WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 13

The first thing we needed to do was find a place to stay the night. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out for, but it was already passed midday, which meant we probably wouldn’t make much progress right now. Nighttime was when Demon Beasts became the most active. Given that I had no idea how long it would take to find my companions, or even how far away they were from my current location, finding a place to spend the night was the best option for us both.

We were fortunate enough to find a cave about two kilometers from where we met, though it was currently occupied. Dyr and I were kneeling behind a pair of bushes and observing the large, armored figures stomping into and out of the cave. They weren’t tall, but these creatures had large builds, four massive legs, a long tail, and a hard armored shell protecting their bodies.

“Those are Armored Dillos,” I said. “They’re listed as a C-rank Demon Beast, but if you find a family of them, then their threat level can go up to a B-rank.”

“Sounds dangerous.” Dyr hadn’t taken her eyes off the Armored Dillos as she spoke. “What should we do? Leave and try to find another place to stay or fight them?”

I looked at the setting sun, at the colors being painted across the sky, and shook my head. “It’s far too late to find another place to stay the night. There’s no telling how long it would take to find a cave like this. We’ll just have to fight these Demon Beasts and claim the cave for ourselves.”

“Okay.” Dyr nodded with enthusiasm before, unbiddingly, an embarrassed blush spread across her cheeks. I didn’t know why until she began rubbing the back of her head and explained something to me. “I should tell you… I don’t really know how to fight.”

I stared at the girl in shock, wondering if perhaps I’d heard wrong, but no, that wasn’t the case. While this girl seemed to have a sort of natural athleticism and even possessed a good deal of Spiritual Power, it was easy to see from the way she moved that she had no combat training. Spiritualists with training carried themselves a certain way, possessing a grace and elegance about them. This girl had none of that.

“I understand,” I said with a sigh. “Just leave this to me and don’t lose those ingredients you’re holding.”

“Will do! You can definitely count on me to watch the ingredients! I won’t let them out of my sight!” Dyr had a makeshift bag in her hand that was bulging with all the ingredients I’d gathered on our way to this cave. The bag was actually something I’d created from several really long fronds.

Standing up, I stepped out from behind the bush and walked over to the cave. The Armored Dillos noticed me almost right away, and they unleashed a ferocious cry as several of them rolled up into a ball and charged at me. There were about six of them in all.

The first thing I did was created a spear made of lightning, which I hurled at the Armored Dillo nearest me. Because they were Demon Beasts with an earth affinity, my lightning was strong against it, and the spear went straight through its body. The Amored Dillo died right there. Its body unfurled and it tumbled along the ground.

Lightning gathered in my hand again. Kneeling, I placed my hand against the ground and sent the lightning through the earth, using the trace amounts of iron found inside of the ground to send it out in a wide arc. None of the Armored Dillos were able to escape. Lightning covered their bodies and paralyzed them, and then I disposed of them one at a time by hitting them with bolts of lightning that easily pierced through their armored hides.

It felt a little too easy.

“You can come out now,” I said to Dyr, who popped her head out from behind the bush. She stepped into the clearing near the cave and whistled.

“You’re really strong, aren’t you?”

While a smile appeared on my face, I felt it was more self-deprecating than happy. I looked down at my hands, which I slowly clenched into fists, and thought about my current level of strength.

“Maybe,” I muttered in a soft voice, “but my current strength is nowhere near enough. I have to keep getting even stronger.”

Dyr tilted her head like she didn’t understand what I was saying. Of course she didn’t. Unlike me, she wasn’t aware that in less than three years time, the Demon Beasts would invade Nevaria. No one knew that but me.

After taking the monster cores from the Armored Dillos, Dyr and I entered the cave, which was a bit smaller than I originally estimated, but still good enough to sleep in. I tasked Dyr with gathering some firewood, which she took to with enthusiasm. While she did that, I got to work on creating a repellent that would keep the Demon Beasts at bay during the night.

The first thing I needed to do was created a makeshift mortar and pestle. I did that by finding a rock that was big enough to be used as a mortar and another that I could use as a pestle, and then I carved them into the general shape of a mortar and pestle using the water element. While I did this, Dyr came back with several dozen twigs and even a bramble of branches. She carried them in so easily that it made me wonder how someone so strong didn’t know how to fight.

“I’ve got the firewood!” Dyr announced herself in a cheerful voice.

“Thanks. Please set the over there,” I gestured toward the center of the cave.

