John was mighty tipsy. He was well on his way to have a sway in his walk, but for the moment he still managed to plant one foot in front of the other while taking care of his balance. Careful to not concentrate on a single spot for too long and increase the dizzy feeling of drunken movement, he made his way to the door and pushed down the handle. “I’m back,” he announced his return from the bathroom.

“About time,” Maximillian complained, still sitting in his chair. A light slur in his tone betrayed his own increase of alcohol in blood percentile. Magnus, always the more level-headed drinker, was sipping on a glass of water, like he did between every drink. Ted was lying on the table, head buried in the elbow of his left arm. With what remained of his Wisdom, John had placed a bucket right next to him.

“One more round?” Magnus mumbled past what remained of his cigar. They had been playing poker for hours, simply redistributing the chips whenever someone had gathered up all of them. The tally so far was three wins for Magnus, two for Ted and one for John and Maximillian each. The two young playboys of the group were so preoccupied with reading each other that Magnus and Ted with their simple and clean playstyles often ended up winning by default. Since Ted had eventually gotten so drunk that he had lost the ability to read his cards, he fell off in the later rounds.

“Is he still alive?” John wanted to know and, in an act of low moral fibre, kicked the leg of Ted’s chair. The rocking motion caused the general to groan and sluggishly wave his middle finger in John’s general direction. “Apparently,” he answered his own question. “Hey, Ted, want to lie down for a minute?”

“Yesh,” came the short answer, followed by a dangerously deep-seated burp.

Exchanging a glance with Maximillian and Magnus, the Gamer proceeded to help Ted stand up. Magnus also helped, carrying the bucket. Because he wouldn’t have been much help, with his bad ankle and all that, Maximillian just waited and browsed his smartphone. With a bit more empathy, John asked, “You doing okay there?”

“I’m drunk,” Ted responded, leaning so heavily on John he might as well have carried him properly.

“I can see that,” John joked. “I’m asking if you’re good in your state.”

“Yesh, sir, jusht wanna lay down, shir,” the general slurred. “Alcohol tasted good… fun company… nice break from work…”

“That’s good then.” John pointed his head at the next door. Magnus opened it for him and they stumbled inside. It was a saloon much like the one they had left, with the very important difference that its furniture was definitely better for lounging, being dominated by armchairs and sizable couches. Moving Ted to one of them, he carefully laid down the general. Magnus placed the bucket in immediate viewing range and also left a glass of water on a nearby table.

John didn’t exactly expect Ted to make use of either. More than likely there would be a rather disgusting stain on the carpet tomorrow. The honourable thing for the Gamer would be to take care of that himself. In reality, he was already dropping a text message to Aclysia so he couldn’t forget about this. ‘And this is why nobody believes you can put a room together on your own,’ he berated himself. “We’ll be two doors down, when you feel better,” the Gamer promised and then backed off.

“Thanksh… Terkal…” Ted mumbled, already half asleep – or as asleep as a drunk person could be.

Not knowing what to answer to that, John just opted to say nothing and backed out of the room. Once they were back in the corridor, Magnus asked, “Terkal?” His tone indicated that he knew the name, but clearly not exactly who it was.

“Another one of the generals of the Maryland – he was killed by Sigmund,” John responded, pinching the bridge of his nose. The alcohol made him more emotional than usual and he blinked a few times.

“No such thing as a life without tragedy,” Magnus said.

“No,” John just agreed and took a slow breath in and a long breath out. By the time his lungs were empty, he had regained his composure. He had made peace with what had happened back then. At least to the degree someone who wasn’t sociopathic could. It was just so unexpected it had threatened to overwhelm him for a second.

Thankfully, when they got back to the room, Maximillian was laughing out loud at something he was watching on his phone. “Yo, come, look at this!” More than the urging of the gravity king, John was intrigued by Eliza’s voice coming from the device, along with the laughter of many other girls, some of which he recognized by voice alone. It stopped when Maximillian stopped the video and dragged it back to the start.

John and Magnus bowing over the back of Maximillian’s chair, they finally got to see what this was about. The stopped frame showed Eliza standing on top of a black platform. Her almost naked body, clad only in the usual bikini and thong, was illuminated by the many-coloured lights of the dancefloor in the cellar of Rave’s club. Next to the white-blue haired blood mage, slightly lower thanks to the elevation of the platform, was Nina. A few other girls, of John’s harem and not, were standing or sitting around the area, frozen in laughter or in the motion of taking drinks. They were also in all states of dress, going from the naked Metra and Undine to the still fully clothed Aclysia and Gnome. Notably, Nina was in an outfit that made it seem very much like she had been showing her fellow girls how to use a stripping pole earlier.

“Kemia just sent me this,” Maximillian explained and then played the video.

The first thing that happened was Eliza slumping where she stood in an obviously drunk way. However they had managed to overcome her insane metabolism was a mystery to John, but he didn’t have time to care. Nina was clapping a simple beat, which had John wondering whether or not she endorsed what came next.

