Chapter 1759 – Order Obligation
John did her the favour of finally lifting Eliana off his dick. The teasing had gone on long enough. Luckily, his undergarments were enchanted not to make the stickiness of his dick a problem. “Go take a quick shower,” he instructed Eliana, kissing her on the forehead. “We’ll cuddle more after.”
“That better be fucking true or I’ll kick your shins,” Eliana said. “Later, Mastubadin.”
“What does that even mean?” Moira mumbled.
“MASTURBATION PALADIN!” Eliana shouted back, before closing the door into the apartment’s spa segment behind her.
“I just wanted to visit my two friends… and Jane,” Moira groaned.
“Love ya too, Moimoi.” The pinkette had followed the entire conversation with casual amusement, her cat tail flopping lazily left to right. “Wanna tell tiger about the thingy?”
“What thingy?” John asked. Typically, he liked learning about thingies that his former girlfriend and future wife wanted him to know about.
Moira sighed deeply and crossed her arms. Now that she was no longer in a fully defensive body language, John could acknowledge that the paladin was looking quite cute today. She was a toned woman but she was also built in a way that the definition was not obstructing her femininity. Shoulders, not too broad, were bare, her top appropriate for the eternal summer heat that Rave’s control over the thermostat brought with it. Similarly, she wore a short skirt. It was somehow still longer than the one she had worn as a student of the Ashcroft Academy. Thin tights added a degree of moderation.
‘Not her,’ he reminded his base instincts and focused on her face. The scanning had happened quickly enough that she had not caught him, busy as she was sorting her words.
“It is the opinion of the leadership of the Order of the Golden Rose that you have been derelict in your duty to this nation in recent times and that, similarly, Lorelei is unfit to serve as advocate for our interests in the capital.”
“I see William still loathes me,” John commented and sat down on the couch between Hailey and Lorelei. Naturally, his hands settled on the thighs of both women. “What is your opinion?”
“I disagree that you were derelict in your duty or that Lorelei’s council is dissatisfying. However, I agree with the outcome that you require additional advice if you are to stay on the proper path.”
“She wants to put a stick up your butt,” Rave chimed in.
“I do not want to do any such thing!” Moira declared, bumping shoulders with her seat neighbour. Rave bumped back and before long redhead and feline Lightbearer were palm to palm, forehead to forehead. Had it not been for the decision they had made on barring sexual activity outside the harem, John had no doubt that his first fiancee would have tried to turn it into a kiss. Realizing just how close they were, the redhead suddenly snapped back.
“AHA! I win!” Rave declared.
“You-“ Moira let out a long sigh, stayed silent for a second, then smiled slightly. “It saddens me that I will never get the opportunity to cave your skull in.”
“’Cause I’m too cute?”
“Because it is so empty, it is only a matter of time before your head collapses from the pressure difference.”
“That is a good one,” John said, causing the redhead to push her chest out boastfully. ‘C or D?’ John found himself wondering, then moved on immediately. “So you are that new representative?”
“It was agreed on that the only other person of suitable rank was my father and that sending him would likely end with the Order losing its current status within the Federation due to…” Moira cleared her throat, “…petty cock fighting – my unblemished words.”
“Accurate,” John surrendered the point readily. “And I assume from there that-“ Stopping for a moment, he glanced up at Metra. The blonde berserker babe had randomly started playing with his hair. Aclysia and Ehtra had moved to the kitchen. “-that you are here to advocate for the Order to receive special access to the Aztecs that are being resettled?”
“…Despite my knowledge of your intellect, it does still surprise me when you bring it to bear,” the Warden responded. “How did you know?”
“I am simply looking at incentives, doctrines, precedent, and necessity,” John answered and listed details in reverse order. “We need to vet the Aztecs. Even if it is because they were deliberately raised that way by a malevolent god, we cannot tolerate wicked elements within them. The Order is best at weeding out such elements. We have plenty of precedent for that kind of work and your doctrine demands that you undertake it. In terms of incentives, we are also facing a spiritually destitute population in need for something new to believe in. They will probably need it fast.” John glanced over and gave Aclysia a thankful nod when she handed him a glass of water.
“The suicides,” Moira spoke simply.
