41

The glaring light recedes, revealing a tall, stoic woman. Silver hair, tied in bun, an exceptionally tight-fitting Kuoh school uniform stretched across spic proportions that rival and maybe even exceed Shizuka's expansive assets, glasses, fuck-me pumps, and a riding crop complete the outfit. A cross between a dominatrix and a librarian is the best way I can describe it, and then it hits me, she looks like that character from Prison School. You know the one.

'Hmm. One of Tiamat's brood,' Ddraig says.

'You know her?' I ask.

'I've seen her a few times. A first-generation grimoire, Ptolemy Theorum, she's very... disciplined.'

'Yeah, the riding crop and air of superiority kind of gave it away.'

The subject of our telepathic conversation scans all the people in the room, coming to a brief pause on me, and then continues until she reaches the person closest to her, Aika.

"Are you my new Master?" she says, but I get the feeling she means the opposite.

Aika, who has been staring starry-eyed at the busty grimoire, gasps and bounces up and down like an excited puppy in a very un-Aika-like way.

"I've got a grimoire! I've got a grimoire!" Aika repeats until said grimoire gets annoyed and slaps the riding crop down on the table.

"Enough!" she shouts, making Aika come to a halt. The grimoire pushes her glasses back up on her nose. "Now, let's try this again. Are you my new Master?"

"Um, I think so?" Aika says. "I'm kinda new at this."

"Obviously. Are you at least aware of what I am and what you are?"

"I think so?" Aika says, her eyes slowly wandering down from the grimoire's eyes to her jumbo jugs.

"You 'think so?' What does that even mean?" the grimoire says.

"It means she just became aware of the supernatural yesterday," I say. "You'll need to have some patience with her. I'll help where I can."

Her piercing eyes dart over to me. "And who are you?"

"Issei -" I start but am interrupted by the appearance of Sora in between us.

"He's my Master," Sora says, stretching the 'my' into 'myyy,' standing there, with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face.

Standing over six feet tall in heels, the woman stares down her nose at the four-foot-nine bundle of pep. "Is that supposed to impress me?" she says with disdain.

"Hey!" Sora says indignantly. "I'll have you know that, not only is he a Mage King candidate, but also the wielder of the Boost- ouch!"

I bonk her head. "Not so loud, Sora," I say. "Not everyone needs that information."

I have been practicing suppressing my aura lately to avoid unnecessary interference from other supernatural forces. Still, it won't matter much if Sora starts listing my qualifications in the public square. It's the same training that Mio has been undergoing to control the Demon Lord's Mantle repurposed to hide my slowly unsealing abilities and bloodlines.

"Oh, sorry, I figured since you were planning to- ouch!"

I bonk her again. "What did I just say? Shush," I say, but I feel a small smirk form on my lips. She notices and smirks as well. No one needs to know my pervy plans... for now.

"As I was saying," I say, redirecting my conversation back to the busty beauty. "My name is Issei Toujou, and I'm a friend of Aika's. I brought her here to see if we could find a grimoire she could bond with. Evidently, we were successful, though that in-and-of-itself was kind of accidental. Fate is a strange thing, perhaps. May I ask for your name?"

She thinks for a moment before replying. "Claudia. I am the grimoire Ptolemy Theorum," she says before looking back towards Aika but speaking to me. "She's completely untrained, her mana levels are too low, and she keeps staring at my breasts."

She slams her crop down on the table once more, causing the slightly drooling Aika to jerk. I shrug. "Well, I can't blame her for any of that. We can help her get her skills up to par; that's not a problem. Honestly, I'm beyond excited that she bonded with such a powerful sentient grimoire. It'll make the learning curve that much easier on her." And the possibility of a threeway with Aika and her hyper-sexy grimoire is in no small part responsible for my excitement.

Claudia looks away, raising her chin slightly. Maybe just a touch arrogant, but that's to be expected, I suppose. I shake my head before looking back at Levi. "So, who's your friend, Levi?" I ask, indicating the blond girl with the glasses and camera.

