The Gamer Chapter 1287 – Nightingale 2 – To complicate matters (Patreon)

John immediately snapped back into his usual persona. If Nightingale had left Delicia here, then that meant she hadn’t left on a permanent basis, which also meant her not being here was some kind of test, not a rejection. Checking his phone, he looked at the time. ‘Took me seven minutes,’ he told her.

‘What, really?’ the voice of the bratty alchemist echoed in his head. ‘I-I mean, wow, seven! That’s twice as long as you should have needed!’

‘I liked it better when you were genuinely complimenting me.’

‘Who would ever do that? If you need compliments so badly, I can get you a mirror. I’ll even hold it for you while you talk to yourself. Is that what your self-esteem needs, hm, hmmm?’

John let her simmer on the question for a few moments. He was, by now, an expert of the sass, the banter, and the bratty. As a matter of fact, he was certain he may be the man with the most experience in all three categories. Practically everyone in his harem engaged in some variety of banter, a large chunk of them was sassy, and a select few could be quite bratty. He was surrounded by all of that on a daily basis. He revelled in it. Unlike many of the protagonists in the animes Rave liked to watch, he wasn’t a wimp about it though.

The greatest enjoyment one could gain from having bratty friends was to bully them right back.

‘I’d much rather use that mirror to show you how beautiful you are,’ John responded, completely seriously.

‘I-i-i-is that so?’ Delicia stammered. Had she had a body at the moment, she would have doubtlessly played with her hair. John could see it before him, that shortstack, blushing and pulling at her bangs. Shifting around adorably, her roundish face slightly turned away, while her consistent refusal to wear a bra would manifest in rather notable sway on her curvaceous top half.

John could hardly believe that someone like Delicia existed. Someone with all the curves of Nathalia, the shortness of Sylph, the attitude of Momo, and the reaction to compliments of Gnome. It was almost enough to make him a religious man. Then again, he had that kind of thought in regards to every haremette.

He just loved that there was someone else out there who he could use his corny lines sincerely on. That was something he needed to exercise in moderation. Last thing he wanted was for her to gain resistance to it. ‘Absolutely, but I can also just talk about your tits if that makes you more comfortable.’

It actually did, John could feel that. With udders like hers, she must have been exceptionally used to that kind of attention. ‘You’re lucky I don’t have the body to demonstrate right now, or I could hypnotize you just by jumping on the spot! Works every time. Guys are so simple.’

‘Hey, if salivating over girls with giant tits bouncing makes them bounce more, I’ll be simple all the time.’

‘Nah, it’s just me, everyone else is a giant prude. I know how to have fun. You have even more fun than me though, what with sticking your dick into every hole you find.’

‘Hey, a fair number of the time, the ‘holes’ find me.’

‘Maaaan, can’t even feign respect for your girls, can you? Too much to ask from you, handsome?’

‘All depends on the mood.’

‘The worth of all women around you depends on your mood, hm?’

‘Mine and theirs.’

‘HAH! Riiiiiiight.’ Delicia’s playful sarcasm marked the end of that line of conversation. ‘By the way, how do I bribe you to write down a list of stuff I need after you finally give me that new body I was promised?’

‘What are we talking about there? Lab equipment?’

‘Yup, a whole host of stuff I don’t expect your ruler brain to understand. I mean, you might be smart, but you aren’t alchemy smart. You’re the boring kind of nerd that tells people where to put the explosives, rather than make them yourself.’

‘You can show me the ropes once I do give you that new body. We’ll have plenty of time together.’

‘Eeeeehh, so needy, aren’t you? Can’t learn alchemy on your own? Need the poor Hungarian girl to show it to you?’

‘…Was that a pun on your last name?’

Delicia cackled at him, ‘Truly, you are the height of intellect.’

Deciding to let himself get a bit frustrated, for her amusement, he responded, ‘I am definitely in the upper bounds, don’t you doubt that.’

‘Sure you are, sure you are.’ He could feel the patronizing head pats she wanted to give him. ‘Would you like some basic math lessons too while we’re at it?’

‘Maybe I’ll just find someone else to teach me alchemy.’

‘Awww, too afraid the tiny woman might embarrass you, Mister President?’

‘No, I just realized I’d be too tempted to punt you, since you’re football sized. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate.’

‘Do you even know how to punt anything? You’re probably the type that played football five times in his life and scored one goal total – on his own team.’

That was actually not far off the truth and a rather petty move he had played against Frank during gym class. It had been a one-time thing. Whenever he was, by a twist of fate, on the same team as the jock afterwards, he knew better than to give him a bonus reason for a beating. ‘Well, you’re golf sized at the moment, and I know how to play that rather well.’

Delicia snorted with amusement. ‘Of course you’re a golfer.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?!’ John asked, getting more and more playfully frustrated. The only reason why was because he could feel that gave her life. With all the enjoyment he extracted from bullying his women, he had to be the one bullied sometimes. Plus, it was oddly entertaining to be on the complaining side sometime. ‘You got a problem with golfers or something?’

‘Only with people that insist it’s a proper sport. It’s just rich people pool.’

‘Huh, yeah, that’s a pretty apt comparison,’ John had to admit, his faux-outrage collapsing in on itself. ‘Here I thought you were only smart when it came to harming yourself.’

‘Ouch! Way under the belt!’

