Chapter 216: Chapter 194.2 : Relation Ships

The daily family meeting was splendid as usual, never failing to leave Ralf feeling warm inside in the aftermath. He exited the communication centre with a pep in his step and a bright smile hanging on his face. Ray’s speedy departure dimmed its brightest somewhat but not as much as it usually did.

Ray's earlier appearance, his promise to contribute to the outside world activities, and the subtle signs Ralf had been reading from him, did much to assure Ralf that the future was bright.

His other self would eventually come out of his shell, of that, he was sure. Trusting this prediction, Ralf decided to let the clock do its magic. Further pushes and pulls weren't needed, now, he would simply wait for things to unfold naturally.

Nodding, Ralf cleared his noggin of his other self and shifted his thoughts to a different partner. The Transmigrator summoned his Psi Bike and hurried to Prime in search of her. Their training wasn't done for the day, after all. Minutes later, he found Violet at the agreed-upon meet-up spot, the hotel's entranceway.

His eyes flickered upon capturing her. Violet looked...refreshed. She had changed clothes, opting to don more casual attire than before. Ralf didn't think much of what he was sensing, making sure not to, and settled on giving a compliment and nothing else.

What's next? the princess asked with a giddy smile, eager for more training.

To train is to torture oneself; this is an undeniable fact, partner. We've tortured our bodies earlier, now, let's move to torture our minds. Are you ready?

To this ominous string of words, Violet showed the brightest of smiles before voicing her agreement.

Ralf mimicked her expression and then summoned his Psi Bike and hopped on. Violet joined him a second later before buckling up. Like this, the pair headed to the local Enviso and then proceeded to watch a movie. Not just any movie. For training purposes, Ralf had chosen to watch the lowest-rated movie, a horror movie by the name of Dead Trees, Spiders Weep.

Its low rating was earned, well and true. The hour-long 'movie' was bland and boring with production values in the negative numbers. Had the pair attempted to watch it on their own, they wouldn't be able to sit through even five minutes of the movie, but together, they managed to reach the end credits without issue, kept in their seats by the other as they entertained themselves with back-and-forth banter.

Finishing up, the pair went their separate ways. Violet headed to her daily training session while Ralf headed to the library. Hours later, they would meet up again at the usual hotel room, joined by Lane and the others.

Things proceeded as usual from there; gaming, chatting, snacking, etc. However, unlike before, the group didn’t carry things over to the next day.

The first week had passed, and with it, most of their free time. Many more slots had been added to their timetable, so doing all-nighters as they had been would become much more scarce from now on.

They went their separate ways at the cusp of midnight. Ralf, Lane and Skye headed to Prime, Ralf and Lane heading to their own rooms while the air Mimic paid a visit to another's room.

Meanwhile...

The trio of ladies dropped down one floor to reach their sleep-together room, entering from the balcony.

What a day. So many things to discuss, so let's discuss them, shall we?

Charlotte's words were taken to and after a shower, the trio gathered on the king-sized bed in their underwear to discuss the day's events, starting with the Onic Master's confession at the library.

Fine, I'll spill.

Charlotte was very open about her feelings. To Violet's and Yuki’s subsequent questions about what she loved about Ralf and why, she replied honestly and candidly, surprising both herself and the two.

What he was doing, what he was thinking, his likes and dislikes, how he'd react if I did this or that...haa, I quickly realised my obsession, it was obvious after all. What took me longer to realise or rather admit is what this obsession meant. It was only while watching the videos that I finally came to grips with it. I had fallen in love, there was no mistaking it or denying it.

Violet and Yuki sat on either end of the bed while Charlotte sat on the foot of the bed with her back facing the Mimics. They couldn't see their friend's expression but they didn't need to. Her form which fluctuated between jittery and tense, and her voice that echoed with affection told them everything they need to know. The pair's own emotions stirred as they took in the heartfelt confession.

"...And that's all there is to. Long story short, I've fallen for that cheeky bastard," the Onic Master released an air of discontent as she admitted, causing the Mimics to show wry smiles. "To fall for that fool's charms, I hate it almost as much as I love it, almost. What tips the scales to the positive is...knowing that I'm not the only victim," Charlotte paused her words and glanced back at the Mimics, "right, ladies?"

