134: Klapsus
“Welcome to Klapsus, the capital of the Kingdom of Larpsus!” Ember announced to Beatrice and gestured toward the countless rooftops as both girls stood atop one of the last sharp hills that overlooked the busy streets below.
After several more hours since the fighting, healing, sexing, and recruiting, Beatrice’s group of five (increased by one by the latest addition of one vengeful and prideful fox girl) had finally emerged relatively unscathed (thanks to Beatrice’s emergency healing) out of the walled-in capital’s stupidly large and difficult to traverse forested area.
“Finally!” Olivia gasped and fell to her knees when she emerged out of the woods dead last, even behind the newly recruited, teenage fox girl.
Beatrice couldn’t blame the ninja girl. Even Ember managed to hold in her usual snide remarks, which by her standards could be taken as high praise. Even though Beatrice’s healing did fix Olivia’s broken back, she was still severely hurt and had to limp and struggle to keep up with the others as they all navigated through the rocky, twisted, uneven, dying, seemingly unending Shadow Woods. Even for the succubus, the journey was not easy as her developing physical abilities tried to keep up with the growing demands.
The one person who was absolutely glowing was, surprisingly, Tabitha. Even though she had suffered even greater injuries than Olivia, even though she should have been in an even greater pain as she tried to keep up with the pace set by Ember—
Oh, of course! Beatrice almost slammed her forehead with the palm of her hand. Of course, the masochist would be glowing with satisfaction and smiling from ear to ear after being subjected to several hours of grueling, unrelenting, glorious pain-inducing march!
And while everyone enjoyed a breath of fresh air after leaving the smothering Shadow Woods, Beatrice took in the sight that was the capital of the kingdom she was summoned to save.
The medieval buildings of the city were placed haphazardly and stuck tightly together without any regard for planning or efficiency. It reminded Beatrice of a maze that was continuously upgraded and made more complex. In fact, after looking carefully, it was clear that the city became more and more cramped over time.
What might have been once a meticulously planned and crafted city landscape became overbuilt and overcrowded as countless new houses were built next to each other, on top of each other, adding uneven, mismatching floors to buildings that could barely support them. One house managed to grow into a four-story monstrosity that was supported by haphazardly added thick wooden beams that went into surrounding damaged buildings.
This overbuilt maze went on for miles and miles, with barely an end in sight. Far away, Beatrice saw what should have been gigantic, eighty feet high stone city walls. They looked tiny and completely threw Beatrice’s sense of scale and distance.
Once in a while, a particular structure stood out from the crowd. Most of them were unmistakeably fortresses, sitting atop rocky elevations. Strong, tall, and impressive compared to what was going on beneath them. Beatrice recalled that one of these fortresses was supposed to belong to lord Belmot, so she simply turned to Olivia, whose hateful, unwavering gaze pointed straight to the farthest building. A separately walled-off behemoth that looked smaller than the others only because of the distance. When compared to the city walls, the many peaks of Belmot’s keep seemed to be even higher than the walls themselves.
Beatrice tried to find the palace from which she emerged yesterday. All the way to her right, greatly obstructed from sight by the forest that she stood in the shadow of, she saw the familiar blue flags, resting calmly over the tower peaks. The palace looked impressive, but it was clear that it had not been maintained for many years. If this continued, the royal palace would no doubt end up looking like some bleak, haunted abandoned fortress of evil. The very place that it was meant to be the opposite of.
“Why are you looking at this dump as if you’re seeing it for the first time?” Rafaelia asked Beatrice and pulled the succubus out of the moment.
“Ah, right, you don’t know,” Beatrice remembered that very few people actually knew who she was supposed to be, and even fewer would believe her, as evidenced by her meeting with the king. “I’m not from around here.”
Rafaelia looked at Beatrice and studying her from head to toe. Just at that moment, the wind blew Beatrice’s cloak back, allowing the fox girl a close inspection of all succubus’s buxom features. Rafaelia’s eyes stopped at the bulge in Beatrice’s panties, but she quickly averted her eyes.
“If you’ve come here looking for sex, you’ve come to the right place,” Rafaelia said while blushing a little.