Today is the 8th, Ros, day of Space. This is the best day for travel in the Imperial [Eternal Gate] Network, so we're expecting the nobles of Katasko to come flooding back to cry to daddy Empy about the mean lizard who bit off a head and ran away with it.

It's still dark out, but we went to sleep a bit earlier last night to make up for how hectic things were yesterday, so I'm feeling quite well-rested right now.

I summon a bird and tell it to fly out, and I immediately notice a group of thirty Enforcers camping on the street. They're just a few meters away from where Cleinias' ugly head is impaled on a long pike, which is clearly within the bounds of the embassy and well out of their reach.

I simply snort and ignore them. We don't even need to keep someone on watch because the enchantments will take care of anyone trying to invade the embassy.

The bird moves on, flying across the sprawling city as it slowly wakes up, but the rather misty morning makes it quite hard to see anything significant.

The others won't be able to share this moment with us, so I kiss Hukarere's head and tell her to go back to sleep with the others as we let them rest for a bit longer. Then the wives and I silently leave the bed and ask for an early breakfast.

We sit on the balcony, wearing very little, and wave to the few Enforcers who have enough levels in [Hawk Eyes] to notice us. The bored men suddenly wake up, and one of them tries to catch our attention, even sending a [Fireball] up into the air, but I just slowly shake my head at the increasingly enraged officer.

The golems slowly grind the coffee beans for us, and I savor the divine scent that's released. Then they use an elven sieve to brew some drip coffee for us. I love how [Item Box] stops time as even the beans stay fresh, allowing for a supremely fragrant coffee.

I should teach Lina and Aoi how to build an espresso machine, but they have more important things to recreate before that.

I enjoy coffee with milk the most, and it's best paired with chocolate cake as they have a good balance between bitterness and sweetness, so it's neither too strong nor too bland. But this is only to wake us up.

The second dish for breakfast is not-earl-gray tea with a creamy pie of Tonsel, the not-lemon, and Elderflower. Very sweet and a far more strongly flavored dessert to fill our bellies. It's such a refined breakfast that I feel like honking like a snob, but it goes perfectly with the sublime view of the Bay of Three Kings at sunrise.

The rays of light coming from the east warm up the air, slowly clearing up the mist, which reveals to the south a carnival of ships anchored at the docks. The bird perches on a building and watches as the mist continues to clear up, revealing more ships, and more ships… and even more ships. It's ships all the way down.

Then the ships end, and we see an endless blue. The shores on each side of the Bay angle apart as they continue out to sea, giving it a conical shape, but eventually, they also disappear, and once the orange of the sunrise is gone, the sea gains an oddly striking blue tone that almost melds with the blue of the sky, like an endless carpet that leads to the clouds.

This is what Lyle's father, Horvath, once talked about. The waters all over the Thunderplains have a faintly blue tint to them due to the heavy amount of magic imbued into the constant rain, which makes the sea look the perfect shade at sunrise, allowing for this lovely effect to happen.

"I didn't know about this…" Hana hums in wonder.

"Not something that others than the genteel would bother knowing," Yunia pompously states with a nod that makes her glorious drills bounce.

And Hana retorts with a scoff, "But the view is free! That's like, the thing that the commoners love."

"It's also romantic, something… you're not," Roxanne tries to tactfully state as even she doesn't want to offend Hana in that way.

But she isn't very successful. "I'm romantic…" Hana quietly grumbles and crosses her arms.

"You're passionate and majestic, but not very romantic," the awkward succubus tries to explain herself.

And the proud dragonkin still isn't convinced. "Hmm…"

"Out of all of us, only Alissa and Ciel are truly romantic," I kindly add.

"Gih," even Gify supports me.

"I'm romantic," Lina assuredly claims and pouts cutely.

"You're cute, and you do cute things, but you're not very romantic," Alissa wisely retorts.

And the gloomy little girl frowns, then gloomily stares down at her plate.

It's been a while since the atmosphere was this relaxed and unpreoccupied, so Ted finds this to be an appropriate moment to ask, "What is romance?"

We all immediately turn to Ciel, who hesitates to answer as she enters deep thought.

She doesn't have an immediate response, so she begins to ponder, "You're all supposed to be copies of humanoid minds, but it seems like your only wish and feeling is the desire to serve us, so how do I explain romance to someone who can't feel it?"

Then she glances at me, but I just shrug. This is a bit beyond my area of expertise. "They 'know' what feelings are, at least," I help her out.

