The Affection Multiplier - Ch. 241 & Ch. 242. (Patreon)

Chapter 241: Thinking things through.

Everyone leaves Julia’s place at about 9:30 pm. You return to your own place, your mind filled with thoughts and your chest heavy because of the real possibility of marriage.

You throw yourself on the bed, your body bouncing once as you land. You groan with your face against a pillow. Having marriage on your mind as you were surrounded by all your girlfriends was extremely stressful.

But seriously. Do you want to get married?

The answer is very obviously yes. It’s everything else that comes with it that’s stressing you. Rings, preparations, ceremony (or ceremonies?), dresses. And that’s only the act of getting married. What about livelihood? A home? Studies? Jobs? Family? CHILDREN!

Breathe, man.

You know your dad’s gonna nag you for marrying Anzu after all you did to get out of that arrangement. But whatever. He can say what he wants.

Are you rushing it? Do you really need to propose to eleven women in two weeks? No, you don’t need to. You know for sure they don’t expect it. Sure, you all know you’re gonna live together eventually. You’ve been saving your points for that very purpose. If anything, you’re grateful you don’t need to worry about them saying no.

But you can propose and still leave the marriage for a couple of years after, right? Yeah, that’d be for the best. In a way, it’d just be making it official so you can all stop tip-toeing around the subject.

Hell, even your most recent girlfriends like Katherine, Julia, Olivia, Lilian and Jessica are talking as if they know it’ll happen. Lilian is a little more reserved, but her love score already reached 100 after today’s meeting.

-Miller, Julia-   
Affection Score: 100
Love Score: 100
Lust Score: 61

-Reed, Lilian-
Affection Score: 100
Love Score: 100
Lust Score: 57

Available points: 640 Friendship points / 650 Love points / 700 Lust points

You have more than enough points to make the dream a reality. You can make it so you can marry eleven women who you love more than anything and who 100% reciprocate those feelings. You may not have known them for very long, but it totally feels like you do.

Emma’s been one of your greatest sources of support. Emily and Megan got you to break out of your shell. You and Mia understand each other perfectly despite the 14-year age gap. Sophia and Katherine share so many of your interests. You went through so much with Anzu and made such a deep connection with her. Julia is simply a blast to be around of while also being both caring and supportive. Jessica is an extremely loyal friend and lover. You and Lilian have been steadily discovering how much you care about each other. And finally, it turns out Olivia’s drive and determination are extremely attractive qualities when they’re not directed at making your life a living hell. Not to mention every single one of them is a complete and utter beauty.

The harem plan worked. You did it. Your goal was always to form a harem of women who you could spend the rest of your life with, not a random group of girls for you to fuck and dump. And thinking that only strengthens your resolve to propose.

“Okay then,” you nod to yourself, “I’m getting married.”

And with that decided, it’s time to figure out what needs to be done.

First and foremost is meeting the parents you haven’t already. That means Jessica’s, Lilian’s, Olivia’s, Katherine’s and… Mia’s, oddly enough. Well, this is a very complicated first step. Should you do it old-school style and ask them for their daughters’ hands? At the very least, that’s out of the window with Emma.

“Hey Mrs. Hayes! I’ve been dating your daughter, a teacher of your academy, for over half a year now! Yes, just a month after I enrolled here! Do you mind if I marry her?”

That’d end well, surely.

Perhaps asking for their parents’ permission is a bit too much. But your schoolmates are, well, young! It’s very likely their parents will object! But maybe if you tell them you’re only making it official and that you’re getting married a few years down the road…

Ugh. You don’t like it, but you might have to turn on the charm and take full advantage of the AMA for that. Just to show their parents you’re a trustworthy guy. Yeah, you can see the irony in that.

You sigh with a nervous laugh. That’s gonna be fun.

What else? Well, there’s the rings, of course. They said they were okay with something cheap, but you don’t want to give them trash. And where will you get the money? Your savings aren’t nearly enough to buy eleven engagement rings.

…

“Jonathan.”

Your brother’s back in Japan, but contacting him wouldn’t be hard. You could ask him for a loan and promise to pay him back. Somehow, you doubt he’d mind. However… You could make another type of deal with him if you’re willing to take some risks. You look at your phone and decide to give that idea further thought later on.

