Rupegia

Chapter 98: Lordly Duties – Part 1

The girls come back, and we take our time in the bath, having fun playing with Poosh's body. Since the cute sheep seems to be open to some intimacy, Hana, Osaria, and I pounce on her and make sure that her pussy gets all tingly and sore again.

Alissa watches us intensely without missing a single detail, her hands bound to her legs so that she doesn't touch herself, but her hunger is clear for all to see. Meanwhile, the maids all silently watch as their boss is fucked until she can barely move, and I believe this is taken as some sort of "demonstration" since they all have a rather inquisitive air about them instead of just pure lust.

After we're done with Poosh, she begins using a [Regeneration] tool on her hips so that she can walk again, but I [Heal] her instead and give her my [Massage] treatment on her back.

"Ah, yes… thank you, your Highness," she coos in happiness.

"And thank you for playing with us," Osaria replies with a sultry tone.

Poosh knows more about [Massage] than I do, so she guides me towards all of her weak spots, and my human healing hands, both literally and figuratively, return mobility to her legs and restore her energy.

After a minute of wringing soft moans from her, she stops me and stands up, then gives me a deep bow. "Thank you again, your Highness, for allowing me to experience true bliss," she politely announces out loud.

I smirk, my dick twitching in satisfaction. This is exactly what I wanted to give her: bliss.

"You're welcome to come back anytime," I serenely reply.

She straightens up and gives me a warm, bright smile with a strong, motherly air. "I'm afraid I'll have to limit myself. If I were to indulge in your caresses, I'd ruin my work ethic."

I nod in understanding. Even I know that unrestrained pleasure is rather addictive, I've just learned how to reign it in when necessary. "At least come to us when you're feeling tired," I kindly suggest.

Her smile becomes even wilder as she gushes in happiness. "That, I will." Then she turns her eyes to Alissa, seemingly worried about my fox's tense demeanor. "Your Highness Alissa, do you wish for some intimate attention?" She asks concernedly.

"She does, but she won't get any today, as a punishment," I respond for Alissa with a smug smirk as I glance at her.

Alissa grits her teeth in anger and nods slowly, the wild fox within her trying to claw its way out. I'm sure that tomorrow, she's going to impale herself to death on my dragonator.

I actually do use the tentacle monster to help her relax, though. It's entirely possible to tease her until she breaks, so we'd ruin the slow roast if we cranked up the heat too much.

For dinner, we invite Dokkanchee as a celebration of a job well done. The old woman hasn't complained about her back again, so we also call for Sai so that she can make the alterations of Dokkan's spine permanent.

"My, this is quite a feast," Dokkan comments happily as she sits.

I smile kindly at her, and Yunia clarifies, "We only eat like this with guests. Though the food is always well-made, we aren't wasteful with our average meal."

Dokkan hums in understanding and nods sagely. "Ahh, I see. I'll have to change my opinion of Lords, then."

"Though the Goddess of Fertility frowns upon wasting food, we can't speak for all Lords," Ciel cautions her.

"If anything, I find it difficult to believe that you'd represent the average Lord," Dokkan agrees with a sly smirk.

"Indeed," Yunia quietly adds.

I remember the report we received of the state of the town and smile cheekily as I joke, "Well, considering that the town is still in a festive mood with a few orgies here and there, I'd say that we're quite chaste and lightweight drinkers when compared to the commoners."

That gets a few hearty chuckles, even from Sai.

"Did you enjoy yourself at the party?" Alissa "innocently" asks Dokkan.

The old bird woman runs a nervous hand through her white arm feathers as she lets out a slow chuckle. "I'm very thankful for what you've done for my back. It really allowed me to enjoy this party."

I… really don't want her to expand on that, so I get the girls to drive the topic away from that subject.

After we start our meal, I broach upon a matter I've had on the back of my mind for a while, "There's something I'd like to know about you, Dokkanchee. You seem to be able to notice 'something' going on between us. Something magical, I mean."

