While Nemu and the Bunny Priestess got better acquainted in the Spa, the humans all went up to their rooms to relax for the evening, and the rest of the Manor tried their best to map the new arrivals.
Stories about the remnant forces from the war between the Gods were hard to come by after all these thousands of years, and they didn't have an old enough dragon available to be able to tell them the whole story. From what they could tell, the generation that fought in that particular conflict were the ones that were the most likely to be ending up here in their current timeline, so the suspicion that it was a collapsed spell that was throwing them through time was all but confirmed, they just needed a bit of solid evidence.
Until they had evidence, there was also a chance that something that the Creators did ended up putting these people here, in their timeline, but what that might have been was beyond the understanding of even the Watchers, who gained a fair bit of ancient knowledge when they were summoned.
[Boss, should we give this Oracle in Port Nefheim a healing spell or something? We could get him a class and make him useful so we don't have to keep him in the prison. He seems like a fairly decent guy.] One of Cain's watchers asked while Cain was busy trying to connect the pattern of arrivals.
They didn't seem to be following the Ley Lines, there was no particular order they were showing up in, and their power level didn't seem to have anything to do with where they showed up. They also weren't appearing where they thought they were last, so that was out as well, ruling out a time displacement spell.
He was certain that he was missing something, but maybe giving the Oracle a class would help the process along. Doing strange things had gotten him new quests and fun rewards in the past, there was no reason that he couldn't trigger another oddball quest this time.
The only commonality was that none of the arrivals that were lost in time could seem to recall what they were doing just before they appeared here. It was the same with the transfers, they had no recollection of the minutes or hours before they were brought here, and most thought they had been sleeping or had dozed off at work, trying to explain the lack of memories for that short period.
[One of the Creators is the Goddess of Reincarnation, right? What if these are all soldiers that died in the war and something happened that sent them here? If the Creators had disrupted or manipulated a reincarnation spell by the Human Gods, it might have made them reappear in the future, and it would explain why they are coming in groups. That's how they would have died during the war.] Cain suggested in Guild Chat.
[That's an even more horrific option. If they are coming back in the groups that they died in, that means we are likely to see groups of hundreds and thousands at a time arriving with no idea what year it is or where they are. If they don't show up somewhere friendly, they would be brutally massacred in the wilderness of this world once the last of their Holy Power ran out.] Cixelcid pointed out.
"Yeah, that's even worse. Can you imagine the hunters going out to look for beasts and finding the corpses of entire companies of infantry? They would think that a monster had broken through to the next level and begun a massacre. It would be chaos.] Vala noted, though her thoughts suggested that it might not be a bad plan if they were to do it on purpose to someone else.
'Maybe a horde of zombies playing dead would do the trick?' Cain thought, before realizing that he had gotten sidetracked.
[We won't know until it happens, but I will have Nemu ask the Cleric some questions while they relax in the spa.] Cain agreed hesitantly, not liking the mystery.
Unlike the headpats of Cain, the Bunny Cleric had no problems with Nemu's particular brand of physical affection, letting the Felian happily wash her and show her around the spa facilities. The cleric was particularly excited to see the nail polish station and ran to it as soon as she was mostly dry from her bath.
"Hello miss attendant, I am Priestess Jessica. Can I get my nails done? In the traditional way please." She asked the Puppet who was attending the spa today politely.
"I'm sorry miss, I will need a bit more description than that. I don't know what way is traditional where you come from. The Bunny Kin Clerics here paint theirs based on ranking within the Church, but I also don't know your ranks as a Cleric. Are you perhaps an Acolyte? If so I can paint your nails the most lovely shade of green that would compliment your fur." The Puppet suggested.
"Oh, that makes sense, things must have changed since my time. Um, we did them in various patterns. Wavy lines, knotwork, dots, even painted animals if the artist was very good." She explained.
"Oh, that's even better. She can take one hand and I will take the other and we will get you all decorated in no time." Nemu exclaimed happily, picking the bunny up to sit her in the chair so they could begin their work.
"Are you an artist as well? I thought you were part of the Duke's Harem, with that silky outfit." The cleric told her, then covered her mouth in embarrassment.
"No, I'm actually a type of Bard. I sing and dance and play instruments. Master Cain is very comfortable to sleep next to and warm, but I'm his Companion and not part of his Harem." Nemu explained.
"So he does have a harem then? I see that part didn't change." Jessica sighed.
"He's the worst harem leader ever. He is surrounded by beautiful women all the time, and the Laughing God made his summoning spells call even more to surround himself with, but he took one wife and a pet Lamia as his only partners of that sort."
