Chapter 19: Fall into your bed

Note: Chapter contains, uh, Limes? Lemons? Stuff like that.

"Hm, so it works as [Appraisal Magic Item] suggested." Momonga thought as he drank his third mana potion. "And the amount of mana seems to be quite consistent as well, while being unable to overcharge available mana if it is already full…"

He had been casting minor silent spells to induce mana drain and then used one of the new mana potions to restore his mana, and finding that the restoration per potion was roughly equivalent to mana consumed by a fifth-tier spell, or a low-cost sixth-tier spell.

In other words, not much, but Momonga figured that he'd eventually find a way to concentrate the effect of the potions so he wouldn't need to chug an entire twelve-pack of the potions to recharge the amount of mana a single ninth-tier spell would use. That, or he'd find more effective mana potions.

Normally he'd be more reserved when it came to using potions frivolously, but since this new world he had landed in was selling the items in regular stores he figured he could likely replenish his stock when he wanted, allowing him to be more cavalier with the items. He still needed to be careful when it came to using YGGDRASIL consumables though.

He glanced out of the research room's window and saw that the night had fallen properly, and figured that it'd be time to retire for the night.

Momonga could just keep researching throughout the night, but it'd likely cause his Peerage either suspicion or worry, so he decided that keeping his cover as intact as it could be would be more important than trying to research more.

Deciding to do one more thing before retiring for the night, Momonga cast [Message] after closing the curtains for one more time, making sure the door was locked, and casting a few anti-espionage spells from the scrolls in his inventory to ensure secrecy.

"My lord, thine humble servant answers thy call." The horrible, growly voice of the Elder Lich he had created answered Momonga's [Message], the voice echoing around his head much like Ddraig's had.

"Report."

"I have failed thee, my lord. I have failed to become an undead phoenix as thee have intended me to be. However I have engrossed myself in research, and have made great strides in my attempt to rectify my mistake that is my failed being."

'What?' "Do you have anyone helping you?" Momonga filed the words for later study and pressed forwards. He would have asked 'do you have Lord Phenix with you' but if anyone managed to pierce his anti-divination and anti-spying spells they'd have definite proof of his guilt if they caught him saying it.

"Lord Phenix has helped me immensely. I've archived strides in my research on the subject of turning an undead into an undead phoenix thanks to his help."

'Hm? He managed to persuade Lord Phenix to help him?' Momonga thought. 'Interesting. Elder Liches are supposed to be intelligent undead, but this one has surpassed my expectations. Good… I can stop feeling guilt that Lady Phenix's husband is suffering because of me if he's helping the Lich willingly… which actually makes sense since the Lich would have been created into his son's body so he may have confused the lich to be his son. I guess that this answers my question about the intelligence of the summoned undead in this world as well. ' "Excellent, keep up the good work."

"Thine words are like gold and honey poured upon the plate of a worthless wretch like me, I thank you, my lord."

"In addition I'd like you to see if you and your… subordinates can gain experience, and if they can give experience." Momonga thought of a good way to relay his order of 'find out if summoned undead could gain or give experience.'

"Aah… Yes… yes, of course, my lord! Thine plan is superb, and I am eternally grateful that thine majesty has allowed a lowly servant such as myself to even participate in such a grand plan! Shall I contact thee once I have concrete results?"

"How long do you think it'd take?" 'Grand plan?'

"A week at most, my lord!"

"I'll contact you in a week, don't contact me. Also, don't call me by my name no matter what you do. And again, good work." Momonga nodded to himself as the Elder Lich somehow managed to bow his head deeply through the [Message] before the connection broke.

'Well, that went better than I expected.' he thought as he dispelled his wards.

'Hmm… I don't remember imbuing it with the need to become a 'undead phoenix', but that research would help me keep my cover.' Momonga realized that the Elder Liches' research could help him immensely. 'As it is, my cover as a member of the Phenix family hinges on me being able to regenerate, cast fire spells, and cry phoenix tears. I can do one through my magic, but two I can't do without potions and even then it'd be a stretch to cry phoenix tears. And I doubt that it would be a good idea to incorporate phoenix tear ability into this body because it'd cause self-damage to 'Momonga'.'

