Welldark B1 Ch. 07

Esther stood in the kitchen.

This was noteworthy, solely because this was the first time she cooked for me. Over the course of the past two weeks, it had always been me who prepared our shared, home meals. Usually, I made breakfast, lunch we bought at the cafeteria and dinner we each made for ourselves by throwing some cold things together, be it bread or cereal. Rarely, there was an exception. Either because she had been angry with me, because our schedules didn't line up or because I had slept in.

Today had started regularly, with me cooking us a nice bacon and egg breakfast. She had left for her class, I played video games. The irregularity started with Esther coming back two hours later than the scheduled end of her Anomalia Management class. I could only assume that she and Arlethia had spent that extra time together, given that they knocked on my door together. The moment Esther and I had started speaking, my redheaded friend had immediately retreated with several prolonged, mischievous giggles.

Then Esther had told me she wanted to cook lunch for us.

Perplexed as I was by this chain of events, I did highly appreciate it. From my position on the table, the view of the lady of my desires was splendid. She had changed out of her school uniform and into a casual outfit. Today, that was a combination of a deep-purple t-shirt and black yoga pants. Esther, given her ascended beauty, could have worn just about anything and looked good in it. However, the fact that both shirt and pants were clinging to the desirable areas made me salivate long before I could smell what she was cooking.

Most of the time, I got to admire her round ass. The juicy display did its best to convert me into a pure ass-man. She shifted her weight around and the firm double spheres took on another attractive form. She bent forwards to grab something from a cupboard and the emphasized roundness made pants tight.

Whenever I was at the border of conversion, she would turn her torso just enough that I could see her sizable chest jiggle. That instantly pulled me back into my equal appreciation of the female form as a whole. As a keen observer, I could immediately discern that the jiggle was stronger and her breasts dropped slightly further than usual. She was not wearing a bra.

I knew for a fact that she always wore one under her uniform and I highly doubted she would go to work later without one. This meant that this was purely for my viewing pleasure. Taking a guess, I would have said that Arlethia was to thank for that bright idea. I made a promise to myself to give the succubus something nice, when the opportunity arose.

The eye candy aside, that Esther was even willing to be advised on such things was odd. Something must have happened, for the two of them to get close enough that the raven-haired lady would take such hints. 'Being a fellow future Queen might help?' I guessed as my mind recollected the ordinary events of the past week.

Of the classes I had attended so far, most of them had managed to grab my interest to some degree.

Even through the haze of negativity that had dominated so much of Monday, I could certainly say that I was deeply intrigued by alchemy. The Aesthetic Arts class was one I was less interested in, but the description and teacher seemed intriguing enough. Magic training was necessary, but also engaging. Expanding what I could do with gravity magic was a reward in and of itself.

Tuesday had been alright. The Astral Cultivation class was more interesting than I had anticipated. I knew of the mysticism (or realism, depending on perspective) surrounding it and had engaged in meditations myself before. The room it was set in was fascinating, however, and I got the feeling that I could perhaps discover more than the vastness I already knew. Interdimensional Conduct was the only class every week I was already too bored to think about.

Unless something radically changed about the teacher or what he had to educate us in, that class was just going to be a snoozefest. Everything said could be boiled down to 'Don't say anything before you know you are allowed to say it' and 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' That this was a mandatory class, to be taken for three semesters in total, did not help my aversion to it.

At least the Battlefield Training class that followed immediately after looked to be more interesting. It differentiated itself from any specific training and the Duelling class by being about actual battlefields. Welldark had an extensive complex of halls with modifiable terrain. Through magic and machinery, a large number of different situations could be created.

In those artificial landscapes, we were given objectives and a few rules and then just left to go at each other. The first time had been great fun, especially since I was, to put it frankly, a vastly superior combatant compared to my peers. Esther was the only exception and we had been assigned different objectives in the exercise, leading to me dominating my side of the field. The teacher had already let us know that he would create teams in the spirit of balancing things down the line. I didn't mind. Protecting a weaker classmate was a potential opportunity for flirting.

