Ch.100The One Who Returned, No, She Who Returned

After finishing the practical deployment with Partia like that.

After solving various quests, once we officially started operating as a five-person system…

“Commander, so now should our personnel only take on ‘high-grade’ quests?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

As Jessica suggested, to make the event progression more efficient,

I decided to outsource all the regular quests automatically received from the monsters to the pirates.

We decided to exclusively take on high-grade quests, which were more efficient in terms of points but also came with increased difficulty.

However, to do that, we also needed to strengthen our forces accordingly.

We made plans to enhance the superhumans through Griyanar’s body modifications.

One of those plans was to attach tentacle tails to Ignis to make her a three-sword style user, but…

“…Commanderrr!!!”

“Hm?”

“Th-there’s something strange down there!”

“…Oh.”

“Hehe, I attached it to the wrong place by mistake?”

“Uweeeh!”

Whether she was trying to turn Project SDL (Three-Sword Style) into Project K-something…

Griyanar “accidentally” created a front tail instead of a back tail during the surgery, causing Ignis to complain about deteriorating condition in various ways.

She nearly became bedridden and had to undergo another surgery.

“Jessica, I feel like my luck has been pretty good lately.”

“Pardon?”

“So I was thinking about trying some gacha pulls…”

“Commander, last time was just luck, but that’s because you already burned through 150 pulls and another 70 fixed probability pulls before that.”

“…”

“You’ve paid your dues, so don’t get any strange ideas.”

*Sob*

While I was being stopped by Jessica from pulling gacha and doing various other things,

Time continued to flow and flow and flow…

==========

After several days passed like that…

About a week, exactly 8 days and 12 hours later.

<<“Icarus, I have finally returned with the Queen’s message for you.”>>

“Oh?”

Because we needed to report directly to the Queen,

We were able to reunite with Oxianor, who had only been contacting us telepathically through the neural network until now.

However, we weren’t directly facing Oxianor right away.

While Oxianor’s “mind” was returning to the nest through the neural network, we were just communicating via telepathy for a while…

Anyway, I felt genuinely happy about the return of Oxianor, one of the few “male” characters in this base.

‘You’re back, Ox-Taesik.’

Of course, Oxianor wasn’t the only man at our base.

There was Leonard, whom Marian had assigned as my escort, and many of the pirate captains were men as well.

It’s just that in Leonard’s case, we’d gotten off on the wrong foot from our first meeting…

We had an awkward relationship with little to talk about.

The other pirate captains were only helping me on Marian’s orders.

There wasn’t particularly anything to discuss with them, so I couldn’t help but be even more pleased about Oxianor’s return.

Anyway, based on that gladness, I continued our communication.

“It’s been a long time since we last talked… did things go well with the Queen?”

<<“Of course, Icarus.”>>

“Ooh?”

<<“The Queen received your and the Pirate Empress’s proposal with a very positive reaction… As a result, it seems her trust in you has increased even more.”>>

“Oooh.”

<<“To be frank, the Queen’s message is contained within my mind right now… As soon as I arrive, you will receive the Queen’s message.”>>

Though I didn’t understand exactly how the structure worked.

The important thing was that when Oxianor arrived, I would receive the Monster Queen’s sincere decision.

Upon hearing his confident words, a new event message popped up before my eyes with a cheerful sound.

—————————————-

<Event>

<The Monster Queen, having received Oxianor’s ‘persuasion’ and the ‘evidence’ it brought…>

<Was very intrigued by the fact that this proposal was not simply a trap, but a sincere offer from the pirates and you.>

<And as a result of that intrigue, she seems to have sent you a message embedded in Oxianor’s mind.>

—————————————-

‘They’re really confirming this thoroughly.’

Since it was clearly very friendly content, I immediately got up from my seat.

I went with Jessica to the biology lab, where we intended to welcome Oxianor who would soon emerge, along with Griyanar who was there.

But about 30 minutes later.

Contrary to my expectation that the familiar eyeball gentleman would emerge from the undulating organic tissue,

Like Queen Alien amniotic fluid bursting, something like an egg sac burst with a splat, and what emerged from inside was…

“…Huh?”

“Commander, that’s…”

“My goodness, has a new test subject arrived at our base?”

As our current reactions showed, instead of the familiar eyeball gentleman,

A female figure appeared with scales and carapace all over her body, giant horns protruding from her head,

A thick, long, and bizarre tail above her buttocks,

Perky breasts, well-proportioned limbs, a slender waist and wide hips,

White hair and skin wet with mucus, contrasting with red eyes.

‘What is this?’

Though the gaze seemed strangely familiar, as for the appearance… it was a form I’d never seen before in this game.

As mentioned above, not just me and Jessica,

But even Griyanar, who typically maintained a devilish poker face, was showing signs of considerable surprise.

And that confusion intensified when the monster woman(?) before us opened her mouth.

“Hmm? Icarus, why are you looking at me like that?”

“…Th-this manner of speech?”

“By the way, Jessica and Griyanar too, why is everyone looking at me from a different perspective than usual… have you grown?”

“Oxianor? Could it be Oxianor?”

To my question, she, with horns as big as her head, nodded as if it were obvious.

“You say that even after seeing this familiar appearance? Icarus.”

“…”

“Truly disappointing reaction, I considered you a friend.”

As she pouted with a disappointed expression, I wondered if this could really be true.

While Jessica and I were frozen in shock, Griyanar beside us used the bio-mechanical arm installed in the lab.

She brought over a full-length mirror, placed it in front of Oxianor, and calmly said:

“Who would consider you the original ‘Oxianor’ looking like that? Look at yourself before speaking.”

“What are you talking about, what’s wrong with my body… what… what…?”

In response to Griyanar’s approach, Oxianor frowned at her attitude that had long since abandoned any pretense of courtesy, but obediently looked in the mirror.

After seeing her “current” appearance, she stammered in shock for a moment…

Then turning her head toward me who was watching the situation, she gave me a look of indescribable embarrassment and confusion.

And on top of that, for some reason… a look that conveyed embarrassment.

Fortunately, I could soon understand the reason for the embarrassment.

“Wh-what is this! Why am I existing naked like this?!”

“…Ah, right.”

Despite the scales and carapace having grown in such a way that all important parts were covered, I wondered what she was talking about.

But if that’s how she felt, others couldn’t really argue.

And above all, while the woman presumed to be Oxianor(?) was confused,

A new event message appeared before my eyes, thoroughly explaining the current situation.

So rather than thinking about the self-proclaimed… no, the real Oxianor(TS),

I decided to read the event message that had just appeared before my eyes.