We call the maids and they answer quickly.
"What do you wish of us, master Ryder?" Daiana asks and bows.
[Acting] gives me the assurance that I won't screw up my delivery, so I smile and say, "Well… We were talking about compensating Rudita for the inconvenience that we caused, so we thought about at least buying her dinner for her troubles, but we haven't met with her ever since that day, and we were wondering if you could help us with that."
"Hmm… bold," Suelen comments and nods approvingly.
Daiana nods, too, and says, "She enjoys that, but nearly every man that comes here asks her that at one point."
"But she's also always complaining that they're all boring men who overestimate themselves because they buy sex instead of earning it."
Daiana turns to me and smiles smugly. "Well, I see. You might be interesting enough for her, but she can get any magic dick she wants, so don't count on your dick doing all the work for you."
Suelen nods. "Indeed. If she agrees, then you'll need to properly entertain her or all your fame will wash away with the waves."
Feeling just a little pressured, I nod and they gracefully leave.
Tonight is a mix of cuddle time and massages for my sore muscles. Hana breaks me down, then she puts me back together with those big, strong hands. She molds my body like putty, and I bask for a little while longer in the pleasurable pain of well-exercised muscles.
Then I have another long feeding session with Aoi until my mana drops to a low point. After that, I slowly use [Redirect Mana] to refill myself without straining my body.
"I want to make a scar on you," Aoi asks.
"Right, that. Sure, let me put some points into [Pain Resistance] first," I say.
"What?" Roxanne asks, confused, and adjusts her glasses.
"I liked being bitten by that Goros woman, so I want Aoi to give me a scar," I say.
"Really?" Ciel asks, not amused, while Lina and Alissa look at us with a bit of worry.
"Why are you all worried? I'll just [Heal] myself," I say.
"You know that I don't like seeing you being beaten during training," Alissa says and frowns towards Hana, who shrugs and smiles. "But I know there's a reason for that. But this? I just… don't understand it."
"It's just some kinky shit about her leaving a mark on me. If I could, I'd like to give you all a bite scar, too," I say.
"Well, you could do all you want with me. Even leave a bite scar on my face," Hana says, but Alissa and Lina remain skeptical.
"It's like the slave mark you two have," I say and turn Alissa's left palm up, exposing her slave mark: a black circle with my name in the middle.
"But Aoi doesn't own you like you do us," Alissa says.
"But it still makes you happy that you have my name on your skin?"
She nods shyly, making her orange fox ears cutely bob, and says, "But you never let us show it."
"Because I don't want to see anyone treating you worse because you're a slave."
"Well, I have to admit, it has worked well so far," Hana says.
"Then I want to bite you, too," Alissa requests.
"I want to give you a scar on your dick," Hana says.
"Yes, Alissa," I say and smile warmly. Then I turn to the red evil being beside her and yell, "NO, HANA! BAD HANA!"
"Boo…!" Hana boos.
Roxanne frowns. "Yeah, biting is not a thing for us," she awkwardly says.
"Why?" Aoi questions.
She shudders. "A bad history with cannibalism… and sensitive parts are only to be licked, kissed, sucked, and fucked."
"The temple doesn't have anything against it, though," Ciel says.
"Do you want me to not do this?" I ask Roxanne.
"No, no." She shakes her head emphatically. "You can do whatever you want, especially if it's going to be a sexy new scar, but I don't think it's going to be that sexy for me."
I nod and look at the other girls, who shrug.
Then I turn to Aoi and give her the green light. She grows to her big-size and puts her long, sharp fangs against my shoulder. I don't even feel a prickle anymore.
Her fangs sink into my body and I feel just a little "odd" and "wrong." Then Aoi releases me and the feeling fades. Now I only feel even more "odd" and begin to notice the warmth of my own blood escaping from my wounds.
I cast many small [Heal]s to stimulate the growth of scar tissue. It feels ridiculous to me that I can just use [Regeneration] to make the scars vanish if they end up ugly.
My cosmetic surgery ends and I'm left with a small, but perceptible dotted line of scars around my right shoulder.
"Perfect," I say.
"KWEH!" Aoi screams, but in her small-form, having learned to have consideration for our sensitive ears. Then she crawls up to me and licks the small scars repeatedly like an excited dog, tickling me.
Alissa runs her hand along my skin and says, "I prefer actual battle scars, but this one does look cute."
"I'm so happy!" Aoi exclaims and continues licking my skin.
"Hm~…! That's hot," Hana says and starts licking my scars, too, but stops soon after. "Okay, licking them isn't as fun, though."
The other three girls shrug while the golems stare at us with their creepy and unmoving (literally) beady little eyes.
"Scars," Ted starts.
"Tattoos," Suzy continues.
