Filvis was completely still as what was clearly the Red Dragon twisted its head around, eyes shining with intelligence. She was strong. One of the strongest in Orario. But to this thing? It had slaughtered the Zeus and Hera familias wholesale, leaving nothing but a pitiable remnant.

"Too frightened to speak?"

The voice seemed to boom and echo in her head, as she stood there in stunned silence. There was a mocking note to the creature's gaze now. She needed to say something. "I'm not an adventurer!" The words came out spontaneously, senselessly, and the creature simply tilted its head.

"Oh? Is that why you came here, to my roost?"

"I-I'm a monster!" It was the first thing that came to mind. The dragon simply stared at her, quietly, staring down in challenge. She had to prove it, or she'd die. "Look! I don't- I don't have blood," she said, hurriedly, taking her sword and slicing along her wrist. Black bile bubbled forth, thick like tar, and the Red Dragon simply looked at it, as if bored. "See?" She was desperate for its approval - its acceptance. She wanted to live.

"I see. Then why did you come here?"

"I..." she was at a loss for words. "I was hunting other monsters," she admitted. "I didn't think it was - you."

"Mm..."

"Eating monster cores makes us stronger," she said, trying to defend herself.

"I wonder... how tasty yours would be?"

Filvis's blood ran cold, to whatever extent she still had blood. She split in two, one racing away while the creature before her stared her down. It was pointless, of course - it moved like lightning, snapping up the other body in her mouth before coming back, planting one claw on the first body, pinning her down - then it spat her out. "Please, don't kill me," Filvis said. She'd never - she'd never make up for all the things she had done. She'd never be able to tell Drake how she felt. She was going to die, a miserable, pointless death, utterly alone in the world.

It spat her body out.

"Alright."

The red scales of the dragon, the titanic defenses of a monster that had slaughtered senselessly and with overwhelming force, shifted away, fluidly transforming into the skin of a mortal woman in a process that seemed banal and bland. Filvis just shuddered as she stared at the woman: she appeared as a beautiful, red-haired human woman with fair skin and a hourglass shape, wearing a scanty version of a mage's garb, with long braided hair and a wide-brimmed hat. Despite her clothes and staff, there was no chance she was some mage using a disguise magic to befuddle or frighten wayward adventurers. This was the Red Dragon. Everything in her mind told her as much. The fact that it could adopt the form of a human only made it more dangerous, not less. Its lips remained curled in a smile. "It's my first time talking to another monster."

* * *

Ryu placed a fresh glass of water in front of her old friend, turning around to go back to the kitchen. "Lion, c'mon," Alise said. "You're avoiding me."

"I have work to do," Ryu said, moving back to the kitchen - and Alise stood up to follow her. That was something new, that Alise could now stand under her own power.

"I'm your friend!" Alise said, flicking her hair behind her ear absently, a concerned smile. "You can't just shut me out!" Alise swooped around in front of Ryu, using the superior speed she possessed since her resurrection to place herself in front of the doorway to the kitchen.

"I am not shutting you out. I am working."

"You haven't talked to me more than this since the thing with the Juggernaut, Lion! Are you seriously trying to tell me that these two things aren't related?" Ryu paused for a moment. It was true that she had not spoken to Alise very much in that long. Alise let out an exaggerated sigh, just slumping her shoulders. "You didn't even realize you'd been doing it until this moment, did you?"

Ryu stared at Alise. "I have to work," she decided on.

"Lion, tell me what I did wrong!" Alise said.

Ryu thought about it. Was the event connected? It was likely connected. What had Alise done that would have upset her with respect to the Juggernaut? "You abandoned Drake to the Juggernaut. He died."

Alise just blinked a few times at that, her expression more confused than anything else. "He... died? I saw him afterwards, he was holding the Dark Knight."

"Yes. Because Cassandra saw his corpse."

Alise paused, pressing one finger against her forehead. "O...kay?"

"Do you think it was upsetting to me when you died?"

"That's completely different, Lion!"

"Is it?"

