My Dungeon Life – Chapter 995-997

Chapter 995

“Are… you really you anymore?”

The mansion had calmed down and everyone had cleaned up after our previous union. I had ended up in the hot spring with most of the other girls present. Even Faeyna and Bernice had found their way there, although Bernice was keeping her distance from me. The hot spring was large enough that every girl could enjoy her space. If any other man walked into this spring, they would find a garden of beautiful naked women frolicking in the water. Thankfully, there was some pretty strong magic that prevented peepers like Prince Edward.

I had been lying in the heat, allowing myself to recover. We decided that tomorrow we’d be heading out to the Ost Republic for this wedding. Today had just been a day of relaxation and recovery. Octius and his sister had already left back to the capital after the battle was cleaned up. I guess Siti had opened a portal for them. I’d have to talk to her shortly, but I let others handle those problems for now. That’s when Shao swam up to me and asked this question.

Although the question hadn’t been spoken loudly, all of the girls quieted down. This was something they had all wanted to ask but didn’t have the confidence to do so.

“You want to know if I’m more Deek, Deedee, am I back to my old self, or am something else entirely, right?”

Shao looked down, almost ashamed to think such a thing. For someone like Elaya, Salicia, or Celeste, it was pretty simple. I was me. However, Shao wasn’t so free-thinking and loose with her affection.

“I can’t say I’m exactly the same person I was before the split, but I could also say I’m not the same person I was before coming to this world. The me four months ago would have been indistinguishable from the me of now, and the me of two weeks ago and the me of now have only changed further.” I explained.

“I-is that true?”

“I’m the same man I’ve always been. I’ve just grown a bit. I will continue to change, but then, so will all of you. It’s impossible for us not to change over time. The world isn’t so static. The important thing is that we change together and that the bonds that tie us together never die.”

“I understand.” She nodded, but she looked like she wanted to ask more.

“What is it?”

“I want to know… you mentioned you… well, one of you, went to Earth. Can we… can we return?”

“Yes,” I responded simply. “I can go back to Earth whenever I want to.”

All of the girls were now leaning forward with interest, and there wasn’t a single breath or whisper. This had probably been everyone’s greatest concern. Only Carmine, Bernice, and Garnet knew a bit more about the whole story.

“What happened on Earth? Will you be going back? W-will you take me?” Shao asked.

“Shao…” I looked at her uncertainly. “Are you certain you belong there?”

She lowered her head. She must have already figured out what I meant. She had heard the demon lord’s words too and had figured out what I meant.

“What does Master mean?” Celeste was a bit slower on the draw and whispered to her mother.

“Shao… may not even be from Earth,” Astria explained. “No, it’s very likely she was born here.”

Chapter 996

A human didn’t just magically turn into a demon. The logic was that simple. If Shao had come from Earth, then she would have had a human body like me. Instead, she had a demon body. More than that, she had the demon lord’s bloodline, allowing her to transform into a demon lord. Her body had just suddenly appeared one day in a random town on the border of the Imperial Cloud Meadow. This was far too random to be a coincidence.

“Can you say for certain that you remembered Earth before encountering me?” I asked a question I had been wanting to ask for a while.

She didn’t answer for a bit, but then she started to shake her head. “I… bits and pieces, but… what happened to me?”

“I can only guess.” I shrugged. “Perhaps, you were the daughter of the demon king that Aberis suggested. Something happened, and you lost your memory, appearing in that town. I had always wondered, given what you knew about Earth, you should have had some kind of info to leverage. Knowledge is power, and even a greedy person wouldn’t waste such knowledge just to throw you against monsters and men.”

“…”

“My guess is that with your mind an empty slate, you started from scratch. You had some flashes of that life, enough that you were caught off guard by me, but it wasn’t until I began to absorb your lifeforce and give you mine that we finally opened the floodgates. My memories unlocked all of your memories. That was the moment the true Shao was born. Before that, you were just a demon with amnesia who had no past fighting to survive.”

“So… even I am not me.” She said scornfully.

“No, weren’t you listening?” Lydia spoke up, causing the teary-eyed Shao to look over at her friend. “People change. You are Shao. You are my friend. You are Master’s woman, his lover, and his assassin. You’re beautiful, and you’re wonderful, and no matter what, you’re you.”

