Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"Say Grace…" Crossing her legs while sitting on the ivory throne to an empty assembly hall, Mono leaned to the side and rested her head on the back of her hand. Glancing at Grace from the edge of her eyes, she held her stare for a few moments before speaking up again. "Why did you break Aperion?"

Unfazed by the question, Grace wondered whether she should come clean or keep up the secret with a lie. However, the flicker of hesitance in her gaze had already given Mono her desired answer. Lifting her head, the iron queen crossed her legs the other way, then with a deep sigh she shifted her head from the back of her left hand to the right.

"What have you and Shamisha been planning behind my back exactly?" She asked, throwing Shamisha's name into the mix as a shot in the dark.

However, unable to catch on, Grace figured that the secret was already known to her master. Thus, looking to the front at the empty council hall, she stretched her hand forward and began explaining the rationale behind her action.

"Why do you think this hall sits empty?" Feeling Mono's eyes on her again, Grace began walking down the ivory steps. The sounds of her heels echoed in the empty hall, further emphasizing her point. Reaching the very bottom of the stairs, she continued walking a few more steps before turning around with her hands rising upwards. "Answer me, why do you believe they fear you so much?"

"Because I'm competent," Mono answered without hesitation.

Hearing that answer, Grace's expression completely dropped.

"That and the fact that you got twenty thousand people killed in a span of a month through sheer harsh labor," a light frown appeared on Mono's eyebrow, she wasn't sure why Grace would bring that up as some grand evidence.

"Not people criminal slaves, that's what they were," still staring at her creation with her head resting on the back of her hand, Mono lacked any interest in continuing the conversation further. "Just tell me what you two had planned Grace, I'm not mad–but I need to know if I can trust you till or would you be stabbing me in the back like Aurora."

A bit bothered by Mono's lack of care, Grace's eyes squinted lightly. Staring at Mono for a few seconds, she began her climb up the stairs and stood beside her once again. Her hands neatly folded around her waist, she stared into nothing as she finally responded.

"Your lack of care for life, sometimes makes me wonder," with a brief pause between her words, Grace turned her head back to her master. "If it is you who is the machine and not I?"

"Why did you do it, Grace, tell me." lifting her head with a spark of anger reflected in her eyes, Mono demanded an answer. Yet Grace remained unshaken, she'd tried to make her master realize what would be worthless if she were to simply tell her verbally. But since her attempts have failed, she no longer wished to continue the conversation.

Realizing that very fact through her silence, Mono wore a fowl expression as she slammed her fist on the armrest. "You're lucky I like you or else you'd be dead like that traitor…"

"Aurora?" Grace questioned, but instead of an answer what she got was an upset growl.

"Just go! I don't wanna see your face right now!" Experience tales at empire

Saying not a word in retaliation, Grace bowed her head and began walking out of the council hall. The sound of her heels against the floor echoed sharply in Mono's ears, almost piercingly so. She was angry beyond measure, and simply because her creation had learned to keep secrets even from her, but from the fact that she couldn't bring herself to hurt her or Shamisha.

'These idiots! Just talk to me and I'll at least think about why you did what you did!' But of course, it was a lie as even in her head, Mono couldn't stomach the truth. Her longing for perfection for beauty in her constant creation was far too tempting to let go and that was exactly why she was mad about Aperion's demise.

"How about you reel in your horses, mortal?" Suddenly Mono's lips parted but the words were not hers.

'What?!' For a moment she was shocked, but recognizing the voice as Elenaria her caution subsided quickly. 'What do you mean?'

The goddess hummed through Mono's lips before replying.

"The city of progress of absurdity needs time to adjust, you can't be a brute hulking through everything and expect the others to conform like water," the tension between Grace and Mono had even the goddess concerned. "No more slaughter of slaves, no more do whatever you want! When I chose you expected a level-headed genuine, not someone who'd bash their head into a wall expecting to make it fall!"

Mono squinted at what felt to her like mockery. She wanted to retort, she really did. She wanted to yell how she was not chosen but rather the goddess simply failed to kill her and was left with no choice but to hold her end of the deal. But alas, even in her disgruntled state of mind, she could taste a trickle of reason sprinkled throughout her words.

"I'll talk to Shamisha and Grace later about this directly, so just get out of my head now," Mono heaved, still bothered by the goddess' bossy nature, but couldn't do much about it at the moment.

"I'm watching you, don't make me regret my choice…" Parting with those words, Elenaris left the iron queen with much to mull over.

From better treatment of the slaves to reeling in her upgrades, and although it frustrated her to admit it, even she knew that her approach was detrimental in the long term. A true artist of her craft and a human who saw her race above the others, she simply chose to ignore those warnings–thinking everything would go as planned just because of who she was.

'Time to prepare an apology for Grace, I suppose…' Dreading the satisfied expression on Grace that she would soon have to witness, Mono wanted the apology to be done with and the same went for her talk with Shamisha.

Sinking in a chair with a sigh, the iron queen–even if just for a moment returned to her human state of mind.

'I need a boyfriend…' Having no reproductive parts, not even the genital slit, Mono's frustration wasn't just because of the stress from work.