WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 19

With the army of Sekbeists successfully beaten back, our group was given a chance to recuperate. It seemed the Dwoergs needed some time to set things in order as well. The four of us were asked to return to our rooms, which I personally had no problem complying with.

I preceded Kari into the room, who was lagging behind a bit. Given what happened to her, it was understandable, as she was probably in shock over the damage done to her hand. This was the first time she’d been that injured before. Having your hand thoroughly mangled was a serious and potentially debilitating injury. Knowing this, I turned around to face her.

“What should we do now, Ka—mmph!”

Her sudden attack surprised me. A pair of lips hampered my own, keeping me from saying anything more. Just as I was becoming aware of what was happening, Kari placed her hands on my chest and pushed me backward, causing me to walk in reverse until my legs hit the bed. I let out a shocked shout as I hit the bed with a thump.

“Kari, what are you—”

Before I could even finish forming that question, Kari attacked me with another voracious kiss, her tongue penetrating my mouth, body rubbing against me. An electric feeling shot through my groin. The sensation of her crotch rubbing me, even muted through the fabric of our clothes, caused me to lose all sense of reason.

It wasn’t long before I was kissing back. Her tongue stirred up the saliva as she continued to force it into my mouth, but I didn’t push it back. I accepted it and closed my mouth around her tongue. A groan escaped her lips as she swirled her small, wet appendage around in my mouth, playing with my own tongue like it was prey to be devoured.

Reaching out with my hands, I undid the catches in her leather armor. Kari sat up long enough to discard the armor, and then her shirt, revealing her breast bindings, which were covered in a layer of sweat. We didn’t bother carefully removing those. We tore them apart, allowing her breasts to spring free with an enthusiastic bounce.

Once her upper half was naked, she went to work on mine, undoing the chestplate, pulling off my shirt, and throwing them aside. There was a desperation in her actions. I was lucky she had enough sense to realize I couldn’t take my clothes off lying down like that. However, the moment my torso was exposed, Kari was attacking again.

She went for my neck this time. Her teeth grazed my flesh, causing me to shudder, and then she found one sensitive spot in particular and bit down. I winced, but more than that, I released a loud groan as my hands landed on her back. The way her shoulder blades flexed and twitched made me shudder in pleasure.

“Ack! Kari, don’t bite so hard!” I suddenly shouted when Kari, having reached my chest, suddenly bit my nipple. It was a fair bit harder than normal.

Kari didn’t seem to be listening to me as she worked her way down my body. I twitched as she licked my chest, and then my stomach. My abs tightened as she pressed the flat end of her tongue against my skin and coated my stomach in her saliva.

I had to wonder about her current actions. I mean, Kari could be passionate, and I would even go so far as to say she was normally really frisky under the sheets, but her current actions made her seem possessed. It was like something had come over her, compelling her to act this way.

Just as that thought reached me, Kari had removed my boots and pants, and her hands had grabbed my cock. It was already semi-hard from her previous actions, but her gentle stroking quickly brought it to full mast. With my dick now standing at attention like a soldier in an army, a smile worked its way onto Kari’s face as, coming to, she looked at me with mischievous green eyes.

“This is a reward.”

“A reward for whaaaaAAAAT?!”

My question went unanswered when Kari kissed my head, and then slowly, centimeter by centimeter, engulfed my cock in her mouth. The feeling was so intense that I could only throw my head back. I would have bucked my hips, but Kari grabbed them to keep that from happening.

As the seconds ticked by, and Kari worked my cock into her mouth, she eventually stopped. Gagging, she moved back a little. I realized she’d reached the end of what she could fit into her mouth. Whenever Kari gave me a blowjob, she would usually fit what she could in her mouth, liberally coat the rest of my dick in saliva, and then stroke the parts her mouth couldn’t fit with her hands. That was what I expected to do here.

She didn’t do that.

“OH, FUCK!”

Kari moved down again, and something inside of her seemed to give way. I couldn’t rightly explain it, but it was like her throat had suddenly opened up, allowing her to keep moving down, down, down, until her mouth and nose were literally pressed against my crotch. My dick twitched inside of her. It was erratic and fast. I gritted my teeth to stave off my impending orgasm, but really, all I wanted to do was blow my load down her throat.

My breathing had grown heavy as I looked down. Kari was looking up at me, a twinkle in her vibrant blue eyes. I wanted to say something witty in this situation, but then she hummed and started moving, and all I could do was ride out the sensation that washed over me. An electric feeling passed through my cock to my brain. I was pretty sure the world went white. Matters weren’t helped when Kari began fondling my balls.

