The Gamer Chapter 1580 – Birthday John 4 – Group 3 (Patreon)

John eventually returned to the meeting spot with a group of tipsy and happy haremettes. They had done nothing in particular besides chat in a setting that wasn’t even that much more intimate compared to the norm, but sometimes that was enough for a date.

The two next dates meeting him outside were Lydia and Nia. The queen and the pariah made for a very different and yet so similar pair. It added to the similarities that they had chosen to wear matching summer dresses that replaced both of their usual outfits. The only difference between the long-skirted dresses was the colour. Lydia’s was red, matching the copper tone of her hair, while Nia went with blue, to compliment her eye.

John inspected Nia carefully again, while the five previous dates got the two new ones up to speed. He found himself doing that often these days. Whether that was because he wasn’t yet used to Nia’s new look or because part of his mind would always keep telling him that there was something horrific under her skin, he wasn’t sure.

In a way, he did not mind that much. His love was certainly stronger than this instinctive fear he felt and so all this need to inspect her again really did was make him discover all the lovely parts of her all over again. The way she wore her hair now, all open and borderline impossible in its straightness, was like cascades of gold. The eyepatch, although covering something truly outworldly, added a sense of mystique, white as it was, with the black and gold ornaments stitched into it.

Nia was truly a figure of a magical realm and something similar could be said about Lydia, although it was subtler in her case. The sheen of her hair was just a bit more intense than regular hair, bordering on the metallic. Her eyes shifted colours between dark grey and light blue depending on her mood. Currently they were stuck in a light, pleased colour.

Body language wise, the queen and the blank were remarkably similar. Both of them stood straight, moved with militaristic steps, and otherwise kept gestures to a minimum. It was the position of their eyebrows that mostly gave them a different feel. Lydia’s kept moving, expressing her emotions, even if it was strictly controlled, through them if nothing else. Nia’s now singular, exposed one was almost anchored in place, which combined with her facial structure to unfortunately create the effect of ice-cold staring.

Both of those emotions melted away for a moment when the previous dates retreated into the Palace and left the three of them alone. Royal and pariah revealed happy smiles, as they bridged the distance with long steps. John received them with a deep hug, then a kiss. By that point, it had been two hours since he had last kissed them and that was, by every standard, just too much time. One after the other, then altogether, then just the two of them.

With other girls, it may have continued past that. Lydia and Nia were among the most, if not the most, effectiveness-oriented haremettes around, though. Only Scarlett could compete with them on that front. That the kisses ended there was of little surprise. That Lydia had an idea where to go was also expected. “To the Park.”

“You know, you can just lead the way,” John teased her.

“And deny myself your proximity?” Lydia asked, while he already put his arm around her. It lasted all but three seconds, after they stepped out of the shadow the Palace cast. “Although it is… unreasonably hot for close contact.”

“…I think Jane will forgive me on my birthday,” John said and opened the Guild Hall menu. “32 degrees… why is my girlfriend always trying to cook us?” He tapped that down all the way to 26. That was still hot in his book.

“A splendid question that I constantly find myself asking as well.”

“Perhaps she believes she can cook the sanity out of us?” Nia suggested. “Make us forget that we are in an unusual relationship?”

“That notion is either ridiculous or terrifying and with Jane I cannot be certain which one it is.” Lydia fanned air into her face with her hand. She did not have to do so for long. A cooling breeze almost visibly rolled out from the Weather Tower down by the Park. Once it hit them, the temperature dropped a full degree. Five waves later, they were no longer getting totally roasted.

Not that Nia minded. “The sun is… warm?” she said and raised her hand up, as if to validate that fact.

It was just such an innocently awkward and alien gesture that John could not help but laugh. It started as a single snort. Nia turning her confused gaze to him made that a prolonged giggle and finally an actual, prolonged fit. The pariah put her index finger on his cheek and judgingly poked him, her face remaining perfectly blank.

At that point, Lydia joined him in his laughter, although in a much more withheld way. Chuckling into a raised hand, the queen asked, “Who knew this would be where recruiting you would lead?”

A few seconds passed, John trying (and failing) to regain his calm and Nia doing the typical Nia thing of waiting at least three seconds before letting her thoughts out. “It is indeed interesting. Do you consider this part of the Rat’s plans?”

“By his admission anything to do with us ending in this weird relationship we have is not part of his plan.” Lydia stared up at one of the few clouds that were forming, as per John’s design. “As little as that can be trusted.”

“I think he would have been reluctant to place so many attractive allies in my way…” John cleared his throat, to get rid of the last giggles, “…had he known just how effective Lover’s Will would turn out to be.”

“It makes one wonder how ludicrous the person who eventually threatens to dethrone you will be,” Lydia contemplated.

“Romulus already exists,” Nia stated.

“I mean in the sense that there will eventually be a Latebloomer who can either compete with or outright dominate us as a group.”

