Today is the 10th. Tann, day of darkness. People don't like to go out today so it is kind of a holiday.
"Acho!" I sneeze as I open my eyes.
Roxanne snickers, her tail waving at me. Alissa chokes and struggles to swallow. She slaps Roxanne’s tail and makes her jump in surprise.
My [Blessing Magic] increased by 1 (now 4+21), my MP increased by 70 now (850). Kyro’s MP training technique works quite well, even Roxanne is satisfied.
Hana learned [Illusion Magic] with 1 point.
At 5 points of [Godly Language] I can give a 10 seconds boost of power to us with a burst of nausea at the end. With 10 points I can give a 30 seconds boost with reduced nausea. With 15 points I can give a 1 minute boost with minimal nausea. At 20 points the boost lasts 2 minutes and there’s only a slight discomfort and body fatigue at the end, this is the optimal point. I trained how to use it and the best way is to whisper to the girls or myself before battle, I can even use it during battle on an opportune moment.
"Good," Kyros says and smiles faintly as he strokes his beard, "I have very little new to show you, you only need to continue on your practice to improve."
"Thank you, teacher," I nod respectfully.
Kyros shows me all kinds of things that you can do with this skill. Turning them into mere puppets, inserting memories, changing their tastes, altering their body, and sometimes even forcing skills, the sky is the limit. Difficulty varies and it’s all temporary but it’s still incredibly powerful.
I come back to lunch and see the girls surrounding the table.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Alissa brought Moody Juice, Turncoat Heretics, and Delicious Horrors," Hana answers.
"The, uh, what?"
She chuckles and opens space for me to look.
On a glass cup there's a red steaming juice that looks quite thick. On a platter there's stick-men cookies with a psychedelic color, they change color depending on the angle that you look at them, reminds me of that car paint ChromaFlat or something. On another platter there's 8 small purple clumps of wriggling tentacles. What the hell.
Alissa smiles at me and grabs the glass cup, after a few seconds without moving she releases the cup and there's a yellow mark on the juice where her hand was.
"Thermochromism..." I mutter.
"Thermo what?" Hana asks
"Thermochromism, changing color depending on temperature."
"Huh... Yeah that's exactly what it does," Alissa says, her ears flop slightly and her swaying tail slows.
"Don't look like this," I smile to Alissa, "The things that looked like this on my world weren't safe to eat, I assume this is drinkable?"
"Yes!" Her tail shoots up again, "You said your world never had any magic so I found some magic food and decided to buy a little."
"Ooh... Magic food," I grab the cup and sip on it.
At first comes a strong, ginger-like taste, it changes into citric juice similar to oranges, then to a more mild mango, then to black tea with honey, and finally to very sweet Gorgon fruit.
"Wow. It literally changes taste," I say.
"If you freeze it and let it melt on your mouth there's even more tastes," Alissa says, gushing with a large smile.
She heats up the now orange juice and it turns back to red. The girls all take a sip and only a small amount of it remains.
"Lovely," Alissa says.
"Quite good," Roxanne says.
"Meh, too, swee-t!" Aoi says.
"Gih! Guhgih geah gehger.
"Pbtbtbtb," Aoi shows her long tongue to Gify and makes a fart-like noise.
"I didn't like the first one..." Lina says.
"The last is the best, do the colder tastes get more sweet?" Ciel asks.
"Yep," Alissa answers.
"Eh. I liked the third one, after the citric one, it reminded me of one of the fruits from Sommerland," Hana says.
"Caaan I get the rest?" Ciel asks with an innocent grin.
"Sure," I say and the other girls nod.
Ciel puts the glass in the ice box.
"Now why are these cookies called Turncoat Heretics?" I ask.
"Because every time you look at them they change their color," Ciel answers and snorts. "Just like the real ones, always trying to infiltrate the temple by blending into the background."
I grab one and bite. The gimmick on this one is that it has a mix of fruits but the most prominent one changes randomly with a small popping explosion inside the mouth. Like one of those weird candy powders, Popping Stones or something like that.
"My tong' go' num'," Lina says with her tongue out.
"Don't put it all on the mouth, bite smaller pieces," Alissa says.
"Oh... Okay."
I chuckle and take a large bite. The popping gets so strong that it really does get uncomfortable.
"Meh," Aoi seems a little more content with the gimmick but the taste is average for her.
"I love it," Roxanne says and takes a large bite, "it massages my tongue."
