The Oracle seems sufficiently horrified at what I can do to my own soul, and I even manage to excite Yunia with the monstrosity I create, but I keep things strictly non-spicy to not offend the Emperor again. It takes a bit of effort, though, as Roxanne savors our thunder thighs bunny girl while I'm not even allowed to get a full mast.

The moment we get on the Hyperloop to return to the embassy, I stretch Alissa's tight little holes. Then she gets into roleplaying a bit and pretends to become exhausted, forcing me to carry her in my arms.

Everyone returns for bath time, and I clap Lolo's juicy ass cheeks so hard that she passes out. But Yunia's degradation desire got tickled by watching us mess with the Oracle, so I distract everyone with tentacles to save them from the mental imagery of Ugly Bastard NTR R--e roleplay.

And then we receive some interesting guests for dinner: Nour's parents.

We go out to meet the new arrivals, and the first thing we see is a wide and tall light blue carriage decorated lavishly with gold and pulled by a pair of muscular Rontis with shiny, pearl-colored manes. It looks straight out of posh Britain, and the driver even has a fluffy black uniform with a tall cap and white gloves.

In front of the carriage, we see just four plated bodyguards flanking the surprisingly youthful-looking couple. The father is a man who could barely pass for 40 years old and is the spitting image of Nour, a handsome man (though more on the cute side than grizzled or Chad-like) with short brown hair and a refreshing smile. The mother is a very pretty and thin woman with full cheeks, a button nose, shoulder-length brown hair, and a faint air of maturity, giving me the impression that she's like a fragrant flower that doesn't stand out at first, but you can't stop looking once you notice her.

They're wearing more traditional, medieval-like clothing. His outfit is a light-blue doublet with white pants and posh black horseman boots, and hers is a very shiny, dark blue velvet dress with long-sleeved silver gloves. Both ensembles have a tasteful amount of gold embroidery, showing wealth but not enough to ruin their style. Curiously, they have no weapons, nor do they have the "Stats" of warriors.

When we approach, the man grins. Then they give us a quick bow, and the man greets us, "Ryders! We're honored to finally meet with you. I'm Ur Asaf, and this is my wife, Rehema."

"Greetings, Ur…"

Then, we introduce ourselves. Even Gify.

"Gih."

Ur's eyes fly between Gify and Aoi, gazing at them with childish wonder. His wife, though, appears to not know where to look, seemingly a bit intimidated by our presence, and she looks quite adorable. We are a little tense, though, so I tell the girls to relax, and it seems to lower our high-level aura to more comfortable levels for Rehema.

"Nour sent us many letters telling of your growth, but nothing had adequately prepared us for how striking your presences are," Ur cordially remarks with a dashing smile.

"I can feel the touch of the Gods upon all of you," Rehema cryptically states, and we're caught a bit off-guard by her statement.

"We're not that special," I embarrassedly reply, but not even Ciel backs me up.

"You did convert a dragon…" Ur hesitantly points out with a grin.

"Yes, but she was already special on her own; we just nurtured her and helped her grow," Ciel kindly retorts, making our little blue dragon quite happy.

Ur stares at Aoi again as she shows a toothy smile, his eyes full of wonder rather than fear at the magnificent beast showing her sharp teeth, but Aoi simply enjoys the attention.

And so he addresses her, "Still, I've never actually seen one in person before, so please forgive me if I stare." -But then he turns to Gify- "Also, nature spirits are quite rare, so I feel charmed to be in the presence of such an adorable one."

"Gih," Gify chirps matter-of-factly, making the Asafs chuckle.

"She has quite the personality," I wryly state.

Alissa lands her hand on my chest as she leans onto me and warmly declares, "We're happy to finally meet with you. Nour has done a lot for us, and a normal person likely wouldn't have done anywhere near as much if it weren't for you two raising him that way."

Rehema reflexively grabs her husband's arm as she affably replies, "Oh, but you saved Nour's and Rania's lives, so there's nothing he could ever do to properly repay that."

