I drive the dinghy towards home.

My heartbeat slows and I feel heavy. It started and ended so suddenly I'm still processing things.

The town slowly returns to life as the population cautiously go out of their homes to check the damage. Corpses of harpies litter half the town, even a few blocks from our home there was blood spatter.

The harpy's suicide attack is just another part of life here, and also just another cycle for the harpies too. Their numbers grow until unsustainable levels, then they attack with all they have.

I'm getting used to the sudden need to fight. I won't have a second episode like on our first trip to the Morning Dew, but it doesn't mean that the aftermath is getting easier. The smell of blood is stuck on my nose, the screams of pain ring in my ears, the chaos of battle repeats in my mind.

How can the Lord get used to this? Seeing his own men die, see them cry before their deaths, the helplessness before such a large amount of enemies, the confidence that in the end everything will be okay. Warfare is so different from hunting.

We reach home and suddenly Hana lifts me off the ground with a bear hug. -.

-

It seems everyone was in need of some stress relief.

After we finish our dinner, everyone's faces are of content.

Gih.

Oh, right.

"So, Alissa. You never told us who your parents really are," I say.

"Neither did you," she answers calmly.

"We guessed you weren't comfortable talking about your family," Ciel says.

"I guess that you guessed right," I say and smile wryly. "I wanted to forget but it's not that easy."

"You shouldn't forget," Ciel says.

"So," Alissa claps her hands, "who are your parents?"

I breathe in deeply. I really don't want to talk about this but…

Gih.

Yeah, I should.

"My mother is a teacher, she teaches young children. My father was a factory worker, he's retired now."

"Factory?" Lina asks.

"Like a craftsman, but he works in a much more methodical way and with equipment instead of handcrafting."

"What did he create?"

"Cars. It's like a wagon that has a magic stone and allows it to move without animals."

"You said you don't have magic on your world, so how does it move?"

I smile at Lina's curiosity.

"Fuel," I say, "Think of something that's so flammable that it can explode when it catches fire just like Roxanne's [Explosion], on a smaller scale, though."

"Wait, how do you use that to move? It's just an explosion."

"Yes, we harnessed the power of explosion!" I open my arms wide and smile. "With a piston you can make the power of the explosion go in one direction instead of every direction. So you can move things in a line, but when you add multiple pistons and some intelligent mechanical engineering you can make the linear movement turn circular. Then you attach that to an axle and you have a way to move wagons without horses!"

"Ooh…" Lina's eyes gleam and the gloominess fades.

Maybe I found something for Lina to do. I have to give my engineering knowledge to her. Wait until I tell you how we distill liquid ancient dinosaur into fuel, technically not true but she doesn't need to know.

"Are, dra-gons, there?" Aoi asks.

"No dragons, but we use it a lot on stories and myths. Dragons are just as beautiful and majestic on Earth than they are in here."

Hana grins and Aoi breathes fire out of her nostrils, then closes her eyes in happiness.

"What did your mother teach?" Ciel asks.

"Math," I answer.

"Does your world teach the same things as ours?" Alissa asks.

"From what I remember they start with addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division, then algebra, there's something about kinematics too. That's just for children, teenagers go further than that"

"Every child needs addition so they can calculate their skill points," Ciel says, "but multiplication is only for the ones who want to specialize."

"I know the multiplication table," Hana says with a proud smile. "I use it when buying in bulk, if you don't then someone's going to rip you off."

Lina nods in agreement.

"So every child learns these things?" Ciel asks and I nod. "It's quite an interesting world. We must look so backwards to you," she smiles wryly.

"Somewhat, though you have more progress than us on other things," I say.

Not to mention how much we were killing our own world.

"What about potions?" Roxanne asks.

"This is kind of a weird thing. There are no potions," I say and she puckers her lips in disappointment," but there's 'medicine', a way of studying the effects of things on the body and how to cure diseases that's quite similar to potions," and she smiles.

"Well, the person we really want to hear about is your wife," Alissa says.

My heart pangs with guilt.

"Lily is… well, she's someone special…"

"Talk about cliche," Roxanne says and rolls her eyes dramatically.

