“I’m not an evil man.” Roth spoke, causing Astria to snort disdainfully.
“You could have surprised me-“ Slap!
The lioness leader walked up to her and slapped her across the face as she was still restrained by three others, including mage’s who seemed to have some kind of spell that prevented her from shapeshifting.
“You are before my Master! You will only speak when allowed!” She roared.
Astria licked the side of her mouth where some blood trickled, a hateful glare on her face. “My Master will make you eat those words. Who knows, maybe when he’s done with you, you’ll be kneeling at our feet for scraps!”
Rage painted the lionesses face and she raised the back of her hand to slap Astria again.
“Enough…” A single word from Roth, and she turned and stepped back, lowering her head submissively, almost like she was afraid of Roth.
“Master…” She breathed out in a voice that sounded slightly reverent. “Apologies.”
Roth walked up to Astria, grabbing her chin, lifting her face, and causing me to tense. “I already know how my story will go. It’s one of the advantages of being a hero. When the mantle of a hero attaches itself to you, you take on its karma. In a way, it’s like you get a cheat toward how the rest of your life will go.”
“A sob story?” Astria made a disgusted face.
“Heh… every hero has one. A maid hero is always fated to believe her master died and kill herself. A princess hero is fated to see her entire family die, flee her nation as the only survivor, and then build an army to take vengeance, only to become the very thing she despised in the process. These stories play out slightly differently every time, but the same basic thematic elements are always there.”
“And what of you, Harem Hero?” Astria asked.
“The Harem Hero is always fated to form a group of women he loves, only to find a way to long outlive them. Then, he must watch painfully as they grow old and die one at a time until he has nothing left. Although, in some versions, a more powerful enemy will come and defeat him, taking away his women. I made either fate impossible for me. I defeated my lore and created a new destiny. Do you want to hear how?”
“Humor me…”
“It’s simple, really… I leave my harem… expendable. When a woman gets too old to please me, I have her removed. I bring in newer, more beautiful women, women who keep my harem powerful.”
“Expendable? How could you even consider yourself a Harem Hero?”
“That method worked for a time… I continued to drink the waters of life and watched as my women outgrew me. However, if I had my own spring, I’d have more of it… I could start giving it to my women as well. I hope you understand the situation Karr put me in back then.” He leaned closer. “I could have built an immortal harem. My women wouldn’t have had to die. He’s the reason my women had to be replaced.” His words caused the harem girls standing around to throw dirty and hateful looks at Astria, as if they blamed her personally.
Astria suddenly spat at Roth’s face. The women holding her responded by twisting her arms, causing her to let out a cry of pain as her face hit the floor. The lead lioness looked ready to bash her skull in, raising her sword menacingly until Roth raised a hand. She immediately dropped her sword and hastily ripped off a piece of her dress and handed it to him. Roth calmly stood up, pulling the cloth from her and wiping his face as she looked at him adoringly.
“My Master is a better Harem Master than you ever will be. He will kill you!” Astria snarled.
“Your Master won’t be the one who kills me.” Roth shrugged. “Forty years ago, as the country was still being ravaged by the demon lord, I had gone to a soothsayer and had her read my future. By then, I was well-known as the Harem Hero, and I wanted to know how to side-step my fate. The soothsayer revealed to me how I would die. She said that a king would rise; a hero of heroes would appear in the east and that we would battle. I would fall to the claws of a tiger, a true harem king! Such a thing is impossible though… as I wiped out the entire tigerkin variant!”
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