“Have stopped for now,” John finished that sentence. “But if we let these people just float on the river of history, there’ll be great misery brought about by the many ways they will try to numb the pain. Putting the Fusion constitution and legal code in front of them will not fill that void. Few people are fascinated enough by civilizational ethics to use that as their stand-in for a religion.”
“You will allow the Order of the Golden Rose the right to missionary work?”
“Yes – within certain boundaries,” John confirmed. “The Fusion military will be present and I want them educated, not just preached to.”
Moira gave him a reprimanding glare. “Do not be captured by your modern understanding of the mission of the religious. Missionary work is always a task of education. They will know how to read and write the Lady’s holy messages by themselves. No argument we present shall go unquestioned. The Order is stiff in its righteously reached doctrines, not unmoving.”
“I believe you, I do not believe all of your power structure,” John answered plainly. “You will not mind my direct subordinates observing things if you have nothing to hide.”
“Indeed, I do not,” Moira agreed. “Other limitations?”
“Sinners will be judged according to Fusion’s legal system. I believe it is best to be lenient – but we will separate the Aztecs into smaller camps to have the compliant elements rewarded and the rowdy ones controlled.” John made a sour face after having said that. Camps concentrating any kind of people rubbed up against his sensibilities, but if it was effective and necessary, it had to be done. “I will also want to invite independent observers.”
“Journalists?” Moira asked.
“They are good for some things,” John admitted. “Maybe I’ll have less articles written about the top 10 nip-slips of my women and more about the functioning of the resettlement effort if I just oblige them.”
Moira rubbed her forehead. “Are there such articles?”
“Looksie here,” Rave said, swiftly pulling out her phone.
Refusing to look at it, the redhead pushed Rave’s arm away. “I have seen enough degeneracy for the day, thank you.”
“Nah, I know first hand ya can take more,” the feline Lightbearer purred.
Moira was about to respond, then thought better of it. ‘Probably something that would reveal that she actually misses her post-sparring sapphic sessions with Jane,’ the Gamer reckoned. ‘Truly, one of the cruellest things I robbed the world of when we decided to put the borders up.’ “In any case, you can send word back that we’re in agreement on the general plan. The details can be hashed out over the next seven days.”
“I hear that you want me out?” Moira asked, after nodding. “What happened to hospitality?”
John blew air out his nose at her tone, ever so slightly cheeky. High-strung as the paladin was, she was not without humour. “It’s not that I want you out, you see, but we have harem-internal business planned.”
“And ya ain’t harem-intern,” Rave weighed in.
“The only internship I ever enjoyed was a two week long stay at a motorcycle store. On that note, Hailey… No, never mind.” Moira shook her head and got up. “I would rather leave the room before I have to witness you getting your shaft polished again.”
“Even if ya did see it, not like you could do anything with it,” Rave teased and tugged at Moira’s skirt. “Totally never tempted by any such sights, hmm?”
“As the Warden Gwynevere said: Thou shalt be disciplined and thou shalt be prepared for lapses. You art only human, ladies of the Lady.” With that, Moira gave Rave’s hand a little swat, then stepped away. “Hailey, Lorelei, my friends, I will visit you again tomorrow. Jane, you will probably be there too?”
“Might be busy tomorrow, difficult to say.” Rave scratched the back of her cat ears. “Hailey can hit me with the Harem Comms once you’re around, I’ll see where I am. Trying to get some dusty rich people to aid in the whole resettlement thing.”
“A just cause,” Moira supported, masking the disappointment in her voice well, but not completely. “Until we meet again.”
“I’ll get ya to the door,” Rave said and jumped up.
John waited until they had left until he asked, “So I take it Moira has taken to wearing her chastity belt again?”
“It would be improper of me to tell,” Lorelei answered.
“But yeah,” Hailey added.
John thought back to finding Moira again. If she had been capable of controlling her legs, would she have jumped him? Could she have resisted if he had wanted to take her in that moment? The answer to the questions was opposite and yet the same. As John understood the Blessing of the Golden Rose, it only took one act of penetration with the proper tool for it to be ceded to the one doing the deflowering. One lapse in judgement and all of that capacity to do good was gone.
