I walk around the mansion while coming up with different ideas on what to do. Well, at least I try to as my mind repeatedly returns to a single thought every now and then. My dick. Or rather, the clone of my dick. I just can't stop thinking about Sirgia's creation. Guess I'll go down and have her show it to me or I won't be able to focus properly. Geez, I'm such a weirdo. Why do I even have this urge to see it?
But on my way there, I stumble on Cornelia taking a stroll in one of her casual, dark blue robes.
"Oh, hi. How is it going?" she asks.
I stop by her side. Why not chat a little. "Hard. But Sirgia already took care of that." I grin at her.
She furrows her brows for a moment before her eyes widen in realization and she sighs ostentatiously. "Goddammit…"
"Don't be sad. I promise I'll come to you next time I have that problem," I say jokingly.
"What?! Get out of your bubble. It's not like I want to shove your dick into my mouth while I'm being tie—… shit..."
"Hahahaha, too easy." I chuckle.
"Ugh." She slaps her forehead. "Seriously, it's like you know exactly what to say to make me slip—"
I don't let her finish and seal her lips with mine, diving for a deep kiss. Slightly startled, Cornelia quickly reciprocates the action and we get entwined in a short show of loving affection. I have no idea why, but interrupting someone with a kiss is weirdly satisfying.
She breaks it off with a smile. "You are even more straight-forward than usual. Was she really that good?"
"Uhh, I guess she did play a trick or two on me. But I just thought we should make use of my Class more often. Ah, but it's not like I kissed you just so that you can get a few more stat points. I have an urge to do so every time I lay my eyes on your exquisite hazelnut hair and brilliant face," I let her know both truths.
Cornelia blushes visibly and pecks my cheek. "You flirt. You know damn well that I would be up for this juicy bonus nevertheless."
I smirk at her. "Perhaps."
She chuckles and playfully boops my nose. "Okay. What are you up to right now? Are you busy?"
"Not really. I was just heading down to meet Little Johnny's younger brother."
Cornelia again furrows her brows and attempts to figure out if that's another one of my cheesy jokes while I intently observe her reaction. Her mouth opens just a little at some point and she knows well that I noticed.
"Sirgia?" she asks.
"So, you knew?"
"Perhaps."
"Shit. 1-1."
We both laugh after my comment.
"Yeah, I did. She showed me the form before the attempt. The whole operation was so well-planned to every smallest detail it could rival our raiding one. I was actually curious what your reaction would be after you learned about this," she says.
"Surprise. Shock. Disbelief. Amazement. Pride."
"Pride?" she asks curiously.
"Hey, someone made a mould out of my cock for their personal use. What kind of man wouldn't have his ego stroked with that? Well… maybe if they learned that it was another man…"
"Hahahaha. I see. I think I get it. Thanks." She does her best to tame the chuckle. "Alastair v2 can wait a bit. He won't run away. Not with Sirgia watching over him, hahaha." Which doesn't really work when she keeps following with more jokes. "Anyway, the thing I would want to discuss is actually kind of connected to that area. Now that I think about it… isn't everything connected to it with the type of business we are dealing in?"
「Uh, oh. She's getting too much into this little joking session.」
"Possibly. But, how can I help you?" I interrupt Cornelia before she switches into a higher gear.
"Ah, yes. With Safi and Emi there's no issue when they work, but as we both are aware, one plus one equals two when it comes to man and a woman," she says with a smile.
I chuckle again. She just doesn't let go. "Yeah. That's kinda natural. For most races at least, I think?"
"Yes. And that's why I was working on researching some useful magic to prevent our family from growing in that aspect. Why rely on expensive pills from the Alchemy Guild, or some shady ateliers, when we can work something out ourselves, making it pretty much free if we exclude the initial investment."
I raise a hand. "Hold on. You want to create anticonception magic? Like, a general spell and not an ability similar to mine?"
"Not really create. I'm pretty sure there was one back in the days before meds started to be popular and common. I won't be trying to invent something new, I just plan to do some research in the Royal Library and hope to find enough hints to maybe resurrect it or revamp completely. I thought about asking for your help with this. You know more languages than me and your otherworldly knowledge could be a huge factor," she explains everything about her idea.
I ponder while rubbing my chin. That would certainly lower our operating costs in the long run. And if she says it already existed in the past, someone as talented as Cornelia has a chance to actually figure this out.
"I'm down. We don't have that much time today so let's get going."
"Sure. Thanks a lot. I don't think we'll deal with it so quickly but just starting is good," she smiles and hugs me.
"Don't mind it. You are doing all of that pretty much for me even if you say otherwise."
