Chapter 52 — Three Female Knights (5): How Blades Find One Another

Day twelve of our posting to the knight order. Morning.

Fuck. Perfect.

I opened my eyes to body heat pressing in from three directions. To my left, Karin—red hair tangled across my arm, muttering "mmmh... more..." in her sleep. Even asleep. To my right, Eva—her I-cup had annexed my entire side, her breast wrapped around my arm with no will of her own involved. Physically unavoidable contact. And on top of me, Sophie—curled up on my chest like a baby, black hair brushing my chin, her breathing slow and even.

...Heavy.

Three women's weight at once. Eva's I-cup alone was a considerable mass, and there were three of them.

But it didn't feel bad. It was warm, and they smelled good.

Fuck. So this was what a harem morning was like. I decided to keep pretending I hadn't noticed the scarier truth—that being this disgustingly happy was the frightening part.

Sophie woke first.

Her silver eyes fluttered open, blank... found my face... registered reality... and went red.

"...!"

She scrambled off my chest in a panic, and the movement woke Karin.

"Mmm... what... is it morning?"

Karin sat up rubbing her eyes. Her red hair had exploded. Only Eva stayed down, snoring.

Karin looked over at her. "Eva, get up."

"Mmn... five more minutes..."

"Get up."

Karin took Eva's cheek and pulled.

"Ow! Why'd you hit me!"

"I didn't hit you. I pulled you."

Eva bolted upright—blond hair flying in every direction, I-cup swaying with the momentum.

The four of us surveyed one another across the narrow bed. Karin: hair in full eruption, eyes bleary. Eva: blond tangles, a dried trail of drool at the corner of her mouth. Sophie: black bob immaculate, face a ripe tomato. Me: probably the most normal of the lot.

One second of silence.

Karin laughed first.

"Hahaha! Look at the state of us!"

Eva joined in.

"Karin, your hair's a total bird's nest!"

"Eva, you've got drool on your face!"

"Where?!"

Sophie hugged the blanket to herself at the foot of the bed and buried her face in it.

"...I'm too embarrassed."

"Sophie, you're shy now? After yesterday's 'please, more'?"

At Karin's straight-down-the-middle fastball, Sophie's ears went scarlet.

"Karin...!"

"It's true, isn't it?"

Eva pulled Sophie into a hug. "Sophie, you're adorable. How was last night?"

"...It was good."

"It was good? Oh, thank goodness!"

Eva gave her a shake, her I-cup bobbing right beside Sophie's face.

"Eva, your chest..."

"Ah, sorry, sorry. These keep bumping into things."

Morning sun spilled through the window. The four of us were still sprawled across the bed, and there was still an hour until training.

Eva crawled over to my side.

"Dohyun, it's morning. One more round?"

"Already?"

"They say if you do it in the morning, the whole day feels refreshed."

Her blue eyes glittered with mischief, and her hand slipped beneath the blanket to wrap around me.

"Uh..."

It was morning, and I was already up. Basic physiology. Any man's.

Karin looked at Eva.

"Eva, no hogging him. I'm doing it too."

"Karin, you got the most yesterday."

"Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today."

Sophie watched us quietly from inside the blanket, silver eyes half-hidden by the fabric.

"...Me too."

Three pairs of eyes turned to me at once.

So this was the morning greeting of three female knights.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Fuck. I couldn't even find a spare moment to work out when all this had become my everyday life.

Eva took the lead. The light was good in the morning—warm sunlight, nothing like last night's moon. Karin swept the blanket aside, baring the three of them, and what lay under the morning sun was a different creature entirely from the night before. At night, sensuality. In the morning, the beauty of health.

Eva's honey-toned skin gleamed gold in the light, her I-cup settling naturally under gravity—somehow softer in daylight than it had been by moonlight. Morning light fell across Karin's hard body and sharpened every line of muscle, a knight's body with shadows pooling between the cuts of her abs. And Sophie's pale skin looked even more translucent in the sun—from moonlight to morning light, black hair spread loose across the blanket.

"A feast for the eyes, first thing in the morning."

The words were out before I could stop them.

"Pervert." Karin laughed and smacked my shoulder.

"It was a compliment."

