(MC POV)
"Divine One, it is an honour to see you again," The Lich greeted me in one of the halls after Benjamin completed my tour.
The entire place was relatively sparse with few amenities, though that is by human standards. From what I heard, this place was considered rather luxurious for most of the monsters.
They kept saying it was bathed in Quarks leftover from my fight, whatever that means.
If it meant that wherever I used my Techniques would leave behind such a paradise for monsters… I should worried about that Dark Sect stronghold where I had fought Lilith in. It's empty now but who's to say that monsters won't occupy it later?
Well, I guess I'll just deal with it when the time comes.
"It's been a while Stephanie, things good on your side?" I greeted back.
She raised her head from her deep bow, it was a little difficult to tell her expression since her head was literally just a skull but I somehow felt like she was smiling at me.
"Thank you for your consideration, Divine One. But I am fine. My army is ready to do your bidding if you so require."
I'm afraid to even ask how many people she has in her so-called 'army', I have a feeling the number Benjamin gave me did not include her undead army in that roster.
If she had revived all the Dark Sect members here as undead, that should increase the numbers by at least another thousand or so. And if she had bothered to go to that Dark Sect stronghold, the numbers would at least double...
I must have been lost in thought since she had tilted her head at me, "Is something the matter, Divine One?"
"No, it's nothing. I was just thinking of something. Where are the two fox sisters?"
"I have already called them here, they should be arriving shortly."
Just as those words left her teeth, two giant foxes appeared from around the corner, the red one immediately bouncing towards me.
"Master! Master! We missed you! Pat me! Pat me please, please, please~"
Her sister smacked her on the head before I could even oblige, "What did I say about disturbing Divine One, sister? Control yourself."
"Uwuuu… Master… My sister is bullying me…" the red fox cried.
I reached out and patted her on the nose before scratching the area under her chin, causing her to purr in content.
"You spoil her too much, Divine One," The white fox sighed. "What can we do for you today?"
I decided to take the shot, "You guys know about the situation with the Queen right?"
"Mmm… About how she's going around purging the country's undesirables and using your name against the other Sects? We are aware, Divine One," Benjamin replied.
Stephanie turned her gaze to me, "Shall we get rid of her for staining your name, Divine One?"
"What? No, I'm perfectly fine with this arrangement, we could use less bad apples around here. In fact, the Queen is my disciple's disciple, don't touch her."
The Lich bowed her head, "Apologies for my inconsideration, Divine One."
I waved at her to show it was nothing, "Are you guys aware of Phoenix Sect and Heaven Sect merging too?"
All of them looked at one another before turning back to me.
"Forgive us, Divine One. It seems we were unaware of this fact." The white fox admitted.
I shook my head, "No fault of yours. The previous Sect Master of Phoenix Sect had came to Heaven Sect and proposed that to me yesterday. The whole thing was only officiated today."
The tentacles on Benjamin's face ruffled, "Ah, I see. It seems that is an oversight on our part, we shall rectify that immediately. I hope Divine One does not mind it?"
Rectify it? What could you possibly be rectifying? Oh, he must mean to record and disseminate that information to the others, very thorough I must say.
I nodded to him, "Of course not, go ahead."
"I presume that something else happened regarding this merger?" Stephanie inquired.
"Indeed," I confirmed. "There was an assassination attempt on both the Phoenix Sect Master's and mine life. We believe the perpetrator to be a slime youkai or monster of some kind."
All of them turned to Benjamin who seemed to be deep in thought.
"We do have a few slimes… But none of them had left here these few days. Could I ask Divine One details about this… Assassination?"
"Hmmm… They were using poisoned arrows and at least could transform into humanoid figures seeing that they were wearing cloaks to cover themselves," I offered, materializing one f the cloaks from my storage ring.
"Humanoid slimes… No, we do not have any slimes that can transform like that. So it was not one of us," Benjamin said with absolute confidence.
"Ehehe~ There's no one here who would betray Master, you know?" The red fox giggled.
Benjamin nodded, "Especially after you had displayed your power just a few moments ago. No one here would question your Divinity now."
Damn it, don't even remind me of that. It wasn't even what I wanted to do, why can't I ever get it right?
I even made sure to lower it as much as I could you know? At most they should have only felt a shiver or something, but apparently that was enough to make an entire dragon faint.
Trying to change the topic, I shook my head at them, "Oh, I wasn't suspecting you guys, I just thought you guys might know of any slimes who might fit the bill around the area? Or at least heard of any?"
The white fox hummed, "The last time we saw a slime colony… That was before your fight with the demon invader, Divine One. And they are now currently under us."
"I take it that none of you know of any slimes that might have joined some other organisation that might be involved in this?" I asked.
"Not at the moment," Stephanie admitted. "But give us some time and we should have some results soon enough."
Well, that's reliable.
"In that case I'll be counting on you guys. Since the assassination failed, I don't doubt that assassin might return to try again so I'll have to make sure everyone else is safe."
The two giant foxes shared a glance before the white one turned to me, "We know Divine One might not need it… But would you like to have someone guard your Divine self?"
I was about to decline when I thought about it for a moment.
The monsters were also expanding themselves rapidly and I'm pretty sure they would reach a critical mass before spilling out. Everyone else in the country would find out about this congregation sooner or later.
In that case, it might be a good idea if I had the leaders of said congregation close to me who can help me influence the rest of the monsters to not be merciless killing machines right?
And if I can show everyone that I have these two under my wing and they can live peacefully… Could this be the start of human and monster coexistence?
"Hmm… I shall take up on your offer. Who would you recommend?"
"Either my sister or I could accompany you, Divine One. If you would prefer, both of us could accompany you as well," The white fox bowed her head.
I pretended to think, "Hmm…In that case, I'll take the both of you along. It'll be better to keep you sisters together. Also, I think it's long overdue to give the two of you names."
That piece of news seemed to surprise them, all of their tails standing up straight behind them.
I patted the red fox's nose, "You shall be known as Akari from now on."
Akari's eyes went wide and her mouth hung open in absolute shock.
I didn't wait and went to pat the white fox's nose, "And you shall be known as Shiori."
The two of them stared at me with the same shocked expression for a good minute. I thought they were just processing their names when all of a sudden, the two of them collapsed on their sides and fainted.
…
Seriously, what's with me and making people faint?!
