The True Endgame

Book 5: Chapter 16:

Fenrir has been left with some free time to explore the town with the others for a bit after going over the plans with the others.

Despite how grand and large all of the buildings are that give the town a large appearance overall, the town itself could most likely be classified a small one. Given that the town’s inhabitants are such tall and large ones, the buildings obviously have to be large enough to fit them comfortably. Doors are twice as large as they would normally be, roofs are far higher up, a building that might look like it has three different floors might only actually have two floors or even just one, and so on.

Of course, Fenrir having the experience that he has with hentai, he can’t help but to imagine that this must be what it feels like in those stories where people get shrunken down.

He doesn’t like it.

Just being so much smaller than everybody else around is a bit humiliating in its own way, and this is after the fact that he made himself so tall. How would somebody like Serra feel given that she’s the shortest one in the town right now?

Well, he knows how she feels. When he looks down at his munchkin of a girlfriend, he sees her looking at the women who are anywhere from two to three times taller than her. In particular, she has been spending a decent amount of time looking at their chests. And their hips. And their rears. And their everything else.

While Fenrir might feel uncomfortable being surrounded by a bunch of humanoid dragons larger than him, Serra seems more than happy to let her eyes look around at the large sights. Fortunately for him, she’s only looking at the large women.

He even catches Cassiel doing it when they come across one dragonoid woman wearing particularly revealing clothes despite the size of her chest. This is when he remembers that Cassiel, despite having her own large breasts to look at and play with, likes looking at women with even larger chests.

Fenrir gets flashbacks of Aiko’s character, Nyaiko. She was the most hentai-looking girl that he had ever seen with truly ridiculous breasts given the size of her body overall. He would honestly have to say that her breasts were too big – too hentai-esque. Yet, Cassiel could never hide her obvious interest.

Her inability to hide her preference is obvious once more.

Then an unexpected connoisseur grabs Fenrir by the shoulder and whispers, “You know, bro, maybe the girls here aren’t too bad.”

“That’s surprising to hear from you. I thought you liked normal, human girls?” Fenrir whispers his question back to Rao as the girls look at some clothing shop that only that clothes way too large for them.

“I don’t know man. There’s just something about these girls. Like sure, they’re covered in scales and stuff which I’m not really into, but they still look soft in all the right places.”

“I guess you’re a scalie now.”

“Yeah, no. I just know how to appreciate a girl who looks nice. Like, if you have a little sister who looks nice, you tell her that she looks cute. That doesn’t mean you’re a pedophile who wants to date your little sister.”

“So, you’re comparing your new interest in scaly women and probably wanting to fuck them to complimenting little sisters?”

“Come on, it sounds weird and messed up when you put it that way.”

“That’s because you make it really easy to mess with you.”

Rao smacks Fenrir on the back before putting his hands behind his head. “Look, I just think they look nice. You know, it’s like they say. When in Brazil and all that.”

“When… when in Brazil?”

“Yeah. When in Brazil. All roads lead to Brazil. That stuff.”

“That’s… hang on.”

Fenrir leaves Rao for a moment to go and collect his girlfriends who are busy checking out the unique-but-oversized clothes in the shop.

“Rao, what were those sayings again?” Fenrir asks now that his girlfriends are all curiously standing by and listening.

“When in Brazil. All roads lead to Brazil,” Rao repeats with an innocent expression on his face as he genuinely has no idea how badly he is butchering those sayings. “Oh, and Brazil wasn’t built in a day.”

Each of Fenrir’s girlfriends, and Eva, stand by with straight faces as they try their best not to react at Rao’s outrageous words.

“Rao, you love architecture and stuff, right?” Fenrir asks.

“Yeah,” Rao answers.

“What about Rome?”

“Hell yeah. Rome is awesome.”

“So, you know what Rome is and think that Rome is awesome?”

“Yeah? Is that weird or something?”

“Yet all roads lead to Brazil, Brazil wasn’t built in a day, and when in Brazil?”

“Bro, just get to the point if you have something to say.”

“Rao,” Nell speaks up, “is it possible that—”

“You’re stupid,” Cassiel finishes Nell’s sentence for her.

