TDH Vol. 1 pt. 30

By the time my headache calmed down, it was time for Stefan to escort me to the cafeteria and lounge. Fane had to go and get a reading first, though, so he didn’t join us right away.

As for me, I ate some food and then went straight to the lounge. I didn’t know what else to do other than to watch others in the dungeon to learn about what might be waiting for me on the lower floors. There were a few people who looked at me and talked about me, but nobody actually tried approaching me. Probably because they knew that I wouldn’t be able to talk back in any real way.

Fortunately, the warning I got before about others being jealous of me and Elanah didn’t seem like it was too important. Everybody pretty much left me alone except for a few different regulars I got used to.

Three of those regulars were over by the door leading to where we could meet with potential sponsors.

“Damn… look at her. I’ve never seen a woman like that around here, you?” one of the men looking through the door to the sponsor area asked.

“Never. Not even the women back where I’m from looked like her,” the man next to him answered.

“Same,” said the woman who forced herself between the two men, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “Let me tell ya, the reputation my home has for havin’ the most beautiful women? I might not live up to it, but the rest sure do, and they’re nothin’ compared to this lady. Damn, what I’d do to her.”

I had to blink a few times when I heard how blunt the woman was. I never heard anybody in my life, man nor woman, be so… vulgar before. I was more of a sheltered country boy than I thought. Back where I was from, we’d get smacked and our mouths washed with soap if we ever said anything like that out loud.

I mean, we all thought those sorts of things, but we kept it to ourselves. Saying it out loud was something even the rudest of boys from my village never did.

The same woman then turned her head to look at me and smiled. “Hey, Fluffs, you want in on this?”

Fl-Fluffs? Is that… don’t tell me that’s what I’m being called around here now.

One of the men with her looked and said, “Come on, Fluffles. You might never see a woman like this for the rest of your life.”

Fluffles is even worse! Seriously worse! Please stop!

“Hey,” the remaining man said, “Fluffy’s already got El. Let’s save this one for ourselves. Last thing we need is for him to go and steal another impossible girl from us.”

Not Fluffy, either! I mean, I am, but don’t call me that!

The woman smacked them both of their backs before coming over to grab me.

She was a woman I saw around the place a few times before. She had orange hair that reached her shoulders, muscular arms that put most of the men in the room to shame, and always acted like just another one of the guys. Everybody around seemed to like her. I heard them call her “Tabs” a few times before, too. Half the time I was in the lounge with her, it was me listening to her threatening to smash somebody for saying something stupid.

“Up we go!” Tabs said as she lifted me up. Her way of holding me was nowhere near as gentle as Elanah’s way. If anything, Tabs was rough and painful. She held me too firmly. “Don’t worry, Fluffs. I’ve got ya. Just don’t let that girl of yours know that I’m doin’ this for ya. She might get jealous, hehe.”

After what Elanah told me about me being allowed to have other wives… I wasn’t so sure if she’d be jealous.

“Move it, ya dumbasses,” she told the men who went back to standing shoulder-to-shoulder as soon as she left them.

They parted for her which allowed her to bring me right to the doorway where I could see into the room.

And it was impossible not to immediately know who they were talking about.

Standing at the opposite side of the room behind the glass wall was a tall, pale woman. Her skin made her look as if she never spent a single second under the sun for her entire life—it was unnatural. But, at the same time, beautiful in an almost haunting way. Then, to contrast the pale color of her skin, she wore a brilliant, red dress that matched the striking color of her eyes. I never saw anybody with eyes as red as hers, nor with an eye color so… pronounced. The crimson of her eyes was impossible to miss.

She had pointed ears that stuck out through her straight, platinum hair. Her facial features were feminine and resembled a young woman’s, but at the same time… there was a sort of wisdom in her expression that made her look decades older. She had the appearance of a youthful woman but the expression and posture of somebody dignified and far older.

But what really made me gulp was something that I would only ever think and never say out loud.

Because I had manners. I was raised to. That was why I would only think…

Her tits are huge.

And then there were her thighs! And—well, her everything!

My mom took me to a few art exhibits when I was a little kid. She wanted me to get a better feeling for culture and the arts than what was only available in our little village. At those shows, there were often sculptures of beautiful women with flawless figures in long, flowing dresses. They were unbelievably beautiful. Too perfect to actually exist.

Or so I thought.

Looking at the woman across the room proved that not only were they not impossible, but that they failed to live up to true perfection.

How is somebody like her even possible?! Isn’t this unfair to every other woman in existence?! Seriously unfair!

I liked Elanah. If I had to choose between this woman and Elanah, I would choose Elanah because she was the one I knew and… cared for. I would be able to spend the… rest of my life with her without feeling any regrets over not choosing this new woman.

All that being said.

As guilty as it made me feel for thinking it.

It really was just unfair. The woman I couldn’t tear my eyes away from was impossibly attractive. A youthful body but an older demeanor? Those thighs and that chest? The unique color of her eyes?

I didn’t think it was possible for anybody to be as beautiful as her. If somebody were to tell me that nobody throughout all of history has ever even approached her beauty, and that nobody ever would for the rest of time itself, I would believe them without a second of hesitation.

“Looks like a party over here,” a familiar voice said from behind. It was Fane, finally.

Tabs turned her head to look back at him and said, “Don’t even think about it. A girl like her is out of even your league.”

“Well, now I’m curious.”

Fane joined us, sticking his head over Tab’s shoulder, and spotted me. “Oh, hey there, little guy. This brute isn’t hurting you with her grip, is she?”

