John’s tasks were, as per usual, not as numerous as one would think. For morale purposes, he had to do a public appearance in the morning. A five minute speech followed by a fifty-five minute taking of various carefully curated questions filled out his first shift in the morning. He was not a fan of staged authenticity (or faking, as it would be more aptly called). Alas, the interviews were not done for the sake of transparency but boosting general support for the war effort.
After that, there was nothing he directly had to do. By now, the initially improvised war council had turned into a disgustingly efficient machine. Legitimized by war measures and internally scanned for corruption constantly by Momo and Ehtra, it was capable of making anything happen that they had resources for. Between the Guild Hall and the elementals on it, they had resources for just about anything, so they were currently reconstructing Goblin Capital. It was a rallying effort as much as it was a show of the duty John felt towards his subjects that had had to hold out the longest for aid.
Goblins, being goblins, offered him a free trial of the cocksleeve subscription service. He declined.
John’s direct involvement in any of this process would not have changed anything. There was a point of efficiency that no mind, no matter how erudite, could improve. Once an operation was in motion, that was usually enough and oversight changed nothing. At that point, it was all about the boots on the ground.
So, John did the thing that few rulers seemed to understand was the most productive undertaking of all: nothing. Micromanagement was not the job of the ruler, conflict resolution was. When there was no conflict to resolve, the best thing to do was to take a step back and just watch. Alternatively, it was the best idea to cozy up to two dragons inside a bathtub.
Cuddling Nathalia was a fundamental Gamer need. The naked goddess pressed her curvaceous body against him. Even if he had closed his eyes, nothing about her would have been left to the imagination. Massive breasts spilled all over his chest, while a thick thigh lay across his. She had hooked one leg under his, utilizing the slant of this particular tub to half lay on top of him.
John wasn’t in a lewd mood, he was happy to just hold her. In a rare development, that feeling was mutual and Nathalia kept her hands above the waistline. There were little kisses here and there, accompanied by the giggle of adults that still knew the thrill of being lovestruck. He brushed her hair between her pointy ear and gazed into her incandescent eyes. Her heat was undeniable, a divine blessing that made her caramel curves so sublime to lay besides.
Tilting his head, he nuzzled up against her. Nathalia was one of the few women in the harem actually taller than him, yet she rested against his neck. With her face now out of view, he studied everything else about her. He found himself particularly fascinated by the way the skin of her side creased.
“Does this ever get uncomfortable?” John’s finger followed the groove of her spine. The median furrow had a greater bend to it than his would have if he lay on his side. As a man, his hip to shoulder ratio meant his back was basically straight. Nathalia’s wide hips made hers more of a flat curve, which John imagined put a lot of strain on her.
“Not for me – although having a man to lay on helps.” The dragoness adjusted her posture a bit so she was lying less on her side and more on him. With his shoulder to rely on, her own top got a bit higher, which made the curve of her spine less extreme.
“I believe they say: ‘Who wants to be beautiful must endure pain’?” Lu Zhi suggested.
The empress was the second dragon in the tub with him, although she was a dragon indirectly. Tianlong was inert, as it usually was. Truly, the god of tradition only acted when it felt like doing so and such stretches were rare. Most of the time, it was content being the attached observer to any scene.
“That’s a German saying that you translated into English,” John pointed out.
“The languages are similar.” Lu Zhi gestured away her mistake and then occupied her half of his chest. She was such a different build from Nathalia. Short, bottom heavy, and with skin that was one day without sunlight away from pale. With her hair down, she had little of the imperial air to her. Little, but not none, it was just that the tomboy part was more dominant in the imperial tomboy’s appearance than usual.
“Well, they do come from the same root, even if there’s a bunch of Latin mixed in for English,” John agreed. “Although the point you were making goes over my head.”
“As the fairer sex, we carry around a number of annoyances that make us attractive,” Lu Zhi clarified her point. “Take these, for example.” Reaching across, the imperial tomboy cupped one of Nathalia’s breasts. “Huge drag.”
“Not that you would know,” Nathalia mocked.
“No, but I got plenty of first-hand accounts – isn’t that right, Daiyu?”
“Yes…” The lady-in-waiting stood in the middle of the Gamer’s bathroom, hiding her face behind a duck. Unlike the trio in the bathtub, the servant woman was clothed, although the bikini Lu Zhi had provided her with was practically turned into a micro article by the size of her assets. She was not quite as curvaceous as Delicia, but she was short and stacked all the same. She also was impressively toned. John had known that before, but seeing her abs without the layer of a tight Chinese dress really emphasized that fact. Soft thighs, round breasts, plush buttocks, and yet she was solid around the middle, all of it coming together harmoniously for a pale, black-haired woman that clearly took care of herself.
Much like she was Lulu’s favourite servant, so was the duck she held in front of her face the empress’ favourite pet. It was the very image of a duck, with white feathers and a bright, orange beak. Wiggling its legs, it treaded air in an effort to get out of Daiyu’s grasp and jump into the tub. Doc the Duck was attracted to the colour red like an enjoyer of crazies to yanderes.
“Why did you take her along anyhow?” Nathalia asked.
“An empress can’t travel without any servants, it’s beneath her station,” Lulu answered. “It also serves as a soft signal to the inner circle of the court. The missing of Daiyu will be noted and thus those that are savvy will work out that it is my double that is operating.”