“So do I.” Nia tilted her head and continued after sorting her words. “We will not kill Romulus, unless he changes dramatically for the worse. Romulus already has the tools to defeat us even at our pinnacle. It is most likely that the future will go back and forth between us and him caring and winning in the bid to rule the world.”

John contemplated that idea. His harem of almost two dozen women on their way to level 1000 (with a rising tendency of haremettes attached) would indeed never fully outclass Romulus. It was questionable if even Eliana ever would, when it came to individual power. Romulus’ weakness was that he could bottom out on his Godslayer powers, but he also had had over 10 millennia to stock up. Reportedly, he had also learned every single elemental and arcane magic the hard way. In an individual fight, he was utterly terrifying.

Assuming the entire harem grouped up on Romulus, their victory was all but certain. If not now, then down the line. However, Romulus doubtlessly could take one, two, three, or even four of the stronger haremettes on at a time, considering it was him, plus his two goddesses as armaments. It was the whole quantity versus quality conversation taken to its Abyssal extreme.

“Let me rephrase,” Lydia stated. “I wonder what kind of person could join that back and forth or even surpass it.”

“Eliana also already exists. So does Arkan.”

“A fair point on Eliana, but Arkan lost to you alone.”

“A victory earned through an intervention, of sorts.” Nia tapped her eyepatch twice, the motions heavily emphasized by how slow and deliberate they were.

“It’s honestly a question if she shouldn’t have gotten disqualified,” John joked.

“I argue no, I should not. The outside power I gained was given through a sacrifice, through a connection unsealable.”

“I’m not going to argue against you, considering how much it aided me,” the Gamer answered.

“Perhaps, my love, you should not announce such things so loudly then?” Lydia suggested.

They were gradually crossing into the territory where people were active. It wasn’t an official holiday and there were no official events planned either. However, Fusion was so prosperous and he was so popular that people had managed to take the day off and put together something in his honour.

They were greeted with cheers of various day drinking people, sitting along benches. “THANKS FOR THE BREEZE!” one man shouted. “MANAGED TO WISH FOR CONTROL OVER THE WEATHER?” a woman added.

“I had to! You know who gets control over the thermostat!” John shouted back, to general amusement. Men, especially, drummed their glasses on the tables.

Besides that greeting, there was little in terms of interaction. An organizer shortly approached him and asked John a question regarding the stage. “Changed your mind regarding a speech?”

“No, I don’t really have anything for you,” the Gamer responded. “Flattered by the offer, and by what you put together, but I think I’ll just be normal for today.”

The organizer nodded and then slunk back into the back areas of the tents. Generators and portable air conditioning units hummed with the buzz of mana transfer. The trio walked, in search of something interesting. There were many tents, scattered about in a natural way that a public organization wouldn’t have allowed. It was charming.

“Your people truly love you,” Lydia remarked, a smidge of jealousy in her voice.

“Yours do too,” he was swift to assure her.

“It is different,” Lydia told him. “The air is different in your country. To them, you are the reason their lives are better and they are loyal because of it and nothing else.” Lydia took a pause. “Of me, my people make the cause for why their lives are not getting worse and they are loyal because of what they have.” The queen let out a long sigh. “You often point out to me the respect you have for the structures that stand a thousand years, but I must confess that I find this air intoxicating. This… aroma of a nation in ascend. It much beats the stagnancy and uncertainty that I attempt to air out at home.”

“The grass is always greener on the other side,” John said.

“Indeed, it is… Fortunate, then, that we can always partake in each other’s property,” Lydia hummed. It was only the fact that they had to navigate around a barrel of apples that they did not kiss. On the other side, they looked around. “Where is Nia?”

John opened and closed the hand that had just lay on Nia’s hips. “…The most surprising thing is that I am sometimes still surprised how she does that.”

“You should not.” The voice of the pariah was picked up among the moderate buzz by John and his other date. They immediately turned to find the blonde kneeling next to a metal cylinder. It was about half a metre across and filled with apples, the vast majority of them green, a select few red.

As for who Nia was addressing, that went to a young girl, somewhere in the range of four to five years old. The girl was trying to pull at Nia’s eyepatch. “Why not?!” she demanded in the kind of actual bratty tone little girls used when they did not get their way.

With her index finger, Nia pushed aside the hand of the unknowing child. “Because you will see extradimensional horrors beyond your comprehension.”

“I want to see the ex—extra--- extradiiiiiiii-” The little girl was stunned not by the content of the words but by the attempt to pronounce the big one. “Extrapotential!” she declared, then suddenly turned her attention back to the apples swimming in the basin.

Behind the basin, a woman sitting in a chair chuckled. “Would you like to try, Mister President?”

John raised his eyebrow and chuckled at the question. The idea of apple bobbing did not match the regal, stuffy image he had of the old men that usually became presidents in the mundane. That was about the sole reason why he wanted to do it. Whoever said the leader of a nation should be all straight spine, solemn speeches, and specific stations had been so incredibly wrong that it bothered John to this day. The last thing he wanted to become was another rigid politician.

“How about it?” he asked Lydia.

The straight-spined, solemn queen stared specifically at the station before her. How she made all of what he disliked in others work for her was a mystery. Perhaps there was just more to being charismatic than a checklist and the average public servant tried to emulate something respectable that they just weren’t.

“I have my doubts,” Lydia voiced.

“Come on, at worst you’ll get your face wet,” John told her and bit back the innuendo he wanted to add. There was a minor present, after all, and he had standards.

Lydia remained reluctant. She shot him a poisonous glare when he put his hands on her shoulders and gently shook her, as if he could dissolve her doubts if he just jumbled her contents enough. “Do you consider yourself entertaining, Newman?” she hissed at him.

“Yes,” he answered straightforwardly, to the amusement of Nia, who giggled her weird little giggle, and the stand-keeper.

“Fine!” Lydia relented, for whatever reason, and shook his hands off. “If only for you to cease making an embarrassing pest out of yourself.”

“When am I not that?” the Gamer wanted to know.

“…Don’t make me compliment you.” Lydia and John knelt down at the sides of the basin. At the same time, the little girl nearly fell into it, having leaned too far over a rim that was just a little too high for her. “This seems less than sanitary,” Lydia pointed out.

“It’s definitely not,” the Gamer chuckled and shrugged, “but immune systems also need their challenges, like muscles.”

“I suppose there is that way to look at traditions and games that likely benefited the spread of communal diseases,” Lydia stated sarcastically. Then, the two of them just dove for it.

The rules of apple bobbing were straightforward: only use your mouth and go for the red ones. There was no bigger purpose to the stand than to play the game.

Cold water splashed John’s face, as he went for the surprisingly difficult task of getting one of the red apples. Superhuman reflexes only served him so much here; his primary enemy was the way his own action disturbed the water while he tried to get enough of a bite through the slippery surface to lift the apple out of the water.

That being said, superhuman reflexes, and all the other superhuman aspects he had, did serve him. Sweetness filled his mouth as the apple crunched and he reared back. In that, however, he still was only the third. Second was Lydia who greeted him with a triumphant apple in her mouth. First was Nia, who caught both of their attention by munching on hers. Water dripped off her chin.

“Whenhn?” John asked, past the fruit between his jaws.

“While you weren’t looking,” Nia answered.

“IT WAS AWESOME!” the little girl shouted and jumped several times, still trying to get that eyepatch off. Nia just ate her apple. John and Lydia did much the same. The Gamer only stopped to throw a Token into a donation box.

“We’ll be here later!” the woman running the stand assured them.

John had a mouthful of fruit, so he just waved as he chewed and walked away. Finding a secluded spot, the trio just ate their apples. “Still concerned about sanitation?” the Gamer asked Lydia, who was devouring hers with big bites.

“The damage is done,” the queen declared. John found it strangely adorable when she crossed her legs and revealed that she was wearing light boots. They were thinner than her typical marching equipment, but only to be reasonable in the weather. Nia, in comparison, was barefoot.

While John’s apple was still half there, Lydia chomped down on the core. She ate all of it, seeds included, and even grinded the little bit of wood at the top down with her teeth, swallowing it all. “Really?” the Gamer asked. This wasn’t the first time he had seen her eat an apple, but it still was strange to him.

“Really,” Lydia responded plainly and leaned back. “’Really?’ is the question I should be asking. You really went ahead and woke Ehtra up immediately?”

“Yes,” John just admitted. “What did you expect?”

“I hoped for restraint, but I assume Momo already gave you that lecture.” Lydia let out a long sigh. “At least she seems to be a useful asset.”

“You met her?”

“An hour ago, yes. I decided to use my time productively,” Lydia revealed. “I still deny any opportunity for her to join the harem at this time.”

“I don’t think she can execute a swift and imperial conquest,” John stated as clearly as he could in this public setting. “We’ll be fine. Ehtra will get used to the current age first. Still, what did you think of her?”

“Dangerous, useful, focused to a fault, looking for a meaning greater than herself. She reminds me of a mixture of myself and Undine.”

“Huh, Undine also thought she was similar to herself, although you weren’t in the mix.”

Lydia shrugged. “Estimations vary and I am specifically describing what I perceive as her desire to enact change. She obviously wants vengeance.”

“I think you might become an obsession for her,” Nia weighed in.

“You think she’ll be like Aclysia?” John wondered.

“No,” Nia was swift to deny that, “I think your image will become a guidance for her. Does that make sense? She might latch onto Fusion’s ideals, if she deems that they work. That is my reading of her.”

“I would agree with that assessment,” Lydia stated.

John just nodded. That did not run counter with anything else the harem had said so far. “Interesting. Well, we’ll see where she goes… and where do we go next?”

“I would appreciate another trip to the Mine,” Lydia stated and stretched. “I do so rarely get the opportunity to enact grunt work. It pleases me… that sounded incredibly posh.”

“You are a royal,” John pointed out.

“Not an excuse to get out of touch. Shall we, my loves?” Lydia extended her hands to both him and Nia.

They did as she wished.