Sai raises her eyebrows, attentively listening. It doesn't matter what she knows about [Bind] since she's a Blood Slave.

Dokkan stops eating, her face serious and composed, and hesitates for a moment before answering, "I won't share your secrets, my… uh, your Highness."

I smile and wave my hand dismissively. "I'm not concerned about that. I want to know how you do it."

"Oh…" She mumbles in surprise, then her posture relaxes and she gets more comfortable in her seat. "It's a sense that grows on you after spending so long detecting variances upon reality."

"'Variances upon reality'?" I repeat curiously.

She knits her eyebrows in confusion, the white feathers on her head raising up. "You don't know?"

"No, that's why I'm asking you about it."

The feathers go back down. "Ah… I see." She takes a sip of her juice to wet her throat before she starts her explanation, "Well, as you might've noticed, [Jalowzeh Magic] both changes reality and fools the mind so that nobody notices anything, but with time, not even I can be fooled anymore, so I developed a sense for changes in reality.

"I see this 'variance' as small, subtle changes in reality between two of you."

So there really is a carrier of information between us.

"Can you elaborate? Describe any more details you might know about these 'changes,'" I press her further.

But she shrugs and smiles apologetically. "I'm afraid I can't. They're so small and subtle that it's like seeing a strand of hair for a split second. I can't even tell you the color of the hair. It's like… the horizon, or a fold in the piece of paper that we call reality."

"Oh~…" I hum in wonder and also understanding. This seems incredibly interesting.

She smirks subtly. "You do seem to have an idea about what I'm talking about."

And I mirror her expression. "The 'fold' analogy was really enlightening."

She nods gently. "Ah, yes. You're a Space mage, if my memory is correct, so it makes sense that it'd resonate with you."

"Indeed. Well, I'm interested in this sense of yours, so perhaps we could work on it in the future?" I turn my smirk into a grin as I make the suggestion.

But Dokkan doesn't seem willing, and shakes her head as she rejects, "I'm still just a shopkeeper responsible for discovering talents for Kabara Basaree, so research is a bit too much work for someone as old as me. Perhaps if you joined the magic school, then you'd find someone more willing to work with you." And she gives me a subtle sly smile.

I lean back on my chair and smile wryly. "I see…"

It seems that we have a good reason to visit this school.

The cunning old bird turns to Roxanne with a smirk, very proud of herself. "Have you ever been to Basaree? It's a beautiful place that I visit every so often just to enjoy the sights."

"Is it more beautiful than Goldport?" Yunia chimes in.

"Goldport is astounding, but Basaree is beautiful," she tactfully responds, trying not to offend my proud elven queen.

And Roxanne answers with a rather bitter smile, "I've studied in Xane, but I only got as close as Nakdevnitind before coming to Gilios, so I didn't have the opportunity to see it."

Dokkan hums in agreement as she nods. "Ah, that's still a beautiful place, nonetheless. Basaree is a large port town ruled by a joint government of Estekabar, Angels, and Gorosnegee, and they all try to outdo one another in every aspect of the town to attract more people than the others, so every year there's something new and interesting going on."

That piques Roxanne's interest. "Sounds like a good place for a vacation."

The occasional vacation over there would be fine, but if we were to join the Kabara Basaree school, we'd have to either be absent from our territory for a long time or pay an exorbitant price to go there regularly, and neither of those are an attractive option. Fortunately, there's a third.

"I can now cast the level fifty [Space Magic] spell [Eternal Gate], so maybe we can make our own teleport to Basaree in secret," I share through [Bind].

"Just don't get Alcander involved since it'd put him in a delicate situation. If we keep it a 'secret,' then he'd have plausible deniability," Yunia cautions us.

"You're talking as if we would get caught," Alissa comments worriedly.

Yunia shakes her head internally. "It's easier to keep everyone quiet and loyal when dealing with illegal activities if they know they won't get in trouble for their involvement."

