Germania (1)
The day after a steamy night with the wives, our family and Veronica hashed out the business trip to Germania over breakfast.
“I didn’t ask, but Tirsi’s probably swamped with work.” I said, peeling the crust off my bread. Tirsi had been busy even in autumn; winter wasn’t going to slow her down. After all, her place was basically a cosmetics research lab.
“If we schedule things in months-long blocks, anyone who can’t make time will just have to sit this one out.” Dana said, even though she herself carried the title of lab director. Look at this big sister of mine, living the carefree life. She wasn’t even a freeloader, yet she acted like she’d transcended the whole concept of weekdays and weekends.
Franc, who had been feeding the stray cat Teresa, tilted her head and asked, “Dana, are you really okay with this? You won’t have to stay behind because of work, right?”
“Inter-university collaborations, on-site inspections—plenty of excuses. Even if I move on my own authority, as long as I deliver results it counts as an achievement for the lab. And if any research requests come in while I’m gone, the kids at the lab can handle the contracts.”
“Look at you, big sis. Got your doctorate and now you’re turning into a professor. I just got chills.”
“Yeah. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night and see your face, my spine tingles too. I guess this is what love feels like.”
“Aha. That’s just you being turned on.”
“Wow. So our husband is turned on by a professor?”
“Sis, please. Save the barking and moaning for the bedroom. Don’t turn your husband into some kind of professor fetishist.”
“Yes, next up: professor-philia.”
“Ah, you fucking bitch.”
Our wife’s blunt, professor-crushing tongue was in fine form today. Hard to believe that same slick, well-oiled tongue had been licking my dick clean just moments ago. ‘So this is what they mean by day-and-night personality shift.’
Maybe next time I’ll strip her while she’s asleep and give her a good pounding. Probably because my balls periodically use mana to recharge the juice-dragon’s breath pouch, my libido seemed to scale with my mana capacity. ‘Ever since I absorbed that ogre bastard’s mana, my sex drive really has gone up.’
I thought back to the recent promotion exam. The spoils I’d brought home were more than I expected:
1. Leveling up Beast Regression through rage.
2. Expanding my mana capacity and acquiring Odin’s rune mana.
3. Promotion from Bronze to Silver Class.
4. Odin’s message and Veronica joining the party.
5. Mana auxiliary battery and rune stone lecture ticket.
It had only been a Bronze promotion exam, yet clearing an ogre raid in one shot felt pretty damn good. Among all the gains, the one affecting my daily life the most was surprisingly the mana capacity expansion. ‘At this rate, am I going to have to jerk off once per step?’ What happens when the day comes that I can’t even handle my own libido? It wasn’t something I could just laugh off. After all, I was a man with two sets of balls—the standard pair in my crotch, and the juice-dragon’s breath pouch that was a side effect of Beast Regression.
So on weekdays, when I wasn’t on holiday, both my mana and my libido sat right on the edge of exploding, like I was on day three of a no-fap streak. Since I couldn’t work if my mana ran dry, I naturally ended up with excess libido on days I kept emergency mana in reserve. At times like that, just seeing Franc’s smiling face or the nape of Dana’s neck was enough to make my dick stand at attention. I had literally become human Viagra. If they checked my blood Viagra levels, I’d probably lose my license.
Lately I’d even started feeling the urge to masturbate. ‘Back when I first arrived in Sargadis I barely even thought about jerking off.’ I was still a guy, so it wasn’t like I never did it, but this goddamn other world made finding material a nightmare. It wasn’t completely impossible, but what twenty-first-century man would jerk off to something that looked like Joseon-era erotic woodblock prints? Fuck. If I’d known I was going to end up in another world, I should’ve majored in art. If self-sufficient fapping had been possible, I could’ve become a sexual ouroboros—drawing with my left hand while jerking off with my right, a perpetual motion machine of pleasure.
While I was busy having these completely useless thoughts, the wives and Veronica were wrapping up their discussion.
