Chapter 19: 16: Trust

I kind of leveled a lot. Could it have been help from the Goddess of Growth? I have been giving her small prayers every day, perhaps she answered. There's also what seems to be a boost to the first few kills of a new type of monster, the same thing happened with the goblins at Royd's Kerfuffle. Or is it just diminishing returns? Perhaps it's an anti-grind mechanic. It's all just speculation, I got nothing.

We wait a little longer and a squad of soldiers appear, they look winded but capable of fighting, they are here to hold the area and replace us. Soon the townspeople will be let out to recover the corpses of every wyvern killed. We will receive a bonus for each proof we bring but the price of wyvern ingredients will fall drastically so even if we bring all corpses the extra money isn't that great.

There are still hunters inside town patrolling, a few wyverns decided to fly over town so they helped keep the town safe. The town is still silent and the populace is slowly coming out of their homes.

With that everyone goes into the bath, except for Ciel and Lina. I'm feeling a little bad about them but they got magic tools to warm themselves so it will be fine. Alissa gets clingy during the bath, she's getting a bit too overprotective, which just makes me feel bad because I think I'm even worse.

Too tired to make a proper meal we just eat a lot of meat with bread.

"Let me just say, I'm glad you are all here. This was a tough fight, but we survived, we succeeded and I'm very proud to fight alongside you all," I say and lift my cup for a toast.

"Awn..." Roxanne tilts her head.

Alissa sniffles and Hana gives me a bear hug.

"I'm glad I decided to join," Ciel says.

"I'm glad you are my master," Lina says.

"Now… what are you doing?" Alissa asks.

After surviving the bear hug I kept my cup raised waiting for the others.

"Erm… a toast?

"What? Bread?" Alissa tilts her head in confusion, cute.

"No, uhm… here, in my homeland we celebrate by hitting the sides of our cups to make noise," I grab her cup and mimick a toast, "Then we go like this and say 'cheers'!"

"Ooooh, a 'Brother's Pledge'," says Lina.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Dwarven warriors hit their cups together and share their beer before a battle. This is a pledge that since they will spill blood together soon they might as well share alcohol too."

"Curious, it's somehow similar," I say.

"Well then, cheers!" Hana says and we clink our cups.

We leave Aoi home with Hana and go to the university, the rain is very light so we just use a simple cloak. I'm not tired enough to skip classes and Lina is excited to enter the library. The problem is riding Alissa along with Lina, I have to hug her and she fits perfectly between my arms. This is quite stimulating.

I enter the class feeling a little more tired than when I left home. I sit down on my chair and touch my ribs, the discomfort is still there. Healing magic leaves your body confused after you use it so you can still get some discomfort and reduced performance for a while even if you are perfectly healthy.

"Oh, Ryder! You are here! Aren't you supposed to be fighting?" Lyle asks as he enters the room.

"What are you talking about the battle ended a few hours ago."

"Is that so? Father had me locked in the room all day so I have no idea what happened," he says and scratches his cheek shyly.

Wow, I can actually imagine him running out to try out his lightning on the wyverns.

"What position were you in? Did you see grandpa's magic? Did you see the Dragon's Bane? Did you see the army fight? What about the other fellowships, did you see who had position one?" He rushes towards my desk.

"Jesus, calm down. One question at a time."

The entire class starts murmuring.

"Erm, who's Jesus?"

"Reference from my homeland, ignore it… Anyway, I was position three, east side."

"What?!" This time its Garanae who's surprised.

"Ah, you said 'grandpa', so it was he who used [Thunder Strike]?"

"Yes! Tell me how it was!" He's like a child at Christmas.

Suddenly there's a circle of students around me waiting to hear the story.

"Oh, what's with this commotion," says professor Ludwick, he just arrived.

"Professor! Ryder fought at position three!" Says a random student.

Save me!

"Wonderful! Tell us how it went!" The professor smiles widely and floats towards us.

Seriously!

After a distraction class resumes as usual. Today we will have a group learning session about [Item Box], we will use the method of staying close to someone who knows the spell and observing how his mana behaves. This method is easier if you don't know the theory of how the spell works. [Item Box] has a chant but it's like trying to sing a song on a language you don't know, you are just going to butcher the chanting. Learning with this method also cuts the need for a chant.

We push back the desks and gather in a circle around the professor, everyone here should have enough levels in [Sense Mana] that we don't need to hug him to observe the spell. I feel a little sad though, for some reason this cute little old man is very hugable.

As expected half the class pass with no one acquiring the skill. I kept quiet the entire time since people already saw me use "Items" but no one seems to remember. Possibly because "Items" uses no mana and so nobody paid attention when I used it.

We sit by the usual spot at the buffet. It seems Garanae is acquiring some respect for me after he heard of my battle with the wyverns. He's still someone who never saw real combat and while we are (on the outside) at the same age I'm already the town hero with plenty of notches on my experience belt. His family is rather protective of him as the sole child with combat prowess, but then again, neither Lyle or Hatara has experience in battle. I kind of understand their family's reasoning, Rabanara is a rather ruthless place to live so they are only going to fight after they finish their courses.

After a few minutes of talking Lina finally appears.

