§
“You’re with us, Lady,” Ceria cooed into my ear. She wasn’t at all shy about wrapping herself around my arm, right there in the dining room.
“My Lady Ceria, you need to be a little better behaved in front of others,” Melione scolded, with a very nostalgic tone. It was exactly the way she used to lecture Tiana. “You have a higher station now.”
“Lady Ceria?” I asked as Ceria’s expression soured. She loosened up on my arm, finally mindful of the various eyes around us.
“I’m the baronial heir now, apparently,” she sulked, her cat ears flattened backward slightly. I remembered her mother identifying herself earlier as Baroness Destia.
“Congratulations, My Lady,” I told her, trying to encourage her. “Not too many beastkin aristocrats around.”
They aren’t unheard of, but they are rare.
“I’m the only legitimate daughter right now,” she explained. “It sucks. I want to hand it down to my little brother, but he can’t be legitimized unless Mom gets married.”
I forced myself not to shake my head over one of the points where Orestania is horribly outdated in comparison to the US. I know it doesn’t line up with Robert’s Catholic beliefs, but both in my view and in my old view as Robert, all children are legitimate.
In Orestania, legitimacy is a temple matter. The religious laws vary throughout the kingdom, where there are four major faiths, and I didn’t know enough about the Northern faith to comment.
But I offered, “I think the king could do it by proclamation.”
“That would be bad for Mom’s relationship with the temple though. And might cause my brother trouble too, if he inherited.”
Again, I didn’t know enough about the Northern faith. I decided not to meddle.
When Tiana was in the Hero’s Party, Brigitte and Melione would room together with me at inns, but Brigitte now roomed with Allia and Bruna for some reason. Ceria and Melione dragged me to the room they would share.
In the bedroom, Melione’s soft lips were on mine before I knew it, her tongue dancing and curling around mine. The aggression was so different from Melione in my memory, even from Melione from the last time we were together in Arelia, that I broke away, astounded at her.
While her tongue made swirling motions on my cheek, I asked, “When did you get so good at this?”
She giggled. “Lady Ceria and I practice quite often, My Lady.”
I’m not sure which of us was blushing more after she said that.
The aforementioned Lady was on my other side, caressing my tummy while nuzzling my ear. I could hear her muttering to herself, “Lady’s smell…”
She sounded positively drunk. I decided to let her be for the moment, and returned to enjoying Melione’s sweet mouth, conducting repeated invasions between her parted lips.
Melione had often helped Tiana out of her armor in the past, so she made short work of mine, while sneaking kisses at various points of my anatomy. My only method of defense was to retaliate in kind, relieving her and Ceria of their clothing while preventing them from going too far.
I know that, by the standards of this world, both of these girls were plenty old enough, but I still had reservations. I once again resisted when Ceria wanted to go further. Oh, sure, Robert would have probably succumbed to the temptation when he was Tiana’s age, but at twenty five, he would have seen her as far too young to go any further. And I still saw myself as too young anyway.
But I had different standards in vampire mode, I guess.
“We aren’t doing anything like that, tonight, My Lady,” I insisted, momentarily disappointing the amorous cat girl licking my ear until I added, “but I can treat you two to something just as good.”
A broad smile spread across Melione’s face as she slipped her arms behind my neck and pulled herself up to my lips for another kiss. Plump, firm breasts pressed into my chest as her mouth devoured mine. Yes, this was very definitely a different girl than the meek girl she played in front of others!
Ceria soon joined, moving in to aggressively stake her own claim. To my surprise, it wasn’t my lips but Melione’s she ended up possessing, capturing her mouth with a hungry, passionate kiss while her curling tail caressed my thigh and hip with long, sweeping strokes.
She let go and quietly scolded the younger Servant. “Shame on you, little girl. You know it’s my turn first, this time, right?”
Rather than back down, Melione stuck out her tongue, then counterattacked, turning her body toward Ceria and pressing against her, bust-to-bust, exactly like she had done to me. Melione is bigger than either of us in that respect, so it’s quite an attack. Ceria let her get away with it for a while, while I watched the two from a front-row seat only inches from their lips.
“Very well, My Lady,” she conceded once she let go, and moved downward to suckle on Ceria’s breast.
“Nope, not mine,” Ceria whispered in response, stopping her. “Show Lady what I’ve taught you.”
Melione giggled and let go, turning her head to switch to my breast. Her tongue made sweeping, swirling motions around my areola, while her teeth lightly scraped the tip, sending an electric shock through my system.
“What are you teaching this girl, Ceria?” I huffed as Melione’s moist lips sucked me into her mouth and latched on to nurse. As she sucked with outright greed, her hands got into the action as well, fondling both sides.
As my body and fangs responded, Ceria gave a low laugh and purred into my ear, “I’m teaching her Eh-verything, Lady.”
Staying where Melione could continue, I craned my neck to reach Ceria and began kissing her lips while cupping her breast, slowly worked my way over to her ear, then down to her neck as she moved herself into position for me. My fangs were long since ready, so I sank them into her waiting flesh.
My control had become far better than before. After Ceria rose to a shuddering climax, as long as I could possibly prolong it for her, she was still ready for more. And after Melione enjoyed her time with me, she was not finished either. Needless to say, I treated them each to a second round.
