So, I know that I said that I was going to do a more complete Author's Note on the last chapter, but that obviously never happened. For that, I do apologize, as well as for being out of contact for the last couple of months. I'll go into it a bit more at the end of the chapter, but I did end up taking a two week vacation from writing after publishing the last chapter, and have been working hard on preparing this one since then. For those that were asking before about the cats, they are twin black cat sisters. We were fortunate to get littermates, and they really did help out a lot with relieving some stress. Anyways, on with the chapter!
Answers
I found myself unable to speak as I grinned like an idiot at Angie as she sat quite intimately in my lap, her arms draped over my shoulders. Clarice and Livia had moved from the other couch to sit on either side of me, leaning into my sides as they stared at me lovingly. Slowly, I reached up a hand to caress Angie's cheek, partially to convince myself this wasn't a dream, my heart pounding in my throat at the warm smile she graced me with. Eventually, I realized that I had to actually say something, and so marshaled my faculties to make a coherent response to the women I loved.
"...I won't pretend that we don't already know what my answer will be to your proposal, Angie," I finally managed to reply, taking note of the widening smiles and joyful tears of the women I loved with all my heart. "I love you three, all of you in equal measure, and I will love you for the rest of my time in this world and whatever world comes next-"
I didn't get to finish as Angie enthusiastically claimed my lips, tears of joy dampening my face even as happy sobs of relief caused her shoulders to shake. Lavender made my head spin as she held me close, even as I tried to return her kiss just as fervently. Eventually, we broke apart as Clarice decided that it was her turn with me, turning my head to the right to kiss me tenderly as lavender faded to tangerine. In contrast to our improvised makeout session on the docks, Clarice's kisses now were slower and more relaxed. After several moments, I'd barely realized that Clarice had broken our kiss when Livia turned my face toward her and took her turn in claiming my lips, her kisses light and playful as vanilla filled my senses.
Of course, with the attention and affection of the three women that I loved with all my heart, my body reacted in the way that nature intended, which I knew there was no way in hell that Angie would be unaware of. I could feel Angie start a little bit as she realized what the pressure was from, blushing heavily even as she made no move to leave my lap, instead shifting slightly in a way that sent a jolt throughout my body. Even through multiple layers of fabric, I could feel the building heat of her core, and it was all that I could do to resist the temptation of letting things progress further as Angie bit her lip. Finally, I cleared my throat as I let more rational thoughts cool my blood.
"So… everything in the journal was… fine, then?" I eventually asked.
"Leon, the Journal was more a handbook on how to seduce the Five Heirs than it was anything that could be used to manipulate us," sighed Angie with a shake of her head. "I'll admit, I'd have more reason to be angry with Marie than you, if it wasn't for the fact that I know she never read this journal and she only meant to escape her family. Did the fact that she was another Reincarnate become exceedingly obvious after reading the journal? Yes, but that doesn't matter. Honestly, if it wasn't for her interference, our interactions would never have happened, so part of me wants to hug the little gremlin for her meddling…"
"I do want to tease her a bit to get back at her, but I agree with Angie," confirmed Clarice, resting her head on my shoulder. "Hell, I was barely a footnote in that Journal, and you still went so far to help me the moment you learned about my situation, and you never put on an act, even if you did have secrets. You have always been, first and foremost, Leon Fou Bartfort, the man that we fell in love with."
"...I can feel your smugness from here, Liv," I chuckled, shaking my head as Livia smirked at me from my other shoulder.
"Forgive me for being pleased that I was right about everything," giggled Livia as she briefly kissed the side of my neck.
"I think Angie was right when she blamed me for being a bad influence on you," I teased.
"I love the influence you've had on me, Leon," chided Livia gently. "Without that influence, I'd never have had the courage to do this…"
With that, Livia leaned across me to kiss Clarice passionately, and I could feel the desire rise in my veins as the initial shock faded. Clarice returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm, suggesting that this was not the first time they'd kissed, and I silently prayed to any and all deities that I could think of that it wouldn't be the last. Angie laughed gently at my dumbfounded expression, but I could tell that she was just as aroused as I was even without the deepening blush on her face. Eventually, Clarice and Livia broke apart from their kiss, with Livia giving me a mischievous wink at my dumbfounded expression. I cleared my throat as I tried to find my voice again.
"...So… I'm guessing that you were able to talk to Angie and Clarice about your own feelings, then?" I choked out, even as my pulse throbbed.
"She did," confirmed Angie before her eyes turned teasing. "I would prove it to you, but I fear that we may end up making the next Bartfort Bastard by accident if we continue such amorous activities while I am in your lap."
I tried to apologize, but soon found myself unable to form words as Clarice and Livia giggled at my expression. Angie leaned in and kissed me gently to reassure me before standing from my lap.
"Please don't worry that you have offended me with your physical reaction, Leon," explained Angie, moving back to the other side of the table and taking a seat on the couch. "I would be far more worried if there had been no reaction at all, and while I was quite comfortable in your lap, I feel that we should have a formalized engagement before proceeding further, no matter how tempting it may be…"
"Besides, Livia gets to go first," winked Clarice as I once again lost the ability to form coherent words.
"Clarice, please stop teasing him," chided Livia even as she failed to hide her amusement. "We do need him to be able to speak for the serious matters that we need to discuss."
"I suppose you're right," sighed Clarice as she stood up and moved to join Angie back on the other couch.
"...Serious matters?" I asked thickly, still a little dazed from their attention. "What serious matters are there? Do you mean the Fanossian Invasion?"
"Well, that would be part of what we need to discuss, but I was considering more immediate matters," explained Angie. "For instance, Clarice and I need to inform our fathers about our decision so that we may discuss the betrothal agreements."
"And while it did earn you some big points with my dad at the time, by giving him your word that you'd inform him as soon as you 'became aware of a change in our relationship', we've ended up in a bit of a sticky situation," elaborated Clarice.
"If you inform Earl Atlee before informing my father, it may be perceived by the rest of the Noble Court as a slight against the Redgrave House, even though my father would not see it that way," sighed Angie. "However, if you inform my father before Earl Atlee, the Court would see it as you breaking your word with a higher-ranking member of the Court, even though Earl Atlee would not take offense to it. Trying to coordinate the personal schedules of an Earl and a Duke to tell them in person will be difficult, but-"
"Oh, that?" I asked with a laugh. "Already handled it, thanks to some Old World Tech."
"What- How?!" gaped Angie.
"On the way back from the Frontier, I figured that Duke Redgrave and Earl Atlee would be important people that I would want to be in rapid contact with as well, so I had Luxion prepare a couple of comm units for them," I explained. "The message itself simply utilized a pre-installed feature of the comm units that probably will never be used again, but I would say that your fathers should be listening to it right about now…"
Bernard Fia Atlee stared at the strange insect-like apparatus in bemusement as it projected a message in an image made of light, wondering what the young Lord Bartfort was up to, as there was no one else who would send such a thing. It had been in a large envelope addressed to him, and upon being freed from its confines by Benard's letter opener, it had scuttled from the paper prison to its current place on his desk, causing the older man no small amount of alarm and concern. The message it had displayed for the last ten minutes had been simple, yet all the more baffling for it: "One of Two. Waiting for All Participants". If Bernard stood up from his desk and walked five feet away, the message would change to "Zero of Two. Waiting for All Participants." so clearly another messenger had been dispatched to someone else as well, but all Bernard could do was simply watch the message in bemusement and wonder what Lord Bartfort would need to tell him at the same time as someone else.
