Taog tossed and turned in his bed. It was late at this point, so he was trying to get some sleep. But try as he might, his mind refused to rest, and his heart continued to pound.

Eventually he scowled, and hit his bed.

“Ah, screw it! Who cares what some random lady says?!”

He leapt up out of his bed, and out of the room, running down the hallway. Estrith was right. His place was by Ateia’s side, especially when she needed help. Why was he listening to some random human he didn’t know anyways?

Taog had no idea what was going on, or how he would help. He didn’t know if his presence would aggrieve Ateia or encourage her.

But he was going to try.

After all, Ateia would have done no less. Had their positions been reversed, Ateia would not have hesitated. She’d have busted into his room with that smile of hers and without a care.

So Taog would try to do the same for her.

He didn’t remember exactly where she had gone but he didn’t need to. Just this once, he was thankful for his Wulver heritage. His nose was significantly stronger than the average human’s, and Ateia’s scent was one he had smelled his entire life. If she was nearby, Taog could find her with his eyes closed.

So it did not take him long to find the door…

Ateia had calmed down after another nightmare, and released her grip on 00B. She took a deep breath.

“Whew…I think it’s over now. Thanks 00B.”

B grunted softly. But then, he turned to the door and started growling.

“00B? What is it?”

And then the door slammed open.

“Ateia!”

Ateia jumped.

“Taog?!”

Taog stepped into the room.

“Are you alright? What’s going on, Ateia? I want to help.”

Ateia winced and clutched at her head.

“Ugh…wait a second…”

Taog tilted his head.

“Ateia?”

“N-No…”

And suddenly, Ateia was elsewhere. She was back in Turannia, and shorter. She glanced around.

She remembered this scene. She remembered this day, all too well.

Only, she didn’t remember it from this angle.

“What are you saying?!”

She was currently in the house, sitting by the window. She heard her own voice outside.

“I’m sorry, Ateia, but there’s something I need to take care of. If it were anything else…I would stay…but this is something I must do.”

“When are you coming back?! We need you here!”

“I’m…I’m sorry…but I can’t say. As soon as I can.”

Her body trembled. She wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head.

“It’s too dangerous. Please, Ateia…I can only go if I know you’re safe, here.”

“We aren’t safe at all! We need you! Taog needs you! They hate him here! You know what they're doing, what they want to do!”

She clenched her teeth. Her vision blurred.

“Taog is strong. And he has you to help. And Quintus will help you both. So please…take care of each other, and wait for me here. I will return to you, once the job is done.”

She shook her head. She heard another voice come from her mouth.

“T-That’s wrong…I’m not strong at all. I couldn’t protect mom…I couldn’t protect dad. I…I can’t protect Ateia alone. Please…don’t leave us…”Stolen novel; please report.

She burst into sobs.

Ateia was back in the villa with Taog and 00B. She hid her face as she felt tears stream from her eyes.

“Ateia, what’s wrong?!”

“Go, please. I…I can’t hold it…”

She heard Taog step closer instead.

“Ateia…I’m here for you, ok?”

As he stepped closer, the memories grew, and pain shot through her chest. Her vision blurred. She grit her teeth. She tried to force it all down.

But she failed.

She started wailing.

“Ateia?!”

“I can’t do this anymore! It’s ruined!”

Taog frowned.

“What’s ruined, Ateia?”

She continued sobbing into her hands.

“Everything! Our whole lives! My dad abandoned us! We were all alone and helpless! The stupid village hated your guts for no reason! Lar was beating you every week! I tried and tried to get us out of there, to find my father and fix our lives! And look what happened! We almost died immediately on the road to the forest! We’ve been caught in two wars, kidnapped, and nearly killed! Now some stupid cult killed my mom and cut me to pieces! It’s like the whole world hates us and wants us to suffer!”

She fell onto the bed.

“And now I don’t even understand what’s happening to me! My body’s completely changed, it acts against my will, and I’m getting all these memories that aren’t even mine and I can’t seem to do a thing about any of it! I’m…I’m sorry, Taog. I can’t smile anymore. I can’t pretend I’m happy anymore. Your parents died, my dad left us, and we’re never going to get any of them back. We never should have tried. And now everything is horrible and there’s nothing left for you to protect. So please…just…go. I…I want to be alone right now.”

Taog’s shoulder slumped.

“Ateia…”

“Please…”

Taog stood still for a moment, but 00B started to growl at him. He slowly turned and left the room.

His own tears started falling once the door was closed.

