Altarreese didn't understand what was so shocking. The girl seemed totally mind broken at hearing she could have a child without a Man's involvement. She was so mind broken in fact that she had Regalus take her off to a room in the local lady's manor house for the night. "She claims to have died and then found herself here. She spoke of expecting to wake in a 'hospital', whatever that may be, with a sore neck for some reason. But after hearing she could get pregnant by a woman, she just... broke. I'll have to speak with her more tomorrow." Her maid stood silent as she rambled on. "What do you make of her, Matilda?"

  With a slight curtsy, the maid responded. "I'm sure I couldn't possibly make sense of her. Taking up a Guardian's Saber is brazen enough, but both at once, and wielding them together with such fluid grace. It's as if it were merely a game to her. Then her manner of speech. She is clearly educated, but has no etiquette whatsoever. It truly feels as though she is not of our nation, at the very least, perhaps not even from the continent. How such is possible, I couldn't say, lest the Goddess herself played a part."

  "Indeed. Truly interesting. I wonder what more... interesting information I can glean from her."

  ***

  I stood in the room, still dumbfounded. "Mistress?" The girl behind me asked, clearly uncomfortable. "You seem troubled. Is knowing you've destroyed the Empire that much of a shock?" There was clear venom in the question.

  Turning to look at her. "I thought I was dreaming about an amazing stage for my favorite game. Not once did I think I was fighting in a war. Besides, who invaded WHOME? Do you have the audacity to think your nation of origin had any right to victory, or even to have started the war in the first place? Hypocrite! You're mad you lost, but it's your fault a fight happened in the first place. Had you behaved and protected your own lands instead of trying to steal other people's land, then you'd still be back home. You'd probably be in a relationship, maybe have your own house. You'd be HAPPY, but NO! Had to try and steal someone else's happiness instead. Does it upset me that the guy who liked you died because I didn't? Honestly, that still doesn't feel real. I'm sure once it does, I'll be an emotional wreck. You honestly have NO RIGHT to be mad. Even if you cared for that old man, he's the one who attacked me, with a nasty grin on his face. Plus, he survived. At least till your Emperor kills him for failing."

  The girl's expression morphed into one of shock. "How could you not know it was war?! What do you mean you thought it was a dream about a game? What game is like warfare?!"

  I laughed. "The game I loved wasn't about war, it was slashing colored blocks with blades in time with the Rhythm of the song. It was called Rhythm Blades. But games about war... SO MANY! Summons to Duty, GenB, 889, hundreds of games about warfare. With each new game getting more realistic than the last. But your type of warfare... we don't have that. We have guns. They shoot lumps of metal called bullets at high speed and tear through bodies. Rockets and Missiles explode on impact, leaving craters in walls and tiny bits of flesh all over the place. War, REAL WAR, isn't so... neat... so kind. Before we had guns, we had Sabers, and other types of swords, but we didn't cut blocks with them, we cut PEOPLE with them. Tore out their guts! That's what WAR is."

  The horror on her face was profound. "Y, y, you didn't know?! We were inferior?! It's the Empire's fault I'm suffering?" She slumped onto the floor, her face dead. "Caster Nathanial suffered his attack because the Empire wanted what wasn't theirs! I attacked you out of rage, but the Empire is who I should have hated. I'm sorry, Mistress!" She started to sob into her arms.

  Seeing her weeping like that ripped at my heart. I went to her and wrapped her in my arms. "Sorry about your boyfriend, or whoever he was. I didn't know he'd straight-up die, but I couldn't stop it anyway. The Queen said he did a Multi-pattern cast. I think I remember about five songs worth of block patterns, so... I guess he wouldn't have survived at all, unless I missed three whole songs worth of blocks, but I knew every pattern in the set."

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  "Boyfriend?!" She barked out. "He wouldn't have been able to get my attention no matter what he did! I don't want Men!" She was almost mad while still being extremely depressed.

  "Same! But he clearly wanted to be. I could tell just by his face. You collapsed and even as the old man... Nathanial... yelled at him to stop, he leapt into the circle right over you and started his cast. There was no chance I'd miss any blocks in those patterns. The last pattern in the set was the very pattern I had just cleared in my game before... before I died!"

