[Vol. 2 pt. 14]

Akorya and I probably spent a bit too much time cuddling and flirting in the hot springs. Normally, there was no such thing as too much time spent doing that. But when I remembered that I made plans to meet with a certain somebody in the city while on the way back from Sophie’s, and that I was already late to my meeting with him, I had to rush Akorya out of the water with a series of apologies and explain to her that we were late. Well, I was late. She agreed to doing chores with me, though, so that made her my accomplice in being late.

However, once we reached the town center, the man I was supposed to meet with was nowhere to be found. Then again, we ended up being twenty minutes late, so maybe he left already?

I was about to send him a message checking up on him to see where he was, and to apologize, when I spotted a sight that wasn’t exactly common despite being in such a sexualized world.

Sitting there on one of the benches was what appeared to be an old, muscular man with a large, grey beard… surrounded by beautiful women a fraction of his age. He wasn’t just sitting there, either. He was all over them as much as they were all over him. There was a woman on each side of him pressing their barely covered chests up against his sides while he reached around behind them to grope their asses. Another woman, one with the lower half of a serpent, had her tail flicking behind her in the air as she pressed her own chest up against the back of his head while her long, forked tongue licked at his cheek. Then there was the girl with dog ears and a dog tail in front of him on her knees, pushing her chest against his own as she licked all over his face and peppered him with kisses.

The man looked like he couldn’t live a better life even if he tried his hardest. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the few other women nearby who weren’t within his reach and who couldn’t press up against any other part of him.

I had no idea who this old man was, but I already respected the fuck out of him.

“Woah, that makes me think of what you’ll be like when you’re older,” Akorya said, hugging my arm between her breasts like usual.

“Already looking forward to when I’m covered in wrinkles?” I asked her.

“I think I’ll have to pass. I prefer dick without wrinkles.”

“Wow, how ageist of you. Are you telling me that my dick wouldn’t be good enough for you if it was all wrinkly? Is a wrinkly dick and a saggy sack not good enough for you, you ageist little hussy?”

“Di-did you just call me a hussy?”

“You’re damn right I did. Hussy.”

A catlike grin stretched Akorya’s lips before she burst out into laughter, holding my arm even tighter against her. “Nyehehe, you’re funny, Master. It’s fine if you call me a hussy, but I’m punching anybody else who calls me one.”

“That’d be hot. I want to see somebody call you one just so that I can watch you punch them.”

“What’s – what’s hot about that?”

“Women being strong and defending themselves is hot. I’ve always loved strong women. Well, strong people in general.’

“I bet you’re totally getting turned on by Gramp’s muscles over there.”

“Who wouldn’t get turned on? Don’t you want to hang off of an old guy’s arms?”

“I think I’m gonna have to pass still.”

“Your loss.”

Akorya smiled some more before sighing, resting the side of her face against my arm. Feeling the tip of her ear twitching against my arm really made me want to assault – I mean, experiment with her ears some more. They were just so… exposed and vulnerable. I wanted to tease them.

But I resisted. After all, Akorya made really cute noises whenever I played with her ears. I didn’t want all the random people around us to hear that noise from her. It was the kind of noise I wanted to hog all to myself. Well, I wouldn’t have cared if Lily or Thera heard it, too.

“So, what’re we here for?” Akorya asked. “You said you have chores to do, right?”

Then I remembered I was late and that I still didn’t send the man I was supposed to meet with a message to check on him. “First off, I’ve got to meet with a friend. I can’t just turn the seed into a trap, unfortunately, so I’ll have to rely on him,” I explained.

“Ooh. Who is he?”

“He—”

“There you are!” shouted a familiar voice. “And I swear… you have a different woman with you each time we meet.”

“Hey there, Wally.” Surely enough, when I turned around to see who shouted, there was Wally standing there. “I was wondering how long you were going to keep us waiting for.” I couldn’t resist teasing him as soon as I saw him.

“Excuse me? How long I was going to keep you waiting for? You are the one who has kept me waiting! I was told you would be here twenty minutes ago!”