“The hell? How am I stupid?” Rao asks.

“It’s Rome. The sayings are ‘When in Rome,’ ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ and ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ Not a single person in all of existence until now has ever screwed up those sayings so badly that they replaced Rome with Brazil. Brazil. Seriously? How do you screw it up that badly?”

“Yo, I’m not stupid. I know that. Rome is in Brazil so it’s basically the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the city or the country.”

At this point, all Nell can do is politely smile with a slightly-tilted head as she tries her hardest to resist saying anything improper.

“Rao… where do you think Brazil is?” Fenrir asks.

“I don’t know. Never really thought about it before,” Rao answers.

“The education system failed you,” Azalabulia says. Despite her taking on the role of a little sister of sorts to Rao, she can’t help but to engage her teacher mode and go into a very long-winded explanation about where Brazil is, where Rome is, how they are two completely different things from different times, and then she proceeds to give him a pop quiz about all sorts of other famous places throughout history to check his knowledge.

There are a few answers from Rao regarding a certain, former empire that really bring Nell close to cracking and having to go full princess mode on the peasantry that is Rao, but she manages to hold herself back with the help of Serra and Cassiel holding her whenever they could tell she was close to losing it.

Though, Fenrir has to admit that he is a bit disappointed. He really wanted to see Nell unleash on Rao and properly educate him.

Oh well.

“By the way, if any of you want some clothes from here, they’ll custom tailor you some,” Eva tells the girls. “They’ve offered to do it for me a few times before, but these clothes aren’t really my style.”

“I like baggy clothes,” Serra says.

“They’d be too baggy with how big they already are,” Cassiel says. “One of these shirts would be like a long dress on you.”

“I don’t see a problem.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“You would look even more ridiculous than you do when you wear Fen’s shirts in real life.”

“Says the one who always sniffs his clothes when she wears them.”

“I – I don’t sniff his clothes! Don’t make it sound weird. I just – I just like how they smell…”

“Cass Cass has a scent fetish.”

“I-is it really that weird if I like how my boyfriend smells?”

“Do you like how the rest of us smell?”

“Well – well yeah, of co-course I do.”

“Scent fetish.”

“Now, now, Serra, do not tease her too much,” Nell says. “Though, I must admit that the thought of being smelled when I may not smell proper is both exciting and most humiliating.”

“You probably think it’s exciting because it’s humiliating,” Cassiel says, still blushing from being teased.

“Of course! Why else would I find it exciting?”

“You’re all really open, aren’t you?” Eva asks.

Serra is the only one who doesn’t react at all to realizing that they were talking about their fetishes around the new girl. After all, Serra has already grown used to Eva and likes her, so that means that Eva can be included in all conversation topics regardless of how lewd they may or may not be.

Though, the amount of time it takes for Serra to grow used to new people has decreased by no insignificant amount since the beginning of her dating Fenrir and Cassiel. There was once a time when she would take days to weeks getting used to new people, and now her social anxiety goes away after just a few hours.

Her power level, that was already too high to begin with, has reached even higher heights.

“By the way,” Fenrir says, “what are those for?”

He points at two poles on each end of the village. Each pole reaches high above most of the buildings and even almost reaches the tallest tower there. However, each one is thin and has a hoop sticking up from the top.

“Oh, that’s the game they play around here,” Eva explains. “You have to fly around and keep a ball in the air, and you’re not allowed to hold it, and you have to somehow get it through the opposing hoop. I usually use my tail or feet to kick it in.”

“I’m guessing it’s something you can only really play if you have wings or some other way to fly,” Fenrir says.

“Yeah, but it’s exciting to watch. I’ll see if anybody wants to play a match to show you what I mean after we’re done helping them out.”

“Do you usually win or lose?”

“Half and half. I’m faster and more agile than most of the dragons here, but they’re stronger, stubborn, and have better aim than me. I usually have to get really close to hit the ball through the hoop, but they can easily score from like half the area away.”

“That does sound pretty fun.”

“It sounds incredibly entertaining,” Nell says. “I would love to watch a game of it sometime.”

“Hey, you’ve got wings, so you could always join in on the fun.”

