Chapter 7 (5): Haruveritat el Isala
When I heard that, I looked towards the source, and found the face of a stunningly beautiful white wolfkin girl of about my age peering at me around a corner, the only other thing visible being a sword on her hip, and the occasional part of her tail as it swayed back and forth, I assume.
"Based on your age, sex, beauty, manner of speech, and the timing of your appearance, I would assume your name is Haru, though I could be wrong. I would have to wonder if you would really be alright without a guard, but the sword peeking around the corner would suggest that you know how to fight, at least somewhat" (Ryuu)
"That deduction was impressive. Indeed, you are seeing Haru, the third princess, and my pride and joy, when it comes to my children, though she's also the one who infuriates me the most at times. She does know how to fight quite well, as she's been a solo adventurer for six years now, reaching all the way to B under the name of 'Ru'. When I heard about it, I was rather mad, but when she managed to do well against Gazef, I let her keep being an adventurer" (King)
"But... your aura... it's the first time I haven't been able to see a person's heart. That's interesting" (Haru)
"What? Is that because she's the Demon Lord?" (King)
"I must have missed something... what do you mean by 'see a person's heart' and what does that have to do with my aura?" (Ryuu)
"I was born with the soul-gazing eye... I can see if someone is a good person at heart, if they are under control of a spell, curse, or item, and more things like that, just by looking at someone's aura" (Haru)
"Ah... now I see why your father wanted us to meet... so you could tell if I'm a good person or something... and you can't do that on me because of something about my aura?" (Ryuu)
"Yeah... it's like... I'm trying to read a book the size of an ant... Even people with almost no aura don't give me any problems like that" (Haru)
"Well, there are three reasons I can think of. The first is my being a Demon Lord, the second is because my aura is suppressed, and the third is because I have so much mana that you might be instinctively limiting what you are trying to read because you don't want to get overloaded by it. I can test the second theory easily, if you'd like" (Ryuu)
"Yes. I'd like that, as I dislike not being able to know what you're really like" (Haru)
I pulled off my bracelets, and she looked at me again.
"I can see a bit more... not much more, but still more. You truly are selfless to a fault, and you love more deeply than most... that's about all I can tell now" (Haru)
"Well, that makes the third idea less likely and the second more probable. I've got more limiters, if you wish for me to remove another one or two at a time" (Ryuu)
"Yeah, please do so" (Haru)
I removed more, and once I only had two remaining, she said that she'd seen enough.
"You... you're not the best person I've seen, but you are close. You help those who need it, you act for others most of the time, trust people more than most would, but aren't idealistic or naive, and you have a strong desire for justice, but the flaws that brings are balanced by objective thinking and a solid knowledge of how negative spirals work, such that you prefer to break that cycle over getting subjective justice or revenge. You're someone I'd like to have on my side, despite the fact that you're more than a bit of a sadist at times" (Haru)
"You can see part of why we love her now, can't you? She's all of that and more, including kind, sweet, funny, strong, a good teacher, and... she's great in bed too" (Char)
"That last part wasn't something you had to add, you know. It's not like it matters in this case, right?" (Ryuu)
"It did make me curious, but it didn't actually have anything to do with what we were talking about" (Haru)
"You know, you've heard and seen a lot about us, but we barely know anything about you... Like, we know you are about my age, a B rank adventurer, the third princess, and that's about it. Hell, I've only seen your head, an arm, and your sword, so I don't even know much about what you look like" (Ryuu)
"Oh, sorry about that" (Haru)
She walked out from where she'd been hiding, and I saw her clearly. Standing at about 140 cm, she was short enough to pass for 10 or so, if you ignored her large 25 cm bust, which was mostly exposed by her outfit that prioritized ease of movement over modesty. Her slender waist transitioned into her decently large hips, a bone-white sword on either side, as her short skirt was pulled up in the back by her long and bushy tail. Her eyes were a stunning silver that complemented her snow-white ears, tail, and hair, which was long and straight as it hung down to the middle of her thighs in back, though it spread out a good amount to either side, and the portion that went in front of her shoulders flowed down her exposed shoulders, across her chest, and then fanned out to cover most of the front of her breasts. I think that, even if she went topless, her hair would cover more than enough by itself. Her white and somewhat transparent top didn't cover much in any case, the highest it went was barely above her nipples (which I could tell were already long and hard due to the tents they made), even exposing a bit of her small areola, which were an attractive pale pink, and it didn't cover the sides of her boobs at all, nor did it cover her navel. Her thin skirt, which was a very pale blue, didn't extend even halfway down her thighs normally, but it was pulled up higher by her tail, such that I could see her matching panties... matching her skirt in terms of their color and amount of skin they covered.
