Chapter 195: +18 Maria joins Esdeaths conversation. Hancock’s confidence.

You kiss your way slowly up Esdeath's trembling stomach, your lips tracing the lean lines of her abdomen, the faint ridges of old hunting scars beneath your mouth. She's still catching her breath from the three orgasms, her ice-blue eyes half-lidded, her fingers loosely tangled in the sheets. When your mouth reaches the swell of her breasts still confined in her dark bra, you hook your fingers beneath the band and pull it free.

Her breasts are modest and firm, pale nipples already hard from the lingering aftershocks. You take one into your mouth, tongue circling the peak while your hand cups the other, squeezing gently. Esdeath makes a sound somewhere between a gasp and a growl, her hips shifting involuntarily beneath you.

You glance at Maria standing by the door, her violet eyes dark with arousal from watching the ritual unfold. "Your choice," you tell her. "Push me over and ride me, or lay next to her and I'll savor you both."

Maria's lips curve. She crosses the room in three steps, shedding her black dress as she moves, and climbs onto the bed beside Esdeath. "I'll lay next to her," she says, settling onto her back with her black hair fanned across the pillow. "I want to watch your face while you work."

You shift between them, one hand on Esdeath's breast, the other finding Maria's. You alternate your mouth between them - Esdeath's small firm peak, then Maria's fuller curve, tonguing each nipple while your hands knead and squeeze. Maria arches into your touch with practiced familiarity. Esdeath watches you with wide eyes, her predator's instinct struggling to process pleasure she can't control.

You mount Maria, sliding into her wet cunt with a single smooth thrust. She wraps her legs around your hips, her demonic energy pulsing through the bond as you fuck her with steady deep strokes. Your hand never leaves Esdeath's breast, fingers rolling her nipple, thumb pressing the soft flesh. Maria comes, her back arching, her violet eyes fluttering shut, her pussy clenching around your cock in waves. You follow seconds later, spilling inside her with a groan pressed against her throat.

The three of you settle into the sheets, breathing slowing. You resume kissing their breasts lazily, Maria's then Esdeath's, alternating gentle sucks and licks while they recover.

Maria traces a finger along your jaw. "What ability did you gain from her contract?"

"Northern Frontier Veteran," you say between kisses. "Absolute cold immunity. Heat signature tracking, blood trails, biological weaknesses. Automatic through the System."

Maria's violet eyes flick to Esdeath. "That fits her perfectly."

Esdeath frowns. "What do you mean, 'gained from her contract'? What ability?"

You pause. "Every master-servant contract I form grants me an ability based on the servant's nature. Yours gave me cold immunity and thermal tracking."

Her ice-blue eyes widen. "You... take something from us?"

"Not take. It balances us through the bond. Your abilities aren't diminished. I gain something that reflects what-who you are." You meet her gaze steadily. "Every woman I've contracted has given me something. Hinata's chakra unlocked my own. Kurumi's temporal perception became temporal anchor. Nova's psionics gave me psionic resonance because I had already unlocked mine."

Esdeath processes this in silence, her jaw working. Then: "So you become more powerful with each contract."

"In two ways, first is the ability, which is actually a side-effect of my system. Second is the intended method for the contract, we gain small bits of power whenever we're satisfied from intimacy." you punctuate that with a slow kiss to her nipple.

A minute passes. Then Esdeath speaks again, quieter. "Am I different from the Esdeath that was portrayed here? In the, show?"

You consider your answer carefully. "You're a few years younger. You haven't been shaped by the Imperial military machine yet - the institutionalized sadism, the torture protocols, the systematic cruelty they trained into you." You brush a strand of pale hair from her face. "It honestly makes you easier to understand. Harder, for the better, to interact with. You're still fierce and predatory, but you haven't had that edge honed into something that would make genuine connection impossible."

Esdeath stares at the ceiling. Her fingers find your hand on her breast and press it more firmly against her skin.

"The military didn't make me cruel," she says slowly. "It gave me permission to be."

"Cruelty has a place, that military trained it's soldiers to use it wrongly. Even I am cruel when I need to be, I simply control when I use it. What about you?"

Her ice-blue eyes meet yours. Something vulnerable flickers there - quickly buried, but unmistakable.

"I don't know yet."

You squeeze Esdeath's breast firmly, your thumb pressing into the soft flesh, and feel her pulse quicken beneath your palm. Maria's breast is warm against your other hand, her violet eyes watching you with quiet attention.

"I'd like to have made a proper relationship before offering you this contract," you say. "I let your mentality and my fear of the story-version Esdeath get the better of me. Made it the condition of your loss instead of something built between us over time."

Esdeath's ice-blue eyes fix on you. Her jaw works, but she doesn't interrupt.

