Chapter 196 – Next in Rome.

Chapter 196 – Next in Rome.

By the time they were done they had wrecked the second room. Not nearly as badly as the first one, there were no further drugs involved after all, but the claw marks were still all over the place. They had changed from the whirlpool (which was, together with the fridge, one of the two objects that had survived the debauchery unscathed), to the bed of pillows, now a mass of spilled cotton stuffing, and basically just fucked everywhere.

The reason they had to stop was that Nathalia ran out of food. As long as they had something to eat, Nathalia had been able to bridge the pauses between John hardening up again with eating and Aclysia. It had also served John, who had to battle the resurging debuffs. This was a new kind of heavy duty fucking he was going through.

“This is it then,” Nathalia stated and slammed the refrigerator so hard it toppled over backwards and reduced the whirlpool to the sole survivor of this sex session. “I have no more food, I am quitting this job.”

John raised his eyebrows in wonder, “That seems like a rather drastic conclusion to make.”

“I have not been exactly subtle when I got here and now that I have fucked you again, I have no more reason to stay,” Nathalia dived into the flakey mess that had been her pillows and brought some clothes up. “I had a craving for oiled up male bodies, I doubt I will get better than your form after your newest improvement.” Her draconic features vanished as she put on these clothes. “So, I will leave before I get into trouble with the authorities of the empire.”

“Afraid?” he asked.

A scornful glance told him only that she did not appreciate the comment, not that he was wrong. “It is just not worth the trouble,” she stated.

John got his clothes in order as well, simply pulling them from his inventory into the correct slots. Following the mood, Aclysia formed her winter get-up.

Nathalia waited for them by the door. She wore a crimson red coat, open at the front to reveal a black sweater that stretched over her tits, and black jeans with brown shoes. A displeased grimace settled on her attractive features. “Clothes are vile things.”

John had to agree that clothes that aimed to hide her curves rather than complimenting them looked alien on the dragoness. Not bad, by any description, just unfitting. Like painting a tank with peace symbols. As artistic as the art may be, in the end there was a dissonance there.

They walked through the messed-up massage room. The stench of cum and sweat was as strong as before, not helped by the room’s temperature. That it didn’t waft over into the neighbouring room had been nothing short of a miracle. “Don’t you have to clean this up?” John asked.

“Who is going to make me?” Nathalia challenged him, kicking the remains of the lounger. Loudly, it slammed against the wall, breaking even further.

John ignored the uncomfortable feeling radiating from Aclysia at the sight of that unwarranted destruction. “Point taken,” he said instead. He still hadn’t worked out the proper balance between pushing her and staying on her good side. ‘It’ll get easier as the power imbalance shrinks,’ he reckoned.

They left the Illusion Barrier and walked to the front desk. Unsurprisingly, the shift of the initial girl had ended. Now there was some guy sitting there and he greeted Nathalia with a wide smile. “Hi, how are y-“

“I quit, I found a more satisfactory partner,” Nathalia threw a key into his direction. The man looked shocked.

John placed his keys on the table. “Thanks for the stay,” he said, trying to only sound respectful. He failed. He could hear a bit of boasting sneak into his tone. It didn’t feel good. Most of all because there was an undeniable implication here that he needed to have cleared up. He waited until they were outside. “So... you had sex with the guy?” John asked and tried to make the question sound as nonchalant as possible.

“With him and like ten others who ended up in my room.” Nathalia’s answer was plain and careless.

An answer John had expected, even if he did not like to hear it. “And you were in that room for...?”

“3 or 4 days, it honestly blends together,” Nathalia opened the door and they stepped into the pitch black of the winter night.

John was distracted from the unpleasant conversation by his phone. He had pulled it out of his inventory to check the time. It was 10 PM. ‘I’ve spent almost 10 hours literally fucking around,’ he realized, while scanning through his notifications. He had seven missed calls. Six of them, exactly 1 hour apart, were from Lydia, the last one, merely ten minutes ago, from Rave. The explanation he would give them would be the straightforward truth. To justify that it was entirely valid may be more difficult.