"Piercings,"
"Are all ways of,"
"Becoming more,"
"Aesthetically pleasing,"
"But,"
"They all also have,"
"Complex humanoid reasons,"
"For existing," Suzy finishes.
"'Humanoid reasons'?" I ask, a little amused.
"As much as we try…" Suzy starts.
"There are certain things that, we cannot understand," Ted completes.
"That's fair… I guess," I say and chuckle.
Alissa grabs my right foot and bares her four pointy fangs. "Can I?" She asks.
"Go for it."
She punctures four small dots on the side of my foot and then gives it a few loving kisses.
I try to make my fox tail and ears look more life-like and then I slap Alissa in the face with it. For some reason she gets very annoyed and pushes me down, then she slaps my face with her tail so hard that it actually hurts.
"Ow! Was that a whip or a tail?" I ask.
"D-don't slap me again like that," she warns me and turns away in huff, then I see her face starts to redden very quickly.
"Hm? What's that? I smell… issues…" I say and smirk.
Roxanne smirks evilly and her [Water Spirit] falls flat on the bed like a puppet with its strings cut. "All the non-human races must have some 'taboos' about certain specifics of their race. We may have bumped into one," she says.
Alissa turns to Roxanne and almost sneers. "What 'specifics'? There's no 'issue' here. I just find it annoying to be slapped in the face," she says and turns her back to both of us.
"So annoying that you actually hurt your precious master whom you worship oh so much…" Roxanne says, slowly.
We both crawl towards Alissa. I grab her stiff tail and apply [Massage] to it while Roxanne wraps her body around Alissa like a constricting snake and their faces get so close that their noses touch.
"My lovely Alissa. You know that you can't hide your weaknesses from us, hm?" Roxanne whispers with all her charm. Even her horns seem to shine with perfect sharpness.
Alissa remains unmoved with a stern and defiant expression.
I make a succubus tail protrude from my shoulder and wrap it around her neck while Roxanne's enters her pants.
"Surrender to me, or we'll make you surrender," Roxanne whispers and slowly covers Alissa's lips with her own.
"Her tail twitched," I say.
Roxanne hugs Alissa and invades her mouth. Her cheeky little tongue steals Alissa's breath away and leaves her wanting for more as the succubus tail gives a brief stimulation to her clit.
Roxanne forces Alissa's head to turn to me. She's waiting for a kiss to finish her, but all that greets her is a mouthful of my fox tail hitting her face.
"Puh…! BETRAYED!" Alissa spits fur and yells, then immediately pounces on me.
I grab her and use my tail wrapped around her neck to pull her into a hug. She digs her nails into my back and I immediately steal a kiss before she can draw blood.
After annoying her so much, Roxanne and I work together to appease her.
Then Hana's fingers give me a brain massage that puts me to sleep.
But I'm soon awoken and regret not leaving Goldport immediately after the vision.
The two Hollys I had circling the inn yell a warning in my mind. Out of multiple buildings nearby, twenty-eight robed and masked people suddenly emerge and run towards the inn.
On the streets, there are only two drunks that immediately get spooked and run away as fast as they can.
"WAKE UP! ARMOR UP!" I bellow.
The girls jump and I curse myself for sleeping naked. We should've always slept with armor on! No matter what!
I pull out the crates with everyone's armor, and we hastily put it on.
"Wolfy, what's happening?!" Alissa asks.
"The inn is being surrounded by people in robes and masks!" I yell.
The robed and masked people suddenly stop when they reach each of the four corners of the inn and huddle up in groups of seven. They immediately start chanting and the amount of mana being released makes me go pale.
Even Hana feels the mana and mutters a faint "fuck."
A few seconds later, before we can put even half of our armor on, the spells are finished. My Hollys' eyes are nearly burned from the intensity as four [Meteor]s complete, and the four balls of fire and molten metal light up the night sky. The robed and masked people immediately turn to run away and disperse.
"NO!" I yell and open a [Gate] the size of the room.
We and the beds are all immediately teleported to the outside of Goldport.
"Wolfy?!" Alissa asks, completely confused as all the girls take in their new surroundings.
After five agonizing seconds, the entire inn gets blasted apart by the balls of flame that explode on impact. Splinters, flames, and molten metal spread across the entire block and rapidly ignite an inferno.
Even where we are now, far from West Goldport, we can still see a small light in the distance showing where the impact was.
A few seconds later, we hear a soft, muffled impact from the fading and delayed shockwave.
Ciel grabs my shoulders and forces me to look at her. "What happened?!" She asks.
"The inn… exploded… robed people cast [Meteor]… and blew it up… it's gone… everything is gone…" I mumble an explanation.
"T-take us back! We have to help the survivors!" Ciel exclaims and both of her hands painfully squeeze my shoulders.
The pain brings a little clarity back to me. "No, everything is covered in fire. We can't go back."
