Chapter 77: Queen

  Queen rose from her white marble bath. Warm droplets of water ran down or dripped from her flawless alabaster skin. She grabbed a fluffy towel that had been prepared for her and tied it around her chest. Her golden hair splashed as she flung its length over the towel.

  Gold-coloured particles started appearing in the air like hovering glitter, and the room grew dimmer despite the brilliant motes giving off increasing amounts of light. The steam from the bath that filled the room became like clouds in a stormy evening sky as the tiny stars shone through.

  Beads of water reflected what little light they could before they turned to more vapour. Just a minute passed in the eerie gloom before the golden specks disappeared and let normal light through once more. Starry night turned to bright day as if nothing had happened, but Queen was now dry, cleansed of the water that had clung to her beautiful skin and hair.

  She tied her blond locks into a long, thin ponytail before she adorned her pearly white mask that covered her face from her hairline and just down to her mouth. She enjoyed having her luscious lips free. Her smile was almost as captivating as the resplendent light that peeked through the holes in the mask in front of her eyes, after all.

  She left the moist air of the bathroom and crisper, fresher air met her from the hall. She danced across the wide hallway with exact, practised moves and entered her wardrobe. The towel hit the floor before the door shut behind her.

  She grabbed the thematically fitting white underwear she had picked out beforehand and put it on. A quick turn allowed her to appreciate her youthful body and sexy curves in a tall mirror before she stepped further into the wardrobe to pick a nice dress.

  She chose a gold-lined white dress with a long V-shaped gap from the neck down to her midsection. It was silky smooth and just tight enough to show off her shape without giving too much detail.

  The gold accents didn’t quite match the rest, and it made her skin look almost yellow depending on the light, but she supposed it would have to do for now. It was one of the prettier dresses, after all, and she could compensate with her aura for now. In time, the people would recognise her as the rightful queen that she was. By then, she would have more and better people to make her pretty clothes.

  She donned the dress and couldn’t look away from the mirror for several seconds afterward. As she had only revealed herself to the public a few weeks ago, the people still disputed her influence—but none could refute her claim to be queen when her palace stood finished. It would be a while before that, though. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all. She would wait.

  She had to increase her reputation as well. While not quite the truth, as far as the public was concerned, she was, by some, thought to have single-handedly saved the world from the Beast War. She had never claimed this, as it would be far too easy for the governments to prove otherwise if they told what little truth they knew.

  Still, she wasn’t without power. She was powerful, and she had killed Hellbeasts, which was all she had stated to the public. No government could refute this, and so they let her be. As far as she knew, there weren’t that many in the entire world who knew exactly who had helped save it. She knew of only a handful. One of them was her guest for the day.

  Queen smiled as her signature golden dust filled the room. To compensate for the off-gold colour of her dress, she made her aura absorb a little more light than usual, causing the dust to glow brighter while everything else grew dimmer. It was certainly great for her image, but the unique camouflage-in-plain-sight effect was also quite helpful for practical things.

  No one would recognise her like this, nor would cameras work at all. The main reason for using her aura this way was for those specific reasons, and before she knew it, it was an effect she became known for having. Whenever she wasn’t alone, she would use it like this, and she would always know if anyone was within her aura.

  There were no windows in the private hall of her palace-to-be, and she was fine with it. While the nature outside was serene to look at, she was quite familiar with it already, and besides, she was often outside anyway.

  Her golden dust covering her wardrobe malfunction, Queen left the wardrobe with as smooth and limber movements as she had entered with, like a professional prima donna on a glittery stage. She had to be pristine.

  Queen entered her audience chamber, or at least what amounted to it for now. She was the third person in the room—her head maid, secretary, and butler Evelyn being one, and her long-awaited guest the second.

  Evelyn’s eyes gleamed as Queen entered, just like always. While a fanatic, Evelyn was not only devout, but a hard worker and would do anything to please Queen. Among her current duties were the logistics of the construction of the palace, making appointments and ensuring Queen could keep them, as well as hiring additional help for cleaning and the like. Everything would be much harder without her around. Queen wasn’t even sure where the money came from. Not entirely, at least.

  “Queen! You look amazing, as always,” Evelyn praised, receiving Queen’s radiant smile in response. “Your guest is waiting. As you requested, I’ve rescheduled everything else to a later time, so take all the time you need,” she continued, bowing her head as she finished and stepped to the side.

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  As she stepped away, Queen saw the woman waiting for her, her blonde hair well-kempt and taken well care of, though not as radiantly golden as Queen’s own. Her guest’s hair featured more lines of golden brown rather than pure gold.

  “Hello,” Queen greeted as she elegantly walked towards her guest.

  “Queen…” her guest started, almost gawking at her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she then said after having refocused her mind and eyes both. “My name is Angela Ashleigh.”

  Angela was feeling as nervous as could be. In the past few weeks, the name ‘Queen’ had popped up several times both in the media and at her job, and whenever names popped up, they required attention. When that name belonged to a young woman with certain features and abilities, Angela had no choice but to see for herself. She’d been almost certain—until just now. It wasn’t her.

  “I know who you are, Miss Ashleigh,” Queen answered, her body as unmoving as her voice.

  Angela took a quick breath and responded, “So, I suppose we should get straight to business. What can you tell me about the Beast War?”