"This is Lina, my newest slave."

She bows and sits and I introduce the others to her. Alissa pushes a plate with cookies for her and gives her a strong gaze. Lina is likely to not eat anything in front of these nobles so I guess she needs a little push.

"Another?!" Garanae erupts. His respect for me waves goodbye, it was short but we had a good time.

"She's just a slave, I'm having her read books at the library and soon I will get someone to teach her enchanting, hopefully."

Lina was confused at Garanae's outburst but now she's perking her ears to my statement.

"Still, another woman! How many are you gonna have around you until you are satisfied?!"

I shrug, Lyle sighs, Hatara squeezes his arm but he does not notice.

"I actually never went after any of the women around me, we just met and they decided to love me."

"That's... shameful!" He stands up and looks down on us, "That's not how love should be, love is dedicating yourself fully to another person. How can you say you are giving all your heart to Miss Alissa when you have to cut it into pieces to any woman that approaches you. The Goddess of Love would be disappointed."

Lina clenches her fist and her face muscles twitch, she's struggling to keep her poker face. A slave shouldn't argue with a noble, though it would please me if she did.

"I have a blessing… from the Goddess of Love," Alissa says in a chipper tone.

Garanae's mouth hangs open.

"You lie," he finally lets it out.

"I do not. You can check at the temple, we verified it there and told them how I got it. Perhaps they can even tell you the story if you are oh, so curious," Alissa says with poison on her tongue.

Hatara finally manages to push him down. Garanae seems to be lost for words. He finally makes his mind and leaves silently, seemingly stunned. Hatara follows him close.

"I apologize on his behalf, Mr. Ryder, his family is very pious and takes pride in that," Lyle says with a small nod.

"No offense taken, we just have an irreconcilable difference on morals. I really don't think he's very knowledgeable, he's just repeating what he learned. But what about you? Do you share his opinion or will you have a harem of your own? If your grandfather is a powerful court mage then there might be a wide number of women that would be pleased to marry you."

"I… well, this is… something…

"Let me tell you that there's nothing better than waking up surrounded by women, especially when one wakes you up using her mouth," I smirk.

"Wha, mou, huh, wake, dic-, hah…"

Lyle broke. He gets up.

"See, uh, see you l-later, Mr. Ryder…"

"See you later, Mr. Rizek."

Lyle leaves with robotic movements. Lina is blushing.

"See, little Lina, your master is a proper sadist, even his friends aren't safe from his teasing," Alissa says with a grin.

"Alissa, I-I'm not that bad."

"So you say."

"And you are just like me!"

"I take that as a compliment."

Lina blushes harder.

"Master, what did you mean by teaching me 'enchanting'?"

I'm glad the topic changed.

"Well, there's a dwarf in one of my classes that's researching enchanting. Perhaps he could help you increase your [General Enchanting] skill."

"Oh, a dwarf! Perhaps we could use the dwarven pride against him, he would likely accept if we goad him in the right way," her smile is mischievous.

I'm a little concerned about your choice of words.

We get back to class and Garanae avoids my eyes, Hatara is annoyed and looks apologetic, Lyle is back to normal but a bit shy.

The rest of the class is free, most people use this time to talk to the professor about the theory. If you are having trouble increasing your skill by practice then you need to touch up on your theory. It's nice that this university isn't hand-holding you with lengthy and boring classes, if you are here you are paying to learn, not to just get a useless degree to fill a checkmark on a list of things necessary for you to succeed in life.

Back at home, Alissa had passed at the bakeries Nour talked about and brings the first wonder, chocolate chip cookies, my heart melts. With the rest of the minotaur milk, I dunk my cookies in the milk and eat them in front of the fireplace while light rain pitter-patters on the windows. Comfy.

Ciel laughed at the idea of using milk like that but they all agreed it was wonderful, only chocolate chip cookies are worthy of being dunked.

Aoi seems to dislike chocolate. Whatever, more to me then.

During the night I talk to Lina and she tells me the resumed version of what she found. I'm telling her to focus on the story of the High Forest for now and then expand. I plan on visiting there once so I want to know all about the lands on the way there.

Today is the 17th.

I wake up refreshed as always and notice a lot has changed. My strength, endurance and speed increased by 1 (now 10, 11 and 11), my [Space Magic] increased by 4 (now 18+16), my [Blessing Magic] increased by 1 (now 0+12), my MP increased by 40 (now 600) and my "Magic Power" increased by 5 (now 240).

Roxanne leveled up once and her [Water Magic] increased by 1 (now 23) and her [Mana Control] by 1 (now 25). I put all 7 remaining skill points Roxanne had into [Water Magic], with that she can cast [Ice Lance].

Alissa leveled up twice, her [Bow Use] increased by 2 (now 25), her [Hawk Eyes] increased by 1 (now 3) and she gained the title "Blinding Arrows".

"Blinding Arrows, why did you receive that?" I ask.

"She did hit a lot of eyes with her arrows, perhaps the townsfolk that got the corpses recognized her kills," Ciel says.

"How do titles work anyway?" I ask.

"It's a way to reward those who accomplish great deeds with some glory. It has a bit of an effect like blessings do, though much, much more subdued. It's no surprise for an experienced fellowship to have people with titles."

