After the Gala

“Alright, we’re done. You go that way, I’ll go this way.”

The crossroads metaphor was a little too on the nose for Seresdina’s liking, but when standing with a dunce like Baltazar it kinda had to be that blatant.

“Huh? Why am I going that way?”

See?

“Because, we’re done. Musume has been captured, the King is either dead or long gone, and so as far as I know we may be some of the last generals left.” Seresdina explained with a sigh to the oversized gorilla, “And guess what? The two of us are compromised as hell! If that huge goddess bitch or her shitty cumbrained owner orders us to do anything we’ll either have to do it or lose our powers! I for one don’t want to be the next victim on that idiot’s extensive menu. No, my life is gonna be all covert operations and living in a shack in a swamp from now on.”

She began stomping away, barely slowing down when she heard her ex-coworker yell, “But what’ll I do?!”

“Go wrestle! You’re clearly good at it!” She half assedly suggested, taking her hood over her face knowing that if anyone was following they’d go after the huge wrestler over her, “Elroad’s that way, go make yourself a star!”

After about a minute of her walking away without looking back, she heard the stomping feet and dragged knuckles of a god going the other direction.

Would he follow up the advice? She didn’t really care. Seresdina wasn’t lying when she said her life was going to be quite a lot quieter from now on. She’d keep in contact with someone in case the Demon King ever resurfaces, or Divane’s sorry ass gets sent back to Heaven, but for now this was truly the end. The endless road of possibilities ahead of her almost felt refreshing. Maybe she’d take over a tiny village a year or two down the line if she was feeling randy. Who knows where the winds may take her… perhaps she'd even take her **** on Kazuma one day and kill Aqua? That seemed like a fair exchange.

Sounds of horses stomping made her shudder in fear, but when the notable carriage wheels were accompanying them it let her be brave enough to at least turn. Indeed it wasn’t any pursuers but just a random taxi carriage. Putting her thumb out and letting a little cleavage show, she was thankful when the driver stopped for her and let her climb on board.

“Whew~ thanks for that. I was hiding from that horrible attack on the castle and only just managed to make my escape!” She explained to the driver after opening the door, “Where is everyone headed?”

Inside the carriage made her blood chill in fear.

“Back to Alcanretia my dear!” A bearded man beamed, Axis robes open as he used his cock to push cum into a blonde woman’s bare pussy, “Come in and on the way we can show you the glory of our hero, Satou Kazuma!”

There was so much movement after the battle that it was hard to wrap my thumping head around it.

Though Kazuma wanted to pick up Megumin and Aqua to take us home, neither could happen when the fatigue caught up to him. With all of us safe his body simply wouldn’t get up off the floor, and he looked like he could fall asleep right there in the mud. Aqua had already done something similar by snoring into the finale of their kiss before falling face first into the ground.

In the end the three of them had been carried back to the castle. Guards had scooped up my party as soon as it had been apparent their legs were too tired to stand. My recent **** state and pounding painful brain catching up to me as I struggled to follow after them.

“YOU!”

Before I could reach anyone I was dragged and shoved against a wall, my weakened state easily shunted around by someone so much smaller than me.

With a groan as the back of my aching head hit the castle wall, I could only feel more upset by who it was being rough with me, “Karen… can this wait?”

“Oh you’d like that, wouldn’t you Lalabitchna?” She hissed her spittle up at me, trying to jam her accusatory finger into my abs but meeting steel strength muscles… man, why’d it have to be her trying to **** me? “You think you’re so cool, getting the harem hero who saved the King and the castle from the Demon King’s Daughter? Making me live the rest of my life with a loser like Mitsurugi?!”

My eyes could only roll, pushing her away from me easily, “I thought you liked him?”

“He LOST! Which means you BEAT me, AGAIN!!!” Her fuming would almost be amusing, if her screeching wasn’t making my headache worse, especially as she followed me back inside the castle, “I swear I’ll get my ****! My husband can still beat yours at arm wrestling! My children will beat yours at the harp! My-MY-!”

Okay, this had gone on long enough. It was just getting sad now. Time for a decisive blow.

“Karen…” I said, turning around and making her flinch. Raising my hand, I did the unthinkable to her… I placed my hand on her shoulder. She blinked in confusion as I gave her a warm smile, “I wish you all the best.” Was all I said before patting her a little then walking away again.

“...w-what…? WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU BE THE BIGGER PERSON! MAYBe the bigger assed b…” Thankfully her wails became unintelligible after I’d walked far enough away. Sighing contentedly to be away from her, I silently wished Mitsurugey all the best in his future with dealing with… that.

