TQH Vol. 4 pt. 13 (Patreon)

((Couldn't sleep and then didn't end up waking up until like 5pm, so I had a pretty late start to my Tuesday. Anyways, here's the chapter!))

I let out a loud yawn before opening my eyes. I don’t know why… but I feel amazing. That might have been the best sleep I’ve ever gotten if I feel like this right after waking up.

Did I do something different from the usual?

Well, for one, Elanah wasn’t there which meant that she couldn’t force me to cuddle with her in uncomfortable positions all night. Then there was the fact that none of the kids were there which meant that they couldn’t try to also cuddle with me and climb all over me in my sleep.

But I didn’t have to deal with any of them the last couple of nights, either, yet I didn’t sleep that well.

Then what was it?

I mean, I wasn’t even allowed to sleep on a bed last night since they were all taken up by the vampires.

Wait… what happened before I went to sleep again?

There was everything that happened with the progenitor and Felecia, then the vampires calmed down their party a bit so that they could sit down and talk with each other after having… dinner, then Zurie said I could sleep on her bed that night, but I turned her down because…

Right. I remember now. I didn’t want to leave Felecia alone until all the other vampires are gone, and Felecia… isn’t exactly on good terms with Zurie right now. What with knowing that Zurie technically killed the original pup and all that. As far as Felecia is concerned, Zurie is the one who murdered the pup all those years ago instead of saving him, and she murdered him so that she could use him.

I feel kind of bad about turning Zurie down for Felecia, but Zurie isn’t the one who might get killed and devoured in her sleep by a hungry and pissed vampire. Not to mention that Zurie knows everybody here whereas I’m the only one who Felecia knows. I feel like it would have been a pretty shitty thing to leave her all alone in a mansion full of vampires who would be happy to eat her, while also making her sleep on the floor.

Zurie isn’t exactly treating this girl all that kindly. Though, given what Zurie expects of me, I can’t exactly blame her. Even I’m not blind enough that I can’t see what Felecia’s presence means. I’m naturally going to want to protect her, the progenitor ordered her to stay with me, and – well, basically, she’s probably going to get in the way and distract from Zurie’s plans. There’s already the fact that she only has one real leg left, so just having to use a wooden replacement for one leg already means that she’s going to slow us down and be more at risk during any fights.

The good news is that she’s a healer. A pretty damn good one if she was able to make me feel like new.

And that’s not all that she has going for her.

I know. I know that I’m trying to stop being such a perverted old bastard who can’t get his mind off of women’s bodies, but…

When Elanah sleeps with me, there’s not really anything soft for my head to use as pillows given that she usually just holds my head against her chest.

But right now? I feel two soft, warm pillows pressing up against the back of my head.

Then there’s the fact that when Elanah sleeps with me, she treats me like a pillow. She squeezes me way too tightly, holds me against her chest while bending her neck to try and use the side of my face as a pillow for her head, and she wraps her legs around me. She legitimately tries to use my like one of those body-sized pillows some folk like to sleep with.

But right now, I don’t feel like I’m being used as a pillow. Instead, this feels more like I’m being pampered if anything. I can tell that the back of my head is against Felecia’s chest and, rather than squeeze me like I’m a pillow, she has a single hand softly resting on my belly.

That reminds me. I fell asleep that way last night. We were on the floor, she cuddled up to me from behind, and she gently rubbed my belly until I fell asleep. That was nice. Seriously nice.

Is that the secret to waking up feeling like I’m a brand-new man? Get belly rubbed into sleeping? If it is, it’s something I’m seriously alright with. That’s the kind of way I want to go to sleep every single night for the rest of my life. Not to mention that her chest – to put it in as non-perverted of a way as possible so I don’t feel like a living piece of shit, is seriously nice to rest my head against.

And now I can hear her… almost disturbingly adorable method of waking up.

“Mmmyah,” Felecia yawned. “Hah… nngh… my back kinda hurts…”

I guess I’m the only one who slept that well. Sleeping on the floor, especially on her side all night, probably isn’t a good way for a human to sleep. What she really needs to sleep in is a hammock. I’ve slept in a few hammocks before since the usual inns didn’t always have available beds. They were pretty nice. Plus, if she were to sleep in a hammock, I could sleep on top of her to use her chest as a pillow, and she could still rub my belly.