“Okay!”

Dyr dumped the twigs and branches where I told her to, and then I stood up and gestured for her to follow me.

“Where are we going now?” she asked.

“To catch some food,” I answered. “I don’t have any food on me, and it doesn’t look like you do either, so we need to find some.” At that moment, Dyr’s stomach released a loud rumble, causing her to rub her belly and me to grin. “We definitely need to find something to eat. That stomach of yours is making so much noise I’m sure it will attract Demon Beasts.”

“Y-you think so?” Dyr’s eyes became large saucers as she looked at me in shock. “Do you think that’s why Demon Beasts are so attracted to me?! Is it because my stomach makes this noise whenever I’m hungry?!”

I stared at the girl for several seconds, wondering what she was going on about, and then replied, “… no, I don’t think those two things have anything to do with each other. What I said just now was a figure of speech.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Dyr placed a hand against her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. I shook my head.

There were plenty of animals to catch that weren’t Demon Beasts. Rabbits and fish were the most numerous, but there were also foxes, various kinds of birds, and a few non-poisonous snakes.

Because I was courting Lin, I couldn’t bring myself to eat a snake; just thinking about eating one reminded me of when Lin had been in snake form. I ended up using a combination of the lightning and water elements to kill several rabbits, which I brought back to the cave and skinned after creating a knife out of highly condensed water. While I was working hard on preparing the rabbits to be cooked over a fire, Dyr squatted beside me and watched.

“You’re pretty good at this camping stuff, huh?” she asked.

A smile appeared on my face. “Well, a while back, I traveled all over the place and rarely stayed in any towns or cities. Because I was always in the wilderness, I learned how to survive through trial and error.”

“Towns and cities? You mean Nevaria?” asked Dyr.

“No.” I shook my head. “There are a lot more towns and cities than just Nevaria.”

“Wait. Really?!”

“Why do you sound so shocked?”

“B-but everyone knows that there are no more civilizations aside from Nevaria!” Dyr exclaimed. “They were all destroyed during the Catastrophe! Hagen told me that!”

“I don’t know who Hagen is, but he’s wrong.” I continued skinning the rabbits, and then laid them side by side on the ground. There were only three, but that should be enough. “Beyond the Endless Desert is a place called the Northern Plains, which has many cities and towns. Several of those cities are even larger than Nevaria.”

“Is that really true?” asked a wide-eyed Dyr.

“It is.”

Grabbing some of the larger branches, I used the water element to shave away at them, until they formed shapes that I could use to create a spit. Then I shoved the prepared rabbit meat onto the rotisserie and used the other branches I had transformed to hold it up. After that, I gathered the twigs and remaining branches, set them up underneath the spit, and used the lightning element to create a spark. The sark hit the branches and started a small flame, which I quickly fanned by feeding his oxygen.

“Can you watch the rabbit meat so it doesn’t burn?” I asked. “I have to prepare that repellent.”

“Yeah! Even I can do that much!” Dyr thumped her chest. “You leave this to me!”

“Thank you.”

Since Dyr said she could do that for me, I should be able to focus on creating the repellent now. I reached for the makeshift leaf bag I had made. After undoing the knot keeping it closed, the bag unfolded into a square shape of interweaving leaves. Several different types of plants were sitting on top: Purple Grass, Everoot, and Heart Flower. All of them were fairly common ingredients that could be found in clumps throughout the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

The first thing I grabbed was the purple grass, which I made quick work of, mashing it up in my makeshift mortar until it had turned into a fine paste. Then I took the Heart Flower and did the same thing. Heart Flower was a red flower with no petals and a shape vaguely resembling that of a heart. When the skin broke, it released a red liquid that mixed into the Purple Grass paste. Now a slightly muddy color, I took the Everoot, created a knife out of water, and began shaving slices into the mortar.

“Hey, hey. What are you doing?” asked Dyr.

“I’m creating a repellent that will ward off Demon Beasts,” I said. “It isn’t quite alchemy since it doesn’t involve refining a pill, though it can be refined into one if someone wishes to. Anyway, while this isn’t at the same level of alchemy, it’s principles of mixing ingredients are similar. This particular repellent is odorless to humans. However, it creates a repugnant odor that drives Demon Beasts away.” I paused as I finished cutting the Everoot into thin shavings, took the pestle, and began grinding them into the watery brown paste. “Oddly enough, while Demon Beasts can’t stand the smell, if they were to somehow eat this, it would act as an aphrodisiac and make them aroused.”

