An Alternative Method For Gaining A Girlfriend

[Professor Charles]

mature content from here but not explicit

Her full name was Regina del Kant. She was the daughter of a human philosopher and his devoted wife. In the early years of their marriage they had emigrated to the Tular plains to better get away from the world and seek a place that might fit more to their ideals. Truth and justice were his base morals, and they worked hard daily to gain what they could and live a pleasant life. With a small allotment they settled near a particularly rambunctious entrance that led to an underworld, and learned a variety of different things from the voices they heard both during the day and in their sleep.

These were whispers of power and secrets, that had teachings of alternative philosophies. They fit their personal attitudes to life, and the del Kants became more satisfied. They had a small family after some time, raising their children with beliefs in that people got what they deserved, that karma was a divine truth, and that the only true political path was anarchy. Crime was but a name, if you were murdered it was because you were an idiot. People could be good, if there were no rules for them to fight against, because rules were there to constrain. Laws were but limits placed by those in power to control their underlings. Animals were not born to be under sentient beings, but rather could choose to serve. There was a definite to the universe, and it began and ended with how much power you had.

It was into this lonely family that Regina was born and raised. When she came to the age of five her parents took her to the local mouth of hell and bid her to pray. Regina did, asking for the divine being who could teach her the right ways to use herself. Morningstar himself then stepped from that underworld entrance and offered her and her parents a deal: if Regina would be in his service for the whole of her life, he would teach her everything he knew, and protect her family from other ultimate powers.

It was a deal apparently worth taking.

“So you have been here since you were five?” I asked, surprised.

Regina nodded, a smile on her face. “Indeed. It is like a small family on staff here, we are each a part of a greater machine.”

“Are there any of you that are here not because you wanted to be?” I slowly chewed the meat that was in my mouth, watching this anarchist devotee of my brother, who was little more than an indentured servant but was entirely willing to be.

“There are ones that are here … maybe because their parents failed in a deal they made with Lord Morningstar, and the agreed price was their child, or that they themselves were in the wrong place at the wrong time … we have very few laws here, one of them is no slavery so he pays them so ... You'll be punished, but only if you defy him.”

There was something in her words that were beginning to make sense. Whether it was Morningstar himself who had first laid down the philosophy of punishment where it was due, or the culture had been created around his power and near worship, was not clear, but it was clear something he himself lived by. I had been offered everything you needed in life, according to these individuals here. Morningstar had offered me a place at his side, and I had defied him. Me being held here was simply raw justice at work. It was nothing to do, really, with the fact there was a drow student, somewhere, scurrying to find the keys to my freedom. It was simply down to the issue that I openly had fought his influence several times, and was now facing the consequences.

Amused at the thought of it all, knowing it was predictable of my brother to have encouraged this way of thinking, I smiled, and leant back in my chair, observing the intellectual resting on the bed.

“So I'm here because I deserve it,” I grunted, as I speared a sprout.

Regina shrugged a little. “You cannot be killed for it, and Lord Morningstar favours you too much. He wishes you to serve him, you refused, and so he must control and punish you. Clearly.”

Perfect and simple logic.

Some would call Regina brainwashed at this point, but I knew that she had come to these conclusions entirely by herself. There was a fire and an intelligence within her that I found intriguing and - dare I say it - attractive. I would not lie to myself and pretend that I did not find this young woman intriguing to the point that my desire rose. Despite the fact she had made her mind up for the base morality of her life, and therefore conversation would be limited, I knew that I could spend hours in her company, speaking over the finer details of permanence, speculate the existence of how other worlds developed in a more disproportionate structure, and what mortality actually meant …

Had Morningstar deliberately chosen her to bring my meal, knowing that I would find her so?

“So what do you think of me?” I found myself asking, interested. “With the issue that I refused my brother, and still do?”

Regina blinked. “Well you refused the offer of the being whose opinions I hold above all others, the one whom I regard as the closest to a god that I can get to, and the base moral guidance for my life …” she bit her lip, then grinned. “You are intelligent and strong, Sir Charles. You are wrong, but you have your reasons for being wrong. Perhaps time here will re-educate you.”

“I've been alive since near the beginning of time,” I shrugged. “It will take far more than your lifetime to change the entire way I see life.”

“Well then,” she leant forwards, eyes dancing with amusement. “You'll just have to stay here forever.”

I laughed, looking at my food, but not because I had disbelief in what she said. Rather, I knew perfectly that there was a high chance of this happening again after Ayna brought my notes on the Great Calamity, and my theories on how I could assist with saving the world as we faced a second. Potentially, Morningstar would come get me the next day because of some new whim, rather than act on our deal. Power was very definitely on his side of the equation in out relationship. He had not forced me yet to resign entirely from my teaching, but there would be some method that meant he could.

“We will see,” I replied.

And Regina grinned delightfully, leaning to her feet. She began towards me, fire in her eyes. In that moment all ideas of a potential flirtation with Ayna died. Student and teacher had never been my want anyway, and despite what the drow wanted, my attraction was centered elsewhere. Of course, this could very easily be another plan by Morningstar to bring me over to his side - that I had to remain aware of. As Regina came close, and her legs bumped against my knees I found myself smiling and shaking my head in absolute disbelief at the absurdity of what she was doing and what was happening.

Gently she plucked the fork from my fingers. I let her, entirely open to possibilities at this point, but my own will as iron. Stretching over me she allowed her plump breasts to hang at my eye height as she placed the fork back onto the tray of food I had now mostly finished, and her hair brushed my flesh.

“Aren't I your enemy?” I asked, putting my head to the side. “A punished barbarian, who refuses to serve your great and powerful overlord?”

“Oh you are far from a barbarian,” she kept her eyes gazing into mine as she slid to stand right before me, moving a hand to place it on the back of my chair. “You're just wrong.”

“Ah, common misconception,” I agreed, my chest rising and falling as my heart hammered hard.

With her spare hand she touched the inner thigh of my leg. I found myself not resisting, and rather stayed absolutely still - aside from lifting a hand to gesture at the door. “Privacy might be preferable.”

“Hmm,” she considered it for a moment, before she leaned up a little, raising her voice and looking at the door. “Fallon?”

There came a grunt and a face of an orc appeared in the grill. As he saw the position we were in his eyes blinked a couple of times in surprise and his jaw fell.

“Ehhh … is that … allowed?”

“His lordship said nothing against it,” she replied with a shrug. It still did not entirely answer the question of if Morningstar had sent her to me with the intention of this attraction building, but it did make me feel better in knowing it was not an order to flirt with me. “So … it not disallowed. Close the grill would you, dear, and not listen?”

The orc stared for a moment more, stunned, before he nodded awkwardly. “Yeah … sure. Sure.” And he lifted a hand. There was a sliding sound as a cover was drawn across the grill, hiding him from view.

Regina let out a satisfied sigh. She took a moment before focusing back on me.

“Now,” she said, “you.”