Chapter 11: 2-3: Operation Threesome part 2

We were in the living room, Archer sitting quietly on the couch with her hands clenched. Noa blinked, looking at the Archdemon. "…Archer-nee?" She ventured cautiously.

"It's all right, love." I soothed. "Go ahead, come closer. Everything is under control."

Archer hesitantly stood, inhaling. Her tail slowly brushed the ground, waving back and forth. "…No problems this far." She took a step, inhaling again. Noa remained in my arms, wide-eyed gaze on the Archdemon. Archer took another step, then stopped short. Her pupils dilated, and her tail raised into the air. "Oh. I've got something."

I nodded cautiously. "All right. Can you explain what your instincts are saying?"

She shook her head. "Not danger. More like… prey." She relaxed, smiling in relief. "I'm more likely to sting her and feed on her Lust while you fuck her than I am to cause her harm."

Noa blinked. "…Can we do that? That sounds fun."

I rolled my eyes, releasing my hold on her. "Not right now, and only if you can convince Archer that it's a good idea."

Noa's gaze shifted to Archer, whose expression could only be described as 'dawning horror'. "Hey, Archer-nee—"

"Nopenopenopenopenope." Archer blurted, reaching out to cover Noa's mouth. "I am not thinking about stinging my little sister. Let's talk about literally anything else now. Like the basement. Ko, you still haven't gone down in the basement, it's a mess down there and several of the storage containers broke for some reason. Let's focus on that instead."

To my amusement, Archer managed to get all of that out without taking a single breath. While Lust Archdemons could hold their breath for much larger than humans could (for reasons you can probably guess) she still should've run out of air halfway through her hurried mess of words.

Even more amusing was the look of disappointment on Noa's face, something Archer was really trying to avoid looking at. Probably her trying to maintain her delusion that Noa was both totally innocent and ignorant of sex. The idea that her little sister seemed genuinely excited by the idea of being injected by an aphrodisiac likely didn't do her attempted denial any favors.

After letting the silence hang in the air for long enough for Archer to be pleading with her eyes for a rescue, I finally spoke. "The basement, huh? We'll have to check it out later. For now, though, we should probably start on breakfast. Noa, what do you want?"

The Spirit pulled away from Archer's hand so she could reply. "Pancakes."

"Pancakes it is, then." I raised an eyebrow at Archer. "Would you like to, or do you want me to—"

She didn't even bother waiting for the end of my sentence, bolting for the kitchen before the second half left my mouth. Noa giggled quietly, a small smile breaking her blank mask. "Archer-nee is silly sometimes."

"That she is." I agreed, smirking. "And don't think I didn't notice you trying to mess with her. She does genuinely want to see you as her innocent little sister, you know."

Her smile widened a tad. "I know. I've been using it against her for years."

I rolled my eyes, smirk still in place. "Let's go have a seat in here while Archer repairs her damaged worldview, shall we?"

She took my hand, tugging me towards her favorite couch and waiting in place. I sat down, and she immediately slid onto my lap. "Snuggle me." She pleaded quietly, leaning back.

I chuckled, wrapping my arms around her. Her body was soft and pliable, a stark contrast to Archer's rigid muscles. Different, but not unpleasantly so.

"Is it safe to have sex with you tonight?" She asked, relaxing into my embrace. "You promised."

"That I did." I pressed a kiss to her temple. "And yes, it should be fine, but you should probably discuss it with Archer first just in case."

"Mmm." She nodded once.

"Though I am still mad about you making Shalltear's life hell." I said firmly, voice gaining a hard edge. "She had nothing to do with it, and we both know it."

She stiffened, her silence all but deafening to someone who knew how to listen.

"Calm down." I soothed, reaching up to begin stroking her peach-colored hair. "I'm still listening to your side of it, even though I can probably guess what happened."

Her body relaxed, melting back into my arms. "…Thanks." She fell silent for at time. "…I was trying to sleep for a while, but Shalltear-nee wouldn't stop asking me annoying questions. Then I tried to shut her up. We fought. Her house lost."

I blinked. That had not been my original guess as to what had happened, though knowing Shalltear it was entirely possible. Nevertheless, I kept my voice level. "What questions did she ask you?"

"How it felt to be 'second place'." She mumbled.

Ouch.

It sounded utterly tactless, yet Shalltear would absolutely say something like that if she thought no one was listening. She probably tossed it out casually, too, not realizing how sensitive Noa was compared to her normal houseguests, such as Aura and Albedo. In that context it definitely made sense why she thought it was all right to insult my little Spirit.