The main problem with that idea… is how the other girls would react once they’re back. I doubt Elanah and Felecia would both fit into the same hammock with me, and I doubt that either of them are going to want to give up on sleeping with me.

Wait. Isn’t that a serious problem? How are they going to react to Felecia? I doubt that Moriko will care at all, but Elanah is definitely going to be jealous, and Lixue – well, I’m never really sure how Lixue would react to these sorts of things.

“Hehe… your ears tickle,” Felecia says.

I didn’t even notice that she moved a bit so that my ears are flicking against her neck now.

And there’s something else that I don’t notice until it’s too late.

She presses her lips against the top of my snout. “Good morning. A-ah… I’m sorry. You… might not like that sort of thing. It’s really hard for me to not treat you like—”

I shake my head at her. It’s fine. It’s seriously fine.

…

This is dangerous. This woman is making me want to go back to my usual ways of wanting to bury my bone in every attractive woman I see. She’s so kind, and sweet, and she has a great body, and her voice is the kind of voice I want to hear whispering into my ear every morning for the rest of my life, and there’s also the fact that I’m just naturally drawn to her because of that pup. If anything, that pup is probably a huge part of why I’m this interested in her.

I might be fine with nearly any woman, but this pup chooses Felecia. Well, it’s not like I’ve ever felt any sort of internal complaining over any of the other girls, but I definitely feel like I’m being pushed more toward her than the others.

But maybe that’s just because it’s been so long since seeing her. Naturally, even if a man loves ten different women the exact same amount to be as perfectly equal and fair as possible, he’s probably going to want to spend the most time with the woman he hasn’t seen for fourteen years instead of the ones he sees every single day. At least until the novelty wears off.

If anything, now that I’m actually thinking about my feelings and the other girls… I kind of miss them. Well, I miss Elanah and Lixue. Moriko is still kind of… Moriko.

I also miss the little brats. I don’t miss them in the same way that I miss Elanah and Lixue, but I guess some masochistic part of me misses them always wanting to pet me and play with me. They’re still seriously annoying, but in a not-that-bad kind of way.

“Oh, um… sorry. My leg – hang on,” Felecia says, scooting herself away from me. “It must have came loose during sleep somehow.”

I get up, stretch out, and look at what she’s doing.

She’s lifted her dress up, showing off the extent of the damage. It goes up to her left thigh where it’s been healed to look like a nub, and the top of her peg leg has a sort of cup-shaped area for her to hold against the bottom of what’s left of her thigh. Once she has it in place, she uses a couple of belts to tightly strap it to another belt that’s hidden underneath her dress around her waist. Once she’s done with all of that, she gives it a little shake and pull to make sure it’s still in place before smiling and pulling her dress back down.

I may have had some thoughts about her chest, but at least I was man enough to not look at her underwear when she pulled her dress up that high.

“There we go,” Felecia says. “Maybe I undid it in my sleep. It’s not really comfortable, so I do that sometimes. Anyways… the masquerade is going to last for another few days, right?”

I nod my head.

“Then… what are we going to do? Are we going to stay in a room the whole time and—”

“Worry not,” Zurie says, opening the door to the room we’re in. “I plan on letting both of you get your fill of fresh air.”

Felecia doesn’t waste any time in wrapping her arms around me as if to protect me from Zurie.

She kind of reminds me of Elanah back when she first met Zurie. Though, I doubt that Felecia is going to warm up as quickly as Elanah did.

“Despise me if that is what you so wish for,” Zurie says to Felecia. “I would be lying if I said you were not justified. However, no matter how strongly you may dislike me, all I ask for is your cooperation. And if you wish to stay by Woofen’s side, that much will be required at the bare minimum.”

Felecia doesn’t say anything, but she does unwrap her arms from me.

“Good enough. Now, is no short amount of questions that I have for you, but they will have to wait. I cannot allow either of you to cause any more trouble than you already have. He may have been amused by yesterday’s events, but there is always the chance that he will change his mind and decide to kill if you so much as look in his direction. Not to mention that I know Naomi. She is not the kind of woman who will back down once she desires revenge, and she would love for nothing more than to feast upon both of you. Not even the progenitor’s wrath will deter her seeing as how she knows he most likely would not outright kill her no matter what she does. That is why we are going to make use of this time for training.”

“What do you mean?” Felecia asks.

“What level are you right now?”

“I – I’m… only level one.”

“You have never killed another being, have you?”

“Only bugs.”

