Chapter 227 – Princess Talking

I only felt the little kid kick for a minute or so before I asked Lotus to leave. She did with a small smile, returning to the Queen's harem.

Elora came over next.

I shouldn't be surprised. I just had two of her mothers talking to me. It's time to find out if the Queen was right about Elora respecting our conversation.

"Are you ok?" Elora asks. "Sorry about her putting Irlo to sleep. I was told Irlo doesn't usually start getting ready for bed for another hour or so, but I'm guessing the Queen wanted to talk about something Irlo shouldn't overhear. If she scared or threatened you, let me know. I will help fix that. Otherwise, it is best to keep your conversation private for now."

"It would have been nice to spend more time with Irlo. But I guess your plan is for me to become her father for real," I say, the Princess taking a stance to begin a dance.

"Yes, would you like to dance? We don't have to talk about anything," Elora offers. "I'm sure you are tired of that today. Your sister, then Irlo, the Queen, and Lotus."

"What do you think of my sister?" I ask, taking the Princess's hand.

"She seems a lot less scary after talking with you," Elora says, stepping off with the music. "But it does make me worry about what the dragons will do. The current Queen isn't the most stable, and if you call my treatment a pretty cage, you'll find the dragons offer you a hell to match the Goddess of Death's realm."

"Maybe," I say. "I've been pretty close to that before, though."

"You have, and I hope to keep you from suffering that again. My Mother has put in place some plans for your Mother to marry me and you. If we work together, we can push this war to end quickly, which will give us a good chance to marry them soon after," Elora says. I guess this means they haven't been lying about their discussion. But they may have just come up with the story together. "And I see no reason for Yuki to be unable to complete their mission, as it's something Kitsunes are the best at."

"And if she fails?" I ask. I doubt they gave her an easy task to complete. Or maybe they did and just want to feign control over Yuki before she marries and takes over this harem.

"Yuki won't. But I won't hold it against your Mother if she does, and after the war, we can marry her harem, Mai, and Kelly. We would have to work something out with Yuki and Nakuma."

"You're still mad that they turned you down," I say with a little smile.

"No, Yuki really thought she could cancel the sale. I should have worked with her to marry everyone together, but she didn't give me a reason for saying no to my proposal," Elora says. "And I didn't know we were chasing the same man. If I had, this would all be very different."

"How?" I ask.

"You would be married to Yuki and Nakuma at least. Your Mother and the others would be taken in as maids until they had your child. That would be for their protection. Yuki would be in charge of keeping you safe, so the kidnapping never would have happened. You wouldn't have the collar on. Everyone would be happy and getting better," Elora sighs. "But you are right. I was mad after they turned me down, and I let that blind me to solving all our problems immediately. I thought I could do it all myself. Then I was hoping my wives would get you to be ok with us, and now, I just hope you won't run off."

"What do you even know about me?"

"You want to be a healer," Elora says. I'm glad she at least knows the basics. "You love your Mother and Mai and Kelly. You learned how to do woodworking on your own and are quite proficient at it. You seem to be developing a sweet tooth. Your kids are important to you, and it hurts knowing you'll be missing more of them in the future."

"Do you know how to make me laugh?" I ask.

"I don't think I'm capable of doing that right now," Elora answers. "I think you still feel too much pain in my presence to laugh, and I'm not good at making people laugh, even if they do consider me their friend. Or maybe I'm just bad at knowing who my friends are."

"So you lack a real answer," I say. "You should still know how to do it, even if you personally couldn't get me to laugh."

"I suppose," Elora says. "Do you play Hunting Grounds?"

"Yes, the brothel had a few boards. But few there would play the game with me," I say. "They found me too boring to play against. And clients were never interested in playing a board game with their expensive whore."

"I'll have Aurora bring a few sets," Elora says. "We can play the game to give us a chance to learn about each other."

When will we have time to do that?

"Sure," I say. I really doubt she'll have much time to play, so I can pretend to look forward to it. It'll hopefully make it easier to run if this collar ever comes off, or maybe she'll find a way to make me kind of like her.

She doesn't seem to want to push her luck, though, letting us dance in silence for the rest of the song. Well, either that or she's the tired one, as she shifts her head to my shoulder.

