Kingdom Church, Polka Temple.
A small establishment yet boasting traditions spanning over a century, it serves as a vital hub responsible for nearly all the wisdom and entertainment of this little town.
When most people hear this explanation, they immediately say, “Isn’t Polka’s entertainment just booze and hot springs?” But only a few fathers truly savor alcohol that deeply. While hot springs have certainly become woven into common folk’s daily lives, they cannot be considered the primary form of amusement. Sure, there are eccentric types who claim their life is perfect as long as they can bathe once in a while, but generally speaking, a bath’s role is to soothe an exhausted body and wash away filth—a fact that remains unchanged even for Polka’s holy springs imbued with special spiritual blessings. To call this the greatest entertainment is akin to saying “sleep itself is the ultimate amusement,” which, when thought about plainly, sounds rather desolate and depressing.
No, not like that.
The temple’s true function is to organize Polka’s various festivals, continuously delivering music, song, dance, and tales accumulated throughout the nation directly to its inhabitants.
In the cities, temples are already beginning to be perceived merely as “facilities for weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies,” but in this simple era, within such a rustic town, the temple was something truly “joyful.”
However…
”…”
Laurie, an elf from the Golden Clan who had recently taken on temporary teaching duties at that temple, found herself baffled.
It was her duty to teach arithmetic to the children. She struggled with kids who refused to study seriously, but perhaps due to their sense of familiarity stemming from her petite stature or the surprising efficacy of her seemingly unimaginable “whip,” they seemed to retain what she taught remarkably well—earning praise from priests and guardians alike.
Yet recently, someone other than a child began appearing in her seat.
An adult watching their own child’s lesson wouldn’t feel confused at all. In fact, quite a few parents spend ten minutes or so peeking in on the sidelines during work breaks. It’s even welcome from an instructor’s perspective if the children straighten up to avoid getting scolded by those parents and gain praise instead.
No, not that kind of situation. Azel and Ryzel, the feline twin sisters, were inexplicably sitting in the front row during class.
”…Hey, you two.”
”?”
“Miaow?”
“Why are you here? Don’t you have work at Ms. Schneider’s inn?”
“Auntie will handle everything for us, so we’re fine miaow~”
“Eh…”
“Well… uh, this is really awkward to say, but honestly, it’s a bit of an annoyance.”
“Eh~”
“That’s okay~ Laurie’s stories are fascinating~”
“I wasn’t planning to tell particularly interesting stories anyway… these are study materials aimed at kids, and they mean nothing to you two.”
”?”
“Don’t you know just about anything anymore?”
With their flashy tea-and-stripe tabby fur coiffured in unison shaking curiously, Azel and Ryzel looked bewildered.
Upon hearing this, the children sitting behind them erupted into noise.
“For real?!”
“So feral cat-beasts are kind of dumb?”
“Not so dumb! There’s no one here to teach us stuff like that anyway!”
“You don’t need it either, right? As long as we can hunt in the Desert Colony, we survive just fine!”
“Eh~ Sure sounds nice~ Maybe I’ll move to the desert too~”
“You ain’t even got hunting skills yourself.”
“Shut up. If these idiot cats can do it, so can I.”
“In our colony, we hunt inside the Dungeones anyway~”
“Careless and you’ll end up dead sometimes. It’s dealing with monsters after all.”
”…”
To Maple’s sisters who spoke matter-of-factly about the harsh reality of desert life, the boy had made an insolent remark, only to turn pale instantly.
When people speak of “monsters” in these parts, they mean Mad Wolves. In previous times, wolf-like creatures with equine bodies had invaded the town on multiple occasions; for those who’ve experienced that terror, it was quite madness to suggest otherwise.
“That’s enough, that’s enough. Look, you can listen longer if you want, but move to the back. The kids in front here have lower intelligence than anyone else.”
“Mrrr…”
“Mrrr…”
The cat sisters, looking slightly disgruntled, move to a different seat.
“No way! Wait, so it’s actually true that all those cat-beastfolk get made by that pervert Andi in the most lewd ways?”
The boy who had just turned pale from his earlier reaction quickly recovers and whispers an improper question to the cat sisters as they settle down nearby.
“It’s not like everyone is doing it, you know…”
“But Barbara isn’t, right?”
”…”
“So that means everyone else is?!”
“Hmm… how should I say?”
“We do though!”
“Hey, watch it! Don’t start weird conversations during class!”
”…”
“If you’re doing it with Pervert Andi then it’s fine, right? Later, let me touch your breasts a little too… (←whispered)”
“Nope.”
