I woke up, got out of bed, and had a weird sense of freedom. Sasha-- that is, Mistress was gone. She could hear my thoughts, probably not from this far away, but there was no good in getting the wrong mental habits up. If only I had a way to think about her besides a name she didn’t want and had foisted on me, and some sort of superlative that implied she was above me.

I looked through my wardrobe, wondering how much I wanted to stand out, and, well, how slutty I wanted to look. Given how the girls in the Princess’s harem were dressed (and not dressed), I had a vague idea of her tastes and what was normative here, but how closely did I want to cleave to that? It wasn’t like I was really her slave… was I?

I swallowed. Until Mistress returned, I basically was Princess’s slave, wasn’t I? It’s not like her attention had been particularly bad… she may have been rather demeaning, but she looked out for my mental safety and made me feel good… a far cry from how… from how Mistress had been behaving towards me recently. I found myself crying a little. I had risked my life to rescue her, and Mistress had just hardened towards me for knowing her weakness.

After I had indulged in a little self-pity, I wiped my eyes and started looking through my closest again, settling on a red dress that barely qualified as opaque with a split skirt that showed off my legs, and loosely weaving a few red ribbons through my hair to match… there. Cute, but not too slutty, or at least, for this harem it wasn’t that slutty, relatively speaking. I would’ve been terrified wearing this outside, but here, with just hot girls everywhere… well, a little attention wouldn’t be that bad, right? Everyone had seen me naked anyways. More importantly, it was from the clothes that Princess had apparently provided for me, rather than the ones that I had bought for this body. Mistress, of course, hadn’t bought me any clothes… it didn’t seem like my appearance was all that important to her, all things considered.

I took a deep breath and stepped outside of my room, kinda blushing despite there being no one to see me… actually, there was Velt, lazing around on a couch in a semi-transparent white loincloth and a necklace very little else. I hadn’t noticed she had nipple piercings before-- golden rings. Honestly, she would’ve looked less lewd naked.

“...how are you always here?” Velt looked up and blinked. “Oh, I watch over this section of the living quarters, where we have more of the recent girls. Not that I’m expected to be on call constantly, it’s more of a volunteer thing maybe, but I try to hang out here when I’m not doing anything else in particular.” She beckoned me closer, and I cautiously walked towards her, flushing more, and she took my wrist and gently pulled me down to sit down on the edge of the couch she was lying on.

“Where do I, you know, get breakfast?” Mistress had always gotten that for me... I don’t know if she had wanted to do something for me, or if it was just another way to make me dependent on her.

Velt blinked, and then smiled, standing up and taking my hand. “You haven’t been to the kitchen yet? I’ll show you.”

I looked around the perfectly clean halls, and wondered for the first time: “How are things organized around here? Are there servants specifically for cleaning?”

“We’re allowed a lot of autonomy, as long as Princess Asperia is happy. It’s basically chaos, but everyone has things they prefer to do, and Princess Asperia seems to notice and intermittently reward work people put in.”

“For someone with such a topdown approach who talks about hierarchy so much, I’m a little surprised.”

Velt blinked a little, tilting her head to one side as she looked at me. “Talking about hierarchy, huh… well, she always tells everyone what she thinks they need to hear. You probably need to be more obedient and fall in line more. Still, you were her lap pet all of last night, she absolutely likes you.” She smiled at me, and gave my hand a little squeeze. “Do you want me to formally introduce you to Ava? She was all over you last night, and she enjoys training girls to be better bed slaves… you even dressed up in her color this morning.”

I could feel myself becoming very heated and a little wet as Velt casually talked about how Princess, and Ava, apparently that red-haired girl, had pleasured me in front of everyone.

“I… really can just sleep with whoever I want, huh…” Velt laughed.

“Yeah, as long as they consent. Weird, right? Well, you gotta be sure not to get pregnant, one way or another.”

“But… between two girls…?” Velt raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, some girls have cocks.”

“Ah.” Actually, Mistress still had a cock… maybe? She hadn’t fucked me the last couple of days. I swallowed, getting a little wetter, as I realized I didn’t mind being fucked by a girl with a cock… actually it was kinda nice... did this make me gay, or a girl, or like… a gay girl?

I could willingly just… submit to Ava and let her command me, and judging from last night, she’d probably make me feel very good. Submission didn’t have to be something forced out of me by the situation….

“...can you introduce me to Ava after I have a little to eat?” My voice was very soft. “If you, you know, aren’t busy.” Velt smiled at me and leaned in to give me a little kiss on the cheek, her breast and ring piercing pressing against my arm, the combined sensations sending a shiver through my body. I had sometimes fantasized of being in a harem of girls back on my world, if, well, not exactly in this body.

“Of course, I have nothing pressing. You can learn the games we play too, and there’s girls who will train you in dance or massage… really, whatever you want to be good at, there’s probably someone who can teach you… are you allowed to learn magic? There’s girls who know that, too.”

“...okay. Is there anything I need to watch out for?”

Velt considered this. “Don’t ever be in a position where it looks like you’re competing with another girl over Princess Asperia, I guess? If she’s actively betraying Princess Asperia or badly hurting other girls, that’s one thing, but otherwise we try to handle any disputes internally, so Princess Asperia doesn’t have to worry about it. It’s kind of a, how do you say, symbiosis thing?”

