Chapter 1244 – Clean-Up


    Velka accompanied them to the festival grounds.


    Considering the three straight days of partying, it was a remarkably clear site. Magical care meant that the grass was still green and healthy. Trash barely existed at all. Due to an excess of raw materials, the various containers that had been used to hand out food and drink were made from actual glass, wood and metal. Plastic was almost exclusively confined to use around electronics. Consequently, there was little packaging or such that could litter the area. What little there still was, the Cleaning Slimes gobbled up.


    In terms of a vacated party destination, it was therefore orderly. In terms of John’s maid-overseen environment, it was a mess. Tables stained with all sorts of beverages were scattered about, moved by the drunk and the strong minded out of the orderly rows and into positions that better suited their wants. Empty metal kegs stood here and there, spreading the smell of warm alcohol.


    Velka ran ahead, while the group scanned over the area. Aside from being moved out of place, everything seemed in order. The clean-up would be relatively easy. “Your world has a terribly aggressive sun,” Claire hissed.


    Checking on her with Observe, it appeared that direct contact with sunlight put her at a massive disadvantage. Her MP regeneration was pushed all the way into the negative and even those familiars she had summoned previously dissolved. While her metal body seemed to be immune to the damage vampires typically took, her vampiric energies were evidently not exempt. There was also an element of sluggishness to her, but that seemed to be a psychological factor only.


    “It’s a pretty bad day,” John assured. With the seasons shifting and Spring announcing itself in all its warmth, the rays could have been hot in their own right. “We do generally get a whole lot more sun than the Iron Domain did.”


    “I’m terribly aware,” Claire responded, trying her best – and failing – to sound upbeat.


    Aclysia put a hand on the shoulder of her prote?ge?. “There will be plenty to do outside the sunlight,” she promised and gestured for the vampire maid to follow her. Together, they set after the Magryph, who had picked some kind of shiny thing off the ground. Having her do that was useful in its own right, since she would locate the most valuable objects first. If anyone had lost a trinket, they just had to check Velka’s hoard for it.


    It was a bit weird, leaving Claire behind. There was so much more to show her. Too much to get done in any reasonable time and too much for him to do it alone. Delegating some of it to the rest of the harem was definitely the right call. It just felt alien. Both Aclysia and Claire kept gazing at him longingly. He removed himself from the area so they could do their work without being too distracted.


    The maids would just do some prep work, dismantling the heaviest pieces of equipment, before the actual construction workers came and packed it all up. Delegation was the truest benefit of having a growing state and economy under his influence.


    Although the party was over, the lower floor was still populated. It was well past breakfast time, but the hungover Abyssals that lugged their exhausted bodies through the hallways hardly cared. Their goal was the large hall in the north-eastern segment, where Aclysia’s maid students were putting their training to the test by providing the catering. They were passing with flying colours. The interest many had professed in hiring one of them had only grown more frequent over the past few days. Each time, John had to tell them that Aclysia was the one leading the school and that it was exactly that: a school. All of the maids were in training of their own volition and had their own choices to make about what to do after graduation.


    Much as John loved the maid aesthetic and enjoyed being the benefactor of the lifestyle, he didn’t want this project of his beloved Aclysia to turn into an antiquated model of an institution that overly traditional parents sent their unruly daughters to. If they did, Aclysia would probably train those daughters to be tomboys with a servant streak, independent from their tyrannic parents but capable of properly loving other guys. Actually, that would have been quite the good outcome. John still wanted to avoid the reputation though.


    In greeting, he waved at some of the people they passed. The vast majority of them would leave after today. Access to the Iron Domain was now gone, all goals accomplished, and the favours they could call in either saved for a later date or to be cashed in by the leaders of the guilds that had sent them. A few of the adventurers who had come in response to his open letter had already received a reward in the form of land and access to Fusion’s weapon manufacturers.


    Once the hangovers had worn off, he expected the chambers to get vacated. If anyone overstayed their welcome, John would deal with them in time. He had so much room to spare, he was in no hurry to throw anyone out.


