“This is stressful, I have the ‘Zarumogol’ go to some old fortress in who knows where and they already get attacked by some ‘old man in brown’…wait, was it a wizard? I liked those kinda guys, chill old dudes probably smoking and giving really deep life advice, but to say my view is different after this is an understatement. Well, atleast I have most of them hunting him down, wherever he may be.” Zerinia thought to herself, looking down into the steaming hot water that was meant to relax her but did little to do so.
She slowly turned her head to face the other women in the water, mainly at Tharia. “That also reminds me, I wonder what ‘Disciplines’ that these new people have. I mean, asking them directly might make them think I’m weird or crazy. I thought so too when someone asked me that for the first time, luckily it didn’t take too much time to realise it’s basically a power level.”
“This place is amazing, I’m glad I ended up coming along with the others to this place. Maybe I could show it to Narizan.” Heiliel stated with a smile, her face relaxed while sinking slightly, leaving only part of her neck and head out of the water.
“If this world is accurate to original lore from Divine Unbreaking too, the humans we saved should on average have one between 50 to 100 while the demi-humanoids have an average of 200 to 500.” She paused her thoughts for a moment before continuing. “Good thing mine is roughly 850 million, maybe higher if I actually gained anything from killing Thrak or those humans during the attack, just as well I was the ranked #4 player in Divine Unbreaking.”
“You and me both!” Tharia responded to Heiliel, lying back against the edges while picking up one of the small glass containers from the tray inside. The glass containing a smooth and almost sludgy brown liquid.
“I could estimate it by having them fight something possibly around as strong as them and judge from that. Maybe I can find out if they a ‘Resonance’ or not, spells that are used so often by someone they integrate into the soul, no longer magic to either the person in question or who they use it against and just a natural ability. Then again, considering they’re probably not enough by Divine Unbreaking standards, they’re unlikely to in this world…does this mean I have Resonances too? Do my Resonances really exist? Integrated into the very foundations of my soul? Do they even exist in this world?”
“Hey Zerinia…are you okay there?” Tharia asked, Heiliel also looking over with a curious and slightly worried look on her face. Likely because of her zoning out after a longer extent of time because of Zerinia’s questions to herself and mental notes of what she needed to do in future.
“Oh, my apologises…I must have zoned out, is something the matter?” She asked with a questioning smile, looking at Tharia and then the glass in her hand. Now already knowing what was to come next, after all, it didn’t look as good as it tasted. A natural thing everyone knows when they first consume the beverage.
“I was just wondering…what is this stuff? It looks like some kind of poison but smells like something mixed with milk.” She asked, Heiliel also looking at the glass in her hand. Both women analysing container and the substance inside like how a chemist would analyse a new chemical they just discovered. “Oh that? It’s Chocolate Milk. Pretty good stuff.”
“Chocolate Milk? I’ve heard of milk but what’s the ‘Chocolate’ part?” Heiliel questioned, looking between both Zerinia and the drink in Tharia’s hand. “It’s a food made from multiple different ingredients, mainly sweeteners like sugar, cocoa beans and cocoa butter, the last is a natural fat extracted from the bean, sometimes you can include milk or Vanilla.”
“Huh…so this one uses milk to make it ‘Chocolate’ Milk, right?” Tharia questioned, looking directly at Zerinia for conformation on her theory. “Almost, milk is optional, not one of the main three ingredients including Cocoa Beans, Cocoa Butter or Sweeteners. But preparation in chocolate milk because Cocoa Butter doesn't mix with water. So, what is to be done is to grind the beans into powder and mix this powder in sugar and water before adding milk. Then heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves and hydrates the cocoa starch.”
“Oh…right.” Tharia answered, not remotely understanding what most those words really mean. “So why the sweeteners? What would it taste like without them?” Heiliel asked, taking one of the glasses from the tray too. “It would taste highly bitter and acidic.” The explanation seemed as calm as it was extreme but true. “But perhaps you should try it?” Heiliel went first, lifting the glass and drinking it. A pause, within a second later, she was practically finished the glass. “Oh, excuse me, but…that was amazing. You wouldn’t mind if I took another?” She asked while Tharia had a similar reaction. “That’s why it’s there.” Zerinia responded, holding a handout towards the floating tray in the water.
“So, this stuff is supposed to be…sweet?” Rango, in the male reserved hot spring questioned while looking directly at the glass in his hand and the brown milk-like liquid in it.
“Sure is, I always go to Head Chef, ‘Mixie’ during the weekend evenings and she makes me some.” Igior responded, drinking his in seconds. It wasn’t surprising he was consuming a beverage like this so quickly and in the hot spring to rest with the others too. “She’s the best chef in the entire castle, and easily world too!”
“Hmm, perhaps you would like me to try it first Rango, test the waters…or the ‘Chocolate Milk’ in this case.” He said as if he wanted to protect his son from what could possibly be come, while secretly being excited about what it could taste like. His expectations were met and much more so.
Elsewhere, Octavian was preparing another one of the rooms, none other than Zerinia’s. He was insistent on her having it done by him and him alone as to prevent any possibility of one of his subordinates making any kind of error. Just the idea of there being a minor issue that Zerinia didn’t explicitly love about the room was beyond shameful. However, Octavian knew the ladies tastes, he knew what she liked and didn’t like through intense observation whenever she was around and programmed lore she instilled him with when she created him in ‘Divine Unbreaking’.
Octavian, however, wasn’t as such a sentimental. His values were beyond what any other could fully comprehend. Nanilk wanted to eliminate the concept of instinct through knowledge, seeing the former as a disease instilled into life at birth and the latter an ultimate cure. Graveheart wanted to make the greatest scientific break throughs by mixing science and magic. Igior just wants to savour the simple pleasures of life like good food and fun experiences.
Octavian was different, he wanted one thing and one thing alone, efficiently serve Zerinia to the greatest extent possible. This desire was so intense that even those who knew him well enough considered it an obsession, and for good reason too. In the end however, that is just how he was made to be, an absolute necessity of his person that he must live with by, like how a computer must do how it is programmed to do without even having a thought of doing anything else.
It was a sentiment Zerinia had in mind when making him, the concept of having a Vampire butler to go with the ‘evil, powerful, vampire lady’ avatar Zerinia had envisioned. It was perhaps around this time when she realised how over the top she had actually made said personality but it still fit the trope that Zerinia was hoping for, just a bit too perfectly.
“Hey, Octavian.” A voice said from behind him, turning around to see the source of where it came from, he saw Lenore standing in the doorway. She stood there wearing her common clothes for comfort. Consisting of a charcoal wool coat with deep crimson lining, black high-neck undershirt and a black skirt slightly different than earlier. Her boots lower and reaching only her mid shin and on her hands were fingerless gloves. “Sorry to interrupt but I was wondering, do you have a minute? From one Vampire to another?”
“Lady Lenore? It’s of no issue whatsoever! How may I assist you?” He asked, immediately pausing what he was doing and turning to face her.
“I’ve been struggling with something, and I kinda need to talk to someone about it, someone as much as I can trust as you.” She responded with a nervous and embarrassed expression. “It’s been on my mind for a while and I need to talk to someone about it, before it affects my ability to properly serve the Lady.”