Eventually, our tranquil moment came to an end. Esther peeled out of my half-embrace and distanced herself. Not in any rude or dismissive way, it had lasted too long to give that impression. It was a clear gesture of ‘let’s stop this for now’. My feelings were torn on the matter. I was experiencing that cliche desire of having a moment last forever. However, if it somehow did, we would never get to do more intimate things than embrace. Spending an eternity only touching someone I barely knew, all perception of compatibility aside, would have been rather awkward.

Esther had me show her the rest of the house. Afterwards, she went ahead and picked her dwelling place in our humble abode. It was a two room arrangement, with a comparatively small bedroom (which meant the queen sized bed was a snug fit for the walls) and a living room with a table, a mirror and a few other things. Further, it was closest to the tower and, as I noted with great interest, she would likely be using the same bathroom as me.

As a man of honesty, I could not wait to see her undressed and women were especially sexy after showers. The combination of flushed skin, wet hair and the fresh smell of shampoo was tantalizing beyond even normal nudity. In her case, I was particularly interested in seeing her with open hair. With how unruly it was even with the effort she spent on keeping it bundled up, I was left wondering how wild her black mane would be once left to flow freely.

Such imagery had to be left to my imagination. I was more straightforward in my public ogling than most people, but I was not someone who invaded private spaces. I had enough faith in my ability to win them over through flirting and actions to stay away from such reprehensible behaviour.

Anyway, since she wanted to be left alone for now, I went up to Arlethia and Willt’s room on the third floor. We had a few talks about this and that, as friends do. Given novelty, much of the conversation revolved around Welldark. The list of available courses was now viewable through our Ashods and we scoured through in search of things that piqued our interest. We didn’t make any binding choices as to what or, in the case of the mandatory classes, when we would be attending yet. It wasn’t that pressing anyway. Since we were first years, we got an extra week to decide things before our classes started, while our seniors were already listening to their professors. This time was not only to be used for the write-ins, but also to explore the campus area and get at least broadly familiar with the locations of things.

I highly doubted that this week was put in there purely out of the niceness of the teachers’ hearts. My personal theory was that they had gotten tired of people coming thirty minutes late into the first class because they hadn’t yet gotten used to the train schedule or the way the universities’ room ordering system worked. Whatever the reason, it was an arrangement that worked out for everyone. Write-ins were open until Sunday. If they even called them Sundays around here.

Welldark, like just about every other institution founded on knowledge of the Dimensional Truth, operated on a seven day – one-week system. While that building block of time management was near universal, months and years could scale a bit differently. A month might only be three weeks, for example, and a year only six months. That seldomly led to difficulties, as far as getting individually situated, as months and years were such large brackets of time. Complications typically arose when a world had a day-night cycle that completely invalidated the 24-hour clock. Those were, thankfully, few and far in-between.

As for where this system stemmed from, I had no idea. I very much doubt it was Earth, it sounded more like the local God had followed it when creating that world. Wherever it originated, it worked and made it easy for people to slot their schedules into a new environment. A figment of familiarity during dimensional travels that reduced stress by a fair amount.

None of us three had entered any courses by the end of our talks, but we had decided we would visit the city tomorrow. Checking out what was on offer and stocking up on supplies was important, particularly because the kitchen was dreadfully empty of foodstuffs. After that, I went directly to bed. I had decided to try and wake up early the next day.

____________________________________________________________________

I blinked a large number of times and focused on reality. Being an extremely vivid and lucid dreamer, many of my mornings started with a moment of confusion. This one was no different. After I spent about a minute yawning, stretching and trying to change the scenery with my mind, I accepted that I must have been awake and sat up. I checked the time, nodded groggily to myself after the numbers made sense to me. ‘The sacrifices I make for flirting,’ I thought to myself. I wasn’t an early riser. I, however, had something to do and therefore went to put on my clothes.

I raised an elongated, slanted cushion of hard foam and put it to the side. Underneath was a row of wooden boxes. They were lowered into the floor and the contents easily accessed by raising the lid. In a room that was one large bed, this was a creative solution to allow for storage space. I took out my outfit for the day which was, since I didn’t own anything else that looked good, a school uniform.

Not the same one as yesterday, of course. That one I had stuffed into a plastic bag. Welldark provided several uniforms and did pay for repairing or replacing them, as long as the damage happened during school activities. I would take the bag with me when we headed into the city later. As far as the Welldark app had informed me, the uniforms could be handed in there.

I put on boxers and pants. The shirt I took with me to the bathroom, but only put it on after I had brushed my teeth and showered. I would not risk spilling any toothpaste on my shirt, not if I only had one more replacement.

Freshened up, adequately awake and looking as crisp as I possibly could, I nodded to myself and went to approach Esther’s room. I knocked carefully and waited.

My plan was simple. I would start with a simple joke, asking if she wanted to take a shower with me. Snowballing the predictable, hopefully amused, denial into some smalltalk, I would nonchalantly offer that she accompany me, Willt and Arlethia on our trip into the city later.

Worst I expected to get was a disciplined no on the initial joke. Sure, that would have gotten myself in a bit of a bad standing, but she already knew what I was about and still decided to move in. Therefore, that would have been a recoverable disadvantage. Alternatively, I could have misread her character and she was still sleeping and would be rather disgruntled that I woke her up. I heavily doubted that, however.

For a while, I heard nothing and I was afraid that I had miscalculated in the opposite direction. ‘Did she wake up so early that she already headed out?’ I asked myself and pondered. ‘No, there were no signs of usage in the bathroom… she would at least brush her teeth before heading out, anybody would. Maybe she used the other one?’

I was attempting to figure out what reason would drive her to walk all the way to the other bathroom, when I finally heard some movements behind the door. Then it flew open so suddenly my mental preparation was slightly shaken. In front of me stood Esther. She was as beautiful as before, no signs of make-up, and wore a fresh uniform of her own. Her hair was less orderly than yesterday, but still bound together and partly hidden by her tricorne. The tip of it pointed at me like the end of a dagger.

I managed to quickly gather myself, and smile with the warmth of the morning sun. “Good morning,” I mused in a tone that was both friendly and had that masculine depth I had found a lot of women to be weak too. It switched to something less serious as I continued, making it clear I was joking. “I was wondering if you would be interested in taking a shower with me. Being clean is very important, after all.”

The reaction I got was none I had anticipated. Her amber eyes, although they struck me more as sulfuric yellow in that moment, stared at me with such an intensity that it could have killed a small animal. After several seconds of that stare drilling into my skull, I felt an unpleasant tingling at the back of my neck. “Keep your foolish advances for someone with patience, overacting Karitas,” she loudly hissed at me, before stepping back and slamming the door shut with such intensity that a gust of wind blew back several strands of my white hair.

I blinked multiple times, failing to properly process what just happened..

‘What did I do?’ the questions echoed in my mind repeatedly. Her hair hadn’t been as groomed as yesterday, but it hadn’t been disorderly either and I would have heard it if she put on her uniform in a hurry. She clearly had been awake for quite some time, so that wasn’t the issue. Was it the joke? No, she hadn’t mentioned what I had actually said at all. It felt like she hadn’t even heard what I said and was simply annoyed with my very existence. I continued to blink rapidly.

The door opened again, giving me a brief moment of hope. I expected an explanation at worst and an apology at best. The difference between the content happiness we had experienced yesterday and her venomous utterings just now was just too stark.

What I got was a stare that could have killed a medium sized animal. It almost killed me, I can say that much, as it stopped my heart for as long as it took all of the enthusiasm I had put into this morning to wilt away into nothingness.

“Step away from my door, insistent Karitas,” she warned me. The accent I had previously found so unfathomably attractive had now been tempered into a beautiful blade that slashed my pride into ribbons. “I do not appreciate your attempts at conversation at this hour. Your failure to move makes you appear like a stalker above anything else. Go and bother someone else.” The door was again slammed shut. I was just as confused as before, perhaps even more so, but I could recognize a signpost if I was beaten over the head with it. Salvaging what I could, I decided to hurriedly retreat to the kitchen and continue my pondering there.

I spend thirty minutes alone, looking down on my hands and occasionally creating tiny things to fidget around with, before my friends joined me. “You look like you had a terrible nightmare,” Willt said first thing, as he and his girlfriend sat down opposite of me on the wooden table. “Did the crazy ex appear in your dreams?”

“No,” I drily stated, “I had a terrible morning. Worse than memories of that girl.”