I free myself from her grip and turn around. I summon two more Hollys to scout the area around us and four Shads, then I open a [Gate] back to our room.
"Find them," I order the Shads and immediately close the [Gate] after they cross it. They suffer a little from the fire, but they can resist it much better than we could.
The Shads spread out towards where the robed men came from at the same time that the priests emerge from the temple's clinic near the inn. The people start to panic and run away, but the priests immediately start to organize the mob coming towards them.
A quick-response guard unit appears nearby and starts to control the flames.
The Shads enter the buildings and find access points to the sewers, but it's a spider web of tunnels filled with monsters and the mana trail of the robed men quickly disappears amid all the sewage.
The girls finish putting on their armor while I stand still, only with my normal pants, padded chest, and helmet on.
The coldness of the grass eventually makes me move. I walk over to my crate and fish out my socks and my boots, then I clumsily put them on and face the girls.
Grim and shocked faces. My yelling gave them the energy to put on their armor, but now there's nothing else for us to do.
Alissa walks towards me and pulls me into a hug. My eyes burn as tears well up in my eyes and run down my cheeks. She sniffs and our [Bind]s are flooded with grief.
The others join us for a group hug and Aoi grows so that she can cover us again with her wings. Then Gify turns on her "massage" and I grit my teeth as the massage dulls my pain, but that leaves room for anger to come roaring in.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why did we stay?! Why didn't we run away?! The goddamn brown eyes weren't the same as the eyes in the vision, but why did I think that person wouldn't be hostile?! Why didn't I consider that they might be related?! Why didn't I understand this for the warning that it was?!
Idiot, retard, son of a bitch, manwhore, cockbrain, dickhead, piece of shit!
I killed them, I killed them all!
Daiana, Suelen, their husband, Rudita, Nazli, Mina, Lunastra, Camila, Balbina, the staff, and all the guests! All dead because of me!
I've been trusting my Hollys and Shads so much despite their failures, and what happened?! They'd already failed with the invisible assassins, and then they failed with the brown-eyed person when I had the vision. Why did I think that they wouldn't fa-…
A slap hits my face and a crystal clear smack resounds through the open grassland. My cheek flares with pain and the force of the slap sends me to the ground. Alissa's pain-stricken face glowers down at me.
"STOP IT! JUST… STOP!" She shrieks.
"STOP READING MY MIND!" I shriek back.
"NOT IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE STUPID LIKE THIS!" Her face morphs into fury and she mounts me. She grabs the collar of my armor and butts heads with me. "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU BLAME YOURSELF LIKE THIS!" Spit flies at my face as she shrieks.
I grit my teeth in anger and grab the grass and soft dirt. I gather a handful to throw at Alissa's face but let it go before making a move.
My lip trembles and my defiance crumbles. My face distorts from the pain and my vision gets blurred by the tears.
I go limp in her arms and look away as I lose control of my tears. My vision is obscured by Alissa hugging me and crying along with me.
As my heart starts to calm, I focus my senses on Klein's Holly patrolling their camp. Everything is fine. Este's summons patrol the camp along with a few guards, the Shad is watching over Klein as she sleeps, and Osaria's bird is still sleeping soundly with her. Whoever wanted us dead so badly doesn't seem to have anything against them…
My tears dry and the numbing effect of the adrenaline rush begins to fade away, leaving me with only the pain of laying on the dirt for so long and the pain of my heart breaking apart.
Alissa releases me and I sit up. We all wipe our eyes and cheeks and stare at each other.
I feel numb…
Ciel is the one to break the silence, and there's only coldness in her voice. "Heretics. To kill so many, so recklessly… The God of Existence wouldn't let any of them even finish that spell if they were humanoids. They are heretics."
"You said there was more than one person? Did they work together to cast the spell?" Lina asks in a matching cold tone.
"Yes. Seven people worked together to cast a single [Meteor]. Four groups of seven cast four [Meteor]s in total," I answer, flatly. "It was [Ritualism]. Imperials."
Lina shakes her head. "The empire teaches [Ritualism] to all races and nationalities in their schools. Anyone with a good enough background could learn it."
"So, it wasn't Katasko?" I ask.
"The nobles of the empire are shady and cunning, but they aren't brutal murderers," Ciel says.
"Not even Darean would be able to hire such powerful mercenaries. Only the imperial army or a powerful lord's private army would have the mages to cast four [Meteor]s," Hana says.
"Only if the Gods are dead would the imperial army be infiltrated by the heretics," Ciel says and clenches her fist in rising anger. "Not even the heretics of Bestiaram are known to be so powerful! They are sneaky, backstabbing shit-stirrers, but they don't have the power to go against even a single Bestiaram king's army! Let alone come all the way here to level an inn in less than a minute!" She pummels the dirt with her fist.
