Aaron simply leaned against the bar counter lamenting the swollen bulge in his pants. The blue balls thing seemed to be becoming a habit these days. Maybe he really should just put the moves on Rita. Or find some proper ‘alone time’ with Mara.
With Rita it was difficult, because he wasn’t so insensitive that he didn’t realise she had a lot going on and needed time to process her shit and get her footing, starting a new life like this. So whenever he had the urge to ‘give her a push’ he instinctually held back. With her he often felt the need to ‘protect’ her, like she was something fragile he needed to take care of. While he knew that feeling was coming from somewhere, it was also strange, because he didn’t really think she needed it.
It was also strange, because he was not her father, she was just some super cute and attractive girl. Why should he feel that way? Granted he strongly suspected she was still a virgin and while that did tickle certain desires it also seemed to fuel his ‘need’ to look after her. The mixture of feelings were honestly driving him a bit crazy.
And then there was Mara. He didn’t quite know what to make of that either.
On the one hand his relationship with her, if you could call it that, was very dangerous. By this point he knew well what the world thought of someone that slept with demons. Rita’s reaction to the news had certainly been unpleasant, although that was also likely partially for a different reason entirely. But the point stood, if people found out, things might get rough for him. Not to mention for Rita.
Then there was the sex.
Their initial encounter had been ‘rough’. As in, rough sex. But that had been Mara having her way with him and although he had taken a bit of damage in the process, they had both been very eager about and satisfied with it.
This time however. Aaron still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
Leaving aside the constant blue ball frustration, what he was troubled by, was more what had happened towards the end there. The way he had ‘used’ her at the end, in otherwards, the ‘skull fucking’. That had been outside of character for him. He felt like he shouldn’t have treated her like that, like she was just something to be used to vent his desires and fantasies.
Actually now that he thought about it, maybe he wasn’t all that concerned about it, because he had enjoyed himself so much. And that right there might be the thing that actually bothered him more. The fact that it didn’t bother him as much as he would like to pretend it did.
He could tell himself, this is not who he is, that it was the ‘Mara’ effect. And while she certainly served as a catalyst for it, he felt it wasn’t the whole truth. And that scared him a bit.
Sure, he had watched lots of hentai, plenty of which was in the ‘forced’ or tentacle rape categories, but you tell yourself, this is not who you are. You wouldn’t condone that stuff in real life, this is OK, it’s all 2D and pretend. But then you still get your boner, you still jerk off. Doesn’t that make it real.
He’d just acted upon very similar desires not even fifteen minutes ago. Could he really still claim innocence? Wasn’t that actually who he was then?
Juxtaposed against this however was the feeling of the act itself and the rather willing partner. It had felt great. It had felt right. Could it really be so bad then? Even Mara seemed to enjoy it.
But that also didn’t make any sense. Why would a girl enjoy that? He knew certain girls actually did have fantasies about being ‘taken’. But he also knew that they were just that; fantasies. No girl actually wanted to be ‘forced’ and the times they did, it wasn’t real, just foreplay. Not that he had that much experiance with the kinkier side of sex, but he had read a lot of books.
He liked reading, both the stuff aimed at his age group, as well as the stuff aimed at a more adult audience. He found the ‘kids stuff’ tickled his teenage sensibilities, but the adult stuff was more grounded. Well not always, but mostly.
In the end he just felt conflicted about the whole thing and couldn’t really sort out his disposition one way or the other. Aaron sighed, he would maybe try and work out his thoughts on the matter some other time perhaps. People would be coming in soon and he needed to focus on his job and his class.
Aaron still could not help but wonder about Mara. She had left so suddenly, despite there being a clear opening to continue. It didn’t really seem like her at all. Had what he done, actually bothered her in the end? Despite the fact that he seriously thought that she had been on board with it, he could not help but wonder.
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Mara slowly strolled across the cobblestone path, in no particular hurry to return to the inn and get an earful from Rita. She was enjoying the now just rising moonlight and cool evening breeze on her skin. Demons in general were hardwired to prefer night over day, and for hunter demons this was even more so the case.
