Chapter 26: Chinese Dresses

“Presenting her Celestial Highness, Tiang Li Zexi, of Imperial Yangxu!  Royal Princess of the Sky Dragon Clan.  Divine Consort of the Heavenly Mysteries.  Jade Wushen of the Immortal…”

Uh…  How long is this guy planning to talk?  This is even worse than the bullshit Red and Frankie came up with for me.  But, get a load of this room!

"...Deliverance of Lao Chen Province.  Heavenly Agent of…"

After leaving the booth.  My whole three dozen strong retinue got moving and entered the side room guarded by the fantasy china looking guys.  Guided by fancy servant guy.  Figured these side rooms to the lounge would be sort of small.  Like a room in a karaoke bar.  For private orgy and scrapbook making parties.

This place?  Is a fucking condo.  Rivaling Lions Keep's Grand Suite in size.

Got a whole fantasy modern theme going on too.  Like the lounge room.  Feels so, “out of place,” even compared to the rest of Stormgarde.

"... Victoriess of Tong Pi…"

Design is a very open, studio style.  With only partitions concealing the bedrooms.  No walls separate the other rooms.  Living room, dining room, kitchen, even a bath…?

What the…  Is that a hot tub?

Seriously, this is more like a penthouse than a side room.  Even has exits to other rooms and hallways.  Is this secret sex club also a love hotel?

"...Matriarchate of blah blah…"

Damn.

Think I’m jealous.

Well, whatever, my place has got a great view and this...  Incredibly well furnished and tastefully designed palace is...  Uh…  Oh, yeah!  Underground!  Ha!

Suck on that you los-  Is that a window?

"...blah blah bl blah bl blah…"

And why do I seem to be the only person who’s surprised here?  Besides Lizzy and Sonja.  But they are out of towners so they have an excuse.

My harem and entourage smoothly deployed around the suite.  Wives finding seats, knights covering entrances, and maids going to the kitchen to start serving drinks.

"... *static* …"

Both entourages combined do a good job of filling the place.  Looks like she's got almost as many hangers on as me.  And she's an ocean away from home.

Again feeling like the odd man out.  Was the last “Lord of Lions Keep” a regular here?  Isn't this club for students?  Though I did notice older dudes and dudettes too.

Better “have a chat” when we get back to see just how common places like this are.

Is there a chain of medieval fantasy love hotels?

Sigh.  Another item for the “people assume I know,” list.

“We thank you, Viscount Barton Jon, for accepting our invitation.”  Oh, didn’t realize servant guy had stopped yapping.  Letting the princess start yapping.

China girl was sitting on a couch in the living room.  With a few ladies-in-waiting types and servant/maid types attending her.  Now she's stood up and is walking towards me.  Giving me an excellent view of my host.

And wow.  What a looker!

Hair, straight and black like Simone and Hitomi’s, but much much longer.  Reaching all the way down to her butt.

Would probably touch the ground if a bunch wasn’t rolled up into hair buns on the back of her head.  Held in place by jade hair pins.  Long curving bangs frame her face.

Eyes, dark brown.  Same as my Japanese girlfriend, but slanted downwards instead of upwards.  Nor are they as round and prominent as hers.

Skin, as milky white as Lizzy and Sonja's, but with a very light green undertone?  Weird.  While the face itself is oval shaped like Blue’s.

Slender hourglass body carries c-cup looking breasts and a shapely round butt.  Not as thicc as Frankie or Lili’s.  But a little thicc’er than Hitomi’s.  Both T&A are on full display, bet she’s going commando, in a chinese dress and…  Holy shit, high heels?

And god damn, apparel approved!  Tight curve hugging long silk one piece reaches down to her ankles.  With a heart shaped boob window and side slits stretching all the way back up to her upper thighs.  Showing off bare smooth drool worthy legs.

Naked kissable arms can be seen too because the outfit is sleeveless.

Silk is green but there’s a ton of gold looking thread stitched into various dragon patterns all over it.

Taller than Hitomi and Frankie.  Probably due to the high heels.  Without?  Bet, like them, she barely reaches my chin.