  That caught her attention. "What do you mean before you died?!"

  "Exactly that. I'm sure of it now. I slipped, and my neck got wrapped in cables, and I couldn't get back on my feet to loosen them, and I died. Then, I woke up here. Saw your... fight... and you know the rest. Don't call me Mistress when you don't have to. Just call me Mary, ok? What's your name anyway? I'm not calling you slave, or hey, you all the damned time!"

  She looked at me, really looked at me. "Jenna. I have no family name, I'm common-born. I know you're not lying. The Slave Collar makes it impossible for either of us to lie to the other. You'd think it would only go one way, but it goes both ways. You should sleep. Clearly, you've been through more than even I have."

  "Um... how do I get this stuff off? I've never worn half this garbage before! I never wear skirts! The underthings are like nothing I've ever even seen in real life. This is like ancient torture devices instead of clothes!" Jenna got up, tears beginning to dry on her face. She helped me to undress as much as she felt proper, then went to slump against a wall. "What are you doing?"

  "I'm going to sleep. As you should."

  "Not on the damned floor! Get yourself undressed as you did me, and get into the bed with me. I'm not having you sleeping on a hard floor when the bed is more than large enough."

  Jenna was shocked. "But.. I'm your slave!"

  "Exactly, MY SLAVE! Not someone else's, MINE! So it's my rules, and you're going to be treated like a person in every way that's still legal, and that's final!" She couldn't ignore me or disobey. So she stood up and undressed herself, and timidly got into the bed with me. I pulled her to me and wrapped my arm around her. "I need this as much as you do. Both our lives have been turned upside down, and it's not fair! At least we've got each other." That comment struck something, and Jenna hugged my arm tight.

  ***

  A purse of coins had been given to me while I was in my stupor. As such, I dragged Jenna behind me as I went to find clothing the next morning after having eaten breakfast. Much to the horrified gazes of the other women who saw me afterwards, I was now dressed in Men's Gear. Leather pants, more simplistic undergarments. No corset. Regular boots and a new but simple tunic. Jenna was carrying the rest of my purchases, but the stuff I had been wearing before I left behind. Once we had stashed my new clothes into the room I had been lent, and were just about to start exploring again, we were confronted by Regalus.

  "Miss Mary, the Queen wishes your presence." He bowed in respect, while his eye twitched.

  "Do I have to?!" I whined.

  A slight smirk on his lip, he responded. "I'm afraid so, Miss."

  Somewhat petulent I followed behind, and once we entered the room where the Queen waited, Jenna stood to the side of the door against the wall. Altarreese's eyebrow raised at the sight of me in men's attire. "Surely you could have afforded to buy dresses, why?"

  "I don't wear dresses; it grosses me out. I swear Men invented Dresses to make it easier to force women. I don't wear them. Another reason you shouldn't make me a noble because I'm not changing my style to fit other people's expectations. I'm not going to bite my tongue either. If I don't like someone, everyone will know it, and if they keep pushing, I'll get violent if I feel the need. I won't care who it is."

  "T'is of no consequence. If you care not about others' opinions, then dress as you please. Perhaps, though, you could invest in higher-quality attire. Formal events are sadly a must. Your title is yet to be decided, but you WILL have one. I'll also assign one of the Empire's former towns into your care; someone needs to oversee it, and you're responsible for us having so much more land to manage."

  "Oh God, at least make it a small one, with no importance. Maybe by the sea? I like seafood."

  Jenna raised her hand. "If I may, my hometown fits that description perfectly. Some three days' ride from the Capital as well. Should anyone try to start trouble before the Empire fully dies."

  "An excellent notion. Why so helpful?" Altarreese asked.

  "Mistress Mary... she... she's no different from me. Her life is ruined. None of this is her fault. It's the Empire's fault that my mentor had an attack, not hers. It's that idiot's own fault he died. He had no chance of being with me, so throwing his life away like that is just plain idiotic."