Having returned south to where the building site is, the horses have been unloaded and tied up to a simple post that Tabitha set up while they were gone.

“How’d it go?” Cassiel asks Fenrir and Serra.

“They’re awesome up there. We’ve got some great neighbors,” Fenrir says.

When he hears Rao and Tabitha get into an argument over some plans, he looks over at them which exposes the side of his neck to Cassiel.

It’s more than obvious what those bruised marks on his neck are.

Cassiel looks down at Serra.

Serra smirks.

“I see you two had fun up there,” Cassiel says.

Fenrir’s tail shoots straight up as he turns his head back to Cassiel. “Ah… yeah. We uh…”

“Sex is more fun than hurrying up and coming back here to build,” Serra says.

“It was her idea.”

“I wanted sex.”

Cassiel sighs and says, “It’s not fair to leave us out.”

“We’ll bite him lots together in real life,” Serra says.

Cassiel blushes and looks away. “Fi-fine.”

“You guys are talking like I’m not standing right here,” Fenrir says.

“Shush. While you were gone, we were sweating and hurting ourselves over here.”

Fenrir looks down at Cassiel’s hands. Confirming her words, her hands are covered in bruises and scratches.

“What happened?” Fenrir asks.

Cassiel looks away with reddened cheeks and a pout.

“She is not very talented with a hammer, my hero,” Nell says.

Fenrir looks down at Nell’s hands.

“And… neither am I,” Nell says with a nervous giggle after having her own bruised hands spotted.

“Just rest and take it easy. Me and Serra will swap with you two,” Fenrir says.

“Why me?” Serra asks with a bored expression.

“Because we both spent time screwing around while the others were working down here.”

“Heh. Screwing.”

Fenrir flicks Serra’s forehead.

She adjusts her hat and holds her forehead, looking up at him with a pout.

“Come on, let’s get to work. We’ll do this for a couple more hours and then wake,” Fenrir says.

“My hero,” Nell says.

Fenrir turns to look at Nell, allowing her to wrap her arms around his neck, hop up, and place a kiss on his lips.

“I shall head off first! I must find a recipe for dinner and prepare everything, so I will ensure that there is a wonderful meal for us all to wind down with!” Nell explains with a happy smile. “Ah… sorry.”

She notices something.

While jumping up to kiss his lips, one of her horns sliced the side of his face and almost got his eye.

“I think I might need to do something about this height difference,” Fenrir says. He then leans over to pat Nell’s head and place a kiss on her lips. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll grow immune to your horns someday.”

“Hey,” Cassiel says.

Fenrir turns to face Cassiel and gets a more assertive kiss this time. She grabs him by his shirt, pulls his head low enough, and then kisses his lips.

“It’s not fair to leave me out,” Cassiel explains. “I’m going to wake and help her with dinner, so you better behave.”

“No promises,” Fenrir says.

“Don’t forget you’ve got somebody else wanting attention now.”

Cassiel looks to the side.

Fenrir looks at where his tsun-but-mostly-dere-now girlfriend is looking and sees Azalabulia watching the kissing turns with jealous eyes and one heck of a pout. He didn’t even notice she was back online.

Of course, she looks away as soon as she realizes she’s been spotted. Now she’s striking a cool pose and… somehow tripping, landing on her face and leaving her rump up in the air.

Azalabulia stands up, brushes herself off, and acts like nothing just happened.

“Well, you two have fun with dinner prep,” Fenrir tells Nell and Cassiel.

“Hang on,” Cassiel says, placing one of her hands against Fenrir’s face to heal him first. “There. Now you won’t get blood everywhere.”

“I thought dogs liked to lick wounds inste—”

“No. That’s gross.”

“O-oh. I just… you know. Because—”

“I know, but it’s gross. I’m not licking blood.”

“I’d lick it,” Serra says.

“You’d lick anything,” Fenrir tells his shortest girlfriend.

Serra smirks and looks proud of herself.

“I must admit that blood does make things more exciting! Oh! Vampire play would be fun, would it not?” Nell asks. “For example! Cassiel, imagine Fenrir holding you down against your will as he threatens to drink the blood from your neck! Just imagine him as he slowly lowers his lips to your neck, his fangs bared, and—”

“Al-alright. Maybe,” Cassiel admits with her arms crossed over her chest.

