Daily Life With A Lilim Chapter 36.2

– Investigating Fiction –

Thera prided herself on being someone who was always in control, if not the situation then at the very least herself. She wouldn’t say that she was truly unflappable but there were layers to it. There were many times where life saw fit to test her capacity to handle stress. Such was the current situation where she was informed that Earth was somewhat aware of Eos and its happenings via a series of illustrated fictional books called the Monster Girl Encyclopedia. 

It was ironic because those were the names of actual books being published in Eos, in fact Thera owned a copy of both volumes as well as the companion World Guide books. They were the most accurate representation of mamono and mamono culture presented by a human. Though whether or not the Wandering Scholar can be considered human nowadays was up for debate. The man has ventured to dark demon realms and had prolonged contact with a sentient Dark Matter for Gods’ sake!

In any case, before they left Ezraphel and Stanley were kind enough to divulge where she could gain the pertinent information on this world’s version of the books as well as information about the subject in general. Ezraphel in particular seemed to have gone out of her way to learn as much as she could about the so-called ‘MGE’ fandom and record her findings. She even went and integrated herself in the community by joining different groups and following certain individuals on the various social media platforms just to see what the humans thought of mamono and their world in general. 

Thera was grateful for her sister’s groundwork as it saved her days or possibly weeks of her precious time. That said, it still took her hours to sift through and understand the information presented. A good chunk of it came from the ‘wiki’ which she found contained the original monster girl encyclopedia books and the companion guide books available for anyone to read.

The difference between Earth’s version and Eos was that the illustrations were of higher quality while the information was constantly being updated and expanded upon making it larger and more comprehensive than what the Wandering Scholar and his apprentice had published on Eos so far. The additional information itself varied, ranging from fun facts and little anecdotes to obscure and even forbidden knowledge that not even she was aware of. 

Thera didn’t really know what to do with some of this information, specifically when it came to the Gods.

Luckily, there was little information on her family save for Druella but even then it was more in the context of her being the mastermind behind Lescatie’s conversion into a mamono realm making the information itself surface level and similar to something she would share in an interview than anything truly compromising.

Moving on to the human’s reactions, it came as a pleasant surprise that monster girls were an accepted and oftentimes celebrated aspect of modern culture, at least that’s the initial thought from her browsing the internet. The reality of the situation was a lot less heartening.

With most of Earth’s population having access to various worldwide communication platforms and the anonymous nature of said platforms, anyone could say virtually anything without the risk of being judged or persecuted beyond their screen name. But take away that anonymity and most would not be so willing to throw their lot in with something socially unacceptable.

This unfortunately included monster girls and it was somewhat even worse for MGE in particular as it turns out even the monster girl fans did not support certain aspects of mamono culture presented through it. And if those people condemned it then Thera could imagine what the rest of the world thought.

If Thera was being honest mamono human relations on Earth more or less mirrors Eos. Really, the only difference was that the lack of centuries of religious anti monster dogma enforced by a history of bloody wars meant that the average Earth human had more of an open mind and would be willing to meet them in the middle. So while things appeared bad initially Thera was optimistic they could establish good relations with the humans of Earth.

Compromises would have to be made on both sides but that wasn’t anything new. Thera had seen enough negotiations with human kingdoms play out that she was confident a mutually beneficial agreement would be achieved with the various governments around the world. Mamono had more to offer humans than just their bodies and for Earth she could identify several areas where they desperately needed and would even welcome mamono intervention.

And with that thought Thera reconciled the most glaring issue presented by this new reveal but that didn’t mean her troubles were over though this one was decidedly more personal.

It was brought to her attention while she went through the short stories listed on the wiki and came across a certain novella called Baphomet Complex. It was the short story of a girl named Lilia Flimlight who worked alongside her brother at a shop in a small town. One day the girl was visited by a stranger who turned out to be a Lilim. The Lilim would go on to convert Lilia into a Baphomet who would then go on to convert the town into a mamono realm while the Lilim oversaw the proceedings.

Thera knew this story and was very familiar with it because the Lilim in that story was her. Thera remembered this happening at a time when she was just starting out on what would be her long term career as a specialist agent. Finding Lilia Flimlight was a fortunate coincidence but unlike what was alluded to in that story Thera transforming her into a Baphomet was more calculated than opportunistic. 

The kingdom her town was part of was an anti-mamono state and being targeted by the daughter of a powerful house allied to the Makai family. Thera was sent to ensure the kingdom’s conquest and subsequent transition into a mamono state went smoothly. Lilia being a Baphomet, a naturally powerful magical mamono, played a major role in ensuring this happened.

Of course the story did not cover this as it mostly focused on Lilia’s thoughts before her transformation and what happened immediately after said transformation. Thera (who remained unnamed in the story) only served as a plot device to advance the story to its main purpose, showcasing a graphic sex scene between the monsterized Lilia and her older brother-turned-husband.

