Chapter 3
Our meeting with Amber went just about as well as you would expect.
"May the Anemo God protect you strangers! I am Amber, Outrider for the Knights of Favoni-!" red Brunette started coughing up mid-introduction.
"Okay, are you seriously alright?" I asked for like the fifth time since I helped her to her feet.
"Y-Yeah, just had some dirt behind my teeth…let me just…" Raising one finger to us, she spat out the remnants of dirt from her nasty fall before coughing. "Y-Yeah, okay, I think I got everything out."
"Are you sure?" Aether frowned.
"Yep!" Amber nodded.
"It wouldn't do us any harm to supply you some of our water should you need it." Irene offered.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks, by the way suspicious strangers!" Amber gratefully bowed her head.
"Wait did she just call us suspicious? Paimon's not the only one who missed that, right?" No, Paimon, no you did not.
"Of course. None of you don't quite fit the bill of being a Mondstadt citizen, so having a couple of strangers lurking about is troubling." Amber glowered at us. "Especially now during the current situation."
Folding my arms behind my head, I smiled. "Well, you don't really have to worry too much about us. We're still pretty new to the area and actually came to Mondstadt to register at their Adventurer's Guild."
Which wasn't untrue. Reaping the benefits of being at the Guild will no doubt put us better financially, but we'll also get notoriety for doing jobs all around and have better chances of finding Aether's sister. Plus, yay for the chance to officially to become an adventurer! Capturing the targets I want will be straightforward, but the chance to physically explore the land and face what it has to offer was quite exciting.
"O-Oh really?" She seemed offput by the totally reasonable answer I gave, but I couldn't discount her suspicion since I wholeheartedly agreed with it. Having some random nobodies stroll around your home kingdom and potentially wield destructive elemental Visions would be severely looked into.
Amber coughed then composed herself. "Well that only means you're still outsiders, and require further questioning." She crossed her arms and regarded everyone. "So first, let me hear your names."
"Don't have to be so rude ya know…" Paimon pouted.
Deciding to get it over with, Irene started. "If introductions are what you desire then allow me to begin. Greetings Outrider, my name is Irene Abbot. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Huh, she's using my surname that's rather nice to hear. I swore to myself to bang her hard later.
"And I am Aether…" My blonde lover trailed off and with one quick glance at Irene who encouragingly nodded, she sputtered. "Abbot. Aether Abbot is my name, it's wonderful to meet you, ma'am." I blinked in surprise at the tomato faced Traveler while Irene nodded in approval.
Okay, so I must have missed some conversation between these two, but it's not such a bad thing so I'll just enjoy it for it was.
"And Paimon is Paimon! Totally not suspicious at all!" Paimon proudly puffed out her chest, unintentionally making herself sound more suspicious. Also, unsurprisingly, she wasn't in on that girl's talk between Aether and Irene.
"Hm…that sounds like something only a suspicious person would say…" Amber narrowed her eyes at the flying little angel being.
"Huh, what, no it's not!" Paimon, please, panicking like that is only going to make her suspicions worse.
Stepping in, I happily waved at her. "And my name is Michael Abbot. Hello."
Amber rubbed her chin as she regarded us quite seriously. Her thinking so hard looked a bit cute, but I ensured that thought didn't surface as amusement on my face. "Hmmm none of your names don't sound quite they'd come from Mondstadt at all. Also, why do you three have the same surname? Are you a family? It's a bit odd since you all don't look quite alike."
Now THIS was the perfect segue to test the Normalcy perk out. Wrapping my hand with Irene's and looping my monkey tail around Aether's waist to pull her closer to my side, I shamelessly looked the Outrider straight in the eye and said, "That's because these three are my wives."
Critical hit! The red that tinged Amber's face was delicious, more so when I had the side dish of Aether squirming and just as red-faced as the Outrider after staking my claim.
"Oh, I-I see." Amber stuttered, looking anywhere but the three of us. "W-Well, I-I-I'm not one to judge or anything. Besides, it's not really practiced that much these days, but the legality of such marital practices are understandable…" Each word she spoke began to trail off until she was all but whispering. "After all, we are in the middle of hard times and ensuring your futures with no regrets would take precedent so…"
"Oh? Is Polyamory not frowned upon in Mondstadt?" I asked. Whether it is or isn't, I'm still going to make love to my lovers no matter the attention we get.
