Hierarchy and revelations

Seeing her enter the room, I stood up from the bed and extended my hand towards her. Pulling her towards the bed, Anna laid down on my chest and said: "Ethan, can you introduce me to sister Anise?"

Her question took me by surprise and I got to admit I was a bit reluctant to agree. Seeing the reluctance in my eyes, Anna said: "Please? I just want to meet her."

Letting out a sigh, I nodded and said: "All right. She also said she wanted to meet you before. Do you have anything else to settle before we go?"

"No. I already arranged for someone to look over mother and dealt with all the battalion business for a while. If something happens Brenn will be here to deal with it so I'm free to go."

"All right." I said as I grabbed her hand and channeled my mana to teleport us both to the Capital. I choose to teleport just outside the city so I could show Anna around as we headed towards the inn. As we both appeared besides the road leading to the Capital, Anna looked around before fixing her eyes on the Capital's walls and saying: "I've never seen walls so big before. Is this the Capital?"

I nodded and led her by the hand towards the main gate. With the fighting having stopped in the north, we passed by a lot more merchants and adventurers along the way.

"It's so lively here, nothing like the atmosphere on the Northern Continent."

"The south has it's own share of problems, but at least there are no demons and no brainwashing here."

We kept walking and, after ten or so minutes, we finally reached the city gates. As Anna was marveling at the scene around us, I showed my adventurer badge to the guards at the gate and after some routine questions they let us in. I held tightly on Anna's hand so we won't get separated inside the sea of people that were walking through the streets and headed towards the inn Anise was staying in.

The entire thing felt strange to me. I never expected one day I'll have to introduce one girlfriend to the other. The feeling that I was letting both of them and even Alison down was weighing heavily on me. On the way, I kept introducing the places we passed by to distract my mind from those thoughts.

Eventually, we reached the front of the inn and stepped through it's doors. As we headed up the stairs towards my room, even Anna seemed a bit anxious as she let go of my hand and also took a deep breath.

In front of the door, I let out a sigh and softly knocked on the door. As I heard footsteps approaching the door from the inside, my back became completely drenched in sweat. A few moment later, the door opened and a smile appeared on her face as soon as she saw me. Then, noticing Anna behind me, a conflicted look flashed by her eyes as she apparently understood who she was before her smile returned and she said: "Why did you knock and didn't just directly come in?"

I felt a bit awkward and replied: "It didn't seem right for us to just appear inside the room so I figured it would be better if we walked through the door. When we reached here I just knocked out of habit."

She nodded and turned towards Anna: "You must be Anna. Let's speak inside."

Anna walked in and I was just about to follow when Anise used her hand to block me as she said: "We'll speak alone for a while. Wait downstairs and I'll let you know when we're done."

"But…" before I could finish my sentence, Anise closed the door in my face. Being left alone in the hallway, I let out another sigh and turned back down the stairs. Once I reached the dinning room of the inn, I sat down at one of the free tables and ordered a cup of ale.

'Ai, do you have any idea what could they be speaking about?'

[I'm sorry, since my database is mostly from Earth and monogamy is the norm there, I have no information to use as a reference.]

'It's fine.' I replied as I took a sip of my cup. As I was drinking quietly at my table, mulling over what will happen after I return to my room, Lysa walked inside the dinning room.

Seeing me drinking alone at a table, she walked up to me, sat down and asked: "Hey Ethan. Anise told me you were north searching for someone. Did you return already? Did you find who you were looking for?"

"Hi Lysa. I just came back a few minutes ago. Why are you here?"

"Hehe, Anise let me read through some of the books you left behind so I've been spending a lot of time with her. I hope you don't mind."

"It's fine." I replied as I took another sip of my drink.

Lysa looked at me strangely and asked: "If you just came back, what are you doing drinking alone here in the dinning room? Shouldn't you be upstairs with Anise?"

I let out another sigh and said: "She kicked me out of the room as soon as I returned…"

"She did what?" asked Lysa with an amazed expression, "What did you do?"

"I brought Anna back with me and she told me she wanted to speak to her alone and that I should return later."

"Anna? Who's that?"

"She's.. It's complicated."

My expression seems to have exposed me as Lysa exclaimed: "Oh. I see now. I never knew you had someone else other than Anise."

"Maybe I'll be single after they are done." I said with a self-mocking smile.

Seeing my downcast expression she chuckled and said: "Don't worry. I'm sure they are just setting the hierarchy."

"Hierarchy?" I asked confused, not really understanding what that meant.

