Chapter 1142 – Introducing the Harem


    “Ah!” Lorelei cried out, when she suddenly had an energetic air spirit in her face.


    “Hi, I’m Sylph! What’s your name? Is it Lorelei?” the green-haired woman babbled, dashing around the seer. “Lorelei Varnik? Varnik is such a silly name. You’re cute though. Sexy cute. I like sexy cute. Not as sexy cute as I am, because I am short and short girls are the sexiest! Wow, this is weird. I can feel your gaze on me no matter how quick I move around. It’s like you’re pulling knowledge out of my essence. It’s soooo weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...”


    The final syllable trailed off into the distance, while Sylph flew involuntarily away from them. As per usual, the culprit was Salamander. “Ignore the airhead... I’m not even sure if she just forgot we met before or if she was trying to be flirty. Anyway, hi.”


    “H-hello,” Lorelei stammered and cleared her throat, still holding John’s hand. A fact that she only realized a moment later. “I did not mean to indecently-“ she began her explanation, only to be interrupted by Rave.


    “Relax, girl, we don’t mind,” the Lightbearer purred. “We didn’t come here in full force to intimidate ya. We just know ya got an interest in our man.”


    Lorelei opened her mouth to respond, but only blushed. Her hand, the same hand still bearing the ring John had gifted her back in Florida, clenched that of the Gamer tighter. Smiling, he took a step forward. In the background, a returned Sylph started bickering with Salamander. “Let’s introduce you to my loves,” he suggested, the harem already forming a circle around them. “Since you’ll see a lot of them – in your capacity as a member of the House of Exceptionals, of course.”


    “I foresee our relationship to be more involved,” Lorelei responded with surprising directness. She was still red as a beet, but it appeared she was slowly getting acclimated to the situation. Normally, John would have considered checking on her emotions via the passive Observe right now. Lorelei, however, was one of the few people that could block even that. He had to rely on regular emotional tells.


    Thankfully, the seer made that quite easy. Every part of her being oozed sincerity to an awe-inspiring degree. John was so used to politicking that it was always refreshing to be next to someone who was just honest, even if they didn’t always say what they felt.


    “Alright, you should already know Aclysia and Beatrice,” John began the introduction.


    The two maids bowed in unison. Speaking for both of them, the weaponized maid said, “You behave appropriately around Master and we greatly approve.”


    “Do I? I feel like the honoured Gamer deserves more than I could express,” Lorelei answered.


    Straightening up with sparkles in her eyes, Aclysia took half a step forward and smiled at the seer. “I could not agree more!” she exclaimed with a surge of enthusiasm. “Words do so little to express Master’s superior tenderness and talents.”


    “Statement: retain the sermon for later, we are on a tight schedule,” Beatrice chimed in.


    “A tight schedule?” Lorelei asked and her attention turned to John. Like Sylph had described, he could feel her peer at his soul. This previously had only been the case when she attempted to dig deeper, now the Gamer could feel when she did it casually. There were three possible explanations for this: the currently vacant ring could have been boosting the covertness of her ability, John’s recent power increases could have made him (and his familiars) more sensitive, or she let herself be felt. Like usual, John guessed all three factors were at play, although the last was likely the most meaningful.


    “I have a few other duties to tend to,” John confessed.


    “So... I see...” Lorelei responded slowly, her voice turning absent for one moment. “A woman beyond help from this world... and you in another one... chemicals and metal... Iron.” She let go of his hand. “Honoured Gamer, I cherish this chance to talk, but a life needs to be saved.”


    “I know, but Beatrice overstates the case somewhat,” John responded, unperturbed by Lorelei divining what was going on. That was just what happened when one held hands with one of the most powerful seers in the Abyss, particularly one whose abilities were guided by what she touched. “Delicia – the woman – her state is still stable at large, as long as she gets healed regularly. We shouldn’t waste time. We also don’t need to hurry. Especially since we’re currently in a bit of a situation... Actually, you could aid me in this.”


    “The Lady wishes all innocents to be saved and it would be my honour to assist you, Gamer.”


    “Please, call me John,” he insisted.


    “I will have great difficulty with that,” she professed.


    “I once more suggest Master as the only true title,” Aclysia spoke up.


    “Try tiger,” Rave said.


    “Stud works,” Salamander cackled.


    “How about king?” Metra added with a grin.


    “Fucking asshole is the only real choice here,” Eliana cussed before breaking out into an unsteady laughter. “Fucking fuck, your face!”


    “How come she gets so eagerly accepted and I had to jump through a bunch of hoops?” Lee asked.


    Lydia was first to answer, “Because John showed interest in her months ago, while you appeared out of nowhere. Further, you were a lazy, bratty, spoiled, unaccomplished fan of his. Lorelei – I am quite sorry for the nickname they gave you – has sacrificed to be here and her abilities single-handedly prevented a war.”


    “...There’s such a thing as too much truth, Lydia,” Lee responded with a fake sniffle.


    “I wouldn’t have approved of your addition to our circle if you couldn’t take that much,” Lydia responded.


    “Was that a compliment?”


    “It was a fact.”


