The morning after

Part 01

After Connor woke up again in the morning, he looked like a withered plant that just endured a drought.

Lydia sucked me dry, haha why I'm not surprised.

I looked around me, but Lydia was nowhere to be found.

Stretching my arms I walked toward the window and looked outside.

Lydia is outside swinging her mace around, she looks energetic as if she discovered a new power in her.

My hip bone hurts and feels real sore.

Lydia probably cracked it while she was straddling me, seriously is she still a human?

[Healing magic] now this feels a little better.

Sniff...Sniff...., I smell of Lydia. I should take a bath to clean myself, we had an active night after all.

I put my cloth on and walked down the hallway toward the bath.

The bath door opened and a girl emerged.

She looks young, about 17-20 years old with black hair.

As soon as she saw Connor, she walked toward him and bowed.

"Good morning, hero-sama. I've prepared hot water for you to wash your face. My mother should be preparing you breakfast by now."

Oh is she the old lady's daughter? didn't see her before? she seems polite, but how did they know I was awake?.

"How did you know I was awake?"

"It was the Holy-maiden-sama who said that you were awake."

That doesn't answer my question at all!

"I was thinking of washing myself, is the bath empty?"

Since I don't think this world would have the concept of a shower, I will call it washing for now.

The girl bowed again.

"Sorry, Hero-sama but I have only prepared enough water for you to wash your face. Would you mind eating first?"

Preparing water? Oh… Right! They probably heat the water using firewood, so it takes time.

"You don't need to worry about that, I can produce hot water using magic."

She looked surprised and worried at the same time.

She probably doesn't believe me, should I show her?

"Give me your hand, I will show you how it's done!"

She extended her hand in front of Connor.

He put his fist on top of her hand, his index finger together with his middle finger extended.

[Magic Control], [Fire Magic], [Water Magic].

A small ball of flame appeared under his index, while another ball of water appeared under his middle finger. They slowly mixed together and warm water started dripping onto her hand.

The girl looked surprised for a moment before speaking.

"Mixing magic like this isn't supposed to be that easy, and just using it to create hot water is a total waste. Even so, hero-sama what can I do for you now! If I cannot do anything, my mother will yell at me!"

She doesn't seem like she likes to laze around. That's strange. should I ask?

"Why don't you want to stay without work to do?"

"Well of course it's because my mother will be angry at me."

So that's how it is? I can't let her stay like this.

I thought for a while before replying.

"Then how about you wash my clothes, I think they are still unwashed"

Her face lightened up a little.

"Yes! I'll get right into it, they will be ready by the evening."

She then headed toward Connor's room with a clumsy speedwalk.

Now then I shall go take a shower.

----------------------------------------------

Down in the living room Alva is on her knees in front of Alice who is sitting on the couch.

Alice is petting Mei who is sitting on her lap.

"At least Lydia forgave you, now you only need Connor's. Right now he should be taking a shower."

A few minutes later Connor finished his shower and headed toward the dining hall.

And after finishing his breakfast a girl called him to the living room.

Where he found Alice and Alva.

Alice first explained the situation of the family.

Connor replied by saying that it makes him feel a little sad but he understands the situation and doesn't mind it that much.

"Now let's talk about what Alva did yesterday!" Said Alice with a smile.

What? Did she do something bad?

"What are you talking about?" Connor asked.

Alice explained what Alva did while Mei was playing on top of Connor's head.

Connor was just nodding all the time.

"So you're telling me that Lydia going berserk last night was all Alva's fault?"

"Yeah pretty much," Alice responded.

"Wait You know about last night?" Connor asked Alice as he thought what happened was supposed to be a secret.

"That will be in the next topic, so let's deal with Alva now."

"So what are you going to do with her? make her drink the rest of the bottle and then tie her up?" Connor gave a suggestion.

"Nice idea Connor-sama, but I was thinking of giving her ten lashes on her bottom every night until you forgive her, and only one night if you forgive her."

Alva is listening in terror from the sideline.

"Every night! won't that leave scars on her butt?"

"Don't worry about her! Even if she doesn't look like it she is still almost as strong as Lydia! No matter how hard I whip her I won't be able to leave a scar on her unless I use something sharp." Alice responded to Connor's question as if she actually tried this before.

Connor turned toward Alva.

"So yesterday I almost broke my hip bone, most likely because of what you did. What do you say in your defense?"

"I have nothing to say. It was my fault, please forgive me." Alva averted her eyes from Connor, she didn't look that sorry.

Alice noticed that and got visibly angry while keeping her composure.

"You don't seem to understand what you did! If by any chance Lydia broke Connor's hips I won't be able to heal him in time since healing broken bones take a long time, he might have died or become disabled. Lydia then won't take kindly to your action and would have killed you on the spot."

As Connor heard Alice's word he thought.