‘What, are you that fragile?’

‘No, but that’s still bad manners, you total douche.’ The humming tone she said that in took all the actual bite out of the sentence.

‘Out of interest, are you this instantly chummy with everyone or do I give off some sass inviting aura?’

‘Little bit of both?’ Delicia paused for a little while after that, sorting her thoughts. ‘Dunno, you just give off the vibes that you can take it, so I’m meaner than I would be to most people that I knew this shortly. I really want to know how far I can push you. Angry people are so funny. Especially Gale. OH SHIT! Gale!’

John raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you seriously forget about that?’

‘Didn’t you?’ Delicia asked. ‘Why would you waste all this time bantering with me otherwise? Are you stupid?’

‘One, I just wanted to talk to you some more. I do enjoy our little play fights. Two, quite the opposite of stupid, it’s just that I figured this whole thing out the minute I realized you were there.’

‘Psh, yeah, right, you did,’ Delicia mocked him. Calmly, John presented his theory. There was silence for a few seconds. ‘A-as if that… you… okay, maybe you figured it out, but you’re still stupid! No, wait, you’re… inconsiderate, yeah! How dare you delay all of this when you know where it is going, how do you have any girlfriends at all?’

‘I call them haremettes. I only have one girlfriend,’ John reminded her. ‘Out of interest, did you and Nightingale ever talk about how you would handle being in my harem, together?’

‘We kinda didn’t acknowledge that possibility so far… Can you just get me a body first, you greedy, greedy big man? Actually, can you just focus on Nightingale being happy first? That’s number one priority here.’

Since they were now talking in earnest, John responded without any further over-exaggerated emotions. ‘You’re right. Just… ah, well, you heard it already, I just like talking to you. Before we replay all of that, just tell me what you girls have in store for me. I’ll play along.’

‘Alright, it’s pretty simple: find Gale. She’s somewhere in the Guild Hall. That… was the plan.’

‘Ah, I get the intention,’ the Gamer responded. ‘I’ll put you away for the moment, if you don’t mind.’

‘Hey, I actually mind quite a bit! How am I supposed to tease Nightingale with how sickeningly sweet her first kiss with you was if I can’t see it?! You can’t just take that from me, that would be super mean.’

‘…But I assume you would prefer not being here when we go past kissing?’

‘…That’d be kinda weird…’ Delicia confessed, which was not quite the answer John had expected.

As far as he knew, Delicia and Nightingale were really good, platonic friends. The entire reason why them being in the harem together would have been weird for them was that they hadn’t looked at each other in the proper sexual way. Obviously, that would need to change if they were part of his interconnected web of gorgeous women. ‘Do you feel weird about it because you still can’t see Nightingale that way but you really want first row seats to verify how great I am at sex?’

‘You know what they say – trust, but verify. You shy?’

‘You do recall that I’ve done not one but two porn videos, right?’

‘I mean, I heard about that but I never actually checked those out.’

‘What happened to verifying?’

‘I know your big brain can’t believe it, but I actually didn’t spend most of my time doing self-indulgence the last few years. Had some instances of literal crotch rot to try and fight off.’

‘…Alright and that’s where we cross the line into me being uncomfortable,’ John told her. Before she could exploit one of his few genuine weak points, not wanting to think too much about the gross aspects of women’s bodies, he decided to pass her off. ‘I’ll hand you over to Lee, you can watch through her. Also, you’ll have to explain the why to her.’

‘Can do,’ Delicia hastily responded.

Tossing the green core over to Lee with a, “Catch,” the Gamer rose to his feet and pulled his suit into position. “Alright, so we’re in a pretty stereotypical situation. Delicia says I’m supposed to find Nightingale, wherever she is in the Guild Hall.”

“Ya gotta love the reliable romantic, drama queen moves,” Rave giggled, while looking around the room. She was scanning for something. Whether she found it or not, her eyes eventually returned to John. “So, where ya wanna go?”

“You mean where I will check first?” the Gamer asked for clarification.

“Sure, that, any places where ya have history with her?”

“Not really, at least not in the Guild Hall,” John responded. He had some private moments with Nightingale, here and there, but most of them had been in her apartment. The goddess of the night was not a particularly outgoing type, it seemed. More precisely put, Nightingale had a preference for a binary of either spending a notable stretch outside or not bothering at all. Almost certainly a habitual manifestation of years of being a songstress at large gatherings. No one liked being booked for three songs and to spend more time travelling to and from a party than attending it.

The gala date with Lydia recently had been the longest outdoor gathering they had attended together. At all other times, he had either visited Nightingale in her apartment or she had tagged along with the larger harem – often without John. To some people, most potentially, that no specific place came to mind was a red flag. It certainly pointed to a lack of specific memories together.

John was of the opinion those could be gathered over the years. What he had wanted to know and what he had cleared was whether he and Nightingale got along in terms of character and values. With those two conditions cleared and his interest firmly established, taking the leap into a relationship was sufficiently certain for him.

While that went through his head, the Gamer also picked out a few locations that he considered had some significance for him, Nightingale, both of them in the present, or both of them in the future. “Let’s check out three places,” he told everyone.

“Why three?” Lee asked. “Shouldn’t you check until you find her?”

“Oh, I’m absolutely certain she’ll be at one of those three,” John responded with a smile. “We’ll see which one.”

He guided them outside.