“Then I’ll keep in mind that we’ll have about a week to prepare. Since I also need time to adjust to moving in a body free of the curse, it should be sufficient.” Veronica said after taking a sip of water. Dana’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.
“You’re coming with us? We’re grateful, of course, but the ruin we’re heading to probably has nothing to do with your tribe’s magic. If we’re unlucky it might even be a wasted trip.”
“As long as I won’t be a hindrance, please take me along. The materials needed to recover the memories of the Sky God can be obtained more quickly in Germania. And even if that weren’t the case, I wish to be of help to all of you.”
“Materials you need?”
“A medium to help maintain sanity inside dreams. When humans dream, their consciousness grows hazy. If you wish to act wisely, you must secure it.”
Ah, so it was that tea Veronica had prepared before. Back when I’d been so far gone I called her a blowjob handle, drinking that tea had brought me back to my senses. Without it, the three of us entering a dream would’ve resulted in nothing but a 100% dream-sex party. And my bed would’ve turned into a rich cream cake made of my own nocturnal emissions. Just thinking about it was horrifying.
“Let’s bring her. If a fight breaks out, Veronica will be useful.” I raised my hand in support. Even aside from Seidr, having more combat power was never a bad thing. Veronica could simply release her transformation during battle, blast something big in goddess mode, then return to normal. Her cooldown and after-cast delay were ridiculously long, but her firepower was like a heavy cannon. The staff of Walking-Ala… no, the staff of the Sky God. That name sounded ridiculously strong. ‘If the Underground Tower is any indication, Germania’s ruins won’t be a simple chaotic ruin-exploration either.’
I calmly weighed the risks and returns. If our party tried to clear it alone, the difficulty would be several times higher than the Underground Tower. There wouldn’t be other adventurers to split aggro like last time. If we couldn’t handle it ourselves, I’d add a sub-plan of selling information to nearby parties for money.
“While Dana’s handling the lab handover for a week, including the boat ride to Germania, we’ll have plenty of time left. Veronica? In your free time, teach me that Seidr thing.” I said while dividing my soup into seventeen equal portions with a spoon. Searching for a god’s memories inside a dream sounded insanely difficult no matter how I looked at it. No one even knew how many months it would take just to learn dream-manipulation magic. ‘I’ll have to learn it little by little whenever I have spare time.’
At my words, Veronica half-closed her eyes like she was flipping a bookmark she’d stuck between neurons and answered, “My apologies for the insufficient explanation, but dream-manipulation magic and Seidr are entirely separate spells. Therefore, it would be best if you learned the dream magic while your wives learned the principles of Seidr.”
“Is that how it works?” Franc blinked and replied. She had been surprised when Veronica first mentioned doing Seidr with me, yet she didn’t seem flustered at the idea of having to do it herself. Then again, she’d had my cum smeared on her chest this very morning, so what was there to be embarrassed about?
“Originally, men who performed Seidr were despised and called shameful. There is even a legend that the Sky God was mocked by the God of Play after using Seidr, so it would not be proper to teach it to Nord.” Veronica explained in response to Franc’s question. “Of course, for whatever reason, the Sky God always appeared in female form inside your dreams.”
“Probably transformed into an old man when appearing before others.” Odin’s true form was probably the eyepatch-wearing female college student I’d seen. During her prime, when she performed the self-deification ritual thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, Odin had been in female form. ‘No matter how strong she was, it would’ve been hard to earn respect looking like that.’ This other world was full of rabbit-duo types whose appearance and stats didn’t match, but the prejudice against looking young was the same. Even a high-school girl who had mastered killing techniques couldn’t match the raw power of a mature lady who had honed the same skills for another ten years. Without other variables, that seemed the most logical reason, though honestly I wasn’t particularly interested in the gender identity of that primitive Deutsch chieftain.
