A long day was ahead of us. After our departure from the small town of Winterhill without showing our faces on the mayor, Adelle fell into deep thoughts, contemplating things. However, what’s more, bothering about our departure were the disturbing gazes from all the townfolks upon coming back from the mountain. I’m not the only one who noticed it, but also Adelle and Clara.

Also, another thing to point out is Adelle's hair, it seems like it's coming back to her normal hair color. 

At that point, we came to the conclusion that they may have some connection with what happened to us. We didn’t pry into that matter and left the town immediately. To our surprise, we thought there would be some resistance to us leaving with how creepy the townfolks are, but they didn’t. Actually, I’m imagining the entire town turning against us. Three adventurers against the world fighting their way for survival, and for home; that type of story. In reality, they left us alone with a smile on their face; the children, adults—everyone. That alone raised a red flag for us even Adelle who was hesitating at first, also agreed to leave.

But in the end, I’m glad that didn’t happen. We will come back to our Guild empty-handed and will report everything. It would affect our credibility, but I value my life than that.

Remembering those gazes still creeps me out. Furthermore, I lost the sword that Master Irene gifted to me. “What a bummer... How do I say that I lost the sword to Master Irene...” I said.

“Why? You can just ask Madam for a new one. Madam would gladly buy you a new one.”

“I know. Nonetheless, it still holds a sentimental value since it was the first sword that was given to me on my 15th birthday. Oh, yeah... Uh... It may be awkward to ask this, but I remembered everything last night and I’m pretty sure I didn’t use any contraceptives...”

My words broke the tensioned air surrounding Adelle, as she flinched and quivered her shoulders. Eating her own words, the fact that she’s now part of what she called ‘cheating’ to Stephanie. “Wha-wa-wa-what are you saying? I-I-I have no clue what you are saying...”

“Madam gave me one from a well-known alchemist, but I haven’t drunk it.”

“Why?! Go drink it! For heaven’s sake, Clara! What if you get pregnant?!”

“Why would I? Isn’t it a privilege to be pregnant?”

"Where did you ever heard that from?!"

"Me."

“Clara...” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I have no clue where you get that idea from, but if you get pregnant, there will be no more sex. Do you get it?”

Clara gasped and immediately bought a bag containing the pill, took one; out of her consideration, she even gave one to Adelle. Watching Clara, I totally know her response whenever something would obstruct her way of ‘wrestling’ with me. And now that I’m eligible to do things with her would mean—Fun time! A win-win situation! At the only cost of me getting dry up! Yey~! It sounds horrid and fun at the same time.

“I really don’t want to bring this topic, but what’s this mark that you’ve given to me, Adelle? After we... You know... The color in the mark that you gave me got paler.”

“R-Really? I’m not really sure about it, but they told me it’s protection...” Adelle went into deep thoughts after that. I squint my eyes at her. “You really don’t know what’s this mark supposed to be, right...? And, you thought this was some sort of protection magic from your family...”

“Yeah... I don't.”

“You know, I’m getting some suspicious vibe from this mark because...”

“I know! Please, don’t... I know the humiliation that I’ve caused because of my inability to control my urge and lack of discipline, causing it to succumb to temptation, especially to a man like you! I'm a disgrace.”

“You're getting out of topic. But hey, why are you phrasing that you had sex with someone despicable?! And, why are you so sorry for yourself? You enjoyed it and even the one who moaned the loudest than Clara, who’s technically the sex maniac on the three of us. Right, Tsuki~?” I stroked Tsuki’s soft fur. “Meow~”

“Aaah! Don’t!”

“Hahaha...”

We’re in a carriage and Adelle was in front of me while Clara was beside me. I moved right next to Adelle; and because of that, she’s backing off a few inches away from me. However, I leaned closer to her and seeing my reflection in her eyes. I smiled and said. “Why are you backing away?”

“I knew it... You’re also making move on me.”

“I mean, why not? Now, I own you and you own me; an equal exchange... Wait a minute... Thinking about it... I’m the one who’s clearly on the lower end of the exchange. We had some fun, but you suck my blood off. See this mark on my neck? You’re the culprit.” I pointed to my neck, an obvious display of the wound that I received from Adelle. To my surprise, the wound still hasn’t healed yet.

“Waa-waah!” Adelle hides her embarrassed state from me by covering her face with her hands. I laughed hysterically at watching the sight of Adelle. “Hahaha...”

