Pope Pug

VTT, Chapter 1.

Please note that the synopsis and title is still tentative. I do hope to hear your thoughts on this !

Title: Villainess of Tangled Tragedies

Synopsis:

She always knew that Celestia von Reingarde was never meant to matter. In the pages of Tower of the End, Celestia was nothing more than a petty villainess, a spoiled noble girl with sharp eyes and crimson pupils, remembered only for bullying a shy healer until the “h...

PJ B2, Chapter 67.

The sky was still dim when Sali was sitting on the floor in her room. The morning bell had not yet rung. 

She sat with her legs folded, back straight, and closed her eyes. Her lips were pressed together in focus, and she drew a long, steady breath.

I sat behind her on a stool. One paw rested lightly against her back.

Her shoulders rose and fell with each inhale and exhale. For a while, she was calm. I pressed my paw firmer and began to push a fine strand of Qi into her ...

News (2)

It's been a day and the poll's showing a clear winner.

I'll now be posting a chapter every 1-2 days!

Also, to get out of my writer's block rut, I wrote a chapter of an entirely different story, one that I intend to release on RR in the far future. I'll be posting it here under the title Villainess of Tangled Tragedies (VTT), so you all can beta-read it. I do hope to hear your thoughts on it!

News!

Hi everyone! I apologize for the lack of posts these past few days. I've caught the flu going around the city, and then I was hit by a bad case of writer's block.

Anyways, I'm back! I think I should've actually told everyone why I wasn't posting, but it just flew right over my head at the time.

Sorry!

I'll do so next time if something happens again.

Now, onto the more important stuff. In the next month, I was thinking of lowering my release rate on Royalroad to 3/week...

PJ B2, Chapter 66.

The city called the Adventurer’s Guild was larger than I had imagined. It was a large city built around the guild, for the guild, and because of the guild.

From the moment we stepped past the guildhouse, it was clear this place wasn’t built like an ordinary city. Streets were wide, laid out in long lines meant to carry not just people but the flow of work that kept the dungeons running. 

Multiple banners hung from stone towers, their crests marking every district.

T...

PJ B2, Chapter 65

Sarah spun in time to see him pinned. She pressed her blade to his cheek. “Stay down,” she said coldly.

She kept her sword pressed to the cheek of the man I had dropped. Her eyes stayed fixed, cold and steady.

“Why her?” she demanded. “Why did you go for her neck?”

The man kept still beneath me. His breath came hard, but he didn’t speak.

“You had dozens of targets,” Sarah pressed. “You ignored them. You came straight for her. Why?”

The fight...

PJ B2, Chapter 64

People tried to back away from the vestibule and ended up pushing closer. Shoulders knocked together. A few tried to turn sideways to squeeze past, but the aisle locked up tighter. Nobody wanted to be near the body, but nobody could get out either.

I stayed by Sali. Her grip on the bow case had not eased since the scream. She was stiff all over, eyes too wide. 

The rest of the car wasn’t better. Two men started a pointless argument over who shoved first. A woman tore her ho...

PJ B2, Chapter 63.

The train rattled on, stopping at a few towns along the way. Each time, the brakes squealed and the doors opened, more people boarded. I caught the flash of bronze tags as more men and women climbed into the cars. By the ninth stop, I counted at least seven cities’ worth of entrants scattered through the car. Thirty or forty tags, plus a few companions..

A few of them kept to themselves. But the majority shared a conversation with those who they knew. 

Sarah was the first t...

PJ B2, Chapter 62.

Sali stepped through the gate when the marshal nodded. The roar from the stands hit us like a wall, but I was ready for it this time. I was small again, heavy with food and sleep, tucked against her chest. She carried me into the light.

At the center, the other winners made room. Sali slipped into the line beside a tall, broad-shouldered man who gave her a brief nod. The five of them stood together: Sali and four unfamiliar fighters who had worked their way through the provincial bracke...

PJ (Pug's Journey) B2, Chapter 61.

For a split second, the only sound was my own ragged breathing, then a thunderous cheer erupted like a wave crashing over us. 

Above the roaring crowd, the marshal-announcer’s voice boomed, “Winner: Sali, the Beasttamer!” His words echoed off the entire area, and a second round of cheers surged. 

Truth be told, I couldn’t care less about the result at the moment. 

Gerald laid face-up in the dirt a few paces away, utterly unconscious and mouth frothing....