Moving onto Wednesday, I first had Engineering class. Generally, the impression I had of that was similar to alchemy, albeit not quite as applicable to steamy fun. Engineering built understanding that could be used to create lewd contraptions and creative bondage frames. That was nice but compared unfavourably with the ability to remain hard for 20 rounds. Mechanical knowledge was good to have in general life, as compensation. Fixing one's own belongings was a good skill to have and if I ever went to a world that had a magic-shunning guardian, knowing what was purely physically possible would help. My Artefact ability also benefited from me thinking more about useful, rather than attractive, forms.

My Cooking lectures were going to pay dividends in time. While the class itself was nothing to write home about, basically boiling down to 'cook this, I will taste test and comment on it during and after the process', Esther was all the motivation I needed. The lady of my desires' mood depended heavily on her state of nourishment. Love goes through the stomach, it was said, and that was definitely true for a woman who got incredibly irate when hungry.

Lastly on Wednesday was Unarmed Combat. The male troll-doll of a teacher seemed like he would keep things very interesting and if he didn't, there was always Karona.

Although, with how things were currently looking, I had to consider that our relationship wouldn't last. Not because I expected Esther to force me to end it, but because I didn't quite trust that Karona would tone down the affronts. I could be wrong about that impression, of course, but the grey-skinned succubus struck me as someone who was used to getting what they wanted.

Next week on Thursday, I would return to Musical Class. If nothing else, it already seemed to be great stress relief. I had not known I would need that when I took the class, but this whole 'starting a relationship' business was proving to be more challenging than I had thought. Weapon Training, compared to Unarmed Combat, had been quite boring. If taken outside of the relative, it was still two hours of workout and that was acceptable.

On Friday, Interdimensional Etiquette was a whole lot more interesting than Interdimensional Conduct. I mostly chalked that down to specificity. Conduct had such a broad scope of different scenarios it needed to get through that it generalized a whole slew of interactions into rules that could be surmised as 'common sense'. Etiquette gave specific examples and answered somewhat intriguing questions.

The one the teacher had presented to us in the first lecture had been: is it courteous to offer a vampire your blood. The answer to that was incredibly multi-facetted, depended on the kind of vampire, and what court they belonged to. A vampire court was its own beast as well, one I still had to wrap my head around. Apparently, they were like human clans, dynasties and interest groups, all rolled into one, but also not really any of that.

Sexual Skills spoke for itself in being able to sustain my interest. The bombshell of a teacher and her approach on the subject helped a lot. After that, I had a lot of free time and, finally, as the last class of the week, Dimensional Heroes. Which, as it had turned out so far, was nice. We hadn't talked about anyone yet. The lecture was going to present to us one person each week and that initial class had been about establishing the list, the order and why they were on it. I was especially looking forward to the lecture about King Arthur.

So far, I really liked my schedule. It wasn't busy and there was only one class I didn't look forward to spending two hours in each week. Only my shifts at Café Served may yet turn out to make my weeks depressing. I would get an idea of that this evening, as Esther and I were scheduled to have our first shift from 4 PM to midnight.

My thoughts on this concluded at the same moment as Esther turned, hiding her delicious bottom from my view. Like any established gentleman, I had stared at it the entire time. One could not say about me that I wasn't paying attention to my lady. One could, however, leverage that I ought to pay more attention to other parts of her.

Not to my disadvantage in this case, as she picked up two plates and carried them over. On them I found, orderly stacked, burgers. The kind where the patty made up a third of the entire thing, followed by the combination of sauce, lettuce, tomato and whatever else and the buns. Through smart application of cheese, the sauces didn't turn the bread into a soggy mess, giving me something nice and firm to grab.

'So that's why they call them buns,' I thought, waiting until Esther sat down as well to begin eating. "Thanks," I took the moment to say the common courtesy, before digging in. After nodding, Esther followed suit.