Now, to look at a broader perspective; I’m not sure if my relationship with Adelle progressed with what happened between us, or it became worse. In my curiosity, I pulled Adelle to my hips with her back against me. And surprisingly, she didn’t push me nor had a hint of rejecting it. With Tsuki on the top of my head, I uncovered Adelle’s beautiful, flustered face. “Hey, do you want to do it?”

Adelle glanced to her side, biting her lips, and gulped with her eyes hovering around my neck with lustrous eyes. Moreover, Clara, who was just right in front of us, was displaying the same expressions, but her eyes were directed at my crotch. Apparently, they have two different priorities.

“From the look in your eyes, you do. However, we can’t do it right here since we’re inside a carriage and how loud you two are—It will be hard to contain the noise. Hahaha...”

“We can make a stop... A break... Sex... Haaa... Haah...” Clara said while panting.

“Pfft—” ‘That escalated quickly! I'm just messing around!’

In the end, I managed to get Adelle’s mind out of what happened to us earlier. It’s been troubling her since the beginning and also did bothered me. We can’t do everything in this world. We are not omnipotent.

────────────

After a hard day...

The sun’s light died down, with the moonlight glimmering. I’m dazing myself, staring emptily inside of a tent with my drained-out body and my eyelids collapsing. The heavy softness on my chest was pleasing to feel. However, as time passes by, my eyes are closing themselves slowly until my consciousness fades.

Upon shutting my eyes, a sudden shock inside me resonated through my body until it reached my brain. Soon after, I opened my eyes and discovering myself in a different place. Or to be exact, I’m inside of a magical, ornate palace. Standing inside a grand hall with enormous stained glass windows with illustrations of integral angels reaching and ascending to the heavens, encompassing half the wall and always framing the middle of that hallway in a glow of light from the sky beyond me.

“Whoa... Where am I?”

Walking unhurriedly in a grand hall, I stumbled across a reflection of a man dressed in a white robe across one shoulder with his strong, long, wide shoulders, and a robust, lean muscular physique on full display. Moreover, I can feel that I’m not wearing any undergarments beneath it.

“What kind of horrendous people would wear this kind of stuff? I can barely feel anything at all. I feel like an exhibitionist. And, I could feel my dick dangling around because of this... Perverted clothing.” Looking at myself in the reflection and playing around with this piece of robe over me.

Afterward, I continued walking in the conspicuous grand hall. The light got dimmer and dimmer, as I progressively walk on what’s awaiting me at the end of this hall. The place was empty, even the air, or basically, everything around me.

The emptiness of the air resembles the loneliness of the place. It may be grandeur, but I could feel the looming gloominess in this place. However, I still walked of my own accord until I reached the end of the grand hall with a broad door standing tall before me. What caught my attention was the woman engraved on the metallic door, her arms and legs are tied with her head gazing above the sky with a blindfold covering its eyes.

I extended the palm of my hand, touching the door. Soon after, a strong breeze came from the tiny gaps of the door, strong enough for me to back off. Slowly, light ascended from below, blinding my eyes in whiteness. Then suddenly, a sound of a cat reverberated in my ears. “Meow~!” Behind the massive metallic door, a black cat with two tails awaits me with joyful-looking eyes.

“Tsuki?” Tsuki jumps on my arm.

Tsuki looks in a certain direction, seemingly leading me in a direction. Confused by the sudden occurrence. I glanced around to see what kind of place I stumble across upon. On the path that I was walking on was a slab of stones staircases ascending, surrounded by tiny bubbles of glass, trees, and leaves of what seem to be like a greenhouse. Above my head, where light descends upon me, the expected blue of the sky was nowhere to be seen; as the sky was colored in white.

Reaching the top, I saw a familiar gracious woman with a similar color resemblance to the violet shade of my hair. Sitting leisurely on an ancient-looking sofa, gazing above the whiteness of the sky. She looks over at me and her face rejoices upon catching the sight of me.

“Claude~!” Diana yelled with tears coming out of her eyes and running towards me. Most importantly, her jugs are bouncing immensely until those hit me in my face and burrowing deep within them, sending me heavenly pleasure. Diana wrapped her arms around my neck with a huge smile on her face.

“I missed you!”

Diana grabs my face and pressed her lips against mine until it turned into an erotic scene of our tongues entwining each other. While that’s happening, Tsuki was screaming for help as she’s stuck in between us, gasping for air.