He thought about using [Dark Wisdom], a spell that would allow him to learn a new spell in exchange for a massive mana drain and corpse sacrifice in order to try to learn [High-Speed Regeneration] or equivalent ability. However, he would face two problems in that approach, namely that most regeneration abilities were abilities and not spells and thus couldn't be learned through [Dark Wisdom], and second would be that it required the corpses of Players to use, of which he had none.

'I wonder though, since this world is abundant with strong enemies, could I learn new spells by sacrificing their corpses?' Momonga filed yet another research subject to his mental experiment cabinet that was already overflowing. He got up from a desk in the research room and went to unlock the door and step out.

Only, he noticed that walking was somewhat difficult. 'Hm?'

Momonga looked down, and noticed a major problem that would hinder his movement.

Suzuki Satorou groaned like an old man, while Momonga realized that the 'mana potion' was only mana potion to the skeletal body of Momonga, and was something else entirely for the fleshy body he was 'equipping'.

It also appeared that he'd need to consider the side-effects of consuming potions, as many potions came with beneficial effects but also maluses, albeit in this case Momonga figured that the positive and negative effects of the potion were inverted for him. However the same could not be said for the fleshy body over his skeletal surrogate body.

The realization made him consider that perhaps the reason why the potions recovered only equivalent to fifth or sixth tier spells amount of mana was because the potions were made with the 'lewd' in mind, and not primarily as mana potions, which meant that the 'mana replenishment' was actual the potion's unintended side-effect. Therefore by extension there could also exist potions that were primarily made as 'mana potions' and carried minor side effects of their own.

That being said, the effect below was quite respectable on the account that it had almost torn his reddish-brown dress pants's crotch open.

"As expected of the Underworld's reagents…" Momonga sighed, resigned, and once again realized that he was living in a ero-real world where what was eroge was normal, and what was normal was an illogically powerful monster wearing human skin. "Truly, I have been careless."

'I don't have any levels in Thief or Assassin… so I can't use [Stealth] but… should I really use [Perfect Unknowable] to get into my bedroom and sleep until this subsides?' Momonga thought before he remembered he had an entire shipment of the potions in stock. 'Hm… I'll need to see if I can find an Alchemist who can purify the lewd out of the potions.'

Deciding to risk it and not use the concealment spell, Momonga crept, or rather, wobbled through the hallway of the third floor of the estate, down a set of stairs, and once making sure the coast was clear, slipped into his bedroom and slammed the door closed behind him while leaning against it. 'Haah… I swear, if this was eroge just about every girl in this building would have been prancing about in the hallways just now.'

Momonga turned his attention away from the door and towards the center of the bedroom.

And saw Yubelluna, Xuelan, Akeno and Rias, all who looked as if they had been having an argument, and had shut up when Momonga had 'snuck' into the bedroom.

"Ah, hello." Momonga got out as the ladies' attention turned downwards. 'I need to stop jinxing myself...'

Momonga did not like the hungry look in Xuelan's eyes.

"A-ah, hi, Issei-kun. Um, erm. well…" Rias seemed to struggle to get a word out of her throat as she looked at something other than Issei's eyes. "Ah, we, I mean me, was just telling Xuelan-san and Yubelluna-san to, um…"

"To get out of Rias's and Issei's room." Akeno finished while keeping a hand-fan she had found somewhere over her mouth and kept glaring daggers at the two other women.

"Excuse me, miss homewrecker." Yubelluna noted coldly to Akeno. "If I deduced correctly you had planned on hiding under Issei-sama's bed and presumably emerge at one point or another to cuck him for the second night in a row with Rias, and in his bed, while he was sleeping next to Rias, correct? Issei-sama doesn't seem bold enough to just take your 'lover', or rather his wife if she decides to tell him not to. Just how despicable are you?"

"N-nothing like that happened! It's all a misunderstanding! I swear! Don't believe Lady Phenix!" Rias tried to get out, blushing from rage and embarrassment while Yubelluna and Akeno were trying to kill each other through gazes. "Issei! Y-you believe me, right?"

However Momonga had other problems as Xuelan had stalked way too close to him and was pushing her breasts against 'his' chest. "Um, Xuelan-san…"

"Is~sei~ku~n" Xuelan breathed out to 'Issei's ear with a voice that caused Momonga's blood to run cold and Suzuki's to run hot, which was further amplified as the woman placed her hand on his stomach and slid it down so it rested on top of the bump on his tortured dress pants. "I wonder, were you perhaps hoping for something to ~happen~ when you came here looking like this?"

