Despite how long and how lovely this euphoric rest may have been, it eventually ends. I stir the following morning and slowly rouse from this deep and peaceful sleep. At first, I'm confused and a little panicked.

I've never gone a night without my sleeping mask in twenty-seven years, so waking up without it on my face sends multiple alarm bells ringing in my head. But when I see the beautiful girl who is serving faithfully as my little spoon, I remember everything that happened the night before, and I'm overcome with relief.

For the first time, I don't need to be worried about waking up without my sleep mask. What a surreal feeling this is.

I'm happy to see Sam still beside me since now I know for sure that the previous day's events weren't a hallucination after all. Sadly, that happiness dulls ever-so-slightly the more I think about this current situation. Rather than awakening in a groggy, tired haze like I usually do, I'm instead taken by a strange feeling that won't stop hounding me, asking over and over again, 'did that really just happen'?

Even though the answer is yes, I really did just man up and sleep with a beautiful girl nearly half my age. It would be hard for me to believe if the proof weren't sleeping right here next to me.

I shift out of our cuddling carefully to take a closer look at Sam. Sunlight is coming in from the window behind the bed since neither of us remembered to close the curtains. This warm light gives Sam a heavenly glow, making it so I can't pull my eyes from the sleeping cutie.

Her already tousled hair is even messier than usual, thanks to a rousing night of sexual activity, and she's snoring softly. She's not loud enough to be annoying. No, Sam is snoring just quietly enough so that it's cute. Even better, her mouth is agape, and she's drooling all over her pillow, which has collected no small amount of her saliva over the night.

Seeing her like this, the Princess looks rough, unpolished, and immature. But beyond all of that, Sam looks adorable.

As I stare at Sam right now at this moment, memories of the night before play repeatedly in my mind. I can still feel my hands on her skin, the sensation of our bodies being connected, the unreal thrills, and the stunning chills. It's almost too much to dwell on. The more I do, the more I remember everything I said to her. I've never admitted my problems to anyone before, but it feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest now that I have.

Have I really changed so much just because this girl offered her body to me? Call me optimistic, but I think so. I said so many things to her, so many things I promised I would do, and I would have never had the courage to say those things if it weren't for Sam.

That being said, I can't rely on Sam to constantly be kicking my ass into gear. I need to own up to everything and make good on my words. As long as I can help it, I'll never fall back into being the sort of person I used to be ever again. From this point on, if I want something, then it will be mine no matter what it takes. I want success. I want riches, fame, love, and everything else this rotten world has denied me until now, damn it.

That's the kind of life I'm going to lead.

Fuck magical destinies and fuck Demon Lords. I’m not going to have a thing to do with that. Not when I have the second chance I dreamed of sleeping naked in my bed beside me.

No, thank you.

While there are still a lot of strange circumstances going on, my top priority is living a fluffy, day-to-day Guild life where every day is packed with sex, managerial work, and overseeing quests. I'll partner up closely with Sam to repair this Guild of mine and really make something special out of it. Who knows, maybe if I get enough powerful adventurers, I can send them on a quest to slay the Demon Lord on my behalf?

I'll be Karnalle's first-ever Hero of Light by way of proxy. Surely that'll be good enough for the Goddess above or whoever supposedly saddled me with the task.

While that's an absurd thought, it makes me laugh harder than it should. This laughter ends up alerting the sleeping beauty, and she grumbles in a low, annoyed tone.

Not long after that, Sam groggily rubs the sleep from her eyes, and she sits up. The thick blanket covers fall off her naked, nubile body, revealing her large and beautiful breasts that hang off her chest and jiggle seductively before resting in place.

The girl yawns loud and proud as she stretches her muscles out like a cat. With her immense fluffy hair, Sam indeed resembles the Lion on House Lundreame's coat of arms more than any other sort of feline, though.

