Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure Baron Sord (good books to read for adults .txt) 📖

in a righteous uproar, daring the other side to throw the first punch. Some of the women held chairs like they were ready to throw them or start bashing heads with them.

Sergeant Kane and her platoon marched into the mess hall and positioned themselves surrounding the riotous crowd.

On one side of the factional divide stood a large group of “Normal” babes wearing their power armor without helmets. On the other stood a smaller group of “Monster” babes also in power armor, helmets off.

I’d never seen the guardswomen so completely segregated like this before, but they were now.

“Soldiers,” Colonel Sadys said irritably. “If they don’t have an enemy to fight, they fight each other.”

“I see that,” I sighed.

It wasn’t just soldiers. It was every human in the history of humanity. Social strife was the perpetual human condition back on Earth and apparently here on Zalaxia too.

Normals vs. Monsters.

All of them babes, of course.

At the center of the angry throng stood Corporal Syx. She was backed up by the Monsters, but the Normals outnumbered them 2 to 1.

Sergeant Kane shouted, “LOOK SHARP, LADIES! CROWN IS ON DECK!”

When individual members of the mob heard her and saw me, word spread quickly and it wasn’t long before everyone snapped to attention, backs arched, breasts out.

I gave them a moment to settle down. Meanwhile, I briefly contemplated the power of social hierarchies and the authority wielded by whoever ruled from the top. I didn’t have to lift a finger, or say a word, or use my rings, and yet everyone suddenly fell into line of their own volition. Heck, I hadn’t even given them a dirty look or raised an irate eyebrow. Sergeant Kane had done it for me while I simply stood there looking stern.

Trying my best to sound like an irritated parent or beleaguered dad who caught the giggling kids getting up to no good yet again, I said in a loud, clear voice, “What the hell is going on here, ladies?”

“I saw her spying!” a Normal guardswoman shouted with righteous rage, pointing an accusatory finger at Corporal Syx like a pistol. Her comment triggered more angry shouting from other Normals.

“Traitor!”

“Exile her!”

“No, bury her!”

“Put her in a body bag and burn it!”

My mistake. This wasn’t two rival gangs fighting over territory. It looked like the precursor to a lynching, and Syx was the intended lynchee.

“Skrucking Xenos!” shouted an angry blonde Normal.

“Skrucking Conks!” replied an angry Monster babe.

“Never trust a Xeno!” another Normal seethed.

“So says the lying Conk!” sneered a different Monster babe.

“Xeno freaks!”

“Go back to the jungle where you were born, Xenos!”

“I was born in the Royal Kingdom like you were, you stupid Conk!”

And so it went.

It was now clear to me that “Xeno” was the standard slur for the Monster babes, presumably implying they were alien or foreign. I wasn’t sure what a “Conk” was specifically, but it was clearly an insult meant for the Normal babes.

I suddenly remembered how, during my auditorium speech yesterday morning, there had not been a single Monster in the audience. It had been entirely Normals sitting in the seats. How much do you want to bet there were few if any Monster officers in the Royal Guard? I had yet to meet one, that was for sure. The Monsters I recalled meeting with any clarity were enlisted only. Apparently, even a fantasy pleasure planet like Zalaxia — fantasy for the king, anyway — had its issues.

The hateful yelling continued.

Xeno! Conk!

Stupid Xeno! Stupid Conk!

Skruck this! Skruck that!

I sighed then shouted, “Stand down, people!”

Nobody heard me over the din.

“STAND DOWN, PEOPLE!” I boomed using my now-patented and ring-amplified Vacken Voice. (Yes, Wacken is spelled with a W, but not everyone will know that German W’s are pronounced like English V’s. Grammar lesson over.)

As you can imagine, my Wacken Voice was so loud, it startled everyone into silence. A second later, all eyes were on me.

Again using my “irritated dad” voice — this time it came naturally — I said, “Would someone mind telling me what the real problem is?”

“I told you! She’s a Xeno spy!” an angry blonde Normal shouted, pointing at Corporal Syx.

“Conk slave,” grumbled Syx, rolling her eyes dismissively.

“What did you just call me?!” the angry blonde said, instantly infuriated at Syx to the point of skull-splitting rage.

“QUIET DOWN!” I hollered with my Wacken Voice.

They did.

“Let me ask everybody a question!” I shouted acerbically, smirking and making eye contact with a number of women before continuing sarcastically, “Does Corporal Syx here look like a space pirate to you? Hmm?” I almost added space demon, because we’d fought them yesterday, but, well, Syx here looked exactly like a space demon, a fact that would work against my forthcoming point. I continued sarcastically, “Because the only fighting I want to see anyone doing around here is us fighting space pirates as a team.”

Nobody had a response for that.

Until a Normal said, “And space demons like those Xenos yesterday. Right, my king?”

“Riiiiight,” I grumbled.

One of the Monster babes piped up, “Pirates are men. Same as those things we fought yesterday. We should be fighting men, not each other.”

“Exactly!” I said confidently, pointing agreeably at the Monster babe who’d said it.

The same angry blonde Normal who had just called Syx a spy now sneered in disgust, “Pirates are Xenos! Same as those space demons! Xenos are the real problem! Not men.” She said it definitively, as if that would end all argument, and she said it while making flirtatious eye contact with me. She continued, “Everybody knows that! If you ask me, Syx isn’t just a pirate, she’s one of those red demon things from yesterday! She looks just like them! She’s the worst of all three! She’s a pirate and a demon and a spy!”

A number of other Normals nodded in supportive agreement.

“No she isn’t,” said an indigo-haired Monster. “Syx doesn’t look anything like those demons! They were white! Syx is red! They’re nothing alike!” From the sound of it, she was talking about the white demon guardswomen currently