“A-ah… Clay, are you… are you sure you should be doing this right now?” Enna asked, moans occasionally slipping out through her mouth as she couldn’t resist but to roll her head back against me.

I meant to gather everybody to ask them some questions and to think of plans together, but I couldn’t resist once I saw Enna. She looked like she needed something that would make her feel good—something that would pick her up. And considering that I was her leader, it was only right for me to be the one who looked after her and helped her however I could.

“N-ngh… ah… right—right there.”

If that was where she felt the best, that was where I would focus. I concentrated on nothing but her pleasure as my actions grew even more intense, homing in on the exact spot that made her moan and squirm the most.

“Too—t-too good. I—I might get addicted to this… but that would be so—a-ahn… so unprofessional…”

“Give in to it,” I whispered, leaning down right next to her ear. “Don’t worry about anything. All you need to do is feel good.”

“B-but—”

“Consider it an order from me. I order you to relax, Enna. I order you to give in to this pleasure.”

She let out a combination of a sigh and moan before biting her lower lip.

Unfortunately, our private time together wasn’t to remain private forever.

I noticed somebody standing outside the entrance flap to my tent and asked, “Who’s there?”

Zira poked her head in with a mischievous smile. A new expression for her as far as I was concerned. Though, as soon as she looked at us, that mischievous smile disappeared and was replaced by a disappointed sigh. “I thought something fun was happening. Instead, it’s just a massage.”

I looked down at Enna, who was sitting on a stool in front of me so that I could massage her shoulders, and then looked back up at Zira. “Her noises did sound pretty lewd, didn’t they?”

“L-lewd?!” Enna asked, her voice full of panic now.

“Incredibly so,” Zira said. “Though, I must admit. If you were able to make her make such perverse noises just by rubbing her shoulders, I would not be opposed to receiving such a massage myself sometime.”

Enna, with bright, red cheeks and spinning eyes, looked like she was about to pass out from embarrassment at any second. The only thing keeping her sitting up straight was my grip on her shoulders.

I was about to leave my tent after finding out about those era achievements to go and ask everybody about them. Enna came to greet me for the morning just as I was leaving, and I could tell that she looked extra tired. It also turned out that she was still a bit sore from her time of the month. So, I figured that I would start the day off with giving her a massage to hopefully improve her condition.

And I had to admit, the view was incredible. I needed her to slip her uniform down off her shoulders for me to give her a proper rub, and then I was able to get her to slip her bra straps down, too. I only had the pure intention of being able to better rub her shoulders. Honestly. But even if that was my only intention, it was impossible not to admire the sight of her chest that was partially uncovered from her loose uniform and bra.

“This view reminds me why I hired her,” Zira said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I had a feeling that I knew what she meant, but I wanted to confirm it.

“Come now, you understand exactly what I mean. I wanted somebody who was nice to look at to be my assistant. Would you not do the same?”

“I would hire the person who is most qualified.”

“And if you had to choose between two candidates who are equally qualified, but one is unattractive and the other is attractive?”

“Then I would hire the unattractive one since, realistically, the attractive one would have an easier time getting hired anywhere else. Or, assuming they’re not perfect equals only differing in attractiveness, I would hire whoever needs the job more or whoever lives closer.”

“I see. I can’t say that I am surprised to hear such a response from you. Besides, I can’t say that you are wrong. I will admit that I would hire the attractive candidate over the unattractive one… even if the former is less or even underqualified.”

“I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“I’m surprised. I expected your vehement opposition.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s immoral and not something that should be encouraged. We had laws against things like that. Anti-discrimination laws. You can’t discriminate against somebody’s gender, race, age, sexuality, appearances, and so on. They’re all good laws, but I would rather live in a world without them where people simply choose not to discriminate in the first place. That being said, people are naturally biased toward the attractive. Even if it is illegal to discriminate based off of appearances, almost everybody does it every single day. Attractive people will naturally always have it easier in life than those who are unattractive.” I sighed and shook my head. “Don’t mind me. I’ve just been thinking about things like that this morning. The fact that if we give people true freedom, then others will undoubtedly be oppressed by it. This is another case of that. Removing such laws would give you the right to openly discriminate toward the attractive. But you can already do that even with the laws are in place so long as you put the bare minimum amount of effort into claiming you hired them for a different reason.”

“I think I know what you are getting at. You would rather us live in a world where laws are not needed and that everybody respects one another, but such a thing is realistically impossible. Therefore, some laws are needed, but laws such as these may be easily subverted regardless.”