"Were we even their actual target?" Lina asks and we go silent. After a few seconds, she continues, "They didn't use a [Gate] 'scrubber' to block us from escaping or even try to take out Wolfy's Hollys. Because of that, we had plenty of time to run out of the inn if we didn't try to put on our armor. And even if they had a scrubber, we would've had enough time to escape the main blast zone if we jumped out of the windows after the spell was cast."
Alissa frowns and says, "There were quite a few 'odd' people that gave off the air of shady nobles. It wouldn't surprise me if there were people with questionable backgrounds staying there."
"But the vision-…" I start.
And Alissa interrupts me, her anger flaring up again, "Told us about a far away battle with an unknown foe. The person with the brown eyes could be some spirit or someone we haven't met yet. We could even meet them again if that person was watching us and knows that we escaped the inn alive."
"Your mother was spying on us even without us knowing. Not every spy can be caught by the Hollys," Lina says.
We go silent again and I start putting on my armor, then I store the crates and pull out the armored dinghy.
I breathe in and turn to the girls. My heart is burning with pain, but my mind is clear. "We have to meet with Confiel immediately. We might have lost quite a lot of our bargaining power, but we need someone powerful as an ally. These heretics aren't people that we can fight with the power we have right now. Agreed?"
They all nod.
"Then let's go. We stayed for too long in an area that we're not really sure is safe."
Roxanne flies us towards Goloria while half of us try to get some sleep.
A fruitless endeavor since nobody would be able to sleep after this nightmare.
The fires are brought under control by the quick-response unit and when the rest of the guards come, the fire is finally pushed back and fully extinguished.
The inn is a complete wreck. It burned to the ground.
I try to watch and see if they found any survivors, but when they begin to pull the bodies out of the wreckage, I start crying again and dismiss all Hollys and Shads I had in Goldport.
Klein might end up hearing about this when she reaches the next town, but since my three summons are still with them, she knows that at least I'm alive.
Near dawn, we have to avoid a squadron of elves rushing on Gatuns and wagons towards Goldport. We'd rather not be seen leaving Goldport so that we won't raise suspicion.
Soon after that, we have to avoid a squadron of Templars that are also coming from Goloria. Their armor is polished until it shines, but if you look closer, you can see how it's full of scratches. These are the Punishers, an order of Templars specialized in hunting heretics. Their armor is a symbol of their dedication. A declaration that nothing will stop them and that the things that can make a dent on them only leave mere scratches on their armor.
After dawn, we enter the High Forest again and Roxanne switches with Ciel. The tiredness finally starts to take me and I get some sleep, but it's frequently interrupted by having to avoid monsters or other humanoids along the road.
We stop for breakfast and I manage to take a nap. Then I wake up to the smell of fried fish and sweet not-mango juice. Apparently, Alissa's homeland has tons of not-mangos called Chapefruit and they export a lot of them to the tropical areas because of how refreshing they are.
The meal is mostly silent since even Gify isn't eating with much enthusiasm.
I find comfort in Alissa's ears and Aoi's scales. My skin starts to feel slightly irritated from all the petting, but it's my coping mechanism.
"How's Klein?" Hana asks.
I smile as I focus on the bird's view. "Already back to being chipper as usual. She's talking to Laertes right now."
"Ah! Already cheating on you!" Hana hits her fist on the table, then smiles.
I chuckle. "They are discussing the idea of using the summoner's scouting birds as target practice."
"Summons have much slower reaction times than the original monsters and animals," Alissa says.
"Hm," Hana grunts and nods. "They likely aren't stressed out and overly-aware from surviving for so long in the wild, so of course they wouldn't behave the same."
"What about Osaria?" Ciel asks.
"Training the bird to do some tricks and teaching it how to be more 'life-like,'" I answer with a wry smile.
"Right, isn't she masturbating for you every day?" Hana asks and raises a red eyebrow.
"Not every day…"
Ciel facepalms and chuckles. "You might want to split your body into two so you can seduce twice as many women," she says and sighs.
"Create a summon that's a second you, then you can have as many wives as your mana will let you," Alissa says and her tail wags excitedly.
"The world deserves some of your love, but only some," Hana says and her feet start to rub on my crotch.
"And the original will only be ours," Lina says and her little legs wrap around my calf.
As long as we are together, everything will be okay.
I pull down my pants and the Penis Monster makes a second appearance.
I'll never be able to forget this day. There are dangerous people out there hunting for us and we need to prepare.
I swear. One day, we'll avenge the Innocent Nymph.
Announcement
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Oracle Maximillian Hübner.
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Lord DJ.
Lord Cidant.
Lord Ashadun.
Lord Michale Erwin.
Lord Joxsan Herrera.