"The pleasure is mine, your highness."  Servant guy is looking a little purple.  "How might this simple noble hel…"

Wha?

*gasp*

You know.  Rather proud of my etiquette. Getting a lot better at figuring when you're supposed to bow and stuff.  And I’m pretty darn sure that between a viscount and a princess?  The viscount is the one doing the bowing.

So, why is she kowtowing to me?  Yeah, it looks sexy as hell?  But not the behavior anyone here was expecting.

"Highness!"  "Your majesty!"

Her entourage is freaking out.  Fancy servant guy's gone full conniption fit.  Reactor meltdown imminent.  He barely hisses.

"Please, Imperial Highness, remember your position…"

China girl's reply starts with a scoff.

"We do remember our place, Mandarin Hanyu.  As you should remember yours."  Do I sense a divide in their camp?  "Besides, is it not customary for the party seeking favor to honor their benefactor?"

Servant guy is not buying it.

"Seeking favor, your Celestial Worship?  For that tro-"

"Watch your words, Mandarin.  We will not allow disrespe-"

*wave*

Both are caught off guard when I wave my hand between the two.  Halting their polite argument.

Good.  Not here to watch "Days of Our Isekai."

"Hi.  Yeah, excuse me, can we get to the point here?"

I said I was proud of my etiquette.  Actually using it?  Still working on that part.

Fancy servant dude looks too shocked to reply.  Letting the princess continue, uninterrupted.

"Our apologies, Lord Barton Jon.  Savior of the Maidens of Sanriel.  Healer of Heroes."  Eh?  "We seek a boon of you."

Uh oh…

"You don't want me to take your virginity, do you."

*record scratch*

Okay, may have gone a bridge too far there.  But it's late.  And I'm tired.  Would really like to have my bedtime sex, tuck junior into someone warm, and go to sleep.

Where there were gasps?  Now?  Silence.  Oriental crew has turned hostile.  Hands on their blades.  Ready to go for our throats at any moment.

Crap, its a chinese standoff.1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r7zhMRq80w  Don’t, make a sound…

...

"Pfffft!"  Unless you're a princess.  "Hahahah!  Kekeke!"

China girl stops kowtowing and starts laughing.  Hard.  And not petite pretty princess laughing either.  Nope, this is drunk farm girl at a tractor pull guffawing.

The atmosphere full of killing intent vanishes, like the morning dew.

Her chuckling and cackling finally settles.  Letting the petite pretty return and smoothly rise to her feet.

"Thank you, Brother Barton."  What a serene smile.  "We needed that."  Okay, sis?  "The weight of duty can make us forget ourselves."  Mischievous wink.  "Sometimes."

Princess grabs my hand and pulls me to her big comfy couch.

"Sorry.  It's been a really long day."

Well, it has…  What?  Isekai is easy?  Fuck you too then.

My girls look none too pleased with her blatant haremlordnapping but restrain themselves, for now.

Gently but insistently pushed down, onto the couch you perverts, china girl sits next to me.  Making me, now, also be surrounded by oriental ladies-in-waiting and full-service-maids.

Harem 3.0?

Not that I would complain, much.  All these chinese babes are making my trousers tight.  Yep.  Junior is still ready for action.  Despite the earlier emergency orgy marathon.

Youth is oh so wasted on the young.

None of these girls are wearing masks either.  Though the ladies-in-waiting do have veils.  Including the one sitting on my other side.  Nice rack.  But, that smell…

[Eyes of Ouroboros]

"We deeply apologize for the behavior of our servants."  Servant guy purples up again as his princess uses her fingers to turn my head her way.  "Imperial Father refused to let us attend Stormgarde last year.”  Pout.  “Then thanks to a sage’s vision, even father could not deny us again.”

Her lips are entirely too close to mine.  Smells good.  Lilac?  Almost strong enough to cover up the other smell.  Princess continues.

“That vision was of you, Beast.  God of blood and fire.  Lord of death.  An incarnation of rage-”  What slanderous libel from-  “-and unquenchable lust.”  -a deliverer of truths.  “The only one in this world who could give us back our most precious treasure.”