“That so? Sounds like an interesting creation,” Dyr was now looking at me as I worked.

I was in the process of grinding down all the Everoot shavings, which mixed into the liquid and caused it to thicken. I couldn’t smell anything, but that was how I knew I had succeeded. Until now, I had been smelling the individual fragrances of each ingredient.

Dyr’s nose twitched several times as though she smelled something. I glanced at her, wondering what it was she was smelling, but then I also caught scent of something that made my eyes bulge. I glanced over at the rabbits roasting over the fire. Smoke was wafting from their burnt underbellies and rising up to the ceiling.

“Dyr! The food! It’s burning!”

“Wha—AH! You’re right!”

“Quick! Take the spit off the fire!”

“R-right! Just hang on! I’ve got this!”

Dyr rushed over to the fire and grabbed the spit, but when she did, the rotisserie tilted and the rabbits slid off and fell into the fire.

“AH! THEY FELL IN!”

“THEN HURRY UP AND GET THEM OUT!”

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?! I CAN’T STICK MY HAND IN A FIRE!”

That evening, Dyr and I had extra crispy rabbit for dinner.

***

After eating a very unsatisfactory dinner, I laid down on my back to get some sleep. The repellent I made was situated right outside the cave. It should do a good job of keeping any Demon Beast from wandering too close.

I had lost my backpack and sleeping bag when I fell down that ravine. The ground was hard and uncomfortable, making me realize this body of mine was not used to sleeping outdoors anymore. I longed for the comfort of my bed. Even if it was just a sleeping bag, I was sure that would have been better than this hard, cold ground.

Despite my complaints, I fell asleep pretty quickly, which I chalked up to my exhaustion. My body just couldn’t go on anymore. However, it felt like barely a second had passed before I woke up again. I couldn’t figure out the immediate reason. There was no sunlight streaming into the cave, so I knew it was still night. What could have possibly—

Sniff.

I froze.

Sniff sniff sniff.

The sound of someone sniffing the air echoed with a strange loudness in the cave. Of course, if that was all I had to deal with, then I wouldn’t have been too worried, but on top of someone sniffing around, the person—thing?—was literally nuzzling into my crotch as they sniffed. I could feel their nose and hot breath through my clothes. To make matters worse, my dick was growing harder from the nuzzling.

“Stop it, Kari,” I muttered, reaching out and trying to push the head away from my crotch. A loud growling noise met my ears.

That was not a noise that Kari had ever made during our bedtime shenanigans.

That was when I realized it. I wasn’t sleeping with Kari in that cave after the Demon Beasts invaded Nevaria. I was back in my 17 year-old body, sleeping in a cave with a girl I had just met.

I instantly became more alert.

Just as I was debating what I should do, whether I should kick this intruder in the face or try something else, a loud tearing sound echoed around me. The area around my crotch became really breezy. I lifted myself up to look down, but then I was forced to throw my head back when something long, warm, and wet went from my balls all the way to the tip of my cock. A groan erupted from my throat. Then the tip of my dick became engulfed in a pleasant warmth.

Gnashing my teeth together, I fought through the haze to look at who was doing this to me. It was…

“Dyr?!”

Indeed, the person currently sucking on the head of my dick was Dyr. Her cheeks had grown flushed and her eyes were glazed over as she swirled her tongue around my cock head. The sensations, something I hadn’t felt in a long time, were so pleasant that I nearly came right there, but I knew I couldn’t do that. I had to hold it in.

“What are you doing?! Get off me!”

I tried to shove the girl away, but she snarled at me and swatted at my hands, knocking them back.

Something was wrong. As I looked into the girl’s glazed over eyes, I sensed a feralness coming from her, like she’d lost all sense of self. It was as if she’d become a creature of instinct.

I had to bite back a groan when Dyr took even more of my dick into her mouth. This was not good. If I didn’t do something soon, I was pretty sure we’d reach the point of no return.

Thinking fast, I lifted my hand above my head and channeled my Spiritual Power, transforming the pure energy into the water element. A large ball about three times the size of my head appeared above us. It floated in the air, undulating as though it was trying to break apart. Dyr had not only taken so much of my cock into her mouth that her nose was pressed against my crotch, but she was licking the underside of my shaft as though it was candy. I grunted as I struggled to contain my own desires and let go of my technique.

