Chapter 353 Taking Responsibility

While Erich and S'aleth spent the night together, and Hans spoke with the Oni Matriarch about the future of their two civilizations. Lunaria was looking over the news regarding Erich's engagement to Erika. The woman's memory had been thoroughly wiped by Tia about what had happened on that fateful night that the advanced artificial intelligence lost control over her emotions.

Instead, all she remembered was a proper explanation being given by Erich about the origins of his secret weapon, and the fact that the Naraku were an extra-galactic threat to the Milky Way as a whole. Because of this, Lunaria had been making subtle changes to the Alfheim Dominion that were not easily observed by her enemies, but would help her gear up for war.

Yet for whatever reason, the Elven beauty was distraught over the news that Erich was getting married, and she did not know why. Thus, for the last few days, she had been sulking in her quarters, doing nothing but thinking about the silver-haired Germanic man, and his wedding to a member of his own species.

It got to the point where Celestia was forced to enter her mother's private quarters, or at least request permission to enter. After all, entering the Alfheim Empress's personal room without permission carried a death sentence, even to her daughters.

Once Lunaria heard the knock, and the near identical voice of her daughter at the door, she finally crawled out of her bed. Celestia was surprised to see her mother was wearing nothing but sleepwear even in the middle of the day and was quick to mention this.

"Mother? Why are you still dressed like that? Have you been wearing that for the last few days?"

Lunaria did not even understand why she herself had locked herself away, or why she felt so glum, and was instead quick to anger as she demanded an answer from her most beloved daughter about why she was interrupting her.

"What the hell do you want, Celestia? I'm not in the mood!"

Celestia could count on her one hand the number of times her mother had snapped at her like this, and that was over several centuries of life. Which while young for an Elf, was still a very long time. She had no idea why her mother had suddenly turned so... erratic, but was quick to comment on it.

"Mother... I'm getting worried about you... We're all getting worried about you. You are behaving very unusually."

Lunaria sighed heavily, and invited her daughter into her room, she most certainly did not want to have this conversation in the doorway, and once the two of them were safely sealed in the privacy of the Alheim Empress's personal quarters, Celestia was quick to comment on something strange that was displaying itself from her mother's personal entertainment system.

"Mother... Is that.... The Germanic man we met together?"The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Lunaria sighed heavily. An image of Erich and Erika, which had been spliced together by the Germanic Propaganda department, was on her screen, without any sign of removing itself. It was an e-invite to the wedding that Erich had sent the woman. It was clear by the tone in Lunaria's voice that she was pouting when she spoke.

"Why would that bastard send me this?"

Lunaria was apparently very glum over this simple invitation, and Celestia quickly stared at her mother in disbelief before asking a very simple question, one that she thought was impossible.

"Mother... Are you jealous of this pink haired woman? I mean, please tell me I'm delusional!"

Lunaria recoiled in shock when she heard this and instantly tried to deny it.

"Jealous? Jealous of what? I'm clearly the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. Why would I be jealous of this pink haired bimbo!"

Celestia unintentionally sat down on a nearby sofa and stared at her mother in disbelief. She had never seen her mother react this way before, especially to a man. In fact, nobody had. It had been millions of years since Lunaria was born, and throughout all of this time she had never expressed any interest in a man. Even her own "husband" who was a member of her dynasty that she officially married for political purposes when she was young.

The man had never touched a hair on Lunaria's head though, and their children were conceived artificially. Everyone knew this fact. For the ancient Alfheim Empress to be expressing jealousy towards another woman, and over a man, no less, it was perhaps the most shocking thing anyone in Alfheim space could ever hear.

Celestia almost couldn't believe what she was witnessing, and was quick to follow up with another question that she thought was impossible.

"Mother, don't tell me you're in love with this man? You met him once!"

Lunaria herself didn't understand her feelings, which were deeply engrained in her subconscious. An aftereffect of the memories Erich had shared with her. Memories that Tia had tried to eliminate, but didn't fully manage to do so. And because of this, she once more denied her daughter's question.

"Of course not! Have you gone mad? Me? In love? As if! I just... Can't seem to get him out of my head ever since that day..."

Celestia sat in awkward silence with her mother for several seconds as she tried to understand just what she was bearing witness to. Her mother was actually in love with a man, and it was a man she had only met once, a man who, according to memory, had done nothing but act professionally with the woman. How was this possible?

Meanwhile, Lunaria began to rant, clearly in a foul mood as she suddenly came to a decision.

"That's it! I'm going to that wedding, and I'm going to find out just what kind of sorcery that bastard cast on me!"

Celestia was shocked her mother had accepted the wedding invitation. It was customary for a vassal to invite their suzerain to either their wedding or that of their successors. But in all of the Alfheim Dominion's history, Lunaria had never accepted one of these invitations.

This was shocking news to say the least, but Celestia was stunned even further when she swore she heard her mother whisper something scandalous under her breath.

"And while I'm at it, I'll make that bastard take responsibility for causing me to feel this way..."