As I sipped my second helping from Melione’s breast, she smiled while stroking my hair and cooed, “If I cast [Healing] on it while you’re doing that, you’ll get milk, too.”
It’s true. That’s how wet nurses and new mothers with difficulty breastfeeding get started. It’s how Eleanora began breast-feeding baby Tiana. But I used spiritual voice to tell her, No. It’s too early for your breasts to grow motherly. I prefer you to keep them maidenly for now.
She giggled, her voice full of pleasure, and of course, she didn’t follow through on her offer.
In the morning, Ceria kept me in bed for a ‘goodbye kiss’ that was an excuse for another three-way make-out session. They evolved their fun into giving me a demonstration of their ‘practice sessions’, slipping out from under the blanket and entangling their bodies and limbs together while the light of the morning sun coming through the window played on their bare skin…
I enjoyed the show for a bit, but then… In what world was this ‘practice’? This was obvious foreplay, with very blatant intentions!
I put a stop to it and fed on them just a bit more, instead. It was safe because I kept the physical amount low and they were already my Servants. They would be a bit sluggish for the rest of the day, but they could go nap on Manlon’s launch until it departed for Bray, so it was fine.
§
Pasrue found me in the kitchen while I was grabbing a bite of breakfast… brunch?… before my flight to Atius. She sat down with a cup of coffee in the chair next to mine at the kitchen table. I usually forget that coffee exists here, so I had taken a cup of tea with my meal. I secretly enjoyed the smell from her cup that I had rarely encountered since coming to Huade.
After enjoying her first sip, she told me, “I understand you have a Light spirit who assists you sometimes. Can you call on her for me?”
In Tëan Tír, my maids had Lucy’ s spirit stone set in an Elven silver pendant for me. The mystic material, endowed with enchantments to keep the now-nicely-polished stone secure, ensured it was safe to use in combat, so the jewelry had become a permanent part of my battle outfit.
I brushed it and asked, “Lucy, can you come out?”
“Out!” she declared immediately, appearing over my shoulder.
Her bright chirp brought a smile to my lips. The endlessly curious miniature pixie comes out to quietly nose around, every time I visit new places, but I had not heard her speak in a while.
Pasrue blinked, caught off-guard. “That’s a considerably higher level spirit than I expected.”
To be more precise, what surprised her was that she didn’t see a spirit come out of the stone. Instead, its projection appeared while the real Lucy stayed inside. Just being able to communicate in human language already indicated a higher development level among spirits, but this level of illusion skill was a step beyond that.
Holding out her hand, palm up, Pasrue made a small magic circle appear in the air above it. I was a little surprised, since forming circles of mana without any incantation is not a common skill. It’s usually only fairies who can do chantless magic.
She grew dimples at my curiosity. “I have a strong Light affinity through my mother. Most fairlings couldn’t do this so easily.”
Her lips then moved silently as she stared at the Light fairy waiting next to me. Lucy’s brow bunched up and she moved closer to me, as if preparing to dive behind me for cover.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her, unsure what Pasrue was doing.
The sage sighed. “My Lady, she’s too wary of my attempt to speak to her in spirit thought-forms. Can you assure her I mean no harm?”
“First, what are you trying to do?” I asked.
“I want her to become a member of the Royal Network, so we can communicate to you directly. She needs to memorize the mana pattern written within this magic circle.”
I let my mind expand a bit farther and gave the extra capacity over to Sirth. She then had a conversation with Lucy in those same ‘spirit thought-forms’, bargaining with her for a while.
When I knew what the problem was, I almost laughed. I told Pasrue, “She thought you were forcing the job on her for free. Looks like I’ll need to give her a little extra pay.”
“Is it that sort of relationship?” she asked, a little surprised.
“I’m not her master. Her contract is with an ancient monster in the Tabad who calls himself ‘Lord Moram’. She’s on long-term loan to me.”
“That’s pretty unusual,” Pasrue noted. “For how long?”
“Until she feels like quitting,” I answered, although I wasn’t certain whether that was the full extent of the terms. Lord Moram had been quite vague, but I was pretty sure it was either up to Lucy, or perhaps Moram would call her home someday.
Lucy finally moved over to inspect the circle while Sirth reported the results to me.
– The little lass is cooperating now, Princess. I bribed her with some Holy mana.
With a bit of surprise, I realized Sirth had already sent the mana on her own, imitating what Durandal would normally do. The mana stream had only traveled a fraction of an inch, from my body to the spirit stone, so I never actually noticed it.
I had yet to master the trick of feeding Lucy mana, but apparently it somehow resembled the act of ‘breath sharing’ that bonded spirits to spirit summoners in Sirth’s world.
Pasrue began to work with her, verifying that she understood how to use the network. Amelia appeared while they were working together, so we chatted and sipped tea together for a little while I waited.
“You’re leaving right away?” she wondered, noticing that I had my travel pack already strapped around my waist.
The princess was clearly disappointed, but I couldn’t help it. Time was getting short.
I nodded. “I need to get going. They said that Rod should reach Atius this evening.”
Lucy and Pasrue were done, and the little imitation pixie flew back to my chest and disappeared into her stone. I stood and began my farewells, which ended with a long goodbye hug from Amelia. A little less than six hours later, I was once again on approach to Atius.
