Page 36 of Nope, No Regrets
Rei
Igot a view of what Fergus did to my brother before we left the prison. Bits of him were blasted across every surface of the walls. I’d never spoken to him, we’d never even met face to face to try and talk out our differences. I probably would have at least heard him out—after I punched him in the face—if he wanted to apologize for trying to murder our cool father, and getting me shipped off to another realm.
He regretted all of that about as much as I was sorry for all the shit I stole. That fucker’s idea of a family reunion was showing up the day I got out of solitary and got to breathe fresh air with a witch who had been trying really hard to murder me.
Basically, it was kind of a dick move.
He didn’t stand a chance against Fergus, and it was beautiful to watch the great High Priestess of the Aether Circle run out of there, shrieking like her asshole was on fire.
For now, I just really wanted to go home and take a shower. And eat. Well, I always wanted to eat, but killing all those witches had made me work up an appetite. I was pretty sure my stomach was eating itself, and not even seeing Kudan dripping off the walls was dampening my appetite.
Two portals opened in Scorchwood. The Dream Team disappeared into one, and we jumped into another. I was hoping Sota was taking us somewhere to eat and shower, but we emerged in this massive throne room, surrounded by about a million guards.
They all bowed when they saw me, and Sota bowed to my parents, who were sitting on massive thrones. Was I supposed to be bowing? What was the protocol for bowing when you were a long-lost demon princess daughter?
“It is done,” Sota said. “Kudan is no more. His followers and the Aether Circle are dead, or in Bael’s dungeon. Rei was glorious in battle and brought honor to her family. I’m almost certain this will earn her a new tail.”
That was probably accurate, because that weird feeling was back. It was also super weird to have your parents beaming at you with pride because your team just left your brother exploded all over a prison, and you used the three tails you had so far to kill some witches.
They looked prouder of me than my parents did back on Earth the one time I brought home a report card with straight As.
There was apparently no love left for my brother with my parents. I had been so hurt when my parents cut contact with me after our fight, back when I left to go to college. They had never been mad at me. They came to Hell to protect me, and they were here waiting to meet me. I pulled a lot of shit, and they always forgave me.
Though I never pulled Kudan level shit, and I never would. I really just wanted things to go back to some semblance of normalcy, but we weren’t there yet. My mother clapped her hands and bounced on her throne.
“I’ve beendyingto plan a party with the other wives to celebrate Rei’s return! There have been so many parties she should have had that I never got to throw her. It’s going to be massive! Iknowshe’s going to get a new tail for stopping the Aether Circle and her brother. We would have had a party for that, but wedefinitelyneed to celebrate stopping a major threat to Hell.”
The threat existed because of me though, and Kudan went to the Aether Circle because I stole from them. They would have known someone paid me to take it, and I kept repeatedly saying I didn’t know who, but they stupidly came charging down here because they thought I was lying.
I was pretty sure the Aether Circle had some hackers on their payroll. Solron was utterly insane, but I liked her. I got the feeling anyone the Aether Circle had on their payroll couldn’t do what she did with my website. Faust was good. I knew he got into all kinds of things he shouldn’t when he was deciding to take a job.
He had a basic idea of getting into my website to track who paid me to steal it, because he thought they intended to use it against the Aether Circle, but he hadn’t cracked it just yet. Maybe he would have eventually, but Solron was a beast unto herself.
I got wanting to throw a party to celebrate my return, any new tails I might get from this, and the fact that my brother wasn’t walking around trying to kill my entire family anymore. Everyone here was fooling themselves if they thought I was a hero for helping stop the Aether Circle. They had it coming, and it was about time someone made them pay, but the fact remained that they came to Hell because of me.
Still, throwing parties seemed to be something my mother enjoyed. And yeah, she deserved happiness in any form she wanted. I had been ignorant of all of this until recently. My parents had been dealing with the fact that my brother was a murderous psycho, and other people were raising me for my own safety.
I didn’t remotely feel like a hero, and I didn’t particularly want to pretend to be one at a party, but I’d do it because that’s what everyone needed. I plastered a gigantic smile on my face.
“I’m looking forwards to my first Hell party! Right now though, I’d like to take a shower and eat.”
My father beamed at me.
“You look magnificent in the blood of our enemies. Battle always makes me hungry. Go shower, Rei. I’ll have a feast sent to your rooms.”
“I call dibs!” Wren announced. “I’m showering with Rei. I want to feel those little fox teeth, too.”
Wren justhadto announce that right in front of my parents. They both started laughing.
“Every warrior is like that after a battle,” my mother said. “After the bloodshed, they all want sex and food.”
“She’s not wrong, little fox,” Faust said.
Since when was Faust okay with me being alone with Wren? I got that he’d just met Skoll and learned about his Hell harem. Faust neededwaymore time to process that. He saw me looking at him and smirked at me.
“We were all working through shit when we were killing witches.”
“This isn’t over,” Sota said. “Rei will be busy with Wren. I would suggest we all go back to Bael’s after we’ve showered. There will be a feast there, and we need to find out why Sabrina thought she could come here with so few witches and actually live through it… I’m guessing she had a backup plan.”