“Ah… I – I do not believe that I would be any good at such a thing. I have never participated in any sports before, and I would not want to produce a boring display nor hold anybody back.”

“We can do two-versus-two,” Eva suggests. “I wouldn’t mind playing with a newbie.”

“Thank you for offering, but—”

“It’s like football, isn’t it? Just, it’s like football in the sky,” Fenrir says. “You should go for it. You look like you really want to, anyways.”

“I… would be lying if I said that I was not interested in such a thing, but – my hero, you know my circumstances. I have no experience with such things. As much as I may be into humiliation… I do not know if I could bring myself to foolishly fumble about in front of an audience for a sporting reason.”

“As opposed to?”

“As opposed to an exhibitionist reason.”

“Of course. Anyways, it’s not like you had experience with anything else you’ve been doing. You didn’t have experience with walking. You didn’t have experience with fighting. You didn’t have experience with flying and swimming. But, you can do all of that now, so I know that you could play some game of sky soc—football if you really tried your best.”

“I suppose that is true, but – well, I will have to think about it. I do genuinely appreciate the offer though, Eva, so thank you for it.”

“It’s no big deal,” Eva says. “I kept on accidentally getting hit in the face when I first tried it and had no idea how to dribble it right, so I really sucked, but everybody around here is friendly. They’re more happy to have new people to play with than having tough competition or anything like that.”

“See? You’d have fun and nobody would be judging you for it,” Fenrir says.

“We will see,” Nell says.

In the distance, Eva notices GG waving at them.

“GG is ready for you,” Eva tells Serra.

As they discussed earlier while planning, GG was to go and perform some maintenance on the gun to make sure that it was still working before coming to get Serra to show her how to operate it.

“I’ll come with you,” Cassiel says.

“I think I shall as well! I must admit that I am very interested in how such a creation works within this world,” Nell says.

“Good luck. I think I’m going to look around for a bit more,” Fenrir says. “Make sure you pay attention. You’ve got this.”

Serra forces herself to give him a confident nod.

“Just think about something perverted if you get nervous,” he says.

“Can I do anything I want to you if I don’t mess up?” Serra asks.

Fenrir takes a step back and gulps. He knows just how dangerous agreeing to her latest request could be. There is no telling what Serra means when she says anything other than the fact that it is probably – no, certainly going to be sexual. As for what sort of sexual, though, there is no telling. It could be anything from wanting to drip candle wax onto him to denying him for hours to making him crawl around to – wait, how long has he been picturing her as a dominatrix for? Besides, while he is sure that she would enjoy all of that, she never has actually done any of those things.

It should be fine. Probably.

“Deal,” Fenrir agrees. “You can do anything you want to me if you don’t mess up.”

“Good luck,” Cassiel tells him.

“My goodness, my hero. I did not know you were such a masochist,” Nell says.

Now, when Fenrir looks at her, he can tell that she is no longer forcing herself to be confident. Instead, she is full of determination.

At least now he knows how to inspire her whenever she is nervous about anything. All he has to do is promise away his safety and whatever purity he has left. Now, he just needs to figure out a way to inspire Nell to the same degree so that he can get her to have fun playing that sport of this village.

What could he promise her? To never say the word “soccer” again? Though, he has already told her that he wouldn’t. What about flying a flag of her home country? Or what about telling her that the world would be better off if her country still had its empire? Maybe buying a couple of corgis would help?

No.

There is something that he knows could inspire her as much as he has inspired Serra.

But would it really be worth the cost?

Fenrir gulps and prepares himself.

He saw how excited Nell looked when Eva was explaining the sport here to her. He knows that she wants to play it. She has to. Part of the reason why she plays this game in the first place is so that she can experience new things such as walking and swimming, even flying, so there is no way that she would not want to try out a sky version of her favorite sport.

Inspiring her to be confident about trying out a sport for the first time is more important than whatever purity Serra will leave of his.

“Hey, Nell, if you try the game out then I’ll roleplay whatever fantasy you want to,” Fenrir says, sealing his purity’s fate.

Then again, it’s not like he wouldn’t do anything that either of them wants in the first place. It’s just that now they’re going to be actively thinking about what they can get away with using him. Now, they know that he’ll do anything they want.

