The next few days flew by for John.

  He was training with Brod in the mornings, working on using his Katana with his left hand as the dominant hand. In the afternoons and evenings he was either working on his firebolt spell or healing adventurers who came by as per normal. He was able to make some sparks form on his fingers, but he was nowhere near able to start flinging balls of fire around like the spell described in the book.

  He did stop at the front desk to finally register as an adventurer. His Swordsman level 2 and martial arts level 2 skills letting him get the G-Css card. He wasn't overly concerned with the rank on the thing, as he was sure it would go up as they explored this new dungeon. He was more concerned with the skills themselves, not some weird ranking system.

  Nanael was strangely busy most of the time, only coming to their bed te at night, and she was so exhausted she fell asleep almost instantly when she snuggled into his chest. There was no 'fun' times to be had at the end of the day. Well, there was that one incident the day before when he was chatting with one of the adventures before training, when John was suddenly struck with a door, throwing his back out. Nanael gave him yet another one of her deep massages (7/10).

  It almost seems like she wants to beat on me to give me 'handies' as an apology.

  He noticed something strange happening around the guild though, but he wasn't sure how to expin it. People were paying more attention to him. Some were looking at him like he did something wrong, others were looking at him thoughtfully. A couple even seemed to be eying his crotch for some reason. They would have whispered conversations with each other while watching him, but he could never make it out.

  It was kind of unnerving.

  Finally, in the meal hall one evening, John had enough of it. He stood up. "Anyone mind telling me why you are all watching me like a hawk these days?" He asked the room.

  The quiet was almost deafening. Nobody said a word to him and all turned back to their meals. All except one, the giant wolfman chef, who came and sat down with John. "No need to make a scene about it. They are just curious about you that is all."

  "Curious about what though? Did that conversation we had leak out?" John asked, concerned that that was the issue at hand here.

  "No, no. Nothing like that. Just, Nanael has been heading the recruiting for your adventuring party and the fact that a healer is going to be an adventurer now is causing many of them to gossip you know. Pay it no mind. Here drink this!" Gulgar said, then distracted John with another mug of substance X.

  "Seriously, where are you pulling those out of? I didn't smell it until now." John asked, turning his nose up at the gss. He swore it winked at him this time for real.

  I must be losing my marbles. Too much studying and practice. I need a day off soon.

  "My magic bag of course." He replied "I poured it and stored it before coming out. I carry a bunch of stuff in here, saves on me searching through the cabinets every time I want to get some spices out."

  "What is a magic bag?" John said. He had a magic bag back on Earth, but he was going out on a limb here and guessing it wasn't a bag filled with oat grains he could toss in the microwave to heat up and put on his sore joints.

  "Hun? You don't...oh right...it is this." Gulgar said, pulling a small satchel from the pocket of his apron and setting it on the table between them. "It looks small, but the space inside is much rger. This one has the space of a very rge hiking bag, and everything stays upright inside, no matter what you do with the bag."

  John picked it up and opened it. Inside was indeed rger than the small size of the bag would suggest, full of different spice jars, all neatly organized, and for some reason, a rge battle axe.

  "This would be incredibly useful to have. How much do they cost?" John said. If he didn't need to carry his armour and tomes to this dungeon, then he would be incredibly happy. Not that he was pnning on carrying them very far, he had a toy he was eager to finally break out.

  "Well a small one would be about three gold usually, this one is a bit rger and was ten gold. There are ones out there that can hold the size of a rge room that run several ptinum pieces." He said, taking the bag back.

  "Well, I will put that on my to buy list then."

  "Good luck with that. The problem isn't the cost, they are generally rare due to how they are made. We have to import them from the dwarves, so usually only a few show up every year. You may actually have better luck visiting their city to get one rather than trying to purchase one in the Republic." Gulgar replied, then stood up, grabbing John's empty mug and pte. "Anyways, I will clean these up. You might want to check in with Nanael in a bit over in the consultation rooms. I hear she is finalizing your new party tonight, so you can meet your new...teammates.

