I woke up the next day in my room in the elven palace, feeling sore but relieved. The loop here in Koh'rin had been pretty painful all things considered, but now I was in a big and comfy bed with no time pressure whatsoever. Beautiful sun was streaming through the windows, the mattress was comfy, and... the bed was very, very warm. Unusually warm. What?

I lifted up the covers and discovered Soh'fia curled up in a ball next to me. She was breathing peacefully, deep in sleep, and was why it was so friggin' hot under my covers. What was she doing here? When did she get in here? Were guards about to burst in here looking for her and stab me with spears?

"Er... Princess Soh'fia?" I called, poking her slightly squishy cheek. She grumbled and curled up tighter. The half-translucent babydoll dress she wore to bed hitched a bit, revealing more of her smooth legs and bubbly butt. What was she thinking, getting in bed with some guy she just met wearing that? It was truly baffling. The time loop here seemed to be over, but the trials and tribulations were not.

Ultimately, I lifted up one of her arms and tickled her smooth armpit. After a second, her eyes shot open, and I set the arm back down.

She stared at me for a second with a flat expression, then sat up, turned, got out of the bed, and left the room silently. Not a single word. The door shut behind her.

Okay. Hopefully nobody saw her leaving and questioned why she was here. Or worse, guided her here in the first place.

I stretched and got out of bed. I had slept only in my boxers, like usual; back at home, I always slept in a full set of clothes, but now it just felt right to go shirtless and pantless. I guess it just had to do with being comfortable with your body. At the moment I was still far from a disfigured mass of muscle, but I had gone from "stick" to more of a lean, rippling form that I didn't mind showing off. It was kind of surreal in a way. A girl walking in on me shirtless before would have killed me with embarrassment, but now I would think literally nothing of it. All my life I had kind of dismissed taking proper care of my body, exercising, etc, thinking it was something for jocks to do and not geeks like me or whatever, but it actually felt great to be fit. It was a burden taken off my mind that I hadn't even realized was a burden. And thanks to all this, I didn't feel embarrassed at all about Soh'fia curling up next to my half-naked body. Just confused.

Anyway, I got some clothes on without bothering to put on my leather armor. I really needed some better armor and equipment by now, but that was exactly what we would be discussing at breakfast today. A lot had happened yesterday, and there were plans to be made, plus deals to be settled.

I was not entirely looking forward to settling some of the deals.

I left my room and looked around. No guards. The elves really liked to virtue signal how peaceful their city was, even after the entire mess last night. The wards blocking the Excursed from summoning in the city had been repaired instantly yesterday, seemingly by the Goddess herself, and everyone was back to pretending it had never happened to the best of their ability. Understandable, really; it sounded like pure hell to live with the assumption that deadly monsters would be summoned next to you at any moment.

The door to the dining hall did have guards, at least. Hopefully they weren't the guards that had been neck-chopped by my party yesterday. I didn't see any of them glaring at me, at least. Nice.

I went inside and saw the same table from before. Soh'fia was sitting in her big chair, sweating and breathing just a little harder than usual... Had, had she ran here? Did she start running the second she left my room so she could change and then run to the dining hall before I got here? I... Okay?

Hilda and Rose were also here, which completed the four. To my understanding Dakka was assisting with the investigation into Bah'loh'kah, which was a formality but still important nonetheless. Both the dark elf councilman and the tree elf councilman were busy with that and thus not attending this breakfast. Putting aside the guards standing around and the attendants serving food, it was just us four.

I took my seat and looked around. Rose nodded, Hilda smiled, and Soh'fia scowled. As expected.

"Hmph! Nice of you to finally show up, human," Soh'fia said.

"I came as fast as I could. Didn't want to keep a princess waiting, after all."

"I'll compliment your spirit, if not your results."

We were served dishes with nothing but green vegetables on them. High Elves could technically eat both meat and greens, but to virtue signal their conservative respect for traditional elf values, they stuck to vegetarian diets most of the time.

"So," I said, after stabbing some lettuce-looking stuff with a fork. "Soh'fia, do you get the significance of being one of the Five and everything? Just to be sure."

