Chương 309: Reward

"AHN AHN!"

"HARDER!"

"There, RIGHT THERE!"

"OH YEEEEEES!"

If someone had walked into Alex's room within the villa at that moment, all they would have seen is the very picture of debauchery and indulgence as he, and his small army of maids, writhed in ecstasy and pleasure. After Xia-Long signed a contract with Alex swearing the allegiance of the Miao family towards him, the former had returned to his estate to inform his people of the new state of things and to set the new alliance with the Huang family in motion, which had been agreed between him and the next head of the Huang family, Fang-Fang. What Alex hadn't expected was that, after a few flowery words from the feminine appearing Fang-Fang, Xia-Long had an awkward look on his face while Fang-Fang seemed to have a slight blush to his cheeks, an interaction that only made him think, 'As expected from the gay faction of Tskune's harem.'

After that they had finally gotten some rest for the short remainder of the night, before having a relatively uneventful next day considering the events of the day and night before. When the sun had set once again, Alex and the others retired back to Asora as usual before entering the space-time orb, where he gave the combat maids the chance to ask for a reward for their performance the day before. Naturally, Altina, Francesca, Tracy, Venri, and the former apostles all requested to spend the night with him, a reward Alex felt was somewhat lacking since he always made sure not to leave his women alone for too long; while Eri seemed like the only one truly being rewarded since she requested the same thing, which led to Alex finally taking her virginity since he couldn't really think of a good argument not to, she was however one of his only girls on some kind of birth control.

As for Ishigami and Mako, the duo requested their freedom, which was promptly denied, before they were ultimately dragged into the room along with the rest of the girls and were forcibly stripped to join in on the fun. Ishigami hadn't been too interested until she saw the exceptionally beautiful girls getting naked and playing with each other, leading to a few drops of blood to escape her nose before trying to say her usual lines about art, until Tracy effectively shut her up by shoving the woman's face into her crotch to eat her out instead. Mako however had been hesitant about joining in until the group of apostles attacked her with all of the knowledge they had accumulated up until this point regarding pleasing a woman, leading to the most pleasurable experience she had ever had until her master had decided it was her turn to be with him, leaving her sprawled out on the bed with her face stuck with a perfect ahegao expression once he was through with her. As he moved on to fucking Francesca as roughly as possible due to her own request, Alex couldn't help but glance over to the side where a certain trio were gathered, Akeno, who was dressed in her bondage gear with a cart of various instruments nearby, Altina, who was strung up from the ceiling with her legs spread in a perfect M shape, and the newest edition to the combat maids who was strung up in a similar way, Routier.

Other than the fact that she had basically been stripped naked during her fight with Kuroka, more than likely due to the influence of his 'Lucky Pervert' skill, Alex hadn't shown any interest in the super sadistic oni that might have led to her joining them. Instead she had surprisingly requested it when Xia-Long tried to take his assassins back to the Miao family estate with him, as she had apparently become infatuated with the way he had tortured and killed Shun-Wu, before reviving him once again only to kill him a second time. This had surprised Alex since in the original series it had strongly indicated her and Xia-Long meaning more to each other than master and subordinate, however, with it still being more than a year before their original introduction, Alex figured they simply hadn't gotten to that point in their relationship yet. Though he was originally going to refuse, Grayfia had surprisingly agreed with the condition she join the combat maids. Though she had explained to Alex that the combat maids could use the extra hands, her real reasoning was that they could also use someone who wouldn't hesitate to get their hands dirty, though she would need to be taught to not be excessive in her actions. And so, the petite oni found herself also within Alex's room as he was rewarding the maids, except she was being 'trained' by Akeno instead of participating in the fun.

"Ufufufu, how does this feel?" Akeno asked with her usual sadistic gleam in her eyes, before the crack of a whip sounded amongst the moans and sighs that sounded within the room, making Routier cry out lightly with pain as the whip struck on the inside of her thigh near her special place, however the fluids smearing her thighs indicated she was feeling better than she let on as she shouted,

"Haa, haa, you think this is pain? Let me out of these restraints and I'll show you pain! Haa, haa." Akeno frowned when she heard that, as she had admittedly been going easy on the petite woman, leading to her putting the whip back onto the cart as she contemplated what to use next. Her eyes immediately landed onto her strap-on, but since Routier said she was 'pure' she instantly dismissed it since their master would be the one to take anyone's purity, no matter which hole it was. After several minutes of thinking a sadistic smile appeared on her face as she decided to take another approach, and instead picked up a strip of cloth.