Wait a minute, if my hip bone broke I would have probably died from internal bleeding, No I won't die because of the [Plot Armor] but instead, someone else here would lose their life.

But Who?

Alice? Alva? Lydia? maybe even Mei!

Can a random person in this inn lose their life for me?

It was this close to getting messy? WTF.

Someone could have actually died last night.

"Listen, Alva, let's make a deal!" Connor said while holding one finger up.

Alva is listening carefully to what Connor is saying.

"I will forgive you on the condition of letting me watch you getting wiped tonight," Connor said with a smile.

"No way, That's embarrassing, I can't let you do that!" Alva screamed.

"You will be whipped every night, you know?" Alice is threatening Alva.

"So what do you say?" Connor is smiling.

"Ok, I get it, you win! you can watch!" Alva dropped her face as she said this.

"And that it is, for now, Alva go prepare a nice carriage, a white one if possible."

Alice ordered Alva without delay.

Alva responded with agreement and rushed outside.

"Connor-sama, now can we head to my room? I want to speak to you in private."

"Yes, but don't do anything weird to me!" Connor said with a small laugh.

"Don't worry I won't dare do anything without your permission!"

"So I wanted to do something!!" Connor exclaimed.

On their way to Alice's room, they met Ana. Alice told her to prevent anyone from getting close to her room since The hero and The holy maiden were going to have a private discussion.

Connor sat on a chair he found in the room while Alice sat on her bed facing him.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Connor asked with curiosity.

With a worried face, Alice hesitated to talk and then decided to take permission first.

"Can I be frank with you? won't it be rude for me to complain to the hero?"

"You don't have to worry about that, just complain to your heart content, I encourage freedom of expression!" Connor put his hand to his chest with pride.

"Then can you please not make me listen to you moaning all night it is annoying! I wasn't able to sleep because of it!"

Connor was taken aback by the shift in Alice's tone, it changed from the polite and elegant tone to a more straightforward with no sugar coating as veins popped on her forehead.

Hold a minute her chamber was on the other side of the inn she should not be able to hear us, or was I that loud? no, if that was the case the whole inn would have heard me? or did they? and they aren't telling me because I'm the hero? Then it would make sense that only the holy maiden can stand up to the hero to complain!

How embarrassing! I did some weird shit in my life but this is on another level!

I want to dig a hole and hide in it!

Connor lowered his head and hid his face with his hands in shame.

"Alice I'm sorry I didn't realize I was that loud that my voice had reached your room!"

"What the heck are you talking about? You forced me to listen by not cutting the line!"

Wait, what? Something is not adding up.

"The line?"

Alice also realized something is off.

"Do you not know about the line?"

"No, Care to explain," Connor asked

"It's the link listed in the [The Hero's Holy Maiden] skill. the one that says you can hear my prayer and that I can hear your words. You saw it when you apprised me when we were in the carriage. It appears that I can open the link but I can't close it, you can open or close the link as you want. yesterday you opened it when you jumped from the carriage and I wasn't able to close it so I thought it was some kind of trial or that you have something in mind, but in the end, The holy line that was supposed to carry oracle from the hero to the maiden to guide his follower was used to relay words like …-Please be more gentle you are breaking my dick, I'm coming…~Kya~, take that you…- "

"Sorry again, so you are saying that it sends what I say only?"

"I also don't know about that, in the few moments of sleep I got. I also had dreams of you getting ravaged by Lydia, so I don't know if that was just me from listening to you all night or it was a dream oracle."

"My deepest apologies, how can I make up for it to you?"

"Well two things, for starters close the damn line when you don't need it!"

"Yes, Alice-sama." Connor is losing in willpower with this demon in front of him, Alice's sharp glare pierced his defenses immediately, his experience with Lydia is most likely having an effect on him!

Alice blushed a little as she heard him call her with -sama.

"Secondly and most importantly, I want to break the barrier between us so no secret no persona, and no shame between us."

"Care to explain."

Alice then started explaining what she meant in detail.

Firstly no barrier between us means that for example, I won't need to ask you permission to speak frankly or raise my complaint because you are of higher status than me and you won't need to consider me when you need me to do something because you think it might, for example, hurt my feelings. you did mention something like that -freedom of expression- was it?

No secret means that I won't hide any secret or thing I did from you and you also won't hide anything from me, for example, if I did something bad I will tell you so we can both try to find a solution to it and that applies to you too.

Thirdly, no shame means that if you know my personality that I usually hide from the people because it was immoral or embarrassing you will be able to adjust your action to count for that. For example, I know you have something for milfs, so if we're in a fight with an army that has milfs in their ranks I will try eliminating them first before they get to you since you may find it hard to kill them.

"I kinda understand what you mean," Connor replies with a puzzled face.

"Connor-sama, no roundabout answers please!" Alice smiled at Connor.