"I- well, okay, I'm sorry he died," Alise said. "It's not like I killed him!"

"No. You simply abandoned him to the Juggernaut, which he fought to the death because he was worried that Cassandra would get in a fight with it and die. Which she probably would have, given his account of the sequence of events that followed." Ryu felt the heat in her own words, and had to conclude Alise was correct: she was upset at her, and this was why.

Alise just rapidly blinked at that, her eyelashes fluttering wildly, like the beating wings of a butterfly. She stepped aside from the doorway, letting Ryu through to the kitchen.

* * *

Alise stood in front of the doorway to the kitchen. She had just been talking to Ryu. Ryu had been upset, because she had abandoned Drake to the Juggernaut. She had done that, because-?

"Oi!" Mia Grand's loud, booming voice jerked Alise out of her reverie. "You don't even order food any more, and now you're harassing Ryu?"

"Sorry," Alise said. "We're old friends-"

"And?" Even though Alise was fairly certain she was stronger than Mia Grand at this point, something about her intimidating aura sent her back to her table, where she resumed sipping at her water in silence.

She had abandoned Drake to be killed by the Juggernaut, as she had been too busy protecting Ryu. Why hadn't she gotten Ryu out of the area and gone back for Drake? She'd had to protect Ryu, but once Ryu was away from the Juggernaut-?

She had abandoned Drake to be killed by the Juggernaut, as she had been too busy protecting Ryu. That was bad and had hurt Ryu's feelings. It had also endangered the lives of anybody else who would have been present at the time, which apparently had included Cassandra Cain, one of Drake's wives and Ryu's new best friend's (absolutely pitiable) crush. Why hadn't she thought about that at the time-?

She had abandoned Drake to be killed by the Juggernaut, as she had been too busy protecting Ryu. That was bad and had hurt Ryu's feelings. She needed to apologize properly. A proper apology included a sincere promise not to do it again. Why had she done it in the first place-?

She had abandoned Drake to be killed by the Juggernaut, as she had been too busy protecting Ryu.

* * *

Syr was washing dishes in the back when Mia arrived, clonking her on the top of the head. "Ow!" Syr said, bringing her hands up to her head defensively. "What was that for?"

"Alise is broken in the dining area," Mia said, her voice growing quieter as she spoke, until it was just a whisper, almost uninterpretable if it hadn't been for the way her beautiful soul shifted with each word. For a moment, Syr wondered if this was how her Cassandra saw the world - then she processed what was being said properly. "She's been blinking and staring at the wall for the past half hour. I can't imagine it's not related to you," Mia said. "Fix it. I don't like beating up people with brain damage."

"I see. Sorry. I'll go see what it is," Syr said, putting on a pleasant smile and stepping out into the main dining area, where the redheaded woman was nursing an empty glass of what had once been water. Ever since she figured out magic stones were what she actually liked to eat, she stopped stuffing her mouth with ordinary food - not that Syr blamed her. "Alise? Are you alright?" Her soul looked about as much of a mess as it had been before she'd given her the order to save Ryu - not that that was really saying much.

"Hm? No. I'm fantastic. The great Alise Lovell," she said, placing one hand on her chest with a note of pride, a cocksure smile on her face. "At your service, Syr. Oh! Sorry about, ah, almost getting your crush killed," she said, grimacing and wincing at once as she spoke.

"What?" Syr's word was a sharp bark.

"Yeah... uh... I kinda hightailed it out of that fight with Ryu. You know, saving my old comrade. Forgot her boyfriend behind me, and Cassandra came down to try to save him, apparently. Would've bit it. I think. Probably. Not sure why I survived, so maybe she would've gotten turned into-"

"I certainly hope not." Syr glared at her.

"RIght, yeah. Probably not as fun to screw a girl who's lukewarm and all her processes are messed up-"

"I love Cassandra, not her body. What happened to you irrevocably damaged you. That's why you don't remember how you died, or countless other specific events."

