An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 19/?
Fandom: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Demiurge (Overlord - Maruyama Kugane)/Reader
Characters: Demiurge (Overlord - Maruyama Kugane), Albedo (Overlord - Maruyama Kugane), Ainz Ooal Gown | Momonga, Shalltear Bloodfallen, Pulcinella (Overlord - Maruyama Kugane)
Additional Tags: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bad BDSM Etiquette, BDSM, Torture, Psychological Torture, Master & Servant, Master/Pet, Master/Slave, Miscarriage, Rape/Non-con Elements, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Drug Use, Love/Hate, Stockholm Syndrome, Demons, Pregnancy, Hypnotism, Graphic Description, Smut, Smutty, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Content, Domestic Violence, Murder, Breastfeeding, Lactation, Scent Kink, Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Forced Orgasm, Forced Pregnancy, Forced Masturbation, Forced Cannibalism, Fluff and Angst, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Smut, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Fetish, Exophilia, Implied/Referenced Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Bondage, Bonding, Soulmates, Trapped, Breeding, Pregnancy Kink, Yandere, Ball Gag, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Orgasm Delay, Blindfolds, Mildly Dubious Consent, Starvation, Forced Relationship, Manga & Anime, Lemon, Developing Relationship, Secret Relationship, Anal Sex, Anal, Anal Play, Erotica, Breathplay, Asphyxiation, Autoerotic Asphyxiation, Size Difference, Size Kink, Human Experimentation, Sexual Experimentation, Experimentation, Social Experiments
Summary:
He promised you a solution to your misery, and you sold your freedom for it. Forced into his twisted experiments with the veil of hope to manipulate your heart, you begin to wonder what feelings are even true anymore. Do you love him, or do you want to see him fall to a horrible fate for all he will continue to do to you?
A/N: Was able to find a bit of downtime through the days to work on this next chapter. Commissions, art, and video games were a bit of a nice distraction from stuff. FFIX and FFXIV are going to wreck my attention for a spell. Lol
Going to break past a bit of barriers for the oncoming chapters, because I feel horribly stifled with the reader only knowing so much of how everybody is feeling at times. So forgive that. It’s a reason writing original characters or even just third-person is far easier for me. D’:
Pairings: Self-insert / Ignis Scientia (There is no love triangle. lol Stop and don’t assume that based on who makes an appearance.)
Rated: SFW
Waking up in a bed not of your own was different. Now that you thought about it, you rarely ever ventured away from the palace of Altissia and opening your eyes to the quaint little bedroom was almost like waking from a dream. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes that morning, you noted instantly that Ignitus was gone. Regardless of where you were now, you couldn’t help but feel your anxieties spike as you took to your bare feet and hurried to the bedroom door.
“Ignitus?” you called, hurrying out into the hallway to try and hunt for your son.
The air was filled with the smell of breakfast, making you take note that someone was possibly in the kitchen working away on the morning meal. As you passed by the slightly ajar door to Aurdis and Igneilya’s room, you noted the bed was made and not a single soul was in sight. You thought it to be too nosey to truly get a good look at the room, so you continued onward to hunt for your son only to slow your search when you swore you heard his muffled words behind the bathroom door.
“I-Ignitus…?” You found yourself whispering in confusion as to why or how he may have gotten there.
“You think it looks funny on me?” Ignis’ voice commented from behind the door.
Ignitus seemed to make a ‘bleh’ sort of sound as if to gently mock. “You look different.”
Ignis chuckled to himself. “Honestly, sweetheart, daddy doesn’t care for the beard either. It is why you never saw it on me before.” There was a pause, a bit of silence as you heard something tapping against the sink. “But it’s all gone now. Do I look better?”
Your son could be heard giggling and it was in that moment you felt yourself smile for the first time in what felt like a long while. Ignitus loved Anduin but not near as much as his own birth father.
“Did you need to use the bathroom, Y/N?” Igneilya’s voice asked, breaking you from your concentration. The blonde woman wore a nice dress shirt and pants that morning. She wiped her hand on a dishrag she had in her possession. “Aurdis and I do have an extra bathroom in our bedroom should you ever require it.”
You blushed at seemingly being caught eavesdropping on your son and Ignis. “Oh, no, no—It wasn’t that. I was just a bit startled when I saw Ignitus was missing from the bed.”