"You are losing the feeling on your tongue from eating all that spicy food," Hana says.
"You are losing the feeling on your tongue from licking me everyday," Roxanne answers.
"No, it tastes like rotting fish like always."
"And you enjoy it very much."
"Girls please," Ciel glares at them and they bite their tongues with a smirk.
"Anyway, what's that horrifying thing?" I point to the still wriggling purple clumps of tentacles.
"Delicious Horrors," Hana says with a smile.
"I find the 'Delicious' part questionable," Ciel says.
"Bad presentation, again," Roxanne says and Ciel nods along.
"Trust me on this one, it's pretty good," Hana says.
"Of course you are the one who likes the disgusting food," Roxanne says with an eye roll.
"Yeah just like how I like eating your floweeer!"
That translated well into English.
"Please!" Ciel gives them a withering look. "Alissa, continue."
"Don't chew on this one," Alissa says with an evil smile, "Seriously, don't chew, let it on your mouth for a few seconds and swallow."
Oh boy.
Everyone looks at me, even Gify. I shrug and put it on my mouth.
Oh Gods! I'm being kissed by multiple tongues! The tentacles unclumped themselves and started crawling all over my mouth. They stimulate my tongue just like a kiss. Tastes like grape.
I swallow and shudder as the wriggling doesn't stop. Now I feel them inside me, crawling and tickling me where I can't reach.
"Alissa! What in the..." I stop talking as another shudder runs through my entire body.
Alissa and Hana chuckle as they watch my suffering. After around 10 seconds the wriggling stops.
"Betrayal! Again!" I protest.
"I'll make it up to you," Alissa says and pats my head.
"I demand aggressive cuddling."
"Your wish is my command," Alissa says, she and Hana bows. "Now, the rest," she looks at the other girls who stare at each other nervously.
"It's not so bad," I say, "at first it feels like kisses."
"Kiss?" Aoi asks, tilting her head.
"Uh, yes, kiss."
Aoi jumps to the platter and eats one, Gify follows her. They immediately start giggling and rolling on the table.
"Now that is adorable," Ciel says and Lina nods.
The next are Alissa, Hana, and Lina. They shudder but also giggle with the tickling.
Ciel and Roxanne look at each other and sigh. They close their eyes and throw a clump on their mouths.
"Ahhn...!" Roxanne moans, "It's stirring... My insides! Aahhn~...!"
Ciel shudders uncontrollably and holds a hand in front of her mouth to muffle the constant giggling.
"Well, it makes sense for Ciel to be like this because of her foot fetish, maybe she's more sensitive to tickling or something," Hana says, "But Roxanne...?"
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"I have an idea, it relates to a certain thing about tentacles..." I say.
Hana lifts and eyebrow at me.
"More weird shit from your world?"
"Yeah..."
"Maybe we can find something similar on a lewd shop."
"If not then we could develop a spell for it," I smirk, "If it was made for the food we can recreate it on something bigger and not edible."
"Yes, yes," an evil glint on her eyes, "We could use Alissa to test how a normal person would fare."
Alissa shudders and blushes.
"I don't get it?" Lina asks.
"You are too innocent" I say.
Lina pouts and then shudders when Hana tells her what we are planning.
"Mo-re!" Aoi demands.
"Sorry, maybe next time," Alissa pats her sleek head. "They run out quickly since there's little magic food in Rabanara."
"The High Forest would certainly have more," Hana says.
"O-kaay…"
We have a normal soup for lunch. Not in the mood to try anything new with the feelings of having my innards kissed still fresh on my body.
During [Reduced Mana Cost] class I spend my time observing the "circuits" of spells. Slowly they start to make more sense.
Silvane and Nononya appear during break.
"Say Alissa, can’t you become small like Nononya so I can carry you?" I ask.
"Why didn’t I think of that..." She blinks repeatedly at the groundbreaking idea.
Silvane sighs, she runs her hand over her long ears and speaks, "Wereanimals have the best racial traits, Haaran loves my ears but they don’t compare to the furry ones you two have."
Garanae looks away and shyly nods, Hatara scowls for a second but then chuckles.
"What about the beastfolk?" Lyle asks, "Their entire bodies are furry."
Silvane shudders and smiles, Toroo hoots a laugh.
"Lionfolk are quite lovely," Silvane says and looks at Alissa. "But maintaining all that fur must be difficult, no?"