"Sorry, I don't understand everything so can you explain it to me later when we have more time at our hands." Connor rephrased his answer.

"That's more like it. Now we need to go, we need to use this time to find you some nice equipment."

"Hold a minute I want to ask you a rude question." Connor stopped Alice who was just standing.

"Something rude? I told you that you don't have to worry about things like that, just ask me whatever it may be!" Alice sat back on her bed.

Connor made a mocking face as he asked.

"So how was your reaction to hearing me last night?"

Alice blushed a little as she understood Connor's question, and then she replied.

"That is a rude question to ask someone indeed! but yes I had to… take care of myself… twice!" Alice's voice started to fade as she said the last part.

Connor bursts into laughter.

Alice picked her pillow and threw it at his face.

She then started pummeling his head trying to hide her shame.

Connor is still laughing.

"Calm… hhhh… sorry for asking...hhh… stop hitting me!"

As soon as she heard him telling her to stop, she slowly retreated and sat back on her bed. Her face is red as a tomato," You meanie!" she murmured to herself.

"Why did you tell me if you would get this embarrassed about it?"

"Because I can't lie to you! I can neither disobey your order, that's why I stopped hitting you!" she said while being on the verge of crying.

"Sorry, let's go, we are already late!" said Connor as he was standing.

"I will try and keep a more controlled persona in front of people to preserve the image of the hero and the holy maiden, so what we talked about here stays between the two of us only!"

Alice reminded Connor.

"You're right, where are we heading now?" Connor asked.

"To the market to get you a weapon that you like, after that when the carriage is ready we will head to the church where I will give a small speech and accept people as your follower, after that we will check on the dwarf." Alice then listed their plans.

Connor and Alice got outside where Lydia was waiting.

They started walking down the street, under the bright sun.

The market isn't that far away, so can see carriages transporting goods in and out in the distance.

People were greeting them left and right.

Connor felt a little awkward, he can be calm in front of a camera but being greeted by this many people felt as if he was live-streaming his daily life. and it felt a bit weird, daily life streamers are built differently.

He asked where Alva and Mei, Lydia answered him by saying that they should be still looking for a white carriage. They are rare since people rarely bother painting their carriage cause the paint is not cheap.

Mei is fond of Alva and usually fancy hiding in her large chest, or so Lydia claimed.

And the market there were people selling many weird things that Connor can't recognize.

At the entrance is a merchant selling pelts and furs, Connor recognized sheep and rabbit pelts there are some that he suspected to be something like a bear.

One of the pelts caught his eyes, it was a green one with blue and black spots on it, from the look of it. The creature this pelt was taken from had six limbs and three heads.

A shop that sells monster materials.

Connor felt a little chill down his spine thinking of the horrific monstrosities that he might face in the future.

"Hey, Alice do you know which creature this pelt is taken from?" Said Connor pointing at the pelt he saw.

She answered saying it was a woodland Cerberus, a monster the size of a grown bull, it has three dog-like heads and six limbs. The bite of every head has a different disease that you can only cure using a medicine created from a gland that exists in that head or uses high tire detoxification magic.

Connor only felt his anxiety increase. He then asked what is a high tire magic.

She said that all skills in a certain level-range are considered a level.

Skills with a level that ranges between 1-10 are called low-tier.

Skills with a level that ranges between 11-20 are called mid-tier.

Skills with a level that ranges between 21-30 are called high-tier.

Skills with a level that ranges between 31-40 are called master-tier.

Skills with a level that ranges between 41-50 are called legendary-tier.

Now in the kingdom, there is only one person known with a legendary-tier is the royal weaver sometimes called -Silk hands- her skill is [Weaving: Level 42].

Alice adds the fact that she is still a Low-tier healer, also that both Alva and Lydia are mid-tier knights… wait, they are now paladins?

No wonder I got my ass handed to me by Lydia, heck even the sleeping Alva bodied me. So they are a whole tier ahead of me!

But wait Lydia has [Mace arts] how she is able to throw those hands left and right.

He asked her and she replied.

"If I treated my hand as a mace and my other hand as a shield I can use my skills with only my body, do you think a blacksmith can't use his hammer to crush someone's head as he does iron? it's all in how you use them!"

As they were chatting they reached a weapon shop, Is this a blacksmith? Connor asked and got the answer from Lydia that they only sell weapons, they are not a blacksmith since there isn't a forge in sight.

"Excuse us is someone here?" Lydia opened the door.

"Yes I will be down, right now!" the voice of a man replied.

Connor took a look around him, there were only weapons.

Swords, axes, spears, knives…

Connor was trying to touch a sword he saw but he stopped as soon a man walked down the stairs at the other end of the store.

A tall man with a short beard, and a head that is visibly balding, with black hair with some white straind mixed in it.