    “Gotta love the zombies,” Metra cackled.


    “They are suffering,” Lorelei remarked. “They are suffering and you are laughing.” The hint of a smile played around the seer’s lips. Prolonged contact with the harem had imbued the otherwise so meek woman with some banter.


    “I’ve always found it fascinating how much shit people put in their bodies.” The First of Wrath looked after a dark-skinned man that passed them by. “And they just keep doing it.”


    “If I may, y-“


    “You may indeed,” Metra interrupted with a broad grin. “You know you got a bit of a verbal tick with that?”


    While the implication that quarter elementals could form new contracts was something John noted, he was distracted by the presence of additional women that he had not expected to see there. One was Alice, who sat on a nearby table just sipping tea and looking around and greeting the Gamer with an empty smile. The dark-haired, mildly tanned pariah appeared like she always did.


    Then there was Amelia. The white-haired afrit was wearing her maid uniform, as was appropriate. Her single horn pointed at John, while she kept her head down and tried her best not to gaze at the Gamer. The colour of her red skin seemed particularly bright today.


    “Morning,” John greeted and sat down on one of the burgundy red chairs around the dark coffee table. The room was of high class make and design, practically the peak of what a guest room in a palace should have been. Not that John, who had put it together, was neutral on the matter. “How does it feel being engaged?”


    “Like pain,” Maximillian groaned. The hand that was lovingly stroking his hair stopped to pinch his cheek. “Iri, I’m a dying man!”


    “Don’t die until we’re married and I get something to inherit,” the succubus joked and went back to stroking his hair.


    “You get engaged and I find two new partners in your room the next day,” the Gamer remarked. “I didn’t realize you had a right to my lifestyle.”


    “I have a right to all of my lifestyle,” Maximillian responded and sat up. He grabbed a glass of water, gulped down half of it, then considered whether he wanted to straighten up fully or lay back down. The latter won out and, with the pillow provided, John would not have done anything else. “Besides, Alice and I haven’t done anything.”


    “He’s interesting,” the pariah threw in.


    John considered how he felt about a woman he had slept with before confessing interest in another man. There was a hint of his pride rearing its head. That was it. Maybe because the deed hadn’t been done or because he didn’t see Alice as a potential romance option at all. Losing access to someone he slept with once and might do so again if she stayed available had no influence on his life.


    Maybe he was still on the high of having added Claire.


    “So, what’s your next move?” John asked the question he had come there for. “Immediately going to start planning the wedding?”


    “No, first I’ll have to deal with the traditionalists I’ve turned against me.” Maximillian closed his eyes and let the massaging of his scalp relax him. “A lot of people were annoyed when it turned out I hadn’t fused with Hawpler. The same and even more people won’t be enthusiastic about me marrying a demon.”


    “Sorry for being so troublesome,” Irielz said. Her voice was so filled to the brim with gentle love that even John got an urge to assure her.


    “You’re worth it,” Maximillian responded without missing a beat. “It won’t be hard to convince them either. I just have to introduce you and show what a beautiful soul you are.”


    “And that we can have our harem.” Her nature as a semen demon definitely showed in the hints of open lust that peeked through her voice as she said that.


    “It’s not the norm in the Austrian ruling class, but it’s been done before, so that’ll be easier. The official titles will be concubines and handmaidens. We need differentiated legal status so the line of succession is clear.” Maximillian opened one eye and looked at John. “Either way, I’ll be heading back to Austria soon. We won’t see a lot of each other in the next few months.”


    John shrugged. “It is what it is. Do I need to organize one last hurrah at the strip club?”


    “Fortunately, I’ll have a wife that doesn’t know what jealousy is.”


    “I know what it is, I just don’t map it onto you having other regular or irregular partners,” Irielz responded. “You’ll need to try and repeatedly make me pregnant though.”


    “Oh no,” Maximillian responded drily and went for the water again.