“She tried to stab you once, so what the fuck could be worse than that?” Arlethia asked. Before I could answer, Esther walked into the kitchen. Without any word or acknowledgement of our presence, a quick glance in our direction aside, she approached the fridge. Her hair was now in the same orderly state as it had been before her fight with Aclysia yesterday.

Critically analyzing the empty inside of the fridge, she slammed it shut and then looked to the table, which was just as empty. I had stationed myself in the kitchen because my own room lacked a table to desperately brood on. Since we hadn’t bought any provisions yesterday, there was no food to prepare. I was happy that I had gone here, right at that moment, as I could at least try to ask her if she wanted to tag along later. My plan was completely shattered, but as long as I got that done, there would be plenty of hours in the day to make up for it. “Esther do you want to…”

“I’m heading out,” she declined by interrupting me, causing my insides to shrink to the side of a goldfish. With determined and impatient steps, she left the kitchen and headed for the front door. A few moments spent putting on her shoes later, the raven-haired woman had left the building.

“Wow…” Arlethia was almost as speechless as I was, albeit for different reasons. With no more Esther to stare after, she turned to look at me. “What did you do?” she asked-

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands into the air and then collapsing onto the table.

After a short recuperation period, I decided it was time to head out as well. Even if my current mood was depressed, we still needed groceries. Moping around wouldn’t have solved anything anyway and I much preferred to stay in motion.

I considered writing Esther a text message, telling her where she could meet us if she wanted to. Two reasons kept me from doing so. One, I was not about to get backlash a third time and, more importantly, two, I was a man with self-respect. I had taken her shouting because it was obvious I had done something wrong. That did NOT mean that I was going to grovel before someone, especially a potential partner, who shot me off so ferociously without explaining themselves.

For this instance alone, I wasn’t angry at her. I was a pretty patient person, at least I liked to think of myself that way. There were a few things that set me off immediately, but getting shouted at wasn’t one of them.

What this incident made me, however, was cautious.

I would not end up as the puppy dog in a highly unequal relationship. What I wanted my relationship with lovers to be was either equal, or slightly slanted towards me. Under all circumstances, I wanted gestures of affection to be based on the understanding that they were not something that my partner or I simply deserved for existing. There had to be reciprocity and respect.

Given that this was only the second day I knew and I was not yet fully aware what had sparked that outburst, overthinking it like this may have been counterproductive. My mind went on strange tangents at times. For this particular one, I took it under advisement, not letting it control my actions, but nudging me in a certain direction.

With all of that in mind, I had decided to leave Esther a written note, saying that we had gone to the city. I didn’t mention where we planned to go and I did not explicitly invite her. If she wanted to join us later, she would have to ask me. If she didn’t do so, then her interest in me must have been rather thin. Either that, or she had better things to do. Or she was too prideful to do it. Two of these three were indications that I had misread our compatibility drastically. One was just regular life. ‘Things are always so exceedingly difficult,’ I thought.

Willt must have noticed my continued brooding. By putting a hand on my shoulder, he (almost literally) grabbed my attention. “How about you walk us through your morning?” he offered in a friendly tone. Like all good friends, both him and Arlethia put back their usual teasing for a moment of earnesty, when noticing I was in genuine distress. I was thankful to have them, talking about things was usually relieving.

“I woke up at like… four,” I began and had to push back a yawn, as if the mentioning of the time alone reminded my body of the usualness of that hour. I stretched a little bit, both to give that feeling some relief and because I didn’t want my friends to think this was too grave a matter. As much as I wanted Esther, this was still a very short-lived infatuation.

“Hot damn,” Arlethia whistled in comment. “You’re really serious about that gal, aren’t you? Can’t remember the last time you woke up before you needed to.”

“I can remember all the time he nodded off in class though,” Willt jokingly added.

“That was less because I was tired and more because the classes were horribly boring,” I retorted. “I did tell both of you that I would retreat to the place in which my future harem will gather to partake in the sweet slumber at an earlier hour than usual, if I may remind you, my dear friends with short-lived memory.

“To which we logically assumed that you were taking your ten hour beauty sleep, trying to maintain that jawline of yours,” Willt’s dry tone put an end to that tangent. “Alright, so you got up early. Do tell me what you wanted to do during such an ungodly hour?”

“I wanted to have a bit of a morning talk with Esther,” I stated. “Got dressed properly, took a shower in advance, was at the best I could be and wore my most confident smile. Indeed, I prepared to be at the most charming that my youthful body could allow me to be. I was full of vigour and confidence, my shoulders pulled back and my stance fantastic. My state was…”

Arlethia lightly punched me on the shoulder, to get me to stop. “Ceaseth on thy extrapolation,” her words were dripping in aggressive sarcasm. “Maybe she smelled your pretentiousness and was instantly turned off.”

“Everybody's a critic…” I grumbled, but took the point and stayed on point. “Basically I had everything planned out and didn’t change anything from how I acted yesterday. I started with a light joke, the kind that she was at least tolerating off yesterday. I got berated and she shut the door in my face. I stood there for a few moments, pondering. Then she opened the door again only to tell me off even harder. Then she slammed it shut again. That’s when I took a tactical retreat.”

Both of my friends made a humming noise as they thought about the situation. “Maybe she is even less of a morning person than you are?” the red-skinned succubus suggested first.

“That’s definitely not it,” I dismissed immediately, since I had already thought of that myself. “She was already awake, for a while, as well.”

“Okay, so that can’t be it… anything you noticed that was off?”

“When she left, her hair was combed more thoroughly,” I responded quickly, since I had already sorted that out as well. Both of my friends gave me a ‘That’s the amount of detail you notice, you stalker?’ stare, to which I could only roll my eyes. “Look, I had better grades than both of you despite sleeping through most stuff and not learning for tests, I just notice these things,” after clearing my throat, I added, “although I do wonder what her hair looks like open, I didn’t get to look at it for too long in the arena...”

“Aha!” Arlethia snapped her fingers. “So, she had bound her hair together even when you met her at the door?”

“Yes,” thinking back, that was a bit weird. “She even had her hat on.”

“Alright, so my first guess is that she’s the type that really hates getting seen without her hair done,” Arlethia suggested.

“Eh, feels a bit far-fetched…,” I slowly pushed back, since that didn’t really line up with previous behaviour. More fundamentally, I couldn’t quite believe someone would be that mad over such a triviality. “You sure about that?”

“Take it from a girl, bitches be crazy,” Arlethia pointed out. “You don’t know what little thing will piss a woman off. Everyone has their quirks and I can definitely see someone get crazy over their hair being seen before it's orderly. Especially if someone knocks on my door unannounced.”

“If either of those two are it, why was she still angry at me when she left?” I kept poking holes at the theories presented to me.

“‘Cause she was still mad?” Arlethia’s response was less a question than a mocking statement.

“...Maybe…” I conceded that much. “But I’m still not sold on the hair being the reason. It didn’t look worse than it did yesterday after the fight and she didn’t hide it then.”

“I mean, you said she did have her hat on,” Willt pointed out.

“Yeah, but that was the case yesterday as well. Also, why would she even show herself if the hair was the problem? She wasn’t shy about it, when she just as well could have yelled at me through the door,” the two of them were silent, leaving me to wallow a little bit as they ponder other possibilities themselves. Since they were at least trying to help me out here, I decided to let them know I was grateful for whatever they had to offer, “Not saying that can’t be it, anger doesn’t exactly lead to rational decisions, but I’ll keep thinking. Thanks, gu… Oh, shit, hurry!”

Our conversation came to an abrupt halt when I looked at the train station in front of us and realized that the train was about to depart. Breaking out into a sprint, all three of us hurried onto the platform and just barely managed to get inside before the train departed and started rolling into the direction of the university.

There were two tracks that ran from the first year's housing outwards. One went directly to the city, a pretty short route. Because that train only came around once every hour, we actually found ourselves on the second route. That one went to the university and its schedule was synced with the train that went from the university to the city, both of them making the trip to and back every fifteen minutes. That made it shorter, in terms of time lost driving, to use the longer route.

With somewhat accelerated breath, we settled in the train. The inside was exceedingly comfortable, at least in the cabin we ended up in. This wouldn’t be the experience for most people using the train. Like most of Welldark, the wagons one could access were separated by the ranks.

