Lost in drowsiness, the first thing my half-asleep mind noticed was one of my hands grabbing something firm and soft. I have a good squeeze on it, yet gentle enough that it wouldn’t harm it, malleable enough to mold between my fingers, and all around just too big for me to cup it in full. My basal instincts that are controlling my hand right now find this sensation fascinating enough to play with it some more, and so they did just that.

“Mmh …”

A pleased, sensual moan was elicited in response. Moreover, something was rubbing against my crotch that I just noticed was bare and stiff.

From those stimulating sensations, my mind became awake, vision clear, to find the Devil disguised as an Arch Imp, Sue, in front of me. My hand was fondling her very generous chest, and my morning wood was in extreme danger of passing the point of no return into her womanhood, or backdoor, whichever was closer.

In a panic, I reflexively pulled my hand groping her chest away, only to realize my wrist was restrained in doing so, and with a terrifying grip, at that.

"Ohh, Jinma, you beast," Sue cooed as I felt my hand being pulled, forced into her chest further. To make things more dangerous, she was pushing her phat ass further against my wood, too, urging it to plant itself into her fertile land.

… She's pretending to talk and shift in her sleep when she's wide awake, isn't she?

That's what my thoughts concluded after taking a brief moment to think calmly, and in that moment, I noticed Sue's tail swaying in front of me. Taking a bet on chance, I reached out with my free hand to grab and tug on her tail tightly.

"AA—!" Sue yelped before blocking her mouth from waking the others, using the hand she restrained me with moments ago.

I took advantage of this opening to pull my hand away and practically leapt off the bed, all while making sure to not wake the others up. I used [Shadow Manipulation] to make tendrils that caught my fall, not making a sound.

Looking very annoyed, Sue gave the signal to speak through [Telepathy], of which I started the connection. she exclaimed in my mind,

I said as I had my shadow tendrils set me upright,

Sue asked.

I exclaimed.

Sue asked as she pointed to my morning wood,

I refused.

Sue clicked her tongue,

Nyra greeted,

I responded.

Sue asked.

Sango didn't tell me to keep our talk a secret, but I wondered if going into too much detail would risk breaking the oath Nyra and I made to Obina. I had to be careful of what I say.

I said,

Sue asked as she looked to the side, deep in thought.

I said before shrugging,

Sue said before lifting herself off the bed with her wings.

As she gently landed on the floor, her oppai-loli boobs made a hefty jiggle. It was hard not to look away when she was totally naked, and she just ate up that attention. My wood couldn't go down because of that, and I was just too stiff to stuff it in my pants.

As I tried to calm my buddy down, we made sure Yukino was still asleep, which Sue solidified with her own [Slothful Slumber] spell. We didn't want Konjiro to get any ideas about her coming with us to the dungeon as he sees us off, especially since he was told she spent the night at a friend's place. That reminds me, does Yukino even have friends?

Nyra answered my thoughts for me,

Anyway, with Yukino sleeping longer, Sue and I decided to look into more of her memories through Nyra’s powers for any information she might have left out from us last night, as well as any physical evidence we can use to blow Rowling’s cover. Unfortunately, Yukino’s meetings with Rowling after their first one were very few, and Konjiro was the one to go to them on his own. Any other communication her husband had with their conspirator was done through a Messaging Crystal, of which Yukino had to step out for discretion. When she asked what they talked about later, Konjiro only told so little of what she wanted to know. This really showed how much Konjiro lacked faith in his own admittedly normal wife, giving me more reason to add pity points to her stock. I guess the plan to ambush us in the dungeon was the most Konjiro ever spoke to her with such an eerily delighted expression. He must hate us that much, huh? Or maybe it’s just me that he despises?

What was good for us, however, was Yukino being more of a curious woman than we gave her credit for. As part of her ‘duties’ as Assistant Guild Master of Palocaesy’s Adventurers’ Guild, she was tasked to send messages to some of the nobility that reside in the city. When she snuck a peek at one of them, they were instructions for a secret meeting to hold for discussing the progression to pull off the coup. After finding that out, Yukino searched through Konjiro’s office for further clues until she stumbled into some parchments in a secret compartment. Included in that stack was a list of possible houses to support the overthrow of the Demon King. Some of those names were marked with checks, a few others were crossed out entirely. What was interesting about the crossed-out group, according to Sue, was that the heads of those families have turned up dead recently. The remaining members of those fallen houses either migrated into other noble houses through marriage or servitude, the same houses that were checked off in that list, or have mysteriously disappeared. Seeing such coincidences that match up the names in that list were uncanny to ignore.

From this discovery, Sue had perhaps the creepiest, mad-inducing smile I’ve seen from her yet as she snickered eerily, “Ohhh, this is a good find, indeed. Be grateful, Yukino, for your meddling may have lightened your sentence a tad.”