“You are desperate to make me participate in that game, my hero, but thank you for that. I will try my best to summon the courage to do so, alright?” Nell replies.

“I’m just desperate to see you have fun doing what you want to do,” Fenrir says, proud of himself for that one.

“Please, my hero, save my heart from fluttering for when we may do something about it.”

“No promises. Anyways, go on. Probably shouldn’t keep GG waiting for much longer.”

“Right!”

And so, the other girls head over to where GG is. Well, Cassiel is supposed to be going with them, but she’s still standing around looking at Fenrir.

“Where’s my promise?” Cassiel asks.

“Is there something that you need bribed into doing?” Fenrir asks.

“We-well, no, but…”

“What if I bribe you into somehow getting dog ears and a dog tail?”

“What if I never wear a sweater again?”

Fenrir takes yet another step back. What she just threatened has hurt him more than any insult she has ever given him.

“Alright, alright. What if I uh… promise to… continue loving you?” he proposes.

Cassiel turns slightly red and looks away. “Good enough. You better keep it,” she says.

“And what are you going to do for the promise? Serra is trying her best with the gun and Nell is going to play sky football. What are you going to do?”

“I – I don’t know, but I’m not going to get new ears and a tail.”

“I know what you can do.”

“What? And it better not be weird.”

“Continue being perfect.”

Cassiel looks at him, looks away, looks back at him, looks away again, and twirls her hair around a couple of her fingers as her face cosplays a ripening tomato.

“You’re… you’re good today,” Cassiel admits before turning around to catch up with the other girls.

“Interesting,” Eva says.

“What? And I thought you were going to go with the others?” Fenrir asks.

“No. All I did was point out that he was waving for them to show he was ready.”

“Fair enough. Anyways, what’s interesting?”

“You.”

“I’m flattered but not really sure how I’m interesting at all.”

“I think that’s part of what makes you interesting. You don’t even realize how interesting you are.”

“I… see?”

“Can I interview you?”

“I guess? It depends on what you want to ask about.”

“Are you rich?”

“Uh, are you talking in-game or real life? In either case, the answer is no.”

“Real life, and I see. Are you a drug dealer?”

“Wouldn’t I be rich then?”

“You’re right, that was a stupid question to follow up with. Are you a blackmailer?”

“I think I’d still be rich if I was.”

“Not everybody who is a blackmailer is rich. You could be blackmailing people for something other than money.”

“Like what?”

“Next question. Are you a celebrity?”

“Do you think I’d admit to it if it was true and wasn’t already flaunting it?”

“That’s a good point. How old are you?”

“Early twenties.”

“Hmm, so then you can’t be the father.”

“The father of who?”

“I’m the one interrogating you right now.”

“When did this turn from an interview into an interrogation?”

“What are your goals in life?”

“I – I don’t know. To be happy and have a family who I make happy, too?”

“I see. How large is your penis?”

Azalabulia, who is still standing by and has been talking to Rao for most of this time, turns red when she hears the latest question.

“That’s classified,” Fenrir answers.

“Suspicious. Alright. Why are you dating your girlfriends?”

“Because I love them?”

“But you wouldn’t have loved them at the beginning. What made you start? Why did you want to date them? What made you want to date multiple girls at once?”

“I… it just sort of happened, honestly. I met Serra and Cass at around the same time and developed feelings for both of them. I obviously didn’t think at the time that I’d end up with both of them, but they were both fine with it and liked each other as well, and then we kind of just kept on growing our relationship from there. I never imagined myself having multiple girlfriends and would probably call you crazy if you told me I’d have even a single long-term girlfriend years ago, buit here I am.”

“I see. Interesting.”

“I really don’t think I’m that interesting.”

“You are. There is obviously something about you that attracts women to you. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“I—”

“My bro is a good dude. That’s what does it,” Rao says, smacking Fenrir on the back again. “He does whatever needs done for them and even helped me out. My bro here taught me how to chill and be more normal around girls. He’s just a good dude.”

For whatever reason, hearing that praise come from Rao makes Fenrir feel exceptionally complimented. “Thanks, Rao,” he says.

