[Vol. 10 pt. 24]

Ace_Arriande

“You… want me to just… sit on the roof?” Saya asked, looking up at the roof of the cottage and then back at Fenrir.

“Yep,” Fenrir replied.

“But why?”

“Because I know this scenario all too well. A guy and girl are finally going to confess their feelings to each other, and then something happens which ruins it. A random dragon attacks, fireworks start to lunch, the moon crashes into the world—you get the point. That is why it is your duty to, no matter what, guarantee that nothing happens which can interrupt us. Even if Cthulhu comes to life and invades this game through some sort of reality-warping bullshit, it is your job to punch him in the face and tell him to fuck off until there’s a new relationship down there.”

“Uh-…uh-huh. You want me to punch Cthulhu in the face all so that Rao can get his very own maid harem. And because of that, I’m supposed to just… sit up here on the roof until I’m given the all clear.”

“Preferably stand. Standing will give you a better view of the surrounding area.”

“So, you not only want me to wait up here for what will probably be nothing, but you want me to stand the whole time instead of sitting at all, too?”

“Yeah.”

“You owe me.”

“I’ll pet your head and call you a good girl.”

“You—you owe me something more than just catering to your own fetishes!” Saya’s tail was already wagging at that point.

“Then I’ll… let you suck my dick?”

“That’s not a reward for me! It’s a reward for you! And don’t act like that’s something I have to be let to do! We both know I could do that whenever I want and you would never refuse it!”

“Just because I would never refuse it doesn’t mean that it’s not not letting you do it. It just means I’m always letting you do it.”

“At least—at least buy me something good to eat or something, geez…”

“I’ll get some chocolate sauce, put it in my dick, and let you lick it off.”

“I hate you.”

“I love you, too. I’ll think of some way to make it up to you, alright?”

“Hmph. You better.”

Fenrir gave Saya a few pats on her head before she jumped up to the roof of the cottage, leaving Fenrir alone to walk back inside where Rao and Corwin both were. “Is he ready?”

Looking over at Rao… Rao looked anything but ready.

“He has been like this for several minutes now,” Corwin answered.

Rao had a stack of papers on the table in front of him covered in sketches of architectural designs, and he was in the process of sketching out even more.

“Apparently,” Corwin continued, “it is the most effective way for him to relieve stress. I must say, if he becomes this productive under stress, his employer must absolutely love him.”

Fenrir sighed and sat down at the table opposite of Rao. “I know you’re stressed, but is sketching all of this helping you think about what’s going to happen?”

Rao looked up at Fenrir, looked back down at the paper, and resumed sketching. “It’s helping me not run away.”

“Come on, Rao. You’re not the type of man who would run away. All you have to do is confess your feelings to them.”

“What if I mess up? I—I’ve never done anything like this before, bro. The last time I tried to ask out a girl was in fourth grade. She dropped her paper on the floor, so I picked it up for her and wrote on it asking if she wanted to be my girlfriend. Then she got really mad and embarrassed when I gave it back.”

“What… what kind of paper was it?”

“It was for our test.”

“Please tell me that was after it was handed back to her by the teacher.”

“No. It was right before the teacher came to take them.”

“Fuck me, Corwin,” Fenrir said, needing support from the only other man in the room.

“Only with Olly around,” Corwin replied.

“That’s not—he really has rubbed off on you.”

“And onto me, many times.”

“You two are too perfect for each other. Anyways.” Fenrir returned his attention to Rao. “All you have to do is say, ‘Hey, I love you, will you date me?’”

Corwin, however, cleared his throat and interrupted. “Declaring love is not what you are supposed to do when confessing. Perhaps such an arrangement has worked for your own unbelievable situation, but most would be put off if immediately faced with a declaration of love.”

“But I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s obvious they all love each other. I think that would be alright.”

Rao grew even more stressed and scribbled onto the paper even more violently than before. “How am I supposed to know what to do when you two can’t even agree? And you’re both in relationships! You both have success and know what to do and can’t even agree, so how am I supposed—”

A knock on the door caused all noise and scribbling to halt.

