10 years ago…

Tristan, Royal Capitol, Winfield Military Institute

 

“Braden Everim was crazy enough to challenge Ashe Grayfield? Does he have a death wish?” A male student in the stands wearing the uniform of the school snickered.

 

It was a dark gray coat over a pressed white shirt that had the ruffle in the front of it that was common among the people. Men wore trousers that matched the shirt and the women wore long skirts that fell below their knees to just above their ankles for the summer heat. Family coats of arms were worn on the right shoulder and the Winfield logo that was an owl perched on a large book was on the other. 

 

“I heard that he has his eyes on Liselotte!” The girl replied.

 

“Isn’t Prince Valiant thinking of marrying her?” The boy asked.

 

“No, he seems to have changed his mind… He is trying to get with Lord Price’s daughter instead.” The girl said hesitantly.

 

The Arena that the duel was taking place in looked like a large chessboard with black and white squares that were large enough to lay down in. The ground was polished flat from marble that was imported in and laid out to make the dueling field. Golems made from glazed clay into black and white knight figures stood as tall as a man bearing shields made from metal in various squares to provide cover for the duelists. They had moved quite a bit from the start of the match, and both queens stood at the back of the formations.

 

A noble’s duel was held using arenas like this one and was more of a game than anything. With the low accuracy of the guns, it was rare for anyone to get hurt so instead of targeting each other they would try to destroy the enemy's queen, or a king if it was a female duelist. To destroy a golem you had to hit them in the head and each duelist had 3 rows of these knights bearing shields to protect them. Then the duelists had the choice of moving, shooting, or commanding the troops to move.

 

The main difference in placement from a regular chess game was that the players started in the right corner and had to move their pieces to create a path for them. A player could do a maximum of three moves, but this also allowed their opponent to act the same number of times. Braden was forced to hide behind the few remaining knights he had, while Ashe ignored his queen and kept targeting him! If one of the duelists was shot then the duel would end immediately but the duelist could move freely as long as they didn’t leave their square. 

 

“You had best... dodge this…” Ashe told Braden mockingly as he held a pistol in each hand and aimed them at the walls of the barrier.

 

He wasn’t aiming at any of the golems and looked like he was instead aiming them at the square corners of the barrier. Two loud cracks sounded out as the pistols discharged flames and gunpowder as they propelled two metal balls that were sent rolling through the air. Braden heard the cracks and did the most logical thing possible and dived right onto his face with his arms covering the back of his head. The sense of danger he was feeling was so intense he thought he was going to die before he even hit the ground. 

 

The round bullets hit the walls at an angle and bounced off into the other wall then the ceiling before they were deflected towards the ground and then hit the squares to the left and right of Braden before they ricocheted and passed right by each otherwhere he had been standing before he planted himself into the ground. Without his body to stop them they hit a knight each that had been a square away from him on his left and right in the head. 

 

“Woah!” Someone in the crowd shouted and began clapping furiously.

 

This started a cascade of applause for the incredible shots that had been made with the flintlocks. They didn’t seem to care that Braden had almost lost his life and was focused instead on talking about how many times each bullet would have needed to bounce to achieve its trajectory.

 

A female’s longing sigh rang out from the audience. “It must be so nice to have a brother like that! Liselotte can send all of her suitors to fight him and he will make them crawl away like insects!” 

 

“Braaaaaaden! Why do you keep... running? You… wanted this! Didn’t you?!” Ashe asked him as he laughed at the man in disdain.

 

Braden was slowly climbing from the ground and his thick spectacles were cracked from the marble floor and blood was running from his nose. The difference in their positions was obvious as he was backed into the left corner and Ashe stood in the center of his lines surrounded by pieces of fallen black and white golems. Only three of them were killed by Braden and the rest of them were killed by Ashe himself to get them out of his way. The reason the golems were made from clay was to prevent the bullets from being able to strike more than a single one of them as shattering them will spend all of the energy in the bullet. 

