I clutched my neck as soon as I was back in the meeting room. Note to self: Wear some kind of based iron collar before fucking Flare again. Or tie her tail to her leg with a rope. Something.

I looked around to get my bearings. I noticed Daiya carrying herself with a sense of satisfaction, though it was subtle due to her lack of any meaningful expression, while Rose frowned. It seemed Daiya had deduced the technique for card counting while I was away. Good luck, Rose. I'm sure you'll find a way out of this predicament.

The question now was whether Flare would be rushing straight for me or lingering in the Beastkin kingdom. She had a full memory of everything now, presumably, and therefore her next actions were a complete unknown to me. I decided to kill some time and see what happened.

For about five minutes, I basically just sat down and had some small talk. Hilda and Medea stopped arguing when the explosions started, and everyone turned to twiddling our thumbs when I indicated nothing would be happening. Rose glared at Daiya while Daiya stared back; I thought they were just having a lesbian staring contest, but Medea whispered into my ear that Daiya could communicate telepathically with people, though not stealthily since it was impossible not to feel her mind in the process. That was good to know, but did that mean they were arguing about something behind my back? Was it the card counting? Hmm.

Anyway, we didn't have to wait long. Flare threw the door open like five minutes into the loop, sniffing the air like before.

"There you are," I said, standing up. "Everyone, this is Princess Flare. I would like you all to give her a warm welcome to the ha—"

I didn't even get to finish my sentence. Flare marched over with a grin, grabbed my arm, and started pulling me out. "Come on! Let's go wrestle on the bed again!" she declared loudly.

The room froze, and almost everyone put on a look of horror, then anger.

OH NONONONO! Flare is too dumb for cold war politics! Oh god, she's like a kid who asks why we don't just nuke foreign countries, except she actually has nukes! Everything is breaking down! Russia has declared war!

Daiya waved a hand, and the door fused into the wall, locking us in. Sophia took out her bow, while Medea and Hilda started chanting some ancient curses. Rose leaned back in her chair, frowning; the calculating look in her eyes told me she was extrapolating what had happened and how to best move forward from here. For my part, I tried pulling my arm out of Flare's grip and cleaning this up.

"Calm down! Calm down, everyone, she just doesn't understand! She has a dumb dragon brain!"

"Understand what?!" Flare said angrily. "I'm not dumb!"

"Look, there's a... There's a process here."

"Process???"

"Okay, let's say you want to fight someone. You really want to fight them."

"Uh huh."

"But there's five other people who really want to fight this person too."

"Uh huh."

"What do you do?"

"I beat them up, then fight the person anyway!"

Sophia had been putting her bow away, but she took it back out.

"See, that's what you don't understand. It's a political problem, you see. You have a group of people, and you need to think of a way to make them all as happy as possible, while not prioritizing your own happiness. You have to wait in line and let the other five fight the person one by one, until it's your turn."

Flare frowned. "I think you're the dumb one here!!! Just do what you want. Don't make it complicated!"

I glanced behind me. Oh no. The other girls had on thoughtful looks, as if just realizing they had something to learn from Flare. Oh nononono. Don't learn from the dumb dragon, please. That's how World War 3 starts.

"L-Look, rugged individualism will break the system down. It's called the tragedy of the commons. If everyone acts in their own self-interest above the interest of the community, then overall happiness decreases, and systems put in place to make larger communities work will break down. We have to work together and, out of a compassion for the greater good, dedicate a portion of our effort towards maintaining a community."

"No thanks!!! Let's wrestle, then fight!"

Oh god. She didn't even appreciate the tragedy of the commons, the core fundamental that all harems were built upon. A haremette only showed any restraint at all because she knew that if she let loose, all the other haremettes would as well, causing pandemonium. But now we had a haremette openly refusing to play fair at all from the very start. If I let this fly, then it would be over. Polite society would collapse. Every haremette would be cutting throats and shredding any semblance of self-restraint, which was already in a very questionable state for half of them.

Luckily, I already knew the answer to renegades who prioritized individualism over the community. It pained me to do this, and may Ayn Rand forgive me, but I had to bust out the secret weapon: Big Government Regulation. It was easy to extol the virtues of libertarianism when objectivism when you weren't a physical representation of the commons that the community was trying to fuck to death instead of share equally. Sadly, I did not have that leeway. I had to turn my heart to steel and embrace big government.

"No. If you don't play according to the rules, we'll never wrestle again. And that," I said loudly, "goes for everyone."

"Awwww whaaat!!!!!!!! What rules, even?!"

"Rule One: Don't talk about the harem in explicit terms. Rule Two: Don't talk about the harem. Rule Three: Don't ask for wrestling slash sex in the presence of other harem members. Do it out of sight and furtively so as to not inspire jealousy and conflict. Rule Four: Consult Rose about the sex schedule and try not to cut into pre-established sessions. Bribe her for better positions if you have to, but be wary that cucking someone else's slot will likely not end well for you if you don't make up for it somehow. Rule Five: Never, ever speak the na—"

"THIS IS STUPID!!! So many rules!" Flare interrupted with a shout. "Do you know how dumb this is?! Let's just goooo!"

