Gren could see two of his wives as the elevator raised up. Surprisingly, Jessica was not with the group that had come to pick him up. Yasinia was also there; her animal ears pointing downward until she saw Gren or, more likely, the carriage.When Estella saw Gren she broke out into a run towards him. "Gren!" One flying hug later and Gren was pushed into the carriage behind him. Estella kissed his face and started to complain to him. "I thought you abandoned me. You took off without warning and disappeared for several days. I was so worried about you."
Gren returned her hug and gave her a light peck on the top of her head while she was rubbing her head on his chest. "Sorry, Estella. I didn"t know that I would be going on a trip when I came to the Church to get healed. I had to return to Newton for something really important to me and the knights were gearing up to go there already. I didn"t have time to tell anybody but Jessica before the knights left."
Gren and Estella were picked up by large scaly arms. "If you two are done being lovey-dovey then let"s get going. It"s too dark to be playing around." The two of them were placed onto the carriage by Jasmine. Gren didn"t know when she got there but Yasinia was already in front of the carriage, ready to pull it along.
Jasmine was too big and her tail got in the way so she couldn"t sit next to Gren on the carriage"s seat. "Come on, Yasinia, let"s get walking." There was a bit of weight in the back thanks to the crates but Yasinia was just barely able to pull the carriage. Jasmine seemed a bit lonely on her own so Gren held his hand out, letting Jasmine hold his left hand while Estella hugged his right arm.
The four of them made it to the shopping district and could see the few food carts that were open on the streets, taking advantage of the nocturnal crowd to get sales they wouldn"t normally get during the day. "Hey, Yasinia, can you stop for a bit?" Gren looked between his two wives. "Are you girls hungry? I could use a bite to eat." He was only a bit hungry but there was food available around him and some of the food looked pretty good. There were some deep fried b.a.l.l.s of dough coated with a dark sauce that reminded him of something he ate back on Earth and they looked delicious.
"We already had dinner earlier. If you"re hungry then you can get some but mom made sure to leave you some leftovers." Jasmine rejected his offer.
Estella didn"t seem to agree with Jasmine. "Can we pick whatever we like? I want that boar meat!" The food that Estella was pointing at was a few chunks of meat cooked on a wooden skewer and coated with a thin reddish-brown sauce. Gren let go of Jasmine"s hand and hopped off of the carriage; Estella soon following him down.
Estella dragged Gren over to the food cart with the boar meat and asked for three sticks while Gren paid. "So, Gren, what do you want to eat?" Estella took a bite from all three sticks while asking him. Gren thought that at least one of those sticks were meant for him but he didn"t ask for one so he couldn"t complain about Estella eating them all.
Gren bought two more boar meat skewers and turned his attention to the fried dough he saw earlier, buying three small packages so that he could share the food with his wives. The sauce on the fried dough had a nice salty taste, to his surprise, but the dough at the center of the little b.a.l.l.s wasn"t fully cooked so it had a weird taste once you bit into it. Gren couldn"t eat another one of the fried dough b.a.l.l.s and placed the remaining ones in the carriage, hoping that one of the girls back home would enjoy them.
The boar meat was chewy and a little bit spicy. It tasted pretty good so Gren decided to save the rest of his skewer for later so that he could use it to get rid of any bad taste from the other foods he"d be trying. As for the second skewer, Gren decided to give it to Jasmine. He looked weird reaching up towards Jasmine"s mouth with a skewer of meat in his hand.
Jasmine bent down a little and took a bite when she realized what he was trying to do. "Thanks." Jasmine was blushing, not used to public displays of affection.
The three of them continued buying different foods from the various carts, getting enough for everyone while enjoying their walk back to their home. Even Yasinia was munching on food while pulling the carriage; her favorite snack seemed to be the fried sugar beets. Gren was happy just spending time with the women and hoped that in the future he would be able to continue to have small moments of peace like this one.
The former bakery came into view--Gren could see that the notice stating that the business was closed was still on the door. The notice was a reminder of his failure to protect something that Jessica cares about. "Jasmine. Estella. I want to get stronger. I don"t want to just sit there feeling powerless ever again while the people I care about are being harmed."
Estella hugged Gren"s arm even harder. "I think it"s good that you want to improve but even if you stay the same it"s okay with me. I don"t want you getting harmed again like when you got attacked by those rats." Estella gently bit into Gren"s shoulder while she was hugging him. Gren didn"t know why she did it but it didn"t really hurt so he didn"t stop her.
Jasmine placed her hand on Gren"s leg as they were parking the carriage inside the courtyard. "Estella is right. We care more about your safety than whether or not you"re good in a fight. Well, Ahk probably cares more about your strength but she"s a bit different."
Bringing up Ahk was strange. "Why are you mentioning Ahk now?"
"While you were on your trip we were talking to the girls and you came up as a topic. After finding out that you had two demihuman wives, a few women began to talk about what conditions they would marry you under. Ahk said that she would only marry you if you could beat her in a duel. I made a list of what they said, if you"re interested." Jasmine"s answer was not at all what he expected.
"I can tell you right now that I will never duel Ahk so that"s not going to happen. Anyways, I"ve got three beautiful wives already. What more could I ask for?" Gren was happy with how his life was going.
"You could ask for another wife. It"s not illegal." Estella answered with a straight face.
{I was being rhetorical!} The women around him failed to hear his internal voice.