Chapter 40: The angered Poison Queen.

Maia's face was still beet red as she discreetly tried to fix her clothes while walking to the market to buy food for tonight's meal. Although she did not have to cook, for the Royal Chef was always on standby, readily providing the hybrid's party any feast they wanted, she had decided to personally do it since the hybrid had declared「Like I thought, the meals cooked by you are much more delicious, Maia.」She was visibly elated as she eagerly agree to prepare foods for her master, for just like the other three men in the group, dutifully serving her master was the one thing that gave Maia's life a meaning. When she willingly left her hometown to travel with the hybrid, she had expected the journey to be full of obstacles and hardship, given how her master was an enigma with a mysterious goal. Such an impression was proven true the moment Kibadios revealed his identity to her and the gang, along with his ambitious goal for vengeance. Granted, she still did not know the full scope of the hybrid's plan but she fully knew her future would not be kind to her. Not that she minded though, as long as she got to stay with her master, nothing else mattered. Yet, after the attack on the capital and the realization that both Rowan and her would most likely be nothing but a burden on their master, she was devastated. The same nightmare in which the hybrid would simply abandon her behind haunted her dreams of late, which was why Maia was so glad she could still be of use for the hybrid, even if it was merely to cook his favorite foods.

Still, the past three months saw nothing but inaction from the hybrid since he was waiting to see if Kyles would recover. She knew soon enough, her master would continue his journey and she would experience even more unimaginable challenges, but for now, she wanted to cherish these domestic and peaceful moments with her master and her fellow slaves. Though, was "slaves" a right word now, she wondered, since unlike their first few months, her master has been fairly considerate to their feelings lately, especially after the incident with the <Seed of Chaos> infected Prime Minister. That was not to say there was no spontaneous moment of him initiating sex or forcing them down on all four, naked. For just a few minutes prior, in his moment of heat, Kibadios had just lifted her up with his strong arms and fucked her silly against the wall. Her body arched forward as the hybrid's mouth and tongues played with her hypersensitive breast, sucking out her precious milk while slamming his cock against the inner wall of her pussy for almost fifteen minutes, sending her to climax twice. What changed, though, was the small gestures he made and the consideration he paid for their well-beings, just like how he rarely initiate sex with Ryan, knowing the hero was full of worries about his brother or just like the tender kiss he gave her before she left. Maia could not help but smile while thinking back to the kiss as the lingering feeling of her master's lips could still be felt on hers.

「Anyways, what shall I cook today!」Maia suddenly stopped then looked around once she reached the market.

「Maia chan!」An old woman called out to the girl from one of the shops.

「Ah, Ruth san!」greeted the girl. 「Good morning!」

「Good morning to you, Maia chan!」the old woman giddily nodded. 「Today we just received a fresh shipment of fish, do you want to have some?」

「It's been a while since I have cooked any fish for Kibadios sama. Maybe I should.」smiled Maia, then browsed the goods.

「Kibadios dono is so lucky to have you cooking for him, Maia chan.」

「Thanks Ruth san. Though I only want to be of use to him.」Maia carefully selected the few freshest looking fish before handing them over to the shop owner. 「I will take these. How much would they be?」

「I'd like to say no charge for you and Kibadios sama's party.」The old woman carefully placed the fish on packs of ice before wrapping them up. 「But I know you always insist to pay so let's say, all of this for 10 copper coins.」

「That is too cheap, obaa san!」Maia frowned. 「That's not enough to even cover your cost, I bet.」

「Hey now, since they're for Kibadios dono, I'd gladly give them to you for free, Maia chan!」Ruth laughed 「After all, not only did he save me and my grandson during the disaster, he even helped to defeat that monstrous creature! There's nothing that we can do to repay him.」

「Still, I insist!」Maia handed 40 copper coins to the old woman, forcing her to take them all. 「I hope this is enough, Ruth san.」

「No no! This is too much!」

「How about this, 10 coins are for the fish and the other 30 coins, I'm giving to Ken-kun to buy his favorite toys?」

「Haha. You're too kind, Maia chan.」The old woman finally relented. 「Since there's no way to convince you, I'll accept them then. Say hi to Kibadios dono for me.」

「Sure, Ruth san. I'll see you.」

Maia continued to walk around the market to buy more ingredients for another half an hour before deciding to come back with her basket full of goods, all of which were heavily discounted since most of the sellers at this market belonged to a group of citizens that were saved by Kibadios a few months back. Due to the stories that Lance came up with, Kibadios, the hybrid master of a hero, was now fairly famous among the people of Lorian so even if they were not personally saved by him, most treated him with respect. Still, not all of the attention paid to the hybrid was that of admiration though. Several groups of conservative nobles and adventures have begun to voice out their frustrations at the increasing influence of demihuman, such as the great demon lord Gilga and Kibadios, over the country.「All they did was jump in and take the credits! That monster was already being beaten back to a brink of defeat by the three heroes' parties!」the group had argued. Their narratives were quickly rejected by both the surviving heroes, Amber and Thomas so even after three months of continuously promoting their fictitious stories, even with the unofficial backing of the Oracle, it still has not changed the public opinions. Due to the intense scrutiny from those factions, Maia has already gotten used to the occasional harassments from the lowly adventurers when she walked past the newly rebuilt guild building. Yet, today, a few of those adventurers had just made the biggest mistake in their lives as the men took advantage of the fact that both of Maia's arms were busy holding onto the heavy bag of groceries and openly groped her ample ass.