"Let's try this then, ufufufufu." Akeno said as she wrapped the cloth around Routier's eyes to blindfold her, before grabbing a ball gag and placing it into her mouth before latching the strap behind her head. With the little oni now blinded and gagged, Akeno chuckled before she picked up something else from the cart that made Altina's eyes go wide, even as she fought the pleasure the toys within her were giving her while she patiently waited for her turn. Unable to see or comment on what Akeno was doing, Routier could only wheeze through the gag as she tried to listen for some kind of indication of what was about to happen, before she felt something just barely touch her right nipple. Her entire body tensed in response to the touch, however, instead of the pain she was expecting, she instead only felt a sensual ticklish sensation as Akeno used a feather to play with the tip of her nipple before swirling it around her diminutive breasts.

"Phiiii, phiiii!" Even though what she was feeling wasn't 'pain', and she was unable to speak, it was obvious Routier was feeling some form of torment from Akeno's actions as the sounds from the ball gag were becoming rougher and louder, and her skin became more flushed. As Akeno traveled further down with the feather, making it dance across Routier's belly, the little oni struggled against her restraints to no avail, despite her usually impressive strength, as the desperate need to settle the sensations she was feeling grew.

"Ara ara..." Akeno mused as she watched Routier struggle from when she put the tip of the feather into her belly button, before bringing it down further slowly and teasingly. By this point Routier was desperately seeking a release from the growing tensions in her body, and could almost feel a certain amount of relief with where Akeno was going with the feather, until the sadistic woman stopped right before she reached the eagerly dripping slit, and instead took the feather to the right and down Routier's inner thigh. Seeing the dissatisfaction and frustration her partner felt, Akeno's smile widened as she mused,

"Ara ara, you didn't think I would let you climax that easily, did you?" Even as she paused as if to let Routier respond, all Akeno heard was the usual high pitched 'phiiii, phiiii!' She chuckled seductively at this and said, "no no, we can't have that, you'll need my permission before you can climax." She then proceeded to teasingly and torturously trace the feather around Routier's thighs and abdomen for several minutes, keeping her on the cusp but never letting her pleasure peak. After what felt to Routier like an eternity, but wasn't even ten minutes, she started moaning through her gag as if she were trying to say something, making Akeno ponder wether or not to remove it before ultimately deciding to see what she wanted. The second the gag popped out of her mouth Routier pleaded,

"Please, make it end!" Akeno smirked somewhat victoriously before she asked with a teasing tone,

"Make it end....?" Realize what Akeno wanted her to say, Routier gritted her teeth since she knew there would be no going back from this, but as the feather just barely traced across her sensitive mound she suppressed the urge to cry out as she was once again pushed to the very edge, but was refused the chance to climax once more. With no other choice she cried out,

"PLEASE MAKE IT END, MISTRESS!" Smirking in satisfaction, Akeno unhesitatingly placed a couple fingers from her empty hand against Routier's mound before running very small amounts of electricity through her fingers, pushing the little oni over the edge as a flood of fluids soaked her hand. As a sense of relief appeared on Routier's face, Akeno removed the blindfold before leaning in close while tracing her fingers around the little oni's precious place teasingly, before even tracing them back to her rectum while saying,

"Just remember Routier, I may be your mistress, but someone else is our master. every bit of you, no matter how 'private' or 'special', belongs to him. That is what you asked for." As she came down from her high, Routier couldn't help but nod in acceptance of what Akeno said even though that wasn't at all what she intended when she requested to follow Alex. Her only goal had been to possibly torture people for him, as someone in a similar position as Alex was bound to have prisoners or enemies that needed tortured, and to possibly learn his way of bringing people back to life so that she could kill and cut them up however she wanted and just bring them back to do it all over again. She didn't think anything of it when the woman called Grayfia then scouted her into the position of the combat maids, as it appeared they would see their share of battles in the future, or when Grayfia then mentioned that relationships with anyone besides her master were forbidden, as a preventive measure to keep any of the maids from having outside loyalties.

Routier's first thought when she had been told this was that of herself in Akeno's position as she repeatedly cut up the man who was now her master, before he used their peculiar magic to heal himself and they'd start all over. She never imagined that she'd be stripped completely naked and strung up within his personal bedroom while he was in the middle of an orgy, only to be the one 'tortured' and 'trained' instead while he occasionally watched. Never in her almost twenty years had she been so thoroughly humiliated and oppressed, something that went against every fiber of her being as an oni, however she also couldn't deny that she had also just experienced one of the largest climaxes she ever had. She couldn't help but feel a sense of relief though when Akeno left her to start her work on Altina, starting with grabbing a different whip than before that channeled her lightning magic down it to increase the pain it's victims felt.

