The Gamer Chapter 1512 – Imperial Tomboy (Patreon)

The harem found itself seated around a truly enormous table. Its knotted surface and size were proof that the olivewood had been shaped via magic, not carpentry. Personally, John preferred the surface of his table smooth, but this degree of bumpiness worked fine and it did fit better with the ancient theme of the building.

That being said, the neighbouring kitchen was most certainly modern.

Aclysia, Beatrice, Delicia, and Lee were working together to get the meal for the harem prepared. The constant sounds of frying, mixing, and stirring could be heard from the kitchen. The air was pregnant with the manifold smells of sizzling meat and baking dough.

“Oh wow, this smells great!” Lu Zhi announced her presence the same moment she peeked around the corner.

The Heavenly Jade Empress wore her hair in a low-bound ponytail this morning. The pale green band that kept the light grey strands bunched up behind her neck was the same colour as her eyes. Smiling wide, she swung the rest of her body around the open door, revealing a dangerously adorable qipao – a traditional Chinese single piece dress. It was a gorgeous white thing, fitting her curves tightly. The edge of the short, loose skirt was the bottom of a frame for a picture, with tall mountains and clouds painted in an inky style onto the fabric. Between them, the powerful jade colour of the dragon that lived on her curved, moving as if it was flying through a real landscape.

The top of the dress stretched over her small breasts. A seam ran from the front of her collar down to her right armpit, kept closed by five jade pins. Although Lu Zhi made the effort to wear comfortable commoner’s clothing, her wealth was evident in every detail of its make.

“I let myself in, the door was open,” Lu Zhi joked.

John responded, without missing a beat, “How unusual of us to forget to lock the door.”

The imperial tomboy took a sudden, giggling inhale. It bordered on an accidental snort and she raised a hand to her lips to hide the broad smile for a second. “Shut up,” she shot at him across the table. At the same time, her eyes roamed all over him – and over everyone else around the table.

The weather was too good and the sun too bright to bother wearing much in the way of clothing. Had it not been for Lu Zhi’s announced visit, most of them wouldn’t have bothered to wear anything at all. As it was, bikinis and sportswear were the clothing of choice for most gathered haremettes. John himself only wore swim trunks.

John and Lu Zhi were smiling at each other across the massive table. Then, the additional arrivals had to shatter the mood. Absalm, still the stereotypical little Chinese man, was first to step into the room. Paku, the warlord type, was swift to follow. Both visibly flinched when Metra growled. With a loud ‘clunk’ Rex Magna dropped down on the empty table in front of her. Agitating little guitar and drum sounds urged the First of Wrath to reach for her weapon.

Having anticipated this exact situation, John reached for the arm of the berserker babe that he had seated next to himself. Green eyes flicked over to him. A tiny nod from her, and he let go of her arm. She gripped Rex Magnar only to move the halberd off the table.

“Please, sit down, Lu Zhi,” John offered.

“Lu is fine,” the empress assured, while she plopped down on the offered chair. The table was huge enough that, even though most of the harem was seated around it, the imperial tomboy sat notably isolated on her end of the oval furniture. “So is Lulu or Lucy or Zhi, whatever you prefer, I don’t mind.”

“Heavenly Jade Empress, I must-“ Absalm started.

“Urgh,” she interrupted him with an annoyed outcry. “Okay, only in private. Publicly it’ll have to be Lu Zhi or just Lu.”

“Lulu is cute,” John said with a suave smile. It immediately summoned a little blush on the monarch’s face. She couldn’t have been more than a year older than John, if even that.

“How about I call you Jojo in return?”

“Is that a JoJo reference?!” Rave shouted.

“Ora!” Lu Zhi shouted and thrust out her fist.

The feline Lightbearer turned immediately to John and stared at him like she was begging him to adopt a new pet. Then she realized that he was the last person she needed to convince and instead turned her eyes to Momo and Lydia.

The two had none of it.

“It would be advisable to stay on course,” Lydia declared.

“Absolutely, there’re important matters that need discussing.” Momo nodded sagely.

“Is that so?” Lu Zhi’s demeanour shifted subtly. There was always something action ready to the body language of the empress. It took little to change that eagerness to move into the gracefully sharp motions of a learned warrior. In one swiping gesture, she had manifested and spread out a jade fan, using the glowing artefact to hide her smile, just as her teeth showed the first sign of turning carnivorous. “We count three subjects that require conversation. Our relationship with Fusion, Fusion’s involvement with Japan, and past slights our advisors have enacted against the Metracana Metra – are we correct in that assessment?”

“That would be the sum of it,” John agreed. “If you don’t mind, I would like to begin with the last point.”

“We do not,” the Heavenly Jade Empress responded. Her eyes, just as brilliant as the fan she held, turned to Absalm. “We understand that it was mostly this one’s doing?”

The Second of Shadow gulped audibly and pulled at the collar of his traditional Chinese garb. How much of that was genuine and how much an act, John could not be certain even now. It seemed that the advisor was of the Machiavellian sort, when it came to supporting his chosen monarch. That did include making himself look weak, so she could look strong.