“Something like that. I’m thinking about what happens if we win and I gain rule over all these different worlds. How involved should I be? If I want to make sure that everybody is as free as possible, should I allow them to act freely, or should I limit how they act for the sake of those who may be harmed or oppressed by others’ freedom? Every law or rule or whatever else you want to call it that is introduced to protect somebody is technically limiting the freedoms of others at the same time. The best outcome would be to live in a world where everybody wants to be kind, respectful, and helpful to one another. But because that would never happen, at least some degree of oppression is required to guarantee a degree of freedom for the more vulnerable. What I don’t know is where to draw the line. And that sort of thing is why we have laws and courts… not that any of them are free from corruption. If I win, from my understanding, I will have the power to basically implement any law I want. I could make everybody behave according to my own rules. Even here, I’m in charge and what I say more or less goes. I’ve never been in a position this powerful and, while I might have fantasized in the past about what I would do if I had ultimate power, actually having it is an entirely different situation. Also, I feel like I need to say this in case it wasn’t obvious: I hate that you hired Enna simply because she’s attractive, and I would never support any business that hires based off of appearances.”

Zira chuckled a little while waving a hand in front of her face. “I was joking when I said that. Well, half joking at least. Her being attractive was but a bonus. What I thought was interesting was that she graduated with honors from one of our most renown universities, yet she was applying for a job as my personal assistant that would in no way make use of the numerous degrees to her name.”

I looked down at Enna who was still on the verge of passing out from embarrassment, apparently.

She had multiple degrees and graduated with honors from one of Hell’s most renown universities?

I didn’t want to insult her, but that… was surprising to hear. I didn’t exactly peg her as the hardcore academic type. And if she really was that academically incredible, why did she resort to being a personal assistant for somebody else?

“I have to say, I’m jealous of her tits,” Zira said.

Hearing that made me do a doubletake.

“What? Look at them. They’re great. Mine are nowhere near as large nor soft looking.”

“I just… didn’t expect you to be so bold about something like that.”

“Please. I may be a princess, but I am still a demon. We are far less reserved about such things when compared to humans. Also, hearing her noises put me in a mood that has made me especially aware of her body.”

I couldn’t help but to nod. “I understand.”

Enna went limp underneath my hands at that point. The only thing to do at that point was to pull her bra straps back up over her shoulders, followed by her uniform, and then pick her up to lay her down on my bed.

I probably wasn’t going to get to ask her about the achievements anytime soon like I originally intended, but that was alright. She could always be asked whenever she eventually woke up and calmed down. In the meantime, there was still Zira and the others.

“Walk with me. I’ve got a question for you, and I want to give her the chance to rest in quiet,” I said to Zira.

“Here I was hoping to join in on whatever was happening in here,” Zira said. “But now you want me to go on a walk instead?”

“I’ll give you a shoulder massage afterward.”

“I meant I wanted to join in on something perverse, but I will settle for a massage.”

“Ask me tonight for something perverse and we’ll see. But until then, we have more important things to focus on.”

Zira shrugged and sighed. “I suppose I should toss aside my arousal for the time being then.”

“You’ve gone from acting like you hate me to implying that you’d be down for having sex with me pretty quickly.”

“Perhaps I feel extra rebellious due to what my father pulled on us. After all, he would thoroughly despise me ‘wasting’ myself on you. Or more likely, it is a combination of that and the fact that Enna’s noises and body got me into the mood.”

“Wanting to fuck me out of rebellion is one of the hottest reasons I’ve ever heard from a woman.”

“Of course you would say that.”

“What can I say? I love a good revolution. There’s nothing more American than that.”

“I feel as if talk of overthrowing governments would arouse you more than a nude body.”

“Absolutely. Nothing gets me harder than teaching others about the American Revolution.”

Zira sighed and shook her head. “You are utterly ridiculous.”

“Any true patriot would get hard thinking about America’s fight for freedom.”

“It’s amazing. I’ve never had anybody kill my arousal so quickly.”

“That’s because I’m being selfish and only considering my own arousal at the moment. If I wanted to make you aroused, you would be.”

“Oh? You sound so sure of yourself. Do you truly believe you have what it takes to make a princess of Hell—”

“You’re doing your best, Zira. Don’t think that your efforts are unnoticed. I know what you’re going through and I’m proud of you. Good girl.”

