Once again I found myself wondering, what exactly was the nature of that curse inflicted on Misaki? Clearly, it was something beyond my comprehension, but then why would something like that be used on her, and who could’ve done it?

I stared at her smooth back as she put her clothes back on.

My mind felt like it was coming back to me, and the experience of what we’d just done was beginning to feel more distant. As if it hadn’t happened to me.

“Hey, Misaki.”

The beautiful girl turned to me, mid-reclothing, her chest exposed. “Yes, master?”

I looked away for a moment, oddly hesitant to look at her in that state even after what we’d done, but I soon turned back to her. “I was wondering…” I glanced over to the drawer where the scroll Isolde had given me was. Based on what she said, there probably weren’t many who knew about the curse that was inflicted on Misaki, but that didn’t mean she didn’t. “About your curse—”

“Do you want to know more about that?”

I turned back to her, facing her cold eyes. With a nod, I answered. “Yes, that is, only if you are okay with talking about it.”

Misaki looked away, seemingly staring into nothingness. She stayed that way for a few seconds before eventually turning back to me. “I’m sorry, master. But…unless you order me to, I’d prefer to not speak on that for now.”

“That’s totally fine,” I reassured her. “If you ever feel the need to say something about it, please do. Otherwise, you can keep that to yourself.”

“Alright…” Misaki said as she finished dressing. After a few seconds of hesitation, she continued. “…one more thing, master.”

“What is it?”

“Is your earlier command still active?”

“Earlier command?” I asked.

“'I want you to do whatever you want’,” she repeated the words I’d said earlier. “Is that command still active?”

Right, that’s what she meant. There really was nothing I wanted more than for all four of the girls to live the way they wanted. Even though I didn’t really want to have to use a command for that to be the case, if at the end of the day, it led to them truly doing what they wanted, even if that something is wanting to be treated like a slave, I guess it wouldn’t be all that bad. As long as that something is truly what they want.

I just hope I don’t have to treat her like a slave again.

“Yes, it is.”

“I see.” Holding both hands before her, she looked me in the eyes. “In that case, would you mind if I slept here tonight?”

Even though we’d just had sex, having her ask me to simply sleep in my room made me blush for some reason. I guess I wasn’t expecting a request that…wholesome (?) to come out of Misaki. But of course, that was a request I was more than happy to oblige with.

“Of course,” I said. “You’re free to do so whenever you want.”

 

***

 

A week passed by without anything of note.

Every day was rather simple. We ate breakfast, sometimes bathed together and sometimes separated, I’d make dinner, we’d eat, do our own things, and then go to sleep. It was this same loop that continued these last couple of days.

Kishiko no longer spoke to me with disdain, but she also wasn’t talking to me too much either. Misaki spoke about as much as she usually did, and her mannerisms didn’t change in the slightest (and of course, we continued having sex every night). And as for the twins…well…

““Play with us, master!””

The girls each grabbed onto one of my arms, pulling me in opposite directions like they wanted to split me in two.

“I don’t mind playing, but what do you want to play?” I asked. All we’d done together up till now was more of the same. There was one day when they asked me to read them a book, but apart from that, I’d done very little for them.

I still wanted to tell them the same thing I told Kishiko and Misaki, or at least that was my plan, but every time I tried doing that, I came to the same conclusion that I really didn’t need to. At least, it didn’t seem like I did. Compared to the other two, the twins didn’t seem to mind my company or the situation they were in and they seemed to be doing exactly what they wanted when they wanted.

With that being my only end goal, it didn’t seem very important to put the thought in their head that maybe they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing or that they are wrong for doing that.

““We want to go outside!””

“Outside?” I asked.

This was the first time any of the girls had requested something like that. I wasn’t keeping them locked in here or anything, even though I did worry about them going outside and interacting with the people in this town since they were outsiders, but none of them expressed any desire to go out either.

I guess the time had come.

“What do you want to do outside?”

They turned to each other and then turned to me. ““We don’t know!””

I guess that makes sense. It’s not like they know anything about this place.

I thought it over, but I couldn’t come up with anything that was fun in this town. For the most part, this place was pretty to look at and there were some nice places, but I wouldn’t call any of them “fun”. At least I wouldn’t imagine anything here would be fun for the twins.

“Um…” I wondered.

As they both expectantly stared up at me, I caught a glimpse of their chest through the loose clothing. I of course looked away, but it also gave me an idea.

“What if we go out shopping for some new clothes?”

They blinked in unison a few times, then their tales stood on end. ““Yes, let’s do it!”” They said before slamming themselves onto me.

I wondered if I should also bring the other two along, but I thought that bringing everyone along might be a little too much right now. I could explain these two away in one way or another, but having four beautiful girls around me was a whole other story.

I’d just have to go out shopping with them at a later time, I decided.

 

We headed out within five minutes.

The girls wore their dresses while I wore my usual attire.

