Chapter 199 – Is There Such a Thing as too Many?

*** Princess Elora ***

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask.

"Alzi is the champion of Fertility," the Duchess says.

A statement. Not a guess or belief. Just a fact.

"Are you a champion now?" I ask. "You do pray to the Goddess of the Sea every time."

"I am, and she told me," the Duchess says. "Well, she didn't tell me. She just told me to get her friend's champion back, and who else would it be?"

"Ok," I say. I knew Alzi was going to be a champion, and as Fluvis said, who else?

"Do you think it wise to keep a champion as your slave?" Fluvis asks.

"No," I groan out. "I don't want my husband to be a slave. Just. Just she'll leave the second that collar falls off. I need her, and I love her. I think. I'm happy when I see her, and I love being around her. I want her to be happy. I do. I really do. The worst part of this bitch taking me was that she hurt Alzi. Her feet were just dead. Frozen, and I had to make her heal them herself. I couldn't help her. I couldn't do anything!"

"Princess Elora, I understand why you may want to do this," Fluvis says. "But is this really the best thing for you and her?"

"I need the crown," I cry out, fighting back those stupid tears. "It's the only way to keep Alzi safe. Yuki watched her turn into the perfect breeding tool, and the dragons won't be happy a champion was born outside their realm. Phoenix will turn her into a breeding tool. My plan to keep her a slave till I have the crown is stupid. I know that and. This has been my dream. I didn't have a childhood or anything. The war was over, and I wondered what I did with my life. I, a Princess, was tossed around adventure parties because I was 'too militant.' I didn't know anything else! I was too serious. No fun, working too hard, and not skilled enough to join the ones that wanted to be like that! Told I was too late to get the glory I didn't care for. I just wanted to know my childhood wasn't wasted for nothing!"

"Does Alzi see any of this?" Fluvis asks, shifting her weight around so she can get off the bed. I won't get that big with only one kid on the way. But a future pregnancy? Making all those cute little kids for Alzi and the family. "Alzi had a decade of her own life wasted. When are you going to let her start her life again?

"My entire life was taken from me!" I say. "My lovely sisters had fun as a kid. Learning things besides how to swing a sword and run and march in time and fight. Dear Mother didn't even teach me how to command. I didn't have friends or or or parties. All that was lost just so the war could end right before I got to do anything. The useless daughter. Doesn't even have the family affinity! They loved telling me I was swapped at birth till I got my lousy second affinity. Then, I was just the runt of the family. All I wanted as a kid was to have some fun. That passed, and then the only thing I could see was the throne. The only desire I could find. The throne, so I could help the people that didn't make fun of me. The commoners were happy when I came into town and talked to them. Alzi was exactly what I needed. Now I just want the throne to keep Alzi safe and happy. I'm helping her get her life started now."

"Are you sure she won't be safe outside your family?" Fluvis asks, pulling my crying head to her stomach. "Just cause your mother failed to raise you correctly doesn't mean holding Alzi like this is right."

"Esiyae wanted Alzi. Not me. She just took the chance to humiliate me," I say. "Think any other house would get Alzi back? Would she be safe married to you? What about her Mother or Mai? Yuki gets her fucking tails wrapped around her, and then what? You won't be able to stop Yuki from turning Alzi into the Kitsune's personal stud. I get the crown, and I can stop that. I can keep Alzi from that fate. I just need a year. A year with Alzi, and I'll have my family set to keep her and her lovers safe. I'll be set to make Alzi the happiest dragon in the world. I just need some time. I love her."

"I'm sure you do, dear," Fluvis says, petting my little pointy ears. "But does Alzi see any of that?"

"No," I have to admit. Alzi just sees a woman keeping her Mother away. "How do I fix that?"

The pregnant woman just hums away for a bit. Trying to calm down the children in her womb while I cry in a chair.

I guess that is the answer. One I don't like to hear.

"Is it really that hopeless?" I mumble out.

"I will give you till the child she carries is born and checked for affinities. I shouldn't, but I will," Fluvis says. "Make something of it. Letters to her Mother. Set dates for them so they can see each other. Remove your commands and hope Alzi can see you building a path to the marriage. She doesn't see the dangers you do, and she doesn't believe that you will let her marry her Mother. You need to help her see both, and that can't happen when all she sees is you enslaving her and failing to protect her. If the kid has been tested for an affinity and the collar hasn't fallen off, I will force your mother to marry you to me, and I will remove the collar. Alzi will run off and you will work for me out on the sea for the rest of your life. Don't try to push back the date either."

"I'll try," I say, feeling the little ones kicking in her womb. I'll have to let my wives get pregnant now and make sure they don't pressure Alzi into it. "She'll be free then. No tricks."