Lord Enrique Peña Gomez.
Lord Vampmire.
Lord Braidborn.
Lord Bakerdea.
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Noble Salty Panda.
Nobleman Lassiter.
Noble Evil.
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Manasong
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We call the maids and they answer quickly.
"What do you wish of us, master Ryder?" Daiana asks and bows.
[Acting] gives me the assurance that I won't screw up my delivery, so I smile and say, "Well… We were talking about compensating Rudita for the inconvenience that we caused, so we thought about at least buying her dinner for her troubles, but we haven't met with her ever since that day, and we were wondering if you could help us with that."
"Hmm… bold," Suelen comments and nods approvingly.
Daiana nods, too, and says, "She enjoys that, but nearly every man that comes here asks her that at one point."
"But she's also always complaining that they're all boring men who overestimate themselves because they buy sex instead of earning it."
Daiana turns to me and smiles smugly. "Well, I see. You might be interesting enough for her, but she can get any magic dick she wants, so don't count on your dick doing all the work for you."
Suelen nods. "Indeed. If she agrees, then you'll need to properly entertain her or all your fame will wash away with the waves."
Feeling just a little pressured, I nod and they gracefully leave.
Tonight is a mix of cuddle time and massages for my sore muscles. Hana breaks me down, then she puts me back together with those big, strong hands. She molds my body like putty, and I bask for a little while longer in the pleasurable pain of well-exercised muscles.
Then I have another long feeding session with Aoi until my mana drops to a low point. After that, I slowly use [Redirect Mana] to refill myself without straining my body.
"I want to make a scar on you," Aoi asks.
"Right, that. Sure, let me put some points into [Pain Resistance] first," I say.
"What?" Roxanne asks, confused, and adjusts her glasses.
"I liked being bitten by that Goros woman, so I want Aoi to give me a scar," I say.
"Really?" Ciel asks, not amused, while Lina and Alissa look at us with a bit of worry.
"Why are you all worried? I'll just [Heal] myself," I say.
"You know that I don't like seeing you being beaten during training," Alissa says and frowns towards Hana, who shrugs and smiles. "But I know there's a reason for that. But this? I just… don't understand it."
"It's just some kinky shit about her leaving a mark on me. If I could, I'd like to give you all a bite scar, too," I say.
"Well, you could do all you want with me. Even leave a bite scar on my face," Hana says, but Alissa and Lina remain skeptical.
"It's like the slave mark you two have," I say and turn Alissa's left palm up, exposing her slave mark: a black circle with my name in the middle.
"But Aoi doesn't own you like you do us," Alissa says.
"But it still makes you happy that you have my name on your skin?"
She nods shyly, making her orange fox ears cutely bob, and says, "But you never let us show it."
"Because I don't want to see anyone treating you worse because you're a slave."
"Well, I have to admit, it has worked well so far," Hana says.
"Then I want to bite you, too," Alissa requests.
"I want to give you a scar on your dick," Hana says.
"Yes, Alissa," I say and smile warmly. Then I turn to the red evil being beside her and yell, "NO, HANA! BAD HANA!"
"Boo…!" Hana boos.
Roxanne frowns. "Yeah, biting is not a thing for us," she awkwardly says.
"Why?" Aoi questions.
She shudders. "A bad history with cannibalism… and sensitive parts are only to be licked, kissed, sucked, and fucked."
"The temple doesn't have anything against it, though," Ciel says.
"Do you want me to not do this?" I ask Roxanne.
"No, no." She shakes her head emphatically. "You can do whatever you want, especially if it's going to be a sexy new scar, but I don't think it's going to be that sexy for me."
I nod and look at the other girls, who shrug.
Then I turn to Aoi and give her the green light. She grows to her big-size and puts her long, sharp fangs against my shoulder. I don't even feel a prickle anymore.
Her fangs sink into my body and I feel just a little "odd" and "wrong." Then Aoi releases me and the feeling fades. Now I only feel even more "odd" and begin to notice the warmth of my own blood escaping from my wounds.
I cast many small [Heal]s to stimulate the growth of scar tissue. It feels ridiculous to me that I can just use [Regeneration] to make the scars vanish if they end up ugly.
My cosmetic surgery ends and I'm left with a small, but perceptible dotted line of scars around my right shoulder.
"Perfect," I say.
"KWEH!" Aoi screams, but in her small-form, having learned to have consideration for our sensitive ears. Then she crawls up to me and licks the small scars repeatedly like an excited dog, tickling me.
Alissa runs her hand along my skin and says, "I prefer actual battle scars, but this one does look cute."
"I'm so happy!" Aoi exclaims and continues licking my skin.
"Hm~…! That's hot," Hana says and starts licking my scars, too, but stops soon after. "Okay, licking them isn't as fun, though."