"Hey!" Rias seemed to find her strength after seeing Xuelan's forwardness. "Get away from my husband, you skank!"

"Erm, Xuelan-san, I'm sorry but I can't repr-" Momonga started to apologize to the raven-haired Rook, but was cut mid-sentence as the woman leaned even closer and kissed him on the lips when he turned his head towards her. She pushed her tongue in his mouth as he had frozen still, and lifted her leg so her inner thigh rested on his flank.

"Hey!" Rias stomped towards the two while Momonga worked to disentangle himself from the woman. However she was stopped by Yubelluna who stepped between Rias and her goal.

"Now, perhaps you start to feel what it might feel like?" Yubelluna's voice was cruel, causing Rias to flinch hard while Akeno growled violently. "Well then, since you seem to be more interested in your girlfriend than your marriage, surely you won't mind if Xuelan and I… hm… take up on the opportunity?"

"Alright, alright, let's just all calm down." Momonga pushed Xuelan away by her shoulders, causing the flustered woman to let a disappointed groan. And then she stomped on the floor in rage.

"This is what I meant when I said you lacked passion!" Xuelan accused, clearly hurt, while pointing a finger at Momonga. "You only have eyes for Rias, no, your wife, even though she's just rolling over to someone else's bed the moment you look at another direction and you're just… just… fine with it? Where is your pride as a man!"

"Well, the union was politically motivated…" Momonga realized that if something wasn't done fast, the team integrity he had sought in his Peerage would ignite and spontaneously combust into ashes. 'Ugh… I was never any good at psychology of romance and love, or conflicts of romantic nature…'

"In that case, since Rias seems to be just fine having her own love-life, do you not want some for yourself as well?" Xuelan pushed herself against Momonga once again. "Or perhaps I or Yubelluna don't strike your fancy?"

"N-no, that's not the case. You're extremely beautiful and a wonderful person, Xuelan-san."

Momonga rattled words off from his platter of platitudes automatically while an emergency strategy meeting was held in his head between Suzuki Satorou, Momonga, a plushie that looked like Peroroncino, and a knight-like plushie of Touch Me.

Suzuki Satorou voted that his pride as a businessman and a neo-japanese person who considered themselves 'decent' wouldn't stand for committing adultery against one's wife, nor for robbing someone of their lover for the sake of an arranged marriage.

'Momonga' countered that the team integrity of the Peerage was about to disintegrate so an answer needed to be found, even if it contained adultery or ripping apart the love between two girls. He later added that the latter option would likely also cause an inter-team conflict so it was an unwise solution.

Peroroncino-plushie noted that there were two very soft objects against Momonga's fleshy body's chest, and a very willing woman to go along with them.

Touch Me-plushie noted that it would be shameful for one to cheat on one's wife, but would also be equally shameful for having one's wife cheat on them, even if Momonga was in an arranged marriage. If that was the case, he should seek divorce rather than trying to find alternate arrangements.

'Momonga' shot the suggestion down immediately as breaking the marriage would deprive them of a hostage that could be held against Lucifer should he seek Momonga's head.

'Momonga' banged an imaginary judge's hammer on an imaginary conference table to bring an order to the meeting as multiple parties tried to object at once.

'Momonga' then ordered Peroronchino-plushie to advise as the plushie had most experience in eroge-love triangles. Touch Me-plushie noted that Peroroncino's relationship knowledge might not be the most reliable. Suzuki Satorou then noted that this world was an eroge, causing Touch Me-plushie to concede the point.

Peroroncino-plushie seemed pleased by the attention and pointed his hand towards the 'ceiling', uttering a word that caused Suzuki Satorou and Touch Me-plushie to bang their heads against the conference table.

'Momonga' asked what were the end benefits of attempting to form a harem.

Peroroncino-plushie explained that if successful, he could achieve near unbreakable loyalty from the Peerage members who were in it. 'Momonga' was sold on the idea instantly, much to Suzuki Satorou's horror.

Touch Me-plushie raised a point on how exactly Peroroncino-plushie was planning on forming a harem when two of the would-be candidates were in love with each other, or how he was planning on having multiple women agree with the proposal of being in a intimate relationship with the same person.