"But hers is different from mine, mine is a nickname."

"Yeah, unfortunately, yours is not about great deeds. Nicknames are special but don't be ashamed when people use it, someone calling you by your nickname means well," Ciel says with a snicker.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at your shy behavior when people mention your nickname."

Well, whatever.

In the morning I go to the hunters guild with Alissa to sell our corpses and submit the proofs of subjugation. When we enter the whispers start, most eyes are now on Alissa. Although I'm happy I'm not the attention I get jealous at a few of the clearly lewd stares.

When she sees us a familiar brunette attendant hurries out of her booth to greet us.

"Mr. Ryder, good morning. I have a message addressed to you," she says with a bow, "It's an invitation to the celebration party for the battle against the wyverns. The Lord is hosting it. Here.

She hands me the envelope. The same as last time he invited us, only that the location is going to be on an estate owned by the Lord's family. This estate is behind the castle, so we will have quite the scenery to look at when we go there."

We deliver our spoils to Gordon, who seems content at the number we killed. Sonny appears for delivering the rewards and I'm sure he looks a little disappointed. The reward for participation in the battle as position 3 was 40 gold coins, quite a good sum. But the guildmaster still owes me a bit.

We go back home to spar.

I have been putting some points into [Inspire Growth] but aside from my ridiculous growth none of the girls seems to have noticed any difference. Maybe it's because I'm not teaching them, the skill might need me to actually inspire them. I will put their extra points into [Increased Growth] when they are training.

After my sparring session, I finally acquire [Battlefield Perception] at level 1.

Today is nature class, the professor teaches us [Regeneration], [Vine Weapon], [Grow] and [Animal Tongue]. We are to train individually any spell we want.

Level 10 spell [Vine Weapon] creates and harden vines until they are usable as weapons. At first, we can only use it to make blunt weapons but with higher levels, you can make usable swords and make them last even when you release the vine. I learn the chant and try to copy the mana flow the professor is leaking. It was rather easy to make a club even though I'm not level 10. With a bit of effort, you can easily make other things, like shields or armor.

The next spell at level 15 is [Grow], it is the secret of the elves of the High Forest and the halflings of Lorei Laurelai. They are so good at these spells they just look at a plant and they can make it grow any way they want. No wonder the halflings are considered experts in farming. The elves of the High Forest use this spell to mold the trees so they can live inside them. They can model walkways and roads high up on the trees and even make things like furniture and weapons from the wood.

Level 20 is [Animal Tongue], it is the one I'm most interested in, I need this to talk to Aoi more easily. It's like a [Blessing Magic], which you cast once and it lasts a long time. It's odd because casting it from the skill system without chanting is like flipping a switch. When the spell is on it consumes my mana very, very slowly, so I see there's more than one way the same spell can be invoked. I gotta research that, I never heard about such a thing before.

We go back home and my discomfort with Lina increases. I use the skill every man should learn and achieve absolute mental purity while her cute little ass shakes and presses on my crotch. To make things worse I'm sure she intentionally moved backward just to press her own body into mine.

There's already plenty of wyvern meat on the market, it tastes exactly like turkey. Alissa bought a lot since it's dirt cheap.

Aoi seems extra happy today, when we were gone she managed to approach the griffin nature spirit. Being part animal herself the spirit seems to not mind her presence, but even she won't dare touch it yet.

Today is the 18th.

My nature magic increased by 2 (now 0+11).

In the morning we all leave to go shopping. I want to upgrade mine and Ciel's armor into scale armor, she nags me that it's a waste but she got cut last time in the chest by the claws, our armor should at least protect us against slashes.

I feel like I wasted my time looking at other shops, the Bear Hug is the one we previously bought our equipment at and again it seems to have the best deals around. The owner is a friendly, large fat man with a round black beard and curly hair. His aura makes him seem very hugable but his eyes are of a predator and no one dares hug such a man, I only feel death by crushing will be the result.

Lina's trivia: Mining in this world is a dangerous job. Not only can monsters spawn inside long mines but the mines themselves get regularly attacked. This seems to explain the high price of metal armor and the comparatively low price of leather or scale armor. Even cloth armor is expensive in comparison.

We settle down with adding emerald scales to our leather armor, quite literally an upgrade. Now it's heavier, more difficult to move in and makes more noise but it's nearly impervious to slashing. With the rewards for the wyvern battle, this armor didn't even cost us half the reward, the market is overflowed with dragon and wyvern products right now.

We give Roxanne a Grey Berserker jacket, she had an older Young Behemoth she got on her hometown. We wanted to give her a hauberk or something like that but she lacks the muscle for it, Hana will force Roxanne to exercise a bit with aerobics so she deals better with the increase in armor.

I finally buy bodkin arrows for Alissa and a warbow with a strong draw. It's much bigger than the current one and requires a lot more strength to draw it so she won't be able to use it for eye-popping, it's going to be used for enemies with much stronger armor, like dragon scales or plate armor. I have a plan for it that involves Lina.

Alissa bought a cabinet to put in the hallway and another in the living room with glass to display some fine plates, cutlery, and a tea set we bought along with a potted flower plant. Little by little our house gets comfier, too bad its a rental.

