“That’s secret,” Vala said while sitting across from me eating the sandwich that I made for her. Normally, we were supposed to get all of our food from the daily battles, but something about plot convenience made it so that the kitchen was stocked well enough for me to make us some actual sandwiches for once.

And just like I planned to, I asked Vala about her meeting with Santa, but she refused to elaborate on it. Part of me actually felt a little bit jealous. She went to go meet with another man in private and wouldn’t tell me anything about it. The other part of me trusted Vala and knew that she wouldn’t do anything bad, and that it was just my inexperience and insecurity making me feel jealous for no good reason. So, I kept my mouth shut. But I was still curious. “Is it really that big of a deal?”

“It is! And how do you even know I went to meet him anyways? I never said I was specifically going to see him!”

“The context of the conversation made it extremely obvious you were leaving to visit him.”

“Oh. Dang context. Schools need to stop teaching kids critical thinking.”

“That’s the opposite of what schools need to do!”

“But if kids are raised to be dumb then they won’t figure out my secret plans from context.”

“Even a dumb kid could have figured it out!”

“Not if he doesn’t even know what words are.”

“How stupid do you want them to be?!”

“Stupid enough to not mess with my secret plans.”

“They’d have to be braindead with how obvious you make them!”

“That can be arranged.”

“Please don’t put a bunch of children in comas!”

“It’s for the greater good.”

“Your plans aren’t for the greater good, and I’m getting a restraining order to keep you away from Luca!”

“But… I can’t be the fun, cool aunt if you get a restraining order.”

“Then don’t—!”

A sudden sensation under the table interrupted me.

And that sensation just so happened to be Vala brushing the tip of her tail against my inner thighs.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked her.

Vala’s smug smile made her too obvious. “Nothing.”

“You’re trying to distract me, aren’t you?”

“Tch. How’d you figure it out?”

“Context.”

“I’m officially banning that word.”

“I’ll stop using it if you keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Deal.” Vala’s tail slipped further up my thigh, getting dangerously close to where I was dangerously tempted to ask her to touch.

“You know, Vala.”

“Yeah?”

“Seeing as how you were away with another guy and are keeping the exact details secret from me, that means I get to act like a jealous boyfriend who makes sure that you know who still makes you feel the best, right?”

“Hehe… you’re totally using that as an excuse for lewd stuff, aren’t you?”

“How’d you figure it out?”

“Context.”

“You hypocrite.”

“That word is banned now.”

“How many words are you going to ban?!”

“All of them!”

“Then how are we going to communicate?!”

“Through touch.” That was when Vala’s tail poked my frontal tail. She then tilted her head, waiting for a response.

She was right. We didn’t need words. So, I nodded my head.

Vala finished her sandwich while I locked the front door of the house. Then we went up to the bedroom where many noises would be made, but no words spoken.

Once we were done and I opened the front door to step out with Vala, Cami, Lavi, and Delphi were all there waiting for us. Cami couldn’t have looked more smug and knowing of what we were up to. Delphi looked a bit confused and sniffed us which made Vala blush more than she already was. As for Lavi, she was the only one blushing and looking off to the side.

“Master… you smell,” Delphi said. “But in a good way!” She wrapped her arms around me and nuzzled her face against my chest, pressing her overflowing bust up against my abdomen. It didn’t take long for her to switch targets to Vala who surely smelled the same way that I did.

We probably should have taken a bath or shower before leaving the house.

“Alright, we’ve got that new tower to check out, and whichever one we upgraded. I forget. Which one did we upgrade?” I asked.

Lavi slowly raised her hand. “It… it was mine.”

“Wait, was it? I could have sworn it was the bees for some reason.”

Lavi shook her head. “It was mine.”

I blinked a few times and thought about it. I realized she was right and the memories came back to me. It felt like so long ago that we went to the amusement park for our date, and we were supposed to check on the towers after that. But that never happened. Instead, everything but that happened.

“I’ve been getting too distracted. Sorry,” I said.

Lavi shook her head. “It’s fine, Master! But, I’m really excited, so… can do my upgrade first? Then check out the slime tower?”

“Yeah, we can.”

Lavi looked like an excited dog as her tail rapidly wagged behind her. “I’ll go get ready! I haven’t seen what’s inside yet, but I bet I’ll get some sweet armor!”

Delphi jumped from Vala to Lavi to hug her. “You’re gonna look so cool! I know it!”

Cami nodded and held Lavi’s hand. “The coolest.”