If she was bothered by me addressing her by her first name with no honorific, she didn't show it. She just sniffed. "Yes. I need to accompany you and your band of smelly humans on your quest to Unite the Five and visit the top of Dragonmount."

"Actually, you could probably just stay here and wait for—"

"It's unthinkable for an elven princess to travel with humans, and unbelievable you would make such demands of me, but I am magnanimous and understanding. It is the Goddess's will, and as her vessel, I shall obey."

"The prophecy doesn't say anything about you having to accompany us the ent—"

"Oh, what rotten luck! I can only imagine how miserable the journey will be, but I will endure it, for it is my sacred duty."

I narrowed my eyes at her, and she narrowed her eyes back at me; there was a fierce, indomitable will burning within her pupils. For a minute we had a little staring contest, sparks flying between us, but she wasn't backing down. Oh well.

"We are honored by your understanding and compassion. Thank you for coming with us."

She nodded curtly. "That's right. Be grateful."

Fucking elves.

"With that settled," Rose said, "What is our next step? Shall we leave for the dwarven holds at once?"

"Nah. I've been thinking I want to stay in Koh'rin for a week or so to get some things settled."

"Such as?"

"Well, putting aside the time they'll need to prepare for us forcibly ripping Soh'fia away from her kingdom against her will, I want to get some new equipment, train up Nature magic, a—"

"If you insist!" Soh'fia interrupted. "I will take some precious time out of my day to give you Natural magic lessons. Again, I cannot imagine how miserable it will be to spend hours stuck in a room alone with a smelly human, but I suppose it is my duty, no matter how miserable it is."

"No, it's okay. I'm sure there are plenty of tree elves that would be wil—" Sophia glowered at me, practically snarling with her scowl. "—ling to step aside to give you time to work. Thank you for your consideration, Sophia."

She tilted her head in the air with her mouth bent in a frown. "Hmph. Be grateful."

"Absolutely. I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to spend some time alone with you, Sophia. It's like a dream come true."

"H-Hmph!"

Love Point Gained! Soh'fia +1

Milestone Reached! Crush has become Infatuation!

The bond between your souls has strengthened.

Oh. Hmmmmm. A-Already that high, huh?

There were two possibilities here. One, she silently got love points in previous loops, and I just wasn't notified of them since she wasn't a party member yet. Two, she simply had such enormously high love points from the very second she became a party member that a single love point was all it took to achieve a new milestone. Honestly, both seemed pretty plausible to me. For all her insults and blustering, Soh'fia came across as easily the most love-happy of any girl I had met so far, and that was saying something. I would probably get a love point just by slapping her across the cheek with my dick or something.

"Anyway." I turned to Rose. "I'm thinking we might want to go to the Beastkin Empire next instead of the dwarf holds."

"State your reasoning," she replied. "It better not be what I think it is."

"I'm just looking at all the facts here. I need to get stronger, and from what you've told me the Beastkin Empire is filled with bloodthirsty fighters, so it seems like a match made in heaven." And I want to mix up your plan.

"The Empire being filled with bloodthirsty fighters is exactly why we want to put it off for as long as possible. It seems to me that you just want to mix up my plan so it doesn't go as I said it would." Shit.

"No, look. I need to get better equipment than my leather armor and basic broadsword. I'm sure an empire of warriors will have top-tier equipment."

Rose smirked. "The dwarven holds have the mightiest forges and armor in all the land. It is the logical next step if you want better equipment."

"Scratch that. I need fighting experience. There wasn't much fighting here, so I didn't get as stronger as I would have liked."

Her smirk intensified. "The dwarven holds are presently staving off an invasion of what seems to be ungodly creatures of the underworld which they disturbed while mining. You will find no greater slaughter than what is going on there."

Oh nonono. This couldn't be happening. "S-Surely there's some benefit to going to the Beastkin Empire first that I'm just missing."

Rose leaned back in her chair, like that sealed the deal. "Considering the ceremony you will be forced to partake in there, it is best you arrive stronger and with better equipment, which we have just established would be best accomplished by going to the dwarven holds first. I believe that settles this debate."

Crap.

