I was relieved to find that Sabasa seemed to be normal, a bustling city with lots to see and do and buy. After my experiences on my home continent I half expected a crisis to be in progress wherever I went. Alice wasted no time grabbing some gold from my bag to purchase some fine foods. Given that she saved my life yet again, I didn't argue. Besides, my cooking might be good, but I can't match gourmet foods.
Alice was so hungry she must have bought five full entrees at the various merchant stands. I stopped worrying about my money situation, which was now not looking nearly as abundant, to imagine what she was going to do to me when we got to an inn. Her other stomach must be even more ravenous!
The answer to that question would have to wait, however, because we were approached by a soldier who demanded that I come with him. I was to see the king! I had a sinking feeling that Ilias had come to another monarch in another dream. If Ilias regarded me as her chosen hero, then how come it was her worst enemy that was saving me all the time?
The King of Sabasa was the most impressive man I'd ever seen. Unlike the king of San Ilia, who had looked more like a kindly priest, this king was every inch a warrior. He got right to the point.
"Traveler," he said. "I wish to ask you something that must remain confidential. It's very important. If it were to get out to the citizens, it would be a huge incident."
I nodded my understanding.
"The fact is…" he continued. "My daughter. That is, the princess…. She was kidnapped by a monster. It was midnight, three days ago. I was awoken by the sound of shattering glass from my daughter's room. When I ran there with my guards, my daughter was gone. The only thing that remained was a letter. The monster who took my daughter left it. It said she had been taken to the Pyramid. Having the princess being kidnapped is a horrible thing to befall the country. To avoid an uproar, this must remain a secret. That's why I've been searching for a person capable of saving her in secret. I've interviewed a few so far. Even though they introduced themselves as heroes, they were pretty pathetic. But I feel something from you. Young traveler, will you please save my daughter?"
"I will absolutely try to save your daughter!" I said.
"Oh? You'll do it?" he said. "Then the dawn after you save my daughter, you shall become her husband!"
Alice, who had been unusually quiet, spoke up at that. "That reward isn't necessary. Instead, we would rather have Sabasa fish to eat."
"That's all you want as a reward?!" the king asked, nonplussed.
I have to admit Alice was bailing me out yet again. I had no idea how to turn down that kind of offer politely. But there was an edge to her voice that I couldn't place. Something about that offer had really gotten under her skin. I guessed that it had to be that marrying the princess would end my journey just when it started to get really tasty for Alice.
"Excuse me, your majesty," I said. "But by any chance did you have a dream about Ilias?"
"No. Should I have?" the king asked.
"Um…. I'm just surprised one of your soldiers thought I might be good for this job."
"You look the part," the king said. "A fine warrior indeed!"
I guess I hadn't noticed how buff I was becoming. I'd been in good shape in Ilias Village but the trials of travel and combat and training had toughened me up so that I looked almost as good as the king himself, albeit not nearly as huge.
"Anyway," the king said. "I'll entrust this matter to you. I'm asking both as the king of this land and as a father."
As we left the king's chamber, even Alice was impressed. The King of Sabasa apparently fit her bill of what a real human king should be like. I wasn't used to seeing Alice impressed by mere humans. Between that and the reward of food, it appeared she wouldn't mind me taking on this quest.
As the King's designated hero, I got treated to the finest inn in the city. It put the Sutherland Inn to shame.
"Luka," Alice said to me once we were in the room and I had finished bathing. "Can you please hear me out?"
I'd never heard her say that before. Usually she just came out and said what she was going to say. I gestured for her to go ahead.
"You should go home," she said firmly.
"Why do you say that?" I asked suspiciously.
"Because you're headed straight for martyrdom," Alice explained. "You wonder if you were brought here for a purpose. I can tell you definitively that you were. But I can also tell you it's not worth your life. You started out on this journey thinking you were making your own choices. But your life is being toyed with and watching you these past weeks I'm getting the impression you were chosen precisely because you won't turn your back on what you see as your responsibilities. You're too easy to manipulate."
What she said upset me a great deal. In part because it was mostly true. "I…" I stammered. "I think you're right. But it's too late now. I'm committed."
"No," Alice shook her head adamantly. If I hadn't known better, I'd think she was getting genuinely upset. "None of the things you think you have to do are your responsibility. Let's start with the most important thing to you: the blockade. It's not one human's job to break a blockade. That's what navies are for. The humans need to solve that problem on their own. The fact they just let it go on for two years without even trying to do anything about it… Why would you stick your neck out for such weak, hopeless people?"
"I owe those weak, hopeless people my life," I responded.