Just another unpleasant conversation to have after this one.

“So, you like me, right?” John carefully asked.

Nathalia’s brown colouration hid it rather well, but John imagined that he saw her blush a little at the sudden question. “I would say that I am rather interested in you indeed.”

“And yet you sleep around like that?” John was not sure if he was being a hypocrite or not when he asked that. He hadn’t fully worked out yet what the morals of polygyny were, as opposed to having a polycule. He only knew that he very much liked being one man amongst many women and wanted to keep them to himself. Nathalia was included in that.

“John, unless you dedicate your life to it, you have no chance of satisfying me on your own,” Nathalia spelled out her opinion on the matter. “The idea that I would quit other men for you just because I have taken a...” She made a large, uncertain gesture. Apparently she wasn’t completely aware of the feelings he knew she had for him yet. “...well-founded interest in you, is preposterous. I remember you yourself being involved with a pink-haired annoyance.”

“Her name is Jane and she happens to be my girlfriend. This,” he gestured between them, even including Aclysia, “is all with her agreement.”

“I’m not your girlfriend,” Nathalia stated plainly. “I claim you for the nights I fancy for my entertainment. There’s nothing else to this.”

John fell silent, because he did not know what to say. The urge to have her be his was still there, but she did not reciprocate. Before he could work out the next step of having her see things his way, she asked a question.

“How much control does your girlfriend have, John?”

“Well, if she doesn’t like a girl in my harem, she can tell me not to fuck her anymore,” John answered, he had an inkling that this would lead to trouble.

“Complete, I understand...” Nathalia was lost in thought for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. As said, I’m not one of your harem.”

John wished to change that or to tell her that the technicality wouldn’t actually let her get away with it. However, no words managed to come together as a proper sentence in his head. What could he say to her that would make her break with 10,000 years of sleeping around for him? Was it even wise to ask her? Was this more than a passing infatuation for someone exceptionally hot?

He didn’t know. He was frustrated with himself and her. His best choice here, he reckoned, was to walk away and deal with this another day.

“Well, anyhow, I’ll have to go home now.” John extended his hand. Nathalia looked at it like it was the sole of his shoe after he had stepped in a dog turd. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a passionate kiss. The frustration he felt was swept up into a confusing storm of skipped heartbeats and pleasure. The enticing smell of incense and firewood filled his nose.

“No, it's just that he actually FELL for another girl,” Rave stated, “and now wants to act on that while still maintaining his relationship with me.”

“Jane, that already happened,” John reiterated calmly. “I went on a date with Aclysia yesterday. I was alone with her for three weeks, yet, when I got you out, I didn’t want to break up with you. What I feel for her is the closest to what I feel for you, but it's still not the same. You’re my first love, my...” He would have said more but Lydia gestured him to shut up.

Rave became very silent. “Fine,” she admitted, “I don’t like Nathalia, so that’s why, ya happy?”

“No, I am happy if you pull back that ridiculous taboo.”

“So ya won’t obey it?”

“I will!” John almost shouted. “By God, I will, but every time I will think ‘I could if only it weren’t for my girlfriend’, what do you think will do more damage to our relationship, sex with a girl you don’t like or a constant grudge?”

“Ya should be thankful that ya get more than me at all.”

“Like you don’t love it,” he snapped back immediately. “Can we stop acting like I’m the only beneficiary from this harem agreement? You yourself said that you wanted to have fun with pretty girls when we made it and you get to do that plenty. You love this.”

Lydia raised both hands before more could be said. “You both have plenty of reasons to be justified,” she tried to calm the situation by using an unusually soft tone. “Yet, I think the reasons you put forward are just pulling away at the underlying issue. Rave, do you trust that John will stay with you even if he loves others?”

“I do,” the answer came unexpectedly quick, “but...,” the word stuck out like a sore thumb, only to be followed by seconds of silence. “...urgh, fuck it, I need this in visual,” Rave complained.

“Need what in visual?” Lydia probed.

“Like, just where he sees Nathalia in relation to everyone else... fuck it just tell me where you see everyone in relation to each other, if I can’t have monopoly on your dick or your feelings I at least want to see what ya think about everyone.”

