“Sometimes you deserve something like it,” I answered.

“Look,” Willt managed to find his voice, “I do like it. I want it to stay in the bedroom though. Can we do that?”

“No,” I denied.

“Definitely not,” Arlethia joined in, returning from the kitchen with a tray. On it were two bowls, milk, and cereal. A quick, easy, and traditional breakfast.

“May I inquire about the topic of blowjobs?” Esther chimed in; her omelette wholly eliminated while I still had more than half to go. A little knot in my stomach urged me to prioritise eating. I obliged and focused on listening.

“Still don’t have the courage to just do it?” Arlethia asked. I was aware that they had talked about this before. Esther and I had been together for over three weeks now and the two of them had been friendly before then. Willt and I talked about our girls, obviously our girls would and should talk about their men.

“It is an odd activity.”

“You’re talking to the wrong gal if you come at it from that angle,” Arlethia shrugged, her boobs, slightly bigger than even Esther’s, bounced under her black shirt, clearly free from the yoke of underwear. “Sucking cock was always completely natural to me.”

Willt nodded sheepishly. His face practically spelled out: ‘I couldn’t believe she hadn’t done it before.’

“I also have this though,” Arlethia opened her mouth wide and her tongue elongated until half its length was well past her chin. In less than a second, it slithered back into her throat. “You’re really talking to the wrong fucking woman if you want advice on how to overcome hesitancy in getting something hard and long down your throat.”

“My hesitancy lies less in the act itself. Primarily, I fear I’d lack the ability to make it pleasurable.”

“Got no pointers for you there, either. Just start small, I guess,” Arlethia said with the uncaring attitude of a species with a selective gag reflex. “You should just talk to Danielle about it.”

Even if I hadn’t been busy with the omelette, I’d have nothing to add. All assurances I could give that I didn’t mind if initial attempts were fumbling, I had and would continue to. With time and some more nudging, like I had done this morning, I was confident she would eventually give it a try.

Esther and I would be together for a long, long time. I hadn’t conquered a woman like her to let go. That being said, what I had of her was already enough to keep me content. My bartering was for the proverbial cherry on top.

Quiet settled over the table for about half a minute, during which most of us ate. Esther moved her chair closer to mine. The signal was obvious and I placed my left hand on her deliciously meaty thigh. In return, she embraced the arm and rested her head on my shoulder.

Eating an omelette with one hand was easy enough. The side of the fork cut through the cheese and the egg underneath. My left hand moved upwards, to places no one but I was allowed to touch.

“Too far,” Esther denied me only when I threatened to literally get into her pants. Grumbling, I stayed my hand at the base of her leg and squeezed. I would have gone for her boobs, however, after knowing the greatness that was their direct juiciness, a part of me died every time I felt a bra between them and my palm.

“We should get a maid,” Arlethia complained, after we all had finished breakfast. Esther was diligently taking care of our half of the plates. After she had loaded them into the dishwasher, she cleaned the kitchen of all remains of my cooking. “A really hot one.”

“If you want a maid in our Anomalia, you should hurry up and learn how to do it,” Willt teased his girlfriend.

“I’m trying, okay!” she cried and took the tray back to the kitchen herself.

Arlethia still failed at the ritual. Willt had passed the test this week, managing to mark one of the cards with his Astral Capacity. His was a Cross Anomalia, which mostly fit his character. The three typical characteristics for a King of Cross were to be cunning, bold and prideful. While Willt was far from bold, he definitely was cunning, particularly when it came to working smarter not harder, and he could be prideful when it came to intellectual sparring. In most conversations, it just didn’t come up.

“Like Karitas is trying to create the Ephrogaea Pill,” Willt turned his teasing to me.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I will succeed,” I declared decisively. The Ephrogaea Pill was one of the many alchemical concoctions that I had bookmarked during my research about sexual applications of the craft. Once taken, the pill boosted the activity of the male reproductive gland and caused a notable amount of sucrose to be released into the mix as a by-product. In layman’s terms, it boosted sperm quantity and added a fruity sweet taste to it. Expert alchemists could provide custom tastes or even create a version that made cum taste like deliciousness itself. As in: it would no longer have a definitive taste but simply be whatever the woman subconsciously desired.

I wasn’t at a level where I could get that much done. During each Alchemy class, all students got some free time to use the provided tools however they wished. So far, I had failed to bind even a single compound required for the Ephrogaea Pill.