“B-but why must I be in the bath with you three?” Daiyu stammered.
“Do you have anything else to do?”
“I c-could… read?” She peeked over Doc trying to find approval. Instead, she found her mistress and her two lovers naked. One of these the lady-in-waiting must have often been exposed to, the other two not so much. Muttering, “Awawawa…” she put the fowl back over her eyes.
“You are my servant, little jade, and I want your adorableness around. You might as well get used to my future husband and his nudity.”
“I… uhm… d-don’t see that happening.”
“We shall see about that.” Lu Zhi waved off, then returned to the topic at hand – literally, as she was still weighing Nathalia’ boob in her hand, “I can speak to the troubles of having childbearing hips, at least.”
“Lots of burdens on the female body from having to go through that ordeal,” John agreed. He loved every bit of it. Evolution naturally encouraged that he found the common markers of fertility deeply attractive. Reason meant that he could also acknowledge the numerous pains that came with that half of the sexual binary. “I have so much pampering to do after this war is over…”
“In context that sounds like you intend to begin the mating soon thereafter,” Nathalia remarked.
“I do.”
The confession had Nathalia shoot up in the bathtub. All casual air left her body and she leaned in. The mature woman’s face was blank, only her slightly knitted eyebrows betraying any kind of emotion. She studied him closely, very closely. “Explain, John,” she demanded.
“There’s not much to explain. All of this has made it clear to me how precious life is.” Gently, he pulled at Nathalia’s side, nudging her back into her relaxed resting position. “We’re going to proceed as we had discussed before. I’ll be hurrying along with the wedding, is all I am saying.”
John left the element of guilt unsaid. Having failed to give both the Magus’ family and his own parents the joy of seeing their grandchildren before their end wormed at his soul. To keep that inside him was his choice, because he did not want this to be a prevailing narrative. He wanted children. He had wanted children for a long time. He craved them more than ever now. He neither wanted his women to feel like it was an obligation nor did he want to put it in the spiritual mixture of the moment.
It was a motivating feeling, yes, but one he refused to make THE motivating feeling.
“Very good,” Nathalia purred and fully nuzzled back up to him for more cuddles.
“Obviously we are moving ahead at double time with our own plans?” he then turned to Lu Zhi. “Since the secret is barely one at this point?”
“It aids us that Vinh’s declarations will galvanize the nation anyhow. It aids us even more that you are a monarch now. Those two factors will make the matter easier to sell. Other plans will suffer from this development.”
John sighed. “Such is life.”
“Bwack!”
Daiyu’s sharp cry was the prelude to a chaotic series of events. The black-haired shorty fell over backwards, throwing her arms up in the process. Doc the Duck escaped, flapping his wings rapidly, aiming for the bathtub. The reason for Daiyu’s surprise wiggled her furred and feathered behind, then leapt after the duck.
Water splashed three times. The first time when Daiyu fell into the large pool behind her, the second time when Doc hit the surface, and the third time when Velka pounced into the bathtub.
John caught the beak of the birdcat between three fingers. Like any cat with its chin held, she tried to back away, but John followed his pet. “Bad girl!” he chastised her. Velka’s ears turned backwards at the sound of those words. Her dark red eyes narrowed, as a growly sound made it from her throat. “Lu Zhi’s duck is not your plaything.”
Having said his piece, John released the Magryph’s beak. With feigned innocence, she tilted her head. After a moment, she nudged his hand. John remembered the tiny hatchling that he had to force into the bathtub.
“Okay, you can be pretty cute,” John muttered and gave the Magryph a few rubs. It started as a few, but ended up with him checking the entirety of his only true pet for any kinds of parasites. One could never be too cautious these days.
“I love this little thing!” Lulu declared and threw her arms around the Magryph’s neck. Immediately, she joined John in giving the furred and feathered chimera all kinds of scratches.
Doc, meanwhile, got a single head scratch from Nathalia and then exploded. As with all the other times that this had happened, there was nothing but feathers from that particular burst and the phoenix duck would recover from a flower nearby.
“Daiyu, be a dear and check where Doc is reincarnating.”
“Thank the dragon…” Daiyu moved out of the pool with impressive grace for someone of her build. It was like she was born for the water. Probably a true fact, considering John had seen her work as a water mage before.
The lady-in-waiting was quite happy to take the excuse to leave the presence of her naked mistress. A fact that John felt like bringing up. “Aren’t you pushing her a little hard?” he asked.
“She’s my longest serving lady-in-waiting, I think I know her a little better than you do.” Lulu found the spot at the base of Velka’s wings that made the Magryph melt away. Head rested on the edge of the tub, she continued to hoard all of the scratches. “Much like Gnome, Daiyu may be shy and stuttery, but she does enjoy getting pulled around a bit.”
“Mhm, I am taking your word for it,” John decided.
‘Oy, Master, you wanted to see Lyndell for something, right?’ Delicia’s voice suddenly echoed in his head. ‘I got enough from her for the day, so she’s available now.’
“I just got my signal to leave,” John groaned and stood up. “I’ll see you two later.”
“We’ll scratch your Magryph until then.”
“Don’t do it too much, you’ll spoil her.”
The mischievous warble Velka let out at that let him know that it was far too late for that.