Nemu smirked as Cain's annoyance at her estimation of his harem-building skills was relayed to him in the mental link, but she didn't stop talking to her new friend.
"He won't stop you if you want to sleep next to him, I do it all the time, but you would have to ask him and then get past the protective snake if you wanted to go further than that."
"Oh, no, it's not like that. Clerics bless others, we don't have broods of our own. At least not often. If he was a big strapping Bunny man, maybe, but no." Jessica stammered, twisting the towel she was wearing between her hands.
"None of that, you will mess up your polish. Now be a good girl and let us finish the painting." Nemu teased, before kissing the bunny on the forehead and getting back to work.
When they finished, her nails were a Kaleidoscope of colors, and the Cleric was overjoyed. "That is so much better, now everyone will be able to see the truth again."
"What truth?" Nemu asked, eager to learn more about Jessica.
"Oh, Bunnies are known to be gentle and peaceful you see. So we paint our nails to show that we haven't harmed anything or done anything violently physical. If we did, we would chip the polish off our nails, and everyone would know that we had misbehaved." Jessica explained.
"You literally tried to stab someone an hour ago." Nemu pointed out with a giggle and the Bunny sighed.
"That was different, I thought he was a threat to the Goddess's people. Normally we don't even carry weapons. The bone dagger was a gift from my senior, and it's meant for cutting fruit, not stabbing people." She explained.
"That explains how it couldn't cut a shirt. Usually, when we have found others their magical weapons have been upgraded by the System in this time." Nemu told her between long breaths to blow dry the Cleric's nails.
Just as she was about to get up and look for a brush, Jessica found her nose tingling, and let out a series of harsh sneezes, ending with her eyes in tears from the repeated action. Nemu could only stare at her in amazement. Every sneeze had made the girl a bit more human until only the fur on her ears and tail was left on the otherwise fully human bunny kin.
"Is that something that happens to Bunnies?" Nemu finally managed to ask.
"Definitely not. I mean maybe? You can do it as well, but without the sneezing, so maybe it is normal now?" Jessica phrased her response as a question.
"That is a result of my level and class. Maybe something changed when you got your class, let me check." Nemu told her
[Name] Jessica Boop
[Race] Divine Bunny (Beastkin)
[Class] High Priestess of the Bunny God
[Level] 17
"There it is. Open your status and examine your abilities and your personal data. You are a Divine Bunny now, and from what I understand they can change their appearances between types of Bunny." Nemu told her, and the Bunny's nose scrunched up as she focused on working the interface, an action so adorable that Nemu couldn't resist giving her a hug.
"I see it now. Hey, what is this skills menu? Can I just pick the blessings I want? That would be totally amazing." Jessica asked.
"Oh, those should be your class abilities and spells. I'm not sure what all you will get, but almost all cleric-type classes get healing spells as their base abilities. You might also get something about fertility since that's your Goddess's specialty. Just read through them carefully, since you have a limited number of points and they can't be changed once you spend them."
The cleric looked concerned as she read through them and tried to grasp the System. "So I can only use each one once, and then my Holy Power will be spent? How long does it take to recover? Do I need to get a favor to use the blessings again?" The bunny sounded truly concerned now.
"No, you will be able to use them until you run out of power, and it will recover in a few hours. But you will only be able to use the ones that you have selected, or started with, and you will need to get stronger or gain favor to level up and gain access to more of them. By the time you finish, you will be able to use everything on the list and have the benefits of all the bonuses." Nemu consoled her, preventing a full-blown panic attack.
"This seems like a very good thing then. I can have a lot of them already, plus I can heal and help with Child Birth. I won't have to beg if I can work as a Midwife, and the Wolf Kin families are always eager for fertility blessings. At least they were in my time." Jessica laughed.
"That part hasn't changed. They still have huge families even without the benefit of the clerics. That's part of the reason they look for Bunnies, they want good luck relating to their families. I'm sure they will love you here in the Valley, two thirds of the population are Wolves or Foxes. I thought Bunnies were afraid of them though?" Nemu asked.
"Most of us are, yeah. But I've gotten used to them. They were fierce warriors, and I am a good healer, so we spent a lot of time together for me to get over my fears." The bunny told the Felian with a smile, which was great news to Svetlana as well. That Kitsune loved bunnies, the only species that could compete with her own fluffiness, and Nemu could sense that the Commander was willing to challenge her for her new friend's attention.