Lina's Trivia: Creating a lawful [Eternal Gate] requires involving the Imperial Space Mage's Authority and also respecting any agreements already in place regulating the Gate, which drives up the cost of maintaining one by quite a lot since few rulers want free, unrestricted access to their territories by random strangers.

"There we go, I'm seeing the 'folds' again. It's honestly so interesting that I'm tempted to study it, but I know my limits," Dokkan discloses, her eyes darting towards each of us.

"I'm curious. Can you describe these 'folds,' your Highness Wolf?" Sai asks me, her cute brown eyes brimming with the desire to know more, but there's a cautious reservation as she knows it isn't so simple.

"If you can look into our souls, then perhaps you'll find what's special about us," I cryptically answer and give her an impassive expression.

She furrows her thin eyebrows and stares at my chest intensely like a child trying to use X-ray vision, but she gives up after a short while and gives me puppy eyes. "Hm… I heard you created skills related to the soul…" She tentatively mumbles.

I grin evilly. "Indeed, I did. If you want to learn [Sense Soul], I believe you might first need to learn [Soul Manipulation]."

"Ah…" She moans and frowns in horror. She knows very well how much Oritiki and the Celestial Horns are suffering to learn that skill.

"Soul…? Hm… so your souls or spirits are connected, somehow?" Dokkan guesses.

I grin at her and chuckle softly. "I can't answer that question."

She frowns, and her curiosity sours. "Hmph… Lords and their secrets," she grumbles in a way befitting her age.

After dinner, Sai finishes Dokkan's treatment, and we say our goodbyes to her. We're not sure if we'll have a reason to meet again in the future, but maybe we could visit the old bird every once in a while. She's a nice person to be around.

Then we retire to our room for the last cuddling of the day.

I find an interesting book in our personal library about an elf explorer who got himself a mer submarine and explored the depths of the sea. These sorts of books are quite popular as there's always a desire to explore among the populace due to the romanticization of adventurers, and those who can link their stories to local myths or legends quickly become favorites.

The MC explored the dark depths of a huge rift in the seafloor, and he found a very alien-looking environment, which was proven to actually exist. There, the plants feed off the heat of magma as it pours from the opening, but the "nutrient"-rich rock is then eaten by other animals and monsters as it cools, and the rift actually seems to expand with time.

The plants have a beautiful luminescence that was described in such a way that I'm sure they're radioactive. He even stated that it's poisonous to get close to them and warns future explorers to not bring them back up if they want to live.

He then found an odd cave that leads to an even bigger rift, which made him suspect that it might actually be a dungeon.

It was a completely dark place as it lacked lava and the plants that needed it, but it was still very warm, so there might be something living within.

Once he reached the bottom, he found a graveyard of bones. There were ribs as big as his submarine; skulls so large they could eat him as a snack; tusks and other sharp teeth that looked like they were made of metal, retaining their sheen even so long after their owner's deaths; and a small ecosystem of scavenging plants and moss.

As an avid cataloger, the MC spent a whole chapter describing them and theorizing on their way of life. He even made dozens of dissections that he depicted through drawings, attracting Alissa's interest. Underwater plants are very different from ground plants, so she likes seeing all the different and exotic anatomies and organs.

He suddenly felt a wave of dislocated water and became wary. His sensors told of no other small animal presence, and only very large beings could create such long waves that they'd originate outside of his sensor range.

As an experienced explorer, he immediately turned off the submarine and parked it under the skull of a large, unknown being.

But something had already spotted him since well before that.

He patiently waited in absolute silence without making a single sound. His [Hide Presence] was good enough to avoid just about anything, and his [Silent Action] had already proved essential to survive whatever else remained.

He waited for long hours, his sense of danger going haywire as a second displacement wave never came. He couldn't know if the being was either coming, going, or if it was just waiting for him to make a move, so he could only wait himself.

