5: Love and Leadership

Jessica’s view

“Heh, heh, heh, I can’t believe it, she saw right through me.”

“Jessi, stop sleep talking, you’re awake now.”

“Eh? Oh, right, sorry to be saying nonsense, Sia.”

Osia was still hugging me as usual, while Revenna was already up. Despite being able to clean myself with magic, I still liked to shower every morning to clear my head. It was a ritual to help me adjust to shifting from David’s life to Jessica’s. 

… it never seemed out of place or strange in my dreams, but… it’s not normal behavior for someone to cling to me as I strip and shower, right? 

“Did you finally notice me?” 

“I suppose I have.”

“You really are more attentive now than you used to be. You aren’t upset, are you?”

“No, just confused.”

“I think your confused face is cute.”

… I didn’t have a response to that. Though I think I might’ve blushed a little. I know she’s enjoying herself because of how she purrs. One of the sillier cat traits she chose to adopt. I just can’t imagine liking someone so much that just holding them would stir such happiness. I think I might envy that. I’m not nearly as easily pleased.

… I think, if I’m to be honest… 

“I appreciate the affection, Sia.” 

Her purring seemed to get stronger.

…

“Say, Sia, you know a lot about alternatives to using horns, right?”

“I do, but why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious. If someone wanted to pass as human in the human realm, how could they do so without sacrificing all the power horns grant?”

“The obvious way is magic items.”

“Not everyone can afford that like you can.”

“Well, the hard way is to inscribe magic into the body. That requires enchanting everything directly though. Enchanting bones and muscle and even the blood vessels. Though if you are just trying to avoid notice, a simple camouflage spell could probably work.”

“Only if there’s no experienced mages around.”

“True. The human lands might be lacking in magical knowledge, but even they are capable of that much.”

…

“Finally here… I knew it was small, but I didn’t realize it was like this.”

“This is how small cities look. I know you’ve never left the capital before, but didn’t you pay attention in class?”

“Jessi never pays attention to anything but magic lessons, Sia. Why would she remember what small cities look like?”

It was four buildings. One was about eight stories tall, one was four stories tall, one was two stories tall, and one was one story tall. I thought I’d see a bunch of small one story buildings spread out over the area, not four large buildings and nothing else… ooh, the large one-story building is an indoor farm? Neat. I wonder what magic they use for the farm.

…

“So this is the core crystal. Looks just like the pictures in the books.”

“It’s not easy to make something so perfectly spherical.” 

I opened up the user interface and…

“So, how many of the spells do you think you can fill in?”

It’s fucking source code! They just said I had to fill in missing spells, but there’s so much more going on here! I may not have a lot of experience with programming but this is some really basic stuff. This isn’t what I expected from what I learned in class. I thought it was just a fancy spell storage system. This does a lot more than just store spells for later use. 

“I’m going to need some time to study this.”

“Eh? The class genius doesn’t know what to do?”

“Rev, you know how she is, if she’s going to study, it means she’s gonna do something crazy.”

“Oh, right, last time she said she needed time to study a spell, she turned a basic explosion spell into something powerful enough to completely destroy the testing grounds.”

“Don’t forget when she made an ignite spell that created a fire even the teachers couldn’t put out! We had to just wait for it to go away on its own.”

“Do you think she might be able to get the gates working?” 

“I wouldn’t put it past her, but knowing her, she’ll do something completely unexpected.”

…

I think I found something important. Looks like an ownership registration? Some sort of system for unlocking access to additional features. Last edit was many decades ago, which would line up with when the last king was around, and I’m pretty sure that’s her signature. So, if I put mine in here, and update the system…

“New administrator acknowledged. Assistant program started. Please provide mana for repairs.”

“What? It’s talking!”

“I’ve never heard of this!”

While Revenna and Osia expressed their shock, I simply poured mana into the crystal. 

“Rev, Sia, can you help? This thing needs a lot of mana to restore all functions.”

“Y-yes! Of course!”

… while Rev added her hand to mine on the crystal, Osia… she just embraced me even tighter, and fed me mana instead of feeding directly to the crystal. She really just uses every excuse she can to touch me as much as she can. She probably wouldn’t like it if I mentioned how much her behavior reminds me of some dogs I knew in my first life.

When the thing finally had enough, I was pretty drained, and so were my friends. However, as I examined the system again, it seemed all the functions were fully restored. The spells recharged, without my needing to know how to cast them. I see, this is why a “king” is so important. With the assistant program running, the core just needs mana to maintain itself. Without it, people have to be able to restore the spell charges manually, and that’s a lot harder.

… Did I just become a king?

As we left the control chamber and returned to the surface we found ourselves surrounded by kneeling people.

“We welcome the return of the king!”

They shouted with their heads down. I guess I did become a king. I just want to study magic though.

“Say, kings are expected to have a harem. Do you two want to be my harem?”

I said that mostly in jest, not really thinking they’d say yes. 

“I thought I already was, Jessi. I’ve certainly been sleeping with you, and showering with you.”

… I suppose Osia has a point.

“I… I… “ 

Revenna was blushing furiously. Then suddenly she grabbed me and kissed me. We kissed. It was lovely. It was also my first kiss. I think I blushed too.

“I want more than just harem in name to shield you from others, I really do want you!”

Osia suddenly hugged us both in a big hug.

“Finally! You finally said it, Rev!”

“I… I hope I don’t disappoint.” 

“I told you she wasn’t going to say no.”

I ended up just kinda standing in shock until my two friends… wait, aren’t we lovers now? No, it’s more than that… wives? I think the official term used is concubines for the king’s harem, but I don’t like that term much. Well, they dragged me away to our shared room, which I was grateful for, as I found it embarrassing to have all that affection and romance happening in front of a bunch of people kneeling before me. I’d only really intended to head off potential male suitors by making a clear public assertion of interest in ladies. I wasn’t expecting to suddenly find the two women I love most confessing their own love to me.

… though, with what Sia said… maybe I’m a dense harem protagonist, and this is all something that had been obvious to anyone paying attention. That thought makes me feel so incompetent. I don’t even know why they like me.

…

When the three are finally in private:

“So, uh, why do you two like me? It feels awkward to realize I’ve completely misunderstood you two.”

“It’s because you’re so amazing! You put everyone in awe at what you can do, and you even helped me out when I was having trouble! Speaking of which… why did you help me that day?”

“I thought you were cute.”

“...w-what? What about all the other girls in class?”

“I dunno, I don’t really remember them.”

Thinking back, I remember very little about my other classmates.

“Maybe it was fate, Rev.”

“It really does sound like such an arbitrary reason. Yet you accept my request for so much more than just friendship. Why?”

“I realized I love being with you, Rev. I love both you and Sia. I can’t really say why, because I don’t really know why. I just know I do, and I enjoy your affection and attention.”

“What about you, Sia, you haven’t shared your story with Jessi, yet.”

“Ah, well. Jessi is the first one to accept me fully… I’ve loved others, but everyone seems to dislike how clingy I am, or they think my behavior is just too strange. Jessi is the only one who doesn’t seem to mind at all, and I’ve gotten rather sensitive to that.”

“I guess I’m lucky.”

“It’s not just luck! You not only accept me, you even trust me so much! You’re so helpless when you sleep, yet you let me sleep with you. It’s seriously the biggest sign of trust I’ve ever been given. It really means a lot to me, Jess.”

“Well, I love you both, and hope you won’t be afraid to seek what you desire.”

“What do you desire, Jessi?”

“Uh… I want to find more exploits in the magic system.”

The two of them sighed at that.

“Somehow, I knew it would be something like that.”

*** Author Note ***

Woah, that chapter got long.