“We had a deal,” Metra growled, uncaring of such analysis. “You worked with the supreme bitch herself. Both of you.” Paku tried to look stern and confident, but the Fourth of Power could not assert himself in the face of the firstborn of the Metracanas. “You’re my brothers. The least I expect of you is to keep your words.”

“You were ever the optimist, Metra…” Absalm said cautiously. Then, the little man’s smile took on a hideously mocking character. “That’s probably why all your kings keep dying.”

CLANK!

The sound of Metra’s claws slamming against Lu Zhi’s fan reverberated through the room. Jade and Astrotium were set in a deadlock, the hand of the First of Wrath reaching out of a dimensional tear. Her arm outstretched, Lu Zhi revealed the layer of pale green scales that was growing up the sides of her face as a sort of attractive dusting on her pale skin. With every passing second, they intensified. Intense green began to paint a shadow around her eyes, like warpaint. Just then, the Rip portal collapsed and Metra was forced to pull her arm back.

Absalm’s grin remained plastered on his face for only one moment, then the folded fan was rammed into his stomach. “Prostrate yourself,” Lu Zhi ordered, her voice now underlined by a second, older tone. The dragon on her dress had flown up to her collar, its breath exuding mist that rose from the fabric as an ephemeral cloud.

“Empress, I-“

“Did you not hear us?” Lu Zhi interrupted. “We know not the details of your feud in the depth we would prefer. All we know for certain is that the mockery of one’s siblings is unbecoming of a royal advisor.” In a flash, the ruler of the Mandate of Heaven ripped the hat off the man, then slammed her fan into his side again. “We have robbed him of his protective charm. You may Observe that his surprise at this treatment is genuine.”

John did as she allowed.


“Doesn’t seem like this is premeditated,” he told Metra, who stood up upon hearing that.

Absalm tried to stand tall, but the First of Wrath kicked his feet away from underneath him and placed her foot on his head a moment later. The two glared at each other. “The truth is that there is never a need to be afraid of you, sister,” the Second of Darkness hissed. “Because, in the end, you are oathbound, you are naïve, and you would never kill one of us. Se- semi… ahh!” Absalm shouted, his temple right under Metra’s Astrotium-reinforced heel. “Seminaris would kill any one of us, if that was useful to her! That’s why you kept losing!”

“You disgust me,” Metra sneered, but proved him right by raising her foot long before anyone demanded it.

“We see that this affair will not find a resolution here,” Lu Zhi declared. By now, the ethereal green was wrapping around her shoulders and arms, forming a highly arched bridge above her head, and all around it seemed like some kind of divine scarf wrapping around her. “We demand you remove yourself from this meeting, Absalm. Tell your master what you wish.”

Absalm turned to her, remaining low to the ground. “With all due respect, the master has insisted that we watch that you do not behave inappropriately, Lu Zh-“

“We did not allow you to speak our name!” Jade eyes glowed with the might of an ancient empire, the pupils narrowed into devastating slits. Absalm writhed on the ground, under a pressure of unparalleled might. A pair of eastern dragon antlers began to sprout as jade-veined ivory from Lu Zhi’s greyish black hair. “Begone!”

The pressure vanished and Absalm fled out of the room so quickly, he slammed into the wall face first on his way. This was much to Metra’s amusement, whose laughter did little to undercut the threat of Lu Zhi’s gaze, when she turned it towards the Fourth of Power. Paku stayed just long enough to take the hat from his empress, then he hastened after his sibling.

In the chair across from John sat the Heavenly Jade Empress. She was all parts of her title embodied. Heavenly was her beauty, from the pale of her skin to the thunder of her presence. Jade was her might, playing around her in a multitude of forms, from horns, to scarf, to waving tail, concentrated most in her glowing eyes. Empress, that she was doubtlessly, sitting in the chair like it was her throne.

Aclysia placed a plate in front of her.

“Oh, pancakes!” Lu Zhi declared appreciatively. With a tap on the side of the table, she folded the jade fan. The moment it was consolidated, it shattered into nothingness, and so did the rest of her draconic exterior. “Do you have strawberries and cream with that?”

“I can offer raspberries,” Aclysia informed.

“I would love that.” Lu Zhi drummed on the edge of the table with her hands. “Sorry about the scene.”

“Why be sorry about something so masterful?” John asked.

“Psh, I did nothing much,” Lu Zhi waved off, while the maids proceeded to bring in the rest of the food. “I just hate it when people are disrespectful.”

“So, you’re telling me this wasn’t a ploy to rid yourself of any favours owed to Xi Pang?” John asked with a knowingly raised eyebrow. “After using his minions yesterday to create a little incident to elevate yourself at my cost, you brought them over to make fools out of themselves. Now you can argue that they did as much damage as they helped you, right?”

Lu Zhi chose not to answer, only shooting him a wink, before letting out a gleeful sound at the approaching raspberries.