I give her one more kiss and we depart soon after, taking a trip through the underground tunnel. Without any further ado, we head straight for the library. On our way there, we talk about where we should start. I suggest the restricted area and the section that deals in body modification while Cornelia suggests we start in the open records on the life aspect as that kind of magic shouldn't have been hidden from the public.
We decide to check both a little since we won't have enough time to dive deep enough in either and we start with the unrestricted zone. After going through tens of shelves together, we gather books that sound related to our topic and sit by each other's side to start going through them. To make it more efficient, I focus on those in languages she doesn't know while my wise magician zooms through the other ones.
This reminds me of my time spent in the library back when our group was in training. Especially of the parts where Cornelia joined me just like this. Who would have thought that we would be in a situation like that again?
She catches my reminiscent smile and asks about it so I reveal my thoughts to her. Blushing a little, she pulls me closer to give me a small kiss and we return our focus to the task in front of us.
Two hours pass in an intense battle of our eyes versus countless lines of text and sigils. I go through so many races' scripts that I didn't even remember actually knowing some of them. I know I gobbled tens of languages, I can forget that they existed and still have them mastered, right? Right. Maxed Linguist is such a cheat.
There is not that much useful stuff we find out in the books about Life magic, which is heavily linked to Holy, Nature and somehow Curse and Void magic. I guess life is close to death and those are like the opposites? Whenever we catch something sounding close to our topic, I help Cornelia take extensive notes on it so that she can later work at home on the spell or magic.
I ask her if she wouldn't want a research lab down under and she says that while it would be nice, it's not that necessary and I should focus on Sirgia's alcove as she also visits her often to make use of some appliances there. I promise Cornelia to make it happen someday for sure. She ends our short chat on the note of me being just too kind and considerate.
We dive again into the mental struggle. All in all, some of the books help me understand many aspects of Nature, Holy, Curse and Void magic much better. And that's really good. Like, I personally am somehow connected to the last one and Elea is our expert in the first. I'm not sure about Curse, I have a feeling that it's quite close to Void though, but nevertheless, Holy is what Kamil is specialized in and it's always welcome to learn more about them. Actually… I think Shino had something to do with curses. This is great. I wonder how they are doing right now.
Anyway, if we ever meet again and they will have some questions about those fields or perhaps need help with understanding their skills, I should be at least a little useful in that situation. Ugh. I still have this teacher mentality. Doesn't look like it will ever just go poof someday.
Well, I don't think it's bad. I lived most of my adult life like that and it certainly could be called decently successful. Maybe besides the relationship part. But I'm slowly catching up on that. Yeah. Slowly. Ha. Gods, is this karma? I don't think I've done or suffered much to receive all this though. Besides a small part of my childhood. Okay, maybe it was a little fucked up, but certainly, many other people had it way worse. Okay, enough sidetracking, Cornelia is counting on me, full focus.
In an hour more, we finish the batch of books we gathered. There seem to be some useful notes and traces or mentions of the spell from long ago, but I don't think we've stumbled on any key parts. I certainly hope this is not on a level of some ancient magic though, like the whole thing with my draconic hilt. That would be… tough.
We take a short break and resupply lost calories and strength in the nearby cafeteria, chatting about what we went through as we eat. She says that it definitely is not enough. Our next move should be checking out the restricted area. Maybe my guess will be more successful.
To get there, we, of course, have to add one more member to our small party. It so happens that it's exactly the same lady that accompanied me the last time I made my way into the limited section to look for information on slavery seals. She seems surprised to see me with one of the royal magicians.
We go in and repeat the process of selecting books. I ask the girl for some input and she points out a few more positions she thinks could have a chance of being useful. Inquiring more about our goal, we explain to her what we are looking for and she blushes slightly while looking at us in turns. I'm sure Cornelia does too but tries to act calm and composed. I won't tease her like this. I do have limits and she has her reputation in the castle too. I choose a good moment to send her a Whisper assuring her about that and she gives me a beautiful smile.
Then, we get back to work. Three-man-team this time. I sit on her side as previously, and our temporary supporter places herself on the opposite side of the table. I again focus on works in languages unknown to Cornelia. The girl seems slightly amazed with the speed of the two of us going through the writings and making our own scribbles. Ha. Don't underestimate professional nerds at work. You have no idea how many chapters a day I was able to go through back at home when I got into a novel reading spree.
Two hours fly by and we actually get much more little details than from the public zone. At least twice, I would say. Seems like body modification was the right path to follow. From what we gathered, it definitely doesn't look like that magic was heavily intrusive in one's anatomy but most likely temporarily tempered with certain reproductive organs for the duration of the effect. For males, it most likely 'disabled' the ability of sperm cells to fertilize the egg, and for females, exactly the same but mirrored, with the ability to get fertilized.
