“This tea is incredible,” Marie declared, taking another sip of what Aclysia had given her. “I don’t think I could do this better.”

“Aclysia is the best,” John confirmed, then sliced into a piece of cake with his fork. He had brought both the tea and the cake in his inventory, remainders from the breakfast that were too good for the coldness of the fridge when his inventory could preserve them.

“She is certainly quite good, don’t know about the best,” the French noble responded. “I don’t make a habit of dealing in absolutes. All issues and states have nuances that need to be explored.”

For the sake of conversation, John asked, “Do tell me something that is nuanced like that?” He could think of a list of things himself, but he was interested in hearing her.

“Zhe issue of having a nobility,” she brushed a strand of her black hair back into the orderly, unequal parting of her hair, “an issue that had its origin in a very different social setting. You needed fighters, capable leaders of armies and people that could administrate land. A bloodline iz a good way to assure a steady stream of people, especially when such people need to enjoy a very specific upbringing to be capable of their posts.”

“In modern days, however, meritocracy allows us to find such people easier, especially since information distribution and communication has become so much easier,” John stated. “There is no need to elevate families above others. Not when you can pass all necessary information through books and data.”

“And yet, no matter what time, humanity will always recognize names,” Marie answered, finishing the last bit of her own cake. “Even in zhis republic you were born in. Bush, Lincoln, Kennedy, Washington, people that bear those names, bear the inheritance, they create certain feelingz in the average person. I’m no proponent of the tyranny of the masses, but I think that there must be something true about things zhat people feel instinctively.”

John hummed, also chewing the rest of his cake, leaning back before he responded. “Yes, I can agree with that in general.” He looked around. Over the course of half an hour, Marie had decorated this living room to her liking. Everything had a royal flare, expensive wood and gold decorations. The walls were a simple white, the ceiling covered in decorative patterns shaped from plaster that rivalled a palace, the floor covered by a firm, blue carpet.

She had proven to have a flare for old timey things. There were replicas of paintings on the wall, landscape artistry, sprawled out green forests and misty mountains, in the style of the Renaissance era. A grandfather clock swung, the pendulum visible behind the glass, the sound of the steady back and forth calming. The room was still a bit barren, the rest of the apartment yet to be designed, something she would have ample time for later.

“Pardon my question,” he continued to another topic, “but I do have to wonder, what historical figures might you be related to, then?”

“Two namez, that you might find more or less exciting, and that share a mistake between them.” Marie smiled lightly. “I am related to Napoleon Bonaparte in a dishonourable way, being that my father is out of zhe line of Alexandre, one of Napoleon’s children out of wedlock.”

“Huh, I never really thought about the children of Napoleon,” admitted the Gamer. “It’s a bloodline that fizzled out of relevancy rather quickly.”

“As you say, the Bonapartes were like a flower that bloomed for only one season. Beautiful in many ways, but unwanted in the grand design of the gardener. A doom he brought onto himself, many of his victories can be attributed to the use of magic. The ingenious use of magic, as zhe legends attest to, but magic nonetheless. Regardless, my relations to Napoleon is incidental, my bloodline precedes his by hundreds of years. Do you wish to guess who it started with, John?”

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“Jeanne d’Arc,” the Gamer shot immediately and grinned when her surprised face told him he was right on the money. “Your families main holdings are in Normandy and Bretagne, yet your main residence is in Orleans. You said it was quite old and that your ancestor also used magic to bring about a miracle – to her eventual ill fortune, as Gaia likely saw to.” He shrugged a bit in his seat. “I haven’t dug deep into everyone overseas, but I know my basics well enough to make educated guesses.”

“Magnifique,” Marie smiled, her white teeth showing, “I am glad to see your reputation as a schemer doesn’t make you end at being a tactician. Alzhough quite a basic deduction, very quickly come to. Indeed, my bloodline was founded by zhe maiden of Orleans, even if our name bares no resemblance to it.”

Marie’s family bore the name Damocles, after the antique Greek legend. The origin was likely that they were meant to be the sword of uncertainty that could strike the enemies of France down at any moment. “Well, I am impressed,” John had to admit. “I can assume you’re no holy virgin though?”