Hot moist and tasty breath dances across my lips as one of her arms reaches over my shoulder.  But oh no, she ain’t done yet.

“Such a gift would earn anything from us.”  Huh.  There are green flecks in those deep brown eyes.  “Even our firsts.  Every one of them.  Yours for the taking if…”

“But, she’s already dead.”

*tch*

China girl's face turns sour.

Yep, dead.  When princess reached over my shoulder?  She was touching the face of the doll on my other side.  And any necromancer worth a shit should recognize the smell of death.  Especially when its only inches away.  Yeah, they perfumed the hell out of her.  But you can’t hide that smell from my [Super Senses] cheat.

“Our sister is not dead.”

Oh there is some steel in her sultry voice now.  May have to throw down after all.

“Li…”

*gasps*

Dammit people!  I’m trying to be comforting here!

“She is NOT dead!”  Screaming won’t change anything.  “Her heart still beats!”

China girl roughly pushes my hand onto china doll’s chest.  And yes, there is a heart beat.  Just as there is a hand doing its damnedest not to fondle the breast its touching.

“There is more to living than just a heart beating, or lungs breathing.”

Princess is in denial.

“No!  She moves too!"  Getting herself more and more worked up.  "Feeds herself… when helped.”

God I hate this part.

“Muscle memory and automated responses.  There’s no will behind-”

“NO!”  The betrayal on that anguished face.  “Please…”  Guess I really was her last hope.  “We will do anything you want.  Be anyone you want.  We have tried everything and it all...”  Tears start falling as she leans into me.  “Just bring my sister back to me.”

Wrap my arms around her as the sobbing begins.

“I’m so sorry.  Wish there was something I could do.  But your sister is brain dead."  Remember, empathy and sympathy.  "Her mind is still there.  But there's nothing going on in it.  Even if I co-”

~Li.~

What the fuck?

~My amazing Little Li.~

Seriously?

~I am so proud of you.~

Behind me, there is a voiceless whisper.  Weak, faded, and threadbare, but there.

Dark waters.  Onyx ink.  Black smoke.  Pours out of me like a waterfall and ripples across the floor.

“What?!”  “Undead!”  “Stop them!”  “Protect the princess!”

Panicked and alarmed shouts fill the room as my silent summons is answered.  By living shadows.

Ferra and Margo, shadow oracles, manifest in front of me.  Their winged and robed bodies of ink and smoke shock the chinese retinue.

My guys, on the other hand, are doing fine.  Of course they are.  Anyone who hangs around me either gets used to undeath.  Or finds another job.

“Ahh!”  “Save me!”  “Eek!”  “Run!”  “Aiyee!”  “Traitors!”  “Gah!”

Of course I bring a lot more than just my breathing impaired angels of death.  Shadow soldiers and monsters storm the room.  Capturing the armed, and herding the unarmed, members of china girl’s entourage.

Of course her protectors are elite warriors.  Trusted to guard a daughter of fantasy china’s emperor.  So naturally they are going to fight ba-

~QUIET!  SIT!~

But a dragon, even an undead one, can be awfully convincing.  Especially to a culture that venerates them.

*crunch* *snap* *crunch*

Massive bony claws are not exactly great for the furniture though.

And of course its too small in here for my shadow dragon, Frazur, to assume his full size.  But he's still able to grow big enough to dominate the audience.

“Secure the room!”  One of ex-Patchy’s knights organizes his fellows.  “No one enters or leaves!”

***zhing***

"""Sir!"""

Multiple swords are drawn as the Blackharts take positions at every entrance.  Just in time to head off the incoming club’s goons.  Starting another standoff.

Turns out?  Dragons can be loud.  Shrug.  Who da thunk it?

Now subduing rowdy, drunk, and or high, customers is one thing.  Subduing armed knights of the noble who, technically, owns the land their business is built on?  Or, in this case, in?  That's something else.

And these well dressed thugs are in no hurry to try it.

"Wha? Why? How?"

Confused princess is confused, as her brain tries to catch up.