"Right. Yeah. Probably true. Well, I'm sorry about that. Was apologizing to Ryu earlier for it. It's weird, I don't remember why I-"

At that point, two things happened. Firstly, her thought processes clearly underwent some deep, hard reset, as she completely lost her train of thought. Secondly, the lingering impact of Freya's Charm on her sparked across her soul, slicing across once-divided parts of the injured spiritual organ.

There was a furious shake of the redhead's head, short hair flying about at random. "Sorry. Getting a bit dazed," she said, wearing a faux-awkward smile. "What were we talking about, beautiful?"

Syr sighed, glancing over at the kitchen, where Ryu still was - avoiding her old friend, no doubt. "How you were going to apologize to Ryu," she said.

"Oh. Really?" She frowned. "I think I said I was sorry already. Well, I guess you gotta-"

"Come on," Freya said, taking hold of Revis's upper arm, dragging her along before her thought process could drag her across some lingering influence of her Charm. She practically shoved her into a closet.

"Ooo, I thought you just had eyes for Cass?" Revis teased, a playful smile on her lips, a parody of the smile that someone dear to Ryu had once worn. "Well, far be it from me to ruin a pretty girl's day-"

Freya pulled free the string holding her hair back, letting her full divinity bloom effulgent around her, and Revis was cut off, recognition and confusion warring on her face at once. "You care for Ryu deeply. You wanted to save her. You panicked, after getting in a fight with the Juggernaut that had once killed you. That's why you made the decision you did. You are truly sorry that you abandoned her-" she bit back the contempt from her tone, "-lover, and certainly sorry that you created a situation where somebody else could have died." Her Cassandra. She... owed Drake, now. She had almost gotten her own beloved killed - she certainly hoped the girl would have survived such a battle, but she was not a fool. "You will apologize, sincerely, to everyone involved for your foolish, panicked mistake."

At that point, Freya pulled back on the string, plastering on Syr's smile as Revis's eyes fluttered in momentary confusion, her lips softly parted in from a hypnotic mindlessness. "Alise?" The woman in question shook her head rapidly, recovering from another application of Freya's Charm. "Have you decided how you are going to apologize to Ryu?"

"Yep!" Revis said, with the utmost confidence. "I see how I screwed up now."

* * *

Syr smiled as her favorite person entered into the Hostess, following shortly behind Erza. The redheaded adventurer was well and truly pregnant by this point, her belly full and round in a way that suggested she could give birth at any moment, but she walked with the same easy stride as always. One benefit of a few Levels, perhaps. "Cass," she called out with a wave. "I'm glad to see you're okay," she added.

Cass's expression crinkled at that, noticing something about Syr. She didn't comment as she followed Erza to their table - and a few scant steps behind her was Noriko, who was handling her pregnancy rather less gracefully than Erza, her breasts having swelled up quite a lot, now a rival for Erza's in size, and rapidly approaching her mother's. Noriko, in turn, was followed by Drake, who seemed particularly protective of Noriko. Wasn't it her Cassandra who had almost died?

She resisted the urge to get too annoyed at that; instead, Syr just followed the group to their table, popping out a notepad and getting ready to write. "Hello! How are things going for the four of you today?" She put on her best smile - and she was surprised when Erza sneezed, loudly, managing to dampen the phlegm with a quick removal of a hankerchief from somewhere or other. "Gesundheit," Syr said.

"Ah, thank you," Erza said, sniffing. "I have been sneezing quite a bit today."

"I have heard that you sneeze when others talk about you without your knowledge," Noriko offered. "Perhaps that is what is happening."

"That's a myth, Noriko," Drake said, idly stroking her hair.

"Are you sure?" Noriko asked.

"Yes," Drake said, though he then seemed to pause, considering something. He glanced over at Syr for a moment, making Syr simply quirk one eyebrow back at him. She could see something in his soul, but she couldn't quite make out what. "Yes," he repeated, with rather more confidence.

"I see. My mother told me it, though, and she is not a liar."