That she had opted out of wearing a chastity belt spoke of confidence. That recent event must have scared her back into it. “Probably wise,” he thought out loud. “That was a special occasion, but why dance close to the fire?”
“IS THE SLUTADIN GONE?!” Eliana shouted from the changing room.
“Depends, are you done workshopping an insult for her yet?” John asked back loudly.
“No!” Eliana stepped out of the doorframe, still rubbing her hair with a towel. “There’s so many fun fucking words that you can end with -adin and all of them are what I think about her.”
“If I may – I sense lies in that,” Lorelei remarked.
“Shut the fuck up, you cock puppet.”
“That was a genuine opinion.”
Eliana threw the towel over her shoulder, froze when she caught a glare by Aclysia, and hasted back to grab it. In the absence of the maids, household discipline had suffered. Eliana and Nathalia were not the kind of women capable of keeping their residence clean on their own. One was a scattered soul, the other saw housework thoroughly beneath her (and unlike most people who had that opinion, the goddess of volcanoes had a point). Nightingale was better about it, but she had no hands.
The maid students from Aclysia’s academy had done their best to keep up with things and they had succeeded. The Palace was spotless. The problem was that the maids did not have the confidence to reprimand the goddesses for sloppy behaviour. Even if any of them had mustered it, Nathalia would have glared it out of them within a day.
Aclysia was different. Aclysia was the woman of the house. Aclysia asked for a laundry basket and the people in the Palace asked how full. That was how these things went.
“You really have gotten more fucking sassy since you joined this ass shape assembly,” Eliana commented on Lorelei’s last words, once she was back from putting her towel in the proper place.
“I find personal enjoyment in your back and forth banter, even if I am not as skilled at it,” the seer responded with a little smile. “I would not direct such tones towards other people.”
“More cuss capacity for me,” Eliana said and hopped over the back of the Couch and straight into John’s lap. “Why the fuck are you still wearing clothes if she’s out?”
“A justified question,” John answered and tapped the button to undress. Hailey swiftly did the same, peeling out of her already fairly minimalistic clothes. The fact that she was a convert to the Order’s faith had not changed her preferred style of dress. Lorelei remained in her ash-grey dress, as she usually did. “I’ll reward you soon enough,” he whispered into her ear.
Lorelei visibly struggled against the arousal that promise stirred.
“Such a tsun-tsun!” Rave announced, back in the room. “Sour all the way out of the door.”
“You say that like you’re plotting to add Moira to this harem,” John pointed out.
“And like there are no reasons to be sour in this household,” Ehtra chimed in and placed a bowl of snacks on the table. Eliana lunged forwards to grab it. A tactical misstep that opened John’s lap up. No one hopped into it, but Metra used the short window to get between his legs and give his very erect manhood a venerating lick.
John did not just let her, he gave Hailey a gesture indicating he wanted her to join. With a smirk, she did. It had been too long since he got to just sit on the Couch and enjoy the full eroticism of carefree service by multiple gorgeous haremettes.
“First, a tsundere telling me another tsundere is justified in being tsun is not gonna make either of ya right, Lady.”
“I hate that nickname,”
“It is also mildly inappropriate,” Lorelei protested.
“…Noted… anyhowzels.” Rave raised both of her index fingers. “B, I’m officially on harem plot restricted mode. We have the Nahua and Lulu situations pending, that’s max plotting capacity.” Rave nimbly raised a foot to be next to her hands. “Three, plotting to add Moimoi feels weird so I wouldn’t do it anyway. She’s a friend of the family, so to say.”
John could see that. If Rave wanted to tie her into the harem, she wouldn’t have made it so John only ever accidentally ran into her when she was visiting – which had been somewhat frequent since he had taken over Springfield. Since Moira would now stay in the Hudson Barrier, that was probably going to be a lot more frequent – doubly so since she had her oldest friend in Lorelei and a new friend in Hailey here.
“Actually, where is Moira staying?” John asked.
“The Embassy, for now.”
John shook his head. “That won’t do,” he decided. The Embassy was for foreign dignitaries and perfectly designed for a good but temporary stay. “I’ll construct her something proper tomorrow. She is a friend of the family, so to say.”
“Your care is greatly appreciated,” Lorelei spoke.
Then they waited for the other haremettes to come in.