Looking at the defeated bodies on the ground, Aki noticed that yes, the fact he'd lost a finger was likely an indication that the cultists sent after him were starting to get stronger.
If they can actually damage you, that's how you know shit is going to start hitting the fantasy equivalent of a fan.
He was about to go back inside when suddenly there was a new presence outside. He'd gotten quite ussed to both the boys opening and closing the magical light shuttles on the distric around his house, but this person didn't have any kind of animosity according to the house control, so neither was it another attacker.
It was illegal to have automated defenses, but everything else was fair game, so he spent the time to install everything else.
He was still surprised when he saw her though. Two meters tall, protuding tusks, light green skin with a myriad of lighter scars over her muscle bound body, raven black hair that flowed through her shoulders and onyx gems for eyes.
"Hello? Can I help you?" Aki asked the sitting woman, who imediatly snapped in attention to his direction. He was currently shirtless, wearing loose pants, with bed hair and blood stains over most of his body.
"I, um, are you ok?" She stuttered in a baritone.
"It's not my blood. Did you have any business with me or either my wives" He simply answered .
"I am looking for a a lizard-kin named Xera. I wanted to speak to her about a personal matter relating to something that happened earlier today." She politely explained.
"You're the orc she mentioned was making trouble in the library. You are here to court or her? At three in the morning?" He said, having heard and laughed about the story at dinner. He still didn't expect a green skin to come at a time like this.
"Well, yes, I mean, no, she's your wife?" She blurted out, looking about anywhere that wasn't him while blushing. He'd have thought she was embarrassed by his looks if he was not consciously liberating great part of his magical might. He was a lot stronger than her, and to an orc, what she did was pretty much the equivalent of coming to your crush's door to confess and being received by their much sexier and richer lover. Who was half naked. That part was pretty universal really.
"Look, no need to get all flustered, you look fine for an orc, so why don't you come back at a more normal time and try your luck. Just a warning though, we have a human child at the house, so the only reason I'm even considering letting you step inside is because you look calm, if you turn out to be a disrespectful horndog I will cut off whatever you have between your legs and make you eat it. Am I clear?" As he said all that, he maintained a friendly and calm smile, even chuckling a bit.
The she-orc shivered a bit, nodding to his question, but didn't otherwise move.
"Is there something wrong?" Aki asked, seeing he'd frightened her enough that she would not willingly go against him.
"I... I... I don't... " She stuttered, seemingly ready to cry. Aki had an idea what this could be about, but before he asked anything, her stomach growled fiercely.
"Pffff..." He failed at holding his laugh. She was living on the streets and like some kind of anime character, got told off by her stomach. Her face and ears had turned a deeper shade of green. "Turn around." He said, trying to talk to the woman that seemed ready to run away and holding her shoulder.
"I don't want to." She said, her voice more like that of little girl at the moment.
"Did anyone ever say you are very adorable? I don't mind if you stay for the night. I wasn't going to sleep again, so you might as well tell me the story of the third orc I met." Ternure now on his voice. Aki could hear her inner voice, and she was even more adorable. It even resembled an actual anime character with the way she spoke her mother tongue so much more rapidly and softly.
"Really?! I mean, I wouldn't want to impose... what are you doing?" She asked as he pinched her cheeks.
"How are your cheeks so soft even though you look so beautiful and battle hardened." He wondered out loud, not really asking. Shrugging, Aki just took her by the arm and passed the gate, quickly getting inside the house.
"Is this really fine? I mean, you know of my intentions." She asked, not knowing what to do with the chair that was her size.
"We are in a polygamous relationship anyway, what's the worst that could happen? If she wasn't going to be interested a cutie like you then she'd not have married me to begin with. Not everyone considers strength as important as orcs do." He shrugged. "Besides you're an orc, I doubt you would just stop if you weren't even given a chance."
"That..." She didn't really know what to say. He was completly correct.
"Now, allow me to break the akwardness. I am Aki, who are you? Should I just refer to you as cries over books?" He smirked at the blushing woman.
"I am Seraline of clan iron heart. I have left my home village seeking knowledge, adventure and love." She said, a serious face that, somehow, also really fitted her.
"Let me guess, you got dupped and now you are penniless." He said, cheating a bit on his deduction, which actually made her sigh and finally sit down.
"I guess you already know. I was living with a housemate, things got more intimate, and when she broke up with me she kept most of my things and wouldn't let me get inside." She tried hiding her face with her hands, but it wasn't the most effective.