I'm sure she is stressed. Her first kid is on the way, and she's about to go to war. It seems she had a bad time growing up during the last one.

After the music ends, Elora pulls me back over to the table. The next song picks up in pace, into a dance style I don't know. Isda is too large to move around to the song and joins us.

The three pregnant wives.

"Alzi," Elora asks. Apparently, she isn't finished talking. "Aurora showed me your carving of Shyla. It was well made. But the clothing didn't have the same detail as the rest of the body. Do you normally make the figures without clothing?"

"Yes."

"Could you make one of me?"

"No," I say. "I don't know your body well enough." But I probably do know her body well enough. We were naked on the ship for a while, and then we slept together after that, and there was that one stupid night.

"Do you want to get to know my body better?"

"Can you handle the consequences?" I ask. She is pretty, and her muscles are nice to touch. It wouldn't be too bad to figure them out before they're obscured by her pregnancy.

"Yes," Elora says without much thought. "It is normal for women to be prepared for the consequences of joining a man in bed."

"I could get you even more pregnant."

"As long as you don't kill me, that's fine," Elora says. "I don't have much time before I'll be too big to join the battlefield anyway."

She did point out before that if I kill her or let her die, I'll be done for anyway. I guess if she dies cleanly in a fight, I'm free, but otherwise, I have to keep her alive.

That's not the worst thing, though. I don't know if I could live with myself if I let someone die. I may not be happy with her, but she hasn't tried to kill me or rape me, and I can see if I can turn those tea parties into something more fun.

If I get everyone who attends pregnant, I should have fewer of them to do. And then I just need to find the right way to get the nobles begging. That last one wasn't too bad. Skipping the 'fun' part of the sex and just having them beg me for a child was a step in the right direction, but I think I let them have too much control over things.

Myrrh was kind of fun, giving me my drink, but I don't think the game was the right one. Something that has them pitted against themselves with me in control would be better. The losers could lick my feet until I take the winner to bed and fuck them properly, leaving the rest hoping I'll call them into the room. Yeah, that sounds much better.

I could have a bunch of little games that they'd compete in, then make them wait while I fuck the winner, hoping that I'll come back in and start telling them the rules of the next game.

"Fine," I say. I probably shouldn't give her more kids. I don't think she is lying about my kid being taken if they start to lose the war, and I don't have much faith in the Queen's backup plans. Anything that they claim would speed up my freedom seems unlikely at this point.

Still, Aurora did give me a bunch of supplies for my woodworking, so I should put them to use.

"But then, why would the men go off to war? They don't even seem to be invited to the war kick-off party," I ask.

"The camp will have three groups. The smallest group will be a handful of men. They are the husbands of the officers and provide stress relief. Then there's the healing portion, where you will be, for the most part. Those two are off-limits for attacking. The last is the main camp holding the army."

"Seems a bit dangerous to have the men run off to war. Wouldn't they get enslaved if you lose?"

"Enslaved, no, but they would join the enemy's men in relieving stress for the officers," Isda says. "Most wars have periods where they trade prisoners and the officers and men get sent back home."

"So more people raping me?"

"No, you would be held until you gave birth, then traded back, and the war would be over," Elora says. "That is the main point of the war."

"So yes," I say.

"No, you'll be a healer. They won't have an army to keep you locked up if they rape you. Their healers will then be valid targets for us, and they will all run away, allowing us to overwhelm them and take full control of their country. They won't be stupid enough to do anything more than hold you. They learned their mistake last time they took us."

"I'm sure they did," I groan. I don't think anyone ever learns their lesson when I'm involved. They all love to rape me the second they see me.

"Nobody wants a war, Alzi," Elora says. "It hurts everyone, and the last one wasn't that long ago, really. Many of the people who fought back then will be fighting yet again, and they aren't happy about that."

"If they cared so much, they wouldn't have started this war. But my kid is enough for them to fight over, despite how many I've handed out over the years. Esiyae should've just dressed skimpy and used that night to join me in bed. She'd be pregnant, and we wouldn't be at war."

"Yours has their royal blood in it, and they care deeply about that, Alzi. But yes, if she had just found a way to get pregnant without raping you, we wouldn't be going off to war," Elora says. "But we are, and you'll be safe."

Just like I was on the fourth floor. She'd better have an actual plan to keep me safe this time.