Chapter 100 – Before the Feast

"Your Highness, we need to get you two ready for the feast," a maid calls out, waking me and my harpy lover.

"Starting this early?" I ask, still wrapped up in her wings.

"Not really, it's noon right now. Seems the travel and fights have worn you down. Or you still aren't used to the bed duties," my maid says, pulling the curtains to let the sun light up the room.

"Yes, she did spend a lot of energy last night getting in nice and deep," Syro chimes in, finishing her sentence with a soft kiss on my cheek.

"I just gave what you begged for, Harpy. Keep teasing me, and I may throw you into Alzi's bed for a week and see how well you walk after that," I threaten.

"That sounds like a good time Princess. The bigger problem won't be walking the next week but in nine months. I don't think the Duchess kept her secret for half as long as she thought she would," Syro taunts as she steps in front of a mirror, letting me take in her naked backside. Toned dark skin with her feathery arms and legs.

The maids pull out a second mirror for me to use. Then comes the standard red dress. I'll be speaking to the people before the feast, I need to look the part of royalty for them. My wives will get red jewelry to show their standing.

The Baroness didn't have time to prepare a full feast for the city, so they'll only get the speech before we come back to eat. Over the next few days, the food will be handed out to the needy. It would be nice to wait a few days and have a real city-wide feast, but the number of issues among my party is growing, and I would like to get back to Isda. I hate leaving her behind so soon after marrying her.

I did get to write a response to her letter yesterday. She'll at least know I got her letter and didn't forget about her.

The maids work quickly to put on the dress and makeup. I am careful not to overdo the accessories. I need to be flashy but go too far past their expectation, or they won't connect with me as I want. It's all about meeting people's expectations for what a royal who cares about their problems will look like. Break that expectation, and I'll be some flashy, stuck-up prick.

My wives have it easier, they aren't scrutinized quite as much as me. As long as I have more jewelry than them then everything is good. That is unless they decide to garner more attention to themselves. But I would hope they'd at least warn me before going off and taking center stage from me.

Though something tells me Alzi will have trouble with that one. Her colorful hair and light show will draw eyes without even trying. Add on, she'll struggle with the etiquette, and I'll have a real headache at these events.

Teaching Alzi all the etiquette will be a pain for Aurora. Letters, spelling, mana, magic, etiquette for parties as both a man and woman, dinner, the bedroom, traveling, kids. The list of nobles is too long. Well, the commoners do have their own version that she'll know from her village, but they're always more relaxed about it.

She'll almost be a danger to take out of the house.

But that is a problem to worry about when I have her. Today, I have to worry about a speech. I was suspecting we would have some sort of celebration so I was able to work on it on the way out here instead of all last night.

"Princess, what size heel would you like?" A maid asks as another puts on the final silver bracelet.

I take a good look at the dress and jewelry before I decide. The red dress is simple, with just some rubies to sparkle around my breasts. I wear small silver bracelets, a gold necklace with a locket hanging down, and small golden earrings. My hair is up in a ponytail.

"Four inches should be good," I say, happy with the rest of the apparel.

"Inanos has already put on four and a half."

"Then five, I guess." Is that girl trying to make me show off? But she must be feeling better to go that big on the heels or she just really doesn't want to be the shortest girl since Isda isn't around.

"Yes, your Highness," she says, pulling out some simple black heels for me. "Are these good?"

"Yes," I say, slipping into the heels. I give myself one more good look in the mirror before I turn to the Harpy in the corner.

A simple black dress to cover her dark-toned body. Her dress covers just her skin, leaving her feathery wings and legs to show. I can see the back of the red necklace and red hooped earrings through her short brown hair.

"Three inches? How is this fair?" I yell out to my beautiful Harpy.

"I'm not as competitive as you are, dear. The most the people will see of me are my beautiful feathers and necklace. Maybe a few staring at my tits. They'll be looking at you. So, I get a bit of comfort today. Blame Inanos for making you go to five if you aren't willing to take all the blame," she says, slipping into the little things and turning around. "Besides, I look wonderful in three, and you're sexy in five. It'll be a fight who gets you after the feast. Now come, dear, the people await your speech."

