Faustus is in his home, sitting at his desk in his office, drinking something. There are enchantments that prevent us from coming from above, though they're hardly strong enough to actually stop us, it's just that we don't want to make a mess, so we infiltrate through the most obvious weak point: the main gates.

Mistcross is a border town between the Mainland and the Misty Low Forest, so it actually gets a bit misty at night, and nobody is going to notice if a home in the Nobles' Quarter looks just a bit more misty than usual.

We observe intently through the summons as we wait, and soon we notice the guards starting to become a bit more lax at their posts, so Alissa begins the next phase: a single [Mesmerizing Butterfly] coupled with [Pacify], a very straining combo for her to maintain.

I walk up to the gate, my facial and draconic features hidden, and the guards barely react to my presence due to the drowsiness and sedation working in tandem on their minds. They're drowning in peaceful memories or cozy daydreams, making me question the correctness of [Illusion Magic] school's skill name, but I guess it's simply because the skill isn't "finished," so the spells aren't as thematic as they should be.

Regardless, it still works perfectly for this situation as I softly order, "Open the gate." And the man behind the metal bars nods drowsily, then obeys.

I slowly cross the gates, trying not to make any sudden moves to not alert the distracted guards, and the girls follow after me while invisible.

We walk down the small cobble path to the large house, a nice two-story home in the standard imperial yellow brick with red clay roof style. Big enough to house a full family with servants while leaving enough room for guests. There's a small garden at the front with a fountain and another garden at the back for private relaxation.

Not the lowest home for a noble, but also far from the most extravagant. Perfect for someone right in the middle of the totem pole.

We don't know if someone inside has [Sense Presence], so only Alissa, Yunia, and I enter the building while the rest stay outside on stand-by.

The interior of the house is tiled in extravagant patterns, the kinds that an ambitious man who wants to impress others would choose. The furniture isn't anything special, but it follows the same style of wanting to be more than it is.

The lights in the corridors are on, but they're all eerily empty, except for the kitchen and Faustus' office, where someone who walks like a "Sebastian" has just entered.

We quickly walk up the stairs and stop by the door to the office. There doesn't seem to be a sound-canceling enchantment, so Alissa is able to eavesdrop on their talk.

"Away with you, Sebastian… the Ryders will arrive any moment, now," a tired and slurring voice orders. It seems that Faustus is a bit drunk.

An older and agitated voice replies, "I'll spread the truth far and wide. I won't allow you to die in vain!"

And Faustus harshly lays it all out, "Your attempt to clutch at pride marks the backs of my children with the dagger of death. Let it die with me." His speech is overly flowery and a bit hard to understand, even for the girls.

"But, Master-…!"

"Sebastian…!" Faustus raises his voice.

The servant suddenly turns around and starts storming out of the office, so we move out of the way and hide in the room beside it. He passes by us without noticing our presence, his footsteps echoing loudly in the empty home, but they quickly die out as the servant leaves and doesn't come back.

We don't waste this chance, silently entering the office.

Faustus is a thin and short imperial man with one of those handlebar mustaches that shines due to excessive use of wax, and his posh grooming style makes him look rather punchable. We've seen him only once before, at the gathering at the top of the Throne of Ascension, and he seemed extremely frightened by us, but now he's so ghastly that he looks to be just a step away from a coffin.

"Faustus…" I call to him, and he lifts his sunken eyes from his glass of alcohol.

"Ryders…" he weakly replies but shows no other reaction.

Part of me wants to simply behead him and get this over with, but a bigger part needs more than just revenge; it needs closure.

"Why did you try to coerce us into joining you?" I stoically ask.

"Fodder, that is our role in Katasko," he cryptically replies.

I narrow my eyes and slowly step forward while he pours more alcohol into his cup. "How would our strength help you with that?"

He stops and raises one long eyebrow at me. "Do you seriously wish to hear me drone about Katasko's intricate politics? You are about to end our unholy union once and for all anyway…"

I check with the girls, and they accept my request, so we sit down in the chairs in front of his desk, and all the while, he still holds that one eyebrow high up on his forehead while staring at me. "I need to understand why you dragged my family into this mess."

He snorts again, a bit of life coming into his dead gaze. "Consumable, replaceable, disposable. Alone? A twig. Together? An unbreakable bundle. Except that we stumble and scatter at the merest pebble in our path," he continues with his irritatingly flowery language.