The lesser ranks, Wood and Bronze, got the typical train experiences of the awful and acceptable variety. Crowded wagons with seats clumped together in isles. For the Wood Division, this went so far that they had to struggle to tug away their legs somewhere. The Bronze Area had it a bit better, but they still had to share their wagons with strangers. Privacy was basically non-existent. Those were the things I saw while we fought our way to the wagons we got access too.

As first years, we got a guaranteed Iron Ranks experience and therefore access to the more luxurious wagons in the middle of the train. There, a large number of cabins took the place of the previous groupings of seats. Each cabin came with a door that was lockable from the inside, ensuring privacy. That the seats were leather, the ground plastic and the milky window in the sliding door blurry to the point that one could only make rough shapes out through it told me as much about the frequency and tacit approval of intercourse here as I needed to know. Given that these cabins would be, more often than not, occupied by a guy accompanied by a few members of his Anomalia, regular ‘incidents’ could be expected.

‘I wonder how much more luxurious it gets further up the train,’ I thought as I got comfortable. ‘Maybe they have an on-board kitchen? Beds? I’d expect some private rooms for the top ten Anomalias… ah, well, I will probably find out eventually.’ I was confident that I could land in some higher ranks in later years, but only time would tell.

Unsurprisingly, with all of the segments meant to transport, at any given time, up to 500 people, the train was a lengthy best. There were also several of them and they ran on every day at any hours. These trains were the backbone of Welldark’s public infrastructure. Not that the island was so enormous that places of interest couldn’t be reached on foot with enough time and interest.

The train rolled into its first stop and we got out. The station, located at the university, was mostly underground, with only part of the roof extending above and allowing daylight to fall in through the stained glass windows. Pillars and arches of the typical gothic design and majestic, dark colours were illuminated by artificial sources confined in cast-iron lanterns. It all looked quite impressive, as shortly as I got to look at it.

Walking across the platform, we entered another train. It was considerably less crowded, that much was obvious even in the better areas in the middle wagon we went into. The majority of cabins were open and only a few people crowded the walkways. Likely, most of the second semester students had gone for the stairs and almost all that remained were us first semesters looking to explore the city.

“I do desperately need a coffee,” I yawned, when we were comfortable inside our next cabin. That odd, dragging sensation of changing inertia informed me that we were starting to move. The tracks were so smooth that there were no other feelings, but a look outside the drape-framed window soon confirmed the same thing.

“Second breakfast does sound fantastic,” Arlethia agreed and snuggled up against her boyfriend's side. “I want something solid between my chompers.” If there was any doubt about what she meant by that, it was eliminated when Willt started to blush. Poor guy was so easily embarrassed when it came to sex.

“Alright, alright, you semen demon,” I snickered, while noticing a vibration on my belt. My Ashod had received some kind of message. Taking it out with a nonchalant attitude, I spread out the two stone halves and looked at the screen that appeared. The preview already had me smirking a little bit.

“Something good?” Willt asked, happy for a different topic to jump on.

“I would cautiously say so,” I answered, my smile growing as I answered the straightforward message with a simple text of my own. “Esther just contacted me, saying she would be interested to hear what I wanted to tell her this morning.” Her message didn’t contain a single word of explanation nor an apology. I was happy that she contacted me on her own volition, especially with how quickly it happened. However, I had to categorize this as a bad character trait.

“You can ask her why she was this cranky then,” Arlethia suggested and I hummed thoughtfully and then shook my head. “What? You’re not going to ask?”

“No, I will ask, mostly because I want to avoid such encounters in the future,” I clarified my position. “It would be much better if I understood what the problem was without asking her first, though. This is a challenge… let’s see… what changed between then and now…”

Esther had headed out on foot shortly before us, but not shortly enough that she would have taken the train before us. It was possible she was in this train, we almost missed it after all. Getting out at the university, it would have been easy to miss her because of the size of the crowd. Regardless, I doubted that she was had been in there. She wouldn’t have had the time to do whatever she had done in the short time between the train pulling into the station and us now pulling out of it.

No, it had to be that she had walked somewhere. Wherever she went, she had spent enough time there to solve whatever issue made her that impatient. There weren't many things around the mansions that she could have aimed at. As a matter of fact, the only other facility that could be reached on foot in that time was the dormitory of the remaining freshmen.

I came to a conclusion that I found reasonably likely to be true. It was a whole lot more likely than the hair theory anyway and it was also a bit more relatable. Her rage was still out of bounds, but some people got extremely irritable in that state.

“Anyway,” I put that thought process to rest, “Where were we on with getting breakfast?”

________________________________________________________________________

“I like this place,” I remarked, while finishing my cup of coffee. The dark liquid ran down my throat and shushed away any remaining drowsiness. A bitter aftertaste was left in my mouth. I preferred my coffee completely black, that way I got the most of that life-saving caffeine into my system.

Once inside my stomach, the coffee mixed with the foundation of a buttered croissant, a thickly cut ham sandwich and a radish salad. All of it had been quite delicious and I was now considerably less on edge regarding the events of the morning. I think I got the problem solved and I was now, after the meal, doubly sure. Either way, I would see Esther again in a little bit. For now, I leaned back and enjoyed the interior of the bakery.

It was just a small shop, so small that there were no customers other than us. Aside from the table the three of us were sitting, there were only two more. Despite that, it didn’t feel cramped whatsoever. The atmosphere was cozy and welcoming. The shop was clean, but not meticulously scrubbed until it looked sterilized. Basically, it had the typical family enterprise feeling.

The walls were covered in beige plaster, with a relief depicting a snake slithering its way along the walls as additional decoration. It curved along the walls, climbed up and laid across the single bathroom door. From there, it dove underneath a flower-pot-decorated window at the back. Stretching across the wall opposite of where I was sitting, the snake then reached its end point above the coffee machine. Intended or not, I found that the snake looked fittingly sleepy.

As for the coffee machine, it stood next to a bread cutting machine. A glass counter, a number of shelves to stack bread on and a cash register combined to complete the feeling of the typical bakery. Most of the shelves were already empty. I made the guess that the owner of this place made most of their money by catering to the breakfast needs of the locals, rather than students.

The owner was also something that I personally found to be required for every good bakery: being a cute woman. “Thank you, Lisbena,” I happily waved over to her, while clearing the last few crumbs of breakfast of my plate. We may not have been the intended customer group, but we had been served tasty food regardless. “That was delicious.” I started to stack the empty plates.

“Oh, Karitas, you can just call me Lissssa,” the woman laughed behind the counter, her scaled, bright red tail peeked just over the stone base of the counter, as it happily wiggled. She was a lamia, a person with the lower body of a snake and the upper body of a human. A very well-groomed snake and a very attractive woman, in this case.

To start with, Lisa had enormous breasts. I was a fan of all shapes and sizes, but the jiggle was undeniably enticing. Her face bore a mild amount of wrinkles, showing that she was in her forties, but attractive regardless. It was framed by some of her auburn hair, which otherwise fell all the way down past her waist. She had a somewhat pudgy figure and wide hips. Save for the snake bits, she was a proper embodiment of a MILF.

She was wearing an apron over a yellow shirt and a black skirt, hiding the area where her human half transitioned into the snake tail. Rumour had it that lamias could transform their tail into regular legs. If it was true, lamias were not in the habit of doing so. I imagined there was some sort of physical or mental effort involved, as deviating from one's true form usually does. Hopefully, it was true. As much as I liked the exotic bits, the lower body of a snake made a lot of sexual positions a complicated endeavor. Basically, it barred everything that required backwards access. Doggy style was a saddening thing to give up on.

For all my attraction and curiosity, my interest was eliminated due to a golden ring she wore on her left ring finger. It covered the same space an Anomalia mark would have, leaving me wondering whether or not she was capable of joining one. There were more than a few cases in which people that couldn’t fathom the Dimensional Truth were born on worlds where the majority of the population could. Even artificial planes of existence like this one wouldn’t have been exempt from that circumstance.

Whether she was part of an Anomalia or not didn’t change that she was off the market. I hadn’t noticed before making some flirting remark when first entering this shop. Lissa had responded jokingly, while showing me the ring to make things clear quickly. Since she was such a good sport about it, we had hit it off nicely. It being a platonically friendly relationship between baker and customer.

“You’re such a nice young man,” the lamia lady complimented when I handed her the stacked plates my friends and I had dirtied. “I hope my daughter finds a boyfriend like you one day.”

