Oubliette

After nearly ten hours of sleep, Penelo stirred awake with a low moan. Then, after a bout of confusion, she rose to a seated position, stretching her hands over her head in a deliberate manner as she asked, "How long have I been asleep...?" in a groaning voice.

"Around ten hours..." replied Andrew, slipping the middle, ring, and pinky fingers of both his hands into the fabric of Penelo's panties, caressing her remarkably smooth cheeks directly.

Blinking in surprise, Penelo parroted, "Ten hours..." before asking, "Has it really been that long...?" with an apologetic expression developing across her face.

"No need to fret," said Andrew, winking playfully as he appended, "It was a pleasant experience."

Blushing faintly, Penelo turned her eyes from Andrew's face to his body, staring at his well-defined form in a trance for several seconds. He had been wearing an expensive-looking, deep-cut silken shirt when she fell asleep, but now he was completely bare-chested.

"Take your time," said Andrew, moving his hands from Penelo's waist and running them slowly up her sides as he mused, "I'm certainly enjoying the view..."

As Andrew ran his hands along her body, Penelo inhaled a shuddering breath. He didn't do anything special, but his careful and deliberate caress induced goosebumps across her body, a potent heat spreading through where she was seated atop him.

Staring at Andrew with an increasingly feverish look, Penelo, seemingly forgetting the 'resolve' she had formed earlier, asked, "Do you...do you want to do it?" in a tentative manner.

"I'm almost always down for things like that..." replied Andrew, sliding his thumbs under Penelo's bra and pulling it upward, exposing her pale white tits as he asked, "But did you forget what you said last time? You wanted to do it that one time so you wouldn't feel as indebted to me. I don't mind keeping things casual between us, but it will ruin your chances of having a normal relationship if we keep doing things like this. I mentioned it before, but I associate with 'many' women..."

"..."

Hearing Andrew's words, Penelo would be lying if she said she didn't feel a little trepidatious. However, after receiving so much from him and seeing what he was capable of, she increasingly wanted to learn more about him and to become a part of the mysterious and fantastical world he appeared to belong to...

Interrupting Penelo's reverie, Andrew's expression and tone softened as he said, "Don't forget what your dream was...you want to be a Dancer and purchase an airship so you and your friends can be free. I'm sure you find my power and existence mystifying, but there is more to life than whimsy and desire. Genuine kinship is difficult to acquire and should be cherished above all..."

Though he wouldn't mind adding Penelo to his harem, Andrew knew she didn't really 'belong' there. She lacked the education, status, and ability to become a proper Proxy, so she was bound to feel out of place among the rest of his women. He could help her become stronger, but she lacked the nature and ambition to reach the 'pinnacle.' At least at present...

Hanging her head, coincidentally allowing her to watch Andrew's hands, Penelo took nearly three minutes to deliberate his words. She understood what he was saying, but their meeting opened up the possibility of futures she had never considered. Even if she could be content with what he had given her thus far, Penelo felt she could attain and achieve much more by simply choosing to follow or serve the handsome man beneath her...

Forming her resolve, Penelo raised her gaze to meet Andrew's, muttering, "It's fine...I mean...I already agreed to become yours in exchange for the five million. With everything else you've given me..."

Shaking her head, Penelo's expression became far more serious as she leaned forward, placing her hands on the bed, flanking Andrew's face as she brought her own within ten centimeters, stating, "I don't want to be just another war orphan. I want to become much, much more. And I think following you can allow me to achieve that..."

"You're not wrong..." replied Andrew, moving his hands from Penelo's waist to her ass as he added, "But, even if you don't become mine, I'll support just about any path you decide. Choosing to follow me means walking the 'same' path..."

"But the latter means I'll get more preferential treatment, right?" asked Penelo.

"Of course it does," replied Andrew, snaking his tail up between his legs, catching Penelo a little off guard as he began to rub against her already wet pussy through the fabric of her panties.

"Then that's what I'll do..." said Penelo, her ruddy complexion deepening as she brought her face closer to Andrew's, tentatively bringing her lips to his. Her first kiss was even more important to her than her virginity, so she experienced the kind of sensation one would normally feel when standing on the edge of a cliff and looking down...

'Well, can't say I didn't give her plenty of opportunities to back out and change her mind...' thought Andrew, closing his eyes and reciprocating Penelo's inexperienced kiss as he slipped his tail down the front of her panties, rubbing it against her directly...

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Leaving Penelo back at the lodge, Andrew snuck into Nalbina Fortress by floating up to the top of its more than 100m tall outer wall. Once inside, he spent around two hours observing the soldiers and how they conducted their patrols before donning the attire of an Imperial Mage, permitting him to waltz right in.

Though most patrols traveled in pairs, Mages were the exception as they were uncommon and typically entrusted with performing maintenance or checking the various barriers and traps hidden around the fortress. They also had greater prestige than the rank-and-file, so unless he attempted to enter an area that was off-limits or acted strangely, the guise allowed Andrew to walk through the fortress unmolested.