"Not really, the only exception would be if either two of the three of you were kept as slaves to the one of you. Mondstadt has had a very…dark past with that practice ever since it's closure centuries ago. So, if it's not that, then you're fine." Amber frowned in deep thought before shaking it off.
Ah, she must be talking of the Aristocratic clan that once ruled Mondstadt about a thousand years after the slaying of the Tyrannical God of Storms, Decarabian. I guess bringing that up still left some bad memories in the people of Mondstadt, but for Amber, I detected a hint of shame and defiance. Ah, she must be thinking of Eula…
…Note to self, make sure to be an unbelievable hero to Mondstadt, capture Eula, love her, and put a baby in her just to spite the people of Mondstadt because screw them for being assholes for something that happened a millennia ago.
"Yeah, no. You don't have to worry about that." I allowed Covert Talent to make my lie come off as convincing. "We're all pretty much equals here." Which was true, I'm not going to be giving absolute orders for everyone to make. I make a command and ask for their opinions on whether I should take them or not. Simple. "And I doubt that I can possibly stomach the idea of making these two my slaves and vice versa for them as well." Half-truths were like a Trojan Horse; you can build up a convincing lie and make it perceived as true to the recipient if there's even a kernel of truth that can't be refuted.
Though this requires the other party to fully believe your information or simply be too gullible, otherwise the lie will unravel with more questions, and you'd get caught red-handed.
"Well, that's good." Amber's shoulders lowered. Then her eyes whipped to Paimon as if remembering something. "Wait, hold on, you said all three of them are your wives? Then that means-!?"
Proudly nodding, Paimon puffed out her chest and cackled. "Yup! That's right, Paimon is also hi-!"
"She's more along the lines of an Emergency Wife." I interrupted her and received a hail of tiny fists beating against my chest. They didn't hurt, so I laughed. "What? That's a good thing, I could have said "Emergency Food", but considering how we're already bound together, I can be sure to have a taste of you anytime I want." Ah, her hits were starting to get a little harder. Still harmless though.
"You! YOU! BRUTE! Paimon would have rather been called a mascot!"
"Really?" Aether tilted her head at the small being.
"I have to agree with Paimon here, dear. I'd think she would make an adorable mascot~!" Irene teased.
"Argh! That's not the point, Irene!"
"Then what is it?" I asked.
"I…ugh! Fine, Paimon gives up! Paimon will just stick with Emergency Wife." Paimon's head fell in defeat.
I raised my finger and grinned. "Actually, I kind of want to call you my Emergency Mascot Wife now, in case-!"
"WHAT!?" Paimon screeched.
"I am so lost…" I pitied Amber. No, I really did because in a while, the five minutes will be up, and I'll eventually have her and her land's Archon in my retinue to be a part of this madness. A couple of minutes later, I had more credits in my pocket with my two captures and we were now accompanying the Outrider on her mission to quell the growing Hilichurl insurgence that's surrounding the city of Mondstadt.
Amber still didn't trust our motley group and had the perfectly sane idea to have us, complete strangers, join her on her patrol before taking us to the city. Sure, I and everyone agreed to help, but I couldn't just ignore how awful this could have been for her if we had been dangerous strangers as she suspects us to be.
Oh well, her suspicions should basically be non-existent with the binding effect of Treasure Hoard having been complete. I could tell the effects were working because I noticed the Outrider giving me quick, meek glances over her shoulder every few seconds we traversed down the path. It was cute. Whenever I tried to meet her glances, she would immediately focus back on the path while ignoring the way her cheeks seemed to heat up from embarrassment when caught.
'Are you not going to claim your new conquest, beloved? Your method of capture was sure to be a success." I nearly jumped before righting myself as Irene used Telepathy magic to communicate between us.
Ugh, it was still going to take a long time before I got used to this. Which is why I'm not in a rush to get Conjunction because I'm not comfortable with having a bunch of people in my mind.
"I-." I quickly stopped myself before anyone could hear me. Tch, this really was hard. 'I could just fuck her here and now. Not like she'll protest as much by this point.'
'Neither would we at the prospect of seeing you work, dear.' I shivered at the seductive dulcet in her tone, then she broke into a giggle. 'Though I believe it may make Aether a little jealous to sit back and watch you do your work.'