The mildly toasted bread crunched softly. Even the tomatoes and the lettuce had been heated up, so they didn't create a displeasing cold difference to the heat of the juicy patty. We ate in silence, as I had learned to wait for conversation until she was sated. Often, I tried to strike a conversation halfway through, but the rich taste had me enthralled.

Only after I had finished up and let out a proud burp, did I say, "That was fantastic," and leaned back in my chair. Esther already reached over to take my plate and when she stacked it on top of hers, I realized what was going on and quickly stood up. "No, no, you cooked - I'll clean up," I declared, even if the full stomach made moving a bit of a slog.

"Good Karitas, it is..." she started, but I was already grabbing the plates.

"I insist," I answered and moved the topic back to where I actually wanted to go. "Do you cook often? That was really good, especially the seasoning. I like it with a bit more salt, but that was fantastic." I hoped the last part came across the way I meant it and not as some veiled criticism.

"I have a habit of taking care of myself," Esther answered, turning around so she could still look at me while I walked into the kitchen. "I prefer mass prepared dishes. However, if the economic situation makes it more advantageous to prepare my own meal, I will do so. I want it to taste good as well." She paused for a moment. "The money saved by cooking is less than I value my time for. I don't plan to cook often."

"A shame," I admitted as I loaded the plates into the dishwasher. "It was really good, but I repeat myself. Water?" Whether I thought it could use additional salt or not, the burger still made my body ask for some additional fluid. A simple nod and I brought an extra glass of tap water back to the table with me. "I think time spent cooking together is quality time. Maybe we can save money and have fun in the future? Would that be an acceptable use of your time?"

She considered, then nodded, "If the schedule allows, I will consider cooking lunch more often." Esther's soft voice and acceptance of the way I framed those questions made me smile. If we had already been at that point, this would have been where I leaned down and gave her a light kiss. It felt like I read the same thought from her amber eyes, but then she took the glass and the moment passed.

"So," I said the word without having actually thought of a follow-up yet, just to break the silence. "How... was the class?" I picked the first topic that came to mind, luckily it was something I had wondered about anyway. When leaving things to spontaneous thoughts, there was always the risk of saying something incoherent. Like asking Esther where she left her glasses, just because I had dreamt of her wearing some for the sexy teacher look.

"Enlightening," she answered with high praise. "It advised me on direly needed introspection... the deliberated topic was jealousy."

"Alright...?" I sounded a bit hesitant there. Frankly, I wasn't sure what the correct response was. This felt awfully important all of a sudden.

Esther took a sip of her water, placed the glass on the table and looked at her hands. They moved in her lap, as if she was trying to undo a complicated knot. Then she looked up, our eyes met and she gazed at me unblinkingly for several seconds. Now for a fact, I knew that this was something important.

"Karitas I..." at least she was struggling with formulating her thoughts as much as I was struggling with the correct response to the tone shift. "...I find how Karona acts around you disrespectful. Your responses to her conduct irritate me as well, but I feel that to be a discrepancy on my part." She took a slow, deep breath, her eyes still focused on me. "I will not ask that you take any consequent action." That was already a big relief, since it showed that she was looking at this like a sane person and not some emotionally driven harpy. "I require to hear something from you, however. Karitas, would you invite her into a relationship, even if I disapproved of it?"

The question had quite reaching consequences. Basically, if I said no, I allowed her to have a hand in all of my future sexual relations and Anomalia members. In a metaphorical sense, my dick was screaming no to that. The savage side that wanted to fuck whoever I desired at the time. Fashioning myself a civilized pervert, there was only one real answer. I kneeled down in front of her.

"Esther, if we form an Anomalia, you and me, I would never just invite someone into it without making sure you got along with her. I want to be happy with you, not despite you," I reached out and took her hand, kissed her ring finger. "If Karona, or other women that catch my interest, can't be part of that, I will honestly be disappointed, but I will accept what it is. Just as long as you make sensible decisions, I will do my best to give sensible answers, does that sound okay?"