Dyr and I became drenched in several dozen liters of water.

***

“I-I am so sorry! I have no idea what came over me!” Dyr apologized profusely for the hundredth time as she and I continued our journey to find my companions.

“It’s… fine.” I grimaced. “You didn’t go any further than sucking or licking, so… well, I suppose we can just pretend this never happened.”

Dyr pressed her hands against her face. “I can’t believe I did that! I’m so embarrassed!”

Immediately after I had doused us both with freezing cold water, Dyr had returned to her usual self. She’d been so shocked to find herself sucking me off that she’d nearly bitten my dick. Afterward, she had apologized over and over again. That had been several hours ago.

It was now early in the morning. The twin moons had gone down and the Sun was on the rise. The two of us were following the river that I had drifted through after falling down that ravine. I was thankful there was only one river. Our current course had us traveling up a slow rising incline. To our left were thousands of trees leading into another forest. To our right, several dozen kilometers away, was a steep cliff, part of the mountains that surrounded Nevaria.

Seeing Dyr act embarrassed and remorseful doused any hard feelings I might have had toward her attempt at raping me. I wasn’t a great judge of character, but I could at least tell when someone was being genuine, and right now, this strange girl was truly feeling remorse over her actions. From that, I became positive that she really was being honest.

That said, if she hadn’t intended to rape me, then just what had come over her?

After everything had calmed down, I’d gone out and removed what was left over from the Demon Beast repellent. It wouldn’t be useful on our journey since the scent would disperse too much as we moved. There had been less than I expected, but I recognized I’d been working with less ingredients than normal. Once I’d dumped the rest in a nearby bush, the two of us had set off.

Dyr had been apologizing ever since.

“Let’s just keep going,” I suggested to the girl. “We’ll want to be a little more quiet too, so maybe you could stop apologizing? I think you’ve done it enough already.”

“Right! I’ll stop apologizing!” Dyr nodded several times with heavy bobbing motions. She even clenched her fists as though showing off how determined she was not to say “sorry” to me anymore.

We’d been traveling for a few hours, and I think we were beginning to reach the ravine. If we climbed this incline, I was pretty sure we’d be there, though the spot where I had fallen was likely still a ways off. Since we were on an incline now, the river we’d been following had disappeared, which meant we no longer had that as a guide, but now all we had to do was follow the ledge a few meters to our left.

The further we traveled, the higher up we climbed, the wider the crack became. This was definitely the ravine.

As we walked, I periodically used Spiritual Perception to see if I could find my companions, but so far, I hadn’t had any luck. Spiritual Perception had a fairly wide range. However, the Demon Beast Mountain Range was massive. Even just this ravine and the surrounding forests were probably several dozen square kilometers.

“Do you think your friends are still in the area you fell?” asked Dyr.

“Probably not.” I activated Spiritual Perception again. I sighed when I sensed nothing. “I imagine they will be searching for me, so the chances of us running into them on our way there is probably high.”

“You don’t think they would have gone back to Nevaria?”

I shook my head. “I’m sure Mikkel tried to convince them to return, but Kari, Fay, and Lin are unlikely to listen to him.”

“And those three are…?”

“I suppose you could say they are my lovers,” I said when she trailed off with a questioning look on her face. I could almost see the question mark above her head. “I’m courting them right now, but I think we’ll eventually get married.”

“Ohhh…” Dyr’s eyes gained an extra luster. “So it’s that kind of relationship! I’ve heard about those! So the three of you have a lot of sex?”

Her words made my foot drag across the ground. My foot hit a heavy rock, which caused me to pitch forward, though I managed to pinwheel my arms and catch myself. Placing a hand on my heart, I took several deep breaths and turned to Dyr.

“I haven’t had sex with any of them yet.”

“You haven’t?” Dyr tilted her head like she was having trouble understanding. “But… isn’t that what you do in a relationship like that? Hagen is always having sex with his lovers.”

“Is that so…” Her words caused something inside of me to stir. “Does he… have sex with you two?”

“Huh?! Oh, no!” Dyr waved her hand back and forth. “I’m not desirable at all! Hagen is always telling me about how hideous I am, and all the guards keep their distance from me, probably because I’m so ugly.”

“I don’t think that’s true at all.” I turned my head to present her with a frown. “I think you’re really cute. I’m not sure who this Hagen is, but he doesn’t seem to have good taste if he thinks you’re ugly.”