***

As the day stretched on within the space-time orb, a certain figure was within her new home on a floating island that had recently joined the several that surrounded the villa, or floated out away from it in solitude. This particular island had incredibly dense forests of bamboo bordering the edges before they gave way to forests of trees with yellow or red leaves, giving it the look of a perpetual autumn as the leaves fell and flew through the air. Toward the interior of the island was a mountain that had a small single story house at its base built in a traditional Japanese style, with ponds and cherry blossom trees surrounding it, before giving way to a small courtyard where one could find many traditional items used in training ones swordsmanship. Away from the house was a a small lake, and on the other side of it was a ring used for sparing that was crowned by a giant tree with red leaves, where the sole inhabitant of the island was currently in deep meditation.

Shizuku breathed in deeply before releasing her breath after several seconds as she once again tried to clear her mind, a process that had been getting harder to do with the growing number of people around the villa before she finally broke and requested an island of her own. This time however the issue with her meditation wasn't due to people, but image of a person's blood covering her hands as she silently cut their throat in the darkness. Though it wasn't enough to be considered a trauma, Shizuku was still having a bit of a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she had killed people in cold blood, even though they had been revived later. Even when she had fought or killed before it had always been during battle when it was kill or be killed, however what she had done the night before was purely murder, even if the other party were assassins.

Shizuku tried once more to push the thoughts away as she tried to instead focus on her training, which was currently meditating on the ways of the sword. She had heard through her times of reading manga and watching anime with Kaori of possible paths to take with the sword, and of people growing to the point that they did not even need a sword to fight, instead channeling what was considered 'sword intent' through other objects or even their own bodies. Naturally Shizuku knew there was a difference between amine and real life, however, with everything that had been happening recently a small voice within her mind couldn't help but ask if it was possible, leading to her long periods of meditation as she tried to become one with her sword.

As she took in and released deep breath after breath while trying to clear her mind, Shizuku's mind eventually turned completely blank with the sole exception of a single object, her precious katana. As she stared at it within her mind, Shizuku imagined unsheathing it and took in the beautiful blade in its entirety, from its flawless black blade to the comfortable grip, and even the mark that was etched in the base of the blade to indicate it's maker, Alex. Though a rush of warmth filled her as she recalled when she first received her first gift from him, Shizuku immediately smothered it as she tried to keep her mind focused solely on the blade.

After a few more minutes of trying to clear her mind yet again, Shizuku released another deep breath that she had taken in as she turned her every thought towards becoming one with her blade. Eventually her focus on her blade felt more and more natural as the minutes slowly ticked by, until she felt as if her own body was as sharp as the cruel black metal. Even when she received a sudden notification Shizuku didn't break the trance she had finally achieved for several minutes until she suddenly opened her eyes right as a red leaf floated by roughly a foot in front of her face, and after an illusionary gleam passed through her eyes the leaf was suddenly bisected into two. As the two halves of the leaf floated slowly to the ground, a new voice suddenly said,

"Impressive, I await the day I see it used in battle." Shizuku's momentary feeling of pride turned to mild alarm as she turned suddenly towards the speaker, before letting out a sigh of relief as she saw Grayfia standing there silently. After steadying her breathing once more, Shizuku asked,

"What are you doing here?" Though she didn't mind company, Grayfia was someone who usually put her duties before everything except her son, so Shizuku couldn't help but wonder what brought the silver haired maid there. Grayfia shrugged and casually said,

"We didn't know if you were coming to dinner or not, so I came to check up on you and saw you meditating. Instead of disturbing you I decided to wait and enjoy the scenery." It was then that Shizuku noticed the oranges and reds that colored the sky, indicating that her meditation and training had gone on for far longer than she thought; before that realization was suddenly reinforced by her stomach suddenly demanding food so loudly that Grayfia could hear it. While her face turned red and she turned away embarrassedly, Grayfia chuckled lightly before stepping forward and pulling out a couple mats and some food for them. After laying everything out in the middle of the training ring, Shizuku muttered her thanks and sat on one of the mats before taking some of the offered food while Grayfia sat herself down on the other mat. She then waited in silence while Shizuku quickly ate a few bites of food, before asking,

