Forbidden Tomboy 5 – Reclusive [Delicia POV]

Delicia opened her mouth and fished a small object from the tip of her tongue. It was bright blue and formed like a jelly bean. The consistency matched the candy as well, although alchemical procedures would see it harden to a solid pill soon enough. She held the small object up to what little bits of sunlight remained. It caught the UV-rays and was set alight.

“Urgh,” Delicia let out an annoyed sound. Human instincts suggested she drop the flaming object between her fingers. Fire Immunity stated she did not need to. Surface to surface transfer of thermal energy slightly impacted the integrity of her fingers. Regeneration took care of that quickly enough. A pain like that was nothing. “So annoying,” she groaned and crumbled the rest of the failed experiment between her fingers.

Experiments to create the perfect mutagen had run into yet another dead-end. The effects of the pills lasted considerably longer than most that Delicia had made, but what use was that when it was set alight by mild exposure to the sun?

‘Ah well, more things learned,’ Delicia thought and adjusted the various alchemical processes going on inside her to follow another line of theory. To find a mutagen that was both permanent in its effect and cheap to produce was a difficult task. That was what made it worthwhile. Really, the research was more about the research than reaching the goal. Perfection was too boring to be a desired end state.

Once she had figured out how to allow people to adjust their forms to their liking, she would just switch research to something else.

Delicia gave her fingertip a lick, tasting the remaining alchemical agents. A quick analysis of the elements absorbed in her body assured that she wasn’t leaving behind anything dangerous. Two steps brought her to one of the many channels that flowed through the Forbidden City. She quickly cleaned her fingers in the stream, then resumed her walk.

The immediate surroundings of Lulu’s private retreat had been cleared of people, but beyond that there were some. Bureaucrats worked behind open doors, clacking away at keyboards. The Mandate of Heaven had refused to integrate modern technology into their imperial bureaucracy for a long time, citing concerns about using such untested methods. A wise thing, Delicia had to admit, as the rise of technomancers caused a whole host of security issues unless carefully prepared for. What machines now were in use were connected to small intranets only. More important decrees were distributed via USB-stick in the first instance.

The second instance fell to the scribes. The Imperial Court City had a few of them, Lulu had explained at some point. Hand-written decrees were important not only because it created an additional layer of security, but also for the authenticity. People were supposed to know that every order that came from the Forbidden City was created by a human. Such was tradition in the Mandate of Heaven.

‘Super inefficient and unnecessary,’ Delicia thought. She could understand the impulse, but man, the additional man-hours put into every decree was staggering. They could send out one email across the entire county in minutes. Instead the Heavenly Jade Empress gave an order that bureaucrats then formulated into a decree that imperial scribes then made into a letter that was then copied by ministerial scribes that was then delivered to the clans and regions affected. One enter key or several hundred hours of work.

Also the materials that went into all of those scrolls.

Also the learning that went into one becoming an ink mage of sufficient skill to serve as a royal calligrapher.

‘So not worth it,’ Delicia thought and knowingly smirked at one of the bureaucrats she jiggled by. She resisted the urge to tease him for it. Even she knew that it would have been too bratty of her to annoy random people that checked her out. Attractive shortstacks in tight dresses drew in the male gaze, it was only natural. ‘They can’t help that people are just big monkeys,’ she told herself, smugly.

Beyond the limited people responsible for the execution and spread of the Heavenly Jade Empress’ will, there were the ladies-in-waiting. Delicia had met ten of them by now which, extrapolating density and their activities, meant there were likely about 50 in total. Their duties were tied to the various activities that the terracotta servants were too dull to execute. As simple golems, they had the advantage of being programmed with absolute loyalty but the disadvantage of having no capacities beyond their exact tasks given. Humans were necessary to either guide or do the work that fell outside blunt routines.

The ladies-in-waiting had been chosen for three things: cuteness, competence and covertness. The Heavenly Jade Empress needed these women for a variety of tasks beyond the simple maintenance of the imperial household. Information needed to be leaked in ways that looked like accidents and ways deliberate. Every lady-in-waiting was herself a noblewoman, sent to the Forbidden City as a representative of a clan, who then got picked up by the sovereign for one reason or another.