The other three girls shrug while the golems stare at us with their creepy and unmoving (literally) beady little eyes.
"Scars," Ted starts.
"Tattoos," Suzy continues.
"Piercings,"
"Are all ways of,"
"Becoming more,"
"Aesthetically pleasing,"
"But,"
"They all also have,"
"Complex humanoid reasons,"
"For existing," Suzy finishes.
"'Humanoid reasons'?" I ask, a little amused.
"As much as we try…" Suzy starts.
"There are certain things that, we cannot understand," Ted completes.
"That's fair… I guess," I say and chuckle.
Alissa grabs my right foot and bares her four pointy fangs. "Can I?" She asks.
"Go for it."
She punctures four small dots on the side of my foot and then gives it a few loving kisses.
I try to make my fox tail and ears look more life-like and then I slap Alissa in the face with it. For some reason she gets very annoyed and pushes me down, then she slaps my face with her tail so hard that it actually hurts.
"Ow! Was that a whip or a tail?" I ask.
"D-don't slap me again like that," she warns me and turns away in huff, then I see her face starts to redden very quickly.
"Hm? What's that? I smell… issues…" I say and smirk.
Roxanne smirks evilly and her [Water Spirit] falls flat on the bed like a puppet with its strings cut. "All the non-human races must have some 'taboos' about certain specifics of their race. We may have bumped into one," she says.
Alissa turns to Roxanne and almost sneers. "What 'specifics'? There's no 'issue' here. I just find it annoying to be slapped in the face," she says and turns her back to both of us.
"So annoying that you actually hurt your precious master whom you worship oh so much…" Roxanne says, slowly.
We both crawl towards Alissa. I grab her stiff tail and apply [Massage] to it while Roxanne wraps her body around Alissa like a constricting snake and their faces get so close that their noses touch.
"My lovely Alissa. You know that you can't hide your weaknesses from us, hm?" Roxanne whispers with all her charm. Even her horns seem to shine with perfect sharpness.
Alissa remains unmoved with a stern and defiant expression.
I make a succubus tail protrude from my shoulder and wrap it around her neck while Roxanne's enters her pants.
"Surrender to me, or we'll make you surrender," Roxanne whispers and slowly covers Alissa's lips with her own.
"Her tail twitched," I say.
Roxanne hugs Alissa and invades her mouth. Her cheeky little tongue steals Alissa's breath away and leaves her wanting for more as the succubus tail gives a brief stimulation to her clit.
Roxanne forces Alissa's head to turn to me. She's waiting for a kiss to finish her, but all that greets her is a mouthful of my fox tail hitting her face.
"Puh…! BETRAYED!" Alissa spits fur and yells, then immediately pounces on me.
I grab her and use my tail wrapped around her neck to pull her into a hug. She digs her nails into my back and I immediately steal a kiss before she can draw blood.
After annoying her so much, Roxanne and I work together to appease her.
Then Hana's fingers give me a brain massage that puts me to sleep.
But I'm soon awoken and regret not leaving Goldport immediately after the vision.
The two Hollys I had circling the inn yell a warning in my mind. Out of multiple buildings nearby, twenty-eight robed and masked people suddenly emerge and run towards the inn.
On the streets, there are only two drunks that immediately get spooked and run away as fast as they can.
"WAKE UP! ARMOR UP!" I bellow.
The girls jump and I curse myself for sleeping naked. We should've always slept with armor on! No matter what!
I pull out the crates with everyone's armor, and we hastily put it on.
"Wolfy, what's happening?!" Alissa asks.
"The inn is being surrounded by people in robes and masks!" I yell.
The robed and masked people suddenly stop when they reach each of the four corners of the inn and huddle up in groups of seven. They immediately start chanting and the amount of mana being released makes me go pale.
Even Hana feels the mana and mutters a faint "fuck."
A few seconds later, before we can put even half of our armor on, the spells are finished. My Hollys' eyes are nearly burned from the intensity as four [Meteor]s complete, and the four balls of fire and molten metal light up the night sky. The robed and masked people immediately turn to run away and disperse.
"NO!" I yell and open a [Gate] the size of the room.
We and the beds are all immediately teleported to the outside of Goldport.
"Wolfy?!" Alissa asks, completely confused as all the girls take in their new surroundings.
After five agonizing seconds, the entire inn gets blasted apart by the balls of flame that explode on impact. Splinters, flames, and molten metal spread across the entire block and rapidly ignite an inferno.
Even where we are now, far from West Goldport, we can still see a small light in the distance showing where the impact was.
A few seconds later, we hear a soft, muffled impact from the fading and delayed shockwave.
Ciel grabs my shoulders and forces me to look at her. "What happened?!" She asks.
"The inn… exploded… robed people cast [Meteor]… and blew it up… it's gone… everything is gone…" I mumble an explanation.