“A-aw, geez… you don’t have to say all that,” Lavi said, blushing even more now. “It’s no big deal.”

“It is!” Delphi said. “You’re finally getting your upgrade! No more starter armor!”

Cami nodded. “I bet you’ll get a cool sword.”

“It’s really nothing special,” Lavi claimed despite the even more intense wagging of her tail. She wasn’t tricking anybody.

“Come on, Lavi,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be all excited and edgy and talking about darkness or something?”

“I-it’s hard to when I’m excited!”

“You’ve got to give us a cool show once you reveal your upgrade, alright?”

“I’ll—I’ll try!”

“Go get ready. We’ll go join you in a bit.”

Lavi gulped and nodded before squirming free from Delphi and Cami to run over to her tower.

“By the way, where’s Window and Luca?”

Delphi’s ears twitched before she pointed over to what looked like quite the cuddle puddle. The dogs, bees, and cows all cuddled together on the ground, and then Window and Luca were both in their human forms sleeping on top of said cuddle puddle.

They look really, really comfy. I was tempted to join in. But, as much as I wanted to join in, I needed to see to Lavi’s upgraded tower and the new slime tower.

“I wonder if we should go wake Honey up. She usually sleeps during the day,” I said.

“Eh, let her nap,” Vala said.

“You sure? What if she wants to—”

Vala cut me off by pointing at the door to Honey’s tower. I could tell from a distance that there was a sheet of paper taped to it, but I had no idea what it said until I got closer.

New BL game came out. Stayed up all night. Please let me sleep. My heart needs a break.

“Well,” I said, “I guess that answers that.”

With that, everybody who was available was gathered, so we went over to Lavi’s tower that had a construction tarp draped over it. Said tarp was conveniently removed without spoiling the tower’s change during the last battle.

Naturally, Tabitha was there, and she didn’t look all too happy about how long it took for us to get around to unveiling the upgrade.

“Thanks,” I told her. “And sorry for being so late.”

Tabitha let out the beaver equivalent of a long, tired groan before going back underground only to pop back up over at where the slime tower was.

As for the rest of us, we took a step back and watched as the tarp slid off from the tower before magically disappearing.

What it revealed was a tower just as edgy as I assumed it would be for something named the “Dread Knight Tower.” It was mostly black in color with a few white trims, but what really caught my attention were the skulls. So many skulls. The biggest one was several times the size of me, so I had no idea where it came from or what it was supposed to be the skull of, but it hung from the wall right above the entrance. Then there was the top of the tower which looked extra dangerous with tall, black spikes reaching up at each corner.

Back at the bottom of the tower, I felt like I was looking into the entrance to a haunted house due to the red light that filled the doorway. There was even some smoke seeping out along the ground.

Tabitha must have put a smoke machine inside.

Then came the dogs.

The regular dogs of the tower walked out with black and purple armor featuring the same skull theme as their tower, and they held what looked like two-handed, edgy swords within their mouths. Edgy as in they looked like the swords of some evil knights in a video games. The curves in their swords made them look almost impractical, so I doubted such a sword would have ever been realistically forged for battle.

Also.

The dogs all had extra long hair that draped over half of their faces.

They looked emo.

It also really killed the look they had going on when one of them dropped their sword to sniff the grass and then roll around on it.

That was when we heard her signature laughter come from behind the doorway.

“Fufufu.”

We heard what sounded like chains and heavy plates of metal jangling around, getting louder in volume until she revealed herself.

Standing in the doorway was none other than Lavi.

And she seriously looked badasss.

There was Cami, the fanservice-y Viking dog girl.

Then there was Delphi, the mega fanservice-y holy knight dog girl.

And now there was Lavi, the mega fanservice-y dread knight dog girl.

Only, while Cami’s and Delphi’s fanservice was sexual, Lavi’s was anything but unless somebody was unhealthily attracted to suits of armor.

Lavi was armored from neck to toe in thick, black metal with purple trims to match the color of her hair. Her left forearm missed a gauntlet unlike her right forearm, but it was completely wrapped up in bandages.

Skull pauldrons decorated each of her shoulders, and there was another skull atop her waist.

And that wasn’t all.

“Let’s show them what we can do,” Lavi said, looking at her left arm. She then dramatically stuck it out past her side and shouted, “Dreadcalibur!”

Did she really just take Excalibur and make it edgy?

