By the time dinner was ready, Anabel was of sound mind again. We all sat down to eat and tell the tale of my time in Callist. It was clear that Arduwan wasn’t budging on her oath to defend me. I suppose having her strength and battle prowess could be of some help. So, we decided to put her up with us for a while. After dinner, I took her upstairs to turn a guest room over to her.

“Higgins sleeps in the basement quarters. That’s the master bedroom, which is mine. Over there is Anabel’s room. This one is Emily’s…”

You could see inside, and she had painted the walls black and had mesh drapes hanging from the ceiling around her bed.

“...yeah, she’s a bit different. As you can see, she’s taken it upon herself to feel right at home. So, I see nothing wrong with you doing the same. You can take the room next to hers,” I noted and smiled.

“Why can I not take your room?”

“Umm, what?”

“If you do not wish to engage in physical entanglement with me that’s fine. I will sleep on the floor. It is difficult for me to sleep in a bed anyway, but I should remain as close to your side as I can for your protection.”

“I can see you have a fair bit to learn. But my world is relatively safe. Your proximity from my room down the hall is sufficient for my defense,” I assured her.

She peered into the room I offered her and said, “okay. But I shall still sleep on the floor for the time being. I simply cannot rest comfortably on a bed.”

I don’t know. Maybe it was the near nakedness or the fact she was a six foot two Amazonian woman in my Victorian house, she just seemed out of place.

* * *

The next week was more interesting than the last few months combined in some ways.

More glass was broken in the house since it was built in the 1800s…

Several fires were almost started. One of them literally, because Arduwan tried to build a fire in the kitchen after offering to help cook…

It became apparent that Arduwan needed more questions answered than Anabel did when she arrived here…

…and probably most significant. I was hot and bothered more than I had been at any point since these women started moving into my life.

“Emily. You’re the soundest voice of reason I have right now,” I said to her, “including Higgins, who rarely breaks character as my butler. So, I have to ask a question and I know you’ll give me an honest answer.”

“Alright,“ she said, as she looked up from her book, while wearing a funeral veil indoors, causing me to question my compliment of her sound reasoning, ”what do you need to know?”

“Do you think Arduwan living here is gonna work out?”

She closed her book and looked up at me with her exceptionally sympathetic green eyes and said, “well. She’s clumsy as all get. Her IQ is the square root of mine. Higgins' heart can’t take much more. Anabel’s body confidence has been destroyed being around her and I must admit that mine has been damaged as well. But…”

Emily stopped for a moment, and it made me nervous.

She continued, “I think she’s great. She’s incredibly loyal. I’ll feel much better about you going off on dangerous adventures if you take her with you. She’ll keep me and Anabel safe when you’re not around. She’s loveable and sweet despite being a behemoth and she’s just plain fun to be around. Is that a satisfactory answer?”

“Yeah. It’s actually surprising you feel that way.”

“Anything else?” she inquired.

“Yeah. Think we should try getting some more clothes on her?”

“Tsss…that’s gonna be a tough one.”

* * *

So, there I was. Living in my Isekai Harem Mansion. I had a butler/mentor. A loyal, early American woman occupying second place in my heart. A genius goth detective. And a battle hardened bodyguard with a physique that just won’t quit. But that didn’t mean I was without my problems. I hadn’t made any progress getting my ex back. My best friend was literally off in his own fantasy world. And I had these Devils to deal with. The positive was that none of the stones were currently glowing at a dangerous level. So, I could afford to take some time to just relax. Serious time though. Not like the little breaks I had taken between worlds before. I wanted to take a vacation from adventuring for a while to really recoup. I could strategize and train with Higgins and now Arduwan. And I could also help Higgins acclimatize the girls to life here on Earth.

It was exactly one week since I came back from Callist and Arduwan had decided to move in with us. Emily was discussing strategy with me and Higgins in the dining room while Anabel sat nearby smiling and knitting; waiting on a pie to come out of the oven. She had settled right into her role as backup for Higgins. Arduwan was upstairs sharpening her sword. Turns out she meticulously checked its sharpness by testing it on her body hair. That answers an earlier question, but yikes.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Emily stated, “if Callist was too tough for you for the time being, then avoid it.”