“But the Master is different, that’s allowed. You’re just so annoying because you keep talking; I don’t like you anymore. But if I’m touching Mommy’s…”
The catgirls show absolutely no mercy toward the boy’s wicked request. The boy’s dignity is completely crushed as he turns bright red, and the surrounding children burst out laughing.
“Just stop it… already!” Laurie’s thrown chalk explodes with a loud skaaaan! against both the catgirl’s and the boy’s foreheads.
“Did you just do that!?”
“Grrraaaaah!?”
“If you want to have erotic conversations, do them later! Right now it’s arithmetic!”
With a single flourish of her arm, she fires three projectiles in succession. It’s Laurie; strange skills seem to be developing within her after all.
Incidentally, as interactions with the cat-beastfolk colony increased, the necessity for elementary education grew accordingly. In fact, it wouldn’t be until much later that Laurie would end up becoming a teacher at a private school specifically tailored for them.
“There’s no point even trying to talk to them; neither Jeanne nor Selen can really move or act properly…” Fenrel says with an air of deep concern.
Jeanne is one thing, but asking Selen—who’s clearly burdened by a heavy pregnancy—to do carpentry work would be utterly unreasonable. If she were light and agile enough, one might even imagine her taking it on, but…
“I just have to sometimes nurse Peter, that’s all. I’m certainly not incapable of doing physical labor myself.”
“While carpentry isn’t something I can handle, I could definitely do some simple design work—calculating necessary lumber and all that. Plus, we don’t have to do it all in one day; I can start helping properly after the baby’s born, if you’d like.”
“Perhaps that is true…”
“It seems we’ve reached a point where there’s no telling when she might give birth any moment now.”
Irina and Kristy exchange glances with worried expressions.
“If you’re short on hands, you could call someone like Cat Malone or Millie. And although I’ve kind of mentally excluded them, I’m not sure if folks like Oregano or Sebori really can’t do carpentry work either?”
“Perhaps…”
Fenrel makes a troubled face.
“It’s said that this family originally came from a clan known for having many craftsmen like these.”
“That may be true, but those girls aren’t particularly the heirs to anything special…”
“Well then, just let them try! If they can’t do it, Jeanne’s workload simply increases a bit more.”
“That might be one way of looking at it,” Fenrel mutters with growing anxiety.
Selen sits down grandly in the chair Kristy has offered her, adopting an air of knowing better than she should: “This goes double for situations like this one. When there’s no specialist available, you should just try anything. Claims of ‘I’m bad at it’ or ‘It’s not my field’ may sound perfectly reasonable on the surface, but admitting you’re relying on others to do things is actually being incredibly spoiled and taken for granted! If something needs doing, you’ll pick it up eventually no matter how clumsy or unskilled you are. The old saying about putting the right man in the right place only applies when people are plentiful enough to choose from!”
“As if that weren’t convincing enough coming from Selen herself,” he sighs.
“See, Apple figured out that once something becomes necessary, she’s capable of learning all sorts of things. So, just give it a little try. There’s no logic behind the idea that carpentry is exclusively a man’s domain; we can always ask Miss Jeanne and folks like the Bull Ogre for help where brute strength is needed. If there’s any dissatisfaction with the final result, we can simply rebuild it. Since you’re long-lived, you’ve got more than enough time to practice as much as you like.”
”…That might just be true. Even though I keep saying the number of elves is dwindling, I still seem to be thinking in terms of collective logic too much.”
Fennel admitted as much.
Christie looked over Selen with an expression of admiration.
“As expected, your approach to dealing with people is different, Ms. Selen. Once you become a leader, you tend to get distracted by aptitude and numbers.”
“That’s only because elves are so stable and long-lived; it naturally narrows their perspective. Anyone can manage quite well once they give it a try, after all—not everything needs to be perfect from the start.”
Jeanne crossed her arms and nodded in agreement at Selen’s words.
“Right. Even a girl who never indulged in lewd acts while being Andy’s female slave will surely think she’s not just whoever she used to be when she’s asked by Andy, praised, and satisfied. Many girls even say it feels like they’ve been reborn, but I don’t think clinging only to their own specialties is good. Since this is a perfect opportunity, I think you should try to take on as many tasks that could benefit Andy as possible.”
“The construction of the hot spring cottage counts, and so does the erotic content itself, doesn’t it?”
“Anything at all can seem less painful if done for Andy’s sake. Whether it’s carpentry work, blacksmithing, or lewd techniques, if you think they might someday lead to a play you’ve always dreamed of, that’s fine. …I’d love to participate in the ‘hot spring duty’ play once we have our own private hot spring set up.”
“H-How was ‘duty play,’ you say?”
