Chapter 15: On The Road

---D-Day+6, Nizhen 9th---

*clack* *clack* *clip* *creek* *clop* *clack*

Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could I have been so dumb? Forgetting a basic like that! And did she say a single thing? Nope! You shitty angel goddess!

For the umpteenth time I am berating myself while riding in a surprisingly fancy wagon.

Recap.

The thought of spending a month on the road? Blew my mind. Red, the Grizzly's tall knight chick, says Raelera is four hundred 'miles' away. That's just a six hour drive for me. Oh and these are old school ancient roman miles. One thousand two step 'paces.' Five thousand 'feet.' Thank god I don't have to play the metric conversion game or some other weird shit.

There are even 'inches.' As in, the width of an adult thumb. You know, if I was a nerd I would probably be geeking out over this. Me? Relieved. Again. Its one less thing I have to mentally juggle. Language is bad enough and that's, mostly, automatic.

'Heroes' were last summoned centuries ago. Supposedly from my world. Maybe they brought Ancient Rome's measuring system with them and it stuck? Whatever. Its probably not important. Shit. Did I just raise a flag?

Also, there are no interstate highways going mostly east-west or north-south in this world. Even the most important roads go from town to town instead of bypassing them. Winding back and forth. Following the path of least resistance, terrain wise, wherever possible.

So those four hundred miles, direction wise? Are more like six hundred plus miles, road wise.

And by foot instead of car? According to Red. Most folks only manage ten miles a day. Why when the human walking speed, thank you that time I was bored on wikipedia, is from three to six miles per hour?

Well, even in 'safe' areas people travel in groups to avoid becoming munchies for monsters or bait for bandits. That group will include the old, young, carts, packs, etc, etc... So even three miles per hour can be overly optimistic.

This is also walking only during the 'daytime.' Depending on the season and latitude this can be anywhere from eight to sixteen hours of the twenty-four. Travel at night is only for emergencies. Running blind thru monster and bandit infested territory is just asking to die, unless you are incredibly well prepared.

When you include the time needed to setup and tear down your camp? Preparing and eating meals? Hunting, scavenging, and or foraging? Water? Maintaining slash repairing equipment like carts and shoes? First aid? At least basic hygiene like cleaning or bathing? Plus breaks?

You are only spending half to three fourths of that limited daylight actually traveling.

Wagon or horse only doubles or triples that distance. Mounts may be bigger and stronger, but they need rest too. They can't just gallop for hours.

On top of all that. Folks only do this for six or seven days a week. Resting on the eighth and sometimes also the seventh. Yep, here is where my headache begins. Weeks here have eight days. Something to do with the moons. Yes, moons as in plural. Days are broken up into sixteen hours instead of twenty-four. There are still twelve months in a year but each has four eight day weeks. With an extra day thrown in for the summer and winter solstice.

This means years here are longer. So either this planet, Ipra, is a little farther from its sun compared to Earth or its orbiting slower. I guess. I'm not a rocket scientist but I did spend a night at a Medieval Inn Express.

Alrighty then. Wagons managing around twenty-five miles a day, seven days a week, for four weeks? Gets you seven hundred miles. Toss in fast days and slow days? Bad weather and detours? Longer stops here and there? You end up with around six hundred road miles in a month. Whew. That, hurt my brain.

Whenever I try to get a better grasp on time in this world? Like seconds and minutes in an hour? The translation gets weird. Like its double converting. I'll wait until I know the language more.

Oh and about the weather? Red says it's early spring. Today is the "9th of Nizhen," to be exact, in the three hundred and thirty-third year of the Tourin Kingdom. So we should expect rain every couple of days. By the time we reach the wetter areas, where it may rain daily, the roads should be built well enough to include drainage.

So the risk of roads washing out are small.

While camping is a pain, according to Red again, it will only be for the first few days. After that there will be towns with inns large enough to handle this convoy.