“You really should bounce to simpler concoctions,” Willt recommended. Of the two of us, he was the better alchemist. He had more talent in this specific field. Not surprising, since the young warlock had always been the book smart part of our group and basic alchemy was a lot about sticking to the proper outlines.

“...maybe,” I answered slowly. I did have enough sense that jumping right into a difficult procedure had definitely not been the smartest path to take. I just really wanted the result, was the problem. “Did you do the additional reading about Nutheus, by the way?”

“I started out of boredom and did not stop until midnight,” Willt responded, a hint of excitement sneaking into his voice. “What a badass, rising from literal filth and muck, toppling an evil warlord, and creating the first slime society by sacrificing himself to become a planetary nucleus.”

“I know, right? Small scale compared to what Arthur did, but what a story.”

“We should visit that world if we ever can.”

“Absolutely.”

“Glad that you boys like your heroes,” Arlethia remarked, somewhat sarcastically. “Do you want to buy some action figures to go along with the classes?”

“I’d rather invest in some lingerie,” I responded honestly, squeezing Esther’s thigh a little harder. The Sexual Skills class yesterday had gone into the visual pleasures of outfits and underwear. No one needed to be told that certain varieties of underwear were sexy, but a lecture on what made certain outfits appealing and various strategies on when to wear what was enlightening. “We have the money now, right, lady of all my lust?” I asked, leaning in to kiss her behind the ear.

“I doubt that I am the lady of all your lust,” Esther responded while my lips wandered down her slender neck. “You are impossible to contain, perverted Karitas.”

“I never said only - and we have several hours of free time before we need to head to the city,” I reminded her. “Lingerie or not, would you consider appeasing my desires with that female form of yours? Fertility goddesses pale in comparison to your beauty. To stay by your side will keep me forever needful, for there is nothing but your presence that could slake my thirst for you.”

“Imma head out before I puke,” Arlethia wretched.

“How about we actually do go buy some lingerie?” her boyfriend suggested.

“Can we afford that, if we go into the bar later?”

“Of course, we can,” Willt responded smugly and they headed to the entrance. Whether they were in the room or not made little difference to Esther and me. Our lips found the other’s in sweet competition. Neither of us had any shame about displaying all feelings we had for one another publicly. Only undressing her was a no-no.

Despite my misgivings with her bra, my hand did end up on her breasts. She moaned into my mouth. I positioned myself to lift her up and carry her to my room. No further lewdness could unfold. Equal parts sadly and understandably, Esther’s scars prevented her from undressing unless there was a locked door between her and potential witnesses.

Had we not shared the house with my friends, I was fairly certain she would have, like me, been fine with doing it wherever. Neither of us were exhibitionistic, neither did we care about people seeing us in the act.

I had already lifted her up, ready for another round of lovemaking in this gloriously warm morning, when Esther’s expression showed a mild distraction. She reached to the side of her pants and pulled her Ashod out of her pocket. By pulling the two halves of the magical device apart, she created a screen between them. I did not approve of the distraction. However, the time between kitchen and bedroom was the only one she had to check. After that, I would have her pinned and moaning.

“Anything interesting?” I asked, recognizing the direct message interface.

“Aclysia wishes to meet us tonight,” Esther informed me. Interesting news indeed, enough so to make the corners of my lips curl upwards. The white haired half-elf was a woman I had my eyes on and the only one, so far, of the women who I showed interest in that Esther was definitely approving of.

Mostly, this was because Aclysia had shown that she respected Esther’s position as the Queen of my Anomalia well before it had become reality. They had talked in private and agreed on the rules of the courting. That she contacted the lady of my love rather than myself was another aspect of that respect.

A primitive part of me was annoyed that I outsourced my date planning. It stripped me of an aspect of my freedom, of choices to expand my harem. Everything else of me was elated that I had a loving partner who was part of coordinating that expansion. Minorly, because her advice would keep me from making terrible decisions and, majorly, because I had a partner that allowed harem-building in the first place. It was only right that she and any of my future haremettes had a hand in who else joined. A lifetime was not to be spent with partners one loathed.

Esther gave me the tiniest of smiles. With her proclivity for controlled expressions, it might as well have been a grin as wide as the one I gave her in response. “I shall invite her to the bar, perhaps we will find additional time for her past our shift.”

“That is a fantastic idea,” I answered, while entering the bedroom.