Zira’s reddened cheeks made it clear she felt flustered, but flustered wasn’t aroused. There was still one more thing I needed to do. But before that, she tried to say, “Do—do you really think that—”

I placed my hand on top of her head to pet her. “Good girl,” I repeated.

Her quivering lips failed to produce any sound aside from incoherent mumbling and whining until I lifted my hand away from her. “What… what kind of tactic is that?”

“It’s the one I use before I casually mention something like wanting to pin you down, wrap my hands around your throat, and fuck you.”

Zira’s eyes widened for a moment before she forced herself to relax with a deep breath. “Alright. That whiplash was more effective than I would have expected. I suppose you didn’t spend all of your free time playing games.”

“Of course not. Just because I played games doesn’t mean I’m a virgin with no idea how to treat women. You give them praise to let them feel special and validated, and then you fuck them harder than they’ve ever been fucked before. That has never failed for me and I doubt it ever will.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be walking so that Enna can rest in peace?”

“I got distracted. And she’s a hard sleeper. But, you do have a point, so let’s go.”

“You’re as cruel as a demon for getting a woman worked up like this and then changing subjects to take her on a walk.”

“Good girls need walked, after all.”

“I’m not a pet, you bastard.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t like to be treated like one.”

Zira realized who she was up against and shut up.

It didn’t matter whether the girl was a human or a demon. Whatever her species was, so long as it was at least humanoid in shape, legal, and intelligent enough to consent, I could seduce her. I was confident in that.

The strategy required to win in 4X games was more complicated than the strategy required to seduce women. If I could excel at the former, of course I would have the latter mastered as well.

Outside, while I told Zira of the notification I received and what I thought about potential achievements, I looked around the settlement to see how things were progressing. Our place made me think of what I would expect to see from a Mongolian hoard minus the horses. We had a variety of tents that were used for practically everything. Though, rather than be located in grassy steppes, we were located in an ash-covered field with a volcano in the distance in one direction and the ocean in the opposite direction.

As for our population, it grew to be mostly Volcano Hounds. And they were as energetic as ever. They loved running around and playing with each other, and their playing was still very… violent. It often looked like they were trying to kill each other, yelping out in pain and scratching each other to the point of bleeding, but it was only ever play and they all enjoyed it thoroughly. They just had to be careful around the others since it would be easy to accidentally crash into them.

But even if the Volcano Hounds proved to be a bit dangerous around everybody else, they brought life to the settlement that we were lacking before. Despite them all being adults, it was like having a bunch of excited little kids running around. Annoying? Sure. But it also inspired us. They were still having fun and messing around even in a situation where their world might be handed over to somebody horrible who wants to enslave all of its people. Maybe they failed to fully comprehend the situation. But whether they understood it or not, they had fun and only ever stopped playing to sleep or eat. That helped the rest of us relax a bit.

Though, I found it hard to relax when I had to think about which potential achievements we should go for. Their bonuses were too good to pass up.

“You’re probably right,” Zira said, still walking by my side. “Either reaching the next tier of research or finishing all options within this tier should reward us with an achievement, but I doubt both will be there. There is typically one per field. One for combat, one for science, one for labor, one for influence, and one for economy.”

“Then we know the potential science ones,” I said. “The influence one is probably related to owning a total amount of tiles. Labor… since there aren’t any wonders or anything like that to build, maybe building a set amount of buildings. Or maybe… since building a total amount of buildings in a settlement is a bit basic, building those tile modifiers? For economy, since money isn’t exactly a thing yet, having access to a set amount of materials? What about food?”

“Right. Food is another one.”

“Then a food achievement would probably be tied to having a total amount of population or something similar. What about happiness?”

“That typically falls under the influence category, I believe.”

“Then the achievement could be tied to that instead of owning tiles. I’ll have to ask Thad and Enna about it. What can you tell me about wonders?”

“I’m not sure I know anything about that which would be useful. All I know is that they can be built, but I know not the conditions for them.”

“Do you know if any are normally available in the first era?”

“Typically, they are, if I’m remembering correctly.”

“Then there might be some available and I just haven’t figured out how to gain the option to build them.”

If that was the case… it was exciting, in a way. I never played a 4X before where I had to discover a means of building a wonder. The option was typically either unlocked by default or unlocked through research. Having to put effort into discovering how was exciting, if not also a bit stressful since it gave me less to plan around.

Once the Viking Elves were dealt with, it would be time to discover the secrets of building wonders.

Assuming that it actually was something I had to go and discover.