“Wait on standby all day in the hot spring; when Andy takes a little dip, casually insert your member; once he’s satisfied, rest again in the spring… treat it like an item of equipment♪”
“That’s not quite what His Lordship does while taking baths, is it…”
“I wouldn’t say it’s possible to act unruly in the hot spring; otherwise, we’d be having to do it outside the barrier prison.”
“I want to enjoy slow sex in the bath all night long without any hesitation… don’t move your waist vigorously, just keep my member inserted♪”
“Hmm. If that’s the case, then this wretched one also… y-yes, I’d like to try that.”
“How about an ‘Oktober Bath’ where I serve drinks while enjoying your member-broth… no, that sounds a bit indecent, doesn’t it?”
“The timing is off, Christie.”
“Christie-sama can clearly see Andy being stripped naked from within♪”
The afternoon at the Baron’s mansion passed amidst lively chatter and merriment.
“Marone-chan. I hope you won’t mind me asking this…”
“Yes?”
At that time, at Mother Marie’s house, Marone and Oregano were helping with cooking to learn “Mom’s Special Recipe.”
“If you’re such a good child like her, I think she’ll end up with a much better man than Andy. So perhaps it would be better for you to quit that… becoming a female slave or engaging in weird games?”
“Eh…”
“Of course, you’ve heard that beastkin’s sexual desire increases far more than humans’ with the cycles of the moon. Even though it’s a racial trait, if there are periods when they don’t get so worked up, I can understand why you might feel inferior. But despite that, I don’t think Marone-chan should ever refer to herself as a slave. Andy is stupid, which is why he acts silly and seems to have spread this concept to ten or twenty people… but just because everyone around him does it doesn’t mean Marone-chan has to follow suit? A reserved, lovely girl like you who puts everything into being yourself deserves men who will love you with all their lives. If there’s even one good man in a slightly larger town, so are you? If you say it’s bad for Andy, I’ll make sure to shut him up.”
”…I-I don’t want that.”
”…Don’t you really? That sort of extreme patriarchal treatment of beasts from Trot is terrible beyond measure.”
“I… I want to give birth to your Lordship’s child right here… not just some stranger who would care for me, but someone dear to my master who would cherish me so much… I’ve always thought of it in that way, yet…”
Peeling potato skins while looking down, Marone.
Seeing Marone, ears pinned back on the verge of tears, Marie raised her hands in surrender.
”…Sigh. I always wonder, what did this kid do?”
Turning back to the pot with a tired face and slumping her shoulders.
“That’s why I said so, Mother-in-law. Everyone truly loves Your Lordship wholeheartedly; they’re convinced.”
Oregano smiled as he handed over the chopped herbs.
“We’ve already verified all the stray kittens. As for… hmm, at least one was suspected of being swept along by the tide. But it seems almost everyone you’ve approached is new to this? Once the fever breaks, I feel they’ll start thinking, ‘What am I doing to myself’.”
“What do you think? With every adventuring trip Your Lordship makes, he somehow becomes more and more charming… at least we elves don’t easily change our minds regarding the opposite sex, or get too persistent, so I don’t think he’ll cool off that easily?”
“I feel like she’s being deceived…”
“That’s because you’re her mother. Because you see them as children, it doesn’t come across that Your Lordship is charming.”
“Nonetheless. There’s no woman who values Andy more than me, do I? That’s what parents are for.”
“Ah, aaaa… but that’s different, I suppose, from the feeling that we’re being loved by our master and want to become part of his life,” she murmured.
“Mmm… as a parent, I just can’t help thinking—we need to stop it before either the sons doing things that seem impossible or the daughters who are mistaken about their father get hurt in some twisted way right in front of us… Right now, this feels more like a king’s harem than anything else. That child was born from the seed of my stupid husband; he is my son.”
Oregano gave a worried smile before his expression grew serious.
”…His Majesty needs many wives simply because he is part of the system of kingship. But Our Master… Andy Simms carries more weight on his shoulders than anyone else to put smiles on the women he loves. We gather strength so that no one will be disheartened by him, and he expresses his love for them, for the sake of their smiles… This isn’t a harem as an institution; it’s a gathering that arose inevitably from that reality. If that man is happy to accept us as females, then naturally we’d wish to devote ourselves—that’s all there is to it. My wording might sound self-indulgent, but surely no laws made in old times for someone who isn’t us could ever contain us.”
”…I don’t think I can see him becoming anything like that. My Andy…”
“Even if he did… I’d still remain his female slave until the day he dies,” Oregano said with a smile entirely free of hesitation.
The town of Polka was wrapped in the glow of sunset. To the south, once more, Andy threw himself into adventures unknown to them. Each of them gazed toward that coming day with longing in their hearts.