Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Vahn awoke early the next morning and stared at the sleeping faces of the two girls for a few minutes before removing the orb from his inventory and entering into the black and white space. After playing around with Eva for a bit, Vahn noticed that Fafnir’s size hadn’t changed much and, other than its magical power and spell arsenal expanding, it seemed to have stagnated a bit. Since the ecology of dragons gave them a lifespan measuring hundreds of years, Vahn anticipated that Fafnir wouldn’t be able to grow much stronger without hunting and killing monsters in the future.

The two sparred for a bit and Vahn got some practical experience training with Eva for a few hours before he returned to his tireless work at the forge. He had gotten to the point where the majority of the items that he created were near the apex of B-Rank, while a number of them had crested into the A-Rank. Unfortunately, unless he put a lot of effort into a single item, Vahn was still far from the point where he could naturally create an S-Rank item. Other than a bit more experience with Shundo and a few intimate sessions with Eva, Vahn hadn’t gained much within the three days he was in the orb.

Awakening in the real world, Vahn waited for around an hour before an alarm clock that had been set by Milan the previous night began to ring. Similar to Tina, she seemed to be really bad with mornings and tried to ignore the alarm for almost ten minutes before finally removing the covers and stretching. Before she turned off the alarm, Milan looked to her left and could see Vahn staring at her face with a gentle smile that caused her to immediately blush as she fixed her night-gown that had opened slightly during the night.

After turning off the alarm, Milan began to get dressed for the day as Vahn helped awaken Tina who seemed to be immune to the ringing sound from earlier. Seeing the sleepy cat girl lazily get out of the bed before Milan helped her change, Vahn couldn’t help but laugh out a bit as he also began to change his clothes. Once everyone was ready, Vahn gave Tina her early morning pats before turning toward Milan and attempted to do the same. Unfortunately, Milan caught his hand mid-attempt and gave him a teasing smile before embracing him for a few seconds. It wasn’t overly intimate, but it did make Vahn feel a bit of warmth inside.

Vahn then helped the two prepare to open the Inn for the normal business hours before relieving Davi and Sasha from their duties. Tina set about going upstairs to gather the linens from any unoccupied rooms as Milan and Vahn began preparing breakfast for the early-rising patrons. By the time 7 AM rolled around, they had served around twenty customers and Vahn was in high spirits because of all the new things he was experiencing. Since Tina was busy doing laundry, Vahn ended up interacting with the customers a bit more and even recognized some of them from the past who gave him polite comments. There were a number of people who knew him as ’Vulcan’ and had congratulated him for his successful recovery.

Before he left the Inn, Vahn gave Tina a big hug and lifted her body off the ground when doing so. She seemed to be very happy by the new experience and even gave Vahn a kiss on the cheek moments before he let her go. Milan stood at the side with a gentle smile, but Vahn had no intention of letting her off as he returned her earlier embrace with one of his own. At this point, he was slightly taller than she was, so it was distinctly different than their past interactions. Vahn noticed the characteristic twitch of her tail which showed she was happy, even though she watched him leave the Inn with an ’angry’ look on her face.

Since Vahn had promised to meet up with Tiona and Ais for a date, he made his way to pick them up at the Twilight Manor. Though they could have met at a rendezvous point, Loki had asked him to pick them up personally since she wanted the rest of her Familia to get used to Vahn’s presence. There were still a number of disgruntled people that harbored some ill-will toward him, and Loki wanted to nip the problem in the bud by allowing Vahn unrestricted access into the Twilight Manor. This showed that he wasn’t simply, ’the guy that stole two girls’, but an important person that represented the Alliance between the Hephaestus and Loki Familia. There were few people that had been in the Familia for a long time that would dare try to approach him and find trouble since it would draw the ire of not only their Familia-mates but Loki herself.

Vahn was looking forward to the date, but he had also been mentally preparing himself for any trouble that might arise. Even though he was somewhat famous within the City, there were few people that bothered memorizing his features and face. This prevented the majority of people from recognizing him when he walked around normally, but now he would be escorting two beautiful and highly coveted women through densely populated areas. Since Tiona and Ais were both very strong, that meant that anyone brave enough to approach Vahn during their date would likely possess a certain degree of strength themselves.