“Lydia…” She said, biting her lip.

“I love you, Shao,” I whispered in her ear. “All of you. We all do. So, don’t think that you’ve lost anything.  You found us, and we’re your family. I’m happy to bring you to Earth. I just want you to be prepared for the possibility that we can’t find your family. Those memories could have been from an Earth only similar to mine. The details you remembered were always blurry. Even things like what decade you lived in are hard for me to say. We don’t even know you’re original name, so finding your family, I’m not confident I can do it.”

“I understand, Master.” She wiped her cheeks and then smiled. “Thank you for being honest. I don’t know who I was, or where I came from, but I know I’m Master’s property. That is something constant. We may change, but I will always be Master’s. That’s good enough for me.”

“That may be good enough for her, but I noticed that you sidestepped the question here.” Elaya cut in, crossing her arms. “Shao’s identity is one thing, but I want to know why you seem to have no interest in returning home. Wasn’t that your original goal?”

I chuckled softly. It looked like I couldn’t pull the wool over their eyes. Well, it was fine if they knew the truth.

Chapter 997

“Most of you know this already, but in my old world, I didn’t exactly look like I look now.”

“Not true! Master was always sexy!” Lydia declared.

“Mmm! Mmm!” Miki nodded.

Lydia was the only one who had seen me how I looked when I first came here. I was fat and slovenly. I had lost a lot of weight by the time I met Miki, but I still wouldn’t say I was attractive. I hadn’t finished losing all the weight and put on muscles until about the time I met Terra. At that point, I probably had reached the level of being fit. Of course, that was still nothing to how I looked now. I still shot the girls an appreciative look and then continued.

“I didn’t have friends, and I wasn’t very popular either. The only one in that world that mattered to me was my mother. Simply speaking, I had no one else in that world that would have cared if I lived or died. Well, I had a cousin, but I was distant with her. She even refused to see me over the last year, so I was pretty sure she stopped seeing me like family. I also have an estranged half-sister, but she had no interest in me at all. She doesn’t even consider me family, so I don’t either.”

“Okay, but what about your mother.”

“She moved on.” I smiled sadly. “There is not much else to say about it. After crossing the country with Bernice, Carmine, and Garnet, I came to my old house. The yard was cut and she had done repairs on it that hadn’t been done for ten years. In fact, it looked better than I had ever seen it. So, did she.”

“You… saw your mother?”

“Mm…” I tried to make my smile look happy, but tears formed in my eyes. “She was happy. She has a new guy. Young. They were flirting happily. Then, I approached her…”

“Wh-what happened?” Miki asked, her eyes wide.

“She… um… she didn’t even recognize me. The guy accused me of being a scam-artist and then attacked me. I… defended myself. I guess I went a bit too far. I had trouble controlling my anger as Deek. The guy got hurt. You… should have seen the way she looked at me. She called me a monster. My mother didn’t recognize me, and she…” I stopped, tears falling down my eyes. “Well, that’s the past. I guess there really is no going back. I had no home on Earth.”

“Deek, I’m so sorry,” Lydia responded tearfully.

Most of the girls were crying.

“It’s fine…” I splashed water on my face. “I’m fine. She’s happy. She looked good. She looked better than I had ever seen her when I lived with her. The house is taken care of. Her life seems better off without me. She doesn’t need me there complicating her perfect life. Besides… I have you guys. You are my life.”

The girls all blushed at those words, a few taking the opportunity to bridge the distance between us. I felt flesh pressing against me from every side as the girls held me comfortingly.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Miki asked worriedly.

“Yeah… before we left, I took everything I thought might be useful. Books, tablets, technology, seeds, the works. I can always go in a few years and check up with her, but I have more important things to do here. One day, maybe I’ll return. It’s more of a comfort knowing no one is worried about me.”

I held my girls closely and slowly began to feel better. I didn’t like talking about that disaster, but I felt a bit better now that they all knew. I had dealt with the past. It was now time to worry about the future.

This is the end of Volume 12 for My Dungeon Life. The eBook is currently available for sale in my store, Amazon, and Smashwords.

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