As we leave the gates I look back and see a mansion protruding out of the mountain, that's the Lord's house, Ankara's parents. I didn't think they would raise a stink with us but I'm glad nothing happened.
The path down the Fort is long and snaking. To our left we see the paddies where farmers slowly work, a small burst of mana comes out of them once in a while as they use magic to make the plants grow faster. To our right we see a few farms protected by high walls, the monsters come from that side often so only the more hardened farmers stay.
As we go down the snaking slope we move much faster than before, but it's still a long way down, much more than we went up. Goldcross slowly disappears from our sight as the horizon lowers and the air gets much more humid and hot.
The right side starts to get less rocky and more wet, the moss and dirt become grass that quickly becomes marsh. Over there is the Elven Wetlands, or Antano in the native tongue.
"We will arrive by night, barely making it," Klein comments.
The road is getting more and more crowded as farmers, adventurers, and soldiers go towards the town. At least we don't have to work on this stretch as any monsters approaching were already taken care of far from us.
"It looks like the town might get crowded," I say.
"It will, it's why Mom and Dad are already holding an inn there for us."
"Won't the other towns in the High Forest also be crowded?" Roxanne asks. "Goloria was packed when I went there."
"Goloria maybe, but before we reach there… not so much," Klein says with a slight cringe.
"We only heard rumors, how are things really like over there?" Hana asks.
"The territory under Crown Lord Este is suffering, they aren't handling the amount of monsters and bandits very well."
I come closer to Hana and Klein's horse and ask in a low tone, "Is the Lord's problem related to how Rande fell from being a noble?"
Klein glances at Rande, who's talking to his mother, "No, that was a few years ago, before I joined. I heard that Lord Este's problems are actually the other high elven Lords."
"So he fell to a conspiracy?"
"Falling, he's still holding on but I think even the empire is getting annoyed at the disruption on the High Road."
"With the fall of Aremut the emperor must be getting very nervous," Lina says.
"He would be the worst emperor in history if he lost two territories under his reign," Roxanne says with a laugh.
"And two very important ones too. Aremut is important for attuned weapons, the High Forest is important for magical wood and as a trade route," Ciel says.
"And skin-care products," Roxanne adds.
"How's the situation over there? I hardly know anything about Aremut," I ask.
"Well the undead took over the entire kingdom, and did nothing after that…" Klein shrugs.
"The army is keeping the place on lock down, they say they can't get inside because the undead's corruption is too high," Lina says.
"In the entire kingdom?" I ask and she nods. "How could they even do that? The corruption only lasts when there's an undead present."
Lina shrugs and the others follow when I look at them.
"There's a way to stop it with mobile [Sanctuari]es," Ciel says, "But it's hard to cover an army with it so only small expeditions managed to get inside the City of the Damned."
Lina's Trivia: The City is actually called Spita Bureya but since the kingdom fell the spirits of the area became distorted and malicious, they attack the mind and inflict suffering upon others who come close. The description of the area is on par with a dark and haunted land so the new name became popular quite quickly.
"I heard the only thing the undead changed inside the City was that they added a new tower," Klein says like an old woman talking about gossip.
"That sounds ominous," I say and look at Alissa, who smiles, and Ciel, who frowns.
"Aremut is right next to Mountainhome, maybe we could cross the Atskild mountain range and take a look," Alissa says with a smirk.
Klein coughs and looks at Alissa wide eyed, her brown tail is straight up, tickling Hana's face. "What!? Are you one of those mad adventurers who enters unmanaged dungeons just for a thrill?" Klein's voice cracks a little, then she cleans her throat and recomposes herself. Her tail leaves Hana's face who seemed to enjoy it.
"We are looking for a dungeon to conquer so, maybe? A little?" Hana says with a shrug.
"At least half," Ciel says with a snort.
"Kweh! Kill, undead, they, taste, bad!"
Klein looks at all of us slack-jawed.
