Forbidden love (MGE harem fanfic)

Chapter 51: the war continues

Part 2: Victory or death

Two days later...

According to Sarah the demon realm hasn't been safer in years. She, her mother, and her sisters agreed to alter the incubus transformation so that those who were afraid or unsure wouldn't receive it. This way more humans interacted with monsters without feeling uncomfortable over the fact that they could lose their humanity.
After a few minor skirmishes the outer cities became human/monster territory. The reason for this was to make an area that both monsters and humans could live in, Sarah called it an equilibrium, once the order was gone for good the land would be split up, an area for humans specifically, an area for humans and monsters alike, and the demon realm which was originally designed to prevent wandering humans from reaching monster territory. Of course nothing stopped a person from leaving one area and entering another, but this whole system was about compromise, in the end her goal wasn't about assimilation, just peace. Those who feared that humans would go extinct had the ability to have mixed children, a chance for a human child and a chance for a monster child. This change would require a large amount of spirit energy and would be something significantly weaker, but still comparable, to what originally changed monsters in the first place. We sent what we wanted to the order and to no one's surprise they refused. What was interesting was that the neutral branch gave back a long response which was essentially a long and fancy way to say "I don't know." He seemed scared of something, I had gone back and looked at the other messages. Everyone besides the main powers didn't seem entirely onboard with their answer, Mori was pressuring them. This was confirmed when we got a message from Mori that basically stated that everyone who was helped by a being who was once dead was a target. He said that if we sent those who he knew were originally dead to him, he would spare those he deemed guilty of escaping death. He also made it very clear that if I gave myself up I would be jailed instead of killed and one monster on his list would be spared. Needless to say I quite literally cut that part out of the letter and kept it as a "Reverse-Card" of sorts.
I was out late one night when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see the woman who had almost killed me after mistaking me for a soldier.

"Nice to see that you're not dead, that would've been a real shame." She said.

"Funny, considering the fact that you were the first person to try and off me that day." I replied.

"That was a mistake!"

"And I still have a scar over that eye."

The girl sighed. She pulled out and cracked her whip against my arm. Unlike a normal dark elf, her attack caused harm, however, the result was pleasure instead of pain. The shock that this caused, caused me to kneel down.'

"You have a lot to learn before you're ready to handle me, but for now..." She learned down and kissed my forehead before disappearing into a cloud of purple mist.

I continued to walk with the thought of that elf still in my mind. It was strange, she was able to manipulate the properties of demon metal in order to inflict pain or pleasure, but also had the ability to use magic that isn't even close to what their species is known to use.
I was forced from my thoughts when I heard a noise that sounded like a mixture of hiccups and sobs.

"S-Sir, we need help!" Cried a voice. I turned to see a holstaur covered in blood. I let out a gasp of surprise and asked what happened. She shakily pointed to a shivering body on the ground. I hurried over to it and found that it was a harpy. There was an arrow in her wing, but that must have caused her to fall because there wasn't any other wounds that a human could cause out here. Her other with was bent and her talons had also bent. She was covered in scratches and open wounds that would suggest that she had hit the ground and slid, knowing how fast harpies flew, she was lucky to have not become one with the ground. She was bleeding profusely and I could tell that she had broken ribs based off of how much she struggled to breathe and certain areas on her chest seemed malformed and had much more bruising then most other places on her body.
Even if I had the ability to, healing her wouldn't bring her back to her normal self, she would suffer for the rest of her life; that was if she survived long enough for the healing magic to work.
She let out a strangled cry and I moved closer and sat by her. I laid her head on my lap and stroked her hair gently. Eventually her tears slowed down and became quiet. Her emerald eyes slowly closed and she became still.
I laid her body on the ground and turned towards the holstaur who held her face in her hands. She was whispering something, it seemed to me that it was mindless mumbling but I knew that it meant something to her, this harpy was definitely important to the holstaur. I placed a hand on her shoulder and she wrapped her arms around me.

"S-She wanted to be a hero, that's why she brought me to the demon realm, she knew that if I found you I would be safe... b-but... she... do you think that she died... a hero?" The holstaur asked.

The fact that she knew who I was wasn't a surprise, but the fact that a harpy flew from at least one of the middle territories to here was unsettling. The middle territories were home to the worst monster facilities as the hierarchy of the order was the outer territories were for surveillance, the core territories were for middle and upper class citizens, these core territories had laws for most monsters to be killed on sight, and the middle territories are where most of the holding facilities are. Since we had control of the outer territories and the holstaur wasn't gunned down when she left the core territory farms, that would mean that she had to be from the middle territories.

I nodded in response to her question. I spent the next hour with her arms wrapped around me and in that hour I noticed that her skin was freezing and that she was shivering, which was hard to notice because of her occasional sobs. Eventually I went to stand up and found that the force that I used to pick her up was almost enough to make me lose balance since she was super light. When I made it back to the castle, I told Artemis about the harpy and she seemed to understand the situation because she didn't spend time teasing me like she used to.
I brought the holstaur inside and Sarah appeared at my side.

"What happened to her?" She asked.

"I think she came from one of the cities in the middle territories, a harpy brought her here but she was hit with an arrow and was mortally wounded." I answered.

Sarah took a quick look at her and let out a sigh.

"The poor thing's been starved for quite some time, a cup size under E is abnormal for a holstaur. Malnutrition might have played a part in this." Sarah said.

"You can determine this just by looking at her breasts?" I asked.

"I'm a monster princess, I need to know these things. I can also see that she has Chills which may mean any number of illnesses, god knows what the order did to her." Sarah stated.

"How much longer until we prepare for the next battle?" I asked.

"Calm down, Y/N, why don't you make sure we don't lose this holstaur first, and besides, it's only been a week and a half since you came back."

I nodded in agreement.

I decided to take the holstaur to my room since I didn't know where else to put her. When I put her down she was already asleep so I decided to use some of my magic to ease her pain so that it wouldn't wake her up. I laid by her side and just watched her. Even while she slept she seemed so... sad. Something about her just had this negative aura which I haven't felt since I first met Hana. If I could help Hana I can help this holstaur, at least that way the harpy wouldn't have died for nothing.