309 Vol. 5 pt. 17 (1/2)
”This way,” GG says, leading Fenrir and the group toward where their battle will take place.
Preparations for both Fenrir's group and the dragons' group have been finished. Serra was shown how her weapon will work, Rao was given a spear, and the rest of the draconic players finished their own individual preparations.
Fenrir's group consists of himself, Serra, Cassiel, Nell, Azalabulia, Rao, Shogun, Rock, and now Eva.
GG's group consists of himself and roughly twenty other draconic men and women equipped with customized armor for their race and a variety of weapons, and one of them is carrying the folded weapon that Serra has been trained on.
”I'm surprised,” Cassiel whispers to Fenrir after nudging him with her shoulder to grab his attention.
”Why's that?” Fenrir whispers back.
”Because. They're… so accepting. It's weird. Kind of suspicious, don't you think?”
”Normally, I might be a bit suspicious, but I've got a good gut feeling about them.”
”Gut feelings aren't always right.”
”Mine is.”
”Uh-huh.”
”Has it ever been wrong?”
”How am I supposed to know? It's not like you tell us about a gut feeling every time you have one, and you could always be hiding them unless you're sure it'll be right.”
”That's true, but what does your gut say?”
”I – I don't know.”
”Come on, you don't know what your own gut is telling you?”
”I mean… it's telling me that… you're right, I guess. Probably.”
”See? Even your gut knows that my gut is always right. Don't worry about it.”
”I'm just used to people being more paranoid back in the empire. Unless you went to some random community that was just a bunch of players wanting to live out a fantasy life farming, partying, and eating… everybody had a motive. Even among the angel recruits, there was some pretty vicious competition there. The less recruits, the higher your chance was to get selected.”
”It was a competition? It wasn't just like, everybody who passed made it?”
”Yeah. There was one girl who just… I'm getting pissed off just thinking about her.”
”Then stop thinking about her.”
”I don't want to. I want to bitch about her now.”
”Then bitch about her.”
”Fine. I will. She was a huge bitch. She was always smug, always making fun of everybody for everything and looked down on everybody for any reason, she acted like some holy and righteous prick and – alright, get this way. There was one time when we were eating at dinner together, and we were given pasta—”
”Pasta definitely sounds like something some angels in training would be eating.”
”Shush. Anyways, I dropped a noodle and it fell down my shirt and—”
”Got lost between your boobs?”
”I told you to shush, but – yeah. Anyways, then she got all smug when I was trying to get it out and she was saying stupid things like 'oh, you wouldn't be having trouble if you didn't have such a sinful body. Are you sure you should be here instead of on a farm? Or perhaps you're trying to repent for having such a perverse body?' God, it pissed me off.”
”So, she was like some sort of smug, condescending angel roleplayer who thought you were sinful for having great boobs?”
”When you put it that way… yeah.”
”Dang. She does sound rough to be around. Though, she wasn't wrong.”
”And what's that supposed to mean?”
”Well, your chest is always giving me sinful thoughts.”
”You can't even see it right now! I wear armor for a reason…”
”You are vastly underestimating me if you think that wearing some armor over your chest is going to stop my mind from having sinful thoughts about it. I still know what's under there, the armor adds to the mystery, and it has to bulge out a bit to properly fit them which means that you just know there's more underneath. If anything, one could argue that having such conservative, realistic armor actually makes your chest even more erotic. I get way more excited from you this armor than I would get from you wearing bikini armor.”
”I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult, you weirdo.”
”Would I ever say anything other than a compliment to you?”
”I don't know.”
”Have I ever?”
”I… don't think so.”
”Yeah, I don't think I've ever said anything negative to you, either. Though, there is one negative about you that I could call out.”
Cassiel crosses her arms and tilts her head to look up at him. ”Is that so? And what would that be?”
”It's that we're walking side by side right now and not holding hands or holding my arm to press your armored chest against my arm.”
”You're lucky,” she says, grabbing his hand to hold it. ”And it's because you're so tall. I always hold your hand in real life when we're walking, so I don't want to hear it. Here, I can't just hang my arm naturally and hold it.”
”True. Being this tall does have its negatives.”
”Why'd you want to be so tall again?”
”Partly because I used to be insecure about my real height, partly because I thought girls would find it hotter if I was tall, and partly because I've just always wanted to be this tall.”
”It was mostly that second reason, wasn't it?”
”Probably. I mean, it's not like I purposely designed Fenrir to attract women. I just wanted to look cooler than I do in real life. But yeah, I guess being attractive to any potential girls was probably a subconscious reason for me doing it. I did try to design him to be like a guy I saw in a game that's really popular with girls as far as fanart goes.”
”What game?”
”Some Japanese game where a bunch of historical swords are personified as humans, and they fight using the swords that they're personifications of. I think. I don't know, it was something like that. Either way, I knew a bunch of girls were in love with the guy who I kind of based my appearance off of.”