"Master.  What is your will."

Good priest-wife.  Frankie is always there for me.

Harem 3.0 has been displaced by Harem 2.0.  My potential stable of asian sexpots now cowers in the kitchen.  While my ladies-not-waiting claim the big comfy couch as their own.

Concubines Simone and Odaline boldly step into Shadows Ferra and Margo.  Merging to create Half-Deads.

Frankie stands behind the couch and rests her hands on my shoulders, while staring pointedly at china girl.  Hmm…  Should we talk about this new possessive streak?

Hold princesses hand with one of mine.  And use the other to grasp one of her brain dead sister’s.  Squeezing both and gently begin prodding and poking with my mana.

“Li?  What happened to her?”

Tears well up in her eyes again.

“She-”  *sniff*  “-was tricked and cursed by vile sorcerers.”  ~A lie.~  “With spell and potion they dragged her into debauchery and despair.”  ~More lies.~  “Until her betrothed came here and found her… defiled.”  ~I wanted it.~  “He ended their engagement and Father exiled our sister to this place.”

~Lonely.~

“He made sure she was provided enough to survive.”  Her hands motion to the condo we’re in.  “But not enough to thrive, nor return.”  Poor girl, doomed to a luxurious life in a sex club.  However did she survive?

~Just lonely.~

“We worked hard to earn forgiveness for her.”  Princess hangs her head.  “Finally, father lifted the exile.”  ~I am sorry sister.~  “But it was too late.”

~My guilt and shame hurt the one who deserved it the least, the most.~

Eh?

“How was it too late?”  I ask.

~“Thavira’s Milk~”

Hear several gasps and hisses.

“Okay...  What’s that?”

Frankie's grip on my shoulders, tightens.

“A potion, Master.  Vile concoction that, in exchange for a short trip to paradise, damages the body and spirit of its drinker.”  My priest-wife shakes her head.  “Centuries ago it was regularly used by oracles.  Until visions gained with its aid were declared corrupt, by Metia herself.”

Blue somberly speaks.

“Now it is the last stop of the lost and broken, darling.  Providing final glimpses of the heaven they’ll never reach, before falling into darkness forever.”

Red gloomily continues.

“The milk creates a powerful hunger for more of it.  Difficult to break without magical aid.”  Knight-wife shudders and hugs herself.  “Jon.  It is popular among slavers to, 'control' their victims.  Cheaper than [Slavery Magic].”

~But it also makes you forget and that is what I needed most.  Too forget… me.~

Hold up my hand to stop the conversation and focus on the "mostly" dead sister.   Who then lifts her head to look at me, causing her sister to inhale sharply.  Stunned.  Slowly the voiceless whisper becomes clearer.  Easier for me to hear.

[Kiss of Grannus]

~Do you know where I lost my virginity?  In a toilet on the first floor of Kashiwa Hall.  To a Fire School Lecturer.~

~An imperial princess with a fiance she had loved all her life.  Raised on tales of her glorious ancestry.  Gave that most precious possession to a foreigner twice her age, that she had known for only a few months.~

~Why?  Loneliness.  No spell or potion was needed.  Just loneliness.  Could there be a more pathetic reason?  The first yangshi student attending Stormgarde in forty years.  So talented.  So determined.  So naive.  So gullible.~

~My fiance an ocean away.  Only a couple of servants for company.  Surrounded by alien peoples and alien ways.  An easy target for a dirty old man with a friendly smile and patient ear.~

~He spent weeks breaking me.  Using only his words and body.  By the end I was so completely tamed that I could not imagine life without him.  Then he introduced me to his wife and children.~

~But I did not care.  All that mattered was he wanted me.  Becoming a secondary wife, even a concubine, was fine as long as I still had a place in his arms.  Was even willing to become his wife’s slave.~

~Yes, I was blind.  Can you believe I was thrilled when she rejected me?  So happy that I could at least remain his devoted student.  His disciple.  His mistress.  Pleasing him whenever and wherever he desired, instead of falling under his wife’s thumb.~

~A bloodline that you could trace back a thousand years.  Reduced to a tourinese teacher’s sextoy.~

~Of course that was not the end of my humiliation.  Now that my shame was complete.  Fallen so far I could not remember when my own voice, even my own thoughts, mattered anymore.~

~He began selling me.~

[Aid of Ourai]

~From first just letting his friends watch.  To them joining in.  And finally him not even being there.  I turned into a thing.  A product.  Even a reward.~  “Score well on the test?  Bed a yangshi princess.”