But I don't think the same as it all started with Nour, so I warmly declare, "His gift allowed me to buy Alissa, which in turn saved me in a difficult time of my life. If it wasn't for that encounter with Nour, I most certainly wouldn't be here." Then Alissa and I smile at each other, but I feel a prickly presence in the back of my mind, so I hurriedly add, "Of course, every one of my wives was essential for us to succeed in our journey, but Alissa was the first."

Then Yunia finishes, "Also, convincing the Princesses to ally with us for the Purification was certainly a great boon to our plans."

"So it seems we owe each other a lot," Ur kindly states.

"So it seems," I softly hum back. The couple may not have high-level auras, but their "Charisma" certainly makes it easy to feel sympathetic to them.

"But let's talk inside where we can sit instead of standing," Ciel kindly suggests, and we all nod in agreement.

We enter the embassy, then introduce them to the Verners, who warmly receive them.

Léonne walks forward and offers her hand to Ur. "Your son is responsible for my Blood Slave daughter meeting her deserved master. Fate brought our families together, and the results have been only glorious for all sides," she boldly declares, then they have a firm handshake.

But it's Rehema who replies with intense piety, "That a mere act of honest gratefulness resulted in such grand developments tells that the Gods truly watch over us, for nothing but their influence could explain such entangled Fates."

Then Léonne offers her hand to the pious woman. "We may have met through Fate, but we're united through faith."

And the two smile at each other as they've both found a comrade with as much "Piety" as themselves.

Léonne is surprisingly pious, but it seems that werefox culture is just very compatible with the teachings of the God of the Sun, and perhaps it's because of that piety that her daughter was chosen to accompany me. Her sense of duty and faith in the divinely-endorsed Blood Slave system made her the ideal parent to raise the perfect Blood Slave, which was the precise help I needed to adapt to being isekaied into this world.

Everything makes too much sense when the Gods are involved, which is why when it doesn't, like with Reinhold's death, we find ourselves so confused but also not that concerned as we know the answers will likely come one day.

During dinner, Ur starts a conversation with me. He seems to be focused on shipbuilding while his wife handles the management of their company.

He doesn't waste time with chit-chat and eagerly broaches the main topic he wants to talk about, "So you have your own imperial airship now? I heard it's a battle airship, so I'm sure it must be one of ours since we handle all the ship types of the core of the Army."

And I calmly reply, "We haven't had time to inspect it yet, and the Army is still reshuffling the crew before they can transfer control of it to us. But it's an airship that came from the west. Wideberg, most likely."

He happily hums back, "Yes, that's where most of our airships go to since the nobles of the east are too self-sufficient to need help from the Army."

"And the High Forest is simply too dense for airships, anyway."

Then his smile subtly becomes sly. "But now that you have the Chimeras doing… what's it called, recovery of Drifting Lands…? Yes, that. Now that you have a use for airships, another one won't hurt, right?"

I raise an eyebrow at him while holding back my smirk. "Precisely. We have a Winch airship that can tow a whole Drifting Island, allowing the Chimeras to mine its crystals and refine them. But the skies are dangerous, so the Winch needs an escort, and I believe this battle airship will do just fine."

Now his expression becomes blatantly sly as he probes, "But now that you're getting into the airship business, you could build more by copying the design of your battle airship, no?"

But I cautiously temper his expectations, "We lack the means to train a crew for imperial airships, so we'd gain nothing by copying the imperial design."

So he pulls back on the slyness as he becomes curious. "Oh? Then what kind of airships do you want to build? Chimera designs?"

"No. Theirs also don't fit the war doctrine that I want to implement. We're developing a new way of building planes, not airships, so even if our designs become superior, not only will they not make the Imperial Sky Fleet obsolete, but we also lack the production capabilities to quickly produce a large number of them."

And his curiosity gives way to sober questioning. "Oh…? Could you elaborate on this new doctrine?"

But now, I return the sly smile. "That is a secret that I can't divulge, but since you're the biggest airshipwright company around, we'll sell you the construction plans once the Army has shown enough interest."

The youthful father gives me a pensive look, most likely skeptical of my words. "Well, that seems to be the perfect deal. You've even reassured us that you won't intrude on our share of the market."

