D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2033: Chapter 2033 Free From Poison

— Kat —

[FREEDOM!]

Kat snickered mentally as they flew up and away from the mineshaft. They’d needed to squeeze through a boarded up entrance but it was harder to keep the rotting boards in one piece then it was to get through them. They mine was apparently a park now? Kat thought it was a little weird but as they flew over to where Hedera was waiting for them Lily pointed out that… well once the mining was done there was no need to keep the area completely sealed off and it probably wasn’t the safest place for building foundations. So… what else could they do?

It seemed like they probably did a fair amount of digging before placing farms on top of the area. Which was a good use of space. Digging with magic was far kinder to the surroundings then strip mining. Though Kat supposed that when your ’heavy mining equipment’ was a guy in robes with a staff it was a lot easier to avoid that sort of damage as well. Looking up at the sky they could see it was nearly morning, so getting to Hedera was their top priority.

There had been a brief thought of perhaps going back inside to collect more information but there was no point. It would take an hour or so just to get back inside, and who knows how long to leave. They didn’t really have time to find information and get back to Hedera before she started worrying so it was best to just regroup at the police station.

Hedera was where they expected her to be, and all it took was a quick wave from an adjacent building and soon the three were off to the station in question. When they arrived, Lin was there. Kat almost didn’t recognise her. She was sitting behind the reception desk and had completely changed her look to ensure that nobody recognised her.

Her hair was done up in a tight bun behind her head to really show off her ears, which had gained a few ’scars’ that Kat knew had to be make up. Similarly she’d added in some smile lines and a few other wrinkles to give the impression of at least some age. She’d also dressed up in a particularly frumpy dress with all sorts of extra lace and volume to it that made her look like she was wearing three layers of outfits. The thick glasses on her face just added to the illusion of a somewhat dopy secretary.

It was a completely different look for her but there were two big clues as to who she was. Well, three if you included the fact she hadn’t changed her perfume at all but that was something on Lily noticed. The first, was her hair. It was a rather notable shade and even in a bun there was almost no mistaking it. The second thing was that as soon as she saw Kat her smile stretched into her usual smug grin, rather ruining any attempt at pretending to be anyone else.

“Please some this way. I’m sure Ramor will be happy to hear from you. He’s not in just yet, but should be arriving within the hour. Would you like me to acquire some food for you three to eat while you wait?” asked Lin as she guided them towards the conference room.

Kat shrugged but Lily, in Memphis form and riding in Kat’s arms, nodded along. So did Hedera. They were both hungry after a long night and were not willing to miss out on a free meal. “Alright, I’ll make sure something is sent in shortly,” said Lin just before opening the door for them.

After they’d moved inside, Lin shut the door… notably not asking for anyone’s orders. Kat sat down in one of the chairs and let herself stretch out. Flaring her wings a bit and trying to work out the imaginary kinks in her body. She didn’t feel any real pain in her body but it had been a long night and it was nice to just relax and stretch a bit. Lily was doing something similar, though she was actually feeling a bit of strain. For her it was more mental.

Lily had been using a lot of magic. Perhaps not enough to run out of mana, but it was a constant stream of complicated magic. Sure it was mostly the same spell but shadow switching was one of her more complicated ones and each attempt took up a good portion of her mental energy. She was beyond tired at this point and the stretching was her way of trying to stay awake.

It didn’t really work. A few good stretches in and Lily was far too comfortable relaxed. Hopping back into Kat’s outfit, she nuzzled into Kat’s boobs and promptly fell asleep. Hedera didn’t take a seat at all, she was walking around the room performing more serious looking stretches. While Kat was fine, and Lily was tired. Hedera had been sitting in place for HOURS and wanted to make sure her muscles got stretched out a bit after that. How necessary it was, nobody could say, but it seemed to help so Hedera went with it. No sense in getting into bad habits just because a single night of motionless staring wasn’t hard on her Rank 2 body.

It was about half an hour later when Lin came back in with food for them all. Kat and Hedera both had salads, though Kat’s couldn’t look more different. Where Hedera had a salad of greens and purple with a bit of dressing Kat’s had a few things that were actively glowing, and the sauce smelled like it was going to burn someone’s face off. Lily got a plate of uncooked fish to eat and apparently it smelled nice enough to wake her right up. Well, that or the spice from Kat’s dish smacked her in the face.

Lin herself had also gotten a salad, similar to Hedera’s but with one or two extra ingredients Kat could see at a glance. Lin sat down and pulled off her glasses but left the rest of her makeup intact. “So, how was everything? Ramor can press you for the full details later, but did you find anything?”

Hedera just shrugged and dug into her meal, not having been there for the action she didn’t feel the need to engage. Kat nodded a bit at Hedera. “Yeah we did. We found a few things actually but we’re not sure how much of it is going to be useful to you…”

“Does it have anything to do with the glitter on you?” asked Lin.

Kat sighed, “Yeah sadly it does. We found out that Appoline has a potion allowing for a full body transformation. We also found someone, obsessed with explosives, and that recently did a job for someone they didn’t want to piss off. Oh, and we found Appoline’s secret brewing area though not sure how relevant that will be to the investigation.”

“Hmm, you never know,” said Lin with a shrug as she started to poke at her salad. Kat decided it was time to try her own. Poking at the glowing berry, that happened to be glowing a soft orange. Kat put it in her mouth and bit down. The juice trickled out, even though it was a fairly hefty bite. Kat chewed a bit more as she tried to consider the taste. It was… sort of fuzzy? As in it tasted almost like it was fuzzy instead of a real taste.

Kat decided to add a few more things to her mouth to see if that changes things… and the answer was not really. The dressing did help, providing a whole burst of flavour. Sort of smoky with an undernote of berries. It somehow went well with the feeling from the berry, converting it into a taste of its own that was sort of reminiscent of soda water mixed with strawberry juice. Not something Kat would normally reach for, but it seemed to work here.

Lily on the other hand was… happy but a bit disappointed with the fish. Kat poked her about that. [Well I’m not going to COMPLAIN. It’s still fish at the end of the day but yeah, frankly it’s not GOOD fish. Very oily and quite bland. I’m not sure why it’s so bad but the texture is pretty normal despite all that. I’d eat it again but I’m not going to get super excited about it you know?]

*Fair enough. My foods… very different. I’m not sure I’d call it ’good’ but it’s certainly entertaining to eat. Not bad. It is the sort of stuff I like to eat in other worlds though. Get some real weird an exotic stuff.*

Lily nodded along with Kat, knowing her girlfriend did like to try whatever weird food they came across. [I wonder if Lin knows us well enough after a few interactions to guess all of this… or if she just had someone spy on us at some point.]

*Could be either or both. Did you want to ask her?*