Lina starts to show her usefulness as she shows us she can repair Hana's armor with time, she knows how to sew and with her [General Smithing] skill she can basically repair anything not magical or made of wood. Though right now Hana's armor was too damaged so we replaced the cloth entirely instead of just fixing it.

I notice Rings of Fertility are rather common among shops, common and cheap. I saw a panty enchanted with [Regeneration], apparently it's for regenerating the hymen. Now I understand why sex before marriage seems to be dealt with so casually.

I go early to the university and report my [Sense Soul] to Mathias. He verifies it and claps his hands in excitement, he fills some papers and finally, I don't have to pay for my education. We pass by the treasury and they return what I already paid.

The skill [Sense Soul] seems dangerous, I can just imagine that with levels I will be able to know the skills and even the stats of other people just like I can see that of my lovers. All this information is stored into the soul and this skill interprets what I see into information that I can digest. In the end, information is power.

In [Electric Magic] class the professor teaches us [Shocking Touch] and [Rush]. [Rush] is a spell that gives you a burst of speed. You have to be careful as it's possible to hurt yourself if the burst is high enough because it stresses the nervous system. [Haste] is a level 50 spell from [Blessing Magic] that has a similar effect but you can't hurt yourself as it's more of a time dilation for yourself.

The professor talks about how [Shocking Touch] is an amazing spell and gives examples of tales where the spell is used, including the one where a man uses it into the eyes of a dragon. The last example he gives is me and my fight with the Symbol, thankfully he didn't ask me to demonstrate as I had used the system so I can't chant it yet.

When the bell chimes I get confused as Alissa is not waiting for me but instead, she's behind another building. Lyle accompanies me, he seems to have recovered from the last tease, perhaps he's an M.

I turn the corner of the building just in time to see Garanae steal a kiss from Alissa's lips.

*Slap!* I was about to castrate someone when the incredibly satisfying sound of the slap filled my ears. The sound of such a glorious slap must have traveled through dozens of meters. Garanae falls and freezes.

I smile at such a beautiful sight.

I see Alissa twitch and her hand goes towards her back, under her shirt. I get alarmed, like me that's where she hides her dagger. I desperately turn my Emergency Ring counterclockwise 3 times, it should turn red and give her a sting of pain so she shouldn't miss the signal.

"Aren't you... going to do something?" Says Lyle looking at me confused.

"No, this is the breaking point of Garanae. After this, he will never look at Alissa again."

"'Breaking point'...?"

She stops and looks at her ring on her right hand, then she takes her hand out of her shirt. She says some things I can't hear since she's too far and points to the direction the exit of the university is. Garanae gets up and talks a bit more with his posture hunched. Alissa stamps her feet talks some more. Garanae shudders and looks away, then he drops his shoulder in defeat and leaves.

Alissa immediately turns and runs towards us.

"Wolfy~! You gotta reward me with your di-..." She stops mid-sentence. She notices Lyle beside me, with his mouth hanging open.

Why are you yelling such things in public?

"You gotta reward me with your fat big cock! I need you to cum directly in my throat so the taint of that man gets out of my lips!" Alissa says with a wicked grin.

Goddammit.

Lyle squirms and closes his eyes. Not as bad as last time, perhaps he's adapting.

I cough, "Alissa, why did he do that?"

"Oh my, he's such a..." She makes an angry face and a crushing motion with her hands," Well you know. He saw my blood slave symbol and he assumed I'm being forced to marry you. He simply can't believe 'someone as pure as you would be in love with someone as corrupt as him'," she mimics his voice mockingly.

"It seems he got the roles inverted."

"Yep!" She jumps on my arms and hugs me.

"I see, he never had a chance then..." Mutters Lyle.

"What did you tell him to go away?" I ask.

"I told him I wasn't a virgin and that I like to masturbate while watching you fuck other women," she answers in a flat tone.

I cringe, "That was a bit... too much information, right?"

"No, better just be over with it. He didn't seem to understand unless I was completely brutal with him. Besides, I was very angry too, I couldn't just hold back," she smirks.

I sigh.

"What did you mean by 'breaking point'?" Lyle asks again, forcing himself to gloss over what just he heard.

"Well, he's obviously infatuated with Alissa and Hatara has been making moves on him. Unless he's a completely dense idiot he has to make a decision soon enough. Unfortunately for Hatara, he chose Alissa first, but whatever, he'll go to her now and all's well that ends well."

"You seem oddly calm at this," Lyle says with a frown.

"That's trust, I love and trust Alissa," she smiles and kisses my cheek, "Also there's no need to castrate him when Alissa already did it to his pride."

Lyle shudders and we go to the buffet have our afternoon tea.

We continue our class and I succeed in casting [Rush] that lasted for a second, I immediately smacked my hand on my face due to the lack of control of my speed. Lyle shocked himself with [Shocking Touch] and nearly passed out so I think I had the less shameful accident.

On today's strength training I noticed the difference a point in my stats makes, I can basically increase all the repetitions by 10 and during the bath, I have more power to keep Hana tamed.

