The Misfits:

After getting the new group of slaves settled into their new living arrangements, the Misfits had retired to the front room of their accommodations. Due to the lack of sufficient chairs, they were sitting on the floor. Alice ran her hands through her nice, straight black hair.

"I know it's purely cosmetic, but I still love how my hair is nowadays."

Cassy, sitting next to her, agreed.

"Yeah, it's great having mine nice and long but not to have to expend the slightest effort in maintaining it."

The two boys were sitting in front of them, Bronsen in front of Alice and Drayden in front of Cassy.

"Yes, you both look lovely!" said Bronsen.

"Pity there's now no need for Alice to comb Cassy's hair," said Drayden.

"You poor boys. You still want some girl-on-girl action, don't you," said Cassy.

"Of course!" said Bronsen, "After all that has happened, why can't we, you know, get up to things?"

"Yeah. After all, it is so impressive that we have survived dying two times to get to this point," said Drayden.

A snort of derision from Cassy. "That's not really due to our actions. It's all by System-san's contrivance."

"But System-san decided to save us because of our actions, don't forget," said Drayden.

There was a gap in the conversation before Alice spoke.

"Of course, Bronsen, we have already gotten up to many things, haven't we?"

She smiled sweetly at him.

"Well, now, I guess..." said Bronsen.

"In fact, you have definitely been up to things," said Alice, this time with a touch more stress.

Bronsen had no trouble picking this up. But, before he could answer, Cassy cut in.

"Yes, I know, we need to talk about our relationships. However, I hope nobody has forgotten the little fact that we are now responsible for about 120 partly free-slaves. And we are still smack bang in the middle of the slaver nation.'

“Damn,” said Alice, "OK. What are we going to do with them? And, for that matter, with us?"

"Obviously, we do all we can to get back to Manifestoria," said Cassy, "I, for one, want to hug Evereena; I'm sure she is missing all of us."

"Missing you the most, I bet," said Drayden.

They all looked a little glum at the reminder of their parting.

"Anyway. If we want to return, we must sail there," said Bronsen.

"Which means we need to take, at the barest minimum, all of the sailors and ship crew. Since we can't sail that boat by ourselves," said Cassy.

"I'm pretty sure I do not want to abandon the remaining people on the boat, so that means we need to take them all," said Bronsen.

"And I'm pretty sure I don't want to abandon the ones from this island," said Alice, "So we need to take them all, also."

Drayden nodded vigorously at this.

"Is the ship big enough?" he added.

"Oh, heaps," said Cassy.

"OK, so we take everyone with us. But, will they all want to?" said Drayden.

Everyone looked around at everyone else. Eventually, Bronsen said,

"No idea. But, at least a lot of them will probably be OK with going. I mean, how many of them want to re-activate their slave collars?" said Alice.

"The two minions of the ex-Red probably want to," said Cassy.

"Hmm" said Bronsen.

"Sorry, but what about the so-called ex-Red himself?" said Alice.

"Ah. Well, you see, that ex-Red is very dead. I may have lost my temper just slightly and, you know, run him through with my sword. And then dumped him into the ocean. Where some Kraken monster promptly ate him." said Cassy.

Alice and Drayden raised their eyebrows at that, and ten minutes were spent filling them in on the blood-soaked details.

"I hope no one minds?" said Cassy.

Alice and Drayden shook their heads in negation. Then Drayden gave Alice a long look, full of significance and meaning.

"Aah, all right, I think Drayden wants me to confess to something. Like, I have also lost my temper. Only a little bit, err, I mean only for the one time."

"And?" said Cassy.

"All things considered, I don't regret it one little bit," said Alice.

"Come on, tell us!" said Cassy.

Sigh. "OK, don't rush me! Well, you see, we were hiding behind that door-"

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Alice pointed. Actually, the door frame was still empty and the door was lying on the ground where it had landed.

"And listening to the two Blues who used to run this place, as they discussed various topics, including raping the female slaves..."

Cassy politely refrained from saying anything but continued looking at Alice intently. As was Drayden.

"So I killed them both. Stabbed them through the body with my sword. Oh, I'm also the one responsible for that broken door."

Bronsen snorted. "My oh my, both of our females are deadly!"

Drayden agreed with him.

"But at least we did clean up the blood from the floor!" said Alice.

"That's a relief; one must always clean up after oneself," said Cassy.

Drayden giggled.

"Hey, everyone, this is serious!" said Alice.

"Of course, it's serious. But if we don't laugh at it, what will we do?" said Drayden.

"Yeah, I know. Probably start screaming," said Alice.

"That reminds me, my dear, you were the last of us to die, weren't you?" said Bronsen.

"I was. And I tell you, the effects of that quasi-Ashrend experience were utterly horrible," said Alice.

She stopped and momentarily looked horrible.

So all the others closed in, and they shared a four-way hug, doing their best to squash each other. They also leaned forward and touched their heads to each other.

"I'm so glad to be with all of you again," said Alice.

The others all agreed.

They separated slightly and relaxed.

"We need to do this more often. But, unfortunately, we still need to discuss the ongoing situation," said Bronsen.

"That's right, you said something about two minions?" said Drayden.

"Yeah. They might want to go back to the shitty condition of being slaves, but at a guess, not many others would," said Bronsen.

"Realistically, I think that most of the slaves don't know what they want but will probably be willing to go along with whatever we suggest," said Drayden.

"We increased the stats of some of the trusted slaves by getting them to destroy collars. So, how about Alice and Bronsen do the same with some of the slaves they trust? That way, we can dangle the promise to stat rises to everyone, which should make more of them eager to go with us." said Cassy.

