“It’s made from the strands of a Veenus Fibre from Angelisia,” Gabrielle said.

  “I regret to say that I do not know what either of those are. Is Angelisia a new dome that I’ve yet to hear about?”

  “No,” Gabrielle began, “Angelisia is a—hmph!”

  Realizing that Gabrielle’s habit of speaking without thinking was getting the better of her, Alex covered her mouth with his hand and brought his mouth close to her ear. “Shh! Remember, knowledge about the existence of aliens is supposed to be a secret. You can’t let him know that you’re from another planet.”

  “Ommph, miffee!” Gabrielle said, which Alex interpreted as “oh, right.”

  As Alex took his hand off Gabrielle’s mouth, Jessica clapped her hands together. “So, Francis, do you think you can outfit these two in some of your finest wares? They have a festival to enjoy tonight, and I want them to look their best for it.”

  “Of course,” Francis said, smiling as he clasped his hands together. “Just leave it to me.”

  The first thing that Francis did was take measurements of him and Gabrielle. He made them stand perfectly still, and then he measured them from a variety of places. Their hips, waist, chest, arms, legs, inner thigh, everything that could be measured was measured. By the time Francis was finished, Alex’s head was spinning.

  “We’re all done for now,” Francis said. “How about you three go out and enjoy the sights for a while? Come back during the evening, and I will have your new outfits ready for you.”

  “Thank you again, Francis,” Jessica said, bowing her head.

  “Anytime.” Francis waved them off.

  They left the clothing boutique and traveled to the other shops, searching the stores to see what they offered, and occasionally buying something that caught their fancy.

  As the kind of person who enjoyed being helpful, Alex had offered to carry the stuff that Gabrielle and Jessica bought. He really should have known better. Perhaps if he had kept his big mouth shut, he wouldn’t have ended up carrying sixteen bags filled to bursting with souvenirs that Gabrielle had decided she needed. He supposed he should have just been grateful that Jessica had offered to pay for everything.

  As they walked out of another store, and Alex struggled under the weight of their shopping bags, two familiar faces almost walked right into them.

  “Oh ho ho ho ho! What an unusual coincidence! I did not expect to find you here, Alexander. It must have been fate that brought us together. Oh ho ho ho!”

  “What are you talking about? Weren’t you the one who—mphm!”

  “Now, now, Alice. Let us not speak hastily, shall we?”

  Alex needed several seconds to realize that what he was seeing was not, in fact, an illusion. Jasmine and Alice really were standing before him. His sister was struggling against Jasmine’s hand, which the blonde girl had placed over her mouth.

  Jasmine de Truante was Alice’s best friend. Her hair, styled into two large, blonde drills, sat on either side of her head, bouncing as she moved, and she wore a fashionable red dress that complimented her glossy red lips. Dazzling blue eyes sparkled furiously as she struggled to keep Alice from speaking. Her skin, fair enough that fairy tale princesses would be jealous, was only matched by her budding figure. Despite being two years younger than him, Alex would have almost mistaken her for someone his age—if she were taller.

  Jasmine only came up to his chest.

  “Alice! Jasmine! Hello!” Gabrielle waved at the pair, her beaming smile gaining an extra level of ebullience. “Did you two come here to see us?”

  “Oh ho ho ho!” Jasmine hid her lips behind the back of her hand. Her blue eyes flashed. “What makes you think we came all this way to see you… trollop? This meeting between Alexander and myself is merely the result of fate. Yes, the fate of star crossed lovers. Oh ho ho ho—eep!”

  Jasmine squeaked when Alex, chuckling at her usual posturing, rearranged the bags to one hand and placed his now free hand on her head. Gently caressing her soft hair, he said, “I’m glad to see that you two are doing well, but should you really be here? It’s only Tuesday. You two still have three more days of school.”

  “O-oh ho… A-Alexander… y-you do not need to worry about that,” Jasmine mumbled, looking down at her toes, which wiggled within her sandals. “I… I have already arranged for our school work to be sent to us, so…”

  Alex didn’t understand what she was doing there. However, from her words, he inferred that she had made arrangements for her and Alice to do their work while on leave from school. This must have been the power of a noble.