The woman’s face relaxed with an understanding smile. “Ignis snuck into the bedroom to steal him.” She turned, acknowledging the two were still very much getting prepared for the day as she gestured for you to come more into the living room. You followed, letting them have their privacy. “He’s missed that boy horribly so.”
You remembered the news dropping that Ignitus was actually Ignis’ son and couldn’t help but be curious. “And yet you never found it odd that he was so attached?”
“Aurdis and I assumed Ignis saw him as an adopted child and when the ‘true father’ returned we thought it unhealthy how jealous he had become,” Igneilya confessed. She lowered her head, looking off and away at something as if those words haunted and hurt her all at once. When finding the courage to, she turned back to greet you with her green eyes that seemed all the more heavier. “I…didn’t know how deep his emotional wounds truly were till now, and I feel the fool for not noticing sooner.”
Recalling what Aurdis admitted to Ignis last night you stilled your tongue and merely nodded your head in understanding. “You’re a mother—you can only have so much foresight.”
A smile pricked gently at the corner of her lips. “You will gain such a thing in due time with your own son, Y/N.”
When breakfast was finished, Ignis and Ignitus seemed to both join on cue. Ignis had shaven the small, shaggy beard he once had and looked to be himself once more. While he appeared different with one, you could hardly say you found it unappealing visually. It was a bit of a shame to see it gone, but it brought a small fraction of hope back to you that Ignis was trying to return to his old self.
As the cat, Cinnamon, made her rounds about the kitchen, you noticed Ignitus taking a big interest in the feline having not seen one before. Even trying to get him to eat it was a challenge. She was rather large, so fluffy that she looked like a mass of white, orange, and black fur just waddling about the tile flooring with her bell collar jingling.
“Baby, you need to eat before you food gets cold,” you said as a gently warning.
Not knowing what the Maine Coon was, Ignitus could only point at the fluffy creature that sauntered over to the food bowl that was there near the sliding glass door, which led outside onto the back porch. “Mmm…?”
Aurdis’ brow wrinkled, following in the direction in which the boy was gesturing. “Cat? Are you interested in the cat, son?”
“Cat—Cat!” Ignitus chirped excitedly, unintentionally turning away from the spoon of oatmeal to get a better look at Cinnamon.
Ignis’ father raised a single brow. “Boy has never seen a cat before?” His mouth was partially full of food, making it almost impossible for his words to carry but Ignis caught onto them nonetheless.
“Not many cats in Altissia or dogs,” Ignis reminded Aurdis. “You know after that incident some years ago with the Princess she was hardly allowed to go outside the palace without an escort.”
Aurdis wiped his mouth, finishing the food he had. “So you kept them both locked behind bars, hu?”
“Oh, come now, Aurdis,” Igneilya chastised even if she knew he was joking.
Her husband shrugged with a wide-eyed look of expressing he did nothing wrong. “The boy has never seen a cat! That on its own should be punishable by death!”
“Father really cherishes his cats,” Ignis reminded you from across the table where he sat.
Seeing a bit of spark return to your former advisor, you smiled with a small laugh barricaded behind your throat. “You told me before.”
“Cinnamon,” Aurdis called, getting the feline to look his way. He rubbed his index and thumb fingers together quickly to try and entice her. “Psss, psss, psss—c’mere, girl.”
Cinnamon meowed, catching Ignitus even more by surprise as he’d never heard the sound before. Igneilya, however, was a bit less than amused by the display given the meal that was being enjoyed. “Aurdis—honey—not at the table, please! Let the boy eat first and then you can play with him and Cinnamon.”
A part of you stifled a laugh. To you it sounded like a mother scolding another child of hers but you certainly didn’t want to offend anybody by pointing that out. “C’mon, baby, you need to eat,” you reminded Ignitus, getting his attention focused back on breakfast at least for the time being.
Turning back to his own meal, Aurdis finished the last of his toast. “What do you two love birds intend to do today?”
The comment was very forward, making you blush as Ignis himself even tensed. “Fa-Father, it’s not like that…Really.”
You opened your mouth to try and interject on the very thought that Ignis felt you weren’t here to make amends only to have Aurdis beat you to it. “You think love cannot find a way?” He motioned his fork towards his wife. “Your mother knows this story, so I don’t have to worry about getting my backside nicked, but the moment I met her the first thing I said to my buddies was: ‘I pity the poor soul who marries that one’.”