Eva arched into a stretch, her I-cup rising and settling back. Then she swept the blanket away entirely and swung herself astride me. Cowgirl. The morning sun caught her blond hair and lit it up gold, and her chest stood revealed in daylight—where last night's moonlight had made it sultry, the morning sun made it glow with health.

...Fucking gorgeous.

"Ngh... this early is a bit—"

I tried to protest, and Eva dropped herself down in a single motion.

"Haahh...!"

Eva's morning greeting. Taking all twenty-six centimeters at once.

She began to move her hips—not as ferociously as last night. It was morning, after all. A lazy rhythm, a slow pace unlike her.

"Mmm... the morning version goes slow..."

Eyes closed, she rode the rhythm, blond hair swaying at her shoulders, her chest rocking gently.

Karin watched from beside us for all of a moment, then gave up resisting and came around to my face.

"Dohyun, me too."

She kissed my lips. Eva moving below, Karin kissing from above.

"Mmm..."

Karin's tongue slipped into my mouth. The clumsy kiss from the front line had become practiced.

Sophie lay at my side holding my hand, her other hand stroking slow lines across my chest.

"...Your heart's beating fast, Dohyun."

She observed it in a small voice, silver eyes fixed on the pounding beneath my ribs.

Above us, Eva began to build speed. From slow to steady.

"Haah... why does it feel this good when it's only morning..."

She glanced over at Karin.

"Karin, aren't you going to lose your kiss?"

Karin pulled off my lips.

"You want a turn, Eva?"

"Obviously."

Eva kept working her hips and tipped her head toward her, and Karin rose up to press her lips to Eva's.

Eva riding me cowgirl while kissing Karin. Blond and red mingled together, two knights' lips meeting, tongues crossing, Eva's I-cup pressing flush against Karin's firm chest.

"Mmm..."

Their moans piled on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠top of each other.

Watching them, Sophie squeezed my hand harder.

"...They're beautiful."

She said it again, without meaning to.

Eva broke the kiss and picked up speed.

"Haah...! Dohyun...! I'll keep this morning's round light...!"

She crested fast—maybe her body was just more sensitive in the morning, because it was quicker than last night.

"Haahh...!"

Eva's morning climax. Her insides clamped down, and I couldn't hold on either. I came.

And then this woman, at the exact peak of it, drove her hips down even deeper. To the innermost point, where the mouth of her womb met the tip of my cock. And she stayed there, planted, with no intention whatsoever of pulling off.

"Ngh...! Eva, I need to pull out..."

"No... I learned last night that taking it this deep inside is the best part..."

Her honey-toned thighs locked around my waist and held me in place as my seed poured into her deepest point. Her womb writhed from within as if to swallow it whole—not a single drop to be spared. Whether Eva herself could feel the heat spreading through the inside of her honey-colored belly, her blue eyes had glazed over, hazy and half-lidded.

"Haah... took every last bit inside. Now that's a morning greeting."

She slumped onto me, then immediately rolled off to the side, and as she rolled, what overflowed traced a single line down the inside of her thigh. The part her body couldn't take.

"Haah... good morning. ...Though I really don't know if I should be taking this much inside on a day like this."

She rubbed her lower belly with her palm and smiled, satisfied—the expression of someone who had forgotten to count whether today was a dangerous day or not.

Karin climbed on right after her.

"My turn. But I set the pace."

Reverse cowgirl, learned from Eva. Karin lowered herself slowly with her back to me, and when I was buried to the hilt she swallowed a short curse. She hunted for the angle like she was running calculations, and her hips stopped dead at exactly the right spot.

"Fuck... right there."

The knight's back went taut. Instead of hammering fast, Karin moved on her own breath, and when I reached for her hips she smacked the back of my hand.

"I said I'd do it."

The words were firm, but a laugh hung on the end of them. In the end she peaked on the rhythm she'd chosen for herself, and collapsing forward onto my chest she left one remark.

"Too much for morning drills. Log it."

"You actually want that logged?"

"A knight only improves by reviewing her bouts."

Eva clutched her stomach, laughing.

Last was Sophie. She borrowed the other two's hands, but the movement she kept for herself. Slowly—stopping whenever she wanted to stop, continuing only when she could go on.