"Hm…" She hums thoughtfully and remains silent for a moment. Since we've already talked about love with the golems, she decides to use it as a base for her explanation, even if it isn't the best way to teach them. "Romance is… the sharing of intimate moments," she hesitantly begins.

"Bed activities are intimate," Suzy immediately points out, almost sounding excited that she had something to say.

"The most intimate activity," Jarn adds, emotionless as usual.

Ciel nods and kindly explains, "Yes, but the romance in bed activities mixes too much with the selfish desire for pleasure or the wish to please the partner, which isn't romantic by itself. There needs to be some uniqueness to the experience for it to be romantic."

And Hana grins smugly as she wisely retorts, "Wolfy's sword is pretty unique."

Roxanne lightly taps her shoulder as she excitedly adds, "Oh, you shouldn't understate it like that. His sword is amazing!"

"You would know." Hana snorts.

"I'm a sword gourmet, yes," Roxanne unhesitatingly agrees with a nod, then readjusts her glasses.

"Sl-t," Yunia slowly whispers with a tone as dry as [Summon Bland Meal].

And the cheeky succubus proudly raises her hand. "That's me!"

"But Wolfy's sword isn't inherently romantic. It's how he uses it that's romantic," Alissa continues, ignoring the bantering.

"For you, romance is having him seduce other women," the Queen lashes back, not exactly pleased that her verbal whipping was interrupted.

But the fox smiles slyly as she accepts it openly, "I admit my ideas of romance are unusual."

Yunia scoffs. "Now that is an understatement."

Ciel sighs and interrupts, "Romance also needs to be a moment. Something that both lovers share in a way that affects them deeply." But the elf won't dare attack the priestess.

"Like [Bind]," Aoi innocently chimes in.

"But [Bind] isn't really romantic," Lina disagrees.

"Well… it depends on the type of romance you're reading," Roxanne replies with a suggestive grin, and even Ciel hesitantly agrees.

"We understand the fetish of domination plays a part here," Jarn diplomatically states, which impresses me as she manages to expertly stop the derailing of the conversation.

"Of course, the golems would understand that kind of fetish before they can understand 'romance,'" Ciel grumbles as she facepalms. Then she assumes her priestly demeanor again and continues, "As you can see, 'romance' is a mixture of all these factors in the right amounts along with the right expectations. If you don't think that domination is romantic, then you won't find [Bind] romantic."

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"Romance is a taste," Ted wisely concludes.

Hana raises her eyebrows in surprise and nods. "Yeah, that sounds about right,"

"Awn… you guys started early," Klein mumbles with a pout as she comes out onto the balcony.

"We wanted to have a [Bind] moment, sorry," I kindly explain and flash her a handsome smile, my "Charm" dazing her for a second.

"What's [Bind]?" Hukarere hums out loud as she sits down.

I also flash a smile at her. "A secret for another time." But she's suspicious enough that it has a lessened effect on her.

"You might want to put some clothes on unless you want to follow the Chimera custom of clothelesness, for we have a small audience," Ciel advises, then points to the Enforcers on the street.

"Shit…!" Klein swears and jumps backward, her squeak waking up the rest of the Companions, but Hukarere simply walks forward and stops by the railing.

"They can really see us from that far?" My white wolf asks out loud.

"Yes. Some of them seem to have [Hawk Eyes]," Alissa replies.

"Alright, then watch this…!" She puts her foot on the railing and starts rubbing her fingers, giving the men quite the view.

Hana turns to me and makes the best puppy eyes she can. "Can I…?" She softly asks demurely, which is surprisingly cute.

I feel like acting a bit alpha, so I compromise, "I'll do you on the railing, but no exposing your body to these men. I want them to fantasize about doing you, but I also want to make an impact on them, forcing them to go through the effort of trying to forget about my presence, only to fail as they realize that only I will ever know what you feel like."

She gives me a fearsome gaze as her excitement rises. "I'm already starting to get ready."

I subtly nod towards the railing. "Then present yourself to me, b-tch."

And since my wolf is also presenting herself, I'll do her too for good measure.

Everyone leveled up. Aoi is now 47, Hana is now 62, Yunia is now 63, and Alissa, Roxanne, Ciel, Lina, and I are now 61.

Alissa has increased her [Illusion Magic] by 1 (now 19).

Roxanne has increased her [Mana Control], [Fire Magic], and [Alchemy] by 1 (now 6+34, 7+33, and 12).