Still didn't excuse it, though.

"You might've fallen in love with me after Archer, but you are not and never will be second place." I stated, running my fingers through her hair. "Archer will agree without question if you tell her the same thing."

"I know." Her voice was quiet, frail. "But it still hurt. I tried to ignore it at first, but she just kept asking questions like that until I threw her through a wall."

"And in that case, she absolutely deserved it." I agreed. "But still, in the future it'll be more effective if you first tell her that her questions make you uncomfortable and ask that she please stop. If she refuses, or does it again after that, then you throw her through the wall. But you have to remember, Shalltear is Undead. She doesn't think her words can hurt others like they sometimes do. If you jump straight to violence, she doesn't know what she did was wrong."

"You would've punched her." Noa argued.

"I would've punched the wall." I corrected. "One blow, just beside her head. Enough to demolish a good portion of the house. That skips the polite request for her to stop and makes it clear that what she just said was unacceptable. Chances are she'd apologize as soon as she could find the words after that. But I wouldn't punch her unless she looked me right in the eye and said the same thing again. Understand?"

Noa nodded slowly. "That makes sense. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me." I ruffled her hair, then wrapped my arms back around her. "Sometime in the future you'll have to apologize to Shalltear. You can say you're sorry for destroying her house, but that her questions were inappropriate and hurt your feelings. If you do that, I doubt she'll do it again. Okay?"

"Okay." She agreed.

I chuckled, leaning forward to rest my chin on her shoulder. "You're still young, Noa, and you've never experienced anything like this before. Next time you know what to do, and that's what matters, right?"

She nodded dutifully.

"Good." I kissed her on the cheek. "Now, why don't you start planning what you're going to say to Archer later?"

She frowned. "Why would I need to plan that?"

"It's generally a good idea to know what you're going to say before a conversation starts."

"Archer-nee is easy to convince. She just wants everyone to be happy."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sure you should be bragging about how easily you can manipulate your sister? I might give someone else the job of guarding you."

She tilted her head. "We both know I can protect myself." She said, lowering her voice. "I've been able to for years, you made sure of it. The only reason you have someone guarding me at all is to give Archer-nee something safe to do that still lets her think she's being useful."

I didn't deny it, instead laughing quietly to myself. "Caught that, did you?"

"Mmm." She shifted so she was sitting sideways on my lap, resting her head on my chest. "Archer-nee loves protecting other people. If she's protecting me, I can spend all the time I want with her."

I tightened my hold around her slim waist, pulling her tight against me. "Quite the devious little Tree you've become." I murmured in her ear.

She shrugged. "I learned from the best."

"Quite snuggly as well." I continued, smiling down at her. "Don't think I didn't notice you turning me into a giant pillow."

"I learned," she paused to yawn, "from the best. Now hush, pillows don't talk."

"No, but Dragons do. Quite loudly at times."

My comment earned me a soft smile as she dozed off, breath evening out as the silence stretched on. Her head lolled to the side, her sleeping face pressing against my chest. She had likely been up all night, opting to wait for me to pick her up instead of passing the time with sleep. It seemed like the kind of silly thing she would do. I let her nap, gently stroking her hair to pass the time. Archer finally poked her head out of the kitchen some time later, and I shook Noa awake.

"Breakfast is ready." She reported. "Pancakes and bacon."

"Syrup?" Noa asked blearily, rubbing her eyes.

I gave a mock gasp. "You hunger for the blood of other trees? Is my adorable Noa a vampire?"

She turned to face me, expression flat. "Yes. Raar." She even made little claws with her hands, albeit with zero inflection in her voice whatsoever.

Archer rolled her eyes, turning back to the kitchen. "Come on, you goofballs."

"Help, I'm being held down by a vampire tree!" I called dramatically.

"I think you'll survive." Archer's voice called from the other room.

I chuckled, scooping Noa up in my arms. "Let's go, fellow goofball. To pancakes!"

Noa curled into my arms like a contented cat, smiling faintly the entire trip. When I finally set her in her chair, she pouted up at me. Her pout didn't last long as a plate of pancakes was set in front of her. Archer busied herself cleaning up the kitchen her own spot noticeably lacking a plate. As Noa began to devour the fluffy disks, I spoke up. "Not having any?"

"Not hungry." She set the frying pan in the sink, turning on the water and wiping it down.