  The first sign of Queen had been when she revealed herself to the public, claiming magic was real and that she’d helped kill the remaining Hellbeasts wandering the Earth. This was right after Erik and Jessie disappeared.

  Queen…smiled.

  “Not as much as you, I can tell you that much. I didn’t say this before, so let me just say what an honour it is to meet you.”

  Angela froze. How did Queen get hold of information about her? Had she recruited spies? Had Angela let something slip somewhere, and Queen put the pieces together?

  “Surely I’m not—”

  “Never…” started the white-clad blonde, and the radiant specks of dust in the room started growing brighter as the room otherwise dimmed. “…lie to me,” Queen finished.

  Angela was certain now. She recognised this feeling, this pressure. It wasn’t exactly the same, but the similarities exceeded the differences enough to make her think it could be anything else. Queen was a Remnant.

  Angela had believed this to be the case, as she had shown off a Hellbeast corpse when she revealed herself to the world. That, and the odd golden specks of dust that acted to hide her face from cameras and the like, in addition to her mask. She supposed it could be something high-tech, but nothing else about Queen screamed military tech. Angela had hoped this to be some science-thing rather than magic, but she knew better. Everything involving magic was her business.

  “So, you really are a Remnant,” Angela said, fighting against the urge to sigh as she did.

  “Remnant?” Queen asked, turning her head to the side.

  Angela’s eyes turned to slits as the genuine-sounding question from the obvious Remnant lay unanswered for a few seconds.

  “Yes? That’s what you are,” Angela finally answered.

  “And who are you to tell me what I am?” the glowing woman asked. “Are you a…Remnant as well?”

  “You really…don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  Queen turned her head back up to her otherwise normal, statuesque stance after her minor accident of turning it. The word Remnant. Had she heard it before? It meant something to her, but the memory of it was…fleeting. Hiding. Had she forgotten it, or had she…blocked it?

  Angela seemed uncertain as to what she should divulge, meaning she knew more about it. She was the one who broached the subject, after all, so of course she knew more. All Queen needed to do was…pry.

  “I don’t know if you’re being genuine or if you really don’t know…but I’m quite sure you are what I think you are, so let me ask you a few things,” Angela said while thinking. “You died at some point, didn’t you?”

  Queen almost recoiled. Almost.

  “I…had another life, once,” Queen answered, almost sounding like she was asking.

  “I’m not a Remnant myself, so the smaller details still elude me, but did you go to a place called Afterlife?”

  Something shifted in the room. Darkness grew around Angela as the immense pressure from Queen’s aura tightened around her like a noose. Angela fell to her knees with her mouth wide open as she tried to catch her breath. Queen was unresponsive, standing still while she almost killed her guest without effort.

  Queen considered the question. Afterlife. It sounded almost humorous as a concept. Was Angela trying to say it was a real, physical place? How would she know, and what did it have to do with this Remnant business? She’d remember if…

  The pain. The excruciating pain. She was torn limb from limb from limb—all alone in the darkness, for years upon years as her body and mind were…

  She’d remember if she had gone to such a place after her death.

  Queen gazed at Angela, who was sweating and gasping for breath on the floor. What had…?

  “Angela?” she asked, reaching her hand out to her guest.

  With a pained groan and deep hesitation, Angela accepted the smooth hand and allowed herself to be helped up.

  “What did you do?” Angela asked between breaths. She tried to clear her throat, but there was nothing to clear.

  “I don’t…did I…?” Queen asked, her calm demeanour only revealing a slight tinge of panic. When did she…what had she done? She took a single step away from Angela.

  “Something’s…wrong with you, isn’t it?” Angela then asked.

  Queen saw worry in her guest’s eyes despite what it seemed she had done to her. Did Angela feel sorry for her? There was nothing to feel sorry about. Queen was Queen. She was of the highest blood, a rightful claimant to the world. Or was she?

  “Tell me of the Remnants,” Queen ordered, once more regaining her complete composure.

  Angela hesitated once more. She wasn’t willing to go through that again, but her own curiosity seemed to get the better of her. She looked at Queen with analysing eyes.

  “After…Afterlife—” she started, carefully mentioning the word. It seemed Queen could keep her composure. “—you were probably returned to where you first died.”

  Queen thought back to when she had been remade. Remade? She didn’t recognise the place. She let Angela keep talking without reacting to what she was saying.

  “This time around you felt a certain…call it an ‘attraction’ towards gemstones, crystals and the like. You can absorb them into yourself. You get power from them.”

  The radiant woman looked at her guest with contemplative slits in her mask. ‘Absorb them’ Angela had said. She had done that. She had all but stumbled upon someone’s collection, feeling that…attraction from even outside their home. Queen stole several of them, and she wasn’t ashamed of that. In a sense, they, too, were rightfully hers after all.

  Something like a memory, a hazy feeling about a woman she wasn’t sure she recognised, telling her to absorb the stones. Queen did. She still felt empty inside afterwards, but the first time she took a hot bath after that, she felt it. She felt a connection to something inside her, a power that was hers, and only hers.

  That feeling…it disappeared moments after she left the bath. She had taken long, warm baths every day since, and every day she felt it. Every day she lost it again.

  “Tell me more…about the power,” Queen smiled.