"Fine. Dwarven holds next it is. But I still want to spend at least a week or so in Koh'rin before going there. I feel like left the fort too soon, and I got here kind of unprepared."

"That is perfectly acceptable."

"I think so too!" Hilda interjected. "There's some stuff I want to do here."

"Actually, Hilda, do you have some time after breakfast? There's some stuff I want to talk about."

She looked at me with surprise, then nodded. "Uh-huh. I'm free."

"Great. Let's meet in my room."

Rose and Soh'fia both glanced between us. Soh'fia had nothing to go on, but Rose remembered the impromptu makeout session.

"Um, human? What about your Natural Magic lessons? You need to start learning soon to get the basics down," Soh'fia said angrily.

"I think I'll be fine. It can wait. Maybe this afternoon?"

"H-Hmph! You're lucky I'm a generous teacher. Fine, this afternoon. Don't forget it!" Sophia barked, retreating from attempting to block the meeting since she was satisfied with having secured one of her own.

Rose, meanwhile, had on only the vaguest of frowns. It wasn't even something you would recognize as a frown if you hadn't spent a lot of time around her, carefully observing her perfectly sculpted face to admire its beauty as much as possible. Her full lips were just ever, ever so slightly tilted more downwards than flat. I could only guess that she was a bit peeved that she didn't know what I would be talking to Hilda about, but I wasn't about to broadcast my intentions in public.

From there, breakfast was pretty unremarkable. Hilda asked about where any good equipment stores were (for my sake?), Rose inquired about the political situation, Soh'fia ranted at length about politics, and I poked around at my food, wishing it had a bit more substance. Maybe I could ask for something meatier later.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

When it came time to disperse, Hilda and I left the dining hall together. Soh'fia stared daggers into our backs, whereas Rose just watched impassively.

I'll be honest. In the past, I never really understood why harem protagonists didn't just man up and date at least one member of his flock of babes. It always boggled the mind to see a bunch of hot girls throw themselves at him, while he just found any excuse not to go through with it. But now, I really got it. The messy web of interpersonal relationships was so, so much more complicated than it seemed, and the weight of doing anything with one girl while the others were silently (or not silently) judging you was kind of stifling. I genuinely wanted to back out and go back to apologize, for some reason, which was fucking absurd, because I was literally on my way to my room with a fat-titted goth mage who was completely DTF. It made no sense. And yet I felt fear in my heart. I would much rather be running away from my room than walking to it. Finally, I understood all those harem MCs. The problem wasn't being too cowardly to go through with it. The problem was being spoiled for choice, having only one dick, and facing the very real threat of being knifed in one's sleep for choosing wrong. And all I was doing here was having a little talk with one girl.

Why were things so complicated and difficult? Why couldn't everyone just be platonic friends and get along? I would never belittle harem protagonists again. They had it rough.

Eventually, we reached my room and went inside. Hilda looked at me, wearing her ill-fitting robes, and cocked her head. "What did you want to talk about?"

I turned and looked up wistfully at the ceiling. "Hilda, what I'm about to say might confuse or startle you. It might even scare you so much you leave this room and never come back. I just want you to know, I will understand no matter what you choose to do. You see, I'm something of a time traveler, and we had a discussion in a now forever-lost future. We spoke of many things, and I realized how deep your feelings really were. To put it simply, I was a fool for getting so stuck in my head I didn't see what you really felt. You no longer remember this conversation, but to me, it wa—" I was interrupted by a tap on my shoulder.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I looked down from the ceiling and discovered Hilda standing fully nude in front of me, robes tossed on the ground already. Her thick thighs glistened with the juices already pouring down them, and her eyes were sharp with the look of a predator who had finally caught its prey. Her pillowy breasts hung heavily in front of her, but their visible softness just made her rapidly hardening nipples look all the more deadly.

