It was early the next morning. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but I felt fucking fantastic. Was it because of the good sex I had with Erizora and Kalline (plus some foreplay from Sue)? Was it how I woke up in bed sandwiched between two massive pairs of pillows called boobs (I wondered if Erizora woke up partway to move three of us to the bed overnight)? Was it maybe how I found Sue’s drooling sleeping face oddly cute? Hell, all the girls’ sleeping faces were cute, I had to get my smartphone to take pictures of all of them for memory’s sake.

I don’t know; I was just in a good mood this morning. As much as I wanted to just watch them slumber a little longer, I had some things to do and promises to keep. I carefully woke up Mametama sleeping on top of me so the two of us could get off the bed and prepare for this morning. I did a massive [Clean] job of everyone and everything in the room, wiping any evidence of last night’s sexual escapades, before I got dressed and woke up Kenaka and Ume through Telepathy. Well, Ume wasn’t sleeping when I contacted her, I guess she stayed up all night doing research after talking to the others rooming with her to sleep. She said she was planning on taking a nap later in the day, though.

Anyway, I told Ume I was taking my familiars out for some early morning training and asked her to let everyone know I’d come back for breakfast before we went to Noire’s cottage. With my plan set and gear equipped, I kissed the snoring girls who slept with me on their cheeks and headed to the lobby. I met Ume waiting for me with Kenaka there, but then she said there was something different about me.

“… I think it’s your smell,” Ume says to me.

“Aw, what? But I used [Clean] on everything in that room, including myself.”

“No, not that, you’re fine in that regard. It’s more like … your usual smell, something that makes you, you.” Ume pulls my head and take a few whiffs of my hair to confirm it.

“Huh, you mean how I could smell you differently from the others when we do it?”

“Right.”

“Is it bad that my own changed somehow?”

“It’s not bad. It’s different, I could learn to like your new smell like I did with your old one, but … I would probably be careful with other demons if I were you.”

“Why?”

“Each of the kin have their own unique smell that differs from each other before they derive to forms that make each individual different. Yours … it’s not just similar to a demon’s now, but a little stronger than others, enough that could turn some heads. See if any demons around you act any different from normal and tell me about it when you come back. I’m still researching that thing from last night, but I’ll let you know if I find something that’s of interest to us.”

“Will do. Love ya, Ume.”

“*Fufun.* Love you, too, Jin.”

And so, as a good husband should with his wife, I give her a kiss and bid her later before leaving with my familiars. We make a quick stop at a bakery one of the inn’s employees suggested for quick energy. There was a cute Imp girl behind the counter as I got inside a few minutes later.

“Why, hello there~. And what can I do for you on this fine early morning, handsome?” The way she spoke to me differed from what I would expect from the customer service I was familiar with on Earth, even during my short time in Dondegarm when everyone there treated me as a ‘hero.’

“… I’d like a loaf of bread, please?”

“Would you like some butter and a bottle of our cool, deliciously creamy milk to go with that?”

“Sure … how much do I owe you?”

“For you, 70 karos.”

I was trying to get a better sense of this country’s (or at least this territory’s) economics with the food I had been ordering up to then. Ume would make deciding our orders opportunities to learn some Padimonian language and how their numbers would read.

I glance up at a chalkboard that displayed the items and their prices. After making out a few recognizable words and numbers and did some quick math with the Calculation skill, I found the total she gave me was half of what that order would price. Being a cook myself, I didn’t want her hard work paid so cheaply, and I was in a good mood, so I paid the actual price, plus a little extra, and told her to keep the change.

“Here you are! This bread is from our freshest batch, too, so eat it while it’s still warm!” The Imp girl was short, so she flies over the counter with her bat-like wings, and hover at my level to hand the goods in a paper bag to me personally. She then moves close to my ear and cups a hand over it. “And come back, soon. I’m not one to let a stud’s generosity go unrewarded, so I’ll make sure to treat you to something extra special next time~♥,” she whispers.

“… Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” It was hard to say that without letting my voice quiver.

She then sends me off with a wave, a big smile, all with her lavender face slightly reddened right up to the tips of her ears.

The three of us had to find a bench to sit down, eat our energy, and discuss what happened.

Kenaka starts as he and Mametama eat some jerky I gave them for sustenance.

<“Gee, you don’t say? Did you not see how hard she was hitting on him? She was as bad as ‘you know who’ was with you.”>

Respecting Kenaka’s privacy, I put my question on who ‘you know who’ was to the side. Yeaaah. I mean, I know some can use flattery to get customers to buy their goods, but that? With how surprised she was when I paid all of that full price and a tip, I don’t think she was expecting me to give up that much money.

[Mametama]

[Kenaka]

… Better idea. I’ll tell her about it right now.

I use my Skill Point Conversion skill to put the necessary SP into Telepathy to max out its mastery.

[You have spent 245 SP. Total: 12,984]

[You have now reached the max level of ‘Telepathy’!]

[You have now reached ‘Psyche Magic’ LV 4!]

[You have now learned ‘Language Comprehension’ LV 1!]

[You have now learned ‘Empathy’ LV 1!]

Whoa whoa, Language Comprehension?! Is this what I think it does?! Nyra! You’re the Psyche Magic expert here! Tell me, please!

<“… Huh? Oh, yeah. When you read another person’s thoughts, it’s natural that they speak their mind in the same language as they would vocally. Language Comprehension allows us to not only better understand different vocal languages but also how to read and write them, too. It was a pain to improve, though, and we Pixies secluded ourselves from the outside, so we hardly had the chance to learn other languages at all, even after we earned that skill from leveling Telepathy up enough. I barely understood anyone who wasn’t a Pixie until I possessed enough people and read their thoughts as a cursed tanto. You didn’t have as much problem understanding what others have said because of Goddess Obina’s help, right? You should be able to read and understand another language pretty well at LV 5.”>

I gotta give this a shot.

[You have spent 270 SP. Total: 12,714]

[You have not reached the max level of ‘Language Comprehension’!]

[You have achieved the ‘Interpreter’ title!]

[You have achieved the ‘Master Linguist’ title!]

[You have now learned ‘Charisma’ LV 1!]

[You have now reached ‘Psyche Magic’ LV 5!]

[You have achieved the ‘Telepath’ title!]

[You have now learned ‘Illusion’ LV 1!]

Mametama comments as I take a quick look around and see a post in a square with signs describing places while pointing in different directions.

Shopping District, Market District, Theatre, Red-Light District, Moonlight Valley, Twilight Hills.

“I CAN REEEEEAD!” I yell while standing with arms raised in victory. I didn’t care I was making a few passersby turn their heads, I’m on the brink of crying tears of joy.

When you’ve been in a foreign land without even some idea of deciphering a different language, you start to feel a sense of loneliness you didn’t realize was possible. Sure, I had my girls, but when you’re the only one in the group who can’t read for shit, you would start feeling out of place. I don’t care that I could understand any language I see or hear, just knowing I can be on the same level on this subject as everyone else, I really feel like I’m making this world my own to live and connect with, you know?

I take a moment to calm down before using my maxed-out Telepathy skill to contact Ume at a farther distance than I could do before. I surprised her at first, and when she asked how, I explained that and what happened earlier. She was definitely happy for me as she gave her congratulations.

Ume asks.

Genuinely, yes. There was only one girl I knew who would usually do it as a joke, but that was because we’ve been friends for a while. That friend being Komi, by the way. Though, I guess there was also one or two Lamias, Harpies, and Arachnes back in Dondegarm, but I think that was because I helped saved the city from the White Rapture. None of the girls in the harem was ever like that, either. This was the first a legit stranger I met for the first time making the moves on me.

What should I do if something like that happens again? I won’t have anything to do with them if the idea makes you uncomfortable, Ume. I want to hear your thoughts on this.

That … might get complicated depending on how the situation is, but I’d rather not kill someone if I can, either.

Ume continues. <“This includes those who want to be with you for the long-term like Tephalia and Lili, and especially those who’re interested in joining the party. If they want in, they have to keep up with us.”>

Now that is something we can both agree on.

… It’s not weird if I did, is it?

I … don’t like the idea of you being with another guy, to be honest. I’d beat him to a pulp if he lays his hands on you.

… God, that sounds kind of hot coming from you.

All right. Catch ya later.

Kenaka asks with a slight shake in his inner voice.

Yeah. There’s definitely no other girl like her. Right, Nyra?

What’s wrong? You’ve been quiet since we woke up.

<“Now that I think about it, you said nothing about Milord’s talk with the baker earlier. ‘Oh, yeah, she definitely wants that dick.’ I expected that much coming from you, at the least.”> [Mametama]

<“Wow … I thought I would never hear the word ‘dick’ from you, of all people.”>

my familiars bicker.

How do you figure?

<“You know that gap between times in your memories? Well, I’m experiencing something similar related to last night’s events. Unlike you though, I can remember very clearly what happened before my memories got abruptly cut off. It’s like … you don’t realize your favorite dildo got strangely shorter until you stick it up your pussy.”>

<“Do you have to use something like that as an analogy?”> Mametama asks, but Nyra continues.

<“Now, I’ve been into some good nights here and there when I had blacked out in the middle of it and forget what happened afterward. Normally, I wouldn’t mind that, because it usually shows how amazing the sex was, with or without the booze, and I wonder why I even blacked out when someone tells me about it the next morning, but this is weirdly different. Going back to the dildo, instead of it being shorter, that ‘missing piece’ was replaced with another covered in textures that tickles me in the right places, but it still feels off since it’s not really the same toy that I knew and love anymore, you know?”>

You mean … there’s something in your blacked-out memories that shouldn’t be there, but now it is?

Startled, I take Nyra out of my holster and I look at the tanto in my hand. Are you serious? You mean your body as a Pixie before it got trapped in the tanto, right?

<“Jinma, this is serious. Someone did something to my [metaphorical] head. With our specialty in Psyche Magic, we Pixies are very emotionally intelligent thanks to that Empathy skill that you just learned moments ago. We can have our nights of sex go beyond the levels of normal ecstasy than what’s possible with only our bodies, but the reverse is also true. If we’re not careful, we’d get FUCKED UP in the worst way possible. That’s why we made this thing as a ritual that only those who truly love and trust each other can perform with consent. It’s what separates us between sex friends and spouses we’d want to spend the rest of our lives with and do it with them only. If one of us goes on another by force with only them getting out of it feeling good and leaving the other mentally destroyed … they’d be the worst of scum among us Pixies.”>

This sounds as bad as rape among humans … It’s as I think that that I hear something from Nyra that’s very out of character for her, the cracked voice of fear as if they’re about to cry at any moment.

<“I’m scared, Jinma. I don’t know who did this to me, but I could have been worse than how I was when we first met, when I tried to possess you for my own gains. I don’t want to go back to that state when I’m finally starting to have fun again, even if I don’t have my body. I don’t even know if I could trust this bullshit knowledge that they implanted in me. I would never force anyone into the state I’m in right now, and for them to just do it while I got blacked out … maybe even to the rest of us while we didn’t notice, I’d …”

I didn’t care how weird it looked as I try to wrap myself around the tanto as much as possible, doing the best I could to provide a compromised hug that sends my warmth and sympathies to her.

Mametama, did you notice anything strange last night? I ask her through telepathy.

Hmm … that leaves Kalline, Erizora, and Sue who might have some idea to what happened. We must bring this up to everyone over breakfast.

Hey, come on, don’t be like that. We’re partners, aren’t we? You’ve put up with my nonsensical thoughts from time to time, you can talk to me about anything that’s bothering you. We’ll figure out these strange circumstances together, okay? Don’t think you need to take these on your own.

If you’re not feeling good, we can go back and talk over this more.

<“No, we can stick with our original plan for now. While I fear what’s going on, I’m also frustrated, angry that someone had the balls to fuck up my head. My head, one that already got fucked with sex many times and is good with Psyche Magic of all things. I need something to vent all of this out.

<“As for the way to get my body back, while I don’t trust the fucker who planted this in me and not know why they did it, I want to get a start on this and see where it goes. It’s better than to keep mindlessly wandering around and finding another way to go about this for now.”>

All right, if you say so.

I take the bottle of milk and was about to drink some before I realize some demon guys were looking my way oddly. I then notice I was still holding the tanto like I would with a baby.

“… What? Something wrong with a guy expressing gratitude to his gear for keeping him alive? Hah?!” I exclaim. They jump and then scatter in fright.

<“Was that subtle threat really necessary, Milord?”> [Mametama]

[Kenaka]

You pick up a few things here and there when you deal with enough annoying punks back home.

Nyra comments. By her tone, the delinquent persona I developed from my school days was surprisingly effective, but I admit my added frustration was genuine. It wasn’t from the embarrassment of ‘showing my gratitude,’ though, but knowing some bastard had potentially put someone dear to me in harm’s way.

I don’t know what their goal was for messing with Nyra’s head or why they put instructions on how to set her free from the curse in it, but I know I won’t go easy on them for making my partner cry a little.

Whether it turns into a fight will depend on their motives once I get to the bottom of this.