“Anyway, the principle of Seidr is simple. You’ve all succeeded at it by accident before, haven’t you? I’ll teach you the dream-manipulation magic, so try it together with your wives.” Veronica said. She looked drained because she’d barely touched her food, claiming she had no appetite due to the curse’s side effects. She probably didn’t want to stick her nose in a plate while in horse form.
“If Seidr succeeds, I, who have connected my mind with Nord, will also be pulled into the dream. At that time I can offer advice from the side. Of course, to do that we’ll still need to obtain the materials in Germania so we can maintain our sanity even inside the dream.”
“Got it. Our tasks are set.” —Slurp. I finished my soup and spoke. “First, once we reach Germania, let’s visit the library of a nearby university. Neither I nor Dana knows every thesis, so we’ll look for papers on Odin or research records on rune stones.”
Since there wouldn’t be any information about the ruin we were going to explore—if there had been, someone else would’ve already chewed it up, torn it apart, tasted it, and enjoyed it—gathering that much would be enough.
“While we’re looking into what we can, let’s find the ruin. Once we locate and investigate it, we can buy the materials for Seidr from the mage guild in a nearby city and call it done. Simple enough.”
“Hehe. Still, it’s gonna be super busy.” Franc said with a bright smile. She wasn’t wrong. Considering the budget for our stay, we might be running around without a moment to breathe. There wouldn’t be any money-making opportunities during the ruin exploration, after all. ‘Still, the rough outline of the plan is pretty much set.’ It looked like we’d be staying in Germania through the winter. Since we had to go to Romania next spring, we’d probably end up leaving the house we just bought empty for a long time.
“Then I’m going to stop by the adventurer guild to ask about the promotion exam results. Anyone want to come with?” I asked while clearing the dishes and getting ready to leave. Veronica, who had helped with cleanup in her divine form and ended up looking like an overheated pony, flicked her tail.
“I would like to go, but this form would only draw attention… My apologies, but could you perhaps purchase furniture for me to use? I’ll pay, of course.”
“Yeah. We’re taking the money from your wallet?”
“Please do… A bed and a table will be enough…” Veronica said like a final testament and stopped moving entirely. Hey, go die in the yard. If you die here the floor’s going to get all wet.
“Husband. Since you’re going out anyway, let’s go together.”
“Then I’ll come too. I want to stop by Larilura’s place as well.” Dana, already wearing her coat, said. Franc, who followed after putting on thick clothes, looked ridiculously cute because of the height difference—she was all round and fluffy. I wanted to bite her cheeks.
So the three of us left the house together.
“I’ll go talk to the lab. Make sure you’re back before it gets too late.” Dana parted ways with us in the middle. If we were going on a business trip to Germania, she’d need to finish the handover and appoint an acting director. That said, I should probably show my face to her coworkers soon.
“Franc. What’s Larilura been up to while I was gone?” I linked arms with Franc so she wouldn’t get cold in the autumn weather. Franc pressed her cheek against my elbow and answered.
“Larilura officially registered with the mage guild. She had that money from the circus troupe arrest reward, right? So she said once Tirsi comes back she’s going to ask to be taken on as a disciple.”
“Ah, right?” Now that she mentioned it, I remembered. She’d said something like that even when I first heard about the promotion exam. She wanted to learn magic and put on even greater shows. Larilura seemed to be energetically investing in her own future. ‘Tirsi probably won’t refuse.’ The mage guild encouraged its members to take on mentors to prevent accidents, but frankly it was also part of the otherworlders’ networking wars. Tirsi had both a calculating side and a kind personality. She’d happily accept a proposal that let her add something to her résumé while also helping her party members grow closer.
—Step, step. We arrived at the inn after cutting through the chilly wind that stung our cheeks. For some reason, psychedelic pink hair was standing outside the inn.
“Huh?” The person, dressed in casual clothes, had been blowing on their hands when they spotted me and brightened up, shouting, “Senior♡! Welcome☆!”
This kid never changed. I couldn’t help but smile wryly at Larilura, who was waving her arms like a kindergartener who’d just spotted her dad.