'Momonga' objected to Peroroncino-plushie that 'witness me' was not a viable strategy after receiving the proposal.

Peroroncino-plushie seemed to slump on the chair after muttering something about improper setup and lack of chrome paint, and then conceded the chance to speak to Suzuki Satorou, who was utterly baffled by the turn of events.

Having nothing much to add, and the same repeating with Touch Me-plushie who was utterly speechless, Peroronchino-plushie nodded and explained that he was the only one with a plan and thus, they would go for all-or-nothing.

'Momonga' had been concerned when he had heard the proposal, as had been everyone else present in the emergency strategy meeting inside Momonga's head, but in the end, time was running out and they couldn't just extend the meeting due to Xuelan's rapidly approaching face.

Momonga came into his senses and realized that he had been tossed into the king-sized bed at one point or another, presumably by the Rook who'd easily have the strength to do so. The woman had also torn his shirt off, quite literally if the strips of cloth around the bed were anything to go by. "Ah, Miss Xuelan…"

The woman paused, visibly annoyed as Momonga placed a finger on her lips, after which her eyes gained a teasing glint and she took the finger into her mouth. 'Oh here we go again…'

"The thing is, I truly don't wish to betray the union between Rias-san and myself. Yet at the same time I don't wish to break the love she has for Akeno-san, nor do I wish to force myself on Rias-san, like I believe Lady Phenix wishes." Momonga coughed as he channelled Peroronchino, memories of whom had taken the mental image of a feather-covered humanoid avian plushie in his mind. "However, at the same time I realize that the stalemate we've been holding can only last so long. This goes double as Yubelluna-san and Xuelan-san have feelings towards me that I can't, nor won't, merely ignore. Thusly, I accept Yubelluna's and Xuelan's feelings, and respond in kind."

Rias, who had been held back by Yubelluna, opened her mouth wide. "I-Issei, w-what… don't tell me you… remembered that..."

'Hm? Oh yeah, Issei had that 'dream' about his future... Ddraig, were you correct about Issei and me after all? Were we truly alike?' Momonga shook the realization out of his head before it could distract him. "Yet, since I've been told I hold parts of Riser's soul within me…" 'Yeah that's a stretch…' "...And indeed, I can't truly turn down Yubelluna-san and Xuelan-san's proposal even if I had something against it, which I don't. Neither will I begrudge Rias-san for loving Akeno-san. However, some changes are in order to ensure the Phenix family's and the Gremory family's reputation."

"E-eh?"

"If we are to uphold the union between Gremory and Phenix, we can't just ignore each other, nor let the rumors of Rias's lovers spread as it would harm the reputation of both families. So while I know this will cause pain on Akeno-san, I wish to ask you two to be my lovers as well. That way Akeno-san will have a legitimate clause to see Rias, and no-one has a claim to interfere." Momonga was running dry on Peroroncino-ness, so he switched back to his rational mind. 'I'm not even going to debate about it, if I meet Peroroncino in person again I'm just going to strangle him and then thank his corpse before he resurrects.'

"You know, you could have just said that you wanted to fuck all of us and that'd be it. I'm game." Xuelan pulled Momonga's finger out of her mouth to note dryly, causing Suzuki Satorou's brains to short out while Momonga nodded mentally to Peroroncino-plushie who gave a thumbs up.

Then he was forced to divert his attention elsewhere as the qipao-wearing woman crawled over Momonga, forcing him to grab her shoulders to keep the woman still for a while.

"I'm sorry for halting you, but I'll need to hear Rias's answer before I go forwards with this." Momonga nodded at the woman who just rolled her eyes and rolled to the side, allowing him to sit up. "Well… erm, Rias?"

The girl was opening and closing her mouth like fish out of water, while Yubelluna had released her and was looking at Issei with an odd expression on her face.

Akeno looked like she wasn't sure if she should be screaming in anger or giggling like a madwoman.

"My, you do have a lot of Riser's good sides in you. I can feel the doubts I've had start to vanish when you speak like that." Yubelluna noted happily before waltzing over and planting a kiss on Momonga's temple. She then sat next to Xuelan, who had sat up on the bed, had pulled her legs in front of her, was staring at Momonga and was…

Momonga turned his eyes back towards Rias, his host body's face completely red. It seemed that Rias had the same opinion of the Rook's assertive actions as she was blushing up to her hairline. Momonga was honestly worried about the red-head's blood pressure, since blushing as much as she had in such a short time probably wouldn't be good for the heart.