“I see. In that case, training is even more important than I could have known. You will depart for the tower together. Everybody else you will be spending time with are already more than twenty levels higher than you. If you cannot even begin to catch up, you will do nothing but hold them back and potentially cause their deaths. It is important that you—”

“I know.”

“Is that so?”

Felecia nods and holds onto me again, but not in a protective way. It’s more of a… sad way. “My brother. He used to explore towers before he died and told me what they were like. If… if I have to train in a tower for him,” she tightens her grip around me a bit more, “then I’ll do it.”

“Do you believe that you have it in you? Even if they are monsters of the tower, your life will still be at risk. They may overwhelm you and rip you to pieces while you beg for mercy. They may inflict horrible pain upon you before you are able to heal yourself. Woofen will be there to protect you, but there is never a true guarantee of safety within the tower. Furthermore, you will have to kill them. Do you have it in you to take the life of another being?”

“I’d rather not kill when I don’t have to… but I don’t think I will hesitate to kill monsters that aren’t really alive in the first place.”

“And what about when you are faced with a situation outside of the tower where it may be your life or theirs? What will you do then?”

“I will do whatever protects Woofen.”

“Good. I have already had Ghoul go and get you a staff you will be able to use for self-defense. I expect you to kill as many monsters as of the tower as possible so that you may maximize your growth with what limited time you have.”

“Isn’t it possible that the vampire from yesterday might follow us?”

“Oh? I am impressed you were thinking of that. Yes, it is possible. However, we will know should she try to leave the manor, and I will have a shadow of Ghoul nearby should you get into a situation that demands an emergency escape. However, it is extremely unlikely that she will try anything. Killing you while you are here is one thing. She could easily get close to you before any of us could stop her. However, having to leave the manor, head to the tower, and then search for you within it while I have her being watched – that is entirely different. I should also mention that any who would be willing to seek revenge on her behalf are also being watched, so you will not have to worry about any of that. All you must concern yourself with is the pursuit of power to make yourself as little of a hindrance to those around you as possible. Do you understand?”

“I… I understand.”

“Good. Ghoul will bring breakfast to you soon and then you may depart. If you wish to bathe, this may be your last opportunity for a few days.”

“Alright.”

Zurie looks the two of us over and smiles at me. “Woofen, I am looking forward to the next time we share a bed together. My body will not soon forget that which you have taught it, and it would not be a lie to say that it is looking forward to more… lessons.”

Felecia tightly wraps her arms around me, pulling me against her body as she turned red and failed to find any words to say. Meanwhile, Zurie looks… smug.

Did Zurie just – is she purposely trying to make Felecia jealous?

Felecia finally manages to say some actual words, but not many. “But – but he – and you – different races – and—”

“What of it?” Zurie asks. “I will embrace Woofen no matter how he may look. Whether he is a beast or something else, he is welcome to indulge in my body at his behest. I am willing to do anything for him. After all, he is my hound. It is only natural that I take care of every, single, one of my pet’s most primitive desires.”

“But—!”

“Do not worry so much about it. You are welcome to sleep with him as much as you wish, if that is what you so desire. I have no intention of taking him from you after your long-awaited reunion. I simply wish for my hound to remember that, whenever he is faced with his instinctual needs, he is more than welcome to come and make use of any part of my body for as long as he so desires.

Felecia just has no idea how she’s supposed to reply to that, and I have no idea how I’m supposed to reply to it, either! One, she’s making it sound like we did things outside of me using a transformation potion! And two—… I really want to go and spend some time alone with Zurie right now, but I doubt we’ve got the time for that given that the other vampires will probably be waking up soon.

Wait.

Why are vampires waking up in the morning anyways? Don’t they hate the sun? I mean, it even burns them. Then again, the rest of the world is awake during the day instead of the night, so I guess it makes sense if they want to actually participate in society.

That aside, Zurie finally takes her leave to stop teasing us and Ghoul enters the room a moment later with a serving plate in one hand and a wooden staff in his other hand. I guess he was waiting for Zurie to leave.

“You are growing awfully popular lately, Master Woofen. Though, I do wonder how the other women in your life will react when they return. Especially the one who spends every night with you and never wishes to leave your side,” Ghoul says.

“There… there are other women?” Felecia asks. At this point, she lets go of me and slouches back a little, clearly looking defeated. “How… how many women want to be his owner?”

