Chapter 39

I realized that I had really, really gone at it with Setsuko when we finally left her place and it was night out. I'd actually forgotten to take one of my daily naps, which was going to be annoying to fix. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad.

Noriko didn't complain, despite how long it had taken, and just held my hand as we headed back to the Twilight Manor. "Sorry, Noriko," I told her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"There is no need to apologize, as you were making my mother happy, which makes me happy, as I love my mother and want her to be happy." I reached with my spare hand and gave her head a small pat. "I also enjoy having my head patted. Also, if you are sexually active with my mother, she will fall in love with you, which will make her and you both somewhat more powerful, and also, it is possible that I will get a younger brother and/or sister as a consequence."

"Yeah." Of all the women I might impregnate, Setsuko was definitely at the top of the list. She was sweet, maternal, liked kids, a grown woman, and was not routinely going into the bowels of an intelligent, malevolent being that was trying to kill her. "I love you, Noriko."

"I love you as well, darling," she told me, smiling this very tiny little smile.

Once we returned to the Manor, though - well, first I was pretty much attacked by Lena, who leapt up on top of me, snapping her legs tight around my waist as she wrapped her arms around my torso. "Draaake! I missed you, you were out soooo late!"

"Sorry," I replied, giving her head a pat. "I have to talk to Loki and Finn still."

"Yeah, Finn kept coming by to ask if you had showed up yet, and I kept telling him no, because if you had showed up, we'd be having se~ex!"

I patted her head. "Sorry, again," I said. "I really have to talk to Finn, for sure. I guess I can put Loki off for a bit, but it's probably best not to." My schedule was getting ludicrously full, with all the things to do - this wasn't like when we were dealing with the Ishtar familia. This should have just been my spare time, but taking care of all these women.

"Ooh! Are you gonna talk to Finn about marrying Haruhime?"

"Yeah, I'll bring that up too," I said.

"Well... I'll come with you!" Lena said, hopping off my chest to stroll alongside me and Noriko as we headed for Finn's office.

Finn himself was seated at his desk, doing some paperwork, when we entered. His expression perked up as I stepped inside. "It's good to see you back, Drake. I have to admit, I was starting to get a bit worried."

"Drake was busy having sex with my mother, who has not-" I gently placed my hand over her mouth, and she looked up at me.

"Please, only discuss our sex life with co-wives, myself, and potential co-wives. Not with everyone."

"I see. I will do that in the future."

"What's the thing you wanted to talk to Drake so bad about?" Lena whined. "If you don't talk about it then we can't get to the bedroom to have sex!"

The corners of Finn's lips quirked up at my obvious exasperation. "Yes. I believe it was Xulia, Rei, and Noriko who were asked to approach Hephaistos. During the initial discussions, when the matter of Goro Iwakari's death came up, Xulia accidentally invoked the curse that rests on her, and Loki tried to kill her, then ran off in fright. Is that all correct?" I nodded. "What else happened?"

"I am now extremely wealthy," Noriko said. Finn glanced at her, but she didn't elaborate.

"Since Goro died," I explained, drawing Finn's attention back, "his assets fell to his wife and daughter, which includes a lot of money. Hephaistos is keeping it for now, since it's unsafe to move around. Since he was a Level Five blacksmith, he had a lot of money built up."

"How much?"

"Two billion valis, split between Noriko and Setsuko." Finn's eyebrows rose at that, but he didn't seem to want to steal it from Noriko, which was good, since I have no idea what I would have done at that point.

"I can see why Lady Hephaistos would wish to keep it safe. Don't let her manipulate what you purchase, however," Finn said, glancing over at Noriko.

"Oh. I have already agreed to let her help me purchase a grimoire."

Finn's lips thinned for a moment. "I meant in terms of... directing you to buy something you don't need to, or that is more to her benefit than yours. The Hephaistos familia doesn't have any mages capable of creating a grimoire, so she can't oversell you on her own product. Still, keep yourself aware. There will certainly be people who will want to use your money for themselves - wealth and power are normally the same, in Orario. The number of people in the whole world who could have robbed Goro safely can be counted on the fingers of one hand. People will want to take advantage of it."

"I see. I will ask Drake before making purchases in the future." Noriko turned her head to me. "Do you think that a grimoire is a good use of my money, darling?"