Yeah, a fucking convoy. Six, count em, six wagons. Each with two horses except mine which has four. Then another dozen horses for the mounted knights. A dozen soldiers on the wagons. And finally a half dozen mounted adventurers handling scouting.

That's thirty-two horses, six wagons, and thirty-eight people.

Why? Well, because there is so much stuff to haul. Tents, food, water, gear, clothes, parts, spares, etc, etc... No iPhones. No UPS. No Amazon. No convenience stores. Like Robinson Crusoe. Not a single luxury. Everything you might need? You have to carry with you. Which is obvious if you think about it because...

THERE IS NO STORAGE MAGIC!!!

No item box! No inventory! Whatever you call it! No storing tons of cargo invisibly and weightlessly in a pocket dimension where time stands still. This place has magic and it would be so fucking useful. But, nope!

I didn't think about it and angel bitch didn't bother to tell me that they don't have it here. The next time I get my hands on her...

Calm. Relax. Calgon take me away. To a planet with storage magic.

Of course it could be worse. It could be just me walking cross country with a gigantic backpack and towing six girls. For adventurers, Red says the standard is one porter or donkey per two adventurers. And the adventurers still often end up loaded down with loot, materials, and such. No porters for us though, since we have wagons.

I could probably run to Raelera in just a few days. Of course that would mean leaving the girls behind. And I would still have to feed myself somehow.

Sigh.

Grizzly gave me his personal carriage for this trip. It's a four horse monster with great suspension and lots of cushions inside. It easily holds the six girls and me. Even has windows you can raise and lower. Despite the noise and smell outside? It's very quiet inside. Too quiet.

The reason I'm hearing everything from Red? Well, the girls aren't talking. Not to me. Not to each other. Realizing just how fragile everything is, broke them again. Its like they are back on that church floor. Except this time they were abusing each other. The camaraderie they shared, is gone. The trust is gone.

They do what's expected of servants/maids/slaves. Dress me. Feed me. Clean me. Yes Master me. Etc... A pervert's dream and something that would spoil anyone. However, I strongly suspect these girls would rather just be dead.

Even Dara, the most honest pervert before, won't touch me now without permission and averts her eyes. Whole lot of guilt in those eyes.

I doubt any of these girls had an easy life but what the demons put them thru broke their ego. Their pride. I put them back together and gave them a rope to grab on too. Then half-breed took it away.

Instead of simply waiting for my return? They turned on each other. Exposing, to me and themselves, how little they trust me. The one who saved them. The one they owe their lives too. How little [Servitude] meant to them. So they are buried under loathing, regret, and guilt.

Honestly though? I don't care. Yes I feel sorry for them. But they rode me like I was a mechanical bull while I was 'unconscious.' Used some loophole in [Slavery Magic] to become my property. My responsibility. To protect themselves. Not me.

They don't love me. At most they love my new dick. My new strength. Not me. So all six of them are using me. Maybe turning on each other made it obvious to themselves but its way too fucking late for buyers remorse now.

However, this has got to stop. The last two nights? They may feel too guilty to touch my dick? But they insist on touching me.

Avi and Vira have claimed my feet. Olete and Dara acquired my legs. Chyal and Seylia laid title to my arms. In a tiny not tall enough to stand travel tent? That's not very comfortable.

It's the morning of our third day on the road, the convoy has just rolled out, and I'm tired. Its not easy to sleep when you can't move, so I'm not getting a lot of it.

I have to fix this. Chose to keep them to learn from them. Can't learn shit when they are this down in the dumps.

Bitch is sitting diagonally from me in the opposite corner of the carriage. Dead eyes staring at nothing. As far away from me as she can get.

"Avalina, come here."

The girls jump, startled by sound intruding in this tomb. Yeah, its been that quiet in here for two days. Avi doesn't try to stand in the rocking carriage. Despite there being handles. Instead she gets down on her hands and knees, keeps her face down, and crawls around the other girls' legs to me.