 

The difference could truly be seen in the number of firearms sitting on the ground with Braden having used five while Ashe was tossing numbers nineteen and twenty onto the floor to join the pile. From the start of the duel, Ashe had moved straight into the position he was in and began shooting everything around him while making Braden dodge and run for dear life. He was covered in white dust from his destroyed golems that were making his school uniform look like it was covered in chalk.

 

“I always take black… because if I call the shots... then the match will end almost immediately,” Ashe told Braden with a sneer. “My sister… loves sending me her refuse… if you know what I’m saying…”

 

“Hey Carmen, why did your brother challenge Lord Grayfield? He had to know this would happen. Ashe Grayfield is too vain to throw a match, so he always makes a spectacle of them.” This was asked by a student with long blonde hair. They were in the private seating for the Noble families and the Noble houses, they were small sound-proofed booths.

 

They had small windows that were built with cloth screens that provided shade and made it impossible to see inside of them. The great noble houses each had one, and some of the old nobility who were able to pay enough in taxes were also gifted the ability to use them. As a Duke, the Everim family still had one even though they had partially declined.

 

“My father is obsessed with getting Braden together with Liselotte Grayfield. He has been trying since they were babies.” The girl named Carmen replied. She had long brown hair and thick spectacles like her brother. She had a lithe figure and a noble bearing that made her seem just like a modern secretary. “Lord Bayron Grayfield only has one daughter, so he spoils her heavily. He said that it is her choice who she marries, lucky her, so this is what she does when they refuse to take no as an answer.”

 

This caused the girl next to Carmen to look towards another booth in the corner with the image of a black and gold wolf growling fiercely on the front of it. It was the symbol of House Grayfield and more importantly the House Lord, Bayron Grayfield. But no one would be able to guess what was happening inside of it…

 

“Ahhhnnn!” A female voice cried out in ecstasy. 

 

Inside of the room were four chairs with one being the largest for the lord of the house. To the right of this chair was one that read ‘Blaze Grayfield’, the oldest son of the house, and to the left of Largest chair were two smaller chairs for Ashe and Liselotte. The chair for both the lord and the older brother had been pushed over into the corner onto the ground and the one that read Liselotte was to the side so it was out of the way and littered around the ground were the various pieces of a female uniform. 

 

A long skirt with the insignia of the Grayfield house was in a heap with a pair of female underwear that was wadded up and held into a small ball due to its dampness. The moans were being emitted by a woman with long black hair that shimmered in the light and dark blue eyes like an abyss. She was pale with incredibly fair skin and looked similar to her brother. A lacy garter was being used to hold up long white stockings made from a gauzy material. 

 

She stood on one leg with her other leg standing on the armrest of Ashe’s chair with her face resting on her knee. One of her large plump breasts was smashed behind her leg and the other was being hidden by her lacey white corset. A wet sound could be heard coming from the hand that she had buried between her legs and a clear fluid could be seen falling in droplets onto the chair and floor. Two long wet spots could be seen on the inside of her stockings running from her thighs to her ankles and a small pool was forming on the carpet under her.

 

Teeth marks had been made in her stocking and thigh near her head, drool and saliva could be seen around them from her biting herself to hold in her screams. Her hand was moving furiously with three fingers digging into her vagina as she was squirming around violently, almost losing her balance a few times. Reaching up with her free hand she pulled down her corset with a tug allowing her large breast to hang in the air. The small pink bud at the tip was already hard and she reached up with her free hand and licked her fingers before she started rolling around her nipple that was only slightly darker than her pale skin.

 

“He is fighting for me… Hnnngghh!” She couldn’t even finish this sentence before she spasmed violently and nearly lost her balance. The splashing coming from her fingers digging inside of her became more violent as juices were discharged from the cracks in her fingers and coated her legs with a few drops reaching the floor.