"If it's what you really want, then it's a good use of your money," I told Noriko, who simply nodded in acceptance.

"Is that iiiit?" Lena interrupted. "How long am I supposed to stand here quietly! I wanna have sex with my husband, we can't do that here!"

"That is all from my end, yes," Finn said.

"How - ah, I want to marry Haruhime. Is there anything special I have to do?"

"Simply speak to Lady Loki. Since she's a member of our own familia, there won't be any trouble in arranging it, if you both want it." I frowned at the mention of speaking to Loki. My feelings on her at that point in time... definitely weren't too great. "I understand your reluctance to speak to her. She was quite annoying the entire way back, complaining about you, and Xulia, incessantly. Still, you will have to eventually, to update your status if nothing else."

"I wanna gooooo," Lena whined, grabbing my wrist and play-dragging at me.

"I think I will review texts on the subject of magic, to ensure that Hephaistos did not lie to me about how grimoires work, or how much they cost," Noriko explained - I was pretty sure she hadn't, since Rei and Julia had both read Danmachi, but it was a fair concern anyway - and she departed.

I let Lena pull me with her all the way back to the bedroom, her overacting as she pulled at me honestly really cute to watch. When we arrived, we found three Reis were also in the bedroom, and the Reis looked at me - and Lena - hungrily.

"I wanna have sex!" Lena bounced on the bed, just landing her ass on the mattress then starting to wriggle. "I've been waiting aaaaall day to have sex with Drake! Have sex with me, Drake!"

"Sure," I replied, giving her a light smile. "You have to get naked, though," I told her, and immediately she started to strip - I did the same, naturally, and I could see the Reis licking their lips noisily out of the corner of my eye, even as Lena spread her legs excitedly, ready to get fucked. I didn't remember them drinking any of Lena's blood at any point, but it didn't take a genius to tell they were riding her senses by the way they awaited my cock entering the girl in question with bated breaths.

I slipped inside her at that point, just letting out a groan as I filled her up. She moaned a little, wiggling on my cock, and she spoke up then. "Drake's gonna knock me up, knock me up, Drake!" She demanded. "I want to have your babies soooo bad, Drake, because you're so strong and skilled!"

"Yeah, he is," one of the Reis agreed, as I started to gently saw in and out of Lena's cunt. They were all squirming in obvious pleasure, since they were, presumably, also experiencing the joys of getting fucked by me. "You know, his Status was worse than yours when he beat you?" I could feel as Lena's pussy tightened around my cock the moment Rei said that, some Amazonian instinct to enjoy strong men driving her wild. "Waaay lower. Right, Drake?"

"She was stronger than me even on our wedding night," I said, recalling how much she could really just clamp down on me and control my movements.

"That's so amazing," Lena said, breathing heavily. "You're so strong, Drake!" There was this almost brainless sincerity to the compliment that made my cock twitch. Her eyes widened in a way that suggested she also noticed that twitch. "Ooo, it moved in a funny way, what's that mean, Drake?"

"I'm pretty sure it means he liked what you said," a different Rei told Lena before I could answer, grinning as she spoke. "You should say lots of things like that. The more he likes what you're doing, the faster he's going to come, and do you know what that means?"

"That I get pregnant faster!" Lena agreed, wrapping her legs around my waist. She wasn't controlling or dominating my movements, instead just insisting I fuck her that little bit harder or faster, pulling and pushing on my hips to drive me inside her or pull me out. "Fuck me good, Drake! Knock me up! Give me a baby, give me a baby, give me your baby!"

"Yeah. I'm sure he wants to knock you up," Rei said, "and since you're an Amazon and just want to have kids, you'll be a great mother for them, right?"

"Uh huh!" Lena agreed. "I'll have so many babies! And I'll be the best mommy ever!"

"If you got pregnant, would you stop having sex with Drake?"

"No! Why? He could get me even more pregnant if we kept having sex! Imagine if we had two babies!" Lena licked her lips in delight at the thought.

"Cool fact I learned: Drake can control whether or not he gets you pregnant." I suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, as Lena snapped her legs around my hips and dragged me inside her, looking up at me curiously, heat on her cheeks and desire in her eyes. "Since he already came inside you, that means the only reason you wouldn't be pregnant, is if he didn't want you to be pregnant."