'Jealous? Why would she even need to be-?' Irene gave me a look that told me everything yet nothing. 'On second thought, I'll just leave that tidbit alone unless it's something severe that will hinder her in the future.'
'Trust me, beloved. Everything is simply marvelous especially with the new opportunities to further add to your already extensive repertoire of skills.' Irene winked.
That's true, I'm now at 268 credits. So, it wouldn't hurt to quickly spend some on something practical. Dragon Aura seemed too high a price right now and redundant since I have enough lures to make up for it. Double Dragon sounds like the better choice but I want to better my grasp with Infinity first before trying my hand at another element. Maybe saving my credits would be a better idea for now. I shouldn't just spend it for its own sake lest I might regret it later. Besides, I have enough help from my current lovers/companions both here and back at my pocket dimension. The inclusion of Amber and Venti only makes me feel more secure in my future supp-.
Wait, wasn't Venti poisoned when he was interrupted by the Traveler when trying to quell Dvalin in the early game? He states that the poison was more spiritual, so me using Body Defense to fix it won't work. Welp, looks like Corruption Defenses will have to do. I can't have my new Archon trap suffer like that until we meet again. Pulling up my phone, I swiftly purchased both Corruption Defenses, and with a nice discount too, thanks to Irene's presence in my retinue.
'Love you by the way.' I thought to her, hoping the telepathic link was still on and was given a light kiss to the cheek to confirm that it was.
There, now let's see how a purified Venti's help will change things in the nearby future. Traversing up a couple of hills, we encountered our first Hilichurl and boy was it gangly looking and ominous with that mask it wore. Too bad that was all it had going for it since it acted just as primitive as you'd expect.
"There it is." Amber whispered to us as we hid behind some bushes. Summoning her bow, she knocked back an arrow and took aim at the club wielding Hilichurl that was poorly doing it's job of reconnaissance. The air started to get a little hot until the gleam of Amber's Vision flared as the Outrider ignited her arrow in an blaze of Pyro flames, and released it.
In one strike, the Hilichurl was struck down and burned to ashes on the spot.
I whistled to show how impressed I was with the shot, and also made sure to hide my flash of surprise with how quick the Hilichurl died. Yep, I guess since this isn't the game, you don't have to just spam dakka unless the opponent's super beefy to take the hits. This slim Hilichurl obviously lacked such a build to survive a Vision enhanced arrow, much less one to the neck.
"Fascinating." It was a little unsettling to see it vanish to the ground, but Irene was instead curious. "Say Amber, you wouldn't happen to know the cause of these monsters' breakdown upon their death would you?"
Amber looked up in strained thought and shook her head. "Yeah, sorry, getting rid of the Hilichurls is all we've been doing until now. We only exterminate them and observe their patterns in the wild and around the city. Beyond that would probably be up to a scholar, or Lisa. Lisa would definitely have the answer to that question."
"Lisa…Lisa…" Irene nodded and kept the name to memory. "Thank you, Amber, I'll be sure to pick her brain for any answers she'll have." Welp looks like Mama Irene was inevitably going to meet Mama Lisa. I can already hear the "Ara Ara's" from here.
Amber preened at the praise before getting serious as the chaotic noise of Hilichurl banter was heard just up ahead of us. "Sounds like a lot of them are here."
"About seven to be exact." Irene answered which made Amber turn stock still and whip around to gape at her.
"How did you-?"
"Secret." The Dragon Sage held a finger to her lips and for a brief instance I saw her eye flash with a symbol on it. Oh, so she used her Eye Magic to survey the scene, but wouldn't the creatures notice a huge ass eye in the sky looking down on them.
'Hmph! My eye magic can be used to observe anything I desire beyond such an archaic display of power, dear. I simply casted an invisible layering around the spell to hide it from those trolls.' Irene huffed through our mental link.
I laughed and had to wave off Amber's strange looks while apologizing for slighting the infamous Sage Dragon for my insensitivity. Now was time to create a game plan as to how to handle these monsters. Their incessant jibber-jabber sounded too much like they were monkeys along with the obvious monkey behavior that they physically exhibited.
It offended me.