"There's lots of folk wisdom that just gets passed on through generations like that." Cassandra looked at Syr again, her soul once more showing something serious and discerning in her response to Syr, who just plastered on her best bland smile. "My mom told me about chewing gum sticking to your stomach for seven years before it leaves. Actually, it is bad, but the concern is more that your body can't digest it, so if you swallow too much it can block something."

"I see," Noriko said, seeming as if this was the first time she had considered her mother could be wrong about a fact.

"Righto," Syr said. She didn't like seeing Drake doting on Noriko, not when her Cassandra was right there. Even if her Cassandra didn't care, Syr did! "I did want to say, I heard from Alise who heard from Ryu that you saved Cass, so thanks, Drake," she said. She contemplated offering him sex. Would that be too forward? Out of character? Was there a way to turn it against Drake somehow - something Cass would be bothered by him taking her up on?

"I prefer not to think about it that way," Drake said, his voice mild yet cold, which just made Syr confused. She'd given him thanks - she had even actually meant it! She would probably have just fucking killed herself if her Cassandra had died because of what she did. (Admittedly, mostly because that would return her to Heaven, where her Cassandra would be.)

"I'm sorry? How do you like to think about it?" Syr asked.

"There was a dangerous creature, and I handled it, to protect anybody who happened to come by," Drake explained. "There's no guarantee it would have gone away on its own, either."

Ahhh. She understood now. He didn't want to make her Cassandra feel guilty. Even as he stroked Noriko and doted on her, he did still care about her Cassandra - it was one of the most infuriating things about him! If he was a total cad, then she could just run away with Cassandra in peace! "True," Syr agreed. "I really am glad that things turned out mostly okay." Drake just nodded by way of reply. "How are you, Cass?"

"...fine," her Cassandra said.

Urgh. She seemed about is bitterly annoyed at Syr as Ryu had been at Alise - more aware of it, though. "Did I do something? I'm sorry if I did." Erza sneezed again, once more catching it in a hankerchief. "I'm just trying to be helpful."

"In that case, I would like the miso soup," Noriko said. Syr just jotted it down, staring at her Cassandra quietly, trying to trace out in her soul what she'd done wrong. "I would also like tea to accompany it."

They got their orders in at that point, and Syr went back to tell what they were. Her Cassandra didn't tell her what she'd done wrong, unfortunately - and when she came back out to check on them, Erza's water broke, ruining the whole thing completely as they scurried off to elsewhere with the intensely pregnant girl.

"Hey, Ryu," she said, as the beautiful soul in question washed dishes.

"Hm?"

"Next time, when you're practicing with Cass, could you ask her what I did to upset her? She's definitely upset with me."

"Hm. I do not know why she would be upset with you."

"Yes. That's why I want you to ask her. I asked her, but she didn't answer, and then Erza's water broke..."

"I see." Ryu seemed to contemplate it slowly but surely, her brain creaking along to its destination. "Very well. I'll ask her."

"Great! Thanks, Ryu, you're the best."

Ryu smiled very lightly at that. "Alise apologized for abandoning Drake against the Juggernaut," Ryu noted.

"Oh! That's good to hear. I want you two to be great friends again!"

"Yes. Thank you." Ryu paused in her dishwashing thoughtfully. "Do you think Drake will have sex with Anya or Lunoire? He has sex with you, Chloe, and myself, so having sex with another woman here would not be surprising..."

"Gods, I hope not. He has too many girls as is!"

"I do not think that is true... he is very kind to everyone he is with. Except the Prettiest Princess, but that is because she likes it when he is not nice to her."

"Ugh! You're completely blinkered, Ryu!"

"I am not."

"Are too! How can he love you all, when he's got like seventy nine women or whatever the number is now!"

"He is currently sexually active with twenty-three women," Ryu said, in a completely matter-of-fact voice. "That number includes you, as well as three other 'sex friends', but does not include Bella."

"At least Bella's still pure..." Syr mumbled to herself. "Wait, why do you know that?"

"Drake talks about that sort of thing with me."

"What- why?!"