"O-oh, I'm Selina, Selina Sherlock," she says, standing up and bowing. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Toujou-senpai. I've heard a lot about you. I was wondering if I could interview you for the school paper?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Call me Issei. What's the story?"

She pulls out a pad and pencil. "The working title is 'The Enemy of All Women.'"

I blink, and Levi laughs. "That's perfect. You should have seen him when he was a kid," she says. "Son of the War God, talented, handsome, and doted on by every woman in the city. You know Issei, the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure those elders wanted you gone not because you vaporized that mountain, but because their wives and daughters wouldn't shut up about you."

Sora has her head tilted with her hand on her chin in 'thinker's pose.' "Shouldn't it be 'Enemy of All Men' then? I mean, he's very well-liked by his lovers. Even the slaves like him. The only people that seem to complain are jealous men."

"Yeah," Levi says, nodding. "But it's so easy for him. It's like he has a superpower to pull women to him."

"Well-" Sora starts, but I put a hand over her mouth.

"Hush. No one that isn't my lover needs to know about that," I say.

"Oooh, mysterious," Selina says as she scribbles on her notepad while walking towards me.

"It doesn't hurt that he is hu-" Aika starts, but the room begins to shake and grow darker as a miasma fills the room.

Selina squeals and falls into my arms. Aika sees this and tries to imitate the effect to fall into Claudia's cleavage, but the BDSM librarian simply turns, allowing Aika to fall flat on her face.

Mira stands up, her magic washing over her as she enters Magus Mode. "This phenomenon..."

It's interesting that since I had a breakthrough with spatial magics, I can sense disturbances such as this one so much clearer. There is a pulse, and the space shifts. As the pulse ends, the library is gone, and a ruin appears around us. Broken columns and shattered stone walls litter the area.

Aika pushes herself up from the ground. "Huh? Weren't we in the library a moment ago?" she asks.

"Magic, sweetie," I say. "We were forcibly teleported to a different location."

"We're in the Eternal Library," Mira says.

Akio yawns and stretches. "Looks like things got interesting while I was sleeping," she says with a grin. "You guys should huddle together in a corner."

I smile, but the Boosted Gear is settled firmly on my hand and arm. My other arm is comfortably cupping something soft and pleasant.

"Uh, Issei-san," Selina says, her cheeks flushed and a slight squeak in her voice.

"Yes, Selina-chan," I say brightly while communicating with Sora and Sasami on a different level.

"Hnng," she moans with a slight shudder. "Puh-Please, can you let go of my breast now?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," I say, sliding my hand away from that pleasant sensation. Selina starts to fall forward as soon as my arm leaves her, and I end up pulling her back, but this time my hand stays on her stomach. "Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?"

"Look out!" Levi shouts, and I spin Selina and me out of the way of a black cloud of energy.

A girl very similar in appearance to Selina, but with a bit more in the breast department and a bit less in the clothes department, appears with what I think of as an evil grin. "So, you're the Mage King candidate?"

"And you must be the evil twin," I say.

"Sister?" Selina says.

"What," Mira says. "Why are you..."

"Mira-senpai. It's been a while," the newcomer says. It's playing out similarly to the anime. The evil twin appears behind Mira and touches her shoulder. "Also, I'll be taking your magic."

A magical binary code starts to form a weave around the two of them until the flash of a blade severs the energy.

"You haven't said hi to us yet, Liese," Levi says. I'm not sure why, but she and Akio are standing in pose form like they're waiting to have their picture taken. I guess it's a carry-over from the anime too.

"Akio and the ninja," Liese says. "Looks like you've been doing well."

"Yeah," Akio replies. "You seem to have become quite the evil mage, though."

Liese smiles and licks her lips. "I didn't expect to see you all here with the Mage King candidate. This is a great chance, so I'll be taking all of your magic."

"Why'd you leave us to commit such a taboo," Mira says.

"Well," Liese says, conjuring a tablet from thin air. "It was all for this grimoire. To study magic."

She presses a button on the tablet, and the ribbon of magic binary code spins and weaves around her.

"I even joined the Discipline Committee to gain access to forbidden files," she smirks and vanishes from sight.

"Watch out!" Selina says and pulls me away as she reappears, grasping the air where I had been standing.

