“My deepest gratitude, that you bless me with your presence,” I said and bowed down to kiss the back of her hand, “milady.”

A blushing smile appeared on Aclysia’s composed face. Before she could form a proper response, Arlethia chimed in. “He’s just flirting with you to get bigger tips. I mean, just look at what he’s wearing. He’s fucking asking to be ordered around.”

“Dear customer, in this establishment we value proper language,” I responded.

“Karitas, stop loitering in the fucking entrance!” Hannibal shouted from inside.

“Ya were saying?” the short succubus asked smugly and strut past me. I sighed and conceded this particular verbal match. Willt followed his girlfriend, I kept my hand on Aclysia’s and guided her to the bar. All three of them sat down. Well, Arlethia less sat down than jumped up in order to reach the bar stool.

“Can I… see the menu?” Willt asked carefully, as if Hannibal would reach over the counter and drag him off the stool if he said something wrong. Entirely unfounded. Hannibal would never drag someone over the bartop.

“Sure,” Hannibal responded, sliding the plastic-wrapped booklet over between two gulps of his drink. “So, you lot are friends of these oddballs?”

“Sadly, yes,” Arlethia responded.

“I have great interest in Karitas and Esther,” Aclysia practically made it known that she was trying to be more than just a friend. Orderly, she placed both her hands flat on the bar. Unlike Arlethia and Willt, who were casually slumped, she sat perfectly straight. “May I ask for a recommendation on the red wine?” Hannibal started listing off their selection and, once Aclysia had made her choice, Esther was sent to fetch it. “She must be serving well to be promoted to bartender already,” Aclysia remarked.

“Yes and no,” Hannibal said while Mathilda walked around the room, quietly triple-checking everything. “She’s a true workhorse, but she gets a bit possessive of the philosophising guy sometimes and that’s bad for business.”

“Maybe Karitas should flirt less,” Arlethia suggested.

“Like that will ever happen,” Hannibal laughed, just as the lady of my desires returned with the wine. Esther poured it, Arlethia ordered a beer, Willt asked for a bourbon.

“Your job is paying way too well,” I complained. “All you do is draw circles in a library, I have to run around the Café three times a week.”

“You do my job then,” Willt suggested, keeping his eyes fixed on me. “All you have to do is learn summoning.”

“What is your occupation?” Aclysia asked.

“I…” his voice grew more hesitant the moment he addressed someone he was less familiar with. “…you know…”

“Willt is an assistant demon communicator. He helps set up rituals before summoning classes,” Arlethia came to her introverted boyfriend’s rescue. Boasting, she added, “He’s the youngest to ever have been accepted in that position.”

“People usually don’t apply…” Willt tried to downplay it.

“By the way,” Hannibal turned to Aclysia. “Kind of obvious, but you’re one of Derilea’s daughters, yeah?”

“That is correct,” Aclysia responded and lowered her head. Derilea was the Queen of Taurus’ Anomalia, the Headmaster and founder of Welldark. Practically speaking, Aclysia was part of the royalty of the university. Not that it meant much, as Hannibal demonstrated by nodding in acknowledgment and otherwise ignoring the topic.

“I think she would do splendidly on the other side of the bar,” I added semi-jokingly. Aclysia had been raised with discipline and diligence in mind and something about the Derilea bloodline seemed to produce women who were delighted at the prospect of being maids. Aclysia had openly professed to me that being caretaker of the house of her Anomalia was her goal in life and sometimes talked about her sisters having achieved the same station.

Aclysia shook her head at the suggestion. “Although I do admit that a job at a maid café would fit me, I cannot pick up any job where I am a visible part of the proceedings. It would draw undue attention to the store.”

“Not like you’re short on money anyway, eh?”

“It is a point of policy that we, father’s children, receive no additional funds,” Aclysia responded, only to sigh. “Albeit our Anolia do like to dote on us.”

“It’s what parents do,” Arlethia shrugged. Anolia were not exactly parents. The word described women who were part of a father’s Anomalia, without being the actual mother of the child in question.

“Aunt would be more appropriate as a simile,” I commented. “Women in an Anomalia strike me more as a sorority than sharing a womb.”

“Details,” Arlethia waved.

“The devil is in the details, Arlethukinia, and one of your descent should worship the devil with great veneration.”

“Why do you insist on using my full name all the time?!”

“...because your reaction amuses me?” I chuckled and glanced at the two bags my friends had placed on the ground between their feet and the bar. “Anyway, how was the shopping trip?”

“Already sent you a message with the location of the lingerie shop we went to,” Arlethia responded swiftly, before taking a huge gulp of her beer. Her nimble tongue slithered over her upper lip, taking care of excess foam. “You two should go and try some stuff on. They do measuring and everything.”

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“I decline,” Esther said swiftly. Trying on bras required her to go topless, which was not an option at the moment.

I did want her to overcome that particular limitation. Witnessing the lady of my heart halt at all of these self-imposed roadblocks saddened me. The reason for her denial was more than understandable. The scars on her back were hideous, trying to hide them only natural. Still, going on like this forever did not strike me as healthy. I wanted her to come to terms with who she was, including the ugliness she could not change.

Pressuring her into revealing her back to a bunch of strangers was way too forceful a step in that direction.

“Maybe some other time,” I therefore agreed with Esther and dropped the topic, instead addressing Aclysia. Before I decided on a replacement topic, the arrival of other guests pulled me away. Since Esther was behind the bar today, Mathilda and I were on task to take orders.

For now, I still had a job to do.

