Alissa is my weak spot. My wives are weak spots, my concubines are weak spots, my Companions are weak spots. Everyone I love and "love" are a weak spot vulnerable to attack. That's why the assassins targeted Alissa and Klein. Instead of trying to kill the Gifted and Blessed who is seemingly loved by the Gods, they went for my lovers to hurt me as it'd incur less divine wrath if they died.

Devious, indeed.

It didn't matter how many Punishers and mercenaries we had, the assassins just bypassed them all to get to the girls. They even had a counter to Roxanne's [Explosion]. They were very prepared to hurt us.

And the worst thing of all is that this isn't even Cleinias' only sin. Is death even enough of a punishment for him? Can't the Gods let me torture him for just a little bit? I don't care if he suffers in Hell, I want to see him scream for mercy.

I feel a light slap on the back of my head and turn around, but I don't see anyone there.

Before I can investigate further, someone knocks on the door, and Alissa sits up in my lap, but I continue petting her. One of the Companions immediately responds and checks who it is for us, and we let them in.

Alcander and Aisco walk into the room, each carrying a tray with dirty crystal shards. I motion to the empty sofa in front of us, and they set down the trays on the tea table before us as they sit. One tray has twenty, neatly-arranged little mounds of dirty, black crystals while the other only has four.

We gather around, and Alcander begins, "This is the result of our investigation. We've identified two types of crystal that were used, but we believe both were shattered as part of their use."

"Makes sense. We can't easily steal their technology this way," Yunia remarks.

"What do they do?" I inquire.

Alcander opens his mouth, but Aisco immediately launches into an excited explanation, "These clearly send a signal" -he points to the tray with visibly fewer shards than the other- "and we believe they're what the initial infiltrators were setting up. I'm certain these crystals are one side of the Bound Pair, and I've also detected vague mana signatures that suggest the enchantment was related to 'attraction' and other similar themes."

Then he points to the other tray. "These were found at the bottom of the capsules, and they were intentionally shattered when the capsules slammed against the ground. They're enchanted with more straightforward spells, like [Fly], the other side of the Bound Pair, and also the disruptive wind wave that hit us all as they landed.

"I believe that these crystals worked in tandem with the ones at the ground to guide the capsules towards their landing spots. Unfortunately, the exact method has been lost as the crystals are all too damaged for us to completely reconstruct it."

And the sociopathic elf smiles after he's done, quite clearly proud of himself.

To keep things from getting awkward, I politely reply with a smile, "Thank you for the explanation, High Officer Aisco. This neatly explains how their infiltration force worked, though it's a shame we couldn't recover more intact crystals."

Then Yunia starts deliberating, "These capsules came in with such extreme force that I believe they could've penetrated the defensive enchantments of the embassy, so if the infiltrators had managed to get further in, the assassins could've been sent directly to our doorstep, making them a much greater threat than they were."

"Could they also do the same thing with our castle?" I worriedly ask.

She gently shakes her head, making her pointy ears and glorious drill bounce. "No. The enchantments in Escanso protecting us from air assaults are much, much stronger than the embassy's. They were made with the intent of protecting against air assaults from the Imperial Airship Fleet, and I doubt these capsules hold a comparable amount of power to that."

Alissa curiously chimes in, "Their [Invisibility] was quite resistant to dispelling. I'd love to know how they altered the spell. It's a shame we killed all the assassins and let two infiltrators escape."

Alcander promptly accepts the task, "We'll investigate the bodies for traces of [Illusion Magic] and interrogate the captured soldiers about their [Invisibility]."

Alissa nods in appreciation as the smile of her fox form isn't very flattering. "Thank you. Now, the only mystery left is to determine where these capsules were launched into the air."

I interject, "I don't think we'll find anything useful even if we locate the launch site. The capsules don't seem to need anything special, so they could've even been sent flying from the streets in plain sight of everyone."

The girls fall silent as they reflect, and Aisco suddenly remarks, sounding quite frustrated, "All things considered, it was a pathetic attempt at assassination. I barely even got to use any significant amount of my MP before they collapsed."