"You figured it out, Selina," Liese says with a smile.

"I can use Logos Art, too, sister," Selina says with a frown. "I can calculate where you're going to appear."

Liese practically gushes. "Oh, that makes me so happy! You really are my baby twin sister. You've been researching, making your magic even stronger," she says, licking her lips again. I'm not going to lie; it's right on the edge of sexy and creepy. I like bad girls... obviously, but this Mage King stuff must be pushing her mind in an unhealthy direction. Selina must agree because she squeals a little and starts shaking.

"I think you're taking your mischief too far, Liese," Mira says.

"I'm going to help this time," Levi says, drawing her blade.

I look over at Aika and Claudia, and they're just sitting on a broken column watching the show. It's for the best. I let out a sigh. We're coming to the portion of the episode where I'm getting tired of waiting for the plot to move along. They get about two more minutes before I get involved.

'How's it going?' I ask in my mind.

'This is amazing!' Sora says. 'We should be done in another couple of minutes at most.'

'Great. Keep me posted.'

Liese sits down on a broken chunk of wall and crosses her legs. "Well, I'm at a disadvantage here."

Arata's right. She does have some great legs.

"So, the rumored Mage King candidate has only just become a mage?" Liese says.

"Pretty much," I say. "I've had some good teachers, though, so it's coming along nicely."

"You know, getting your hands on a Mage King's power is the magical equivalent of committing a taboo," she says before disappearing and reappearing behind Selina. The only thing is, as much as I want to see a sexy scene with the twins, I also want to move this along. So, when Liese reappears behind Selina, she comes face to face with me.

She leaps back from the shock of seeing me there, and black wings of energy form from her back.

She frowns and then shakes her head like she's trying to clear the fuzz. "T-There was a Mage King Element hidden in the Eternal Library," she stutters a second before getting back on script. "Now that I've acquired its magic, I'm a Mage King candidate, too."

"What's a Mage King candidate?" Aika asks.

I hear Claudia sigh. "What does it sound like it is?"

"A really powerful mage?" Aika says.

"Close enough, for now," Claudia says.

Damn, I was hoping to hear a little bit more about it myself. In the anime, it was the guy who would destroy the world, or rather the Demon Lord, that would, but I doubt that's on the table this time around. And Sora and Ddraig haven't been much help in this regard either. Apparently, a Mage King's purpose isn't all that well understood.

You'd think the people that put the system together would know what it is, but from what I can tell, they didn't build Mage King Elements, and no one knows who or what did.

Meanwhile, the conversation between Liese and the other Trinity Seven girls heats up. "Mage King candidate?" Selina says. "Big sister, you couldn't have..."

"Liese-san," Mira says. "You really have turned into an impure Mage King candidate."

"It's the ultimate desire of every mage in the world to become the Mage King," Liese says. "So isn't it natural for any mage to want to become a candidate?"

Yeah. See, this is what I didn't quite get about the world of Trinity Seven. Everyone wants to be a Demon Lord... I mean Mage King, but then the Mage King was supposed to destroy the world. I mean, I don't want to destroy the world. That's where I keep all my stuff.

"But you have to study and research before-" Levi says before Liese blows a raspberry and waves her off.

"I don't want to waste my time doing all that," she says. "I want to skip to the finish like this guy over here."

Aika nods in agreement but stops when Claudia smacks her upside the back of her head.

"Skip the process and get the results," Liese continues. "That's my research."

"Well, shortcuts are always nice," I say, playing along—just a couple more minutes.

"I know, right!" Liese says.

"Issei!" Selina shouts.

"I mean, I don't mind a little hard work, as long as it isn't boring. If there is an easier way, count me in... But you tried to steal your sister's magic, and you just don't do that to the people you care about," I say with a shrug.

'All set, Master,' Sora tells me.

'Excellent.'

"Is that so? Then I guess you wouldn't want to come over to my side, would you Mage King candidate?" Liese asks.

"Honestly, I think you should come over to mine, instead," I reply.

"Akio," Mira says.

"On it," Akio says and charges forward with Levi at her side.