"It is part of his life, and I am part of his life, as I love him and am intimately involved with him." True.

"Nnnng," Syr grunted, frustration rising. "Oh gods, does that mean he tells you when he fucks a new woman?"

"Not the day of, but yes."

"Ohhh I don't want to hear any more," Syr decided, just turning on her heel and leaving. Drake... sometimes, she wished he'd never come to Orario at all...

But she was pretty sure that if he had never come to Orario, she never would have found her Cassandra, so she supposed she didn't really wish that.

She did wish he stopped fucking new girls, though! She mentally counted out who he could possibly be fucking, and if the total was twenty-three, there were three girls she had no real idea on.

* * *

Erza had absolutely zero necessary recovering time after popping out a cute little boy with ruddy red hair - she was happily parading the child around, her belly still quite large post-pregnancy as she showed him off to Loki, and Noriko, and Cass, and Kori, and Julia, and Aisha, and Ais, and Finn, and Raul, and Anakitty... really, every single member of the Loki familia, no matter how little they cared, with a sheer exuberant obliviousness that combined both Erza's normal exuberant obliviousness with the exuberant obliviousness of any parent talking in inane detail about how their child had colored inside the lines or any other thing nobody except them could possibly care about.

(She was still sneezing intermittently, but I figured that was just some hormone thing from the pregnancy.)

One member of the Loki familia who was not terribly impressed with that particular reality was Tione. I had the body dedicated to her pretty much plastered to her side as Erza proudly showed off the baby, rattling off name ideas, talking about how much she looked forward to being a mother, and making comments about how the way he moved his tiny little arms clearly indicated higher intelligence.

It didn't really help.

"How come I don't have a baby?!" Tione asked, fuming, having managed to keep it in only just long enough for Erza to decide to head off and start giving the same shpiel to another unfortunate member of the familia.

"We haven't been together that long. When I knocked up Erza, you were still in love with Finn." That did significantly reduce her annoyance, but mostly on account of she was nice enough to recognize it was hypocritical for her to be mad about me having a past relationship with other women when, at the time, she had been in her pseudo-relationship with Finn. Alongside just giving her absolutely all of that body's attention, that was one of my major strategies for handling her jealousy.

"We're together now, though." She paused. "Am I pregnant?"

"I wouldn't knock you up without your consent," I told her. "I care about you, Tione." I squeezed her hand in mine to emphasize that point.

"In that case, let's go make a baby right now," she declared.

"I would like you to have thought about it a little longer than that," I said, gently - while another body of mine was hurriedly grabbing Rei. "Rei, Tione wants to make a baby."

"Fuck yeah!" Rei declared excitedly. "Yeah, I wanna watch her get fuckin' knocked-" I grabbed her shoulder before she could run out of the room. "What?"

"Have you been watching Tione... at all?"

"Yeah?"

"So you know she's absolutely insanely jealous about everything? And probably doesn't want you watching her get knocked up?"

"Yeah, but we agreed, sooooo..."

"We agreed. Tione didn't agree."

"Oh my God, dude! I want to fucking watch her get railed and impregnated! She's so fucking hot, extremely spankable, and she's straight so watching her get fucked is all I'm gonna getttt!"

"I understand that, but it's Tione. I don't even want to bring this up with her for fear of her coming over to murder you in a fit of rage."

"Ugggggghhhhhhhh," Rei whined.

"I'll do something special for you," I suggested.

"Fine, fine, okay, I'll just watch through Tione's senses, but only 'cause you got killed recently and I'm being nice to you," she said, huffing as she hopped out of bed. Ten seconds later, she'd found her way to where Tione was arguing with me that there was no reason to hesitate for longer than one entire minute on impregnating her. She was actually trying to drag me back to her room.

"If you impregnated another girl, you should impregnate me!" Tione said. "In fact, you should make me- super pregnant! I should have more babies than any other woman!"

"Yo," Rei said, making Tione spare a glance over at her, long enough for her to make eye contact. "I heard about the argument, on account of you're really loud. Can I watch you get knocked up?"

