Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1649 Content

Sylvaris did not answer with a word. The matron simply inclined her chin a degree, formal and quiet, the answer already on the air.

Her gaze moved one more position along the line and landed on Lyra.

"And his loyal hound. His amazing, amazing hound. You're a precious little gem, you know that, right, Juggernaut?"

Lyra's gauntleted hand twitched once on her hilt before going still again.

Nyxara let her gaze sweep all of them one last time.

Then the predator's weight receded.

It went out like a tide pulling away from the line, withdrawn but still present, the soil softening, the air thinning, the brittle edge sliding off every breath. Her shoulders eased back against the bark.

"Well, none of you have actually done anything wrong, really. There is nothing wrong with any of your actions, or how you treat my ruin. He offered you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and each of you accepted. Far be it from me to judge."

Orianna coughed pointedly into her closed fist. The cough was precise. It carried the unmistakable subtext of: 'you literally just severely judged me, though.'

Nyxara, with magnificent composure, ignored her.

"Lyra," she said.

The shieldmaiden's chin lifted.

"You're happy, aren't you?"

Lyra was silent for a long beat.

Then the pink-haired tanker nodded, serious and bright.

"Yes."

A breath.

"I am happier than I have ever been. I find purpose in protecting my lord and my friends. I have never, in my life, known what it feels like to belong this much to something."

Nyxara turned her attention to Sylvaris.

"Sylvaris."

Sylvaris's hands had been resting one over the other at the front of her gown. They stayed there.

"I am content with my place at my daughter's side and at the Holy Son's," the matron said, in the careful voice she used in council. "I do not wish to deepen the bond, however. The relationship as it stands is a beautiful one. I do not desire to tarnish it by taking the husband of my daughter."

A graceful pause.

"Forgive me, Lord Quinlan, if you are listening."

Nyxara inclined her head to Sylvaris and grinned. "I don't think either of them would think weirdly of you, though... In fact... Just think about it. Mother and daughter, sharing the same bed-"

"No." Sylvaris was firmer now.

"Hmm. Maybe once you age a bit more. Not even a millennium old, what a young and innocent lass~" Nyxara purred, and before the silver-haired elf could reply, moved on.

"Liora. Shallan."

The two veterans straightened a fraction in unison.

"We are happy that our Kaelira found her wish, my Lady," Liora said carefully. Shallan picked up the line without rehearsal. "But we... cannot imagine ourselves in the harem. Lord Quinlan is the most amazing man we have ever met." Another breath, shorter. "But he can also be... overbearing."

Nyxara giggled.

It was the first sound the apex predator had made that was actually warm. Her hand drifted to her own throat at the giggle's tail and rested over the line her ruin's hand had closed there, fingers trailing once across the place where his conquest once nearly suffocated her.

"Oh," she said, softly. "Yes. I can confirm. He absolutely can be."

Her cheeks went a faint pink.

The succubus collected herself in one breath and turned her gaze to Ria.

The blonde took an audible swallow.

"...I adore Lord Quinlan a lot," she said, the words pushed out careful and earnest. "But you are right, my Lady." Her chin dipped.

She said it softly.

Nyxara's expression eased.

"...Who knows, sweet thing," she said, in a voice the rest of the line had not heard her use yet. "Things can change. It can change for all of you... After all, his big heart has enough space for lots and lots of loving maidens~"

Ria's eyes did not lift, but the corner of her mouth twitched once.

The succubus's gaze moved on.

It landed on Raika.

The Brutalizer had been standing through the entire interrogation with her arms folded and her boots planted wide, half-watching half-waiting. She did not wait to be asked.

"No," Raika said. "I'm not happy one bit."

A breath.

"I want to beat the fucker up."

Nyxara giggled.

"Oh, darling."

The succubus tilted her head, fond and sharp at once.

"I'm afraid that ship has sailed and it'll never return."

Her pink eyes glittered.

"A few months ago, he could not have touched a strand of your hair. Now? Even if you dueled him a thousand times, you would never win."

Raika's gauntleted fist tightened at her side.

"...You don't know that."

"That's the thing, though~ I do~ With absolute certainty~"

Nyxara sang it, low and amused, the older edge slipping in for one syllable before it slipped back out.

"..." Raika's eyes narrowed into fiery slits.

Then Nyxara's gaze moved one final position.

It landed on Orianna.

Orianna looked back at her.

For a long beat, the Flower Queen did not move. Her mouth was set. Her composure was holding the same dryness she had walked into the realm with.

Then the dryness cracked.

She sighed.

"...You were right."

Orianna lifted her chin a degree, accepting it cleanly.

"I barely know him and he knows me even less." A pause. "I am not even [Subjugated]."

Nyxara smiled, then held the silence for a short bit.

"Sounds about right. So what will you do about it?"

...

A meter above the moss in the courtyard, Quinlan's awareness flickered as the seam pulsed back open at the foot of Rosie's tree.

The seven women stepped through one after the other.

His eyes opened a fraction inside the trance.

He watched as the seven of them lined up in front of him.

The Flower Queen walked to the foot of his hovering body, lowered herself onto one knee on the moss, and bowed her head toward him.

"I wish to join the family as a retainer, Bloodfather."

Her voice was clean and even.

"If you will have me, I will fight for you."

... I am sweating bullets over here. Will I be crucified after these chapters, I can't help but wonder... 

May the Goddess's Sexy Lacy Panties show mercy upon my poor soul.