My Post Infection AU [Hollow Knight]

Part 7: Higher with a Cost of Freedom

It had been a few months since the initial restart of Hallownest. Agriculture had gotten underway with sanctioned parts of Greenpath, despite Unn being eerily quiet to all who could previously hear her.

Vessel had been widely accepted as the Higher Being representing the Kingdom and, despite her objections, many citizens had begun to worship her. This was typically met with Vessel asking them to stop, even to the degree that she would not allow them to make anything in her image. No statues, paintings, or even glorifying descriptions of her were allowed to be publicized. This eventually led to Vessel only wearing a mask when she went out in public, unless it was for some form of announcement.

Tourists had taken an interest in Hallownest and businesses were very successful, as well as the housing industry. There were only a few minor setbacks, one being Hornet's sudden disappearance and the other being that the Hive still didn't have a queen. Several things were not doing well due to a combination of those things.

Vessel had done all she could think of for the colony of bees in the Kingdom's Edge, they refused to just accept her as their queen, and Vessel would not allow them to do that anyway. Several candidates had been offered, each turned down due to something or other.

So needless to say, Vessel was tired most of the time. Her foresight was telling her many things she did not understand, even hinting of a ruckus brewing in a different kingdom. This had given Vessel reason to believe that someone had taken Hornet for her to finish her own journey. Not that this made her happy at all, just annoyed.

The relationship with Deepnest had worsened after their princess disappeared until they realized Vessel was offering them a lot of assistance and other stuff to rebuild after her father's errors, not trying to destroy their culture. Since then relationships had improved beyond what they ever were before, and Deepnest managed to sort of reach an agreement with the Mantis Tribe. So plus for that too. They just left each other alone and things went smoothly.

The Mantis Tribe had also warmed up slightly, allowing certain people to enter the outskirts of their village to learn and document their culture and history.

The Mushrooms, for some reason, became interested in Hallownest's activities as well. They had allowed Vessel to enter the Wastes and speak to the Fungal Core and even asked to have representation in Hallownest, which confused Vessel greatly due to what had happened the last time they got involved with their neighbors.

Of course she gave it to them. But.....

The idea Vessel had for jobs was a fantastic idea as well.
Qualified people could hold positions that they enjoyed and the economy was doing magnificently. A school, for children, had been constructed in Dirtmouth and the City of Tears, for adults wishing to learn to get more complex occupations. Vessel had actually attended several of the City classes before, much to Stardust's objection.

It was rather incredible that no one recognized Vessel really with all the stuff she does. It's not like she makes a huge effort to hide her identity and she magically knows about kingdom affairs when she makes announcements and such. I guess everyone is just stupid and thinks that masked Vessel is a mutant butterfly or something. Which is stupid, because that doesn't make sense at all. It confuses her and everyone who knows about it greatly.

Of course though this doesn't stop Vessel from basking in the glory of everyone's stupidity, like she is at the moment. Of course, she ties six of her eight arms to her sides and hides her wings the best she can. This doesn't stop it from not being obvious as to who she is.

As she walked through the now packed streets of Dirtmouth, she pondered how sad and empty the town was the day she woke up and compared it to now. There were people everywhere, talking to one another and buying things from shops in the town. The nicest part about it was everyone just ignored the tall wyr— I mean- "butterfly"— walking through the streets.
Some people did look at her, but most were tourists just looking out at the crowd and trying to find their next destination.
Having eight eyes makes it very easy to see everything happening around you, even if you are wearing a mask.