“Kari!” I tried to warn her when my balls tightened. “I’m—”

Was about as far as I got.

Kari had just hummed around my dick, causing it to vibrate. I couldn’t even speak. The rest of my words were an incoherent yell as I released my cum into Kari’s mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was because my dick was actually in her throat, but she didn’t have any trouble swallowing everything. When she released my dick with a slurping pop, not a single speck of white was on her mouth.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

As I was lying there, unable to do anything except stare at the ceiling, Kari crawled up my body until her dripping wet pussy came into contact with my flaccid cock—not that it remained that way. She kissed me as she slowly ground against my dick, returning it to full hardness. The feeling of her warm, wet lips rubbing my shaft, coating them in her love juices, created a feeling that drove me mad.

I returned her kiss with a strength I didn’t know I had. It was as if her actions rejuvenated me. Raising my hands, I smacked them against her ass, causing a loud moan to echo in my mouth. Then I massaged her ass with a mixture of soft and hard motions. The loud moan became a low, throaty sound that merged with a series of nasally gasps and heavy pants.

“In me,” Kari muttered as she sat back up. She placed her hands on my chest and raised her hips. “I need this in me.”

“You’re being awfully needy right now.” Despite my words sounding like a complaint, I grabbed her hips and helped line her up. Her skirt, stockings, and boots were still on, but it looked like she wasn’t wearing any underwear. She wiggled a bit as the tip of my dick spread her pussy apart. The moment that happened, her impatience showed again as she slammed her hips down, taking my cock in one go.

“Hrnnn!!”

Kari threw her head back and released a loud cry to ceiling. However, I wasn’t about to just let her adjust. Since she was so impatient, I began thrusting my hips without any warning.

“Hyk! Hrk! Ha! Ah! It’s… Ahn!”

Sweat broke out on Kari’s skin as I continued thrusting my hips up, keeping a fast, hard pace that caused her skirt to flap and her tits to bounce up and down. The sound of my cock sliding lewdly in and out of her pussy was completely overwhelmed by the loud cries Kari released. 

She finally recovered from my surprise attack. Having placed her hands on my chest again, squishing her breasts together, she lifted and lowered herself onto my dick, riding me. A bright glow appeared on her chest. Symbols that I felt like I should know flickered brightly, but I couldn’t focus on that. Her juices were dripping down my shaft and staining the sheets, the feeling of sliding in and out of her vice-like pussy took all of my concentration. We were completely lost within each other.

“AHN! OH! HRK! HYK!”

The volume of Kari’s passionate cries increased. I was sure I wasn’t much better. I wondered how thick these walls were. Did they block out sound adequately? Part of me wondered if our neighbors could hear us. Of course, our neighbors were Tungsten and Erica. If they could hear us, I wondered what their reactions would be.

Those thoughts and more left me when my balls suddenly became unbelievably tight. It felt like a tourniquet had wrapped around my dick. I belatedly realized it was actually Kari. Her vagina had tightened around me. When I looked up, I saw her body quivering and shaking. Her thighs clenched around my hips as if squeezing the life out of me. More than that, the look on her face was enough to send me over the edge. Her tongue was lolling out, drool leaking from her mouth, and her eyes were glazed over and half-lidded. It was like she felt so good her mind had become lost in a haze and she no longer cared about what expressions she made.

Giving one last thrust into Kari’s tight pussy, I released my second load of the day, shooting several spurts instead of a thick flood. Even though I didn’t have as much as before thanks to Kari’s blowjob, there was still enough to leek out from her pussy.

As if she was a puppet and her strings had been cut, Kari fell forward onto my chest. She nuzzled her face against me like a cat demanding affection. I began stroking her hair and sweaty back, relishing in the simple contact as I came down from my emotional high.

“Hey, Kari. Is everything all right?” I asked.

“Mm… everything is fine now.” Kari kissed my chest and hugged me tight. “Sorry for springing that on you.”

“I don’t mind.” And I really didn’t. Who would complain about such a passionate round of sex with the woman they loved? No one. “I’m just wondering what brought it on?”

Kari hummed softly to herself as though thinking, but it sounded a little more like purring to me. I wondered if she’d stop purring if I ceased stroking her hair and back. The thought barely lasted for a second before I discarded it. I enjoyed this too much.