“You would be the fifth. Or rather, the fourth. Perhaps only the second. I believe only you and my lady wish to view yourselves as his owner. From my understanding, Elanah wishes to be his wife, Lixue views him as a lifelong partner, and Moriko simply wishes to use him for breeding purposes.”

Felecia almost looks like she’s going to faint after hearing all of that.

Meanwhile, even Ghoul shows me a smug smile just like Zurie did before setting the food and staff down.

Makes sense that he would take Zurie’s side to mess with Felecia, but they seriously need to relax… even if it is all true.

After that breakfast which seemed to be borderline traumatic for Felecia, she ended up taking a dip in the bath before the two of us left for the tower.

And now we’re back to a sight that is all too familiar to me.

The first floor of the Magnurr Tower.

So, here we are. I guess this is a victory lap of sorts, almost. I’ve got a bunch of low-level monsters to kill who probably won’t even be able to hurt me unless they get lucky, and this is the last time I’ll be stepping paw in here for a while. Considering that I’m a way higher level than intended for these first few floors, and I’ve got a healer supporting me… yeah, this is going to be pretty bad for any monsters unfortunate enough to get caught in our sight.

At the same time, getting revenge on all these monsters will be pretty nice. Like those bastards who got their sticky web in my fur. The rats who tried stealing my bones. The goblins who – well, who existed.

Yeah, this is going to be nice. Seriously nice.

“I’m ready!” Felecia says. “I have never done anything like this before, but – but I will try my best!”

I look back at her with my blade held between my teeth. I don’t even know what she’s going to do other than heal me in case I get scratched a tiny bit. I’ll be surprised if she even gets any experience considering that I’m such a higher level than the monsters down here. Actually… it would be better to break the party that we formed on the way over so that she can work on her own, and I’ll protect her. As long as she starts the fights and gets in at least a little bit of damage, she should still work towards leveling up even if I do most of the work and finish the monsters off.

But all she has is a staff. A simple, wooden staff that might hurt somebody if she smacks them in the head with it, but isn’t going to do enough damage to kill them or hurt them enough to stop them from cutting or biting her open. Not to mention that she only has one good leg to move around on. Even if she opens up the fights on her own, she might still get hurt. Too hurt.

And I don’t want to see her in any danger. I especially don’t want to see her get hurt.

But damn it, the whole point of coming down here is for her to get caught up to the rest of us. There’s already no way she’ll be able to catch up to even Elanah’s level any time soon, but she can still get actual practice in to learn some techniques and strategies. Level itself isn’t everything. But for her to actually gain experience in the non-level-related way, she’s got to actually put herself in harm’s way and deal with it.

“Is everything alright?” Felecia asks while looking at me.

I guess I’ve been staring at her for a bit too long.

We need to actually do something. So, I walk over to her, disband the party, and nudge the back of her thigh with my head.

“Do… do you want me to take the lead?” Felecia asks.

I look up at her and nod.

“That makes sense. If I’m here to get stronger… nothing will happen if you do all the work.”

I love when people can actually understand me even when I’m a monster. And I mean without needing a translator or being able to actually understand me via mental thoughts or whatever it is again that Ghoul does. Just… being plain understood in a normal, non-magical, non-translated way is nice. I never thought it would be something that I actually care this much about, but I do.

“You… will still protect me in case I get into trouble, right?” Felecia asks.

I nod again.

Felecia holds her staff close to her body and takes a deep breath. “Then I – I will do my best! To make it up to you for how you tried to protect me back then… and for how you saved me again.” She walks forward a few steps before turning around and staring me in the eyes. I like the look that she’s got. It’s a look of fiery spirit – of pure determination. “Even if I get hurt… even if I’m in danger… let me handle it. I won’t say no to being saved if I’m about to die, but please let me get hurt. My Pain Resistance skill has been at rank ten since – my point is that I can handle pain pretty good! Unless I lose an arm or am about to die… I’ll be fine!”

Hearing her say that… I feel like I should probably be worried about her. That was a pretty big “unless” there.

But we’re already here and I already disbanded the party. More importantly, there’s an enemy ahead of us.

A tower rat.

It looks too cautious to approach us, probably because it can see me, but it can also see a weak woman who’s only level one. There’s no better living prey for the rat in this tower than her.