"T-take us back! We have to help the survivors!" Ciel exclaims and both of her hands painfully squeeze my shoulders.
The pain brings a little clarity back to me. "No, everything is covered in fire. We can't go back."
I free myself from her grip and turn around. I summon two more Hollys to scout the area around us and four Shads, then I open a [Gate] back to our room.
"Find them," I order the Shads and immediately close the [Gate] after they cross it. They suffer a little from the fire, but they can resist it much better than we could.
The Shads spread out towards where the robed men came from at the same time that the priests emerge from the temple's clinic near the inn. The people start to panic and run away, but the priests immediately start to organize the mob coming towards them.
A quick-response guard unit appears nearby and starts to control the flames.
The Shads enter the buildings and find access points to the sewers, but it's a spider web of tunnels filled with monsters and the mana trail of the robed men quickly disappears amid all the sewage.
The girls finish putting on their armor while I stand still, only with my normal pants, padded chest, and helmet on.
The coldness of the grass eventually makes me move. I walk over to my crate and fish out my socks and my boots, then I clumsily put them on and face the girls.
Grim and shocked faces. My yelling gave them the energy to put on their armor, but now there's nothing else for us to do.
Alissa walks towards me and pulls me into a hug. My eyes burn as tears well up in my eyes and run down my cheeks. She sniffs and our [Bind]s are flooded with grief.
The others join us for a group hug and Aoi grows so that she can cover us again with her wings. Then Gify turns on her "massage" and I grit my teeth as the massage dulls my pain, but that leaves room for anger to come roaring in.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why did we stay?! Why didn't we run away?! The goddamn brown eyes weren't the same as the eyes in the vision, but why did I think that person wouldn't be hostile?! Why didn't I consider that they might be related?! Why didn't I understand this for the warning that it was?!
Idiot, retard, son of a bitch, manwhore, cockbrain, dickhead, piece of shit!
I killed them, I killed them all!
Daiana, Suelen, their husband, Rudita, Nazli, Mina, Lunastra, Camila, Balbina, the staff, and all the guests! All dead because of me!
I've been trusting my Hollys and Shads so much despite their failures, and what happened?! They'd already failed with the invisible assassins, and then they failed with the brown-eyed person when I had the vision. Why did I think that they wouldn't fa-…
A slap hits my face and a crystal clear smack resounds through the open grassland. My cheek flares with pain and the force of the slap sends me to the ground. Alissa's pain-stricken face glowers down at me.
"STOP IT! JUST… STOP!" She shrieks.
"STOP READING MY MIND!" I shriek back.
"NOT IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE STUPID LIKE THIS!" Her face morphs into fury and she mounts me. She grabs the collar of my armor and butts heads with me. "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU BLAME YOURSELF LIKE THIS!" Spit flies at my face as she shrieks.
I grit my teeth in anger and grab the grass and soft dirt. I gather a handful to throw at Alissa's face but let it go before making a move.
My lip trembles and my defiance crumbles. My face distorts from the pain and my vision gets blurred by the tears.
I go limp in her arms and look away as I lose control of my tears. My vision is obscured by Alissa hugging me and crying along with me.
As my heart starts to calm, I focus my senses on Klein's Holly patrolling their camp. Everything is fine. Este's summons patrol the camp along with a few guards, the Shad is watching over Klein as she sleeps, and Osaria's bird is still sleeping soundly with her. Whoever wanted us dead so badly doesn't seem to have anything against them…
My tears dry and the numbing effect of the adrenaline rush begins to fade away, leaving me with only the pain of laying on the dirt for so long and the pain of my heart breaking apart.
Alissa releases me and I sit up. We all wipe our eyes and cheeks and stare at each other.
I feel numb…
Ciel is the one to break the silence, and there's only coldness in her voice. "Heretics. To kill so many, so recklessly… The God of Existence wouldn't let any of them even finish that spell if they were humanoids. They are heretics."
"You said there was more than one person? Did they work together to cast the spell?" Lina asks in a matching cold tone.
"Yes. Seven people worked together to cast a single [Meteor]. Four groups of seven cast four [Meteor]s in total," I answer, flatly. "It was [Ritualism]. Imperials."
Lina shakes her head. "The empire teaches [Ritualism] to all races and nationalities in their schools. Anyone with a good enough background could learn it."
"So, it wasn't Katasko?" I ask.
"The nobles of the empire are shady and cunning, but they aren't brutal murderers," Ciel says.
"Not even Darean would be able to hire such powerful mercenaries. Only the imperial army or a powerful lord's private army would have the mages to cast four [Meteor]s," Hana says.