I grab Alissa’s tail and brush my face with it.
"Do you even shed fur?" I ask.
"Hardly," she flickers her tail harder on my face and makes me sneeze. "Part of our inheritance is that our fur disintegrates quite quickly when away from our bodies."
"Being a human seems quite boring in comparison," Garanae says. He runs his hand through his white-blond hair and frowns. "Animal ears are so cute in comparison to our boring fleshy ones. Now that I think about it, do your ears make it difficult to sleep Silvane?"
"No. They are quite flexible," Silvane grabs a thin, protruding ear and rolls it on itself. "They also regrow by themselves when cut off."
"Just like the demon race," I say.
"See?" Garanae points to a smirking Silvane, "They have all the advantages and none of the drawbacks, why even be human?"
Silvane shrugs, "Say that to the royals at the capital."
"Exactly, the supremacist faction is quite strong," Lyle says and nods, "It’s why the emperor has no human wife..."
"Say, is it possible to copy your [Fox Transformation]?" I ask Alissa.
"It’s a spell so… Possibly?" She shrugs.
"I heard that some humans copied [Stonebody] from living long enough in Mountainhome," Gimbo says, "So it’s not unheard of of racial skills being copied."
"You should start with the demon race," Toroo says, "Their racial characteristics are like a partial Transformation."
"Oh right," Alissa claps her hands, "They are mana solidifications but their souls still extend over their bodies. Wolf, what if you applied [Materialization] to your soul extension ability?"
Gify opens his eyes and stands on my shoulder.
"Gih," his body suddenly looks ethereal and he floats in the air, phasing through my body.
"So it really is the same thing, just a more advanced version," I say.
Gify turns back into solid and nods.
Oh Gods, I can become like Alissa. Animal ears! I want to be a kitsune!
"Hohoh, you are certainly breaking barriers, Wolf," Toroo smiles, "If you develop this it might actually be revolutionary."
"It will certainly be once the perverts get their hands on it," Lyle says.
"Just like Snow Weave," Silvane says.
I contain a shiver as delicious memories flood my mind. I feel Alissa’s tail sway harder on my lap.
"Oh yeah that thing is everywhere now and it has little use besides bed activities," Lyle chuckles and slightly reddens.
"They are quite lovely for sleeping on," Silvane says with an innocent smile, making Lyle blush harder. "It’s what they were originally made for."
Today is the 11th.
Lina wakes me up and she shares a morning kiss with Alissa. Ciel suddenly grabs Lina and gives her a morning kiss on the cheek.
"Morning," Lina says, beaming with a smile.
"M-morning," Ciel says and quickly moves out of the bed, her dark ass jiggles as she walks.
I fondle Alissa’s tail and watch the little girl scurry after Ciel.
"Who has the better ass?" Alissa asks me, seeing where my gaze went.
"I will not answer this question" I say immediately.
Alissa smirks and Ted tilts his head in confusion, something Alissa taught him.
You better learn these lessons soon, little one.
Morning is spent lazing around. Aoi plays tag with Lina, they both have similar agility so they are rather evenly matched. Aoi has some advantage on speed due to being a quadruped.
"Not on the kitchen!" Ciel yells.
"Kay!" The two answer in unison.
Hana does her morning routine of light exercises and martial arts. Soon she leaves for a morning jog.
Ciel prays and then leaves with Hana.
Roxanne is swinging on the tree in the front yard. She mutters something about mana signatures and inflammations.
I spend my time on the balcony of the second floor, trying to keep my soul out of my body without thinking. The secret to it must be on those sub-processes, I really need to learn them.
Gih.
Yeah, a lot of my progress is locked behind the sub-processes.
Alissa is on the table on a chair besides me, reading another book. A romance, obviously.
I summon a [Holy Spirit] and start chasing Lina with it.
Suddenly Aoi bursts into the balcony and jumps. She glides down towards the tree and nestles on a branch. Lina appears a second after and frowns.
"Not fair, I can’t glide," she says.
"Ha-Ha! Li, slooow!"
"Guh…" She scowls and turns around, I hear her stomping down the stairs and jumping over my Spirit.
She reaches the front yard and fires a very small [Earth Bullet] on Aoi, making her fall down the branch.
"Owwww!" Aoi cries and dramatically writhes on the ground in pain.
"Play fair!" Lina hisses.
"Fiine."