When Felecia notices I’m staring at something past her, she turns to look at what it is and readies her staff. She relaxes shortly after. “Oh. It’s only a rat? I used to have to defend my food whenever I was punished. I even befriended some of them when I shared, so I never had to kill them since. They would either get scared away or become my friends. But… I guess that’s not an option now.”

What’s this now about becoming friends with rats and having to defend food when punished?

Before I can think too much about what I just heard, Felecia approaches the rat. The rat looks as surprised as I probably do that she’s actually approaching it. I figured she’d probably wait for it to attack her if anything.

“I’m sorry,” Felecia says, “but I have to kill you. You’re a tower monster, though, so it isn’t like you will actually die, alright?”

Is… is she trying to convince this rat that it’s alright for her to kill it? I mean, sure, it’s a monster made from the tower and so it doesn’t really have a soul or anything, but it’s still a pretty weird thing to do.

I just hope it doesn’t manage to sink its fangs into her leg or anything. That would be painful for somebody like her even if she does have Pain Resistance up to rank ten.

And now that she’s far enough away from me… the rat charges at her.

Felecia stops and waits for it to reach her.

Since she knows magic, does she have some offensive spells? Or at least a barrier to protect herself with? I… probably should have figured out what she has and doesn’t have before coming down here. If she doesn’t know any magic, and she has to rely on using her staff despite never really fighting before, then I have no idea what she’s going to do. Staffs seriously aren’t that good as weapons, especially in the hands of somebody as inexperienced as—

The rat jumps up at her…

And gets fucking smashed out of the air.

Felecia swung her staff like it’s a damn hammer into the little bastard! She hit it hard enough that I definitely heard a bone break in there, and its body was sent flying into the wall where it spit out blood before falling back down onto the floor.

The rat can barely even get back up. All it can do is struggle to stand while making pained noises and spitting out blood.

“I’m sorry!” Felecia says. “I won’t let you suffer!” And now… she smashes the top of her staff down into the rat’s head to shatter its skull open.

Well.

Uh.

That uh… that happened.

She turns to look at me with a smile on her face, a bit of blood on her cheek that must have splashed onto her from the rat. “There! How was that?”

I… don’t know how I’m supposed to react. I mean, sure, that was great and all, but is this seriously the same girl from all the way back then? Then again, she was able to heal Naomi after she had her head pulverized underneath the progenitor’s foot. Killing a rat is probably easier than sitting next to somebody who’s head was literally destroyed and healing them.

What I’m really interested in is how she learned to swing a staff around like that. I mean, she never really fought before, right? But she swung the staff as if she were a master with it. And she swung it to kill.

Well, for now, I can at least nod to let her know she did a good job.

That smile on her face grows even wider when she sees me nod. “I never thought all those years spent sweeping the floors would pay off,” she says.

Hold on. Giving that she’s saying that right after what she just did… is this girl implying that the reason she was able to kill that rat so easily is because she spent a bunch of years sweeping some floors? What does that have to do with anything?! Well… I guess brooms are basically staffs with the clean-y part on the bottom. What’s that part even called? Well, not like it matters.

“Is there… anything I need to do now? Do I bury it? Or…”

I looked down at the ground. Given that we’re in the upper floors in a normal part of the tower, the ground underneath is all brick. There’s no burying anything here unless she’s about to reveal that she has the ability to dig her way through solid stone. Not just solid stone, but solid stone that’s part of the tower itself.

Before she thinks of trying anything strange, I shake my head.

“I leave it?” Felecia asks.

And now I nod my head.

“Will it… go away on its own since we’re in the tower?”

And another nod.

“Got it. Sorry, I have only ever heard of what it’s like inside of the towers. My… big brother used to clear them. He told me all sorts of stories about what they were like. I never thought I would actually get to go inside of one myself someday. This… is kind of exciting.”

Huh. From everything I’ve heard about her and her family situation, I would have thought that she didn’t have a good relationship with any of them. Guess I was wrong. Sounds like she might have at least been on good terms with her brother. But of course… he was the one who died.

“Alright! I’m ready to continue. Just you watch, I’ll become as good as any of the others!” With that, she takes off down the tunnel in search of the next monster.

“Don’t run off on your own!” I bark and chase after her.

Seriously, this girl might be among the bravest people I’ve ever known. Not only that… but she’s actually pretty fast with that fake leg of hers.

((I don't plan on them spending more than 1-2 more chapters in the tower, so don't worry about being stuck in there for a while in case you're tired of the tower = P))