“Well, you weren’t here when I got here.”

“That – that is because I stepped away for two minutes! After you were late! Of course you arrived during the short time I stepped away for!”

“I don’t know, Wally. That sounds like an excuse to me. It’s like the kind of thing somebody would say when they want to make the other person think they were late.”

“You – if you are trying to lose my assistance, I would be happy to leave.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop teasing you. I’m sorry for being late. I got distracted.”

“Nyehe… sorry,” Akorya spoke up. “That was my fault. I didn’t know he had somebody to meet.”

Wally crossed his arms and puffed out his cheeks. “It is not as if I was waiting for you or anything. Now then, what is it that you wished to meet me for?”

“I’ve got a seed to craft into a plant trap. Apparently, the recipe that I could do on my own would only turn it into a potted plant that can’t really be used for anything other than decoration. For it to actually get turned into a trap, I need your help,” I explained.

“Another dungeon craft?”

“Would I call you for anything else?”

“I – well… you could… for all I know! How am I to know what you call me for when you do not elaborate in your message?”

“So, what you’re saying is that I can use any vague message to get you to come and help me out whenever I need you? You’re so nice, Wally.”

“It is not as if… I would come simply because of that.”

“Oh? Then why’d you come here? All I gave you was a vague message asking if you could meet me here. Not only that, but you’re looking pretty nice right now. Is that a new outfit?”

Wally’s face turned red as he crossed his arms over his chest. He looked like he was about to say something, but Akorya spoke up first to say, “Nyehe, you have too much fun teasing people.” After poking my side, she left my side to walk up to Wally with one of her hands extended. “Hey! I’m Akorya. Nice to meetcha, Wally!”

Wally cringed as soon as he heard Akorya call him by the name that he definitely loved and absolutely did not hate. “That is not my name!”

“Oh, sorry. I thought it was since – err, what is your name then?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“But… how am I supposed to know what to call you then?”

“Just call him Wally anyways,” I said. “He just likes to pretend that he hates it.”

“Ohhh, so it’s like roleplaying. Got it.”

“I am not—” Wally cut himself off and sighed. When he saw that Akorya’s hand was still there, he sighed again and took ahold of it to give her a shake. He might have been Wally, but being Wally didn’t mean that he wouldn’t shake hands with somebody trying to be friendly.

Akorya smiled and shook his hand with much more effort than he put into the shake. “You’re pretty funny! And sorry about him teasing you. If he ever teases you too much then let him know and he’ll stop, alright?”

I didn’t expect Wally to look flustered when she said that. He didn’t look flustered in the normal way, either. Usually, he looked flustered in a sort of embarrassed and slightly horny way that was brought on from my teasing. Instead of that, the kind of flustered he looked was… cute. Like he was surprised that somebody was genuinely trying to be nice to him without any teasing involved. “I… know,” he said, looking away from Akorya as she grinned at him.

She looked like she figured something out about him. I think that I figured out something pretty nice, too.

It was time for science.

“Before we get into business, how’ve you been?” I asked Wally.

“What? Why do you ask?” Wally asked in return.

“Just wanted to check up. We’re friends, right?”

“If you are asking me to mock me, then—”

“I’ll admit that I’m partly asking just to tease you, but I am serious too. I don’t want to be that kind of guy who only comes to you when I need something, gets right to the point, and then leaves. So, seriously, how are you?”

Just as I expected, hearing all of that made him look even more surprised and shy. “Then… in that case, I have been well. Thank you for asking. And… yourself?”

“I’ve been pretty good. I’ve learned some pretty interesting things lately, so I’ll share some of the details with you some other time. Somewhat related to that, which Sin or Virtue are you aligned with?”

“Greed. Why?”

I was pretty surprised by that. My first guess would have been that he was aligned with Pride. Though, Greed made sense as a second choice when I thought about it. It wasn’t like most players picked a Virtue or Sin that they personally aligned with when it came to their personalities and ideals, but some players did either subconsciously or consciously, and Wally seemed like the kind of guy who would go with Greed the more I thought about it.