She raised a hand to her mouth and giggled behind the partial covering of her slender fingers, a very graceful and ladylike motion. “No, no, I cannot state as much. I would not be as foregoing as I was if my maidenhood was still intact. I am a child of these times with old roots, which I honour, but I am neither holy nor a maiden.”

“Hey, I could be just that attractive,” John joked. “Weirder things have happened.”

“It certainly is true that we’re both beautiful enough to engage even those sworn to their purity,” Marie stated. “I zhink that has a higher value. A life lived like a puritan is a life shackled in ignorance in search of bliss. There is a kind of elf that inhabits a part of Paris that illustrates this quite well.”

‘And there it is again,’ John thought, at the initial statement of hers there. ‘She twisted the thing I said into a compliment for both of us. A bit irritating…’ It wasn’t the worst habit he had ever seen on somebody, but he did continuously notice it. Especially since she was so unapologetic about it. What she had said about Lydia was still at the back of his mind.

She hadn’t asked for forgiveness for what she had said. All she had done was avoid the topic. That was good, in a way, but it left John with a sort of ashen aftertaste. It was an incomplete solution from her side, that much was certain. However, as this was just their second meeting (and their first proper one), he held back on making any sweeping judgements about her reasons for going about things the way she did. Whether she was too prideful, ashamed, or just didn’t register it as an issue, all that remained to be seen. Because of this, he also didn’t want to waltz in and berate her. Even if it irked him, he wanted to learn more about her first.

“Do tell,” he said instead, keeping all of these things at the back of his mind, as he leaned forwards on the table to listen intently.

Happy to have his interest, Marie straightened up visibly, having slouched slightly over the course of the conversation. “They commit themselves to the idea of purity so highly that they isolate themselves individually. The number of their population is strictly regulated amongst them and they only find love for one night to conceive. As you can imagine, they’re quite the unhappy people, spending years not exchanging any words with anyone, but honour and culture keeps them to their ways.”

“That does sound horrible,” John had to agree, glancing towards the grandfather’s clock. “Not to condemn you to a similar fate, but I will have to take my leave soon. The day demands more of me.”

The noble let her unhappiness about this show. “I enjoyed talking to you a lot, John,” she stated, emptied her cup and then put it down on the mahogany table. “I hope we can repeat this sometime soon.” There was a small pause, a regretful look in her eyes, as she cast down her gaze at her hands. “Hopefully with less carelessly picked words.”

‘There might be hope here,’ John thought as he rose from the table and crossed its round shape to lower himself at the side of her chair. “I am willing to entertain whatever relationship you could want to have with me – as long as you inform yourself of the things you have to give in return.” As he was about to leave, he decided that he might as well leave her with the proper and clear information that she needed to think about what he was about. “Being part of my harem basically means that you are in a relationship with not just me but everyone that’s part of it as well. My girls are all friends and lovers of each other, in some fashion. Whether this is worthwhile for you to pursue, you have to decide. Whether it will work should you do…” he made a sour face and shrugged, “…that’ll remain to be seen.”

He could have pointed out that his track record was pretty clear in these things. However, telling her that he had never had a girl try to join his harem fail at it would have been pretty rude if she then turned out to be the first one. That aside, John’s interest in her was renewed. She was quite witty and knew interesting things, was beautiful and smart, all things John valued highly. Plus, although the condition had become better over the course of the year, the Gamer was still pretty weak to women that gave him attention.

Just that she seemed to constantly compare herself to others and wished to outdo them was a bit of a problem. There seemed to be a bit of a self-esteem issue going on with her. Whether this was too little or too much, John wasn’t quite sure, but he leaned towards the latter. However, he had yet to meet the person without vices, so it wasn’t a deal breaker.

He kissed the back of her hand again, in goodbye, then stood up. Once he was above her again, their brown eyes met. Hers were a lot darker than his, he could see his silhouette mirrored. More than himself, he noticed her lightly flushed features, how her breath exited through her slightly parted lips. Although her Relationship Score remained hidden, it was quite evident that he had an arousing effect on her.