“My hero!” Nell called out. “We’re here!”

All color drained from Rao’s face.

Fenrir looked at Corwin and said, “Take him into the back. I’ll buy a couple more minutes, alright?”

Corwin nodded and hurried over to Rao to rush him into the back room where they could have a final pep talk. As for Fenrir, he walked over to the front door and opened it up only to see that Rao wasn’t the only nervous one. Every single one of the maids was behind Nell, and they all looked just as pale and shaky as Rao did.

Nell, on the other hand, was as confident as ever and immediately tossed her arms around Fenrir’s neck to pull him down so that she could place a kiss against his lips. “Have you missed me, my hero?”

Fenrir kissed her back before answering, “I’m torn on whether I should tease you and say no since it’s been less than an hour since I last saw you, or if I should be dramatic and say that I was afraid I was never going to see you again.”

“The former, please!”

“Alright. In that case, I saw you less than an hour ago, so no.”

Nell immediately teared up and began to sniffle. “You—you have not missed me? I—I thought you loved me? Was the pain of our separation not so unberable that it caused an ache within your heart? Did you not long to be within my hold once again? Are these feelings that I have—these overwhelming feelings that bind me to you and demand that I never leave your side, mine and mine alone to bear?”

“Alright, alright, I missed you!” Fenrir pushed his lips back against Nell’s immediately after saying that.

As for Nell, she giggled and said, “And that is why you should always choose the dramatic option instead of the teasing option, for if you are not dramatic, then I shall be. Of course, I also enjoy being given the opportunity to be dramatic, so please do choose the teasing option every now and then as well!” Nell then turned around to look at the maids and asked, “See? Does this look that difficult to you? Imagine how much happier you would all be if you actually confessed to that dense fool of a man instead of beating around the bush. You can even do this to him whenever you want once you’re in a relationship.” Nell reached behind Fenrir and grabbed his ass.

“It’s true,” Fenrir said to the maids. “You can grab his ass whenever you want once you’re dating him. Probably. Also,” he looked at Nell, “how long are you going to keep your hand there?”

“For as long as I desire. It is quite the nice bottom, after all. In fact… it is unfair. Both here and in the real world, you have a nicer rear than my own. Ah, we should make you wear tighter pants more often so that you can truly show it off. Perhaps you will even attract more girlfriends if you do!”

“I—I think I have enough of you already.”

“Speaking of, what about Mister Smi—Mary, I mean. I keep forgetting to default to her name.”

“Her family went on a vacation overseas and took her with them. I’ve been getting a few pictures over Fiscord from her during it.”

“Ooh! Have you seen what she looks like in reality then?”

“Nope. She just sends me pictures of food and scenery.”

“Ah. Well, at least some progress has been made with your relationship with her.”

“You make it sound like it’s a guarantee we’re going to hook up.”

“You are not fooling anybody by acting like it is not. Everybody can see the passion you two share when you exchange fists in the arena. Isn’t that right?” Nell looked at the maids and they all nodded.

“Wait, why are we talking about this?” Fenrir asked. “We’re not here for that. We’re here for them and Rao.”

“Oh, right. I suppose we are doing that development no favor at the moment, so let us get to it!”

Inside, after Rao and the maids received some final pep talks to prepare them for what was going to hopefully be the official start of a romantic relationship between them all, the atmosphere was… awkward.

Fenrir, Corwin, and Nell all stood back and watched alongside each other as Rao and the maids sat at the table together… none of them looking at each other, nor did any of them speak a single word.

“Somehow, this has ended up even worse than I imagined,” Corwin said.

Fenrir sighed. “Never underestimate the stubbornness of a dense harem protagonist and his waifus. Harem anime always end up like they do because of all parties being equally incompetent.”

Nell joined in with the sighing. “My hero, while I would rather you not imply my friends are incompetent… I must agree that you have a point at the current moment.”