You thought that to be an odd thing to say to someone you would later fall so madly in love with but at the same understood where Aurdis was coming from. There was a time you couldn’t imagine Ignis in your life in such a way. If anything, you would have gladly kicked him into the surrounding waters to get him out of your life so you could hopefully find some sort of connection with your family again—but now, things were different. The months you had gone without him were like thorns digging ever so deeply into your flesh, the blood mapping out the agonizing journey in which you went through.
Ignis looked from his mother to his father and then back again. “Dare I inquire what that was about, mother?”
Igneilya tried not to laugh about it herself, recalling the past as well. “Your father used to smoke, dear.” She rolled her eyes at that thought, finding it a disgusting habit personally. “I was working on a few potion experiments where he happened to be taking his smoke break, and I threatened to—uh—de-man him—if he didn’t watch where those ashes of his went.”
You could tell she was being ‘kid friendly’ with Ignitus in the room. “And it ended beautifully for you both, yeah?”
“I would say so,” Aurdis confessed, not taking his eyes off of Igneilya. His wife (for a moment) you swore was about to disagree but you saw her seemingly bow her head apologetically for something before catching her husband’s eyes with a crooked smile. “I love my wife, and I would do anything for her.”
With his mother so unnaturally quiet, Ignis couldn’t help but feel a rise of discomfort in his chest. “When did father quit smoking?”
“When he heard I was pregnant with you,” Igneilya answered. “He was such a nervous wreck of a man during those few months.”
“Ignis was the one of us that held it together pretty well when I was pregnant,” you spoke up, letting Ignitus tend to his own bread. He was in that stage where he wanted to feed himself, though you could catch Aurdis out of the corner of your eye trying to assist him regardless. “I was so scared…when I found out…” You lowered your head in shame, hating to remember the times you tried so hard to deny Ignis entryway into your heart after all that was said and done. “Even as we’re still not out of the clear, he’s remained a strong pillar—keeping me on my feet during these hard times.”
“Another thing our son has in common with you, Igneilya,” Aurdis pointed out in hopes to lighten the atmosphere.
It had grown weirdly heavy during your confession. Given the two new faces in the room, you weren’t sure what could be the cause. Had you upset Ignis somehow again? Every time you tried to give him an opening, he retreated or went quiet. You wanted him to talk to you again—say or do anything to make you realize he still very much loved you.
“Mom?” Ignis’ voice brought you back to yourself, noticing that it was apparently Igneilya who had become silently distraught in some manner.
“Forgive me,” she apologized, wiping her hands on her napkin before swiftly retreating from the chair as its legs scraped across the floor from the action. “I must excuse myself for a moment.”
Ignis tried to stop her but to no avail. “Mother—!”
Aurdis said nothing for a moment, watching as his wife retreated from the kitchen and to their bedroom. “Son, go check on her for me, will you?” He spoke in a manner as if hoping the truth would finally come to the surface when it came to his wife’s past.
“Yes, sir.” And with that, Ignis hurried after her, leaving you alone with your son and Aurdis.
Ignitus looked up at you confused but all you could do was smile and kiss his cheek. “Grandma and daddy will be back soon, sweetie. Promise.” Your tone and expression became more forlorn as you turned to Ignis’ father. “Forgive me for my words…I…I didn’t expect they would harm her…”
“It is not your fault, Princess,” Aurdis insisted. The childlike demeanor and playful attitude seemed to evaporate as he became a completely different person. “Her son is merely following in her footsteps far more than you or even he realizes.”
You tried to encourage Ignitus to eat a piece of bacon that had been cut up for him. “May I be so bold as to ask what happened?”
Aurdis sighed, closing his eyes as if regretting the past in some way himself. “Igneilya loved the now Queen of Tenebrae dearly and still does to this day.”
It wasn’t too much of a shock to hear given what you knew prior but it did seem to hurt even Aurdis in some manner to confess that last statement. “She married you, though…”
A broken smile cracked the foundation of his features. “She loves Lady Amelia still with all her heart even as much as she does me. I am lucky to have her, but the Queen of Tenebrae was still her first.” He nasally sighed. “Just as you and Ignis have done, the two of them kept their loving trysts a secret from the world. A queen betrothed to a lord only to be sleeping with and loving her female advisor of all things—ah, the scandal would be great.”