Thankfully, it had not taken long for the message to finally say "Two of Two. Message Playback will begin shortly…" before changing to an image of Lord Bartfort sitting at a desk with a nervous smile. If the man had been in person, Bernard would have sworn that he was about to ask for Clarice's hand in marriage, but that shouldn't have required Old World wonders to make happen. Hell, he'd have cleared his schedule for the rest of the day if the young man had walked into his office with a look like that. Clearly, there was a more complicated element to this.
"To Lord Atlee and Lord Redgrave, I thank you for indulging me in listening to this message," began Bartfort. "During my promotion ceremony, I had posed two scenarios where the two of you would be the second or third to know if my relationship with your daughters was to change, but gave my word to inform you as soon as I was aware of any potential shift. It would seem that your daughters and our mutual friend Livia have exceeded even my own predictions and have approached me at once, meaning that I am in fact the fourth person to become aware of the shift and not the second as I had previously predicted. Still, in the spirit of the promise that I made, I have elected to provide you with these communication devices a little earlier than intended to inform you both that I cannot see any future without your daughters in it, and I would like to begin formal betrothal negotiations as soon as possible. At your earliest convenience tomorrow morning, simply state my name to this device and it will establish a live and secure connection to me so we may coordinate a meeting. I look forward to hearing from you both."
The image of Lord Bartfort vanished a moment later. For a moment, Bernard sat in stunned silence before bursting out in laughter. It seemed that his future son-in-law was far more than even Vincent had anticipated, and Bernard was looking forward to what the young man would do next. Deciding that this called for a celebration, Bernard reached for a glass and the decanter of brandy he had in his office for such occasions, having barely poured a glass when Bartfort's mysterious gift startled him half to death for the second time that evening.
"Incoming call from Duke Vincent Rapha Redgrave," stated the device in a metallic voice. "Accept or Decline?"
"...A-accept?" stammered Bernard uncertainly as he set down the decanter.
Another screen of light appeared from the device, showing Vincent Rapha Redgrave sitting at his own desk in his office, miles away from Bernard. Vincent blinked in surprise briefly, the only sign that this wonder of the ancient world had fazed him in any capacity, before speaking normally as though seated in the chair across from Bernard rather than the other side of the city.
"I see that my conjecture on how this device worked was correct," observed Vincent, nodding briefly. "Can you hear me alright, Bernard?"
"As if we were in the same room," confirmed Bernard in wonder. "Truly outstanding, if a bit unnerving. The young Lord Bartfort is truly a force of nature, even more than we'd thought."
"Yes, I must say that I find him to be beyond even my highest expectations now," mused Vincent, a slight frown playing upon his features. "I feel the man may end up getting the better of us, even with the little prank we've had planned."
"Well, I can't argue with that, given that this marvelous contraption has frightened me half to death twice in the past hour," chuckled Bernard. "Life certainly won't be boring with him as a son-in-law, eh?"
"Certainly not, although I must admit that I find myself worried that our lives are about to become too interesting very soon…" frowned Vincent. "It would be best to speak with Lord Bartfort as soon as possible…"
"What do you mean, Vincent?" asked Bernard with a frown. "Isn't this engagement what we'd hoped to happen for our daughters?"
"It is, but that's not the part that concerns me," explained Vincent. "In his message, Bartfort said that he was providing these devices 'earlier than intended,' which suggests that he always intended to provide us with these miraculous devices, regardless of whether he became betrothed to our daughters or not."
"...I suppose that's a little unusual," conceded Bernard.
"Bartfort isn't a fool, in spite of his mistake with the money after the Duel," continued Vincent. "Furthermore, if Angie understands his motivations and personality correctly, Bartfort does not do things without reason, so what reason could Lord Bartfort possibly have to set up instantaneous and secure communication with us that doesn't involve our daughters? Considering his earlier comments on the Fanoss situation, I fear that we cannot afford to take this lightly…"
Bernard grimaced at the mention of Fanoss, staring into his glass in contemplation. It had been one of Vincent's concerns when they'd spoken about the young man previously. His friend had been convinced that Bartfort knew something more about the Fanoss situation, which had caused the young man to stockpile a fortune that would dwarf the ransom of a hundred kings, a decision motivated by fear rather than greed. Bernard knew exactly how much Belmont had earned for the young Baron; his tax contributions for the company's earnings were larger than the tax contributions of the next seven highest-paying nobles combined, and yet the young man continued to live meagerly by comparison. If Vincent was right…
"...I'll clear my schedule immediately," nodded Bernard grimly as he drained his glass.
I felt an inexplicable chill run down my spine for a moment, shivering briefly as a slightly ominous sense of foreboding came over me. I looked up at the girls, and I could see varying reactions around the room. Livia had actually facepalmed at me, even as an exasperated smile played at her lips. Angie stared at me in disbelief, trying to make sense of my actions. Clarice simply held a hand over her mouth as she tried to hold back her giggles.
"Leon… if I understand this correctly, you simply gave our fathers the same kind of comm units that we use right now for the sole purpose of keeping your word and telling them simultaneously that you want to marry us?" asked Angie as she continued to try and make sense of my actions.
"Not the sole purpose, but partially, yes," I explained. "As I said, with what's going to happen with Fanoss, having a hotline to the Minister of Commerce, the Duke, and the Queen seemed a good idea to get in place sooner rather than later, so this really was a matter of killing two birds with one stone."
"...Leon, giving our fathers priceless Old Human artifacts to tell them that we intend to marry is truly going overboard, even accounting for the need to communicate quickly on other matters." sighed Angie with an exasperated smile. "I love you dearly, but you can be a truly ridiculous man sometimes…"
"I can live with that, as long as I'm your ridiculous man," I grinned with a wink.
"I believe that only death itself could part us at this point, and even then that is debatable…" blushed Angie happily.
"As you wish…" I teased.
"...Leon, before we speak on anything else, I really must insist that you explain what 'As you Wish' really means when you say it," chided Angie.
Oh…That's right, I still haven't explained that yet… Well, no time like the present-
"...It's a reference to an Old World story of romance and adventure," I began, starting to feel a little self-conscious with my explanation. "In the story, a farm hand named Westley responds to every request made by Buttercup, the woman he loves, with the words 'As you wish'."
"Oh that was my favorite part!" exclaimed Livia. "Westley's explanation for 'As you Wish' was truly romantic! He tells Buttercup 'Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was…' Oh Gods, I couldn't stop blushing when I read that part!"
"...Oh goodness, that does seem terribly romantic…" blushed Angie, trailing off as the full implications of me using those words hit her.
"...Is that the actual quote from the novel?" I asked sheepishly. "I only ever saw the movie, if I'm being honest…"
"A 'movie' is like a recorded play, right?" recalled Clarice.
"Yeah, and they were great for date nights without having to go out," I replied, unable to keep from smiling at the thought of cuddling with Clarice during a movie night of our own.
"We haven't even gone on our first date, and you're already planning our second?" teased Clarice.
"...I'll be honest, it's been hard to keep myself from planning out our wedding," I coughed. "I know that as soon as we can finalize the betrothals with your fathers, I want to take all of you out on dates."
"...As in all of us going out, or…?" asked Angie haltingly, a glimmer of hope rising in her eye.
"Sure, some as a group, but mostly one on one, with each of you in turn," I elaborated. "I know this is not really the order that things should have happened, and I want to make sure that I never neglect any of you in all of this."
