Ch.20In the Scent of Peaches

The girl’s heartfelt confession was shattered by my rejection, and I completely lost confidence in my ability to properly explain my position to Seti.

“Wait a minute, Seti, that’s not it!”

“It’s Jessica’s fault for hiding that human men can have multiple wives.”

“What woman would be happy about the man she likes dating another woman?”

Whether they understood my inner turmoil or not, the women were about to begin their second round of debate.

Is this my chance to say “If you’re going to fight, do it in another room”… or rather, “Don’t fight over me”?

“You’re wrong. Jessica doesn’t understand at all how precarious her situation is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Will has a good face and body, a fairly nice voice, and excellent shooting skills. He’s the type that’s popular with women.”

“That’s true… he’s kind and has a strong sense of justice.”

“Hahaha, such high praise—”

“Will, just be quiet for now.”

“OK.”

I was about to make a light joke, feeling flattered by compliments from two beautiful women, but I had no choice but to obediently comply with Seti’s inexplicable pressure as she told me to shut up and listen with a serious face.

“For example, imagine a pretty woman Will happens to help during an adventure falls for him and confesses.”

“Um… how pretty are we talking about?”

“I don’t know. But since Will has Jessica, he would probably reject that woman’s confession.”

“I… guess so?”

I probably would. I had just steeled my resolve and rejected Seti’s confession.

It’s true that I’m wavering slightly after hearing that polygamy is accepted here, but I don’t want to enjoy a harem lifestyle at the expense of hurting Jessica’s feelings if she can’t accept it.

“What if that woman then says, ‘You can have multiple wives anyway, so what’s the problem?’ and Will learns about this fact belatedly? What would happen then?”

“…What would happen?”

“Oh my, that Jessica must be such a bad woman~ Not telling you about this and trying to keep you all to herself~”

“!?”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t restrict you like that~”

“!?!?”

Seti’s acting skills as a seductive woman were regrettably below elementary school play level, but they were apparently enough to inflict psychological damage on Jessica.

“Will might cool off toward Jessica, thinking he’s been deceived, and fall head over heels for that cunning woman, giving her everything.”

“T-that would be terrible!”

“Hey, wait a minute, Seti! What do you take me for!? Jessica, don’t buy into this!”

“Will—”

“Be quiet.”

Why should I stay quiet when false information and defamation are happening right in front of me?

Besides, if you two want to indulge in fantasies, couldn’t you do it somewhere other than my room? Seriously, go to the next room!

“Do you understand now? Hiding the fact that Will can have multiple wives will ultimately come back to strangle Jessica.”

“N-now that I think about it, you’re right… maybe it’s fortunate this came out today.”

“Don’t be too relieved. As long as Jessica insists on keeping Will to herself, this could happen anytime.”

“That’s… convincing…!”

“So now you know what to do, right?”

“A-accept becoming lovers with Seti, the three of us together?”

“Correct. But that’s not enough. The most important thing is…”

“The most important thing is…?”

“When you have the chance, make sure to firmly imprint Jessica’s charms in Will’s mind.”

After saying this, Seti moved behind Jessica and pulled down both shoulder straps of her loungewear. Jessica’s fair, bare breasts—definitely a size larger than Seti’s, voluptuous but not overwhelmingly large, like works of art—were revealed before my eyes.

“Kyaaah!? Wait, Seti!?”

“Tonight, I plan to give Will both my body and heart. Not as a concubine, but as someone who loves him. But since Jessica is Will’s first, she should be united with him first. My turn comes after.”

“Eh? Me? Tonight? Wait! I’m not mentally prepared!”

“That’s a lie. Seti clearly said yesterday that she was willing to accept Will.”

“We’ve only known each other for four days! If we could follow a more natural progression—”

“But Will can’t take his eyes off Jessica’s body and is full of anticipation, right?”

“Eh!?”

Hearing Seti’s words, Jessica turned her crimson face toward me. I was probably looking at her with a similar expression.

Somehow, the room was again filled with that subtle peach-like fragrance from earlier, and as I breathed it in, I felt my heart rate gradually increasing. Had someone lit some suspicious aromatherapy?

“Um… Will?”

“Y-yes?”

“Will you… continue to like me even if it’s together with Seti?”

“Of course…”

That’s not right! This is the moment I should say I only like Jessica, not “together with Seti.”

But in this other world where polygamy is accepted, with two women honestly confessing their feelings for me—if they can accept this relationship, the masculine fantasy of enjoying a harem life is acting more strongly than my reason or ethics.

I had rejected Seti’s confession once, not because I wasn’t attracted to her, but based on the common sense that one man should love only one woman. Now that this wall of common sense had crumbled, I couldn’t bring myself to reject either of their feelings.

“…I’ll cherish you both forever. Jessica, Seti.”

