The objective for today was to make sure we're properly preparing for the Party.

The pros Stella hired came to Lovers Mansion to get us set up in terms of appearance and clothes. I had been busy with them until just now.

"That was so tiring… and it's probably even more tiring for the girls."

For about an hour or an hour and a half, I had to try a bunch of suits, perfumes and light makeup styles, that's not to mention how they cut my hair and nails before that.

I can't say it didn't feel good, and I do think I looked really good in the end, but still, I'm not used to that kind of trouble.

Since the girls are probably still busy with their dresses and stuff, I figured I'd kill some time checking out what else is being done.

The mansion itself was slowly being decorated for the guests. There's not a lot in place at the moment to avoid things getting dirty before the time, but I can start to picture how things will look in the end.

The idea is to keep mostly everyone to the main hall. It won't get cramped because we'll use space magic, and that'll also allow us to stop guests wandering off where they shouldn't. It also helps us because then we only have to decorate 1 place instead of the mansion.

… Honestly, thinking about it makes me feel butterflies in my stomach. I know I have to do it, but I feel like I'm really not cut out for this.

I better distract myself with something else. Let's see if I can't find anyone else.

After walking around for a while, I found the maids. They were all working together, and even had reinforcements called in.

"Alright everyonye, let's do it as practiced myaa."

"Everyone, to your groups."

"Servers come here."

Myaa, Rebecca and Maki, the leaders of the maid camp, seemed to be helping the other maids with their practice. Even the Lizel homunculus and Poran's friends are helping out.

I have heard about their plans for the Party. Basically, there's some maids that would be… troubling if they were seen by the noble devils that will attend, to say the least. The 4 homunculus made to look like Lizel might make the Himekamis mad, the Sannous might also not enjoy seeing Rikimaru here and as a maid, and so on.

That's why they divided themselves into 2 groups: the ones that will be serving the guests during the Party, and the ones that'll stay in the background giving support, for example whipping something up in the kitchen.

Obviously, these troubling maids are the ones that will stay in the background. Well, that group isn't made up only of them, but they can't change places with the serving maids.

Thanks to the additional help we'll have for the Party, each group has a fair amount of people. And honestly, looking at their rehearsal now, I can't imagine there will be any problems.

I'm also impressed by Maki and Rebecca's leadership skills, and Myaa's charisma and popularity. Their leadership positions are unofficial, but maybe I ought to make them head maids soon. They certainly have the qualifications.

Eventually, their rehearsal ended. They discussed points of improvement and then a break was announced, so the girls began to chatter amongst themselves.

But there was one group who didn't mingle in. The homunculus girls that were made to look like Lizel. Since they left, I figured I should take that chance to talk to them. We'll be living under the same roof for the foreseeable future, I can't just ignore their existence.

"Hey, what's wrong? Don't you girls want to talk and make some friends?"

I called out to the homunculus girls, and they turned to look at me.

"Tsk. I'm going on ahead."

The second-oldest looking homunculus, Arizel, if I recall right, said that and left. Did I do something to make her dislike me?

"Don't mind her, Yuuto. Were you watching us?"

"Y-yeah. You all were amazing."

The second-youngest looking homunculus, Lyra, came up to me and hugged my arm.

I could tell that she was trying to press her body on me. She is originally a homunculus made for sex, so even just that already feels quite good.

I should probably try to distract myself a little so I don't give in to temptation.

"I'd say that Ellie was the most incredible one. Everyone did well, but the way you directed the younger ones was amazing."

"... I just thought it was a waste. Because of this body, I understand the limitations of children more than anyone, so I tried to help them and it just became like that."

Maki, Rebecca and Myaa were the general leaders, but Ellie, the youngest looking homunculus of the bunch, took charge of giving more specific instructions to Poran's friends, who were rather young.

Because she's a homunculus, no matter how old she actually is, she's forever stuck in that body, never able to grow up. Maybe that's why she decided to help the girls when she saw they were trying to help, but were having difficulties.

As for Lysel, the homunculus that looks exactly like Lizel right now…

"You're a bit clumsy, aren't you?"

"Uuu, I'm sorry…"

"No no, I wasn't complaining or anything. I know you're trying your best, so I can only ask that you keep at it."

"T-thank you."

Looking at Lysel right now, it's like she looks but doesn't look like Lizel at all. Her appearance is perfect, but her personality couldn't be further away. That's how different the atmosphere between the two are.

Like, Lizel gives off that "I can do anything you can, and I'll do it better" vibe. Meanwhile, Lysel is more the clumsy anime girl that always tries her best but always trips over herself.

"By the way, I guess we met a few times in Ginsei Academy now. I'm impressed that you can pretend to be Lizel."

"Oh, that's not that hard, it's… something like this?"

! I don't really know what happened, but it's like the air around us changed. Lysel isn't giving off that clumsy vibe anymore.

I felt like testing it.

"Lizel?"

"Yes, what is it, Yuuto?"

"How were classes recently?"

"The teacher has gotten into a rather complicated subject. I'm having no troubles, but some students are, and they have come to me to ask for help. It was a bit annoying, but I tried to teach them a little."

"O-oh, then, any plans for the night?"

"Of course, I'm going to spend the night with Yuuto. I hope Yuuto will drown himself in my body. Is there anything you want to do?"

"A-ah, no. That's enough. You can go back to normal now."

"T-thank you. I-I was nervous."

It didn't seem like it at all! If I didn't know who it was in the first place, I would have had trouble saying if it was Lizel or Lysel.