"What do you need? We have many… " before he could finish his sentence he saw Alice and Connor.

He knelt in front of them immediately.

"Sorry for my rude behavior, I didn't know that the hero and the holy maiden had graced my humble establishment with a visit!"

"You don't need to do that, we're here to get a weapon for me that's all."

Connor tried helping the man stand up.

"A weapon for the hero!? but all that I have here are mundane weapons not a single one of them is even enchanted?! I don't think you will find a weapon worthy of you here!"

Connor looked at Lydia who brought them here.

"Using a normal weapon is hard enough to master, let the enchanted ones until you have some actual skills." Lydia didn't hesitate to roast him.

"You're right!" Connor replied with a sad face as if he was about to cry, he thought she was right. Who is the weirdo who wants to use a bazooka before even touching a handgun?

"My lady isn't a bit rude talking to the hero like that?" the shop owner commented on Lydia.

"I'm allowed to speak to you like right Dana-sama." Lydia wrapped her hand around Connor.

"She is right!" Connor said with a blush as if he was a newlywed maiden.

"For real?! I totally thought that it would be the holy maiden." The owner said in disbelief.

"I'm a servant a tool in the hands of the hero, if he wanted to take me as a wife I won't refuse...!~humph~"

Lydia realized Alice is showing signs of jealousy so she reacted by saying.

"Even so, I'm just the first wife and I'm not intending on hoarding him all for myself. I'm pretty sure if I do that it will bite me in the ass when he gets stronger. Anyway, choose a weapon you like there a lot here to choose from!" Lydia managed to change the conversation.

"Yeah, I would prefer a longsword since I can cut, stab and block with it and also I can use it with both hands for a powerful strike or use it with only one hand so I can free a hand for using magic. Something like -The Guy of Warwick sword- will be fantastic."

"The guy of -what- sword? didn't get that part." the owner said while playing with his beard.

"Forget that part, it just needs to be a normal functional sword, like those behind you." Connor pointed to a rack full of swords behind the counter.

"Ahh… well then pick whatever you like from them. I will prepare a belt for you to hang your sword from."

A few minutes later.

Connor has chosen his sword, a standard-looking longsword with a grey hilt and a black scabbard.

"This one looks good, how much is it?" Connor asked.

"It's on the house, you can take it for free!" The owner declared.

"I can't take it for free just because I'm the hero, I prefer to pay for what I take."

"Then consider it as a wedding gift for you, as a man you need a sword at hand to protect you, wife, at all times. and if you insist on paying me you can recommend my store to people instead."

"Thank you, do you have any light armors that are easier to move in? I want one for me and one for the Lady behind me," said Connor while pointing at Alice.

"You want to make the holy maiden fight? no, it's not my place to ask. But sorry I don't have any light armor, I only have weapons and some heavy plate armor. If you want armor that is easier to move in I suggest you have either brigandine or tanned leather armor you can find them sold at the store at the end of the street. They have a lot of staff and they can make them specially tailored for you by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, by the way, I didn't ask about your name?" Connor asked.

"You can call me Gorge." Gorge extended his hand to Connor.

"My name is Connor." Connor shook Gorge's hand.

"Then we will go now thanks for the sword." As Connor said this and was about to exit the shop Gorge called him back.

"Can I have a word with you hero-sama?"

"Yes, what is it?" Connor turned back, he saw Gorge waving for him to get closer. He then whispered to him.

"You just got your wife right? Do you know how to prevent pregnancy?" Those words captured Connor's interest on the spot.

"You two wait there I will have a private talk with George for a moment," he told Alice and Lydia to wait for him.

Then Connor and Gorge went to the back room.

"Now tell me!" Connor asked with great interest.

"Basically if you cast detoxification magic on the stomach you can prevent pregnancy if less than a day has passed."

Oh so that a way to do it, I don't think this world has condoms so it will be helpful.

"How did you think I would need this information?"

"From what I can see from your first wife and the holy maiden I'm sure you will have more than a single wife, and since you will be traveling a lot having one of them get pregnant will be problematic for you right?"

Connor nodded in agreement with Gorge's reasoning.

"You're right, do you have any more advice?"

"Yes, the Alchemy shop that is across the street from here can sell you aphrodisiac and some nice toys you can use in bed they also have scented candle to set the mood, just tell them that you want by special items, as for the prices you can get a decent collection for one Gold coin."

"Thanks for your wisdom!" Connor is grateful for learning this knowledge.

"Also another advice, I don't mean sticking my nose in your personal life, but I will say this. Don't let the Holy Maiden stay like this, push her down. Treat the woman you have with equality or the relationship between you will go sore." Gorge said with great concern.

"I will take your word to heart, thanks." Connor thanked Gorge as a man of culture should.

They then headed toward the armor shop down the street that Gorge recommended.

Time for Connor and Alice to go get some armor.