I frowned. These were unspoken rules that every haremette knew through instinct, but Flare's single-digit tomboy IQ just wasn't high enough to grasp them. She would have to learn, though. Nothing fucked up the peace of a harem faster than asking for sex in front of the other girls. I mean, putting aside Sophia's fucked-up obsession with shlicking to the sight of me fucking other girls, think about how Daiya had pulled a high IQ plot to get me away from the others before leaping on my dick. That was how you did it. If she had just said "Let's fuck" in front of the others, then the natural question Rose or Medea might have would be: "Well, why does she get to fuck but not me? Why not me? Who made her the queen of sex? If he has the time for sex, doesn't he have time for any one of us? And if she's just outright asking for it, why don't I go ahead and do the same?" And they would be right. There really was no reason it had to be Daiya there; I had time for any of them. So there would have been conflict as they fought for that time that had been confirmed to exist. Instead, Daiya had implied she needed me for important plot reasons, then revealed it was just sex after all. No one could protest important plot reasons. She got her blowie without openly stirring any conflict or inviting others to throw their hat in the ring. Easy.

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Flare, however, was determined to fuck up this delicate dynamic. The tragedy of the commons: being furtive and manipulative only worked if everyone was. What was the point if there was going to be a dumbass dragon interrupting your genius high IQ slut plan to pull me away from the others? Why plan at all when the dragon just stomped on everything and shouted "LET'S WRESTLE!!!!" at every opportunity? It would be chaos. I would be ripped apart like a prisoner being drawn and quartered. This would not stand.

Luckily, Big Government had all the power thanks to the police. She might not listen to the theory of law, but she would certainly listen to the big guns that made law a reality.

"If you try to break community rules and not play the Game of Harems along with everyone else, one of the other girls will literally kill you in your sleep, or otherwise maim you permanently." I gestured at Medea, who nodded while shooting an intimidating glare at Flare. Her eyes had such a murderous fire in them that Flare instantly knew she was outmatched. She tucked her tail between her legs and whimpered.

"O-O-O-Oh," she stammered. "I-I-I think I get it now."

I nodded. It killed me to become what I hated most and adopt the principles of big government, but Medea was now the thin blue line that stood between a happy harem and utter pandemonium.

Okay. That went on too long. Moving on.

"Now, let's get to the Demon King's castle again."

"Oh?" Rose called. "What for?"

Oh yeah. I wasn't really keeping them up to speed, since this was mostly a solo mission. Not like I wanted Sophia glowering at me as I tried seducing a hot demoness over a candlelit dinner.

I gestured vaguely. "Xetrathia is there."

"Ah. You need to seduce her over a candlelit dinner," Rose said. Sophia glowered at me. Shit. This is the problem with high IQ sluts.

"Maybe. Shut up. Flare, let's go, as platonic friends."

Daiya politely unsealed the door, and with that I left with Flare. On the way to the Beastkin Empire's teleporter I tried explaining the virtues of tight scheduling and bureaucracy, but she just wasn't getting it. Her unadvanced brain was not ready for society. Really, I had to question if the Beastkin Empire had much of a future with her as a queen, but... actually, they settled everything through violence and conquest, it would probably be fine.

One there, she T-Posed again and I grabbed on, allowing her to begin flight number two. This time, I didn't charge up a fireball of death to destroy all life in the vicinity. Instead, I thought about whether I loved Flare.

It was an important question. Things had moved so fast with her I didn't really have any solid grasp on my feelings, and it was important to iron these things out, lest it look like we were nothing more than fuckbuddies (which was extremely un-heroic and not very Heir-like).

In my opinion, as I expressed so long ago, we have much more control over our feelings than we often think we do. The human emotion known as love is one such feeling, as far as I am concerned, despite its status as the sacred goose worshipped as mystic and beyond knowing for all of human history. There was a question I could ask myself right now: "Did I love Flare?", and my answer would hugely determine how I felt. If I said "Yes, I love Flare." then the embers of love within me would surely be encouraged to flare up into a roaring fire. If I said "No, I don't love Flare" and became convinced of that truth, then they would surely fizzle out. For, contrary to popular belief, love was something you worked on. It wasn't something that happened magically and then lasted forever. You didn't coast on a spark of love from the moment it lit up until your death. It was a flame you had to cultivate and work on, lest it blow out.

It was a common problem in marriages. While dating, people understood their relationship had to be worked on. They put effort on themselves and their SO, such that the flame of love stayed strong. But as soon as they married, it felt like, well, they were done! They were in love, no question, they were married, no more work needed to be done. You win, thanks for playing. But the lack of effort that follows marriage has killed more romances than anything. The fire will die if left alone. The fire will die if not stoked. You don't just passively love someone forever. You actively love them. And in this case, I could either stoke my love for Flare by saying I loved her, or stomp on the embers before they had any life.

