Pleasure

Eren's consciousness was immersed in the pillar of light in the Coordinate Space, which connected to everyone who had drunk his blood wine.

Every time he entered the pillar of light, he felt as though he controlled everything, but in truth, Eren still had a long way to go before he could control it all.

There were too few of his subjects compared to the world, no more than a drop in the ocean.

As he visited the pillar of light more and more often, Eren's understanding of the Coordinate deepened.

He also grew more familiar with what he could control through the Coordinate. After all, practice made perfect; anything new required constant trial and error before one could become more familiar with its use.

Eren could now use the Coordinate to genetically modify himself and his subjects.

Eren could now use the Coordinate to optimize his own genes a little, specifically in terms of his looks, charm, and muscle development.

He could improve his strength, speed, and stamina. The strength and speed were so that he would still have some power when he was not in titan form.

Stamina was the foundation of titan transformation: the better his stamina, the longer he could remain a titan. Of course, with such a large harem, if he wanted to give everyone an equal share of his attention, his stamina had to last and recover quickly.

Through the Coordinate, Eren also discovered some rather interesting things. Transforming someone into a Pure Titan was actually a matter of wrapping the person in sand and molding it into an enlarged human, much like the legends that people had been fired directly inside the Terracotta Warriors.

But molding this sand figure actually tested one's sculpting skills. If it was ugly or oddly shaped, the titan body sent out through the Coordinate would also be ugly and deformed.

Since deformed titans could be molded, deliberately reshaping them would probably work too, such as making dog-headed titans, pig-headed titans, or even simply molding a dog.

What Eren really wanted was to mold a dragon or a bird, but Pure Titans acted largely unconsciously. They could only perform movements they had known before becoming titans.

Running, jumping, crawling, and swimming were things they could do because they had already known how. But for movements like flying, since they had had no wings in life, they would not know how to use those wings after becoming titans either, making flight impossible.

But Pure Titans could still run like four-legged creatures such as dogs, because crawling was the first movement humans learned after being born into this world.

After thinking through the matter of molding titans, Eren withdrew from the Coordinate and murmured, "Every time I go to the Coordinate Space, I discover some new ways to use it."

To Eren, the Power of the Giants was something very novel. At first, he had developed its uses by referring to the original work, but the Power of the Giants was actually highly malleable. He did not necessarily have to follow a set path.

Sometimes, a flash of inspiration could bring new changes to the Power of the Giants. This world had magic, so he did not necessarily have to develop its powers according to the titans in the original work. He could try entirely new tricks.

After Eren left the Coordinate Space, he saw Lydia enter with thirty people, who first paid their respects to him.

"Greetings, Your Majesty."

When Eren saw the thirty beauties with their exotic charm, he felt that the bevy of women before him was a feast for the eyes.

Eren waved his hand and said, "Then take your places."

The beauties answered, "Yes," then pressed their right hands over their hearts and bowed to Eren before moving to their respective places.

Ten of them danced their way to the center of the tent, while another fifteen formed an instrumental ensemble. The remaining five came to Eren's side to knead and massage his legs and attend to him.

These instruments had all been looted from the slave masters' homes. They had originally been slated for destruction, but Flock had found them. Although he knew nothing about them, he thought Eren might need them,

so he had hauled them to the camp. Ever since Eren had selected these women for his harem, those who danced, played instruments, or even gave massages had been required to set aside time every day for training. Their training covered the etiquette of an audience with the king, as well as various instruments, dances, and massage.

After all, if these women only ate without exercising, would they not grow fat over time? Eren had found them for his own enjoyment, not theirs. Of course, their daily training lasted only four hours, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Eren did not find work for these women to do during the rest of their time, such as laundry or cooking. They had only one task: to attend to Eren. After all, it would not be good if prolonged training or exhaustion from other work affected their looks, figures, or even their skin. Every one of them had been carefully selected by Eren.

Eren rested his head on a pair of towering peaks, with a beauty in each arm, eating the grapes they offered him as he listened to the instrumental music. Two maids beside his legs were also kneading and massaging them.

Eren had understood one truth long ago: people ought to enjoy themselves properly when they had the chance, rather than wait until the opportunity was gone and regret it too late.

Eren immersed himself in the attentions of his lovely wives and beautiful concubines.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jace and the others gathered once again.

As they sat beside the campfire, one rumble after another echoed around it.

"Those damned Dothraki! Not only do they drive us around like dogs every day, they won't even let us eat our fill. Today, they sent another group of nuns to brainwash us. Damn them!!!"

The group launched into their customary curses again. Every time they gathered, they complained and recalled their former lives of pampered luxury.

People only learned to cherish things after losing them. In the past, they had simply thrown away any food they could not finish, never keeping leftovers. Now, they could not get leftovers even if they wanted them. Day after day, they never had enough to eat or enough warmth to sleep, and there was no one to warm their beds.

It was no wonder these people wanted to rebel.

"All we can do now is hold on. We don't have an opportunity yet, so we can only wait. Perseverance is victory."

As the instigator, Jace encouraged the people gathered before him. There was nothing else he could do. Even if he wanted to stir up trouble, he lacked the strength for now. He wanted to bribe the Dothraki, but he had no money on him. Those bandit-like Dothraki had taken it all, and one particularly deranged man had even forcibly pried out his gold tooth.

The pain from having his tooth pried out had left him unable to eat or sleep for several days. Even now, whenever he thought of it, the root of his gum throbbed faintly.

Hearing Jace's words, someone said, "Can we really hold on until an opportunity comes? I feel like we might starve or work ourselves to death before then."

"Exactly, exactly. Our chances of succeeding are far too low."

Jace had no choice but to soothe them for now. He knew how difficult their situation was. They ate only one meal a day and slept in the filthiest places. One day, they might simply go to sleep and never wake up.

But if they wanted to return to their former lives, they could only follow this path to the bitter end.