Hana has increased her [Fire Breath] and [Intimidate] by 1 (now 6 and 4).

Ciel increased her [Light Magic] by 1 (now 6+34).

Lina increased her [Throw] and [Earth Magic] by 1 (now 2+8 and 11).

Yunia has increased her [Hide Presence] and [Redirect Mana] by 1 (now 5 and 1).

My [Ekrano Style] and [Dragon Transformation] have increased by 1 (now 6 and 7). And surprisingly, though not that surprising, I've gained a new skill, [Chaos Breath (innate)] with 1 point.

"Holy shit… that sounds cool as hell," Hana remarks through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, it did better against [Dead Zone] than me," Roxanne adds, impressed and even a bit envious.

Aoi pulls her tongue back and exclaims, "Bet it can get through steel, unlike mine!"

But I temper their expectations, "It's a cool skill, I admit, except for the fact that using it made me feel like dying, and it drained me of most of my physical energy and rage."

Lina immediately explains, "Because that's exactly what it did. The Symbol of Might has endless anger, which it uses to fuel its physical power, and that power is then made manifest through [Chaos Breath]. It's simply a beam of wild, chaotic, explosive energy."

And I frown skeptically. "Not worth it considering the massive effort I have to exert to use it."

"Maybe if you continue to increase [Draconic Transformation], it'll become easier to use," Alissa suggests.

And Roxanne earnestly adds, "I'd like to study it."

So I nod. "If it's to help you improve [Explosion], I'll gladly help you with that." And she claps the tips of her fingers excitedly.

Since we've been talking about how the golems are obsessed with serving us, I decide to mess with the "block" that's inside every elemental soul while I create new baby golems for the OG trio to study. I assume this "block" is what controls the "loyalty obsession," so I want to learn more about it.

The results are immediately striking as the new golems all have problems obeying orders, due to either being forgetful, or easily distracted. It does seem that they lack motivation, though they aren't exactly disloyal.

Well, I just leave the golems to reflect on it and try to divine the secrets of the mind on their own while the girls and I do our morning mana circulation routine, which has now been enhanced by the ingestion of an orgasm-inducing magical orb.

Palo has bribed an official of the Network, and we receive word from them that a good number of the nobles of Katasko have returned to the capital, but not that Fluminis dude, and then the Punishers also send us a message about it. It feels quite nice having a good relationship with the Templars as they're quite the diligent allies.

The Floater gets back just before lunch, and all of our men start their well-deserved rest and will get a small bonus later for a job well-done. And at almost the same time, we receive a message from the Emperor summoning us to the Throne at sundown.

That is well within expectations, so we go have our meal, perfectly confident that we'll come out of the summons with our heads still on our shoulders.

Today, we have a traditional German, I mean, Ryutake lunch, with venison not-Rouladen as the main dish. Thin slices of delicate meat are rolled around pickles and onion, then cooked in a thick, earthy broth that makes Lina drool, and this flavorful dish is served with fusilli pasta.

Hana is actually more Sommerlande than Ryushimin, so she sees this as an exotic food that she rarely ate rather than as a cultural dish. She's more used to the fruit-heavy meals of the north, and the Ryutake diet is also far too calorie-rich outside of the snowy mountains, even for her.

"Gluttony isn't my vice, so I don't have any problems keeping fit," Hana declares, to the envy of every other woman at the table, especially Ciel, the sweet tooth.

For the afternoon, we decide to train since we're in a fighting mood.

Hana asks Romy to spar with her, and the Asian-like Companion gives me a glance, asking for help.

"I want to train my [Draconic Body], so I want you to beat me up, not the other way around," the masochistic dragonkin explains.

"I'd enjoy doing that," Yunia promptly intrudes.

Roxanne cheekily waves her hand as she walks forward and joins in, "Same for me, if you're okay with [Earth Bullet]. We could even use [Fireball] and see how well your scales hold up against one with a bit of an explosive concept added to the spell!"

Hana narrows her yellow eyes at both of them. "That's exactly why I didn't ask you…"

"S-same for me! I'll enjoy beating you up," Romy hastily announces.

"Just use [Pain Conversion] while we pound you and imagine that it's Wolfy doing it," Yunia tiredly proposes.

But Hana soberly replies, "For once, I'm trying to train seriously. I can't use [Pain Conversion] against an enemy."

"You might also fight against sadistic enemies who enjoy hurting you," Yunia insists.