"Regardless of how our futures unfold from now on, the same as your new harem-sisters - you're mine."

Her breath catches. Not from arousal this time. Something deeper shifts behind those predatory eyes, a recalibration of hierarchy she hadn't expected to need so soon after accepting the bond.

"I usually make it a point to ask if individuals want to return to their worlds," you continue. "I'm not going to do that with you, Esdeath. If we ever return to your world, it will likely only be to save or kill various people. There's nothing there for you but dangers and a few beautiful girls worth rescuing."

Silence stretches between the three of you. Esdeath stares at the ceiling, her fingers still pressed over yours on her breast.

"You're not asking if I want to go back," she says finally. Not a question.

"No."

"Because you've already decided I belong here."

"There's nothing worth returning to. Your Partisan clan is dead. The Empire will use you and discard you. The only people in that world who matter are people I'd rather bring here."

Esdeath turns her head to look at you directly. Her ice-blue eyes are unreadable for a long moment, then something cracks - not breaks, but fractures along a line she didn't know existed.

"The story-version of me," she says slowly. "What did she become?"

"A beautiful monster who tortured for pleasure and called it strength."

"And you feared that."

"Enough to make the contract a condition of your defeat rather than a conversation between equals." You meet her gaze without flinching. "That was my mistake. I'm owning it."

Maria shifts beside you, her hand resting on your hip. "He does that," she says softly. "Owns his mistakes. It's irritatingly consistent."

Esdeath's lips twitch, not quite a smile, but the ghost of one. "Fine. I'm yours. You've said it twice now." She presses your hand harder against her breast. "Don't make me regret not fighting harder."

You kiss her softly, before whining. "We should head back to the galley, dinner should start any minute."

They chuckle before pulling themselves out from your reach, you dress in comfortable silence. Esdeath pulls her tactical ensemble back on with efficient movements, her posture shifting from vulnerable to predatory as each piece clicks into place. Maria slips her black dress over her head, smoothing the fabric.

The three of you exit the Mansion door back into the Anchorage galley. The evening shift is settling in - Hinata and Kurumi are organizing the remaining food service, their maid uniforms pristine. Several of the are still at the tables: Akame sits cross-legged on a bench sharpening a knife she produced from somewhere, Murasame belted at her hip with its mechanical locks still in place. Hancock is awake and upright beside Riveria, her dark eyes tracking your entrance with sharp wariness. Yugito remains asleep, curled against Yoruichi's side, her blonde hair fanned across the dark-skinned woman's thigh.

Tatsumaki looks up from a sixth napkin covered in dress sketches, her green eyes narrowing at Esdeath's refreshed presence. She says nothing, but her gaze flicks between you and the ice-blue-eyed hunter with undisguised calculation.

Esdeath scans the room with predator efficiency, cataloging positions, exits, threat levels. Her eyes linger on Akame - recognition flickering there, something complicated - and then on Mikasa, who stands near the galley entrance in her Survey Corps jacket, arms crossed, watching the new contract return with neutral assessment.

Tatsumaki's green eyes snap toward you the moment you settle onto a bench. Her cropped white top rides up as she shifts, irritation flickering across her features. "There's something in my head," she says flatly. "A web. I can feel it pressing against my psychic field like - like spider silk wrapped around my skull. What is it?"

You chuckle, then deliberately open the Telepathy Web across the galley, broadcasting your response to everyone. Several heads turn, Hinata, Kurumi, Maria, Akame all glance your way with varying degrees of amusement.

"There are two telepathic links you could be sensing," you send clearly, letting the words carry through the enchantment. "First is the obvious one, an enchantment available to anyone wearing an Anchoring Band or standing on my enchanted locations, named Telepathy Web. It's voluntary telepathy on three levels: thought-words, visual, and full video. The girls haven't used it around you because they didn't want to spook you into accusations about mind reading. It doesn't. You choose what to send."

Tatsumaki's eyes narrow dangerously. You feel her mental pressure spike before she wrestles it down.

"Second is one you shouldn't be able to sense at all - an empathic link built into the master-servant contract. It makes it much harder for either party to lie to or cheat each other. Emotional resonance, not thought manipulation."

"I can sense both," Tatsumaki says aloud, her voice tight. "The contract one is... warmer. Like standing near a hearth. The other one is cold. Mechanical." She taps her temple. "My burnout didn't kill everything. Apparently."

You leave Tatsumaki processing that and turn, looking across to Riveria and Hancock. Hancock's upright now, her fitted black dress smoothed over her thighs, a half-eaten plate of food pushed aside. Riveria sits beside her, jade eyes calm, comfortable in her exposing lingerie, the dog collar visible at her throat. Hancock's dark eyes track you with the wariness of a cornered animal that's learned the corner might not have teeth.