“Well, you could introduce us,” I suggested with a smile and a wink. “If she looks half as good as you do, I would like to meet her.” Flirting was off the table, but compliments were something I offered to every woman and friend.

Beside me, Arlethia let out a loud groan, with Willt patting her head to calm her down. Those two continued to regard much of my honest approach to communications as odd or cringey. They were welcome to hold that opinion. I knew my more flowery sentences could miss the point sometimes. Personally, I didn’t mind that drawback and I definitely wouldn’t stop complimenting people I liked. Especially not if I was rewarded with an honest chuckle occasionally. The lamia did give me one such laugh.

“I would consider that, but she isn’t in Welldark at the moment. We had her sent to a school in another world.” Lissa pointed out. She had a great amount of control over her hissing accent. Perhaps the earlier extension in her name had been on purpose? “Maybe next semester. If you come by often and spend Darks graciously, I am sure I can arrange something for you,” she winked.

“Such a hard bargain you drive, filled with sweet promises. You come for my money, yet I feel like the person robbing you,” I sighed heavily and then smiled. Without any more esoteric exaggerations, I added, “What do we owe you anyway?”

“4 Darks for breakfast, 1 for the coffee,” she told us. With my limited experience, that sounded like a very reasonable price.

In Welldark, everything was bought with the boringly named ‘Welldark Currency’. Everyone shortened it to Darks, which was a tad more interesting and fit with the gothic aesthetic of the university. Students acquired their funds via monthly allowances. The size of these was dictated by one’s rank. It was another tool of the Welldark administration to emphasize the importance of a person’s position in the student body. A breakdown of the ranks was easily available online and I remembered it well enough.

People in the Wood Division got 300 Darks a month. They were the poorest of the poor in Welldark and their available funds reflected that. A day of the cheapest meals cost 10 Darks, roughly speaking. Not great meals by any description. Primarily, remains from the previous day. Stale bread from the bakery, cold soup from the cafeteria, cheap sausage as dinner, such things. Not the greatest in taste, but enough sustenance to go to bed without being hungry. Additional items would have to be starved for, otherwise saving was impossible

For higher ranks, that problem progressively vanished. Bronze Area members had 500 Darks at their disposal, which allowed a higher standard of food and some luxuries or conveniences at the side. Iron Ranks were treated to 750 Darks, which was enough to only worry about truly expensive things. Silver Knights got 1250 Darks, almost eliminating the need to even think about money. Lastly, Golden Eagles got 2000 Darks. There were very few things they would need to save for. The top 10 were said to earn even more, but I hadn’t seen a table for that.

There were alternative ways to get money, unrelated to a person’s rank. Begging one’s family to make a donation to Welldark, for example. The donation would be noted, be it a magical item or just plain cash, and converted. At the start of the next month, the affiliated student would receive an appropriate sum. It didn’t raise anyone’s standing and I would personally think a little less of people that regularly relied on their parent’s money, but it was a way to fill one’s pocket.

Getting a job was a lot more respectable. Be it in private enterprises, as administrative support or being a helper for the teachers, I imagined a student could find a job if they just searched for a little bit. Other, less reliable, ways were to win the events that the university hosted, such as the placing tournaments, or impress the teachers. There were many ways for people that were stuck in lower levels to still have a wealth of resources, if they compensated talent with dedication.

As first year’s, the three of us got the monthly allowance of Iron Rank members, 750 Darks. With that amount of money on our hand, 5 Darks for breakfast was pretty okay. Not luxurious but not cheap either, which fit the quality of the food we had been served.

‘Is there a way to convert Darks back into something that has value outside of Welldark,’ I wondered, as I stepped up to a device that was sitting next to the cash register. Darks did have physical notes, but since our allowance was digitally administered, going out of my way to have some of them sounded like a pain. I would just pay what I had to pay and not bother with all the counting. That it was easy as opening a screen on the AppDark program and holding it against the scanning device further justified my attitude.

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5 WDC stood in green letters on the register’s display. A sound effect akin to falling coins played when Lisa hit the confirmation button, withdrawing the amount from my account. “See you tomorrow,” the lamia mused when all of us had paid and were turning to leave. It didn’t sound remotely like a serious assumption. It was probably something she had said to customers for years and used reflexively. Her happy smile and wave convinced me to come by again. Not tomorrow, but soon.

______________________________________________________________________

With our hunger sated, we were in the proper mood to tackle the main reason why we came to the city today. We needed to find shopping centres or simple supermarkets. Places where we could buy things that made the next morning less pressing in terms of finding something to eat. Additionally, we wanted to seek out a few places that sold luxury items.

For all its expansive splendour, my bestowed mansion had a severe lack of anything beyond what would be labelled modern necessities. There was all the furniture we could ever need, but not a single TV. Power sockets were scattered all about the house, but barely any electronics to make use of them. We had a vacuum cleaner. The kitchen was fully stocked with cutlery and manual tools, the oven would heat up what we made and the fridge would keep our food fresh, but there were no electronic cooking utensils.

All of these things needed to be bought by the students themselves. Welldark really wasn’t a place to get cuddled into an easy-going lifestyle. That was completely fair, as far as I was concerned. I would need to work to make day to day business easier. With enough effort, I could still automate a lot of the boring chores. I was motivated to minimize the energy I needed to expend on them and schoolwork and instead focus on all the fun activities the Cosmic University lifestyle enabled.

‘I wonder what happens when we move,’ I thought. About a year from now, we would have to leave the mansion. Would we have to just carry as much as we could? Was there a moving service? Cars were rare, but the administration had been shown to use them. ‘Ah, well, then is then and now is now.’

“So, what does the map say?” Arlethia asked her boyfriend. If she had let go off his arm, she could have checked for herself. The way she pressed her large boobs against him, I couldn’t imagine either of them wanting the small succubus to step away. The young warlock hid it well, but there was no way he did not enjoy himself. For her part, Arlethia was both a woman in love and a succubus. This position was probably natural for her.

Willt hummed while scrolling around on his Ashod with the thumb of his free hand. “Some shops here and there. There is one right around the corner, but I suggest we go for the one at the centre. I don’t want to check several stores to get what we want, just to get it slightly cheaper. Also it's closest to the train station.” It took only a glance over his glasses to make me understand that Willt did not want to carry his luggage around again.

Avoiding the path we had followed into this part of town, we took a detour through completely unknown streets. The map on the Ashod was detailed enough to make getting lost an impossibility, provided a modicum of brain. That did eliminate the need to get a natural feel for where what was, but I found it more pleasant to be familiar with my new environment. A want to feel home in this city aside, I enjoyed the sightseeing. The entire city had a very lived-in charm to it. The fundamentally gloomy, gothic colouration of the Welldark-controlled architecture was accented by colourful accessoires people added to their houses.

The tones the houses shared, dark purple, greys and blacks, would have transformed the streets into a depressing display if unopposed. Bright curtains, carefully tended gardens, flags waving on rooftops and painted balconies all added their little charms to each house. Some had more gimmicks added to their homes, some less, but none of them went overboard and none of them felt out of place.

The entire city had a feeling of cohesive individualism. Personally, I couldn’t imagine myself living here. I still felt that young call for adventure in me and I didn’t think I would be happy as the owner of one of many houses in a neighbourhood. Even if I personally did not aspire to settle down here, I cherished what this society looked like. The environment was clean and clearly safe. Every house was made for a family, each with a garden and none taller than three stories.

Which only elevated the height of the bell towers that stood in every neighbourhood. Some were attached to places of religious worship. I imagined there was a whole hodgepodge of faiths worshipped around here, likely syncretic in their outlook. Most of the bell towers stood on their own. Regardless of their position, they all looked the same.

Square bases of dark stone that extended upwards, slightly narrowing towards the top. Walls encrusted with gemstones that glinted with multi-coloured facets in the sunlight. They were arranged in runic formations, curving and cutting up the wall. A brilliant fusion of magic and artistry. All the way up to the tip of the tower, I judged about fifty metres from the ground, the gems stretched. The roof was a circular formation, upheld by pillars, with stained glass in between, hiding the bell within.

Each tower was a beckoning call to lost wanderers in between the worlds. All the time, in all places, people discovered the Dimensional Truth and rarely did they know what was happening. The bells rang and gave them a direction to leave the veil between worlds. Cosmic Universities weren’t just places of education, but also a chance of survival for those that hadn’t been prepared for their gift.