What more needs to be done? The preparations for the proposal itself. You want to propose while you’re all in the mountain cabin. Doing it on the second to last day would be ideal. Just have fun with everyone before sealing the trip with that. That’s good, right? But how do you make that memorable and interesting?

That’s… a little harder. No, much harder. You can’t come up with anything. And you need to think of something quickly. You only have two weeks to prepare.

Something you do know is that you won’t buy the trait until after you propose and they’ve all said yes. Why? You don’t want to risk them feeling that something’s different and ruining the surprise. They’ve been more susceptible to the subtleties of the AMA since they found out about it.

Okay then.

You need to casually tell your girlfriends you need to meet their parents, if only for them to actually know you before you suddenly show up as their daughters’ fiancé. You won’t even have to try very hard to convince them. It’s been a long time coming, Katherine specially.

You need to make money quickly. Your brother might help, but finding a way to make money on your own as well would mean owning him less. Finding a part-time job you could do from home would be ideal, but who would be so lucky?

And finally, you need to prepare a way for you to propose that’s memorable. On that front there’s no one you can ask. Your parents would start asking too many questions, Jonathan probably has never even entertained the thought of proposing to a woman, Martha is more of a romantic and might have some ideas, but asking your little sister is a last resort.

Wait. There’s one more person. You don’t know if she’ll have any ideas, considering her situation, but… You did promise to meet Monica tomorrow.

________________________________________________________________

Chapter 242: A friendly chat with the student council president.

You leave your place with the purpose of meeting Monica at the usual coffee shop. When you get there, you end up bumping into the girl herself right at the entrance. You look at your phone and confirm that this is exactly the time you both set.

“Good to know you’re punctual even outside school,” she says with an approving smile.

“It helps that I live close by,” you tell her.

The both of you enter the coffee shop and take your seats at a table for two. And while it’s somewhat weird that you’re meeting a girl you have no romantic interest in, all things considered, it’s also quite refreshing. Hanging out with your girlfriends is relaxing now that your relationships are well established, but before that it made you a little tense, worried you’d say or do the wrong things. Having no such worries here is a little liberating.

“Sorry to make you meet with me for something so silly,” Monica says, smiling wryly.

“Hey, I agreed to it. It’s fine,” you laugh.

You order some coffee and pastries and Monica starts the conversation.

“Before anything else, let me ask you,” she says, “how do you think you did in midterms?”

“I’m confident,” you nod to yourself. “Helping the others study is useful for me, as well.”

“You have a perfect record, don’t you?” she asks with interest. “Kinda sucks that you’re a year below me. It would’ve been fun competing with you.”

“Did you also get a perfect record on your first year?” you ask, raising an eyebrow.

“I did. Highest scoring student last year. So don’t go slacking off during finals, okay? If you do, you’ll have lost to me,” She grins.

“Alright,” you laugh. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on slacking at any point. I don’t have that luxury.”

“Luxury, huh? Yeah, I get you,” She nods, her face turning serious. “Plans for the future, right?”

“Big plans,” you nod, smiling sheepishly. “Very, very big plans.”

“You’re getting me curious,” Monica smirks.

“Before we get to that, though,” you stop her, “what can I do to help you with your romance troubles?”

“R-Right. That’s what we’re here for,” she sighs.

Your orders arrive and you take a sip out of your cup of black coffee. They really do make it good here.

“The guy’s name is Noah. He’s been teaching me piano for over three months now.”

“Three months, huh? Alright, I can see why you’d be at your wit’s end.”

“Right!? How am I supposed to concentrate when he’s being… well… himself right next to me!?” Her groaning and blushing face definitely make this amusing, but you’re not about to comment on that.

“Have you had any kind of talks about this with him? Has he said anything?”

“Nope. Nothing. Nada,” she shakes her head in frustration. “I’m at the point where I think the looks he gives me are all in my head.”

“Have you ever met him outside of piano lessons? Or even talk about anything other than piano?”

“I…” she swallows. “No, we haven’t met outside of lessons. And whenever we talk, we end up talking about music.”

Okay. You’re starting to get an idea.

“You have a shared interest, then. That’s good, but not enough,” you say.

