Book 5: Chapter 21:

“It’s alright, bro. We’re all adults. We understand,” Rao tells Fenrir, giving him a friendly smack on the back as the party walks back to the dragon’s village.

After Fenrir ended up making a noise much louder than what he expected to make, resulting in everybody getting to hear his girlish moan from the way-too-good massage that Eva was giving him, the group gathered together and left the cave.

Fenrir’s ears have been flattened and his tail has been hanging low ever since then.

He might feel the most embarrassed he has felt in – well, the most embarrassed that he can ever remember being, but that isn’t stopping his girlfriends from finding him utterly adorable as Rao comforts him. Even Rock and Shogun are trying to comfort him by walking alongside him and occasionally brushing up against his leg with their heads.

“I want to die,” Fenrir says.

“You’re not allowed to die. Your girlfriends would be upset,” Rao says.

“I want to commit not-living.”

“Commit not living? What? Not living… commit not living… not living is being dead, so you want to commit being de—oh. I already said you’re not allowed to do that.”

“You’re not my mom. You can’t tell me that I’m not allowed to want to die.”

“I’m your bro. It’s my duty as a bro to tell you that you’re not allowed to die so that I can look out for you and your girls.”

Fenrir, despite still feeling such embarrassment, can’t help but to feel inspired over Rao’s utter bro-ness.

Rao was just some perverted bachelor who struggled with respect, common sense, and boundaries when they first met one another. Now, Rao has turned himself around and become a dependable brother to not only him, but his girlfriends, Tabitha, Olly, and Corwin, and he’s every bit as important to the group as anybody else is.

Fenrir wants to give Rao some praise for that.

Rao deserves it.

Fenrir opens his lips to say something but gets cut off by Rao.

“If only girls could see how awesome I am. I bet they’d love me if they saw how much of a bro I can be,” Rao says.

“I want to die,” Fenrir says, no longer wanting to praise Rao and instead having returned to giving up on life.

“Worry not, Fenrir,” GG says, now walking alongside Fenrir and Rao. “I once knew a lady who could make me make those same noises. She was this short, older woman in her seventies with frizzy hair, too much makeup, and nails long enough to belong in a museum. Let me tell you, the moment you felt her hands press against your back, you’d go from a grown man to sounding like one of those frogs in the desert.”

That comparison only furthers Fenrir’s desire to commit not-living.

Meanwhile, his girlfriends and Eva are walking together at the back of the group.

“I feel kind of bad… but he’s really cute right now,” Cassiel says.

“Super cute,” Serra agrees.

“We need to discover a way to make him make such sounds in reality,” Nell says. “It is one thing to hear his virtual voice making such noises. It would be far more wonderful to hear his real voice make them!”

“Yeah,” Cassiel says. “That’d be even better.”

“Azawaza and Eva need to visit us,” Serra says. “Eva can massage him in real life.”

“Eh? Visit you?” Eva asks. “But… we barely know each other, and plane tickets are expensive. I might be a thrillseeker in-game, but you could be a bunch of axe murderer cannibals in real life. It’s way too soon.”

“Axe murderer cannibals?” Nell asks, bringing a hand up to her face to tap on her chin as she thinks about that.

The things that she thinks are far too appealing, and mostly erotic, for any sane person to be thinking.

“I – I want to visit soon,” Azalabulia says, sounding more like her timid self than her explosion-obsessed maniacal side.

“Whenever you want,” Cassiel says. “We’ve got the costs covered. Right?” she asks, looking at Nell.

“Ah, yes, it would be rather wonderful if Fenrir were to improve on his bestial act with an axe and far harder biting,” Nell answers.

“…what?”

“An axe-wielding, cannibalistic Fenrir! What else?”

“That’s… not what we were talking about.”

“Oh, it was not? Shame.”

“I think that’s too much this time,” Serra says.

“Is it? Then it would appear that we have found your limit!”

Serra nods while Cassiel sighs.

