Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure by Baron Sord (mobi ebook reader .TXT) 📕

I tell Oia that I had stupidly risked the lives of every Shock Knight in the process? All that to find a woman who might already be dead?

Violet.

Every time I thought about her, I got nauseous.

I didn’t want Violet dead, whether or not I left Zalaxia. We had met only five days ago. We’d had passionate jungle sex that same day. I had hoped to have more passionate sex with her in the days to come. Seemed like that was off the table now for a variety of reasons.

“Tim?” Oia prompted.

“Sorry. I was… we were out fighting dinosaurs,” I said, edging around the truth like it was a bonfire of embarrassment. “Terrorsaurs, to be exact.”

“Did they attack the outpost?”

“No,” I said truthfully. “Just me and the Shock Knights.” I almost added Corporal Syx was with us, but that would beg questions I didn’t want to answer.

“Were you out in the jungle?” Oia asked.

“Yeah.” I suddenly felt guilty, like I was straight-up lying to my girlfriend. Lying to people I cared about had never been something I did, and avoided at all costs. In this case, Oia was effectively my girlfriend. I was hiding terrible news from her. Not technically lying, but hiding bad news. No, the worst news. Breakups were never fun for anybody, were they? Especially when you had to do the breaking. Rather than drop that bomb, I dropped a different one. “I almost got us killed.”

“Oh no,” Oia gasped. “What happened?”

I had to tell her something. I’d start with the easy stuff. “Crewd’s pirates. They’ve got some kind of secret energy cannon that… Hold on.” I got up and closed the hexagonal access hatch completely. As the hatch shushed shut, the sounds outside faded to nothing. I continued in a low voice, “This energy cannon shut my rings off.”

“Both rings?”

“Yeah, both. And the rings of the Shock Knights. We were left with nothing. No armor. And rifles that wouldn’t work. My rings didn’t work either. I couldn’t do anything without them. I was helpless. A bunch of pirates almost…”

Memories of Mace, Qrudge, and Skok threatening to make me their prison bitch fought a vomitous battle in my guts. It was embarrassing and humiliating and I wanted to forget it forever. Easier said than done.

“It was bad,” I grunted. “But it could’ve been much, much worse.”

“That’s horrible, my king. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I sighed. “I… they… it ended well for me, bad for them.”

“That’s good,” Oia said uncertainly.

“Yeah, it’s good. Now, anyway,” I said, glad she didn’t know the whole story, hadn’t been there to see what a worthless wimp I’d been without my rings.

I suddenly found myself wondering what it would have been like if Oia had never picked me to give the Bombshells’ Ring, if I had remained an inconsequential and nerdy engineer back on Earth. In that scenario, I could imagine crossing paths with Oia and her showing little interest in nerdy me. Sure, knowing Oia, she’d be polite and professional, but would I have ended up in bed with her back on the Artemis? Probably not. Would she instead have forgotten my name minutes after meeting me? Most likely. And for that reason, there was only one thing left for me to say.

“I’m leaving,” I said in a somewhat shameful voice.

“Leaving?” Oia asked with immediate concern. “Leaving where? The outpost? Are you going to the Royal Palace? Without me?” The way she said it sounded like I had just asked her for a divorce so I could go have an orgy with every other woman on the planet except her.

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m leaving Zalaxia. By myself. Going back to Earth. Permanently.”

“What? Why?” Her voice flooded with despair.

“Where to begin?” I sighed and slumped in my chair.

Oia pushed herself up in her bed to sitting. Dim light spilled across her face. She wasn’t a melted-face demon. Quite the opposite. She looked like the beautiful woman I remembered, but with some slight swelling and some purple and yellow bruises staining the impeccable planes of her face. Anyone could see she was more attractive than any fashion model, and well on the way to recovering her impossibly good looks.

“You got your teeth back,” I said.

“Major Akeso put them in last night,” Oia said. “I’m supposed to take it easy on them for at least a week. Soft foods only.”

“Still. That was quick. Only four days to grow replacements?”

Oia nodded. “Forget my teeth. Tim, what’s wrong? Why are you leaving Zalaxia?”

Venus whispered sleepily behind me, “You’re leaving?”

“Yeah,” I said, turning to offer her an apologetic smile.

Sirius piped up sarcastically, “Took you long enough.”

Venus said, “Hush, Sirius.”

Cygna said, “You can’t leave, Tim. We need you.”

“I don’t,” Sirius snorted. Now sitting up in her bed, she folded her arms across her breasts and shook her head in disgust. “I knew this would happen sooner or later.”

Venus said, “I said hush. Let Tim speak.”

Cygna said, “You have to stay, Tim. Without you we’ll be…” She never finished her sentence, but I could finish it for her. If I left, they’d probably be exiled again, or beaten by Colonel Sadys, or executed by the next king. Problem was, if I stayed, I’d be dead by tomorrow and they’d still get the shaft, proverbial and literal.

Oia said, “What is it, Tim? What happened? There’s something you aren’t telling us.”

How was I supposed to explain I got my ass kicked and I was running away to save my own skin?

Oia said, “Is it because of my face?”

“No,” I snorted.

“It is, isn’t it?” Oia’s face tensed with sudden anger.

“No,” I laughed. “Not even.”

“It’s not funny!” Oia hissed.

“Yes it is. You’re gorgeous.”

“No I’m not!” she insisted.

“It’s not your face! Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snarled.

“Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was, even with your bruises you’re better looking than any woman I ever met back on Earth.”

“So it’s my bruises you don’t like?”

“No,” I huffed in frustration. “I love your bruises.