"Why? Because they found you in the woods and took you back to their village? Sure, that was a nice thing to do, but none of them risked their lives to do that and I doubt any of them would have! You paid them back with service for two solid years! They like you and trust you. You could go back and tell them what's going on and maybe they'll do something. You've even got Poseidon's Bell, so at least one ship can get through at a time while the authorities figure out what they want to do."
"You're thinking is usually more thorough than this," I pointed out. "One ship getting through isn't much help if Alma Elma is personally enforcing the blockade where the storm fails."
"Again, not your problem," Alice insisted. "That's hero work. You keep saying you aren't trying to be a hero, but you're running around doing more hero stuff than real heroes around here! Why can't we just…. Travel, enjoy ourselves, and maybe just learn some things? Isn't that what you said you wanted to do? Let a baptized hero go after Alma Elma. What hero wouldn't want to take down the Queen Succubus?"
This was very unlike her. Now she was all over the place. First she wanted me to go home, now she wanted me to keep traveling with her but keep out of other people's business? Her thinking was very disordered at the moment.
"Alice," I said evenly. "Once I get the spirits won't I be able to take her on? I already got one, why would I stop now? Besides, Sylph has been in my head all day saying how she can't wait to play with Gnome again."
"There's a chance you can take her on," Alice said. "A chance! All I've given you is a chance. You're still probably going to die or be something's plaything for the rest of your life. It doesn't have to be that way! You don't need to be a martyr just because some people found you in the woods."
I decided to go along with her for the sake of argument for a bit. "Okay," I said. "And what of Granberia? I doubt she's given up on destroying the temple in Ilias Village. When she drops in, I'm just supposed to stand aside and let her do it? Would she even let me? It seems like she wants to fight me even more than she wants to destroy that temple."
"Granberia will leave you alone if you refuse to fight her," Alice said, looking down. "She doesn't attack people who don't fight back. Yes, she's going to destroy that temple, but that's another problem that isn't yours. You don't believe in any of that anyway. Would their lives really change just because their precious temple was gone? Besides, if she destroys that hero factory, Alma Elma no longer has a reason to blockade that continent. Then I could order her to stop."
I had to admit she was kicking my ass at this debate again. "I'm starting to really get the impression that you care," I noted.
"I already told you I did, idiot," Alice spat. "But more importantly I just can't let someone I'm traveling with be so pathetic. I never imagined I could meet someone both brave and pathetic at the same time, but I guess you're unique that way."
There was a long pause, neither of us knowing where to go from there. I broke the silence. "Look, I already admitted I can't do much of anything right now anyway, so we'd travel until an answer presented itself. You've set me to finding the spirits, so that's what I'll do. If I'm still not strong enough to take them on then I'll just…. Keep traveling or go home, whichever makes more sense at the time."
"How many princesses are you going to save while doing that?" she shot back.
"Just this one," I assured her. "Look, I don't actually want to die. But I have abilities that no other human on this world has. I can't just go back to cooking chicken dinners and breaking up bar fights. I must be here for something more than that."
"You are," she said. "But it's her purpose, not your own. She's trying to take your choices away from you."
"Maybe we should have that conversation now," I said gently.
She sighed. I thought she was going to assent, but, "No." she said with finality.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because that's not a truth you can handle," she said.
"Slay the monster lord," I said. "It's not like she's being cryptic about it. Why are you?"
"Oh, you think you've got it all figured out! But it's never that simple with someone like her. There's always layers to her scheming and she's got the perfect patsy in you! The only way to beat her is to…." Something in her face changed. "To do something unexpected."
She stopped. She clearly had an idea. "Penny for your thoughts?" I said.
"I'm hungry," she answered abruptly, and wrapped me in her tail. Truth be told, I'd been anticipating this eagerly since we arrived in the room, but the emotional turn in the conversation had made me think it might not happen tonight after all.
"But this conversation is important," I protested.
"This conversation is over. Besides, hasn't your lust accumulated on this long journey? I need to wring everything out every once in awhile. This is your big weakness. How will you ever take on a succubus if you can't resist pleasure attacks? A succubus' pleasure attacks are the most intense of any monster's. With me, you have someone who can almost match a succubus in that regard. Aren't you lucky to have the Monster Lord with you to train your frail part?"
I had to admit she was right. She hadn't even really touched me yet and I would have already surrendered had it been a fight. I hoped that was just because it had been so long. I found myself staring intently at her breasts, which were hovering over my already erect penis. I wondered what she was going to do to me.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Staring at my breasts like that? Which reminds me… You're always sneaking looks at my chest. Do you like these breasts that much?"
"I think all of you is beautiful," I said.
"What a helpless guy," she said teasingly. "Well then.. shall I play with you with the breasts you like so much?"
She dropped her boobs around my hard dick. It was like a soft, warm, heaven. Just having it there between them, even without her moving, started it twitching immediately. It really had been awhile. And… monster magic! Monster Lord magic, to be precise. What man can resist that?
