Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1947: Could’ve Been Worse

Quinlan rode Synchra along the southern shore, smiling as his wives called to one another across the waves.

”Daddy’s gone quiet!” Rosie noticed from her perch on his shoulders.

”Just enjoying the moment.”

”Quinnie~ Your empress requests a kiss!”

Kitsara brought her board alongside Synchra, her five white tails fanned out behind her.

The foxy leaned toward him, tilted her board too far, and promptly tumbled off it.

”Kyaa!”

Quinlan raised a screen of foaming water before she surfaced. Kitsara emerged with her ears flat and her hair covering her eyes, reaching for him through the spray.

”You didn’t catch me on purpose! How could you???”

”A baseless accusation.”

Quinlan crouched carefully on Synchra, keeping one hand around Rosie’s ankle as he offered the other to Kitsara.

”Hmph! The jury finds the defendant guilty!” The foxy clasped his hand and rested against his knee while his magic drained the water from her clothes.

”The sentence is giving me a big smooch...” She pulled herself up far enough to kiss him, and Quinlan bent to meet her, smiling at his shameless bride. He lifted her back onto her board with a curl of water, then straightened with Rosie perched on his shoulders.

Once she was dry, he lowered the screen. Kitsara immediately spotted her father watching from the shore and waved at him with both arms.

”Father! Did you see me riding the wave?”

”Yes,” Vargis called back. ”Very good! Perhaps pay attention to where you’re going!”

”Ah!”

Kitsara saved herself from a second fall. Quinlan laughed, sending her board along on a gentler swell while she rediscovered the benefits of paying attention.

The Soul Reaper shot past Quinlan’s shoulder, cutting a crest apart before darting underneath the falling water. The blade was celebrating their newfound freedom just as his girls were. Though it might’ve been mostly excited about the bloodshed it knew would certainly follow.

Rosie shrieked with laughter when the spray reached them.

”Again!!”

The saber circled back through the foam, and Black Fang rode out behind it.

After studying the others, she understood the board. Now she was crouched low over it, black silk streaming behind her as she banked sharply.

Quinlan rolled a fresh swell toward her. She rode up its slope, trailed her fingers through the curling water, then glanced back at him with an expression that made him stare.

Black Fang was enjoying herself so much that her mask of cold indifference was slipping.

Her violet eyes were bright, her lips pursed together as she studied the waves Ayame and Serika were getting. She was eager for one like that too.

Quinlan built it for her, feeling far too happy to be the man she kept turning to for more.

”Big sis!” Ayame cried, delighted. ”You’re smiling!!”

The Venomborne Terror regarded her sister.

”You are seeing things.”

”Quin sees it too! Look at him!”

She looked. Her eyes were murderous.

”...I see nothing,” Quinlan announced.

Ayame burst out laughing. ”Come on!”

Black Fang turned away from both of them. She was facing the sea once more.

...

On the beach, Lilith Ravenshade was watching the women when Void climbed onto her back.

The mage hooked her arms around the captain’s shoulders and clasped her legs around Lilith’s waist, resting her chin beside her neck with her eyelids half closed.

”...Go.”

She pointed at the sea.

”What?” Lilith twisted her head toward the mage. ”Get down. I’m not your horse.”

”My shark...?”

Bronnya was chuckling behind them. Jallen saw her captain look back toward the waves, then picked up one of the spare boards from the sand.

”We could try it together.”

”In these clothes?”

”The brides are literally in their wedding dresses.”

Lilith glanced toward the surfers. Serika was riding down a steep wave with her arms spread, laughing at something Ayame had shouted to her.

The captain wanted to be out there so badly that her hands were shaking.

She had tried to escape the Restriction more than a hundred times. She had yearned for her next level, a new place to hunt, a direction she could walk without being thrown back.

Now a child was offering planks of wood, and people were riding over the place that had defeated her for centuries.

Void knew what that meant to her. She settled more comfortably against her captain and kept pointing toward the waves.

”...A board,” Lilith said at last, looking toward Rosie on Quinlan’s shoulders. ”Could we have a board?”

”There!”

Rosie pointed back at the shore. Roots burst from the wet sand beside the captain, spreading into a board wide enough for her and her passenger. More grew beside it for Bronnya and Jallen.

”Hold on,” Lilith muttered to Void as she grabbed the first one.

”...Already am.”

The captain waded into the shallows with her board, put it down, and stepped aboard. Quinlan brought a wave under it, waiting while she found her balance with Void hanging off her back.

Lilith looked down as her board carried her farther from shore.

The sand was still receding beneath her. Her knees bent as the swell lifted, and she gazed up at the open sea with a disbelieving smile.

”Fuck...”

Then she tipped her weight forward.

Quinlan built the wave, and Lilith went with it, silver strands tearing free of her collar as her board accelerated. Bronnya drew level on her left, Jallen on her right, all three adjusting to each other’s turns.

”Bahahaha!! Boss! This is fucking great!!”

Lilith was grinning wildly.

Quinlan floated one of Rosie’s spare boards out to the Lilies and cast [Awaken] above it. Pale flame gathered into Scar, her blue skin and familiar mask drawing an immediate shout from Bronnya.

”Scar! Over here!”

The soul general faced Quinlan, finding her balance on the moving wood instantly.

”Master?”

”A short break,” he offered.

”...Okay,” Scar muttered under her breath, visibly confused. Things were moving too fast even for the legendary leader of the Villain’s necromantic forces.

”Want a wave?” Quinlan smiled.

”...Yes.”

He guided her after her old teammates, and Void lifted her chin from Lilith’s shoulder to watch Scar approach.

”Mount swap time...” she announced.

”Give her a chance to enjoy the waves,” Jallen laughed.

”Hmph...” The Void Mage perfectly replicated Rosie’s pout.

Lilith cut across the wave to make room for Bronnya, and Jallen slipped through the spray behind them. Scar claimed the open stretch beside the captain as Quinlan made the swell steeper.

Lilith drove her board up the slope until its nose broke clear of the crest. For a moment she and Void hung above the spray, the mage’s feet dangling at the captain’s sides.

Then Lilith turned her hips, brought the board around beneath them, and dropped back down the wave.

Void’s arms tightened around her shoulders. ”Orc boss is getting too heated... Help...”

Bronnya hit the same crest behind her, cackling so hard that Jallen shouted her name. The tanker landed with a tremendous splash, bent low over her board, then straightened to howl her delight across the beach.

”Again! Handsome guy, another one!!”

Quinlan obliged. Jallen took the new swell alongside her captain, smiling into the wind while Bronnya demanded that they try the bigger wave behind it too.

The Lilies carried on, shouting over each other, and Lilith’s laughter reached all the way back to the sand.

On the beach, the remaining lords and the Obsidian Circle watched Quinlan send Synchra up a steep swell with his daughter on his shoulders.

”Higher!!”

He obliged, and his wives raced after him into the curling water, their wedding dresses flashing white against the blue.

Ayame cut across the crest with her skirt gathered in one hand, giggling as Serika rode up beneath her. The brawler kicked her board around at the top and dropped backward down the wave, red hair flying.

”They came straight from their wedding,” Maelstrom muttered.

”We were there,” Brokk reminded him.

”Look at them!”

The women raced through the spray on either side of their husband, silk flaring around powerful legs. Quinlan laughed and raised another wave for his wives, his little girl shrieking her approval above his head.

They were magnificent. Iskaris’s new ruling family was riding the ocean in its wedding finery, enjoying the freedom they earned.

Gorruk gave a deep, amused rumble.

”If our fate was to be conquered, we could have ended up with a much worse tyrant.”