He thought he heard scurrying, but everything was so quiet that his own senses could've been fooling him. He knew a bored brain could play pranks on itself by imagining ghosts and other frightening things.

Then the heat started to get to him, and he found it increasingly difficult to breathe. His body was sweating so much that he'd soon pass out, and that'd be his doom if it came to pass, so he decided to act.

Suddenly, he heard a clink against the hull of his submarine as something sharp touched it.

"It's time to run!" His brain screamed to himself, and he made to touch the ship's main gem, but then a light shined upon his ship, and he gawked in terror at the creatures surrounding it.

The terrifying fiends immediately swam away, hiding from the light, but they weren't the true target of the light.

He looked up and saw a large lamp producing a blinding light through the eye socket of the skull he was hiding under.

Then the skull was lifted, and the terror increased to the point that his eyes thought he was going insane.

The being that stared down at him was impossible to describe as its visage refused to mark itself in his memories, but one thing was certain: it was beyond just a mere aberrant or animal. It was "Grand." It was The Leviathan, with a capital T and L, the true monstrosity of the depths.

It reached down with a huge, wide fin and swept his ship off the floor, raising it up so that it could take a closer look, and its many eyes bore holes through him like spears. It was so intense that they could've killed a man of a lesser level.

A slit opened horizontally on its face, revealing a dazzling set of huge, sharp teeth in a spiral, ready to grind away anything it ate into mush.

The mouth widened so much that it was all he could see through the glass of his cockpit, but what came next wasn't the blissful darkness of death.

His view of it was suddenly blocked by a large bright red tentacle, covered with small, round protrusions that led him to believe that it was actually a tongue.

It suddenly touched the dome of his cockpit and wrapped itself around it, then it rubbed slowly, as if The Leviathan was licking it in a very frightening motion.

After a few long seconds, the lick was complete, and the ship was unceremoniously dropped back down on the seafloor and covered again with the skull.

The Leviathan turned around as it stopped its own light, and the elf managed to turn the ship back on in time to register the many dislocation waves that followed in The Leviathan's wake.

The elf was so frightened that he would've pissed his pants if he could, but he was also awed, and many times more so.

So much so that instead of going back to the surface, the elf chased after The Leviathan after a mere moment of hesitation.

I close the book and give Ciel an apologetic smile.

"The lights," I whisper to the golems, trying not to wake up Lina, who's already asleep on my legs, and Ted silently turns them off.

Today is the 13th, Ne, day of water. For dwarves, this is the only day when it's acceptable to drink water like the other races drink water.

Lina refuses to confirm or deny this trivia.

I'm woken up by a very thirsty Alissa, who's struggling to hold herself back from touching her tingling pussy, but she finds some comfort in drinking my magical, tasty cum, so she weathers the storm.

I've gained two levels in [Massage] (now 0+3) and the title of "Shapeshifter." Could've been worse. If the commoners had any malicious intentions, they might've come up with [Tentacle Dicks], or [Eldritch Lord], or [Many-Dicked]. I guess their respect for me prevented the worse ones from gaining any traction.

I still want "Father of Dragons," though, so I guess I should "influence" them towards spreading that one.

We've all also received the "Protector of the Last Crown" title since we have the crown in our treasury, but that'll soon go away since we're going to be using the crown, not just "protecting" it.

I don't plan on making others call us king and queens yet since we haven't actually been crowned, but we'll prominently display the crown instead of just storing it.

I notice that my "Titles" are now taking up multiple lines and frown. "Do nobles usually get so many titles? The section is getting kind of… cluttered," I comment worriedly.

Yunia snorts snobbishly and smiles wryly before she responds, "Lords do, especially higher ones like us. Imagine what happens if everything you do ends up being the talk of the town. You'll accrue a few more throughout your rule, I'm sure."

Alissa and Hana are a bit conflicted about their own Titles, so they aren't comfortable knowing that we'll get many more.