The accusation was met with immediate silence, the Mimics' faces freezing and then heating in that order. The Onic Master lost herself in laughter as she took in the Mimics’ fiery faces and fidgeting forms. "Ahaha, you two are precious, so damn adorable."

“D-Don’t be ridiculous, there’s no way I’d fall for that i-idiot,” Yuki stuttered unconvincingly as she turtled herself up.

Charlotte chuckled at the display before shifting to the silent Violet.

“Mmm, princess…not going to deny it?”

Violet didn’t answer immediately and instead took a few seconds to still her uneven breath. Before speaking, the princess looked to the balcony and turned away, unable to face Charlotte’s gaze head-on. “No…I can’t. You're right, Charlotte. It seems I’ve fallen for him as well,” she said in a soft voice.

The sincere confession brought forth another wave of silence. In it, Violet’s chest tightened as pangs of guilt struck her. Her head lowered and her hands moved to her knees, where they began clasping. “Are you upset?”

To the question, Charlotte responded immediately. Not with words but with actions. She moved along the edge of the bed to reach Violet's side, before wrapping her up in a hug from behind. “Of course not, silly,” Charlotte said, fully engulfing the princess in a tight embrace.

Yuki watched on curiously, hands cupping her reddening cheeks.

“Silly?” Violet repeated, not fighting or returning the embrace.

“Why would I be upset at you? You did nothing untoward to me. Having romantic feelings for Ralf?” Charlotte shook herself and Violet from side to side to mimic a headshake. “He’s good-looking, capable, charming, funny and a dozen other attractive attributes...I’d be more shocked if you didn’t fall for him."

Charlotte shut her eyes, taking a moment to appreciate Violet's shampoo and the pleasant scent it imbued her silky hair, before continuing her train of thought.

"Violet, we’re one of tens of thousands of his admirers. And in the future, that number will no doubt grow to the millions, to the tens of millions and possibly even to the hundreds of millions. Feelings are feelings and all’s fair in love and war. If you love him, pursue him. Make your advances and get as close as you can," Charlotte squeezed for emphasis, before continuing. "You don’t need my permission - rather, have my blessing…and that goes for you too, Snowball.”

The ice Mimic’s face twitched. “I told you, there’s no way in hell I’m in love with that…fool,” she said, her voice losing steam and her face gaining it with every word spoken.

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Charlotte smiled. “Of course of course. Whether you have feelings or not, or develop feelings for him in the future, I don’t want that or anything else to come between what we have,” she said, the Onic Master’s voice filling with earnestness. “Our group of six and our smaller group of three have a great thing going and I don’t want anything to ruin it. Yuki, Violet, while it might not seem like it on the surface, I greatly value what we have...our friendship, and of course, our skinship," Charlotte's hands glided over Violet's waist in appreciation, letting her fingertips trace along the subtle lines across the princess' abdomen.

Violet broke out into giggles while a similarly jovial Yuki approached from behind and wrapped up Charlotte in a hug.

"We feel the same, Charl," the ice Mimic whispered while giving a light squeeze.

"Yeah," Violet followed up, reclining her head and letting her cheek rub up against Charlotte's.

"Ah, such affection, my eyes," Charlotte shut her eyelids as she felt them turn watery, "you gals are making me so wet."

"You just couldn't help yourself, Charl," Yuki said, she and Violet breaking into wry chuckles.

"Well...it's true," Charlotte responded, having collected herself. "Being held by and holding such delightful bodies will do that to you, to me, certainly. Ralf's done well to resist such sexiness, though I suppose Hana's existence must have something to do with it. A mature beauty that's equal parts graceful and alluring. Ah, I can only pray that I look half as good when I'm her age."

"I'd settle for even a tenth," Yuki agreed as she pulled back.

Charlotte lingered on Violet a few seconds more before pulling back as well, returning to her spot at the foot of the bed.