She stops once she gets in front of my feet and, stays there. Face down. Saying nothing. Does she think I'm going to use her as a footstool? Jesus Christ. Have they not heard of basic manners in this world? Common courtesy? Fuck! It shouldn't be this hard.

I lean over, put my arms under her stomach and chest, then pick her up while flipping her over. Easily maneuvering her into a princess carry. From there I just hold her close, deep hugs. And giving the top of her head some kisses.

Come on you cultist wack job. Wake up. Master needs you to start doing your job so I can start doing my job.

At first she's still, and trying not to look at me. Then starts quietly crying. Slowly getting louder and louder. Eventually she is wailing at the top of her lungs with a tight grip on my coat and her head buried in my chest. This goes on for some time and the other girls are soon sobbing just as loudly.

There you go. Have a good cry. How do I know women so well? I just think of a man. And take away reason and accountability

"Viridia, Darabym, come here." Unlike Avalina, these two bawling beauties launch themselves at me. With my arms now free, as Avi is gripping me, I pull both of their sobbing bodies close. As soon as the other three see this they also jump into the increasingly awkward pile.

I'm drowning in a flood of snot and tears.

Next. I'm being, rather forcefully, undressed? I'm not comfortable with this but rejecting them now? Will only make things worse.

They need this. I would be lying if I didn't admit to needing it a little too.

The stress has really been piling up. Like the murdering, I don't think I'll ever be able to explain this. It's too gritty. Too, dirty.

I would blame this shitty world if I didn't know this feeling from my own younger days. Know the only relief. The pain only a woman can treat. Even if it's just temporary.

God, send me whiskey.

"...Love" "...Master" "Beast..."

*snore*

"Wow." Holy shit, so that's slave harem sex? I thought I was going to die.

Things started off gently enough. These girls are traumatized. I didn't want to break them even more. Then Chyal started doing whatever the hell that was with my ass. After that? It got, 'rough.'

Don't recall any complaints. Customer feedback seemed very positive. I'm uncomfortable though. Six magically enslaved traumatized girls is the very last fucking thing in two worlds my darker urges should be fed.

And then? The girls started casting. Yep. Each school of magic has its own sex spells.

Sigh.

Of course they do. This is not helping!

Incantations for size, stamina, sensitivity, lubrication, etc, etc... Like a Kama Sutra grimoire.

I started, uh, 'experimenting,' and I gotta tell ya. This ain't fucking fair. While I don't know the spells yet? I can, according to customer survey replies, do 'unnatural' things with my body and mana. Things the girls really, really, enjoyed. 'Like you are fucking my soul,' appeared in one customer comment.

Though maybe that's an auto translation issue and should just read, 'felt jolly good.'

You know? I could be in some serious trouble here.

*snore*

The snorer is Dara. Turning my head shows the dwarf sleeping on a bench. That is one hell of a smile on her face. No one seems bothered by her noise though. I find it kind of cute. Do I still snore? My wife hated it, but this is a different body so maybe I don't anymore?

Oh yeah. There's the guilt. Damn. Yeah, if I ever get back? Can't be explained. Well, she'll have no problem replacing me. Probably be better off without me too. Even the kids... Castaway's girl ended up better off. Right? Great. Now I'm depressed. Fuck.

Is my body still there? Did I just, not wake up? Will there be a body for me to even go back too?

"...stay ...forgive"

Avi is whispering in her sleep. The others are strewn about the cabin. Like they were just tossed aside when they could go on no longer. Which, sigh, they were. I finally ran out of juice on top of Avi and I'm still on her. It must be hard to breathe, I'm not light.

I pull out as gently as I can and push myself up. Oh, didn't even notice Vira was on top of me. Roll her slowly to the side.

*virir*

That horse is close. Did we have an audience? We were definitely noisy enough.