Delicia loathed it, if she was being honest. She disliked politics at the best of times, with all of the aggrandizements and meddling in other people’s problems. Court politics were a step up from regular politics, with all of the people that got their power not from merit but from birth. It created a bunch of morons with big heads and then there were the morons that followed those morons because that was easier than to make something new.

‘Didn’t keep a girl down though,’ Delicia thought, her smirk ever-present on her face. All the jabs and harassment during the academy years had amounted to nothing. She was the biggest thing in alchemy since the discovery of esoteric value and they were spoiled brats that would amount to nothing more than an entry in some family history.

Delicia was of the firm opinion that she had earned herself the right to be smug.

She continued to walk by one of the channels. Her goal was a library, any library, of which there were plenty within the Forbidden City. The inefficiency of the administrative capital was bothersome to Delicia’s core values on one side, on the other she had to once again acknowledge that it had its upside: entertainment.

The Forbidden City, in its many layers, was over three-thousand years old. It had been built, burned down, rebuilt, partially destroyed, rebuilt, renovated, plundered, forsaken, reinstated, renovated, destroyed, rebuilt, and renovated. The Mandate of Heaven’s focus on a creed of flexible traditionalism came with an equally odd view of ordered assumptions.

There was no grid structure to the Forbidden City, no fundamental idea behind the network of channels, roads, walls and gardens that separated the various complexes from each other. One could find that the quickest route to a neighbouring ministry took them through half the Forbidden City.

‘Jumping over walls is probably super against etiquette,’ Delicia thought, glancing at a nearby barrier. She considered for a long second, then turned a hard right to continue following the stream she had been going with this entire time. She had been walking for over twenty minutes and still had not left the Imperial Court City.

Delicia came across a fork in the channel. Water continued forwards, following a straightforward path in one direction. The other path took another sharp right turn, but ended after just a few metres at a lake, in turn located in front of a medium-sized building. Medium-sized by Forbidden City standards meant that it was the size of a four-family home, of course.

Intrigued by this half-hidden corner in a remote corner of an isolated area of the Forbidden City, Delicia decided to explore there first. She crossed over a wooden bridge to get over the channel. Carefully fitted stone tiles were replaced with grass and a simple cobblestone path, leading up to the three steps that led into the building.

Delicia knew she had come to the right place immediately. The scent of old paper filled the air past the wide-open folding door. There was a reception desk, but it was unmanned. A sign reading ‘Library of the Old Classics’, hung under the door. A date was attached. The calculation to translate the displayed number into the calendar the west used was simple enough for Delicia.

The building was well over 1300 years old. Delicia found that idea amusing, as it would have made the library older than Rex Germaniae. Old classics were not exactly what she was looking for, but it could not hurt to have a look around. Plenty of time to be had, after all.

The shortstack stepped into the building. “Hello?” she shouted out, just to make sure no one was getting surprised by her entering the actual library. The door was left leaning. A sign that the last person that had been in this building had not been very attentive. ‘Understatement of the century,’ Delicia thought, when she immediately spotted that person.

The woman was lounging in a beanbag larger than herself, her nose stuck so deep in a book that she had not yet noticed Delicia. Her ears must have been in it as well, considering she had not heard the alchemist’s approach. “Ooooh!” she made a surprised noise, flipped to the next page, and tilted forwards. Whatever the book was describing, it had her invested fully. Her black hair was short and bluntly cut, yet her bangs were long, creating a curtain in front of her face while she read.

She was a lady-in-waiting, that much her clothing made clear. The Chinese dress was black and tight, clinging to her curves like Delicia’s custom-tailored clothes did to her. The fabric stretched over her breasts, which were almost competition for Delicia’s own – but not quite. The rest of her figure was similar. A narrow waist, wide hips, and a short overall build. The meaty thighs were on practically open display, the short skirt of her gold-trimmed dress odd in combination with the high collar and long sleeves.