"...Leon, please clear your schedule to meet with our fathers…" requested Angie, her eyes alight with excitement. "I want to start our new relationship as soon as possible…"
"And then you left for your separate rooms…" deadpanned Marie, even as I could see a little smirk playing at her lips.
"Look, if they went to my room that evening, I can guarantee that there'd be at least one more Bartfort Bastard on the way," I shot back with a slight smile. "Besides, I've done so much of this out of order, I want to at least get some of it right. So nothing like that until the engagement is finalized, no matter how frustrated Clarice and Liv are about it. Not only that, but I have… work to do…"
I trailed off as I thought about the real reason I wasn't spending the night with the women that I loved, trying to fight off the wave of nausea. In light of the fact that I would be meeting with Duke Redgrave and Minister Atlee as soon as possible, my earlier plans of saving the interrogation of the Offreys had fallen apart, seeing as whatever information those traitors held would be important to the other discussion I needed to have with the two. Still… it did mean that I might need to dirty my hands with interrogation, if they were unwilling to talk. I didn't want to expose Livia to this sort of "dirty work", and thankfully, Clarice and Angie had understood that. We'd parted for the evening under the veneer of "avoiding temptation", agreeing to meet up bright and early tomorrow for breakfast. Meanwhile, I stared down the prospect of extracting information from human beings for the first time. It wasn't a comforting thought.
"...Are you sure you don't need me there to help?" asked Marie with a wince. "...At the very least, I could be there for emotional support-"
"No, I can't do that to you, Marie," I declined. "Besides, you need to be with Jules right now. The two of you have had a very trying weekend, and I don't want to put any additional strain on it."
"I mean, we're okay, for the most part," elaborated Marie. "I yelled at him to not abandon his younger siblings so quickly, which was quite the shock to him when he finally considered it from that angle. Of course, saying that just opened up old wounds for me, so I had to explain why telling him that turned me into a big blubbering mess, so Jules knows that I'm a Reincarnate now."
"...Fuck, you explained all that to him tonight?" I blinked. "...Did he take it well?"
"He did, actually, even when I told him everything," sighed Marie with a sad smile. "He's curious about your Journals, though, and he wants to take a look after we explain everything to the rest of the guys."
"Wow…If anyone would have felt betrayed by us being Reincarnates, I would have thought it would have had to have been the Five," I observed.
"Well, it does help that I already told them when we got together about my family and that I was trying to escape them, and never intended to fall in love as deeply as I did," replied Marie. "This was just explaining additional details…"
Marie hesitated for a moment, as though trying to gather courage to say what she needed to next.
"...I ended up telling him about my brother and how I'd gotten him killed…" whispered Marie. "Most of the time spent talking was about my brother and what he was like and how much I missed him when he was gone… I know the details are somewhat different, but I just couldn't stomach somehow being the cause of another set of siblings being parted… I do feel better now, and Jules has offered to make me the second-best teriyaki beef ever."
"Oi!" I protested in mock-affront. "I taught him that recipe! That's a family recipe passed down for generations that you're smack-talking!"
"Oh I'm sure it's really damn good, no doubt!" placated Marie with a smug grin. "It's just that it has to be second-best since my family's teriyaki recipe is the best ever!"
"Smug brat…" I grumbled good-naturedly, knowing that Marie was playing this up to try and lift my spirits before I went to do what I had to. "Tell you what, after you eat that teriyaki, I guarantee that the next thing you're going to eat is those words…"
"I give you my word that I will judge it fairly based on its own merits," smirked Marie, before her expression softened a bit. "...Don't hesitate to reach out if you need to, dumbass. You've got people who care about you a lot, now. They'll be pissed if you don't seek help when needed."
With that, the call disconnected, and I took a deep breath. Marie wasn't wrong: I was still haunted a little by the deaths I caused during the raid on the Offrey estate. Interrogation would be a whole different league, since they'd not respond to milder techniques that civilian law enforcement would have used in my first life. In a twisted way, I took comfort in the distress that the idea of torturing someone caused me, as it felt like something that I could never get used to. I exhaled slowly, bracing myself before entering the interrogation room.
The night filters on my helmet allowed me to see the three Offreys in the pitch-black room, still in their pajamas from the raid. A tap to my wrist mounted terminal activated the room's floodlights, causing the Offreys to blink as the room became uncomfortably bright. The moment that Stephanie saw me, her face immediately screwed up in rage as she began to shout.
"Where is Carla?! You bastard!" shouted Stephanie. "If you touched her, I'll tear your diseased prick from your body, you son of a whore-"
I said nothing as she hurled her insults, instead striding forward calmly and raising my left hand in a closed fist in front of her. I let my knuckle plate blade eject inches away from Stephanie's face, watching her flinch hard at the sight of the blade extending and again when it retracted five seconds later. I then slowly placed my closed fist directly under the soft part of her chin so that the opening of the knuckle plate was directly against her carotid artery.
"...Please be quiet, Stephanie…" I requested in a deathly calm voice. "The adults are going to talk now. I won't ask again…"
An indicator on my helmet HUD flashed to tell me that thermal imaging had picked up a heat bloom on Stephanie as she pissed herself in fear, but I took no satisfaction in her humiliation. I couldn't take satisfaction in any of this; not if I wanted to keep my humanity intact. I turned to Earl Offrey, striding toward him with slow, measured steps. The man stared at me in defiance, but my HUD told me that his heart was pounding in fear as I approached.
"Earl Theodore Fou Offrey, you are guilty on multiple counts of collusion, with pirates and with the enemies of Holfort, and so you and three degrees of relation to you will be executed," I stated bluntly. "Answering my questions will mean the difference between a quick and dignified execution for you all, or having to watch them suffer for hours before dying horribly at my hand, afraid and in pain, cursing our names. Do you understand?"
"...What sort of lapdog are you?" sneered Theodore. "The Redgrave's? The Bitch Queen's? It doesn't matter, pig. I'll say nothing to you…"
With that, he spat into my visor. I stood calmly for a moment, silently steeling myself for what would come next. I turned to the room's third occupant, Lady Rebecca Fou Offrey, walking to her calmly, taking her left hand into my own slowly before breaking her ring finger with a swift backward bend of the digit. Rebecca screamed in agony as the digit broke, with both her husband and daughter shouting in protest at the action while I counted slowly to ten. Upon reaching the chosen number, I selected Rebecca's pinky, lifting her hand up slowly to draw out as much anticipation as possible, ignoring her desperate and terrified pleading as I broke the digit the same way as before. Rebecca screamed again in agony, and this time her husband and daughter shouting was less angry than before. Another count to ten. A slow lift of the hand. Middle finger broken. Rebecca screamed. I kept going until all of her fingers were broken, leaving her screaming and crying in agony, her daughter nearly catatonic with fear and anguish, and her husband actually crying. I walked slowly back to Theodore Fou Offrey and stood silently for a moment before speaking again.
"Earl Theodore Fou Offrey, you are guilty on multiple counts of collusion-" I repeated in the same tone as before, as if the last five minutes had not occurred.
"Yes! For the love of the Saintess, yes I understand!" screamed Theodore. "Just stop this madness! What do you want me to tell you?"
"Who was behind leaking troop movements to Fanoss?" I asked.
"Frampton did it to secure the loyalty of the Forest of Ladies, with the understanding that they'd back him politically and provide support to the Fanossian Reclamation Campaign!" answered Theodore in a rush.
"But the Forest stabbed him in the back, didn't they?" I replied.