“It takes that for us to find your limit?” Cassiel asks.

“No axes. Biting harder is okay,” Serra answers.

“How about no axes and no biting harder. He bites hard enough.”

“You know you want him to bite harder.”

“I – no I don’t.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m – I’m… fine, it might be nice, but not if he starts drawing blood.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m serious. No biting to the point of blood.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Seriously! Only a little bit of blood would be okay!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why won’t you trust me? I’m telling you that if he bites hard enough to take the skin off then that’s too much.”

“Okay.”

“Good. Wait…”

“Heh.”

“It would appear that you played right into her trap,” Nell says. “Serra is not to be underestimated! What she lacks in height she makes up for with her plots.”

Serra gives Nell a thumbs-up and says, “I’m smart.”

“The smartest!”

While Nell, Serra, and Azalabulia walk ahead, Cassiel notices that Eva has been slowing down and getting father and farther behind.

It’s also more than obvious to Cassiel that Eva isn’t looking at the other girls and listening to their conversation so much as it is that she’s looking past them at their boyfriend.

Knowing that she might as well get this over with to keep Eva out of the awkward phase where she likes Fenrir but feels guilty for it since he already has girlfriends, like usual, she slows her pace until she’s next to Eva.

“This is supposed to be Serra’s job,” Cassiel says.

“Hm? What?” Eva asks.

“You’re extremely obvious and he already knows, too.”

“What are you—”

Cassiel narrows her eyes.

“Oh. Am… I that obvious?”

“Yeah. Extremely.”

“Oh. Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m going to try and steal him or anything. I know he’s already got—”

“Relax. Aza doesn’t mind at all, Nell is all for it, Serra would never say no, and I don’t really care either. We still have to get to know you better, but don’t feel guilty or anything.”

“This feels like an interview.”

“We’ve basically been interviewing you ever since you made it obvious. While you were doing your obvious information-gathering, we were doing our own.”

“Wait… seriously? I was obvious about that, too?”

“Yeah. Extremely.”

“Oh.”

“You’re not good at being subtle. I don’t think that anybody who has as many mixed-and-matched body parts as you could be subtle about anything.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I am right.”

“You have strong evidence supporting your theory, I’ll give you that.”

“I have all the evidence I need to prove it as fact.”

“You’re… right.”

“I know. Anyways, don’t worry about it.”

“I’m still not sure what I shouldn’t be worrying about.”

“You know. Him. Us. I’m probably trying to talk to you about it way too soon, but I saw you looking like Aza used to, so I figured that I’d say something for your sake.”

“Oh. Thanks… I think?”

“It’s awkward when you say it like that.”

“Sorry. I just don’t really know how to react to something like this. It’s only been a day and there’s always the chance that I don’t feel this way the next time I wake up.”

“Sure. There’s a chance.”

“You make it sound like there isn’t really a chance.”

“If the rest of us are anything to go by, there’s no chance that you wake up next time looking forward to seeing him again and spending more time with him,” Cassiel says, turning her head slightly away to hide the growing blush on her cheeks. “He… has that effect. The same is probably even true for Rao and Tabs.”

“Tabs?”

“One of our friends. She’s not interested in him like the rest of us at all, but he still managed to break through to her. And he managed to help turn Rao around.”

“What was he like before?”

“You’re better off not knowing the details. My point is that, even if it is really early for me to be talking to you about this, I figure that it’s going to almost definitely happen eventually so I might as well get it out of the way with now instead of later.”

“Hm. I understand, I think. It’s still new and strange to me, but thanks., I’ll keep in mind what you’ve said.”

“Just know that, if you do end up wanting more, you’re going to have to try to be more forward with him. He misses most attempts at being subtle and you’ll get the best responses from him when you’re just honest about what you want.”

“I never would have thought somebody’s girlfriend would be telling me how to seduce their boyfriend.”

“I never would have thought that I’d be telling somebody else how to seduce my boyfriend, but here I am.”

