The True Endgame - [Vol. 11.5 pt. 8]

Needless to say, Anastasia was rather smug as her and the rest of the group walked toward the airport’s exit. After all, she was the first one to get Kris to purposely grope her chest. It might have been a rather small moment in the grand scale of events in a relationship, but she was still the first one to achieve that.

And now that the maids were all gathered together… the competition began.

While Fenrir and his girlfriends might have been very cooperative and they didn’t exactly compete with each other, except for when it came to Serra making sure that she always sexually conquered everybody else, Kris’s girlfriends were not so cooperative—or rather, they were easily capable of cooperating, but cooperation was not the name of their game.

Competition was.

Kris had no idea that, underneath the surface, a war was brewing. Diplomatic tensions were already high with every country on the verge of war, and Anastasia officially launched the first strike by taking Kris’s hand and placing it against her chest.

All the silos were opened. The missiles were ready to launch. Target coordinates were being locked in.

There were only so many “firsts” that Kris had left, and his girlfriends were determined to claim as many of them as possible. Of course… Anastasia having her chest groped was already far beyond what any of them expected. When it came to getting firsts, they were thinking more along the lines of being the first to kiss him on the cheek! Or being the first to feed him some food! Being the first to give him a massage! The first to see his sleeping face! The first to play footsies under a table! Things like that. What Anastasia pulled off… was far too intense for their game, but it still counted as a first strike.

And with that first strike launched, it was time for the rest of Kris’s girlfriends to retaliate with attacks of their own.

“I think I messed up,” Kris said, standing outside in front of the autocar that he rented for them to use. “This isn’t big enough for all of us.” After all, he only rented a normal sized autocar. It was big enough for three, maybe four people at most thanks to just how small the average car was anymore. What he needed to rent was something more akin to a van. “I’ll go swap it out for something else.”

Rachel was quick to jump forward and say, “I’ll do it! You can stay here with the others! I’ll get us a different ride!”

“But it’s in my name and I paid for—”

Rachel ran off before Kris could even finish his response.

Being the first girlfriend to steal a task from Kris to do it herself officially went to Rachel.

Two rival nations launched their missiles, leaving three still figuring out targets.

“I think I should… go after her,” Kris said. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to swap vehicles if she tries to do it for me.”

“Rachel will be fine,” Iris said. “In service of Alice and her father, we have mastered the art of getting tasks done for others when we should not be allowed to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Forging signatures, updating information with the government, opening and closing accounts—they often had us perform such tasks for them, and waiting on them to give us all the necessary information and permission required to complete the tasks legally was slow. Therefore, we practiced everything needed to represent anybody. We could likely even pass as being on official business for government officials or celebrities should we try to.”

And just like that, another nation, the Nation of Iris, launched her first salvo and acquired the point of being the first of Kris’s girlfriends to give him an expositional knowledge drop regarding their capabilities.

“Woah, that’s cool,” Kris said. “But I think that’s illegal.”

“A maid does not concern herself with the law, only her duty,” Iris explained.

“Dang… that sounds badass. I could imagine like, a really cool maid in a book saying that or something.”

“I may be real rather than a fictional maid in a book, but I will aspire to be just as cool as one.”

Kris nodded and said, “You’re already even cooler than one.”

The second missile hit its target. Within just a minute of the first missile landing, Iris managed to be the first of Kris’s girlfriends to get called cooler than a cool but fictional maid.

Anastasia, who was previously comfortable in her lead due to the first strike, realized that the competition was going to be even more fierce than she expected.

But before Anastasia could launch her next attack, somebody else did instead.

Emily spoke up and said, “I’m kind of disappointed… I thought it would be colder so that I could act cold and get you to hug me to warm me up, but it’ll be too obvious I’m faking it with how warm it is.” After coming to terms with Kris discovering her natural vulgar attitude and way of speaking, Emily ended up settling for a sort of middle ground behind vulgar honesty and cutesy innocence.

“Do you want a hug?”

“I always want hugs. I can’t remember the last time I haven’t wanted a hug!”

Naturally, Kris couldn’t not hug one of his girlfriends after hearing that, so he wrapped his arms around Emily to give her a hug which prompted her to wrap her arms back around him in response.

Emily was the first of Kris’s girlfriends to get him to hug her by bringing up an urge to be hugged.

The competition had very loose rules and low standards for what counted as a first. However, while the firsts may or may not have basically been getting made up on the spot, each of the maids understood whenever one of the others claimed a new first.