"They sold off most of their military assets under the table to fund their continued hedonism!" confirmed Theodore.
"Who did they sell their assets to?" I demanded.
"Fanoss! Raschel! The Empire!" blabbered Theodore. "Pirates! Anyone with gold who could buy, they sold to!"
"Why did you defect to Fanoss?" I pressed further. "What did they offer you? Why do you want them to win?"
"...I don't want Fanoss to win…" replied Theodore in confusion and disgust. "I want Frampton and the Holfort Nobility to lose…"
"...You have a minute to explain before your daughter starts losing fingers-" I growled as I drew my combat knife.
"I wouldn't even be an Earl if it wasn't for the harm that the parasitic Holfortian Nobles had done to the common people of Fanoss!" spat Theodore, his eyes filling with what I would almost call righteous anger. "Following the peace treaty in the last war, Fanoss is required to produce a certain amount of tea to be able to trade with Holfort for twenty years after the signing of the treaty! Not even at a promised fair price, but simply available to trade based on whatever the market price is! They had to reallocate farmland that was used to feed their people in order to meet this ridiculous and predatory demand! The price of bread in Fanoss is the same as the price of tea here in Holfort! My rise to power was through trading grains and other food for tea and then selling the tea in Holfort for a ridiculous profit margin!"
"...If you hated it so much, why didn't you try to stop it once your power increased enough?" I asked quietly, knowing that I wouldn't like the answer.
"The Parliament would never have voted in favor of such a proposal!" scoffed Theodore. "As long as they had tea leaves to brew, they'd never give a damn about the starving children of Fanoss! The only thing I could do was send a request to the King and Queen directly, and I was simply told that it would be 'looked into'. I was a Viscount at the time, and I've never even heard a word back from that lying bitch-"
I slammed a fist down onto Theodore's left hand in order to buy some time to think. I knew Mylene well enough that if there were starving children involved, the matter would become one of her top priorities, given that intense motherly streak she had. It was far more likely that the request had simply been buried under the vast mountain of paperwork that was piled onto her as a result of Roland's irresponsibility. What this meant is that the entire war could have been avoided if Roland had kept it in his pants and actually did his job as King. Perhaps there was a more elegant solution to all of this that would see minimal bloodshed instead of simply crushing the Fanossian army with Livia's fully-fledged Saintess powers? I needed to press Theodore further.
"...So, how does working with Frampton and the Holfortian Nobility help the people of Fanoss?" I asked coldly. "How does war put food in their bellies?"
"It wouldn't, not at first," conceded Theodore as he explained. "With Frampton and his faction destabilizing relations with Fanoss, I had the connections in the Fanossian Nobility from my time as a merchant that Frampton needed for his plans to work, so I quickly made myself indispensable to his plans, meanwhile working with the Forest of Ladies to sell their military assets off to Fanoss. Since my territory is on the border regions near the Field family, it wasn't difficult to convince that fool Frampton that I could conduct the troop inspections and compile the militia reports for him. From there, it was a simple matter to falsify the numbers in the reports so that Malcolm would overextend himself, getting himself and as many other nobles killed in the process.. A few hired assassins to take out the more problematic elements on both sides, and a new country could rise from the ashes as the corruption of old is burned away in the fires of war."
"And would you have risen to the top of this new nation?"
"No…" chuckled Theodore mirthlessly. "I'd have faced my end at an assassin's blade during that final purge, but at least my conscience would be clear."
"And the innocent lives that would have died in war?" I asked pointedly. "Those wouldn't have weighed on your conscience?"
No answer was forthcoming, but Theodore looked away in shame. Clearly the thought of the innocent casualties bothered him, if he was so willing to arrange for assassins to take himself out once the job was done. While I could never agree with his actions, a part of me could sympathize with the man's motives. In the absence of a cheat-level AI, he'd tried to right a horrible wrong committed by two nations to their people, which would be messy with conventional methods. Still, by standing on ceremony and societal expectations, he'd caused so much more suffering than he needed to. While it would have gone against every rule of noble society to do so, kicking in the door to Mylene's office and telling her that children were starving would have seen this issue resolved years ago. I looked down at Theodore.
"Listen up: I want the Forest of Ladies and Frampton's Faction to lose as well," I explained brusquely. "I'm going to bring them down with or without your help, but your cooperation will see that done so much quicker with much less effort on my part. Do a good job, and I'll see what I can do about having your wife and daughter spared."
"...Alright, I'll do it…" sighed Theodore. "Don't bother with trying to spare me; I know I don't deserve it…"
I stood up to leave the room, wanting to get out of there as quickly as I could. To this day, I don't know why I stopped, but when I heard Stephanie call out to me as I was leaving, I stopped.
"Wait! Lord Bartfort! What happened to Carla?! Please!" begged Stephanie. "I need to know what happened to my friend!"
"...She came to her senses…" I answered coldly.
"...What?" breathed Stephanie, as though the answer had knocked the breath from her lungs.
"Why do you think I am here and not dead?" I twisted the proverbial knife further, turning back to loom over Stephanie. "Carla finally saw the rabid animal that you had become and could no longer abide by it, and so tried to foolishly sacrifice herself by getting me to deny her request and have your family investigated for its crimes. Instead, I've taken her in as a vassal, with the understanding that I want her to betray me as well if I ever walk down a path that she cannot abide by…"
"...No.. No, that can't be…" denied Stephanie, even as her eyes shone with despair. "You're lying! You snake! How dare-"
"Stephanie hasn't been the girl I knew as my friend for years," Carla's voice played from my comm unit as a recording of the poker game played in miniature to Stephanie's mounting horror. "She aspires to be everything that she thought that Angelica was prior to this semester; top of society, universally respected and adored, and heaven help the 'rabble' that dared to cross her. That ambition killed whatever good was in her long ago… I just regret that I couldn't see it until now-"
"...No… oh gods, Carla…" gasped Stephanie as the full weight of what I'd shown her had hit her, honest tears beginning to fall.
"She planned to take her own life rather than risk you throwing her to a band of pirates as a 'plaything', like you'd done for the rest who had 'failed you'-" I continued, my voice cutting into Stephanie with every word.
"I would never do that to Carla!" spat Stephanie. "I gave Captain Kane specific instructions that Carla was not to be harmed-"
"-but the rest of us were fair game, yes?" I cut back in. "As were the other lackeys who had failed you?"
"...Steph, please tell me you didn't…" pleaded Theodore, clearly horrified at his daughter's actions.
Stephanie was silent, clearly having no rebuttal. I could feel Theodore staring at his own daughter in disgust and horror while her mother sobbed for reasons besides her own injuries. I could feel my anger at the confirmation of what Stephanie intended for Livia's fate to be. Unlike Theodore, Stephanie didn't even have the semblance of a justification for her actions, nor did she regret them. If I had not had Luxion or if she'd picked a different band of pirates, Livia would have-
I made my decision on how to address Stephanie intending for one of the women I loved to be gang-raped until her body failed her, and I would wonder for years after if I went too far. Friends and family who later learned of it would assure me that I didn't, but it would take decades for me to finally believe them. I drew a combat knife from my belt, grabbed Stephanie's left wrist, and swiftly cut off her left ring finger as I slammed the tip of the blade into the wooden table she was chained to. Stephanie remained silent for a moment as she disassociated from the fact that her finger was no longer attached to her hand, but her father and mother screaming in horror brought her back to the moment. Stephanie screamed unintelligibly as she stared at the gap where her finger used to be, not even a nub or stump left behind. I lit an emergency camp stove from my belt pouch, placing the blade I'd just used to cut off Stephanie's wedding finger over the flame until it glowed cherry red. Stephanie's screams turned to whimpers in the time it took for the blade to heat up, and so when I approached with the knife, she began to protest and begged for me to get away. I ignored her words, cauterizing her wound where her finger once was, the hiss of burning flesh overpowered by her scream. I waited until her screams had become quiet little sobs before I explained my actions.