As I walked back I was informed where Aqua and Kazuma were being kept. Unfortunately there was still tasks on my to do list before I could rest my aching head, namely adding a few normalities to make the prison secure, with newly normal unbreakable bars and a power draining magic field to make sure she didn’t run away in the middle of the night.

I also bumped into a very shaky Sena, who was not very happy to have been so close to such imminent danger. Still putting on a brave face to finish paperwork in making us the sole King’s sponsored harem and claiming Musume, but I insisted she should take the rest of the night off.

Dragging Sena away from the broken wreckage of the main hall, I quickly managed to hunt down Divane. Not that she was hard to find, basking in her very first bruises on her form after actually getting into a fight for once. She was sitting out the front of the castle watching the last of the evacuating humans get carriages away while poking her purple spots.

“Divane, can you please take Sena and teleport her back to Wiz? I think she needs some lich loving right now.” I asked, pushing the spectacled woman towards the Goddess.

She tried to protest, still clutching her paperwork, “Mistress Lalatina Dustiness Ford, I really don’t think th-this is-EEP!” The massive hand that picked her up had much less qualms, just following orders and placing the secretary neatly into her massive bosom.

“Very well, I shall take orders from someone as pathetically small as you,” Divane hummed, seemingly more happy about the thrill of **** than actually helping Sena, “It has been a rather decadent night after all. Despite your whimpering forms of leadership.”

God this wasn’t going to do my headache any good, “...excuse me?”

“Oh nothing. Just a thought about your skills as the harem head.” She shrugged, getting up from her sitting position to loom over me, “The way you threw yourself into battle to save someone else when you should have been commanding others. The way you let more demons into your harem when you should have Kazuma focus on abusing me, the best member. And not to mention your tiny size and unappealing appearance compared to mine.”

Sena lightly slapped Divane’s chest from her trapped position, “H-hey! How dare you speak that way to Mistress Darkness!”

“It’s okay, Sena.” I held my hand out, though mostly because I had better things to do then dealing with this huge pain in my ass. She was right about one thing though, I could be giving more orders to the rest of my harem. I grabbed one of the pieces of paper that Sena had dropped and quickly scribbled something onto it, folding it before holding it up to Divane. “You’re going to go spend some time with Xara. Give this to her after delivering Sena to Wiz, got it?”

“Of course! Spending time with the gross disgusting succubae is truly worthy of someone so worthy!” Divane haughtily smirked, taking the tiny paper before excitedly walking away from me towards an open teleport space.

With a sigh I headed back inside, finally making progress to a bed.

Only to be greeted by the third woman I think hates my guts.

“M-Megumin!”

The last time I’d seen her she was being princess-carried away by Princess Iris, yelling about not wanting to see her chess set, whatever that meant. But it seemed her legs had found enough energy again, as the short girl was leaning against a nearby door, thrumming her fingers against her magic staff while looking rather annoyed with whatever was on her mind. A look that didn’t fade when she turned to face me.

“So you started a Harem.”

My heart was pounding, gulping as the staff was accusingly pointed towards me. I wasn’t even sure why but Megumin was intimidating me more than Musume had. Not even in the good way I was feeling sick, guilty, and frightened all at once. “Y-yeah… h-how’d you-?”

“Iris told me.” She replied coldly, “Doesn’t know what a Harem is, but was happy to reveal how proud of yours she is.” I think Megumin’s eyes glowed a little bit redder, she wasn’t planning on letting an explosion off here was she? “And not only that, but that kiss that Kazuma and Aqua shared… you’re part of that, aren’t you?”

The Crimson Demon had approached me quite slowly, now at the distance to poke me with her staff directly. With a nervous gulp I nodded my sweating face at her.

“You’re going to explain to me everything that happened this last week, got it?”

“A-absolutely!” I squeaked back, “R-right now?”

Her eyes tightened but after a beat she lowered her stick, “Tomorrow. You’re going to be taking me on my explosion walks from now on.”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

Another silent beat before Megumin pushed air through her nose and then coldly walked away down the quiet castle corridor.

Leaving me to exhale a massive amount of newly formed tension. Her explosion walks… I suppose it had to come out somewhere, but I couldn’t help but wonder if she planned to take me out to the woods and throw explosions at ME. I guess that wouldn’t be the worst…

“Hohoho! Moi thought he’d smelled some delicious emotions, but this was truly a banquet! Humans and their drama, and…”

His happiness seemed to fade when he saw my eyes turn towards him.

“Vanir.”