____________________________________________________________________

It was a nice, slow shift. Most of the customers were regulars and drinking was kept to a moderate amount, meaning that I didn’t have to move around too much. A group of five, we talked quite a lot. To be more precise, Arlethia and I did the majority of the talking. Esther and Aclysia weighed in regularly and Willt went from barely to occasionally involved as the night continued. Personally, I attributed that more to the alcohol than to him getting comfortable around all the people he didn’t know yet. Most of the time he had opened his mouth during the night, it had been to take another sip of liquor.

Esther and I ended our shift at midnight. Past that point, it was highly unusual for someone new to arrive, so activity was limited to serving who was already there. We changed back, met our friends outside the bar, and all of us started our trip home. Regular students of the first and second semester were housed in a skyscraper specifically for them. Us five, Arlethia and Willt courtesy of me inviting them, had been assigned mansions west of those skyscrapers. Although Esther had her own, Aclysia was the only one of us to live in a different one. Something that I was sure would change in the coming months.

“Steady,” I said to Willt, walking next to my oldest friend, always ready to catch him should he stumble. The slender man didn’t look like he could drink a lot and tonight had been another confirmation of that fact. Why he kept doing it to himself despite the horrible hangovers he got, I could not quite understand. When I drank, even when I mercilessly overdid it, I was out for a few hours the next morning at worst. Willt lost an entire day to the aftereffects of his binges.

“He can walk, don’t worry so much,” Arlethia assured me.

Doubtfully, I glanced back and forth between her and her boyfriend. Willt moved as if he was about to master a forbidden martial art. It was, however, true that we still moved at a regular speed and the young warlock hadn’t fallen yet. After scratching the back of my head, I decided to relax and let the evening progress as it would.

We went further south, towards the centre of the city. There was a quicker way to the train station, undoubtedly. Following the main road had the advantage of shutting our brains off as we walked. Willt was drunk, Arlethia tipsy, and Aclysia… I did not know what Aclysia was. She had drunk a moderate amount of wine. Diligent behaviour was so deeply drilled into her that even now her body language remained straight and proper. Esther and I were sober.

‘Actually, this may be an opportunity,’ I thought. I had suddenly remembered that Esther hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in her life. A bar made for a poor environment for a first try. A few beers or other spirits among friends, a few metres away from one’s bedroom, that was the proper place to dabble in booze. “How about we have a little afterparty? A few drinks back home?”

The suggestion reached willing ears. “Yes!” Willt exclaimed with drunken enthusiasm.

“I’d be happy to spend more time with you tonight,” Aclysia responded, less interested in the drinks and more in the socializing. Completely legitimate, especially in our current dynamic. Over two months had elapsed since we had first confessed a mutual interest in her joining my Anomalia. Since I had Esther to satisfy my immediate desire for companionship, I wasn’t pressing Aclysia as much. I had less time for it. From her side, the maidly woman was holding back on full commitment as well.

Joining an Anomalia was a big decision. Most that formed this early in the first semester were relationships like that of Willt and Arlethia – couples who were already established before they moved to Welldark. My relationship with Esther was anomalous in how quickly it had become a true Anomalia. Given how much we both had mulled over that decision, the drama, heartache and joy that had accompanied it, I deemed that we had made it wisely.

“I will retreat, should I get tired,” Esther added her opinion to the mix, after some contemplation.

Last of us to voice her opinion would have been Arlethia, but her thirsty eyes already spelled out what she would be doing the second we were home.

Locating a store that was open at this hour was incredibly easy. As could be expected of a city whose economy existed solely to cater to the needs of young adults, many shops were open around the clock. A supermarket by the city centre offered exactly what I was looking for.

I entered with Aclysia, leaving Esther and Arlethia to prevent Willt from following us. Between his drunken stupor and his full wallet, I was afraid we would leave the store with a crate of beer. That was more than I needed and definitely more than I wanted to carry at the moment.

We bought two bottles of wine, a six pack of beer, and a bottle of ouzo. The entire reason why I had picked that spirit out of all that were on display was that ouzo could be mixed with flat tap water. That was no Bloody Mary, but it was definitely serviceable, cheap, and easy to transport. Rather than buy a bag along with all of that, I simply created one with my Artefact.

I closed my eyes and wove the fabric mentally. Flexible materials were more difficult than rigid ones. After about five seconds, I felt the handle manifest in my hand. I opened my eyes and inspected the bag. The semi-translucent silver of consolidated Astral Capacity was outstandingly beautiful. Interspersed dots, connected via thin lines, like constellations naturally decorated the thin ‘cloth’.

I loaded the bottles into the bag and we went outside. The trip home was uneventful, which only meant that the conversations were friendly and fun, to be remembered as a general feeling of the chain of events, less for the actual content. Since we took the train back home, there was a stretch of time during which we were seated. A blessed occurrence, as it allowed me to sit between the squishy thighs of Esther and Aclysia.

Often when the three of us hung out, I did get this delightful glimpse into the proper harem life. My arms were around their waists, wandering up and down their sides. Both were willing, stretching to nuzzle against my side and the palm of my hand. Cupping tits, squeezing thighs and groping butts, my greedy grabbers found the delicious variances of female squishiness.

Perhaps even greater than the ease with which they offered their bodies to me was the actions they took. One could posit that they were returning the favour I gave them, stimulating their sensitive skin with my careful caress. I would return that every moan I caused, every tiny, lustful sighs that reached my ears, was my gain. The way they then explored my toned chest by moving their hands over my shirt was an additional return on the investment of my time and love into their lives. Their soft lips pressing against my neck, that was beyond any economic comparison.

Velvety, soft, warm, just a bit wet, their mouths were repeatedly pressed anywhere between my earlobes and my collarbones. Esther was to my right and I turned around to kiss her properly, while kneading her breasts. Accursed, her bra prevented me from fully teasing the doubtlessly hard nipple its cumbersome embrace hid from me. Even Aclysia, on my left, clad her breasts in the blockading cloth.