Alex turned bright red at the confession of the three women in front of the man he always considered as his uncle, that always mocked him for not choosing a bride. He glanced at him and saw the old Dog-kind doing his best not to burst into laughter. He was prevented from mocking Alex by the opening of the doors, and the group of Minstrels entered the room, followed by five women dressed in tiny fabrics, that didn’t give much to the imagination.
They all made a deep bow and one of the Minstrels approached the table and spoke, “Good day, Earl Alex Brim! Good day as well, Miladies and Viscount! Please allow us to feast your ears with our music, and your eyes with our dance!”
Alex smiled and answered, “Thank you for coming here. I hope you can also entertain me and my friends during dinner tonight unless you have other arrangements.”
The Minstrel made a worried look. “Sir, we… were supposed to travel to the Capital and arrive there during the afternoon, because we wanted to set our stage in the City Square, to perform there tonight. We also need to find rooms in an Inn for all of us and our staff.”
Alex made a slight smile. “What if you all sleep here and I pay for another performance at dinner? I am expecting a visit from the King and one of his daughters during the afternoon, and I am sure he will stay for the night, as he always does when he comes. Well, I am not able to get rid of him even if I wanted to, considering he likes so much to hide in here!”
The Minstrel made a big smile, and the others with him made a huge effort to disguise their excitement. “Sir… performing for the King… That would be a great honour! We would even perform for free, for that!”
“Nonsense, if your group will be working, you must receive payment. Maybe you should think about what music you are going to present the King with, because some Minstrels like to sing lyrics that mock the society, the Nobility or the King, and he might get a little offended. Something like that would be good for us here or for the general public, but not for the King and his entourage, considering how prideful most of his court is.”
The Minstrel quickly nodded. “Of course, Sir, that goes without saying! Viscount Finley told us we could sing anything we wanted in our performance to you, the juicier the better, so I hope you don’t get offended by some of our more… casual lyrics. The people like them, but some might not be appropriated for a Noble.”
“Don’t worry about me, I doubt anything you would say could annoy me, considering what I went through the last few days. I need to laugh a little, after the dreadful meeting I had today in the Chamber of Lords.”
“Very well, Sir, we will do our best to please you. Or our worst!”
He made a final deep bow and as he was joining his group and the servants were fetching benches for the Minstrels, the dancers took a couple of steps forward with a big smile plastered on their faces. While the Minstrels were doing the last tuning of their citharas, Viscount Finley asked, “Alex, how was the meeting at the Chamber? Too bad?”
“Annoying. Some of them were plotting to take Earl Kayden’s lands from me, but I ruined their plans. The King gathered previously a bunch of Nobles to help me in case of need, but it was not necessary. That greedy group dug their own graves, in their rush.”
Alex stopped talking at the first tune, and he faced forward. He was taking a piece of meat towards his lips, but he froze when he saw two dancers leaning on the table right in front of him, with their breasts squashed against the edge.
They backed away with their smiles half-hidden behind their veils, and joined the other three dancers, beginning a very sexy dance that made Alex gulp a few times, turning a pleasant meal into a very difficult thing to swallow with so many distractions.
After some time, the music changed, and the dancers slowed down. Alex took a deep breath, taking that opportunity to regain his composure and to eat peacefully, at least until he choked with the laughter that was building inside of him because of the lyrics, that were mocking not only many Nobles, but one young one in particular with more lands than he should have, and that had the weird habit of treating commoners as friends.
Music after music, dance after dance, Alex had some troubles finishing the meal, especially because the dancers were always approaching him, either by trying to reach for him from the other side of the table, or by pressing their breasts or butts against the edge of the table right in front of him. Anika, Wenammy and Pearl were having a blast with the dance and the music, and Viscount Finley was muffling his laughter every time he noticed a cold sweat running down Alex’s forehead.
When the music finally ended and the dancers were catching their breath and smiling at him, Alex was able to recover his composure.
He made a slight smile and said, “I see why your group is making such a success. Not only the music is very good, but the lyrics are funny, and the dancers are amazing. I didn’t eat much because I was driven to your performance, and I completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing here.”
The group smiled and made a deep bow with the same Minstrel taking a step forward. “Your words are very kind, Earl Alex. I ask if we are allowed to retire now, the girls need to recover.”
Alex nodded:
“Of course, and once again, thank you for this. One of my maids will guide you to another room where you can eat and drink to your heart’s content. Tell her that your group is going to stay for the night so that she can take care of your accommodations. We will see you again at dinner. You are free to roam around the Castle or the area outside, as long as you don’t bother the workers. If you have any question, there is always a maid, a servant or a soldier nearby, to whom you can ask whatever you like. Except for some secret methods and ingredients we use, that is.”
They made another deep bow and left the dining room, with the dancers glancing at Alex on their way out.
Anika noticed and grumped, “It seems those girls think that you are very interesting, Alex. Annoying brats…”
Alex was rubbing his right ear because Shinatobe was annoying him with the same kind of complaints. Pearl took a sip of her cup and shrugged. “Let them look as much as they want, Alex is with us. That was very amusing. I don’t know about you guys, but my favourite part was every time they squashed their bodies against the edge of the table, Alex almost died with the food in his throat.”
Viscount Finley burst in laughter, “Ahahah! I was trying to hold it, but it was so funny! You should be better with women by now, Alex! You acted like a shy maiden!”
“Hey, they were excessively sexy, you know? If you were not an old Dog-kind with one foot near the grave, you would have a lot of problems not to grab them as well!”
