The group filled their stomachs quietly while Aster had to take in the brunt of kicks from under the table. It was light kicks that would not hurt at all but the intent behind the action was enough to tell him what they felt and it told him how consequential his actions would be to them.
"Now that we are all done, how about I wash..." He wanted to sit up while easing through the punishment by getting into their good books by washing the dishes and stuff.
"Oh no, you are not going to do that." Aria and Kamryn were quick enough to push him back down by the shoulders and forced him to keep quiet while the table was being done.
Perhaps, only Jade had no clue what was going on but she was too engrossed in the aftertaste of the meat to care. Monet was grinning all this while on her seat while she looked to him provocatively. 'Hehe! This princess will make you remember the mistake of neglecting me. They are still not in a happily ever after and I will be the one to take the lead when that happens. Sorry, big sisters! All is fair in a war of princesses, prince charmings, and dragons!"
Kamryn and her haughty spoiled attitude were gone and it transformed into a super serious and mature one. Her glare seems to be sending curses his way. Aster was really scared of how she is acting now but he is also happy with the fact that this sort of mode was present in her.
Imagining her in such an intimidating aura and using her mage powers of blood. Perhaps the terror would not be any less than his way of decimating people with his skills meant to lower the enemy's morale. This was an image quite different than how they met with her being conceited and weak-willed after facing a powerful enemy.
Working on the dishes were the triplets that are more than eager to finish cleaning up the dishes from the table. The plates and other utensils touching each other was pretty loud. Loud to signify their anger towards him but their force was controlled enough to not break any of the expensive tableware.
He was too stifled by their collective anger that he became too stiff to move around and explain right away. Thank goodness for him, a glass of water was in front of him and occasionally getting a drink from it had stopped him from looking too awkward by being stiff in the seat.
After the dishes were put into the sink and the triplets settled down, the talks and clarifications were about to happen.
Aria broke the silence and asked straight away. "Aster, what was this about kissing our little sister? How come we never knew about this?"
He had to act like he did not realize what they were angry about and wanted to make his mistake look like an accident. "Ah, you guys are angry about a kiss. Well, it must be because Jade and I accidentally kissed when we were playing around on the bed. It was harmless really, just a little peck because we were bouncing around in the bed."
"Oh! Is that really what happened?" Eve had a stiff smile on her face when she said that. "Kamryn looked pretty pissed when she arrived at the table, so she might know some details."
"Yes, I know some details like little Jade kissing him in the neck. Him, kissing little Jade in the lips. What was worst of all was he had the audacity to play with her tongue and his tongue while they were doing it." Kamryn recounted what he heard from Monet's retelling of what Jade told her.
Aster felt deflated from the fact that Jade had vivid storytelling that made it seem even worse than it already is. He sighed and commented. 'A child never lies after all or so they say. Little Jade might actually be more cunning than all of her elder sisters combined if she planned all of this.'
Monet took this chance to get her vengeance up a notch and told them of the more juicy details. "Actually, what I told big sis Kamryn is not the full story of it."
"Oh, there is actually more." Plum turned hostile after she heard that. Her triplet counterparts were already pissed with the tongue part but they still considered the fact that it might really be an accident from playing around too much.
"Yes!" Monet continued on and said. "The kiss in the neck was truly accidental but the next kiss was actually influenced by him. The hard thing is that he actually had given the third kiss as well and it was... in... the... cheeks!"
The last part was prolonged again by Monet on purpose but the kiss in the cheek was too mild compared to the more important part. Aria smiled in anger while she rephrased Monet's wording for answers from Aster. "Did you actually plan to take our little sister's first kiss on that very instance?"
He coughed up in embarrassment and said truthfully. "Sorry, the situation was too complicated."
Aria sighed and shook her head after hearing his short defense. He really felt that things would go downhill from seeing his actions but he only felt dumbfounded when all the other girls in his harem also sighed and shook their heads.
Aria spoke again and asked another question. "Aster, tell us honestly. Do you love us?"
"I... guess." He was unsure of what to tell them but he just went for it. "The entire experience of love and goodwill is new for me that I have not really gotten the time to adjust to it. So, my answer would revolve in the middle of yes and no."
"That is a maybe, then." Eve had to give hint him with the true term about the answer in between a yes and no situation. Aster smiled when he heard that and said. "Maybe and a guess is too vague to give you guys the honest answer. I had a feeling that would be somewhat quantifiable if you put my answer in a range. Not that it changes a thing about vagueness. What I can tell you is that the graph would favor the yes end of the spectrum."
