Chapter 12

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin stepped out of the administrative building into Astovin with Mrs. Lucina at her side. The motherly dryad smiled at the townsfolk who waved at her and bowed. They didn’t see her leafy-green hair and golden-brown skin as strange any longer.

Nor did they think that Mrs. Lucina with her glowing halo above her head and her white angel wings was strange. They accepted that the two MILF monster girls were a part of their community. Mrs. Baldwin couldn’t help but smile back at them.

“How’s your morning going?” she asked a pair of motherly women heading to the marketplace.

“Oh, good, good, Lady Baldwin,” said one. “My youngest talks nonstop about becoming one of Lord Leo’s adventurers.”

“So does my daughter,” said the other mother. She had a bright smile on her face. “She just wants to help him protect our world. My heart could just burst.”

Mrs. Baldwin nodded. It reminded her of a few friends that had been proud their children were joining the military. Conservative women. It was a sentiment that the dryad had never understood until this moment.

She had thought the military and the wars were jingoist. To fill Big Oil and Big Pharma’s pockets with more cash. But when there was something really worth fighting for, your village, your people, a world that was facing true threats, then it was something worthwhile. It was amazing when your children wanted to protect it.

“I’m sure they’ll be great adventurers and fight the rogue dungeon builders,” Mrs. Baldwin said.

Mrs. Lucina nodded.

The two monster girls and the two village wives headed to the marketplace, chatting. Mrs. Baldwin enjoyed it. Like when mothers would talk while watching their kids at the playground or bumping into friends at the grocery store. They reached the market to shop for food to feed the growing number of “mundane” inhabitants of the dungeon. Leo, Fara, Halia, Kassie, and the adventurers all needed real food. They didn’t live off the Void Crystal.

Mrs. Baldwin could eat, drink, and even sleep, but she didn’t need any of it. She could just sit down and somehow let time pass. Like a nap that could last for centuries, or so it seemed. It was how the monster girls passed a lot of their time when they weren’t fucking or patrolling.

We were created with a purpose, Mrs. Baldwin thought. We’re not even real, are we?

The thought troubled her. There was another Mrs. Baldwin who waved off Crystal, Leo, and Garnet as they headed off to school. A mother watching her children grow up. That Mrs. Baldwin would watch them grow older, grow apart. Move away. Start families. She would age and die, while the one strolling beside Mrs. Lucina would never age. Never change. She would exist as long as her son did.

She had no purpose but Leo’s.

Is that bad? I’m happy. She smiled. She was happy. Contented. She wanted to help these people. To fight for them. But she would never sacrifice like these mothers did. She would never hear the terrible news that her child was killed fighting the enemies of this world.

If her son died, then they all would. And if one of her daughters, and she thought of most of the monster girls as her daughters, died, they would come back. Respawned. That’s the term, right?

“Are you okay?” asked Mrs. Lucina. The angelic MILF favored Mrs. Baldwin with a questioning smile.

“Just letting my mind drift,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “Ooh, look at those. Daikon radishes. That’s new.”

“Just harvested,” said one of the friendly village wives. “They’re delicious when pickled.”

“Have to try that out,” said Mrs. Baldwin. Maybe she wasn’t “real” but she existed. She had emotions, worry. She loved.

And she hated.

Sulanga Stormfury was just the most recent one she hated. All the dungeon builders who threatened her children needed to pay.

“We should invite Siwang and his monster girls for dinner,” Mrs. Baldwin said.

“And invite Xiongbu to shop with us next time,” said Mrs. Lucina. “Then have some nice tea in the sun and chat.”

Mrs. Baldwin liked that. There were no crises.

“Oh, look,” said Mrs. Lucina. “There’s Paetu and some of the harpies!”

They were flying out to start their first patrol. Mrs. Lucina raised her hand and waved at them. They split apart and flew out to the right and left. Mrs. Baldwin nodded at that as she picked at the daikon radishes.

She selected just one, for now. They were big, and she had never cooked with them before. So she wanted to experiment with them. She added some fresh leaks and cucumbers to her pouch along with a hunk of salted beef.

“What’s that!” someone gasped. “In the sky!”

“Oh, it’s just one of Lord Leo’s new monster girls,” said Mrs. Baldwin. “He just recruited some harpies. See.” Mrs. Baldwin looked up to see a black-winged monster girl flying over the village. But she didn’t have feathered wings like the harpies, and had a white belly.

One of the real harpies flew at the newcomer only for black shadows to erupt from the monster girl and destroy her. The basket with the food fell from Mrs. Baldwin’s hands. Her heart lurched as the poor harpy died.