The tower must have been there for decades, if not hundreds of years. That nobody stole a single gem spoke to the level of education around these parts. Normal people might not know exactly why they weren’t supposed to mess with these things, but they evidently had enough of an idea to mind their own business.

“Do you ever wonder what the bells look like?” Arlethia asked, staring up one of the towers, blinking against the sun. “I mean, on the inside. Obviously we all saw that they look pretty normal on the outside, but there has to be something special for them to make sounds we can hear… between.”

“Arlethia, you really don’t want to see,” I told her with all my earnesty. “It’s ugly in ways you can’t fathom at the moment.”

“You know?'' The short succubus looked at me with interest. Willt, raising an eyebrow, echoed her intrigue.

“Yes and I won’t tell you,” I stared back with a serious expression on my face. This was a way too important topic to pull any jokes. “Listen, if you look in there before you are ready, get ready to spend a few weeks, if not months, in the Asylum. What’s in there is not for initiates of the Dimensional Truth to see. You got to work your way up to the big secrets, if you don’t want your mind to crack like an eggshell.”

“Alright?” Arlethia eventually agreed in a confused tone, which was good enough for me. I wasn’t schooled in getting people to realize things about the Dimensional Truth in the safe increments, so I just stayed cryptic. The instructors of Welldark would widen their horizons eventually. “How come you know and aren’t babbling like a lunatic then? I mean, not anymore than you usually are.”

“Maybe I already spent several weeks or months in the Asylum,” I dodged a serious answer with a wide smile and quickly pivoted the topic to things I was more comfortable with. “What’s that by the way?” I pointed at a conveniently large and nearby building, an ideal landmark to direct the conversation elsewhere.

Although the houses came in relative uniformity and a maximum size, same could not be said for the buildings meant for stores and services. They didn’t get much taller, the bell towers remained the peaks overseeing the rest of the city, but some of them were wide enough to consume an entire city block. One of those massive structures was the building I was pointing at right now.

Stopping at the corner for a moment, I realized that it was perfectly square, both walls extending for the same exact distance. Dark red bricks, the only time I had seen this colour used to build in the entire city, were layered and stacked and arranged in a manner resembling medieval fortifications. Distantly, I heard noises through the open windows that sat just underneath the walkway atop the outer walls. Cheers and loud applause, which gave me a hunch what this building was used for. Will quickly confirmed it by looking at the map.

“Map says it’s the Gladiator’s Arena,” he told me and fixed the position of his round glasses. “Now, I know you will be wondering ‘I thought the arena was on university grounds?’ and you would be correct. That is because this is the private fighting pit. It’s here for out of uni entertainment fights.”

“So, you can bash people’s skulls in for money?” Arlethia asked, her interest piqued. Always a violent thing, that red-skinned demonette.

“That or you can bet on who will win. It's one of the ways to earn some extra Dark around here… if you are lucky, good at fighting, or both,” Willt looked over to me, the jest already reflecting in his eyes. “How about it Karitas, want to take a few punches for a flatscreen TV?”

“Since it's a privately run battleground, they probably won’t follow university rules,” I was quick to say. “Which means two things. One, they probably won’t put me against another freshman unless I take some ‘boring’ contract and, two, I won’t get my replacement uniforms for free.” I raised the handbag I still carried with me. “I haven’t even gotten this one fixed.”

“What, is the great and mighty Karitas afraid of some second year students?” the red-skinned succubus taunted me with big grin, her white teeth contrasting with her dark red lips.

“My short, stacked, demonic friend, I know that you know that second-year students have upwards of a year of combat training and are fundamentally more schooled in magic and experienced in usage of their artefacts than we are.” I stopped my response to warningly wiggle my index finger in her direction. “While, yes, it is true that I have found knowledge and skill before you, my colleagues, I lack both the arrogance to think I can already beat up second years and the will to go through a fight for a bit of luxury.”

“…You fought yesterday to get a mansion,” Arlethia’s dry response came quick.

“Eeeeh,” Willt made a weighing motion with his unoccupied hand. “Did he? Did he really? Because I am pretty sure he just did this to choke Esther.”

“I will let you know I did it to impress this lovely lady I want to claim as mine!” I protested, although now I remembered that flustered look on her face when we were at the end of the battle, my hands around her throat. A simple consequence of our tussle, most likely, but a sadist could hope. “God, please let her be into being choked,” I added mutteringly. Something about having control over the breathing of another person was just immensely satisfying.

“”U-hu,”” both of my companions made sceptical sounds at the same time as we walked by the arena.

The conversation came to halt, but I kept thinking about the topic a little bit more. Making money through arena fights was something to be considered. I was strong and talented, there was no doubt to be had about that. What I said about second years was just as true. How I currently was, I may have been able to beat up the weakest second years. The kind of people drawn to the arena, I wouldn’t be able to compete against. Not as I was at the moment. Experience counted for a lot, especially when it came to fighting.

If money got tight, I may try my luck, but I was more likely to get a peaceful job as a store clerk or something. Best would be an occupation where I just sat around for a couple hours each week and got paid. Any job I got would be a means to an end. As the arena was left behind, so did my thoughts move on as well, concentrating once more on the city we were exploring.

The city centre opened up before us. A large plaza of dark grey, black and red stones, the last being a slight deviation from the regular color scheme. In the middle of it all sat a massive, circular fountain. It spewed water into the air with such ferocity, a moderately sized rainbow was present at every sunny moment. As wonderful as that feat of engineering was, my eyes got stuck on those that enjoyed the water itself.

Most were just hanging out by the water to cool themselves down, but a few slime girls had taken to soaking inside the actual pool at the base of the fountain. That these liquid beauties of adjustable curves had to wear the school uniform was grounds for a formal complaint, in my opinion. Especially since the red shirts refused to turn see-through no matter how much the slimes wallowed in the cooling wet.

Arlethia and Willt kept me moving along and I did my best not to stare. Openly perverted as I was, I didn’t want to be that guy that stared at a girl’s tits across the street for a creepily long time. I was going to look at open displays, yes, but glaring was just bad manners.

We continued on towards the grocery store or, to be more exact, the mall it was part of. Although not quite as big as the arena, the shopping centre was still a proud building. It’s design was more modern, dominated by large windows and steel frames, with the gothic architecture integrated solely for the thematic throughline. It also appeared that it had been expanded with time, several segments looking tacked on in a modular way.

Even on the inside, the gothic architecture was subjugated to commercialization. The blank walls would have still betrayed the original design, but barely any wall was left empty. There were picture frames, signs, advertisements and all the rest. Separating the gleaming, stone floors of the corridors from the carpet of the shops were rarely more than a wall of glass. The interior of shops was usually dominated by bright colours. Red, blue and green, all designed to catch the eyes of potential customers.

The first thing we sought out inside the mall was the place to replace uniforms. It was its own little stand at the back of one of the corridors. The clerk at that store was already informed about the validity of my claim that the university would pay for fixing this one. Fixing, in this case, meant they took the damaged one and simply gave me a new shirt of the same size, covered in plastic wrap. One wash and it would be ready to go. They scanned my Ashod once, so my account was cleared of the free replacement.

Afterwards, we went and bought some casual clothes. As comfortable as the uniform was, it wasn’t the only thing I wanted to wear for the next few years. Arlethia and Willt, having brought a lot more to Welldark, did not have that issue.

After we were done there, we went to stock up on food. We quickly found a large supermarket and indulged. Arlethia bought an almost comedic amount of cookies. Willt went on about how greens were important in every diet, while skimming on the meat. Despite their weird decisions, I was the butt of most jokes.

“You know you’ll have to cook that, right?” Arlethia asked while I inspected a carrot’s quality. “Like, YOU will have to cook that. What it looks like right now isn’t going to matter after you apply your ‘skills’ to it.”

“Whatever might you be insinuating, Arlethukinia?” I demanded to know, acting the scorned fool. “Are you trying to lord over me that cooking is the one class you consistently had better scores in than me?”

“I didn’t have better scores than you, EVERYONE had better scores than you,” Arlethia reminded me. “Because I think that your taste receptors are absolutely fried. The amount of salt and hot sauce you cook with is beyond hellish.” I chose one carrot that looked satisfyingly fresh and went to find some eggs. “Also are you SURE you want to spend all this money on food?”