She would give the author credit in that the story was written in the exact same format as its contemporaries on Eos. In fact it was so familiar that in a stroke of realization she fetched a certain book from her personal spirit realm. It was a collection of short stories about humans recently converted into mamono consummating their marriage.

In other words smut centered around corruption, which was a popular subgenre of romance novels for mamono. Thera received the book as a gift from Lilia herself because it featured ‘their’ story and just as she thought it was almost one to one for the MGE’s Baphomet Complex, it even had the same damn title!

This discovery led her down a rabbit hole of checking the other novellas listed on the website and for a few of them she actually confirmed they were stories that were also published in Eos. 

The thing about these novellas was that they were stated to be ‘non canonical’ by the MGE wiki which didn’t make sense unless it was just a creative decision on the creator’s part, by allowing other writers to make stories based on his work but with a degree of separation by marking it as a separate but parallel timeline.

Then she came across the Fallen Brides stories which were accounts of the former Heroes of Lescatie turned mamono. As someone who studied all the reports of the Lescatie conquest including the ones penned by Druella herself she found several glaring discrepancies with the Fallen Brides stories. For most of them the discrepancies came after the Heroines got corrupted, everything before that was true based on what she remembered reading from the reports.

The first Hero to be corrupted by Druella was Wilmarina Noscrim who upon her conversion to an Arch-Succubus immediately went on to find her future husband, Elt. She was the first and only bride to have a one on one intimacy session with him during the invasion. After Wilmarina was seeded the first time Druella teleported  the couple to the palace throne room where Princess Francisca Mistel Lescatie (who had become a Roper) awaited. 

The other wives found their way there one after the other and it ended up becoming an orgy until Koyoi showed up sometime later as part of a failed attempt by the Order to retake the city. In that sense only Wilmarina and Koyoi’s stories held the most accuracy. But speaking of Koyoi’s story there was a glaring discrepancy there too. In the story Koyoi somehow came across her sister Tasogare as she entered Lescatie’s palace.

That never happened.

Tasogare Amanomiya never made an appearance in Lescatie until long after it became a mamono realm and it was after she met with Koyoi when the latter made a trip to Zinpangu to personally corrupt the rest of her clan. By that point Tasogare had already become a Nekomata which the novella got right but it was for a reason wholly separate from Druella.

The most peculiar story however was the one that seemed to be about Druella herself. From the title it supposedly depicted what a normal day for her was like. It made Thera very curious since she wasn’t privy to her elder sister’s private life, yet she could not find that story. Even Ezraphel was stumped because the wiki confirmed its existence with artwork by the MGE creator depicting Druella mid coitus with a man.

That…wasn’t possible.

Druella didn’t have a husband and contrary to popular belief she did not partake in casual sex. So either Druella was very adept at keeping secrets or the information on the website was wrong. Considering the other discrepancies Thera found she was leaning towards the latter being true.

‘Or perhaps this was depicting the future and the story was not available because it had yet to happen.’ 

That theory was just too much for her to contemplate at the moment and she closed the wiki to take a break. It was at this point that the anxiety she felt about the whole situation had mostly run its course and now she was feeling drained. Yet it wasn’t over because she saved the worst for last in the form of a folder that contained a collection of images that were artworks of…Lilims.

It seemed Ezraphel figured that accurate depictions of their family in a world that only knew their people as fiction was worth investigating. And Ezraphel really did investigate this. Not only did she find the images but searched for and attempted to make contact with the creators. She documented both her findings and the process itself. Luckily Ezraphel’s typed notes were more legible and coherent than her handwritten ones so Thera could follow along.

Among the stored images Thera eventually found her own. It was a surreal experience seeing her own art portrait and there was no mistaking it. If the visual wasn’t enough the damn thing literally had her name written on it in stylized cursive. 

For a long moment Thera stared, first at the picture then at Ezraphel’s notes. 

Thera didn’t know if this could be considered luck because Ezraphel not only found the identity of the person who created a character based on her likeness but had made contact with them. She even added them as a friend on the Discord platform. Going through the brief private messages between the two Ezraphel confirmed that this person was in fact the creator of the ‘Thera’ character. That seemed to be the end of it though as Ezraphel didn’t bother to continue questioning them further about it.

Thera had no idea why Ezraphel wouldn’t do it but…

“I suppose I have no choice then. Heh…hehe…hehehehehe…” Thera chuckled to herself, it lacked any mirth and was a touch hysterical.

After a moment of staring at the screen she finally started typing a message that turned into a paragraph then hit the backspace until it was all gone before starting again. This time the message was a simple one.

::Hello?::

The message was sent and Thera leaned back to stare at the screen. 

Then she pressed a hand to her forehead and groaned “what am I doing?”

What she was doing wasn’t necessary, at least not right now, not when she was so mentally drained.

‘Not to mention the profile says that they are currently offline so the chances that this person would even be available now is-‘

*Boo-Boop*

The distinct sound interrupted her laments and she looked in mild surprise to find a reply to her message. 

