Darean is stunned, then his expression goes from supreme delight to absolute horror in an instant. "NOOO~…! YOU RUINED IT ALL! HOW, HOW CAN YOU CAST [GATE] INSTANTLY?!" He bellows.

"STOP!" I yell in [Godly Language], and he freezes.

"WAIT! WHAT HAPPENED?!" The guard questions us.

I guide Hana and Aoi to stand in front of the guard and to look menacing.

"Call Lord Confiel, but leave us! This is more important than your life!" Alissa yells.

"Do you have any other hidden tricks?" I question Darean.

"No, they took away my [Wind Blade] gem that was hidden between my ribs. This was my last chance at killing you," he immediately admits.

A bunch of other guards arrive, and a standoff begins. The initial guard runs off down the corridor, hopefully to report to Confiel.

"Were you involved with the heretics that destroyed the Innocent Nymph inn?"

"I don't know anything about that inn. The only heretics I met were Wicked men working in the Dawn of Fire… Stop! You're messing with my head!" He grabs his long hair and starts pulling hard on it.

"Did you manipulate Dawn of Fire into attacking us?"

"Yes. I convinced them that the Este Escort Company had some very, very valuable targets to capture."

"Did you incite a mob of thieves to attack us?"

His face distorts in exertion, but he can't resist my skill. "Yes, I wanted to test your capabilities and hired a Summoning mage to spy on you. It didn't work very well… ARGH! STOP!"

"Back in Rabanara, did you hire a group of kidnappers and use Farana to lure me into an ambush?"

"Yes, I did. And because of you, I lost my FUCKING [GATE] SCRUBBER! BECAUSE OF YOU, MY MASTER TRIED TO KILL ME!"

"Who's your master?"

"He used a fake name, obviously. I only know that he's likely imperial royalty."

Royalty? Does he mean part of the emperor's extended family?!

Ciel winces and looks at him with disbelief and anger. "You are lying!" She yells.

"It's only logical! He had wa~y too many resources to fuck with the Anara-…!" Darean yells back at her, and another coughing fit starts.

"Baseless speculation! Slander!" Ciel yells.

"Ciel, stop," I warn her, and she bites her tongue, then returns to glaring at the line of guards in front of the girls. Yunia stands behind them, perfectly still, and completely unsure of what to do.

"Why did you target us?" I continue the interrogation.

This time, he answers without [Godly Language] forcing him to do so, "Because you killed my brother! He was the only family I ever had, and you fucking killed him like a goblin! I HOPE YOU DIE TO A BREEDER!" He crawls forward to the cell grating and slams his good hand against it, barely making it rattle. "AND THEN YOU STOLE FARANA FROM ME! YOU LEFT ME ALL ALONE IN THIS REALM! YOU TOOK AWAY EVERYONE I'D EVER LOVED…! I'VE BEEN DEAD ALREADY FOR A LONG TIME, SO FINISH THE JOB THAT YOU FUCKING STARTED!"

That tirade took all of his energy because as soon as he finishes, he collapses, gasping for air and coughing heavily.

I kneel and glare at him with more anger than I've ever had.

All this pain and suffering, all this manipulation that caused so many innocents to die, it was all the work of a mad man turned Wicked. He deserves no pity, he deserves no mercy, he only deserves to pay.

The women that saved me from depression and insanity were repeatedly endangered by his evil thirst for revenge. He wanted to avenge a Wicked brother that was rightfully killed for being a fucking rapist!

Scum of the earth, with a broken mind, a darkened heart, and a complete lack of morals. An existence too pitiful to be left alive. But with crimes too heavy to receive the mercy of death.

Darean clutches his broken hand, and his face pales. His whole body starts shivering, and his scared eyes remain locked with mine, as if he simply can't look away.

"You won't die so soon. You'll be sent to Vanea for her to extract whatever she might need from you," I say in a calm and deliberate tone, but still seeping with anger in every word.

"No… no… please, not her! She's as Wicked as me!" He begs.

I get up and look down at him with contempt. In the end, we're all responsible for our actions, and the dark path he chose was bound to only bring misery onto himself.

"She's not Wicked, Darean. She… is what you deserve."

That final word breaks his mind. He slowly lays himself down on the ground and curls into a fetal position as he whimpers incomprehensibly.