"Let me make this very clear to you, Stephanie:" I began, my voice cold and hard. "The reason that I have taken your ring finger from you is so that, regardless of whether you find someone stupid or weak enough for you to inflict yourself on in marriage, you will never wear a wedding ring. You will forever know what it means to have something that should be a joyful occurrence taken from you, just as you intended to have my fiancee's virginity forcibly taken by pirates."
"...F-fiancee?" blubbered Stephanie.
"Yes, I really should thank you for that," I mocked coldly. "In a twisted sort of way, Liv's desire to prove you wrong is what brought the two of us together, so I think we can forgive the two hundred dia that you owe her for losing your little bet… Regardless, whether you are actually spared by the Royal Family or I get to make good on my little promise to you at the racetrack, let that missing finger be a reminder to you, for however long you have left…"
I turned away without listening to Stephanie's response. I left the interrogation room with long, purposeful strides, struggling to maintain a veneer of calm. The door slammed shut behind me. I pulled my helmet off as I collapsed to the floor, hands shaking violently as my pulse pounded in my head. I felt sick and disgusted with myself. I tapped my comm.
"Lux, get a comm unit delivered to the Queen as soon as possible," I ordered. "The wheels of the Otome Game are spinning out of control again, and this time I want to take proactive action, but we're going to need more political weight behind us to pull this off…"
"Understood, Master," acknowledged Luxion. "How are you feeling after performing the interrogation?"
"...I'll be fine, Lux," I lied, unable to keep the weariness from my voice.
"...Of course you will, Master," replied Luxion
Luxion disconnected the call swiftly, and I was once again left to my thoughts. For a moment, I could have sworn there was a note of something more in his voice, but I couldn't quite place it. I decided to put that aside while my emotions overwhelmed me and I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the floor next to me.
When I finally returned to my room at the Academy, I collapsed face-first onto my bed after pulling off my shirt, utterly drained. I could still hear Rebecca's screams of agony, Theodore and Stephanie begging and pleading with me to stop, and the snap of bones and ligaments like clockwork. And then there were Stephanie's own screams to think of, the pool of red spreading from the end of the pale severed digit, the yellow glow of the knife as I heated the blade, the hiss of the cauterized flesh. The fact that I found my actions so repulsive only provided little comfort to me, and I wasn't looking forward to the nightmares that were sure to come once sleep finally came to me. I didn't want to become dependent on sleep pills or other substances, but maybe Luxion had something that could help me just for tonight-
I blinked as I felt a sudden shift in the bed behind me as a pair of warm arms embraced me tenderly from behind and a pair of warm breasts pressed against the skin of my back. It wasn't an amorous embrace, but instead it was a comforting one, meant to soothe rather than arouse. The bed shifted again, and a new set of arms embraced me from my right, soon followed by a third set from my left. From the skin on skin contact, I could tell that they weren't wearing anything, at least as far as tops were concerned. After a moment of breathing in lavender, vanilla, and tangerine, I finally spoke up in the darkness of my room.
"Luxion or Marie?" I asked, wondering who had alerted the girls to my state of mind.
"Both, actually," whispered Angie in my right ear. "Marie reached out first to express her concern over how interrogating the Offreys was going to affect you, especially after killing for the first time in battle, and then Luxion alerted us when you left the Offreys in the interrogation room that you were in emotional distress. …He also recommended skin-on-skin contact to help combat the stress, and as embarrassing as the suggestion was, I elected to trust him-"
"He's technically right, if I remember what the Old Human research studies said during my era correctly," I smiled gently, letting a few tears fall as I appreciated the tender care the girls were lavishing upon me. "Still, our positioning is probably not the most comfortable right now, if you three intend to stay tonight-"
"And we do intend to stay tonight," Clarice cut in, inviting no arguments from me. "Just as you helped us through our own despair, let us help you, love…"
"...Okay, let me roll over, then…" I whispered, my voice breaking slightly.
After a minute of readjusting, I soon had Livia draped on my chest, Angie tucked into my right side, and Clarice tucked into my left. None of us were wearing anything to bed, but lustful activities were the furthest from our minds. I could feel a few more tears burn at my eyes as I cried gently, letting the three women I loved comfort my aching heart. When sleep finally came for me, no nightmares followed.
"Lord Bartfort? Are you unwell?"
"Hmm? No! Sorry!" I exclaimed, jolting from my thoughts. "...Sorry, my mind wandered for a bit…"
"I suppose that's understandable, given the reason for us meeting," chuckled Earl Atlee. "We'll try to keep this brief so you can enjoy the bliss of young romance…"
I coughed briefly as Earl Atlee laughed and Duke Redgrave gave me a knowing look. In truth, I was thinking of how best to approach everything we had to talk about, but I couldn't think of how to pivot from joyful engagement and wedding planning to the shadows of war looming over us and how most of our backup plans were not without issues. When we'd spoken this morning, they'd cleared their schedules to accommodate this meeting, which made me think that they'd figured out the other reason why I'd given them the communicators. However, all of our discussion thus far had been completely betrothal-based, which I couldn't complain about, since it did involve marrying the women I loved.
Of course, that wasn't to say that I wasn't also distracted by said women as well. This morning had been truly unforgettable, even if we'd kept things as tastefully proper as we could. Discovering that Angie had been wrapping her chest to reduce her bust size, a habit that she'd developed in order to try and match Julius's preference for "less buxom women", had been a shock, and I swore to smack Julius the next time that I saw him for making the woman I loved so self-conscious about her gorgeous figure. I then proceeded to reassure Angie that I would cherish her F-cup breasts until my dying day, leaving no room for that doubt in her mind any longer. The passionate look she'd given me after I'd finished…demonstrating the depth of my convictions… suggested that I'd been successful in convincing her… but I still vowed to reaffirm that conviction at every opportunity from that moment on…
Clarice, on the other hand, clung to me enthusiastically, humming happily to herself. It was "La Vie En Rose", of course, to start, but she did hum a few other tunes from the night we danced as well. When Livia decided to distract Angie for a bit, I took my time lavishing Clarice with affection. She'd told me that she wished that we could have held each other the night that she cried herself to sleep, but it had been worth the wait. The mental image of her breasts in the bath that one evening had been burned into my mind, so to have them pressed to me was something out of my more amorous fantasies, and yet somehow our passions didn't flare out of control.
Livia simply watched as I interacted with the women we loved, a wide grin on her face as she felt my arousal as she lay atop me. Whenever I focused on one of our lovers, Livia would make sure that the other didn't feel left out and lonely. It was starting to get a little more passionate, and if it wasn't for Earl Atlee calling in, at least one of the girls would have not been a virgin anymore. As it was, the girls were understanding, yet still sexually frustrated as they scrambled to get out of the frame for the call. I'm sure it didn't help matters when they saw me in one of my nicer suits to prepare for the meeting, if the hungry looks they gave me were anything to go by. Another brief cough brought me back to the present once again, to which Livia and Clarice giggled while Angie gently chided me even as she gave me an adoring look.