“I’ll smash ya with my hammer as soon as I get out of here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways, who’s this lady you’re all—…”

“Heh. Would ya look at this, even the red playboy is speechless. O-oi! Watch it!”

Fane shoved his way past us and went straight for the woman we were all staring at. “My queen!” he shouted out, pressing himself right up against the glass in front of her. “Finally! I—”

The holes in the glass weren’t large enough to pass any objects through, but they were loud enough to hear the sponsors on the other side. That was why we were able to hear her say, “I could have sworn I heard something just now. Perhaps it is the useless fly battering itself against the glass.”

“Ah… I’ve missed this. I’ve missed your playful insults. Do you have any idea how overly inflated my ego has grown without you here to pop it every now and then? Come on, give me another one.”

“Well, looks like there is nobody of interest here. I suppose I will see myself out.”

The loudness of Fane’s relieved sigh made all four of us at the door cringe.

“I’ve never seen him like this and I never want to see him like this again,” Tabs said.

“Has he… been a masochist this entire time?” one of the men asked.

“Must be,” the other man answered. “It’s not normal to sound like you’re about to cream yourself from an insult.”

I have to admit… he’s a bit less cool now. Seriously less cool. If he’s into that sort of stuff then that’s fine and all, but with how desperate he’s acting… I thought he was cooler than this.

“Oh! My queen! Not to interrupt the act or anything, but I have somebody I am sure you would love to see,” Fane said, turning around to run back over to us. He then took me from Tabs’ hands without explaining anything and ran back over to her.

I felt my heart racing the closer he brought me to her. The woman I believed shouldn’t even be possible was about to acknowledge that I exist. Part of me wanted to bite Fane’s hand to try and make him drop me so that I could run away and hide, because there was no way that I deserve to be introduced to a woman like her.

Then again, with how Fane was acting… he didn’t deserve to be in her presence, either.

“Look at this little guy. You’ve always loved beasts like this, haven’t you?” Fane asked, holding me up in front of her.

She looked straight at me, her expression unchanging. “I see. This is what you wished to show me?”

Fane nodded. “He’s great, isn’t—”

“Words, Fane. Use them properly. Do not speak so lazily.”

“Ri-right. My apologies, my queen. As I was saying… he is great, is he not?”

“What is a beast doing with you? Should he not be restricted to the dungeon?”

“He’s—he is not just a beast, my queen. He was a Chosen given this body by the dungeon. I thought you would find him cute.”

“Is that so? Well, put him down. There is no need to bother him for my sake.”

I… I actually felt a little bit hurt by that. Even though she made it sound like she was doing it for my sake, how could I not want somebody like her to want more of me? Anybody would feel down after being rejected by her.

Even though there was nothing to reject.

But, rather than put me down… Fane held me closer to the glass. “Don’t think that I did not see that smile, my queen. You might be doing your best to hide it, but I saw it.”

The woman raised her hand in front of her mouth and cleared her throat. “Do not be ridiculous. Now, put him down.”

“You don’t really want me to do that, do you? You like this fluffy little guy. I bet you want to rub his belly.”

“Fane. Stop misbehaving and bothering him.”

“You only want me to stop because you’re worried he might not like you if I annoy him. Look,” he paused to roll me over onto my back in his arm, using his other hand to rub my belly. “I bet you wish you could do this, don’t you?”

It felt weird letting Fane rub my belly. But at the same time… if we were making her jealous, I was onboard with his plan.

And it was working.

I didn’t know what he was talking about when he first mentioned seeing her smile, but I did notice when her eyes softened for just a split of a second.

She looked jealous.

She looked like she wanted to rub my belly.

Now, it wasn’t like I enjoyed being cute or anything, but I knew that being cute had its benefits around women.

And while I would have originally assumed that I had no chance of ever getting the attention of a woman like his “queen,” I now saw that I could get it by being cute.

So I stretched in his arm, pushing my belly up against his hand, while tilting my head to the side to look at her with my tongue partially hanging out of my mouth. I made sure to give my tail enough freedom to wag, too.

And to top it all off…

I whined.

The woman placed a hand over her mouth and she looked like she was about to cry. Unfortunately, she turned around and, by the time that she faced us again, looked fine. “Fane. I will not say it again. Put him down and let him—”

“Aww… my queen, look, you made him sad,” Fane said while tapping his fingers against me.

I understood.

I did my best to act sad by flattening my ears against my head, stopping the wagging of my tail, and whining.

The next time I looked at the woman… she looked dead inside. She looked like somebody who was thoroughly defeated and depressed. Seriously depressed. And almost instantly, she completely changed and cleared her throat to return to normal, looking at the nearest guard to ask, “Excuse me, but am I allowed to interview multiple candidates at once?”

“Yeah,” the guard answered. “Up to three at a time. We know how valuable our dear sponsors’ time is.”

“Good. Then I will see these two. Where do I go?”

“Right through that door there. We’ll bring them in to see you.”

“I see. Very well.” Not wasting any time, the woman entered the room the guard pointed out.

“Damn,” Fane said. “I knew she’d like you but, at this rate, she might even sponsor you with me. Hey,” he said to the guard, “how many of us can a sponsor choose?”

The guard sounded much less interested in his job when it was Fane asking him a question instead of that woman. “Two.”

“Well, there we go. I know I’ve got my sponsorship sealed with her, so let’s see if we can get you one.”

I could hardly believe what was happening, but I was happy that it was.