I turn to the guards, and they flinch.

I don't have the patience to wait for Confiel, so I state, "He tried to kill us with a large, cracked magic tool. I merely saved all our lives by teleporting the gem to the outside."

The guards mumble between themselves with uncertainty.

They need some more "persuading," so I grit my teeth and release some of my anger, "Out of my way! I have no more patience to deal with any of you! If any of the Lords want to talk to us, we'll be at the imperial mansion that we were assigned."

With a nudge, the girls sheathe their weapons. Ciel and Lina immediately copy them, then we make a single-file line. We walk forward with Hana in front, and her glare is the last warning that's needed to convince them to move out of our way.

We quickly reach the first guard we met here and order him to open the portal to Goloria.

I sit down on the sofa and sigh. My whole face feels cramped, so I massage it with my hands.

Hana walks up to me and suddenly straddles me. I look at her with a bit of confusion, then I see her hungry eyes as she bites her lip, and I immediately understand. She loves it when I show power and confidence, and my expression from before was enough to make her excited.

-

- I stand up, feeling refreshed. Then I sit beside Aoi and pat her head -. Alissa sets out a tray of tea and sweets on the "technically not coffee"-table, and I start drinking a mild one -.

Roxanne twitches and wakes up, then she yawns happily, spiritedly pats her lap loli, and gives a loving squeeze to her - pillow. "Hana's moans are a lullaby to me," she says and giggles.

Yunia sips her tea and subtly averts her eyes when I look at her. Her skin is a deeper shade of pink than normal.

"Meeting with Darean certainly didn't go the way I planned," I comment as I smile wryly.

"It was never going to go well," Ciel says and bats Roxanne's - hand away -.

"Well, you certainly weren't expecting him to try to kill us all with a hidden weapon, right?"

She rolls her eyes and gives me a sassy glare. "No, but I was expecting it to be a terrible experience for our hearts."

"You think we shouldn't have gone to see him?"

"I think we had to. We shouldn't avoid experiences just because they bring negative emotions."

"'Pain always brings an opportunity to learn,' a teaching from the God of Endurance," Hana says.

"Oh? You know the teachings of the Gods, now?" Roxanne teases her.

She sits and crosses her arms - . "Hmph. My 'Piety' is eleven. I know some things."

I lovingly kiss Alissa's forehead -, then she sits beside me -.

Alissa serves me a cup of tea and I take it gratefully. I'm not necessarily hungry yet, but the tea and sweets calm my heart.

"Even though it was necessary, I didn't like seeing you so angry," Alissa says to me, and Roxanne, Ciel, and Lina nod.

"You know my opinion," Hana says and moans in satisfaction.

"You looked beautiful!" Aoi says.

"Beautiful is used for women. Handsome is used for men," Ciel corrects her.

In Andraste, "beautiful" is used for things that look gentle and delicate. "Handsome" is for things that look menacing, but not aesthetically displeasing.

Aoi nods. "Okay. You looked handsome, Wolfy."

"It wasn't that he looked better than usual, but that his eyes were brimming with 'Charisma,'" Hana adds.

Oh. It'd be nice if I got something like Confiel's "danger" aura.

"Gih," Gify encourages me.

Slowly, the dragon awakens.

Not long after that, we hear a knock on the door.

"It's probably the Lords," Yunia says, and we hurry to make ourselves presentable again.

Then Alissa answers the door, and Luz comes in.

"Can you spare a moment for us to talk?" She asks.

We go back to the living room, and Alissa serves more tea, which Luz thanks her and sips once.

She puts the cup down and says in a serious tone, "We've confirmed a large explosion outside of Goloria, seemingly caused by a huge and malformed [Fireball] spell. No one has been hurt, and nothing has been damaged except for some of our decorative trees.

"The dungeon's guards thank you for saving them, and we offer you an apology for not being thorough enough in our search for weapons on Darean Arnald's body."

"I'd like to apologize as well," Yunia comes forth, and we look at her questioningly. "My father's men also didn't search deeply enough, so they've failed, too." Her long elven ears, almost hidden behind her majestic golden hair, flop a little with anxiety.

"We accept your apologies. Nobody has been hurt, so everything is fine," I say with a respectful nod.