  While nobles did not have much power in law creation and enforcement, they did control much of the general populace through money. Atreyu Academy had been built from money donated by nobles, including Jasmine’s father, who was on the Board of Directors. Alex guessed that Jasmine herself wielded incredible powers over the school thanks to that. She’d never flaunted it before now, but perhaps there was a reason she had needed to come all this way.

  “Arrange for your work to be sent here? Does that mean you have important matters to take care of? And why are you still in your school uniform, Alice?”

  “It’s too troublesome to dress up. Don’t put Jasmine and I in the same category,” Alice said with a huff.

  “So, you are Alice?” Jessica asked.

  “That’s right.” Alice frowned. “Who are you?”

  “Ah, forgive me, my name is Jessica. I’m Master Nicolas’ assistant. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “Troublesome.”

  “If you two are here, does that mean you can join us for the festival?” Gabrielle asked.

  Alice raised an eyebrow. “Festival?”

  “Yes! There’s a festival happening tonight.” Gabrielle’s eyes were shining brightly as she clasped her hands together. “Alex and I are going. It’s going to be so much fun!”

  “Oh ho ho ho!” Laughing like a haughty rich girl, Jasmine gestured to herself. “If there is a festival happening later tonight, then it is only natural that I, the Queen of Festivals, attend!”

  “Yay!” Gabrielle cheered as she grabbed Jasmine’s hands. “We’re going to have so much fun together!”

  “W-what are you doing? Unhand me, you trollop!”

  “Come on, Jasmine! Let’s go shopping for a dress! If you’re going to the festival, then you need a proper dress!”

  “A dress? I don’t need to shop for a dress! Now let go of me this instant!”

  “Onward!”

  Alex watched Gabrielle drag Jasmine off. Standing beside him, Jessica and Alice looked at each other.

  “I feel like things are going to get a lot more lively,” Jessica said, smiling.

  Alice gave the woman her best deadpanned stare. “Really? Because I feel like everything has just become more troublesome.”

  Alex didn’t comment, but he happened to agree with both of them. Lively and troublesome. They often went hand in hand.

  7

  They arrived back at Nicolas’s mansion nearly an hour after meeting Alice and Jasmine.

  The meeting between the two girls and Nicolas had been quite the spectacle.

  “Welcome back! I see you’ve brought two more beautiful young ladies with you!” Nicolas boomed as he greeted the group at the front door, offering a bow to Alice and Jasmine. “Welcome to my humble abode. Alice, it’s been a long time since we’ve last seen each other.”

  Alice stared at him with a blank look. “Who are you? I don’t know you.”

  “U-ugh!” Nicolas stumbled back like someone who’d been shot in the chest with a photon gun. “Y-your words are wounding. It is true that I haven’t seen you since you were three, and that we’ve only spoken through messages, but to say that you don’t even remember me is hurtful.”

  “Whatever. I’m just messing with you, troublesome old man.”

  Jasmine frowned at the man, who was now crouched on the ground, drawing circles into the marble floor as he mumbled to himself. She glanced at Alex.

  “Alexander, who is this strange man?”

  “That’s Nicolas Ryker,” Alex grunted. “A dirty old man with too much time on his hands.”

  At the “dirty old man” comment, Nicolas looked up. His eyes locked onto Jasmine.

  “And who is this?” Appearing before them, Nicolas knelt down and took Jasmine’s hand in his own. “Young lady, you are an exquisite beauty. Would you be interested in—guag!”

  Even Alex was shocked when, without warning, Jasmine tossed Nicolas over her shoulder like he weighed less than a feather.

  “Please do not touch me,” Jasmine stated, flipping her hair with a hand.

  “Woah,” Alex muttered.

  Gabrielle’s eyes were sparkling. “That was so cool!”

  “Troublesome.” Alice just clicked her tongue.

  After Jasmine judo tossed Nicolas, the girls all left to get changed. Each of them had been fitted and given a dress for the festival. It had been almost two hours since Alex had last seen them.