“Meow! Meow! Meeeeeow!”

“Mmph—! Mguh~!” It went for a while until we’re satisfied.

“Let’s go, let’s go, Claude~ We’re going to do a lot of fun things from now on!” Diana pulled me toward the sofa where she’s just sitting earlier. Of course, after our kiss, I was left confused.

“Diana, wait a minute—”

“All right, sit here~!” Diana pushed me to the sofa, and she sat on my lap with arms hanging around my neck, and her face so close to me; I could even smell her sweet aromatic scent and breath pulsing to my skin. Then Diana’s eyes glistened. “What’s your question~?”

“First and foremost, where am I?”

“You’re in the deep consciousness of your soul space that I created and modified to suit my taste, eventually becoming a permanent space in your soul. This is what I’ve been doing since I stumble across some problematic power relapse when I created this, delaying my process of creating my own body. But now, I’m satisfied with this because I can meet you whenever you’re asleep~!”

“Wait, for real?!”

“Yep~! Hehehe~”

“That’s amazing!”

“And, what’s more, I can finally be with you just for myself without any woman intervening~! We can finally do what a husband and wife should do!”

“Hold your horses, Diana. We still need to talk about your sister.”

Diana smiles bitterly and positions herself with her back against me, holding my hands over her waist and placing her head over my shoulder. “Okay... As I’ve already mentioned before, I have sisters who have the same blood as mine running through their veins. When we were still kids, we’ve been told by many deities that names hold a significant power that can rule the heavens. That’s why I suggested naming ourselves despite being a fake name. Names are blessings to us, bestowed by the people who worship us.”

Diana intertwines her finger against mine, fidgeting with it. “Since we are young and naïve at that time, it made us overjoyed because we can finally call ourselves with names, instead of ‘sisters’. I mean, even other gods also have fake names like us, just to properly hold a conversation or an arbitrary sign, holding intrinsic relation to the things their power signifies. But, they’re not our true names.”

“Names are just names... You can name yourself anything though?”

“It may be to the people in here, but we deities are different. True names will unleash our true selves or our true power. Because of that, the creator bestowed upon us, a punishment for the old gods by the creator of them all; Deux. Also, it was a term that signifies our potent existence in the cosmos. That leads us to find our name ourselves by letting mortals worship us with a name. It’s an endless cycle. Mortals will seek our wisdom and guidance while we seek their worship.”

“But why are you seeking those true names now? If that’s a punishment... No matter how much, I ponder about it. I don’t get it.”

“Avalon, the place of my birth was not the real heaven. An artificial dimensional space created by us to live outside of the world’s spirit. From old stories, there’s one true heaven for all. However, we deities are excluded from it. ”

“Heaven... A paradise for living creatures that passed away.”

“That’s true, but there are restricted qualifications. The True Name allows us to unleash our true selves, to be accepted in heaven, and also unlocking the true potential of our potent being. It's a complicated thing to understand that I don't even understand. We are not immortal. Once we die, there's nothing for us."

“But, you said the first time about your mother...”

“That’s before the curse. That’s also the reason why I chose to merge my soul with yours because the result would also be the same. It felt like we're just the cursed gods. However...”

“However?”

“From seeing my sister, I’m pretty sure that my sister used a body with quintessence on it and merged herself within its soul, devouring it entirely to replace the old soul—or other methods. In search of her true self. That's what I mentioned before to you."

“That doesn’t sound so bad?”

Diana shakes her head. “No, it’s not. But I can’t say for the others. We have different goals."

After a minute of silence, I asked Diana. “Are you also going to devour my soul?”

“Huh?! How can I do such a thing! I have no thoughts of doing that! I don’t want to be alone anymore...” Diana’s tears are falling out of her eyes. I panicked. “Wait! Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to say that! I just blurted my thoughts out! Sorry!”

(Fufufufu~ You don’t even trust your wife~?)

While panicking, I suddenly heard the voice of Pix inside my head cursing me. I looked around and saw nothing other than Tsuki, Diana, and me sitting on a sofa. I shrugged it off and focused all my attention on appeasing the crying Diana in my arms.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Author Notes:

Volume one has ended! And, of course, thank you for the Patron’s support, which made it plausible for me to continue writing. Volume 1 only tackled mostly the introduction of characters and their developments. Volume 2 will be on the world development side and academy arc. From this point, there'll be R18 stuff, but I will be balancing it out.