"Hmmph! You big liar!" The quadro said in unison as they remarked to his words. They were getting teary-eyed from hearing the answer but they pretty much knew the context where he is getting it from.
They remembered how he interacted with them and found nothing to fault him at all. Everything was just in line with how he interacted and reacted to their existence.
He got a bargain, so he bought the house. He was coincidentally living along with five beautiful girls and his heavenly gift that had just awoken was just coincidentally about having sex. By chance they were just the women he has at that moment and who would waste that chance.
They knew that he was treated badly and his speech about benefits might just be the reason for him caring about their existence.
Kamryn was another circumstance, in which he had to do so because it was among his best choice. With the circumstances due to her family rules, she also had no choice but to follow under him.
He had to make a move against the Unkillable Rats and the Dren family because he was threatening them, which in turn, threatens him as well.
They somewhat knew that they loved him because of his abilities but this did not mean that he loved them back as well. He might really love them unknowingly but he just recently escaped from his cold past that the adjustment might really be a gradual process.
His words about their body as the reward is not some answer meant for a higher purpose like him being a lust demon or some reverse psychology. He did not use romanticism at that moment because he was truly telling them that the concept of romance is something new to him.
If anything, his yes and no answer just appeased them from their sadness. Even Aster did not know that his actions were being read to hide something deeper about himself.
'I really am in trouble.' He saw the girls cry after his truthful words for a minute but they suddenly blossomed with their greatest smiles. Every other smile they gave him during this lunchtime was fearful but these smiles were somewhat bright and refreshing to him. "Does this mean you guys are not going to forgive me?"
"Yes!" The four answered again but Aria cut him short of his supposed celebration. "We forgive you for not loving us because I will just work hard to make you fall in love with me. I guess the same goes for the others but you still have trouble for your kiss with Jade."
Aster sighed and thought to himself. 'Why did the conversation even sway to the love things? Being grilled about my action with Jade was already stressful enough, they just had to try and envoke the love route. At least, things became really truthful between us now.'
"Alright, my lovers vying to get me to love them. Please go easy on me with your reprimanding." Aster had to stop reigning on his personality and decided to go all out with the bastard act. He had his arms up and ready for the arrest and cuffs that would eventually reign him again to passiveness.
"Eh! Why should we reprimand you? You do your own thing because a girl has got to look angelic to a man she is trying to woo after all." Kamryn giggled because the whole Monet escapade was pretty much telling them entirely about what was bound to happen in this household.
Eve, who was closest to her little siblings, eyed them sideways and said. "Tell me, little rascals. How are you going to explain now that your little scheme has been read by your elder sisters?"
"What?! Little me had no scheme at all?" Monet denied straight on the spot while Jade blanked out from hearing her sister's words.
Plum smoked out their operation by saying. "Little babies! You better tell right now or your nice big sis Plum would really get angry."
Monet puffed her cheeks and reluctantly asked. "How did you know about our plan? We were quiet about it."
"Do you really think that Jade would go snooping alone on the second floor without you? I don't know how you guessed that Aster would come back through the second floor but the entire kiss and your angry expression are clearly staged." Aria and her meticulous mind broke down their contingencies and faults.
"I have to commend little Jade for being able to seduce the easily-to-seduce Aster on the spot. You guys must have rehearsed during your playtime. You already snooped around for the first time and there would always be the chance for a second time."
Aria blushed when she said this because she knew that her little sisters were not as innocent as she thought now and it may have been due to her moaning. "You must have already known about the thing that girlfriends and boyfriends do in bed together. If you didn't, you would have stormed directly towards Aster and demanding a kiss after being told by Jade."
"The delay in your reaction clearly told us a lot of things, you had to make a scene about it during lunchtime because you knew what Aster and we would do doing that gap of time and your barging would only be awkward."
"You had to make another contingency plan with Jade after her taking the kiss during that time because you did not account for your seduction plan to happen on this day."
"Lastly, you also had to make sure that everyone is present in the moment to feel good about being able to manipulate our love lives."
Monet and her schemes got broken down by that little flaw. "You guys knew about it but why didn't you told me off immediately? Why would we even try to do kiss plan to Aster, anyway?"
"It's because I only connected the dots while I was eating our lunch. Even Kamryn that you wanted to manipulate for your plans seems to have realized your entire ruse. Who would leave out some information like the forceful kissing unless they clearly planned for all the information to be laid out methodically?" Aria sounded out again while Kamryn nodded because it was the time where her smarts were recognized in a house filled with intuitive people.
Aster was just dumbfounded all this while because he was actually clueless about the entire plot.