  Like the girls, he had also been given an outfit. His dark pants were a little tighter on him than he would’ve liked, and the long-sleeved vest that wrapped around his body, while doing an admirable job of hiding his crisis suit, felt stifling. Thick fabrics emerged from the vest like tassels, reaching all the way down to his shins. They rustled as he moved, sort of like a cloak.

  “Aren’t you looking snazzy,” Nicolas said with a grin as he entered the living room. Decked out as he was in a classic gray and black yukata, he appeared even more ancient than normal.

  Alex grunted. “And you look like an old man who’s stuck in the past.”

  “Ha! That’s what I’d expect a young and foolish child like you to say.”

  “What was that?!”

  “The past is where our species came from. You young’uns don’t look back at the past at all, but it’s only by remembering the past that we can remember our roots. The yukata is a symbol of our ancient traditions and respected past.”

  “Whatever.”

  Alex walked outside, onto the balcony that was attached to the mansion, and leaned against the railing. A cool breeze generated by wind turbines ruffled his clothing and hair.

  Nicolas’s mansion, aside from the hallways, maintained a spacious feel. The living area acted as a living room, kitchen, and dining space all in one. Modern amenities of every kind sat unobtrusively, from the automatic food processor to the holovid that was affixed to the wall. There was even a built-in holochess set protruding from the ground in the center of a circular couch that sat in a depression in the ground.

  “You know, I’ve always been amazed at how dissimilar you are to your dad,” Nicolas said, coming up to stand beside him. “You two act nothing alike. He was always polite but impersonal, kind but apathetic. It’s why we couldn’t get along.”

  Alex gnashed his teeth together. “Is there a point to your babbling?”

  “Not really. I’m just saying that you probably have more of your mom in you.”

  Alex paused. He didn’t know anything about his mom. He never had. As far as he was aware, his mom had never been a part of his life. He might have asked his father about her once, but if he had, then he couldn’t remember that far back—or maybe the memory was one of the many that had been suppressed by the seal in his head.

  “Do you know who my mom is?”

  “Huh? No, nothing like that.” Nicolas waved a hand back and forth, dismissing the notion. “I was just saying that your mom, whoever she is, must have been really hot-headed.”

  Alex clicked his tongue, but he didn’t say anything. In truth, he didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, nothing more needed to be said. As he walked back into the living room, Gabrielle, Jasmine, Alice, and Jessica came out seconds later.

  Alex didn’t know where to look.

  All three girls had dressed in gowns that astounded him. Formfitting and luxuriant, each one seemed as if they’d been custom made to fit just them. Gabrielle, in the center with her shimmering gown that featured an intense dip to reveal her amazing cleavage. Ravel, whose red dress fit her surprisingly mature figure well and the ends of which trailed behind her like fire licking at her feet. Even Alice was dolled up in a formfitting dress with a high riding skirt and heeled shoes.

  “Alex! Alex!” A grinning Gabrielle ran up to him, hugging his arm to her chest. “Isn’t this dress amazing?”

  “Ah…” Alex needed a moment to respond. He seemed to have swallowed his tongue. “That… looks really good in you—I mean on you—I mean, you look really good in that!”

  “Thank you!”

  Alex would have cursed his own tied tongue, but Gabrielle didn’t seem to mind in the least. Her exuberant expression spoke of nothing but joy.

  “Oh ho ho ho ho!” Jasmine sauntered up to him in her dress. Was it just his imagination, or was she walking with an added sway to her hips? “Trol—Gabrielle, why must you always try to upstage me in the eyes of Alexander? You should know by now that I, the Queen of Beauty, could never be outdone by someone such as you. Go ahead and tell her, Alexander. Tell her what you think of my dress.”

  Alex didn’t get what Jasmine was saying, but she seemed to be competing with Gabrielle for some reason. He didn’t know why. Still, he could at least give his honest thoughts on her outfit.

  “I think you look really pretty,” he said, grinning. “You look just like a princess.”

  If anything, Jasmine looked more like a princess than Gabrielle. She had the bearing and posture of an aristocrat, a noble, and her face, fair and refined, really made him think princess. Alex felt ashamed of himself. To think that, more than once, he had imagined that same face in his most erotic dreams. He really was a bastard.