"You are the Gobbler!" Lina smirks and runs away.
"Ah..." Aoi rolls over and darts after her.
The rest of the morning is calm as everyone basically just sprawls somewhere and takes a nap. At 11PM we put on our jewels and best clothes and leave towards the Noble’s Quarters to visit Lyle.
We reach the front of the Rizek residence. A well-armed guard in shining chain mail stands in front of the black metal gate, every once in a while a small gem in the middle of the gate flashes with light.
"State your business," the guard says in a neutral tone once we approach.
"My name is Wolf Ryder, we were invited by Lyle Rizek for lunch."
The man nods and his eyes do not drift away from us. Another guard moves inside a small guard post. A minute later a proto-butler comes to the gate and opens it for us.
"Greetings," the man bows. I remember he’s Sebastian. He addresses us individually and asks us to follow him.
He’s a brown haired man with delicate features but a well built body, he looks to be well into his 30’s.
We pass a brick wall and pass by a hedge garden with multiple flowers and tea tables. A smooth cement path takes us across the front yard. A large hedge cut in the shape of a lightning bolt covers the view of the front door.
The mansion is made of yellow bricks, orange shingle, and white relief as decorations along the walls and windows. Three floors tall with low angled ceiling.
"Imperial architecture," Lina says.
Sebastian turns his head and smiles, "Grand Master Rizek is fond of the capital, even here he wanted his own piece of home," he says.
I believe he’s talking about Werner Rizek, Lyle’s grandfather.
We enter the house and see an interior fully decorated by tiles with flowing light yellow and blue patterns. The ceiling is tall and the air is quite fresh, I believe I feel a hint of magical air conditioning.
After a long hall with statues and a family portrait, we reach the main dining room. There’s only a large table near the center and a huge mirror that covers one wall, the empty space could easily hold a dancing party.
"Wolf!" Lyle raises from his chair and comes over for a handshake. He wears some loose white linen shirt with frills and a sleeveless doublet over it. His pants are straight and made of black velvet.
Behind him comes a lanky mustached man with evil and wild eyes, wearing the same clothes. His black hair is slick and swept to the side, his mustache is twirled and enviously long, his eyebrows are like a tilde. He smiles towards us in what could be interpreted as warmth.
Beside him is a thin and petite woman. Black hair on a single braid on her shoulders, very small lips and nose, small eyes, and a kind smile, certainly recessive genes. Her dark brown dress is wide and thick, embroidered with many yellow flowers.
At the table is Werner Rizek, an old man with a pointy nose and clean shaven face filled with wrinkles. He wears a simple purple robe.
"This is my father, Horvath, my mother, Helena, and over there my grandfather Werner," Lyle says.
We all bow lightly and Werner waves with a toothy smile.
"I am Wolf Ryder, these are my fiancees Alissa, Roxanne, Hana, Ciel, and our slave, Lina."
Werner is indifferent, Helena slowly lifts her eyebrows, and Horvath slowly turns his head towards her as I speak. The couple smirks at each other and turns back.
"Hohoh, Ryder, pleasure to meet you," he nods his head in respect and closes his eyes. His voice is on the higher pitched end. "Your fellowship is quite the interesting one, through, and, through," he puffs his chest as he speaks.
"Firstly, we must thank you for saving our son," Helena sends a sharp gaze at her husband for a moment and nods to us in respect. Her voice is very soft and slightly raspy.
"Yes! Indeed, Twenty versus six. A bard is going to tell that story," he gives us a very toothy smile, his teeth almost shine.
"Not the first time," Lyle says.
"Not the second," Hana says.
"Oh," Horvath raises his eyebrows, "I hear you are making fame in Rabanara yet you don’t show your face."
"I am rather reclusive," I say and smile wryly.
"Yet can’t stop participating on the most curious of things," he says.
Could they of know my relationship with Vanea?
"Please sit," Helena motions towards the table.
It’s oval, the Rizeks sit at one side and we at the other.
"I am not actually surprised that you managed to kill so many," Werner says, his voice is old but firm. He looks at Roxanne and continues, "The Symbol of Hate had very little mana contaminating its body, considering the damage I thought it would be the contrary. You must be specialized in [Mana Control], correct?"
"Indeed," Roxanne answers with bright smile, "I had much ease learning [Mana Control] so I decided to specialize in it. It came so easily that I learned how to dual-cast instinctively because of it."
