In Loki's Honor

I broke out of my cyst to a flashing notification.

CONGRATULATIONS: The beginning of your adult life is a joyous moment. As a new Elf [star] adult, you now have access to the System!

You are an Elf [star]. You are a unique Royal Moon-Blessed variant.

You gain:

1 Attribute point every level.

1 Dexterity every odd level.

1 Mind every even level.

1 Magic every fifth level.

1 Willpower every fifth level.

1 Charisma every fifth level.

Attributes above the cap were redistributed.

6 HP per level.

6 MP per level.

2 (+2) SP per level.

6 Skill Points per level.

1 perk every even level.

You gained the Royalty (ultra rare) perk. You are a trueborn member of Royalty. You can display the title {Princess} on your status for anyone that {Appraises} you. Members of your race react favorably to you. Members of other races, if aware of your status, can shift their reaction favorably (more likely) or worsen it (less likely). You learn Skills at a 10% faster rate.

You gained the Elven Royalty (unique) perk. You are part of the elven royalty. You can perform exclusive rituals to reinforce the bonds between elves and the Nature. All elves' reactions shift one step in your favor. You gain one extra HP and MP per level.

You gained the Moon Guidance (very rare) perk. Whenever one of the moons shines in the sky, you gain a small bonus to all Skills' effects. The moons' effects on you are never detrimental.

It seems that being trapped in that elf woman's body caused the System to believe I was reborn. I was naked on a four-poster bed, the flakes of my crystallized cyst slowly breaking down and melting into water. I felt weak, thirsty, anemic, starved, dizzy.

I had very little MP but it was enough to take a monster corpse out of my storage. Due to the time-keeping properties of the storage, it was as fresh as when I killed it, including all the juicy watery monster blood inside. The fleshy blob of teeth, eyes, and hairy clawed legs flopped above me like a gruesome blanket. I sent my pseudopods to take what I needed out of that corpse.

I heard a female scream, elven if I recognized the harmonics but I was too weak to care.

When I came to myself again, I was still on the bed, but covered in purplish congealed blood, gore, and bits of monster-flesh. And I was still in my were-cat form. My fur was silvery-white as usual ever since Apricot became a [Silver Slayer].

I was apparently alone too. I closed my eyes and focused.

"Nenandil," I summoned her.

The water fairy shot out of my solar plexus, spinning and unfolding her wings. She looked at me.

"What are you now? A half-blood monster half-elf? And why did you take so long to wake me up?"

Maybe that was the best description of how I felt at that moment.

I slowly told the fairy my story so far. Of how I couldn't call her because I was undead. Of how the Elves took me and did what they wanted to me.

"I have no doubt there was a competition to choose who would sacrifice their life so their princess lives again."

Nenandil had washed me and the bed while we talked, and I was in the process of weaving silk underwear for me. I already had a two-piece modern lingerie set. and was in the process of making a full-body skintight suit with three layers of fabric at odd angles to one another for extra protection.

She sat on my shoulder. "Don't blame yourself. You're alive now. There's nothing wrong with that. You didn't have a choice."

I shifted into a rabbit. Somehow it made me feel comfortable as if I was back in a time when things...

I'm not fooling myself. When things were just as shitty. But Nenandil liked my bunny-self very much because it was her size. I nudged my muzzle on her lap and she stroked my ears.

We stayed there for quite a while until someone barged into my room unannounced.

I was pretty sure that was rude to anyone, even more so because I was royalty.

The "Stooge Knights" as I dubbed the elves that captured me in the Dungeon entered and spread around the room, weapons drawn, searching for threats.

The fairy re-entered my soul and rolled her metaphysical eyes. She was a bit angry.

And just like that, her anger vanished.

The knights searched the room and kept an eye on me. Yes, you better do that. I was the world's deadliest lagomorph that ever existed.

"No signs of a monster, sir," A knight with glowing eyes reported. "There's a rabbit on the princess' bed."

"I saw the rabbit. Where is Her Highness?" The angry commander replied.

"I think Her Highness is the rabbit, sir."

And my {Animal Shapes} perk said that "Mortal magic cannot see you for what you are" They couldn't tell me apart from a normal critter. I was so pissed that they did that ritual to me instead of just killing me and letting me reroll - I won't even talk about the girl killing herself - that I wouldn't mind if they killed me.

The one with glowing eyes approached. "Hello, little fairy. Did you see an elf princess around here?"

Yes. It also said that other fairies would recognize me as one. "No," I replied.

"How did you enter this room?" He asked, suspicious.

"I don't know. I woke up here. I think someone kidnapped me, did bad things to me, and left me here unattended," I bunny-answered him.

"Can you take your true form?"

I tried to keep from chuckling. "No. That is lost forever."

The commander approached, "My lady fairy, there was a princess in this room. Do you know where she went?"

I felt my inner self mischievous, "No, I do not know where she went."

"Which means she went nowhere. Which means you are her," The commander concluded.

"Maybe? I mean, it would suck if you lost your ward 'again', wouldn't it?" I ribbed. "What brings you here today? Another kidnapping? Boy, princesses do have it tough.

"No, Your Highness," he sighed with relief. Archmagister Sariandi wishes to talk to you.

"Well, fuck her," I spat back wiggling my whiskers.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said, 'fuck her'. Do you understand the language?"

He swallowed. "Are you ordering me to have intercourse with the archmagister?"

I grunted, groaned, and buried my snout in the sheets. "Dude, do you understand sarcasm? Know what. Make it a {Royal Order}. Go court and have intercourse with the archmagister."