“I guess… I just realized my own mortality,” Kari responded after awhile. “All this time, we’ve been fighting and fighting, but I haven’t been hurt that badly in actual combat before. Seeing what happened to my hand made me realize that you or I could die at any time.”

“And if that was the case, you didn’t want to die with regrets?” I asked for clarification.

“Something like that.” Kari lifted her head to set her chin on my chest. I looked down into her green eyes, haloed by locks of golden blonde hair. She was smiling. It was a small half-smile that complimented her currently half-lidded eyes. “But I will also admit that I’ve just been feeling a little frisky. We haven’t had sex since Erica came to the Explorers Guild.”

“That is true.” I smiled, and then, before Kari could even release a sound, I flipped us around so that she was on bottom and I was on top. Bringing my face close to hers, I gave her a scintillating smile. “So… since it’s been such a long time, how about we make up for all that time we lost?”

With a smile of her own, Kari wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down until her lips were brushing against mine.

“That is a good idea,” she whispered before stealing another kiss.

***

Lin was very affection during breakfast the next morning, which, I mean, that was kinda my fault since I had kissed her in public yesterday. She was sitting on my lap, her long tail wrapping around my leg and gently thumping against the floor. I should just be glad she’d already eaten. Given her prevalence for scarfing down food like it would disappear if she didn’t, I was sure I’d be covered in meat juice if she’d eaten on my lap. That said, it did make eating my own breakfast rather hard.

“Lin?”

“Yes, Darling?”

“Could you please get off while I’m eating?”

“She can… but only if you give her a kiss first.”

Was this what happened when I tried showing affection? I guess I didn’t really mind, but I also still felt awkward and unsure of how to handle this situation. Could I really love her like I loved Kari? This question kept repeating in my head, making me wonder if it was really all right for me to monopolize these three girls.

At the same time, I also realized that if I did nothing, nothing would ever change.

Since Lin was sitting on me, it was easy to cup her face in my hand. Before the now startled girl could respond, I tilted her head up, brought my lips down, and placed them over her own. The Lamia girl released a very startled moan. I slid my hand down her neck, over shoulder shoulder, and stopped at her waist. Going no further than this, I let my lips linger over hers. Perhaps it was the result of her being cold-blooded, but her lips were a tad chilly, though they quickly warmed up.

“D-Darling…” Lin stared at me with wide eyes, but I just smiled.

“Do you mind if I ask you to sit in your own chair?” I asked. “I still need to eat.”

“M-mm. This princess will move now.”

Lin got off me, though I sensed reluctance in her movements, and sat down in the chair next to me. I grabbed my spoon and began eating my now cold porridge. Lamenting the fact that my food was no longer warm, I tried to look at the silver lining. I kissed Lin. I guess that was a good thing. I enjoyed it at least, though I did feel a little guilty. Hmm. Thinking about it like that, I should talk to Kari about this when I had the chance. I was sure she could set me straight.

Just when I came to this decision, someone knocked at the door. Wondering who it could be, I quickly finished off my food, set the spoon in my empty bowl, and wandered to the front door with Lin slithering beside me.

“Eryk Veiger, it looks like you’re in good health,” the person on the other side said. She was a solidly built woman with a masculine face, broad shoulders, and powerful arms and legs. Honestly, if it wasn’t for her long hair tied into a knot at the back of her head and the fact that I knew she was a woman, I might have mistaken her for a man.

In other words, her problem was the opposite of mine.

“Hellen Brynhild,” I greeted with a nod. The ever curious Lin placed her head on my shoulder as she pressed her chest into my back. “I’m assuming you were asked to get me?”

“You catch on quick,” Hellen said, hitching a thumb at something behind her. It was a carriage. “I’ve been ordered to take you to the Imperial Royal Palace. Empress Hilda wants to speak with you.”

***

Since Empress Hilda requested me, I said goodbye to Lin a little early. She told me she’d be at the library like usual. I was a little worried about that guy showing up again, but I also knew that Lin could take care of herself, so after giving her another kiss goodbye, I hopped onto the carriage with Hellen Brynhild.

The carriage wasn’t the same one I’d been on when I rode with Empress Hilda and her family, but it was still comfortable, with soft, leather bound seats and purple upholstery. Now if only I could do something about that stare…

Hellen Brynheld, dressed in the steel armor of a Nevarian Spiritualist Captain, stared at me like I was a puzzle she couldn’t solve. Her look was somewhere between bemused and exasperated.

“Is something on your mind?” I asked, unable to bear the silent treatment.