"So to continue with the topic at hand, normally the disparity in rank would make an engagement between you and Clarice, much less you and Angie, nearly impossible," began Duke Redgrave, his face turning serious. "For Angie, Clarice, and Olivia, we'd normally need to increase your rank to that of an Earl for such an engagement to even be close to an acceptable level of outrage, much less any level of acceptance. Thankfully, with the substantial bride price that you've paid already, I feel that we should be able to side-step the bulk of it."
I blinked in confusion at the statement, trying to recall when I'd discussed anything close to a "bride price" or even how I felt about the girls. I turned to look at Angie and Clarice to see if they'd made arrangements even before I'd come back from the Winged Shark expedition, but I could see my confusion mirrored on their expressions. To explain in more detail, a "bride price" or "bride dowry" worked exactly the way that it sounded like it did: basically it was an exchange of wealth, be it property or money, paid by the groom or his family to the bride's family. The problem was that I couldn't ever remember actually doing anything that could constitute anything close to a bride price, save for a highly-specialized piece of equipment that was only useful in communicating with myself, their daughters, Marie, and the Queen, but that could hardly be the sort of bride price they were talking about. I cleared my throat.
"Yes, the bride price, of course…" I coughed. "Forgive me for saying this, but could you remind me again, as I've had a rather busy few weeks; when did I pay this?"
"Lord Bartfort, I'm surprised you don't recall," chided Duke Redgrave with a hint of mischief in his eyes as his mustache twitched. "I seem to recall that this was only a few months ago, just after the end of the previous term at the Academy…"
A few months ago? What does he mean by that? When did I-...Oh… oh shit-
I suddenly remembered a certain wheelbarrow filled with platinum coins, one that I had done absolutely nothing with. From the amused looks that Duke Redgrave and Minister Atlee were giving me, it appeared as though this had been their plan all along; justifying a marriage alliance while playing a prank on me. I didn't dare look at the girls as I knew that the game would be up the moment they caught sight of the look on my face, and so I silently prayed that we could move on in the discussion without delving into the matter further. That prayer was thwarted a moment later, as I felt an intense stare from Angie when she connected the dots on what her father was saying.
"...Leon…" asked Angie with a deathly calm in her voice that cut like a razorblade. "...Whatever happened to that wheelbarrow of platinum coins that you took to my father last term? I don't believe that I ever heard what you did with them in the end since they were ultimately unneeded…"
"...Well, you see, there's an excellent reason as to why you never heard anything about what I did with those coins afterwards…" I prevaricated in order to stall the inevitable. "And that reason is that I… did absolutely nothing with those coins… or that wheelbarrow…at all…"
I instantly braced myself for whatever onslaught the girls were going to throw at me, but I was greeted by a long moment of silence as the girls attempted to recover from their shock. While Angie had been the only one to know the exact amount of the bribe, a wheelbarrow of platinum was certainly a shocking thought, as a single platinum coin was worth a thousand dia. As such, Livia was left softly repeating "a wheelbarrow?" over and over in disbelief while Clarice simply stared at me in shock. Angie, on the other hand, recovered quickly, and proceeded to beat her fists against my chest with dandelion-light punches as she expressed her frustration at me. I raised my arms in defeat as Duke Redgrave and Earl Atlee laughed uproariously at my misfortune.
"Alright, alright, I give!" I surrendered quickly, knowing that if I laughed now, I'd be in even more trouble. "I screwed up-"
"Leon, that was fifteen hundred platinum coins!" shouted Angie as she still proceeded to beat my chest in indignation. "One and a half million dia, and you just left it?!"
"Well how was I supposed to know to take it with me?!" I protested, even as I could feel an involuntary grin twitch at the corners of my mouth in spite of my best efforts to hide it. "I brought it to ask a favor that was not necessary, so wouldn't it be rude to take it back with me-"
"Leon, this is not like a bottle of wine to a casual dinner party! That is quite literally almost double the value of Princess Erica's own bride price!" chided Angie, stopping herself to take a deep breath and sigh with fond exasperation. "...You foolish, foolish man… What am I to do with you?"
"Well, I'm hoping you'll love me," I grinned, to which Angie rolled her eyes in amusement. "Still, even if I had known to take it with me at the time, I probably still would have used the money the exact same way, so it works out, right?"
"...You're still a ridiculous man, my love," sighed Angie as she finally smiled in earnest. "Gods help me for falling in love with you even still…"
"At this point, Vince, I'm beginning to feel the wedding will merely be a formality," chuckled Earl Atlee."They seem to already grasp the basics of married life already."
"Indeed," laughed Duke Redgrave. "Forgive us for our little prank, Lord Bartfort, but we felt it would be in good fun and would teach a valuable lesson about the procedure for bartering favors with higher members of court. The money will still, however, be necessary to make such an engagement possible, of course. Now, with the silliness out of the way, let us discuss the serious matters involving the engagement. Now, I suggest that we plan the wedding for after your graduation, so as to not raise further scandal-"
"That long?" blurted Angie before she could stop herself.
I could feel the temperature drop in the room at Angie's outburst. To my credit, I did manage to hold the intense gazes of both Earl Atlee and Duke Redgrave without flinching, but I could feel my pulse quicken in anxiety. In fairness, Earl Atlee didn't seem terribly displeased at the idea of Clarice being pregnant, only the timing of it. Angie shot me a quick apologetic look, but before I could reassure her or address the issue with Duke Redgrave and Earl Atlee, the Duke spoke up.
"...Lord Bartfort, is there a reason why my daughter is dismayed at the wedding taking place after her graduation?" asked Duke Redgrave pointedly, even as a small glimmer of amusement in his eye took off some of the edge of his question. "Say, for example, a longer engagement leading to a far greater scandal in a few months time? Should we expect yet another 'Bartfort Bastard' if we delay for too long-"
"Oh God, no!" I exclaimed. "No, nothing like that-"
"I wish it was a Bartfort Bastard…" snorted Clarice absentmindedly. "And it's not for lack of trying on my part…"
The room once again went silent at Clarice's declaration, but this time the tension was decidedly lower. Clarice suddenly found the floor very interesting, unable to meet her father's eye even as the man seemed ready to burst into uproarious laughter. Livia was busy trying to comfort Clarice while Angie had her head in her hands, clearly wondering how this spiraled out of control. Duke Redgrave seemed far more amused than before, but he still watched us with a calculating gaze. I cleared my throat.
"...What Clarice means is that, in spite of her best efforts, we're all still virgins…" I explained awkwardly with a sigh, not wanting further misunderstandings to follow even if saying the words aloud was mortifying.
"...So the reason you seek a much shorter engagement would have something to do with what you know about Fanoss," concluded Duke Redgrave shrewdly. "The real reason why you gave us those artifacts…"
There it was. The moment I'd been waiting for. Duke Redgrave and Earl Atlee had figured it out: that there was something that I'd been hiding about current events. I cleared my throat, knowing that our conversation was necessary for the survival of the Kingdom and our families, but also knowing that this was going to be a nasty shock for them.
"I had wondered when you were going to ask me about that, but I wanted to keep things light for as long as I could," I explained, cutting straight to the point. "Before we begin, do you have any alcohol in your office?"
"I have a bottle of brandy in my desk drawer," replied Earl Atlee with a frown. "Why?"
"...You're going to want five more," I grimaced.