"Whaaa?" Lena asked. "So I'm pregnant already!" She proclaimed, confidently, and Rei glanced up at me, a smirk on her lips. "Thanks for getting me pregnant, Drake, it's super awesome!"

"Yeah. Since you want to get pregnant so bad, it'd be really awful if he didn't knock you up, despite you asking him to." I looked over at Rei, who just smiled in response to my gaze. "Breeding girls is hot, Drake," she told me. "She'd totally love to get creampied and knocked up, which is hot as fuck. So why shouldn't you breed her, when she's begging for it?"

"It'd be really dumb!" Lena agreed. "But Drake's super smart!" My cock twitched inside her. "Ooo, he likes being called smart! He's smart, so he already bred me!"

I tried to slow my pace inside Lena, but Lena just responded by using her legs to intensify my pace, pleading with me to fuck her harder. "Don't worry, adventurers can't miscarry, Drake," Rei reassured me. "Otherwise how would they ever have kids, getting in deadly fights all the time? So you gotta breed this girl. For her sake. It's what she wants."

Fuck. I really didn't remember Rei (or Brighton) having this much interest in breeding as she was now displaying - but I guess she'd been riding my senses when I told Setsuko I could control whether I knocked a girl up, and had decided she wanted to watch me impregnate Lena? That was the most obvious explanation.

"Yeah," I agreed with Rei's comment. "I guess it is." I had wanted to hold off until Lena was a bit more mature, but - well, it'd be nine months before the kid came out anyway, right? I shifted my hands around, starting to play with Lena's clit, making her moan and squirm in response to the touch, gasping in delight as I teased her like that. Rei's tongue flashed out across her lips as I fully accepted the idea of impregnating Lena, but I focused my attention on Lena herself, playing with her breast, with her clit, fucking and grinding inside her to maximize her pleasure.

She gasped and moaned, and soon enough, orgasmed under me, twitching and writhing in pleasure. The Reis naturally let out their own restrained noises of pleasure, groaning and letting out strangled moans in a chorus, as I played all the more with Lena's body, leaning down over her to kiss at her supple breasts, to suck on one nipple as I played with the other one. Lena gathered enough of her wits to talk. "Duh, Drake, is so good, at sex!" She squeaked out. My cock twitched inside her at the compliment, so she went for it again. "So good! He's so smart, and, and strong, and sexy!" My cock was throbbing hard inside her, at her compliments. Even if they were obviously meant to get me to come, they were equally obviously completely sincere, and I increased my pace in response to them, even as I kept playing with her body.

"Breed her, Drake," Rei urged on, the group of them soon beginning to chant. "Breed her! Breed her! Breed her!"

"Breed me! Breed me!" Lena joined in, in delight, wriggling excitedly beneath me as I kept playing with her.

When she came for the second time, I decided to just let go, groaning as I found sweet release in her waiting pussy, and this time, I let it knock her up. She sighed in satisfaction at that, and the Reis all squirmed in obvious delight, since they knew that I had just impregnated Lena.

I pulled out of Lena with a long sigh, sitting down on the edge of the bed for a moment. The three Reis rose from their seats. "I know you're annoyed, but, triple blowjob?" The one in the center suggested, waving her tongue. "Come on," she said, as I gave her a dull look. "You know you wanted to do that anyway."

"I don't like..." I trailed off, as I saw something sitting on the desk. "What's that?"

"Oh, some boring paperwork thing," Rei said. It looked like an envelope, and definitely more the personal letter type than the paperwork type. I frowned at her, getting up. "Oh my god, you can't be so mad you'd rather do paperwork than get your dick sucked!"

"Oh, I know," another Rei said, but I was already picking up the envelope, opening it. "He can't resist our tits!" I could hear the trio quickly start to pull off their tops at that genius idea, but I definitely wasn't paying attention to them, but instead to the letter I had removed from the envelope. It unfolded neatly in front of me, crisply folded in three, and a single photograph was attached near the bottom by what looked like a paperclip. I hadn't seen one of those in my entire time in Orario - photographs or paperclips. I quickly read the contents of the letter:

To My Dearly Beloved Drake Holt,

I'm sorry for having waited so long to write to you for the first time, my love. The moment you were no longer standing before me, I was aching for your touch again already, and I distracted myself with other pleasures - and the sorts of pleasures necessary to distract myself from my desire for you are the sort that also make it difficult to keep any sense of time. I promise, I have watched you for your entire journey down to Gekai, and loved to watch, too. The denial, though, has left me weak-kneed and wanting to touch you again...