PJ (Pug's Journey) B2, Chapter 60.

“Rinvara?” I spat out, still choking on my food. 

“Here.” Sali showed me the newspaper page.

I read the line again to be sure I wasn’t wrong. The paper was clear enough: a Sunmire delegation visiting the Adventurer’s Guild to thank the noblewoman who sponsored the medicine wards and to discuss future plans. The list of names included the Sunmire Southern Saintess, Rava. 

She chose a name just a few letters cut from her own. 

Our last contact ...

PJ (Pug's Journey) B2, Chapter 59.

Godbeasts progressed faster in the early stages than humans. That much had become obvious over the years. It wasn’t about talent or external resources. Our bodies simply didn’t resist change the same way humans did. 

Mother Aurelith proved that. Even in her short life, barely fifty years long, she reached Lower Phase-0. If she'd lived longer, she might have gone far further. But even with time cut short, she crossed the threshold. That was all the proof I needed.

Twelve y...

PJ (Pug's Journey) B2 Chapter 58.

Sali told me that she wanted to join the provincial tournament. She called it “good practice against people.” 

Then I agreed. It was safe since she needed to be able to do proper combat where medics and healers stood close. And since I was here, there was enough assurance that nothing would happen to her.

We’ve lived quietly since Sunmire, since our parting with Rinvara at the Southern border. 

Work, rest, and short contracts under the Guild’s eye. We plann...

PJ (Pug's Journey) B2, Chapter 57.

Book 2. Third Life.

They called it the central continent. Maps printed the name as such, and merchants spoke it with pride. In truth, the landmass was only a little larger than Sunmire. 

But what truly mattered was not size, but function. This was the land of dungeons and those who made a living from them.

To the southeast lay Elantris, where religion argued with one another across battlefields already tired of war. To the north, the barren lands of Fro...

Chapter 56.

I suppose I should have expected it. Every peace was temporary. This time, my fate arrived in the form of Sali’s mother, who had found me mid-groom in the abandoned cottage. I barely had time to compose myself.

So, that’s how it happened. I was a captive now.

I was swept up, quite literally, by a pair of surprisingly gentle hands and carried off through the dusk like some errant pet. The indignity was almost impressive. 

“U-Unhand me, elven woman!” I squeaked, v...

Chapter 55.

A week. That’s how long I’ve spent in this ruined cottage, listening to elven children squabble and watching dust drift through a hole in the roof. 

The wound on my shoulder is sealed, an ugly scab beneath my black fur. My paw aches only at night now. Most of the days, I just sleep. When I’m awake, I eat—always enough, sometimes more than I should. Thankfully, the children make certain of that by bringing me plenty of meat.

It took three days before I could stand with...

Chapter 54.

She didn’t bother with any greeting. “Are you really a spirit?” she whispered, eyes wide in the gloom.

I ignored the question. My stomach growled. “Meat,” I said, my voice cutesy-hoarse. “If you want me to talk, I need food. Real food.”

She scrambled up at once, scurrying away into the darkness. I listened as she opened and closed things—baskets, a small cabinet. She returned a minute later, holding a wooden plate with a handful of strips: thin, salty, smoked meat....

Chapter 53.

Death stopped making men talk. But pain and fear opened their mouths. Slow pain, drawn out until it crossed the line between pride and self-preservation.

It was the youngest hijacker who broke. He was shaking so badly he could barely hold up his hands. He had a bruise blooming across his jaw and tears streaking the blood on his cheek.

“W-we were hired,” he stammered. “Didn’t know who at first. I-It came through the blackmarket handlers. Someone put out a bounty, and the jo...

Chapter 52.

The events of last night ended quickly. Quicker than I would have liked. The assassins were skilled, but their understanding of what I was capable of was quite shallow. 

They died before I could even get answers: Two from crushed throats, but the other two by their own hand. Poison, hidden under their tongues. I’d pinned the leader down, demanding names, but she only smiled. Then blood dripped from both of their mouths, and their eyes rolled back. By the time the guards arrived, ...

Chapter 51.

I woke up with my tongue lolling out and my jaw sore from sleeping at the wrong angle. 

The room was bright, and the quality of the afternoon light was already different from Sumire’s dawn masses. I didn’t miss waking up that early at all. 

Someone was shaking me awake, careful but persistent. I lifted my head and squinted at the figure beside me. She was one of my attendants, looking just a bit nervous.