"Stay with me. But the signal is mine to give."

Karin and Eva each took one of her hands. No one pushed her pace along with [Suggestion]. When Sophie reached the end she had set with her own body, all three of them tightened their grip at once.

I couldn't hold on any longer either. Sophie gripped my hips and took all of me, to the very end, in the spot she had chosen herself. Rough words and ragged breath burst out of everyone at once—but when it was over, the first question spoken was only one.

"Are you okay?"

Sophie nodded, steadying her breath.

"Yes. This time, too, I chose it myself."

That one sentence stayed with me longer than any climax had.

The four of us lay tangled together, breathing slow. Sweat and skin and the lingering sweetness of fruit wine, all mixed into the air.

Eva laughed first.

"Someone knocked on the wall from the next room."

Karin snorted. "Yeah. Heard it."

Sophie's face flooded red.

"...I'm so embarrassed."

"Sophie, that's rich. After all that 'please, more' earlier?"

"Karin...!"

Sophie grabbed Karin's arm and shook it, and Karin laughed and hugged her.

Eva stretched with a groan.

"Aaah, refreshing. Best morning workout there is."

"Do not call it a workout, Eva."

"It literally is one. The calories you burn—"

"Shut up!"

Karin clapped a hand over her mouth. Eva went "mmph" and laughed with her eyes.

Sophie hugged the blanket and watched the two of them, silver eyes gone soft. A still-damp trace of last night clung to the inside of her thighs.

"...If we do this every day, I don't think we'll manage to train at all."

"Right? My thighs are still shaking. ...And if all three of us take that much inside every single night—"

Karin grimaced, running a hand down her leg, then let the sentence die and moved it to her lower stomach instead.

"A knight isn't supposed to have wobbly legs over something like this... we're not broodmares."

"That's exactly what we are right now, though."

Eva fired back without missing a beat, blue eyes glinting with mischief.

"Eva!"

"So what? Dohyun fills us up like this every single night. ...But seriously—doesn't it seem like if our dangerous days ever lined up, one of the three of us would end up round-bellied? That'd be a bit of a problem in the knight order."

"Eva, do not say that kind of thing so seriously...!"

Flushed as she was, Karin stroked her belly one more time—with an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expression that didn't look displeased. Sophie lowered her silver eyes and, saying nothing, laid her hand over her own lower stomach. Nobody had so much as breathed the word pregnancy, but all three of them were visibly thinking it.

Eva grinned.

"What are you going to tell Instructor Helga? 'My legs give out because of... intense night training last evening...'"

"Eva!!!"

The teasing went back and forth, and Sophie laughed quietly in the middle of it all.

I watched the three of them from the side.

These three were laughing because of me.

Karin's green eyes were bright—not the eyes that had been haunted by nightmares at the front. Eva's blue eyes genuinely shone—real, not the manufactured brightness she'd worn for three years. Sophie's silver eyes were warm—eyes in which four years of fear had begun to thaw.

All three of them were getting better. Undeniably.

Whether that made me a healer taking pride in his work or just a satisfied man, I couldn't separate the two. Probably both.

...Calling it "doing good" while rolling three women around a bed at the same time. Ethically it was the worst, and by results it was the best, and I still hadn't reconciled that contradiction. Maybe I didn't want to.

For now, breakfast came first.

Sophie was resting her head against my chest.

"Dohyun."

"Yes?"

"Tonight too... can we?"

Her silver eyes came up to mine—embarrassment and anticipation mixed together in them.

"Of course."

Sophie smiled, cheeks turning pink.

From "It's all right because it's you, Dohyun" last night to "can we, tonight too?" One day, and this much had changed. Her recovery speed astonished me.

The fear was still there. The memory of the name Rene Wolf hadn't been erased. But new experience was laying itself over that memory—a man being rewritten in her mind from terror into safety.

That was a good thing. ...Aside from the part where the overwriting was done with sex.

If my old psychology professor saw it, he'd have my license. A zero. A crisp, unblemished zero.

But there are no licensing boards in another world. And the results were good. Therefore, it was fine.

...Was it fine? Fuck. That same question had been orbiting the same spot for days now.