"Good," Fluvis says. "Now, duty calls; we need to go see Esiyae before Nesh gets here. Lottie has been looking over the prisoners for a while, so it's time to give her a break."

"Ok," I say, wiping away my tears. "Would be nice to get some revenge."

"Alzi did that already," Fluvis says. "Something we can discuss with Esiyae around. Now stand up and put on your royal face. You just need to make Alzi like you a bit, and when she gets free, you can beg her to stay. If you've brought her mom around and given her a budget for a wedding, you'll be fine. You'll never get Alzi to love you, but she may become your friend."

"I can live with that," I say. "Are you able to get below deck?"

"I will need your help, Your Highness," Fluvis says.

So, the stairs are just for the top deck.

"I'm happy to help," I say. "Can we work on getting you into my harem again? I think you may be able to help Alzi find happiness with us."

"I can try, Princess," Fluvis says, waddling out of her room. "But no promises. Mother likes her power, and Sis still struggles with hers."

Everyone talks about her sister, how powerful she was, and how she grew. Then she started to crack when Fluvis showed a similar promise.

It isn't hard to see what caused it. She is doing a lot better now, but the pain is hard to shake.

I have to help Fluvis down two Decks. The stairs and rope ladders prove how much we all depend on magic. I don't know how else you'd get anything down from the top deck. I don't know if Geta would even fit in some of these narrow stairways.

But we reach the salty bitch that started this all.

"Finally coming to gloat?" Esiyae snarls out. "Winning yet again. Of course I got your husband pregnant already. Beat you to it. Should have had that slave stuffed up the night of your wedding, really."

"Shut up!" I say. "You don't even deserve to see her form. Your bastard sullying her perfect body. But I'll gladly take a Princess of the Edeozia Queendom. Make your shithole just another territory under us."

"Lottie dear, can you let us have some time with our prisoners?" Fluvis says. The human just chuckles in the corner.

"Of course, dear. I know this is a bit much for me to ask, Your Highness," Lottie says. "But please keep my wife from going too far. She is pregnant."

"I will," I say, my eyes refusing to leave the rapist bastard.

"Your Highness," Fluvis says. "If I may. I have some bad news for everyone."

"Are we going to sink?" Esiyae jokes. "Or is my Mother coming out to meet me? Your little slave jump overboard?"

"You are pregnant with seventeen kids," Fluvis says before I can retort. "I've had both healers aboard confirm it. Just need to find some time to ask Alzi. But that is hardly needed. We all know you can't handle seventeen, and many of them will be dragons. The father is much stronger than you could ever hope to be. Even I am carrying at least one dragon, and you pale in comparison. If you make it to term, you won't survive the labor."

"What kind of sick joke is this?" Esiyae says. "Think you can scare me, or something? Like a slave has the control to even try to make a woman pregnant on purpose."

"She could do that before I even had her," I say. Bad news, in a way. Killing a Princess through too many kids. What a sick fucking joke from Alzi, making full use of her freedom already. "I've had several women teaching her to use mana, so I would expect they will all make it till you burst."

This will be a war to keep Alzi. A full-blown war over her now, and Esiyae likely doesn't have enough time left to see the end of it.

"Hahaha! Oh well done, Esiyae," Talindra says. A full belly laugh for her doomed wife. "You can't even get pregnant correctly. Best hold on long enough for one kid to survive your impending doom. It would be terrible for you to be known as the princess who lost a womb full of dragons."

"You can have her if you make that dragon keep me alive," Esiyae says. "Do what you want with her. I don't care. I better not die."

"Think I'm going to help you after what you did?" I say. "You humiliated my wife. Raped her, threatened to torture her if she didn't carry your bastard, and then that wasn't enough for you. No, the greedy bitch wanted more and willingly had my husband go inside her. Well, this is what you get. Have fun growing, knowing each size of dress you go up may be your last. I'm sure you'll have a closed casket if your Mother even holds a ceremony for your worthless ass."

"I'll just abort them," Esiyae says. "Then take the one in your slave whore's womb."

"NO! THAT IS HER KID, AND I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF IF YOU EVER TRY TO TAKE HER CHILD!"

"Your Highness, please remain calm. There is a war brewing right now," Fluvis says. "Esiyae, I had the healers try to abort the kids already. It didn't work. We will need Alzi to do it or offer a sacrifice to the Goddess of Fertility to do it."

"I won't let you ask Alzi to kill her own children," I say. "And Fluvis, I don't appreciate you trying to abort my wife's kids. Alzi knows how many are in there." Alzi, I understand why you did this, but couldn't you build up to this?