“…”

Thera gave a silent sigh before she started typing questions. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from this conversation exactly but her curiosity was undeniable. Thera didn’t even attempt to act like she was Ezraphel despite using her account.

She thought there would be suspicions on their part but no, they seem amicable enough to discuss it with the air of someone who…created a character and commissioned art for them years ago but didn’t bother committing to writing their story and left it at that.

Their talks took around an hour and twenty minutes despite there not being that many messages sent between them. It was mostly due to whatever they were preoccupied with on their end causing a bit of time lapse between some of the earlier messages. 

Thera didn’t really notice that after the first question she asked which was the reason behind the creation of the Thera character. Their answer was that Thera was supposed to be a character in a story about a man who had unnatural resistance towards corruption. This man would be on the run from a group being led by an Inquisitor sent by the Holy Order to capture him so that they could do likely invasive research on and presumably experiment on him. 

Thera was to act as an antagonistic force working behind the scenes using her own agents as proxies to harass the Inquisitor’s group and steer the main character under her aegis. By the end the main character would have assembled a group of allies, one of which would be a priestess who would turn out to be Thera herself in disguise using a combination of spells and Magitech devices of her own creation to shield her true nature.

She wouldn’t have any romantic inclinations towards the protagonist, only finding his resistance to corruption noteworthy enough to gain her attention. She lent her aid on a whim and in the end one of her agents, a Kikimora, was the one to marry him. And that was it for the story they originally envisioned all those years ago that they ended up not writing. 

That entire rough summary they gave was of an adventure Thera did centuries ago. It was a time when she was relatively fresh into her travels with all her subordinates. Even the way they described their character’s personality was an exact replication of how Thera was early on in her life.

That is, a young princess with big aspirations but no clear plans to achieve them, was clever and intelligent but prone to being led by her whims, was cognizant of her own limitations but confident she could work around them because she had the drive, the resources and all the time in the world. 

This was before a series of personal mistakes and catastrophic setbacks that made her confront a harsh reality that eventually turned her into the woman she was now. An older, slightly cynical,  somewhat cautious and thoroughly stressed out woman who was now more aware of her own limitations than ever. 

*Sigh*

Being reminded of her past and how it all went wrong was the final straw that finally made Thera tap out.

“That’s enough of that for today” she muttered before turning off the PC and retrieving a bottle of wine and a glass from her personal spirit realm. 

Thera had developed a taste for alcohol following certain events, thankfully she mastered herself enough for this indulgence to not become full blown alcoholism. As it stood she was a connoisseur and had amassed an impressive collection over the years. But Thera wasn’t looking to merely imbibe at the moment, she wanted to get drunk and this bottle would ensure that. 

Just as she was about ready to pop the cork her phone started ringing and naturally it was her sister calling.

“Impeccable timing as always” She muttered before answering and turning on the speakers.

<Hello, Thera!> her voice came out chipper.

“Ezraphel” Thera returned more calmly “to what do I owe this sudden call?”

<…are you okay? You sound tired.>

‘I am tired.’

She failed to hide the weariness in her voice which was a blunder on her part but she could care less about maintaining appearances at the moment.

“Don’t mind me, I had just finished going over the information you left me with. If you recall, you gave me much to think about after all.”

<Oh, and how did that go?>

“It was…” she trailed off as her mind recalled the absolute rollercoaster she went through before settling on “illuminating.”

<I see> her sister stated before going silent.

“Was this just a courtesy call Ezraphel?”

<Oh! No, I called to tell you that Stanley’s mother will be joining us for dinner tonight>

Thera raised a brow “alright, am I expected to attend?”

<Sorry but no. Can you stay out of sight for the rest of the evening until she leaves?>

Thera pursed her lips at the request before answering “I understand.”

<I am sorry about having you do this Thera but Stanley’s mother is veeery suspicious of me at the moment and having you there would cause unnecessary drama>

“You don’t need to explain yourself Ezraphel” she waved off “I would not have wanted to intrude on your first shared meal with our new mother-in-law.”

<Thank you sister!>

“I suppose Natalie and Anastasia will be given the same notice if they have not already?”

<Well, Stanley is currently speaking with his sister and Anastasia is with her boyfriend>

“You can call him her husband Ezraphel, that is what he is.”

<Yes well, I do not want to develop the habit and risk calling him that in public>

“On the insistence of your husband?”

<Naturally>

She snorted lightly before saying “worry not, you will not be seeing me for the rest of the evening.”

<Thank you sister!>

“Yes, yes. Have fun with your dinner Ezraphel.”

<I will!>

After that she hung up and Thera was left standing in her office with the bottle of wine in hand. She glanced at the wine and the talk of in-laws sparked a thought.

“What is Natalie up to?”

A drink such as this is best shared with another.

Author’s Notes: Check out advance chapters on my Patreon.

301 Views