I slow down my petting in annoyance. I very much disagree, but I don't have the energy to start an argument, so I just let this slide.

And Alcander sends his fellow Officer an unveiled glare, but Ciel interjects before he can say anything, "Is everyone well?"

The pompous imperial noble obediently replies, needing not even a second to hide his displeasure, "Yes, we are. The Punishers made sure that we were all healed. There wasn't much to heal though as the battle didn't last even a minute, and nearly all of our wounds were just from the explosion."

She smiles sweetly and adds, "Thank you. If that's all, you're dismissed."

The two Officers nod and leave us, then Lina approaches the trays, and I move her points into [Sense Mana] to help her study the crystals.

I sigh and lay back on the sofa again, still absentmindedly petting Alissa's furry head, and I notice the tension in the air clearing up as we begin to properly wind down from the battle.

My needy side starts to become louder, so I turn to the Companions and kindly offer, "You can all stand down and join us for some tea."

Hukarere instantly un[Equip]s her armor, becoming fully bare again. "Thank you, Wolfy," she cheerfully replies as she scurries towards us, but then stops near my sofa and makes an awkward expression. "Uhh… Lord Alissa, is it alright if I pet you? Your fur looks so nice."

I share a look with my little fox, and we both grin. "It's fine, but no honorifics when you're not on duty," Alissa happily answers.

Hukarere takes out her personal towel and puts it on the sofa as she embarrassedly mumbles, "Yeah, that was… by reflex." Then she sits down and hesitantly reaches for Alissa's head.

The other Companions hesitate a few seconds longer before removing their armor. Then Alissa cutely touches the table with her paw, and a large tray with a small selection of teas, cookies, chocolate, and coffee appears before us. The golems have more food in their [Item Box]es, so they'll refill things if we run out.

"Divines step on me, your fur is really nice," Hukarere whispers in awe as she runs her hand along Alissa's back.

And the cutest little fox casually replies, "Magical fur is like that."

My white wolf pouts. "So unfair…"

She does shed some fur every once in a while, and unlike Alissa's, it doesn't disappear, but she's still far from being on the same level as a dog.

The Companions spread out, and the meeting room starts to feel quite lively, just how I like it. Edolie, the brown-haired werecat, joins the wives as they talk about the Punishers. Melanie, the imperial shortstack, stays quiet as she surreptitiously eats all of the sweets. Atawha, the Chimera raccoon, joins Lina as they curiously inspect the crystals. Aneta, the seductive silver elf, immediately offers to worship the body of her elven Queen, though it remains non-spicy.

And I smile warmly as I watch everyone have a bit of fun.

But our nice little moment is interrupted by an unpleasant message. The Lambros family, the one that The Haughty Oracle belongs to, is requesting "compensation" for us "forcefully seducing" the Lady, which has lowered her "value."

"Screw them," I grumble and toss the letter away.

But Yunia remains thoughtful, and I really don't like what's going through her mind.

"What did you do…?" Hukarere asks concernedly, so I explain how I mentally fucked the haughty little Kori (though I exclude the fact that she's the Oracle) and how I pseudo-NTR'd the godsdamn Emperor.

"Well… their anger sounds a bit reasonable," Aneta hesitantly remarks, trying not to offend me.

I just frown lightly and pout. "What? She could've just walked away."

"You don't understand how hard it is to do that," Atawha amusedly replies, and nobody makes any motion to say otherwise, making me start to feel a bit guilty.

"They made this demand not because they're offended, but because the Emperor wants to hide his relationship with a human," Yunia suddenly states out loud, making the girls all very interested as they detect a piece of juicy drama. "He doesn't have any human wives, and neither does he have any human Princes nor Princesses, so I believe he's making a statement against the human supremacists as there has never been a non-human Emperor, at least so far."

"So, politics…" Roxanne mumbles wryly, but my mood is a lot more displeased. I don't want to get involved in this.

"Quietly paying this will make the Emperor happy," Yunia kindly points out.

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"But… my reputation…" I groan, but everyone snorts, even Aoi, making me feel attacked. "Come on, now. I'm a seducer, but I'm not a danger."