 

Huuu! Huuu! Huuu! The woman took a few deep breaths to try to regain her calm, but this was in direct opposition to her hand that began to move even more violently. That was because she had just witnessed the scene of the bullets bouncing around the arena and nearly killing Braden if he hadn’t dived onto his face to avoid it. Every time Ashe spoke this was followed by a violent thrust of her fingers into the deepest places she could get them and a large amount of fluid pouring from between her fingers.

 

“Aaaahhhnnnnnn!!!” Liselotte cried out like a wounded animal as the most violent climax hit her yet, she lost her balance falling into a heap in the chair. sitting in it sideways with a leg hanging over the armrest, she took several deep breaths before she had enough breath to squeeze out a few words. “He said… My sister…Mmmhh!”

 

Just remembering the words he had just spoken caused her body to lightly shake as she reached a small climax. Instead of stopping she righted herself in the chair and used the arms to spread her legs wide and rest them over the padded armrests. Her garter belt hung over her waist but her hairless slit was on full display, it was already slightly red and swollen from the abuse it had been put through but her fingers were still moving in and out with fluid coming from between them. 

 

“Look, brother! Look at me!” She yelled to him as she continued to move her fingers in and out of herself furiously.

 

Her long black hair was a mess and she had a drunk expression on her face. Her corset was in disarray with one of her large breasts hanging out and the other one exposing the top of her nipple. For the remainder of the duel, she would use the chair to support herself through her various play. 

 

***

Back to the present…

Tristan, Royal Capitol, Braden’s room

 

Remembering the terror he experienced in his battle against Ashe Grayfield caused his body to move without him realizing it. He immediately grabbed the hose connected to the hookah and started taking deep drags from it to get as much Fairy Dust into his system as possible. The feeling of euphoria it gave him immediately started to drive away the feelings of terror he was experiencing and his shaking hands started to settle down.  Reaching over with a slightly shaking hand, he grabbed the blonde-headed maid by the back of the head and pushed her face under the blanket towards his crotch.

 

The maid knew what he wanted and immediately began offering her ministrations causing Braden to sigh in relief. When Braden had heard the name Liselotte Grayfield, his dick had gotten so scared it climbed into his body to hide and this was quite uncomfortable for him. Braden finally sighed in relief as he felt his emotions coming back under his control, he then looked at his father with an accusatory expression. This behavior caused his father to open his mouth to yell at his son for defiling his maid when Braden interrupted him.

 

“Do you know what she did to Markay Tender?!” Braden yelled, there was fear and panic in his tone. “He stole a pair of her underwear so she cut his willy off with a pair of garden shears!”

 

“Hahahaha! She is just feisty! If you can tame her this will be a great thing for the family!” Duke Everim told his son with some anger. 

 

“Dad! She fed his willy to her brother’s pet wolf!!! Right in front of him!!!” Braden was hyperventilating again out of fear. He had to take several deep drags off of the hookah which caused the room to start to fill with the thick blue and gray smoke. 

 

The furniture in the room had started as a clean white color but it had slowly been stained yellow from his heavy smoking habit. It was something he partook in whenever he remembered the black-haired woman who laughed at him when he tried to confess to her. It was his father’s fault that he suffered these trauma’s but his father didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

 

“I just talked to Ashe Grayfield and it was one of the nicest conversations I have ever had, he was so warm to me! We must act first before this news spreads! Get dressed, now!” Duke Everim commanded.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Tristan, Royal Capitol, Grayfield Estate

 

“That is what he was like in school? His sister is that into him?! Thank the gods I haven’t sent anyone to retrieve her yet…” Ashton muttered with some relief mixed with horror.

 

The two weren’t talking face to face, that was because Ashton was sitting in the bathtub as he had to get ready to go to the noble gathering. Rolling around the floor with Kumiho had ruined his clothes and got him dirty. He didn’t know why but the lycanthrope woman was trying to help him, but if he had to guess it was because of the potions she needed. She was standing behind him as he didn’t feel comfortable with her in front of him. 