This may seem like it's spoiling some grand mystery. It may seem like it's shitting on something sacred. But I couldn't disagree more. Wittgenstein warns us not to think of our feelings as mystic and beyond comprehension. In a famous instance, a student of Wittgenstein slapped his own cheek and said "You can't know this pain. Only I can." To this Wittgenstein replied thusly: "Are you sure you know it? You don't doubt that you just felt pain yourself?" - "How could I?" - "Well, if we can't speak of doubt here we can't speak of knowledge either. It makes no sense of 'knowing' something in a context where we cannot possibly doubt it. Therefore, to say 'I know I am in pain' is entirely senseless."

The point being, it makes no sense to say "I know I am in love" in a context where we cannot doubt the love. To treat love as something which could not be doubted or understood would be to make the word not mean anything; it would make love mystic, and unknowable, something meaningless instead of something we can talk about. Some may like that air of mystery, the air of sacredness that comes from something being untouchable, and that's fine - not wanting to understand these things yourself is fine as long as you aren't communicating, or expecting others to understand you in any meaningful sense.

In my case, I wanted to communicate it. I wanted to understand my feelings and understand Flare's feelings. Understanding love is, in a way, my life's mission. When I ask myself, "Do I love Flare?", it is not me pondering feelings beyond my comprehension. Rather, it is me deciding whether to choose to love Flare, and casting the doubt into the shadows.

I looked down at her, since I was technically clinging to her back. She had her tail wrapped around my own waist this time, which was surely something I could read into if I wanted to. There was a lot to love about Flare. Her poofy red hair, her animalistic behavior, her adorably low IQ, her toned tomboy body, her sharp teeth, etc. It would be very easy to love her if I wanted. Was it wrong to love someone for superficial reasons? Well, who's to say that love is any better if you love someone for profound reasons? It was my opinion that physical appearance and surface level behavior were almost always the primary reasons for love, rather than any profound "You complete me!" types of reason. To actually 'complete' someone was a really complex and hard thing; possible, to be sure, but very hard to grasp. Just imagine how hard it would be to like an unattractive, unpleasant person with no surface-level attributes you liked, but somehow 'completed' you. Liking someone for their appearance and charisma/pleasantness/etc, on the other hand, was very simple, and very easy. Even something as simple as sharing a single hobby made things infinitely easier. It would be shallow, though, to say it is lesser for being simpler. That would be biased, and not particularly meaningful. What mattered was always the strength of one's feelings, the size of the fire that burned, and hell, if a spunky dumb tomboy made your fire burn impossibly bright, who was I to call you shallow? That would just be hypocritical.

I decided, ultimately, that I loved Flare. I would stoke the flames, and put in effort. I hadn't known her for long, but I liked pretty much everything I knew about her. I didn't even hold a grudge over her almost choking me to death with her tail. That added to her appeal, even. There was no reason for me to not stoke the love. There was no reason for me to label this as "not love" and smother the embers. Unless, of course, she did not return the feelings. I decided to ask, just out of curiosity, even though the love cap might have made the question pointless.

"Flare!" I said, speaking close to her ear.

"Yeah?!" she called back.

"Do you love me?"

"Yeah!!!!!!!!"

"OK."

That settled that. Had Flare thought hard about it? What were her reasons? What were her thoughts on Fantasy Wittgenstein? All important questions we could talk about at length later. The only thing I knew for sure, was that it would have been impossibly rude for me to doubt her. Impossibly disrespectful to not believe her. Impossibly insulting to ask if she just said that because she was brainwashed by love points and/or cock without realizing it. If I couldn't believe Flare would honestly speak from the heart, who the fuck could I believe?

Admittedly, I was a little curious about the nature of dragon love. She sure wasn't acting shy or bashful. I recalled her calling my harem stuff "dumb" and "stupid." She loved strength, clearly, and my strength played a hugely significant factor in her feelings—if I hadn't overpowered her with raw strength, she would have just killed me and moved on with her dragon life. But that was not shallow, just as no reason for loving someone was truly shallow unless you wanted to be disrespectful towards others. I wouldn't call her shallow for loving strength, no more so than I would call myself shallow for first falling in love with Rose due to her literally perfect appearance. Deeper reasons could come later, if they came at all. It didn't really matter, as long as the flame was stoked, and burned true.

The Demon King's castle (and capital city, apparently) came into view. I wasn't sure what I was going to do this time, since the Omega Fireball didn't work last time, but I noticed a large white flag rippling in the wind on a veranda. I directed Flare to it and she landed, unmolested by ballista shots or rogue mages. I let go of her and stepped to the side to get my bearings.

In front of us stood Xetra, and a contingent of guards. She frowned at me, and pushed up her glasses, which made for a slightly endearing sight considering the plate armor she had chosen to wear.

"I ask for parley. Do not destroy the city, and we may speak."