I awoke in my Koh'rin bedroom, a week after the invasion that never happened. It was the queen's bedroom, though it might as well have been mine. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows, casting away the darkness such that the rich carpet and ornate wooden furniture was more than visible. It was certainly a kingly sort of room, and nothing made this more apparent than the bed, which was grand and magnificent. It was good that the bed was so grand, so soft and quiet, because there were a lot of people on it.

First and foremost was myself, of course. I was laying in the middle, naked, due to my boxers being pulled down against my will. The only covers were the warm mass of bodies surrounding me.

To my right was Rose, nestled against me like always, head in the cranny above my shoulder so she could fall asleep while smelling my neck. She was wearing the tanktop and hotpants that I loved so much, and even with so many women in my bed at once, I always found myself appreciating her presence the most.

Sophia was curled between my legs, sleepily sucking my morning wood. It was such a familiar feeling to me I didn't even register it, really, no more than you might register the feeling of your pillow after waking up. It was there, but so familiar that its absence would have been more noticeable than its presence. She was wearing her baby doll dress, whose translucent allowed the pink glow of her womb tattoo to be visible at a glance. Her slender elvish body fit neatly between my legs, especially when curled up, and so it wasn't uncomfortable at all for her to be there.

Daiya was hugging my left side, completely naked with her ginormous boobs squashed against my side. I never really adjusted to just how absurdly meaty her supposedly stone body was; if not for the grey skin I likely would have forgotten that she didn't just have godlike sex genes. She was awake, as always; staring directly at the side of my face with narrowed eyes and a frown to her lips, but that was just how she was. It took a bit to adjust to an ungodly powerful psychic queen staring at me while I was trying to sleep, then waking up to her still staring at me, but humans were nothing if not quick to adjust. I resisted the urge to kiss her sexy, frowning lips so that I could continue my monologue.

Flare was laying on the left side of my chest, which was broad enough to safely hold two women. She was naked and resting on her stomach, such that her smallish tomboy boobs pressed against me while her thick tail wrapped around my leg. The scales were slightly uncomfortable, but I could live with it, and there was something vaguely pleasing about the toned muscles of her stomach rubbing against my much larger, manlier muscles.

Xetra was, naturally, on the right side of my chest. She was also naked, her curvy red body completely nude and exposed to the air. Her heart-tipped tail swished in the air as she slept, and her plus-sized boobs flattened against my chest. I felt like that couldn't possibly be comfortable, but she seemed happy to do it, especially since she noticed the smile I gave every single time I felt the soft sensation of her boobs squishing against me. I felt the temptation to reach up and squeeze her juicy ass, but with Rose's supermodel body locked around my right arm (perhaps for this exact reason), that was out of the cards.

All in all, they had found a way. By god, they had found a way to all sleep in my bed at once. (Or well, Sophia's bed, technically, but she was more than content to curl up at the bottom of it). It took a couple of nights to adjust to sleeping with the weight of two adult women sleeping on top of my chest, especially when one of them was so curvy, but I managed. The only problem was that I couldn't turn in my sleep, or sleep on my back, or really move at all. There was immense pressure from all sides as they strained to maximize body contact, but things were a lot better in the morning, when they weren't all awake and shifting.

I pondered how and when to get out of bed, as was tradition. If I moved too quickly, Flare would start fighting Sophia for my morning wood like two dogs fighting for a piece of meat, while Daiya and Rose would engage in a battle of wits for my first kiss of the day. (Daiya used to win that by virtue of always being awake, but when Rose found out she engaged in some... behind the scenes diplomacy to get Daiya to wait until she was awake? I had no idea what she said or did, but Daiya had agreed in the end). Either way, if I wanted to start my day without hours of catfighting, I had to plan my first move carefully.

Ultimately, I did what I had gotten used to doing over the past few days. I nudged Rose with my right arm to wake her up. She blinked her eyes open, and thus the mind game with Daiya began. I didn't really have a full scope of what went on between them as they glared at each other and psychically communicated through Daiya's powers, but in the end, Rose won, as signified by her inclining her head slightly my way. Maybe Rose was bribing Daiya with gambling chips? Either way, her winning was fine with me. I tilted my head for the kiss, and we did; pressing our lips together as we made out passionately for several minutes. Rose was an expert kisser by this point, and if I let myself get lost in her lips all day I wouldn't even notice the time pass by.