"Except to all of the untouched Ladies who want to keep their bodies and souls exclusive to their future spouses," Alissa gleefully retorts, then smugly stares at me with her infuriatingly cute fox face.

"You made me unmarriageable, Wolfy!" Hukarere dramatically exclaims, then grins cheekily, showing her large white fangs.

"Every Companion is unmarriageable," Aneta calmly states, and the other Companions shyly nod in agreement.

Ciel gives me a sympathetic smile as she drives it in further, "You could walk up to any unmarried girl and make her fall for you with just a glance. Your charm is so powerful that you could even take her to bed in less than a day."

Hana assumes a serious and sagely tone as she slowly states, "Your sword holds great power, Wolfy, and with great power, comes the great responsibility of br--ding every woman you can so that your race can spread far and wide."

I shrug and smile awkwardly, a bit embarrassed by the "compliments" on my virility. "If you put it that way…"

Yunia chuckles softly and playfully declares, "We'll just say you got a bit too excited and 'accidentally charmed' her without consideration for her status… which is exactly what happened."

I groan, "Fii~ne…"

But our tea time is interrupted once again by Vanea's urgent message.

What did you do, Wolf?

You make a scene with Cleinias during the gathering, then I hear reports of elves all over the Eastern Mainland kidnapping commoners and taking them to Goldcross, where you hold a meeting with all the other Crown Lords a few hours later, and now every alliance is suddenly in chaos as deserters appear everywhere! Even in Sa'Haa's Alliance!

I like advanced warnings…

I close her letter and chuckle.

Oops…? The desertions aren't our fault, tho.

Her letter is scented with her intoxicating perfume, so I don't think she's too mad.

The golems write a reply letter where we explain what we did to Katasko's commanders, and we ask what's up with the deserters. We also append a list with the names of all the nobles we've confirmed to be working with the shady mercenaries.

The next interruption is Caterina coming to give us a report about our prisoners.

She struts into the room like a goddamn Chad, and Hana and I can't help but admire her poise. There's just something about armed and armored women that's attractive in an alluring way, but different from "normal alluring." Too bad Caterina is Hana's girl, not mine.

The Punisher Captain notices that Hukarere and Atawha are bare and stops for a second, but then she realizes that this isn't a spicy situation, so she continues and sits down before us. Her armor is made from the usual dark brown elven wood and is completely unadorned, except for the small red rose growing on the chestplate, a rose which wasn't there before the battle.

She takes off her gauntlets and delicately grabs a cup of tea like a proper elf. "I really need to train that [Equipment System] skill more. It's so convenient," she calmly remarks and takes a sip.

"Life before it was so much more cumbersome," Hana casually remarks.

And Caterina nods, but then her gaze sharpens. "Indeed… But anyway, we've finished going through the captives, and there are a lot of Wicked."

I immediately declare, "We don't care what you do with them, but our Officers might have some questions for the captives."

She takes another sip and shrugs. "Suit yourself. We'll start the executions the moment you give us the word."

None of us are looking forward to that. We've already killed the teleporting assassins that were a threat, so we hold no significant animosity against the meat shields.

"Any word on Cleinias?" Alissa promptly moves the conversation forward.

Caterina gently shakes her head in a disappointed denial. "No, not even the Network, so we still think he's in Kardia."

Lina's Trivia: Kardia is a town located between Mistcross and the Capital, making it the center point for commerce in the Eastern Mainland.

"I don't think they're huddling together because they're afraid of us…" Yunia thinks out loud as she tries to deduce their reasoning.

But the Punisher suddenly smiles sadistically as she casually remarks, "You could just go there and slaughter them. We wouldn't mind." And that even takes the Companions by surprise.

"Captain Caterina, please… the rest of the temple definitely wouldn't agree with that," Ciel whispers, a bit baffled by her callousness.

She shrugs as she casually picks a piece of chocolate. "You're just delaying the inevitable. People like those nobles are already too rotten to ever turn back from their ways."

