After walking away from the fiefdom, Lucifer transformed into a Dragon and we flew off into the skies, flying directly towards the end of the continent where the snowy lands where the ruins of the Demon Kingdom were located, and where our small village was. Catarina had also stayed with us through the two weeks, mostly working with the other Undead, but she had gotten to know things better and seemed to have had a good time, although her tomboyish personality and her stoic and composed face expressions never showed any change.
She had been a good girl though, formerly a deadly vampire turned into a good and hard-working girl. She had quite the sad past and didn’t commit enough atrocities in front of me to make me want to eat her soul. I guess she and Agatha are quite similar. Maybe in another timeline, I could had decided to save Agatha, but the deed’s already more than done, so she’s already eaten. Nonetheless, I’ve saved the others. The Vampire Zombies are hanging around inside my Shadows, already gotten used to their new life as my servants, they’re developing new abilities related to Undead, while discovering they have no weaknesses anymore related to sunlight for some reason.
They were all visibly puzzled when I let them walk around the sunlight and they didn’t began to burn to death. Partner still has a weakness to sunlight though, but she had been developing her resistance to it and with some light-reflecting barrier conjured by Emeraldine over her, she can bear with the sun way better, although she often gets a bit redder when she’s exposed for a few hours due to her pale white skin getting all tanned. Though those sexy tan lines are what I live for.
Anyways, and about Kuro, Darkbound, and Mercury, they’re all back to full strength, I have already collected enough materials to heal them and make them even stronger. Darkbound was back to his enormous and titanic might and appearance, while Mercury was also back to being a giant mass of liquid metal… I guess Undead are quite easy in that sense, as long as their souls remain, you can reconstruct them quite easily.
“Phew, we are finally going back home. I am so tired of that city… And those damn people smiling at me. I hate humans.” Sighed Catarina.
“Weren’t you a human too?” I asked her.
“Well yes! But I am not a human anymore. I hate them.” Catarina said while crossing her arms.
“Huh, maybe I would had thought similarly to you in the past, but right now I can’t say I hate them all… There’s tons of nice people out there.” I sighed.
“Hmph. That little noble girl was nice, I guess.” Catarina said. “I had… never meet a human that treated me like a person before. Even now that I am an Undead…”
“Hahaha, that must be because you belong to me! So she treated you nicely because of that.” I laughed.
“Ugh! Don’t ruin it for me now!” Catarina barked angrily at me, as I petted her head.
“Thanks for your help these two weeks, you did well.” I said with a smile.
Catarina suddenly blushed, as her pale white skin turned red somehow.
“I-I don’t need your gratefulness…” She said with embarrassment, crossing her arms.
“Hahaha… Right?” I sighed. “Well, as a thanks, I will give you one wish!”
“One wish?” She asked.
“Yeah, ask me anything you want.” I said.
Lucifer, Emeraldine, and Partner cried in unison.
“What? She’s our companion as well, don’t get jealous you guys…” I sighed.
As I tried to calm down my crazed lovers, Catarina looked at them and then smirked devilishly.
“What do I want, huh? How about you give me a nice French kiss then?” She asked, looking at me and then back at the other three.
“EH?!” I cried in shock.
“No way! You’re not doing that!” Partner roared.
“Only we get to kiss her!” Emeraldine angrily added.
“I’ll throw you off my back if you say anything else!” Lucifer roared.
“Pff…! HAHAHAHA!” Catarina began to laugh her lungs out, like I had never seen her laugh before.
“I was joking, you trio of idiots! See how easy it is to provoke these idiots?” Catarina laughed while looking at me with a smirk, her red hair waving by the wind. “Oh? Or did you really wanted a kiss?”
She slowly approached my face, a coquettish side I had never seen suddenly blossomed from her.
“W-Wha… O-Of course I don’t want…! Even though you’re a delish tomboy girl, I am capable of resisting temptations!” I said, crossing my arms and quickly averting my gaze from her.
“I expected such a response.” Catarina answered with a smile. “For now I would only ask you to free me. I want to go off on my own and travel the world. Now that I don’t have the curse of weakness to sunlight and I also am thought to be dead… I kind of want to explore the world.”
“What?! That’s what you want?” I asked while feeling a bit heartbroken.
“Well, yeah… I feel like I wasted my entire life at the end. Even though I was saved by the vampires after the slavers burned me and all… I feel like I never had the freedom of choice in my entire life. I was always ordered by others, and I was always doing what others asked me to do.” Sighed Catarina.
“So you want to do whatever you want, huh?” I sighed.
“Yeah… Ah, I know it is impossible, I was just thinking about it. there’s no way you’ll just give me such a wish after I just helped you clean a city.” She said.
“Well, if it wasn’t thanks to your strength, we wouldn’t had been able to save the city from the explosive giant meatball that Agatha turned into…” I said. “So yeah, sure. You’re free from now on, Catarina.”
“Haha, nice joke- Eh?” Catarina looked at me in disbelief. “…Really?”
“Yep! You can go wherever you want, and do whatever you want from now on… But always remember you got a home in our village, and we’ll always be waiting for you with open arms. All my Undead are free, to be honest. Once I know they have reformed, they’re free to go anywhere they want. You’re people I’ve given a second chance, I dont want to consider any of you as my slaves.”
Just as they said, if you love them, you have to let them go.