Daiya's erect nipples digging impatiently into me denied that from happening, however. I pulled back and turned my head to the other side. Despite her impatient boob-pushing, Daiya's expression was as flat as before, and if not for her full lips parting slightly as she prepared to extend her tongue into my mouth, I might have thought she was a statue. Daiya's kisses were, ironically, always more aggressive; she would inevitably thrust out her tongue and extended it within my mouth to aggressively wrestle with my tongue as we pressed our lips together. I had to say, Daiya's lips were my favorite out of anyone's; they were so full, so velvety, and so black that it felt like I was taken to chocolate heaven. Rose was an expert kisser, but Daiya, somehow, was a natural.

With the morning kisses done, I chose to cum in Sophia's mouth. That always woke her up, since she had to quickly tighten her lips and start gulping in order to drink all my semen without letting any spill out. She licked it clean afterwards, and with that I used Telekinesis to lift Flare and Xetra off me with no perceptible force. They remained asleep, having no way of sensing that they were being lifted into the air. Rose crawled over me to get out of bed (she had actively pushed the bed to the right side of the wall to ensure she had to crawl over me each morning; I think she thought I hadn't noticed, but I did). I had to admit, even now her heart-shaped ass passing by my face was a hard temptation to resist. There were some sights you just didn't get used to; like vast mountain scenery outside of your hut in the forest. Daiya had the objectively inferior position on the left side, and all she could do was rub her thick body against me to remind me of her own sexiness before likewise getting out of bed. Sophia crawled out once she woke up from her cum-induced daze.

I got out myself, then gently set Flare and Xetra down. They would wake up soon enough, once the bed cooled and they felt my lack of warmth, but I had a bit of time before then. I stretched while the girls who were awake prepared for their day. Once I got dressed, I strode out of the room first, leaving the others to their business.

I mused about all the sexy elves on my way to where I was going. From what I had read on elf history, it had all happened a thousand years ago. Some interloper arrived, and elf culture was never the same again. Details were fuzzy. Nobody could identify exactly when he started worming his way into elf society, or when exactly he started corrupting their culture, but by the time it was public knowledge it was too late. Koh'rin was under his thumb, and by the time he left, nothing was ever the same. The slut genes had been implanted deep within them. Even the Elf Goddess disappeared, never to be seen again. High Elf racism was mostly a reaction to this and trying to get elf culture back on track, but it was just putting a Band-Aid over an infected wound.

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It didn't really matter, though. I wasn't going to judge elves for being slutty; that would be prejudicial. I had just been amused to learn that elf historians traced their sluttiness back to one interloper; they were sluts for a concrete, identifiable reason. I would never meet this guy, but I had to thank him for warming Koh'rin up for me. There were few things I loved more in the world than slutty elves.

I crossed Dakka in the hall. She had been taken on as Sophia's Royal Assassin at her extreme insistence, and was now a common sight around the palace. She noticed me, then strode over with some documents in hand. "Heir, would you mind taking a look at these?"

"Sure," I said, taking them from her hands. I swiftly caught her wrist before her knife could dig into my neck. "Not this time."

Dakka pursed her lips. "Too bad."

Her knives were coated with a paralysis agent that would have made my body immobile for a full day. I had previously made the mistake of trying to show off my high END by just letting the knife hit my skin, but apparently Sex Level 100 considered a cock-obsessed elf using drugs to knock me unconscious 'sexy', and therefore allowed the knife to cut right into my veins. By the time I was found and freed, my dick was more than a little sore.

The documents in question were some junk about high priority High Elf rebels. I pressed them back in Dakka's hands and walked off with a wave. "Wait your turn, Dakka!" I called, making sure not to make it an actual order.

"And you watch your back, Heir!" she called back. It was not an empty threat.

I arrived at my destination—a sparring arena for the elvish military—and grabbed a wooden practice sword. I walked to the center of the sparring arena and did some air swings to adjust to its weight. This one would be for all the marbles. Needed to be ready.

Rose walked in not long after. She was wearing a light set of leather armor, the ideal outfit for sparring. She nodded at me, then strode to the stand of wooden swords and grabbed one of her own. She did some practice swings to warm up before hopping into the arena, the same as I had.

"Ready to spar?" I asked, as if this was just another normal session.

"Always," she replied.

We stood equidistant from the middle of the arena, maybe twenty feet apart. We readied our swords such that they would have crossed each other were we standing next to each other.

"You know, I have a confession to make," Rose said.

"Yeah?"

"Yes. My name is not truly Rose."

I gasped. "This can't be true."

"But it is. I am, in truth, Princess Rosalyn of the Penndrack Empire. We will not need to head to Penndrack before Dragonmount after all."

"I see." I smiled, then continued. "Well, I have a confession too. I'm not just some guy."

She gasped. "Impossible. But you said you were nobody special."

"Fact of the matter is, I'm Malcador. Heir of the World."

"I see. Nice to finally meet you," she said. We gave each other sly smiles, then dashed forward. Our blades crossed in classic dramatic fashion.