“Wha… really? You think I’m cute?” When I nodded, Dyr’s cheeks turned a dark shade of pink as she placed her hands against them as though trying to hide her blush. “Hee-hee. That’s the first time anyone has ever said that to me.”

Hearing her talk about all this made me wonder about her home life. It didn’t sound like she was treated very well, making me think I should try and investigate her family a bit more. Actually, I really should do that. I didn’t know who this Skygge or Hagen was, but the fact that they would take this girl into the Demon Beast Mountain Range and then leave here there rubbed me the wrong way.

I made a mental note to speak with Dante when I returned to Nevaria.

Our conversation petered out after a while, though we made the occasional comment here and there. I activated Spiritual Perception again, not expecting much, but then I stopped walking as five Spiritual Auras suddenly appeared within my range. Two of them were a fiery red, one was green, another was blue, there was a dark purple one, and finally, there was a golden aura that I could never mistake.

“I’ve found them,” I said.

“Wait. Really? Where are they?”

Dyr began looking around as though expecting to see them right next to us, but I shook my head. “They’re this way. Follow me.”

I began running deeper into the forest. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of someone coming up behind me. I turned my head. It was Dyr, bounding forward on all fours to keep up. While I found the sight odd, I put her strangeness out of my mind and focused on following those signatures I’d detected. We raced past trees, shrubs, and rocks, the world blurring around us, and before half an hour had gone by, I heard voices.

“If we keep going in this direction, we’ll eventually hit the river at the bottom of this ravine.”

“How long will that take?”

“I don’t know. Hours maybe?”

The two voices belonged to Mikkel and Kari.

Seconds after I heard their voices, I burst into a small clearing and skidded to a stop. Dyr stopped beside me. I breathed heavily through my nose as I looked at the people within the clearing. All five of them had stopped what they were doing and turned in my direction. Mikkel and Geirolf looked like they’d seen a ghost, while Earland didn’t appear completely surprised by my sudden appearance. However, it was the expressions on the three girls that caught my attention the most.

Kari, Fay, and Lin were staring at me with expressions of anguish, dissolution, and hope. It was as if they really wanted to believe that I was truly standing before them, but they were so afraid I would be fake that their minds and hearts weren’t letting them. As my heart rate slowed down, I stood up straighter and gave them a smile.

“Sorry it took me awhile to return,” I said. “I was delayed.”

The three girls remained frozen in place on the ground. I could see a map sitting between the group, leading me to believe they were planning a route to take so they could search for me. Since none of the girls were moving, I wondered if I should perhaps take the initiative, but the situation was soon taken out of my hand.

“Eryk!”

“Darling!”

When Lin and Kari launched themselves from the ground at me, I could have moved out of the way with the Flash Step, but I didn’t. I let the two girls tackle me. Lin reached me first because her tail gave her extra power when it came to pouncing, but Kari wasn’t far behind. The two slammed into my chest and knocked me to the ground.

“Eryk! Eryk! I knew you were alive! I just knew it! I… I…”

“Darling! How dare you leave this princess before at least giving her baby! If you had died, then she… she wouldn’t know… what to do with herself anymore!!”

As the two girls started crying into my chest, wetting my clothing with their tears, I rubbed the backs of their heads. I was a little breathless. Their pounce had knocked the air from my lungs, but I was fortunately more durable than most.

“Sorry for worrying you,” I said.

Neither of them said anything, though they didn’t hesitate to bury their faces into my chest and rub their noses on my clothes. And while they were letting out their sorrow in a blatantly obvious manner, Fay walked up to me with a kind smile, her lips trembling.

“I’m glad to see… that you are okay,” she said in a reserved voice.

“Do you want to jump on me too?” I asked. “I’m sure there’s room for one more.”

Fay shook her head, snorting, giggling, and choking back a sob at the same time. She wiped her eyes before the tears could fall and said, “I think I will let them have their moment with you first.” She glanced at the two, a soft, sad smile on her face. “They are a bit more needy than I am.”

That much was true. While Fay had her emotional moments, such as the time after she lost to Catalyna during the Spiritualist Grand Tournament, I felt like she was a lot more mature than either Kari or Lin. She didn’t show her emotions as readily. On the other hand, Kari, even as an adult, sometimes had trouble putting her emotions aside. Lin was the most immature of them all, though I was sure her neediness was also because she’d been alone until she started living with me.