Also to note, among the stacks of parchment found in that compartment was a list of names from their Kitsune Clan. All of those names have a feminine tone to them, with some having check marks next to them, others with X’s, and a few with abbreviation for ‘undecided’. Yukino seems to know a few of them as Tenkos, while others she hasn’t met, but heard they’ve been recently recognized as such, as well, meaning they’re quite young compared to her. There wasn’t an indication that said what that list exactly was, but Yukino seemed to have an idea for what it is as her vision blurred while the parchment trembled in her hands.

Nyra pointed out,

If this is what I think it is, I was all the more compelled to beat Konjiro’s fox-face in. It reminded me of how my old bastard disappeared after I was born, leaving Mom no trace of where he could have gone. He may have had his reasons for disappearing, but if he was fooling around with other girls without any regard to Mom’s feelings? If there was a chance of me finding him, he’d be dead within a minute after meeting him. As for Konjiro, as much as I wanted to beat him down, I shouldn’t do anything that could risk giving us away from knowing his plans. At least with this, I don’t feel as bad sleeping with his wife now, and even if Yukino had doubts of whether he was really committing infidelity, she must not feel as guilty for not tossing aside the possibility. With that in mind, despite our racial differences, she must have enjoyed our time together to some extent. You may get in deep shit later, and though I’ll work you to the bone, I’ll make sure you’re treated right, like a real woman, I decided in my resolve.

And before you ask, yes, I’m aware how ‘hypocritical’ it might be of me to judge Konjiro for adultering. The difference between me and him, though, is that everyone in my harem is in agreement on how to go about our relationship, as well as how I should go about expanding it. Konjiro, on the other hand, has been seeing other girls behind Yukino’s back, likely not worrying how she feels about all this, considering their history together. If he doesn’t give a shit about her, then he won’t mind me sleeping with her, though that really stocks up how much I need to pay him back for his assholery if that much won’t cut it as much as I thought initially.

Getting enough of what Sue, Nyra, and I could find, we made the necessary preparations before waking the others up to get ready. Ren was really devastated once she remembered how quickly she conked out last night, letting alcohol get in the way of pleasuring her master. This sort of worked out for me since I was still naked with a huge boner that couldn't go down—it didn’t take long for us to get through Yukino’s memories, despite how much we took in, hence why I was still relatively hard. When I asked Ren to help me with it to make up for her lack of participation last night, she didn't hesitate to comply.

Since I was worried I could impede today's performance if I penetrated any holes on her lower half, we settled with her giving me a morning blowjob. I had to say that she was getting better at getting it all in her mouth, and I gave her proper praise for it by petting and scratching around her cute wolf ears as she did it. I seriously considered if I should have Ren do this for me every morning while we're in the dungeon, and while she did say yes when I asked her, there was still the matter of Noire and Gabriella joining our dungeon dive today. It's especially so since one of our escorted guests is interested in doing it with me in the dungeon, too. It wouldn't be fair to the other girls not getting in on the action, either. Ah, the struggles of maintaining a harem.

Putting those matters aside for now, once Ren properly emptied me out for the morning, we changed and regrouped with others for breakfast. Since it was slow this morning, I took this opportunity to use Nyra's magic to relay to the unattended what we saw in Yukino's memories last night, Ren included since she wasn't awake at the time. I also showed everyone there what I found in her memories this morning.

"Unforgivable," Kalline said first after finishing, her brow furrowed and fierce, "As a Centaur, family is the very foundation of our honor. The very thought of selling off one of our own under any circumstance would destroy us from the inside out. I have heard how the Kitsune take great value in their pride, but that mayhaps be the source of their infamy.”

“Being sold off by their own family like that … that’s much worse than my own case,” Erizora said, looking down solemnly, “I was going to get killed by the Ogres of my tribe when they found out about my father being Human, but in exchange of my mother giving up her own body, the worst they had done was putting me in exile, keeping me alive. It sucked, but I’m grateful to Mom giving herself up like that to let me live. I understood from that alone how much she loved me, despite my upbringing.”

“Hmm … and you haven’t gone back to your tribe since?” I asked, “Would you want to?”

Erizora looked up at me and nodded firmly, “If it’s to see how Mom’s doing, seeing whether she’s still alive, then yes. It would be nice if I could free her from whatever they’re putting her through, but I’m at a loss for what to do.”

“I see,” I said,

“At any rate, it seems best to leave Yukino here and bring her along with Konjiro to justice once we expose Rowling’s plans,” Ume said, “Since we didn’t hear anything from you, Kenaka, can we assume nothing major happened last night?”

Kenaka shook his head, “I didn’t sense any large gatherings surrounding the inn last night, but there is a distinguishable difference in the density of mana right now. Compared to yesterday, the mana in the air is much lighter.”