That's just my general impression though. We will have to spend some more time on all the data we collected. The hardest part will be to actually figure out all parts of the original spell. Or restructure it as Cornelia suggested. But I believe in her. In us. We should still make use of the chance we have today and do more research. But before that, I notice Cornelia cracking her neck to the sides.
I stand up and move behind her. She follows me with her eyes.
"Let me give you a hand. I might not be an expert, but I know a thing or two about relaxing those muscles. Most teachers in my organization were offered courses to dabble a bit in this a little. You know, desk work," I say and place my fingers on her shoulders.
She nods and straightens her back. Now, as I said, I'm no masseur, but I follow the steps that were drilled into my muscle memory during those lessons. I kept giving small massages to a few other teachers back on Earth.
Cornelia lets out a sigh and even releases a faint moan as I press and rub certain spots. After a moment, she surrenders all of herself to me and just focuses on enjoying the pleasant nudges. The moans and little oh's and ah's increase, but fortunately, she still keeps her voice relatively low. Five minutes later, I finish my job and she sighs in relief once more.
I sit down again and Cornelia instantly grabs me by the collar and pulls me into a passionate kiss, completely ignoring the innocent bystander. Well… maybe not that innocent. I can see in the corner of my eye how she bites on her lip with a slightly… jealous expression? Ah. She was kinda all over me the last time due to the Title's effects. Right. What can I say? Sucks to be her.
My beautiful magician parts our lips after showering me in enough affection and chuckles very lady-like.
"Ufufu~. Thank you. Remind me to return the favour later." She sends me a wink and we return to work. At least the two of us. I think the other one is a little too frustrated to continue.
In the next hour, we gather what else we can about the structure of the possible magic this time. Our six-hour-long research was quite a bit more fruitful than both of us expected. Obviously, this doesn't mean anything yet as this is just the first step, but I can already see Cornelia going through days and nights over this like Sirgia tends to do.
And that's fine. If the new girls will be able to work not that long after getting recruited, we may need this magic. Naturally, we should stock at least a bit on the current era meds in case it fails to be revived in time. But I think our new workers will need a few lessons with me first and to accustom themselves to the atmosphere anyway.
Gods. That sounds like I want to have dibs on them before they enter the services department. I swear that's not the case. Not like I care about such a thing. The more they know, the easier and more comfortable for them. And now I sound like a teacher again. What the hell. I guess I am one. Never imagined I would teach sex though.
We pretty much vacuum piles of notes into our spatial storage rings and head out. Our supervisor follows until we reach the desk of the librarian stationed near the entrance to the restricted section. She bows to us and shows me a wry smile with a side glance. I think Cornelia noticed it as she entwines our elbows and pretty much walks me out of their sight. I give a peck on the cheek of my bully queen and she giggles in response.
It's shortly after 1 pm when we arrive home. I do a quick checkup on everyone, but there doesn't seem to be any issues that came up when we were gone, so I head to Cornelia's room to unload our cargo completely and help her somehow organize the flood of papers. It takes us almost an hour and her chamber turns into an evidence investigation space with all the scribbles over every piece of wall and furniture. Even most of her bed is covered.
I sit down on the unobstructed part and she does the same close to me.
"You know, if you use up the whole mattress, you can stay at my place for the time being," I say teasingly.
She chuckles, stands up and sits on my lap sideways, throwing her arms around my neck.
"I would happily take you up on that offer, but I suspect that the only time I will actually enter the dreamland will be when I fall asleep over this extensive project," Cornelia replies with a smile.
"Guess I now have two people to regularly check on and force breaks onto."
I lean forward and we start to exchange soft kisses, which soon develop into more passionate ones, but still on the edge of gentleness. Cornelia lightly nibbles on my lips here and there as we are engaged in our little fun. I begin moving down and peppering her beautiful neck with a myriad of pecks and she giggles adorably. I earn myself a playful slap after leaving a hickey at one spot. She brushes over it with her fingers with a loving smile.
She can get rid of it with just a bit of magic, so it's not an issue in any way. I do feel like she wouldn't do that unless something really important was happening, like a meeting with the Queen. Okay, not the Queen. She would gladly show up with it to her. Maybe the King.
We cuddle for a little more before I politely leave her to have a different kind of fun with all those notes. I instruct Cornelia to call me whenever she needs anything and to rest at least a tiny bit before we open in the evening hours. She sneaks a hickey on my neck too and promises me to be a good girl. We chuckle together and I leave the room.
The moment I'm out, Neira enters my vision. And she clearly has been waiting here for me. She bows a little and skips towards me with a refined step. I wonder what she needs. Time to check on my favourite artist. Well, maybe after Shino, but it's not like she created any new pieces. I think.