By this point, Kari and Lin had stopped crying, though they hadn’t gotten off me yet. Geirolf, Mikkel, and Earland had all stood up and made their way over to us. Geirolf was frowning like he wanted to make a snide comment, but every time he opened his mouth, he would glance and Fay and slowly close it. Mikkel and Earland were smiling. Well, Earland’s expression was more like a smirk, but that was about as close to a smile as I’d seen from him.

“Welcome back,” Mikkel said. “I have to be honest, I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“It will take a lot more than a two hundred meter drop to kill me,” I said with confidence.

“Yes, I can see that.” Mikkel chuckled. His chuckles petered out and he suddenly glanced off to the side. I wondered what he was looking at, but then he looked back at me and asked, “By the way, who is this with you?”

I knew he was referring to Dyr. At the mention of the person with me, Fay, Earland, and Geirolf also focused on the brown-skinned girl. I’m sure Kari and Lin would have as well. However, they were still lying on my chest. For her part, Dyr just looked a little confused as they stared at her. She tilted her head in such a way that, for whatever reason, I was reminded of a puppy.

Making a gesture that said, “wait a minute”, I focused on calming Kari and Lin down some more. When I judged them to be sufficiently calm, I had them sit up so they weren’t lying on top of me.

“Sorry about getting so emotional,” Kari muttered as she wiped at her red eyes.

“Naw.” I shook my head. “Don’t worry about that. I’m the one who’s sorry for worrying you so much.”

I reached out and wiped her tears away with me thumb and fingers, but then Kari caught my hand and brought it to her lips. It cause an electric current to race through my body. Truth be told, if I wasn’t conscious of where we were, I was positive I would have lost control and made love to her right there.

“Waaa!” A cry came from Lin. “That’s no fair! This princess also deserves some affection! Big Sister, stop hogging him all to yourself!”

I expected Kari to say something like, “since I’m the big sister, you have to let me have some time with him first.” However, contrary to my belief, all Kari did was smile and scoot away a bit. She made a gesture that Lin interpreted somehow. Then I found a snake girl liberally wrapping her arms and tail around my body. Lin buried her face into my neck and clung to me like I would disappear the moment she let go.

Having realized I wouldn’t be getting up very soon, I decided to introduce Dyr to everyone else. The introduction wasn’t very long. I only told them her name, that she and I met after I’d woken up, and that we had decided to travel together. Even if they asked me more questions, it wasn’t like I could answer them.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Dyr.” Now that she had recovered, Kari stood up and bowed at her. Even though her eyes were red from crying, her manners remained impeccable. “My name is Kari Astralia. Thank you for taking care of Eryk for us.”

“O-oh, no! You don’t have to thank me!” Dyr waved her hands back and forth. “Rather, I feel like I should be thanking him. I didn’t really do anything. In fact, it would be more accurate to say he took care of me. I’m pretty sure I would have gotten killed by Demon Beasts if it weren’t for him.”

Kari’s smile widened. “Even so, I appreciate that someone was around to help him, so thank you.”

Dyr looked away from the girl, her gaze flitting everywhere except on Kari. It gave me the sense that she didn’t accept compliments well. If what I suspected about her family life was true, then she had probably never received a real compliment before today.

As Kari and Fay asked Dyr some basic questions like what she was doing in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, Lin had begun licking me with her tongue. I tried telling her to stop. However, she lowered her head and licked her tongue over my clothes. I realized she was scenting something, but I didn’t realize what that something was until she flicked her tongue against my crotch.

I felt an odd sense of dread well up in my chest when Lin looked up at me with her narrowed golden eyes.

“Darling,” she began slowly, “why does your penis smell of an unfamiliar woman?”

All conversation ceased at those words. As one, Kari, Fay, Dyr, Geirolf, Earland, and Mikkel turned to look at me. While the three boys merely looked like they didn’t understand, the two other girls were gazing at me with cold eyes. I almost felt like I’d suddenly been struck with a Spiritual Ice Technique. On the other hand, Dyr’s face suddenly exploded with color.

“Er…” I restarted my brain and tried to think of what I could say to get out of this situation. “I can explain.”

I didn’t do a very good job.

“I should hope so,” Fay muttered, her voice even colder than her eyes. “For your sake.”

In the face of those cold glares, all I could do was swallow the fear that caused my heart to leap into my throat. It felt like I’d just been transported from the Endless Desert to the tallest and snowiest peaks of the Misty Mountain Range.