Cassiel and Eva share a short laugh before looking at each other.

“Just remember that we’re a package deal. You have to make sure you get along with all of us instead of only him,” Cassiel says.

“I… don’t think that’ll be a problem. The only one of you I don’t really know if I get along with yet or not is Azalabulia. She’s so quiet whenever she’s not making explosions.”

“Just talk to her about some explosions and crazy ideas and she’ll fall in love with you. Talk about erotic fantasies with Nell and you’ll win her. Be lewd and you’ve got Serra.”

“What about you and Fenrir?”

“Me? I don’t know. Just be yourself. As for Fen… just wear a sweater.”

“A… a sweater?”

“Yeah. Trust me on this. The fastest way to his heart, without a doubt, is with a sweater. There’s no faster route there. Probably. Oh, and acting like a dog.”

“So he’s into that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, but it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

“Oh, you’re into it, too?”

“I – I mean… I – I never said that I was into it,” Cassiel stutters, her cheeks beginning to turn red once more. “I just… said that it’s not as bad as it sounds…”

“You’re so into it.”

“Teasing me isn’t going to work on me.”

“Is that why everybody teases you?”

“Ugh. You pay too much attention.”

“I wouldn’t be a scientist if I didn’t pay attention to everything around me. You have to constantly observe everything and everybody around you.”

“I guess we’ve got another stalker now.”

“I’m not a stalker, and… another stalker?”

“Long story. Kind of. Anyways, that’s not an issue anymore, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“Now I’m curious.”

“Maybe you’ll find out sometime. For now, you’ll have to deal with being curious.”

“What information do I have to trade with you to find out now?”

“Where one billion dollars are buried for me to go dig up and cash in.”

“That might be a bit impossible even for me.”

“I guess that you won’t be learning about our stalker then. Too bad.”

While Eva and Cassiel talk and joke around, Nell looks back at them over her shoulder and says, “They are getting along wonderfully, are they not?”

“Yeah,” Serra answers. “I knew they’d get along.”

“They both have the same sense of maturity and independence behind them. Right, Azalabulia?”

“I’m amazed still at how quickly you can all get along with new girls. B-but, I’m grateful for that,” Azalabulia answers.

“It’s easy to get along with people you want to lewd,” Serra explains. “The more you want to lewd them, the more you try to get along.”

“Oh my. That sounds rather manipulative, Serra,” Nell says.

“You know you like it.”

“Of course I do! Feel free to manipulate me to your heart’s desire. And your body’s desire. In fact, dare I say that the more you manipulate me, the better it will be!”

“You’re the best.”

“I suppose that I can be rather pleasant at times. Alas, I cannot allow myself to develop too much of an ego.”

“But you’re a princess.”

“Not legally, unfortunately.”

“You basically are. Princesses are supposed to have big egos. That’s what makes breaking them fun. You destroy their egos with lewds.”

“Goodness, Serra, now is a most unfortunate time to be exciting me. At least wait until we are back in reality, or in private, to do that!”

“I’m being cruel. Princesses need cruelty.”

“So much sadism packed into such a small and cute body.”

“Bite-sized sadism.”

“I do not know if I would call you bite-sized, but your size does make you fun to bite.”

“Then you should bite me more.”

“Perhaps I shall, but only if you do the same.”

“Deal. Azawaza, we’ll both bite you more, too.”

“E-eh?” Azalabulia asks. “I – I don’t know about that.”

“I thought you had interests like Cass Cass.”

“I – I don’t know about that…”

“Nell, we have to lewd Azawaza more.”

“I agree, Serra. We have not done too much ‘lewding’ with her,” Nell says, nodding along with Serra.

“I – I… I don’t know about,” Azalabulia repeats, again.

“Is there something wrong, Azalabulia? Would you not like your girlfriends to wish erotic and pleasurable-painful acts upon you?”

