Attend the aforementioned dinner meeting

After that, the rest of the day flew by in a flash. You trained alongside the monsters of the soldier group, you assisted the worker group in planning the areas where you intend to widen pre-existing forest trails into proper dirt roads, and you settled disputes between monster families here and there. Once evening came, you sat down in one of the quieter parts of the village, at a small dining table fashioned out of a tree stump. You were joined by Blythe, Lia, and Violet, who arrived riding atop the same dire wolf from this morning. Food was brought to you all shortly, and the meal was quite tasty, despite its simple recipe of foraged greens and campfire-roasted meat.

Now that you’ve eaten, you look to each of the women at your table in turn. Violet is sat opposite to you, while Blythe and Lia take up either side. “Alright,” you say. “Let’s get down to business.”

Lia opens the meeting by giving her report on all of the intel that Roy leaked to her. Evris’s defenses were heightened dramatically in the days following your party’s disappearance into the Trials. Adventurers were running up and down the streets, searching every nook and cranny for the new Demon Lord who, rumors at the time said, had been spotted in town only days before. Some of the higher-ranking adventurers decided to travel to other towns, betting that they could still catch up to you if you’d fled Evris in a hurry. Excitement died down, though, as the weeks went by with no signs of sniffing out your trail. Your bounty poster remains plastered on the walls of many buildings{if BKnowsUrDL = 2}, as do posters of Blythe, who was seen walking around town with you{endif}, but most members of the Adventurer’s Guild have given up the search and gone back to taking regular quests. Likewise, the security around town has loosened a bit; it’s still tighter than it was when you were there, but there are holes that could be slipped through with the right timing and a bit of luck.

Violet is the next to give her report: hers being on how she handled the task of feeding your ‘guests.’ Armed with a supply of leafy forest vegetables, and with the generous aid of the dire wolf and a few harpies, the immobile lamia was able to make it up to each of the web-covered tree house prisons. Getting to each of them, however, was only the first hurdle. Between her paralyzing stare and her charming spell, Violet had to somehow ensure that removing their gags and feeding them wouldn’t result in any of the adventurers trying to cast magic and blowing up the village. As it happens, casting the charm is far less exhausting than channeling the paralysis, and so that’s the route she chose to take with each of them — after making sure that their arms and legs were tightly bound, of course. Each reacted in their own way: Juniper, the ranger, cried quietly and became more docile with every bite; Penny, the knight, squirmed so much against her bindings that she almost broke out of them; Rowena, despite the charm’s effectiveness causing her to blush, tried to chant an incantation the second her gag was released, and was quickly paralyzed as a result, and finally, Roy was completely captivated by the charm, popped a boner, never took his eyes off of Violet, and accepted every bit of food she offered him without any complaint.

“How did it feel,” you ask, “to have those adventurers literally eating out of the palm of your hand?”

The lamia thinks about that for a moment, then says, “Oddly satisfying, I guess? I still think they should be dead, though. Let me do it. This one got some info out of the man, sure,” she says, pointing at Lia, “but what good are they now that we know all that? They can’t be trusted, so they’re just a threat to keep around.”

She’s right that they can’t be trusted, you think. My interactions with Rowena and Roy today proved that much. Still, to say that holding them here is pointless… Is Violet right? Other than my personal plans for Rowena, what could I hope to gain from a bunch of uncooperative adventurers? Do I just not want to kill them? Am I just being soft?

No, wait, you think. These people have connections in town. That’s worth something. We also may have overwhelmed them the other day, but they’re all decently strong fighters. If I’m planning on keeping one of them as a pet, why not do the same with all of them? Having a party of adventurers in my pocket… That’s definitely worth pursuing. And based on their fun little love quadrangle, I know exactly how to go about ‘convincing’ them to fall in line.

“Don’t worry, Violet,” you say. “You’re going to have a key role in making sure they behave.” The snake woman raises an eyebrow to that. You smirk in response. “Those four underestimate their own desires. Just keep charming them whenever it’s feeding time,” you say. “Play with their bodies, too. I want you to **** them with pleasure, but never — and I mean never — let them be satisfied. Let that frustration eat at them, and report to me if their attitudes change at all. Understand?”

“All I understand is that you like playing with your food.”

“You’re right,” you admit. “You and I are the same, that way.” Remember when you dragged me up into your house to have your way with me? Because I sure do. “I admit that what I’m hoping to do takes time. Time we don’t really have. But still… I want those adventurers under my thumb, and I think that, with your new eyes and your strong will, you have the ability to make it happen.” Your flattering words have little effect on Violet, but after resolving a few more of her complaints, you finally get her to agree to carry out your orders.

With that settled, and the evening light giving way to a starry night, you call an end to the meeting. Once you see Violet securely atop the dire wolf and riding off towards her house, you and the girls start making your way back to the stick-and-mud hut.

“What is our plan for tomorrow?” asks Blythe as the three of you walk through the village.

“Time is against us,” you say. “Once the angels figure out that the paladin failed to kill me, Phoebe will try to invade my dreams again. If she does that, she’ll know I’m still here in the forest. We need to either find a way to block her power, or become strong enough that by then it won’t matter if they know where I am.”

You all reach the hut, and Lia pulls the curtain aside for you and Blythe. “Send me into town,” says the catkin as you and Blythe duck past her and head into your abode. “I could ask around about the angels’ powers, or steal a new spell book…”

Lia’s thoughts trail off once she ducks into the hut and finds you waiting to meet her just inside the entrance. “If I’d gotten the stealth magic I wanted out of the mage, I would have gone with you. It’ll be dangerous, but I trust you. But let’s forget about tomorrow,” you say, reaching out to rub your catkin companion’s shoulders. “Let’s have some fun tonight. All three of us.” Lia takes a moment to switch mental gears, but then happily steps closer to you, allowing you to wrap an arm around her waist and lead her to the bed, where Blythe is already waiting.

…
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Well, here we are, one year later. I didn’t mean to be gone for this long, but unfortunately IRL shit hit the fan about a month after I went on hiatus. Things are still working themselves out, but I’m in a much better place now. Anyway… YNLaaDL is coming back! I won’t be putting out a chapter every week like I used to, but you can expect to read more of this story in the months to come.
Another bit of news: I’m planning on developing a version of YNLaaDL to host on itch.io. I haven’t fully decided what it’ll look like (which engine to use, whether I want to commission art or not, etc.), but I’ve wanted to find an additional platform to share this story on ever since you guys asked about that in the Q & A, and I think a “game” version on Itch is where I’ve landed.
Thanks, as always, for reading. I’m glad to be back.
-beseechrelease
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