Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

Once we had arrived, I returned the winged beasts' consciousness.

Slowly, one by one, they began to wake up.

Seeing Smoothie quickly rushed to Haelley's side, my chest tightened.

Is this the feeling of jealousy? When did they become so close?

I left them alone for a bit to prepare something to help everyone recuperate faster. Staring at them wasn't going to make me feel any better.

With my recently learned skill, I could create automated clones. Strictly speaking, they weren't clones of myself but more like basic artificial intelligence.

I inserted into each of my empty clones with clean soul energy. Specifically, I inserted soul energy into their fey cores. Celestial core wasn't duplicable because I lacked the authority to do so.

After inserting soul energy and ensuring none would leak, I copied pieces of my knowledge and a few strands of my soul into them. This allowed them to function like persons. If I had only inserted knowledge, they wouldn't be able to move or recognize anything. An active soul with will power and consciousness was required for them to be useful.

When I thought about nursing people back onto their feet, it had to be young maidens to sooth and heal broken hearts both physically and spiritually. Hence, five fair maidens were born in the image of my fey self. I made sure they were peerless beauties.

By the time I returned with five fairies in tow, there was a commotion.

I took a critical hit to the heart. Reason? Smoothie was embracing Haelley tightly.

When did they become such good friends? Well no, I guess they were friends before the trip.

"What happened?" I gasped.

All the winged beasts were staring daggers at me. I had a pretty good idea but I couldn't help but be surprised with all those eyes on me.

"Are you really Berry?" Haelley asked.

"Of course I am. I can even prove it."

I took out the official seal passed onto me by Kanoko.

A winged beast who came over to examine it remarked, "it is a valid seal," in the common language.

"But she can create things out of nothing!"

"I can even ask Vorte to testify. But really, Smoothie, just because you can no longer detect me with [soothsayer] doesn't mean I'm a fake. I know what you've been doing with that ability. If I really meant harm, you would have all perished instantly. I could even remove that ability if I wished. Have faith in me, alright? I gained some power while you weren't looking, that's all."

I then addressed the winged beasts, "Haelley and all the winged beasts, I haven't tampered with your memories. I have temporarily healed all your wounds. If you so wish, I could also remove any memories that you no longer wish to keep, though only the recent ones since it was I who didn't account for the possibility of that level of danger. My apologies."

Anyway, it was probably extremely difficult for them to believe. From their perspective, a fey being evolved past level 70 and became a celestial being in less than a day's time. To top it off, this celestial being could create a world and materialize anything instantly.

After some discussion between the winged beasts which I couldn't follow, they came to a conclusion. With a sweet smile on her face, Haelley carried Smoothie over to me and passed her into my arms. The others were watching us with lukewarm expressions.  

I'm... cringed. What did I do to deserve this?

I lowered my head.

"Thank you."

A kid was a kid.

The moment Smoothie and I made physical contact, I shared a few fragments of my recent memories to her. Though the interaction was short, I knew her ability could analyze all the memories just as fast.

"Do you feel like you can trust me now?" I whispered into her ears before kissing her soft cheeks.

She blushed, and her eyes gazing intimately at mine.

"Mm."

Suddenly, without a warning, I felt a peck on my lips.  

"Hey! That's the wrong place. You're too young for that."

"You snooze, you lose! Isn't that right?" She smiled bashfully, her ears beet red.

Even her ears can turn red, I didn't think fey beings' physiological responses could become this apparent. Interesting!

"Ahaha, you can say that again! Fine you win. Ah, Smoothie, which form of me do you prefer?"

"I like the grown up one!"

Immediately after, I transformed into the appearance I took when I was visiting the human country, Smoothie complained, "No! I meant the second celestial form."

"Ehhh... But I don't have shoulder aches or neck pains in my celestial form... So I'm keeping them bountiful! I get the final say. Hmph!"

"Guh. Mother, no fair." She pouted.

Among those gathered around us, a few were holding back their laughter while others were looking away. Perhaps they knew more about humans than I gave them credit for.