I interlace my fingers and rest them on my lap to keep my claws from digging grooves into the armrests. "You're not answering my question."

He downs his glass and then scowls angrily as he shouts, "Power! Strength! That's everything! I needed my own pieces so that I could be a player on the board!" Then his face warps in a sneer. "But you just had to be an accursed Gifted!"

Now it's my turn to raise an eyebrow. "Why do you hate the Gifted?"

"Untamable, unbreakable. You'll always grow bigger than your master, and nobody is insane enough to try to put a leash on you," he answers, still insufferably pretentious.

"There's irony here," Yunia wryly remarks and snorts.

But (and I hate to admit it) there's also truth. What if Brett becomes uncontrollable and unstoppable? What if he tries to sabotage us? What if he becomes our enemy? I pray we never end up needing him more than he needs us.

Faustus doesn't even give me time to reflect properly before he continues with his drivel, "I care not for humor. It left me once the players put on their masks and began ordering the pieces about."

How… melodramatic.

"Pieces in a game. Is that all we were to you?" Alissa sternly asks, thoroughly disgusted at his words.

"That's what we all are!" he shouts as he slams his glass against the desk in anger.

And Ciel's thoughts line up perfectly with Yunia's cold response, "Wrong, that is what you have chosen for yourself."

"The pieces sleep comfortably at night knowing it's their fault they live on a board," he grumbles back. I don't even know what the fuck he means anymore.

"Why didn't you just run?" I ask, in disbelief at his melodramatic whining.

He turns his punchable face to his empty glass as he gloomily moans dramatically again, "The fodder will either die in battle or be eaten by the bulls if we fail."

It takes us a couple of seconds to decipher his words, but they still leave us confused.

"Will they really kill you all?" Yunia unemotionally asks.

"The price has to be paid in Experience, and they'll collect it, no matter how long they have to wait," he replies in kind.

It's hard to feel sympathy for these rotten nobles, but what enrages me is his attitude about this. "So, you've just resigned yourself to your death?" I snarl, my disgust matching Alissa's.

He nods and smiles smugly. "Yes. Better for you to murder me than to be butchered like cattle, but my family is already in hiding, so keep them out of this."

And I warn him, "Pray they don't attempt to 'join the game,' or we'll treat them like pieces all the same."

"They won't…" he growls and glowers, finally showing an emotion other than self-pity. His handlebar mustache doesn't make him look very threatening, though. Barely passable for a villain.

But now I have no more questions, so I'll put an end to this.

"Very well, then I shall make this painless," I state as I stand. Then I summon six Dream Eaters, floating masks with bodies of soporific mist.

He shows a modicum of true nobility by keeping a stiff jaw and glaring at me until the mist affects him and he falls asleep, so I'll honor him by keeping my word. Unlike with Cleinias, I won't parade his head about, so I merely stab him in the back of the head and leave his corpse in his seat.

I'm not sure if questioning him helped me at all. Not only can I barely remember what he said due to his insufferable way of speaking, but the answers themselves only made me angrier.

The only thing I know for sure is that I must keep that list of Katasko names close by. Even after we dismantle that corrupted organization through the Purification, their members must be killed to not allow their rot to latch onto the empire again.

I enter the warm water and seek out Ciel's delicious body. Even though my body is warm, my heart feels cold, and I desire pampering from big titty mommy. Then Yunia joins us of her own will, and I rejoice as stern mommy also shows me her very warm love.

People say that revenge is a dish best served cold, but it was barely even a dish at all as it left me unfulfilled. I know that what I did was necessary, that we can't just be merciful to everyone, but I still didn't want to do it.

The Companions, Klein, and the adventurers all finally arrive at the bath. They've already cleaned themselves, but I called for them in case they still wanted to soak in the water with us.

"You called us pretty late. Were you busy with work?" Khepri casually asks, and the Companions all tense up awkwardly at the sensitive question.

"We were," I answer softly, but that just makes the adventurers look at me oddly.

"You sound down…" Khepri points out, her juicy lips pressed together in a cute pout.

"You all look down," Edjo calmly adds as she scans the wives.