At the night I reward Alissa as she asked, choo choo, full steam ahead. I make her scream and she draws blood from sinking her nails on my back. She apologizes for that and I actually have to heal the wounds, can't go around with my back bleeding.

Today is the 19th.

My [Electric Magic] increased by 2 (now 0+7).

Today is a free day for Selina so Alissa and Hana go visit her. Lina and Ciel are sparring and I spend the morning with Roxanne, she strokes my hair while reading an alchemy book and I practice [Sense Soul] on my summons.

I can see where the "layer" boundary is on my soul, I can count these "layers" and get the level of my soul. I can see how the "layer" is the same as on Aoi, though hers covers only half her soul. There are no other layers on Aoi's soul and neither there is on the summons. It's something I expected since only humanoids should have the capability of gaining levels.

The skill doesn't give me a full picture of the soul but I have a much deeper knowledge than I ever did without it. I have been identifying the similar patterns between them and I think I found what controls the limbs. All mammals and humans share many similarities in bone structure, we are all basically quadrupeds that slowly evolved their bodies into different forms. Like how a bird's wing is just a thin arm with very long, webbed fingers; a dog's leg is basically a human arm where they walk on their fingers, their digits, instead of their feet sole/hand palm, which is why they are called digitigrade; a whale's flipper is just a very small arm with long fingers turned into a single roll of muscle.

Looking at the clay dolls I see there's a difference in how the "limb" part of the soul connects to the rest. While animals use muscles, which are controlled by electrical impulses from the brain, the clay dolls' bodies are hollow and they use some form of "magic muscle" to move their bodies. There are similarities to what this "nervous system" is connected to, which I believe is the "brain", but the interesting part is that this "brain" is merely a small part of what makes the soul.

Something I want to understand is, is the soul a reflection of the body or is the body a reflection of the soul? Due to how [Illusion Magic] works, I believe it's the latter. A soul has no sensory input, [Illusion Magic] hijacks the input the body receives and modifies it at its own will, then the soul receives the warped input, creating an illusion. And there's the fact that [Illusion Magic] doesn't modify anything on the body. This makes me interested in knowing how brain surgery would affect people here.

I'll tell Alissa to find me some dolls of different materials, I will try to copy the clay golem's soul and see what happens.

When we are getting ready to go to the university I see Lina and Alissa smile to each other before Alissa transforms. When we get on top of her Lina moves back into an uncomfortable position for her just so she can have her entire body touching mine. There's no doubt Alissa is influencing her to seduce me, but she's underestimating my willpower!

Blessing class the professor taught us the chants of the spells I already knew so I just focused on shortening the chant.

Hatara seems a bit sad today so I let her and Alissa talk alone. I ate my small piece of cake by myself, feeling lonely.

After class we quickly go back home and take a bath, it's time for our special dinner.

"Ciel, here's something we got for you, a gift," I present her a dress.

A red velvet dress, just the way she likes, embroidered with white flowers. It covers her whole body so there's no cleavage but there are two straps that you tighten around the waist and below the bust. This dress will show all the curves of her body, she's going to look magnificent on it.

"W-wow, thank you, Wolf. But why?" She looks at the dress, marveled.

I smile.

"Why not? You deserve as many dresses as you want, those priest robes really didn't show much of your beauty," I smile.

She sighs and shakes her head then turns around. I can see a hint of a smile.

The other girls don't hold back when it's time to look beautiful. As expected, Lina is totally on the camp of super cute along with Alissa and their frilly dresses while Hana and Roxanne are on the camp of super hot with their silk dress with cleavage.

I don't want to stare but I think Ciel's breasts grew, I'm just a bit confused right now.

"She was hiding them because she was ashamed of them and it was kinda inconvenient to fight with them bouncing around," Alissa whispers to me, noticing where I'm looking.

A crime against men.

"Why would she change now?" I ask, knowing the answer.

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"Now there's someone who's worthy of looking at them," she says in a joyful tone.

I shiver. Those are two mountains I want to climb, they are even bigger than Hana's!

We go by flying dinghy. The girls quickly find their seats and leave me, Lina, and Ciel with the back seat. Ciel keeps a calm expression but Lina quickly snuggles up to me and grabs my arm.

Discreetly I put [Battlefield Perception] at 4 and I notice Ciel is stealing glances at Lina, slowly she gets fidgety. I guess she's jealous. I entwine my arm with Ciel's, she jumps in surprise but does nothing, her fidgeting stops.

We quickly get to the place and Ciel tries to run in embarrassment but I grab her by the waist and keep her close, Lina doesn't even release my arm.

The restaurant is a 3-story building with a white cupola on top. It has silver gilded corbels and windows, white quoins on the corner of the yellowed brick walls and a loggia on the second floor where our table is at.

The first floor has a reception and a normal buffet. On the second floor, the lights are dimmer and there's a ceiling light projecting directly on our tables, making it much more difficult to look at others but very easy to look at our food.

Lina is still a bit anxious that she has her own seat, which by coincidence ends up being beside mine. Her necklace is visible so everyone knows she's a slave, but it's quite common to have slaves being treated well. Perhaps they think she's my sex slave, which is… Ah screw it, who cares, let her be happy.