I activated my [Intuitive Mapping], [Detection], and [Size Up] skills to quickly look for how many people are currently up and about in the city, “... The number of people here is far fewer than before, and there are no signs of dead bodies lying about. There isn’t anyone camping outside of the city walls, either. Noire and Gabriella are still in the former’s cottage, at least, and both of them are healthy. Well, whatever’s considered ‘healthy’ for an Undead, anyway.”

“If the population in the area has dropped that significantly, though … that means Rowling’s small army is making its move,” Kalline said as she gripped her sword’s handle, looking tense.

“Brother …” Ren muttered under her breath.

“It’s important to stay alert, but I think we have an advantage,” I said, trying to lift everyone’s heavy spirits, “They don’t know that we’re aware of their ambush, to separate and overwhelm us with numbers, whether it be through their own forces or the Monsters’ that dwell in the dungeon. While it’s best for us to stay close together to avoid this, anything can happen, which is why we should prepare for the case we do get separated. So, allow me to give a quick rundown of what to do then …”

~~

With my strategy meeting gone over and our preparations set, I cast [Portal] to send everyone in my party to the dungeon to save our spot in advance. Only myself, Sue, and Mametama remained before I cast another [Portal] to take us to Noire’s cottage. The maids there quickly let us in once we arrived, and one of them directed us to Noire who’s currently waiting in her room. Incidentally, Gabriella’s body is bound in the cottage’s basement for the sake of Noire’s safety, knowing her involvement with Rowling now, while her separated head was being looked after by one of the other maids.

When we got to the door, Noire greeted us with a refreshing smile, all adorned in her adventurer’s outfit and ready for the dungeon dive. She led us inside to speak in private, of which I ensured with my [Soundproof] spell. I first started things off by presenting Noire with a gift.

“Mmph! I didn’t think you could actually make pudding, of all things, Jinma!” Noire exclaimed in delight, taking a spoonful and enjoying the jiggles it made in her hand, “I’ve had this at the castle’s cafeteria, once, and I dare say yours has beat theirs by a landslide!”

“While I appreciate the praise, but the castle’s cafeteria?” I asked with a raised brow as she ate another spoonful.

“Her Highness and I used to sneak in and swipe such delicacies back when she was still a princess, you could say. We were quite the duo, back then,” Noire said as she looked up with nostalgia.

So the current Demon King was mischievous back then, huh? Considering the crap she’s putting me through right now, I guess she’s been doing this for longer than I thought.

“Soooo? How did things go last night?” Noire then asked before giving a knowing, mischievous grin.

“It was a big success. We got a lot more out of her than we could have hoped for, and we got some filthy dirt to use against Rowling, too,” I said.

“May I see it, perhaps?” Noire asked, “The prospect of this possible bit of gossip made it hard for me to sleep last night.”

I was kind of hoping to save this evidence until much later when we bring the guilty to justice, but I understood how eager Noire must be to see it now. The problem was how we gathered that evidence last night, through means truly foreign to the residence of Raiza.

I asked her through [Telepathy].

Sue said,

What does she mean by that? The wording was peculiar, but being an expert of nobility, herself, she must know what she’s talking about, and my [Intuition] didn’t pick up anything, either.

“Alright, I’ll let you see, but you must keep the ‘method’ I used to gather this evidence secret, and not mention any of what you see to others until we bring this up to Her Highness,” I said.

“Oh, but of course! Since I’m involved with this dilemma, while I have a right to be filled in on this investigation, I’m aware of the necessity of keeping such things discreet until Her Majesty says otherwise. Don’t want to risk spreading misinformation, and all that,” Noire said.

“Then, if I may,” I said before casting [Storage], but the moment I pulled my smartphone out …

“What?!” Noire screamed.

The suddenness startled me enough to nearly drop my device, “W-What, what is it?”

“Where … did you get that?!” Noire exclaimed, pointing to said device.

“Uh, my former employer, actually,” I answered calmly, “It was a gift as well as something for me to use while on the job. I don’t know where they got it, though.”

“Your former employer uses that, too?” Noire asked apprehensively, “They didn’t tell you where you got it because they couldn’t?”

“Not really? I mean, I’m sure they bought it from somewhere, the thought of asking never really came to me, though. Do you … know what this is?” I asked while holding up my device.

Noire went silent for a moment, looking like she was seriously considering whether to answer truthfully. To be honest, part of me wouldn’t really mind if she didn’t say, but I’d definitely be left curious as to why she reacted the way she did.

The Noble Vampire seemed to have reached a decision and resolved herself as she took on a serious air. “... That’s a smartphone, yes?” Noire asked. I was surprised she knew that much, at first, what she pulled out from her Magic Item Pouch left me even more shocked, a similar-looking device with a case that was bedazzled with rubies of different sizes.

Noire practically shoved the jewel-encrusted device in front of my face, “I, too, have one, supposedly one of the only few identical magic tools that exist on Raiza, crafted by the one and only Shining Teaset, herself.”