A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 171: Rumplestiltskin...Kind Of

To apologize, or to brainwash? That was the question I had on my mind while skipping from country to country, hovering over rulers being received by people that had blown their tops when their leaders disappeared in midair. Naturally, I chose to look at all of their memories first before going through again and editing it so they all had the same recollection of events that had ended fifteen minutes prior. It included me being guilt-free, retracting some statements I'd said, giving better answers in response to some of the people, and making it so that only the ruler of Tza-Min remembered I'd agreed to take his children as my disciples in exchange for rice.

     I also changed some memories in the surroundings, just in case they told people what happened, or put me on a hit list. Made sure they wrote nothing down, said nothing to anyone, that there wasn't anything that would cause them to have discrepancies in their memories or cause them to notice that something didn't match up.

     "Wooooh..." I sighed, slumped over an olive tree branch overlooking the capital of Laohr, a place I really should've visited a long time ago. It looked like Greece, but better. Architecture that made me instantly favor it over Newone, simplicity all around, clean beaches, no haughty nobles that I could find, a country more based on physical prowess and ability than gender norms and family lineage. I couldn't tell if it was Athens, or Sparta, or an awesome combination of both. The more I looked, the more I wished I had been born there. "Almost done. Almost done, Firea. Don't do it again, don't insult vital war partners without commerce knowledge again-"

     I loved it there. I wanted to take a few pictures, to take my family for vacation there, or take Magaris to see something beautiful in exchange for the slave auction thing...though she was the one that pushed me to take her there.

     But when I went to where the queen was, and found the state she was in, I was suddenly very breathless and regretting shocking a pregnant woman with instant teleportation. It probably had worn on her nerves, and my aura bearing down probably hadn't helped.

     The woman was in labor. I had been correct.

     In fact, she was in some serious pain. Not just contractions she could bear with. More like, agonizing in her long bed, twisting around while her maids were running around in their toga-like clothing, carrying basins of water and trying to get her on a birthing stool so she could start pushing.

     Master, we will talk about your insensitive actions later.

     Yes...

     For once, I wasn't quite sure what to do. Go down there and calm her down? No, that would disrupt the birthing process. Wipe her memories and replace them from afar? Freeze them so I could have more time to think? Teleport the baby ou-

     Master, please don't be yourself right now.

     ...Let her give birth first and come back later?

     "Mother!" a girl cried out. She looked nothing like the woman, but was being held back by a maid while trying to barge into the room. The girl was trying really hard not to cry while standing there with her fists balled.

     "Get her out!"

     Oh...that was a lot of blood. I didn't even notice it before the sheets were soaked through with sweat and the red stuff streaming down her-

     Ohhhhhh-

     Check her Status, Master.

     And I did. It only made me guilty when I speed-read that I really had shocked her into labor a week ahead of schedule.