  "Sure...I am surprised I didn't get any say in this. I suppose it was due to the secrecy right?" John asked, standing with him.

  "Yeah...secrecy. Go rinse your mouth out or something, you probably don't want to be reeking of that crap when you meet them. Beastfolk noses are sensitive you know." He said with a smile, tapping his nose with his free hand, the cloth plugs he put in letting him be nearby the open substance X without retching.

  It was a truly unpleasant drink.

  "Right. Thanks for the meal Gulgar." John said, and left the hall. He wanted nothing more than to bring some mouthwash back from another world right then.

  The voices in the meal hall returned to normal volume once John departed, many of them discussing John.

  "I can't believe he has Nanael putting together a harem for him."

  "Yeah, she is so beautiful. Isn't she enough for him?"

  "Maybe he has a sadistic streak? Forcing her to do that gets him off or something."

  "Sadistic? I thought he was a masochist?"

  "Yeah! I heard he lets Nanael beat on him too."

  "This could be her punishment for being violent with him. That is kind of sadistic."

  "Wait! Maybe he is both!"

  "What? A switch?"

  "Exactly. He likes it rough and being rough."

  "So we have a healer, who is a switch, and building a harem. That's it! What kind of nickname can we make with that?"

  "Switch Harem Healer?"

  "Naw, that is too straight forward."

  "Oh! How about the S&M Harem Healer"

  "That isn't it. We need something more punchy, that describes John."

  The adventures all paused, thinking of what nickname they could use to describe John best. Gulgar just ughed about it. Adventures had the worst skills in naming things.*

  Nanael was happily surprised.

  Out of all the maybes, only one ended up turning down her offer. Thora came up to her that morning saying that she was not ready to commit to a man for the next fifty or so years, but to look her up then if the offer was still open. Nanael just said she would think about it, but shook her head to herself.

  I think she forgot about human and beastfolk life expectancies.

  The rest however, agreed and showed up.

  They were sitting in a modest sized windowless room, with thick walls that reduced the chance of anyone trying to eavesdrop on the conversations that happened within. It was usually used for clients looking to employ adventurers for a job, which she supposed, was what they were doing today.

  The five of them were sitting on comfortable chairs surrounding a low coffee table, with a stack of papers in front of each of the recruits. There was also some tea in the center of the table, giving them something to drink while they went over the contracts.

  Nanael was at the head of the table, with Terra and Shallia on her left and Iris and Evie on her right. Three of the women were leafing through the contract quietly, all of them with various degrees of competency in literacy. Shallia in particur looked frustrated at the paper, but didn't say anything yet. Nanael asked them to all go through it first, then they would go over it again if there were questions.

  Evie, being even more literate than Nanael, was calmly sipping on her tea, the document already signed. She was initially hesitant to offer the mid level mage the position, but magic was mainly a human ability, not beastfolk, so the fact she could even find a mage that fit her criteria for the party was surprising enough on its own.

  She was a former noble from a fallen house though, so she could also provide John with insight into that world that was outside of Nanael's purview. That would make her invaluable to them in the future.

  Eventually, they all finished reviewing the document. Nanael sat her teacup down then, and focused on the four women in front of her.

  "Do you have any questions on what you just read?"

  "Yeah, what do you mean by we need to build a retionship with John? I thought you said we would be concubines in his harem?" Terra asked, concern cing the frostbears' tone.

  "Yeah! We will be with him for a long time, a retionship will come with that, but sex will need to come sooner, Nya! I already want to have his kittens you know!" Shallia said, the catfolk eagerly piling on to Terra's question.

  Nanael blushed at that.

  These two already have some experience. While I have just been pying with Johns dick.

  The adventure life was one fraught with danger, so normal morals within society loosened up a bit when they were rexing. If she was waiting for women who were all virgins like her, she would be left with just herself. Probably. She looked over at the other two, and was surprised that they were blushing as well.

  Maybe not just her then.

  "I want you all to grow closer to him, to have him rely on you, be able to confide in you. I also want you to become closer with each other over the coming years. Once you agree to the magical contract, I will tell you the full details of what is happening."