"Stealing those glances at my chest. Is that what you were imagining? Were you thinking of sticking yourself in between here?"
"It's not the only thing I stare at!" I protested.
"Oh yes, you stare at this too." She stuck out her tongue, all the way this time. It had to be at least a foot long, even longer than I'd thought. "I'll have to give you a taste of this tonight, but only a taste. It would be too much for you and you wouldn't be able to go and rescue princesses tomorrow. As soon as I get the opportunity, I'm going to show you what I can do with it. But for that to happen, you have to not be taking on such dangerous quests the very next morning."
She put her hands on her breasts and started to squeeze them together. She then began to gently shake them. Now it was a sweet, moving paradise of softness. Was she trying to persuade me to obey her this way? It occurred to me that all she had to do was put me in critical ecstasy and whisk me back to her castle to be her slave for the rest of my life. Would she do that? I was ashamed to realize that I was okay with that. That had to be her magic talking.
My attention was forcefully returned to what she was doing as she began moving her breasts up and down, sometimes together, sometimes alternating. How experienced was this woman, to be so skilled? Even without the special stuff she must have as Monster Lord she'd be amazing. I didn't think I'd ever have the nerve to ask her how many men she'd done this to.
For some reason that excited me, or maybe everything was exciting at that moment. I tried to think of baseball. Yep, that's exciting too! Amazing in fact! Score! I came right between her breasts. Yep, it had to be her special stuff that was doing this to me, making me think everything was erotic.
"Hehe" she giggled. "How does it feel to cover your favorite breasts with your lust?"
As I sagged in the throes of critical ecstasy she began moving them again. "There's still more to squeeze out because it's been so long. But this time… I'll do it more intensely."
She began moving them faster and squeezing them harder. The intensity caused me to cry out in ecstasy. "You already came again," she said. "Making my breasts dirty. What a lucky guy you are."
I couldn't have agreed with her more. But I was about to get even luckier.
"Now for your last one, I'm going to give you that extra service I promised," Alice said seductively. "But just a taste for now. That's all it will take anyway for such a weak man as you."
She extended her tongue and started to softly lick my penis between her breasts. "You should be honored to be licked by me," she said.
I wanted to express my agreement, but all that came out was, "Auowahwahwah!" I was drowning in the pleasure. As if it couldn't be enhanced any more than it already was, it was exciting to be able to just give into it without having to worry about what might happen next. It was depressing having to make those other monster girls stop all the time.
Although it was true that I technically didn't have a refractory period when a monster stimulated me, it had become obvious by now that it did take longer between orgasms. Although longer in this case means five minutes instead of two. But five minutes of that soft licking combined with the movements of her breasts…. Every time she did something new to me it was the best thing I ever experienced. And there were even better things to come!
Soon the licking got a little more insistent, her breasts squeezing me tightly. That was enough to send me over the edge again, this time sending a good portion of my ejaculate onto her tongue as well as her breasts. Now she seemed to be in minor ecstasy herself.
"Oh! It's even more delicious than usual!" she exulted. She began licking it off her breasts, her tongue grazing my penis frequently while she licked all of my semen off her breasts. "I know I said this would be the last one but maybe just one more."
She extended her tongue as far as it would go, so that it went between her breasts and extended all the way down my hard cock's underside. Whatever she was planning, I knew this was going to be the greatest yet.
"But…" she paused, then withdrew her tongue and let go of her breasts. "You have a very dangerous mission tomorrow and this might break you. If only you didn't have such a dangerous quest, I could put it in my mouth and drink you dry at least three or four more times."
"Yes!" I said. "To hell with the princess! Please!"
She looked at me for a few seconds, smiling, but then her smile faded. She uncoiled herself from me and put her top back on.
"Alice!" I pleaded.
"Luka," she said as she adjusted herself. "That actually is the magic talking. You probably thought I was trying to manipulate you. Maybe I was at first. But that wouldn't be fair to you. If I'm going to persuade you to not be who you are, if such a thing is even my right to do, I'm going to do it through real persuasion, not by making you a slave to your desires. You made a commitment. That's part of what I respect about you. So tomorrow you'll get up, you'll go to that pyramid, hopefully you won't die, and you'll come back with the princess. And then after that maybe you'll be smart. Or not. Either way, I'm with you until you meet your end or achieve whatever it is you're trying to achieve. Or whatever someone else is manipulating you to achieve. I just hope you'll consider what I've said."
"I respect your advice, Alice," I said. "I'll think about it. You already talked me into not taking on frivolous errands."
"That's progress," she admitted, and then smiled. "But you won't be thinking about anything else tonight. I saw to that."
She was right. I was already drifting off to sleep.