I looked at him in a determined way, the kind of way that made him groan, “What art thou complaining about now you perverted she-beast?”

Feet began stomping towards him, still groggy but managing to make their way to the demon.

He almost looked uncomfortable with my lack of response and march forwards, “Is it about the tiny bomb girl? Moi knew you felt apprehension towards her but-!”

And then I leapt forwards and wrapped my arms around him tightly.

“Uhh… wuh?”

I didn’t let go. The ex-demon king general was in my grasp now and I refused to release him despite his squirming. “I know you don’t care for Aqua, but you still brought Megumin to us and saved her life. I… I can’t thank you enough, honestly.”

His squirming lessened, and his voice became a little sheepish, “...Moi needed the daughter alive for… schemes. Deep, horrible machinations that you are all a part of!”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” I reassured, still forcing the hug and rubbing his back supportively. “It won’t make the hug go away. You’ve saved my ass way too many times to not earn a big thank you.”

He huffed. He grumped. But there was still an eventual rub on my own back as Vanir reluctantly reciprocated. Honestly I wasn’t trying to make him feel anything but appreciated, though I did recognise that he may not have been that fond of physical affection, so I did break it up eventually.

We looked at each other. If I couldn’t tell any better, I’d say he was blushing under that mask just a little bit. Though I think his body’s made of mud… maybe just a trick of the light and the pouty expression he seemed to have. Either way, my respect for him was vast. I know it was bad to put my trust into someone so often scheming, but then I fell for Satou Kazuma. My tastes were perhaps a little skewed.

His gloved hand moved some hair from my ear, lightly brushing against the ‘N’ branded object attached to my ear.

“It is Monday morning. Your trial run has come to a close.” His voice was serious, and I realised how the sun was coming up on us now, “What would you like to do with these?”

It was strange, they’d been there for so long… attached to me magically without any way to remove them… that when I reached up and unclipped the earring it felt so strange. Like I’d just ripped a hair from my head, or tooth from my mouth.

The earrings were in my hand. Ultimate power, to reshape reality… I’d already done so much with them and here was the chance to go back to my, well, ‘normal’ life.

“Moi can still rewind time, if that is what you would like to do.”

I shook my head fairly quickly at that suggestion, “No… No, I don’t wanna do that. Aqua is healing, the daughter is captured, things have progressed too much to destroy this time we’ve shared now.” I sighed, perhaps it was selfish as well but getting rid of what I created felt too wrong to continue, “What… what would you like me to do with them?”

He rolled his eyes at me, “Moi isn’t going to be blamed for-”

“Your plans.” I said, cutting him off, “This isn’t me giving you my decision, this is my decision to believe in you, Vanir. I think I’ll do whatever is easiest for your plans to go forward. You don’t need to tell me what they are, but you can tell me if I should keep these or not, right?”

Perplexed was perhaps the word most apt to describe Vanir right now. Scratching his chin, lowering one eyebrow deeply at me, like I was a creature in need of study immediately. “You certainly are a strange one… Moi’s having more and more trouble predicting what you’ll do, crusader-who-doesn’t-know-whether-to-seduce-or-run-from-her-tiny-friend.”

“Th-that’s me.” I smiled back, though my face was red from that callout. I also did a quick scan of the area in case said friend was here, “Well? Keep or bin?” I said while presenting the earring to him.

After another beat, he dismissively waved his hand. “Moi gave them as a gift, you may as well hold onto them. If only to assist in the lonesome crimson demon girl in the coming days.”

“Yunyun?” I asked, accepting his judgement before a scary thought entered my gut, “...or a different lonely crimson demon?”

Vanir was already off. Using his long legs to casually strut away from me, “Moi’ll be seeing you around soon.” He dismissed, “But first, there’s a caged beast in a cave below that needs some lessons!”

With a sigh, I smiled at his departure and reclipped the earrings back onto me. For better or worse this is the future I’m sticking with, and it was nice to have such a dedicated underhanded demon be so focused on saving my mistakes. After a beat to feel the earrings on my ears once more I decided to head into the bedroom, slowly opening the fancy white door with as little creeping as I could.

Though it wasn’t enough, as soon as I opened it one occupant of the bed went from rustling under the covers to shooting up straight.

“Mmn… no… nO AH! GAIA!”

“Oh no, did I wake you?”

I had tried to close the door very quietly, but alas Aqua had still risen from the bed with a sharp movement. I rushed over to her, quickly taking her hand and petting her hair as she panted in a cold sweat.

“N-no… scary dream…” She said, calming her heart while I stroked her long beautiful locks back, “W-where am I?”