 

Kumiho, on the other hand, had disappeared into a large ball of fur as she curled up on one of the large fluffy towels to nap in the sunlight streaming in from the corner window. She slept curled up in a ball and her tails hid her as they seemed to dance around on top of her like a living blanket. Snores could be heard along with the occasional cackle, sometimes even a seductive moan would be issued. No one was sure what went on in her head when she was awake, and no one wanted to know what was in it when she slept.

 

“No! This is who you have to be now if you don’t want to die!” The maid with cat ears and a tail told him seriously. Lycans came from humans and other sentient species, it was similar to disease from what Ashe could tell and it required the use of drugs to keep it from progressing. They had long been prosecuted and hunted down, unless they were willing to become slaves they were treated like monsters were.

 

It was as bad as Ashton had thought it would be, the church had strong control of the people of every kingdom. When reason is not what they base their judgment off on it is impossible to use reason to get through to them. This was a lesson that Ashe had learned after years of selling various terrible products to different customers. It’s just like you should never judge something based on its appearance, some of the finest ceramic works of art were meant to cart away shit. 

 

“I never realized that there were people who were like that,” Ashe said quietly.

 

“Ashe Grayfield had an older brother who was near useless and spent most of his time frequenting the taverns and brothels his father owned. Ashe was an esper with an ability that manifested in his eyes, this meant he was still capable of training martial force or magic.” The lycan told him. 

 

“Then why wasn’t he chosen as the heir?” Ashton asked.

 

“He was born second, so he was going to have to strike out on his own. When it was discovered that he was an esper with a rare ability, a lot of the noble families started seeking him out for marriage. This happened when he was eight.” She continued. “He can predict the flight of anything he is holding or shooting, bows, guns, throwing knives, even the trash he throws away.”

 

Doesn’t that sound like an aimbot?! Do I need to yell that I’ve got them in my sights first? Why didn’t I notice it until now? In response to this Ashton reached into his discarded trousers next to him and pulled out the platinum coin and prepared to flip it, but he didn’t see or notice anything. The lycan seemed to be able to tell what he was feeling because she quickly realized what was happening.

 

“Are you not able to use it? That can’t be right, that is his body…” She took a few whiffs of the air with her little nose to confirm it. 

 

All Ashton could do was continue to stare at the coin and feel around with his body and senses to see if anything was abnormal.

 

Who the hell am I kidding?! Ashton began putting his full attention on the coin and began trying to reach out with his senses, what he didn’t expect was for a light blue glow to begin to appear from his body. A smile began to cross his face as he felt this new energy and sensation rapidly pushing out of him.

 

“What are you doing? Why are you projecting your mana like that?” The catkin asked him.

 

“Bahahaha! Kumiho thinks he is trying to be funny! It should look something like this!” The red-haired foxwoman said with a stretch as she got up from the floor where she had been napping in a ball under her tails.

 

The moment Kumiho finished talking, a surge of energy erupted from her body that caused the bathwater that Ashton was in to start shaking like it was being influenced by the wind. A pale red light that had signs of orange and green in it began to surge around her and lit up the room like a small sun. While the light that Ashton produced could only stretch a few inches, the energy that Kumiho was releasing stretched several feet from her body. To make things even harder for Ashton to accept was the comment she added.

 

“Bahahaha! Kumiho’s is bigger!” She called while pointing at the pale energy that was coming out of him.

 

“Stop! You are going to pass out if you do that much longer!” The lycan woman called.

 

Ashton suddenly tried to reign in the feeling that he was releasing and after several moments the light he was emitting died down and faced away. He was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when Kumiho started laughing victoriously and threw both of her arms in the air with closed fists.

 

“Kumiho made him put it away! Hahaha, Kumiho wins!” She said in triumph.

 

Fortunately, Ashton had grown up in the foster system with children that had said far meaner things to him. Her antics could almost be considered cute in comparison to the other things he had gone through growing up.