It hadn’t hit me that none of the girls had more than the clothes I gave them the first day to wear. Until now that is. For the twins especially, their clothes didn’t seem to fully fit, leaving the cloth around their chest too loose at all times. While I can’t say I hated getting flashes of their bare chest, I also didn’t want to take advantage of that.

So, getting clothes that actually fit was the way to go.

Now for the next big challenge.

““Everything looks so nice!”” The girls said simultaneously as they looked around the buildings. Their tails snaked around enthusiastically as they each held onto one of my hands.

“…”

While the girls were all amused at getting to see the open world for the first time in a bit, I was much more preoccupied with all the stares I was getting.

I was pretty well known in this town, so there was no way that these people could easily dismiss what they were looking at. Holding their hands wouldn’t be too weird if they were children, but while their mentality was definitely child-like, I was pretty certain we were all around the same age.

Making this all the much weirder for me.

This was bound to happen, just got to get it over with quick.

Thankfully due to their size, I could easily just lie and say they were much younger than they were, but then I’d run into a whole other set of problems. But I prepared for that too.

“Master,” Hikari spoke up. “Do you always walk around by yourself?”

“By myself?”

She nodded furiously.

I mean, recently I’d been by myself. Usually, I’d go out with my father, and before that, we’d all go out as a family. Back when my mother was still alive. So I guess the answer is yes?

“Basically…why do you ask?”

This time it was Shiari who spoke. “We were never allowed to walk by ourselves, never.” She squeezed my hand. “Always in a group or with The One, always.”

The One?

That was an oddly mysterious title. It didn’t take much to know they were talking about the church they used to belong to. Compared to the other two, an ex-Celestia and an ex-royalty, I was the least familiar with this church they were a part of.

I was meant to ask them about that, but I was never able to breach the subject. I just didn’t know how. Again, that’s probably because of the way they acted. They didn’t feel like the kind of people I could easily talk to about stuff like this like with Kishiko and Misaki.

“I see,” I simply answered. “Well, once you get accustomed to this place, you are free to roam around a bit by yourselves—within reason that is.”

I still wasn’t sure if it was entirely safe for them, while still under the classification of slaves, to go out and about without their master. I’d have to figure something out so they could at least walk around town without much of a worry.

Guess I’d have to talk to the mayor, I thought.

Now that was someone I hadn’t spoken to in a hot minute. But I was certain he’d be willing to hear me out, so I wasn’t worried about how he’d react to my proposal.

Maybe I should do that later today…

““Really?!”” Both girls burst into large smiles. Their eyes glittered with excitement.

“Of course. I’ll have to talk to a few people, but I’ll make sure that you can roam around here whenever you wan—!”

““Thank you, master!!””

Both girls slammed their bodies to either side of me, hugging me with all the strength those little thin arms could produce.

Even more eyes turned my way, but I simply smiled away from the questioning looks.

If anything, none of this looked like these two girls were my slaves. They looked more like my siblings or daughters—if you ignored the fact that they had cat ears. Hopefully, people looked past that and saw me as a guy just taking care of some girls who may or may not be related to me.

Yeah, that’s probably not it.

And almost as if the lord himself decided to nail the point deeper, I heard a set of footsteps coming from behind me.

I was simply going to move out of the way so they could pass through, but when a voice hit my ears, my entire body froze in a second.

“Mr…Starlin?”

Slowly, I turned around, both girls still glued to my either side. And there, standing with both eyes open as far as they could, was a boy with pointy ears at the top of his head. Baggy clothes, cute face—

“H-Hey Kasey…how are you doing…?”

Kasey didn’t answer, he simply stared with a dumbfounded expression.

 

 

***

 

***

 

***Author's Note***

 

Hey, two chapters in one day, what kind of sorcery allowed this miracle to happen...? Sitting myself down and doing nothing but writing for a few days straight. That's what allowed this to happen.

In fact, there was so much writing that an entirely new series was born, to my horror. Of course, I will not make the same mistake as I did with this story and start publishing without having at least an arc done. That means that the new series will probably not see the light of day for a while, but so be it.

At the same time, I was working on some other of my secret projects. I haven't gotten too, too far with anything, but I'm still attempting to do so.

Anyway, this is also the firs 18+ chapter in a while (Well, not this one specifically, but the other one I published at the same time). I still feel I'm not great at writing those, but I am trying. To some extent. I kind of fall short creatively with those scenes, and even as I wrack my brain for more, nothing seems to come through.

Anyway, anyway, the story should really start to come full circle now. I've done a bit of what I wanted to do and now I'm moving forward to resolve the overarching plot of this first arc...helping poor Kasey in his predicament and getting closer to the girls (Which I've done a bit of already). This arc won't be ending too soon, but at least I think the path will start to clear up soon. After that I will get to do more exploration of things I've been wanting to touch upon since the beginning - but I'm getting ahead of myself.