Indeed, for him, this sounds too good to be true. But my goal is to grow the Institute, not become an entrepreneur, so I give him a bit more reassurance, "We're only interested in the research aspect, not managing a business. Besides, while the elven people can be very dedicated craftsmen, they don't make for good mass producers of products, especially war equipment."

He chuckles softly, starting to become casual again. "Too dainty?"

I gently nod. "That, but also too meticulous. The High Forest can only produce extremely high-quality equipment in low quantities."

"Well, that doesn't sound like much of a downside," he good-naturedly mumbles while holding back a grin, almost like he wants to pout.

"The Army needs numbers and results, not a palace built for kings," I casually retort with a shrug.

And he rubs his beardless chin in thought. "It actually makes sense considering all that I've heard about elves."

"They're an odd people," I affirm with a nod.

"We say the same about you humans," Yunia suddenly chimes in, making us chuckle.

The conversations are momentarily disrupted by Gify's adorable silliness as she eats an amount of food many times her weight and size, and the pair of guests becomes charmed by the little white griffin. But the Asafs are experienced merchants, and they don't let themselves remain distracted for long.

After the main course, we have chocolate sweets with coffee. I know it's a bad idea to have coffee at night, but the Asafs likely won't get another chance to experience this combo any time soon.

Rehema raises her eyebrows at the sweets, then eagerly remarks as she gives us amused looks, "I've heard rumors of a High Forest delegation managing to snag a profitable arrangement for cocoa from one of the newer farms. It amuses me that it was you, Ryders, who did that."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Quite a lot of merchants were frustrated at the lost opportunity, but I wouldn't worry about them since they're all small players," Ur reassuringly adds.

I breathe in deeply, savoring the delicious smell of freshly-ground coffee. Then I motion to the selection of mouth-watering chocolate dishes as I huskily state, "And now you can see why we put so much effort into securing a source of cocoa."

"Yes, this is wonderful…" Rehema wistfully states with a nod, then sips more of her mocha.

"Don't drink too much coffee. It has an energizing effect like Tonique tea," Ciel gives her some advice from personal experience.

"Oh… Unfortunately, I don't think I can stop myself," the pretty mother replies and giggles girlishly.

We spend a few more hours enjoying a pleasant evening with the Asafs, and the Verners seem a bit interested in learning about imperial airships, so we just listen most of the time. The Asafs are nice folks, so it's pretty easy to get comfy in their presence.

But then Ur smoothly turns the conversation back to business. "Say, Lord Wolf. Didn't you have a deal with the Imperial Army regarding the development of your planes?" he tentatively asks.

That's an interesting topic since not even we are sure about how things will turn out. "Yes, we do. We've already received the money, but we haven't spent it yet, and there's a chance that we'll be asked to return it."

He nods in understanding, but then his tone becomes very reassuring, and I pick up on a hidden intention in his words. "Well, that'd be quite the tragedy, and since General Reinhold's actions in the Purification were supposed to be seen as separate from the Army's, I don't think they'll renege on that deal unless Reinhold had quite a number of allies who want revenge."

"The group that followed Reinhold were mostly younger and ambitious officers, not the older higher-ups," I relay Yunia's words as she's the one who's more informed on this matter.

And Ur's gaze turns sharp. "Then there's little chance they'll ask for the money to be returned, but if they do… we'd be willing to fund you, instead. You now have an imperial ship, and if you can improve the design, we'd gladly buy it from you."

I raise my eyebrows and smile in amused surprise. "So that you can then produce it yourself?"

He nods and answers matter-of-factly, "You're the one who gave us the idea."

Then I play with my spoon as I casually deliberate, "Well, the most obvious improvement I can think of is to replace the main [Fly] gem with one of Chimera design, which would be faster and more efficient." And even Rehema stops talking to listen to our conversation.

But Ur becomes skeptical. "Yes, I heard your ship is faster than ours, but it doesn't seem to be armored. Are you sure a Chimera gem can carry the weight of an imperial airship?"

"The Floater has a ship-wide [Wind Shield] enchantment protecting it from all projectiles, so it doesn't need to be armored," I proudly reply.