Yet on this fine evening, this particular hunter demon could not bring herself to bask in the moon's glow. She was troubled.
What the heck just happened?
She had let a human fucking dominate her. Not even another demon, but a human? It was one thing to fuck around and have sex, but it was another entirely to let them do with you as they wish. Obviously that sort of shit happened from time to time when a demon was under contract and their master ordered it of them. That, while humiliating, was generally understandable. But a demon willingly letting themselves be dominated by another, she would be the laughing stock of the demonic realm.
A bit of anger flared up inside, but was quickly quashed when she thought back to the fact that it had clearly been her choice and she had in some ways enjoyed it. But this fact alone replaced the righteous anger, with dread instead.
Why had she done that, it did not make sense. He was just a human, not even a demon. Even if he was a very special human, of this she had no doubt, he was still just a human.
Was it his class? It had to be. She only knew about that one skill of his, which quite frankly she would find it very hard to believe existed, were it not for the proof of it on their first ‘encounter’. Perhaps he had some other skills that were more subtle, perhaps she was being manipulated.
Such a thought would have been ludicrous given a demon’s almost complete immunity to such things, outside of their service contract. But of course she knew better now and she had to at least entertain the idea.
Letting him dominate her, her desire to actually kiss him. I mean, demons- kissing? The whole thing was wack. It had to be the effect of one of his absurd skills. She was suddenly quite concerned that she was indeed being manipulated by a force she didn’t fully understand.
She now wondered if her original dismissal of learning more about Aaron and his skills had been a major blunder on her part. At the time she had thought, fuck it, this will be more fun. But now…
If she were honest with herself though, even if he was manipulating her, it was the most fun she’d had in a long time. She was rather enjoying herself, even if it was a bit concerning.
She should stop thinking like a human. Humans considered it terrible to be a slave to someone or something (ironically despite being pretty big on slavery themselves), but demons spent most of their lives as slaves to one human or another. And yet that did not stop them from living their lives or even having fun.
Considering all her experiences with Aaron so far were quite enjoyable, even if he was manipulating her, she should probably rather focus on enjoying the ride.
Mara rounded the corner of a building, passing a couple that were drunk and kissing, completely oblivious to her passing. She was after all in her concealed form, in order to go around unnoticed.
She had to admit, this city was pretty lively at night and did not have much in the way of shady characters. Rather disappointing after all. The city's guards were numerous and quite high level. Somebody here took their work very seriously it would seem.
Once the inn finally came in sight, Mara was brought back from her musings and remembered what she was likely in store for. She groaned in frustration.
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Aaron woke up. The light creeping in through the shutters were annoying and not a little bit blinding. The room itself was also getting quite hot and stuffy. By the angle of the light, it was probably early afternoon. He often woke up this time of day, or sometimes even later, due to his shifts.
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Sitting up in bed he noticed Rita was hunched over at the table busy with some documents. She heard the rustling behind her and looked over her shoulder to face him, “Good morning, or I should say, afternoon”, with a brilliant smile on her face.
Aaron greeted her back, while strategically pulling the blankets over his crotch to hide his morning wood and hoped that she hadn’t noticed. She turned back to what she was doing, straight after their short exchange, but not before adding: “There’s breakfast for you.”
Aaron had trouble eating in the late hours of the night, or perhaps he should say early hours of the morning? So by the time he woke up, even though normal people usually would not be able to eat first thing, such was not the case for him and he usually woke up quite famished.
Aaron reached over for the bowl of- Well he really wasn’t sure what it was exactly, other than something ‘branny’ and watery. He just pretended it was a nice bowl of oats or something as he swallowed one spoonful of the tasteless slop after another.
“What you up to?” He asked the question more to distract himself from the current task of consuming this ‘sustenance’ than anything else.
“Writing an essay for my application to the guild. After that, I have another to write, then several questionnaires to fill in and that’s not even to mention the practical tests and final interview I will have to pass.” Rita actually sounded tired.