"Erm, so, what say you, Rias?" Momonga broke the girl off her thoughts.

"I, you, me, Akeno, uh, those two, erm, um…" Rias seemed to struggle to formulate a coherent sentence. Akeno hugged the girl from behind, causing the red-head to freeze utterly still. "Akeno, that is not helping the situation!"

"Well at least you got a full sentence out of your mouth." Akeno noted dryly. "Well then, are we going to escape or are you going to accept what Issei is offering? I'm with you either way."

Rias seemed to choke on thin air. "I... It's not like I have a choice here…"

"Well, then, in that case my body will be your shield if you should need it." Akeno turned the girl around so she looked at her, placing a reassuring hand on her cheek. "I won't let anything happen to you that you're not prepared for."

Suzuki Satorou felt no insignificant amount of shame for forcing the situation on the two girls in love with each other, but Momonga reminded him that there were scarce few options. 'I just hope I can make it up to her at some point…'

"Well, you heard her. Now, if you don't start doing something about us I'll start to think you've decided to take our proposals and then just put them in a filing cabinet." A voice ambushed Momonga from behind and he turned his eyes just in time to be almost blindsided by Xuelan who grabbed his hand and led it somewhere quite wet while a soft but toned body pressed against his back.

Rias seemed to find her courage from seeing the qipao-wearing Rook jump 'Issei'. She walked to the bed, and pushed herself against Momonga while turning his head towards her. "It's f-fine, Issei, I… had a feeling something like this might happen. I don't… well… blame you... too much…"

Momonga sighed in relief as it seemed that the team integrity would still stay somewhat intact, while Suzuki Satorou's consciousness was struggling to come to terms with the fact he was trying to engage romantically with a duo of high-school students, one of whom was his wife, and two women who seemed completelyshameless.

'Momonga' mentally poked Suzuki Satorou with a long stick, seeing that the organic affairs were more of his side of his personality's area of expertise. It seemed to do little to break the persona out of its stupor so he mentally poked the faux-Peroroncino-plushie that he guessed represented his subconsciously repressed desires and/or unfulfilled sexuality thanks to Suzuki Satorou's work-and-YGGDRASIL centered life. 'Well then, do something?'

.

.

"Owoh…" A groan escaped a body that was next to Momonga's 'sleeping' body.

The benefit of not really needing to sleep surfaced once again as Momonga had let his fleshy body 'sleep' while he mentally catalogued his new discoveries, theories, methods and information. Some of which included the realization that his skeletal body had unlimited stamina, corresponding to YGGDRASIL, the stamina also applied to the cosmetic body, and that he could 'replenish' both his skeletal body's mana and fleshy body's 'vigor' through the 'mana' potions he had acquired. Which wasn't all that surprising, considering that had been their main purpose. Momonga considered yet another experiment successful and filed it away to a mental filing cabinet.

Suzuki Satorou was doing the mental equivalent of sitting on top of a tree trunk in a 'thinker' pose, struggling to internalize that his first time had been with two highschool students and a pair of absolute minxes of women, and that he had reached just about every base he could imagine at the same time, and some that he hadn't even thought about.

Peroroncino-plushie was somewhere in the back of his mind in a complete nirvana, while Touch Me-plushie was writing his tenth resignation letter, all of which had been turned down by 'Momonga'.

Realizing that the morning had come, Momonga forced his fleshy body to start waking up. It seemed to be the starting signal for the limp bodies around him to also start waking up.

"Ehe…" A voice he recognized to belong to Xuelan giggled quietly, then he felt a body slide down from his side until it came to a stop between his legs, and was then followed by a wet and hot sucking sensation in a certain body part that was in the region.

'Oh, great. I forgot this body tended to do that in the morning.' Momonga sighed mentally. Suzuki Satorou hadn't had 'morning woods' for a long time when he had been in his original body due to overwork and stress literally depriving him of dreams and energy, however the body he was equipping had no such problems. And even though his life was still quite stressful thanks to strong entities that were everywhere in the new world, his life was nowhere close to as stressful as the one he had left.

So, Momonga thanked the woman mentally for dealing with the issue before it could distract him. 'Well, I guess that takes care of it, thanks Xuelan-san.'