"Are you alright?" After finishing her current bite of food Shizuku looked at the maid curiously, before Grayfia elaborated, "After dealing with those assassins you seemed a little shaken, so I was wondering if you were alright." When she heard what Grayfia wanted to know, Shizuku's expression paled a little bit as she stared down at her food, before stating,

"It was just too different, killing in cold blood instead of in the middle of battle..." Even before she had met Alex, Shizuku had resolved herself to take a life, and had even fought people several times up until this point, but each time had been in the heat of battle with everyone fighting for their life. As she once again recalled the feeling of the warm blood on her hands after she had cut their throats, Shizuku turned towards Grayfia and asked, "How do you do it?" Grayfia sighed as she thought for a moment how to respond, as, while she wasn't an assassin she had killed in cold blood before, before saying,

"I was raised to do whatever was necessary for the house of Lucifer that we Lucifuge's served, which also included fighting and killing on their behalf. I was also dragged into the nightmare that was war at a young age, and, heat of the battle or not, there was always an abundance of cruelty to be found on both sides of the conflict, no matter what. The only two pieces of advice I could give you is that it does get easier, and that while getting used to killing is not necessarily a bad thing, enjoying the act of taking lives is." Shizuku was silent as she took this in as, despite wanting to argue a few things the silver haired woman said, she knew Grayfia was a lot older than her and was more experienced in these matters than she. And so, Shizuku decided to trust the advice of Grayfia and muttered her thanks, before Grayfia added a second later,

"It also helps to have a place to return to to remind you of why you fight, or a serene location that helps to calm your mind after the struggles of battle." As she spoke Grayfia immediately thought of her son Millicas, while Shizuku stared out ahead towards the lake and took in the scenery that she had built to resemble her homeland of Japan. As the two sat in silence for several moments and let their tensions ease away, a newcomer silently walked up behind them before kneeling down and wrapping his arms around Shizuku, bringing a smile to her lips as Alex's voice softly whispered in her ear,

"I was planning to come earlier but Grayfia beat me to the punch, I take it you're feeling better?" Shizuku slowly nodded before she slowly leaned back into his chest to simply relax there while Alex wrapped his left arm around her, before using his right to pull Grayfia closer as the maid laid her head on his shoulder. Together the three of them simply relaxed in the serene atmosphere while slowly snacking on the food Grayfia had brought, before taking to the hot springs that were behind the house and then spending the night together peacefully.

***

Meanwhile on her own island a certain black haired nekomata groaned as she waited for Alex's promised reward. Due to all of the hard work she had been doing recently, Alex had told Kuroka that he'd dedicate an entire day within the space-time orb to her to pamper and spend time with her, however he was tending to other things first. Even though she knew he was with his other women at the moment instead, Kuroka didn't mind as she would get Alex to herself for an entire day, and instead busied herself as she waited for his arrival. She then took her own meditative pose before she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, and, using her mastery over space and time that she'd been training extensively whenever she had a chance, Kuroka opened her eyes to find herself instead within the top floor of the tower in the Miao family estate.

As Xia-Long was going over several papers regarding the running of his family, he suddenly felt as though he was being watched and looked directly at the black and white cat sitting on his window sill. A shudder ran through him as he noticed the cats eyes were now golden instead of their usual green, meaning he was being watched by the representative of the dragon emperor. As part of the agreement of his service to Alex, Xia-Long had returned to his family estate with several cats that had been handpicked by Kuroka to keep an eye on the place, and him. They were all several times more intelligent than normal cats due to her using Spirit magic on them, and Kuroka was capable of seeing through their eyes whenever she wanted while they were also able to contact her using their thoughts if there was trouble, such as the Masked King trying to retaliate against Xia-Long for turning against him.

After staring at the Miao family head long enough that he felt fairly uncomfortable, Kuroka then started making her rounds as she switched to every cat within the estate, before moving onto the ones that were at the Huang family estate as well. Finding nothing amiss, she then sent her consciousness back to her actual body where quite a bit of time had passed due to the time difference within the space-time orb, indicated but the now rising sun. When she opened her eyes a smile spread on Kuroka's face as she saw Alex sitting across from her, waiting for her return. Noticing she was 'back', Alex asked,

"So how were things?" Kuroka smirked as she stood while answering,

"Alright, but I don't care about that right now~Nya!" Then, to punctuate her words, she dropped her kimono to reveal her naked body to him before turning around and getting on her hands and knees while wiggling her butt invitingly, her four tails dancing around it enticingly. Alex smiled wryly as he stood and dropped his own pants, before lining himself up and plunging into Kuroka's eagerly waiting insides as she wished.