What!???

Aster pulled herself up from the ground with an incredulous face and exploded, "this king of yours, is there something wrong with him? It wasn’t like I’ve pissed on his father’s grave or something. Why does he have to kill me? We are literally from two different worlds!"

She felt mostly mistreated, and outrageous!

"You need to calm down for a bit, the thing is... let me explain what he’s done..."

Aster made a gesture to interrupt, "wait, before you start, tell me, who are you?"

"Oh, my name is Herald Grant, servant of his majesty."

"Herald Grant..." Aster murmured, and implied him to continue.

Herald Grant then continued in a high spirit and even with light in his eyes. But before that, he waved his hand in the air and maneuvered something above their heads. That was not done, he approached and whispered into her ear, "he himself was at the end of his wits you know, you are so not lucky. You swallowed the spirit essence he’d lost in your temporary human world, only by killing you could he take it back. So, you see, that’s pretty much of the matter now."

"What? Are you kidding me!" Aster couldn’t believe what she’d heard, she pushed Grant away and yelled, "what spirit essence? I don’t think I've ever had that! Had I accidentally swallowed, it would have become shit! It could not be still in me! He should look into the sewage, not in me, I’m innocent!"

"Shush! You keep it down! If some ill-minded monsters eavesdropped the news, his majesty will not be the only one who wants you dead!"

"No, you let go of me!"

Aster grabbed his hand on her mouth and pulled away, asked doubtfully, "is there any chance that he’s mistaken?"

"I wouldn’t say so," Herald shook his head, "you are still human, but you are immortal now, that’s because you have his spirit essence in you. Now try to recall, have you noticed that your face has never changed a bit in the past few years? Never caught a cold even?"

Aster froze, and couldn’t find a word.

Herald spit the grass-stalk out, and patted her shoulders, "there’s nothing we can do now. You are doomed!"

"But...but I don’t want to die!" Aster couldn’t take it, she felt like that god had done her the greatest injustice. She begged this red haired Herald with the one slightest hope, "you... you had persuaded him out of the idea of killing me, could you try it again?"

"I’m no more than a humble servant! He listened only because I was talking about the basic rules of no interference in human world. You are brought by him into this monsters ruling Grand Monde Desmonstres, He wouldn’t listen to me!"

Aster was defeated, tears streaming down.

"Even though I’d eaten that stupid spirit essence, could I... could I return it in another way? Find me some laxatives! Why does the process have to be so bloody?"

"Hey, don’t cry! There’s a way actually. But I doubt it if you two would do it."

"What way?" A flash of hope lighted Aster’s eyes.

Herald picked up another stalk and put it in his mouth, "you give his majesty a baby. The baby will carry the spirit essence with it. That’s the only way."

Give birth to a baby?

Aster felt her brain was opened, cold whistling wind was blowing in.

"Anyway, eve if you agree, he doesn’t seem interested in you. He knew this solution from the very beginning, but he’s never even thought about it. Because he has no interest in you..." After he’d assured of Aster with the ultimate death penalty, he winced and sighed, "I think you would make a great queen! The king is old enough to take a queen, for heirs. However, what a shame that he sees only his throne rather than women or love..."

Jesus Chris!

What has god prepared for her? What the hell is it?

"Then I guess that's it, I should get going."

What?

Go?

Leave her like this?

She thought he was her life saver, but it turned out he was just delivering the horrible message.

Aster grabbed at his sleeves, "No! You can’t leave! What about me? Where is this place?" Aster had a hunch that she would be taken as a feast at once by some monster passenger.

Herald seemed to understand her concern; he patted her shoulder and comforted, "Don’t worry. The tree monsters earlier were just an accident! I’ll let the dragons exhale the mists. Make no sound and you won’t be discovered, generally. Unless you want a quick one, you can shout as you like. That will attract all the monsters nearby, they would very like to have a taste of a human being!"

"In that case, your king’s spirit essence would be taken by a monster. Is that what he wants?"

"No way, these little monsters can’t touch you. You can rest assured. They couldn’t eat you, or take you away."

"Then why did you tell me to shout?"

"That was for his majesty! It would be great satisfaction of revenge for him to see you scared the crap out, in that case, he wouldn’t want to save you life for any longer, and give you a quick one for sure. If you don’t shout, you can wait here and starve yourself to death.

Starving to death is miserable too, to the extent where you can’t think straight, the king can spare no effort to take back his spirit essence." Herald loosened his sleeve from Aster, and sighed, "see, our king is not a good-tempered one, tit for tat for sure, no room for argument. As a man, he does not have the generous forgiving spirit in him..."

He turned as he finished and waved his hand with his back to her, "That’s it, you stay here and wait for you destiny. I really should get going. Got a load of business!"

"No! Wait!" Aster sprang to her feet, grabbed and clutched his robe; she closed her eyes and gnashed, and growled in grievance, "I will give your king a child!!! I... I will let him leave his work aside for a while, and fall in love! Would you help me with that?"

Herald darted a glance over his shoulder at her and turned, eyes sparkling, "For real?"

Kidding?

It’s called stalling tactics!