You learned the Skil Royal Order (ultra-rare). You can give orders to your subjects and force them to comply. Charisma-based. The stronger the loyalty, the harder it is to resist.

He saluted. "As you wish, Your Highness."

"Wait! Stop!" I said as he turned around. "You cannot use forceful methods. You are to convince the archmagister to have willing intercourse between yourselves."

May providence forbid me from ordering someone raped.

He swallowed. "Your Highness, would you rescind that order?"

"Yes, why not. I mean, I wouldn't force you to have intercourse with someone you don't like." The other knights laughed. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes. The archmagiser wishes to see you."

I felt a vein throb every time she was mentioned, "Well, fu... Know what. Relay to the archmagister that I will see her in a couple millennia at the earliest. And that I am not against her and the whole council having intercourse with each other but that's not an order, just a suggestion.

"Also, all knights are to study human behavior and culture. We never know when we need to better understand human mannerisms. This is a {Royal Order}. Study human behavior, idiomatic expressions, culture, customs a few hours every day."

The knights nodded and saluted. "Yes, Your Highness."

What a person has to do to be able to properly give no fucks and be understood.

The knights went away but I heard two of them standing by the door outside. A few minutes later, a couple of elven ladies entered. Probably maids but they didn't wear a maid uniform. Instead, they had the colorful and loose dresses the current elven fashion seemed to favor. Not a uniform. Each one of them was different.

They approached the bed and looked at me. "Your Highness. I'm Ikeshia and she is Lixiss. We are your ladies-in-waiting. Shall we get dressed? It is time for your stroll in the gardens. The afternoon tea will be served there."

"Well, what's the latest in hare fashion around these parts? Because I feel like spending a century as a rabbit."

"That will be troublesome, Your Highness," Ikeshia was disturbed. But weren't princesses supposed to be whimsical?

The doors flew open - I really need to give a few lectures on respecting boundaries - and Sarandil entered. She looked exactly like I remembered from all these centuries ago.

"You! Ingrateful child!" She wiggled her finger at me. The archmagister was pissed. I {appraised} her. I think she had the right to be pissed.

Level 87 Royal Arch-Magister

"Hey, Sarandil. Long time no see. I did want to visit the forest again, but I never found the time. Too bad we got to meet again under such circumstances."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath, and started.

"What do you think you are doing? Did you order your knights to rape me?"

"No. Who told you that? Lixiss, summon all the knights that were here before immediately. We'll clear this misunderstanding here with the archmagister."

Back to the awfully powerful mage, "Sariandi, do you think I of all people would do such a thing?"

"No. Nevermind. Listen, I'm sorry about the way we did the things we did but we needed you back."

"Which me? You confuse me. There's so many me that unless you are very specific I can't know."

She was about to blow up. "You. You. There's only one of you. How did you become a rabbit... right? You were a fairy in the northwestern Empire a few centuries ago."

"Why is it always 'a few centuries?" I ask out loud. "By the way, how are they?"

"You mean the Draigia Kingdom? It is fine. The were-kin, beast-kin, elves and fairies live there. You did a good job, 'Death Princess'."

It was good to know, but I was too irritated with Sarandil. So I continued to snap at her.

"See? That's two 'me' you already mentioned. And now there's this me, the not-death no-longer-dead princess. And what was that shit about having someone killed because you needed a body for me? That was awful!"

She stared at me with fire in her eyes. Not literally, that's important because I don't doubt a mage of her caliber could set her eyes on fire and be perfectly fine with that. The Archmagister leaned forward and spoke with a grave voice.

"You do not squander the sacrifice Siora did on your behalf. We did not ask her to sacrifice herself, she offered to. And she insisted a lot before we agreed to do that. Siora was about to end her life. She was one of our best rangers of this generation. She got captured by an Orc warband and they had their way with her. After that, she was never the same."

I flop on the bed and lower my ears. That was too awful.

"And don't be disgust--"

"NEVER!" I shouted to cut her off. "I would never be disgusted at her for what happened to her. I'll live in her body proudly."

And now all my thoughts of dying to rush in the next life vanished. Way to go to make me feel bad. Sariandi deflated just like me. Ikesha had tears on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know the circumstances and you never explained it to me," I tried to defend myself.

"You were an undead banshee. You were insane."

Only because you assholes kept me starved, isolated, and locked in a room for who knows how long. I didn't voice that thought.

"And you won't live in her body. The ritual we did use her body as a basis but remade it to the mold of your soul. Your body is the one Princess Alloralla was born with."

In my defense, I was super stressed and the conversation was too weird. "Who's Alloralla?"

"You are. That's the name your parents chose for you. The mother that died to these cultists carrying you."

The knights entered.

"Gentlemen," I looked past Sariandy and bounded to the edge of the bed. "Did I order any of you to rape the archmagister?"

"No, Your Highness," the captain answered then glanced at the again-fuming mage. "Never," he added.

"Please repeat what I said when I issued my {Royal Order}. Word by word."

He swallowed and recited, "Go court and have intercourse with the archmagister. You cannot use forceful methods. You are to convince the archmagister to have willing intercourse between yourselves."

Sariandi blushed hard. Ikeshia and the recently-returned Lixiss hid their faces with their hands but their bodies were tense and quiet like frightened prey.

"I stand corrected, Your Highness," Sariandi said softly as if the words were hard for her to say.

"I wouldn't mind if you two get hitched, you know?" I joked. The princess was whimsical.

"NO!" The two said at the same time. Then they looked at each other and wondered why they were so adamant in not having a relationship.