"Undeserved Karitas," she said and gave me a wide, wonderful smile that showed her pearly, white teeth. "You scatter my doubts, that I appreciate you for." She pulled me back with the hand I was still holding and then kissed me on the forehead. Not quite the lips, but we were getting closer. "That is more than I required to hear." There was a pause, during which she embraced my head. I heard her heartbeat. Then, hesitantly, she added, "Thank you."

I was all too happy to say (and mean) these things, if this was the reward.

_____________________________________________________

My good mood did not die down in any way, shape, or form for the entire time it took for us to travel to Café Served, quite the contrary. Had she not been with me the entire time, it may have dropped a little bit. Instead, she was not only with me but quite cuddly for the duration of the train ride.

Esther was nuzzled up against me. Her arms were slung around my chest, her head resting on my chest and shoulder. Strands of her hair tickled my chin when I moved, but that was a worthwhile sacrifice. As was the slight amount of sweating I did, due to the heat I experienced from those two massive melons squishing against my side. Although we weren't doing much in the way of talking, she periodically purred sweet nothings in my ear. Once, she even kissed my neck.

There was a single word for the situation. The word was 'amazing'. I was actually quite certain that a description of it would be found next to the word in the dictionary. If not, it was my humble opinion that it had to be added post-haste.

My answer must have meant even more to her than I initially guessed. A success on every level. Not only had she confessed something to me, the resulting conversation had also brought us closer together and made her day. I still didn't quite have her, the proper kiss was denied to me and it wasn't like we had formed the Anomalia now. I did, however, feel like we had entered into 'officially dating' territory now. Which was a foregone conclusion in many ways, but nevertheless fantastic to arrive at.

We walked through Welldark City at a leisurely pace. Because of Esther's dutiful character, we had moved out way too early. While the walk was less enjoyable than the train ride, courtesy of the fact that her breasts were no longer squished against me, we still talked nicely and held hands. Not my favourite part to hold, I was the 'arm around the waist' kind of guy, but I would take what I could get.

I happened to realize a new thing about the city that I had previously missed and ignored in equal measure. A few streets in the city had oddly looking pillars on them. They were about hip high and a metre across. Overall, they looked quite a bit like a smoothened metal barrel.

From other streets I had seen in my life, I had come to interpret pillars of any description as a soft barrier between road and walkway. While this was also a thing in Welldark, the rarity of cars made that barrier more of a formality. Basically, all motorized vehicles existed only to transport wares around. A process that, to the best of my knowledge, happened primarily through underground tunnels and warehouses. Everyone above walked freely on the streets proper and made room in the extremely rare case a car did truck around.

The question that hadn't entered my mind was that of public transportation. Welldark City wasn't big but it certainly wasn't small either. If there was one thing that knew no end then it was the human (or humanoid, I should say) proclivity to conserve energy. Or being lazy, as it was commonly called. I had known enough people in my life that would principally refuse to take any walk that was longer than ten minutes.

By sheer chance, Esther and I happened to be around when someone approached such a barrel-like pillar. Placing their Ashod on top, the person fidgeted a bit with some program, then there was a sudden warning 'beep' and the edges of the floor tile the pillar was placed on began to glow. It was a lot larger than I had noticed, but I only really paid attention to floor tiles when I played that mind game where one tries not to step on the gaps. Something I most certainly did not have the attention for while I was with a gorgeous lady.

Anyway, me and Esther got the hint that we were asked to clear the platform. Other people nearby took a couple of seconds longer than us, causing the residents of the city to sigh and say something along the lines of "Same thing every season with the freshmen..."

Once the platform was actually clear of everyone but him, some sort of energy shield prevented other people from entering and the entire thing lifted up into the air. Once above the height of the houses, the platform flew off at a decent speed. It was slower than I could have run, but it was able to go in a straight line. Plus, it was, for some reason, not the social norm to run down roads. That was another thing I never quite got about society, everyone turning their head when someone sprinted somewhere.