Tales of Harem 2: Chapter 1 - An Audience with the Queen and a View of her Hot Body!?

 The castle gate had looked big from a distance, but it looked like it would reach the clouds from close up.

Naoki stood up in the wagon and celebrated like someone who had never seen a big city before.

“Wowwww! Now that is impressive! It’s so cool!”

“Hey, calm down, you stupid Hero! You have an audience with the queen, so stop acting like a dumb hick.”

Llusse the Elf gave him a cold look without getting up, but he could not help but feel excited after seeing such a fantasy sight.

And his eyes were drawn by more than just the buildings.

The road leading from the castle wall to the palace itself was filled with chamberlains and soldiers.

Filia had told him before that all this kingdom’s soldiers were women.

Sure enough, everyone wearing a sword and dressed like a warrior appeared to be a woman and a lovely one at that.

The occasional person dressed in bright clothing may have been major civil officials or nobles.

His eyes darted every which way because it was all so new to him.

“This is amazing enough, but I also get an audience with the queen? It’s so exciting!”

“Please just stop!”

“W-well, this is a foreign world for him, so it’s sure to be full of unusual sights. How about you cut him some slack?”
Swordswoman Filia was the party’s leader and she stepped out of the wagon with a bitter smile.

She was always smoothing things over between him and Llusse and the nun named Tianne moved to assist Mila, Naoki’s servant, with unloading the luggage.

“We will retrieve our things here and leave yours in the wagon for now.”

“Understood.”

As a dog girl, Mila was stronger than humans, so she easily unloaded the large bags.

Then two soldiers ran over, waving at the group.

“Filia! You’re back already!?”

“Oh, Annie! Long time no see!”

“Mila! Glad to see you’re doing well!”

“Are you on your way to the castle, Elisa?”
Filia responded first and Mila gave a greeting next. They clearly knew each other and were similar ages, so Naoki figured they were friends.

The soldier Filia had called Annie was tall, had dark skin, and looked wild with her curly hair. In contrast, the soldier Mila had called Elisa was short, had light skin, and looked calm.

They both wore bright and shining plate armor that made them look higher-ranked than the average soldier. Below the armor, they wore black inner suits that covered them up to the neck. The only bare skin visible was on their faces and a bit of their thighs.

Naoki found that an odd contrast from Filia who was also a soldier but dressed in the sexy and highly revealing style of a dancer, but he did not want to intrude as the hugged and quickly caught up. He decided to keep that question in the back of his mind for now.

“I’m so glad you’re okay and I can’t believe you really found the Hero!”

“Yes, let me introduce you. Hero, this is Royal Knight Annie. She and I are from the same village.”

“Filia and I trained together!”

“Cool. N-nice to meet you.”

He was a little overwhelmed by Annie’s powerful handshake, but he kind of liked her carefree attitude. In fact, he really liked it.

(And now I can add female knights to the list!)

He had met a swordswoman, a nun, an elf, a dog girl, and a witch already and now he had encountered some female knights.

This world just kept living up to his expectations.

He was glad all over again he had been summoned here.

Elisa bowed politely in yet another contrast to Annie.

“Welcome to the royal capital of Rechebourg. Oh, and welcome to this world, I guess?” She corrected herself and then asked something else. “Um, did you really come from…another world?”
(Wow, she’s sooooooooo cute! Is she really a knight!?)
Annie looked tough and he could accept her as a knight, but Elisa had a slender build and her neatly combed short hair even had a hair clip holding the bangs in place.

(Sh-she’s exactly my type!)

Her bashful upturned look just about killed him it was so cute, so Mila had to answer for him.

“It is true. And his power as the Hero…let’s just say there is no doubt he is the Hero.”

“My! Is he better than the Hero in the novels?”

“Wait, what kind of friends are you two?”

“We both love reading, but Elisa loves romance novels, whereas I rarely read them.”

“Wait, don’t tell the Hero that. It’s embarrassing!”

(Hmm, they really do have their own lives in this world.)

He had only just been summoned and they had been on the road ever since, so this was his first glimpse of his party members’ everyday lives. It made the fantasy world feel all that more real.

But his thoughts were cut off by Llusse.

“You can chat later! Later! And he’ll probably just leer at you anyway!”

“Hey, I was being fairly serious for once!”

“Yeah, sure. Now, I need to teach you a bare minimum of etiquette so you don’t say anything rude in front of the queen!”

“God, you’re strict.”

He complained, but Filia must have agreed with the elf this time.

They said goodbye to the knights and finally continued on to the castle for their audience with the queen.

 

“Welcome, Hero. I am the Lesdea Kingdom’s 13^th Queen, Sophie Elisabeth Irail.”

A beautiful voice filled a solemn audience chamber lined with large columns.

“I am pleased to learn you arrived safely. Excellent work, everyone.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Filia and the others kneeled on the red carpet and bowed toward the throne.

Naoki was standing there unsure what to do and he quickly mimicked them, but he soon raised his head again.

Really, Sophie’s body was so seductive he could not keep his eyes off it.

(So that’s the queen. Her tits are huge.)
Llusse saw right through him and whispered a warning.

“I can tell what you’re thinking! I told you not to let it show!”

“Hee hee hee. Please, at ease, all of you.”

The exchange was laughed off by the queen.

She wore a brilliant purple dress and a white cape. Her long flowing hair was the same gold as the circlet on her forehead. She looked as royal as could be, but she appeared to also have a warm personality.

That may have been because she was both a queen and a mother.

The princess seated next to her wore a wine red dress over her slender body. The beautiful blonde hair she had inherited from her mother was worn up and adorned with a silver tiara. She appeared to be around the same age as Naoki.