"No! Obviously not!" Tione shouted.

"Alright, fine. Later."

"No, never!" Tione yelled.

"No, I meant, later as in, I'm out," Rei said, then left.

I just sighed as I watched her go, Tione still having both hands firmly attached to my forearm, dragging me towards her bedroom. "We're together, you've knocked up six other women, I want a baby!"

"Did you want a baby when you were crushing on Finn?"

She looked some mix of upset and annoyed at that. "Yes, but now I want a baby with you, so-"

"No, I wanted to know, because I want to know if this is jealousy or what you really want," I told her, which calmed her down by a lot. "I don't want to have a child with you just to satisfy a pique of jealousy."

"Obviously it's not just jealousy! I love you!"

"Well, you only started asking-" I stopped myself. "Let's stop arguing, and go make a baby," I told her.

Instantly, her mood turned around, a big smile on her lips as she dragged my body over to the bedroom. She hefted me up and tossed me onto her bed, hurriedly yanking off her skirts and underwear. I started to strip myself after a half-second to realize I really ought to be doing as much, and she hurriedly took off her top, too, her gorgeous, gravity-defying, full breasts bouncing free into the open air.

Once we were both naked, Tione pretty much just leapt on my dick, managing to go from "off the bed" to "straddling me with my cock inside her" in a single, fluid movement, her tight sex wrapping around my cock as she took me to the base. She let out a sigh as she wiggled in place, her inner muscles gripping at my length with active intent, her gaze forcefully on me. "Come fast, you're knocking me up," she told me, grinding her body against mine greedily, leaning forward over me as she tried to get in the best position possible. "Come fast," she repeated, seeming more annoyed, as I clearly wasn't getting to an orgasm particularly quickly.

My cock did pulse at her repeated demands that I come quickly, though. I try to be an unselfish lover, which is admittedly pretty easy when you have Celestial Bliss Trick and all the other tricks in my repertoire - but she was pretty much explicitly asking for me to be selfish, and I knew her well enough to know she meant it. I gripped her by the hips, and just started to pump her forcibly on my cock, pounding her up and down my length as I throbbed inside her.

"O-o-o-oh, yes," she stuttered out, her voice warbling pleasantly from the rough pace with which I was lifting her up and down my cock. "Cuh, come, in, me, D-D-Draaa~aake," she got out, as I just went at it with her body, twisting the pair of us around so that she was on her back underneath me, letting me add my hips' movement in as I fucked her hard.

Of course, she'd sucked out four orgasms from that body that day with her earlier fellatio, so it was going to take a bit of time for me to come. I reached up between her breasts, plucking at the Strand of Fate. "Wh-what are you, d-d-doing, just, focus, on coming," she got out.

"I am. If you're coming, it's easier for me to come, because your pussy goes wild," I explained to her, and her pussy immediately started to intermittently grip and squeeze my cock - not from an orgasm of her own, but her own very intentional work, gripping my cock with the muscles down there as hard as she could.

"Sh-shouldn't, t-t-take, th-that long," she sputtered out, as I just railed away, giving her no mercy in just how hard I was pistoning her up and down my cock, how relentlessly I was going at it. With the strength of a Level Six and an unresisting fellow High Level adventurer, I could fuck away harder than anybody'd ever fucked before, yanking Tione up and down my cock as her pussy did its best to give me some pleasant squeezes.

"You really, sucked me, dry, earlier," I grunted out, focusing on getting even harder with her, half wanting to shut her up from sheer force, half wanting to nut quickly like she wanted. "You're, nn, gonna get pregnant, don't worry," I told her, and her head nodded, lolling around a bit from the sheer force I was bringing to bear. Her nipples were perky, her pussy wet, even though I was doing absolutely nothing to make her feel good. She was just that full of desire for me, something that intensified my own arousal. "You're, my, woman," I told her, grunting more intensely as I did my best to up the pace without risking my cock slipping out.

