Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

With Raven's date with Tanya coming to an end, he was finally back at the mansion. The place hasn't changed much, except for the number of its inhabitants.

Amedith, Mel, and Liliyana had still not returned and Aria was off to training while Erika was breathing down Reina's neck to get the idol of the goddess done as quickly as possible, leaving just the monster girls and Maria still staying at the accursed place.

"The Raven flew its way back home," Arche playfully mocked, watching as Raven walked in the direction of the monster girls.

Having gotten used to staying in the garden, the girls were provided many luxuries, from benches, chairs, and even an open fire grill. Yet approaching them, despite being gone for nearly two days, Raven knew that they hadn't sat once on the chair or the benches and had only used the grill as it was still being fought over by Mino and Maine.

"HEY GIVE ME THAT!" Screamed Mino, trying to get a massive piece of grilled meat from Maine who was keeping it held high while also standing tall on her tail.

"YOU ATE EVERYTHING ELSE YOU COW! LET ME EAT TOO!!" Maine shot back, her eyes burning with rage.

The two had noticed Raven's return, but neither of them was willing to break their game of tug of war until that piece of meat was theirs to claim. Chuckling at their childish behavior, Raven ignored the two for now and walked up beside Arche.

"Where's Amelia and Ophelia?" He asked, having noticed that they were the only monster girls missing.

Turning her head to the mansion, Arche pointed at one of the many rooms visible through the many windows. Through it, Raven saw both the girls standing around something with their eyes glancing all over.

"They're discussing something they called a tex with the raccoon boy, that or they're just messing with me with strange words…" Unsure of what the girls had meant when they'd left, Arche was upset thinking she was being played as a fool. She too had been a monarch, not exactly the kind to sit in a castle, but one that ruled her people quite well.

"Do you mean they're discussing something about taxes?" Raven asked, curious about the matter.

Turning her head back to the mage, Arche rolled her eyes and complained once again.

"Great now there's another joker teasing me," squinting her gaze, she glared at Raven. Then with a stretch of her finger, she lightly bumped him on the chest. "Since you have so much time to jest, why not take me to a river like you'd promised you would!"

"Are we going somewhere?" As soon as Arche mentioned going out, the other two stopped fighting and looked at the conversing duo. Mino in particular was tired of staying in place and dealing with Maine's shenanigans, thus, stepping forward she added. "I'm coming too, I don't care where but any place would be better than this hellhole right now!"

"Yeahhhh… kinda tired of how quiet it gets sometimes," Maine added while crawling closer to Raven.

Looking around, the mage already knew that the girls had had enough of sitting around and doing nothing for days, and since they were all monster girls, their bodies needed a lot more exercise than humans. Even their sense towards danger had begun growing dull–something the party could not afford given the destination for their next adventure.

"Sure, I guess we can take a trip to Rose's farmhouse too. Hopefully, the others aren't back yet, are they?" Looking around for an answer, Raven noticed the girls shaking their heads to confirm his suspicion. "Great, I guess we needed to hurry up anyway so consider this a joint date. We'll go to Aerin's house first and get her and Brenna too, if that's okay."

None of the girls had any objection, if anything they wanted to get on the road again already. The one-on-one dates would've been nicer, but having to wait around doing nothing for days was killing them on the inside. All but two of them, the centaurians were both monarchs and thus used to the mundane life in a big mansion-like structure.

'I should go talk to them too. Might also figure out what they're talking about exactly…' Leaving the girls to lie in their boredom a bit longer, Raven made his way through the mansion, hoping to get both the centaurians to join him on the joint date to the farmhouse.

Upon getting on the same floor as them he heard their voices echoing through the empty hallway. Taxes and the cut of different nobility helping with the collection seemed to be the topic of discussion, which turned out to be far tamer than what Raven had expected.

Walking further towards the room that they were in, he stood by the door and knocked against the open door frame to get the girl's attention.

The sudden knocking spooked everyone in the room, but as their eyes turned to the door with their hands on their chests, their expression lightened up a little.

"Oh, good heavens you scared me," Ophelia said with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, we didn't hear your footsteps or anything…" Added Amelia, her face still pale in color.

"Just came here to ask you two on a date," moving forward with a smile, Raven shifted his attention from the girls to Tan, momentarily. "Can you leave us alone for a minute? I wanna talk about something with you too, but after I'm done with the girls."

Asking no questions at all, Tan left the group in peace.

"A date, you say?" Tilting her head to the side, Ophelia pondered over the thought for a moment. "Gara would've arranged a bloodbath at the Colosseum if he was feeling uncharacteristically romantic, I just hope that's not the kind of date we're talking about here, are we?"

Brushing off her concern with a casual fanning of his hand, Raven moved closer to the girls.

"Nah, I doubt I can be that romantic. It's just a river and a farmhouse with possibly corn fields and many small animals," glancing between the girls with a smile, Raven held his hands forward. "So if you're done here, how about we start the preparations already?"

Looking at each other, the centaurians shrugged their shoulders before quickly turning their gaze to the front.

"I suppose a bit of modest living won't hurt." Said Amelia as she took Raven's hand.

"Anything beats living in breathing walls," Ophelia asserted before taking Raven's hand as well.

With the girls ready to leave, the mage wasted no time leading them to their rooms so they could start with the preparations. However as he was about to bring the rest, he was promptly stopped by Tan who handed him a beautifully calligraphed letter by 'The Red Madame'. It was an invitation of sorts, requesting Raven to come over with his girls so their sizes could be taken for the swimwear.

'I guess we have another stop to make before Brenna's.' And with that thought, it was time to leave the mansion for one last gigantic date.

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