"Well, you know. Like who'll be the first wife, who the second and so on. That's the custom as soon as a man brings up another girl into his harem, at least in this world."

"Is that really necessary?"

"It is. My father has a harem of 26 women and trust me, without a hierarchy there will be only chaos. My mother is in fact the third wife. These things must be resolved from the start."

"I see. I hope that's all there is to it. Anise looked quite angry…"

"That's only normal. The fact that you brought another girl means she'll have to share you with someone else from now on, but she loves you too much to give up on you so as long as you don't change the way you're treating her you don't have to worry about anything."

I must admit that Lysa's words brought me some much needed comfort. Seeing me relax slightly, Lysa ordered a cup of milk herself and said: "I'll keep you company until the girls finish speaking."

Nodding, I asked: "How are things in the Capital? Has the rebellion made any more moves?"

As I breached the subject of the rebellion, Lysa sighed and said: "With the increase in people coming and leaving the Capital after the war in the north got stalled, father's guards around the city also detained a lot more people suspected of rebelling against the empire. The situation is not looking good and everyone is worried they will strike soon."

"I'm sorry to hear that. The last people need right now is an internal war… sigh." I replied as I played with the ring I received from that lady affiliated with the rebellion.

"I know. Father is also planning on sending my older brothers and sister to one of our vassal kingdoms ruled by one of his loyal friends so they won't get mixed up in the whole thing."

"I see, it seems like a wise choice to me. When are you leaving?"

"Oh, me and Velor are not leaving. Since our level is quite high, thanks again for that, father agreed to let us stay inside the capital. The others are probably leaving after a few more days. How is the situation on the Northern Continent?"

"Not good…" I replied and started explaining her about what I saw up there and what Anna told me, but I didn't mention anything about the Grand Duke. As my story ended, Lysa sighed and said: "I wish I could come and help you guys up there, but with the whole rebellion thing I don't want to get too far from the Capital either."

"No problem, I understand."

"So, are you planning to move against the demon generals soon?"

"I'll first join the Blessed Battalion and do my best to increase my level. It will probably only happen after a couple of months of leveling up."

"Maybe the situation in the Capital will stabilize by then and I'll be able to come help as well."

"We'll see. What about Oliver and Iris? How are they?"

"I don't really see Iris that often, but Oliver got promoted in the army and is now tasked with investigating the rebellion. He's also quite busy."

As I was chatting with Lysa, Anise walked down the stairs and, noticing us drinking at a table, she walked up to us and said: "Sorry Lysa, but I'm quite busy today. Ethan let's go upstairs."

Lysa nodded and finished her drink before saying: "No problem. I'll come by another time." She then gave me and encouraging look before walking towards the exit. I stood up from the table and followed after Anise. I noticed that she seemed a bit annoyed but I didn't say anything about it and just followed in silence.

Once we entered our room, I saw Anna sitting down on the side of the bed with the same look of annoyance as Anise. I looked between the two of them and asked: "Is everything all right?"

They both nodded and Anise said: "Yes. We settled that as soon as we get married I'll take the role of the first wife while Anna will be second, but both of us will have the same amount of power inside your harem and if you decide to marry any other girls, their rank will be under us. We wanted to ask you if you'll agree to this."

The whole thing left be a bit tongue tied as my thoughts run to Alison. First of all, the whole ranking thing seemed completely dumb to me, and if I agreed to all this, what about Alison?

Seeing my conflicted look, Anise sighed and said: "You're thinking about Alison? We know how much you care about her and decided to reconsider the whole arrangement after we get the chance to speak to her. She was still your first and we'll respect that."

[You should take the time and tell them about the Nexus. The world's will is no longer present and it's laws are null now, allowing you to tell them everything.]

Ai's words reminded of a quite obvious thing and sitting down on the bed next to Anna, I said: "Can I say something first?"

"What is is?" asked Anise.

"Take a seat first. It's quite a long story."

Anise nodded and sat down next to me as well. I was just about to start speaking when an idea came to me and I asked Ai: 'Ai, do you think it's possible for you to materialize yourself? It would help a lot if they also met you.'

As my words ended, a small ethereal girl, looking no older than 13 or 14 materialized in front of us. Both Anise and Anna were stunned by the sight and turned towards me looking for an explanation. Sighing, I introduced Ai before telling them the whole story, starting from my life back on earth, how I died, the Nexus, who Ai was, the mission I received from the Nexus and so on. I kept talking for hours, late into the evening, while the girls just listened quietly to my story.