Looking up I expect to see thru the carriage windows some dude jacking off. Couldn't blame them. These girls are all hotti- Red? Red's face is really, well, red. She's sweaty. Breathing rough. Eyes glazed over and staring straight at me. Her right arm is, yeah. Sam's happy time.

"Enjoying the view?"

"Eh?" I see her eyes start to focus as her brain fights its way out of the fantasy she's been in.

"Ah!" Her panicked look is cute. "M-my lord! W-we will be stop-ping for l-lunch soon!" How does her face get that amazingly red? "Forgive me!" And gallops off. Poor girl. She's been acting pretty condescending to me. Getting caught like that by someone you look down on? Gotta be humiliating for the kid.

Wait, she's actually older than me here. Yeah, still not used to that.

"[Embrace of Hygieia]"

The convoy stops and I'm able to mostly clean off the, uh, 'contaminates' from me, the girls, and, well, everything. Huh. Footprints on the ceiling. Plus I empty the carriage's chamber pot. Yes it was, 'used.' Full even. We'll just leave that part out of the next episode of 'how I met your mother.'

And what is up with the odor trifecta of blood, piss, and shit? I don't recall that in the isekai. This smell pops up so often its starting to feel nostalgic. The girls are not able to move, much, so I bring lunch to them. Its some sort of stew with bread. Again, who is the master here?

Hehe. If this was an isekai I would be going into super detail on ingredients, seasoning, preparation, etc, etc...

Hell, I would be cooking lunch myself and creating a five star feast. Pulling stoves and perfect cuts of meat out of my storage magi- Calm down. It's okay. Of course, I won't be doing this since I'm not much of a cook.

If I tried to get fancy? I would probably start a forest fire and poison everyone.

The girls are very groggy still so- Oh come on, you can't even feed yourselves? Big babies. Fine, but you are going to have to take turns.

"Oops, sorry Olete, spilled a little there."

?!

"Uh, t-thank you Seylia. L-licking it off her is a good way t-to, clean it up."

Oh damn. Now they are all spilling, and licking.

Shit, Chyal is casting that spell.

Oh boy.

"Whew."

Good. This time was gentler, more snuggling, more caressing, less pounding their minds into mush. The girls napping instead of fainting. Was actually refreshing for me. Didn't catch Red peaking this time but, I was preoccupied.

By the time we stop to camp? We've helped each other get dressed and I'm now surrounded by six beautiful smiles. They are glowing like that morning and happily chatting with each other. They've bonded again. It may be over my dick but hey, its a start.

The envious looks from guys, and girls, while we setup camp confuses me. At my age I would much rather take a nap than a toss. Snores before whores. Crap, wait, that's not my age here.

Well, at least this should settle them down.

"Make me forget."

With those words their attack began. I was an idiot to think it would be quiet for a while. That night each takes a turn on me. I couldn't move much due to the others pretending too sleep and refusing to let go of whatever part of me they had claimed.

Maybe letting them 'take charge,' helps the healing process? Gives them their 'girl power' back? Yeah, I got no fucking clue.

They are speaking with me again and, more importantly, each other. The day long orgy does not repeat though the nighttime mountings continue. Even create a schedule among themselves. At least the waking hours become what I need them to be for.

Training.

Sessions with Vira and Dara for the bow and crossbow. Olete, Seylia, and Edelys for the spear, and sword. Vira and Chyal for alchemy. Avi for etiquette. And then whoever is most knowledgeable for each school of magic.

Fortunately Red is decent with fire magic. However, we have no one familiar with the dark school. A rare magic apparently.

Did not want to waste any time so I had them also teaching language, spoken and written, cooking, riding, etc, etc... And while I'm sure they're exaggerating? The compliments on how quickly I'm learning feel good. Everything goes smoothly, with easily slaughtered monsters and bandits, until our sixth night.

Right before turning in for the night, I pick up... something.

Gilend, Edelys (female, human, tourinese)