“Did someone cut off your pants and sew them to your sleeves?” Delicia asked, loudly.

“Wha-?! AH! Ouch!” The woman raised her head, saw Delicia standing there, jumped to her feet, stumbled and hit her elbow on a table. A stack of light boxes on it swayed dangerously. “Oh no, oh no-no-no!”

Delicia was happy that she was a superhuman above most superhumans at times like this.

Before the tower of boxes could topple over, the alchemist had stepped forwards and put her hands into the necessary places to give it stability. In such an isolated setting, Delicia did not care much if she came across as rude, so she lifted the boxes to check the contents.

She was greeted by the sight of two big dumplings with a side helping of kelp. Checking another box revealed sushi, not exactly a traditional Chinese dish, but the chosen meal anyway. Every one of the boxes contained food. There were a lot of boxes.

“Uhm, uh, that’s… that’s not all for me?” she stammered.

“Yeah, okay,” Delicia giggled, the doubt clear in her teasing voice, “and rocks aren’t made for cuddling.”

“I… are they?”

Delicia ignored the confusion of the woman, bowed down, and picked up the book that she had dropped during her flailing. “Lan Zhuang slammed his hand against the wall next to her,” she read out loudly. “’Have you missed me, my jade beauty?’ he asked, coolly. The maiden’s heart beat loudly in her chest and-“

“Aaaaaahh, stop, stop, stop, stooooooooooop!” the lady-in-waiting exclaimed and flailed around impotently. As she did, Delicia caught a glimpse of something unexpected.

The alchemist grabbed the fellow shortstack by the shoulders, stopping her movements. The grip succeeded in freezing her in place, more confused than ever. Now that she stood straight and still, Delicia could get an actual good look at the lady-in-waiting.

As much as they had in common, being short and stacked, there were plenty of differences. The black-haired woman was slightly taller. Her blunt bangs covered most of her eyes even while she was still. She was pale, but not outstandingly so. In comparison to Delicia, her figure was more balanced. The breasts were not quite as large, the waist not quite as narrow, the hips not quite as wide. She was more compact, all around. The biggest difference, however, Delicia could feel when squeezing the woman’s shoulders.

What she felt was quite firm.

The woman tensed up, showing rather defined abs under the clinging dress. ‘Stacked like a brickhouse,’ Delicia thought, respecting the grind. Noticing that she was getting checked out, the lady-in-waiting blushed intensely and retreated to the safety of her beanbag. “Why do you dress like that if you get this embarrassed from people staring?”

“S-skirts can be no longer than ten centimetres past the butt, by decree of the Heavenly Jade Empress!” the lady-in-waiting declared forcefully.

“What?! That’s hilarious and tyrannical! Bwahahahahaha!” Delicia burst out laughing and every second that the other shortstack spent shrinking away only made things funnier. Holding her stomach, the smug brat of an alchemist considered to let hear her amusement.

The lady-in-waiting gradually mustered some courage. “M-may I ask who you are?”

“Sure!” Delicia responded energetically. “Name is Delicia Poor, I am one of the haremettes of one John Newman. Little known name, not sure if it rings a bell.”

“Oh.” The sound of realization was hollow. “OH!” The sound of realization was loud. “M-m-my name is D-delicia- No that’s your name!”

“Bwahahahaha!” Delicia broke out into laughter again, smacking her thigh while the amusement ravaged her lungs. Somehow, despite being made from magically animated iron, she managed to laughing fit her way into a hiccup. “Try *hic* again.”

“Daiyu! I’m… I’m Daiyu,” the black-haired woman muttered and managed to get a direct look at Delicia in. Her irises were really difficult to see behind her long bangs. Were they entirely black as well?

“Oh, you’re the cute one Lu Zhi mentioned.”

“I am the… awawawawa…”

Daiyu’s head tilted to the side and stayed there.

Blinking a couple of times, Delicia stepped forwards and poked the woman’s cheek. Daiyu’s system rebooted, she jumped to her feet again, then stormed away, deeper into the building.

The entire time, Delicia laughed loudly.