"You all are definitely into girls, I can tell that much... would you please focus on something other than getting aroused at my body? I can smell that on you from all the way over here... though, I will admit that I'm feeling the same, to an extent, based off of the almost-naked body of the blond girl... Verene, if I'm not wrong, as well as the unbelievably large breasts of Tuareninya and... well, the smell of milk coming from a few of you... okay, I have to ask... how many of you are pregnant, and who got you to be that way?" (Haru)
"None, actually... think about it as a magical experiment gone kinda wrong but somewhat right" (Ryuu)
"I... find that hard to believe, but not much harder than the Demon Lord raising a divine beast that started out as an SS rank, and then deciding to marry said divine beast despite both being of the same sex" (Haru)
"You know, when you put it that way, it does sound somewhat... very unlikely. Though, if the rumors are to be believed, you're in the same boat of wanting to marry someone of the same sex" (Ryuu)
She stiffened, then sighed.
"And here I was, hoping to surprise you with my next statement... Where did you hear that rumor?" (Haru)
"First, I'd like to say 'What would that have been?' to the surprise. To answer about the rumor, we only heard that you'd turned down all of the suitors that'd come your way, and that a few new servants were surprised at how thorough the maid Cecilia would be when assisting you with bathing compared to the others" (Tuare)
"I was about to say 'would you allow me to have a date with you', but... Well..." (Haru)
"Haru? Care to elaborate? I'd just been told a week before I met Ryuu that you preferred girls, but if the new servants were talking about that such that Ryuu could hear them... I feel like there's something going on, and it had been going on for a while" (King)
"She was, well, is, in love with me, but I didn't reciprocate that very much. Even so, I felt more for her than any of the men, so I... allowed her to... uh... teach me... how... to... (mumble)... in bed..." (Haru)
Haru, while speaking, went red enough that I thought she might be descended from the Blood Wolf, not the Bone Wolf. Her father also went similarly red, but he has little to no wolfkin blood in him, so far as I know.
"I... haa... Calm yourself, it's okay... haa... okay. Haa... I should have guessed as much. Well, that's good, I guess? if that's the case, I'll ask you and Ryuu this: how about making this date into a journey, with Haru joining your party? For Haru, come back when you feel like you know that you would or would not be happy marrying each other. Feel free to visit me as often as you'd like before then, but take a few years to get to know one another, if you need that long. As I've said several times, so long as you would be happy with someone, and they aren't a bad person or constantly in a dangerous situation, I won't stop you, no matter who you wish to marry, nor would I be particularly upset in any way should you choose not to do so at all" (King)
"I'm fine with that proposal. However, I'm not sure about... or... yeah, I think they're up for it" (Haru)
She's pretty perceptive, to be able to understand what was being discussed between my party members at a very high speed using Ver as a telepathic intermediary from body language... and possibly scent too. We don't do it much, it's a bit on the rude side to those near, as well as slightly taxing for Ver.
"We're in. It'll be interesting, having someone join our group who's not a part of the harem. Hasn't happened since... ever, really. Maybe when Perverted Dwarf and Friends were supervising our party, but..." (Ryuu)