My eyes fluttered open, and I sat up with a start, knocking Lucina and Reya’s heads off of my shoulders. How long was I out for!?

“Only three hours. We’re about to land, Master.” X’s voice echoed in my ears, and I looked around at the two women on my arms. Reya had tied her hair up into a bun, and was currently drooling on my sleeve.

Turning my gaze to the right, Lucina had slipped out of her breastplate and gauntlets, but kept on her armored leggings and greaves. Her long, black ponytail stuck out against her pale skin, and her large breasts were planted firmly on my bicep.

X appeared in front of me, coming to a rest on my lap. Her form shifted once more, until she looked like Lucina, with white hair and amber eyes.

“You really do have a special place in your heart for her, huh?” She started to examine her fingernails, moving her hands as she did so. I grimaced at the A.I.'s remark, realizing that there was more than a kernel of truth in it’s statement.

I would like to think that I have the situation under control, but in truth, I don’t know what I’d do if Lucina was taken from me, or held hostage.

I watched her chest rise and fall in her sleep, then moved my gaze up to her face. Which is why you’ll be there, protecting her.

X stopped mid-movement, and slowly turned to face me. “Master, you can’t be serious. Not once since my inception have we been separated, and it would be unwise to start now.”

Do you have another plan? I asked, and the A.I. slowly lowered its gaze. It’s not like this is a spur of the moment thing. I continued. I considered sending Un or Three instead of you, but you know both of them like to push the boundaries of the rules we’ve given them. There’s no telling whether they’d actually act in good faith.

X clicked her tongue, and crossed her legs. “Of course not. None of those other iterations of the program had the foresight to choose winners as their contractors. In the end, I lost out because of it. How typical of them.”

I sighed, and sent, I know that it’s something you don’t want to do, but all I am asking is to move your consciousness over to her Judgment Panel, and make sure nothing happens to her while we’re in the Primal Kingdom. Besides, you do always have the emergency route to my panel, even if you have to destroy your cloud to expedite the process.

X rolled her eyes, and her AR form leaned into me. “Remember that I’ll always be listening, and always come to your aid, even when you think I can’t.”

She gave me a kiss on the forehead, and disintegrated into motes of light. That light was then sucked into Lucina’s panel, and, for the first time since I came into this world, I felt empty.

Well, I felt empty until I called on Un, the large man’s frame filling up my vision. He looked down at me with amusement in his voice, “I’m not going to sit on your lap like X, if that’s what you called me for.”

I shook my head. No. I just sent X on an important mission, as I’m sure you’re aware. You’ll be acting in her stead for the time we spend in the Primal Kingdom, so I figure we should get to know each other better. Tell me your powers, and how you interfere with Judgment.

Un stiffened, before a large grin grew on his face. The program laughed, its dark skin shining in the artificial light from the aircraft. “This is the kind of stuff I signed up for with you. I’m glad you have such a good grip of the rules the Judgments play by.”

Un conjured a white leather chair from thin air, and sat down across from me. “So as you’ve already surmised, different Judgments have different abilities that allow them to interfere with the normally very structured rules of the Judgment System.”

Un, formerly known as Atlas Strafe, shifted in his chair. “While X’s abilities affect the systems of other users, mine affects your own. I can overclock the nanites working inside your system to increase your rate of natural recovery, improve your stamina usage, and overall physical strength. I can also control multiple drones, and make them serve as clones.”

I nodded, and added, Know that I will not tolerate any of your joking behavior while we are on this mission. Should you tease Winter for the sake of it, your program will be deleted, regardless of consequence. Un nodded solemnly, just as the plane touched down on the Primal Kingdom’s runway. Un, pull up a map for me. The program did just that, and soon a 3d map of the region was present in my vision.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“We just touched down at Scuoldon Castle, the runway used by foreign diplomats. Should you require my assistance again, please don’t hesitate to do so.” I nodded, and Un winked out of existence, leaving me with two groggy beauties.

“Ugh, my head… I feel like it’s been pounded.” Lucina muttered, cradling the spot where my shoulder had smacked her.

“Probably not in a good way, either.” Reya grinned, rubbing the side of her own face as well. That earned a raised brow from the older princess, but she said nothing.