Because of his constant forging and creating items, Vahn had obtained a large influx of OP from his time within the orb. Even when he mass produced weapons, he still obtained around 1,000 OP every three hours, which netted him around 15-20,000 OP every time he entered the orb. Even with his expenditures, Vahn was sitting on 243,529OP for emergency usages. As long as he wasn’t caught off guard, there would be few situations that he would be unable to deal with. There was also a very high probability that, even if Vahn couldn’t deal with the situation, either Tiona or Ais would step in and resolve the matters. However, Vahn wanted to avoid that situation since even the thought of it made him feel slightly awkward. It wasn’t that he thought ’men should protect women’, as both Tiona and Ais were incredibly strong, Vahn just wanted to be reliable in the hearts of the two girls.

When he arrived outside the Twilight Manor, there was a bit of a commotion in the reception area where several core members of the Loki Familia had gathered. When Vahn arrived, a lot of eyes gathered on him other than the five girls that were waiting for his arrival. Indeed, other than Tiona and Ais, the two he had asked out on the date, there was also Loki, Tione, and Lefiya waiting in the reception area. After they noticed his arrival, all of the girls had various expressions but they all seemed pleased to see him.

Almost as if it had been scripted, Loki had loudly welcomed Vahn to the Twilight Manor while both Tiona and Ais had taken turns giving him relatively reserved kisses. Unlike the passionate kiss they shared at their parting in the past, they were trying to act in a more reserved manner to practice a bit of self-control themselves. Vahn discovered that, though it wasn’t as ’intense’ as the previous times, it was actually somewhat enjoyable to savor the moment of the gentle embrace as he simply enjoyed the sensations they shared.

Ais seemed to always allow Tiona to kiss Vahn first, but she put in a little bit more effort to make up for going second. When Vahn finally parted with her, he noticed that the auras of some of the people in the surroundings had fluctuated slightly as Loki tried to step in and receive a hug of her own. She spread her arms wide and puckered her lips as if waiting for Vahn to accept her, but she instead received a bonk on the head from Ais who was standing slightly behind her.

After creating a bit of a scene, Loki ended up explaining to Vahn that it was safer for the entire group to go together, but she was denied participation by the other four girls immediately after the suggestion. Following that, Loki explained why she was having Tione and Lefiya accompany them on the date. Lefiya was considered to have the most developed sensibilities of the group and would keep them out of trouble, while Tione may be required to reign in Tiona if things got out of hand. Riveria was also supposed to accompany them, but she ended up declining since she didn’t want to ’babysit’ the entire group.

Though Vahn had only planned to accompany Tiona and Ais for the day, he couldn’t help but agree with the decisions that had been made by the group before his arrival. He was the most aware of how Tiona could get out of control, and there was a fair chance that Ais alone wouldn’t be able to stop her. Imagining himself being attacked by the voracious Amazoness in the middle of a crowded area, Vahn was actually somewhat grateful for the assistance. Tione and Lefiya also didn’t seem to mind the situation at all, so Vahn didn’t have much room to complain. If anything, the only comment Vahn wanted to make related to the fact that things had developed in a direction where he was the one accompanying the girls, instead of the other way around.

It was fortunate that he had left the majority of his unnecessary items within the orb since Vahn assumed he would likely end up carrying a variety of goods for the four girls. Even though they might not be ’normal’ girls in some sense, they were still women and were very fond of shopping. Having someone with ’storage magic’ on hand would remove any inhibitions they might have had about purchasing items on the date since they wouldn’t have to lug them around on their own.

Since everyone present ware all adventurers, the location for the date ended up being Babel Tower and, as expected, the group ended up doing a lot of shopping. Though they were all very satisfied with the weapons Vahn had created for them, it didn’t stop the girls from checking out a variety of different types of equipment and discussing countermeasures against certain types of enemies. Vahn didn’t mind the situation as it was very informative, and he even enjoyed how excited everyone got when they were talking about their exploits in the dungeon.