    John weighed back into the conversation. By now Lorelei must have gotten a feel for what social dynamics were at play, which was the entire goal of letting them speak undisturbed. There was basically no way for Lorelei to really get to know any of the harem in depth in this first meeting. It was, at this point, just too large. “If you’re afraid I’ll deliberately construct the situation Gaia showed you, only tell my girls. You can trust them to keep it a secret from me.”


    The fantastic part of Lorelei’s abilities was that he didn’t have to do any convincing to make her believe that. With a look around, the seer must have known just what kind of people she was currently surrounded by. Some of them were crude in their speech, some had pretty extreme tendencies (whether for violence, sex, or something else didn’t matter that much), and some were just plain weird. However, all of them were good people at their core. Some of them had questionable pasts, Siena, Metra and Nathalia most of all, but who they were now could be trusted.


    “I’ll wait in there,” John said, before Lorelei had audibly confirmed she would go along with this, and pointed at their destination: Velka’s small house attached to the side of the Palace. The Magryph had a little something that could serve as a clue for the optimal three words to use for targeting the Kingdom they needed.


    The rushing water of the nearby Clearwater Fountain made it difficult even for his supernatural hearing to pick up what was being said, especially once he had closed the previously open door of the house behind him. The sound caused the bird-cat to poke her head out of her sleeping place. John had readily supplied her with a dog bed that would grow with her and was self-drying so she could use it right after a bath. Yet, she was inside a large cardboard box. Where it had come from was a mystery, just like the last two. John guessed Nia was responsible.


    Velka warbled at her owner, her red eyes closing and opening slowly as a sign of affection. “Hey there,” John greeted her in the usual tone and walked over to scratch her head. Fingers dancing between her ears and under her chin, he made the chimera purr in a matter of seconds. “I’ll need something from your hoard for a bit.”


    Velka’s grasp on language was advanced for an animal, outdoing even parrots. Consequently, she understood what John was saying even if his tone was friendly. The purring stopped and she pulled her head back, giving John a long glare. “Mmmmmmeeeeooowwww,” she threatened him as best she could.


    “You absolutely spoiled little thing,” John complained. “I just need to see the Silver Fur.” The two of them had a staring match, until Velka finally relented. Her body language turned submissive and she placed her beak on the rim of the cardboard. “The Silver Fur,” the Gamer repeated. Velka mildly tilted her head. Her grasp on language was pretty good for an animal, but to make connections with words, especially names, she needed more exposure than humans.


    John took his phone out of his inventory and started looking through the photos. Between all of the pictures of butts, the nudes, drunken escapades with Maximillian and Magnus, and the smiling faces of his women, he knew he had some photo of the bunny around. While he searched, Velka slowly stretched her head towards Lorelei’s bag over his shoulder.


    “This,” John interrupted the shiny-seeking bird-cat by showing her a picture of the artificial bunny.


    Velka warbled with recognition and jumped out of her cardboard box. She disappeared into a monstrous construction of orderly designed platforms, various large things she had acquired over the months, and the various safes John provided her with to keep her hoard guarded. John had access to all of these safes, so he could get what he needed without her consent. That would have required him to look through all of them, though, and he would have had Velka’s ire for a week. Even if he did call her spoiled all the time, John wanted to scratch the fluffy fur of the cute chimera.


    Velka vanished inside one of the boxes fixed to the walls of the house and re-emerged moments later. The Silver Fur, a golem made from silver in the shape of a bunny, sat between her ears. As she made her way back, the door to the house opened again and the haremettes, plus the likely future one, poured into the room.


    Directly, John led into the main topic. “This here is an item I got from another Kingdom,” he explained. “It’s the soul of a bunny transferred into a body of metal. The Silver Fur itself originates from yet another Kingdom. Question is if the procedure that made it can be used on humans.” The gamer took the bunny just big enough to fill one hand, and presented it to the seer. “I need a three word combination that lets me find a potential solution for the soul-rot. ‘Silver Fur Origin’ could be the best one. Depending on what you find out.”


    Lorelei nodded and touched the head of the warm golem. Shivers went through her body, her eyes closed, and a concentrated look appeared on her face. “I see... a mage... a broken circle and... a gravestone... If he did try to save himself with this magic, he failed.”


    “Then we shouldn’t follow that lead,” John decided. He deemed there to be a higher chance at success if they used related concepts to their goal to let Gaia take the wheel, rather than aim for a specific Kingdom that may or may not contain what they needed. “Guess we will have to keep searching for that three word combination... I’ll head to Light Island next.”


    “The Light Island?” Lorelei asked, her eyes flying open. “Why there?”


    “Well, the Oasis of Enlightenment just might help me to find the best three words.” The Gamer shouldered her bag again, after setting the Silver Fur on the ground for Velka to play with. “Did the Order arrange a place to stay for you, by the way? We could drop you off at the Embassy.”


    “I will accompany you to the island,” Lorelei insisted.


    ‘She is a bit too easy to read sometimes,’ John thought and put her luggage into his inventory. ‘Her behaviour becomes very rigid when it comes to this prophecy. I don’t even need to know it to guess this is related.’ “Alright then, let’s continue the introductions while we walk some more,” he said.


    They headed to the southeast of the Guild Hall.