D.S. Newman
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Isekai Mansion Arc 2 Part 3-2
🕑 Added 2023-08-31 13:23:23 +0000 UTCWe decided we would all go to a shopping mall in Cambridge. London was too busy and would draw more attention than we’d like, and the local stores were too small to spend a day in. We loaded up in the Rolls Royce and made our way. Higgins drove and I rode in the passenger seat while the girls piled up in the backseat. Stephanie and Emily each took a window seat of course to avoid sitting next to each other, leaving Anabel and Arduwan scrunched in the middle. Wasn’t exactly legal doing it that way, but better than trying to take the train. Fortunately, we convinced Arduwan to wear one of Emily’s cloaks to at least hide her…uhh, assets, from the general public until we could get her some clothes.
When we got to the mall it became apparent that it was the biggest building Anabel and Arduwan had ever seen. Getting them to go through the sliding doors was rather difficult and people were standing around looking at us all. Thankfully we weren’t locals.
Objective one was to get Arduwan something practical to wear. This was way harder than it was to take out Davol. First of all, she was over six feet tall and built. Not to mention, she was so voluptuous, she popped out of everything. Second of all, she wasn’t used to wearing much clothing so she couldn’t decide what she liked out of the clothes that did fit. Finally, she settled on something. It was a blue spandex set of boy shorts and matching tank top. It was still really alluring and drew attention, but at least it covered most of her midriff and wasn’t a Raquel Welch costume.
Next, we took care of Anabel. She was a lot easier to shop for. She had finally come to terms with today’s fashion standards and picked out a conservative but cute outfit. It was a beige skirt, just above the knees with black tights underneath. For the top she chose a tan colored loose fitting shirt with a thin white sweater jacket to go over her arms. Her little period piece bonnet was too adorable to ditch entirely, so she added a frilly white headband with a little bow on it.
Emily was easiest to shop for. We took her to the Alternative store and she picked out a more conventional goth outfit rather than her typical lolita-like attire. She warned us that she wasn’t going to completely move away from that look but would get something that stood out less for occasions like this. She ended up with black fishnets under a black suede mini skirt with straps hanging to the side. Her top had a see through layer of mesh overtop a studded halter that went all the way to the neckline. And of course, some new makeup. Ironically, she actually looked more adult than you would typically take her for dressed like this.
We shopped till we almost dropped, buying outfits and swimwear for the girls to be able to blend in a little better. I offered to buy Stephanie an outfit too, but she just smiled and said, “no thanks, it’s okay. I have plenty of clothes.”
We all sat down at the food court and had a smorgasbord lunch of everything you could find. Anabel and Emily sat together at one table, while Higgins taught Arduwan how to eat ice cream at another. Stephanie sat with me and just kept smiling.
“What is it?” I asked curiously.
“It’s just…I’m proud of you.”
“Proud of me? For what?”
“For everything. How well you’re taking care of your loyal friends. How responsible you’ve been with what’s been given to you. How you’ve respected my boundaries since I arrived.”
“Haha,” I laughed, “well, I meant what I said about wanting to keep you in my life regardless of whether we’re a couple or not. I value what we have.”
Stephanie chuckled and said, “remember when you first asked me out and Ernie wouldn’t leave us alone? He wanted to know every single detail. I think he was vicariously experiencing a relationship through us.”
I laughed along with her because that was true. I wondered how Wraith was doing. It was great having everyone here enjoying themselves and getting along. I spent a little over two thousand pounds today and a year ago I would have never dreamed of splurging that much. But I wanted to make everyone happy. I knew this was likely just a short intermission before things got crazy again. Plus, it was nice to just have Stephanie around again.
“I’m glad to have you around again,” I said to her.
“Happy to be here,” she said, still smiling.
“I want you to stay,” I continued, “not as like, a live-in girlfriend or anything. But as support. I know you and Emily haven’t gotten off on the right foot, but you seem to be getting along well with everyone else. You two will come around to each other in time. Just stay here. You can quit your job and let Craig down easy. I can give you a job as Higgins assistant or something and that should take care of your immigration status.”
She just continued smiling for a moment and said, “I’ll think about it.”
After a busy evening of shopping, we drove back home. The trunk was full of the purchases we had made, and the girls all fell asleep in the car on the way back. It was still hot in the house, but we opened all the windows before going to bed. The next day should be a treat!
* * *
With the sun high in the sky and a nice cool breeze going we had a blast playing out in the pond. I was truly the richest man in England. I had this great big house with a detail-oriented butler, opportunities for fantastical adventure, and a slew of beautiful women splashing around in my backyard.
Stephanie had on a green two piece bikini that accentuated her petite but desirable frame. She wore everything well but what she lacked in physique, she made up for in personality.
Speaking of physique. The most sculpted physique here was clearly Arduwan, who had picked out a red two piece bikini herself. Oddly enough, this covered more of her up than she typically displayed. That body just wouldn’t stop.
Emily laid out on a lawn chair in a black bikini top with a tutu swim bottom. She had dark sunglasses on and was reading a book as usual. Her skin was pale white under the sun, and I worried she’d burn. But I couldn’t deny that it was a nice sight and by far the most skin of hers I’d seen.
Anabel had been equally holding out on me. You couldn’t get her to wear something like the other girls wore but she looked good, nonetheless. She wore a white one piece bathing suit that also had a little tutu at the bottom and she kept a shawl over her shoulders when out of the water. Her and Stephanie were playing frisbee next to the pond and seemed to be getting along just great.