~Other faculty would try to stop me.  But I was far too gone by then.  Refused to even meet the Rector.  Threatened to harm myself if they intervened.  All that mattered was him.  So stupid.~  “I believed I was liberated.  Free.  Grown up.”

~Ha!~

~The illusion of my deluded dream began to crack when I refused to return home between first and second year.  Instead spending the break going wherever my beloved sent me.~  “And doing whatever those there wanted me to do.  No matter how degrading.  No matter how disgusting.”

*sniff*

~My dearest Zheping was not fooled by letters full of excuses and lies.  He knew something was wrong.  So he came to find me.  Comfort me.  Aid me.  Help me.~

“He found me, in this room, being comforted already.  By a dozen men.  So covered in their seed that I couldn’t even see who it was that had smashed down the door.”

*blink* *blink*

“Five boys whose only crime was paying for a turn in this filthy body, died that day.  Driven mad by my betrayal he would have killed more.  Killed me.  If a professor had not heard his rampage and stopped him.”

*shudder*

~Wish I had died that day.~

[Call of Charon]

A tear rolls down her cheek.

“As he lay dying in my arms.  Asking me why, over and over.  Everything became clear.  The delusion splintered.  I was not liberated.  I was manipulated.  Not free.  Enslaved.  Grown up?  No, I wasn’t even human anymore.”

*deep exhale*

“I had become the toilet I threw away my future on.”

A warming hand squeezes mine.

“Zheping’s father declared war for my crimes.  Tens of thousands killed over a toilet discovering it was a toilet.”

“Exile was my punishment.  Imprisoned with my failures.”

“Never to see my mother again.  My father.  My brothers.  Even my little light was gone.  My Little Li.  Never able to apologize for how much I failed them.  How much I failed me.”

Her head hangs low and uses both hands to grip mine now.  Like she fears what will happen if let go.

“The last insult came when the man I gave everything to, finally got his title.  I kowtowed before him.  Begged him to take me with.  I would be his mistress.  His maid.  Even slave.  Anything to keep a sliver of the illusion alive.”

“I knew he was trash.  But he was all I had left.”

[Meeting Aja]

Her whole body shakes.

“He, laughed at me.  Then thanked me for the fun he had, watching me ruin myself for him.”

Her grip turns slack.

“Finally, I was nothing.  The remains of my deluded illusion, collapsed.  His parting gift was a vial of Thavira’s Milk.  Said it would let me forget what I had done.  And I so wanted to forget.”

*sob*

“And I did, for a little while.  But my allowance was not enough so I began selling myself to afford more.  Becoming ‘Princess Pitiful,’ of Tourin’s premier underground sex club.”

Another shudder, a sad smile, and her shoulders sag.

“My mind and body eventually breaking so much that I could not move anymore.  Could not speak.  Just sat here as servants fed and changed me.  Waiting to die.”

Her chin rises up and light green eyes stare deeply into mine.

“Then my brave little sister appeared.  Promising over and over to save me.  Hero, if you can hear my plea, don’t let my Little Li  waste her life on this foul thing before you.  Send her away from indecent me.  So she can truly be, free.”

…

Silence hangs in the air.  The chinese entourage all staring in shock at china girl’s not-so-dead-anymore sister.  Jaws dropped.

Trembling princess finally musters the courage to peek around me at her long lost sister.  Who was buried under guilt and shame as much as the drugs.  Little Li is crying, again, but manages to stutter.

“S-Si-Sister?”

Said sister jumps, startled and confused.  Suddenly realizing what her body’s been doing.  Light green eyes overflow with tears.

…

“Li-Little L-Li?”