And his stunned reaction is delightful. "Wait… you're serious?"

"The Chimeras are masters of enchanting, and they specialize in huge gems, like those of airships."

Ur runs his hand through his short brown hair as he chuckles. Then he leans back in his chair and sighs wistfully. "Well, I'm eager to see what you can do with those Chimeras."

I grin cheekily. "So am I…"

The Carrier isn't even the biggest airship that the ancient Chimeras had built, so there are many wonders we could unlock with the help of their expertise. And that huge flying fortress inside the Legado dungeon is the first thing that comes to mind.

But it seems that was the last topic that Ur wanted to talk about, and not long after that, he stands up and politely declares, "I'm afraid we've taken up too much of your time, so it's time for us to retire."

"You can stay in the embassy with us," Ciel immediately replies.

He smiles affably at her but declines, "Oh, we're grateful, but we know how busy you Ryders are. This was supposed to be just a short visit. Perhaps we could have a more lengthy visit when you have the time. It would be even better if we had Nour and his wives with us as we know how fond they are of you, Ryders."

"Thank you for your consideration," Yunia politely states.

And he nods at her. "We'll be staying in the capital for a few more days. If you're leaving soon, please call us for some goodbyes."

"Certainly," I affirm.

Then the Verners also retire, so the wives and I spend the rest of our evening together.

Indeed, we're too busy to entertain guests for long unless they're actually important people who have business with us, like the Princesses, so the Asafs leaving early is helpful to us, but we must certainly have a visit with them again one day.

"Curious how Nour has a harem while his father doesn't," Roxanne suggestively remarks.

But Hana immediately retorts, "Wanna bet that his dragonkin is the one who's pushing him to add more women? I know that my father can barely keep up with my mother, so not all men are equal."

"That'd be a silly bet," Yunia casually states.

"And I know that Nour was struggling to keep up with his women at the beginning," I add. He went through the same journey as me as he discovered the wonders of bed skills, but I wonder if he'll go anywhere near as far as I have.

"It helps when the women can enjoy each other," Yunia sagely states, and we all agree.

Today is the 16th, Ekt, day of Electricity. Hana says it's the best day for working out or going on a run, but we all do so much "exercise" every day that we don't really need to put much effort into staying fit.

Alissa increased her [Illusion Magic] by 1 (now 21), Roxanne increased her [Space Magic] by 2 (now 16), and Lina increased her [General Enchanting] by 1 (now 6+14).

Hana and I increased our "Wisdom" by 1 (now 17 and 21), which is welcome news, except to Yunia, who feels dread every time Hana gets closer to her in mental stats.

We have another perfect, calm morning, but it's soon ruined by the arrival of a cryptic letter delivered by an Imperial Army messenger.

"Juramen was an Oathbreaker.

Reinhold."

And I don't know what to think about this…

"Sounds like a threat," Hana growls angrily, her emerald scales twitching like flexing muscles.

"Wait… is he planning on binding his soul to the land like the spirit Chimeras?" I blurt out in confusion.

"Sounds like it…" Lina whispers bitterly, and her frown makes her gloomy eyes look very grim.

But Alissa is concerned about something else. "Alkibiades escaped, and Reinhold is hinting at… possible revenge? This doesn't bode well," she ponders out loud.

"Juramen's tale wasn't of revenge; it was of rebirth," Ciel corrects her.

But we fall silent as we ruminate. The letter is too cryptic and ambiguous, so the only thing that's clear is that Reinhold isn't going to Hell or Paradise just yet.

And then my mood sours completely as I realize that I won't be allowed to truly get rid of him without the Emperor killing one of my wives as punishment. It's ironic considering that we've taken advantage of the fact that the Elder Council can't easily assassinate us because I'm a Gifted, which has allowed us to act very arrogant and combative against them so that they'd hear us out.

This must be what Katasko felt when we started antagonizing them.

Powerlessness.

"We'll have to wait and see what he does next," Yunia sagely states, and she hates that none of us can tell her otherwise.

"If he shows even a hint of Wickedness, we can truly end him," Ciel sternly declares, even her composure broken by the danger that Reinhold poses, but we don't give in to despair.