"Oh come on, how am I supposed to start? I have to delay while I think."

"Sure, sure. Just don't be corny like you always are," Roxanne says and blows me a kiss.

"Well… Firstly, Lily has the same skin color and hair as Ciel. Secondly, she is shorter than me and taller than Lina."

"There's humans shorter than you?" Hana asks and lifts an eyebrow.

"Damn, you sure there's no dwarves there?" Roxanne asks.

"There's a physical condition called 'dwarfism', but this is caused by problems on the body and is not a different race of people. But yes, a lot of people in my world are shorter than the ones in this world. In fact, I'm not actually short, aside from my brother I'm the tallest of my family," I say and puff my chest with pride.

Hana stifles a laugh and says, "What? Y-you're, tall?"

"Maybe I shouldn't tell you these things," I say and narrow my eyes at her.

"Come now, my little Wolfy," Roxanne comes to my side and throws an arm over my shoulder, "Tall, short, does it matter? We are just commenting the differences in heights between the humans of this world and the dwarv-, I mean, the little humans of your world," she smirks at me.

"Well you are big in all the right places," Alissa says and taps my thigh.

Lina nods along and Ciel massages her forehead with a smile.

"Go back to Lily, please," Ciel asks.

"Alright," I breathe in deeply, "Lily is kind of an asshole. She's mean and abrasive, but she's good only to me. She works in business, erm, trading-stuff, so she has kind of a domineering attitude but she takes it off when she's with me."

Hana blinks blankly and laughs again, "Ain't that kind of a woman's dream? I have heard plenty of women who want a rough outlaw to take them but do them gently and with love."

Oh boy, I heard that one before.

"That kind of explains how he fell for both of us," Roxanne says with an evil smile, "you can't deny your wishes to be dominated by us, Wolfy. Just be honest with yourself and submit."

-

"So how did you meet Lily?" Alissa asks excitedly.

"You remember how I explained video games?" I ask, the girls nod and Roxanne grunts, "Well, there's a way to play with other people across the world through near-instant communication. It's like there's someone acting as an intermediary between you and the other person.

"I met Lily on one of those games. It's somewhat similar to how we fight in here, she was a vanguard fighter and I was a support mage. We were simply two players who did well together and became friends, we eventually started our own clan, it's uh, pretend-clan, not a real one. Some months later we realized we live close to each other and then we met.

"Then things went kind of crazy. Months of sexual tension culminating in us fucking like rabbits. It's kind of a trust thing, we just had some mutual trust on each other after relying on one another for so long. We just understood each other," my eyes start to burn, "I know how she thinks and she knows how I think so we never really had a fight. We had arguments yes but she's someone you can rely on, someone you know that even when she does something bad, you can be sure she didn't mean it. So why shouldn't we forgive each other for our mistakes? We had no pride or face to maintain, we were honest and straight. We were a team, a duo.

"Three years later, when we were both on a good place in our careers, I try to ask her in marriage but she beats me for four days, she asks me in marriage and I laugh at how much money I wasted on a surprise that she 'ruined'," I smile bitterly and swallow the lump in my throat, "We changed our reservations for a family party where we announced the engagement. We ended up spending more money splurging on the food of the ceremony than the ceremony itself, she's more of a gourmet while I like to adventure on tastes so we focused on food instead of the more traditional aspects of the ceremony, like the music, or decoration.

"Then, during the ceremony, I was transported here."

I clean my cheeks of the tears and keep my head down.

Guilt, longing, and fear. Those three emotions are a storm on my heart.

Alissa hugs me tight and the other girls find a piece of my body to grab. Aoi curls on my lap and Gify nibbles on my ear.

I control my tears and breathe in deeply.

I'm loved, I have nothing to fear, I will live my life here like I promised.

"Tears, means, sad-ness," Ted says on his usual strained voice.

"Why, sad?" Suzy asks.

Like the elementals, they hold the same knowledge as I do, but maybe they can't understand the deeper or finer parts of my knowledge.

"I am sad because I have lost something important that I won't ever be able to get back," I say.

"Im-por-tant?" Suzy asks.

"Yes, Lily was someone very important to me so I am sad that I will never be able to meet her again."