  “O-oh ho?! I-is that so?” Jasmine seemed to have turned the same color as a bonfire. “I-I mean—oh ho ho ho… i-it’s only natural that one such as myself would look magnificent in a dress. I am the Queen of Gowns, after all. Oh ho ho ho ho!”

  “Hm!” Alex nodded in agreement. “That dress suits you.”

  Jasmine turned away. She said something that he couldn’t hear. He frowned, wondering if he had said something wrong, but then Alice stepped in front of him. She was looking at him expectantly.

  He grinned and ruffled her hair. “Of course my sister looks absolutely stunning. How could she not be anything but beautiful?”

  Alice looked at the floor. “… Idiot.”

  8

  The Mars Homespring Resort festival was located on the main street, which was known simply as Main Street.

  Alex and the others walked along the street. Hundreds of different scents assailed him, perfumes and colognes, people with hygiene problems and the scent of soap, and dozens of different foods, all mixing together to create a poignant odor. The cobblestone path vibrated with the thudding of a thousand feet. Everyone walking by wore smiles, light shining from their eyes as they chatted and laughed with their friends and family.

  “This is so amazing! Look at all these people!” Gabrielle exclaimed, her head turning this way and that as if trying to burn the sight into her mind.

  “Oh ho ho ho! Look at how everyone stops to admire my beauty!” Jasmine flipped one large, drill-like curl over her shoulder and presented the world with her haughty smile. “Though I do not blame them. For one who has been titled the Queen of Beauty, it is only natural that I would garner a crowd!”

  “That’s a really impressive title, Jasmine!”

  “Oh ho ho ho!”

  Alex shook his head at Gabrielle. If he hadn’t known how naive she was, he would have assumed she was being sarcastic.

  It was true that they were causing a lot of people to stop and turn. However, Alex thought it had more to do with how Jasmine and Gabrielle were clinging to him and less to do with anyone’s beauty. Both of them had grabbed ahold of one of his arms, essentially squashing him between them. Alex had once heard the term “a flower on each arm” from somewhere, and while he didn’t know where it came from, he felt like he understood that phrase now.

  “You okay, Bro?” Alice asked.

  “Do I look okay?”

  “I’d say you look pretty comfortable, yeah.”

  Alex looked away from his sister, whose bored eyes penetrated his skull like blaster fire. He wouldn’t deny that being trapped between two beautiful girls was… nice, but it was also uncomfortable, and there was a niggling feeling of guilt worming its way into his stomach. It was odd, since he didn’t know what he had to feel guilty about.

  “Kukukuku.” Perverted old man giggles reached Alex’s ears. They came from behind him. “This kid is an absolute gold mine.”

  “Indeed,” Jessica, also behind him, said. “He seems to be quite the ladies man.”

  “I don’t want to hear that from you two,” Alex snapped.

  “Alex, can we play some of the games here?” Gabrielle asked.

  Focusing back on Gabrielle, Alex looked at the other two girls before deciding. “Sure, I think we can play a few games.”

  “Yay!”

  “Oh ho ho ho! Now I will show you why I, Jasmine de Truante, am known as the Queen of Games!”

  While Gabrielle pumped a fist into the air and Jasmine laughed, Alice just sighed. Alex thought he heard her mutter “troublesome” under her breath.

  The first game they played was at the shooting booth. It was an old-fashioned booth with a toy gun that fired pellets instead of energy projectiles. The goal was to knock a prize down from the shelf. If someone knocked down a prize, they would win the prize they hit.

  Gabrielle tried first.

  “Eh?! Why can’t I hit anything?!”

  Apparently, she wasn’t that good at shooting games.

  “Oh ho ho ho! Allow me, the Queen of Shooting, to show you how it’s done!”

  Jasmine tried next. She also wasn’t that good. Like Gabrielle before her, she didn’t hit a single prize no matter how many times she tried.

  “T-this game must be rigged! There is no way that I, the Queen of Accuracy, could possibly lose!”

  “You sure have a lot of titles.”

 

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