“And…word got out…?” You knew there were rumors floating about in the papers to which Lady Amelia denied heavily but it was obvious someone in the palace knew and got to the press before anybody.
“Yes, by means of one of the servants, no doubt,” Aurdis scoffed in annoyance. “We had not the foggiest to whom was spreading such words to the press, but when it happened, Lady Amelia pushed Igneilya away and soon married her betrothed in fear for Igneilya’s safety.” The man seemed to sneer once more. “I may act the fool but I was hardly such when their wedding arrived. As I had become closer to Igneilya, I noted that day was more somber than wonderful for her. Her tears were more of regret and sorrow than of joyful boon of what was to come for her fair lady.”
You closed your eyes as your heart felt as though it had fallen, ensnared into a brier patch. “I understand the Lady’s wishes,” you spoke, nearly choking on those words as you hated the very thought of sending Ignis away into the arms of another all for the sake of him being safe. “I was and am still very scared of what they might do to Ignis if they find out the truth…”
“While I don’t regret that I have my wife as I do, and I do not question her love for me, I regret that she suffers over the loss of the woman she would have possibly been with had circumstances not decided otherwise.” Aurdis struggled with himself, sighing deeply as he looked to you once more. “Fight for him—do not let rules or any sort of fears keep you from the love you are meant to have.”
Knowing Ignitus was still very much paying attention, you covered the boy’s ears. “He could die, Aurdis…!” Ignitus tried to move your hands away, but you wouldn’t let him.
“That would destroy us all,” he confessed, flinching at the vocal wound you gave him. “But do you think he cares?”
“He should!” Your voice trembled. “The very idea I could wake up without him in this world makes the air feel as though daggers are stabbing at my lungs and that I’ve become unworthy to breathe…! Besides, he has a son to think about as well! He should not put any of us through this torture…!”
“Mamma?” Ignitus questioned, moving away from your hands to look up at you.
Moving your hands away from your son’s ears, you forced a smile and urged the piece of bacon towards him. “It’s all right, Ignitus. Just eat your breakfast.”
Aurdis granted a brief smile down at his grandson before continuing onward with his own personal thoughts. “My wife loves me with all her heart but not a day goes by I do not catch her acting forlorn for what she lost those many moons ago. Ignis may very well have a lot of his mother in him, but he is his own man. What I see if you reject him and continue down this path before you where you fool yourself into thinking you do not love him all for the sake of his safety is a man who would grow old and cocoon himself in nothing but solitude and bitterness till his early demise. Would you truly want that for him?”
You closed your eyes, shaking your head in uncertainty. “I want to be selfish and keep him alive forever,” you whispered.
When breakfast was over, you did your best to focus on better and more positive things. Letting Ignitus down to look at the cat Cinnamon after his hands and face were washed, you watched closely with Aurdis to be certain he knew how to handle the creature.
“Just be gentle when you pet her,” you said, watching as Ignitus got to his knees and reached his hand out to touch Cinnamon on the head between the ears before trailing down her back.
The cat would react by nearly raising her rump to where she assumed Ignitus’ hand would go but realizing the boy was only going to bother between the ears and the center of her back, she relaxed and merely laid upon her stomach as a content purr trilled from her throat.
“She makes funny sounds,” Ignitus laughed, pulling his hand back to let the cat relax.
“She’s purring,” Aurdis explained, finding it weird still that someone his age had never seen a cat. “She does that when she’s happy.” Hearing the bedroom door open just down the hallway, Aurdis got to his feet and watched as Igneilya and Ignis headed back to the kitchen together. Given the look on his son’s face, he had a feeling his wife explained herself what happened in the past. He could only hope it caused encouragement. “Are you all right, love?”
Igneilya nodded, eyes obviously a bit swollen and red from what you could judge was the crying she had been doing behind the closed door. “Forgive me,” she apologized, opening her arms to embrace her husband as Aurdis kissed her on the forehead to try and soothe the pains of the past. Her words became as a soft whisper but you could just hear them given where you were with your son. “I'm being selfish as always…”
Aurdis quieted her, bringing Igneilya into a tight embrace. “Hush, now,” he ordered just as gently in return, knowing where her grieving came from.
You still felt you owed her an apology, taking to your feet as Ignitus continued to enjoy in petting and watching Cinnamon. “Igneilya, I'm very sorry if something I said upset you in any way.”