"Nh… Issei?" A sleepy voice belonging to Rias grumbled from near his right side and Momonga turned his head towards the girl while opening his eyes. "Ah… um… g-good morning?"

"Good morning, Rias, Xuelan. Slept well?"

"Gohof… Mhorng… glrh… forh… youf thoo, Issh-shama." a garbled voice answered from below, causing Rias to turn her head towards the direction of the voice and freeze completely still.

"Gah?"

"Dhont… pop… mind me, jusst.. grgl… havin' somhe… breakffhast." Xuelan's words didn't seem to help Rias's mental state, specifically as Momonga felt his fleshy body shudder soon after the words had left the woman's mouth.

'Well, that takes care of that.' Momonga sighed as Xuelan made exaggerated gulping, swallowing and sucking sounds that seemed to cause the red-head beside him to mentally shut down and start rebooting itself.

"Want some, Rias-chan?" Xuelan crept on top of the red-head, and before she could formulate an answer the Rook had kissed the red-head with excessive amounts of tongue in the mix.

"Urgh… Aha, good morning Issei-sama." Yubelluna seemed to wake up next, having slept on Momonga's left side and spooned by still-sleeping Akeno. "Oho, it looks like Xuelan is already at it."

"I guess… good morning to you too, Yubelluba. Slept well?"

"Very. I'd give you, hm, acceptable rating from last night. Points for stamina, points off for lack of skill, but we can work on that." Yubelluna purred in a way that caused the issue Xuelan had taken care of just seconds ago to resurface. The reaction wasn't helped by how the pair of hands belonging to Akeno were running themselves over Yubella's body from behind, the raven-haired girl seemingly having sleep-groping habits. "Oh my, it looks like the lessons may come sooner than I thought… if only Akeno-chan would release me. Ohoho, perhaps I should be worried that Akeno-chan sets her sights on me next?"

Akeno seemed to stir awake from the words and from the playful slap Yubelluna had reached to give the girl's butt, and Akeno almost jumped off the bed as she realized she had been cuddling someone other than Rias. "Ara? Ara Ara Ara?"

"Um, morning, Akeno-san?" Momonga got out before Rias took his attention, having managed to break out of Xuelan's attempt to reorganize her tonsils with her tongue. Rias climbed on top of him, gripping his shoulders for dear life while looking at Xuelan in shock. "Rias?"

"Ah, I mean, um…" Rias gulped as she was slurring her words, then seemed to realize what she had gulped down, and blushed once again, this time her lack of clothing revealing that she blushed not only up to her hairline but down to her shoulders as well. "H-hi, everyone? H-hey, Xue-hyah! W-wait, a-again?"

Both Momonga's and Rias's bodies shuddered as the Rook had grabbed the red-head's hips now that she had been on top of Momonga, adjusted the angle of Momonga's cosmetic body's 'sword', and then pulled Rias's hips down on it.

Before Rias could properly react to the fact she had once again become a sheath, or move herself either up or down depending if she was in the 'mood' or not, the door to the now musky-smelling bedroom opened.

The occupants of the room turned to look at Lady Phenix who had opened the door, and was looking at the bed's occupants.

"Ohoho, I was planning on seeing if my adopted son had finally done his duty as a husband, but it seems that I shouldn't have worried." The woman chuckled while fanning herself with a hand-fan. "Ufu, I actually came to deliver some news, which are actually somewhat urgent, so do finish quickly and then join us downstairs… although, taking a shower first might not go amiss."

The woman closed the door while Xuelan waggled her eyebrows after her, Yubelluna chuckled, Akeno seemed to be struggling between giggling at Rias and growling at the now-closed door, and Rias slumped down on top of Momonga like a doll whose strings had been cut.

"Well, if you're not going to take it then move over, there's a queue." Yubelluna whispered to Rias's ear, causing the red-head to let out a groan of embarrassment, which turned to a quick reassuring that 'she could take it' when Akeno had crawled over Yubella and asked if she could do it or if she needed to swap places with her.

'Well, I suppose this is an acceptable result as well, as far as team coherency is concerned… I still can't believe Peroroncino's ero-knowledge he imparted to me in YGGDRASIL would come to actual use.' Momonga sighed as picked up the mental stick again and mentally poked the Peroroncino-plushie inside his mind. 'Well, go ahead then?'

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