 

“What was that?” He asked Naatalay with some wonder.

 

“You were forcing your mana out of your body… Do you know what mana is?” She asked this last part with some hesitation. 

 

From all of the anime, manga, and games he had played, mana was always the fuel used to cast spells, or use abilities. It caused him to remember a top-down dungeon crawler he played in elementary school using dial-up internet. He had played the paladin, the shining example of righteousness. It was also the most passive build imaginable requiring the player to cast a few buffs on themselves then run around as ghostly hammers flew from their body killing everything around them.  

 

“Am I a wizard?” He asked seriously.

 

“No… Outside of duels, Ashe Grayfield didn’t participate in combat. Instead, he kept monsters that could act as his bodyguards, he was also highly active in the Adventurer’s guild.” She explained.

 

“How? You just said he didn’t participate in combat?” He asked in shock.

 

“Do you think that the only people in the adventurer’s guild are fighters?! The nobles use them to collect items or materials that they wouldn’t be able to find! How do you think that he came to own all of us?!” She seemed to hate adventurers judging from her tone.

 

This information conflicted with what he knew about adventurers from all of the manga he had read. In most of those stories, they seemed to romanticize the idea of them so he wasn’t sure what they would be like in a real fantasy world. Then he realized that monsters would probably have a negative view of things like adventurers, militaries, and subjugation forces. Then he realized that it was probably treated the same as owning a sports team or funding golfers.

 

“I guess I never thought of it like that… My world didn’t have mana or things like monsters in the first place. This is all new to me and it is my fir-” He started but was interrupted.

 

“Good, you should treat that as a fairy tale, it sounds nice. It’s not going to help you here.” Suddenly her expression went stern. “I have given you enough free advice, if you want my help any further then there are some things that I want from you.” 

 

Ashton paused here as he replayed her actions up to this point. First show your value, then state your terms to get a better position… Interview 101… Ashton almost wanted to applaud her since he would be sure to meet any condition she raised. He decided he had spent enough time washing off and reached over for a towel as he climbed out of the water and wrapped it around his waist. One of the things that made him uncomfortable was that he seemed to be the only one who was concerned with his nakedness.

 

“Benefits are something I can understand, and I prefer employment over slavery,” Ashton said this confidently. “Nobody should do anything for free and both parties should be satisfied with the terms.”

 

“What are you talking about?” She asked him with some suspicion.

 

“Until something is on paper, it can only be a dream.” Ashton began dressing in clothes that were only slightly different from what he normally wore. 

 

The pants were pressed and shone from some kind of treatment they had received, and the gold thread was much more pronounced. The shirt was a dark gray and possessed the logo of House Grayfield, the large wolf that was smiling as it bore its fangs, its tongue was lolling out. It also had the strange frilled ruffle that seemed to be in style with coats or vests but he found the weight of it annoying. The boots this time had been polished and were a black leather composed of many large scales that were heavy and thick and the socks were wool. 

 

“Is something wrong?” She asked when she saw him stepping up and down on the soles of his boots with confusion on his face.

 

“Sorry, the soles in these things are incredible… I spent a lot of time on my feet so I tend to notice these things... “He felt kind of embarrassed geeking out over footwear but she looked at him with some disgust.

 

“The leather comes from a basilisk, the soles are made from layering the leather on top of each other… Just one of those boots costs as much as a small estate…” She told him with some scorn.

 

I feel like I am missing something here… She gets really angry when she talks about costs and money… For now, I shouldn’t make assumptions and just focus on trying to get them on my side. The amount of information that Ashton was having to suck up like a sponge was both painful and infuriating and most of the time it left him with even more questions. 

 

“For now I would like to get your demands on paper, I would also like to decide on compensation. Words can be misinterpreted, I would like to enter into a contract and formally employ both of you.” Ashton decided to be direct.

 

“Kumiho is confused, what is employment?” The fox woman asked with suspicion.