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Chapter 37:Factions

"I think we went a bit off-topic," Daiki said halfway between one of Simon's retorts

"What do you mean?" Simon asked.

For as infuriatingly confusing as the green-haired guy could be Simon found it very easy to talk to him. He was very good with taking whatever Simon said and turning it into a conversation topic.

Simon was loathed to admit it and if he was asked he would vehemently deny it but he was coming to like the dude in front of him.

They had been talking back and forth for hours now and despite the sting in his voice Simon was enjoying it quite a bit.

So, when the damned asshole asked for his attention he grudgingly gave it.

"So... Don't get mad but I might have had an ulterior for staying behind and speaking to you." He said looking slightly sheepish.

"Obviously." Simon retorted acting as though that was a foregone conclusion.

In truth, he had no idea what or why he would have ulterior motives. His mind, however, was already giving himself a small mental high five to finally find a legitimate reason as to why he was allowed to hate this dude in front of him.

"Simon, I am being serious." Daiki's voice took on a more grave quality as he said those words, then he continued.

"Do you know why four of the most powerful tamers in the first year and some of the top tamers in the entire academy decided to take valuable time out of their day to humor you and make you feel welcome?"

Those words started making Simon ponder but he still could not dig deep into it as the green-haired boy was still on a roll.

"Granted the reason we came here was that the dean said there was something we should not miss in the lounge but for all of us spending thirty minutes doing nothing but chitchat is a severe waste of our time. I just got lucky because today was one my 'off' days and decided to use it to get an early march."

The words struck Simon as the gears in his head started turning.

The reason he had thought they were so cordial was that they were all colleagues here.

But what if that was the point?

Tens of thousands of students enter every year and supposedly this 'Planar University' could comfortably hold up to a million bodies at any given time. If he were to go only through the first bit of information given, he was only one of five students admitted who had a high-tier bond as his first...

"I am very valuable aren't I?" Simon breathed out the conclusion he came to.

"See! I knew you weren't stupid!" Daiki said grinning.

The glare he gave the annoying asshole was piercing but the smile never wavered from his face.

Even Amy growled a bit, but it was very half-hearted in his ears. She probably knew that Daiki was just teasing.

He then cleared his throat and look Simon dead in the eye.

"Now let me fill you in on just how fucking valuable you are. Strap in because this is going to be a long-ass exposition. The personal power you have is not even worth a fucking mention, there are some fifth-year students that could take you on one on one with no problem. No, it is the idea that you bring to bear. You and I represent some of the strongest of what humanity can offer and that sort of ideal is something others wish to rally behind. Tamers will flock to you as they did me and that is what makes you valuable. You see, the school wants us to be the goals every tamer sets to be for a long list of frankly shit reasons and so gives every 'blessed one' an opportunity to make a 'club' centered around them. Honestly, it is a bona fide faction system with the 'blessed' being the head of each faction. Currently, the first years are generally divided into five groups. Dudes that follow my horny self and my equally as horny 'Lovers'. Arsalan and his god-complex of a 'holy order'. Leone and his 'Dark Knights'. The bullheaded Ryu and his bullshit 'Rising Dragons'. Then there are the bunch that doesn't want to deal with the shitty politics and decided to peace out. Up to this point all of the 'clubs' have been relatively equal in power and there has been a sort of harmony. With me so far?"

He said all of that with barely any breaks in between but in such a way that Simon got an idea of what was being said so he nodded.

"Now you pop up out of absolutely nowhere and have the same qualifications as us. It probably did not hit the rest of those assholes yet but they will probably kick themselves for not realizing how big of a catch you are. Outside of Ryu, That ass has only two things on his mind, getting a real dragon and beating the shit out of monsters."

Something about what Daiki just said did not feel right with Simon and since the guy was being frank he asked.

"Am I not a threat? Can I not establish my own 'club' that opposes the agenda of the others?"

Daiki was wide-eyed for a second at his remark but quickly calmed himself as he shrugged.