Once she gets done cracking her back, Sam turns to meet my gaze. At first, she stares at me as if in a daze. It seems that Her Highness isn't a morning person, which is another thing we have in common. Thankfully, she smiles wide and blushes at the sight of me once her foggy mind clears up. Sam is just as happy to see me as I am to see her, much to my relief.

"Morning, Daddy..." Sam says, fighting off another early morning yawn but failing miserably.

"Morning, Princess." I smile right back, which expands her grin wide enough to show me her sharp fang. "Did you sleep well?"

"Oh, yeah. It's hard to beat a nice bed after days and days spent on the road. Having someone special to share it with, though, is just icing on the cake..."  Sam wastes no time at all when it comes to expressing our newly found intimacy.

The girl leans in, pressing her lips to mine to share the first of many kisses for the day. It's a tender one kiss, neither of us intentionally trying to ramp it up. The kiss lasts for half a minute or so, and we pull away more than satisfied.

In a soft, teasing tone, Sam whispers, "You got some nasty-ass morning breath."

"And you think I'm special in that regard?" I laugh at the adorable little hypocrite. "You're not doing much better yourself, my dear."

The Princess cheekily raises an eyebrow at me, countering, "Well, I wonder why that might be? Maybe it was dinner? Guess it coulda been that drink you made me, too, or... hmm... maybe it's something else ya had me swallowing?"

"Best get used to it, Sam. I might have some more for you soon." As I flirt with my lover, I feel myself growing comfortable with this newly discovered playful side I apparently have. Never would I have imagined being so outright flirtatious, but I can't deny that saying naughty things like this makes me feel good about who I am at this very moment.

"Oh, you can bet your ass I'll get used to it, Daddy." Sam laughs, then scoots closer so she can lean back across my chest like I were a big pillow for her exclusive use. "Gotta say, though. I'm digging this newfound confidence of yours."

"Glad to hear it, so am I."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and we both have you to thank for that." I remind her, only for Sam to shake her head in denial.

She looks back up at me, saying, "Nah, you deserve a lot of the credit, Boss. I just helped push ya outta whatever kinda funk you were in. You could've ignored me or told me to take a hike, but ya didn't."

"Awful hard to ignore you when you went about kicking my shin, you know."

Sam laughs, her cheeks turning red. "Maybe that was a bit aggressive, sure... but..." She pauses. As she does, we share a long look into each other's eyes while saying nothing. I smile to show how thankful I am for her help thus far, and she with a smile of her own before sighing and closing her eyes. "Geez..."

"Something on your mind, Princess?"

She purses her lips, trying to phrase her complicated thoughts. "Nah, not really. I'm mostly just thinking about how fast this is moving... not that I think that's bad or anything, 'specially seeing where it's gotten us, but y'know how it is. Last night was..." 

"The best night of my entire life," I finish Sam's sentence for her, eliciting a cute laugh and an even deeper blush out of the precocious tomboy.

"Yeah, uh... same," She throws it out there like she's ashamed of the fact, or perhaps just worried. "Doesn't change the fact that this is all weird as fuck."

"Probably best not to think about it so much," I nod my head in understanding and sigh. She's feeling many of the same things that I am, which is reassuring to learn that I'm not alone. "It's not that I'm not worried about it, too, but... why be hung up on something that feels so right?"

"That's what I keep telling myself," She crosses her arms and closes her eyes. "Still..."

Sensing a chance to tease my cute lover, I smile and wrap my arms around her from behind. "Luckily for you, I have an answer to make things much simpler. It'll all be easier to process if we just accepted this strange situation for what it really is; love at first sight."

Sam looks back at me over her shoulder, her face halfway between fearful and ecstatic. She stares at me like that for a few seconds, red color building up in her cheeks before she blows a raspberry and faces forward to escape my gaze.

"Hah! Good one, Boss..." Brushing a few stray strands of hair out of her face with a trembling hand, Sam continues, "I dunno if I'd go that far... but... it's pretty damn close, I-I guess..."

