MSG – Volume 1 – Chapter 14
Warm sand on their toes and the ocean breeze in their hair.
The sound of the waves and the pulsating music blend together in perfect harmony.
The music was not actually being performed live as anyone not in the know would believe, but by an illusion of beautiful women in swimsuits, a scene that was copied from Solon's memory of his previous life.
This beach party was hosted and mainly attended by a set of over 200 women of all ages and social status.
There were even some attendees that were not of the human race.
A small smile appeared on his face as he watched them mingle with each other with happy expressions.
Here, these women could be completely free, be themselves, and let themselves go.
All their burdens and worries were either temporarily put aside or discussions on how to solve them were being made.
"Licht!"
His attention was grabbed by someone who called out to him by his false identity's name.
He immediately recognized her. Her name was Harrietta, a woman with an alluring aura.
She had a slender and toned physique that was a mesmerizing blend of human and serpent features. Her skin shone with a slightly golden touch to it, complemented by intricate blue scales on her arms, legs, and torso.
The color of her scales was the same as the pair of reptilian eyes she had and went well with her waist-length black hair.
Her curves were not too exaggerated but no man would dare to insult her figure as 'average'.
"Ettie." He addressed with her nickname, his naturally captivating smile serving as the icing on the cake as he spread out his arms to receive her incoming hug.
Their hug only lasted two seconds, as it was a complementary greeting, before she planted a peck on both of his cheeks.
"Thought you were not coming today." The Lamia smiled at him as she spoke, revealing her fangs.
"Eh? How could I? I just got a little lost is all." He said, giving her a playfully incredulous look.
He did not say that he almost forgot because he had been too stressed out by the recently increasingly recurring nightmares—which were actually just him reliving his time in the torture chamber shortly after his first transmigration into this isekai.
He was traumatized but refused to be vulnerable before anyone—except, in recent times, Ria.
"Pfft." The lamia laughed at his joke and slapped his shoulder playfully.
How could he get lost when all he had to do was use teleportation mechanisms that handle all the travel for him?
"Alright, let's go." Ettie (dubbed as such from now on rather than her full name, Harrietta) grabbed him by his left wrist and led him into the party.
Along the way, many of the partygoers recognized him so they greeted him as well with some waves and smiles, and all that fun stuff.
By the time the duo reached near where she was taking him to, his cloak was already off his body and he had some snacks and a drink in his hands—free of charge of course.
"You opened up a stand?" he asked as they arrived a couple feet to a stand where a slightly younger version of Ettie was handing out nuts to whoever cared to try them.
"Mm-hmm." She nodded in confirmation. "Harley and I came upon these Candlenuts in our recent visit to a certain village in the Sparrow Kingdom last week. Figured we could not keep such good stuff to ourselves so we decided to bring it over and let everyone have a try."
He nodded in understanding, not reacting strangely like anyone sane person would.
The Sparrow Kingdom was on a whole other Continent so how could she have brought it over in just few days?
That would require a huge lot of resources being burned at intervals in the form of teleportation scrolls or teleportation formations.
Surely, no one would be insane to burn that quantity of resources to connect two continents, right?
Heh.
"Is it really that good?" He raised a brow, his interest in this 'Candlenut' piqued.
"Yup! I can bet my eggs that you'll absolutely love them!" she said.
"Oh? We'll see." He said just before the younger version of Ettie looked in their direction.
Imagine Ettie, but a few years younger, and increase her bust size from the end of C to the early D. Then reduce her height by an inch and a third.
Her lips were also slightly thinner while she had a birth mark, a small black dot by her right eye.
"Licht!" she exclaimed and ran around her booth to meet him. "You're here!"
"Hello, Harley." He exchanged a brief hug followed by pecks with her, the usual greeting.
"I haven't seen you today. I was beginning to think you were not going to show up." She said, glancing at her younger sister as she continued; "Ettie was beginning to get sad that you might not show up after she went out of her way to process the nuts we came upon; just so she could feed them to you herself."
Yes, despite Harley looking younger than Ettie, she was actually nearly a decade older. As a more talented and accomplished mage, she looked younger than her sister who had lesser accomplishments in the path of magic.
"Sister!" The younger lamia shrieked in shame. "What are you saying?! I never said such a thing!"
"Haha!" Harley laughed as she dodged her sibling's not-serious palm strike. "See? She is not even making an attempt to deny it!"
"If I did that then you would say that my denying was some sort of 'proof' that what you said was true!" Ettie yelled back.
Solon watched on with a happy glint in his eyes as the two women ran around him, one fleeing from the other who was trying to catch her.
"So, you arrived and did not bother greeting me, your host?" A soft and sweet voice reached the ears of the trio even with the loud music, causing them to turn and look in a certain direction.
The two women immediately stopped playing around and bowed slightly and greeted the owner of the voice's owner.
"Matron!"