I have enjoyed watching you triumph over all the odds arrayed against you. I hope you are not too cross with me, for putting you in such circumstances - I knew you could overcome them, and I think you have become a stronger person for going through it all. I hope you consider it a small price to pay, for being with the women you love.

Of course, to watch you make love to other women sends me into agonizing conniptions, my love. To watch as Rei licks and sucks you with so many sensitive bodies clambering over your own naked form, to see the way that the girl who sold her name for power trembles before you and submits to you, to watch as Erza spears herself on your cock again and again, as Noriko slurps on your hard length in the mornings, as Cass pleases you so perfectly - it makes it difficult to even breathe. I have kept my body pure for you all this time, not so much as touching the burning ache between my legs, but... with how long, and how much you have done, I must confess to having orgasmed a few times watching it all despite that. I hope you do not consider me too much of a whore for that.

I was paying attention, though. I have never put you in a circumstance I didn't know you could survive, my love, but I have forgotten, perhaps, how important your wives are to you. You could overcome Goro, I always knew that - and what is to come, I am also sure you will triumph over, if you simply try your best - but what of your wives? What of Rei Maxwell and Erza Scarlet, of Noriko Iwakari and Cassandra Cain, of Lena Holt and the girl who sold her name for power? Can you please so many, with only one body?

As I write this, you are making sweet love to Setsuko, and I can only feel a continuing pang of envy, that you are touching her, playing with her, fucking her, while I must simply watch from here. But even with the raw, overpowering need that watching you fills me with, my love, the very fact that you had to expel Noriko from your presence was a reminder of a fact I had failed to take into account, putting your own pleasure first as I did. There is only one of you, and now, eighteen separate female bodies to pleasure. Even with your skills and hard work, I think it will soon become impossible for even you to manage.

As you no doubt remember, I split you off from your own world to place you in this one - I can do the same, but take a half-measure. Allow the body and the brain to split, but keep the soul and Exaltation whole. Your essential self would be spread across two bodies, two minds, allowing you to do twice as many things.

It is a difficult process, though, harder than to peel Naomi and Noriko and fully prepare them for you, or to gently massage the fabric of reality to produce another version of Setsuko or Chanelle. Twelve points, for each fresh body - and if a body dies, then it is simply lost, never to return unless you spend yet more points. Just as if Noriko were to die, she would simply be dead.

Of course, I trust your judgment, as always. If you instead wish to call forth Naomi Evans, Ganko Kimura, Dustiness Ford Lalatina, Koriand'r or Juvia Lockser, that is your prerogative. If you wish to focus on seduction, or craftsmanship, or the arts, those are things I can do for you; if you wish instead to provide your wives with the gifts you have yet to share, then I will give that to you too. It is your decision.

Know that I am always watching over you.

With sincerest love,

Venus.

P.S. Please, keep this letter - there is no need to destroy it to keep it a secret. The paper you hold in your hands has the same sort of magic that you use to disguise your true identity; any except you who tries to read it, will simply see it as some dull notes of no interest to anyone. Perhaps the mental protection of Rei, or the Bell Cranel of this universe (should he still develop that Skill), could resist; but otherwise, no one can possibly read it, god or mortal.

Attached to the letter, as noted, was a photograph of Venus herself, and on the opposite side of that photograph, a small note written in fine cursive script, accompanied by a cerulean lipstick mark. The photo was definitely extremely sexy - she was a beautiful woman, after all, and she knew how to dress herself properly.

I had gotten so distracted reading the letter that the trio of Reis had managed to crawl under the table, topless, tits bouncing, and started literally begging to suck my cock. "Come oooon," one of them whined loudly. "You can't seriously be pretending that boring-ass paperwork is more interesting than us? I'm sorry, okay?" She tried.

"Oh, sorry," I said, rubbing my forehead. "Don't do that again, and I'll breed Setsuko in front of you, alright?" I asked.

The three of them noisily licked their lips in delight. "Fuck yeah. That chick's hot. Wonder if her tits will get even bigger?"

"How big are they when they're out properly?" One of them asked.

"Do you agree?" I prompted them, and they collectively sighed and rolled their eyes.

"Fine, fine. We won't make sure you have totally hot breeding sex with a girl who loves you again." The sarcasm dripped off the Rei in question's voice, but I stuffed my cock past her lips and right down her throat, making her immediately come, eyes rolling up. This girl was such a horndog.

* * *

By the time the next morning rolled around, I was plastered in my women, and quite thankful to Venus for giving me an option like that. Since Setsuko was a Hentalian, and an adorable sweetie pie who needed a good man to help her recover from Goro's abusive behavior - well, I was almost certainly going to make her fall in love with me. I had wanted to meet Naomi Evans, but being able to satisfy the women I currently had took priority, and I was increasingly less sure that I'd be able to manage that, with how many there were, and how horny they were.

They were understanding, but still. When seven women share your bed, taking the time to fuck all of them gets harder and harder.

In any case, I did still have to deal with Loki. It was going to be a pain, I knew. Not because Loki was annoying (though, she could sometimes be that way), but because talking to her would require me to extend a lot of empathy about what had happened to her. Not just in the sense that she tried to kill my wife, but also in the sense of, "winning an argument requires actually respecting the other person's position enough to understand why they held it."

She had detected something that was dangerous. That had led her to take immediate, decisive action. It was a risk, and she probably understood that, but from her perspective, the reward - not having a demon-girl go crazy - was worth it. Our reactions to the attack only cemented her mental model that Julia was evil, and she got more defensive for it. Even if she now understood the real reason we were so calm, she'd still have that lingering impression stuck in her head. Especially since Julia hadn't shown her face to Loki since, which meant that was her last contact with Loki.

I knocked on the door to Loki's bedroom. "Mmmcomein," she mumbled out, and I opened the door, seeing her plastered on her bed in a messy heap. There were a few empty bottles of alcohol, and I felt some sympathy for her, assuming their presence was because she had been upset about how I'd left things.

"Loki," I said, and she swiveled her head up towards me; it was lazy rather than a snap-movement that I would normally expect. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened with Julia."

"I don't regret it, even a little, and you can't make me, you jerk!" She actually tried throwing an empty bottle at me, which I have to assume she only did because she knew there was a literally zero percent chance of it hitting me - I grabbed it out of the air and put it down. "Let's all bully Loki, let's come bully Loki in the morning," she mumbled, possibly to herself, possibly out of a desire to make herself seem more miserable than she was.

"I want to actually talk to you," I said. "Have a real conversation, with real back and forth." She squinted at that, her lie detector telling her I wasn't lying about that. "The kind that requires me to have genuine empathy for your position. I understand that you made a snap judgment call in what appeared to you to be a time-sensitive situation. I understand that it would have been the right decision, had Julia actually been some kind of supervillain."

"A supervillain..." Loki said. "I like that word. Even bigger villain than normal."

"However, I know, for an absolute fact, not some bullshit where you believe in the person you love, that Julia is a fundamentally good person. I know that when she thinks about what to do next, it's with love and care for others, except possibly for gang members and such."

"How d'you know that, huh?"

"I observed her before we met properly."

"She coulda been faking! It's a long con!"

It was definitely starting to get on my nerves, but I maintained my calm. Loki had reasons to be suspicious of my judgment related to Julia, since it definitely wasn't perfect, and I definitely loved her a lot. "No, it was all done in the sight of a god," I said. The Neverborn were gods, after all, and in some sense they had to be watching - cross-universe right now? Maybe not, come to think of it. No, but Spectres were always interested in Abyssals, and they served the Neverborn. Right? I wasn't entirely sure, but apparently it went through as honest.

"She could... be good at tricking gods..." Loki tried, weakly. She knew it wasn't a great argument, which meant she was holding to her current position out of stubbornness and inertia.

"Julia isn't upset at you. I'm more upset at you than Julia, honestly."

"She's avoiding me," Loki mumbled.

"She can't tell when the... evil aura dissipates," I told Loki, who squinted again, seeming not too sure if she could trust my claim. "Since only a god can see it. She doesn't want her head to get chopped off."