At this loggia we get a nice view of the castle, every window shines with light and the stone gleams with the moonlight. The lonely castle up on the night sky make up for quite the picturesque scenery.

We are high enough to see pretty far so we can see there's still a considerable number of people walking around the night streets, where only the main streets have light. The sky is clear and the psychedelic moon shines to us, though the roof of the loggia covers part of it. I can see the blue moon is shining brighter than any other.

Inside the building there's a very well lighted stage with a large open area in front of it, just waiting for the show to start.

This restaurant has seafood coming directly from Goldport so I take my chances with squid(?) rings accompanied by a sweet leafy salad and a thick not-shrimp soup. Roxanne seems delighted to eat crabs again, freshwater crabs from mangroves were a popular dish at her home.

In a few minutes, the wine is brought along the grape juice because screw getting drunk. The tables get filled and 3 women appear on stage.

One of the women is a lamia, she has from the waist up the body of a woman and the rest is the body of a blue serpent. Her hair is the same color of her snake body and it flows down like silk up to her waist, her eyes shine light blue. Her delicate hand with long nails carries a large harp.

Another is a Scylla, like the lamia she's part human with tanned skin, and the other part is a mess of purple octopus tentacles. Her hair is curly flows to her shoulders with the same color of her tentacles. Her hair along with her large chest jiggles with every movement she makes. She carries a lute as she glides through the floor.

The last woman is what I believe, a siren. She's the one who looks the closest to a normal human, her ears are spiky and webbed, her hands have a bit of webbing, her skin is so unnaturally white it reminds me of the demon-race. The most inhuman thing about her is her hair, it floats in the air as if she was underwater, it's as black as night and has no reflections, it feels like no light ever comes out of it.

The siren scans the audience, when her eyes meet mine I feel my heart beat faster and my body gets hotter. I look at my stats and see that there's "Charmed (small)" under "Status Effects". Being able to see your "Status Effects" is based on your "Perception". I guess this is why she was scanning the audience, she's the reason this place is so popular.

She lifts her hands and the floor goes silent. She starts singing and I feel my ears are being massaged, I feel she's directly whispering in my ear while the instruments cloud my mind every time a note is played. The singing of professor Alciel of [Blessing Magic] does not compare to this, this is truly a magical song.

The siren sings and dances, the Scylla glides around and the lamia slithers among us. The siren sings in a language I don't understand but I know what she's singing about, for some reason. She sings about the bittersweet life in this world, of the warm and innocent first love, of the pain of growing up and getting stronger, of the difficulties to fight for survival, of the happiness of going home to your loved ones and creating a new family with them, only for the cycle to repeat again.

The next song is lighter and more whimsical, of a traveling person scraping by and exploring the world. With this song our food comes.

Roxanne and Hana go dance in the middle of the floor. I don't dance, so no way I'm going to follow them. Ciel goes upstairs to the cupola. Lina goes to the edge of the loggia to look at the outside.

Aoi is curled up on a chair and sleeps soundly. It seems most places in this world do not care about pets, when you can easily talk and transmit feelings to them they become way less messy. I see a dog and a scaly mini horse beside other tables, pets from other rich people.

"What a wonderful place you found, Wolfy," Alissa says to me, snuggling close.

The current song is about each of the Festivals of Seasons.

"Just by luck, I guess I have to thank the man who recommended this place."

"Thank him a lot, I never imagined I would one day be coming to a place like this," she looks warmly at the siren.

Each month has a theme. Birth, Dance, Drink, Food, Color, Song, Prayer, Love, Combat, and Death.

"To a slave that wished only to treated as a tool to young woman snuggling to her fiance. You really came a long way," I smirk.

She kisses my cheek.

"That doesn't mean I abandoned my duty. It's just like you said, I can be happy while I stay true to my purpose."

I'm glad she understood.

"What do you think about the other girls?"

"Hm? What do you wanna know, specifically?"

Each month the temple tells the people to make a festival once a month in honor of these themes.

"Well just, talk about what you think about each of them. I want your opinion on how everyone's doing."

"Hm… At first, I thought Hana wasn't fit to be a slave but she was reliable and she could protect you so I thought it was fine. After you asked to marry her, her behavior didn't matter anymore so I guess she's fine."

Rabanara is a rather chaotic town so the Lord doesn't organize a single festival, instead, he encourages people to keep up the festive mood the entire month.

"Roxanne is fine too. She's powerful and she needs someone watching over her so I think you are the perfect choice for her. She won't ever think about leaving you."

"Ciel I think is the most important. I feel you will get lost in this world even with my help, I'm..." She frowns slightly, "Not fit to advise you, so I think someone with the experience of Ciel will help you the most. Just make sure you seduce her properly, she seems to be playing a bit hard, eh?"

I smile wryly, Ciel just needs a few more pushes.

The song tells us to embrace this, to keep living our lives with vigor every day instead of only once a month.

"And Lina is Lina. She's adorable and a hard worker. There's plenty of ways she will be helpful to us."

"So why are you throwing Lina to me?" I say with a sharp glare.

"You know what I want you to do to her, besides, she's getting attached to you. You are the first real man in her life so why not just enjoy her?" She says with a mischievous grin.