So, I volunteered to step up and waste the camp myself. Amber had objected to the idea until I compromised to bring Aether with me since Irene would be overkill and Paimon was basically useless in this situation except for eating and being a lovely trophy-sized wife (secretly: cocksleeve).
"Hey, Paimon heard that!" Drats, I said that out loud. How stupid am I…?
…
…
…
That was sarcasm by the way in case you guys missed i- oh, who am I kidding you probably didn't and now I feel like an idiot for having to explain it.
Good thing for these nearby Hilichurls being convenient emotional outlets! Aether and I cut a bloody swathe through the camp, her Silver Sword, which we had filched from an unassuming bloody Hilichurl that had accidentally been stumbled near our camp's perimeter, had it's blade's sharpness and conductivity of magic enhanced by Irene.
So, while I handled the Hilichurls on the ground, she was basically swinging her Anemo infused blade to fire sickled blades of wind at the bow wielding Hilichurls, eviscerating and bisecting the trio of monsters on the ramparts to shreds.
Her skill with the blade were elegant and just so beautiful. Each stroke delicately followed by another as though she was dancing. When looking at her fight, it seemed a bit lonely and the answer couldn't have been more obvious for the sister who's been ripped apart from her better half, her twin. Spending countless millenia together with your better half, only to be heartlessly separated by some Goddess bitch. What a tragedy…
…Oh, right I should return to beating the life out of these Hilichurl with my bare hands. So, the first Hilichurl that rushed me faced a rather swift end when I punched him so hard that his head exploded like a pinata as fragments of its mask, skull, teeth, eyes, and brain matter showered the place.
Aether gave me a dirty look as some had gotten on her as well alongside the stunned Hilichurls who were now having second thoughts about attacking us. Too bad for them that they're not getting off Scott free since they weren't innocent at all.
Like that one Hilichurl we jumped for Aether's sword, these guys had crates and chests that were covered in blood surrounding their camp. Meaning they either killed any merchants and caravans that came this way, or actively hunted for them. Not like justifying it will save them anyway, they were all going to die either way.
The next Hilichurl's attempt to clobber me with his club failed once it broke apart upon hitting my head. Stone Monkeys were stupidly durable you know; so, using the knife-hand, I swung my hand so swiftly that instead of breaking their neck as I intended, I had actually placed too much force into the strike and sliced the monster's head clean off.
Nice.
The last Hilichurl wasn't liking it's odds as the last survivor and chose to run away. I didn't give him the chance since I flash stepped to be right in front of him and tossed Nyoibo into his arms. The poor fucker barely lived to fall and be crushed underneath the staff's full weight as the impact of my throw shattered his sternum and crushed his heart.
"Wow that was…" Aether jogged up to me, observing the surrounding carnage that began to dissipate into darkness.
"Anti-climatic? I would have been surprised if we did face some trouble with this lot." Surprised and so disappointed. I literally had a Month of Hell training with Irene before coming here, so I'm glad my gains are making this simple task a breeze.
"I guess you're right." She snapped her fingers and suddenly all the remaining viscera from my first victim was blown off the both of us. "There that's better." Huh, she was getting better at using this realm's magic. I mean so was I but that goes to show how experienced a long-lived Outworlder like her can be.
After thanking her with a kiss to the forehead, I went about pillaging the goods that the Hilichurls had taken. It was all fair game, and now we were 700 Mora richer and received more food to stock back home. I was sure to write a note for the enchanted companions that we had back home to properly handle it.
Once we were done observing the camp for any more loot or traps, our business was concluded until I remembered something. "Didn't Irene say that there was supposed to be 7 Hilichurls?" And together the both of us had killed six in all.
So, we expanded our search throughout the perimeter of the camp and were alerted to a soft cacophony of snorts of growling (snoring?) from behind a bush. My surprise couldn't have been palpable anymore at our latest find. Yep, that sure was a Hilichurl, but I just had to ask…why did it have tits? Not that I had a problem with it, but certainly was under the impression that the entirety of the race was male or at least had no visible primary female characteristics to differentiate gender.
I decided to blame it on Universal Calibration and called it a day.