Higgins was up by the house acting as grill master. He wore a black and blue Hawaiian shirt with khaki swim trunks, a sun visor hat, and sandals. It was the most laid back I had ever seen him. He insisted that Anabel enjoy herself and leave all the ‘work’ to him.
When not stuck in place staring all gaga over the girls, I took turns diving off the dock with Arduwan. It was kinda funny watching her try to stop the bikini bottom from riding. I suspect she had never worn anything so invasive before.
“Burgers are ready!” shouted Higgins. Everyone made their way up to the grill to get one. Arduwan joked that she wanted my portion and grabbed me by my biceps and hurled me into the water like a sailor throwing an anchor overboard. She could be scary sometimes.
* * *
After a day of playing in the sun, I continued Higgins' gesture to Anabel about taking a full day off from her duties, so I helped him clean everything up while the girls went inside to shower and change.
“Higgins, I have a dilemma I was hoping you could help me with,” I asked as we were moving the lawn furniture inside.
“Shoot, Master Noble. I’ll see what I can do,” he replied.
“It’s just, my love life, Higgins. I’m torn when it comes to relationships.”
“No, Master Noble. You have difficulty with romance?” he teased sarcastically.
“I mean, I’m surrounded by beautiful women who care about me, and I care about each one of them in different ways. They’re all extremely loyal. They each have their flaws, but all women do, so I’m really just not sure how I should handle all of them.”
“Ah, a truly difficult problem to have,” he continued mockingly before adding, “if it's advice on love, I’m afraid I’m not the best person to ask, Master Noble.”
“Just the same, you’re the only guy around I can talk about this stuff with. Even if Wraith was here, he wouldn’t be much help. Haven’t you ever been in love before, Higgins?”
He hesitated a moment, let out a sigh, and said, “Once. But it was a long time ago. I wasn’t much older than you are now.”
“Can you tell me about her? What happened?” I prodded.
We were inside, putting away the BBQ stuff at this point. Higgins went over to the coat rack and retrieved an old timey pocket watch. He flicked it open and showed me the inside of the clamshell. On the top part, above the watch portion, tiny gears started to move and a holographic image appeared. It was a woman with long strawberry blonde hair. She wore an orange and black wild west saloon girl dress. The image was a ten second clip of her brushing her hair and giving a little wink before blowing a kiss to the observer.
“She’s beautiful!” I said.
“And equally intelligent,” Higgins said, “she made this for me. Her name was Italia. She was a tinkerer and an inventor. She was your father and mine’s strongest ally in Brasshaven.”
“Brasshaven, that’s the city in the Steampunk world the well leads to, right?”
“Correct. I remember her like it was yesterday,” Higgins trailed off into a flashback…
Italia was a force of nature when it came to constructing things. She built a submarine that was self-propelled by the water it submerged in. A repeating sniper rifle that ran off CO2 cartridges and could hit a target accurately from over a thousand meters away. She lost her right leg in a mining accident and replaced it with a prosthetic that could not only store tools but was a weapon itself. She was a nightmare for the Neo-Techno Empire.
Eric’s father and Reginald first met her when she was undercover in a brothel trying to find information from drunk officers of the Empire that visited. Little did she know that Reginald was also undercover and retreated to her quarters to evade being captured. Thinking he was a slimy patron, she slapped Reginald upon meeting him. When their cover was blown, they helped each other escape and she allied herself with the two world walkers from that point on.
Over time, Reginald became quite fond of Italia and she became quite fond of him as well. Though she was modestly skilled in combat, she made up for what she lacked in resourcefulness and was supplemented by her inventions. Battle after battle, escapade after escapade, the three would spend years fighting against the Devil of Brasshaven and his forces.
In time, Reginald and Italia fell in love.
One day however, on a particularly dangerous mission, tragedy struck. A train disguised as a freighter, inbound from Coalridge, was barreling towards Chimney City with an atomic weapon on board. The latest terror created by the Neo-Techs. Noble and his friends learned of the attack and boarded the train moments before it left the station. A battle ensued on board the train.
“Quickly! We have to disable that engine. There’s no time to isolate the car the bomb is located in,” Noble said as he ran ahead on top of the train.
“Right! I’ll provide cover,” Italia said, as she squatted down and readied her rifle on the roof of the caboose. She fired at the steampowered shinobi bots that attacked Noble from all sides three cars ahead.
Reginald, with sword in hand, ran just one box car behind Noble. Just as he crossed a roof hatch, it lifted up and a bot emerged with a gatling gun and sprayed a hail of bullets at Italia.
Several struck her body and she fell backwards.
“No!” Reginald shouted out as he turned to strike down the machine gunner from behind with his blade.
Italia, badly injured, sat up and detached her prosthetic leg. She quickly converted it into a single shot rocket launcher and fired it to thin out the surrounding shinobi that encompassed Noble. Reginald ran to her side as she collapsed backwards again, succumbing to her wounds.
Noble finished off the last two robo shinobi and turned to see what had happened.
Reginald held Italia in his arms as she breathed her last breath. “Stop the train, Reginald.
Survive. I…Love you,” she pronounced as she died in his arms.
“Italia! No!!!” he cried out.
Higgins choked back a tear as he closed the pocket watch and said, “after that, I couldn’t bring myself to adventure the ways I had before. I still helped your father when he needed me. But my involvement in other worlds diminished over time.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that Higgins. She sounded wonderful,” I complimented.
Higgins smiled and patted me on the shoulder, “cherish the women in your life, Eric. All the ore in Brasshaven can’t replace them.”