"Yeah, some people just want to take advantage of you till they find something they think better. You were actually sleeping with one of the biggest sluts around though." He pointed out, which got her the attention. He shoved a fruit case in front of her. "Anything in specific you want to eat? Bread, cake, cereal?" He asked.
"Just two or three fruits are enough, i'll...*GRRRRRRRRR* ...ne." She blushed.
"Here, have this cheese cake i made. It's a salt cake, not the pastrie." He said like nothing happened. There was only so much he could tease her, so he just magically washed her hands and cleaned himself.
"Thanks." She said, taking a bite while he put her some tea. "It's actually quite good for something that is practically just a row of cheese." She said, surprised at the myriad of emotions from eating the cake.
"I had to learn how to make it well now that i don't have my family to blackmail for one. It's my favorite, so i have a lot of it. Still no good to eat more than half of it though, you will get indigestion. Here's lemon and orange cake, i might as well eat too." He said, cutting a slice each for himself.
"My condolences." She said, not knowing how to react.
"Oh, sorry, they're still alive, just very far away. Haven't seen anyone from my family in a while." He quickly said getting a sigh out of her. "Say, is your clan from the nearby forest?"
"Well, yes, but it actually recides in the other side of the forest. I have been traveling for three years now." She explained.
"And that brings me the question, how old are you?" He asked, very intense for some reason.
"I am nineteen, though in human years my body would be around twenty nine something." She commented, having already explained that part a lot of times.
"I see, than i guess you are fine for dating Xera as long as she's up for it." He said, surprising the orc completly. She was about to ask something, but he began to talk again. "On another note, you'd still be her third partner even if she said yes. And you will have to train your skills by a lot, no negotiating that one."
"If it is someone like her than it is fine. I guess i have been spending a lot of time reading though, so i will focus on my training again." She said, her head down.
"Nope, if you're going to live here then you will pass my training. Which actually includes both the bedroom and sexual technique skill." He pointed out.
"No offense, but what level do you even have on those?" She asked, a brown raised.
"Nine on both. Plus bottomless stamina." He said, her jaw slacking.
"You, you serious?" That was kind of creepy and awesome at the same time.
"Don't take me for some low class slut, of course i trained that all with my lover's knowing, watching or participating in one way or another." He scoffed, mostly bragging. Dick measuring was a bit different when there were skills that could literally tell how good you could be. On a side note, you need at least that kind of 'prestige' to be a crown prince or princess since both skill define your ability to have partners available and your ability to propagate the bloodline respectively. The stamina skill was mostly a bonus. "Besides, everyone sleeps on the same bedroom and baths at the same pool, you will eventually understand why and how i am so rigorous. Or not. It's mostly on the subtleties, the kind of thing we don't speak out loud. By the way, the bathroom is sound proof, here's a bathrobe your size, and just go there, turn right, third door to the left." He said, not miding the tent she pitched as she ran. His training had long gotten him above the natural skills of an orc. "She's definetly not cute there." He chuckled.
*****
"Yeah, sure, you can try." Xera said, completly not surprised the woman she'd beaten the day before had come with some kind of excuse to court her. They had a lot of those on her tribe too.
"Seriously? I mean, i'm not going to let you down!" Sera announced, her eyes shining.
"Well, let's go have actuall breakfast, don't keep your hands to yourself." Aki chuckled, the green lady getting a deeper shade to her face. "On a more serious note, you're my bench today. No more being the person with the broadest shouders. Here's a medicine that stops the pheromones on your sweat." He told her, handing over a small bottle with a white paste. The hopeful young woman soon learned that no, Aki was not a maniac only on the battlefield.
He'd lit his upper torso on fire, sat on her back after telling her to do push-ups and started to throw bolt spells at Xera and Mari while focusing one beam spell at each. While they battled. Even though his eyes had already popped off.
"Isn't this a bit too hot? I almost can't breathe." She asked.
"Im not breathing at all!" He mentally replied. He'd not heard her either, but he was keeping a mental network between all four. "Besides, I'm healing you, so if you want to try and just stop now's the time." He encouraged.
"No thanks." She said through the link after noticing it there. It was so subtle he could've killed her without her knowing. Whenever. "Say, what rank was your party again?"
"B rank. Though I'm a veteran in the field, Xera's a spear genius and Aki... Is himself." Mari pointed out with some difficulty. Leveling parallel thought process was very difficult. It helped there was a capable healer right there, but it didn't take the pain away.
Come to think about it... Mari slashed at her left leg, cutting the spell he'd put there before it could numb her. She felt that if her life kept going like this it simply wouldn't matter if she had the talent or not, she'd reach rank A one way or another.