“No prob, bro.”

“Hmm. I’ll have to interview your girlfriends then,” Eva says.

“I don’t mind you asking me some personal questions, but I’d honestly rather you not ask them too many. I know that we might talk about our personal lives and… some of the more intimate parts of them around others pretty easily, but we do like our privacy, and I don’t want anybody trying to pry anything from them,” Fenrir tells her.

“Interesting, interesting,” Eva says with a smile. “You just gave me some good information. Thanks.”

“How?”

“You’re protective of them. Everything leads to you just being some normal, albeit lucky, guy who loves his girlfriends and protects them. I thought there’d be more to it than that, but normalcy when unexpected is still an interesting result.”

“What kind of result? What have you been trying to figure out?”

“Oh, I wanted to know how you have multiple girlfriends. That kind of thing is only really common among the rich and celebrities, so I was assuming that you were something like that.”

“Pfftt. Yeah, right. Me, a celebrity? The closest I’ve ever been to that is when I used to lead the—”

“Lead the? Lead the what? What did you used to lead? Who did you used to lead?”

“I used to lead potato chips into my mouth.”

“I see, I see. You have a secretive past that you’re trying to hide from me, aren’t you?”

Fenrir can’t help but to make an obvious expression that tells her she’s right.

“Hmm. That’s alright. It just makes you even more interesting, and research is always fun,” Eva says.

“You know, it’s kind of creepy when you tell somebody to their face that you’re going to be researching them,” Fenrir tells her.

“But you’re not telling me not to.”

“Alright. Don’t research me.”

“What if I tell you about a way that would let you get your girlfriend dog ears and a tail?”

“Alright. Research me.”

“Bro, you’re way too easy,” Rao says.

“I-if – if you really want it that badly,” Azalabulia starts saying before mumbling off into incoherent words.

As much as Fenrir wants to tease Azalabulia by asking her who a good girl is and teasing her about being a dog for him, he knows that she wouldn’t be able to handle that around others nearly as well as the rest of his girlfriends. So, fortunately for her, she gets spared the public embarrassment.

Instead, what she gets is a pat on the top of her head from Fenrir.

“Thanks, Azawaza,” Fenrir says. “Let’s finish looking around to see what else this place has got. It shouldn’t be much longer before everybody is ready to head down to deal with those monsters. Maybe we’ll be able to find some good food to charge up with.”

“Magic is always stronger on a full stomach,” Azalabulia says.

“You heard her,” he tells Eva. “Are there any good food shops around here?”

“Hmm. Everybody around here does their own hunting and fishing for the most part, but there are a few stalls by the village center. This way,” Eva answers.

Eva leads Fenrir, Rao, and Azalabulia to the village’s center. Meanwhile, Rock and Shogun are busy playing with a ball that they found – or rather, a ball that Shogun found. He saw a ball sitting in some sort of basket on a pole high up, flew up to get it, and then knocked it out of the basket so that he and Rock could play with it. Since then, the two have been thoroughly enjoying running all over while kicking it and booping it with their snoots.

“Here,” Eva says.

In front of the group is a stall full of… fruits and vegetables.

“I guess she’s not playing right now,” Eva says. “The lady who runs this stall grows all of this, but next to nobody actually wants to eat these, so they’re free.”

“Why doesn’t anybody want to eat them?” Fenrir asks.

“Because they’re dragons. Have you ever heard of a vegetarian dragon? They want meat.”

“I guess that makes sense. So, this is the only place that’s selling – giving away food?”

“Yeah. Like I said, most everybody does their own hunting or fishing and then they usually do their own cooking, too. Though, most of the dragons here just eat their food raw or roast it a bit over fire. You only really have busy food stalls during community events and celebrations.”

“So, if you don’t do your own hunting and cooking around here, you’re stuck eating these?” he asks, picking up one of the yellow, apple-like fruits.

“Yeah, basically.”

“You know what this is?”

“Try it.”

“The way that you tell me to try it instead of telling me what it is makes me suspicious.”

“Do it for science. You know how many things we discovered are edible just by trying to eat everything and seeing what would kill us or not?”