Then, it finally looked like something was going to happen when Rao lifted his head and parted his lips… but then he lowered his head again and shut his mouth.

“Alright, I’m going in,” Fenrir said.

Corwin grabbed onto Fenrir’s shoulder before he could leave. “Wait. Give him a chance. This is something he should have to do on his own now that we have prepared the scene for them. If they cannot do this, how are we to expect them to do anything else on their own once they are in a relationship?”

“I—yeah. You have a point. Alright, I won’t—”

Nell walked forward.

While Corwin and Fenrir might have agreed to not force the situation, Nell’s patience had clearly run out.

But before she could say anything… Rao looked at her and shook his head. Then, following a deep breath, he said, “I’m not good at this stuff, and you can all probably tell that by now, but uh… I like you. I mean, I love you, but Cor said I should wait until we’ve dated for a while before I say that, so I’ll just say I like you for now. And I mean… all of you. Like, more than as friends, you know? Like… I want to date you. But I know it’s pretty selfish of me to say something like that since I want to date all of you, not just one of you. I know I should probably try to pick just one, but… you’re all too amazing. I’m just worried I won’t be good enough for all of you, probably not even one of you.”

Nell, with a smile on her face, stepped back to rejoin Fenrir and Corwin as Rao continued his confession.

“Rachel, you’re always so happy and energetic, and just seeing you smile makes me feel like the world is awesome and that I have no reason to ever be upset. Abigail, you’re always so cool and smart and I love reading the poetry you send me, and it makes me want to try writing my own for yo u. Emily, every time you mention being cold and wanting to cuddle, I want to wrap us up together with a super heavy blanket in front of a fireplace that I’ve built for you so that I can help you be warm. Iris, I wish I could eat your cooking every single day, but I also want to help you out in the kitchen however I can and care about you as much as you care about others. And Anastasia, you have never sent me a song that isn’t an absolute banger, and I want to take you to concerts and listen to you hum me to sleep every night for the rest of my life.”

While Corwin might have looked disappointed by Rao’s choice of words, even he found it at least slightly endearing. Fenrir and Nell, though, wrapped an arm around each other and looked on as if they were watching their child with pride.

“So, yeah. And all those times I would reply to your texts and stuff… I realized I probably sounded pretty cold or something even though that’s the opposite of how I feel, so I’ll try my best to uh… communicate better, and that sort of stuff. And this morning… I was hyped as heck thinking about you coming over to my city, but I thought there was no way you liked me like that and that the city was boring, so I wanted you to go somewhere more fun for the sake of your own happiness. So… yeah. Uh… that’s all I really have to say, I guess. I don’t know if there’s anything else I’m supposed to say or do. I guess… want to be my girlfriends? If—if not then it’s totally cool, and I promise I won’t act awkward or weird around you or anything. So no pressure. Seriously.”

Rachel, the most cheerful of the maids, stood up all of a sudden with her head lowered and marched over to Rao, stood at his side, and… grabbed his head to kiss him on the lips. Once their kiss was over, she stood up straight and proud and said, “Tha-that’s my answer! H-heh. That—I—I think that should be a pretty straightforward answer, yeah?”

Rao looked up at her and blinked a couple of times before answering, “I really liked that… but does that mean you just want to kiss and not date me, or? Like, a friends with benefits thing?”

Iris, still sitting down, sighed and said, “At this point, I think the fault is mainly our own for not realizing just how forward we were going to need to be. Even kissing him like that doesn’t get the point across. Our operation to put Emily in a bikini for him probably wouldn’t have done anything, either.”

Emily, the shortest of the girls with the biggest of breasts, looked shocked at what she heard. “There—there was a plan for that?!”

Abigail was the next to stand up. Usually cool and silent, though flustered and shy for the morning’s misunderstanding, she walked over to Rao and grabbed him by his chin, tilting his head back and placing her lips against his own. However, as soon as she pulled her lips away… she blushed and stuttered out, “I—I… forgot what… quote I was going to recite after the kiss…”

Rao, meanwhile, obviously looked overjoyed, but also confused still.