"You probably could. But that will not mean much. If this was the beginning of the school year you probably would have been a threat. As it stands now, well... most of those who wanted to join already joined a 'club'. If you do make a new 'club', sure people will join but don't get any hopes of it ever amounting to too much. Not saying it can't happen but the odds are very very low."

Some of his questions were answered but since Simon had Daiki's ear he pressed on with the other thing that was bugging him.

"Why are you telling me this? Surely you realize this decreases the odds of joining your 'club'?"

A smile bloomed on Daiki's face and Simon was shocked to find out that there was no edge of teasing or anything of the like to it. This smile came straight from the soul.

His next words similarly had none of the rough edges of his normal speech.

"You see, my friend. Most of us start our clubs with a goal we want. Mine was to show the world that turning monster girls into tools was not the way of the future... Don't give me that face. If you lived in the city you would realize just what I am talking about. Give a monster girl just a little bit of love and she is willing to bring down the world for you, you don't even have to bond. Most of the higher-ups seem to be blind to the fact and many rules exist in deliberately making a monster girl's life harder with no feasible reason as to why it should be necessary. I want to change that... I probably won't succeed... But what I want to do at the very least is to spark an ember that maybe one day turns into a roaring flame."

Simon had another question and he was about to ask such before Daiki put his index finger up, silently asking him to wait. His next words answered the question that was bubbling in his throat.

"The way you treat your monster girls... I don't care which faction you join, you are the ideal I want this messed up society to achieve. As long as your love for your monster girls stay as it is now, you will be a walking example of the future I want to achieve."

Well... Simon was expecting a lot of things... But not something so... heartfelt. The shift was so drastic that he was struggling to come up with a proper reply.

Since nothing else was coming to mind, what he said was.

"Ok..."

Chapter 38: A happy puppy

After that Mindbender, Simon was left to his thoughts as something came up for Daiki and he had to leave in a hurry.

But not before apologizing to Simon for the sudden departure and making Simon promise that they would meet again later.

However, a voice popped into his head before he could take some time to mull over what the Daiki said.

'Good evening, Simon. Your accommodations have been prepared, would you like us to guide you to them?'

"Uh...Sure?" His mind was still caught up in his previous conversation so he threw out the first thing that popped into his head.

'Thank you. First, can you tell me where you wish to exit from the Lounge?'

"From where I entered?" Simon said but came out more of a question.

Amy looked up at him tilting her head. Because of his confusion, his constant petting had stopped. For the puppy who had just been in heaven, this was atrocious. She yipped up at him to get his attention and even licked under his chin to get his attention. But what she got for her efforts was a shove off her favorite spot in the world.

She gave out a despairing *Arf!* as she landed on her feat. The horizontal structures that made her spot became vertical as her mean... Even thinking like that made her want to whine. No! Her master was not mean, he just liked to tease her sometimes. And this was one of them. Master loved Amy, he gave her a home, a pack to belong to, she was never hungry, and she got pets all the time. She was the luckiest monster girl ever!

Before master... Amy was lonely... She could not remember anything before her master... But the one thing she did remember was this crushing feeling of loneliness. There was a lot of hunger too, but even that base desire came nothing close to that horrid oblivion.

She did not know if gods existed, all her knowledge about those mystical things in the sky came from when her master read her bedtime stories. But she would sometimes silently howl at them to thank them, maybe it was by their miracle she met her master.

That master was currently talking to the air again and after a bit, he started to move.

Amy started trotting along completely forgetting her annoyance.

Why was she annoyed again? That did not matter, what mattered was that her master had started to move and she needed to keep up with him.

Her master was just as lonely as herself. They were mated and she could feel these things about her mate, not to mention they were pack and wolves were always keenly aware of others in the pack. She did not know who or what caused the sadness he constantly seemed to feel, otherwise, she would go and rip those meanies to shreds.

But what she also noticed was that if she stayed close to him and kept his attention, that sadness would become less and less. Amy saw that as a win-win, she loved her hugs and pets.