Without even waiting for my reply, she walks out of the room, swaying her hips with each step.

"Someone wants me to fuck her again tonight," I mutter, following her out of the bedroom. A few maids stay to clean up the room, and the rest follow us out, one racing to the front to lead us through the building. The stupid Harpy teasing me the whole way.

"Ah, good, the Princess is here. Most of the city is here. A few have to tend to the fields and some left yesterday to try and salvage the fields the griffins were guarding. But it should be a good crowd. Are you ready?" Baroness says. She is in four-inch heels, so even without Inanos, it was best to go with five.

Whoever picked fucking heels to be the stupid measuring contest better be walking on stilts in the afterlife.

The more important parts of her apparel are a plain orange dress with silver jewelry, her three wives in similar dresses, and her husband in the standard pants and shirt while surrounded by the wives.

"Yes, I'm ready. Just show me where you gathered the people, and we can give the speech," I say.

"Right this way your Highness," she says with a small bow.

She takes us up and into the inner castle's walls so we can reach the top of the gate. The crowd's mumbling barely reaches us at the top of the gate, and the furry ears give the crowd a colorful look.

"My people. You all know that I had requested some help from a Princess. Princess Elora. She answered my request for help. Princess Elora agreed to help us farm our fields and feed our people. She and her newlywed wives came all the way from the capital to give us all support. I want to thank her for making the trip personally and taking care of our griffen problem. The fields are damaged. Much of the crop was ruined, but not all. There is more food there that we can harvest, but work needs to be done. But that isn't all she has given us. I'll let the Princess share what else she has graciously given our humble city!" She says to the large crowd. A small roar comes from them as she finishes and lets me take their attention.

"I thank you all for the work you do every year. The food you export for the cities that struggle to make their own food is a life savior for them. It was an easy decision to come down here and help you all. You've been helping a number of cities survive for years. Sacrificing food that you could use to help towns and cities nearby that don't have a good harvest. It doesn't go unnoticed by us. You represent what the Queendom wishes to be. A group working together to survive and thrive. You deserved to be able to farm the land you've worked so hard over the years to keep and manage!" I shout out, pausing a bit to catch my breath and let them sit with the words. "The beast is gone. Killed and their meat in good condition to help relieve some of the pain they've created for you all. I've given the meat over to some of the butchers in this city so they can distribute it out to the hungry and needy. It'll have the filling blessing on it so the food can fill as many stomachs as possible. I thank you all for your patience. I'm working with the adventure guild to increase the number of cities in the kill rotation so the city never has to go so long without help. While I'm happy to come here and help personally, it takes too long for me to come down here. This won't happen again. The Queendom will protect its own people. It will give you all the chance to thrive!"

I stand with the cheers for a moment before backing off. I'm sure many of the shops will have some specials to give out to the large crowd to let them have some sort of party while the nobles enjoy a bit of fun.

"Ready to eat?" Liuva asks once we're out of the castle's walls.

"Yes, though I do wonder where the rest of my wives are. Only Syro is here."

"We don't have much space on the walls, so I let them stay inside. You have many wives, and this humble city isn't used to women being that powerful and captivating," she teases me as we head back to the castle.

"You really let them bully you into not making them come up? We had more than enough room for even Elyne to come up."

"They can be quite convincing, your Highness. It probably is best not to overwhelm my people with so many nobles at once. Most nobles would call this a farming village."

"I'll look to change that. The farming villages are what let so many pursue other professions. You deserve some attention and care."

"It is good to hear you say that your Highness. I was already preparing to ask the guild for help. I really didn't think you would send help and surely not come in the flesh. I tested your words, and you held to them. Thank you for that. My mother had a similar promise from a princess. They never showed up. Not once, not even sending some money to help pay the guild. This won't be forgotten."

"I'm here to help all corners of the land grow. If I need to go somewhere personally to achieve that goal, then I'll be there."

"Well, thank you. Now, let's eat, shall we," Liuva says as two maids through open the doors to the small ballroom the castle has. Small compared to the capital. More than enough to hold my wives, the guards that helped us, and her wives. Plenty of room to spare around the long table stacked with the meat from a griffin.