Luz smiles gratefully, which makes us feel more at ease. "We've also already contacted Vanea Anara, she'll receive Darean tomorrow. She has expressed 'deep gratitude' about your 'gift.'" Her smile gains just a hint of awkwardness as she finishes.

"That's fine with us," I say and nod again.

"Well, that's all I had to say. If you'll excuse me, there are many scared citizens that I have to calm down," she says and finishes her cup, then she gets up.

We all nod at her and she walks away.

Yunia still looks a little sad, so I get up and sit down beside her.

"May I?" I ask and gently hold her hand.

She nods, not fully understanding what I'm asking, and I start caressing her delicate hand with a hint of my "spirit touch." Her nails have a faint golden shade to them, nail polish, of course.

"So, what are we doing with the rest of our day?" I ask and look around.

"Can we rest? It's been quite the… eventful day," Ciel suggests, and Lina nods emphatically.

"Alright, then," I respond with a nod.

Yunia quickly becomes much less anxious, and her ears return to their normal straightness.

We go out to the backyard again and make ourselves comfortable in the shade.

I pull out the Delicious Horror to study it some more. I use a frozen-by-[Bind] Alissa as a test subject for the "micro-vibrator." I don't know how to make a soul organ that vibrates automatically, but at least I can manually achieve the effect. Perhaps I can learn how to make it into a "sub-process".

My tentacles cause Alissa to feel tickled -. She meditates and forces herself to remain calm while simultaneously practicing [Mesmerizing Butterflies]. It's quite a feat for her.

Hana also practices that same spell alongside her, and the two achieve some progress as they manage to fully form the butterflies. They only last for a second, but even so, they are still a little distracting. In my case, the distraction is a welcome one since I'm trying to force myself to maintain the micro-vibrator without deliberately thinking about it.

I put all sixteen SP that Yunia has into [Earth Magic] so that she can learn [Earth Bullet], after which she can start learning how to chantlessly cast her other spells. She closes her eyes and meditates to aid in recognizing the "itch" from chantless casting.

Roxanne and Ciel coach her while they practice their own spells too. The three golems also practice [Earth Bullet] alongside Yunia so that they can have a simple means of attack.

Lina reads a book in the grass while she practices wrapping her cute little feet with hardened earth to lock herself in place.

Aoi forces herself to flap her wings as fast as possible to gain altitude. Since she's a few meters away, we just feel a pleasant, refreshing breeze on this hot day.

We may be training, but the intensity of our effort is very low, so it's kind of a "rest" for us.

Since Lina is the one acting more casually, I put my lap loli on her reserved spot -. I extend a tentacle-like tail and rub it all over Alissa's body, then I observe her reaction with [Bind] and adjust it.

Gify decides to be useful and connects herself with me, guiding me towards the right path.

Then I kiss Lina's head, smell her fragrant hair, and sigh in satisfaction.

Life's good™.

She grabs my hand and blesses it with an innocent kiss. I giggle internally and respond by caressing her head.

I grow another tentacle and use it to massage her shoulder. She looks oddly at it-, then realizes what I'm doing and returns to reading. -

I feel like I'm some sort of monstrosity that gobbles up little girls. I just want to expand and "envelop" her -. I want to open my Abyssal Maw and swallow her up entirely. I want to tie her up and worship my Symbol of Cuteness.

I slowly grow a fourth tentacle -. It's sluggish and floppy - and she tilts her head in confusion.

I put a little more effort into controlling it and manage to caress her gently -. I can only maintain the micro-vibrator with one tentacle, so she only feels a squishy thing rubbing against her -.

Unfortunately, her cute feet are getting wrapped in earth, so I can't - play with them.

Time goes by, and I content myself with caressing my loli.

The sunlight starts to turn orange, so we get up and breathe in the cool, fresh air. We stretch in sync, and I kiss her forehead.

We turn to the rest of the girls, then I get their attention and say, "I think we should just ask the servants to prepare dinner. I'm not sure that we have [Cooking] high enough to please a Lord's son."

"Your cooking is definitely good enough," Yunia says with a faint smile. "We are taught to not be fussy about food since it's not a good idea to bring chefs into a dungeon that you plan to conquer."

"We don't know what he likes, though," Ciel says.

Yunia nods. "True. The servants would know that."