"Gih, guh… gih."
Gify doesn't like to fight but he likes to watch.
"Why did you say it like it was - joke?" Alissa asks Gify, whose beak curves in a smile.
Klein knits her eyebrows, "Doesn't the spirit's mind get molded after the one who tamed them?" She asks.
They all turn to me and I smile faintly. "Wait! Gify is more independent than others spirits, you could say he still has his own personality," I try to defend myself.
"Uh huh… the things you do to me make me think otherwise," Alissa says with narrowed eyes.
Sadistic-Alissa is coming out!
Klein's eyes dart between me and Alissa.
"Look at his face, Klein, that's the face of a sadistic - fiend, a monster who abuses his slaves daily," Hana says in a low tone on Klein's ears, her pupils dilate and her eyes glue to me in fear. Hana's voice turns into a barely understandable whisper, "He made me bleed on my first time and didn't even stop, he enjoyed the blood."
"H-Hana, that's a bit too far, we didn't do it like that. Y-you are scaring her," I say and force a smile.
"Oh?" She raises her head and smirks, "So you didn't spread - us wide until we bled and kept - going? Even when we cried?"
"N-no, not like that…"
Roxanne hugs me tighter and licks my face. "This taste… is the taste of a liar!"
"Wolf Ryder, you monster," Ciel starts, barely containing her smile. "You stole my innocence, then abused me and held me in place while my lover was being taken by another right in front of my eyes!"
Klein looks at Ciel and frowns, "Oh…" Her posture relaxes as realization kicks in, "So you guys really are weirdos… damn you, Hana, I trusted you."
Hana snickers evilly and hugs Klein tight, her hand drifts dangerously close to the border of Klein's shorts. "We are fun weirdos, Wolfy is very open-minded so we just play around quite often," her voice turns suggestive at the last few words.
"Better to have fun now since we all might die horribly tomorrow," I say.
Alissa looks at me oddly, "Rather morbid for you."
"Bad things happen, we must enjoy the now until the bad things disrupt our fun." I shrug.
"Sounds better."
"You sound like a priest of Love," Klein says with a chuckle.
Ciel puckers her lips a little sourly and looks away.
As we talk, Hana's hands trace circles below Klein's belly button, making her breathe heavier, while the other hand slowly inches upwards until it's covered by Klein's shirt. -.
Hana's hand squeezes Klein's ribs, making her gasp lightly as it slowly inches upwards. Hana leans over and breathes down Klein's neck, her emerald scales rubbing on the brown monkey ears.
Klein arches her back and raises her head higher, rubbing her cheek against Hana's. She closes her eyes and bites her lip, her hands grab Hana's thigh strongly -.
-
Then Klein suddenly grabs both hands and pushes them away. With a heavy breath she merely glances at all of us, a small smile forms but is quickly suppressed.
Ciel and Roxanne aren't pleased, though they look rather anxious instead of angry.
Okay, we really need to talk about Klein tonight.
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The rest of the way is a little awkward as we turn silent and Klein's excitement slowly dies, it is then replaced by full-blown embarrassment. I only glance at Laertes once and see he's at the window of the carriage, glaring at me, so I don't look again.
Goldcross slowly becomes fully visible again as dusk comes and the commoners give happy but tired cries. The light yellow wall is just as high as Rabanara's, covering most buildings from our view but I still see the orange shingles and cute leafy crowns from the imperial and elven styles. There's no castle in this town but there's still the Lord's mansion that will peek above the houses once we get on the main street.
There's some people building a part of the wall a ways to the right of the town, an extension to the city. When you have [Earth Magic] to help, building and tearing down walls is not a very hard job.
The town blocks our view of the High Forest but we can see the peaks of the Ultirei's Tomb artificial mountain far behind the town. It looks like a rusty, giant, jagged meat cleaver.
As we finally approach the line to enter town, the night has already come. The psychedelic moon is fully visible in the night sky, the blue one is shining bright.