"Only if the Gods are dead would the imperial army be infiltrated by the heretics," Ciel says and clenches her fist in rising anger. "Not even the heretics of Bestiaram are known to be so powerful! They are sneaky, backstabbing shit-stirrers, but they don't have the power to go against even a single Bestiaram king's army! Let alone come all the way here to level an inn in less than a minute!" She pummels the dirt with her fist.
"Were we even their actual target?" Lina asks and we go silent. After a few seconds, she continues, "They didn't use a [Gate] 'scrubber' to block us from escaping or even try to take out Wolfy's Hollys. Because of that, we had plenty of time to run out of the inn if we didn't try to put on our armor. And even if they had a scrubber, we would've had enough time to escape the main blast zone if we jumped out of the windows after the spell was cast."
Alissa frowns and says, "There were quite a few 'odd' people that gave off the air of shady nobles. It wouldn't surprise me if there were people with questionable backgrounds staying there."
"But the vision-…" I start.
And Alissa interrupts me, her anger flaring up again, "Told us about a far away battle with an unknown foe. The person with the brown eyes could be some spirit or someone we haven't met yet. We could even meet them again if that person was watching us and knows that we escaped the inn alive."
"Your mother was spying on us even without us knowing. Not every spy can be caught by the Hollys," Lina says.
We go silent again and I start putting on my armor, then I store the crates and pull out the armored dinghy.
I breathe in and turn to the girls. My heart is burning with pain, but my mind is clear. "We have to meet with Confiel immediately. We might have lost quite a lot of our bargaining power, but we need someone powerful as an ally. These heretics aren't people that we can fight with the power we have right now. Agreed?"
They all nod.
"Then let's go. We stayed for too long in an area that we're not really sure is safe."
Roxanne flies us towards Goloria while half of us try to get some sleep.
A fruitless endeavor since nobody would be able to sleep after this nightmare.
The fires are brought under control by the quick-response unit and when the rest of the guards come, the fire is finally pushed back and fully extinguished.
The inn is a complete wreck. It burned to the ground.
I try to watch and see if they found any survivors, but when they begin to pull the bodies out of the wreckage, I start crying again and dismiss all Hollys and Shads I had in Goldport.
Klein might end up hearing about this when she reaches the next town, but since my three summons are still with them, she knows that at least I'm alive.
Near dawn, we have to avoid a squadron of elves rushing on Gatuns and wagons towards Goldport. We'd rather not be seen leaving Goldport so that we won't raise suspicion.
Soon after that, we have to avoid a squadron of Templars that are also coming from Goloria. Their armor is polished until it shines, but if you look closer, you can see how it's full of scratches. These are the Punishers, an order of Templars specialized in hunting heretics. Their armor is a symbol of their dedication. A declaration that nothing will stop them and that the things that can make a dent on them only leave mere scratches on their armor.
After dawn, we enter the High Forest again and Roxanne switches with Ciel. The tiredness finally starts to take me and I get some sleep, but it's frequently interrupted by having to avoid monsters or other humanoids along the road.
We stop for breakfast and I manage to take a nap. Then I wake up to the smell of fried fish and sweet not-mango juice. Apparently, Alissa's homeland has tons of not-mangos called Chapefruit and they export a lot of them to the tropical areas because of how refreshing they are.
The meal is mostly silent since even Gify isn't eating with much enthusiasm.
I find comfort in Alissa's ears and Aoi's scales. My skin starts to feel slightly irritated from all the petting, but it's my coping mechanism.
"How's Klein?" Hana asks.
I smile as I focus on the bird's view. "Already back to being chipper as usual. She's talking to Laertes right now."
"Ah! Already cheating on you!" Hana hits her fist on the table, then smiles.
I chuckle. "They are discussing the idea of using the summoner's scouting birds as target practice."
"Summons have much slower reaction times than the original monsters and animals," Alissa says.
"Hm," Hana grunts and nods. "They likely aren't stressed out and overly-aware from surviving for so long in the wild, so of course they wouldn't behave the same."
"What about Osaria?" Ciel asks.
"Training the bird to do some tricks and teaching it how to be more 'life-like,'" I answer with a wry smile.
"Right, isn't she masturbating for you every day?" Hana asks and raises a red eyebrow.
"Not every day…"
Ciel facepalms and chuckles. "You might want to split your body into two so you can seduce twice as many women," she says and sighs.
"Create a summon that's a second you, then you can have as many wives as your mana will let you," Alissa says and her tail wags excitedly.
"The world deserves some of your love, but only some," Hana says and her feet start to rub on my crotch.
"And the original will only be ours," Lina says and her little legs wrap around my calf.
As long as we are together, everything will be okay.
I pull down my pants and the Penis Monster makes a second appearance.
I'll never be able to forget this day. There are dangerous people out there hunting for us and we need to prepare.
I swear. One day, we'll avenge the Innocent Nymph.
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