"Shh! We can talk about this later. Look, everyone is all laughing. They're all making fun of us. Mother still has work to do, will you help me with it?"

"Mm."

I first explained to them the situation on my side and the type of treatment I had given them. Then, using the resources I had previous collected from the outside world, I created raw food ingredients, water, seasonings. The five maids with me were responsible for cooking the meals for our guests and taking care of everyone in my stead.

"Do you not have a name for them?"

"No. They're technically me so if you call them Berry, they'll respond." I responded to Smoothie's question.

"That's too confusing!"

"Okay, you don't want six of me around you then? Fine. I'll name them." I smirked at her displeasure.

I altered the colors of their hair and named them the following: Blueberry, Blackberry, Cranberry, Gooseberry, Snowberry.

She wasn't happy about me giving strange names but accepted it nonetheless.

Alright, let's put that void barrier back around my core. Better safe than sorry.

I knew my traits could influence me but I didn't think cautiousness was a bad thing. No matter how powerful I was, there was bound to be someone more powerful out there.

After a fulfilling feast for the winged beasts outdoors, they recounted their side of the story. Well, actually, since not all of them spoke the common language, their representative was the one to tell the story.

A few days after they left Vera, as they were flying across the desert and just about to reach the canyons, they encountered a sudden dust storm. A dust storm in that area was apparently not that unusual. Following their survival training, they took shelter in a nearby cave.

Smoothie was already depressed at that time because my fey core had just disappeared which was completely unprecedented. Since she had to keep enough mana to last herself for the entire trip, she couldn't constantly use [soothsayer] to foresee potentials dangers.

Most of it really was my fault at that time for not being more attentive. I should have trusted her more and had her evolve within my subspace.

Continuing on with the story, unbeknown to them, the dust storm was a supernatural one. The moment they took shelter, a large scale magical sealing barrier was casted remotely. Unlike regular barriers that blocked physical and magical attacks, sealing barrier sealed movements of those inside. More advanced sealing barrier was supposed to drain mana, block teleportation, among other things. This was one such barrier, one of the most powerful sealing barriers known to the beastfolks.

"We didn't anticipate humans capable of using such complex magic spells." One of the winged beasts stated.

"It was our lack of awareness that led to our downfall." Another one remarked.

Certainly, the ones they usually fought with were more technologically oriented. From what I understood, such advanced magic spells were possessed only by beastfolks, possibly elves, and someone like me. This one in particular from what they could recall required extensive preparation and coordination.

"Are you sure they were humans? Just to be clear, did any of you see a human casting that magic?" I asked just to confirm.

"You mean they weren't? After that, we were teleported into a facility controlled by humans! It had to be humans!"

I didn't agree with their conclusion. There wasn't any benefit to figuring who the caster was but I pursued just a little bit further.

I asked about the casting distance. The answer that came back was, basically, unlimited. That magic spell could be stored in two linked crystals. It only took one person to activate it remotely for the effects to take place on the other end.

Ah, we have another mystery. Then again, there's hardly anyone who knows the route to Smoothie's plant body. For someone to know their precise movement, we might have a mole in the group. How troublesome...

The prime suspect was either that weird demon or Haelley. Of course, I might be completely wrong about Haelley. The main reason that I suspected her was because the story she told me long before didn't fully add up. It might have been due to her language barrier. If that wasn't enough of a reason, she used to have a contract with De Planck. Until I knew what that contract was, I had to exercise caution. Forcefully scanning her soul for a contract would definitely be a red flag, not something I wished to do whether the Edict existed or not.

Really though, how could I suspect my friend like that? At best I would suspend my trust on her. Speaking of which, memory wipe for the winged beasts was a must.

There were also several other possible suspects in my mind. Either way, I couldn't really act on any of them at the moment. In the worst or best case scenario, I would storm De Planck's secret lair and exterminate him with extreme prejudice. That way all of his disgusting contracts would be nullified.

Anyhow, the rest of their story was fairly straightforward. I managed to save them several hours after their capture. All of them were rescued without a miss.