"...Gods above…" whispered Earl Atlee to himself as he stared in vacant horror into his glass of brandy. "I think it would have been preferable to accelerate the wedding because of a potential bastard child… as opposed to… this…"
I winced in sympathy as Duke Redgrave paced back and forth behind us, the man having taken to the activity for the last fifteen minutes after I'd finished explaining everything I knew. I wished that I had better news for the two of them, but most everything I had these days was bad. Between Frampton and the Forest royally fucking the kingdom over, the Principality ready to get onto war-time footing, the existence of the Great Beast, and the fact that the Saintess Artifacts have a chance of turning her into the flesh puppet for a vengeful spirit that would seek to genocide the whole kingdom, there wasn't a lot of good news to go around. For his part, Earl Atlee had not taken a single sip of the brandy he poured for himself, instead choosing to stare into it as though it might have the answers we sought. Duke Redgrave had watched me like a hawk as I explained everything, listening to every word without comment before pacing like a caged animal. The one thing that I'd decided not to explain was that I was a Reincarnate, instead framing most of my in-game knowledge as Luxion's intel reports. The information that I had already was going to be shocking and unbelievable already to a pair of adults that had yet to live through events that my Journal One foretold, so telling them I was a Reincarnate was off the table. Eventually, I'd need to tell my fathers-in-law about my status, but that could wait until World Annihilation was off the table.
"...I did warn you it was bleak," I sighed.
"Yes, well, you were completely correct that the news you bring would inspire heavy drinking, but blacking out from alcohol certainly will not resolve any of these issues," interjected Duke Redgrave, finally stopping his forced march to lean toward me over the back of the couch where Earl Atlee was seated. "By your estimates, how effective is the Holfortian Military Force?
"About forty percent of what the reports claim," I sighed. "If it were a matter of equipment and armaments, I could help close the gap with Luxion's manufacturing facilities, but the major issue is the loss of manpower as a result of the Forest of Ladies. We've recovered some of them back thanks to the work of Captain Kane and the Winged Sharks, but it won't be nearly enough on its own to hold off the Guardian Beast and the army that Fanoss has assembled."
"And the Saintess's Relics?" pressed Duke Redgrave. "You've recovered them, but they cannot be used?"
"Well… we could use them, but there is a chance that the spirit of the First Saintess takes control of our Saintess candidate and proceeds to unleash the fury of a scorned woman upon the entire Kingdom…" I replied, as I watched Duke Redgrave's face fall further.
"...And because Miss Olivia is the next Saintess, you will not allow that as an option," stated Duke Redgrave with a frown.
"...To be honest, I won't try to claim that Livia being the Saintess doesn't play a part in me not wanting to use the Relics unless all other hope is lost," I admitted. "Still, even if Livia and I were not involved with each other, the amount of power that Livia wields is staggering on her own, so to see it amplified by the Relics and then turned against the Kingdom would be an even worse threat than Fanoss."
"...Is she truly that strong?" asked Earl Atlee.
"She can generate a magic barrier strong enough to hold off a full-sized Armor for several minutes," I sighed. "Actually, she can generate three of those barriers…Five when in the presence of only one Relic…"
"...And how much time do we have left?" asked Duke Redgrave.
"...A few weeks, maybe?" I suggested. "A month or two if we're lucky, but certainly no more than three months."
At this revelation, Duke Redgrave finally broke down, walking around the sofa to collapse into it next to Earl Atlee. It was truly a sobering moment to see; a man as confident and assured as Duke Redgrave. Angie and Clarice went to their fathers to put a comforting hand on their shoulders, but nothing was said as the two older noblemen processed the impact of what I had told them. Finally, Duke Redgrave looked up.
"...So then, what is your plan, Leon?" asked Duke Redgrave, addressing me informally for the very first time. "I would like to think that I know you well enough to know that you would never be without a plan, no matter how tenuous it might be."
"Honestly, I've been prepping my Bastards in a worst-case scenario to evacuate as many people as possible onto Luxion's main body so that we might escape to the stars," I elaborated. "However, I know that the Kingdom has some sort of secret weapon from its founding that could amplify Livia's abilities just as much as the Relics. I just don't know quite how it works-"
"You'd never be able to get the Weiss off the ground," interjected Earl Atlee. "Only a couple who was truly and deeply in love would be able to, and there hasn't been a love like that since the Kingdom's founding."
"And how the hell does it determine that?" I frowned, realizing that this was some sort of shenaniganry that justified the "Affection Point" system in real life, even if I couldn't quite see how.
"There is a test at the entrance to the vessel," explained Duke Redgrave. "It takes two people to activate, and it has a way of scoring a couple's affection toward each other, but don't ask how it works, as I've only ever heard of it. If the threshold is not met, the doors won't open."
"Lux can cut his way in, if we need to, but we'll take a closer look at it before we jump to that option," I mused. "Honestly, right now we need to take care of the people who intend to stop us, namely the Forest of Ladies and the Frampton Faction. I've got the start of a plan, but I'll need the cooperation of the Royal Family and the Redgrave faction to pull it off."
"Perhaps it would be best to involve Her Majesty in this conversation before we proceed any further, then," suggested Duke Redgrave. "It would give Bernard and myself time to come to terms with what you've told us, and perhaps a bit more time to gather some resources of our own. For now, let us return to the subject of the engagement. Since we don't have much time to accomplish a wedding before the end of the world, we'll agree to announce this as soon as we can, but even with the dowry, the earliest that we could even announce the engagement would be at the end of the current term at the Academy."
"...I suppose that will have to do," I sighed with a rueful smile. "As far as the details of who is First Wife versus Second Wife versus Mistress and other nonsense like that, I'll leave that all to the two of you, because as far as I'm concerned, no one I marry will be considered to be lesser than anyone else I marry. I will be their husband, and they'll be my wives. Full stop. That is something that I will never compromise on-"
I stopped in the middle of my rant at the odd looks that Earl Atlee and Duke Redgrave were giving me. In spite of me saying something that most other nobles could have taken offense to, the two men seemed to be considering me carefully. Before I could voice my question, Earl Atlee leaned over to Duke Redgrave in an amused whisper.
"I think I may need to retract my statement about the Weiss," chuckled Earl Atlee tiredly. "These four might have a relationship strong enough after all."
"Well, I could've done without the talk of an impending invasion, but at least our dads really do seem to like you," commented Clarice.
After another hour or so, we finally were back at the Academy, exhausted and anxious about the future with Fanoss, but at the same time slightly relieved. The one result of the meeting was the decision to announce the engagement publicly at the end of the current term, as that's when I planned to make my moves against Frampton and the Forest. Until then, we were to continue as we had been and "avoid making decisions with lasting consequences".
"First two in two lifetimes that actually liked me," I chuckled. "Still, while I'm glad it went well, I think I'm ready to be out of this suit…"
"I can get behind that idea…" grinned Clarice lewdly. "Need a hand?"
"Behave, Clarice," I chided even as I couldn't stop my smile. "I promised your father that we'd keep things subtle until the announcement, so none of that while we're at the Academy. And even when we're not at the Academy, we're not going to do anything that could have consequences until the engagement is official."
"Fine…" sighed Clarice dramatically, even as she continued to give me intense bedroom eyes. "I suppose that means we'll need to find other ways…"
"...Hey girls, a little help?" I asked weakly, swallowing hard at the thought of some of those "other ways".
"I think Cordelia did have a few recommendations for novels of that particular nature, and I'm sure we can find more at the booksellers in town if we bribed the proprietor…" mused Angie thoughtfully, even as her eyes betrayed her teasing for what it was. "What do you think, Livia?"