I stop teasing Alissa, and she breathes a sigh of relief as her ordeal finally comes to an end. She silences her fire - and very grumpily gets up.

"You're not getting any today," I gently say to her, delighting myself with every word.

She gets even grumpier, but the fire is re-lit, and she struggles for a minute before she's back in control.

-

We all enter the bath together, and Alissa kneels in front of Yunia as she starts to wash herself.

"We have a tradition of washing one another," Alissa says and gently takes Yunia's sponge from her hands. "I, specifically, have five points in [Washing], so it's generally me who washes the others. But if you don't want it, then you can say so."

"Oh… please do, then. Just… don't touch me 'down there,' I'm feeling very sore," Yunia says and stiffens her posture a little as Alissa starts washing her.

-

After we dry ourselves and start getting dressed, Yunia calls my attention, "Hey, Wolfy-…" She says, still a little uncertain about using the cuter version of my name. "The others said that you have an 'infinite' [Item Box], so… can you store my luggage?"

"Sure. Where was it delivered?"

She awkwardly walks towards the room in question then stiffly stands in front of the doorway. I look inside and chuckle.

The room is completely packed. There's no furniture among it, but there are piles upon piles of wooden chests that fill most of the room. The piles are so tall that they even reach the high ceiling.

"I'm thankful that they've allowed me to keep all of my things, but… maybe it was unnecessary…" She comments and clears her throat.

"It's fine. Like the girls said, my 'Items' is seemingly infinite."

"Hopefully," she says in a low tone.

"Probably," I say and smirk.

They all fit. Thankfully, they are all labeled, so it's easy for me to take out the right one. She chose the one labeled "Clothes for a casual meeting in the evening." After reading all of the different labels, I'm convinced that she has many different dresses for every conceivable situation.

I pull out a table and a sofa for her, then I start walking away.

"Can you stay…? And help me choose?" She asks, with that last part seemingly added in a hurry.

"Sure," I say and pull out a chair for myself.

She nods subtly and undresses.-

"You feel embarrassed, yet you still do this. Why?" I ask.

"You're my master. It's normal," she calmly answers and puts on a tiara, pushing her hair back and tidily revealing her ears.

"But you don't have to force yourself."

"If I don't force myself, then I may never be able to do it naturally."

I frown. "You don't have to 'do it.'"

She looks at me with a subtle smile, and I feel her [Mask] peeking out from behind her eyes. "I chose to love you, so give me the chance and the time I need."

I feel a lump forming in my throat. "I'm not sure how healthy it is for your mind to rely on [Mask] to hide your feelings, or to force yourself to love someone you barely know."

She shakes her head gently and blinks slowly. "It isn't healthy for anyone to know that their parents will get murdered one day, but that's just how life is. I may feel alone now, but with you, that'll pass, like all things. 'All wounds can be healed,' the God of Endurance once said."

"Your 'piety' isn't very high." I smile softly.

She narrows her eyes slightly. "Neither is yours, yet you're still Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge."

I don't know what to say to her. I just don't really approve of what she's doing to herself.

"Why did you choose to love me?" I ask.

Her smile becomes a little pained, and I hear the screech of the [Mask] threatening to break. "It's what's best for all of us. I won't be the one to drive a wedge between you and the other wives. Your relationship with them is… too perfect, too pure. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I ruined it."

Saying that there's anything "pure" about the relationship between me and the girls feels very wrong, but okay, I'll accept it.

I get up from the chair and approach her. I look up into her deep blue eyes and softly hold her cheek. Then I gently caress her with a hint of my spirit touch.

"Thank you," I say with genuine gratitude.

The [Mask] shatters like brittle glass, and silent tears start flowing down her cheeks.

I feel like kissing her, but our relationship isn't at the stage where there would be any love in it, so I just hug her, instead.

"I'll never let you feel alone again," I whisper.

"I'll never allow us to stray apart," she whispers and hugs me back, holding my head nuzzled against her neck.

"But don't forget to be yourself, too."

"Okay…"

She readjusts her chin and rests it on the top of my head.

Our words were like vows. Private, simple vows that conveyed more about our intentions and feelings towards each other than what we wanted from this relationship.

She may be forcing herself, but true love and trust only come with time. We'll cultivate this relationship and let it grow into something beautiful.