Orgasm system: These beastwomen must moan!

Chapter 25: 1000AP? Fuck it!

Stefan’s POV

I was still trying to catch my breath when the System updated again.

JONQUIL

Status: Recruitment Candidate

Desire: 92%

Trust: 30%

Affection: 25%

Loyalty: 10%

Recruitment Progress: 42%

I stared at the number. "Just 8 percent added to the progress? After all of that ’training’ I taught her?" I said with a disappointed groan.

The System, predictably, had nothing to say for itself.

I scoffed, looked away from the notification, and that’s when it hit me ; all at once, the way exhaustion always waits until you stop moving to collect what it’s owed.

My muscles went heavy, my limbs felt like they had been filled with something dense and slow, and underneath all of it, my stomach made a sound that was frankly embarrassing.

I was starving.

"Yeah, right. I haven’t eaten anything this morning..."

I turned toward Jonquil, already forming the words, already mentally calculating whether warrior food would be available at this hour because of course I wasn’t going to do slave food.

[DAILY TASK REMINDER: Do not eat until noon.]

[Time remaining: 3:14:00]

I stopped, the words getting lost in my throat. I looked at the notification with the particular expression of a man being personally wronged by a piece of text.

"What the hell is wrong with you? What exactly is this system training me for? Is there a war coming? Or Marathon? Or just bullshit!" I mumbled through gritted teeth, not letting the words come loud.

No answer. There was never an answer to that one. I had asked earlier and I got silence as response.

[CURRENT AP BALANCE: 840 AP]

[MIRACLE DEBT REMAINING: 2,900 AP]

[NET BALANCE: -2,060 AP]

I checked the numbers and the debt sitting underneath them like a stone. Still most of it. Still very much owed.

I needed every point I could scrape together, which meant the fasting task wasn’t optional, which meant I was going to be hungry for another two hours, which meant the best thing I could do right now was sleep through as much of it as possible.

Fine. Sleep it was.

I started to lie back down.

Jonquil was already on her feet.

I blinked. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"Training," she said as flat as usual, reaching for her fabric, already moving with the brisk efficiency of someone whose body apparently hadn’t registered the last two hours as anything more strenuous than a light warm-up.

I stared at her legs. Both of them, steady, planted, not shaking even slightly. That was... Well, not really unbelievable because she was a warrior after all.

"You’re going back to training," I repeated.

"Yes."

Okay, no. I shook my head. There was just in me that wouldn’t let her to do that at this moment.

Maybe I was just being a good teacher. I should fulfill all righteousness to teach her everything, shouldn’t I?

I sat up despite every muscle in my body lodging a formal complaint about it, pushed myself to my feet, and crossed to her before she could reach the tent flap. I placed both hands on her shoulders, stopping her.

"Listen," I said, keeping my voice even and patient, the tone I used when explaining something simple to someone who genuinely didn’t know it yet.

"After this kind of training-" I gestured vaguely at the animal skin behind us, at the general evidence of the last two hours, "-your body needs to be cleaned and rested. That’s not weakness. That’s just how it works."

She looked at me. Then at my hands on her shoulders. Then back at my face.

I sighed then took her hand and walked her to the bathhouse without waiting for a response, because I had learned by now that waiting for a response from Jonquil was a good way to be standing in the same spot for a very long time.

"Clean up," I told her, once we were inside.

"Then rest. Proper rest, not just sitting somewhere. Before you do anything else."

She looked at the clay pot, then at me, still staying quiet.

"I will go rest in Zinnia’s tent," I added, already turning toward the exit. My body was moving toward horizontal by pure gravitational will at this point. "Sleep. Eat when noon hits."

The System dinged.

[JONQUIL’S CURRENT MOOD: Upset.]

I stopped walking.

I turned back.

Jonquil had moved to the clay pot and begun bathing, pouring water over herself in quick, sharp movements - too quick, too sharp, the kind of pace that had nothing to do with actually washing and everything to do with having somewhere to put something she wasn’t saying.

I watched her for a moment, frowning. Her jaw was set. Her shoulders had gone tight in a way they hadn’t been two minutes ago.

"What’s wrong?" I asked.

She didn’t answer. Okay, she didn’t hear me. She just kept pouring water, faster now.

"Why is she upset?" I asked the system but I got nothing.

I stood there for a second, trying to work out what I’d said. Rest, Clean, Which one of those had...?

I looked at her again and observe how the line of her spine stood rigid, at the water going everywhere because she was moving too fast to aim it properly, at the woman who’d just let me see more of her than she’d ever shown anyone and was now aggressively cleaning herself like she was trying to wash the vulnerability off.

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

I genuinely didn’t have the energy for this right now. I didn’t have the emotional reserves, the physical strength, the blood sugar, or the AP incentive to-

The System dinged again.

[OPTIONAL QUEST: Find out what’s wrong with Jonquil and elevate her mood.]

[REWARD: +1,000 AP]

[Bonus: Recruitment progress:+?]

[Accept / Decline]

"1000 AP?" My jaw dropped as I stared at that number. Without that recruitment progress which was locked, only that one thousand AP would clear a massive chunk of the debt in one move.

I looked at Jonquil, still bathing at twice the necessary speed.

I looked at the quest notification.

And lastly, I looked at my own hands, shaking slightly from exhaustion.

"You know what?" I said, to the System, to the tent, to the universe that had decided a man who had just lasted two hours on three days of near-starvation and a body held together by spite and numbing salve should immediately pivot to emotional support work.

"Fuck the AP."

I scoffed then started walking out of the tent without turning back to look at Jonquil.