"Uh, I just want to talk abou—" I began, but didn't even finish my sentence before she was mashing her mouth against mine, this time with no thick robes to dull the sharpness of her nipples as they dug into me. The protests died on my lips as I was consumed by the softness of hers; we had kissed only once before in this timeline, and in that I had tonguefucked her mouth for a lack of time, but now she was getting revenge by tonguefucking me. Her tongue violated my mouth like it had a mind of its own and its life depended on it touching every square inch of my inner cheeks and teeth. I mounted a futile resistance with my own tongue, but hers wiggled away every time and kept up the attack. One could not hope to defeat Hilda in a kiss-off. She was simply the best there was.

She was so good, in fact, that I didn't notice her using her hands to undo my belt and then, apparently, lift up a foot to pull my pants down. All while continuing the most aggressive kiss I had experienced in my life. She was a woman with a mission, and that mission was fusing our bodies together without pausing for a second. Her tongue retreated back into her mouth and she settled on sucking my lips in between bouts of softer pushing. She was shifting her focus to something else, but what?

I got my answer in seconds. She clamped her wet, juicy thighs around my fully erect dick and started humping her hips against me. Her crotch slammed against mine repeatedly, and it was all I could do to stay standing straight instead of falling back, which was a bit easier due to how she had thrown her arms around me in a tight embrace. Her furious hip-thrusting was so aggressive it felt like she was trying to actually break my hip bones, but what really drove her was how the top of my erect dick scraped against her wet pussy lips with each thrust. On my end, the soft but overwhelming pressure of her thighs mixed with the gushing juices from her pussy made it hard not to cum instantly. Really, I had to be glad she was so wet; if not for all her juices, the friction from her thighs would probably have burned like hell.

This continued for what felt like an eternity. I was absorbed in her lips, and the pleasure from her thigh fucking was all-consuming. The only thing that snapped me out of it was the fact I could barely breathe with her dominating my mouth so much. Ultimately, I had to put my hands on her bare shoulders and detach myself from her before I suffocated in her mouth. Which, honestly, wouldn't have been the worst way to die, but it felt a little early for that.

As I gasped for breath, I saw Hilda licking her lips hungrily.

"Isn't this a bit sudden?" I asked between breaths.

"I've been trying to get through to you all week. I was going to die if it didn't happen soon," she replied, then lunged forward, grabbing the back of my head and pulling it down onto her boobs. "My slutty boobs have been so lonely without you. Feel how hot they are?"

Uh, that was some intense language, but she had a point. Her pillowy boobs were burning like fire, and I could feel her heart thumping as my head sank into them. I couldn't resist sticking my tongue out for a lick; the sheen of sweat covering her boobs tasted divine, which might have just been my hormones. My tongue sunk into her boob flesh like a marshmallow, and she let out a ticklish squeal of delight. I couldn't stop licking. The sweat between her boobs just tasted too good, like salty ambrosia.

She responded to my licking by pressing my face into her boobs harder while reaching down and grabbing my dick. "Aaah," she moaned. "It's so hot. It's throbbing so hard. I can't believe they get this big..." she said, breathlessly, before starting to stroke. Her bare hand didn't feel half as good as her juicy thighs had, but this was just the calm before the storm. She rubbed her palm against the tip of my dick to cover it with precum, and then... I heard her licking it up, sighing happily. "It tastes like salty ambrosia," she said with satisfaction. Oh, okay.

My mouth eventually found one of her nipples, proudly erect and pointing straight forward. It licked around her bumpy areola first, enjoying the sensation, then bit her hard nipple lightly between my teeth. She gasped in pleasure, her knees already buckling a bit. I must have been hearing things, but it sounded like a splash of liquid had just hit the ground. I bit again, and heard it again. She was squirting with each lovebite. Encouraged, I reached around and gave her huge ass a squeeze, then took a much harder bite. This time, her gasp was an outright shriek, and she fell against me, shuddering. I felt droplets from the torrent of liquid splash against my outstretched arm.

"That was fast," I said with a laugh, pulling my head back from her boobs while I held her up with my chest and the hand on her ass.

"Humguhguala," she replied, unable to speak properly while hanging limply. We rested a second, until eventually she detached herself from me and took a few steps back.