Unfortunately, while it was easy to sneak into the fortress, Andrew quickly learned that trespassing the Dungeon wouldn't be as easy. The number of guards increased as he moved closer to the area, and there were several checkpoints through which you had to uncover your face, give your name, and present a form of identification. You also needed to state the purpose of your visit, so Andrew quickly gave up on that idea, slinking away into a surprisingly well-maintained stone lavatory and waiting several minutes for a pair of soldiers to pass, emerging a few seconds later to follow at an inconspicuous distance. One turned to look back at him, but as it wasn't unusual for soldiers in the same detail to be headed in the same direction, they didn't say anything.

Just to be safe, Andrew eventually broke away from the duo he was tailing to follow a separate patrol group, repeating this several times until he had a decent understanding of the layout of the fortress's lower levels. There were an astonishing number of blind spots in each patrol route, but that wasn't too surprising as people invariably became complacent when repeating the same actions day in, day out.

Taking advantage of one particular blind spot, Andrew concealed himself around a corner and rested with his back against the wall, appearing to be staring up at the ceiling. There were nuggets of what looked like chewing tobacco and some other tell-tale signs that the area was used as a kind of secret hideaway for weary patrolmen, so Andrew just had to wait until around 2 AM for a lax, visibly tired duo to make their way over.

Noticing Andrew as they stepped around the corner, the first of the two soldiers exclaimed, "Huh!? Who goes-" before standing at attention when he noticed the armor the former was wearing, supplanting, "G-Good day to you, Sir!"

As the second soldier also stood at attention, Andrew shook his head and made a casual, stand-down gesture with his right hand as he said, "Relax. We're here for the same reasons, so don't make a fuss..."

Hearing Andrew's words, the soldiers visibly relaxed. Unfortunately for them, that was the exact moment Andrew decided to act, snapping his fingers to create a hazy black and purple bubble, within which time had all but stopped. Then, before the duo had the opportunity to react, quite literally, he cast a powerful sleep spell on one and grabbed the neck of the other, storing their helmet and weapon in his Item Box as the bubble around them disappeared, restoring the flow of time.

Unable to speak due to Andrew nearly crushing their esophagus, the surprisingly young soldier grabbed his wrist and flailed in vain as the former said, "I have some questions for you. Answer them truthfully and without making a fuss, and you have my word that you and your friend will see a new dawn. Don't make me kill you."

With the youth shaking his head in an up and downward motion as quickly as he could, Andrew released his hold, allowing the raven-haired twenty-something to catch his breath as he stated, "I'm here in search of a Sky Pirate that was brought into the Empire's custody within the past twenty-four hours. You needn't know why I'm searching for him. Just know that it is a personal matter. Now, speak. Tell me if there are any ways to get into the Dungeon without passing through the main security checkpoint. And know that I will be using Libra to evaluate your words..."

"I...I don't know..." replied the youth, trembling at the thought of what Andrew might do to him if he didn't receive a satisfactory answer.

"Want to try again?" asked Andrew, raising his right hand to produce a ball of bluish-white flame.

With his heart racing and sweat beading down his forehead, the youth stammered as he replied, "T-T-There is an oubliette! A trap door where prisoners are tossed to avoid having to file the necessary paperwork! B-B-But if you go that way, you won't be able to get back up...!"

"Where is it...?" asked Andrew, crushing the ball of flames in his hand to ease the pressure on the young soldier. In response, he received fairly detailed directions on where the oubliette was located, punctuating the encounter by using paralysis magic on the youth and promising to come back for him if it turned out his information was false...

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Finding what looked like a well with a metal grate over it, located within a large, dilapidated stone chamber, Andrew removed the grate and dropped nearly twenty meters into the depths below. At the bottom, he wasn't too surprised to find the corpses of several different races, most with broken bones, some dried up and decayed, and others that looked as though the meat had been neatly carved from their bodies...

Looking around, Andrew found himself in a stone chamber shaped like an octagon with brick walls, stone archways, and thick columns. One of the walls was different from the others, looking like it had once been an open passage, but someone, presumably whoever had butchered the men, had constructed a makeshift wall from debris, likely to prevent anyone tossed into the oubliette from moving around freely.

As if on cue, the thick metal grate serving as the only entrance to the room slid open, followed by a trio of short, stocky, muscular, blue-and-purple-skinned humanoids with pig-like features made their way into the room, two carrying makeshift clubs and one holding a flat piece of metal that had been filed down to possess a sharp edge on one side and saw-like teeth on the other.

"Eyehehehe, fresh meat," said one of the Seeqs, wiping drool from his crooked-toothed mouth and making loud slobbering sounds as he and his other club-wielding counterpart moved to encircle Andrew from the sides. At the same time, the largest Seeq within the group, possessing dark blue skin and a lightning-shaped horn atop his head, attempted to distract and intimidate him by running one of his hooved fingers across the edge of his makeshift butcher knife and asking, "What are you in for?"

"Oh, me?" asked Andrew, adopting a relaxed smile as he replied, "I'm here for a social visit." Then, before the Seeq with the knife could so much as blink, much less respond, he threw his hands outward, tossing knives into the pig-like snouts of the two club-wielding goons before darting forward, grabbing their leader's horn and smashing his face into the dust-covered stone floor hard enough to fracture both it and virtually every bone in the would-be butcher's face...

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