(She doesn’t look like she could have a daughter that age. I mean, the princess is cute, but the queen would give her a run for her money! Yet I also get a real motherly sense from her. Hmm, I wish I could be a baby sucking at those ti- aghh!)
He had not said any of it aloud, but Llusse had learned to sense his dirty thoughts. She pinched the back of his hand while still kneeling.

Sophie did not seem to notice as she continued speaking with a smile.

“The Hero is prophesied to save our world, so we will provide any assistance you require. Enjoy your stay at the palace and make yourself at home.”

“S-sure…”
That would be difficult since he had never lived in a palace before.

At this point, he was not terribly nervous, but he also had trouble relaxing.

He was reminded how unlike a Hero he felt, so he decided to speak his mind.

“So…am I really going to go defeat the Demon Lord?”

“Of course you are!”

They were interrupted by the princess who had been silently observing him until now.

“Our kingdom has long passed down the story of the Hero! I have read it so many times since I was little!”

She leaned forward and then stood from her throne.

Her eyes were sparkling and she gesticulated along with her passionate speech. It all clashed with what he had imagined from her pure appearance.

“Lesdea was a small and powerless kingdom until the Hero appeared out of nowhere! His strange power created many warrior women and they worked together to ultimately defeat the powerful Demon Lord! And now that legendary Hero is here in the flesh!”

She tightly clasped her hands in front of her chest and shut her eyes in a spellbound way.

“You have no idea how long I have waited for this day!”

But she soon realized that everyone in the room was looking at her funny – especially Naoki.

“Ah!? How silly of me!”

“I do apologize. My daughter…Marie has always been like this.”

Sophie smiled bitterly at her daughter and defended her with the look of a mother.

“M-my apologies. I was just so excited I could finally meet my beloved Hero.”

Marie blushed and sat down when she realized what she had done.

(Th-the princess seems pretty weird. But it’s kind of charming.)

Naoki decided to take a positive view of the incident.

Then the queen continued where her daughter had left off.

“I too would like to ask you some things, Hero. Also…it would be rude to immediately send you off on another journey. If you like, how about you stay here a while?”

“Eh!?”

“That is a great idea, mother! The Demon Lord has only just returned, so let’s have him stay as long as he likes! And please allow me to look after him!”

Marie wholeheartedly agreed and Sophie answered her daughter’s suggestion with a smile.

“Yes, that should work. Show him the best hospitality.”

“Of course!”

The princess was excited as could be, but Naoki was unsure what to make of this.

(Is this really happening? Life in a royal palace sounds pretty restrictive. I don’t know any of the proper etiquette.)

 

At any rate, it was decided Naoki would be spending time at the palace.

After the audience, his party discussed the issue in a waiting room and none of them were opposed to the idea.

“Well, we can’t say no to the queen, so why not relax for a while?” said Llusse.

Tianne agreed.

“It is a good opportunity, so get some rest, Hero.”

He was worried he wouldn’t be able to relax and rest in a palace where everyone was a stranger.

The idea of hunting down the Demon Lord scared him too, but that still seemed better than an awkward and restrictive life here.

“What will the rest of you do?”

“I will make my report and then return to my usual life at the abbey until the order to depart arrives.”

“Report?”

He thought that audience had been their report.

“Yes, my report to Abbatissa Ekaterina who was standing next to the queen.”

“Oh.”

He did recall seeing what looked like a high-ranking nun next to the queen.

She had silently listened to what Naoki and Sophie said, but he had sensed a calm kindness and uniquely mystical aura from her.

“Saint Ekaterina is revered by all the kingdom’s people. She is the seer who predicted the Demon Lord’s return.”

That explained it.

(Her tits looked just as big as the queen’s.)

His thoughts immediately took an inappropriate turn, but that was beside the point.

Filia had already gathered her things in preparation to head home.

“I will be resting at home for a while.”

“I see. Yeah, that makes sense.”

He had been transported in while jerking off, but they had been traveling in search of the Hero for a while. He could imagine they wanted some rest.

It would be wrong to selfishly refuse this chance for a break, so he decided to put up with life in the palace.

He was not happy about it, but it was only for so long.

The swordswoman must have read his mind because she leaned in and whispered suggestively in his ear.

“Make sure to stop by for some fun when you have time❤”

“Hey, no fair, Filia! I can’t invite him over since I live at the abbey!” protested Tianne.

“Ha ha. Don’t fight. …Well, see you later.”

He waved goodbye as they continued to argue on their way out of the room.

“Now, Hero, I will show you to your room in the castle.”

Mila had been assigned as his servant, so it looked like she would continue to look after him.

Llusse had not left with the others and she lowered her voice to speak with him.

“Hey, Naoki. Just between the two of us…”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’ll stop by your place too.”

“Wha-? Th-th-th-that is not what I was going to say, you idiot!” She blushed all the way to the tips of her pointy elf ears. “In fact, don’t you dare stop by! Got that? Stay away!”

“Eh? You don’t have to be mean.”

Her intense rejection was kind of depressing.

“Anyway, you need to watch out for that princess.”

“Eh?”

“How should I put this? Her obsession with the Hero is…something else.”

She had gotten way more excited than anyone else during the audience.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I got that impression.”

“The people see her as the pure and beautiful princess.” She glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping and kept her voice low. “But her obsession with meeting the Hero has repeatedly caused trouble behind the scenes. Not long ago, she even attempted a sketchy summoning ceremony that used a forbidden curse.”

“What? Are you serious?”

That sounded so fake he found it hard to believe.

But Llusse moved her face in close to drive her point home.

“I can’t even imagine what she’ll try now that the real one is here, so be very careful.”

She was deadly serious about this.