“I think,” she said very slowly, very quietly. “I would like to be pursued instead, John Newman.”

‘Now that’s a declaration I didn’t expect,’ he thought, as he tried to understand the implications. ‘Is she saying that she is leaving it to me how far things go and she is already willing for everything? Perhaps she wants the position in which she is able to reject me? Or is this just a test to see what I do next? If I push this on, and some political objections come of it, she is the heir after all, blame would be put mostly on me. Women can be so complicated…’ Letting none of those thoughts reflect on his face, John trusted in his instincts, leaned down, grabbed her chin, and kissed her.

Although the meeting of their lips was tender, his hold of her was firm. He didn’t use his tongue and neither did he make it last long. Marie let him stay in charge throughout the entire thing, clearly answering the motion willingly, but not trying to stay connected when he pulled back. For a few moments afterwards, he searched in her eyes for her intentions, any hidden desires or motives. He couldn’t find any, they were locked away behind a noble upbringing and individual strength of character.

“Then I will pursue at my pace,” he announced, and she smirked satisfied. “It’s going to be slow at times, because I am busy, and probably breakneck at others. I might stop somewhere, when you want more, because I don’t think I want more from you. I will be honest every step along the way though. Does that work for you, Lady Marie?”

“Wonderfully,” she sighed, brushing a finger over her now glistening lips. “Your kiss is soft and beautiful like a butterfly but determined like a hungry wolf, anyone ever told you that?”

“No,” he answered honestly. However, he would archive that comparison for his ego’s sake.

_____________________________________________________________________________

“So, yeah, that’s what happened with Marie,” John finished reporting to his girlfriend. As per their agreement, she got to learn everything about his side-adventures. He would have told her anyway, if it wasn’t for that. Rave wasn’t just his girlfriend, she was also his best friend, and there was nothing he wouldn’t have confided in her with.

“Wanna have my guess why she wants you to chase her?” she asked, and John nodded. When it came to social things, the Lightbearer quite often saw things he didn’t. “Reason number one, she just likes it.” Rave also had a tendency to explain things in ways that were equally unhelpful and cryptic while saying the most obvious thing ever.

“You are still terrible at explaining things,” John therefore teased her and earned himself a slap on the ass. “You can do that as often as you like, but I will return three spanks for every one received!” he warned.

“Why is that exchange rate so skewed in your favour, tiger?” Rave wanted to know.

“Because your ass jiggles when I spank it and the world demands more jiggle,” he stated. “Also, because I am the head of the Bank of Spanks and I say that that’s the exchange rate. I have made the deal, pray I don’t alter it.” He gave one of the warned slaps to her butt right then and there and was rewarded with a surprised, pleased yelp. “Also that.” He grinned, leaving his hand where it had landed. “Anyway, is that another one of these ‘confidence is sexy’ moments?”

“Ja,” Rave booped him on the nose. “Look, I was really straightforward with ya, but I still liked it way more when ya went after me. Girls are just made that way, we like the attention and we like seeing guys make the effort.” She made a couple chaotic motions. “General statement, exceptions may apply, men can enjoy getting chased too, bla bla.”

“Alright, I can understand that much,” John was following along the explanation well so far. “Actually, did guess that point in some way. You said number one, though, so what’s number two?”

“Bee,” his girlfriend said and raised both of her hands and index fingers. Furrowing his eyebrows, John looked up, trying to find that insect. Then he realized she meant the letter B, remembered her odd listing habits, and just heard out her explanation. “She definitely wants ya. You definitely want her. Physically. When it comes to how well you would work as lovers…” his girlfriend shrugged, “both of ya don’t know, so she’s handing it off to ya, because you have more experience.”

“Aaaah, yeah, that makes sense,” John nodded, understanding.

Rave had a follow up question for him. “Ya think she’s compatible with us?”

“No idea,” he replied honestly. “She didn’t say anything too disagreeable after the Lydia thing…”

“Something,” the queen herself interjected, taking time out of her conversation with Eliza. “That I will act like I didn’t hear for the sake of international stability.”

