Harem-Powered Kingdom Building: Empire of Carnal Sin

Furina wasn't expecting anyone other than perhaps Tara to pay her a visit at this time. Especially not Hiro, considering the way he had been acting recently – pretending as if nothing had happened between them.

He came to see me... He actually came to see me.

"G-Good morning! My Lord..." She quickly stood, smoothing down her simple dress. "I'm... I'm doing well, thank you for asking. I wasn't expecting you to come visit me."

Despite trying her best, she couldn't prevent a few of her grievances leaking into her last sentence.

Now that they were alone, a part of her really wanted to complain! And another part of her felt a faint sense of joy and anticipation. In either case, the previous sense of loneliness was already receding.

"Haha, there's no need for ceremony. It's just the two of us." Hiro said amicably, gesturing with his hands that she could stay seated. "I just wanted to check on you. Sitting here all day can get pretty boring, after all."

Hearing his words, Furina settled back into her seat. So it did mean something to Hiro that it was just the two of them.

After his initial greeting, Hiro was no longer directly looking at Furina. Instead, he turned his back towards her, his eyes examining the various settings inside the Refugee Arrival Station.

Frankly, Hiro had been too lazy to mess with them until now. So all the settings were still the default ones.

"It's... different from what I expected," Furina admitted, glancing at Hiro's back. "It's quieter than I thought it would be."

"Do you like the quiet? Or no?" Hiro asked with a smile, while looking at the setting that determined the way new refugees would be accepted.

There were four possible options for this setting.

'Auto-accept' would automatically make everyone who arrived into a citizen of Hiro's Realm. The only way to undo this would be to use [Exile].

'Manual' would leave the choice to Furina, or whoever was manning the station. For example, if Furina felt that a particular new arrival had a problematic personality, she could directly reject them.

The World would then find a different Realm to teleport that group of refugees to.

Rejecting refugees had a minor side effect. For a small period of time, the priority of your Realm would be reduced by The World when it decided future refugee allocation.

The third option was 'Auto-Reject'. If this option is chosen, your Realm will not be considered as a potential teleportation target for any refugees.

The final option was 'Hybrid'. Under this setting, the behaviour would resemble 'Manual' if someone was manning the Refugee Arrival Station. But if the station was empty, like during Starius' arrival, the behaviour would resemble 'Auto-accept'.

Currently, the setting was set to 'Auto-accept', which was the default.

This is fine. If it is set to 'Manual', the refugees might get a chance to beg Furina to reject them once they learn of the circumstances here. With her personality, I'm not sure how well she'd handle that.

While Hiro was analysing these things, he was also paying attention to his conversation with Furina.

"At first, I thought I would enjoy the peace, thinking that comfortably sitting on this chair would be better than working hard all day long."

"But now… not even two days have passed and I feel like I might die of boredom. Perhaps I should find some way to contribute when there's no newcomers to handle. Something like sewing, perhaps."

After listening to her response, Hiro still did not turn to face her.

"That might alleviate your boredom to a certain extent. But it won't fulfil your need for social interaction, will it?"

Furina briefly fell silent, not expecting Hiro to see through her so easily.

Meanwhile, Hiro shifted his gaze to another setting – the 'Level Restriction' of the new arrivals.

Currently, this was set to '+50'. This was also the default and it meant that the maximum level of any new refugee could not exceed Hiro's level plus fifty.

Fifty was the maximum value for this setting, with zero being the minimum. At zero, no new refugee could exceed Hiro's level.

Setting this to zero will positively impact my Realm's stability, whereas setting it to a high value will give me a greater chance at welcoming high level combat classes, like the Berger family. I feel like I'm pretty strong, so… +50 is fine, Hiro calmly thought.

"Sigh… Honestly, I'm a bit scared, my lord."

"Scared of what, Furina?"

"I feel like… I might become isolated. The others are mingling and developing relationships right now."

Fear of missing out, huh? Hiro thought. Knowing the way Bob treated Furina, Hiro could faintly guess how Furina ended up developing such a mindset.