Instead, the three of us were soon joined by Akahime, and Winter, who stood to the left and right of the three-seat bench respectively. “Report: all soldiers have deboarded the skyquake, and are en route to the base you specified is being maintained by Lilian.”

I stood up from the chair, giving her a nod. “Thanks for that. Take Akahime and follow them. Make sure they don’t get into any trouble. We wouldn’t want an easily avoidable international incident to happen.”

Akahime nodded, and made to leave, but Winter stayed put. “Let me continue to guard you, I can-”

“It’s not about how good or bad you are.” I replied, cutting her off. “Unfortunately, this is a matter between the Metron royal family, and whatever leaders of the Primal Kingdom there are. There’s really no room for those without the proper political standing. I’m only allowed because I’m in charge of the operation. If not for that, then I wouldn’t be allowed there.”

Winter frowned and stormed out of the room, leaving Akahime to nervously follow in her wake. “That wasn’t as planned.” I muttered as Lucina took my hand, leading me to the cargo bay of the massive aircraft.

“No, but she understands why it’s necessary. That’s why she didn’t argue and just left. I joked about it before, but you’ve found a reliable person to be your head of security. You can tell she takes her job very seriously.”

I nodded, and freed my hand from Lucina’s. The three of us began to walk in a straight line, with Reya leading, followed by me, and the rear was brought up by Lucina.

Once we were within twenty feet of the exit, a strong hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me into a dark corridor. I whipped my head around as I drew on Un’s powers, willing it to enhance my physicality the same way I used to will X’s power.

I wrenched the hand off of my shoulder with little resistance and pinned my assailant to the floor. The tall woman under me giggled, and Lucina said, “I wouldn’t mind doing more of that, but I need you to tell me what’s going on in your head right now. You’re obviously thinking about other things.”

I… I didn’t know how to proceed. On one hand, I did want to clear the air between Lucina and I, but then again…

I felt a spark on my temple, and found Un floating in front of me. “Just say what you’re thinking, Master. Be honest in situations like these.”

He knelt down and tapped a finger to my panel, and my world went black. When I regained my vision, words that weren’t my own came tumbling out of my mouth.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I want to make it clear between us what kind of relationship we have. Whether or not that takes the form of lovers, friends, or something of a mix in between.”

When I regained control of my motor functions, I was breathing heavily, and nervous energy filled my stomach. I warily looked down at Lucina, only to catch a glimpse of a blush on her face before it was covered by her gauntlets.

“It would make things so much easier if you only went after me for lust.” The older woman sighed, and she moved her hand away from her mouth.

“To be honest, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought myself recently. I’m fine with what we have now, which is being friendly, and using each other to relieve our pent-up lust. Unfortunately, my mind keeps wandering about what it would be like to try to be lovers with you.”

She took a deep breath and finally revealed the rest of her face, with her eyes staring at me. “Paladin Joshua Cole, I can honestly say that you are one of the most mentally and physically stimulating individuals I’ve met in my life. If you aren’t opposed to it, I’d be fine with doing a… trial run.”

“A trial run?” I repeated, and Lucina gave me a nod.

“A… grace period, where we’ll try our best to evolve the relationship we had, but if nothing comes of it, then no hard feelings, and things return to the way they were before.” Her eyes ran down my body, stopping at my pants.

“I happen to like a certain part of you too much to just completely end our relationship if things go south. I hope you understand.”

My eyes narrowed, and a grin crept itself on my face despite myself. “Of course.” I said, my eyes still locked on to hers. “Although maybe we can experiment in that direction after the War Game is over. For now, let’s just focus on our upcoming victory, and-”

“Starlords above, have you two no self-control!?” Reya screeched, as she peered into the hallway. Un hovered above her, a wide smile on his face.

A flash of anger hit me, but honestly, without him, I don’t know if I would have been able to swallow my pride and admit weakness, even to Lucina, my oldest confidant in this world.

I got off of Lucina, and offered her my hand. She smiled, but did a one-handed kip-up, landing on her feet in front of me. She turned to Reya, and waved. “What can I say? Paladin Cole knows what he likes.”

Reya cried, “God damn it Lucy!” She walked away in a huff, leaving one Princess and a Paladin to follow.