Book 3: Chapter 22

Aurora put on her Sunday finest, a short dress, that with the baby bump, just barely covered her hips and butt. For a pregnant woman, she exuded a charm and sexiness mixed with maturity that even many of the older women in the harem could not achieve.

“So, really, a picnic?” I ask nervously.

“Yes, hero-san, is a picnic no good?”

“Ah, not no good. In fact, I’d consider it very normal.”

“Normal?” Aura asks with a slightly worried look.

I shake my hands. “I mean, normal is good! It’s just been a couple of weird days for me, so I could use a little normal right now.”

“Is that so…” Aura still looks uncertain.

The pair of us head out to the local park I created earlier that week. It quickly grew quite popular among the city. It had a playground that was safe for kids to play in, and gave a lot of people a chance to be outdoors in an area without the threat of monster attacks.

That’s how I ended up sitting next to the mother of my child on a blanket on a nice sunny day while picking over the contents of a basket prepared by Jasmine. It is actually going a little too well. I feed Aura a grape as my frown, looking for the thing that’ll make everything go weird.

“Hero-san… is everything okay, you seem distracted.”

“Yeah… it’s just… have you noticed that the girls in the harem can be a little weird?”

“What?” Aura wears an incredulous look and then laughs. “Hero-san, you can’t consider anything about our lives the last month or two to be normal.”

“True… I guess.”

“But… it’s been fun.”

“Hmm?”

“Hero-san… I didn’t know what you thought of things when I chose to leave with you. I did it for my daughter’s sake initially. Each day I see her with you, I see her smiling brightly. She never used to do that, in the past…”

“Is that so? What about you?” I ask cautiously.

“Hero-san…” She looks down. “Do you by chance know anything about the marriage vows of this world?”

“No…” I shake my head.

“In this world, we give an oath, not just to stay together, but to complete each other. To me, these always felt like empty words when I spoke them to my husband. Then, I met you.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You… complete me, hero-san. You make me feel like a woman. With the king, I always felt like I was missing something. I felt like I was a bird in a cage. With you, I truly feel free. With you, I truly feel like me.”

“I thought you might be a little bothered by how Ariel turned out.”

Aura chuckled softly. “Ariel’s behavior… it’s as much our fault as it is yours. However, the kind of woman Ariel is… she isn’t bad, is she?”

“No… she isn’t bad.” I agree.

Aura reaches down to get something from the picnic basket. At that moment, a squirrel suddenly bursts out of the basket. It has some food in its mouth as it leaps out over her hand and onto her shoulder before jumping away onto the trunk of a nearby tree. Aura let’s out a cry of surprise, falling back hard on her butt. Immediately, she grabs her stomach and makes a pained noise.

“Fuck! Are you alright?” I ask hurriedly.

“I’m fine. I’m fine, I was just surprised.”

“I’m going to kill that fucking squirrel!”

“Kill? Hero-san, it’s just a rodent.”

“A rodent with beady eyes and fucking teeth and the claws and the biting!”

“Uh…”

“If you’re suggesting I have some kind of deep-rooted trauma from a horde of mice I had to kill last night, that’s just crazy!”

The squirrel is now on a tree branch above me, looking down with evil eyes as it taunts me, chewing on the food it stole at the expense of my pregnant woman.

“Hero-san, is this really necessary? I know you’re a good man. You wouldn’t murder a poor defenseless animal.”

I growl as I look up at the demonic rodent, waiting for it to leap down and attack my neck.

“Alright, how about this. I’ll cast a spell aimed at the squirrel. It’ll give the squirrel a punishment I see fit. If deep down, I want it dead, it’ll die. If deep down, I want to let it go, it’ll escape.”

Aura’s eyes narrow and then she smirks. “This I’d like to see. What is my baby’s father’s true nature.”

“Oh ho… you’re underestimating me. This squirrel is fucking dead!” I declare, raising my hand. “See your death, squirrel!”

I shoot a spell of light at the squirrel. It moves so fast the squirrel has no time to react. It strikes the squirrel, immediately enveloping it in a bright light.

C-c-c-c-crack! The branch the squirrel was on cracks, and I have to move fast to jump out of the way as a large object crashes down on my picnic, splashing plates and food everywhere.

I glare down at the object in question.

“Huh?”

“Squeak?”

A naked girl with two large front teeth, red-brown hair, freckles, and big bushy tail is staring up at me.

“So, it’s settled, hero-san’s nature is to turn it into a fuckably-hot 17-year-old girl.” Aura suggests with a laugh.

“Squeak!” The squirrel girl jumps up and immediately stumbles away on all fours with a fearful look on her face.

Even with a human-like body, she manages to move quickly, fleeing across the park. There are screams as people see the naked girl prance by on all fours. Meanwhile, I'm just staring down with a blank look on my face, lost about what to say. Aura stands up carefully and pats my shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s come to my realization that the most common thread between all of your weird dates…” Aura gives a light smile. “… seems to be you.”