"Ah, Count Alexander, we meet again." Adorning a fake smile, the Elf briefly glanced at Jasmine before looking at me, causing me to respond in kind with a mock smile of my own. "You act as if it's been a long time. We'd meet today after all." Chuckling while finding this entire exchange bothersome, I shifted my gaze to the behemoth of a man she'd been dancing with.
'Whoa, he's massive.' I was forced to physically tilt my head upwards to look at the man standing before me; he was easily bigger than Yuki, and I also considered her a behemoth. 'Never thought I'd meet someone that would make Yuki look small.' Regaining my composure, I looked back at the Elf, partially confused and partially curious how she was able to dance with someone whose forearm was the size of her body.
'It's like a kid dancing with a doll.' Clearing my throat, I kept my fake smile and outstretched my hand, introducing myself. "Count Alexander. To whom do I have the honor of meeting?" "Duke Vendom." His voice was as deep as his body was large as he gazed down at me while folding his arms, refusing to shake my hand, causing my smile to vanish; if he wasn't going to play along, then I wouldn't either.
"Duke Vendom, your lady told me about you. Leader or the face of the Noble faction?" Vendom didn't respond and just continued to stare at me, causing me to softly sigh. "Listen, I'm flattered, but I have no intention of joining the Noble faction; if it makes you feel any better, I won't join the royal faction either. So, could we please just leave it at that? I don't bother you guys, and you don't bother me."
After a brief moment, Vendom finally opened his mouth, his deep voice reverberating through my ears. "On whose power?" Listening to his challenging words, I pointed to myself. "My own." My words seemed to fill him with amusement as he faintly smirked, though it quickly vanished, replaced with his stoic expression.
"I think you're gravely mistaken about something, Alexander." Pausing in between his words, Vendom leaned down, staring at me from a height that still required him to look down. "You either join the Noble faction or the Royal faction. There is no in between; those who foolishly choose to remain impartial do not last long. I make sure of it."
Hearing his blatant threat, I lowered my head and sighed, more annoyed at my fear coming to pass than genuinely worried about his threat. 'Haa, why couldn't I have just been an unassuming noble? Is it truly that hard to ask to remain inconspicuous?' 'Those destined for greatness never remain inconspicuous, Master. Fate doesn't allow it.' 'Tsk, fuck Fate then.' 'Fate is a Goddess.' 'I deeply apologize for my uncouth language, Goddess.'
After internally apologizing to the Goddess of Fate, whatever her name is, I cleared my throat, returning my focus to the conversation at hand. "People like you, Vendom, they don't ever make it far in life." "Why is that?" "Because you're the kind to make enemies rather than friends… If you weren't born into a noble household, you would've long since died with a mentality like that."
Vendom chuckles at my words; apparently, he found them amusing. "I am not weak like the other nobles; I didn't become a duke just from political and economic power. I have the strength to crush you like an apple." Grinning, Vendom clenched his fist, causing his clothes to rip, revealing the incredible muscles of his forearm, which was more than enough for me to imagine what the rest of his body looked like beneath his clothes.
Similar to Duke Gorgan and Duchess Scarlet, Vendom was also strong; however, while he may have been stronger than me, I wasn't scared. "Go ahead and try. You may crush me, but I'll kill you." I stared back into his massive eyes, unafraid of him or the pain he was capable of inflicting.
A few moments later, I broke eye contact, finding no point in further conversing with a bull-headed fool. "Let's go, Jasmine." Grabbing Jasmine's hands, I turned and walked back to our table, leading her away from the Duke and Marquess duo; while doing so, I could feel Vendom's stare on my back, though I proceeded to ignore him.
"Um, is everything okay, Alex? Who was that?" Glancing at the worried Michelle, I flashed a reassuring smile before kissing her cheek, sitting beside her while Jasmine sat to my right. "Yeah, of course, they're just some fools trying to cause a problem; don't concern yourself with them, it'll be a waste of your time."
Listening to me, Michelle cast a glance their way before nodding while averting her gaze, causing the three of us to enjoy the rest of the banquet together.
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Waking up, I yawned softly and sat upright, using my hands for support, only to look down at Michelle and Jasmine's figures lying on the bed beside me; it was evident from their expressions that they had fallen asleep from exhaustion, which I was the cause of.
After leaving the banquet, we returned to our Inn, where I proceeded to make love with them, and clearly, it was intense. 'Well, Michelle was constantly asking me to go harder.' Justifying my reason for having fucked them into exhaustion, I got out of bed and stretched before heading to the shower, where I washed myself and left the room, entering another and plopping on the couch beside Vanye and Lazuli.
"How was the banquet?" Glancing at Vanye, I leaned to my left, plopping atop Lazuli's lap and resting my head on Vanye's, prompting the former to unbuckle my pants. "You can't wait until tonight?" "It's been a while since we've done it, Alex." I couldn't refute Lazuli and just softly groaned, letting her do whatever she wanted while looking up at Vanye, who faintly smirked. "I've got next." "Haa, of course you do… The banquet was fine, pretty much how you'd expect it to be."
Recounting the events of the banquet, while Lazuli's movements caused the couch to shake slightly. "I suggest killing him." Glancing at Lazuli, who was speaking of killing someone with a solemn expression while rocking her hips, something I found to be incredibly out of place, Vanye agreed to her claim by nodding. "I agree, killing him is the best solution." "You think killing someone is the solution to all of the problems we encounter, Vanye." "N-Not all of them, just like 50% of them."
Staring at Vanye in disbelief, I just sighed and shook my head, not wishing to argue with the pair of wives with a tendency for killing; thankfully, they were mostly just talk, though that was only because of me.
"No, we won't be killing him. For now, at least." "Hmph." "Tsk." Rubbing my face, from catching them genuly upset at being unable to kill someone, I reached climax inside Lazuli, prompting her to faintly moan before she switched spots with Vanye.
"Besides, I can tell he is rather strong; killing him won't be easy." My reasoning seemed to be enough to placate the two of them as Lazuli gently rubbed my head while Vanye aggressively rocked her hips. However, while enjoying ourselves, Chloe and Yuki entered the room, and what they saw clearly filled them with joy.
"I'm next!" "What, no, I'm next, I'm your senior!" "Muu, please, Yuki, I want to be next." "Fight me for it." "Hmph, I can't believe you'd fight a weak woman. Where is your honor?" "Tch, fine." Watching Yuki and Chloe argue over who'd have sex with me next, I just wryly smiled before closing my eyes, enjoying the sensation of my lower body while Lazuli tenderly rubbed my head.
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We spent two more days in the capital, during which Steward Kai delivered a space pouch of one hundred platinum coins, prompting us to throw a mini celebration, which ended up with most of us getting drunk and blacking out, though I digress.
Afterwards, we took the teleporter back to Cassandra from the Mage Guild, where we received word from Gorgan that he had acquired an estate for us, prompting us to move into the estate while I handled the matter of selling our house, which we had owned for over a decade.
It was a bittersweet moment, as it was our first home, but I was delighted since this new home of ours was the place where I intended to start a family, and new, even more precious memories would be created.
After selling the house for more than we'd bought it for, thanks to the upgrade we'd given it, I shifted my focus to the estate, where I proceeded to hire a few servants, as the estate was massive, at least what we were used to. I even called an old friend I've kept in touch with, asking if he'd like to be the steward of our estate since I needed someone I could trust.
Now, all that mattered was getting used to living in our estate.