And Anastasia, who had the most devastating first strike, was realizing more and more that she was in danger.

She had to do something. She needed another victory. That was why—

That was why Abigail, this time, grabbed Kris’s attention by signing to him to ask about whether or not he grew up in the city they were now in.

Kris replied by signing and talking at the same time so that they would all get to understand him. “Yeah, I’ve lived here ever since I was born. Well, I guess I technically left a few times before, like when I went to meet my bro and the others at your place. And there have been a few times where I got invited to things and had to go there. But uh, I think I’ve spent most of my life in this city. It’s my home and I get pretty sentimental about stuff like that.”

And with that, Abigail claimed the victory of being the first girlfriend to ask and gather more information about his life.

“Wait,” Kris said. “I just noticed something. I have a bunch of firsts, but… I can only have so many firsts. You know, like first to get a hug from me, or first to get me to talk about something. Stuff like that. It’s not fair. I get to each of your firsts, but only some of you will get some of my firsts.”

Did he catch onto their competition? Each of the maids froze up a little, worried that he might judge them for their secret competition. He seemed upset about only having a limited amount of firsts to give them, and yet there they were, deliberately competing with each other over his firsts.

“A-about that,” Emily said. “We—”

“Oh, hang on,” Kris continued. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt, I just realized it’s stupid to worry about that.”

“What do you… mean by that?”

“Well, I might only have so many firsts… but like, it doesn’t matter. Sure, maybe there’s something like my first ever kiss in life, but that’s stupid. That kind of first doesn’t mean anything. What matters is each first I have with each one of you. You know, like my first kiss with you. My first kiss with Iris. With Rachel. Stuff like that. I shouldn’t worry about which one of you gets to do something with me first, because all of you get to do the same thing with me for the first time at some point. And just because one of you gets your first with me before somebody else doesn’t mean anything because everybody goes at their own pace. I think. Uh, does that make sense?”

And just like that, the rival nations ceased their launching of missles and signed a peace treaty with one another. Kris might not have known he had such an impact, but the Kris’s Girlfriends Treaty Organization, or KGTO, was formed immediately upon the end of his speech.

“I’m back!” Rachel declared, running up to the group with a new pair of keys in her hands. “They—”

Something was off.

Before, even if Kris might not have noticed it, there was a subtle aura of competition—a cold war where missiles were ready to launch at any second. But now? All Rachel saw was peace.

She was a little disappointed that the point she acquired for the competition wasn’t going to help her win over the others anymore… but it still helped her win when it came to getting to do stuff with her boyfriend, and that was obviously the more important victory.

About fifteen minutes later and the group was on the road and heading into the city. The vehicle they rented was much more capable of fitting them all comfortably alongside their luggage, and the larger windows also offered the women a better view of the city as they entered it.

Unlike where the maids were from, where the architecture was mostly old and classical, the city Kris lived in was much more modern looking. The streets were lined with trees and most people who were out were riding bikes or walking instead of using autocars. The buildings were pretty minimalist when it came to their designs, but were often covered in different murals to bring them to life and to help them stand out. On top of that, thanks to how short most of the buildings lining the streets were, it was easy to see how most of the roofs were used as gardening spaces with plants, herbs, and vines hanging over the edges of the roofs.

Then, when it came to the taller buildings visible in the distance, the sides facing the sun were covered in solar panels while the roofs were home to bladeless wind turbines.

“Damn,” Emily said, “we need more stuff like this back in our country.”

“Good luck getting it past our politicians,” Iris said. “They love appealing to the old guard who believe that their classic architecture is the best.”

“Ugh, they’re the worst. They only do the bare minimum to comply with the treaties and then whine about ‘preserving our heritage’ as an excuse to not be better.”

Rachel, knowing what was about to happen, waved her hands around to try and get their attention and to calm them down. “Now—now isn’t the time for rambling about politics. Let’s just be happy and enjoy our day!”

While Emily and Iris were fine with dropping it, Kris ended up speaking up to say, “I think there’s some good in preserving old architecture. Newer cities like this should be built to be modern, but old cities should be preserved so that we can still see real examples of how we used to build outside of books and pictures. There’s only really a problem when people want to sacrifice modern advancements and efficiency to create new buildings of the old style. Besides, it’s possible to have the best of both worlds. Our city might not do it since we prefer modern designs here, but you could easily simulate a classical style while making the building as efficient as any modern building. The only problem is when you run into the types who believe that it’s not as legitimate unless you use the exact same materials that were used back in the day, and I think that’s stupid. Keep the style so that newer buildings blend in with the old, but use modern techniques and materials so that they are just as good as any other modern building.”

