"Don't worry, and thank you very much."
Ethan smiled wearily at the woman as she knelt, then motioned gently for her to rise, pressing a silver coin into her hands as a token of gratitude.
Every part of him wanted to dive straight into the food, but he needed a shower first.
The Darkwall family mansion had running water and a proper shower as a matter of course, but out here, such comforts were nearly nonexistent.
Fortunately, while he and Evelyn had been training, Alice had made the trip to the nearby stream and fetched just enough water for him to wash himself down.
He kept it quick.
When he returned to the dining room, only the two beauties remained at the table, the food still untouched.
"Aren't you going to start eating?" he asked, letting a gentle smile settle on his face as his eyes found Alice.
"Yes... Miss Evelyn and I were waiting for..." Alice paused, catching herself, remembering what he'd asked her to call him. "For husband."
The word had barely left her lips before Evelyn's gaze cut sideways to Ethan, sharp and heavy with judgment.
"Hm... did something happen between you two?" Alice asked, glancing between them.
"Yes," Ethan said, his voice clear and unhesitating. "She let me touch her breasts as part of my training."
"WHAT?"
Evelyn shot to her feet so fast her chair scraped back, her fist coming down against the table with a loud crack. "You scoundrel..."
Then she felt Alice's gaze settle on her, calm and steady.
In this world, it was common for powerful men to take more than one wife, but not in secret, and not like this. She didn't want to be seen as that kind of woman.
"It's okay, Miss Evelyn." Alice exhaled softly, reaching over to hold Ethan's hand. "I already agreed to let him have more than one wife. And, well... I'll always be his first, right?"
Evelyn's mouth closed. Her eyes dropped to the floor.
So calm. So sweet. So endlessly understanding.
How had a woman like that ended up with that pervert?
Ethan just shook his head quietly.
Alice truly was his first. One of his uncles had dragged him to a brothel in the county capital of Darkwall once, and what he'd seen there had left him more shaken than willing.
He'd walked out and never looked back, promising himself he wouldn't touch a woman like that again.
Alice was everything he'd ever wanted. And Evelyn, wild as she was, had a huge heart that more than matched Alice's size.
'And I mean huge...' His eyes drifted briefly to the bulge of Evelyn's chest before he caught himself, stretched his arms above his head, and turned his attention to the food.
It was nothing like the elaborate meals prepared by the professional chefs who had served the Darkwall family for generations, but he didn't care.
He picked up a roasted corn cob, pinched a little salt over it, and took a bite.
It was, without question, infinitely better than the travel rations he'd been surviving on for the past few days.
That was more than enough.
With him finally eating, Evelyn and Alice couldn't hold back either. They served themselves and ate.
"Mmm... this is good!" Evelyn declared around a bite of chicken leg, eyes closing briefly with satisfaction as she pulled the meat clean off the bone.
Salt, at least, was never hard to come by. Traveling merchants brought it cheap and plentiful from a saltwater lake somewhere west of Azur Lake.
Ethan had heard of that lake before. If his ambitions ever grew to cover the whole of the Eternal Forest, reaching it would eventually become necessary.
He exhaled and let the thought go, eating in comfortable silence.
They didn't talk much. Shortly after the meal, Alice showed Evelyn to her room, then came back and walked with Ethan to theirs.
The bedroom was relatively large, the old wardrobes cleared of their previous owner's belongings, the wide bed made up with clean sheets.
A small lamp burning a bluish mana crystal cast the room in a soft cool light.
Ethan moved past Alice and sat down on the mattress.
Soft, with real linen sheets and fine wool filling. After days of travel, it felt almost obscene how comfortable it was.
He leaned back on his hands and watched Alice cross to the window, her silhouette framed by the pale blue glow as she drew the curtains shut.
Her hands rose to her neckline, fingers finding the edges of her dress and gripping them with a faint, barely-there tremor.
"Evelyn... I spoke with her a little while you were bathing. She is powerful." Alice's voice was quiet, her eyes still forward. "Do you really want to take her as your wife?"
Many answers crossed his mind. In the end, he chose frankness.
"Yes."
"Hm..."
A shy smile spread slowly across Alice's face, soft and luminous, and her lips parted with a faint, wet sound. "Good."
Her fingers drew the neckline of her dress apart. The fabric slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor in a whisper of cloth, leaving nothing behind.
She turned to face him, letting his gaze move over every curve without hurry.
Her breasts, slightly fuller than Evelyn's, swayed with a heavy, unhurried bounce as she crossed the room toward him, the soft weight of them shifting with each confident step.
She stopped directly in front of him, close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating off her skin despite the cold night air pressing against the curtained window.
Then she sank to her knees.
Her delicate fingers found the edges of his pants, and she tilted her head back, lifting those beautiful blue eyes up to meet his.
Her breathing had quickened, her chest rising and falling visibly, the cold of the room doing nothing to raise goosebumps on her bare skin.
"I allow it," she said softly, tugging his pants down in one smooth pull. "But first..."
Her eyes dropped, and the faintest flush darkened her cheeks.
"I'm going to mark my territory."
His cock sprang free of its confinement, thick and hard and already beading a small drop of pre-cum at the reddish tip.
It swung upward and came to rest against her face with a soft, heavy press, the warm, slick tip dragging across her lips and smearing them with pre-cum.
"Nghnn~~"
A soft moan escaped her throat. Her lashes fluttered. From that angle, looking up at him, it looked even bigger than she remembered.
NT: Don't forget to share your opinions on the novel so far! It helps a lot to improve and catch mistakes before they become too deep to fix without rewriting entire sections.