The ambiance is a symphony of crickets, there weren't many bugs in the Shore of Leaves and I was thankful for that. Crickets are not something I missed from Earth, if those things can even be called crickets. If horses are carnivorous and huge in this world, then what are the insects like?
Once the wagons park behind a caravan in front, the commoners cheer and Rande turns his horse around. "As of now my contract has been fulfilled and you are safe, you can leave and go wherever you want," he announces to them.
We dismount our horses and plenty of commoners come give a goodbye to us. Though, quite a lot seem very interested in getting near Aoi and Gify so they can give them a pat, not that I, or the two, actually dislike it.
"Thank you, young ones, you helped me a lot. My hips are barely hurting from this trip," says an old human woman who bows to me and Ciel.
Ciel moves to the woman and gives her a small [Heal], "Now they shouldn't hurt anymore, right?"
"Oh, ooh… thank you, my Grand healer! Thank you! How may I ever repay you?!" The woman's face lights up and she bows.
"Please, just continue as you are and offer help to the temple once in a while," Ciel says, she pulls the woman straight and gives her hand a squeeze.
"Certainly! I could cook for the orphans my own vegetable stew, just like you love it, hm?" She looks over to the young man beside her.
"Y-yes grandma, I'm sure they would love it…" The young man says and they leave.
As the commoners finally leave, Osaria approaches us with a sway on her hips. Oura and a now calm Laertes follow behind.
"I will show you the inn," Osaria says in her sultry voice.
We spend a few minutes on customs waiting for the others and finally we move on. After the military buildings, the taverns become numerous, all bustling with activity. We already see a few drunks being kicked out.
The amount of demon race walking around dropped drastically while the elves increased to make up the difference. The elves are mostly the silver kind, they are about the same height as humans but skinnier and much, much easier on the eyes. They say the elves have a "curse of beauty" which makes them all look beautiful but also very similar. I see there's some truth to that, or just that the elves don't usually marry outside of their race, keeping their gene pool small.
The town is very orderly and well-built, the architect seems to love square blocks, the town is a perfect grid. It's completely different from Rabanara's crooked buildings, twisting dark alleys, and varied architectural styles. It's cozy and nice but I still prefer Rabanara, a perfect neighborhood feels fake to me.
We reach the inn, the Shining Lake, a larger building not very different from the ones around.
"What kind of room did you ask for us?" I whisper to Hana.
"The biggest."
Oh yes.
The interior is the same like any other inn, the first floor is the dining room, where a large number of patrons are eating their dinners to the sound of a lute. The bard might be the most interesting thing around, a beautiful werecat woman wearing the elven standard bikini with a few pieces of cloth hanging.
Out of a seat a really large man comes out and walks with a confident stride towards us.
"Klein!" The black mass of muscles exclaims.
Okay, we really need to talk about Klein.
"Dad!" She answers back and rushes to hug him.
The man is a wereape, gorilla if I were to make a guess. His head is bald and shining with pure black skin, he has pieces of fur coming out of the back of his hand, small ears, beady little eyes on his huge square face, a low brow that gives him a perpetual frown, large pointy teeth easily seen from behind his smile, logs for legs and arms that he proudly displays in his tight shirt, and enviable amounts of facial and chest hair.
Klein launches herself into his arms and he carries her like one carries a twig.
"Oohohoh… how has my little girl behaved?" He asks, his voice is a loud low rumble that even catches the attention of the other patrons.
"Like always, a mischievous monkey, but an adorable one," Osaria says and the wereape bellows a single laugh.
He glances at Laertes and his face gives him pause.
"Hello, Klein," says a very soft voice coming out of the side of the wereape, it's a very small weremonkey woman. Shorter than Klein, she has paler skin and fur but still looks very similar to her daughter, with a more delicate and mature look in comparison to the bubbly, cute young woman. Her tail is also much shorter than Klein's, it's an odd thing since wereapes don't have tails.