I sit up, and thanks to the way we're sitting, Sam rises with me. Wrapping my arms around her, I flip the girl onto her back and pin her down. Trying to look as sure of myself as I can, I smile confidently and tell her, "I'd go that far."

Sam swallows loudly, looking straight up into my eyes. "Goddesses above and below, I've created a monster, haven't I...?" Between all her freaking out, the Princess remembers how to grace me with her smile as she lets out a little laugh.

"You say that almost like it was a bad thing..." With a smirk, I press my body down against Sam, giving her a taste of my morning wood by pressing it into her.

Sam rolls her eyes before shoving me in the chest just hard enough to push me off but not hard enough to hurt.

As I settle myself down beside her, she yawns and stretches out again, saying, "Chill for a bit, Daddy. I don't wanna keep ya waiting too long, but I'm still tired. Somebody really went and put me through the wringer last night, in case ya need reminding."

"I remember, but feel free to say it again. It excites me."

"Shut up and hug me, you perv." Sam snorts, flipping over to be on her side.

"Can do," I laugh back at her, draping my arm around the girl and cuddling with her precisely as requested. Sam rustles the blankets around, doing her best to cover us both with their warmth before curling up to my body as close as she can.

In total silence, we lay on my bed, just basking in comfort brought on by our intimacy. With my face buried in the tangled mess of Sam's hair and my nose breathing in her scent, I sigh with total contentment. Like this, I feel like I could drift on back to sleep without a care in the world.

Sam is the one who breaks the stillness after another ten or twenty minutes, suddenly speaking, "You already seem a whole lot different today, you know."

"Do I?"

"Mhmm."

"Good, because I certainly feel different."

"Yeah? Happy to hear that, Boss. Really." She laughs, her words reminding me of the fact that I witnessed her vagina glowing. Right now is not exactly the time for me to bring that up, so I continue listening. "I like the new you. Seeing you act all confident and just proves I was right. The more I learned about you, the more I could tell there was something inside of you looking for a way out. Ya just needed a swift kick in the ass to get it together."

Sam's voice loses its playful edge as she gives me a definitive warning, "Don't go losing sight of yourself again, you got that?"

As much as I want to take her seriously, I make a teasing comment back at my Princess. "Or what, you'll have more sex with me?"

Sam has herself a hearty laugh at that. "More like you ain't getting any if you go back to being a sad-sack, dumbass."

"That sounds like a fair trade-off." I lean in towards her ear, and with determination, I tell the girl, "I don't think that'll be a problem, Sam. I've finally tasted what it truly means to be alive, and I'm hungry for more. I have a lot of living to do to make up for lost time."

"Well," Sam smirks, rises out of our cuddling, and turns around to look me right in the eyes. "It's your first day as the new you. Whatcha wanna do with it?"

Running the risk of being cheesy, I go for broke. "I'm looking right at her," I tell her. Luckily, Sam is the type who likes that sort of thing.

"Smooth. Do ya really wanna just sit around all day and fuck around, though? I mean, yeah, I'm hot as hell, but..." Sam giggles, then leans in closer with a lusty look hazing up her eyes. Her expectations are rising by the second, desire plain for all to see on her face.

"Yes, really. Forget everything else for now. The Guild has waited for ages to get some proper management, and it can wait another day or two while I indulge in fulfilling years upon years of fantasies. It’s ture that I am indeed a Guild Master, but you must know one thing about me. First and foremost, I am a pervert. Everything else is a distant second." I join Sam by leaning myself in, even more, asking, "So what do you say the two of us take a few days to get to know each other better, Princess?"

Sam closes her eyes, pretending to be deep in thought when her mind is really already made up. Looking back at me, she lights up and gives me a beautiful smile. "That sounds like one hell of a quest, Boss. Sign me up."

Our lips meet in a fantastic kiss full of fire and passion, signaling the new day that's about to begin for us both. Sam and I lose track of time, making good on our words to indulge ourselves and learning all there is to know about one another's bodies.