The goblin menace was over, and the priestess was saved. However, still a bit shaken by the encounter, she could only thank her saviours and point them in the direction of Hestia's church. Riding with them in their carriage, she meekly guided them through the woods. Silent–for her heart was still pounding, and the waning adrenaline was finally making her feel every bit of stress that had been repressed back at the lake.
"By her grace…" Through quivering lips, she eyed her saviors, both sitting in the coach. "Had you been a moment late, they would've dragged me to their mating caves."
The very word 'mating' brought a smile to Aura's face; however, quickly masking her expression with a blank look, she hid her perverse joy. Monsters and mating often went hand in hand, and since her master had armies of such creatures from the surface to the underground level of nine hundred ninety-nine, where their mansion resided, she could only think back fondly at the many times arrogant adventurers fell victim to their pet monsters.
"They do love to fuck, don't they? Those goblins," chuckling a little, she turned her head backwards. "Now, if you were a man, they either eat you or slit open the belly to stuff their eggs inside. That way, the egg gets warm and familiarises itself with the sound of a human heartbeat–fascinating stuff really, they later use that very same skill to listen to a human heart from miles away.
"Auhmm…" The priestess couldn't even digest how casually Aura dropped the f-word, and already the slave girl was saying some particularly nasty stuff. Trying not to dwell on it, the priestess turned her attention to the boy instead. "I-I suppose proper thanks are in order. I really do apologize for not being myself right after you rescued me."
Holding his left hand halfway up, Zephyr waved his hand–gestured to her to let that thought go.
"You can thank us later by allowing us to stay in this church of yours for the night," turning his head as well, he looked into the woman's eyes. "We're new here. Hitched from a village to the south and hoping to set up a shop in the nearest town. If you could point us in the right direction after a good night's rest, that would be more than enough."
A gentle smile on his innocent-youthful face was as angelic as a young boy peering at his first love. His cheeks were brushed with a dried mix of mud and green pigment–a testament to his battle against the goblin, and even after that, he just smiled.
That image of a young boy who'd just escaped his teenage years and delved into adulthood sparked something deep within the priestess's heart, and for once in her life, she felt a strange warmth budding in her belly and her groin. Perhaps even a twitch and tinkle–she couldn't tell, for her eyes were too distracted by that facade of innocence plastered over the devil.
"Is that okay?" His next words snapped her out of her stupor, and with a sudden blink and a jerk of her shoulders, she shook her head and nodded right back. What had she nodded at him for? It took her a moment more to realize. But since his demands were quite reasonable for having saved her life, she didn't even think to complain.
Riding through the forest some more, the priestess tried to keep herself distracted with the animals. Keeping their distance from the large carriage, they watched her from afar. It was an unusual sight for Elicia as the animals in the forest loved her, even those with fangs often came by the church to get a few scratches here and there. But before she came to question why that was, the toll of the church's bell snapped her out of her head again.
"There, just follow the sound," she said, peeking outside through the front curtains.
Flicking the reins to the horses, Aura picked up the pace. The sudden boost in their momentum sent the priestess falling back on her ass–but thankfully for her, her rear provided enough cushioning to dampen the fall.
"Stay on your ass, priestess, I'm still a slave who learned to rein horses, not some fancy royal coachman! Ahahah~" Aura's laugh echoed in the backside of the carriage, and while the priestess struggled to keep herself in place because of the turbulent terrain, Zephyr couldn't help but join his 'slave' with a smile as well as a gentle squeeze of her hand, hidden from the priestess' gaze.
Their love for each other was best hidden, for now. A slave and a master being together was one thing, but if anyone so much as got a whiff of their demonic nature, it wouldn't be long before those very people brought death to their own doorstep. And so, in his grasp of her hand, he affirmed his companionship for the umpteenth time–it was not necessarily required, but to show love, no excuse was required.
As the day came to set, the carriage had travelled fifteen kilometres south of their dungeon's entrance. Most of that time had been spent during the slow travel, and the rest had been expended during and immediately after the goblin assault. Stopping in front of a towering church made of grey bricks with wooden columns, everyone got off the carriage and followed in the priestesses' footsteps.
Walking by a well as well as an empty stable, Elicia opened the church's wooden door with a key and let the other two in. Light peered in from all sides of the church, illuminating it without the need for any lamps. No dust lingered in the air, and the pews were spotless as well.
"Looks like you keep quite the care for this place," Zephyr said, his eyes surveying every nook and cranny of the place.
"It's the least that I can do after she has done so much for me," walking on and on, the priestess approached the lone idol of her goddess at the very end. Hands tied above her head, the goddess Hestia arched over the world with an empty bowl by her bare feet. Buxom, divine, full of life and fertility, the goddess of home and family was nothing short of perfection. Even the stone-carved dress of her idol appeared white as snow to signify purity, as did her overpouring boobs peeking out from the edge of her clothes and the curve of her hips that stuck out from the slit of her dress.
"But recently she's been angry with me," stopping right by the empty bowl to the idol's feet, Elicia turned towards the devils and said with a sombre face. "Every night, this bowl used to fill on its own with her holy sweat. More pure than any spring and could even bring a fiend to its end. But now…"
As Elicia's eyes returned to the bowl, both Aura and Zephyr had but one thought.
'She's the last one we captured. Trapped in that airtight room with it slowly filling up with her juices.' And that was exactly what was happening, for everything that came out of a goddess' body could be used for something in the mansion.
"Anyways, let me show you your rooms," Elicia said, not knowing that the goddess that she so cherished was captured by her savior and had been begging him to let her share his bed.