"Hey, Mom!"
"Anton, Krista, this is Helios, the fellowship we hired as main escort," Osaria introduces us.
We share a quick introduction, Anton doesn't shake anyone's hands except Hana's. His huge meat club he calls a hand looks very threatening and makes me afraid for the integrity of the bones in my hand.
"Good to see you well, Hana. Didn't expect to meet you again so soon," Anton says in a nostalgic tone.
"Good to see you too, big man. It's going to be just like old times," Hana answers with her characteristic smile.
"I hope so, or not, you were really reckless back then," Krista chimes in.
"I… got better," she glances back to us, "I have more people to protect now."
Anton chuckles softly and Krista nods in understanding.
The greetings continue and like everyone who meets Aoi, they seem surprised at her ability to speak. Though they look much more interested in Gify.
"So, Helios," Anton starts loudly with an upbeat tone and everyone looks at him, even a few patrons, "You can now trust me to keep whatever is on the wagons safe while you hunt down any monsters that could threaten us. On the contrary of Rande, I can actually use a battleaxe and cleave my way through nearly anything, so you don't have to rely on his enchantment working against everything," he finishes with a thumbs up and a wink of his small left eye.
There's no remaining doubt in my mind about who is Klein's father.
"It certainly won't help against Weepers," Krista says in a more normal tone.
Osaria rolls her eyes discreetly and speaks, "Right, thank you for your work, Anton. Anyway, we'll be leaving in two days so we will meet up at the north gate on sunrise, around 6AM, I believe."
"I'll let you rest, your trip must have been tiring, shouldn't have fought anything dangerous over there, but still," Anton says and bows softly while Osaria and Oura walk away.
"Well… heheh…" Klein laughs softly and Krista looks at her with an eyebrow raised. "We had an interesting fight, but anyway, let them rest. Oh, yes! Can we see you all tomorrow?"
"Sure thing," I say and everyone nods, calmly, though I see Hana's scales twitch.
As we leave towards the bathhouse behind the inn I see them sit back down at their table and Laertes joins them.
We reserve a bath for ourselves and with a sigh I finally take off all of my armor. Staying all day on a horse isn't so uncomfortable when you have [Heal] and [Regeneration] to deal with the pain but it's still physically tiring and it doesn't stop the pain from coming in the first place.
-
As the drunkenness from love fades, Lina stares at Ciel with an impish smile.
"What…?" Ciel mutters.
"Now that we have all shared one another, we all belong to each other," Lina says and giggles softly.
"You know, aside from the pun that is quite profound," Roxanne says and we chuckle.
"But we don't… really love one another in the same way…" Ciel says and frowns, she's conflicted.
"Well, you said making love can be used as comfort for loved ones," I say.
"I know, it's just that me doing it is a little different. Our family is… confusing," she answers with a shrug.
"We all share, that's all," Hana says with conviction.
"I love you all, in different ways, but I do," Alissa says, she wades over to me and rests her head on my chest, "I trust you all and that's what's important for me."
"Awn…" Ciel melts a little and nearly submerges herself underwater.
Lina shyly comes towards us and gives me a hug, then the others follow, including Aoi and Gify.
"Love, love, love, love, love, love!" Aoi gives everyone a lick after each word.
"Gih," he says and nibbles on my ears softly.
After a few seconds of rib crushing, mostly caused by Hana, we disentangle.
"Buut… we have to talk about Klein," Roxanne starts and looks at Hana, Ciel nods repeatedly and stares at me.
"Okay, first," Ciel raises her hand and points it to Hana, "what do you want with Klein?"
"Well…" Hana rubs on her scales awkwardly, then she shakes her head and smiles, her resolve set, "I want to do Klein, like, really bad. Though, let me say this, I don't need to do her, I just want to."
"Do you, uh, love her?" I ask.