  "It sounds like you want us to become more like wives than concubines. Not that I am against it." Evie chimed in, her intelligent silver eyes already seeing through Nanael's pn.

  "Yeah. As I said, I expect John to have many proposals come his way in the future, some he might not be able to turn down. So I want to make sure he has a core group of strong women in his corner, willing to support him no matter what." (Political marriages...yay)

  "A wife to a healer hun...who would have thought one would even look at us beastfolk." Terra said, then picked up the quill and signed the paper. A red magic seal formed on her hand then disappeared, binding her to the non-disclosure side of the contract. She leaned back in her chair then, a deep sigh emanating from her chest and her white furry ears twitching slightly on her head.

  "Nya! But do I have to wait until he falls in love with me? What if I just wake him up with a morning blowjob? That will make him more connected to me won't it? I already love who he is, I don't need any more reason then that. That is more than most of us women normally get, between arranged marriages or ck of choice." Shallia said, crossing her arms underneath her rge breast.

  Her words struck a cord with all of the women at the table. Normally, they would all have been married off by now, most likely to someone who wasn't their choice. While their circumstances were all different, they all managed to get to this point, able to choose John, a man who by all accounts was caring, non-prejudice, attractive, and had a skill that could provide for a family until the day he died.

  This was by far the best choice they could ever had received, even if they were free to choose their partner elsewhere. Unless they were looking for monogamy.

  "That is...fine I suppose, but... I need to have his first child as head wife, got it? And you will need to be careful for a year or so while you help him level up. He needs to grow stronger, quickly." Nanael said, speaking quickly to try and cover up her nervousness. The reality of sharing her man was finally hitting her. She needed to move quickly to...to...get pregnant.

  She blushed again.

  "That is fine, but don't wait too long please. I am not getting any younger! Nya!" Shallia said, then signed the contract, the magic sealing her to the non-disclosure agreement.

  They could opt out anytime, but the contract would prevent them from talking about, writing, or communicating anything they will learn here tonight for five years. The guild used these frequently for noble clients when hiring adventures for missions of a more secretive nature.

  Nanael turned to the final woman, Iris, the dogfolk tamer. She was twirling a lock of her long red hair around her finger, deep in thought about something.

  "What is on your mind Iris?" She asked, somewhat dreading the forthcoming question. She still hadn't come up with the courage to ask John if he would be interested in sharing her with Iris, nor was she comfortable to do it without John there too...at least not yet. If they became sister-wives then maybe it would feel okay.

  Jeeze, listen to me, I haven't even had sex yet, and now I am talking about having sex with a woman too...strange times.

  Surprisingly, the question didn't come, and now Nanael was hoping that it didn't come back to bite her in the ass ter.

  "No, everything seems fine, it is just that I want to be clear with everyone here first. I like both women and men. I get really nervous around men though, so I hope you will all support me as I try and get comfortable with John." Iris said, looking ashamed for some reason.

  Evie leaned over to her then, resting a hand on the redheads thigh. "Of course we will, and don't worry about the liking women too thing. One of the maids was my 'Pillow friend' when we were growing up, she was a dogfolk as well. I don't mind having another if you are interested, at least when we are not with John. I am still not sure of the logistics of how this will end up working."

  Iris seemed surprised at that, then put her hand on the petite mages hand, csping it. "Okay" she whispered, happy she found someone like her in this small group. She then turned to the contract and signed, binding her to secrecy as well.

  Nanael gathered up all the papers and sat them on a side table, then turned back to the awaiting women.

  "Now that that has been done, it is time to let you all in on the secret." She started, then paused. This was the point of no return in her mind, expanding the small group who knew of John's existence to people who she barely knew outside of being adventurers. She took a deep breath, and continued.

  "John...is not from our world."

  * - In canon, they called the MC the Maso-zombie healer, because they thought he was a masochist because he could withstand Brod's demonic training, and drinking substance X, and a zombie because he never took time off to hang out or rex, always training, a work zombie. If you have a fun nick name the adventures could give him, toss it in the comments below.