The date didn’t only relate to matters about equipment and the dungeon though since both Tiona and Ais had made an effort to display their affections in public. Tiona naturally had no inhibitions about the situation and actively clung got Vahn as they walked through the tower. Ais showed a bit more reservations and just held onto his hand while the trio drew a variety of different looks from the various passersby. Even though the majority of the looks were borderline malicious, Vahn actually felt a bit of pride at being able to escort the two beautiful girls on each arm.

After the group had eaten lunch, things took a slightly different turn, though they were still related to shopping. Instead of looking for weapons and armor, the girls had decided to shop for swimsuits and casual wear. Vahn ended up being the designated judge as the girls lined up various types of clothing against their bodies for his ’approval’. Tione had immediately jumped on board and, though she resisted at first, Lefiya ended up being involved later. As the only person that had been left out previously, she didn’t have a lot of resistance left to refuse.

Tiona and Tione hardly wore clothing that concealed their bodies, so the swimsuits they wanted to purchase barely had any fabric at all. After selecting several, the two girls entered the changing rooms while Ais and Lefiya picked slightly more reserved swimsuits for themselves. Ais didn’t seem to mind what she wore, but the fiercely blushing Lefiya had refused to let her wear anything that had been picked by the two Amazons.

As they had entered first, Tiona and Tione exited the changing rooms shortly after they entered. Since their clothing was minimal to begin with, it was also very easy to remove and they didn’t take long to change into the swimwear at all. Tiona had decided on a leafy green swimsuit that had a top very reminiscent of a sports bra but only had one strap over the shoulders. The bottoms were similar to the white shorts she always wore except they seemed to ride into her skin a bit more. Overall, the swimsuit really enhanced her incredibly fit figure and lively appearance.

Tione’s swimsuit could hardly be called a swimsuit at all. She had decided on something very similar to a bikini with a black fabric that only covered the important bits. The entire thing was held together by strings and it didn’t look like it could actually be used in the water at all. At this point, her b.r.e.a.s.ts were only around a B-Cup, and she really stood out within the store. After asking Vahn for his impression, he told her honestly which caused her to puff out her chest in pride as she stared at Tiona with a taunting look. Vahn had said to her, "You have a very fit body and the swimsuit compliments your features well. I think the black color suits your healthy-looking brown skin."

Tiona seemed to be inspired by his words while at the same time being annoyed by her own sister. After making a comment about her inability to win over Finn, she grabbed a small black swimsuit of her own and beat a hasty retreat back into the changing rooms. Since Ais and Lefiya had also gone to change, that left the incredibly frustrated Tione standing outside with the patiently waiting Vahn who had a slight gleam of anticipation in his eyes. He couldn’t help but feel happy with the current situation that allowed him to view the figures of the girls and even pay them compliments in a natural manner.

While Vahn was standing there with a somewhat silly smile on his face, Tione had been gritting her teeth after the parting remark of her sister. After she had tried to forcefully sneak into Finn’s room after the tryst between Vahn, Tiona, and Ais, Finn ended up forcing her to sit on her knees as he explained the situation to her. Since he had dedicated his entire life to the Pallum race, there was no way he could accept Tione’s advances in the future. Though he respected her ’love’ for him and would allow her to continue her pursuit, he informed her that he could only marry and have children with a Pallum. He even informed her that he had made a vow with Loki before he agreed to join her Familia in that regards and was unwilling to stray from the path he had decided.

This revelation didn’t do anything about Tione’s feelings for Finn since it was his self-sacrificing mentality that drew her to him in the first place. It did, however, make her feel no small amount of frustrations knowing there was little to no hope her love would bear fruit. As an Amazon, she had a powerful compulsion to have children, and though she could cope, for the time being, watching her sister enjoy a happy love-life was slowly whittling away at her self-restraint. Looking over at the ’silly’ face of Vahn as he waited for the other girls to change, Tione couldn’t help but clench her fists a bit.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Soon(TM)’,’Baggage Emperor Vahn’,’The Luckiest Man in the World’)

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