"Ohoh," Werner drums his fingers on the table, "so you used Fire and [Water Magic] to create a steam explosion. With this amount of control you can create a very small explosion right inside of somebody."
"Correct."
"See, Horvath?" His eyes merely shift to the side, "This one can kill anyone with a single spell, nearly unblockable."
"Yes, quite impressive. But why did you never join a circle a magi?" Horvath asks, his wrinkled eyebrows wrinkle harder in a slight frown.
"Oh, I’m not the kind that wants to be chained, I love adventuring too much to give up on that," Roxanne answers.
"And the boy now has a dragonkin, a dwarf enchanter, a priestess, the Misty Fox slave, a small dragon, a nature spirit, and even he himself is quite the summoner," Werner chuckles. "You make me wish my wives were still alive. See, Lyle? This is how you choose women."
"Y-yes, grandfather," Lyle’s face stiffens and his ears redden.
"Oh, so you are the Misty Fox slave?" Helena turns to Alissa who smiles proudly, "I wanted to buy you for Lyle but the Slavers had control over it."
"How did you get Ghulam to choose you?" Horvath asks me.
"I saved Nour Asaf from the Orc Headhunter and as a favor he introduced me to Ghulam," I answer.
Werner nods to Horvath and smiles.
"You even got connections to Asaf. I thought about offering you knighthood but it seems you won’t need it," Horvath smiles bitterly.
"We are quite the adventurous group," Ciel says, "It will take some time for us to settle down."
"When you do, know that you could have a place in Rabanara," Werner says, "If not us then Alaraste would be very interested in your fellowship."
So they don’t actually know about my relationship with Vanea.
I nod and smile respectfully.
"Thank you for the offer," I say.
"Are the Misty Fox slaves famous over here?" Alissa asks, expectantly.
"Very," Helena answers with a kind smile. "Dedicated servants, experienced hunters, vigorous lovers, cute ears, what’s not to like? Alaraste was offering them to the nobility but the Slavers negotiated preference in exchange for more combat Blood Slaves."
Alissa’s smile grows wider on each word.
"We were looking for a wife talented in magic for Lyle, so your magical capabilities leaved to be desired," Horvath says, "But your clan makes perfect bodyguards, the weredog mercenaries do not compare."
Alissa’s eyes lose focus and her face turns into pure satisfaction.
"I heard the next slave is a male so unless if Lyle wants him we won’t pursue it," Horvath says with an evil smile and Lyle’s ears start to redden again.
"Is magic talent inheritable?" I ask.
"Quite so," Helena answers, "Sometimes even skills are inherited, so useful."
Oh boy, what does this mean for my children? I have shit tons of skills, how many of them are they going to inherit?
"Lyle asked for us to fight together," Horvath says, "I put forward a request towards Silas. Considering your record the harpies will be a simple thing."
"Do you fight at the central tower?" Ciel asks.
"Precisely," Werner answers, "I will be near, alongside the Dragon’s Bane so the danger of being overrun is negligible."
"The Cooka-monster is still leading the harpies so Alaraste wants to kill it," Horvath says, twirling his mustache.
Lina’s Trivia: The Cookachickadoodoolee is a huge, sapient chicken-man. It has a ridiculous voice and an overinflated ego. Its real name is something else but the Lord spread this ridiculous name as a taunt. The bards made a few songs about the banter between the Lord and the Cooka-whatever.
"Oh. So we will get to see the Dragon’s Bane in action?" Hana asks, her eyes glimmer.
Horvath’s eyes also glimmer, but evilly, "Hohohoh, oh yes, with premium seats. the beauty of the Bane is incomparable, it is the perfect weapon to end the life of that ridiculous creature," he says.
Lina perks her ears at that.
Hana and Lina kept talking about auto-ballistas with Horvath, Helena and Alissa talked about the history of other Misty Foxes, Werner prodded Roxanne with questions about her magic, me and Ciel talked idly with Lyle about traveling and knighthood.
Servants came, with a poof they pulled out the cutlery and the food. Glorious roasted large slabs of dripping and sizzling minotaur and Orc Lord, a variety of fruits nearly as wide as that on the Tree of Mana, breads so well made they look like pictures from gourmet magazines. My stomach feels so posh.
Lyle’s parents were a little annoying with their prodding, but now that my position is known they are more pleasant. Since they can’t really bring us under their fold so easily they would rather keep us close.