“You had her at holding down,” Serra calls Cassiel out.

“H-hey! Just – just because I like when he’s assertive doesn’t mean I’m going to like it every time!”

“I’m still here,” Fenrir says, pointing up at himself.

Cassiel grabs Nell by her wrist and says, “We’re going now.”

“Love you too, Cass Cass.”

“H-hmph. Love you too… dumb dog.”

“About time I get some tsun fanservice.”

While Cassiel huffs and stomps off with Nell in tow, who’s waving and smiling as she gets pulled away, Serra sneaks a hand behind Fenrir and grips the base of his tail.

Fenrir jumps up and lets out an embarrassing dog-like yelp of surprise before looking down at Serra with lowered ears and bright cheeks. “Wh-what was that for?” he asks.

“Never tried that before,” Serra says.

“So you did it just because you can?”

“Yep.” Serra squeezes the base of his tail more and slightly pumps it.

“Could – could you not? It’s… it’s sensitive,” Fenrir says, looking away from her now.

“You know that just makes me want to do it more,” Serra says, letting go of his tail. “I’ll be mean this time.”

Fenrir’s tail lowers as Serra walks away.

He actually did want more of it. Playing tsundere backfired.

With a disappointed sigh, Fenrir heads over to the others.

Of course, as soon as he’s done talking with his girlfriends, the girlfriend-aspirant that is Azalabulia comes up to Fenrir trying to put an out-of-character, seductive sway to her hips.

Azalabulia says, “S-so, how—”

“Oi! Ya think I’m done with ya? Bring that lumber over here!” Tabitha shouts at Azalabulia. She may not have fluffy ears and a tail like Fenrir, but if she did, they would both be lying down and limp.

“I’ll grab it. You take a break, too. I’m sure you’ve been working hard this entire time,” Fenrir tells Azalabulia.

Azalabulia says, “Are – are you sure? She asked for me, and—”

“Don’t worry about it. Take a breather.”

For the innocent and pure Azalabulia, even something as simple as being covered for is enough to imagine Fenrir as her shining knight.

While Fenrir lifts up the lumber and carries it over to where Tabitha wants it, looking like a totally ordinary guy while doing so, Azalabulia sees something far greater. She sees her shining knight in glistening, white armor. Covered in scars from battle with the occasional scorch mark from the fiery breaths of dragons that have assaulted him, Fenrir lifts the colossal corpse of a dragon up and hauls it over to its destination.

Sparkles and flowers materialize around his head.

Azalabulia shakes her head and slaps her cheeks! How could she be imagining something so embarrassing? Instead, she needs to face reality!

That’s right. Fenrir is not just some knight in shining armor who slays dragons to save her. He is her evil warlord of chaos! Rather than carry a slain dragon, he is carrying a slain, holy beast as blood drips from his opened wounds. His armor that is blacker than night reflects no light and is covered in spikes. For as much as she wants to reach out and reward him for a job well done in serving her, she knows that she could never touch him for doing so would result in her death! Oh, how horrible it is to have a fearsome, evil warlord of chaos whom she may never touch without dying. The poison that covers his skin and armor is just too powerful even for her.

But that’s alright. All she needs is for him to look over at her and bow his head to his dark queen.

When really, Fenrir is just standing there looking at her with a confused expression. He has no idea why she’s giggling to herself and… it’s kind of creepy but in an oddly endearing way.

“Oi, dog boy,” Tabitha says once Fenrir has set the lumber down where she wants it.

“What’s up?” Fenrir asks.

“There’s somethin’ I’ve been thinkin’ about it.”

“What would that be? Everything alright?”

“Yeah. I’m just realizin’ somethin’ important.”

“And that is…?”

“What if the devs didn’t make it so that we can leave the atmosphere and my rocket tower explodes from hitting the limit of the sky?”

“Alright then. I’m going back to working. What do you need me to do?”

“Oi! I’m serious!”

“Just build the evil-tower-rocket ship that pierces the heavens.”

“Now that’s the kind of response I wanted to hear!”