Igneilya waved away the thought quickly. “Do not worry about it, my Lady. I promise, it was not your doing.”
It was a gentle lie and one you accepted with a nod.
“Ignis, why don’t you let me help your father with cleaning up today while you take Y/N and Ignitus out and about Tenebrae,” Igneilya suggested. “They both came all this way for you, and it would be silly if you didn’t spend time with them.”
You watched as Ignis nodded in some hidden understanding of what his mother truly needed—a moment alone with her husband. “Yes, ma’am.” Ignis moved to the other side of the table to notice Ignitus looking at Cinnamon closely.
The moment the two exchanged glances, Ignitus pointed at the feline. “Daddy, look—the cat!”
“Yes, I see her.” Ignis squatted down to his son’s level on the floor, smiling at the interaction the two were having. “Her name is Cinnamon.”
“Cimmamun?” Ignitus tried to pronounce, nearly sounding like a small mumble.
Aurdis laughed as Igneilya began to clean up the plates on the table. “Close enough. You can always call her Cinny. I do time and again.”
Ignis scooped his son into his arms, holding him close as he took back to his feet. “Did you wish to head out now, Y/N, or some other time?”
“I would love to see Tenebrae. I’ve only ever really got to enjoy it through the photos you took when you were last here,” you reminded Ignis.
He nodded towards the front door not far away. “Let us be off then.”
Ignis opened the door for you, allowing you to take to the fresh air that was almost absent of the sea breeze. It was oddly refreshing in a way yet still alien not to be graced by the smell the moment you walked out the door. You were about to travel down the staircase from the porch when you noted Ignis was reaching for your hand as his other arm kept Ignitus supported in his embrace.
It was a simple and silent offer that meant so much to you. Ever since you arrived he did his best to give you distance, uncertain of how to even talk let alone react around you as he once did. He didn’t have the pressures of trying to be your advisor but now he was reminded of how much freedom he was truly given. Your fingers slipped from the tips of his to his palm, curling about the side of his grasp as he responded and held your hand tightly within his own before escorting you away from the house.
“We’ll be walking everywhere?” You didn’t mind it, but you did find it odd you didn’t see any carriage or even a car that Ignis or his parents rode in.
“I have a car as do my parents, but everything you truly need to see is within a safe walking distance,” said Ignis as he traveled down the dirt road.
“Where are the cars then?” You turned, looking back at the house and not noticing where these vehicles could truly be kept.
“We live in a gated community,” Ignis explained. “All cars are kept in an overhang placement near the front of the neighborhood. I guess you must have missed that on your arrival yesterday.”
You laughed off the gentle jab, rubbing the back of your head. “To be fair, I was trying to be certain Ignitus wouldn’t get horribly ill like he did on the boat ride over.”
“He got sick?” Ignis questioned, looking at his son to notice Ignitus frowned at the thought of ever going back on that ship. “I suppose that was why you were calling me back when, hmm?”
“You never did pick up or call back.” You tried not to sound like you were accusing him of anything. “I suppose…you were trying to keep your distance so you could heal all things considered.”
Ignis sighed. “I was going to when I had the opportunity, but—yes. I was doing my best to try and heal, hoping it wasn’t urgent.” He squeezed your hand to show his sincerity. “Forgive me.”
You shook your head, bringing the back of his hand to your lips to kiss him as a means to settle him.
Trains or bridges mostly connected Tenebrae, it seemed. It was a world covered in trees and luscious plant life in comparison to the capital of Accordo. It felt like a world out of a storybook or even from a dream. When Ignis couldn’t find the energy or strength to carry Ignitus much longer, he let the boy walk beside him as he kept his hand within his.
“This city…feels overgrown,” you awed, bringing your hands to your chest as you ran over to a nearby white-marble railing that had vines decorating the intricate work made by man. “It’s as though it’s almost forgotten yet lived in at the same time—does that make sense?” You saw the castle off in the distance, marveling at the location as it seemed to be the centerpiece of the busy city.
“It was always meant to be this way,” Ignis confessed, following behind you as you took in the sights. “A family of Oracles meant to worship and speak for the gods—they wanted the land to be in unison with their work before mankind came to be.”
“I’ve heard the Lady Amelia has great powers as an Oracle in which she hopes to pass to her daughter in time,” you said, crossing your arms over the railing to relax from the long walk you had to confess that you weren’t used to.