Her voice expressed more vulnerability than she initially intended to convey. However, facing such a Furina, Hiro did not immediately offer any words of consolation.

"Hmm… For now, keep at it, Furina. After a few days, or maybe even earlier, the situation might change," Hiro said ambiguously.

Although she did not fully understand what kind of change Hiro was referring to, Furina could only nod and offer words of acknowledgement.

"By the way, have you had any trouble with the newcomers? Any... difficult situations?" Hiro asked, right after realizing that there existed a setting which allowed him to change the outward appearance of the Refugee Arrival Station.

If I purchase this 'wood' skin, the station will stop sticking out like a sore thumb in the settlement, Hiro seriously thought. But I won't buy it right now. The economy isn't looking very hot right now. Let's wait for some realm development…

Yes, the 'skins' needed to be purchased, and they weren't cheap either.

"No, not really," Furina replied to Hiro's query. "Most new arrivals are shocked at first, but once I explain about you... about how strong you are, and about Starius being a Hero sent by Goddess Selune... they can only accept their situation."

"That's good." Hiro nodded approvingly, now turning towards Furina and properly meeting her gaze.

"If any of the refugees give you trouble," he continued, a slight smirk playing at his lips, "just tell them about how ruthless I can be to troublemakers using the Underworld group as an example. That should do the trick."

Furina couldn't help but smile at his semi-serious tone. "I'll keep that in mind, My Lord."

With that, Hiro decided to tackle his main agenda.

First, let's reinforce the effects of Ensnaring Touch, shall we?

"Actually..." Hiro suddenly moved closer, causing Furina's breath to get caught in her throat. "You're doing such a good job, I think you deserve some recognition."

Before she could process what was happening, Hiro's right hand reached out and gently stroked her head. The touch was soft, as his fingers ran through the chocolate-brown layers of her hair.

"You have such beautiful hair, Furina," he murmured after a few seconds, his voice now dropping to a husky whisper.

THUMP! THUMP!

Furina's heart pounded against her ribs as his hand continued its gentle caress. The sensation was intoxicating—his touch firm yet tender, sending shivers down her spine. Without thinking, she straightened her back and pushed her head against his hand, craving more of the wonderful feeling.

I don't know why he's doing this all of a sudden, but I don't feel like thinking right now. It feels… warm.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she savored the moment. Only she knew how much she craved such a development. The loneliness that had been eating at her dissolved under his touch, replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling that spread through her entire body.

From his standing position, Hiro looked down at the woman before him. With her eyes closed in bliss, he allowed his gaze to roam freely over her form. Her simple dress did little to hide her generous curves—the swell of her breasts, the way the fabric clung to her hips, the graceful line of her neck as she tilted her head into his touch.

Goodness, she's beautiful...

His body responded to the sight, heat pooling in his lower abdomen as he imagined those curves pressed against him. The memory of their interrupted encounter two days ago came flooding back—the softness of her skin, the way she'd gasped when he'd touched her intimately, the promise of pleasure which was unfortunately cut short.

I want to continue where we left off... but I also want her to make the first move.

When it really came down to it, there was nothing enforcing Hiro's deal with Tara. He could secretly break his end of the bargain and Tara would be none the wiser.

Even right now, he was skirting on the edge of what he felt was acceptable.

Ultimately though, he did not want to completely violate the deal. Hiro valued his promises, at least to a certain extent.

The deal with Tara was clear—he couldn't be the one to initiate anything sexual with Furina. But calling headpats sexual was a bit too much. Moreover, the deal didn't mean he couldn't... encourage her desires. And from the way Furina was practically purring under his touch, those desires were very much alive.

His hand continued its gentle ministrations, fingers threading through her silky hair as he fought the urge to do more. He mobilized his will to restrain the part of him that wanted to go further, to cup her face, to lean down and capture her lips with his, to—

HISS!

The sound of the Refugee Arrival Station's door opening shattered the moment. Hiro's hand stilled as both he and Furina turned toward the entrance, where a familiar figure stood silhouetted in the doorway.

It was Tara.