“It’s… I… I don’t have anything against it, but… it’s embarrassing still. I felt like I wanted to die after… with Fen.”

“Is that why you looked so happy and couldn’t stop smiling?” Serra asks.

“I mean after the euphoria wore off…”

“Think of pleasure as explosions.”

“Explosions?” Azalabulia asks, her eyes lighting up and all of that previous insecurity now gone.

“Yeah. When you cum, that’s your pleasure exploding. When you make Fen cum, that’s making him explode. It’s all explosions.”

The words might still bring a hint of red to Azalabulia’s cheeks, but that doesn’t matter.

Azalabulia has been shown the truth behind explosive pleasure.

As Serra and Azalabulia try to apply explosions to all things lewd, Nell… can’t help but to watch them with a bit of disbelief that Serra actually managed to find something that works in her favor like this. She knew that Azalabulia loved explosions, but she did not know that she would even love to apply explosions to all things sexual.

And Serra is more than happy to corrupt explosions more and more.

“Well, if that is what works,” Nell says to herself.

And so, the group’s various conversations continue until they return to the dragons’ village.

Fenrir no longer wants to die at this point, especially after what he hears next.

“We shall host a festival at the hot springs!” GG announces.

“A festival and hot springs?” Fenrir asks, imagining the perfect mash-up of stereotypical anime episodes.

“Actually, a perfect mash-up would be a festival at a hot springs close to a beach,” he thinks to himself.

Of course, Saya decides to chime in with her own opinion. “But would they be wearing kimonos or school swimsuits?”

“School swimsuit kimonos.”

“That’s not a thing.”

“We’ll make it a thing, Pupaya.”

“Don’t be weird, onii-wan.”

“You know you like it when I’m weird. Come on, just imagine it. School swimsuits that look like kimonos. Or just water-resistant kimonos.”

“I don’t want to imagine your weird thoughts.”

“I bet you want to imagine me rubbing your belly.”

“Th-that’s not weird, so yeah…”

“But what if I rub my dick against your belly?”

“…”

“What?”

“I knew that was coming and am still extremely disappointed. Why did you have to actually say it? What would even give you that idea?”

“Hentai.”

“That’s just…”

“You know, seeing as how you’re based off of my own brain and thoughts, meaning you know all about the hentai I’ve seen, I bet you’d actually enjoy it if we did that.”

“…”

“You’d be all, ‘it’s so hot and rubbing against me, this feels so weird but so good.’ Like that.”

“…”

“Plus we have permission to do things like that now.”

“…”

“This is the cost of getting permission, Pupaya. We may now evolve from doing normal-ish things with your belly to lewd things with it.”

“…”

“Are you even there?”

“I’m always here.”

“How come you aren’t saying anything?”

“What am I even supposed to say? How is anybody supposed to respond to this? This level of degeneracy is something that should be locked away inside of the deepest depths of your mind to never surface, onii-wan. But you’re purposely dragging it out of the depths and making me suffer by listening to your weird fantasies about what you want to do to my belly. That’s just…”

“But can you promise me that you wouldn’t enjoy it?”

“…”

“Exactly. I rest my case.”

Fenrir doesn’t get any more replies from Saya. Instead, he looks up at GG and asks, “So, when’s it going to be? The festival?”

“We will require a couple of weeks to seek permission from the hot springs’ guardian as well as to plan and prepare for it. Two weeks exactly should be all the time that it takes!” GG answers.

“In-game time or real time?”

“In-game.”

“Dang, so that’s a month from now. I was hoping that it’d be sooner,” Fenrir thinks to himself. This time, it really is only to himself since Saya is still giving him the silent treatment.

“Your silence only makes you even more tsundere thus cuter.”

Still no response.

“Well, we’re not too far apart, so we can exchange information and stay up-to-date with each other with some occasional visits,” Fenrir says. “And we can discuss the terms of our alliance some more one of these days. For now… I’m starting to get pretty tired, so we should probably head back to our own base.”