As soon as my story ended, neither Anna nor Anise said a single word. They looked like they were still processing things. Eventually, Anise asked with hesitation in her voice: "Does that mean that if the demons are dealt with, you'll eventually leave this world and travel to another?"

I nodded and said: "Yes. I have no choice, but I told you that I'll also link this world to the Nexus and freeze it in time. This way, no matter how many years I have to spend until this mission is over, you will not feel I was gone for even a moment."

Anise's face didn't get any better and she looked like she was about to start crying any moment as she said: "But, what will happen if you forget about us? Who knows how long it will take for your mission to end…time might not pass for us, but for you…"

I let out a sigh, put my arms around both Anna and Anise's backs and brought them closer to me as I said: "Trust me. No matter how long it takes to complete this mission and whatever happens to me during that time, I'll never forget any of you. That I can promise."

Anise could no longer keep her tears from falling as she held me closer and said: "Isn't there any way we can also come with you? Please… I don't want to leave you alone."

Seeing me having a hard time answering, Ai did it for me: "Following after him will be possible, but not in the near future. He'll have to accumulate enough points to make that possible while also evolving his soul to a higher tier."

Her words were news even to me and we all turned and looked at her, waiting for her to explain further.

Ai extended her hand and a small transparent sphere hovered in front of her. She showed the sphere to us and said: "Consider this sphere as a manifestation of Ethan's soul.". She then manifested another couple of spheres before shrinking them and inserting in the first sphere.

"For a soul to be able to house other souls, those souls must be able to compress their spirit to enter inside. The ability to compress one's spirit is only available for tier two souls and even then, every soul housed inside will occupy a portion of the original soul, limiting the amount of spirit inside."

A couple of moments later, the original sphere was completely full of small spheres and slowly started cracking: "If Ethan's soul were to house too many souls, it might even completely break apart. That is not a problem right now since all your souls are still tier 1 and you won't even be able to compress your spirit."

She let all the spheres disappear before making a new one manifest. "As a person's soul keeps increasing and evolving, the space inside will also grow allowing it to contain more souls. Once a soul reaches tier 7, a soul will be able to contain a whole world inside. At that moment, housing more souls inside will pose no problem and you will be able to follow Ethan everywhere he goes."

As she kept explaining, the sphere in her hand kept increasing and a small round planet eventually took form inside the sphere.

"At tier 8, the soul will be able to contain an entire universe and at tier 9 Ethan's soul will be able to house the whole Nexus."

Once her explanation ended, Ai let the sphere disappear. Anise caught on to Ai's explanation and asked: "Does that mean that we still have to wait until Ethan's soul reaches tier 7?"

Ai nodded and said: "That is correct. You can theoretically join him as soon as you evolve your souls to tier two, but since that would weaken Ethan and at the same time put him in danger, I will not allow it."

"How long will that take? For Ethan to evolve his soul to tier 7 that is?"

Ai shook her head and said: "I don't know, but considering the difficulty of evolving one's soul it will probably take a long time."

Anise nodded with a sigh and asked: "Is it possible for him to visit us as he travels between worlds?"

"Yes, but Ethan will have to spend points to unfreeze time on this world and freeze it again once he leaves."

Seeing the look of resignation on Anise's face, I said: "I'm sorry I didn't tell you any of this before, but I couldn't no matter how much I wanted because of the world's laws."

"It's all right. I understand. It's all just a lot take in…" replied Anise.

I turned to look at Anna since she was quiet the entire time, but was surprised to find her just looking at me with a loving smile. Seeing me look in her direction, she hugged me and said: "I don't care. As long as I know you will eventually come back to me, I'll always wait for you. I don't care even if the world stays unfrozen and I have to wait for an eternity."

Her words also brought a smile to my face and I gave her a short kiss on her cheek. Anise on the other side, seeing me kiss only Anna, hit me with her elbow and said with a pout: "Hey. I didn't say I wouldn't wait for you. It's just a lot for me to take in at once, but I love you just as much."

I chuckled before giving her a kiss as well and saying: "I know. I'm the luckiest man in this whole world to have met the two of you."

Anise also smiled slightly but I could tell she was still bothered about all of this and just did her best to not show it. As her role was done, Ai said goodbye to the girls and entered back inside my soul.

Being just the three of us left inside the room, Anna boldly turned my head towards her and said:

"Ethan, since your time in this world is so short, I want you to make me yours as well."