Still amazing how it managed to sleep through it's entire camp being slaughtered but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Plucking a hair out, I conjured a clone to handle this while we returned to Amber and the rest of the gang. Amber showed her gratitude by immediately dispelling her distrust of us, Paimon happily congratulated Aether while angrily refusing to thank me when I even pulled her into my arms to feed her some of the apples I've pillaged, and Irene simply gave me a wink with one eye that was visibly glowing with that odd symbol again. Detecting the faintest scent of arousal from her, I could only sigh in exasperation as she utilized her eye magic to observe my clone capturing and fucking the daylights out of that female Hilichurl. Yeah, it was arousing, especially since I can technically be cognizant of what my clone is doing and feeling without having it bleed over too much to my main body lest I pop a boner in front of Amber and any passerby on the road.
And boy was my clone going to town on that Hilichurl. Any self-restraint they had after ripping off the monster's loincloth and slotting the full length into their onyx pussy was long gone once our group was a considerable distance away from the camp. The barbaric tongue of the Hilichurl raised a concerning octave once my clone began to viciously kick their legs to his shoulders and descend up the creature's hips like a hammer to an anvil.
Any mercy was gone the moment the Hilichurl bathed my clone's cock in the juices of her climaxing pussy as the monster grew just as frenzied and wild as my clone was as any protests with the idea of getting raped in it's sleep was overwritten with the desire to be mated by the sexually dominant partner. Instead of flopping about at her sides, the Hilichurl's lanky limbs stubbornly locked around my clone's neck and hips as the rhythmic "plap plap plap" of his hips meeting her own rang out.
Eventually they came together as one, then resumed for round two, three, four, and so on. Heck, by the time we were reaching the front gates of Mondstadt, they were still going, and I had to make a mental command for the clone to simply take the newly captured Hilichurl back to the pocket dimension. There, they resumed their long fuckathon for the servants to see and probably join in.
A series of coughs from Aether broke the relative silence that we were in as we were finally given permission to enter through gates by the guards. "Aether, are you okay?" Amber asked in concern to which the red-faced Traveler responded with a shaky smile.
"Y-Yes, I guess some of the water that I drank earlier went down the wrong…hole…" Aether gulped and avoided looking Irene in the eye which prompted Irene to refuse to look me in the eye as a sly smile crossed her face.
Please tell me that she wasn't using Telepathy and eye magic in conjunction to send images of my clone's fuckfest with that Hilichurl into Aether's mind. There's a time and place for everything and this amount of teasing was pushing it a little.
So, I chose to change the topic. "Say Amber, I've been meaning to ask. Are there also females amongst the Hilichurls?"
"Hm, that's a good question…" She rubbed her chin. I can already sense a "but" coming after that sentence.
"Please don't tell us you haven't a clue like before…" Paimon, somehow reading my mind, deadpanned.
"Hey lay off!" Amber hurriedly blustered to defend herself. "I may hunt Hilichurls, but it doesn't mean I should know everything about them. At best, I only know that finding a female amongst the swarms out in the wild is likelier than finding them in groups around the city, but not everyone's equipped to venture further." She shrugs. "Who knows I may have encountered one without noticing, but if you really want to know more-."
"Then ask Lisa, got it." I nodded as we passed through the gates of Mondstadt to finally be welcomed into the lovely breezy city of freedom. Rushing to stand before us, Amber cheerfully placed a hand over her heart and welcomed us with a smile so radiant that I figured she was able to harness the power of the sun rather than a Pyro Vision.
"Now if your questions are done, then allow I, Amber, a faithful Knight of Favonius to welcome you to Mondstadt, weary Travelers!"
"Thanks, Amber." I and my lovers expressed our gratitude to our guide as I allowed my clones in the form of mosquitoes to traverse the lands for anything interesting that we could later "stumble" upon after the dragon attack and joining the Adventurer's Guild.
I internally allowed for them to go all out should they come across any significant individuals that could be a threat to me and mine. Hopefully that won't happen, and I'll only have to worry about dealing with Dvalin's rampage. Looking up at the boundless blue skies, I could faintly feel a slight tension in the ever flowing winds of Mondstadt.
It was almost time to tango with a forsaken dragon.
Despite my nerves starting to get to me, I couldn't help but feel a little excited to face a beast of legend. Whether it's the remnant of Sun Wukong's impulsive blood knight tendencies within me acting up to prove my martial prowess or simply my need to measure my strength, I chose to accept the two possibilities whole and awaited the hour of my fated clash with the "Stormterror".
And this is Chapter 3 done, I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter!