The Gamer Chapter 1584 – Birthday John 8 – Group 7 (Patreon)

Sienna and Scarlett were the last pair that awaited him at the doorstep of his Palace. Scarlett wore a lighter version of her usual suit, missing the jacket and replacing the pants with a pencil skirt. Siena, almost matching, wore a white blouse and black pencil skirt. The shadow spirit had also decided to appear in her human form.

Whether a dark-skinned woman with black hair or a blue-skinned woman with a tail hardly made a difference to John. The aesthetic differences between her and Scarlett’s pale, redheaded form were clear either way and pleasing in their contrast.

“Anything you want to add on the Ehtra front?” John asked, once the proverbial baton had been passed to the final group.

“I like her,” Scarlett stated. “To the point. Effective. Everyone seems to be focused on some secret submissive side. I just care that she’s disagreeable enough to say what she thinks.”

“I copy that in its entirety,” Siena stated.

A different take on what he had heard before, but not to a degree that it gave him new insights. Nodding, he just sorted what he had learned in his head and kept all of his girl’s evaluations in mind for whatever move he would make next, if there was to be any.

For now, he dedicated himself to the date. It was well into the evening at this point, but the midsummer sun still hovered bright in the sky. John had removed the previously placed clouds, now that the natural course of the day had decreased the temperature somewhat.

Without a word, Scarlett decided to walk on ahead. John followed. “Anywhere in mind?” he asked her.

“I just don’t want to stand there,” the redhead stated. “We’ve had a bunch of plans for today and none of them got to be realized because of all the shenanigans.”

“Any plans you would like to share?” the Gamer wondered.

“Creating a whole island was in the cards,” the redhead revealed.

“At the western expanses of the Guild Hall,” Siena gestured in the general direction, “about a hundred metres across. We would have put a route in there, to treat you to various activities.”

“We obviously did not have the time to see this realized.” Scarlett checked on her nails. Their black colour was no part polish. Her powers simply had turned them fully black over time. It did harmonize nicely with her outfit though. “Then there were ideas of various ceremonies, gifts, you get the general theme.”

“Honestly, makes me feel guilty that the way we celebrate your birthdays is comparatively modest.” The Gamer tried to think back to the most expensive way he had treated any of his haremettes on their birthdays.

“It is not to be compared, my saviour,” Siena purred and grabbed his arm. “You deserve it. Besides, your birthday is not a celebration of you getting older alone.”

“It’s really more about all of us,” Scarlett agreed. “A great, fucking hippie festival of this somehow all working.”

“Maybe we should rename it to Harem Day then,” John suggested. He was entirely serious and the duo gave it the appropriate amount of consideration. Even if they could acknowledge that their lifestyle was ridiculously unlikely and functioning against all odds, they were living it. Since they were living it, they had to take suggestions that would otherwise sound like a joke sincerely. It was like that with new additions, with the shape of their bed, and with renaming days because it fit them.

“Make it a national holiday?” Siena suggested.

“That would be going a bit far. Making a holiday called Harem Day would just be rubbing it in the face of every man out there that I have something that they can’t or won’t have.”

“And?”

“And I don’t think men, especially the lonely kind, need to have that rubbed in their face every year. They have enough problems.”

“Make it a challenge for them to be better,” Scarlett stated. “Kick their asses into gear.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t work either, unless we drastically adjust the sex-ratio.” John waited for a second before adding, “Which I did consider once, for the record, and regarded as a terrible idea.”

“On that, I agree,” Scarlett stated. “The last thing I want is proportionally less men in the workforce. Pregnancy is the worst for planning. I just lost a CEO to childcare the other week.”

“I think taking care of her children might be a tiny bit more important to her than making sure your company works efficiently,” John suggested, his tone vibrant with ridicule.

“I know, fucking slackers.” Scarlett reached for her breast pocket and cussed when she found it empty. “Months and still… urgh! When are you putting up the upgraded Starkiln?”

John let her get away with the topic change. “I’m keeping that for after I get back from the knighthood training.”

“Why?”

“Because I like doing things all at once, it gives me immense satisfaction.”

“Doing things all at once is fun,” Siena purred, her sensuous voice alone enough to test John’s current attempt to remain celibate for the next two hours. That he thought about that must have been obvious to anyone, especially someone with a connection to his inner workings. Siena crooned, “Soon, Master, soon.”

Hearing the sadistic shadow spirit use that word created an almost unignorable tightness in his pants. It wasn’t the first time she had ever used it, in fact she used to speak it in a mocking fashion quite frequently, but it was a rare enough treat that he took it all in. Albeit, sad and wonderful as it was, he did not take it as a sign that she’d become a submissive for today. Even if she might want to give him that treat, that just wasn’t who she was. She could do that just as little as John could treat any of his girls to him being thoroughly submissive. There was a line and he could not pretend to like what was past it.

“So, a few more days,” Scarlett dragged the topic back. “Fine. As long as you upgrade the mine.”

“I’ll consider it,” John teased her.

“No, you won’t consider it, you’ll do it.” Scarlett stopped and stabbed his chest with her index finger. “The Mine is the figurative backbone of this entire fucking nation. Make it more productive and you drag everything up with it.”

The Gamer relented by putting an arm around her and pulled her along on the walk to nowhere. “You’re cute when you’re angry.”

“I’m not angry; I’m advising you on not disappointing me,” Scarlett returned, a little mischievous glint in her eyes. “You can do that, right?”

“Allegedly.” John placed a kiss on her brow, then concentrated on the road ahead. The smooth stone path cut through the green area effortlessly. In the distance, one of the delivery cars was driving from the Industry to the Production area. “We’re going to visit your mother soon,” he said, before glancing at Siena.

The midnight elemental did not immediately respond, only sigh. “…If it must be done,” she said.

“At some point,” John told her. “Look at it from the positive side: maybe you’ll stop being shoe-sssssssssssssssss.”

Inhaling harshly, John barely managed not to stumble, when a sharp pain shot up from his left foot. Like all pain, he could deal with it just fine, but that did not mean that Siena’s pointy heel digging into the top of the Skittersteps was anything short of torturous. “I – am – not – shoes,” she hissed, then pulled her foot back.

‘Can’t even make that joke on my birthday, noted,’ the Gamer thought. For all of his Wisdom, John was still a guy and like all guys he sometimes said words that were very, very predictable in their negative outcome – and he still did it. “Alright…” John checked whether he had a hole in his shoe now – he did. “While we are on the topic of regrettable things, how is your creation of AM going?”

“Predictably slow,” Scarlett answered. “Properly coding hate is challenging. I can do it though.”

“But should you?” John asked.

Scarlett rolled her eyes – her brilliant, ruby red eyes. “We agreed that you won’t stop me.”

“I can not stop you while telling you that it’s a terrible idea every step of the way.”

“You keep wasting your breath then, not my fucking problem.”

John let out a long and weary groan. “Well, you can make your own mistakes. I’ll be there to fix them.”

“I won’t need your help if I do make a mistake,” Scarlett assured him immediately. Her haughty exterior melted away a little bit, while she studied the swing of his jaw. “…but it’s good to know you have my back.”

“We always help each other,” Siena hummed, “no matter how flawed we get.”

John squeezed both of them by the hip. It was as good a hug as he could manage without stopping. Simultaneously, redhead and shadow spirit leaned up to place kisses on his cheeks. All small gestures, all filling the air with a warmth the daystar couldn’t compete with.

Scarlett and Siena were… difficult. They were both opinionated in a way that did not make them work well in groups. They were individualists to a fault, they were disagreeable, they wanted what was best for them with little regard for the whole – even if Scarlett insisted that the whole always profited in the end. That those two could love him together and that they could trust in him without question, that did put a smile on the Gamer’s face.

In the spur of the moment, John picked them both up. Being superhuman had a great many perks. That he could have the plush derrieres of two women ride on his forearms effortlessly was foremost among them. Holding onto him, they let out interested sounds, while he carried them off to the shade of a nearby tree and dropped down against it.

The three of them looked out to the lake that surrounded the Palace. The perfectly circular body of water rippled softly under the occasional gust by Weather Tower and air elemental alike. The white walls of the star fort rose from the lake, much of its foundations visible through the clear water. Further up was the Palace proper, then Lady Liberty standing tall above it all. The Palace stood against the backdrop of a vast array of enormous, fantastical structures and a green landscape that was his.

All of this was his. When John extended his senses, he could vaguely feel himself in every blade of grass and every particle of the pavement. It was a fascinating feeling, like hopping back into a bed still warm from his own stay in it.

Just like that bed, what was sweetest was what was not entirely his. It was the two women that nuzzled up to him, not because he owned them, but because they chose to be his. The difference was in every breath, it was in their attitude, and it was in the cheeky way Siena scratched his chin. “Good man,” she purred. For her, he would behave just a little like a dog.

“What do you think is next for us, John?” Scarlett asked.

A big question and one he couldn’t answer yet either. Gaia hadn’t offered him a new, grand Quest yet, but even if she had, what she wanted him to do and what he desired to achieve were entirely different things.

They were among the great powers now. There were ten Divided Gates at the moment. Perhaps that would go down to nine soon, depending on how disastrous the death of Mengele was for the Purest Front’s stability. Perhaps that seat would be reclaimed soon thereafter by the Azure Tribe or by Remus. Perhaps someone new would rise. That person in Japan was still shrouded in mystery.

“I don’t think there is a great goal to set for ourselves right now,” he confessed. “I want to consolidate the continent, but that’s just a matter of time now. The Lorylim remain a threat. So many other things remain a threat. It’s not like we are out of things to do, individually or as a collective, but… we’re at the top of the world now. There’s not a whole lot more places to go.”

“What an odd thought,” Siena hummed. “We’re at the top… we are no longer those that get invited in the houses of greater powers, get chained by worried relatives due to potential or bad behaviour.”

“We are the ones that do those things.” Scarlett pulled a flask out of her dimensional pocket and took a swig. She offered it to John. After a nose-burning sniff test, he refused. Siena did take a little sip. Elementals generally got drunk easier, so that was probably for the best.

“We already proved that much with Hailey,” John pointed out. “Still, it is odd to think about. We still have a few steps to climb. In the eyes of the world, we are the weakest among the ten at this moment. Even if we do prove ourselves the strongest, stronger even than Romulus and his empire, the work will never be done. Our story won’t just end when we reach the peak of what the Abyss has to offer.”

“I’ve been at the top of the food chain before, even if it was a smaller pond,” Scarlett gestured in the general direction of the Thorne HQ. The tower was far beyond the horizon, but John got what she was playing at anyhow. “A much smaller pond, but still. There’s never a shortage of old blood and new money that thinks they deserve to be where we are.”

John chuckled, then felt words press against the back of his lips. He let them out freely.

“In days of peace, when the Abyss is bright, a naïve one will rise.

He’ll test and he’ll prod, he’ll think that all the wisdom he has brought.

For all the entertainment that will be derived,

At a lesson, everyone will arrive,

Naivety chokes,

Cynicism strangles,

And only the wholesome are truly free.”

Silence ensued. Then, Scarlett giggled. A deeply amused, calculating sound. “As if to prove just how far up we are, you casually speak a prophecy. Way to go.”

“You wrote it down?” The redhead sent him an eyebrow-raised glance. “Yes, yes, I shouldn’t doubt you,” he was quick to placate her unexpressed offense. “Just wanted to be sure. Guess the peace I create will eventually lead to a Latebloomer that is annoyingly self-righteous knocking on my door, or something like that.”

“That does sound like a possible reading,” Scarlett agreed.

“Wonder if that is another woman on your way.”

“I… don’t know. 50/50 chances.” John rolled his neck. He studied the underside of the canopy. A bird studied him back.

That gave him an idea for what to do with the hour he would have on his own.