"Yuh, yesh, this, we're, together," she got out - then Celestial Bliss Trick kicked in, her body spasming in wild-eyed pleasure as her pussy went crazy on my cock. She just squealed in ecstasy, and it took about ten seconds of her intensely-orgasming cunt, for me to just bottom out and unload inside her, spraying hot cum all over her waiting womb, groaning as I found sweet release inside her.

When I was finished, I pulled out, panting a bit. "It's, done," I told her, and she nodded on the bed, still trembling from the effects of Celestial Bliss Trick. "You're pregnant."

"Mmm..." she half-moaned, glancing up at me. "Try for a second? Amazons can have twins..." she noted, making my cock pulse. I got back on top of her at that point, going right back to rutting at her like a maniac, and she squealed and came and jerked wildly the whole while, making all sorts of loud noises as pleasure completely overwhelmed her, going cross-eyed in bliss.

When I came in her a second time - willing it to knock her up a second time, having no idea if that would work - she was a sweaty, dripping mess, but she had the most satisfied smile on her lips. I pulled out and cuddled up to her, and she rubbed back against me.

* * *

Bella stared quietly at Erza's cute baby boy. "I hope he'll grow up to be a great warrior like his father, but he can of course do whatever he wants," Erza was going on. "I'm sure he'll be smart like his father, too, and handsome like his father," she continued. Erza paused as she sneezed. "Sorry. I have been sneezing quite a bit. As I was saying, Therium will be raised with the unbounded love of our whole family! Such a child will be able to achieve anything!" She was really hopeful for the baby. The baby she'd made... with Drake...

Bella's cheeks steamed up as she thought about that, and the way babies were made, which she'd seen Drake doing with Setsuko, when she'd been spying on them, like a total pervert! "A-ah, yeah, here's, hoping," she squeaked out. "I, um, have to do something," she said, rushing off to her bedroom. She practically screamed into the pillow. She was such a pervert! This was all Grandpa's fault! Erza was being nice and talking about her baby and now Bella was thinking about Erza getting bent over and fucked and her boobs bouncing and Bella's boobs were small and Drake's type was definitely big boobs but he was nice to her and dating her so he wasn't that shallow but-!

There was a rapping on the door, and Drake's gentle voice came through it. "Hey, Bella. You alright in there?"

"Ummmm... yes," Bella said, horribly unconvincingly.

"Can I come in?" He asked it like he thought she might be-!

"Yes," she squeaked out. She wasn't! She wasn't doing anything dirty! Drake gently opened the door, closing it behind him as he moved to sit down on the bed with her - she automatically shifted to sit next to him, and he just wrapped one arm around her shoulder, making her cheeks turn scarlet. "D-Drake?" She sputtered out.

"Bella, I really do like you a whole lot. You're cute and sweet and earnest," he explained. "But, uh, since yesterday, you've been... extremely easily flustered."

"N-no!" Bella squawked. No! He'd noticed! He was gonna learn she'd watched him having lovey-dovey sex with Setsuko and realize she was a pervert! Grandpa!!!

"Bella. I... don't mind that you watched me and Setsuko have sex." Her entire face went red and she was instantly dizzy. He knew?!? He knew?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?? No, no, he had to mean that first time, when he'd been loud and she'd come in and seen them! That had to be it! "Really. Rei is a complete voyeur. It's natural to be curious and want to watch. There's nothing bad about it. I want you to be comfortable with your sexuality, not constantly flustered about it."

"Nnn!" He had to be talking about the first time, right? Right? He didn't know she was-?!

He just sighed, gently leaning over her, taking a deep breath of her hair which was super sweet, his lips kissing along her scalp which was also sweet, and he wrapped her in a hug. "I know you watched me fucking Setsuko last night." She was going to die. She was going to have a heart attack and die. "It's okay, Bella. You're not a bad person for that. You're not a bad person for wanting to watch the person you like having sex. Or for wanting to have sex with him. I don't want to pressure you into anything, I just want you to feel comfortable enough to say what you want, rather than sneaking around and getting embarrassed about everything."

