Perched atop her throne Lucilla watched the middle-aged hunter enter the chamber, seemingly walking through a solid wall. Like she's seen countless times already, the recently deceased observed their surroundings in confusion before noticing Lucilla. Then would either get angry, defensive, or scared.
She's learned to ignore their pointless actions as she looked deep into their souls. She could see everything, even their most recent moments before their deaths. After going through this process for so long Lucilla has grown tired from the tediousness of her duties.
'I now understand why Ovana always need those weeklong breaks.' Lucilla thought standing from her throne.
She walked over to the hunter and met them at the sand pile. She didn't even have to threaten him like she would others. Seems as if this man could sense the difference in power between them, which satisfied Lucilla. Once she walked him through the sand ritual and led him to the portal gate, he needed to go through she returned to her throne and sat down once again.
"Man, this is boring...." She said listlessly slouching in the throne.
Reaching into her pocket she took out a small bag of sweats. Opening the bag, she took out a small caramel and tossed into her mouth. While letting the small square of caramel to melt slightly in her mouth she reached out for more documents on the table beside her. When she felt nothing but the hard black surface of the tabletop, she couldn't help but do a double take.
"Did I not grab a lot today? Guess I'll have to head to my office for more." She muttered to herself starting to stand up again.
"Looks like you finished a couple of weeks early." Said the distinct voice of Ovana. "My you've been very busy, all work, little rest."
Lucilla turned her head to her left, finding the shrunken down Goddess beside her. The Chamber was large, but not big enough to fit the seven and a half meter tall Goddess inside it. Far too tired to care, the silver haired woman sat back down with a sigh.
"What does that mean for me?" Asked Lucilla. "Are you going assign me a new task? Or are you going to give me a new list of people to judge?"
"Nope. I think you've earned your rest." Ovana said with a smile. "Plus, didn't you just spend the past two days working without sleep?"
Lucilla looked at her incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
"You didn't notice? Well not that it matters." Her Goddess said with a wave of her hand as if to swat the topic away. "I'm just here to tell you to enjoy your break time here."
For the first time in hundreds of years Lucilla gave a genuine smile of gratitude towards her Goddess. "I thank you Miss Ovana."
"I'm happy to give you this small gift." Ovana said warmly seeing her proxy smile, even if it looked more like a cruel smirk than anything else.
Grabbing the twins who were once again turned into a scythe, Lucilla stood from her throne. With one last thanks to her Goddess, she walked towards the door behind the black throne and opened it. She was tired, and the empty bed in her apartment was calling for her.
___________________
Sitting on a couch and reading a book, the crimsoned eyed woman sipped on her tea peacefully. She was reading a textbook on Magical Engineering even though she wouldn't be able to apply what she learned in a practical setting any time soon. That didn't stop her however, she hoped to attend one of the institutions located in the Altaira Empire and having a base knowledge of this subject would help her later.
*Yawn*
Feeling sleepy from lazing around all day, Lucilla closed her textbook and went over to the kitchen with her empty cup of tea. Opening the fridge, she pulled out some meat, condiments, and fresh veggies to make a sandwich. She didn't know where all this food came from, and she didn't question it in case she didn't like the answer. She also pulled four slices of bread from the pantry planning to make two sandwiches.
After getting all of her sandwich ingredients together Lucilla filled her kettle with water and set on the stove to heat up. While she waited for the water to become sufficiently hot enough to make more tea, she turned her attention back to her unmade sandwich. Now making who lunch the silver haired womans mind wandered.
These past few days have been the longest she's ever went being completely alone. Even the twins weren't available to speak with, still asleep after their most recent transformation. Even though it's only been a few days since she's been given this week, Lucilla has come to a conclusion. She hated the isolation.
Pausing her current task, Lucilla reached into one of her coats pockets and pulled out Morella's drawing. Weirdly enough, despite still dealing with her blood-stained hands even after all these years, only Morella's didn't get stained by the white blood. Not counting Anastasia of course.
"I miss them." Lucilla mumbled to herself, folding the drawing and putting it back into her pocket.
-- -- --
"Not again...."
One thing Lucilla didn't expect to happen with her sudden free time was her anger going out of control. She looked down at the smoldering blanket in exasperation, unsure as to why this happened. Whenever she found herself sitting still for long periods of time, she would notice that she'll accidently catch things on fire.
"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do this." She said as the wooden floor under her feet started to burn. "Tch, what in the flames of creation do I have to do to stop this."
Growling in frustration because she had to wake up to a sudden fire, and her anger at the situation only making things. Using her magic to create a thin layer of ice under her feet to combat the fire, Lucilla stalked off towards the bathroom to run a cold shower over herself till she cooled off. She needed something to do.
This extended period of time off has been unexpectedly difficult for her to deal with. "I honestly preferred my time guarding the gates out of Athrem." She said after entering the bathroom.
After stripping down to her underwear she stepped into the tub and turned on the shower, the cold water falling atop of her. Yet when the water touched her skin in started to steam from the heat. Sitting down and closing her eyes, Lucilla meditated, focus on circulating her mana imbued with the water element through her body.
'Calming thoughts, calming thought.' Lucilla chanted in her head as she thought about Anastasia.
After a few minutes the crimsoned eyed monster woman cooled off enough to feel the ice-cold water raining down on her. Turning off the show she stepped out of the bathroom still drenched. She figured keeping her temperature low for as long as possible was for the best. Heading back to her room, with a new blanket in hand, she once again attempted to sleep in her bed.
'I'll be back in the mortal realm soon. Just a little longer.' She told herself as she drifted off to sleep.