Klein stops walking and frowns at their lack of tact, then turns her eyes towards us. "It's better to just tell them what happened instead of being vague," she affirms concernedly, and Hana agrees wholeheartedly. Adventurers can't help themselves from being blunt.

Edjo immediately realizes what's going on and assumes a diplomatic tone. "Oh, uhm… we didn't want to intrude on private business."

Alissa sighs tiredly and explains for me, "It's fine. We killed an enemy today, but it's no cause to celebrate."

"You mean, a humanoid?" Laguly innocently adds, and Lolo cringes at the awkward air that settles in.

My loyal fox wife nods. "Yes, a noble."

"Oh…" Khepri hums in realization, her juicy lips now puckered like she just sucked on a lemon.

But Laguly is overtaken with morbid curiosity, "Is it true that you gain a lot of Experience from other humanoids?"

"We do, like when you kill a new type of monster for the first time," I answer stoically.

"Ew~…" she groans girlishly as she frowns, making me chuckle softly.

"Having pieces of the souls of your enemies inside you sounds awful," Khepri whines as she strips, which is a very nice view with her luscious body.

"Better than pieces of souls from goblins and orcs?" Roxanne banters back while her eyes mirror mine.

The bubbly woman freezes with her panties halfway down at her knees. "Oh… Then I guess not. At least your enemies are humanoids…"

And their presence lightens up the heaviness in our hearts, which is exactly what I wanted when I called for them.

Dinner is another boring event as we really don't enjoy the presence of the Princesses, so, just to fuck with Sa'Haa, I make conversation with the androgynous little Prince.

"Prince Tommen, I don't know much about you, so could you tell me about your hobbies and interests?" I interject as politely as I can.

Vanea flashes a raised eyebrow at me when Tommen isn't looking, and the dwarf Prince stares at me in wonder, as if it's the first time he's actually looked at me properly.

"Well, I-…"

"He's a philosopher, a ponderer of the most important matters," Vanea interrupts him, then smiles like an innocent little not-princess when he turns his head to give her a glare.

"Not just a scholar, but a philosopher?" I question further.

He turns back to me and sagely explains, "A scholar studies books of tangible matters while a philosopher explores abstract concepts."

Oh, God, please don't tell me he's a pretentious "independent thinker."

"What topics do you ponder about?" I inquire, hiding my cringe.

"A wide variety of topics, though lately, I've been focused on the meaning of life. What I really enjoy doing is merely building structures with my thoughts."

I hum thoughtfully as I try to comprehend him, "Hmm… You mean something like the organization and classification of thoughts?"

He nods while smiling adorably. "Yes, things like that."

Sounds very dwarfy.

Then he goes into an explanation of the philosophies he's been studying.

Rupegian philosophy is constrained by the fact that we've been created by Gods who have given us a clear, though open-ended goal: to grow.

The temple interprets that our purpose is to Ascend and become Gods ourselves; the adventurers believe their purpose is to level up; the rulers believe that their domain should grow; the father and mother believe that they should raise children; the crafter believes that they should push their skills to their limits; and so on and so forth.

Basically, Rupegian philosophies revolve around finding the true meaning of life by deriving it from the one given by the Gods, so most of the philosophies from Earth are simply invalid in this world, but, interestingly, the question of whether or not we have free will is a bit controversial.

Due to the existence of the Threads of Fate, your future is already decided unless you're someone who "makes your own path" or "takes control of your Fate" (i.e., heroes), so how can you be in control of your own will if your future has already been decided for you without your input? It also isn't clear whether it's possible for a random person to "take control of their Fate" at any time in their lives or if they're already born in control, so there's a lot of discussion in that area.

But, for the temple, the truth is clear: everyone has free will. Otherwise, the Gods of Origin are responsible for the existence of the Wicked. Technically, they are responsible, but that's only because Order and Destruction always hinder and disrupt whatever Change and Creation attempt to do, which has resulted in certain humanoids going explicitly against the purpose of life given by Creation… unless those humanoids' purpose is to stimulate us to grow… but if that were true, then why would we need the Genderless God of Existence?

"And that's where the reasoning starts to make circles around itself, and I don't want to confuse myself trying to untangle that mess," Tommen wryly remarks.

In essence, the temple believes that we have free will because the Gods stop each other from assuming absolute control over us.

