It was a few days after the match with Dulio, and people were still talking about it. Since Alex won without participating himself, and without another of his teammates participating, it was quite the discussion as Dulio's team was one of the stronger ones without taking the teams with gods themselves into account. Alex's own standing shot up, and the negative critics started being quiet.
However, while everyone was in an uproar about the match, Alex was simply calmly walking through a small forest situated next to his manor, with his ever present maid, and an evil dragon silently following behind him. There were a couple areas that were somewhat forested around the house, one was simply a regular forest with trees, and the other one that Alex was currently in was a bamboo forest. At the center of this one however was a shrine dedicated to the resident dragon God, Ophis.
When he thought about it a bit, Alex realized he was pretty unique to have a god living in his home, with a shrine dedicated to them next to his house. He recalled that there was one or two series based off a plot like this. As he rounded the last corner before the shrine, Alex noticed someone was already there. When she noticed him a smile appeared on her face and she said,
"Ara ara, what brings you here Alex?" He smiled in return when Akeno greeted him, and said,
"Crom wanted to meet with Ophis, and this is usually where she is. Plus I wanted to visit my favorite shrine maiden." She smiled again, before retorting,
"Your favorite shrine maiden who isn't a maiden?" Alex chuckled lightly at her words, and they both recalled the day she was no longer considered a maiden. While Crom didn't seem to care about what they were thinking, Alex's ear was suddenly grabbed by Grayfia, and she said with a stern face,
"I believe we have some business to attend to here, or do you intend to simply daydream about filthy things?" As he heard her words, Alex started to laugh slightly since he recalled the "filthy"things they did just the night before. As if she suddenly realized it as well, Grayfia released his ear with a slight red tinge on her cheeks. He then turned back to Akeno, who was also started laughing a little, before she said,
"Ophis is over there, there were a couple of visitors today so she's eating what they brought." Alex nodded his thanks, smiling at how his idea was working. Because of those related to shrines like Akeno, Yasaka, and Kunou, he suggested building a shrine close to the manor for them, but then the question came up regarding who the shrine would be for. He then thought of Ophis, and decided to use this as a chance to improve her image with the people of Asora, even though they were already told about how she wasn't bad. Though it took a while, the residents eventually started warming up to her, and when they learned she liked sweets, started bringing her some to eat as "offerings". After a while some of the children that migrated also started playing with her, like Kunou and Millicas had in their free time.
The two in question were currently in the middle of their lessons, which is why she was currently sunbathing by herself, while eating her offerings. As they approached she looked up, and saw Crom Cruach behind Alex. Before Alex could say anything, Crom got into a battle position and said,
"Ophis, fight me!" Ophis simply looked at Crom Cruach with an expressionless face, and replied,
"Impossible, I promised not to fight." Crom Cruach looked surprised at her rejection, and asked,
"Is it truly impossible?" Ophis nodded in confirmation, and offered him a piece of candy that someone brought her earlier. Alex tried really hard not to laugh at the interaction between the two dragons, as Crom hesitantly ate the piece of candy.
He had requested two conditions from Alex when he joined his team, the first was no interference when he fought, and the other was a chance to meet with Ophis. Now that Alex had revealed him to be part of his group, he decided to fulfill the second condition. Though he knew Crom would want to fight Ophis, he wasn't worried since she took her own words seriously, and she promised him she wouldn't fight anymore.
He felt a little bad though, as even though she promised she wouldn't fight he knew she would defend those she had a good opinion of. As such if someone did manage to invade Asora, he knew she would more than likely act as a last line of defense for the people there, especially since they've started warming up to her and brought her stuff. Because of this he felt like he was taking advantage of the pure dragon God.
***
A little while later they left the shrine, and after sending Crom back, Alex was enjoying his time in one of the lounges with the church trio and Kiryuu. He currently had Xenovia on one side, Kiryuu on the other, and Asia was on his lap. Off to the side was Irina who was pouting, since she felt like she was being left out, because she technically wasn't his woman yet. Even after all this time she had yet to take that final step, even though the other three kept trying to push her to do so.
The four of them continued flirting with each other, with Alex caressing and pinching them, while her temper grew worse. Eventually she was about to blow her top, when she noticed Kiryuu looking her way with a smirk, and she said to Alex,
"Since you've got us all riled up, let's take this upstairs where there's some privacy." Alex smiled at her proposal, and was about to accept, when she said,
"But give us a few minutes to get ready, then come up. I want to try something out." Alex wasn't sure what to think at her words, as who knew what this pervert would cook up this time. He didn't object though, and with a smirk she took off with the other two, and surprisingly dragged Irina along. He smiled as he could guess what she was trying to do, and laid back to wait while they prepared.
After several minutes he went up to his room, and when he opened the door, he didn't see the rest of the girls, just Irina. She was sitting on the bed dressed in see-through negligee, with only a pair of pure white panties under it. He could see the two pink protrusions under the fabric, that almost seemed to match the shade of her face as she blushed furiously. She then stuttered,
"P-p-please t-take care of me t-tonight!"