“A reasonable thought,” Lydia agreed with an almost mechanical nod. An approving smile was on her lips, as she swiftly fetched some paper and a pen. “A list should suffice, correct?”

John stared at the empty piece of paper. Something at the back of his mind told him this was a bad idea. Under the expectant eyes of his unsure girlfriend and the order-loving princess, he did not feel like he had much of a choice though. He grabbed the pen and started writing out the list.

While he was doing that, the whole of the couch filled up. Aclysia hastened over, the elementals spawned, all at the same time. Only Momo, who had been reading a book in her usual place even before the fight started, didn’t move an inch.

“What are ya doing here?” Rave asked the elementals. “You are part of his thoughts, ya should know this already!”

“John’s thoughts aren’t as easy as you may think,” Gnome answered and jumped from one foot to the other in anticipation, “we can only get a rough idea, no precise statements. Unless he specifically thinks about a thing.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sylph nodded and flew over John’s head, trying to get an early peak. “HAH, you are last Sally!”

“No I am not, fuck off!” Salamander angrily pulled her sister back to get a peek. A little sigh of relief left her when she saw the actual paper.

John slammed the note on the table. “THERE,” he shouted and crossed his arms. This day had taken a turn for the worse and now he was annoyed enough to just not care anymore. The girls bowed over the list.

In the first place was Rave, his girlfriend looked at the prophesied result with remaining conflict. Number two was Aclysia, who radiated pure happiness about being where she was. Then there was a decorative gap between the two of them and the rest of the list.

Right beneath that gap was Gnome. “M-m-me?” she stammered and raised her hands to her blushing face, holding her cheeks as her mouth stood slightly open and she squeaked in unsure happiness.

Up next was the reason for this whole fight, Nathalia.

“Fine, you can continue sleeping with her,” Rave told him when she saw that, “sorry that I reacted this way...”

“No, I understand, I... honestly, you’re right that you’re giving me a lot here. I... don’t know how to put it... I just don’t know if there is a turning back at this point.”

“...Ya mean we crossed the Rubicon of relationships and now it's either we manage to make this work or we don’t work?” Rave suggested.

“I don’t know,” John answered and rubbed his face. Then, they sighed in unison. They just left the talk there. It wasn’t the end of it, but they were both too tired to keep it up tonight. They just knew that they didn’t want whatever this was to end. At least, John read that in her beautiful blue eyes.

The rest of the gathered girls kept reading the list.

Under Gnome, Sylph and Salamander were right next to each other. “We fucking SHARE a row... but you know what, number 5 is nice, I can work with that,” the fire spirit said and presented her fist to Sylph.

“I mean, it could be better, but albeit I am not his #1 Lover I am surely his numero uno Courtesan. So this works, I think? Yeah it works. But I kinda want to be higher. Ah, well, I will do it somehow!” Sylph flew back and forth blabbering, before completing the fist-bump.

The three on the bottom of the list started with Undine, who felt nothing at being the last of the elementals. Whether she was annoyed, angry, or okay with it, John couldn’t know and he didn’t wish to probe too deeply. Second to last was Lydia, whose face was her usual iron mask. Last was Momo, who didn’t care whatsoever and instead turned another page.

John picked up the note and immediately tore it apart. He didn’t wish it to exist, didn’t like the way it forced his mind to try and put something as vague as ‘love’ and ‘care’ into a numerical value. Ironic, certainly, considering he could literally see Relationship Points.

“I don’t think that list will be accurate two weeks from now,” he stated, while throwing the scraps into the trash. “I don’t even think it will be accurate tomorrow. I only am certain of three things: I love Jane the most, I love Aclysia the second most, and I love all of you enough to risk my life for you.” He stared at each of them with a look between grim determination and pleading. “I love you. I don’t want to be without any of you. Please, don’t be jealous about this. I want all of you to be happy. Okay?”

“”Okay”” everyone said with varying faces and levels of enthusiasm. Only Undine stayed silent, but that was just like her.