Her master currently had a concentrated look on his face as he traveled out of the warm and comfy place and out back in the open.

Sure it was not as comfy as back inside but there were large open areas everywhere. Amy's instincts desperately wanted to run like what they had done just the other day but she had to restrain herself. Her master had not given her permission and so she had to restrain herself. She would not make her master sad, it was her job to make her alpha happy.

Technically, both she and her masters were alphas of the pack, both of them had that special alpha power. But in her heart of hearts, Amy knew that despite being weaker than her. Master was the real alpha of their group, which now only consisted of two.

One day, there would be more, a pack cannot exist with only two members. She let a very low whimper when she thought that if there were other packmates her pets might go down.

Her master noticed her whimper and gave her a raised eyebrow before petting her between the ears. The touch was the best feeling in the world second only to feeding time and he pushed her head into his palm to demand more.

"Are you hungry? Don't worry. Let me find our new accommodations and then we can set some time aside to feed you. How does that sound?"

*Arf!*

Feeding time! The best two words ever invented by mankind!

Why was she sad again? Who cared? It was about to be feeding time!

Her tail wagged furiously but she was now giving her full concentration in finding their place to stay. She had no idea where they were going but she could push her master along to make sure they arrived quicker.

The faster they arrived the quicker she got to eat. It did not matter that she was not hungry, she had been fed just the other day and she did not need to feed every day to be kept full. But her master loved feeding her daily and she loved eating! So it was a win-win!

Chapter 39: A new home

Simon came up to a place that looked palatial compared to his old home. It was a massive two-story structure with architecture Simon had never seen before. It was an amalgamation of odd geometries that made no holistic sense whatsoever.

Two wooden roofs were stacked on top of each other. The one overhead was heavily slanted to one side with a massive slab jutting overhead, the one below had a sizeable gap between the top and was slanted to the other side except it was much flatter than the first.

The whole was supported by a massive rectangular red beam, Simon could not guess for the life of him what it was made out of.

The overhead roof had a portion cut out of it to fit a square balcony. The entire bottom floor was made out of opaque glass that ended in curves instead of edges.

His dad sometimes talked about how he built their farm home by himself and how proud he was of it. He often went into great detail about how he made everything fit together. It was so much so that Simon had an idea of how houses were built.

Simon at that moment wanted to bring his dad in to show of the mind fuckery of a house that spat in the face of everything he thought he knew about houses.

Thinking of his dad made him sigh, when he did not think about it he was fine. But it still hurt to think that he would wake up every morning and see no familiar faces.

Amy started aggressively rubbing her furry on his robed leg. Simon waited for one of her barks. Over the last two weeks, he began to understand more of Amy's ticks and one of them was how she barked, a yip she was happy, a whine was worry or sadness, a growl signified anger or a warning, a single bark was a way to grab attention or to show curiosity, and rapid barks meant she was hungry and wanted to be fed. He had yet to figure out what a howl meant but since she had done a total of one time before he had to piece together that puzzle.

*Arf!* *Arf!* *Arf!* *Arf!* *Arf!*

Yep, the greedy little animal wanted to be fed. He shoved his hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair before walking the intricate stone path that led to the glass door of his home.

He wondered who else was living in the house and whether they would like a new arrival. According to everyone he had joined late which meant he was going to barge into someone else's life uninvited.

Nothing to do but face it head-on, he supposed and approached the opaque glass door. The door was fascinating, it looked like he would be able to see inside but try as he might, he could not see anything inside at all.

The first thing he did was turn the doorknob to see if it was open and sure enough it was.

The inside was just as weird and alien as the outside. The whole thing had a very clean look and like the lounge, it was filled with gadgets and gizmos that he had no idea about. However, he also noticed that it did not look lived in. Everything was too perfectly in place and clean for that.

However, that was secondary, what was primarily at the center of his mind was the uniform-wearing cat girl who was looking straight at him with a massive smile on her face.

