Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Apeiron, that which is countless and couldn't possibly be contained. Mono had picked that name for her auto-upgrading automatons, one that now resided in her back–often confined in a small space but stretched into numerous dark iron tentacles when let out. It worked on her internal circuitry unrelentingly, only hindered by a lack of resources or problems with its own working.

However, such malfunctions were rare as the iron queen kept good care of her puppet.

"Sorry, I wanted to wait until this meeting was over but my curiosity got the better of me," her body split into numerous parts, limbs hanging, her head detached from the neck, and the majority of her internals sparking from Aperion's experiments, Mono lay floating above by the ivory throne, her body arched all the way back.

Plucking one of her eyes with its pincers, Apeiron truly helped Mono reflect herself as the chosen to the goddess of absurdities.

Unsure how to feel about the whole sight, Raven's eyes squinted in confoundment as he slowly turned to look around at the empty council seats. Unlike his last visit, nobody but Mono was present even though it should've been high time for a form of political discussion.

"Where is everyone?" He asked, stepping forward–his party followed right behind.

"Hmm? The demis? Well, I had to kill some of them after they were outed for their corruption and the others have been afraid of my growing ability ever since," already feeling her probing him in his mind, Raven knew she was scanning away at his thoughts, that too while her body was in bits and pieces and only attached by coiled wires. "Let me just…"

Grabbing her eye from Apeiron, Mono pulled it out of its hands even though the automaton wasn't letting it go easily. Putting the eye back into its socket, Mono blinked a few times and her limbs instantly attached back together. Falling from a small height she landed butt-first on the throne but didn't waste a second to cross her bare legs leisurely.

Smiling at the party who'd gotten rid of the monster alliance for her, she simply glanced across them for a while before finally opening her lips to speak.

"The goddess wishes to speak to you, but before that, I think you have some request to make don't you?" Already knowing what Raven had in his head, Mono activated one of her latest protocols to dress up her nude body. Going for an all-white leather look, she leaned back into the ivory throne.

A black buttoned white jacket with white leather boots, and a hat that matched her aristocratic look, the combination helped her match the throne itself perfectly. Not much for theatrics, however, Raven brushed past the fluff and got to the main topic.

"Amelia and Ophelia are both going with me, consider it payment for hogging the glory and those thousands of new slaves to replace the ones you've killed," having not expected Raven to be so straightforward, Mono's eyebrows raised on their own.

Leaning forward on her knees, she got off the throne and cast her gaze at his face. Slowly making her way down, the sounds of her boots echoing throughout the empty hall, she kept her eyes glued on him while a light smirk crept up on her lips. Stopping in front of him, she offered him a hand.

"I never hogged the glory, the people are just too stupid to realize that you're not one of my servants even if they're told directly," bringing Raven's eyes down to her hand with her gaze, she flailed her fingers, expectantly. "As for Amelia and the dead king's queen, you can have them, no need for an excuse. You've already bought Elenaris enough labor for a long-long time."

"Does that involve the children?" Stepping forward from the back, Amedith glared at Mono, his expression a mix of caution and anger. "We saw that they're in the orphanage and Athenia's new church but you're not gonna move them to the dungeons once we leave, are you?"

Squinting at the hinted accusation, Mono almost felt offended that Amedith would even suggest such a thing.

"The slaves that died were criminals rotting in the dungeons, eating rats and moles, they deserved what happened, but that won't be the case for the new slaves, and never for the children…" Shifting her head back to Raven, her expression now contorted with anger, Mono asked once again. "The children will be taught your goddess's teachings, they'll serve her church and the rest of the community.

So now…do you want to keep Amelia and the queen or has my harsh treatment of prisoners upset you too much?"

Although his ability to pick out lies had failed on Mono, Raven sensed no deception in her deal. And with the goddess Elenaris on Athenia's side, it would be far too foolish of her to pick a fight with the party.

"Alright, consider this a partnership," as soon as Raven shook her hand, the anger on her face disappeared and was instantly replaced by yet another smile.

"Great, ahaha!" Shaking hands for a moment more, Mono took a step back and spread her arms wide in recognition of the union. "Now, which one of you would like a prosthetic? Or maybe some change of clothes? I have plenty of new outfits already made for the hero and his companion's return!"

"Uhmmm…" A dubious humm echoed from everyone's mouth at her suggestion about prosthetics, especially since they'd just seen Mono's body floating in front of them in pieces.

However, a change of clothes did sound inviting, at least to the priestess, the elves, and most eagerly the fae devil. But the first person Mono decided to pick was none of them as she turned towards the fairest-looking human, Amedith.

"Come with me, I have so many clothes prepared for you guys!" Grabbing his hands, she began dragging him towards the hall's exit.

"Wa-wa-wait!" Amedith tried to struggle his way out of her grip, but the iron grip on his hand just wouldn't let him budge.

Listening to him complaining as they wandered down the hall, the rest of the party realized the misunderstanding. Turning to look at each other, they spoke in unison.

"She doesn't know he's a guy, does she?" And they were right.