"I d-d-didn't," she sputtered, and Drake just brought one finger up to her mouth, and she fell silent.

"I knew the whole time," he told her. "I was trying to make it a good show to you." Heaven, here I come! It's me, Bella! No, it wasn't that minotaur. I died of embarrassment! "It's okay, Bella. Really. I just want you to be comfortable around me, and with your own sexuality. Even if you decided to go be with somebody else, I'd want you to... not be so ashamed of yourself." His hand found hers, squeezing it. "This isn't me propositioning you or anything like that, Bella. This is me telling you, it's all okay. Okay?"

"Okay," she squeaked out.

"Do you want me to stop hugging you?"

"N-no," she said, and he leaned into the top of her head again, just nuzzling it, which was suuuuper nice...

"We'll take everything at your pace, no matter what, Bella. But that can be fast or slow. It's okay if you want to go faster. It doesn't make you a bad person, or a slut, or anything. It just makes you, you." He was soooo nice... She leaned back into him, enjoying feeling his big muscly chest with her cheek... blood flowed to her cheeks, and to some other places... and she promptly passed out.

* * *

Filvis had listened to the Red Dragon's long... long... story of her own history. She'd been too afraid to do otherwise. This was the creature that had slaughtered the entirety of the Zeus and Hera familias, after all. She couldn't exactly tell her she was boring.

The Red Dragon had awoken in the Dungeon and - on some vague instinct - crawled her way to the surface, occasionally eating other, smaller monsters. She had been running on scanty instinct and something deep within her, yearning for the light of the sun. Occasionally people would attack her, and she would kill them.

She kept going back to her dreams in this long story, but although somebody's dreams were naturally something of interest solely to them, Filvis had bit her tongue. The Red Dragon's dreams were of the sunlit sky, even back in the Dungeon, and of life in some ancient cityscape that existed before even her escape. "Those dreams, of that city, of that time... they only became more intense, as time went on. More complex. A language not spoken today. Most importantly, magic chants forgotten to time. That's where I picked up the chant that allows me to transform into a human."

"I didn't hear you chanting."

"I am the strongest of all monsters. The strongest living thing on this planet," the Red Dragon said. "Magic chants were made so that mortals without falna could use magic. I'm stronger than every single adventurer with a falna of this era, put together. Of course I can use such a simple spell with a chant. Now, as I was saying..." She trailed off as she realized she hadn't been saying much of anything, just recounting dreams. "Well, after acquiring a human body, I decided to wander among humanity. I became a queen, got married... but I was driven out after a god discovered I was actually a monster. Even my husband turned against me, and I was pregnant at the time... admittedly, it was a political marriage."

"You just said you were the strongest thing on this planet..." Filvis said.

"And?"

So couldn't you have killed them all? "Nothing, go on."

"I was pregnant, and I had the child. She was beautiful, so wonderful, such a delight in my life... oh, but then those idiots in the Hera and Zeus familia came to attack me. I couldn't just abandon her, so I defended my roost. My child. It was my first time having anything close to a real fight in a long time." She had an almost starry-eyed gaze as she said that. "In the end, I had to abandon her into the care of another... after much searching, I found a couple and put her in their custody. I hope she's doing well."

"I hope so too."

"Yes... she was such an adorable thing. She probably doesn't even remember me now. She was five when I left her behind. Such a sweetie. She had my hair, too, lovely, brilliant, scarlet," the Red Dragon continued. Filvis stilled at that, some cold realization taking place in her mind. "Hmm? Something the matter?"

"N... nothing," Filvis said. An idle thought.

But there was a redheaded girl of uncertain parentage back in Orario. A girl who was far stronger than her Level and falna would suggest. A girl who, thinking about it now, resembled the woman before her in a way beyond the degree to which all fair-skinned, red-headed humans resembled one another.

Erza Scarlet.

Chapter 94 is available on my Subscribestar at this link, Chapter 95 at this link, and Chapter 96 at this link. It includes some downtime and the start of the next arc. All three are available for just $3/month.