The handle for a blade materialized within her left hand, but it was a handle far too large for a normal sword. What grew from that handle was even more absurd. A hulking slab of metal extended outward from the handle that reached a total length of being longer than she was tall, and it was just as wide as she was.

“Woah,” Vala said. “That thing is way too big to be called a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy and rough. It’s more like—”

“That’s what she said,” I said.

Vala pouted and smacked my arm. “You interrupted my reference!”

Back to Lavi, she effortlessly swung the sword around with only her left hand before striking a cool pose with the heavy blade resting over her shoulder. She then stuck her right, open hand out toward us before forming it into a fist and laughing again. “Fufu. Don’t worry, Master. With the power of the demon in my arm, we’ll defeat all of our enemies and show them what true despair is.”

I was going to say something, but Delphi interrupted me before I could even open my mouth by tackle-hugging Lavi and rubbing their faces together. “You’re so cute!” Delphi said.

“O-oi!” Lavi whined. “No-not right now!”

“Ooh! Even your eyepatch got an upgrade! It looks cute!”

“It—it’s supposed to be cool!” Of course, Lavi’s tail wagged even if it wasn’t the praise she was hoping to hear. Or maybe she actually was hoping to have it called cute.

Lavi’s whining only made Delphi pamper her even more as she nuzzled her cheek up against hers while petting her head. “Such a good girl,” Delphi cooed. That made Lavi shut her eyes and blush.

“Woah, is Delphi bullying her?” Vala asked me.

“I think so?” I answered.

Cami nodded. “She bullies with love.”

Looking at Delphi and Lavi again, the former kept on petting the latter while repeatedly asking, “Who’s a good girl?”

Lavi broke after being asked only three times. “I—I am! I’m a good girl!”

I noticed something from watching them. “Is it me or has Delphi been extra… aggressive lately? Even in bed, she’s…”

“I think you’re right,” Vala said. “Maybe it’s her time of the year. Dogs go into heat once a year, right?”

“I think it’s twice.”

“Hmm. Maybe this is her first time going into heat?”

“Then shouldn’t the others be, too?”

“Maybe they don’t do it at the exact same times. Or maybe they’ll do it soon.”

We both looked at Cami.

“Masters have smelled extra good lately,” Cami said followed by a couple of nods.

“Vala,” I said, “we might be in danger if they all go into heat.”

Vala smirked. “I just had an idea.”

“What?”

“Imagine if we lock all three of them into Honey’s tower while they’re in heat. I bet it would be really cute… and hot, to watch her try and survive them.”

I imagined it. Vala was right. That was a beautiful thing to imagine. “A shy girl who just wants to play BL games all day being harassed around the clock by three dog girls in heat. Honey badgers might not give a fuck, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get fucked.”

“Hehehe. Good thing Window’s asleep or else she’d be scolding you for making us R-rated right now.”

“Good point. Anyways, let’s go check out the new tower.”

Cami stepped away from us toward Lavi and Delphi. “I’m going to help tease her.”

I gave Cami a couple of pats on her head. “Alright. Have fun. Try not to tease her too hard, though.”

“No promises.”

With that, me and Vala went over to the site of our new tower while hearing Lavi whine, laugh, and mumble in the background. I loved hearing all of those noises.

And at the new tower was Tabitha waiting for us again. After thanking her, again, she dug back underground to finally get a break. I really hoped that she wasn’t just waiting for us ever since before the amusement park date.

More importantly, the tarp covering the new tower was pulled off to reveal our slime tower.

As the description for the tower said, it was less of a tower and more of a single, giant slime. It was light green in color with a couple of black, beady eyes with a black line that served as a smiling mouth. And that was it. It was a massive slime the size of a small house. According to the description, the slime would spread out onto the lane it was next to and slow down any enemies that passed over it.

Me and Vala looked at each other and knew what we had to do. Together, we reached out… and poked the slime.

Its jiggling body was magnificent.

“Drake, I have an idea,” Vala said.

“I’m probably already thinking the same thing, so do it,” I replied.

Vala nodded and picked me up to fly the two of us up to the top of the slime, setting us down atop it.

We felt like we were resting on an incredibly soft bed that perfectly conformed to our bodies.

The slime didn’t mind at all, either.

So, since Window and Luca were napping, and Honey was sleeping, and the sisters were all busy with each other… we figured it would be alright if we took a nap atop the slime.

I never expected a tower to serve as a bed upgrade, but no bed in the world could compare to sleeping on top of our new slime tower.

I’ll have to tell Window later to add a crafting recipe for a slime bed.