「Seriously, bae! Stop working and cooking for that opportunistic demi! Is that weakass demi threatening you to work for him? Come with us, we'll protect you!」

「And introduce you to "pleasure" you have never experienced!」another whistled.

The men have always been catcalling Maia or mocking the girl for serving the hybrid but their actions elicited no responses from her, given how it was beneath her. Emboldened by the perceived weakness from Maia, they continued to harass her but little did they know, they had just crossed the Rubicon. For a brief moment, Maia's eyes turned blood red from rage. Her body was supposed to be devoted to her beloved Master, yet, the lowly adventurers had just defiled it with their dirty hands. Turning around, she quickly disguised her disgust and simply smiled at them, luring them with her angelic face to a back alley behind the guild building, littered with rubbles.

「So you've finally wanted to leave your pathetic master for us? Dont worry, we'll treat you nicely!」One of the men laughed, not knowing soon he would be begging her for forgiveness.

「You've led us here so we can fuck your brain out? Dont mind if I do!」Another rubbed his cock, which was already penting up inside his pant.

「... Shut up, you filthy trash.」Such words coming out from Maia's beautiful mouth quickly surprised half a dozen men who followed her. 「How dare you touch me there? Only Kibadios sama is allowed to! Yet your filthy hands dared to taint my body?」

「HAAA???」The adventurers's faces turned murderous. 「Bitch, what did you say?」

Before the men could draw out their weapon trying to intimidate the girl, Maia's fingers were already held tightly onto two different vials. She quickly brought one up to her mouth, using her teeth to bite down and pull out the cork. From within the vial, a white layer of smoke flew out, then circling around the 6 men. Before they could realize what she had done, their body had already frozen in space, every of their muscles seemed to no longer respond to the control of their brain. Somehow, even their thoughts seemed to have shut down. They could see her standing in front of them talking but they could no longer comprehend her speech. They were conscious, but at the same time, unconscious. Their eyes pleaded to the girl to revert whatever she had done to them, though they could not form any sentence. After all, they could not even think. Another vial was opened with her teeth, though this one, the smoke stored inside was completely black. Again just like how it previously happened, the black smoke slowly flew toward them, then enveloped around them before it simultaneously ignited by the snap of Maia's finger. The flame engulfed their bodies. Despite being subjected to an intense sensation of pain from being burnt alive, they could not utter even one word, let alone screaming, before their bodies turned into charred coal.

「Maia!」A familiar voice called out to the girl, jolted her for a brief moment.「What did you just do?」

「Ryan chan!」The girl hurriedly turned around before breathing out a sigh of relief, knowing it was just Ryan who caught her red handed, murdering half a dozen people. 「You scare me! Anyways, dont worry, they deserve it. They have been badmouthing Kibadios sama since forever. I've been repressing my anger but just now, some of them dared to grope me!」The girl pouted. 「I figured it's better I get rid of them. I just can't allow them to live after what they did, trying to taint Master's property with their dirty hands like that. I figured they're adventurers so it should be fine. After all, in their line of work, going missing is normal.」

「... But...」Ryan looked at the charred body while being lost for words. The once maiden, who was incapable of hurting mere insects just months ago, would be able to kill people in such a coldblooded manner.

「Dont worry. Their bodies will crumble away soon… 3...2...1!」Maia happily snapped her finger, coinciding with the instant their body got reduced into ashes. If someone ever came to the back alley now, none would have guessed this was a scene of a murder. 「Anyways, I'm planning to have some fried fish for dinner, you'll come back before dinner right?」

「I … dont know...」

「Like our master said, you have to take care of yourself. You're getting so thin.」Maia patted Ryan's hips. 「I'm sure Kyles wouldn't want that. I'll see you tonight at dinner, alright?」

「... Ok.」

.

.

.

Maia had left for almost five minutes now, though Ryan was still standing at the back alley, his gaze fixated at the piles of dusts, most of which were already blown away by some strong gust.

「Hahaha. You wanted to save her but look at her, she's already been fully corrupted by the hybrid.」Adela approached from behind, then slowly caressed Ryan's face with the back of her hand, causing him to twitch and step away. 「She just cruelly killed those adventurers without a second thought. Both her and Kibadios' other slave could no longer be saved, my dear hero.」

「But, it's not their faults!」Ryan argued. 「Please leave them out of this, for now… I can try to change them back. They've been held hostages by that hybrid for too long but there's still hope for them.」

「Heh...」Adela sneered. 「As if you really believe it.」

「...About the plan you had proposed, Adela sama...」Ryan stayed silent for a moment, then turned around to look at the Astral. 「It won't harm Yllaner sama, will it?」

「Of course not.」lied Adela, then sensually placed her hand on his dejected face. By now, he had already gotten used to her close affection, though she could still feel a slight reactionary twitch from him. Just a bit more, my boy. I'll have you. She then continued.「I'm not going to deny the fact that she'll be in danger, but how else would we be able to lure out that hybrid? We'll use his fondness of her to our advantage. Remember what he did to you, he probably will soon put the princess under his charm and has his way with her. By using her as a centerpiece in our plan, although she'll be placed in danger, it would also make it easier for us to protect her. I'll give you my word as an Astral. 」

「Thank you, Adela sama!」