“Then what would you suggest?” I asked.

“I suggest going to the easiest world first and working your way up to that level of difficulty. Process of elimination.”

Higgins added, “I must concur, Miss Grimwood. Although I understand his reasoning, Master Noble took far too great of a risk entering Callist in his current state.”

“Too much of a risk?” I questioned, “I’ll admit I bit off more than I can chew, but how can you say any of this is more risky than anything I’ve done?”

The doorbell rang in the heat of our conversation. Anabel moved to get up and answer it, probably thinking pizza was showing up, but Higgins stopped her.

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“Not to worry, Miss Townsend, please stay seated.”

“And another thing,” I continued to scold Higgins and Emily, “I’m old enough to determine my own level of risk. Maybe Callist was a bit much. But what else should I do? Go back to Murk and wait for Creole to get out of jail?”

“You say that like Alabaster is a walk in the park,” Emily retorted, “don’t forget all that I put on the line to subdue him for the time we do have to figure something out about him.”

“I know that. I’m just not sure where this mythological balance between difficult and easy is supposed to be when dealing with Devils,” I said.

Higgins came back into the room and cleared his throat before announcing, “Master Noble. A Miss Stephanie here to see you.”

I abruptly came to my feet and looked over to see him standing in the entryway and motioning to the person I had not seen in quite some time and yet kept number one in my heart. Stephanie, it was really her. She stood there with her luggage case trailing behind her. She wore a forest green shirt and dark brown slacks. Her curly brown hair extended down to the middle of her modest physique filled out her small frame.

“Stephanie? What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I got tired of waiting for you to explain what was going on. I was worried you found yourself in some real trouble, so I decided to go ahead and make a surprise trip to visit you.”

“I told you. It was too dangerous for you to come here.”

“It doesn’t seem all that dangerous.”

Suddenly, from out of the blue, Arduwan walked into the room without a stitch of clothing to speak of and holding a white towel out in front of her. She said, “Hey, Eric. Can you show me how that shower head thing works again? I still can’t figure it out.”

Higgins' jaw dropped and he rushed over to cover Arduwan with the towel she was holding and said, “please, Miss Arduwan. Allow me to assist you.” He was trying to provide cover for me.

Stephanie had a look of shock and said, “I talked to Ernie a few weeks ago. He said he was coming here to help you deal with something. It would appear you do have a lot to deal with here.”

She started to turn around and leave but I ran over and exclaimed, “Stephanie, wait! I assure you; this really is not what it looks like.”

“Oh?” she questioned, “well here’s what it looks like to me. Dorky guy who couldn’t find his place in the world comes into some money, so he starts living out wild fantasies with his butler and best friend.”

“That’s not it at all,” I tried to correct.

She kept going, “Looks to me like you’ve got a historical cosplay wearing plaything, an underage girl in goth get up, and whatever, that was!”

“Underaged?!!!” Emily lashed out angrily.

“Stephanie, please don’t go. I haven’t been telling you the truth about what’s going on here. But please, give me a chance.

“I have given you a chance. I’ve asked you repeatedly to clue me in. If you had just told me from the jump that this was what you were into, it wouldn’t be so bad. We’d moved on past our breakup and were still good friends. But you hiding this from me and letting me think the worst has happened just makes me realize you’ve followed exactly in your father’s footsteps when he left your mom for some life of debauchery.”

“This is true!” Emily piped up, “he is following in his father’s footsteps.”

I turned to Emily with a look of disgust on my face and said, “Emily, that’s not helping!” Stephanie started to leave again.

“Stephanie, I’m begging. Give me twenty minutes to explain myself. Alone, and it will all make sense.”

She stopped just short of reaching the front door while pulling her suitcase behind.

“I’ll give you ten minutes. Then I’m out that door and blocking your phone number in the cab on the way to the train station.”

“That’s all I need. Follow me,” I said as I led her into the study and shut the door behind me.

“Okay, the clock is ticking,” she warned, “I don’t want to keep you from your fantasy Orgy.”

“Stephanie, please, you are literally the only person in this house, or the world for that matter, I have ever had sex with.”