She was referring to the fact that I was going for the highest grade ingredients at every turn. At the 750 Darks a month income I had, that was sure to constrict my budget for the rest of the month. I was sure it would be worth it though. If my diminishing funds became a problem, I would deal with it. Something would come to mind. “While you do have a point, I have learned to cook some things to your inferior standards,” I bantered back, wondering if I should go for chicken or jirchin (a kind of tiny dinosaur that still looked like one) eggs. “That is to say, I can follow recipes without refining the taste by adding double the recommended amount of salt and three teaspoons of pepper paste.”

“…I’m honestly confused. Since when do you care… Ooooohhhh!” Arlethia’s enlightened shout was the verbal extension of the switch that had flipped inside her head. “Oh, okay, you do you buddy, I will either be laughing tomorrow or be able to pat you on the back for a job well done.”

Willt looked up from the broccoli display, then looked back down, he didn’t care enough to ask right now. Most likely, Arlethia would tell him when they were alone in their room anyway.

After paying for the groceries we went to a nearby technology shop. While a flat screen was entirely out of question right now, as was any television honestly, I wanted some sort of PC. Not of the solely electrical variety. Those had their advantages, but what I wanted was a physical extension for my Ashod.

It looked like a laptop, had the same functionality as a laptop, got access to the internet like a laptop (even if inter stood for interdimensional in this case) but what it actually was, was a docking station. The Ashod could be inserted, making it extend its usual programs onto the bigger screen and use the additional processing power in the hull.

It could be used without the magical smartphone replacement, but then it needed to have everything installed on its own harddrive and the set-up was somewhat annoying. They were designed to be an extension. They also weren’t cheap, even on the decent budget that was afforded to me. Evidently a ‘reasonable living standard’ didn’t include luxury goods, high-grade ingredients and several sets of additional clothes. It was almost as if reasonable was the operating word. I didn’t care and spent the money anyway.

Between the laptop, the extra clothes and the high-quality ingredients, about 500 Dark just disappeared from my wallet. That left me with way less for the rest of the month, another 28 days, than even the Wood Division people had. I still wasn’t worried. If the money got tight, then the money got tight.

For today, I decided to buy a thirty-units pack of cupped instant noodles. That was only thirty Darks, basically a steal as far as I was concerned. Pretty sure we had a water boiler at least. Otherwise, a pot and the stove would do.

Carrying all of that in several bags, the three of us headed back to the train station. Getting back to the mansion was a high-priority task at the current time. After all, I wanted to meet up with Esther again.

We caught the train to the first-year buildings, as we had planned, sparing us the hassle of switching at the university. The remaining distance from the train station to the mansion was only a moderate hassle, the groceries were still lighter than the luggage had been. Being the one who carried the least amount of things, Arlethia opened the front gate and led the way to the door.

“You two have my envy,” I said as we walked past the pool. “Having your amount of money must be wonderful.”

“We have the same amount of money as you, ya tosser,” Arlethia jabbed back. “Two times an amount divided by two is the same as the original amount.”

“Just because you are mathematically correct, doesn’t mean you are right.” I got two pairs of rolled eyes at that and explained myself in the time it took to get inside. “As you will share a lot of convenience items, like a laptop extension, it is much easier for you to justify the purchase of such.” The door closed behind me. “What do you think, Esther?”

As beautiful as ever, the raven-haired woman had us in her sharp, amber gaze. Her tricorne was sitting on the table supporting the upright position of her Ashod. Whatever was on her screen, it was separated into tables. I hoped she wasn’t already working on her lecture schedule or at least that she kept to planning it. Taking after her in which modules I chose felt a bit stalkery. Discussing, together, which topics we were interested in and making our decisions based on that was natural. It also served as an easy excuse to learn more about her.

There were only so many windows of opportunity and I had to capitalize on them when I could.

Esther leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, averting her gaze and staring into the air with an enigmatic expression. For a few moments, I was afraid she could suddenly explode with anger again. However, when her gaze returned to me, her dilated, slit pupils indicated no anger. Her red lips parted, forming words in a sultry, firm tone - like silk stretched over a luscious body. “Assuming no lack of context traps me, questioning Karitas, I am in agreement that it is easier for pairs to properly finance their life.”

“Ha!” I victoriously declared, doubly enthusiastic since she was calling me ‘good’ again. The way she spoke that word made it feel simply wholesome. I had known one girl in the past who also tended to do that and she had addressed me like a beloved dog in those moments. The sex had been good, so my younger self had put up with it. Adolescent me had been just as horny and less wise about such things. Not that I had learned everything either.

“To reduce your enthusiasm,” the lady of my desires continued on. “As a singular person, you should possess the necessary discipline to keep your own finances in check. What you do not need, you should not desire. Ignoring that, sharing is a drawback on its own merit. What is easier to buy remains one item still.”

“HA!” Arlethia threw back at me while her boyfriend quietly stored their groceries in the fridge. “So, how was your morning?” the succubus asked Esther, sparing me the awkwardness to ask. I gave her a thumbs-up behind my back.

“Uneventful,” she answered with a single word before returning to her Ashod.

All of a sudden, she was withdrawn again. I wasn’t sure whether this was her retreating into her proverbial shell or if she just had nothing more to say. Yesterday had taught me that she was willing to entertain conversations, as long as the topic kept her interest. This morning, however, had reminded that I knew her only for a little over a day. I was a captain navigating a foggy sea, filled with reefs.

While deliberating my next move on her, I decided to store my new things away. Clutter was unacceptable, no matter what I decided to do. Even without Esther’s stern attitude as a motivating factor, I did like a modicum of order in my life.

Groceries went into the fridge, the laptop into my room, and new clothes into the washing machine. I noted that we didn’t have a dryer, while in the washing area of the cellar, apparently that was seen as luxury to be bought. I could see the argument, but it was still interesting to see what did and did not qualify. Thankfully, there was more than enough room to hang the laundry of ten people in the many rooms of the cellar, not to mention the garden.

Nobody asked the browsing and decisively calm Esther what had been up with her this morning. I thought I had it figured out and wanted to keep the surprise, Willt wasn’t built to confront somebody he barely knew that way, and Arlethia, despite her poking fun at me, was being a wonderful wingwoman at the moment.

“We forgot to buy washing detergent,” I said when back in the kitchen, having put on the machine anyway. “Not exactly important for the first wash, just pointing it out.” All I wanted was to get the industry out of my new clothes, they weren’t actually dirty.

“Right,” Willt got a word out, much quieter than he would have been when he was just with us. “We’ll get that then. We’re heading back into the city, right?”

Those words caused Esther to push her Ashod into its portable shape and pick up her tricorne. “If you do, I will accompany you,” the raven-haired woman stated. After a moment, she added, “If you do not mind.”

“We don’t mind at all!” My answer was a bit too eager. Her asking to come along by her own accord meant that she was still interested in some capacity. This was the best opportunity I would have to get things back on track. All I needed was to try and get her to talk to me some more.

And try I did. The entire way to the city. With limited success. The train ride was the worst part. The four of us stuck in a relatively small room together felt quite awkward, at least for me. Willt was still inside his shell and kept quiet, while Esther remained disinterested in prolonging any conversation topic for whatever reason. That led to me and Arlethia dominating the talks, which, while entertaining, wasn’t the goal.

I was somewhat confused about how difficult a time I seemed to have to keep Esther entertained. She clearly didn’t mind talking, not even in front of hundreds of people. Did I imagine all of the chemistry I felt yesterday or was she just a woman of even fewer words than I initially thought? I wanted to say all evidence pointed to the latter. Telling myself I was boring her would have been a hefty dent in my eagerness to carry on.

Once we arrived at the city, she suddenly turned to me and asked, “Karitas, did you already have your uniform restored?” I quickly confirmed with a nod. “Would you show me where?”

That simple question reinvigorated my hope completely. This was info she could get in three minutes with her Ashod, yet she wanted me to guide her there. ‘Alright, we’ll just continue to assume she is interested until she explodes in my face again,’’ I thought, seeing no value in further doubt. “It would be my pleasure,” I bowed dramatically and all four of us proceeded in the direction of the mall.

While I would never earnestly complain about my friends, their presence was quickly turning into a hindrance. I needed to divert my attention between Esther and them. One because they were my friends and it just kind of happened that I included them in many of the topics and two because I would have looked like a dick if I just ignored them because Esther was around. Willt’s shyness certainly didn’t help.