Before Fenrir has a chance to bite into the strange fruit, he hears a crunch from behind him.

Rao has already picked up one of the fruit himself and has now taken a bite out of it.

His face immediately twists into a sour expression with puckered lips, closed eyes, and he even starts jumping up and down a little bit.

“It’s called a lemon apple. Texture like an apple with a taste probably ten times more sour than most lemons,” Eva explains. “It’s really good. You only need one of these to make a big batch of lemonade, and even then it would probably be too sour for most people.”

“What about that?” Fenrir asks, pointing at the seemingly-normal, red apple that Azalabulia is about to take a bite out of.

“A pepper apple,” Eva answers just as Azalabulia bites a piece off of it.

“Is it uh… going to be hot?”

“Yeah.”

It takes a few seconds to kick in but, when it does, Azalabulia’s face turns red, her eyes start watering, and she starts jumping up and down a bit just like Rao but for a different reason as she feels like a fire has been lit within her mouth.

“I think the dragons around here don’t eat these for more reasons than just because they don’t want to be like vegetarians,” Fenrir says.

“They’d like these more if they’d just build up a tolerance,” Eva says, taking a bite out of one of the pepper apples. She has no reaction to it. “They’re good once you’ve got the tolerance developed. All you taste without the tolerance is heat, but they’re actually pretty sweet once you do get used to it.”

“Why would anybody want to get used to it?”

“I don’t know. Normal people would rather just not eat it in the first place, and those of us who love the heat are more disappointed if anything once we get used to it.”

“So, is there anything here that I could safely eat?”

“Yeah, that,” Eva answers, pointing at a suspiciously-phallic, pink fruit that looks like it can’t tell whether it wants to be a banana or a mushroom. “But it would involve looking like you’re eating it.”

“So, in other words, it might be safe to eat as a normal person but wouldn’t be safe to look like I’m eating it?”

“Basically.”

“That’s alright. There’s a simple solution to this.”

With that, Fenrir picks the fruit up, holds it in both of his hands, and then breaks it in half.

Even if he was the one doing it, both he and Rao could feel it upon seeing the strange fruit break.

At least it could be eaten in peace now without looking suspicious.

As for its taste, “Kiwi?” Fenrir asks. “And strawberry… this is a really weird taste, but it’s good. I bet it’d make a great smoothie.”

“I know, right? Or maybe a pie. Or sliced up and put over ice cream. The scholars actually got some seeds for this and are trying to de-phallic how it looks with selective breeding. Then, we’ll be able to trade more of them and get more cooks to cook with them which means more good food for everybody.”

“So, you scholars are basically just playing this game for sex and eating?”

“Well, most of them. We’ve made some really tasty discoveries. One of the perks of being in a game where we’re all basically immortal is that we can eat anything we discover without having to worry about dying or getting super sick or anything.”

“It’s better than killing yourself in a bunch of different ways at least.”

And so, while Rao and Azalabulia continue their breakdowns as a result of eating fruit that is too sour and too hot respectively, Fenrir and Eva enjoy their own choices.

Going by how many of the local dragons are walking around armored and prepared for battle now, he figures that they don’t have much more time before they’re going to have to go and fight.

It will be their first battle against the enemy that they have been preparing to defend against. While one would normally be nervous in such a situation, this is just a game and Fenrir is somebody who has always preferred a challenge in his games.

He feels nothing but excitement in getting to fight against a new enemy. Even if he were to die, he could just respawn and go back for revenge.

“I wonder if the monsters we’re going to kill taste good. I mean, they are like giant fish from the bottom of the ocean, so maybe they can be cooked like fish,” Fenrir says.

Eva lights up and grabs Fenrir’s hands to hold them between her own.

“Now you’re thinking with science!” she happily announces. “Who cares about killing them for honor or for alliances or anything like that when we can kill them to find out how they taste?”

“I mean, I care about those things, but I am curious about how they’ll taste now. It’s only natural to eat monsters in fantasy settings.”

“Right! Now I’m excited! Different types of monsters, so many different ways to prepare them – ah, I’m getting excited now,” Eva says.

And when she says that she’s getting excited, she means excited.