"We have a couple of hundred slave collars right here. So there's no shortage of the things for rising stats," said Alice.

"So, what about the small number who might decide they don't want to be free?" said Bronsen.

There were nervous looks all around until, finally, Alice spoke up.

"All in all, I really, really don't want to kill some poor slave merely because he doesn't want to go with us."

"I don't, either," said Cassy.

"So, we leave them behind?" said Drayden.

Another four-way look.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea." said Bronsen, "There's no need to make it easier for the slave emperor to know about us."

"Fine, then we drag them along with us, screaming and kicking all the way." said Cassy, "After all, we can say they will again become slaves soon enough when Manifestoria is captured in the not-too-distant future."

"I'm sure that isn't depressing, not depressing at all," said Drayden.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about any other ranking slaves arriving; we are far off the normal routes and I am sure we are safe," said Bronsen.

"I wonder what Eleanor will think when we show up with more than a hundred uninvited guests?" said Alice.

"Crumbs, I hadn't thought of that," said Cassy.

"Let's worry about that tomorrow," said Bronsen.

"Wait on, there's one extra vital thing to worry about!" said Cassy.

She spent a few minutes explaining the toilet situation on the ship.

"Right, the first job we give Harold tomorrow is constructing three or four enclosed toilet cubicles. That should do the job?" said Bronsen.

Cassy relaxed. Then she yawned, which set off the others. Alice opened her mouth to say something, but Cassy got in first.

"Since I’m the one that got stabbed to death by Drayden, I think that I should be the one to make the decision. Nobody minds?"

“Ah, what decision?” said Bronsen.

“You know exactly what I mean!” said Cassy.

She gave off an air that suggested it would be tough luck if anyone objected to whatever decision she would be making.

Nobody objected.

"Good then."

She reached out and casually hoisted Drayden by the scuff of his tunic. Fortunately, the clothing was of good quality and didn't tear.

"Which is our room - ah, sorry, I misspoke. I think it should be: which is my room?"

Alice wordlessly pointed to the spare bedroom they had prepared.

Cassy and Drayden disappeared into the room, and the door clicked firmly shut.

Alice, alone with Bronsen at last, stood up.

"Come on, let's retire also," she said.

Drayden:

Cassy closed the door behind them. There was nothing much in the room except a couple of blankets on the floor. So she tossed Drayden onto them, then sat in front of him.

Drayden found himself looking at Cassy, who had a smile on her face. It was definitely a smile, even if it was showing a lot of teeth.

"I believe that my lying, cheating boyfriend has been fucking Alice, yes?"

"Definitely. Although I would like to point out that, technically, no lying was involved."

"But you certainly cheated on me by lying with Alice, hmm?"

"Well, is it cheating when you were doing the same thing with Bronsen?"

"What I did with Bronsen is,"

Here, Cassy slowed down and thought about it.

"Is - Yep, it's definitely not cheating. No cheating is involved. But it was extremely nice. So, how would you describe your time with Alice."

"Oh, very nice also. She has a lovely body and is fantastic in bed."

"Is that so? You are telling me, your first girlfriend, that Alice is fantastic at making love?"

"Why, yes. After all, didn't you find making love to Bronsen absolutely fantastic, too?"

"OK, I'll admit it, yes, I certainly did. I’m getting aroused just thinking about him. And, come to mention it, you're getting a massive erection just by thinking about Alice, aren't you?"

"You bet I am. Of course, It's not only Alice's naked body that I'm thinking about..."

"Indeed, and whose other 'naked' body are you thinking about?"

"Well, your's, of course."

"Hmm"

Five minutes later, they were making love. No lying was involved, but they were undoubtedly lying down.

After a while:

Cassy put her finger onto Drayden's mouth.

"Let's leave the serious discussions to another day, OK?"

It had been a long day; they were sound asleep soon after.

Bronsen:

I hope I survive this.

"Bronsen!"

Alice poked him in the chest.

She might be a little bit angry.

"You've been fucking that little red-haired hussy, haven't you?"

"I sure have."

"But you bloody well belong to me!"

"Yes, I do. But I also belong to Cassy. After all, you've been having lots of fun fucking Drayden, haven't you?"

"That's, that's nothing to do with this!"

"Really? It has everything to do with this. Admit it, we're in a four-way group marriage, and if we feel jealousy, we will have to deal with it and live with it."

Alice started sputtering with anger. They were still standing; she picked up Bronsen with both hands so his feet were dangling clear off the floor and vented her rage.

"You are mine! And so is Drayden! Cassy is not allowed to have my boyfriend!"

"Don't you mean boyfriends, plural?"

Alice dropped Bronsen back onto the floor, so he reciprocated by hugging her.

"My dear, how about we worry about such unpleasant topics at a later date?" he said.

Alice hugged him back.

"I suppose."

After a certain amount of hugging, Alice separated just enough to look Bronsen in the eye.

"Is there something hard coming up down there?"

"Yes. And?"

Alice sighed.

"OK, OK, let's do it."

After a while.

"Now that was wonderful!" said Bronsen.

Alice kept a dignified silence, so Bronsen decided to respect that.

Nevertheless, my dear, you enjoyed that as much as I did.

Bronsen settled in to have a sleep, only to have Alice finally speak up.

"Hmm. Say, Bronsen, I don't suppose you'd like to keep it a secret that I called Cassy a, err, hussy?"

"Certainly."

"I mean, apart from my, my jealousy, I do love her. Except not the same way you do, of course."

"That's fine."

And with that, they went to sleep. They slept well.