“Can you?” Emily asked. “I don’t really know that much about this stuff, but they always claim that it won’t look the same or whatever if you don’t do it just like how they used to back in the day.”

“That’s bullshit said by somebody who doesn’t know what they’re talking about and will probably profit from the alternative in some way. Or they’re using it as an appeal to culture and tradition to gain votes. Probably both. Anyways, if I could design any building in any style while still using modern materials and techniques, then anybody can do it. There’s no excuse not to other than greed or manipulation.”

Kris’s girlfriends, except for the deaf Abigail, all looked both surprised and impressed by Kris’s sudden passion and interest in the topic. Sure, they loved him, but… they never heard him get passionate over architecture, nor did they ever hear him really discuss anything political before. They loved him, but they only ever saw the lovable, goofy, kind-of-dumb side of him. Now they were getting to see the rest of him, and they felt more interested in him than ever before.

Meanwhile, Abigail was content with simply looking out the window at all of the different bakeries and other small restaurants that they passed by.

“For example,” Kris continued, “you could easily install solar windows in any style. One of the projects I led for the city’s museum featured installing solar windows into the roof that look just like classical stained-glass windows. They look like something you would find in a church from the thirteenth century, but are ninety percent as efficient as generating energy from sunlight as traditional solar panels. Not to mention they also provide superior insulation over regular windows. But the point is that you would never even know they’re any different from the classics without me or somebody else telling you. Then there are bricks. You can get 3D-printed ‘bricks’ made out of sustainably grown wood, and then we have this environmentally-safe ‘paint’ you can apply to them which gives them the look and texture of actual bricks. You can layer these however you want to give any building a classical brick appearance. They’re not ‘real’ bricks and the actual structure isn’t made out of them, but it will look like it is, which is what’s important when it comes to designing new buildings. I also know a guy in China who is developing this new material which he claims will be able to have the texture and appearance of anything you want for building purposes, but he’s kind of… he’s got a lot of ideas and fails to achieve even half of them, but he’s passionate and genuinely tries. I teamed up with him for a project just last year for that new aquarium in Quebec. The glass he developed is in a league of its own.”

“The new aquarium in Quebec?” Iris asked. “I recall hearing about that in the news… the largest aquarium ever built.”

“I think I remember somebody saying it was the biggest? I don’t know. I just know he wanted me to push his glass to its limits, so I designed the biggest aquarium we could with the funding that our sponsors gave us. But it was annoying, because just because it was the biggest aquarium, there were some jerks who wanted to put large fish species in there, and that’s messed up. No aquarium is big enough for some of those species. They need like, the actual ocean, or artificial ocean preserves, not just giant tanks. It’s wrong to put fish like that in there. So I told the owner if I ever find out that they push fish in there that it wouldn’t be ethical to keep, that I’d make sure it gets shut down and turns into a huge waste of money. My design is safe, but I can easily spin it and convince others that it’s unsafe to get it shut down, plus I have connections who can make it happen if it it’s obviously not true.”

The more Kris talked, the more impressed his girlfriends grew while Abigail stared at a child walking around with the largest cotton candy ball that she had ever seen.

And then they came across one of the city’s most infamous landmarks.

“Oh, look,” Kris said, pointing at the right side of the road where a… rather peculiar statue was in the middle of a park. “I like that statue. It was supposed to be a dog, but it looks like a penis. Heh. A local kid submitted a design for it and everybody voted it to be the winner. The city tried to make a statue that looked like what the kid was going for, but then everybody complained when it didn’t look exactly like what the kid designed, so they had to redo it. So, now we have a statue that’s supposed to be a dog but looks like a penis. I could probably spend the rest of my life trying to design something like that and I wouldn’t even get close. I even asked that kid for his autograph because of how much I love that statue. I’ve got it hanging up in my office at home. Framed and everything. I have to show it to you when we get there.”

Somehow, despite the fact that it should have been impossible, Kris’s girlfriends managed to fall more and more in love with him. Well, except for Abigail who was just craving more and more food, but they could always fill her in on the ride’s conversation later.