"Oh, I wouldn't bother with those, dearest Angie," teased Livia, her eyes lighting up with mischief. "Even the most lurid novels in Holfort pale in comparison to the full knowledge of the Old Human Library that Luxy has available. And they even have visual demonstrations…"
"...You girls are going to be the death of me, I swear…" I sighed, even as the girls broke out into giggles. "Alright, let me get changed, and then we can go to my tea room to discuss more freely what the next few months are going to look like."
"As you wish, Leon," the three of them chorused.
I will not lie and say that I managed to make a dignified retreat into my room. It was a full and total rout by my soon-to-be-official fiancees. I couldn't get inside my room fast enough, fleeing their giggles as if the Devil himself were on my heels. I slowly slid down my door to sit for a moment, letting my pulse slow to a more normal beat.
"...Yeah, they'll be the death of me, but what a hell of a way to die…" I chuckled, pulling my tie loose.
I finished removing the tie from my neck as I walked further into the room, but before I could shrug out of the suit jacket, something small and blonde seized me by the lapels and pulled me further into the room with a strength that I had no clue she could possess. Marie stared up at me with wild eyes as she slammed my back into the wall of my room, her eyes demanding that I answer her.
"Marie?! Ow!" I exclaimed as my back hit the wall. "What the hell-"
"Where did you learn that recipe?!" demanded Marie as she shook me by the lapels of my suit jacket. "Who taught you how to make that marinade?!"
"Ow, hey-" I protested. "What the hell has gotten into you-"
"Answer me, damn you!" snapped Marie.
"Okay, God Almighty, calm down!" I shot back. "My dad taught me to make it, okay?!"
"...Your dad as in Balcus Fou Bartfort, or…" whispered Marie, letting go of my lapels.
"'My dad' as in my First Life dad!" I snapped as I straightened my jacket. "Besides, it's not difficult; just five hundred milliliters of soy sauce-"
"-to three hundred seventy five milliliters of rice vinegar," whispered Marie as she recited the next step. "...Two hundred fifty five grams of white sugar-"
"...And one hundred twenty seven grams of brown sugar…" I finished, starting to realize what had Marie so riled up but not wanting to get my hopes up in case she was wrong. "Seventeen grams each of onion powder and garlic powder…"
"And eight and a half grams of ginger…" choked Marie. "...How did you reincarnate to this world again?"
"...I fell down the stairs from exhaustion after full-completing this game for my younger sister…" I answered, feeling my heart soar in my chest.
"...Big Bro?" asked Marie in a trembling voice.
"...Hey, Little Dummy," I choked out, my eyes burning even as I grinned at my reincarnated first little sister.
Marie couldn't even form coherent words as she slammed into my chest and held me like she did when we were kids, her wailing sobs wracking her entire body. I felt my own eyes burn with tears even as I let out a few laughing sobs of my own, gently patting her head as returned her hug. For a long time, neither of us said anything, although with how Marie was sobbing, I didn't think she'd have been able to form words anyhow. As her sobs subsided to blubbering, Marie tried to speak, desperate to say something after who knew how many years since my first death.
"I-I-I-I'm sor-" blubbered Marie as she hovered on the edge of hyperventilating.
"Shh…" I hushed her gently, my voice even and calm as I finally felt more at peace than I had in a decade. "It's okay, Little Dummy… It wasn't your fault. I was the Big Dummy that stayed awake for three days straight and tried to walk down the stairs. You can't blame yourself for my stupid decisions, alright?"
"But I killed you, Brother!" screamed Marie, finally finding her voice. "Over some stupid otome game and some yaoi books, I frigging got you killed! You should be furious with me!"
"Little Dummy, I already told you that there's only one thing I regret from my first life," I retorted firmly. "I didn't tell you that I loved you nearly enough in our first lives, so I'm sure as hell going to tell you now. I love you, you damn brat, so quit your crying already-"
Marie slammed into me again, wailing into my chest as she soaked my shirt in tears and mucus, and I didn't give a damn, grinning widely as I enjoyed my reunion with my sister. Tears burned my eyes even as I smiled, truly feeling relief for the first time in a long while. After a while, Marie started to quiet down, resting her face into my chest as she sniffled pitifully. I had a million questions for Marie about her past life; what happened to her after I died, what happened to our parents, and whatever she could tell me about my niece, but for the moment, those questions could wait. A brief clearing of a throat from somewhere behind me reminded me of something that couldn't wait, however.
I broke apart from Marie to look at the women that I loved most in this world as they watched. All things considered, Angie and Clarice seemed fairly relaxed, but it was clear that they'd want answers sooner rather than later. While they'd become closer with their quest for the Saintess's Bracelet, Marie was still the woman who had stolen their fiances previously, and there was still tension from that even now. Livia had clearly been the voice of reason to keep the others calm, her hands placed in a comforting gesture on each of their shoulders. I cleared my throat.
"So, there's been a bit of an important development that I need to inform you three of, but nothing has changed about our relationship-" I began clumsily.
"Leon, I hope that we won't need to remind you of your promise all those months ago," interjected Angie with a smile, although there was a serious edge in her eyes. "I may be starting to like Marie a little, but that doesn't mean I- Leon?!"
Angie broke off from her teasing in alarm as I stepped away from Marie and proceeded to dry-heave at the thought of becoming romantically involved with my sister from my first life. Even before I'd actually realized that Marie was the Little Dummy, the idea of getting together with her was an anathema to me. Now that I realized it, of course, it was all the more repulsive of an idea. Of course, my inability to speak while dry-heaving worried the girls and Marie.
"I'm sorry Leon, I was only joking to ease the tension-" apologized Angie.
"W-what the hell was that promise?!" asked Marie, still shaking heavily from her crying from earlier.
"Leon swore that he would never have any interest, be it romantic or carnal, in you, Miss Marie, but I don't see how- Miss Marie?!" explained Livia, breaking off in alarm at Marie's reaction to the news.
Apparently, Marie found the idea of spiritual incest just as revolting as I did, given how quickly her face turned green. Unlike me, however, Marie had been dealing with powerful, body-wracking sobs for the last five minutes, thus weakening her ability to naturally resist the effects of nausea. After a few gagging dry heaves of her own, Marie's cheeks bulged, causing her to run to the window, opening it and retching violently in the night air. The rest of us winced in sympathy as she continued to empty her stomach to the courtyard below. Clarice cleared her throat briefly to break the silence.
"...I'll go get her a glass of water," offered Clarice, wincing as Marie let out a particularly loud retching heave.
So, onto the more serious bits. I will confess that my current pace that I've been setting has led to a little bit of burnout on my part. Going forward, I want to try and keep a regular schedule on here, but I don't know that I'll be able to meet that 6-8 week pace I had before. I'm going to try moving back to 8-10 to give myself a little more breathing room, which is certainly going to be a lot more important for the next three chapters as we finish out the Finale of Volume 2.
Speaking of which, I did also want to address how much longer this fic is going to go, and I feel like the best "break point" is going to be the setting change between Volumes 3 and 4, which should be another 6-10 chapters for Volume 3, given how things have been outlined. This is not to say that I'm going to stop writing for Mobseka, but I want to make sure that I don't just pile everything all into one fic, and that honestly makes the most sense to split things off there.
As for when to expect the next chapter, I would say that I should be done with it by later November to early-mid December. Any extra time that I have will be spent working on the next sections so that they can get out quickly, since the finale of Volume 2 would be one hell of a cliffhanger to leave off on.