Chapter 319 – Stretching out

Chapter 319 – Stretching out

John dangled a Toblerone above Nia’s head. He ignored the jealous growling from both Thana and Nathalia in the background and slowly lowered it into her mouth. “Good girl,” he said and patted the fluffy upper side of her hair as she took a bite.

She was currently laying with her head on his lap and was getting fed an array of different chocolates. She preferred the white ones, which John found a bit too sweet. Personally, he preferred milk chocolate, striking a nice balance between the bitterness of dark and the overly sugary taste of white chocolate.Fiind updated novels on no/v/elbin(.)co/m

But this wasn’t about him, this was about a French pariah doing a very good job and getting rewarded for it because they all thought (and constantly had let her know) that she was going to lose when the reality had been that she had scored the second quickest win in the tournament thus far. It landed right between Alexej giving up and Alexej giving up the second time.

Nia was as expressionless as ever as she got fed from all sides, but John didn’t miss that happy little way she was wiggling her toes and scratching Copernicus, who had rolled up on her stomach. With her other hand, she was keeping the ‘Happy’ card above her collarbone.

“You are supposed to smile, ya silly goose,” Rave laughed and pulled the edge of the blank’s lips up with her index fingers.

She pulled back, and Nia kept the expression, which looked more like someone had taken advice from the Joker and put it in place by using tons of dangerous chemicals and torture.

“Yeah, we gonna train that again another day,” the Lightbearer must have shared John’s impression as she quickly put the blank’s expression back into the normal resting position. The wiggling of her toes continued.

“Okay, so let’s see how all of this went for us so far,” John said letting Nia nibble on some Mikado sticks, like a cartoon rabbit on a carrot, as he turned to talk to Lydia. “Momo, would you do the honours?”

“When did I become your secretary?” the support replied.

“Well, Aclysia is my maid, Jane is my girlfriend, the elementals are something between concubines...”

“CONCUBINES and HEAD COURTESAN!” Sylph shouted, flying by as she got chased by Salamander for whatever feud they were having today.

John just continued as if nothing happened, “...and extensions of myself, Thana is my cute little sub-slave...” the blood mage raised a finger in protest but then just smirked and nodded enthusiastically, “...Nathalia is my hot cocksleeve...”

“You are lucky I am infatuated with you still,” the dragoness grumbled a warning.

“...Noted,” he decided to not push it too far; he had managed to avoid one of her temper tantrums for a while, and he very much liked this house not burning, “...and Lydia is my current superior. You are like the buddy that tags along. Might as well make yourself, and that giant Intellect of yours, useful by becoming my secretary.”

“So in short: just now,” Momo sighed heavily. “You know what? Fine. Have it your way. I guess I can do your paperwork instead of Lydia’s sometimes.”

“How nice of you,” John smirked and dropped more chocolate into Nia’s mouth. Rapidly blinking while chewing, the blank seemed to try and build up the courage to ask a question. “You are what I want to have in the future,” John said and booped her on the nose. “If you decide to come with me, you will be my zookeeper.”

The matter of whether or not she would come with him was still up in the air. Her initial enthusiasm had been dampened when he had next asked what her decision was after she returned home following her disappearance after the fight.

Or, to be more exact, she actually thought about this. Instead of blindly following John; although he knew she regarded him somewhat highly, he still was a guy she had only met about two and a half weeks ago.

Sure, sitting together in the same mansion and having sex helped getting close and rid of any sort of ice, but that didn’t make him inherently trustworthy. By that logic, he was actually happy that she was considering this outside of the ‘this will give me access to cute animals’-viewpoint.

“And even if he manages to bind you for a minute or so, there is still me and all my girls,” John added. “

Yeah, it actually looks like there is no way to lose this,” Rave nodded. “I would congratulate ya for being queen in advance and all that, but I don’t wanna jinx it.”

“I don’t believe in my ascension unless the two-headed eagle rests upon the lean of my chair,” Lydia soberly stated and downed the rest of her tea. “I, however, see that we are in agreement,” she said as the clacking of her put down cup still echoed through the room, “Our chances to lose are slim. Normally, this would be cause for celebration, but that single win might be where the crux of the tournament will lie. I will therefore postpone festivities until an appropriate, real occasion.” With that she rose, “And now I will rest for the night. I hope to see you all well tomorrow.”

“Yeah, let’s also go hit the mattress,” Rave said and stretched. “Exciting day tomorrow.”

“I will do you the honours and let you sleep without fucking me for once,” Nathalia said and snapped her fingers. “Aclysia, you will have to entertain me in his stead.”

“Most certainly, mistress,” the weaponized maid said with a bow. John could feel that she was also looking forward to that.

Everyone else agreed to go sleep early as well, and so they separated in anticipation of the next big fight tomorrow.

John woke up again when he heard a knock on his door. “Noooo,” Rave grumbled when he rolled away to see who it was, freeing himself from her full-body hug (including her legs being wrapped around his stomach) in the process.

“You just keep laying there,” he whispered; “I’ll be back in a sec.”

“Okay,” she yawned and snoozed off again, having never opened her eyes. Now John wondered who this was as he rubbed the burning of short sleep from his eyes. He wasn’t particularly psyched about the interruption. When he had done the same to Lydia the other day, he had at least checked if she had been still awake.

He opened the door, ready to tell Nia that she couldn’t pat Copernicus at this hour but instead found a frightened looking girl. She was smaller than him, considerably so, white hair that became blue from the shoulder-length downwards, shattered eyes of violet with two golden rings, one thin and barely visible, the other seven golden dots around her iris.

She wore her black robe like an open bathrobe; her other clothes had been hastily thrown on and barely hid her nudity. Only the scarf, which she nervously kneaded with her left hand, seemed to have been where it belonged, as was the teddy bear she pressed to her chest.

“Look, I know I am annoying the fuck out of you right now,” Thana cast her gaze aside, “but can I sleep here tonight? Feel free to ravage me however you want in the process.” At any other occasion, that suggestion may have led to exactly that happening, or at least to a very stable erection. However, John was barely able to see the usual insane and confident Thana in the girl in front of him.

She seemed to have hit some sort of realization or a new mental defect was acting up. Whatever it was, John would not take this situation and solve it through sex. That couldn’t have been called solving in the first place.

“Come inside,” he simply said, gesturing for her to undress, and they both climbed into the bed.

“I don’t feel like sexing right now,” Rave complained, opening her eyes a gap and seeing Thana.

“We are just going to cuddle,” her boyfriend promised and, one arm wrapped around Thana, the other around his girlfriend, got comfortable in the middle of the bed.

He kissed both of them on the head before his eyes slowly fell closed again. In the last moments of consciousness, through the fuzziness of Rave’s hair John could see their electronic clock on the nightstand.

It was 23:59.