That's kind of frightening, but okay…

"But I'll stop there before I start to bore you," he finishes with a cute smile.

"And it might not be appropriate to suggest heretical ideas to a family so Blessed by the Gods," Vanea softly adds and glances at Ciel, who's starting to become uncomfortable with the topic at hand.

The little Prince nods repeatedly, making his shoulder-length hair sway just like Lina's bangs. "Yes, there's also that…"

Tommen is actually a cool dude, and I wish that one day, our Ryder Institute will grow into something interesting enough for him to join us.

Anyway, this was a nice talk, which is refreshing as the tension from the upcoming battle continues to rise within our hearts.

After dinner, we retreat to our room and have some fun with the Companions and the adventurers, but I'm in a brooding mood, so I go out onto the balcony to drink Eia on our sofa while I observe the night sky and pet Aoi and Gify.

But we're not allowed to brood for long.

"Can I sit with you?" my monkey girl kindly asks as she stops beside my sofa.

"Sure," I hum and pat the open spot on my left.

She sits down and leans back on the cushions but then turns her head towards me and cutely asks with a soft pout, "Are you feeling alright?"

I smile and squeeze her thigh, then continue petting Aoi. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

And she gives me a wry smile as her long brown tail waves amusedly. "Well, we don't have the connection that you have with your wives, so I have to ask to confirm things."

I chuckle softly. Indeed, being asked what I feel has become unusual since I just let the girls read my mind any time they want.

But it doesn't take long for me to identify the reason for my sour mood.

"Killing people hurts me," I wistfully confess.

Her gaze becomes soft, and I feel like pinching her brown cheeks with how cute the monkey girl looks. "I thought you'd be used to it by now. The others seem to be…"

I stare up at the psychedelic moon and its many little orbiting moons as I reply, "I don't want to get used to killing, so I just let the wound stay open and endure the pain."

"And we help him heal," small-Aoi chimes in with her chipmunk voice, and her little tail starts waving about in contentment, just like mine.

"Gih," Gify agrees, still unmoving as she won't dare interrupt my petting.

Klein pulls her legs up onto the sofa to make herself smaller as she bashfully asks, "Can I… can I help, too?"

"Sure," I whisper warmly, then I pull her closer and make sure that her long, furry tail is firmly wrapped around mine.

Today is the 14th, An, day of Wind. The most fragrant day in the High Forest due to the wind carrying the pollen and perfumes from the innumerable flowers to every part of the forest.

And just that bit of trivia is enough to make me homesick. I just want to finally be done with this stupid fucking battle and go home…

Today, the dragon wakes up before the human, who remains in bed for a while longer as he won't be needed for a while.

We have enough time to calmly eat our breakfast, then we begin the final preparations before leaving for battle.

This, of course, also means that the adventurers have plenty of time to give us their blessings and wish us good luck.

"We've only known each other for a few days, yet you're making me feel things I didn't believe were possible," Edjo wistfully remarks.

I gently cup the gray catgirl's cheek, and she rubs it against my scaly (and spirit-padded) palm while cheekily staring at me.

"You Lords are just… hngh~…!" Khepri adds and moans seductively to relate her feelings about us.

Hana and Roxanne walk up to her and basically kabedon the bubbly woman.

"We can't bring you their heads, but we'll bring you their weapons as trophies," Hana boldly states while grinning fearsomely.

"After their defeat, we'll celebrate with a grand party," Roxanne adds with a dreamy tone as she leans against Hana's bountiful chest, and both Edjo and Khepri look very excited about that.

Then I release Edjo and walk up to the cute tomboy siren.

"Stay safe…" Laguly shyly whispers, then blushes embarrassedly as her floating hair starts to become stormy.

"We will. It's more of a competition than a battle, though," I soothingly reassure her.

She nods and replies with more vigor in her voice, "Then good luck, and fight to win."

"That, we will…" I whisper and kiss her forehead.

But Lolo is the most awkward of them all. There's something she wants to say, to do, but she's too conflicted to make a decision right now.

"Come watch," Hukarere suddenly interjects, and the bunny girl gives her a confused look. "Come see it for yourself."

The other Companions support Hukarere's statement and nod at the indecisive bun bun. But it's Klein's encouragement that pushes her forward, "You need to see the truth of your own power."

And then we finally leave for battle.