We killed Reinhold once, so we can kill him again.

But the surprises don't end there. Just as we begin our orb-boosted mana circulation training, Caterina appears, wanting to speak with us.

Hana happily receives her milfy elven crush, and we offer our favorite Punisher tea and coffee, of which she promptly accepts the latter. But she seems eager to drink coffee and eat chocolate, which is slightly odd considering she's usually a bit ascetic.

Once the Punisher has had a good sip, she lowers her cup onto her plate and gives us a sharp gaze. "There's been a string of… murders among the lower nobles. All related to Katasko, it seems," she pompously remarks with obvious phony dismay.

And I smirk at her. "Well, I'd be surprised if the Punishers weren't involved in a number of them."

Her eyes fly between each of us, looking quite eager to tell us something big, but she continues her act for a while longer. "Well, I can't deny nor confirm that. It's just that one particular murder stood out to me. That of a certain Faustus Fluminis…" Then her gaze suddenly turns sharp and accusatory again.

Faustus' death makes me uncomfortable, but Hana is glad to take over for me. "Yeah, that's one of the nobles of Katasko. We still remember all of the names we wrung out of their officers," she states with a grin, challenging Caterina to riposte.

"Hm…?" the stern Punisher hums and raises one thin golden eyebrow questioningly, but we all just force a cheeky smile, which she finds mildly amusing. But apparently, she was merely teasing us, and she softens her expression as she continues, "Well, I merely want to confess that we've lost track of Alkibiades Alkimeonids. We were ready to ambush him along with his other allies if he tried to use any of his usual hiding places, but…" -her gorgeous face turns sorrowful- "and I'm embarrassed to admit this, he eluded us. We decapitated most of the higher nobles of Katasko, so they won't be able to fully cannibalize their lower members or even rebuild their organization after-…"

She stops as she realizes that something is wrong. The truth of Alki-Alki's fate makes us very grim, and we can't hide our frustration.

So I gravely confess, "We saw with our own eyes as Alkimeonids was teleported by an unknown, undetectable spell. He was accompanied by Theneus Baros and another unknown person, but the thing is, we have met that unknown person before, and we're almost certain that they're a Wicked undead."

Caterina freezes completely and even stops breathing for a moment as her mind processes our words.

"Who is this unknown person?" she impassively asks, but her tone is commanding.

I promptly describe the masked "thing," and then I also reveal that I recognized its eyes from both the [Meteor] incident at the Innocent Nymph and the (likely) attempted assassination in the Misty Low Forest.

Caterina puts her cup of coffee back onto the table and stiffens her sitting posture, straightening her back completely as she seems to subtly take a deep breath. Then she suddenly declares soberly, with not a drop of levity in her tone, "Ryders, it's time for both of our sides to reveal everything we know. There's an ongoing conspiracy against you, and we need to understand their goals. I'll start by revealing that we know that you're a Realm Traveler and that there are more like you in the Sky Lands."

Damn…

"Who are the others? Say their names. Tell me how they look!" I immediately exclaim.

And she's actually taken aback. "I… wasn't given that information. I only know that there's a group of them in the Sky Lands, and the Chimeras are understandably keeping their existence hidden."

DAMNIT!

Alissa grabs my right hand, and Lina grabs the left while the rest of the girls do the same through our connection. That instantly puts a lid on my boiling anger, and I breathe in deeply to calm myself, but the trembling in my breath is audible, making Caterina become concerned.

"This isn't the reaction I expected. Why do you want to know about the other Realm Travelers?" she cautiously inquires.

"I might know one of them… and she's very dear to me," I grumble back as I try to focus on the touch of my wives to continue to calm myself.

"Ah, I see…" Caterina hums sympathetically, and I'm grateful for her understanding.

Then we fall silent as we recollect ourselves.

But Ciel soon breaks it with a curious question, "How did you know that he's a Realm Traveler?"

"The Oracle confirmed it the moment she met with Wolf," Caterina immediately confesses.

Well… that's… irritating. I kept it a secret for so long, only to get exposed by an unblockable deus ex machina!

