Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

The click of her door alarmed Shamisha into hopping off her bed. Turning quickly towards the door, she held one hand stretched forward, ready to unleash a wave of anti-gravity field and shove the intruder right out. But upon realizing that the intruder was Grace–someone she herself had invited, her alarm went down.

"How did you even get in?" She asked, a bit angry at the lack of courtesy by the machina.

Grace stood in silence, unwilling to respond to Shamisha. However, one glance at the long and untied hair of the machina was more than enough to tell the bunny girl exactly how Grace had managed to get in without any problems.

"Your hair…You used your hair to reach in from the gap under the door?" She asked, but once again while walking closer, the machina refused to humor her with a response, at least not one that she was expecting to get.

"Why have you called me? Can we simply get to the root of the matter? I'd much prefer rusting in the castle than walking in this place full of fanatics of my master…" At first, the obsession over her had been charming, but now that Mono has been revived, walking into the spire and through hordes of Shamisha's students had really started to get on Grace's nerves.

"They follow my every move and it has really begun to spark my circuits. This better be the last time, I have to get to this unnecessarily tall building, or else, I'll tumble the whole thing down myself."

Grace's anger was beyond measure, and nothing she'd said was a lie. Shamisha realized that, but having her sit in a chair for a while, she explained everything to Grace while waiting for Linkle. Their conversation, however, was cut short by an unexpected knock on one of the windows.

Moving closer, Shamisha opened them with caution and saw on the other end, Linkle sitting sideways on a flying broomstick.

"You're late."

"Who asked for your opinion? Just open the damn window!" Having to fly on the first thing she could find, Linkle wasn't in a good mood either, especially since her butt was far too big for the stick and she'd been feeling it digging into her flesh for a while.

Being yelled at by both of her guests, Shamisha's mood had been fouled as well. But brushing past her emotions, she invited Linkle inside.

"What did you wanna talk about?" Getting in with that question, Linkle noticed Grace sitting in a corner. Staring at the machina for a bit, she quickly turned her head back to Shamisha. "She's your other guest, I'm assuming?"

Nodding back at the witch, Shamisha moved a chair near Linkle with her gravity-bending prosthetic. Motioning her to sit down while she sat at the edge of the bed as well, the bunny-girl crossed her bare legs over each other before leaning forward and placing her head on the back of her hand. Her eyes darted between the two, then lingered on Grace for a moment.

The two conversed about something through their gaze alone, and once they were done, Shamisha nodded at Grace and turned her attention to Linkle.

"What are you two up to exactly?" Linkle asked, but the two remained quiet for a bit.

The silence roused suspicion, but before Linkle to question further, Shamisha spoke up.

"You've been close to Mono recently, haven't you? I just wanted to talk about how she's doing and all," wearing a smile, Shamisha got off the bed and walked over to one of her many work desks inside her room. Grabbing hold of her first blueprint for a lecherous automaton that would work underground at the bricks and cobbles, she carelessly stared at it. "So? Are you getting along with her well?

Has she given you the support that you wanted in the excavation process?"

Her line of questioning was beyond questionable, and to Linkle, they felt like a bold mockery of her intellect. With a frown on her brows, she rose from the seat, folding her hands, the witch looked around at the two before yelling.

"Do you two think I'm a fucking idiot?!" Shocked by the sudden outburst, Shamisha's body flinched to the screaming. The blueprint she was holding fell to the ground, all the while, Grace appeared unbothered by Linkle's threatening voice. "Just tell me what the fuck you want from me or I'll goddamn leave! I don't have time for these games you self-important people play!"

Judging it to be some form of sabotage by Shamisha and Grace towards Mono; the witch already didn't want to hang about and the indirect tone from the bunny was only pushing her further away.

"I broke Aperion–the self-upgrading component in Master's body," speaking up herself while Shamisha recovered from having her scaredy heart bounce out of her chest, Grace stared right into the witch's eyes and began to reveal everything. "I did so on Shamisha's recommendation. I agreed because Master's growth was far too abnormal. It's best she takes some time to get used to things again.

Her lack of concern for the dead workers when she used to be so compassionate, was disconcerting. Which leads me to believe that she can't see the difference between the inanimate–inexhaustible machinas, and the animate humanoids that need rest or they break."

Although surprised, Linkle wasn't quite blown away by the revelation–something the inventor expected as she'd miserably failed to see just what kind of person Linkle truly was.

"And what do you want from me?" Asked the witch, unsure of her play in all of this.

"One day, maybe not today, but there might come a time when my master becomes a threat to this city, and while I don't exactly care for warm bodies, I'd prefer to live surrounded by idiots than a horde of mindless zombies." A moment of silence lingered inside the room, Grace was just about to reveal the final piece of the plan but was swiftly interrupted by Shamisha's nervous voice.

"Th-that stone, the stone you used to strip Mono's powers, we need something like that as a failsafe if that day does come." Looking between the two, Linkle wasn't sure if they were geniuses or idiots.

"And why in the nine hells will I help you? If any of us are found, she'll never help me get that cave emptied of its resources!" She exclaimed, feeling not an ounce of confidence in their plan. Experience new tales on empire

"I can help…" Shamisha muttered, her voice still lowered.

"Oh quit with the lies!" Turning her head and glaring at the bunny girl, Linkle managed to perk every goosebump on Shamisha. "Everyone knows you're not good with battle model automatons, so don't even try to fool me!"

"I guess this conversation is over." Getting up from her chair as well, Grace no longer had any desire to wait and watch Linkle get even angrier. "The greatest threat to Elenaris currently, would be none other than its queen itself, if her thirst for expedited progress is left unchecked that is. But I suppose that's none of your concern now, is it?"

"Grace, wait!" Shamisha stretched her hand forward as if reaching for Grace's back to stop her, but the machina didn't look back and in just a few seconds had left Shamisha alone with Linkle.

"A waste of fucking time…" Jerking her hands sideways in anger, Linkle grabbed her broom and headed for the window. Shamisha's head turned to her with a gasp, she wanted to stop her and speak some sense into her head, but the sight of her quivering hand refrained her from uttering even a single word.

Getting on the broom, Linkle looked one last time at Shamisha, staring into her eyes, the witch muttered.

"Instead of trying to play these games, why not just talk to her? You'd have a better time convincing her to stop progress than playing games that you're obviously bad at." Those words were left stuck inside Shamisha's head for hours even after Linkle had already left, but the bunny knew what her master would say if she tried to stop progress.

'You can't stop progress, I've come this far because I've pushed all possible limits, don't be a stuck-up idiot, just get a damn boyfriend and stop bothering my research.' She could hear those words already and the playful yet disappointed look in Mono's eyes as Shamisha was left in her shadow as nothing but an apprentice of the greatest sorceress ever born in Elenaris.

"UGH! FUCKKKK!" At the height of her frustration, the bunny girl returned to the blueprints and began working on them as a distraction.

'It's just a fail-safe if she becomes unstable with those upgrades! Why don't you get it?!' She complained to herself, not realizing or rather not knowing that unlike her not everyone cared about the kingdom in which she was born.

"Fine, I'll just work on this for now…" Huffing and puffing through her teeth, the bunny girl spent the entire night perfecting her design out of sheer frustration.

She'd given up on a fail-safe, but her plan to turn the Bricks and Cobbles into the second most profitable place in Elenaris wasn't yet scrapped.