What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

Chapter 1148: An Unexpected Encounter

It has been an entire night and the sun was already up in the sky which meant that my girls had already tortured these slavers non stop through the night.

Despite that, none of them seemed tired and a few of them were still not done with their victims… Err… I mean their interrogation targets.

Katsuki returned while looking none the worst for wear despite all the screaming I heard coming from where she had been earlier.

“Mistress,” She greeted with a bow.

“Mmm… Did you get anything from her?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

I tilted my head at her, “Unfortunately?”

“That’s correct, Mistress. I had hoped that there might be a mastermind behind this operation so that we have another person to torture, but it turns out there wasn’t one.”

Err… You’re letting your true desires show, Katsuki… You were just hoping for another person to torture huh…

“So what is going on with them then?”

“The ’leader’ that they made everyone believe was actually just that bitch slave herself except that she would use her Somatomancy to transform herself to look like a different person. So the four executives would actually be the real ones leading the group the entire time.”

I tilted my head at her, “Why do they need to do something like that then? Couldn’t they just say that they’re the leader?”

“Their plan was that if they were ever caught or if the group rebelled against them, they can always just pin the blame on the mysterious leader and be let off as accomplices instead of the mastermind. If they were caught by the guards and they knew they were the real masterminds, they would get a harsher sentence for their punishment.”

Wow… These people really thought so far ahead of time before they even started this operation huh?

I let out a sigh before leaning back in my chair, “These types of dishonest people are really annoying aren’t they?”

Unexpectedly, I noticed Ather tensing up for a moment before she continued to paint on her canvas albeit at a faster speed.

Hmm? Did she screw up her painting or something?

I looked over to her, “Is something wrong?”

She paused again before she slowly placed her paintbrush down to turn and faced me.

“If you knew someone close to you was lying to you, Miss Aster… What would you think of them?”

I tilted my head at her, “I guess it would depend on what they were lying about?”

“What kind of lies would you think is unforgivable in that case?”

I gestured in the direction of the screams, “I guess lies that might get us into this sort of trouble? I don’t really mind really small lies that don’t really mean anything, you know? Like how my girls would keep saying I’m pretty or beautiful even though they are prettier and much more beautiful than I am.”

Ather turned to look at Katsuki and my Inugami maid shook her head lightly.

I wonder what was that about?

Ather turned back to me, “What if they had been lying about their identity?”

Identity? Wait…

I narrowed my eyes at her, “Are you telling me that you aren’t a Comissar or something? No wait… You already showed those wings of yours so you were definitely a Comissar… Unless you used that [Flap-Flop] boon? Did you?”

She shook her head, “That’s not it, Miss Aster. What I mean is–”

There was a sudden boom of thunder that made all of us flinch in surprise.

That was especially unexpected since the skies were clear so the thunder really came from nowhere.

We looked up at the sky, expecting to see dark clouds rolling in or something but the skies were still clear.

Huh, that thunder really came out of nowhe–

My thoughts stopped when I felt an additional presence in the place that wasn’t there before.

The other girls have also gone quiet at the new presence and from what my senses were telling me, the new presence was right behind Ather.

No wait… It wasn’t that they had gone quiet… It seemed like everything had been frozen in place.

I know that because Katsuki’s tail was in mid wag and had completely stopped like time had stopped.

I then turned my attention to the presence and I found a relatively short and stocky woman wearing body plate armour standing behind Ather. She was, at best, up to my waist in height and yet she had a hammer that was about twice her size held over her shoulder.

Despite her frame, her facial features were soft and feminine which if you ask me, really did not match up with the aura she was projecting.

Just by standing in her presence, I felt like I was standing before a towering mountain that was staring down at me and the peak was so high up that I could not even see it at all.

Considering the timing and who Ather was as well as the aura I was feeling, I instantly guessed who the figure was.

She turned to look at Ather’s painting and the Comissar seemed to also have stopped moving, though it wasn’t like Katsuki’s case where she was frozen in time but more like she was afraid to move.

The woman hummed, “Hmm… So it really is true. You’ve been creating lots of great works haven’t you, Minnera?”

Minnera? Who the heck is that?

Ather gulped, “I… I still have much to improve on, Goddess Ralaie.

Ok, I already guessed that it was indeed the goddess Ralaie but… Is Minnera her previous name before she crossed over or something?

The goddess snapped her fingers and several canvases appeared in the air in front of her.

She nodded at each one of them, “Mmhmm~ Mmhmm~ You’ve really dedicated yourself to the craft haven’t you, Minnera? I guess I was indeed correct in letting you roam around on your own to improve your craft instead of directing you around. But… Hmmm? What’s this?”

The goddess waved her hand and even more canvases appeared around her and she took a moment to inspect each of them before turning back to the Comissar.

“You seem to be painting this woman a lot for some reason? And it looks like you’re really making it so that she looks more perfect than in reality? Since you’re already at this level, I suppose I can start calling you for official work now?”

The previously quiet Ather suddenly stood up to face the goddess, “That is not true at all! I have not even captured even a fraction of her perfection! My skills aren’t even up to par yet!! You don’t know how far from perfection I still am! This is nowhere near comparable to how I even envisioned it!”

The goddess moved several of the canvases away to raise an eyebrow at Ather, “That sounds like an excuse. I’m pretty sure if you were to show this to anyone, they would think it’s perfect. Even I think this is at a level that most painters would never reach in their entire lifetime.”

“I am not most painters and the people who even say that this is perfect just don’t know art or have never met my muse before.”

“Ah, so this is your muse then? No wonder you’ve painted so many paintings of her specifically. Although… Now I believe that is the reason why you’re trying to give the excuse that you are unable to work. I may not require a lot of things but I still have things I would like done and places I would need you to go, you know? I even took the time to appear before you personally instead of summoning you, don’t you think you should at least show some sincerity? I get that you’re an Off-Worlder and all but this is too much.”

“My Goddess… You don’t understand… I really have not reached that level yet. What you see here is not enough to showcase the perfection that I’m trying to capture… If you were to direct me somewhere else… I may never get this chance ever again…”

The goddess gestured at the canvases floating around her, “You’re kidding me? You expect me to believe that this is still not something that is perfect?”

“You have to believe me, my Goddess! I am telling the truth!”

Right then, I decided to chime in by making my presence known, “Ahem… Err… Just letting you girls know that I’m here.”

Both of them stopped and turned to look at me, their eyes slowly widening in shock.

“As… Aster? How… How are you? Oh wait… Of course… It’s you, why did I expect any different?” Ather muttered.

The goddess however, was busy looking at the canvases, then to me, then back to the canvases, then back to me again.

She repeated that movement several times before she finally turned to Ather and crossed her arms, “You’re right, Minnera. You’re really not even at a level to capture her perfectly yet. In fact, these are all failures!”

“I know!! That’s what I’ve been saying!!”

Err… Hello? Are you girls going to… Nevermind…