I didn’t waste too much time before I moved on to the main topic. I looked at Helga. “I want you to accompany Cornelia on her journey.”
Cornelia threw a glance at me, one that was unable to settle to a decision between annoyed and happy. She didn’t appreciate the implication that she needed help, but she didn’t reject that idea either. Her reaction would have been more explosive before her close call with the death knights.
“What about my new role at the faculty?” Helga asked.
I looked at Titania, who was gently sleeping while her face was buried in Marianne’s comfortable breasts. “That might not be that hard to arrange,” I said with a chuckle, earning a similar response from Helga, making her bosom jiggle.
I pulled the girls closer to my body, enjoying the warmth of their naked bodies. “I thought you were going to come yourself,” Cornelia asked, reminding me of our previous deal. To her credit, her tone wasn’t angry, simply questioning. “Why the change?”
“Things are moving too fast. There’s no guarantee that I could get away from Silver Spires for such a long time without letting a very important thing slide,” I answered with a frown even as I let my fingers travel down, caressing their breasts, while giving a high-level explanation about the Crown Princess’ visit.
Just because we were discussing a serious topic didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun in the process.
“I see,” Cornelia murmured, carrying echoes of a moan, my fingers still caressing her skin. “And how should we act.”
I was tempted to say Cornelia just followed Helga’s every order, but even with her mellowing personality, that was a recipe for disaster. Luckily, Helga was calm and crafty enough to handle Silver Spires as a commoner, and she could handle Cornelia without triggering her completely. “The problem is the utter lack of information you’re currently facing,” I said.
“It’s not too bad,” Cornelia answered. “I still have some loyal servants back in the house, and they are keeping tabs at my uncle.”
“And you know they haven’t already been subverted by your uncle and feeding you false information, how?” That was enough to silence Cornelia for a moment, her head dipping in disappointment. She clearly wanted to argue, but her position wasn’t the best. More importantly, she knew that.
“The first objective is to set up a defensible position. When you arrive at your house, find an excuse to stay in your quarters no matter what your uncle gives. Even if he claims that there’s a deadly emergency, say that you got ambushed on the road and exhausted yourself magically. Then, go to your private wing, take down every single ward, no matter how small, and establish brand new ones.”
“Wouldn’t that tell my uncle that I was lying about being exhausted?”
“That’s actually a part of the plan. Unless he actually tries to set an ambush himself, he would assume you’re not exhausted in the first place. By setting the wards, you’ll give the impression that you were exhausted in the aftermath.”
“I see,” Helga cut in. “And I’m assuming that we shouldn’t waste more than half of our mana while setting the wards.”
“Try to spend no more than a quarter,” I said, even as I grabbed Cornelia’s hair and pulled her down aggressively, until her lips were pressing against my shaft. Her gasp of pain was laced with pleasure, and her lips opened immediately, licking and sucking. Still, even as she enjoyed the fullness of her mouth, her eyes stayed on Helga and me, showing her attention to the topic of discussion.
What a good way to handle a strategy meeting, I thought.
“But it’s hard to set up a reliable defense with only a quarter of our mana,” Helga said.
“It’ll not be the case once I finish with you two,” I said, flaring my mana at the same time to fill Cornelia’s mouth with energy noticeably, turning that to experience. Cornelia was near the limit of my empowerment, but luckily, there was still a margin to strengthen Helga. Four levels is not exactly a simple power-up, especially when it brought the target from eighteen to twenty-two.
[-1493 Mana]
Interestingly, the jump between twenty-one to twenty-two wasn’t something that was directly enabled by the system. If I stayed limited to that, twenty-one was my limit at my current level, due to the so-called fifty percent level difference, requiring me to be level thirty-three to power them to twenty-two.
Only thanks to some of the tricks I developed by examining Titania’s level structure and the headmistress’ tricks to contain the divine energy, I managed to push the barrier a bit more.
Trying to make my girls even stronger wasn’t the only reason for my experimentation, however. The more I learned about the system, the more my suspicions were growing, both about the system in general, and my own variant in particular, so learning to override some of its restrictions and developing some tricks wasn’t the stupidest strategy.
“So, what’s the next part of the plan?” Helga asked even as her fingers traveled down to wrap around my balls, massaging gently.
“If my guess about his personality is correct, he’ll find some reasons to tire you out, either some kind of hunt, or otherwise, some dangerous activity. First, you need to make sure you never split up, no matter the reason he gives. Second, try to argue against his reasons to exhaust you, but ultimately give your reluctant acceptance.”
“Why?” Cornelia asked, surprised at the direction.
“The same reason I asked you not to spend more than a quarter of your mana while setting up the wards. You want to sell the impression of weakness. He’ll try to overestimate your mana reserves, but there’s no chance that even his optimistic assumptions could gauge your true potential. Not after the enchantments, you two have worked so hard for,” I added, the last part with a smirk even as I grabbed Cornelia’s hair, sinking her back to my shaft, her throat wrapping around aggressively, working enthusiastically for some more enchantments.
“Right,” Helga said with a chuckle even as she pressed her lips on my neck for a fleeting kiss. “We worked so hard for our power.” After a few more kisses, she continued. “What’s next.”
“Actually, there’s no more to it. I want you two to stay on the defensive all the time. I don’t know what kind of challenge awaited me during this horrible mess, but I should be able to find an opportunity to visit you two in a week or two at the worst. You’ll be far away, but with a full-power air elemental, I can still handle the travel in several hours, half a day at worst. Once I’m there, I’ll investigate everything properly and resolve the issue.”
Cornelia said nothing, but the speed of her throat swallowing my girth was more than enough to show her appreciation.
I intentionally neglected to mention one possibility. That I could teleport to them instead of using a magical mount. But the results of the first attempt were still clear in my mind, pushing me even closer to death than I had ever imagined it to be possible.
Another attempt was definitely out of question without some serious magical experimentation unless it was another life-and-death situation.
“Seems simple enough,” Helga murmured before leaning forward, capturing my lips in a searing kiss, and while I was distracted by her kiss, she pushed me back and climbed on me. Cornelia pulled back, allowing her to slide in easily.
I couldn’t help but smirk remembering the last private time three of us shared, each second filled with their attempts to make each other pay. The last time, when Helga was able to take the first turn, she was busy sending smug looks at Cornelia, but this time, she was busy delivering a kiss to Cornelia.
I was really proud of their developing friendship.
Under different circumstances, I might have teased them together, trying to stress-test their developing friendship before they left for their dangerous mission, but after their latest display of cooperation, I decided to let it slide.
Cornelia’s enthusiasm told me that she was more than happy with that decision, though her enthusiasm jumped a considerable degree when my fingers landed on her body, showing the happiness awakened by my attention as I explored her beautiful curves.
Helga was not to be ignored, however. Her hips rose, before falling down with a renewed passion, the sound of flesh hitting flesh echoing in the room, mixing into my grunt, enough to make Marianne shuffle in her bed. She continued to sleep, however, while I rewarded Helga with another flood of mana, while paying attention to her soul space to transform it.
[-1973 Mana]
[Helga - Level 19/21 - 1%]
“Congratulations on your new level,” I said with a chuckle even as I grabbed her hips and lifted her. A second later, she was on the floor, on her hands and knees, ready for my invasion.
She wanted rough, I thought with a chuckle. Cornelia recognized the nature of my expression, being a subject of it more than once herself, and chuckled in amusement.
I had no problems giving her exactly what she wanted.
[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 496000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 63
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 2931 / 7750 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 19/21]