“I thought your entry into the guild was all but a foregone conclusion?” Aaron asked, confused.
“It is, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have to follow the proper channels. They are very particular about procedure it would seem.”
So it would seem indeed.
Aaron finished his ‘breakfast’ while watching Rita work. She was just as beautiful hunched over parchments and scrunching her dainty nose up in concentration, as she was in pretty much any other situation.
Still she looked exhausted. Not physically anyway, but more mentally fatigued. She had been working hard to better her chances of joining the guild and following her dreams. Aaron wondered if there was anything he could do for her. Although a little selfish, he also wanted to get closer to her, to move their relationship along. Because frankly at this point he’d be hard pressed to say he even had one in the first place, aside from a few isolated incidents.
His desire to move things along was partly his own personal desire, but also partly because he wanted to keep pushing his class. Only trouble ever awaited people who grew complacent.
It was then that he had an idea.
“Rita”
“Yes”, she responded, only half tearing herself away from her work.
“Let’s go out today. It’s a lovely day outside and I think you really need a break.”
Rita regarded him nervously. “I still have a lot to do- and not a lot of time to do it.”
“Perhaps, but if you run yourself ragged like this, I suspect your final result will actually be worse then if you paced yourself.”
Rita still didn’t look convinced.
“It doesn’t have to be for long.”
That final push seemed to tip the scales. “Okay, just for a little then”.
After finally agreeing to that, the two of them prepared to leave and headed downstairs. After giving their greetings to the inn-keeper, they departed.
The only problem was where to go? Aaron didn’t exactly have a plan. He had done this on the spur of the moment.
In the end, it didn’t exactly matter that much, the two of them just wandered the streets aimlessly, enjoying the sights of the city. They made idle chat about things like Aaron’s job or Rita’s potential guild membership. They even chatted a bit about Mara and her antics. While Mara seemed to really dislike Rita, it would seem that the opposite was not necessarily true.
Rita in turn made a point of not voicing the question back to Aaron, ‘So what do YOU think of Mara’. Honestly she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know what the answer was. She still hadn’t totally gotten over the fact that he has slept with Mara.
She may be inexperienced with matters of intimacy, but she was certainly not ignorant of them. She knew well the desires and ‘needs’ of men and they weren’t exactly ‘together’. Dianna for all her faults had still been her mother. And she had been a most ‘liberal’ mother indeed, sparing no sordid detail about the ways of men and woman. Knowing such things about men, she actually wouldn’t have minded if he had gone to ‘fulfill his needs’ with some girl. Well she wouldn’t have minded too much, maybe a bit. But he had slept with a demon, her demon no less!
It was just really creepy when she thought about it. She couldn’t fathom what was going through his head. She honestly tried to put it out of her mind, but it was difficult to do so when she suspected that it was still ongoing, call it a woman's intuition. Which was also annoying because she genuinely liked Aaron and if he wanted to be together, she would not be adverse to it. What does that then say about her, was she also a deviant?
Just thinking about it actually annoyed her.
In all honesty she knew she didn’t get to play the ‘good girl’ card. Not with the shit she’d been involved in.
The two of them arrived in a market place and Rita found herself quite amused at how Aaron seemed to be gawking at everything. She found his amnesia to be quite funny at times, even if she did feel a little guilty for making light of it like that. It couldn’t be easy being in his shoes. Although she also envied him a little, sometimes she wished she could forget certain things herself.
Aaron led Rita around, checking out different stalls. Honestly they didn’t really have money to buy anything. Rita actually had to pay a small fortune in admission fees and buying equipment for her future vocation and on top of that they had other expenses. Rita's money from selling all Dianna’s stuff, had actually run out alarmingly quickly.
So now he was paying the bills ironically. He had received his first week's pay at the start of the week, which seemed really strange to him, but was apparently how they did things around here. He wasn’t quite sure yet if ‘around here’ was a Zetsuna thing, or an Exia thing.