The last thing I remember was feeling that the peach fragrance filling the room had grown even stronger.

“…OK, let’s sort out the situation.”

The next morning, as the three of us woke up in the same bed, we had regained our senses as if last night’s excesses had been a lie.

I didn’t feel regretful or like I’d made a wrong choice, but thinking about it clearly, both Jessica and I had accepted the option of becoming lovers as a trio ridiculously easily. And when I raised questions about this fact, Seti dropped a bombshell.

“So you’re saying the fruit fragrance I sensed yesterday was some kind of skill or special trait of the Cat-folk?”

“Yes. When a Cat-folk woman develops deep feelings for a man, her body emits a pleasant scent. That scent captivates the man and makes even other women unable to control their emotions.”

“So Jessica and I accepted the harem relationship and spent the night together because we were intoxicated by Seti’s pheromones…”

“That’s not true. Even a Cat-folk woman’s scent can’t make someone do something they truly don’t want to do or forcibly change someone’s mind. The decision to become lovers, the three of us, was definitely Jessica’s true feelings, and if Will had no feelings for me at all, he would have found my scent unpleasant.”

“Hmm…”

If that’s the case, there’s no excuse. It’s true that my resolve to look only at Jessica had been wavering since hearing that polygamy was accepted.

Since the women themselves accept this relationship, I honestly benefit from it and suffer almost no mental or psychological damage. But beside me is a woman who has suffered serious psychological damage, wrapped in blankets like a cocoon.

“Uuuu… I’m so embarrassed I could die…”

“Well… certainly we all went a bit overboard yesterday, but since it was because of the pheromones, let’s not worry too much about it.”

“Even so… it was my first time and I was so… uwaaa…”

Jessica was certainly incredible last night. Of course, Seti was no slouch either… I only led the two of them for about the first 30 minutes. After that, I was mostly just lying there.

Oops, recalling last night’s scene is making me feel like infinite energy is welling up again. Whoa, calm down.

“Ahem, anyway, I’m happy to be in a relationship with both of you. It’s like a man’s fantasy—being loved simultaneously by such beautiful, cute women is honestly an honor beyond what I deserve.”

“Thank you. I’m happy to be Will’s lover too.”

“Uuuu… me too…”

“By the way, Seti, can you control that special ability yourself?”

“Yes. Yesterday was my first time, so I deliberately used a lot of it to avoid feeling pain. Jessica benefited from it too.”

“That’s… convenient… Anyway, from now on, using that ability to seduce or make us lose our senses is forbidden.”

Yes, I think this needs to be clearly established.

It seems like it was the first time for both Jessica and Seti, but it was also my first time developing a physical relationship with a woman.

I’m not completely inexperienced with dating, but my relationships never lasted more than two months, and after I realized I couldn’t accept situations where I had to hide or partially give up what I liked for the sake of dating, I stopped even trying to pursue women. I was what you might call a herbivore man.

But what about me last night? We started with an innocent atmosphere, but from the middle part on, if I had to describe it: hyper mode, berserker system, unlimited power—something like that. I think relying on such a drug-like effect is dangerous.

“…I understand. If Will found it unpleasant, I won’t do it anymore.”

“No, it wasn’t unpleasant. I’m just afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“The night before last, Jessica told me not to ignore what’s important as adventurers by just indulging in physical pleasure, remember? But if things like yesterday continue, I feel like I might… completely fall into depravity. Become a hopeless human being.”

“I think even that side of Will is wonderful.”

“A-anyway! If we lose our senses and go wild without thinking, and a child is conceived, we won’t be able to continue as adventurers… Oh, I guess this is an issue regardless of Seti’s special ability.”

“That’s fine. Beast-folk maintain their body’s condition with magic. Unless we deliberately prepare to have a child, it won’t happen.”

“…For reference, that Beast-folk secret art has been successfully decoded by the Academy and is commonly used by female mages…”

So that’s how it is. Using magic to fundamentally solve the cause of monthly condition fluctuations?

More importantly, I wish Jessica would come out from under the blanket now that she’s calmed down somewhat. It makes me feel like I’ve done something terrible.

“Anyway, I’d like to love both of you with a clear mind, without relying on Seti’s special ability… if possible.”

“I understand. I’ll try my best to keep it from flowing out.”

“Oh, so complete control is impossible?”

“…Since my heart is full of feelings for Will, I can’t help it if some leaks out without me realizing.”

“Guherk!”

Seti’s cuteness as she blushed, lowered her head, and looked up at me pierced my heart like a pink magic bullet!

“M-my feelings for Will won’t lose to anyone’s!”

Jessica countered, poking her head out from under the blanket. The effect was tremendous!!

In the end, it was past 11 AM when we finally managed to settle the pink atmosphere and went downstairs for breakfast.