“Very good, Fenrir. Just know that, for you and yours participation in helping us with our problem, we will assist you however we can. We will make sure that our new friends are protected and taken care of!” GG declares.

Fenrir holds out his hand and gets a shake in return. Wolf and dragon, the two men take a firm grip of the other’s hand for a hearty handshake.

“Thank you, Fenrir. Had your group not arrived when it did then we do not know what might have happened,” GG says.

“No problem. Anything to help out a fishing spot in need,” Fenrir replies.

“Speaking of fishing, are you a fan? I forget if we talked about this earlier.”

“Yeah. I love fishing. We even won that fishing tournament over at Port Tugator.”

“Truly? Hah! Then we have a legendary fisherman in our midst!”

“There are legends about us?”

“Ah, no. I was just being dramatic. After all, somebody who has won such an impressive tournament deserves to be called legendary, don’t they?”

“I don’t know about that, but I’ll take it.”

“You are a humble one, Fenrir.”

“Only when it comes to fishing. All who enjoy fishing deserve to be on an equal level. No one fisherman is better than the other.”

While there may be some issues with that statement, they don’t prevent GG from letting out another one of his loud laughs before resting a hand on one of Fenrir’s shoulders.

“Come to us the moment you ever need any assistance,” GG tells him, staring Fenrir directly in the eyes.

“Right back at you. We’re allies now so that assistance has to go both ways,” Fenrir says.

“At least give us a chance to pay you back for what you have already done for us before doing even more!”

“We’ll see. We don’t like asking for help too much, but there’s no way we can avoid it when it comes to those monsters.”

“Ah, speaking of this matter, please do take that weapon back with you.”

“That gun?”

“Yes. The short girl seemed to love using it and made wonderful use of it. I do not believe that I have ever seen a better match between somebody and a weapon before. I think any of us would feel horrible trying to keep it from her.”

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but we’ll take it. Thanks.”

“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?”

“Well, you see, we have this sort of crazy and hyper engineer named Tabitha. She uh… may or may not want to modify it or take it apart to figure out how it was made.”

GG shrugs. “If she is one of your group then I am sure everything will work out well. You have a good head on your shoulders and I believe that you would only keep the best of the best around you.”

Fenrir looks back at his girlfriends, friends, and pets.

At least one of them can count as all three of those.

Cassiel glares at him, knowing that he’s thinking something weird and lewd about her.

“Yeah. They really are the best of the best,” he says. “Thanks for everything, and I’m looking forward to that festival. And the hot springs. I’ve never actually been in hot springs before.”

“It will be wonderful! We will bring out the best of our drinks for the night. Our builders also built quite the building around them to give them a proper visit-to-a-hot-springs feeling,” GG explains.

“Speaking of builders… how many here do you think are good at building?”

“Hmm. Perhaps a dozen or so of us?”

“Only a dozen of you built all of these buildings?”

“They are all masters at what they do with their building-related skills as high as they can realistically get them. They could probably build a small town overnight if they wished to!”

“I think we might need to make a deal to borrow some of them. We’ve got a professional architect and a mad engineer with us, and some help from the other villages who are going to come over, but the more help we can get with building and preparing defenses, the better.”

“I will gather the builders for a discussion tomorrow then. Does that sound acceptable?”

“It definitely does. Thanks.”

“Not a problem! Let us know whenever you need anything else.”

“Right back at you.”

This time, GG is the one to extend his hand out for a shake which Fenrir is happy to give him.

Afterwards, Fenrir’s group loads up Serra’s new gun onto their wagon, get some parting gifts from the dragons which include various herbs, potions, food, and cloths, and then wave goodbye to their new friends.

“They… gave us a lot of gifts,” Azalabulia says, looking over everything that the wagon was loaded with after getting back into the hidden cave that will lead them home.

“Yeah. They make more than they know what to do with. They’d probably throw a lot of their belongings at anybody who comes by,” Eva explains.