“Not really.” She shook her head. “I was just wondering how many girls you have been having relations with.”

“I’m afraid to disappoint you, but it’s just the three.”

“So, Kari, Fay, and that Lamia girl?”

“Her name is Lin.”

“Yes, Lin. Are you sure you have no one else?”

Something about the way she asked that made me frown. “I’m sure.”

“Hmm…”

I had the strangest feeling she knew something I didn’t, and while part of me wanted to know, I was sure that was her goal in all this. She probably wanted me to ask why she’d ask me such a question. If that was her game, then I’d do my best to disappoint her.

The carriage eventually rolled to a stop. As the door on the left swung open, Hellen stepped outside first, and I followed her.

I glanced at the Imperial Royal Palace. Despite being a little small compared to buildings in Midgard, the home of the Astralia Royal Family certainly lived up to its name. Five stories tall, spanning a few thousand meters, and featuring an impressive of array of flying buttresses and columns, it was easily the largest and most ostentatious villa in Nevaria.

There was no line of butlers when Hellen led me inside. We walked past the entrance hall, up the stairs, and through several flights of hallways and doors. Our destination was, of all things, a balcony. The posh exterior featured a floor that shone like crystal. An elegant balustrade about waist height kept people from walking over the edge. This balcony was located at the edge of the mountain, so the drop was at least several hundred meters.

A table made of crystal sat in the center, and seated in one of two chairs was a blonde woman whose elegant bearing and presence made her look like an older but slightly less busty Kari. This woman, dressed in a gown that revealed her pale legs decked in soft slippers, was none other than Kari’s mother: Hilda Astralia, the Empress of Nevaria.

Hellen bowed before the empress. “Your Majesty Hilda, I have brought Eryk Veiger as requested.”

“Thank you, Hellen.” Empress Hilda’s cherry-colored lips blossomed into a smile. “Sorry for troubling you with such a demeaning task. I’d normally get the Imperial Royal Guard to do it, but…”

“There is no need to apologize.” Hellen bowed lower. “I was happy to help.”

Offering one last smile, Empress Hilda waved the woman off, causing Hellen to move beside the entrance and stand guard. With that, the woman who’d birthed Kari turned to me.

“We meet again. I trust you have been well?”

“Yes, busy but good.”

An expected beginning with an expected reply. As Empress Hilda gestured for me to take a seat, I realized we’d have to get the pleasantries out of the way first. That was one thing I didn’t like dealing with. Even when I was a Sect Leader in the Northern Plains, I never did pleasantries, but I was fortunate enough that Midgard, unlike Nevaria, didn’t have any form of royalty.

I sat in the chair opposite of Empress Hilda and we spoke about inane matters. None of it was very important, but these were the unimportant pleasantries I was thinking about. Perhaps it was because I never grew up with this sort of pomp in my previous life, but it was very tiring. During our talks, a young woman in a servant outfit brought us tea and snacks.

Smiling as if she knew how I was feeling, Empress Hilda finally got to the heart of the matter she called me for today. “Dante came to me the other day with several schematics for a number of interesting inventions.”

“I assumed he would, though I’m surprised you decided to contact me so quickly,” I said.

“Just consider this my way of letting you know how highly I think of your ideas.” Empress Hilda grabbed a pastry and nibbled on it. The action was very unlike her daughter, who could stuff a whole pastry in her mouth without flinching. “Those inventions you have could easily fix some of the problems I’ve had in coming up with suitable defensive formations in the event that Nevaria is ever invaded…”

When Empress Hilda trailed off, I narrowed my eyes. “But each of these are costly endeavors and you need to find a method of acquiring and allocating funds toward such an expenditure. Am I right?”

“Yes.” Gracing me with an appraising look like I had passed a test, Empress Hilda picked up her cup of tea and quietly sipped it. She set the cup back down and traced the rim with a finger covered in white fabric. “We haven’t brought this to a craftsmen yet, but I did have Rainer appraise your inventions and estimate how much it would cost. While we can easily afford to produce several smaller Ballista, the larger ones will cost enough that we’ll only the valis to make three or four every four months without running over our budget. Of course, the watchtowers are currently outside of our budget.”

I knew absolutely nothing about matters like national budgets and the allocation of funds. Kari had dealt with that after we founded Brave Vesparia, but I assume she learned about it from her mother.

The fact that she was telling me this meant Empress Hilda was likely testing me, trying to see whether or not I could create a suitable answer to solve the issue. I was pretty sure she already had one herself. In all likelihood, my answer would determine whether or not she believed she could trust me with more important matters later. I couldn’t afford to get this wrong.