For breakfast, I eat a sweet, crunchy toast that's really quite good. It has nuts and not-vanilla in it, giving it a subtle, but refined taste. This is the staple imperial bread that they love so much, and I can see why it's popular. Just a bit of butter and it's worth a chef's kiss.

Then we start our morning training, but today's setting is the sea!

We take a personal [Eternal Gate] to one of our estates, and this one is in Western Glorampina, on a cliff side with a great view of the sea. There's even a set of stairs carved into the stone that takes us down to a small private beach with a charming cave system that we can explore.

I sit down on the veranda and breathe in the salty air as the sound of waves massages my ears. There are a few seagulls, but they're far enough away that their cries aren't annoying.

The warm sun feels refreshing on my skin and scales, though I'm the only one who doesn't sit in the shade. Aoi has the highest body temperature of all of us, so she sits right next to the [Breeze] enchantment on the wall, and the cool air seeps in right under her scales, making her feel very refreshed.

I skim through Arreira's notes again and find an entry talking about [Blessing Magic]. He learned most of it through the golems and then improved on his knowledge through questioning some of the adventurers inside the dungeon. It seems that all of our armor was personally enchanted by him, or at least upgraded with Blessings.

Arreira seems to have been a very proficient enchanter, so if I find anything about enchanting in these notes, I'll pass them on to Lina. She'll certainly love that.

"I think I've come up with a good idea for a motto," Ciel suddenly speaks out.

"After the Intervention, it's quite obvious what you'll pick," Yunia immediately comments with a smug look.

"Well…" Ciel pouts annoyedly, struggling to come up with a proper retort. "Obvious is good! It's supposed to represent us!" She suddenly exclaims frustratedly.

"Alright… let's hear it," Yunia coolly requests, the smugness in her face giving her that sexy, superior elven look that I love so much.

Ciel's finger cutely traces the grooves in the floor boards as she fails to contain her irritation, then she embarrassedly reveals, "'Blessed by the light'…"

"Ohoh~…" Yunia coos victoriously as she covers her mouth with her hand.

"You should've made her guess first, then you could've embarrassed her if she didn't get it with perfect accuracy, which was very likely to happen," Roxanne advises Ciel, but that only makes her pout even harder.

"It's fine," I whisk my angel away from the depths of shame and give everyone a stern glare for them to hold back their bullying.

"If nobody has a better motto, we'll tell Almaria to carve it into our heraldry," Yunia calmly states, the smugness from before gone in a split second.

I'm partial to "Sun guides us," but the Intervention is a more important event than the naming of our fellowship, so I'm willing to go with Ciel's idea.

Krysta has prepared Kibbeh Nayyeh: raw ground lamb meat with wheat and spices. There's also a variation that uses cow meat instead of lamb, and it's seasoned more strongly.

The dragon within me actually wakes up, and Aoi and I eagerly feast on the raw meat. It's supposed to be eaten with the not-pita bread, imperial style, but Aoi and I like it so much that we'd gladly eat it on its own without any bread.

Hana looks at us oddly, trying to understand what we like about it so much, but she's pretty ambivalent about the dish. I guess dragonkin just prefer roasts instead of raw meats.

"I never imagined that raw meat could be so good," human-Aoi breathes in delight, almost forgoing the femininity of her form to gorge on it like an animal.

"Same-…"

Alissa puts a hand over my claws to stop me from grabbing more. "Let's share this dish, hm? Tomorrow, Krysta will make more," she gently reminds me, but the intensity of her stare tells me that she's enjoying this dish more than she'd like to admit.

After we eat, an army of clothiers rush in like a storm to take all of our measurements, all of them. Invited by Yunia and Roxanne, they're here to make better formal clothes for us, including underwear, and they don't have a lot of time to finish their job, so they do their best to not let their fear and awe of us get in the way of their work.

They're in a hurry partially because of the fact that we have to leave for our first official task as Lords: to kill a dangerous Aberrant.