Angel Monarch

The four of them stopped under a ventilation shaft in an empty corridor. Astrid basically threw Kim up there with one arm.

She was so light that even though Astrid tried to be as gentle as possible, she still hit her head on the rock ceiling.

With a curse, she grabbed onto the ventilation shaft's edge and pulled herself up with ease. The three girls on the ground giggled, and Astrid mumbled 'sorry'.

Kim payed no attention to them, and instead brought up the map that the twins had. They didn't tell her why they had the entire facility's map, but she had a pretty good idea of how they acquired it.

Just because they couldn't get into a long-term relationship, it didn't mean they had no fun at all. Kim was pretty sure the girls had been with most men and women in the Order at least once!

On her watch, the map appeared. She was a level above the restricted area. To reach it, she had to crawl for a while, since the ventilation system didn't follow a direct route.

First she had to reach a large air conduct, which connects each level, and only from there could she go to the living quarters.

She spent a few minutes reading through the map, and when she could recall the whole route, she began to crawl.

The ventilation shafts were so small, even she had to lie flat to fit. It was lucky that she wasn't claustrophobic.

It was a struggle to move through the vents, but she managed. It took her a flat ten minutes to reach the main vent.

Carefully, she crawled out of the vent she was in and looked around. The round main air vent was a few meters across, and vent on for hundreds of meters, both up and down. More than a thousand air shafts connected into it on every level.

It was very loud and windy because of the constant air flow.

With slow and methodical movements, Kim climbed down a level and entered the required vent.

This vent shaft was bigger and she could move through it while crouching.

The restricted area was quite close by, so she moved with very slow speed.

She didn't wear any shoes. Her feet were only wrapped tightly in the same leather material as her armor. Because of this, her steps made no sound as they touched the metal floor.

Astrid and the twins bombarded her with messages, causing her watch to buzz every few seconds. For now, she ignored them, and just payed attention to her surroundings.

There was an opening next to her, and looking outside, she saw the guards standing at the entrance to the restricted area.

Kim smiled with excitement and continued to sneak past them. Slowly, she reached the first of the rooms inside the living quarter, but most were either empty or had people sleeping inside.

There were also a few that she left behind real fast, since she had no intention of watching real life porn.

It took her a few minutes of searching before she found one of the quarter's recreational rooms.

There were about two dozen people inside. Most of them were unassuming, but she still heard tidbits of a conversation.

"...The boss said we will attack some island in a week or so... Man, I thought getting back from that cold shithole would be better. Who knew we will find ourselves in the middle of a war!" said a woman with a drink in her hand.

She had her feet placed on a man's lap, who proceeded to massage them. Hearing what he said, the man smirked at her.

"Yeah, well, I do want to get some revenge for getting stuck there, and the boss also said that we would go after the guy who caused all this, so it's fine for me!"

The pair sat on a couch, with nobody around them, and they were right below a vent opening, so Kim could hear everything.

"I didn't say I had an issue. I just wanted to take some more time off before I get back to killing. I would also love to be under the sun again. Two years below, that cloudy sky ruined my complexion!"

The man just sighed and chuckled... "Maybe ask Yen to summon a sun for you. She could turn an entire room into a solarium!"

As the conversation turned less interesting, Kim moved in from the large room. She now had an idea who these people were, but she still wanted to know more.

She went through a few more rooms until she found another interesting one. It was a small bedroom with one large bed in the middle.

There were three people inside. They were all lying down in the bed, watching some tv-show on the large holo-screen.

One of them, Kim recognized instantly. It was Cassandra, the hot, purple-haired Transcended, whose mother she nearly killed.

Seeing her, Kim made sure to be extra stealthy. She held her breath as she stared at the other two people.

One was a man with blue hair and a well muscled body. He was lying on the bed without a shirt. It took all of Kim's strength to look away from the man's perfect abs.

With a red face, quickened breath and heartbeat, she looked at the last of the three.

She was also a woman, but seeing her felt like staring at death itself. Her previous blush went away in a second, and Kim made sure not to stare at the woman for too long.

The three chatted and laughed loudly. They seemed to talk about the tv-show, at least that's what Kim thought.

Since Cassandra was with them, these two had to be important, but they weren't talking about anything important, so she left that area.

After a few minutes of crawling, she was closing in on another room, when a chill went down her spine, like someone was watching her.

Kim stopped at a four-way intersection and looked down at each vent, but she saw no one. The feeling still hasn't passed, so she began to summon one of her swords... For security's sake.

As the green fog appeared in her hand, a girl's voice echoed in the shaft.

"Who are you, and why are you crawling through the vents?"

The voice wasn't accusatory, just curious, like she didn't understand why Kim was there.

The sword appeared in her hand and she turned around to find a white-haired girl sitting in the shaft comfortably.

She was even smaller than Kim, but also much younger. Her white eyes focused on the green blade with no terror or fear, but simple interest.

"Your sword looks very pretty! Can I hold it? Mommy only lets me use training swords, but Aunt Faith always summons one for me when we spar... But that's a secret, don't tell my mommy!"

The girl spoke in a whisper, while raising a finger to her lips and making a 'shh' sound.

Kim looked at her sword, then at the girl with confusion. She did not know what was happening, but she had no intention of hurting the girl, so she dismissed her sword.

When she looked at her again, the girl had disappeared.

"What the fuck?" said Kim in a whisper.

"You shouldn't curse. Both of my mommies said that cursing is wrong, even though they both do it. It's quite hypocritical if you ask me!"

The voice came from behind Kim. She turned around fast, only to see the same little girl sitting cross-legged with a chocolate chip cookie in her hand.

She was munching on it with a content expression, baffling Kim even further.

"Uh... What's your name?" asked Kim awkwardly.

The girl's face lit up, and she grinned, showing off her chocolate covered teeth. There were a few missing places where her baby teeth had fallen out.

She reached out a chocolate-covered hand, which Kim hesitantly took...

"My name is Victoria. Nice to meet you!"

Seeing her smile like that brought a small smile to Kim's face, too. A few seconds passed, but the girl still didn't release her hand, which meant she was expecting Kim to introduce herself too.

It would've been very stupid to use her real name or title... "My name is Kim, nice to meet you too!" Experience tales at empire

Only after saying it out loud did Kim realize her mistake. Luckily, the girl didn't seem to care that Kim was inside the vents. She just continued to eat the cookie until she ran out.

She then wiped her mouth on her beautiful white dress, and Kim watched in surprise as the girl disappeared from right before her eyes.

"Why is your skin so white, and why are your eyes different?" asked the girl, this time from Kim's left side.

Again, she didn't sound racist or anything like that, just very curious, which was understandable at her age.

Kim turned to her with a small smile. This time, she was munching on a blueberry muffin.

"My family is not from Europe. They are from Asian descent, that's why I look so different from most people."

The girl nodded in faked understanding and continued to eat her muffin.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Uh... Victoria. Who is your mother, exactly?" asked Kim with curiosity, but the answer was so surprising that she could've never prepared herself.

Vicky looked at her with a reminiscent and sad smile...

"One of my mother is Bea, the green-haired lady, who is growing a tree in the main hall... My other mother needs no introduction, probably. She is Sera, the Leader of both this city and the Angelic Order!"