“It’s not fair that you’re all beating me to it!” Emily whined, getting off her chair to march over to Rao herself. But, in classic Emily style, she tripped and ended up almost knocking Rao in his chair over. Instead, she managed to land in the perfect position that had her heavy chest pressing down against his crotch as she looked up at him and said, “I—I want a kiss, too…”

“I can do that,” Rao said, leaning down to kiss her.

Emily couldn’t stop smiling after that. “Ehe… I’m going to stay right here. You’re so nice and warm… I hope you’re prepared for dating me. Dating me means that I’m going to steal all your warmth.”

“Wait, dating? Then, does that mean you want to actually be my girlfriend?”

Emily narrowed her eyes at him. “You still don’t get it?”

“Goodness,” Iris said and sighed, standing up next. “And here we believed we were close to tempting you into a confession. I suppose it was us who needed to act this entire time. However, just because I am your girlfriend does not mean that you deserve a kiss. Instead, this is what you deserve for keeping us waiting for so long, making us worry that we lost your interest.” Rather than kiss Rao on the lips like the others did, Iris turned his head to the side and bit into his neck, causing him to squirm and even moan out in a way that immediately grabbed all of the girls’ interest. And Corwin’s interest. Once the bite was done, Iris pulled back and looked down at the hickey she left on his neck. “Your punishment will be walking around with that so everybody knows you’re taken now.”

“That—that was kind of nice,” Rao said.

“If so, then I will have plenty of fun with you.”

Nell stood up on the tips of her toes to whisper to Fenrir, “Iris has always been the sadistic one.”

“I can tell,” Fenrir whispered back.

Only one of the maids was left at that point, and it was Anastasia who stood up, walked over to Rao, and stood behind him before wrapping her arms around his shoulders and placing her breasts down against the top of his head. Rather than say anything, despite not being the deaf member of the group, she hummed a, “Mmhm,” as her response before going in for a kiss of her own.

Once all the kissing was done, Rao found himself completely surrounded by the maids all basically trying to touch him in some way with Emily being the most successful at it given her position on his lap. Even so, he still had to ask, “So… does this mean we’re dating now? I mean, we can just be friends with benefits if that’s what you want, but I’d rather date you if it’s possible.”

With every word that left Rao’s mouth, the maids realized just how foolish they were to ever hope to get through to him short of using anything but the most blunt language possible.

“Obviously!” Emily whined. “Come on… I told you that dating means I’ll be stealing all your warmth, right?”

“Yep!” Rachel answered. “Totally dating. And no take backs. Hehe, you’re stuck with us now. If you thought I was clingy and annoying before, you haven’t seen anything yet. Prepare for a hundred texts a day!”

“We’re going to have to train you to be less dense, but… that is something we have fallen for as well. And yes, Rao, we are dating,” Iris joined in.

Anastasia joined in next, breaking her usual habit of not speaking to say, “Since humming it might not get the point across… yes, Rao. I would love to be your girlfriend.”

Only Abigail was left at that point, and she said, “I—I can’t remember any of the quotes I picked out to use for whenever you ask me out, but… yes, please.”

In response to all of their confirmations of their new relationship, Rao triumphantly threw his arms up and looked at Fenrir. “I did it! Bro! I did it! They actually said yes! Wait. What do I do after they say yes? I… never thought I was going to make it this far.”

Fenrir sighed and grabbed Nell and Corwin by their wrists to lead them outside, leaving Rao alone with his new maid harem. “Figure it out. Our work here is done,” Fenrir said.

While being dragged out of the house, Corwin looked back and shouted, “Oh! And please feel free to use the furniture in any ways that you want! Don’t worry about the mess, either! I can clean that up for you afterward!”

The intent of Corwin’s final words might have flown over Rao’s head, but they didn’t fly over the heads of the maids.

But the maids, even the sadistic Iris, were all too happy and embarrassed to even think of following through with Corwin’s implication.

Instead… not a single one of them had any idea what to do next.

Ace_Arriande

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