"Okay," she clapped, "confessions completed, let's move on. Next, what we were up to during our training sessions. I'm very interested in what Violet's entailed but let's leave that for last. I'll go first. It's nothing special. Skye and..."

Charlotte's account was as she prefaced, nothing special, and didn't even last two minutes before Yuki had her turn. The ice Mimic's training with Lane wasn't anything special either and was essentially just them hanging out minus Babel. Finishing up their forgettable accounts, the pair then looked to Violet, expectation overflowing from their eyes, knowing that with Ralf involved, the so-called training session couldn't have been boring.

"So, what secret training methods did you employ?" Charlotte asked, arched forward.

"We trained our body and minds, in that order."

"How so?" Yuki followed up.

"In Ralf's words, torture is training, so that's what we did. For our bodies, we ate a bunch of food, filling our stomachs to the brim. And for our minds, we went to Enviso and watched the lowest-rated movie, Dead Trees, Spiders Weep. The movie's terrible, wouldn't recommend it. And that's it, that sums up our special training."

"That's it?" Charlotte asked, raising her brow, not entirely buying the summarization.

"Yep, pretty much, yeah."

"I see, if that's the case, I guess I shouldn't be worrying. With that level of training, you two won't be able to best Skye and me. Of all the Events, Pair's Maze is the one that best suits us, twins. We're a formidable pair, after all."

"Hey, don't count us out, Lane and I are pretty formidable too."

Violet shook her head at the comments, a ridiculing smirk creeping onto her face. She held her cheek in her hand and looked to the balcony. "But what's a formidable pair to a perfect one? The answer...no competition."

At the Lightning Princess’ musing, both Charlotte and Yuki showed bitter smiles.

“That’s something I’d expect Ralf to say," Charlotte said, Yuki strongly agreeing. "One day of training and you’re already sounding like him. What did you two do, rub off on each the whole tim-ah…oh, well, would you look at that.” Both Charlotte’s and Yuki’s eyes flickered as they caught the princess' face involuntary twitch. "What a reaction, you saw that too, right Yuki?”

“Yeah, I did. Seems like the princess has been holding out on us, not good. There's definitely more to their training session, perhaps even something spicy," Yuki said, provoking a slight smile from Violet, which too was read by the pair.

“Indeed. Time to spill those guts of yours, princess. Yuki, with me.”

Nodding and receiving a nod in return, Charlotte and Yuki pounced on their prey and wrestled Violet into submission. The princess turned squeamish and jelly-like as she tried to slip out of the tangle, still, try as she might, the pair wouldn’t let her escape. After a short tussle, the Lightning Princess was locked in place. Yuki held her tightly from behind while Charlotte played the role of the interrogator/torturer.

Charlotte threatened to do unspeakable acts, her eyes roaming over Violet’s body. The lightning Mimic didn’t falter before the threat, and so, Charlotte had no choice but to do it…and thus, the tickling began. It had been noted very early on that Violet was on the ticklish side. The Onic Master took full advantage of this weakness to administer effective torture.

"Torture is training, you say...very well, time to train, princess."

Much to Charlotte’s disappointment, Violet ended up crumbling in a matter of seconds and recounted her time with Ralf in full. The account was a bundle of surprises for the pair, whose perception of Violet subtly shifted by the end.

"So that’s why they call you Lightning Princess, you move quick girl. And to use the secret code thing as a pretence, I didn’t know you could be that sneaky, I’m impressed,” Charlotte praised, drawing out a proud look from Violet.

“I’m more impressed by the communication stuff. Since when did you two start? Ah, is that why you would giggle and smirk at random times? Wait, did you use it during the test today? With Ray?”

They discussed the details, with the secret conversations between Ralf and Violet dominating the talks. The trio burned thirty minutes on the topic before calling it a night.

They slipped underneath the bedsheets and gravitated towards each other with Yuki taking the centre on this fine night. The trio’s bodies melded together, all three releasing slight murmurs at the incomplete fusion. Telepathic links were sent out and accepted.

[What will happen between Ralf and his other selves and us is something for the future, the far future…until then, let’s not fail to enjoy ourselves in the present, okay?]

A silent agreement rang out and then a now usual squirm began.

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