Hana breathes in deeply as she stares at both her and Roxanne, judging their devious intentions, but she eventually relents, though she adds a condition, "It ain't as fun when it isn't spicy, so you guys will obey everything I say, or I'll make you obey."

"You can tr-…" I stop Yunia's reply through [Bind], and she immediately gives in, "Point taken."

Hana then strips down to her underwear and flexes the muscles of her chest. Her skin immediately releases a small puff of steam, and when it's gone, her chest is covered entirely in shiny emerald scales.

"You know, you actually look really hot like this," Roxanne hums absentmindedly, taken by the glorious sight of dragon scales.

The fiery woman snorts. "Damn right, I do. I'm eager to get claws like Wolfy's, too."

But the sight of Hana with claws makes Roxanne fear for the integrity of her body. She herself can imagine the vibrant blood running along her pale skin, the sensuality inherent to her race making the contrast of colors that much more striking, to the point where her abused and defiled form is as stunningly beautiful as a living, breathing, work of art.

"See? Not so bad," Hana smugly states.

"Keep taunting me like this, and I'll make you bleed," Roxanne replies with a dangerous tone.

And her wife steps back. "Alright, alright… let's just start with this training already."

I try out my new point in [Ekrano Style] by lightly sparring with the girls. My style already easily overwhelms most of my opponents due to how it allows me to attack with multiple weapons at the same time, and that advantage has grown even further as I become more comfortable with letting my tentacles fight on their own.

It's a style that shines against multiple opponents since mere spears are enough to keep most enemies away, and if I'm up against heavily armored foes, switching the spears for halberds keeps them threatening.

As a less mobile fighter, Lina suffers the most against me, but she's the only one who can push Hana back, yet Hana is the only one who can shrug off my attacks and get in close. I can only win against Yunia with magic while she can't win against me, and Ciel and Aoi simply don't have enough attack or defense to fight me.

"I can do a [Thunder Strike] on you, like that memory you have of grandpa Rizek!" Aoi exclaims. I detect a bit of insecurity in her tone, so I decide to be kind.

"You're still young, but one day, you'll be as big as that ancient dragon, and you'll even command the skies better than that old mage," I happily encourage.

I manage to appease her a bit, but it still isn't enough, so she narrows her eyes at me since she can't pucker her draconic lips into a pout. "But you'll become even bigger. I'm slender, and you'll gain a lot more muscle and weight than me."

"Aren't you bigger than me right now?" And I shift into my dragon form. I'm now at the high end of Earthling horse sizes, like a Shire horse, which is kind of the average for caravan horses here since they need the mass to crush goblin skulls.

But Aoi is now the size of a damn elephant, and even with her slender body, she has more mass than I do… which is really hot. I love snu snu women, and Aoi's true size gives me that tingly feeling down between my legs.

I roll over and show her my belly, and she immediately breathes in, her excitement rising faster than I can unsheathe as she understands the significance of my act. Then she slowly walks up to me, her heavy steps almost making the ground rumble.

My tail wags excitedly as I sense her mood shift into something more warm and cheeky. She's still young, so her aura reminds me more of an onee-san rather than anything more mature, and she senses my shota air shining through my young, baby-sized, mirror-like scales.

Her four paws all land onto mine, pinning me to the ground, and she immediately sits on me, pressing both of our hips together. Then she lowers her large head and rubs her scaly cheek against my neck as she deeply breathes in my smell. She's enjoying this role reversal quite a lot, even though I have to willingly surrender to her for it to happen.

She starts rubbing herself against me, which has a similar effect to what it would in my humanoid form.

"Hmm… yes, this is nice," she hums, her alluring draconic double voice enhanced by her massive size as it gains a faint, bone-shivering rumble.

Romy blinks blankly in surprise as she suddenly notices that we're doing it. "Wow, what…? Just like that?" She blurts out.

"Why are you surprised? They're both dragons," Yunia points out.

And the Companion grunts, "Right, they're just like Hana."

"If not worse."

"Exactly."

Edolie appears in the secluded yard, completely armored since she's on duty, so she's likely here to report a visitor, but she suddenly stops as she notices us and stares curiously. Our position isn't obviously spicy since our hips are stuck together, but the way our tongues are entwined makes it obvious that there's something going on.

The armored werecat turns to Alissa, who just flashes her a smile, and she immediately understands. "I'll report to Aisco that you're busy," Edolie whispers, and Alissa nods at her, so the Companion leaves.