I should probably figure out a way to differentiate them before Lizel discovers this and gets mad at me. I wonder if there's any spells that can help me.

"Yotaka often made us pretend to be Lizel, so we're all well-trained on the subject. Do you want me to try?"

"... Maybe some other time."

I thought it would be fun to see all of them pretend to be Lizel at their respective age range, but I didn't want to keep them from their break for long. And I feel like, if I tried it, Lizel would find out and that would end in disaster.

I excused myself and left them. I decided to head for my study. Might as well check on the results of spying on Fleminar's lesions through Nagasawa-sensei.

So far, there's been nothing big, but at least it's interesting. I've also been making some fair progress in checking Healing Lovers' formula. I might be able to test something soon.

Suddenly, I heard my phone ring. A message from Lizel arrived. She told me to head into the changing room the girls were using to try on their dresses. I'm either getting a strip show or they'll ask for my opinion on dresses.

While hoping for the first option, I headed to the changing room where the girls were.

I saw some of the girls in front of the changing room. More specifically, Reina, Rinne, Hisoka and Swordia.

Reina was wearing a silver short dress. It was also quite tight fitting, so it gave off a sexy feel even though Reina's body isn't all that curvy.

As for Swordia, she was wearing a reddish-brown dress. Her blindfold seemed a little out of place considering the high-class dress, but she still looked really beautiful in it.

Rinne wore a pink dress. Despite the girlish color, her frown-like expression was completely killing the impression the dress tried to pass. I hope she won't be like this for the actual Party.

Lastly, Hisoka wore a white dress. I'm not too knowledgeable on clothing, so to me it seemed like a casual dress a girl would wear at home, but I'm sure there's something special about it.

"Wow, you all look so pretty. But why are you waiting outside like this?"

"Onii-chan, that's…"

"They're fighting in there."

Rinne cut in. Fighting? Who? What for?

… In any case, I should probably check things out. I can't run away since Lizel messaged me.

I knocked on the door and said that I was going to come in. No reply came, but after a few seconds I figured it was fine and entered anyway.

The scene I saw inside… was quite unexpected. I see now what they meant by fighting.

Lizel and Stella, both stark naked, were facing each other, hands interlocked. They were clearly making an effort to push each other, so they were the ones fighting.

Well, my eyes first wandered to their breasts, which were pressing against each other. So to me the scene was more erotic than anything.

Next to them was Neith, also naked. It seemed she wanted to stop the fighting, but didn't know how.

And a little further away was Miyabi, wearing only a pair of pink panties. She was throwing oil on the fire.

"Fight, fight, oh, Yuuto, whatcha doing here?"

"I got a message from Lizel calling me over. What's happening?"

"Yuuto-kun, the truth is…"

Neith told me what happened. Basically, they got the dresses they had ordered, and were trying them one by one to make sure everything was fine and to do anything else that needed to be done.

Once it got to Lizel's turn, there was a problem. The dress was feeling a little tight. They didn't just order one dress, but rather a few options with the same… whatever it is that fashion people worry about, but all of them had that same problem.

The fight with Stella began when she said that it was because Lizel had gotten fatter from letting Lysel take her place.

That might not be entirely untrue. I remember Lizel had a tendency to get fat easily, so now that she's home all day, it's not surprising she gained weight. You'll never hear it from my mouth though. I value my life.

"Yuuto, now that you're here, you'll agree with me that these dresses have some kind of problem, right?!"

"Yuuto, make this woman see reality already. Let's just have the dresses adjusted and she can go on a diet or whatever after."

I see now why the others were waiting outside. If I knew about this, I wouldn't have come here. I'd rather defuse a bomb.

If I side with Stella, Lizel will get mad, and that's scary.

If I side with Lizel, Stella will get mad, and that's scary.

It looks like a hopeless situation. So this is the bad side of a harem. Since it's hopeless anyway, I should probably tell the truth.

… I'll just sugarcoat it a bit.

"Well, Lizel is still in a growing phase, so it's nothing strange that the dress would get tight. That said, you should probably look into exercising a bit, just to compensate the lack of exercising for letting Lysel take your place. How about everyone exercise together?"

"... Yes, maybe you have a point, Yuuto."

… This worked out surprisingly well, and I basically made it up on the spot. Maybe lady luck hasn't abandoned me yet.

Stella seemed like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. Please don't say anything that might restart the fight.

Lizel accepted to have the dresses adjusted. Reina and the others took Lizel's clothes to have them worked on.

… I'll have to remember to get that exercise thing set up. Since I already promised to get someone to help train Poran, maybe I can kill two birds with one stone. I'll give Miyako a call to see if she can help.

I was going to leave, but, since I was there already, I was made to look at their dresses and give my opinion. At least they let me stay inside the changing room while doing it.

So ultimately, between A) getting a strip show or B) being made to watch them try out dresses, it was option C) both.

Well, at least the strip show was enjoyable. And eventually, Lizel's clothes came back to finish off the exhibition. Luckily, they fit well now and we were done before long. The bomb was successfully defused.

It was really tiring, but I suppose we at least got some progress done in the end. Overall, maybe it wasn't so bad.

"Yuuto, a word."

Just when I was thinking I'd get to rest for a bit, Stella came to talk with me. She was smiling, but for some reason it struck fear into me.

She came closer, enough to whisper into my ear.

"I'll give you credit for defusing the situation, but next time I'm right and you don't agree with me, I'll give you the Star of Death."

Ah, now I see. So I still lost in the end.

I'll keep it in mind. I'm never getting in the middle of the quarrel between the girls again.