"Bahhh," Loki said. "She's just pretending to be fine with it, so she can get me."

"Julia can turn invisible, stand suspended in the air, and kill people from hundreds of meters away," I told her. Loki pursed her lips at that, seeming to actually consider it. "If she wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

"Maybe she wants something else! Like getting stronger, so she can do even more damage to Orario than just kill me!" There was a certain surge in her energy at that point.

This definitely wasn't going anywhere at the moment. "I want you to take a moment and seriously consider how the situation looks from my point of view."

She squinted at that, rolled her eyes, sighed, but then finally seemed to actually do so, closing her eyes to contemplate the question presented to her. "Fine. Fine! I just went crazy because of something only I can see! But it's real, you get it?"

"I believe that you perceived something evil in Julia. I don't believe that was a trick of the eyes, or self-delusion, or anything like that. I do know, however, that it was a curse put on her, and I am telling you this, and you can tell that I am not lying."

"How do you know, huh?!" Loki demanded, rising from the bed, sitting upright and leaning towards me. "Did you see the curse get put on her?"

"No, but," I began, "I know the type of curse by name. It's called the Nameless Curse. It affects very few people-" less than a hundred in the whole world, back in her original setting, "-but it creates effects like that, when the person responds to their name. It's also why she wears skull earrings and magic stone necklaces so much."

"How do those things have anything to do with each other?" I shrugged. "Okay, okay. Let me try this empathy thing..." She took a deep breath, meditating for a moment. "Yeah, but I don't know any of this crap! You could just be mind controlled by Xulia or something!"

"I'm capable of evading mind control," I reminded her. "Rei too."

"Bah! Maybe it happened before you got that ability!"

I had to take a moment to empathize with her position, rather than just getting annoyed at her. She needed something that she could take hold of and point to, as definitive evidence that her senses were being deceived by a curse. "Xulia could tell you that she's not evil-"

"Like evil people ever believe that!"

"I remember there being a group called Evilus at one point."

"Well, yeah. But those guys were LARPing losers."

"Okay. Julia could tell you... about her intentions? For specific actions. Like, she would never hurt you, or something like that."

"She could just be using me," Loki said. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to think it through. "She could! You didn't see it!"

"Yes. Okay. I know she's not evil." Loki nodded in response to that statement. "You 'know' she's evil."

"Why do I get the finger quotes?" Loki complained.

"There has to be some type of test that can differentiate a good Julia from an evil Julia, right?" I prompted. "Any ideas?"

"If she promises never to kill anybody!" Loki proclaimed.

I gave her a dull look, then it clicked. "Actually, I already ordered her not to kill people, unless it's in self-defense or defense of another, and retreat or nonlethal subdual is not an option."

"Wow. You just order her around, huh?"

"She likes it. Also, it was important, since Cass really hates killing people, while Julia really likes killing people."

"Not even a little suspicious about that?" Loki asked, squinting.

"No. Just because you like doing something, doesn't mean you'll do it whenever and wherever. She has self-control. If I bring her in here, and she promises not to kill except in self-defense or defense of another, and when retreat or nonlethal subdual is not an option, will you believe she's not-" evil "-a threat?"

Loki pursed her lips, then sighed. "Fine, fine! I guess that's good enough!" There was a long silence. "So. I guess you're really ticked off at me, huh? I really screwed up in your eyes. So..."

I knew what she was getting at. "Yes, but, I'm not going to punish you or take it out on you. We can still have sex."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you!" She lunged for me, grabbing my pecs and just groaning in delight as her fingers molested me. "Yeah... you're the best, Drake. Only Lefiya is as easy to grope, and that's just because she's shy. Now react more!" She demanded. "I almost killed your wife and now I have the audacity to grope you!"

I sighed, then smiled down at her. "I'm honestly not really upset at this point, Loki. You're just cute to me."

"I'm a rapacious monster, is what I am!" Loki countered. "You have to fight me off!"

"I'm not that good a liar, sorry. Do you want to have sex instead of grope me?"

"Fine, but only if you do the thing!" She licked her lips hungrily.

"Yeah, don't worry," I said, activating You and Yours Stance. She was stripping a heartbeat later.