The song tells us of a hero, a very pious hero who lived his life like this and achieved great glory.

"Well, I don't want to just keep adding women to our life anytime someone interested appears. You might not mind but what about the others?"

"They are fine with it."

"What?"

"They are fine with it. Everyone thinks Lina is adorable, even Ciel likes her and wishes her to be happy."

"Just… don't any of you have the want to monopolize me or something? Why do you keep throwing women at me?" I'm dumbfounded.

This hero ended up fighting to save a kingdom. After the biggest fight, he was left standing alone, the sole survivor.

"Ciel and Roxanne certainly do. Well, Roxanne likes women too so I don't know much about her… Ciel is just too soft. I know she's a bit jealous of us, she keeps giving us stares and pouting. But what can you do if the man you love also gives his love to others? You just learn to share."

"But… what about you? Why do you not feel jealous?"

She puts a finger in her chin and averts her eyes in thought. Cute, argh, focus.

"Just me is not enough. It's like I said, the others have their strengths and their ways of helping you. Those days where it was just the 2 of us were the happiest I ever had, but also the most dangerous and anxious."

"Then why not hire people, why couldn't we join a fellowship with people that could help me?"

The hero felt lost for losing so much, he endured the pain and decided to go back home. Little by little his soul healed and he didn't go back to being like he was, he became someone better.

"It wouldn't be the same thing. To begin with, you are really not the type to make friends. How long do you think it would take for a stranger to have the same amount of trust towards you as Hana has? Roxanne, Ciel and now even Lina, they are all ready to fight and work hard, to shed blood for you because they love you or are starting to love you. Having to fight alongside those you love is much safer than fighting alongside those whose bonds are only as deep as a pocket."

"But what about the danger? If any of you die I will be devastated."

"We just do as you always tell us. No need for sacrifices, we will just go in a way where such a situation will never happen to begin with," she grins.

I sigh, I lose. I might as well just throw myself at these women then, what reason is there not to?

"What about Hana? Doesn't she gets jealous?"

"Hana is a freak, as long as she gets her share of your dick she's fine, I think."

I laugh, I guess it's true.

"Well, that's a bit rude to her. She does feel some jealousy but you do a good job with her so she's happy," Alissa adds, "Anyway, we talked too long, go after Ciel."

She pushes me away.

"Yes yes, just making sure where you stood before I went to her."

The cupola is a large round room with tall and wide windows, there are sofas pointed outwards and a few tables were a waiter keeps hot tea and cookies. There are a few couples around, displaying some envious public affection. Ciel is sitting alone on a sofa.

"This place is even better than the loggia," I say sitting close beside her.

"There's no wind here so it's very comfortable," she says with a smile.

I grab a cup of tea and stare towards the view for a few minutes.

"I'm glad you are here Ciel. You are the first person I befriended in this town."

She chuckles.

"So you were completely alone here before meeting me?"

"Yeah. I'm really not the kind that makes lots of friends. I just don't talk that much."

"Except for women," she glares.

"Come on, not just any women."

"That's what they all say."

I feel a hint of mockery, she's not completely serious.

"Oh? So you have experience?"

She smiles.

"You are not the first that invited me."

"But I'm the first you accepted, why is that?"

"Because you are interesting. I already said that before."

"Is that all?"

"..." She looks away I see the hint of a smile.

"I feel like I really do care about you. Call it whatever you wish but I care about you as much as I care about the others," I say.

"You care about Lina too?" She sends me a sharp gaze.

"One step at a time, I know Lina for far too little time to say such a thing."

"But you will eventually buckle."

I shrug.

"Who knows. Would that be a bad thing?"

"For Lina? No. But what about the future?"

"What about it?"

"Are you just going to accept any woman that throws herself at you?" I notice a hint of poison on her voice.

"No. First of all, I won't accept any woman the others also do not accept, I just need one of them to disagree. I don't own them, we are a team, a fellowship. I just make the decision most of the time but I want, no, need their opinion on this, we are all equals and we all love each other. And so will be you, if you join us."

She looks away and I grab her hand.

Oh boy, it's now or never.

"Ciel... would like to marry me?"

She bites her lips and thinks. I'm getting chills.

She stares into my eyes, her tone turns decisive and leaves no room for question, "No. You have to tell me your secrets first. Only then will I answer."

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"I was planning on that, but I have to tell Lina too so perhaps we should wait until we are home, it's a long story."

Ciel looks at me confused, then her eyes change to that of concern.

"I'm not a bad person. You should know I'm alone here and I come from very far away, I just didn't come here walking."

"Hm... so you teleported here? But how?"

"That's the difficult part to explain."

Her expression freezes for a few moments.

"Will you go back?" I feel the anxiety in her voice.

"No," I smile bitterly, "I decided to keep here, to make a family here."

She sighs. She interlaces her fingers with mine and squeezes my hand.

No need for modesty, I pull her close and kiss her. She seems surprised and resists at first but then she melts. I push my tongue and a few seconds later we are passionately kissing each other, I grab her waist and pull her closer. Her delicious flowery perfume, the sweetness of the moisturizer she uses on her lips, the taste of Gorgon wine on her tongue, the slight breath of alcohol. I take it all and enjoy it, this woman is now mine, she didn't answer yet but it's not needed, I know she's mine.