Arlethia was quick to prove her worth as a wingwoman once more. “Let’s split up,” she announced, when we barely had sat foot inside the building. “We’re going to get that detergent. You go take care of the uniform business.” Winking in my direction with a cute mixture of mischief and gracefulness, as if bestowing me with a gift, she added, “We’ll meet again here.”

I couldn’t have asked for a better set-up.

Either she missed the obvious signal or she didn’t care, either way Esther nodded and our group separated into two pairs. Conveniently, the tailor and the supermarket were in opposite directions. We had only walked for about twenty seconds when the Ashod on my belt vibrated. Checking it cautiously, I read the message.

Arlethia: In case you need an excuse later, we got halted by some advertisers. Don’t wait for us :P

Hastily, I wrote back.

Karitas: I owe you!

My Ashod wandered back into the slot on my belt, not giving Esther the opportunity to accidentally read it. It was just the two of us now and there was a wealth of places to explore with her. If there was any time to repair the damage from this morning, it was now.

I had to engage in a few white lies in order to make all of this look natural. We exchanged her uniform for a new one and then went back to the agreed spot. After a couple of minutes, I checked my Ashod again, faked a surprised noise, and broke the ‘situation’ to Esther. “I see,” was her simple response. “Would they be annoyed if we carried on without them?”

“They’ll survive,” I jokingly responded, happy this little play worked as intended. Would it have been better if I had just been upfront with her? Perhaps. Certainly on a moral level. As the wisest men had been saying for generations, however, all was allowed in love and war.

Taking control of the situation, I put an arm around her shoulder and picked a direction to walk into. With only a minimal amount of initial resistance, she came along with me. The separation of our two couples had been a success. Now my task was to make this date entertaining.

“Do you want to go anywhere?” That was the first base I needed to cover. Knowing what I did about her, it would only cause frustration if I kept her from something she needed to do, no matter how fun the alternative may have been. We had taken care of her uniform, but I doubted that was the only thing she had wanted to go to the city for.

“I require a number of things,” Esther’s answer was as measured as always. I almost didn’t hear her words over the seductive tone of her voice. That may have been a load of nonsense, but as I listened to the smooth, melodic tones that her lips so effortlessly formed, it was doubtlessly true. Somehow, I made out the essentials. “...Primarily, I require food for the coming days and clothes for sport. Flexible items for athletics, and swimwear.”

Nodding, I showed my enthusiastic agreement. “Good idea, I should get some swimming trunks too,” I said, a bit stilted. My mind was too eagerly imagining the possibility of seeing her try on swimsuits. I had already revealed to her that I was more than a bit interested in her body, so I decided to show that I had a practical mindset as well. “I suggest we do the clothes shopping first - that shop is closer,” I changed direction and Esther, relying on me to find things, fluidly pulled along. I still got to keep my arm around her shoulder, which was a boon in and of itself. “We should buy the groceries last, in case you buy something that needs cooling ASAP.”

“ASAP?” Esther asked, raising a finely swung eyebrow. “Explain to me the meaning of those letters.”

‘Huh… she must have done very little chatting in her life?’ It fit with the image I had of her so far. Still, that was one of the most common acronyms. To not even know that spoke to a peculiar kind of sheltering (or isolation). “It means ‘as soon as possible’,” I told her in a casual, friendly tone. A better friend, I would have teased.

“Ah,” she made her understanding known. Amber eyes wandered from me to the clothing store appearing before us. “It appears you order things well, good Karitas.” She looked back to me, as our steps quickened in the approach of our first goal, “You’re attentive.”

“Only if I like someone,” I joked, taking my arm off her shoulder and hastily walking a few steps ahead. The automatic doors of the shop slid open, while I made an inviting gesture, “After you, my lady.” My most charming smile accompanied those words. It was the usual ‘gentlemanly’ ploy of getting to look at her round butt as she went ahead.

It worked like a charm. Esther followed the invitation without a word, a tiny smile showing on her gorgeous face. I followed afterI had gotten all of the rearview I conceivably could in such a short timeframe. Only when we were both inside, orienting ourselves, did she continue the conversation, “It has been a while since I was addressed with that title - yesterday aside.”

“My lady?” I asked, just to be sure. That particular kind of addressing a woman had gotten somewhat out of fashion due to overuse. Admittedly, I could get away with it because I wasn’t an exceedingly ‘nice guy’ with body issues.

“Indeed,” she answered while reading a store sign that laid out what could be found on which floor. “Even those that called me a lady seldomly stood with me…” She pulled her shoulders back.

Her voice went quieter with each word and then she ceased talking altogether. Whatever she just recalled must have been highly unpleasant or even painful. In an odd way, I was happy about that. Even alluding to something like that was a sign of growing trust, even if she didn’t share the details. I decided my best course of action was to keep quiet and just stand close. Closer than a stranger, closer than a regular friend even. I had to keep walking the tightrope between making my intentions known and not pushing her further than she wanted to be pushed.

I managed and my reward was almost a tiny gesture. Compared to the amount of body contact we had managed to have in the span of less than 48 hours, it seemed almost insignificant. She simply raised her hand and rested it on my arm for a moment. “You are an unusual one, Karitas,” Esther said, her tone neutral, and her hand retreating after a little tap. Nevertheless, it felt like a compliment. Firmly, she added, “Let us continue, time is finite.”

“You have more of it than I do,” I dared to joke, trying to relax the situation a bit.

“As a resource, you are technically correct,” Esther responded fluidly. Given how hard it was to keep her talking, I was satisfied with that. “Treating my Artefact’s abilities as anything more than an advantage in battle would be inaccurate, however. I merely meddle with the relative truth of time when it comes to my location in the flow. I cannot stop time. Neither can I actually travel through it.”

“That would be a bit much anyway,” I closed my eyes, concentrated for a moment and then opened them again. Between my fingers I held a flower that could be seen as a rose. It had no thorns, but the way its many petals layered reminded of that beautiful flower. The flower was made from silver, the surfaces a midnight blue under which sparkling dots shone like starlight. Jagged and smooth, the petals looked like polished glass. “I’m able to create things, sure,” I said and ran a finger along the edge of the petals to show that they were soft, “but what I create is flawed, temporary, needs to remain close to me, and obvious in its origin.” I offered the rose to Esther, who took it without hesitation.

She inspected my creation. In all the expected ways, at first. Turning it in her fingers, touching the petals, checking how it looked against the light, she tested its attributes. She smelled it and lightly tilted her head. Without oil to evaporate and create any pleasant fragrance, there was nothing to sense. Then, she fluidly ripped off one of the petals and held it between two fingers.

Isolated, the shard-like piece quickly dissipated, scattering into a bunch of particles that glowed like silver embers, before dimming into nothing.

“Hey, now I won’t get that Astral Capacity back!” I complained with a good spirited smile on my lips.

Esther gave me a glance that I couldn’t quite read. Perhaps she was reprimanding me for interrupting her experiments. I did notice that she also bowed her head a little bit, however. This raven-haired beauty seemed insistent on always standing as straight as possible for a humanoid with a spine. It was downright impossible for that to be a random gesture.

As we stepped onto an escalator, she handed the rose back to me. Once in my hand, the flower quickly lost its light and then faded from existence, without any further visual effects. I had drawn all the power it still had back into me and left nothing to fizzle out. When it was gone, we had arrived on the next floor.

The swimwear area happened to be closer than the general sportswear area, so we went there first. Since we both needed things and shops had male and female sortiments separated, we decided to split for the moment. I did suggest that we meet again at the dressing area, to which she simply responded: “Alright.”

Within two or three minutes, I had picked out basic swimming trunks and was headed to the cabin for testing. I wasn’t all that concerned with the design, basic black was all that I needed, but the level of tightness was vital. I was, with no false shame, well-endowed. This was a boost for my ego, but came with its own set of problems. Having short girlfriends was actually difficult for me. A piece of porn logic was that women like having their wombs squashed by a large cock. I could personally attest that this was not the case - quite the opposite. Only a certain few species, usually of the short and stacked variety, had evolved with the possibility of being that deeply penetrated in mind. Everyone else, well, I had lost a sexual relationship to being too well hung. I was still happy with my size, but I would have been content if it was smaller as well. Just not too small. There was quite a gracious window in which dick sizes were actually adequate.

When it came to clothing (and sportswear in particular) there was also a set of issues. Trunks too tight could lead to a very uncomfortable general experience. If they were too loose, however, the constant dangling would get in the way of basically everything. Hydrodynamic efficiency was a lesser concern than the horrors of jogging, but it was still a concern.

