NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32
It’s been more than a month since Argul started integrating families and she had pretty much forgotten all of the people she had seen again. There were a few outliers of course, be it a surprisingly nice or annoying character or a weird mutation.
She was really sure she had seen every animal she knew of, and a few she did not, represented in the mutations. There had been really weird things such as people growing more eyes or having, well, more vaginas.
The latter still made Argul shudder a bit. The mutations always tended to show a certain trait or mood of a community, so what had caused someone to grow more sex organs?
In Argul’s opinion there were questions better left unanswered.
There had also been a mutation that sparked weird fantasies in Argul. She had gotten a family of cow-people one time and the breasts of the mother had grown a lot during the initiation. They had also started to lactate and Argul found it weirdly attractive, but because of Mia she had to hold back her cravings for now.
There had also been people she would have gladly left to their own devices. Sure she had secretly experimented with them to make the fight between mana and the other universes influence more efficient, but nobody except her and Alyra knew about that.
Argul was pretty confident Alyra was using her methods, because she had been rewarded by the system with 3 Int and Wis. It should reduce the critical mutations in regions without help to somewhere between 40% and 60% of the population, which was a lot better than before.
Back to the annoying people, there had been a few who had threatened to sue her if they changed. Argul had no clue where they would do that in the current situation, but thanks to her experiments there had always been at least a few small mutations on them. She was definitely innocent.
Not everyone had been bad though. Argul and especially Mia had received a lot of small presents as thank you. They were mostly small sweets, but Argul took them all with utmost gratitude and made sure to make clear that the presents weren't necessary.
The best present in Argul’s opinion had come from a kind mother. She had made Mia a cute blue magician robe with a hood. It had a triangular pattern at the end of the sleeves and the base of the hood. Mia loved the thing and was basically wearing nothing else anymore thanks to Argul’s cleaning spell.
Argul had also started to teach Mia a mix of all subjects she could teach, which excluded music, art and the basic geography lessons. Argul had no clue about their surroundings, so she just put such things like map reading into other lessons. The girl had already been able to do basic math and writing and would have come through the current world with that, but Argul thought that education was important and took the role of a teacher for Mia.
She didn’t do it to pump Mia full of knowledge, but to teach her to question the world around her. It would save her from being influenced by something she didn’t choose to get influenced by. The only exception being maybe love and Argul.
Argul sighed as she watched the last family for today walk away into the afternoon. Mia was rolling around in the grass together with Aina. Argul had hoped the girl would find a few friends around her age, but she never really bonded with the other kids.
Argul relaxed a bit and enjoyed the warmth the sun gave her. Today was the last day she had helped the people and as of tomorrow she was basically jobless or, as Argul liked to phrase it, free.
She got up and smoothed out a few folds in her dress. Argul really preferred to wear normal stuff and would do so again tomorrow. She waved to Mia. “Let’s go home Mia.”
Mia ran to Argul with Aina in her arms. Then she looked up at Argul, her eyes full of anticipation. “Today was the last day?”
Argul nodded and a smile grew on Mia’s face. “Does that mean we get to see Alyra and Arthur again?”
They hadn’t seen the two all that much in the last month and both Mia and Argul missed them.
Argul’s tail swayed behind her in the air and she smiled at Mia. “Yes and we will visit the city together with them.”
They had moved past the first city during the month and were now near the second one. The terrain here had become a lot more hilly and the grassland was slowly transitioning into forest again.
Mia jumped into the air, holding Aina up to the sky. Her voice was a shout of happiness. “Yay! Holiday!”
Argul was greatly amused by Mia’s antics. She would have to make sure not to bore her with her own stuff so Mia could really have her own holidays. Mia had worked hard in Argul’s lessons and earned herself some fun time.
Argul took Mia by the hand and they began walking towards their camp while they discussed what they should eat for dinner. Argul wanted spaghetti, but Mia really wanted to eat macaroni so the discussion was heated.
They had macaroni with tomato sauce in the end. Argul was hopeless against Mia’s puppy eyes and Mia had used her weapon at a perfect moment.
Argul had actually learned to cook a bit. She could only do simple things such as pasta, but it was more than before so she was happy with herself. She had even managed to make the pancakes her father had always made and was really proud of that.
After dinner Argul cleaned all their stuff in a matter of seconds and then started to clean and pack up a bit with Mia. That way they wouldn’t have to do everything tomorrow morning.
Once that was done they went into their tent and Argul as always told stories to Mia.
Argul remembered a lot more than in her last life and every time her stats grew she could remember more. That was also the reason she could teach Mia as she could remember a bit more of elementary school now.
After Argul was done Mia looked at her quizzically. She had started to do that a week ago and Argul was sure she had figured something out, but Mia had yet to ask.
It seemed Mia thought today was a good day to do exactly that. “Auntie, have you been a boy before?” They never really mentioned the teleportation of all of humanity and often just called it before or just the incident.
It was a weird topic and Argul didn’t really know how to approach it, so she had hoped Mia would be the one to do so. Argul hugged Mia and caressed her hair. “Hmmh. What gave you the idea?”
Mia pressed herself a bit more into Argul’s embrace. “You have never told me about your girlfriends or what clothes you liked and wore. You also said you never had long hair until the corona virus came. You also never mentioned having your period.”
Argul had taught Mia a bit about the human body, especially the female one, so the girl knew about these things.
Argul hummed in agreement. “Good points, though the last one is the most important I guess.”
She began to caress Mia’s tail, which made the girl purr contented. Argul continued a bit unsure. “I am still a boy technically, while also being a girl. I have both sex organs.” She feared Mia’s reaction to that a bit, but tried to hide her feelings.
It seemed Mia still noticed and the girl hugged her back. “It’s okay. Auntie is still auntie, nothing has changed.”
Argul relaxed at that and mumbled into Mia’s ear. “Thank you.”
After that they just laid there silently until both of them fell asleep, still embracing each other.