"Dohyun, what are you thinking about?"

Sophie asked.

"That I'm happy you're so much better."

"...Hehe."

She giggled, and her cheeks went redder still.

It wasn't a lie. Being only half a lie made the crime worse.

Karin sprang off the bed.

"Come on—morning training! Everybody up!"

"Karin, five more minutes..."

Eva burrowed under the blanket.

"No! If we're late, Instructor Helga will have our heads!"

Karin ripped the blanket away. Eva's I-cup sprang into view.

"Ah! Cold!"

"Get dressed!"

Sophie slipped quietly off the bed and began dressing. White dress on, black bob smoothed into place, one last glance back at me.

Her silver eyes were smiling.

"See you tonight."

She opened the door and left.

Karin followed, throwing me a wink on the way out.

"Dohyun, stock up your stamina for tonight."

Eva kissed my cheek as she left last.

"Special night training—continues!"

The door closed.

I lay alone in the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"...Stamina reserves."

Against three knights, I really would need them.

From outside the window came Karin's voice.

"Run! We're late!"

Eva's voice.

"Wait! My shoelace!"

Sophie's voice.

"...Hurry up, both of you."

A morning with three female knights.

Smiling, I closed my eyes. I needed whatever extra sleep I could get. Because there was tonight.

...The face grinning back at me from the glass overhead belonged to one happy bastard. Fucked up. The guilt could wait until after my next nap.

Noon. The main gate of the knight order.

A royal courier's carriage arrived, stamped with the Queen Consort's black seal. It had come to collect the original of the black tablet. Karin verified everything—the seal number, the courier's face, even the emblem on the carriage wheels.

I handed over the metal case wrapped in cloth.

"Deliver this directly into the Queen Consort's own hands. Do not open it, and do not touch it with bare skin."

"It will be done as commanded."

The courier stamped the royal seal onto the receipt. The patterns Karin, Eva, and Sophie had each copied down they kept individually, and I recorded the pattern and last night's sound in a separate report.

My [Mind Interference] reaches only human hearts. It cannot be worked on a box or a tablet. So today, all I could trust were the procedures people had left behind.

Toward dusk. The knight order's training grounds.

The three-person panic-response drill we'd promised the night before began. Three wooden swords, two smoke grenades, movable barricades across the entrances. Helga cleared the grounds for us without asking why.

The objective was simple.

The first smoke grenade burst. White smoke swallowed our sight, and at once the clang of shields being struck rang out from every direction.

Karin's breathing went short. Eva tried to force a laugh and ended up gritting her teeth. The tip of Sophie's wooden sword trembled.

I did not intervene.

"Karin—my voice."

Eva was the first to call out.

"Right of the exit. No enemies."

Karin recited where she was standing. Then Sophie rapped the ground once at her feet with her wooden sword.

"Stone floor. Capital City knight order. This isn't the front line."

Karin took Sophie's words and repeated them back. Eva thumped each of their shoulders once. One after another, all three sets of breathing lengthened.

Second smoke grenade. This time I toppled a wooden shield from the far side. Crash.

Sophie flinched—but she didn't reach for my hand.

"Eva, you don't have to force a smile. Just say your name."

"Eva. I'm here."

"Karin. Exit secured."

"Sophie. Both of you confirmed."

They built the formation themselves. When the smoke cleared, every wooden blade pointed outward, and not one of them had turned a sword on another.

Karin wiped her brow and grinned.

"Pass?"

"You didn't need me. So, pass."

Eva jabbed my ribs.

"I love hearing that, but it kind of stings."

"Independence is the treatment goal, remember."

"I know. Still—sad is sad."

Sophie laughed out loud, loudly, for the first time. The laughter was still there after combat training ended. That was the day's real victory.

While putting the training records in order, I spread the morning's receipt back open.

The Queen Consort's seal was untouched. The courier's number matched.

But beneath the seal ran a thin scratch that hadn't been there that morning.

They were scratches gouged into paper—I couldn't even turn [Memory Reading] on them. Karin pulled out the copy of the receipt she'd made that morning. The copy bore no scratches.

The black tablet was already on its way to the Capital City.

Someone had been watching us, right up to the moment we handed over the original.