"You've heard about where you are. The Anchorage, what I'm doing, the zombie apocalypse, that you're not in danger here." You pause. "You've heard Riveria's story, her deal, her acceptance. Roxanne and Liza's circumstances, their worlds." another pause. "I'd like to hear your thoughts."

Hancock's jaw tightens. Her fingers find the hem of her dress, twisting the fabric. "I've heard them talk," she says quietly. Her voice is lower than you expected, rich, controlled, but threaded with something fragile. "The elf wears a collar by choice. The dog-eared one calls her owner 'Master' and wags her tail about it. The lizard woman says slaves with kind masters are fortunate."

She meets your eyes directly. The pride there is immense, a wall built from years of survival, of being displayed and assessed as property, of clawing her way free.

"You healed my scar," she says. "Why?"

"Because, You didn't choose it."

Her fingers stop twisting the fabric. She stares at you for a long moment, then at Riveria's collar, then back at you.

"My thoughts about staying," she repeats slowly, as if tasting the words. "I think... I think I need to see more before I decide anything." Her chin lifts. "I won't kneel. I won't call anyone Master. I won't pretend this is my prison. But I won't run into a world full of dead things that want to eat me."

Riveria speaks without looking up. "That's reasonable."

Hancock's dark eyes flick to the elf. Something passes between them, recognition, perhaps. Two women who understand what it means to survive systems designed to break them.

"I'll stay," Hancock says finally. "For now. Until I understand what this place actually is."

Before you can answer, Yugito stirs against Yoruichi's thigh, blinking golden feline eyes open. She catches the tail end of the conversation, her scratching an ear as she sits up.

"That's perfectly acceptable," you say, leaning back against the table. "The ones calling me Master are playing into a chosen role. It's part of the dynamic they enjoy."

Hancock's dark eyes narrow slightly, processing that. You let a second pass before adding with a slow grin, "Though the 'no kneeling' rule might make nights a little difficult if you ever choose to participate."

Hancock's jaw tightens. "What does that mean?"

Yoruichi answers tauntingly "He means he lies flat and women climb on top," she says, her voice carrying unmistakable amusement. "It's exactly what it sounds like."

Hancock's expression shifts from defensive confusion to outright bewilderment. She looks around the galley at the women who aren't reacting with shock, Hinata's cheeks coloring slightly, Kurumi's knowing smile, Riveria's serene composure.

"There's a... nightly activity," Hinata explains softly, her lavender eyes meeting Hancock's. "Where the contracted women take turns... riding him. Those of who wish to preserve their virginity sit on his face instead. It's entirely voluntary."

"Completely optional," Kurumi adds, her blue hair swaying as she tilts her head. "Nobody's forced. Some nights we just watch. Some nights we participate."

Esdeath's ice-blue eyes have gone very still. She's processing this information through the fresh bond, her cheeks faintly pink. Akame watches from her bench, expressionless but attentive, her knife forgotten in her hand.

Tatsumaki's green eyes are wide. "You're all - every night?"

"Not every night," Maria says from where she's straightening her dress. "But most."

You hold up a hand. "Observing or participating is completely optional for everyone. But honestly?" You meet Hancock's gaze directly. "With how much the others have enjoyed it, I'd advise giving it a try before ruling it out."

Albedo's voice gently cuts through the galley, sharp with theatrical indignation. "He makes it sound so casual. I'll have you know that I, Riveria, Kurumi, Sinon, and Kurumu are all still virgins despite being contracted servants. The man has the patience of a glacier."

Riveria's jade eyes flick to her, a faint smile touching her lips. "She's not wrong."

Kurumu laughs, pressing a hand to her chest. "It's true! Almost a week now of oral and I'm still innocent."

Sinon shifts uncomfortably at her table, her blue hair falling forward to hide her face. "I didn't agree to be part of this announcement."

Hancock stares at you. Her dark eyes move from Riveria's collar to Hinata's maid uniform to Kurumi's possessive smile, then back to you. "You have... multiple virgin women. Contracted to you. And you haven't-"

"Claimed them?" You shrug. "In time. When they're ready."

Yugito stretches beside Yoruichi, her blonde hair mussed, her golden eyes half-lidded. "And the ones who aren't virgins?"

"Ride until they're satisfied," you say simply.

Silence stretches across the galley. Esdeath's fingers have found the hem of her tactical vest, twisting the fabric the same way Hancock twists her dress. Akame has set down her knife. Tatsumaki's napkin sketches lie forgotten.

Hancock finally speaks, her voice barely above a whisper. "And if I just... watch?"

"Then you watch," you say. "No pressure beyond your own imagination, that’s the fantastical thing about harems."