"No, I don't really want her as a wife, for me or Wolfy, but I want to do her, I want to take her first time. But since I don't have a sword, I want Wolfy to do it while I watch. It's pure desire," she shrugs.
"I also don't want Klein as a wife," Roxanne says quickly but then her posture shrinks, "But I want to watch Wolfy take her first time."
Alissa's heartbeat quickens, Ciel groans, and Lina frowns.
"Well I don't think she would be a good wife but she would be nice to play around with," Alissa says.
Ciel massages her eyes so I look at Lina, waiting for her answer.
"I don't know… I don't want Wolfy to love another, but… I don't love Hana the way I love Wolfy, I just… want her to abuse me," she says and cowers, getting slightly more flushed than the hot bath is capable of.
"So, you think it's agreeable for me to sleep with Klein because I don't love her?"
"Yes…?" She questions tentatively, "Is that too weird? It sounds weird…"
"It is weird," Ciel mutters.
"It is called trust," Alissa says.
"It is called depraved degeneracy," Roxanne says.
Alissa shrugs, "Can't deny that, but it can be both, or all three."
"Alissaaaa, you corrupted me!" Ciel complains.
"Yeah, she kind of did it to me, too. I don't think I can look at a fox the same way I did before," I say and awkwardly scratch my head.
"You did it to me first," Alissa says and laughs, her wet fluffy tail splashes on the water repeatedly.
"Look, let's make it clear, none of you have to accept any of this. I love all six of you. No, Gify, I don't love you like that-…"
Suddenly Aoi raises her head high and she shows me the widest, fanged smile she can.
"Kweh! You, love, me, like, them!?" She asks.
"I, uh… yes…?" I say with a phony smile.
Aoi swims forward like a fish towards me but suddenly gets grabbed by Ciel, "Not now, please, you can kiss him later," she says.
"Kweh…" Aoi deflates and becomes even smaller.
"Anyway… none of you have to accept this, I have absolutely no need for any other women than you all," I finish.
"But we need it," Alissa says with an evil smile and chuckles. Hana smiles faintly and Lina frowns but shrugs.
Ciel and Roxanne remain quiet, they stare at each other for a few long seconds and turn away. They sink lower in the bath and try to relax and focus on their thoughts.
Suddenly Roxanne rises, "Honestly, I don't care. I just want you to promise me not to fall in love with another woman and you can do whoever you want," she says.
I blink repeatedly, taken aback.
Ciel slowly rises, staring at me intently, then she suddenly fires word after word in high speed, "We have veto over any woman, and you can't do it in secret, and you can't do it repeatedly, and you have to ask all of us first, and we all have to agree, and you can't ignore any of us, ever!" She hits her hand on the water once done.
"You enjoyed it, didn't you?" Alissa asks in a soft tone.
Ciel swallows her saliva and remains quiet.
Alissa smiles sadistically, here comes her other side.
"Come now, priestess, you know you shouldn't lie about your feelings. Having Lina taken by Roxanne felt good, didn't it? You felt the exhilarating pain, the disgust, the self-hate and the humiliation. But it all made you feel better, didn't it?"
Ciel can't look away from Alissa, their eyes are locked. Alissa wades over to Ciel and kisses her softly on the lips, making Ciel melt and relax just a bit. Alissa holds Ciel's head with both hands and their noses touch.
"You want it, you love it, you need it. Tell me the truth, Ciel, how did it feel?"
Silence.
"Tell me the truth!"
"I… felt horrible, and it hurt, and I felt disgusted, and I hated myself… because it felt good…"
Alissa laughs and releases her, Ciel massages her eyes again and groans.
"You don't have to accept this," I softly say to Ciel.
"No, Wolfy, she doesn't, but she needs it," Alissa says and returns to my arms.
"I'm sure you can have some fun with Klein, too," Hana says to Ciel.
"Well, first Wolfy has to get past that monster," Roxanne says and they all stare at me.
Umm… what the hell just happened?