"Well, that was nice," I said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go rethink my life cho—"

Hilda grabbed my arm before I could go, and shook her head. She then fell back onto my bed and spread her legs, then her pussy with her fingers. "My pussy's still hungry," she said seductively. The juices streaming from her insides quickly began staining my sheets, forming a dark circle that just grew larger with every second. Jesus Christ, how wet could this woman get? The sun reflected off her glistening thighs like they were snow. I was going to get snow blindness from Hilda's fat thighs. Lord have mercy.

That said, I hadn't cum yet myself, and I was not one to reject a fine lady's offer. I took off my shirt, the last article of clothing still on me, and climbed on top of her. She looked up at my face, breathless, and I leaned down for a kiss. As we kissed, a soft, gentle kiss, surprisingly enough, she lifted up her hips to try to get my dick inside of her. It was hard, though, since she couldn't see, and so she just ended up bumping into my dick with her soft lower waist. It struck me that it would have felt incredible to just thrust my dick against her soft stomach or boobs, but that would probably drive her crazy at this point.

I played nice and aimed my dick at her pussy hole myself.

"Before I do this," I said, "I want to make sure we're all on the same page about how serious this is. Sex is a holy, sacred act, and one's virg—" I didn't even finish my sentence, again, before she thrust her hips up such that my well-aimed dick drove deep inside of her. She gasped, then squealed in delight, throwing her arms around my head and pulling me back down for a kiss. Her soft lips enveloped mine just as her lower lips enveloped me, our kiss only half-broken by her crazy grinning. Her pussy clamped around my dick like a wet, meaty vice, and I couldn't even move my hips for fear of accidentally ripping my dick off. Her pussy walls undulated like they were already trying to milk my dick, and I was completely overwhelmed.

After about ten seconds of having my brain fried by how pleasurable it was just to have my dick inside of her, I realized I wouldn't survive much longer inside of her. This was unlike anything I had felt before, and I was completely unprepared. I tried pulling my hips back to escape, but that's when I realized my mistake.

Hilda wrapped her legs around me and pulled me back inside.

"Nuh-uh. You aren't getting away. It's baby-making time."

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

WHY DIDN'T I LEARN CONTRACEPTION MAGIC?!

I had thought with my dick and forgotten the most basic thing of all time: if you ever went missionary position with a crazy girl, she would leglock you and force a pregnancy. Dear God I had made the most basic mistake in the book, and there was no getting out now. The largest muscles in the world meant nothing when a hot girl's legs were locked around your waist. You were fucked, in the literal and metaphorical sense. It was impossible for a man to break out of a leglock; the position turned their legs into the chains that bound Fenrir for eternity, and no matter how much I gnashed my teeth or struggled, I was stuck inside of her.

And so, as I sat there frozen in horror and scared of moving for fear of cumming instantly, Hilda began moving her hips on her own. She bounced her hips off the bed and up into me, using my dick like a locked-in place dildo and pleasuring herself to her heart's content. I could be frozen like a statue and by god she would still be getting my cum from me. Her boobs bounced and swirled in a circular fashion as she moved, hypnotizing me. Her tongue slipped out of her mouth as she began panting between blissful moans. Each time she thrust her hips hard enough for my dick to hit her cervix, it felt like the opening to her womb formed lips and gave the tip of my dick a loving kiss. The sensation was all consuming, and honestly, even if I had wanted to thrust my hips in turn, the storm of pleasure I got just from standing still was enough to dissuade me from trying.

The pleasure finally became too much, and I felt the tip of my dick heating up in preparation to explode. Hilda felt my shaft expand with her and giggled happily, having completely lost her mind by this point. I had lost my mind too. She did one final hip thrust, locking the mouth of her womb against my dick tip and opening it wide, a vessel waiting to be filled with cum. Far be it from me to disappointment. In a final act of defiance, I pulled my hips back on my own and thrust forward as hard as I could, slamming into her cervix hard enough I saw a tiny bump form on her stomach from her womb pressing against it. She let out a gutteral choke, and then an ear-splitting cry of orgasm, the most intense orgasm of her life. It was like a siren's song guiding me to crash my ship, and so did my dick explode against the rock, pouring a flood of semen right into her ready and waiting womb. Orgasmic pleasure spiked my brain.