Ted and Suzy look at each other then back at us and nod.

Ciel and Lina grab them and bring them closer to us.

"Hugging helps with sadness," Ciel says.

"Then, I, hug, you," Ted says and his fuzzy arms wrap around my shoulder. Suzy copies him on my other shoulder.

"Awn…" Ciel gushes and cleans the corner of her eyes.

This hurts my heart. I know they are robotic and simple minded, they are merely applying their knowledge to serve me better, but it's still touching. Even if it isn't a natural response, what they do is what matters to me.

We spend a minute like this before I have the courage to speak again, "What about your parents, Alissa? Who are they?"

"The Chief and the Chieftess of the Misty Fox clan," she answers.

Not unexpected but something is nagging me.

"Why did you never called them mother or father? You only call them 'Chief' and 'Chieftress'."

She smiles bitterly and speaks, "Once I became a Blood Slave I wasn't their children anymore. Not calling them 'Mom' and 'Dad' is also a mental exercise, my past is irrelevant so I must keep it separate. I became a new person when I became a Blood Slave, so I need to look at my past differently."

"Remember that you are only a slave on paper, I already consider you my wife."

She hugs me tighter and bites her lips, then she kisses my neck repeatedly.

"I love you," she whispers.

"I love you too. I love you all," I say.

"I love you," Roxanne says and gives me a peck on my cheek.

"I love you," Hana says and kisses my hand.

"I love you," Ciel says and kisses the back of my neck.

"I l-love you," Lina says and kisses my other hand.

My relationship with Alissa is the most unhealthy one. Our dependency on each other is too great and no matter how much I call her "wife", she's certainly going to always act as a slave. I don't know how I should fix this, or if I can, or if I should. As long as we are happy that's enough, right? Right?

Slowly we disentangle. Roxanne cleans herself and we clean the table.

The evening is spent like all others, cuddling.

I summon the [Holy Spirit] repeatedly for Ciel, I tell the golems to chase the Spirit while Hana coaches them in how to better control their bodies, Gify decides to play along and let the golems chase him too. Roxanne keeps pulling and putting items in her [Item Box] for Aoi. Lina maintains our weapons. Alissa cuddles with me while we read one of her books.

"Do you have siblings, Alissa?" I ask.

"I have a little sister, Allura", she answers and closes her book. "Oh, you will lover her, she has fox legs. Fox, legs!" She turns on my lap a nuzzles up to my neck. "She got Mom's color, Dad's eyes, and possibly his height too."

"That sounds adorable."

"She is. I wonder how much she grew, she must be 12 now."

"You said you lived 3 years on your own?"

She closes her eyes and speaks sadly, "Yes, I couldn't see my family because of the training. Only Mom, occasionally."

"You finally started saying 'Mom' and 'Dad'."

"I guess so…" She slowly falls asleep in my arms with a faint smile.

"What about you girls?" I ask to the other ones.

"I have an older brother, Fuda," Lina says. "He looks just like me but a little more masculine."

"A little?" Hana asks.

Lina smiles and nods. She says, "He should be learning enchanting so he could inherit father's shop. He wasn't that excited about it so I wonder how it went."

"Were you the one who wanted to inherit the shop?" Ciel asks.

"Yeah, until I was sold. I was much more valuable than brother so I was chosen."

"If your family is still troubled we will help them. I want to travel to Mountainhome when we become nobles," I say.

Lina's eyes open wide and she smiles wide, then she nods repeatedly. "Thank you, master," she says.

"Don't go back to calling me master."

"O-okay," she lowers her head and keeps smiling.

We turn to Roxanne.

"I'm an only child," she says and smiles bitterly.

Now we turn to Hana.

"My brother is called Hermann and my sister is called Mizushina, Mimi, for short," She says, her gaze loses focus and she smiles. "Hermann was supposed to be like me but he's 19, he must still be training somewhere to be a guard for a noble. Mimi is older and was training to inherit Dad's position as the head, so she might be in a better position, like helping an accountant or something."

Alissa opens her eyes groggily and finally slumps on my arms, asleep. I massage her ears for a while until we finally go to sleep.