Now, there was something I was curious about. If I was on the path to become the Champion of Lust, and Sophie was the Champion of Gluttony… what if Wally turned into the Champion of Greed? What sort of special privileges would that reward? When I imagined something like the Champion of Greed, my mind went to being surrounded by massive piles of gold. Not exactly something useful in an MMO. Sure, having a ton of money was great and all, but there was only so much that it could be spent on. Realistically, a few million gold was more than enough for any PvE or PvP player to ever need, and that could be acquired with a few months of grinding for valuable drops at most. Crafters would have to use more than that, but they’d also be making that money back, and they would basically only be making money for the sake of making money.

For somebody who maxed out every crafting class and spent most if not all of his in-game time crafting… it made perfect sense for Wally to be aligned with Greed.

“Oh! I have an idea!” Akorya said. “Instead of talking out here, there’s this really good café that I know! We should go hang out there for a bit! And you can talk about your business stuff while we eat and drink.”

“I’m down for it,” I said. “How about you, Wally?”

“Well… I am not against the idea,” Wally answered. “However, I do have other engagements planned, so we cannot take too long.”

“Oh, that’s alright then,” Akorya said. “We already kept you waiting for us, so I’d feel bad if we make you late for something. We can do it some other time instead!”

Wally took a step back and looked to the side. “That… that is alright. There should be enough time. I doubt we will—”

“No, no! It’s okay, really. You look like a super busy kind of guy. And if Damian needs you then you must be really important!” Akorya turned her attention to me and tugged on my arm. “Hurry up so that you don’t make him late.” I couldn’t tell whether she sounded more like a nagging mother or a serious wife, but I did know one thing for certain. Now that Wally couldn’t see her face, she didn’t even bother trying to hide the grin she had. She was clearly enjoying herself and probably teasing Wally even more than I meant to.

So, why not play along? “She’s right,” I said. “I’m sorry about being late and wouldn’t want to eat any more of your time than I need to, so let’s just—”

“It’s fine!” Wally shouted and immediately turned his back to us. “I said it is fine. Now, where is this café?” He looked from side to side with a hand raised up against his forehead to serve as a visor. He looked more like somebody pretending to look like he was looking around rather than like he was actually trying to look around.

Since he had his back to his, Akorya didn’t even try to hide the thumbs-up she flashed me before going up to Wally and poking him behind his shoulder. “It’s on the right side of the city, in the slums district. Oh, and I know I said it’s in the slums, but it’s super good! The girl who owns it wasn’t able to afford a better property, but all her food is super good and she keeps the place really clean, so it’s fine!”

“I see. Well then, let us head over there.”

“But are you suuuurrreeee you have the spare time?”

“Sure! Very sure!” With that, he marched off in the direction of the slums as Akorya silently giggled to herself.

“I like him. He’s fun to tease,” Akorya said to me. “Also, he’s super into you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody hide so much thirst in their eyes before.”

“Was it that obvious?” I asked.

“Super obvious. But come on, let’s not actually waste his time.” Akorya grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me in the same direction that Wally left in.

I recently ate at Sophie’s and doubted that the food would taste as good as hers, so I wasn’t that excited about the café, but it would give us some nice time together. Besides, it seemed like Wally really needed some more socializing. I wasn’t sure whether he was interested in hanging out just for the sake of hanging out or if it was specifically because of me, but the way he reacted so innocently to it made me think that I should probably try reaching out to him more. Maybe he needed a friend. If that was the case, I liked him enough that I definitely didn’t mind filling that role for him.

Though, there was something that caught my attention before we could leave the town center.

That old man surrounded by women was staring directly at me with a smile and a wink. Normally, something like that would have been suspicious or creepy. Instead, when I looked at his smile… he seemed so soft. Kind. As much of a lecherous old man as he might have been, he had the type of kind expression that made me want to sit next to him by a campfire listening to him tell stories for hours and hours.

He seemed like a cool guy. I wondered if I’d get to see him again, but I figured not since he was kind of hard to miss and I never saw him around before.