“…Yes, thank you,” the Gamer nodded in the brunette’s direction. “Anyway, she didn’t say anything bad after that, but I just… I feel like she may have some people issues that could be a bit difficult to resolve.”

“Like what?” Rave asked.

“Like the typical ‘aristocrat grew up without peers or superiors’ thing,” John explained. “And not in some comically distorted way where she obviously thinks everyone else is beneath her. She is a good person at heart, I believe that much, I just think she may not be aware of her own superiority complex. If I am even right and that’s it.”

“Alright?” Rave didn’t sound like she completely understood, but also like she had gotten the core of it. “Whadderya planning to do then?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” John responded. “I am going to go play this one close to the chest. Because of her position and the fact that she’s going to live across from where I work, I am going to be pretty careful about this though. Probably going to not have sex with her until I know her properly.” A number of gasps, some of them overplayed, but all of them genuine in origin, came from the girls around him. “I know, shocker,” he drily stated. “The thing is that this whole thing feels unusual. Like… if I didn’t already have all of you, I would have definitely fallen for her by now. She just has that special something… once I get intimate with her, I am pretty certain it’ll be difficult to make things less.”

Metra giggled, stepping up to John and throwing an arm around his shoulders. “By Tiamat, you sound like a pragmatic romantic. Just stick your dick in her, Master, you’re the ruler. You get to do what you want.”

“Pretty sure I am a respected ruler because I could but don’t,” John retorted, not hesitating to grope Metra’s butt as well.

“I am conflicted,” Lydia hummed. “You slept with me quite early in our actual relationship, and things worked out fine.”

“Yes, they did,” John agreed. “But things are always a bit different. We had sex after Jane suggested it and you were just interested in my body at the time. Things developed from there and it took several weeks… and it’s not like that went without problems.” Lydia nodded, he was voicing exactly why she was feeling conflicted. “Also, there were less of us back then, things were still wild and wonky and we didn’t really know what we were doing, just that we were having fun. We’re a cohesive group now, a family of lovers and friends. Right?”

“Right!” Rave agreed, placing a quick peck on his lips. “For what it’s worth, took us like a week to do mouth stuff for the first time and then another week to actually have sex.”

“You mean aside from that one time you bribed me with a blowjob.”

“Yup,” Rave grinned and placed another kiss on his cheek. “And I planned to let ya wait at least a month. Just worked out differently cause almost dying makes me super horny.”

“It really does…” John mumbled, remembering the way his own reproductive instinct kicked in after near-death experiences. “I am almost sad I can’t abuse that.”

“Anyhowzels,” his girlfriend continued with that nonsensical word, “ya and me hit it off pretty quickly by most standards. Aclysia had to be given Libido first. Nathalia, okay, well, it was either riding ya or eating us. Eliza here…” Rave rubbed a certain part of her throat, “…yeah, that happened. Elementals ya had to teach. Lydia just told us her part. Momo decided to get Libido in the first place. With Nia you also flirted and waited for a bit after meeting her. Siena was pretty quick. Metra also very quick. With Beatrice ya waited for a while after her creation so she could form more as a person. Scarlett… no lack of wanting, but ya waited for quite a bit with here as well.”

“That’s about accurate,” John blinked, wondering where this was going.

“My point is,” Rave read that thought and rested her head on his shoulder, “that love and lust are complicated. If ya think waiting is good, wait. There’s absolutely no reason to approach everyone ya meet the same way. People are different and so your approach should be different. Marie told ya to pursue her, so you’re free to take this at whatever pace you feel is right.” She, his harem allowing, easy-going dreamgirl of a bubble-butt having girlfriend, gave him the most encouraging smile he didn’t deserve, “You’re my tiger, so I trust ya know what’s best.”

“…I love you,” John just had to say. Whatever happened with Marie, whether it was successful or not, he was just happy knowing that he would always have Rave. He rested his head against hers and just hummed happily. Kisses couldn’t do his feelings for her justice, nothing could. He hoped the happiness he felt radiating from his skin did it at least make her feel a fraction of it.