Everyone knew that she would come out in this trade so far ahead, the argument was farcical. Putting John down for her own clout in public worked for her because the Gamer was notoriously weak to cute tomboys. Then using Absalm as a sacrificial lamb worked twice over, because Metra got what she actually wanted and John understood her true meaning. All of this was only so she could have an argument to continue her adversarial stance towards Xi Pang.

To the best of John’s knowledge, Xi Pang was the oldest and most respected member of the eunuch faction of the Forbidden City, the seat of power of the Mandate of Heaven. He would have held the de-facto power if Lu Zhi had not turned out to be as politically savvy as she was beautiful.

They were all taken up by breakfast for a little while, shattering Lydia and Momo’s plan to get the empress out of the room before John could begin to salivate over her. “Sorry… I don’t like talking politics while stuffing my face,” the imperial tomboy excused herself between large bites of raspberry covered pancakes. “These are… the best… how much to buy her from you?”

“I must inform you that I am not for sale,” Aclysia interjected. “My services are dedicated to Master by my own volition.”

“Oooh, I heard you let your Artificial Spirits develop their free will, that’s awesome.” Lu Zhi smiled first at John, then at Aclysia. “Sorry for talking like you weren’t there. I am so used to terracotta servants.”

“No offense taken,” Aclysia assured with a diligent smile. “Albeit, it does surprise me that you would not sense my draconic inheritance.”

“Did not need to sense much with the…” Lu Zhi followed the curve of imaginary horns along her own head. “…and all of that. Just did not know what to assume from there. I have never seen an Artificial Spirit like you.”

“There’s only one other Artificial Spirit like me.” Aclysia extended one hand to the side, where Beatrice conveniently had positioned herself. “Do you require additional raspberries and pancakes?”

“No, I’ll have some of that next,” the empress pointed at a meat pie, “need my protein.”

‘I could give you a lot of protein,’ John thought, then narrowed his eyebrows. ‘What is it with tomboys and bringing out just my worst flirting impulses?’ “I take it everything is to your liking then?”

“Uh-huh,” Lu Zhi responded, chewing on the meat pie with an adorable lack of grace. Bits of fresh fat and gravy ran down her chin. Barely, she managed to snap forwards so it dropped onto her plate, rather than her expensive dress. The dragon on her dress hissed silently at its wearer.

“To see the mighty Tianlong reduced to a woman’s dress,” Nathalia suddenly spoke up.

The jade dragon froze. It turned its head to Lu Zhi, but she just rolled her eyes. “Could you have your drama match later?” she requested. “I am enjoying the best food I’ve had in forever. Oh, also, can somebody point me to the restroom?”

John was not certain whether she looked at Rave first or if his fiancée just stood up so fast that the imperial tomboy’s eyes snapped over reflexively. One way or another, Rave had her hand raised. “Lemme show you the way, Lulu.”

Lydia and Momo exchanged a worried glance; John and many of the other haremettes became fidgety. There was strictly no way that Lu Zhi and Rave put their heads together and nothing happened. “I must reiterate,” the queen spoke quietly, “that I believe this will not work out for you at this juncture.”

“I can lay some groundwork and then let things rest for a while,” John assured.

“Can you?” Lee asked.

“Can you really?” Nightingale supported the young Fateweaver’s skepticism.

“Really, can you?” Delicia added drily.

“For real, can ya?” Hailey raised an eyebrow.

“To be fair to me, it wasn’t like you four didn’t reciprocate – hard.” That did shut the quartet up a little bit, but their point still stood. John’s legendary weakness to attractive women had a terribly inconvenient synergy with his high Charisma and Wisdom. To know whether he was compatible with someone or not within a few weeks at most lent itself to very short time spans between meeting and addition to the harem. “I do have self-control!”

The doubt in the air was palpable. Even Aclysia and Claire did not come to his defence. Grumbling, John turned back to his own slice of the meat pie. How dare the angels of his heaven have such reasonable doubts about his flawed character?

“Hey, tiger,” the voice of Rave echoed around the corner. It only took a moment for her tanned legs to come around the corner – directly neighbouring the long, naked and pale legs of Lu Zhi herself.

“Oh no,” Momo muttered.

‘Oh yeees,’ John knew his expression screamed.

Lu Zhi wore a white, gold-trimmed bikini. Her wide hips and petite breasts were covered, her crotch hidden from view, but the rest of her curves were on full display. She was, despite being ten centimetres shorter, remarkably similar in build to Rave. Legs that walked the tightrope between thick and lusciously long. A midriff that showed just enough definition to hint at regular training. Arms that were slender but not too slender.

“Lulu was wondering something. Ya think her pants yesterday made her butt look worse?”

The empress turned just a little bit pink at those words. Likely, she had not expected Rave to utter the question so brazenly. If John thought anything about that, it was wiped away when the Heavenly Jade Empress and Rave turned around in unison.

And John was irreparably claimed.