And then it happened. Hilda started glowing a bit, dark tentacles of energy radiating off her body. For a second I was just confused, my orgasm-filled mind barely able to focus, but then I realized. It wasn't just cum leaving my dick; my very soul was leaving with it. Hilda was sucking both my cum and my soul out of me. It didn't even look like she knew what she doing, given the dumb, happy look on her face, but I could feel my life energy draining by the second. I struggled to pull out and escape, but the leg lock was simply too strong. Her usually soft legs were like iron bars keeping me trapped. I got weaker and weaker by the second, until eventually I collapsed onto her heavy boobs, sinking into them like a crashed ship while her undulating pussy milked out the last of my cum and soul.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I woke up hours later, feeling like a shriveled mummy. It was pitch black outside, and Hilda was nowhere to be seen. That surprised me, but after some thought, it made sense. She probably hadn't blacked out like I did, and given that it was nighttime despite this having happened right after breakfast, I had been knocked out for literally the entire day. Holy shit. Hilda had the deadliest pussy in the world.

I sat up and looked at my arms. Despite feeling like a mummy, I still looked the same as I had earlier. The dead feeling was probably just actual damage to my soul and not anything physical. Whew! That was a relief.

I considered getting out of bed, but decided to just let my head fall onto the pillow instead. No point wandering around the palace at night. The thought idly struck me that I had accidentally broken my promise with Soh'fia, even if it hadn't really been my fault. She was probably steamed. Then again, I could see her barging into my room and Hilda explaining that I had gotten sick or something. She would still be mad, but maybe she would be mad at Hilda instead.

It was when my mind started finally drifting back to sleep that I felt the cold steel of a dagger against my throat. I cautiously opened my eyes, trying not to shit myself in fear. Please don't make me do the last loop again. Please don't make me do the last loop again. I don't want to go back.

My eyes were adjusted enough to the darkness that I could see the black-clad figure with the knife. I didn't want to believe it was true, but she pulled back the hood of her cloak, revealing her angrily pursed lips and smooth, brown skin. It was Dakka.

"You would dare violate a sacred oath?" she demanded, her tone murderous.

"Wh... What?"

"We had a deal. It seems to me that you are trying to escape it."

Oh my god. "Come with me if you want to get fucked" really is a sacred elf oath. Oh my god. Why. Please. Only the dead can know peace from slutty elves. The dwarf holds can't come soon enough.

"Look, sorry, some stuff came up. I got sidelined and knocked out all day. It wasn't intentional. I promise I'll come fuc—" Her eyes narrowed sharply. "—...I'll come discuss the blackmail I have over you later, and possibly torture you for information?"

She nodded curtly and removed the dagger. It was wet with a thin line of blood, which she licked up in a threatening manner. "Your human cruelty disgusts me. To blackmail an elf is bad enough, but to hang a sword over their neck and refuse to act upon the threat is like how a cat plays with a mouse. Heartless." With that she disappeared from sight, a flash of black and then nothing.

As I rested my head back upon my pillow, a single tear trickled down my cheek.

Hilda could knock me unconscious or stun me at will with Miasma. Dakka could use her skills as a highly trained assassin to infiltrate my room and slit my throat at any time she wanted. Soh'fia, for all her blustering, was a regent with a literal army at her fingertips. Rose played her cards close to her chest, and I didn't feel threatened by her at the moment, but she was a paladin of the church and could probably call an inquisition on my ass if she really wanted to.

The more time I spent here, the harder life became. The closer I was to death at all times. Being a Hero was far more draining than I had expected. It wasn't even the battles, hard trips on the road, or even the constant cycles of death, that had me down. It was the infectious lust that women felt for heroes that kept biting me in the ass, because all the women here were crazy and dangerous. Surviving a harem without losing your mind or head was the actual challenge of being a hero, not the big bad or his legions of evil.

I thought back to how incredible Hilda's insides had been, and the brain-splitting orgasm I felt.

Okay, maybe I should stop complaining. What was a little soul damage and throat-slitting when compared to getting your dick wet? Ahahaha. Ahaha. Ha.

It took a while before I could fall back asleep. At least I didn't unlock a sex skill I had to grind up.