Taking the quickly chosen article to a cubicle, I pulled the curtain to the side and then stripped down completely. Once naked, I put the swimwear on. I did all of that without care or shame. I wasn’t an exhibitionist, but I also didn’t care whatsoever about being seen naked. If it hadn’t been for aforementioned dangling, skinny-dipping would have likely been my go to.

I looked at myself in the mirror and was pretty pleased with what I saw. Through a steady workout routine and body care, I had created a body I was happy to inhabit. Hairless from below the head and chiseled, I could call myself attractive in every physical sense without flattering myself. I wasn’t inspecting myself for my self-esteem, however. I had a healthy dose of that. No, my goal was to make certain that I was able to impress Esther and every woman that looked in my direction.

After nodding to myself, I stepped out of the cubicle. Esther was standing there, waiting and quickly turning towards the sound of the opening curtain. Whether she had known I was in there or had been waiting in general, I didn’t know. It hardly mattered anyway. “What do you think?” I asked, gesturing at myself.

If the tall woman of my wants was surprised, she hid it well. Not a single muscle in her face moved, but she flushed just a tiny bit red. Surprise was uncertain, but I got clear displays of another emotion.

A fang, clearly sharper than on a regular human, pulled on the left side of her lower lip as she bit it softly and took an audible breath. As she exhaled, she leaned ever so slightly forwards. I could feel her mustering gaze travel down my chest, my arms, my abs and further down still. Letting her objectify me for a minute was fine by me. Visuals were an important part of attraction, no matter how much people tried to convince themselves otherwise.

When it came to looking manly, I would say I was the middle of the road. I had a body that was neither slim nor broad. I wasn’t extremely tall, but neither was I short by any measure. My face was neither overly masculine nor was it androgynous. To say I was bland looking because I didn’t go to any extreme would have been dreadfully wrong, however.

White hair and blue eyes were a rare and eye-catching combination. My skin, on the paler side of things but still of a healthy complexion, stretched smoothly over shifting muscles. I had the body of an athlete and for once Esther couldn’t stop staring at ME. Validation for the many hours I spent training every week.

Finally, Esther realized how blatantly and quietly she had been staring and cleared her throat. “Your aesthetics are rather…” she stopped for a moment, her gaze naturally drawn to a bulge that I could, honestly, do nothing about, “…enticing.”

Already in, essentially, my underwear, I could be a bit more aggressive than usual. Using the stunning effect I had on her, I bridged the little distance between us with a few firm steps and placed my hands on her hips. Only her clothes were between us now. “You can do more than just look.”

Her one free hand, the other holding her own swimwear, took that offer instinctively. Once more, her hand was on my upper arm, this time squeezing my biceps testing the firmness. All girls I had been with in the past, that one crazy aside, would have stopped there and told me to change again. Esther kept going. Her hand explored my shoulder, neck and went down my chest.

Needless to say I was also more than a bit flushed at this point. Excitement stirred within me, knowing that at the very least my physical interest in her was mirrored. I leaned towards her. Kissing her lips was off-limits, I barely managed to reason that much. When I bowed down to her neck and tasted her sweet aroma, Esther had a single reaction.

She moaned.

Not softly, not quietly, just one clear, sexually charged exhale to be heard clearly for everyone in this segment of the store. I was ready to push her against the wall and take this as far as was decent in public. Admittedly, we were at least two steps beyond that already, but my mental facilities were confusing common social standards with the parts of Hell where succubae made up the majority of the population.

Esther was more grounded. The hand that had very slowly been brushing down my abs now became a firmly pushing force and I backed off. As little mind I paid to social standards, I did respect the boundaries of potential partners.. “I…” the raven-haired woman swallowed, “…I have to ask that we cease here. Your advances make me feel… pleasant. However, this is too daring. There are new experiences here that I will need time to think about.”

On one hand, the phrase ‘time to think about’ was raw poison, in my experience. On the other, I had successfully pushed her to the border of where she was comfortable with me at this time. Backing off now and trying again later was the proper strategy. I didn’t want to just bully her into a relationship. Not that Esther struck me as the kind of woman I even could bully into doing anything for me.

“Alright,” I stated, noting that her hand lingered on my chest after she stopped pushing me. I definitely had gotten this back on the right track. “I don’t want to force you into anything you don’t enjoy.”

“Your assertiveness is welcome, somehow. As stated, you are an odd one, Karitas.” The blunt statement put things into perspective and reinforced my current joy with the situation. She touched the spot of her neck where my lips had rested, just above the red collar of her shirt. “This was the first time a man’s lips touched me. A privilege you claimed forcefully, yet I do not feel annoyed in the slightest.”

“I mean, there clearly is something between u- wait, first time?” My brain needed a moment to process the implication of this. Doing something as harmless as kissing skin was something usually done at a much earlier point in life and preceded, either directly or in simple chronological order, a much more depraved act. It took several more seconds for the logical chain to come to its conclusion.

Esther was a virgin.

And the immediate question that rose to my mind was: ‘How?’ Were eyes a rare commodity in this world? Did everyone have theirs closed? Statistically speaking, mine were open wider than most, but her being gorgeous wasn’t the kind of observation that required deeper knowledge about the machinations of the universe and the Dimensional Truth. Just being an average man (or lesbian leaning woman) with a sex drive would be enough.

I hadn’t assumed her to be a slut or anything like that, but a woman who let someone fondle her breasts the day she met him was not someone I would categorize as innocent. My assumption was that she was openly interested and just didn’t care to hold back. The kind of woman that didn’t get along well with others of her own sex because of how blunt she was.

Instead, she was (most likely) a virgin.

‘That just makes the boob-fondling I was allowed to do that much more special,’ I had yet another epiphany, one that put a huge grin on my face. A grin that quickly vanished when Esther walked away from me.

“We should continue. Change back,” she stated, sitting down on one of the benches outside the cubicles.

“Don’t you want to try your swimsuit on?” I asked, eyeing the apparent one-piece thing. It seemed to be of the ‘proper’ variety. Personally, I preferred whatever showed the most skin, but I would have taken the visual tread of any kind of skintight clothing on her. Plus, time she spent changing was time I could use trying to talk her into something more daring.

“I know my own measurements, I have no need to try anything on,” she informed me and there was just a hint of cheekiness in her eyes. It seemed she was taking a bit of joy in teasing me. It also seemed that she was once more looking at my groin - albeit the former bulge had turned into a clear tent.

I would have continued to haggle for a little while longer, be it only jokingly, but I noticed both the giggle of a nearby clique of people and the distant, impatient glare of a security guard. I locked eyes with that man for a moment and the signal was clear. Either I could leave with Esther now or I would leave the store with some kind of warning.

“Give me a minute, I’ll change back,” I hastily said, more for the security guard than Esther. The clique I didn’t care about, but getting thrown out of the clothing store would have been a problem. Especially if they gave me some kind of ban, temporary or permanent. ‘I should keep things tame while we’re still in here,’ I thought, realizing we still needed to buy sportswear.

With that in mind, the rest of our impromptu date went by in a casual fashion. I made my flirting advances here and there, and I was slowly getting the hang of keeping a conversation between us going. My arms only ever went around her shoulder and my hands I kept to save tasks. The security guard followed us until the cash register. When we were outside, I managed to spin that into a joke that made Esther seem amused.

We spent a couple of hours just wasting time, finding ever new things to occupy our curiosity with. Time went by in a flash. When it became time to think about dinner, Esther insisted we finally went and bought those groceries. Having a sneaking suspicion that I was in for a repeat of the catastrophe of this morning if I refused her, I agreed. With the buying of the groceries and the need to store them in a fridge as quickly as possible, our ‘date’ was officially at an end.

So, we returned home.

Esther prepared herself something to eat, then retreated to her room with few words. I said my goodbye and decided to leave her alone for the rest of the day. There was enough progress made and, if I wanted to keep impressing her with my body, I actually had to work on maintaining it. I spent most of the evening wondering how much protein I needed to afford and doing sit-ups.

Willt and Arlethia returned a couple of hours later. The red-skinned succubus promptly joined me in my workout and started to grill me in the progress of the day. When I had reported everything of note to her, except my current theory that Esther was a virgin, Arlethia seemed amused and dumbfounded. She gave me a few tips of the joking variety, which devolved into the usual banter. Eventually, I went for a shower and then for an early sleep.

I had things to do the next morning.