been taking care of the place, so I returned there. But... how long did I sleep?"
"Three full days in the overworld, according to that old thing there. But that's not a problem. By the way, I see that the Little Master is a good girl, also taking care of your things. Well, you go with the teleport rune, but it will take me a few days to arrive."
NPCs in the game didn't have the technique that allowed them to teleport to runes. Even if the player shared ownership of the rune with them, it would be useless, for teleporting was an ability exclusive to players... With some very special and exclusive exceptions, like a few bosses.
Unless you were Cecilia, that is. She produced a scroll from her inventory and handed it to Mina.
"Read this."
It was a scroll that Cecilia had created using her powers that the devs gave her. It was intended to make her a 'hidden GM' who would create quests as a reckoning of her lore obsession. She would use that power to give exclusive rewards on her quests.
She never planned to give her followers the ability to create runes and teleport to those runes in the game. She was very conscious of her responsibilities as a GM. But this world wasn't the game anymore.
With the scrolls, each follower could have three runes, but they all could share ownership of them with Cecilia because of the follower relationship.
:::
Less than an hour later, they were in Cecilia's house in the capital.
It was afternoon already, and one whole week had passed since Cecilia had departed.
Their arrival startled the maids, who weren't expecting anyone to walk out of the room. Aelindra had warned them that it could happen, but seeing it was different from hearing about it.
"Hi everyone! I'm back. And this is Mina, my personal maid. I hope you all treat her well."
"Lady Morielen! W-welcome back. We didn't see you coming in."
"Hehehe. It's a secret. How have things been?"
"Everything is all right. No big news in our side. Well, except from Lady Aelindra weeping every night, hoping you don't disappear again."
Cecilia flinched hearing those words.
"Eh… If you could, please send someone to the Obsidian Keep to tell her I'm back. I don't want to interrupt her work, but maybe the news will make her feel better."
"Yes, my lady."
:::
Less than one hour later, they received a messenger from the queen. Actually, he was with someone else, a young boy she had seen in Aberswan before but was never formally introduced to.
It was the boy who spoke. Apparently the messenger was there just to guide him to the right place. The boy was very rundown, as if he didn't sleep for two days straight.
"Hi, Miss Cecilia. I'm Orion, the eldest son of Mutt and Margarete."
"Oh, yes, I remember he talking about you. But what are you doing here?"
"So, our village is under attack by monsters. I came here to ask for help."
"Huh? How long has it been since you left? And why come all the way here? Wouldn't it be faster if you called the knights in Elenswacht?"
"Well, I passed them the message on the way here. But Father had insisted that I bring the message to you anyway. There's something bigger controlling those monsters, a beast from the depths of the forest. We don't know if the knights would be enough."
"I see… But you didn't answer about how long it has been."
"Oh, three days. I've been riding day and night. The knights gave me a license to switch horses in their guard posts on the way."
The guy was almost falling asleep as he spoke, so Cecilia turned to Mina.
"Mina, take good care of him. I'm going there right now."
"Right, Master."