”My hero,” Nell says, finally speaking up after listening in on their conversation, ”does this mean that there is art online of a character who looks like you?”
”Yeah. A ton of it.”
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”I see! And you said that he is from a game popular with women, yes?”
”Yep. Why – wait, are you… you're not thinking of what I think you're thinking of, are you?”
”I most certainly am, my hero. For those of us who wish to see you with another man, it would be very easy to imagine you in his place if you already look similar!”
And this is when an unfortunate memory flashes into Fenrir's mind.
When he first saw this character online, he was interested and wanted to look up more art of him just because he really liked his design. This led him into a deep rabbit hole of male-on-male hentai, and there were easily dozens of different doujins featuring the character paired with other men from the same series. There were even more random pictures of fanart.
Whether the character was on the bottom or the top, being the one getting tied up or the one doing the tying – whether he was the one giving it or taking it… if Fenrir's girlfriends are capable of finding out the name of the character that he is talking about, they are going to have a near-endless supply of research materials that would take minimal effort for them to superimpose him into.
”What was his name?” Serra asks.
”What is the name of the series that he was from?” Nell asks.
Fenrir suddenly finds that Serra, Nell, Cassiel, and Azalabulia are all leaning much closer than they were before and are all awaiting an answer from him.
”I forgot,” he obviously lies.
”I guess I'll forget which condoms have holes poked in them,” Serra says.
”It would be such a shame if any of us were to forget that we had a boyfriend,” Nell says.
”That's just cruel,” Fenrir says. ”Cruel, but effective. I'll tell you later if you remind me.”
”Promise?” Serra asks.
”Yeah, I'll promise to it. Just… keep your discoveries and fantasies to yourselves. I don't want to get called to come and look at somebody looking like Fenrir being tied up and used by a group of men.”
”Such a thing exists?” Nell asks with sparkling eyes.
”I mean… no.”
”We're looking up that one first,” Serra says.
”Why did I say anything?”
”Because you don't know when to keep your mouth shut,” Cassiel says.
”This is what happens when I honestly answer your questions. I'll just never answer anything honestly anymore,” he says.
”But then we are back to lying as well, my hero,” Nell says.
”I just won't answer at all anymore then. I won't be lying if I just don't answer at all.”
”Bold move,” Serra says.
”I guess I could just not hold your hand anymore,” Cassiel says, letting go of his hand.
Fenrir looks down at her and looks genuinely hurt at the idea of not getting to hold hands anymore. In fact, it might be the most hurt he has ever looked.
Cassiel can't help but to return her hand to his. The instant she does, he goes back to looking like his usual, happy self.
”Did you seriously react that much to me joking about that?” she asks.
”I knew it was a joke, but it still made me feel really bad for some reason. I'm surprised myself just how much that actually hurt to hear,” he answers.
”You looked cute,” Serra says. ”I want to make you look like that again.”
”That would require emotional abuse, and I'm not into that. Nell is.”
”I prefer physical abuse over emotional abuse, my hero,” Nell says.
”You know, it's alright to prefer non-abusive things. Like handholding. There's nothing wrong with handholding.”
”Are you shaming me for my desires, my hero?”
”Yes. I'm kinkshaming you.”
”Wonderful! Please, by all means, continue to shame me even more.”
”I wi—”
”You guys are doing it again,” Rao interjects. ”You know that we've got a bunch of random people with us, right?”
Serra tucks herself next to Fenrir in a position where the others won't be able to see her – or rather, where she won't be able to see them.
They obviously can't see her if she can't see them.
Nell, however, smiles even more than she was previously while Cassiel just sighs nudges Fenrir again with her elbow since she doesn't know how else to react.
Then there is Azalabulia. Despite not really being present in the conversation at all, she still finds it embarrassing upon realizing that everybody else has been quiet so that they could listen in on their conversation.
”We're… we're really not used to being with other people,” Fenrir admits.
”Yeah. We should probably work on that,” Cassiel says.
”But how else are we to earn stares of judgement?” Nell asks.
”Not everybody wants to be judged.”
”Are you trying to prevent me from indulging in my desires?”
”Yes.”
”Ah, how wonderful it is to be denied of my own pleasure. That makes the inevitable release even more amazing!”
”Seriously?” Rao asks. ”You guys already slipped back into it? It's only been like thirty seconds.”
Nell looks up at Rao with a pout before sticking her tongue out at him.
”Hey, you've never stuck your tongue out at me before,” Fenrir says.
”Are you jealous of such a silly act, my hero?” Nell asks.
”I just think it's cute. I don't care who you stick your tongue out at as long as I get to see.”
And so, she sticks her tongue out at him.
”Is this better?” she asks.
”Yep. Definitely cute.”