“She will, in time. I am uncertain when that coronation will be but, hopefully not for some time.” Ignis placed his hand upon your shoulder, urging you to continue onward without him without saying much of a word. “Come. There’s still much to see.”
The shops were filled with so many people and so much merchandise you had never seen before. Altissia had its own imports and wares but none to the capacity of what Tenebrae had to offer in the scope of daemon parts, furniture, and hand-woven apparel, linins, and toys. Just as the castle was and a lot of the surrounding buildings, the marketplace as well seemed to be a series of booths set up almost completely in the wilderness or so it felt with the overgrown vegetation. As you ventured down the bazaar’s walkway to enjoy in the sights, you noted that Ignis eventually stopped as did Ignitus, apparently.
“Ignitus? What’s wrong, son?” Ignis asked, noting that Ignitus was a bit skittish about something as he had let go of his father’s hand. His green eyes followed where Ignitus was looking on occasion and it was there you both noted fenced in chocobos that were there for renting as well as being pet and fed. “They’re just chocobos, son. C’mon—they weren’t hurt you.”
Ignitus shook his head feverishly, ignoring his father’s command.
Chuckling to himself, Ignis scooped up his son and came a bit closer to the birds with him. “You’ve seen them before in Altissia, sweetheart,” you reminded him. “Boco is even one of them. You like Boco, don’t you?”
The caretaker nearby happened to overhear the conversation and smiled. “Well tempered birds, they are. Swear they won’t harm a hair on his head.”
Ignitus still remained close to his father’s chest, moving his fingers to his mouth nervously at how large the creatures truly were up close. Ignis kissed his son’s cheek before migrating his hand ever cautiously over towards the nearest bird that was soft-white in color. “Daddy, no,” Ignitus urged as if nervous something might happen.
Ignis coiled his fingers away from the chocobo. “What do you mean, ‘daddy, no’?” he questioned, watching as Ignitus clammed up and said not another word. Taking his son’s wrist, he gently pulled the boy’s fingers from his mouth. “Why ‘daddy, no’?” he asked again, sparing Ignitus a kiss.
“He’s from Altissia,” you explained to the breeder. “He’s not really that used to seeing them a lot.”
The man nodded in understanding. “Guess you don’t have many of them there considering it is a small island.”
“Only the occasional imports, but they just don’t take well to Accordo given how small their habitat is there,” you said. “You can spy the occasional wild ones but it’s very rare.”
When Ignitus didn’t fight it the second time, Ignis went back to touch the bird’s beak. “See?” The chocobo closed its eyes, falling into the caress. “They’re sweet, gentle giants.”
Ignitus watched his father closely and how the bird reacted to Ignis’ touch. He was intrigued, but you could tell he was still anxious.
“You want to try, son?” Ignis took Ignitus’ hand and carefully guided it over to the chocobo’s beak. At the sudden absence of warmth, the bird slowly opened its eyes and the big, giant black orbs were staring down the small boy with equal interest. “See there? Very sweet creatures.”
The chocobo soon kwehed, the sound startling Ignitus as he had never heard it up close and personal before. Pulling his hand back in one swift motion, Ignitus embraced Ignis’ neck and buried his head into the nook of it. The one thing you did know about chocobos thanks to Wiz was that males were a lot more ‘talkative’ than females and a majority of the birds that pulled the carts about Altissia were females to prevent problems about mating season, so they were quiet.
The breeder laughed regardless. “Guess that’s the end of that.”
“It’s all new to him,” Ignis chuckled as well, rubbing the boy’s back to try and calm him. “Thank you for letting us see them.”
“Well, color me surprised to see you up and about for once,” spoke a female voice randomly from the crowd.
Confused, you turned and noticed a woman in armor with silver hair that was mostly pulled back from what you could see and bangs decorating the pale look of her face. It took you a moment, but you recognized the armor and silver tresses—it was the dragoon woman Ignis mentioned he was friends with.
“Oh—Aranea,” Ignis greeted (sounding a bit nervous, weirdly). “I was not expecting to see you here.”
When she spied Ignitus in Ignis’ arms, the same shocked expression came to the warrior woman as you recalled seeing on Ignis’ parents. “I’ll be damned,” she murmured but loud enough for you to hear. “You have a lot of explaining to do, four-eyes.”