“That makes it sound like they’re using us as trashcans,” Fenrir jokes.

“That wouldn’t be completely wrong.”

“So, you’re going to stick around for a bit?”

“Yeah. There are some things I’m curious about and need to confirm.”

“What about that research assignment of yours? Don’t you have to go turn in that bug—”

“Insect.”

“Right. Don’t you have to go turn in that insect you found to your leader or something?”

Eva pulls out a glass jar from her bag that has the insect safely secured inside of it. “It’ll be fine. They probably expect me to be out here for a few more weeks trying to find one anyways.”

“Fair enough. You’ll get to meet Olly, Corwin, and Tabs then.”

“What are they like?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“They’re fun,” Serra answers. “Me and Olly are besties.”

“I think I have an idea of what he’s like if you’re saying that,” Eva says.

“We’re the king and queen of lewd.”

“She’s not wrong,” Cassiel says.

Before long, the group makes it back to the base and Eva’s question about the others is almost immediately met.

Oleander makes his grand appearance.

Using magic, he pops a large leaf out of the ground, jumps onto it, and then uses that leaf to catapult himself through the air straight toward the wagon!

Eva can’t do anything other than blink her eyes a few times and watch as a small deer boy comes flying through the air straight at them.

She looks even more bewildered upon Oleander crashing into Fenrir’s chest, his arms and legs instantly wrapping around Fenrir’s torso, and knocking him out of the wagon.

“Fenny! It’s about time you’re back!” Oleander whines and pouts and cuddles.

He hasn’t realized yet that the sudden blow of being crashed into and knocked out of the wagon, where he then proceeded to hit the ground first with his head, has resulted in a Fenrir with spinning eyes and drool coming from his mouth.

First, Fenrir was almost killed protecting Eva. Then, his ego was killed by making more feminine noises than he knew he could even make. Now, his body is back to being abused by Oleander’s clinginess despite not even having been separated for that long.

“That’s Olly,” Cassiel points out to Eva.

“And that would be Tabitha,” Nell says, pointing at the approaching girl angrily wielding a hammer in her hands.

“Oi! Ya took forever! Red, ya have any idea how long I’ve been waitin’ for ya to get back?! The instructions ya gave us jump from step five to twenty!” Tabitha shouts.

“Woops. I think she’s right,” Rao says.

Sometimes forgetting to write down instructions that he thinks are common sense comes back to bite him when it comes to people without the same education as him.

“Is the other one mentioned as hyper as them?” Eva asks. “Corwin?’

“Cor is a pure boy,” Serra says.

The evidence to support Serra’s claim is that, while Oleander and Tabitha immediately show off the more extreme sides of their personalities, Corwin is simply lying in the field surrounded by some flowers as he takes a rest.

“And Olly and Cor are dating,” Serra explains.

“Really?” Eva asks.

“Cor is the cream to Olly’s coffee.”

“What kind of saying is that?” Cassiel asks.

“I don’t know but I’ve always liked it.”

Corwin rests, Tabitha shouts and threateningly swings her hammer around at Rao, and Oleander nuzzles his face against the borderline-unconscious Fenrir’s face. Meanwhile, Eva looks over the newest members of the group that she has met and finds herself smiling.

Just as her theory predicted, she expected them to all have unique personalities with great fondness for one another going by those who she already knew around Fenrir.

Her theory has already been proven correct.

But that is not why she is smiling.

Instead, she is smiling because the group of wonderful friends that she has met has grown even larger. Sure, she might have friends of her own, but none of them are as friendly and close to one another as this group of friends is.

It makes her want to be a part of it.

And then… she sees The Shoebill.

Her eyes can instantly tell that the ship is made of various, rare materials that have somehow been fused together to make for a fascinating research subject.

Eva most certainly plans on staying around for some time longer.

She might not be sure yet if her newfound feelings for Fenrir will stay, but she is certain that there is plenty to enjoy and learn when with them.