We break the kiss and spend some time cuddling. She pulled in me so I just enjoy it. Her massive breasts are a better pillow than Hana's, I'm sorry but it's the truth.

It's getting late so we go down and bring back the girls. Alissa was dancing slowly with Lina, they refused other men who asked for a dance. Roxanne was at the table sleeping in Hana's arms. Aoi is biting Hana's cheek scales playfully.

When we leave Roxanne wakes up and wants to drive, I give her a head chop, don't drink and drive. I'm the one who drives this time.

Back at home, Roxanne sobered up a bit and we all sit down at the table.

"Time for the truth," I say.

Ciel is looking at me with her mouth open, Lina is expressionless.

"You can't possibly believe we will just accept this," Ciel says.

"Just like this? No. Here, look at my ID card, look at the magic skills, specifically."

I hand them the card. Lina blushes.

"[Enhanced Sem-..."

"Not that! The magic! Look at the magic!" I interrupt Ciel.

"Oh, uh, okay," she blushes a bit.

I put 15 points into [Water Magic] and cast [Water Breathing] on them both.

"Wait, what?! This is [Water Magic] and you didn't even chant!"

"Look at the card again."

"Oh... it's true…"

I end [Water Breathing] and remove the points.

"Look at it again."

"The skill is gone..." Ciel is stunned.

Ciel covers her eyes with her hands and keeps quiet.

*Slam!* Lina hits her hands on the table, "YOU ARE AMAZING, MASTER! I always knew there was something special about you, your power is amazing!" Her mouth hangs open.

"Erm... the power is good, I agree but don't need to praise me this much. This system helps me learn things much faster than normal."

"Precisely! No wonder you received a blessing from the Goddess of Knowledge. But how does the point manipulation works? Can you manipulate my skills? I don't have many skills so after the wyvern battle I have a lot of unused soul potential."

"Well I didn't pay attention when it happened with Alissa but with the others, it was after we... had sex.

She stares blankly for a moment.

"Master! Please take my virginity!" She looks at me with fierce eyes.

I facepalm. I knew it.

"I don't want to use my power this way, sex is only for someone I love."

"Ah... forgive me, master, I understand, I got carried away. It would be shameful to use you in such a way," she bows.

The girls are chuckling while Ciel keeps thinking.

"It actually makes sense..." Ciel finally talks, "Two blessings, these coincidences, the women around you, the type of enemies you fought so far. You are being trained and tested, Wolf, you are going to be a hero in the future."

Not again...

"I don't wanna be a hero…"

"A hero is not something you choose to be, it's a destiny that's given to you. But in the end, it's the actions that you take that make you a hero."

"Then I will just run and hide someplace safe!" I throw my hands in the air.

"As if you could. You actually want to be a hero, right?" She says and grins.

"Ok, who doesn't want to be a hero? Sure this power sounds nice but I'm scared, scared of fighting and losing any of you."

"This is why the gods put us all together. It's Because we can bring you forward and help you fight," Alissa says.

The others nod, even Lina. Hopefully, a hero's curse comes with enough plot armor.

"Please don't tell me you are all here just because you believe that's what the Gods want," I say with a crooked smile.

"Wolf!" Alissa yells with reproachful eyes, "What the Gods want does not matter, I love you and you know it!"

Hana pulls me and gives me a bear hug.

"Don't say such things, Wolfy, I love you," says Hana.

"Don't make me repeat my vows," says Roxanne, pouting.

Aoi comes and curls herself on my lap.

"Kweeh!" She makes a cute noise towards me.

Yeah, I guess I said something stupid.

"I'm sorry…"

Ciel sighs.

"Anyway, don't ever tell your powers to anybody. The empire would enslave you in an instant if they knew you could use [Blood Magic] and leave no traces. This is how they make our Identification Crystals and ID's, there would be a long line of criminals wanting your power," Ciel says.

I break Hana's hug.

"Yeah, I know. This is why I took so long to tell you, I wanted to know you more before I could trust you with this. It scares me too much that someone could tear us apart," I say and look at the girls.

"But now that you know it, you owe me an answer," I stare at Ciel.

She blushes and starts flustering. After a minute she calms herself, "Wolf, I... I accept…"

"Even though I told you of how dangerous my life might be?"

"Yes, I'm not a coward, Wolf, well I was but... I trust you, I trust you will do everything to keep us safe. Even if we end up failing, that... That will be enough," she says, her face is pained but her tone is resolute.

I go towards Ciel and grab her hand.

"I will take care of you, support you, fight with you, and love you. I swear to be always at your side and that I will always work towards a better future, together."

"I will take care of you, support you, fight with you, and love you. I swear to be always at your side and that I will always work towards a better future, together," she repeats and smiles.

I kiss her.

"Now please call me Wolfy from now on, it really tickles my heart."

"Sure, Wolfy, I agree it's cute," Ciel says and laughs.

"C-can I call you that too...?" Lina asks bashfully.

"Sure, I'm uncomfortable with 'master'."

Lina smiles.

It's too late, we all just go to bed immediately.

God, I'm greedy, 4 women now.

Manasong

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