“Your Reverence,” she said, “Please forgive my intr...

Chapter 50.

“Disrespectful. You mirror your prince.” My voice echoed in the arena, and for a moment, even the crowd forgot to breathe. 

Verian’s expression changed, a hint of surprise now.

I moved before he could recover. My right paw swung through the air with Claw Intent. 

Qi gathered along my digits. And I aimed for the man’s chest, intending to just graze a layer of his skin and end the fight immediately.

Verian reacted faster than I expected. He drew a sharp...

Chapter 49.

No one moved. Nobles, guards, attendants, all of them stared. Most didn’t look at me. They looked at Aron, at the possibility of disaster.

Aron was shaking, barely steady on his feet. His hand seized a glass from the banquet table and hurled it at the ground. It shattered near his feet. 

He pointed at me, his voice clear from the other end of the chamber. “This is what Sunmire calls a Godbeast? You dress him up and pretend he’s divine. You bring him here and let him sit...

Chapter 48.

The tailors had outdone themselves. 

Within three days, they presented an outfit that surpassed even my expectations. 

It was grand, carefully designed, and made to fit me perfectly. The main robes were pure white, embroidered meticulously with threads of gold that depicted Sunmire’s crest—a blazing sun surrounded by five rays. 

It was the kind of attire a pope might wear, formal and authoritative, designed specifically for the shape of a Godbeast.

O...

Chapter 47.

“This is the Trickster’s Glass,” she said, finally. “It’s Grade-2 Artifact capable of fooling dungeons.”

‘Grade-2? Is that some sort of classification her organization uses?’

My gaze stayed on the mirror, though I watched her just as closely. Her tone had shifted back into control, and that made me pay attention more than anything else. The version of her that had cried a moment ago was gone. In its place stood a woman who had already made a decision.

Chapter 46.

Torchlight wavered in the throne hall’s stale air as I stared her down. 

Water still ran in slow droplets from my matted fur, forming dark pools around my paws. 

Bone fragments littered around us, the last insult to the dignity of the Forgotten King. I heard pieces of what she said. 

At the foot of the dais stood Aephelia. 

My breathing was slow and controlled, but the rage was there. 

The water hadn’t come from nowhere. She was the o...

Chapter 45.

I was in heaven. Or at least, my taste buds thought they were. 

With a blissful snarl, I clenched down harder, feeling the bone crunch satisfyingly between my jaws. 

A cloud of age-old dust puffed out from the crack in the marrow. It wasn’t exactly the juicy treat of my dreams, but beggars can’t be choosers. 

And I, apparently, couldn’t be stopped.

“Unhand me, you vile beast! I demand a death of dignity!” the skeleton hollered. 

Hard...

Chapter 44.

I stepped through the wide doorway past the now-broken large statue. Its pieces were scattered across the floor—stone limbs, cracked joints, and a ruined paw that had split down the center. 

It actually kind of helped.

Not completely, though. But just enough to loosen something tight in my chest. I wasn’t that mentally frustrated anymore, but still physically tired. 

I stretched my limbs as I passed through, paused to yawn once, then kept walking. 

I...

Chapter 43.

I stood beneath the stone arch again. It was the same one. 

Same shape, same height. I circled it twice just to be sure. All of it matched.

I’d come back here.

No doubt now.

Just to rule out my own error, I marked the sand near the arch by dragging a claw in a straight line. Then I picked a new direction; one I hadn’t taken before, one where my earlier pawprints hadn’t touched. 

I made sure of it. I paced out a wide arc and scanned for any overlap...

Chapter 42.

“This is the Tidemother’s Embrace,” King Ormund said as he lifted the necklace from its case. He stepped down from the dais until he stood directly before me. Slowly, he presented it to me.

He held the necklace out in both hands. “An artifact found in one of our dungeons. It allows the wearer to breathe underwater and withstand pressure at depth. We offer it as an apology. May it serve you in what lies ahead.”

I inclined my head and allowed him to place the chain around ...

Chapter 41.

Thankfully, they’d assigned me two attendants.

They handled the endless parchment and seals, the bland meals wrapped in silk napkins, the accommodations at Kethra. They’d even rehearsed the words they would use to introduce me to the waiting delegation.

I ignored them.

It was easier this way. After all, I knew that they weren’t here to serve me. They were here to manage me.

The airship tilted slightly as it began its descent. From the cabin’s narrow porthole, I...