Back inside the room, Ateia continued sobbing. Other memories came to her. A young boy and girl, being trained by three adults. Sitting around the table with their families and their neighbors as they laughed and ate. Her father holding them both in his arms as they cried.

She felt the image crack, and then shatter.

And this time…she didn’t hold back her tears.

His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third. The Great-High King over all the land…was currently curled up in the corner of one of the rat rooms, as he had been for quite some time.

Or rather, just Rattingtale, as the Aesdes had proclaimed upon his birth. Once upon a time he thought such a moniker an insult, not nearly grand enough to express his glorious majesty.

Now…he knew that even that was too much for a wretch like him.

He had lost his realm immediately. His loyal subjects had all perished like moths before the flame. He had failed utterly to manipulate his captor, he was quickly supplanted by a treacherous spider without an ounce of ambition. And the moment the boss-queen had summoned new rats, he had fallen behind as well.

He had no throne. He had no subjects. He no longer had the ear of the boss-queen. He had barely a skill or level to his name, the few he did had been granted to him out of charity.

He had nothing.

How could he call himself the Great-High King with nothing to his name?

He had finally admitted the truth that he was no king. He was not even an advisor to one. But now…he had no path forward. If he had no realm to rule and no path to acquire one, then what was the point of his existence? Who even was he?

Just then, he felt something sharp poke his shoulder.

“Hey, do something.”

He glanced up. One of the vicious spider-things was poking him with her leg.

“Leave-go, spider-thing. This is not your room-place, yes yes.”

“Come on. It’s boring if you just sit here doing nothing.”

Rattingtale turned back away from her.

“Be silent-quiet, spider-thing. Nothing is all I can do-achieve. I possess-own nothing anymore, I have no power here, no no.”

He heard the spider-thing chitter behind him.

“Then why don’t you get something?”

Rattingtale froze.

“Huh?”

“Like, you could just try to train and get power? The Boss is pretty nice about that kind of stuff, you know?”

Rattingtale sighed.

“But what is the point-purpose of that? I will never overcome-exceed the boss-queen. Even the traitorous rat-thing has bested me at this point.”

“I mean, you’ve definitely failed to a hilarious degree at the whole being in charge business, but why not try something new? You could always, like, try to join the army for real? Be as helpful as you can while building your own power? Maybe if you’ve turned around, the Boss will reward you someday?”

Rattingtale’s eyes shot open.

Could he really do that? Could he join with this group after failing every attempt to usurp the boss-queen? Could he convince her to trust him?

He thought on it. Then he realized…hadn’t the vicious otter-man-thing done just that? If she had trust him, then…

He rose to his feet. He took a deep breath.

“Hm, perhaps I will consider-think on this.”

He slowly made his way out of the room, for the first time in a long time.

The spider monster, 02S, rubbed her legs together.

“Finally. It was, like, pretty boring with you doing nothing. I can’t wait to see how you’ll screw this up.”

She giggled to herself as she followed along.

Lilussees laid on one of her hammocks. She got up, turned to the side, and tried to lie down again.

After a few moments, she got up again, and returned to her original orientation, and laid down once more.

After a few more moments she chittered and rubbed her mandibles. She got up again, and climbed to a different hammock, repeating the process.

After a few more rounds of this, she climbed down to the ground, and spun a new bed flat on the floor. She tried to rest in this one.

And yet, she was still awake.

“Like, seriously, what is going on?”

Her mana was empty. The room was silent, as all the other spider monsters were off training with the others. She had no particular task to accomplish. The ‘cybernetic components’ now obeyed her will, and would not interfere with her rest.

And yet, still, she could not sleep.

She shook her head and stood up. She began walking around the room, up along the walls and the roof and back down to the floor.

What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she sleep this time?

She found her mind wandering. She was fine, the Boss had returned from the Realms of Mana, proving that literally nothing was going to threaten Lilussees’s home, the snack had been put in his place, and 01R was taking care of the subordinates.

There was that annoying stream of calculations and vague sense of concern going on in the background, but Lilussees had quarantined it already! It shouldn’t bother her that the Boss was being annoying again!

“Seriously? Like, this again, boss lady? You, like, really suck at this sort of thing, or something, huh?”

But apparently, it did.

Lilussees paused, and tilted her head.

“Oh, is that it? Like, seriously?”

Was the boss lady’s confusion…upsetting her? Like, why? There was no active threat to Lilussees’s person or home, so it shouldn’t involve her at all.

“Well, whatever.”

Well, Lilussees didn’t really care why. All she knew is that the situation was preventing her from sleeping, and so needed to be ‘terminated’ as the boss lady would say. So she got up and walked out of the room, mumbling complaints as she did.