“I’m sure cutting the funding from your other expenses like education is out of the question,” I replied, taking a sip of my tea. I paused. This was very good. I didn’t know what kind of tea it was, but the mild flavor did an admirable job of making me relax.

“You are correct,” Empress Hilda allowed.

“In which case, an expense like this would need to be one funded by private citizens as opposed to government taxes.” Dredging up old conversations with Kari on matters of budgeting and the like, I tried my best to answer her. “The other way to fund this would be to come up with our own means of income, such as what I’m doing with the partnership between me and the Alchemist Association.”

“Now there is an idea I didn’t think of.” Empress Hilda leaned back with a somewhat amazed expression. “Creating another means of income that doesn’t rely on taxes. Of course, I have thought of such things before, but I kept myself from acting on them because I was worried the Three Heavenly Families would feel like the Astrali Royal Family was intruding in their business. While I am the one who sets down all laws and policies within Nevaria, that doesn’t mean I can just step on the toes of families who are powerful enough to disrupt the peace.”

“I understand your concern, but I do not think this would be a problem if you opened a new market,” I said.

Pausing with a pastry halfway to her mouth, Empress Hilda glanced at me, the pastry, and then back in my direction. Another second passed. She set the pastry back on her plate, clasped her fingers together, and set them on the table.

“Please explain,” she demanded.

Whetting my lips just a little, I proposed the idea I had gotten from living in Midgard. “What if you created a group whose job was taking on requests?”

“Requests?” Empress Hilda’s brows furrowed the same way Kari’s did when she was confused.

I nodded. “For example, let’s say we create a group similar to a sect, whose job is to accept the requests of others in exchange for payment. Jobs can be anything from security detail, bodyguard duty, hunting for ingredients in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, or even traveling deep into unexplored ruins as a protection detail for survey teams. Payments will be offered upfront with the guarantee that if we cannot complete a mission, we’ll give the requester their money back.”

“I see.”

Empress Hilda raised a hand to her mouth and extended a delicate index finger, gently tapping her lips in thought. The action brought attention to her lush lips. All that did was make me want to tell her that Kari’s were more kissable… except that probably wasn’t the best thing to say to the mother of my future wife.

“So we would create something resembling a mercenary company,” she continued after a several second pause. “However, this mercenary company would have the backing of myself, and therefore it would be more legitimate. This ‘sect’ would offer competitive rates for missions that further drive people to choose us over the mercenaries. This will be an extra source of income we can use to fund those ballista and watchtowers of yours. At the same time, this will have the effect of putting those mercenary companies out of business.”

I didn’t want to say all mercenaries were scum. Given how little I knew about the mercenary business in Nevaria, I really had no right to say that—and while sects in Midgard were legitimate, it wasn’t like they weren’t just glorified mercenary companies. What I proposed was the same concept. Legitimizing mercenary companies rather than ostracising them.

This would be different than the Nevarian Spiritualists, who were peacekeepers that protected the people, or the Imperial Royal Guard, whose job was the defend the crown and quell violence when the situation grew out of hand. They were paid on tax dollars. What I was proposing was different. However, it shouldn’t conflict with the duties of the two aforementioned groups—not anymore than the mercenary companies already did, at any rate.

The tea was beginning to get cold, so I made sure to drink the rest… but then the maid just poured me some more. I had almost forgotten about her. However, it seemed she’d been standing unobtrusively next to the quiet Hellen, whose eyes were gleaming with a curious light as I spoke with Empress Hilda.

“Say I decided to create a… sect,” Empress Hilda began, “would you be willing to run it?”

“No,” I said.

“That was an awfully quick response.”

I grabbed a pastry and took a small bite. Like the tea, it was good. The sweet flavor of the fruit juice complimented the butteriness of the bread.

“At the present time, I am working on becoming stronger alongside Kari and Fay,” I said. “My goal is to reach a level of strength where I can become a pillar of support for Nevaria. I haven’t reached that level yet, and since I haven’t, I can’t afford to take control over a sect. That will only hinder me and slow down my training.”

“Ho…” Tapping a single finger against the crystal table in a steady rhythm, Empress Hilda seemed amused by my reasoning. “And what level do you plan on reaching? How strong do you feel you need to become?”

I gave her a smile that I’m sure looked quite feral. “When I can defeat an A-rank Demon Beast on my own, I’ll be at least halfway toward my goal.”