“I had some problems, I can’t deny, but I have an extremely beautiful Mermaid as a partner, way sexier than them! She dances better, too. You could probably give a chance to Anika, she will dazzle you for sure.”
Alex raised one eyebrow towards Anika and saw her bright red. She spoke while avoiding look at her teasing father. “Mermaids only dance like that to… their lovers… as foreplay. If you give me a chance, I am sure I will make you… lose your mind…”
Wenammy gulped and stuttered, “F-Fairies can also d-dance way better than them! We rival most Mermaids on… dancing foreplay… we use your wings, to… to…”
She closed her mouth shut, unable to say anything else because her heart was almost getting out from her chest, out of embarrassment.
Pearl spoke with a serious face while staring at her cup of wine, “I also know how to dance in a sexy way, but I normally do that without any clothes on. If you are up for it, I could show you one night. Or one day, I am not picky about when I dance.”
Alex gulped and answered while the Viscount was laughing, “Ok… maybe… one night… I… I mean, we…”
He gulped down his cup and went silent. Viscount Finley cleaned his tears from the laughing and said, “It seems you have a bright future ahead, Alex, with three women to choose!”
Pearl answered while biting a piece of bread, “Or he can have all three of us if he can’t decide whom he likes most. We already spoke about that in our way here, so that is more or less settled.”
Viscount Finley stopped laughing and stared at the three women, one at a time, ending on the awkward face of Alex. “No way… How did you manage that, Alex? You always avoided being alone with any Noblewoman, or their daughters! You even refused so many of them or gave some lame excuse! What happened on your way here?”
Alex explained while fiddling with the crumbs on the table, “Shinatobe spoke with me about that… eventuality. I guess… I was having some troubles believing that such beautiful women, way, way older than me, could have a… romantic interest in a mere Human like me…”
Viscount Finley spoke before the girls could have time to say something, “You are not a mere Human, Alex. You are the son of the Hero of Beliersia, and you gathered quite a reputation with your feats over these past few years. Your father had to fight a lot and survive a huge war to get his fame, and you got yours without fighting one single day, just with your ideas and creations. Yahei gained peace for us, but you gained a good life for hundreds upon hundreds of people, and you are helping so many without even putting an effort! I think we should have a meeting with Miss Olive so that you get a full grasp of what you accomplished so far. Probably I should show you the records of your several businesses, and the donations we are doing anonymously to several Churches and Orphanages. You really have no idea…”
Alex rubbed his left cheek, feeling awkward. “I suppose I am not quite sure of how much I influenced the people. I noticed today in the Chamber that there were a lot of angry Nobles, and they even accused me of putting weird ideas in the minds of the commoners. I only hope the commoners that live with them, don’t suffer reprisals because of me.”
“Alex, commoners will always suffer in the hands of greedy Nobles, you know that! You just need to take care of the ones that work for you, while working in the shadows to bring more here.”
Alex frowned at the weirdly smiling Viscount. “Work in the shadows? What did you do, uncle?”
“Nothing, but some of your men or Miss Olive might have helped a few commoners escape a more violent and greedy Noble, once or twice… or several times, in fact.”
“Wait a minute… So that’s why the Nobles in the Chamber were so angry! They found out we were taking the commoners from them?”
Viscount Finley shook his head. “None of them saw or heard a thing, we were absolutely discreet. We used a few experienced smugglers to… let’s say, retrieve a few abused commoners from certain places. Those Nobles eventually found out where their commoners were, but they couldn’t do a thing because your army stopped any attempt of intrusion. There were once five Nobles that joined their armies to come here, but they were kindly invited to retreat by a few well-pointed Fire Balls. Well, the King also sent his army to check what was happening, and those Nobles found themselves in a very precarious situation with your army in front, and the King’s army at their back.”
Alex had his mouth wide open. “No way… Why you did all that? You could have started a war with all the Nobles!”
Viscount Finley shrugged. “I wish, at least I would be able to clean the dust from my old armour! I just did what you asked me, find more workers and help as many people as I could while you were travelling. You know how most Nobles are so proud of their wealth and army, but facing our huge army, is not a very easy thing to do. Especially when most of our soldiers and Mages are the grandfathers and grandmothers of the soldiers in the army of those Nobles. It was actually very funny to see those Nobles ordering their army to invade your lands, and see the soldiers refusing to make their grandparents angry with them!”
Alex made a slight smile. “Now I understand why they were so eager to make me look bad, in the Chamber of Lords. Try not to annoy them so much, things could get worse.”
“If some of them try any funny stuff, it will be only a matter of sending Miss Olive on a secret mission in the middle of the night. She is quite good with invading a manor or a Castle and slicing a few necks during their sleep. I am not saying that it already happened, but there were one or two nasty Nobles that suffered a weird death in the middle of the night, and all their servants, maids and commoners were smuggled here to have a better life before the heirs of those dead Nobles could grasp the situation in the morning.”
Alex gulped before the darkness he saw in the old Dog-kind’s eyes. “Uncle, remember me never to upset you, okay?”
The Viscount made a big smile and winked. “Like if you were stupid enough to do that, Alex! I am still more than able to bend you over my lap and slap your butt if you annoy me! So, since we all have our stomachs full, what about if you took the fine ladies with you for a walk in the Castle and the garden at the back? I have a few things to check, related to the visit of the King and his accommodations for the evening but I will return shortly, and we can then go to the patio, for you to check the new soldiers.”