“Well, come out with it then!” she demanded.

“First of all, let’s both take a deep breath. I honestly don’t know an easy way to tell you this in a way you’ll believe me.”

She sighed and said, “Eric, how long have we known each other?”

“Ten years?”

“Eleven. And in all that time has there ever been a reason for us to keep things from each other?”

“No, but there’s never been anything this heavy before. I’m just not sure if I come right out and say it if it’ll make you storm out of here regardless.”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t want you to tell me the truth. Who was your best friend for two years before you built up the courage to ask me out?”

“Wraith?” I said hesitantly.

“Me, dummy. I’ve never withheld anything from you. Even when we broke up, I told you exactly what the problem was and did everything I could to keep us in each other's lives. You’ve never withheld anything from me before either and it kinda hurt. So, if we’re still friends, despite everything else that's happened, I need you to come right out and say it.”

“Do you promise not to storm right off, no matter how outlandish what I say is?”

“I can’t promise I won’t leave here tonight. But I promise I won’t abruptly leave without hearing you out and taking it all into consideration…no matter how crazy.”

We both paused a moment before she continued, “come here.”

She leaned in for a hug and we held each other for a moment. Just as we had done so many times before. As friends, as lovers, and as two people who respected the fiber of each other's being.

“Alright,” I sighed and said, “here it goes. The truth is…my family's legacy is a secret that’s been passed down for generations. We are protectors of this realm. There’s a portal in this house that leads to other worlds and those women you saw are from some of those worlds. I’ve been tasked with going to them in order to keep evil at bay and not find its way into this world.”

She didn’t immediately respond, but finally she said, “wow. That really is hard to believe.”

“But you don’t think it's bullshit? You believe me?”

“I mean…obviously, I’m going to need some proof of this, but I told you. I had no reason to doubt you if you were just honest with me. You freaked me out when you were being so ominous on the phone and obviously trying to hide it from me.”

“I can prove it right now if you want. Come with me.”

I led her to the basement. We passed Anabel and Emily on the way. Anabel kept a nervous smile and Emily scowled viciously at Stephanie, but she did not make eye contact with either of them.

In the basement, I showed her the stones and how they glowed. I didn’t take her into any of the worlds, but I showed her how the stones reacted to being closer to the well. She wasn’t high tailing it out of my house, so I knew she was at least processing what I was saying as truth and I told her about my father’s journal and how he and Higgins also traversed these worlds. My personal tales couldn’t be enumerated all in one night, so I gave her an abridged version.

“So that’s the truth. I’m carrying my family burden and I didn’t want you to be in danger from it. But now that you’re here, I want you to stay. If you already know, there’s no point in shielding you from all the rest.”

“Hmm, well either way, I took three weeks off work to come visit you. So, I guess it wouldn’t hurt for me to stay and see all this stuff for myself.”

“Seriously?! You’re gonna stay?!”

“I don’t know why you seem so surprised,” she laughed, “I literally came for you because I was worried. I was worried I’d lost my best friend just because of some money and some girls. I wouldn’t blame you for moving on from us. I’m guilty of that too. But it doesn’t mean I don’t still care about you.”

“I care about you too. That’s why I was trying to protect you from this mess.”

“Well, maybe I can help you make sense of it while I’m here,” she said happily.

“Sure! Oh, I guess I should properly introduce you to everyone upstairs. Would you, uhh, like me to have Higgins take your bag up to my room?”

“Oh, no. You’re not taking your sexual frustrations with all these women out on me. I told you I’m here to visit a friend and that’s it, okay?”

“Okay,” I said disappointed.

“Besides,” she added conscientiously, “I’ve been seeing a guy named Craig, and it wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“Craig? Get outta here. There’s no way you’re dating a Craig!” I mocked.

“He’s nice. He actually has his life together. That’s something I was missing with…”

She stopped herself. She knew she was about to say something that pierced daggers at my heart. I’m glad she was happy and still involving me in her life, but I really wanted to try and fix things between us. Maybe, just maybe, her time here could make that happen.

“Nevermind that,” I diverted, “I’ll respect your boundaries while you’re here. For now, let me go introduce you to everyone.”