Whatever… the cat's out of the bag.

"Wait, so the Emperor knows?" I ask with a frown.

Caterina nods, making her long ears bounce. "Yes. The Empresses and a few other people in top positions also know."

Okay, whatever…

"So… let's talk about this 'conspiracy'?" Yunia requests once she deems me calm enough.

Starting chronologically, undeath was first discovered after the end of the Age of Oppression, around 35,000 years ago. It wasn't until after the empire was formed and the Humanoid Gods had Ascended that undeath was outlawed, and not long after that came the first major incident with undeath, the Heresy of the Tower of Decay, which caused the temple to label all undead as enemies of the Gods.

A few thousand years later, the empire tried to conquer Bestiaram, and they almost succeeded until the infamous Volnosht Rebellion, which was marked by the sudden appearance of many undead warriors and mages.

The empire was pushed back from the north of Bestiaram, driven all the way to the south, but the Rebellion fractured before it could fully liberate the continent, and in a very Bestiaram fashion, the united races fell back into their old ways of infighting. To this day, there are regular sightings of undead in the north of Bestiaram, likely power-hungry mages who came across ancient Volnosht knowledge, so the temple keeps a constant missionary presence in the region to prevent them from messing shit up.

Thousands of years later, the elven royal family of the High Forest, which had gone into hiding after Arreira's death (which happened during Ajax's Conquest of the continent), came back while leading a rebellion against the empire. While infamous for its heretical rhetoric, it didn't have any significant Wicked or undead presence, and then the rebellion fizzled out without battle after the God of the Sun turned the north of Glorampina (where the rebellion started) into a desert that was then renamed Heretic's Rest.

The demon race of Maoka has a complicated relationship with undeath. The Old Gods/Gods of Origin never mentioned immortality or undeath, while the Humanoid Gods have, but a good part of the demon race don't care about the Humanoid Gods, so a considerable number of their people are sympathetic to undeath. But the Avgi Empire pressured the Holy Daemonic Council, the rulers of Maoka, to outlaw undeath, and surprisingly, there haven't been any notable incidents with illegal magic over there.

The most recent incident was about five years ago when the Aremut kingdom was suddenly covered in undead corruption, requiring the whole region to be evacuated. While this horrible tragedy resulted in the countless deaths of those who couldn't evacuate before succumbing to the corruption, it didn't have any actual undead presence.

Then Caterina completes our knowledge, "The truth about Fallen Aremut is that a heretical royal attempted to regain their youth by recreating the same effect of the Tower of Decay, but only for a moment so that it'd be imperceptible. Unfortunately, an unknown accident caused the entire region to be irradiated with an odd corruption that we've been having trouble countering. It's more resilient than that of the Deadlands, so our progress has been slow, but once cleansed, it doesn't spread again."

And I summarize things, "So, no actual evidence of a conspiracy anywhere… except for the attempts on our lives, the genetically enhanced Clone Soldiers, the monsters that seem to be copying humanoid society and practicing genetic enhancement, and Alkibiades' disappearance. All of those things are connected to undead heretics, but not explicitly to any other undead incident across the Realm's history."

But Caterina gives me a confused look. "What do you mean by 'genetic enhancement'?"

"Monsters were experimenting with their eggs, trying to use magic to help them give birth to stronger monsters. It's most likely how the Clone Soldiers were created."

And she scoffs like an elf. "Hmph… that sounds like something an undead mage might attempt. They hold nothing sacred, not even birth. But anyway, you should add Reinhold's spirit's disappearance to the list of suspicious events that have happened around you as I believe it to be related to Alkibiade's."

What…

"He's disappeared too? Then it most certainly is!" I exclaim. Then I show her his letter and retell Juramen's tale.

The calm and collected Punisher has a very unusual reaction. She becomes enraged. She releases her high-level aura, and we all feel a cold sensation pierce our guts, like that of a sword stabbing us.

She clenches her jaw and both fists, then suddenly stands up and heatedly declares, "This is too much. They're working right under our noses! I'll return to the Commander and request a Realm-wide Purge of the Wicked!