“Ah, well, once we saved you, took down Musume, and you kissed Kazuma… you began snoring into his mouth. At the King’s insistence the guards took both your bodies here to rest, one of the few bedrooms not sullied by the Gala’s antics.”

The room itself was very nice. A large king sized bed to easily fit the three of us inside took up the bulk of the furniture, with a fancy dresser and a mirror on the other side of the room near the door. Though night made the room dark, it was still clear that the white wallpaper and the gold trimmings on everything meant this was perhaps the most expensive bed we’d ever slept in. Well, perhaps the other two, at least. The softness was never my favourite feeling, reminding me of the overly cushiony upbringing I was locked in for so long back with my dad. Still, for one night after such a long day it felt heavenly.

I continued explaining, “The King's very busy securing the prisoner and getting his wizards to make a new barrier around the castle. Sena and Divane have teleported home so they could spend the night with Wiz and Xara respectively. And Megumin… well, I think she’s staying with Iris tonight.”

“Right…” Aqua nodded, probably not digesting much of the information as her eyes had landed on the snoozing form of Kazuma half way through. Tracing his light musculature with her fingers with a shaky smile on her lips, “And, um, where’d you go?”

“Just to make sure everyone was okay and comfortable, and that Musume wouldn’t escape.” Hopefully the normalities I added to the prison would work, though Musume didn’t look like she was about to attack anyone. Letting go of Aqua briefly, I began to strip the last of my tattered dress down, my breasts bouncing lightly free of their confinement before getting under the large king sized sheets next to Aqua. “What about your nightmare? Was everything…?”

She shook her head, “Just… a long list of memories from a long afterlife…”

“...if you want, I could hear about her?”

Our eyes met when Aqua lifted her head, she looked surprised, then touched, and ended with a shaky smile before wrapping me in a tight hug. “Not tonight, but thank you, Darkness. Or should I say… Lalatina?”

With a nervous chuckle I shook my head, “No, no. Please. Darkness is still better.”

She smiled, not letting go of her hug as our naked bodies pressed tightly together. Slowly I moved us under the covers until I could feel her snuggling into me, making sure to not crush her arm under my bulky body. “Then I -yawn- love you, my girlfriend Darkness. Love, love, love, love you…” Her eyes drifted closed, seemingly much more comfortable in my arms. Seemingly more than me who was reduced to blushing at her love…

“Hmm… you know, y-you’re very confident throwing that word around.”

“Because I do!” She was suddenly awake and in my face, “I love you! And Kazuma! And Wiz, Megumin, Sena, Xara, Luna, Sylvia, Kerebryl, everyone!” Aqua insisted, touching noses with me with such arousingly intense eyes. My heart couldn’t stop beating at her attitude, even if we weren’t in bed naked together right now, “Nobody liked me in Heaven! E-even before the one person who did got banished! And then she became the one who hated me most, and then really no one like me- And then-!”

“Ssshhhh, shhh…” I hushed her, seeing how upset she was getting and stroking her hair again so her frowning face could bury into my chest once more, “As you said, this can wait for another time. Let’s get some sleep, and no more bad dreams while you’re hugging me, okay?”

Even upset I could tell that I got through to her at least a little, her touch on my waist got a little more warm, “Nn… I-I’ll try… if you hug me extra tight?”

I smiled, and pushed our naked bodies together until I was ecompassing her like a snake on its prey. After having to deal with so many headaches, the healing hugs of her body were making me feel better too.

“And you give me some tasty goodnight kisses?”

She’d earned the right to be greedy after such a troubling day, so though it was a bit of an awkward position with how we were wrapped together, our tongues still sensually danced together upon her request. Warm purrs from the Goddess’ mouth as my taste spread into her, her eyes fluttering to stay open and her passions quietening down from lack of energy. As she seemingly drifted, I gave one last kiss to her forehead.

“Don’t dream about those who may have disliked you. Remember that I love you, my new girlfriend Aqua.”

“Mm... Same here...” A clearly exhausted and half asleep Kazuma agreed, rolling over to drape his arm around Aqua’s neck, “Wan b’ lil spon?” He mumbled.

With a smile, I shuffled in closer too, trapping Aqua between us as I placed my arm over both of them. His hand moved until it similarly landed on my breast with a tired yet comforting squeeze while still covering Aqua. Though I couldn’t really see much of her in the dark and closed position, I could still feel a happy Goddess wriggle between us and whisper, “It’s all I’ve ever wanted…” before sleep began to take all of us away.