With a bit of a slur and sometimes failing to hold the note, Eliza sang with the ashamedness of a drunk person.

“If you’re a happy little sub, clap your hands.
If you’re a happy little sub, clap your hands.
If you’re a happy little sub, and you like getting fucked up, if you’re a happy little sub, clap your hands!

“If you think you deserve his cock, clap your cheeks.
If you think you deserve his cock, clap your cheeks.
If your master loves your back and he also gropes your rack, if you think you deserve his cock, clap your cheeks.

“If you like your throat get used, present your mouth.
If you like your throat get used, present your mouth.
If you crave the taste of cum, want to be used lips to bum, if you like your throat get used, present your mouth.

“If you want to feel the paddle, wiggle your bum.
If you want to feel the paddle, wiggle your bum.
If you want to feel the paddle, have your throat choked until you rattle, if you want to feel the paddle, wiggle your bum.

“If you want the ropes and toys, beg for more.
If you want the ropes and toys, beg for more.
Put the ring-gag in my mouth, make me cry and moan and shout, if you want the ropes and toys, beg for more.

“If he gives compliments to you, panic now.
If he gives compliments to you, panic now.
Get that shit right out of here, put that dick inside my rear, if he gives compliments to you, panic now.

“If you’re a good little slut, shut your mouth.
If you’re a good little slut, shut your mouth.
Let your master do the talking, do not get verbal unless he’s asking, if you’re a good little slut, shut your mouth!”

The video ended there. Throughout the song, several women had joined or dropped out. Chemilia had stood, wearing only white underwear, in the middle of the room and never done more than swing her head to the melody. Nina had kept going throughout the entire thing and even sung along when she could. His drunk mind didn’t go to ask about that, however. He was stuck with a more pressing, primitive thought than inquiring about the bedroom habits of a friend’s girl. “I’m going to fuck the shit out of her later.”

“Still weirds me out that she is such an ultra-masochist,” Maximillian stated. “Also, how do you keep finding these harem-crazy, submissive happy girls? It’s like you’re a masochist magnet.”

“That’s just my dominant aura,” John responded.

“Dude, I genuinely can’t tell if you’re joking or if you have a Skill for that. You do have that ‘orgasm on command’ thing after all.”

“Which did help in training the more switch-y of my girls to get more submissive leaning,” John returned. “No, but seriously, it’s a mixture of luck, acquired taste and me just learning how to read people. Scarlett, for example, I showed that she was a masochist. If she had been more like Siena, chances would be we wouldn’t have clicked immediately and she wouldn’t be in my harem now. Siena is only really in because I had to help her get her shit together…” he stopped for a moment. “Seriously, I am going to fuck Eliza cross-eyed when I next see her.”

Magnus nodded next to him, John could imagine why, then they returned to their seats. “I guess it’s sort of like how I mostly end up with women that have big tits. That’s just who I flirt with,” Maximillian hummed, fiddling a bit more with his phone. With the words, “I sent you the video, by the way,” he then put it away.

“Thanks,” John could only imagine the amount of teasing he could do with that.

“One more round?” Magnus asked, once more holding the cards.

“I dunno,” the Gamer slurred his response, filling his whisky glass past the halfway point, with only a single ice cube still in there. A moment later, the glass was only a quarter full and he shivered. His body revolted against the extra bit of poison for one second, then he got it under control. “Don’t really feel like playing even more poker.”

“How about a single round but we actually bet something valuable?” Maximillian suggested.

“Like what?” Magnus asked.

“I’ll let the winner stay in my castle in Prague for one week and act like he owned the place,” Maximillian suggested and threw a single, yellow chip into the bowl at the centre. “And I will pay for catering, answer all the press inquiries and just generally let you ravage the place like the Communists did in the Five Days War.”

“I’ll… give the winner 5 gram of each of the elemental extreme metals,” John pulled along after a moment of hesitation. He was well aware that he was giving away something extremely valuable, both in time and money, but the alcohol numbed his capacity to care. Throwing a chip into the bowl as well, a dark blue one, the Gamer looked to the long-haired Fateweaver.

“Hmm… I don’t have castles or valuable metals,” Magnus hummed. “What can I offer… I’ll honour the winner in front of every research paper that I publish in the next 10 years, how about that?” The two younger men nodded and Magnus tossed a white chip into the bowl. Then he went back to shuffling his cards.

The latest swig of whiskey started to really burn by the time that John was looking at his cards. While he deliberated whether he should try and pull his brain together or just play after the motto of ‘fuck it’, Magnus started laughing wildly. Confused, John looked up. The Fateweaver tossed the two cards he had been dealt next to the three that had been revealed. “Royal Straight Flush,” he announced, his deep voice raspy with amusement and cigar smoke.

“…Fucking card games,” John mumbled and tossed his average hand onto the table. Maximillian did the same, although he laughed along with Magnus instead of being salty. “How come you only get pissed when you lose to me, huh?”

“Because you’re a giant dick,” the gravity mage responded.