She was lithe and even with her relaxed posture he could notice at a glance how flexible she was. Training with a brute of a dad who forced physical perfection every day will do that to you. Her hips were tapered but it was a modest thing, and so was her chest which was only slightly larger than a handful. However, like all monster girls, she was very well put together and was very pleasing to the eye.

Simon would say she had very little fat if any at all, giving her a taught stomach, and silky long legs which were very attention-gabbing. Her pale skin worked extremely well with her red feline eyes and black hair that matched his own. Similar to Amy she had ears on top of her head and a black tail swishing back and forth. Unlike Amy, however, her ears were more flattened and she seemed to have much greater control over her tail.

Her face was attention-grabbing but so was every monster girl he ever met, what made it special, however, was her eyes, her full black lips, and a button nose that Simon had a very sudden urge to *boop*. A wave of nostalgia hit him at the thought.

"Master! Welcome home!" She said with an excited glee as she bounced from foot to foot with exuberance.

The way she said made Simon feel something he had not felt ever since his moms and dad had left. It was the same feeling he got when he often played with his cat mom when he was younger. Her ability to make him forget everything but the game they played. *Boop* was one such game and some of his fondest memories

Simon almost forgot about cat mom because of her sudden cold shoulder over the last six months. But that playful feeling was brought out of him at the sight of this new cat girl. His body moved before he could command it to stop and he walked to the cat girl and did the one thing he wanted... no he needed to do.

The cat girl still smiled at him as his arm stretched out and he placed it on the tip of her nose.

"Boop." He said awash with nostalgia. He did not know what would happen next but this was something he had to do. Now, he just had to apologize to the monster girl for his erratic behavior

Then something happened that he had not expected but his heart melted at the action.

The cat girl giggled as she put one of her arms up and mirrored him. She touched his nose and said.

"Boop!"

This was the third cat girl Simon had ever met and he decided then and there that he wanted one of his own.

Chapter 40: Awkward feeding

"Hi! My name is Stella! And I will be your cat maid for the duration of your stay in this house!" Stella said in an excited curtsy.

She was wearing a very frilly black and white dress, which his cat mom often wore and his soft mom referred to as 'fetish maid outfits'. Except hers showed a lot more skin and had a lot less cloth.

Now that Simon was feeling more like himself and not like he was seeing the spitting image of cat mom in front of him, he could take in what she was saying.

"Hi. I am Simon and I guess I will be under your care for the foreseeable future." He said responding to what was being said to him.

*Arf!* *Arf!* *Arf!*

Amy started barking up at him.

The bark brought to attention what he was supposed to be doing right now, namely feeding his puppy.

"Oh! Right! Can you show me to my room? I need to feed Amy."

Stella's cat ears flicked every which way as she answered his question with a nod before saying.

"Oh! Come right this way!"

She turned around in a twirl that showed off her frilly black and white skirt that was entirely too short. So much so, that Simon had a great of her ass, it also did not help that her tail was doing its best to give him a good look as it came out from under her skirt. He did not know what he was expected but her rear was surprisingly large for her frame and gave a very slight jiggle as she bounced away.

A headbutt from Amy brought him out of his musings as he hurried to follow the cat girl up the stairs. He started climbing after the maid who seemed to hop two steps at a time. Simon looked up to see where he was going and was caught with a very peculiar sight. The distance was such that he had a very good view of the underside of her skirt, a very naked underside.

His enhanced vision subconsciously focused on the slight dampness that coated her nether.

Simon came from a home where everyone wore underwear(It was done for his benefit not to confuse his young mind) with only Amy being the exception. But given that Amy only took her human form during feeding time so it was not much of a difference.

His physiological responses triggered very quickly and his mind was still not desensitized to overt sexual attention from horny animals that were magically created to catch the male eye.

Amy was no help as she was a puppy most of the time, and his moms and aunts were very careful to make sure Simon did not associate them with anything related to sex.