"With the Purification having started, that would just cause us problems," Yunia states with a severe tone.

And I pile on, "We don't even know where they're meeting in Kardia. This is too wild for us to even consider, so we'll stick to the plan: we'll kill Cleinias when he comes back, and then Faustus when he returns to Mistcross."

The bloodthirsty elf chews on her chocolate while staring at me, her eyes narrowed in displeasure and disappointment. Then she swallows and spews a little bit of venom, "Fine, we will hunt them down when they inevitably go too far. Don't worry, it's our job, after all, to clean up the excrement that the rest of the nobility refuses to pick up."

"We'd gladly kill them, but you can't protect us from the consequences," Yunia gives the final retort, and Caterina remains silent, unable to deny it.

"Don't you have enough evidence that they're heretics with the [Ruin] dagger?" Ciel asks, not wanting to let us dwell in the mounting tension.

Caterina makes a displeased expression as she answers, "No. They seem to be based on foul necromancy rather than heresy. You can have them."

She pulls a bundle of cloth out of her [Item Box] with a *poof*, then she unwraps the five daggers. Weapons with a simple design and a small, dull blue gem at the pommel, but the blade is extremely ornate as the enchantment is very complex, fascinating Lina.

Lina's Trivia: [Ruin] is somewhat similar to [Unravel], the ability/spell that the undead use to "delete" things, so it's possible to use heretical magic to enhance [Ruin]. [Necromancy Magic] isn't illegal or heretical per se, necromancers just aren't allowed to force spirits to inhabit zombies/husks as that's a Sin, so without the connection to [Unravel], there's no justification for the Punishers to start a Purge.

I look at the girls, but we don't really know what we could use these daggers for. If we wanted anything related to [Necromancy Magic] or [Ruin], we could easily find books about those things.

"They're still rare weapons, so let's keep them," Alissa states. She really doesn't like the [Ruin] spell, but she's forcing herself to look at the logical gains. Her courage is inspiring.

And Roxanne deliberates, trying to think of reasons for us to take them, "The daggers have an 'ethereal' concept, which is very hard to enchant onto something, so they could have some scholarly use."

Lina hums in thought, then nods, making her bangs sway, and points out, "Yes, that's true. See how fine the lines of silver have to be because of how delicate the enchantment is. This is a masterwork."

"Fine, we'll take them," I accept.

We aren't going to get much else from this anyway since Caterina wants the tin cans' armor and weapons. The Templars would take anything not nailed down if they could since they're always starving for funding and equipment, and the entire world is grateful that the high "Piety" of these battle maniacs helps them keep it in their pants.

Caterina finishes her cup and delicately places it back down on the table again. "Now we're waiting on you. Just don't pick a fight with the Enforcers or other guards, and you're free to take as many heads as you want."

We've already talked about this, so we don't respond to her wild remark. She takes another piece of chocolate, then leaves, disappointing Hana and me, for we'd like her to stay for a little longer as long as we could talk about something that isn't taking heads.

The next interruption is quite welcome as it's Klein and Anton coming back with an Alteration mage, who is the first living Chimera that I've ever seen.

The mage is a cat-headed, purple-skinned and furred, old woman. She has a similar "design" to Hukarere with her animal head, human arms and chest, and a furred back, but while Hukarere has lizard legs, this cat has strong human legs with thick fur. What's unique about the old woman is that her fur patterns are very intricate, almost geometrical, which pleases Yunia greatly.

Perhaps it's a different fashion style?

The woman's wearing a red, semi-transparent robe, but no underwear, so I can still see her private parts. Her overall body is quite nice for her age, so she's definitely in my strike zone, but I'm not really feeling like flirting right now, which is incredible, I know.

"I'm Kahura, and I pride myself in having the highest [Alteration Magic] of the entire Mainland," she politely greets and bows deeply. She seems very vigorous for someone of her age.

Is she using [Alteration Magic] to keep herself strong?

"I'd bet on it, but I consider it kind of cheating, though," Alissa responds through [Bind], her sentiment echoed by the rest of the girls.

And I find it curious that she considers it "cheating."