"I'll help you out!" Levi shouts, seemingly excited.

A blast from Liese's black energy wings sends the two flying back to where they started.

"Damn!"

Liese steps forward into my very personal space; with one hand resting on my chest, she leans in. "Now then," she says, licking her lips. It's her go-to move. Maybe I'll get her some lip balm in the future. All that licking has to be drying her lips out. "All mine."

Her mouth opens, and she pulls me into a deep kiss. I don't know if she can feel it, but I'm smiling. She fell right into the trap. It really helps when you know almost exactly what your enemy is going to do.

As soon as her magic and research stealing macro activate, an exact opposite copy also activates. It was nice of her to try to steal Mira's magic right at the beginning, allowing Sora and Sasami to get a look at it. Then using my Dreamscape, they took their sweet time running the simulations, analyzing the effect, and filling in the gaps. It would have been faster if Levi hadn't interrupted the attempt, but probably for the best that she did.

At the same time, my Harem King's Blessing has already taken effect, locking Lieselotte Sherlock into the enhanced Master-Slave Pact. The spiked symbol of subjugation appears on her neck, and the master symbol glows on my hand. Feeling her powers drain away, Liese tries to pull herself out of my grip, but I have her locked down.

She tries to use her teleport macro, but a magic circle appears beneath our feet, locking the space around us. She might have a lot more experience with magic than I do, but when it comes to brute force, how is she going to overcome a Mage King candidate's magic power reinforced by a half dozen boosts from the Boosted Gear?

I pull back, still keeping one arm around her waist. "That was a nice kiss. Thank you," I say.

"Y-you bastard," she says with flushed cheeks and panting breath. "What did you do to me?"

She got a pretty big whammy, honestly. Between the Dash of Ambrosia that affects my saliva, the Harem King's Blessing, and countering her magic and reversing it so that she gave me her Mage King Element instead of her stealing my own, she's got to be feeling a little drained.

I hold up my right hand showing the glowing symbol on it. "You have about thirty seconds to kiss this symbol and submit, or the curse that you're under will force you to in a way that you will long remember."

She gets a little pale. "Bullshit."

I shake my head. "It's based on demon magic, specifically, succubus magic. The only difference is that it's several orders of magnitude stronger than the original. Do you understand the implications?"

A little pale became as white as a sheet. Apparently, she does understand the implications.

Sora pops out. "He's not kidding. When he first got this power, he left a fallen angel to the curse's mercy for a couple of hours, and she nearly died. He had to expend a lot of effort to keep her alive and sane and not just a cock-starved husk. Trust me, sweetpea. Kiss the mark."

The mark starts to blink, and I count down. "Five. Four. Three."

Before I get to 'two,' she grabs my hand and presses her lips to it. I release her completely. "Congratulations, you won't strip yourself naked and beg me to fuck you... for now," I say. I enjoy the fact that you could interpret that last jab in a few different ways.

She was pissed. I don't blame her, but she caused it herself. There is a lesson in this that we can all learn from. In the words of my favorite scruffy-looking nerf-herder, "Don't get cocky." Miss Sherlock was learning that the hard way. Well, it could have been much worse. If she were a dude, I'd probably splatter him across the stones and pull the Mage King Element from his shattered chest, but that would be a crime against such a lovely chest as hers.

"Now, Miss Sherlock," I say. "If you would please return all of us to the Kuoh Library that you took us from... and of course that includes yourself. You and I will need to take some time to get to know each other. We're going to be together for a long time after all."

I wave at the others. Selina is looking at me like I might eat her, and honestly, I kind of want to. Which guy hasn't dreamt about screwing a set of beautiful twins? And here is one set. There may even be a second set if Hijiri is around. Speaking of which, I haven't seen Arin anywhere lately. I should check up on my third fiancé.

The world warps again, and the library at Kuoh appears around us. The room has a few extra people around, however. Sona and Subaki, Rias and Akeno, Mio, Lilith, Arin, and Yuki all stare at the group of us and me in particular. Maybe it's because I have my arms around the Sherlock sisters' waists.

I lean in close to Selina. "Do you still want to do a story on me?"