I raised an eyebrow. "…You sure? You probably worked up quite the appetite."

Her smile was a tad suggestive, matched by her swaying tail. "I had plenty to eat earlier this morning, thanks."

'…Right. Feeds off the Life Energy of semen. Forgot.'

Noa pointedly ignored our banter, drowning her third pancake with syrup.

"Is your limp better?" I asked instead, piling a handful of bacon onto my plate. "Noa can hit you with a Healing Aura from where she's sitting with how large her area of effect is."

Archer shook her head, setting the pan aside to dry. "Avalon already did its job, no pain at all."

"Rrr yuu srrre?" Noa mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"Noa!" Archer scolded, exasperated. "Stop talking with your mouth full!"

Noa blinked, swallowed, then repeated herself. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I've been fixing myself up for centuries, I can heal a few aches without a problem." She began scrubbing the grease from the bacon pan, tail waving slowly behind her. "In this Age, I can Project Avalon with near-perfect accuracy, and if I power it using Ko's mana it works just as well as the original."

I nodded, ignoring her sidelong glance and smug expression. In hindsight, Operation Threesome had several flaws. Still, though… "Avalon was never meant for instant healing." I pointed out. "And I'd guess that it takes more mana to activate than you would gather in a normal night."

She paused, then grumbled something under her breath.

Heh.

"Just remember to eat something, at least." I warned, finishing off my stack of pancakes.

Noa finished up as well, pushing away her plate. Archer stacked the empty dishes up and began washing them. I began relocating the remaining food to the fridge, placing the empty plates on the stack. I would've helped her finish the dishes if she didn't growl at me for trying.

I just waited with Noa after that, taking the time to observe the Archdemon's magnificent rear.

When Archer finished a short while later, I rose from my chair and helped a sleepy Noa out of hers. Archer removed and folded her apron, turning to face us. "All right, so I checked the basement storeroom the other day—"

Noa raised a hand. Archer paused, nodding. "Noa?"

"Can I stay?" She asked sleepily. "I'm tired, and I don't know where things are supposed to go anyway."

"That shouldn't be a problem." I glanced at Archer, who shook her head. "No, not a problem at all. Go ahead and have a nice rest, Archer and I can handle things from here."

Noa nodded, stepping forward and giving me a soft hug. "Thank you, Ko."

I gently stroked her hair. "Your welcome. Now go on, get some rest."

The small Spirit pulled away, turning and grabbing a folded blanket on her way to the living room. She wrapped it around herself as she walked, unable to hide her jaw-cracking yawn. Archer giggled quietly as a cushion-like thump was heard from the living room.

"Let's leave her to it." I murmured, turning away. "Now, you said something about the basement storeroom?"

She nodded, a smile still playing at her lips. "Yeah, let's go."

She turned, white hair swishing behind her. I followed her lead, through the house and down the stairs into the enormous cellar.

Sure, the hiding place was a bit obvious, but I figured that anyone who got this far wouldn't really be deterred by any traps. If they got past Harold and both my Maidens, any security Spell I cast wouldn't do too much to hinder them.

At least, that was my mindset back in the game. Now I had to make sure that no one even made it this far lest they gain access to the precious World Tree I guarded. One of these days I really needed to do a complete overhaul of the defenses.

Anyway.

The basement of my mansion was where I kept very specific kinds of treasure. Items I deemed harmless enough to keep close to a curious Nature Spirit and Items I was certain would let me exploit the world around me if I just figured out how to use them correctly. The room resembled a large circle with doors taking up all of the wall space. A hall stretched off from the opposite side of the room, leading to a second chamber. Heavy-duty shelves covered the floor, making it impossible to navigate in places.

"All right, time to clean this place up." I muttered, looking around. Several chests had burst, spilling gold and random Items out of the shelves. That was perfectly fine, though, since I hadn't really expected normal chests to survive the trip. The chest linked to my Storage thankfully seemed just fine, the lid opening to a black void rather than an Item Screen. When I focused on taking out a piece of Caloric Stone, it formed in my hand without issue. I put it back, glancing around at the spilled piles of various materials. "Archer, do we have space in our storerooms?"

"Rooms number three and six are empty." She glanced around. "As are a few of the shelves, I think. The ones in the middle are unsorted, right?"

"More or less. Suppose we might as well sort through it now since we're already down here." I got up, stretching. "Ah, well. This mess isn't going to clean itself. Let's get to work."

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