The birds were chirping. The sky was blue. Green grass extended around us in all directions, as we were in the middle of a vast stretch of plains. The warm sun shone down on us as sweat glistened on our skin. We were back on the roadtrip, both smiling, both happy, just the two of us alone in the world.

"Princess Rosalyn," I said while swinging to the right.

"Yes?" she responded, parrying it effortlessly, then launching a thrust.

"What is the nature of love?" I contorted my side to dodge it, then attempted to elbow her wrist.

"I thought I made you into a philosopher," she replied, deflecting my elbow. "There is no absolutist answer. It is all what we make of it."

"And what do you make of it?" I asked, jumping back a step to avoid her swift left punch.

She used the opportunity to step back herself, increasing the distance between us. She raised her hands and lifted her head to look at the sky. "A warm heart. A smile on my face. Trust. Attraction. Happiness. A burning fire that burns only hotter in the other's presence."

"Words spoken with familiarity," I observed, readying myself for what was about to come.

"Naturally. Haven't we voiced our feelings?" She smiled. "I love you, Malcador."

"I just find myself questioning whether I can trust it all. What if it's something else?" What if it's brainwashing, was the unspoken question. What if the world of harems was forcing you to love me against your will?

She readied her blade. "A lack of trust has always been your worst habit. Pessimism is not superior to optimism simply because expecting pain makes it hurt less. You know, the ancients who first sailed the Endless Sea and colonized the continent had a different phrase for 'love at first sight'. They called it theia mania, 'madness from the gods.'"

"Yeah...?"

"Indeed. Even in the past, love was related with madness, and madness with love. The two go hand in hand, for love is beyond our comprehension. All we can do is believe and have faith. You need to open your heart, Malcador. After all..." She flashed a smile. "Without love, it cannot be seen."

Rose shifted, her armor rubbing together. She was preparing for a dash, I knew in an instant. My mind felt so clear. My body felt so alive. A smile arose on my face, maybe the first true smile of my life. One from the soul. I readied my blade for a forward slash. I could see it. I could see!

The breeze calmed, and Rose began her dash. Hiru no Tsuki. The Midday Moon.

I launched my slash, ever so slightly earlier than would be ideal. Rose leapt into the air to fly over it. There was no way to pivot my slash into a counter. Her sword was going to hit the back of my head. The unbeatable move, beating me once again, just like it had in the past.

Or so it would have. But I had my trump card. An impossible move, granted by impossible power. I used Sonic Strike, the milestone bonus for Level 100 One-Handed Blades. A move earned through hours, days sparring with Rose. It was an impossible move. But I had it. My blade moved faster than the speed of sound, twisting upwards and slamming into the stomach Rose's leather armor as she flew over me. She contorted in the air.

Her sword grazed my neck, harmlessly, and a moment later I heard her land on the ground behind me. I turned, and she was standing with her back turned to me. Unharmed? No. She dropped her sword, then bent over to cough in pain. Victory.

Rose turned, a hand on her stomach. "Well," she said. "You won. What is your one wish, O mighty heir? Princess Rosalyn, at your service." Her voice might have sounded ironic at first, but it was anything but. Her sincerity was dripping with insincerity, but she meant every word she said.

I looked down at my hands. It was hard to believe in others. It was hard to believe in myself. Even after hearing Rose say she loved me countless times, even after seeing her love points tick up myself, even after working up the courage to say I loved her back, all that time ago in the dungeon, I still found myself shaking with fear sometimes. I still found myself wanting to fall back on doubt. I still found myself leaping for any evidence that she was just being brainwashed, that none of it was real, that I was alone and unloved after all, just like I thought had to be true deep inside. It was hard to shut the voices up and look ahead to the future. It was hard to be optimistic when the world screamed at me to be pessimistic. It was hard to believe when nihilism was constantly whispering in my ear.

But I shook my head. I cleared it all out of my mind. All the fear, all the uncertainty, all the whispers.

We are not slaves to our minds and hearts. We are not leaves being carried down deterministic rivers. We have agency, if only we believe we do. It is up to us to decide how we think about things, how we feel about things, and how we act upon those thoughts and feelings. Falling back on nihilism and fear was simply running away. And I had no excuse for running away when I had people here to support me. I wasn't the me of the past. I was the me of now.

"I love you," I said to Rose, mustering all my courage and speaking as honestly as I could. I put all my doubt towards how she felt about me aside. I put all doubt towards the nature of love aside. There was only sincerity. I defined the feelings I had for her as love, and trusted she did the same for me. I could never read her mind. But I could trust her words. I looked her right in the icy-blue eyes and said my final words. "Let's get married."

She flashed a smile. "I thought you'd never ask."