"Thank you for answering to our call so fast," Ciel greets for us while we talk telepathically.

Kahura smiles politely, showing nice little white fangs. "I just couldn't leave such esteemed clients waiting."

Imagining either Anton or Klein spelling out our entire list of Titles is kind of funny.

The old Chimera glances at Hukarere and Atawha, but she doesn't show any significant reaction.

"Would you girls mind if I used [Alteration Magic] to make myself taller?" I ask through our connection.

"Please, don't!" Hana exclaims internally.

"Being short is… your thing," Roxanne adds worriedly.

"I agree…" Lina shyly adds, and the rest of the girls echo her words, even Gify, but not Aoi, who doesn't mind either way because I can become big in my dragon form.

"Yes, you can become big when you shift into a dragon, so there's no need to change your humanoid form," Alissa immediately latches onto the excuse.

"Gih!" The little griffin chirps encouragingly. She thinks her nest's distance from the ground is already at the perfect height.

Okay… I guess I'll leave this matter for later.

Alissa leaves my lap and shifts back into her humanoid form, then sits beside me.

"I take it you're the injured one?" Kahura kindly asks, and Alissa nods, so the old woman walks with soft steps towards us and sits down beside her.

Alissa extends her stumps, and the mage gently inspects them with her wrinkly hands. Then we sense her humming a spell, and she casts [Spirit Eyes] after a few seconds, allowing her to see Alissa's deformed soul.

"It was a [Ruin] blade that did this, [Necromancy Magic]," I explain.

The kind mage gives Alissa a sympathetic smile as she states, "I, unfortunately, have experience with this type of wound. It's completely curable, but there are different ways to do that."

And I nod. "Understood. Since she has completely lost all use of her hands, we're looking for something fast."

Kahura quickly takes a look around, noticing that I'm the only man in this room, then she cautiously explains, "For a woman, the fast way is… not ideal. Her hands wouldn't look anything like they were before, and to make them pretty again would take time."

We all share a knowing look. Though Alissa might accept the "fast way," none of us, especially me, would accept the crime of giving the perfect and adorable Alissa ugly hands, ruining her perfect, adorable aura of perfect adorableness.

"Well… what are the other ways?" I awkwardly ask while Alissa smiles wryly.

Kahura shows us a disconcerting, creepy smile as she whispers excitedly, "The second fastest way is to take someone's hands…"

And we all fall silent as we try to process her words, but then she suddenly chuckles softly and allows the kind old woman to return, which sets us at ease.

"Apologies. That reaction is always so amusing, but yes, I'm serious," she kindly explains.

"Wait, what?" I hum reflexively.

"You can ask someone for their hands, and then use [Regrowth] to immediately return them. For someone of your station, I assume that paying for such a thing is possible."

Ooh… of course, you can get spare hands with magic. You could even "grow" spare body parts if you used [Regeneration] instead. I guess even an organ transplant wouldn't be much of a problem.

"So, whose hands do we use?" Ciel continues.

"Any will do, but the more similar they look to her original hands, the better, so family members will have the best compatibility, but I see we have a nice selection of beautiful ladies right here who could offer their hands."

The girls all look at their own hands, even the Companions, and though they're a bit afraid, they'd all gladly help Alissa.

"Gih," Gify chirps to Aoi. Of course, Aoi's human form is magical, so her hands would disappear if they were cut off, excluding Aoi from the available options.

"Hmph…" The little blue dragon grunts internally, a bit annoyed that she can't help.

"I know that my body is almost a perfect copy of my mother's," Alissa suddenly announces.

Oh, really, now…?

"I can roleplay as my mother when I get older," she happily suggests through [Bind], giving me an instant boner.

Kahura nods in understanding as she hums, "Ah, yes, that's quite common for nobility."

She means the offspring looking similar to their parents, not the incest fantasies, though the latter wouldn't exactly be a lie.

"Wouldn't it be too much of an inconvenience for your mother?" I concernedly ask.

And Alissa snorts softly. "To give me my hands back? Of course not, but we'll still ask politely."

"Alright, let's send her a message."