“Symbiosis?”

“We’re an oasis for Princess Asperia from the politics of the outside world, and in return, she showers us in luxuries and freedom. Human girls can even get promoted out of here into free positions in the real world, if they prove themselves and want to… and animalfolk girls can usually join them as their slaves, if they want. They’re usually pretty happy to return and visit, either way, though. This is our home, more than anywhere we grew up… except for a few of the very new girls. It’s why I keep an eye on them, want to be welcoming to them, help them fit in.”

“...I’m beginning to see how she gets so much fanatical loyalty.” Velt smiled and gave my hand a little squeeze.

“Right? Princess Asperia is the kindest person in the world… as long as you’re part of her oasis, or ever have been, at least. I know the situation is a bit complicated with you, following the Hero from Another World… but I’m just thinking of you as another part of the harem while she’s gone, unless proven otherwise.”

We walked hand in hand into the kitchen, which was large and mostly clean, besides the parts that people were cleaning or cooking in. The girls here were wearing more serious clothing, and even the ones who were barely dressed were still wearing aprons… well, the ones who were cooking, at least. At the other end of the kitchen there were long tables with girls much more chaotically placed on them, sitting on benches, the table itself, or each other, although again, at least a little dressed, mostly.

“Hmm, kind of a different vibe.”

“Yeah, we’ve agreed there’s no fucking in the kitchen, after a few unfortunate incidents.” A slightly shorter girl approached us. She had spiky black hair, wearing a knee-length black dress, and black leather vambraces and greaves, giving her an almost Spartan sort of look if I didn’t think about it too hard.

“I’m keeping track of stock at the moment. What do you want to eat, roughly?” I blinked at the question, not having an immediate answer.

“Let’s get a couple of pastries, and, I don’t know, something healthy, you be the judge.” She nodded seriously, and directed us to a big pot of stew, and some sort of three-dimensionally triangular danishes I had had before… stuffed with various things, the patterns on the outside told you what, but I didn’t know what a feather, a crescent moon, or an… an astrolabe, maybe? I didn’t know what any of those meant.

“What’s the fillings?” I asked, and both girls shrugged, so I just took one of each, which didn’t seem to raise any eyebrows. Soon, with a tray carrying three of the pastries and a big bowl of stew, Velt sitting down beside me with just a crescent moon pastry on her tray-- she had already eaten, apparently.

She took a big bite of her pastry, and made a face before she chewed and swallowed. “Moonberry,” she said with disgust. I actually quite liked moonberry, it was sort of like a more astringent, more savory strawberry, although light blue in color.

“Trade for one of mine?” She smiled at my offer and exchanged her bitten pastry for the feather-emblem one, which turned out to be some sort of sweet thick cream, which seemed to make her much happier.

“Huh, I’ve usually seen clouds on that.”

“Regional variations in what means what, most people don’t travel a ton in their lifetimes, and we get girls from all over.”

Some steady, rhythmic clapping following a certain set of beats started, and everyone started joining in, even Velt, and I looked around in confusion, moving my hands as I tried to catch the rhythm.

Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. And so forth.

I followed everyone’s gazes, for everyone was looking in the same direction.

Two girls, one slim and one rather muscular, were disengaging from a very close hug and apparently, kiss, breathing heavily and their lipstick smeared, one of their hands wet as they withdrew it below the table… ah. They were doing that right in public. Well, maybe that wasn’t so much the issue, as the kitchen. The two girls got up, curtseyed, and fled the room together, and the clapping stopped.

“So the social control is by… public shaming, basically?”

“Exactly! Works really well. No one’s gonna take it that seriously unless they make a repeated nuisance of themselves, but you don’t want to get on everyone’s bad side. We don’t do it when Princess Asperia is around, but usually everyone’s on their best behavior then, so we don’t really need to.” I swallowed.

“...what about girls who do make a repeated nuisance of themselves?”

“Y’know, lowkey escalating bullying from everyone who enjoys or feels like it’s their calling to do that kind of thing. They fix their behavior, generally… this place is a paradise, and Princess Asperia generally asks assent from the slave before buying them from someone in the first place... no one wants to get sold.”

“...is that why some girls will go out and do rough work, in an attempt to protect this paradise?”

“Yeah! We’re all basically family, you know?”

“A horribly incestuous one, maybe…” I was smiling despite my words.

She laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

“Yeah, I guess! Don’t think about it too hard, just… this is our world, you know?”

“...yeah. I can see the appeal.” I focused down on my stew and pastries. Maybe if Mistress died out there, it wouldn’t be that bad.

I didn’t want her to die, mostly. But… I could survive, in a place like this, if the Princess would let me stay here. I needed to prove my abilities.…

...that’s probably what a lot of other girls here were thinking, huh? Or they had become confident in what they provided to the Oasis.

I looked around everyone with a new sort of affection, seeing them in this light.

“I could live here,” I said quietly to myself.

Velt snuggled on my arm, my god, those were still bare boobs.

“Yeah. You could.”