Either way it meant he was now the bread winner so to speak. When he had gotten his pay, he had tried to give it to Rita, or at the very least part of it. Honestly he did not have things that he wanted or needed. It was a fantasy world he had little to no clue about, he couldn’t even be sure what there all was for him to want in the first place. The funds seemed much better placed in Rita’s hands.
But alas, she had refused. Which frustrated him. She did of course let him pay all the bills, but he was still the one to hang on to the money, nickel-like coins with some dude’s face on it, probably a monarch of some kind.
It also concerned him, since Rita was a girl, and didn’t girls have all kinds of needs that a guy did not. She wouldn’t be able to buy anything for herself like this. Not that he would know what a medieval girl's needs would be like in the first place, heck probably only knew of a few of a modern girls ‘needs’ in the first place. It didn’t help that he felt too uncomfortable talking about it to ask if she didn’t have any such needs. The whole thing was honestly driving him a bit crazy.
Sigh, there was just so much he still did not know.
A cry of pain suddenly caught his attention.
Aaron looked across the market place and was appalled by what he saw.
A large man had started whipping a small girl right in the middle of the market square. She wore tattered clothes that could barely be called rags and as fresh lashes started appearing on her, her clothes were getting even more torn up in the process.
What’s worse is that nobody even seemed to bat an eyelid at the commotion. Well some people were staring, but pretty much nobody seemed to even care. Aaron was tempted to run over there and rescue the crying girl. He glanced over to Rita to try and get his bearings on the situation.
She had also noticed the commotion, because of course, how could she not. But her response was a lot more subdued than he would have anticipated, “I wish he would treat his slaves a little better.”
She said it in a manner that was all too much detached and uncaring. It had actually sent Aaron’s mind reeling.
“Slaves”, was the only word he could mouth.
She seemed to pick up on the questioning tone though. “Yes, slaves. That man is a slave trader, he’s selling slaves at the marketplace, like most others sell goods here. All those people are his slaves.”
It still bothered Aaron how little she seemed to care, but only now did he notice the other people in the man’s corner also watching with lifeless eyes as he continued to lash the girl. They too were all wearing the similar rags, but that was not even needed to identify them as slaves, their mere demeanor was enough for that.
Aaron honestly felt sick to his stomach watching the horrific event unfold. And yet he could not act. He knew little of the laws of this world, but gauging from everyone else’s reaction, this was perfectly normal, acceptable even. Even Rita barely seemed concerned by it. Had the people of this world so fully embraced slavery that this was the norm? That even Rita didn’t seem to see much wrong with it?
Aaron eventually pulled his eyes away from the sight, feeling both sad and revolted.
“He isn’t going to kill her is he?” Was all he could manage asking.
“Hmm. You never know, but I do doubt it. I’m sure she is valuable merchandise as far as he’s concerned.”
Aaron doubted how valuable given the scene, but could only accept her words.
“Come on, let’s go, I’ve seen enough.”
Rita picked up on his foul mood and gave him an apologetic expression as she tagged along.
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Shiva watched from the shadows between buildings, careful to conceal her presence, both from sight, magic and other senses. She was good at what she did, it was why the baron employed her after all, the man was a perfectionist.
She actually had a lot of respect for him, despite his insistence on perfection all the time being both cumbersome and tiring. But regardless you need look no further than this city to see the results of his endeavours.
The city was incredible. She had travelled to many places in her time, as her work often took her such. But she had never seen a city, aside from the royal capital that was in such immaculate condition. This city’s slums looked better than some other city’s upper districts after all.
The streets were clean, planning and sanitation good, guards patrolled the place to a frankly annoying extent. The man was certainly good at running the place.
Her targets had finally left after the disturbance with the slaves at the marketplace, pulling her back out of her musings.
Shiva carefully moved from one hiding place to another, sometimes ducking between buildings, other times hiding in plain sight. She was a master of tracking and subterfuge, amongst various other talents in combat of course.
As she moved along, following the duo, she always kept a sharp eye out for the demoness that was also following behind them in illusionary form. She had strict orders not to let the demoness spot her and to simply ascertain their movements for now and report back. Although she did have license to capture them should a good opportunity arise.