“What do you mean?” Monica asks, looking a bit scared.

“What else do you know about him other than he’s good enough at playing the piano to teach you?”

“…I know he’s studying music in college,” she says, hiding her head between her shoulders.

“…Anything else?”

“N-No…”

“Then there’s your starting point,” you nod confidently, making Monica straighten her back and raise an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that look. It should be obvious, right? You need to talk to him and show you’re interested in his life. He already knows a lot about you. He goes to your house and can deduce a lot of things from it. Your relationship with your family, your general situation, and of course, that you’re learning piano. He has less things to ask than you do.”

“…”

“However, I don’t think asking those things during your lessons is a good idea,” you add. “What I’m trying to say is that you should just ask him out.”

“W-W-W-What!?”

“Don’t freak out. I’m not saying you should ask him out with the intention of getting together,” you clarify with a soft sigh.

It’s not like you don’t understand her. In fact, you perfectly understand how frightening it is for her to think of making a move. You’re not particularly proud, but you’re sure you wouldn’t have made any moves yourself on any girl had you not had the AMA to give you an immense confidence boost. And the best thing you can do for Monica is try to give her some of that confidence.

“Look, let me tell you something. Emily, Megan and I started out kind of like you and Noah are. I started tutoring them at Ms. Miller’s request and they helped me get in shape.”

“Oh. So that’s how it happened,” Monica says, leaning forward with interest.

“It was only when we started to understand each other that our relationship moved forward. It was once I understood that they were not just soccer obsessed jocks and when they saw that I was a little more than just a spineless nerd,” you chuckle. “It’s the same with everyone else. You know Olivia, Lilian and Jessica to be the school’s bullies, but there’s more to them than that. And it should be obvious it’s the same for this guy. He’s more than just your piano teacher. You need to find out who he is first.”

“…” Monica keeps quiet for a good while, pondering. Meanwhile, you quietly drink from your coffee, remembering the moments that led you to get together with your girls. Some came out of nowhere, some took a lot of time, but all of them happened because you dared to do something about it.

You smile.

“Nothing can happen until you swing the bat,” you say to yourself, remembering an old quote.

“So I should just go for it?” Monica asks.

“You should. Just don’t rush it,” you nod.

Now that you think about it… perhaps telling her about that will help her in some way? If she know what you have planned, perhaps she’ll see that what she’s trying to do is not as terrifying.

“Can you keep a secret?” you ask her.

“What?”

“I want to tell you something, but you can’t tell absolutely anyone. I’m risking a lot telling you this, so I need you to promise.”

She nods. “I’m good with secrets.”

You take a deep breath. “I’m asking my girlfriends to marry me in two weeks.”

You watch as your words slowly sink in. Monica’s eyes widen and he jaw hangs.

“Y-You can’t be serious,” she says. “How will you even marry them all!?”

Right. Even if people think of your relationship with many girls as normal, it’s still a legal impossibility to marry them all.

“…it’s a figure of speech. I’m asking them to stay with me forever, even if there’s no legal contract,” you clarify for now. “I’ve been thinking of a way to do it. I know where and when to do it. I just need to figure out how.” You sigh again. “How does asking a guy out sound like now?” you ask with a light chuckle.

“You’re an ass,” she groans. “Of course my issues seem small compared to that.”

“Believe me, I know very well how scary what you’re trying to do is. But unless you put a little effort on your part, nothing’s gonna happen. That’s one thing I’ve learned since coming to Hayes.”

“Alright!” she groans again. “I’ll ask him out. Any suggestions?”

“I went bowling a few weeks ago,” you say. “That was fun. You have time to talk while also having something to keep you busy if you can’t find a good topic.”

“Oh! That’s a good idea!” she nods in approval. “Okay! I’m actually feeling good about this now!”

“I’m glad,” you tell her. “Now, if you happen to have a suggestion on how to make a proposal memorable, that’d be a great way to pay me back.”

“What makes you think I may have an idea?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know! I don’t have anyone other people to ask, for obvious reasons.”

“Fine, I’ll help you think of something,” she says.

She gets her phone out and together you start brainstorming ideas for a good while. And there’s one in particular that resonates a bit more with you. Simple, but might be very effective.