Chapter 345 – The Kids are More Important

*** Tanatsu ***

"She left!" I shout. "What about me? She just left without seeing me. Didn't you think it was important to see if she could help me? Did you not bring it up? I asked about this already, and she said she would come."

"Tanatsu, you are hardly a priority right now," Mother says. "Be thankful that you'll eventually get her to look at this unnatural setup."

"PRIORITY?! My lover is dying in a box, and that isn't important? Marrying her lovers was important, but my dying lover can wait."

"Yes. If you don't like it, you should've done more to get her attention. She'll get to you when she has time. I expect you to be a good girl when Alzi comes by. One mistake, and I will do what I should've done from the start. Do not give me a reason to come down there."

"If she sees you first, I expect you to bring me up. She promised, and my love needs her help."

"Keep pushing, and you'll never see her. She'll come to you when she can. Not a moment sooner, and you will not cause her any issues. Blame your sister for our inability to press her for anything," Mother says. "I'm not getting everything I want either. We have to deal with Yuki's mistake."

"You knew about it and didn't tell Yuki she could just buy Alzi."

"Dear, please," my love says. "Let Alzi be. A few months isn't much when I've been here for years. Let your Mother go. Visit Alzi as a friend if you need to."

"I'm- Yes, dear. Sorry for making you waste some of your time fighting with me," I say. "I just want to help you."

"I know, and thank you, dear."

*** Alzi ***

"Oh, so I'm not the head of the house? Have I not negotiated with Queens before? The Kitsune Queen out of all of them," I say. "I don't know how much I truly need you to support my house anymore. But I'm the one making decisions and deciding what to do, and I think that is being a leader. Elora is likely to be the Queen day-to-day, and she's done fine as long as you ignore the need to protect or care about me. That won't be part of her duties, though, so she'll do fine, and she will listen to me. Of course, I may decide to just take over myself."

"You've been the head of a household for a few days," Tsunis says. "You have yet to prove yourself ready to lead."

"Salis," I say. I don't need to deal with this old bitch. "How are you?"

"I- I aaam- am ok," the timid woman says. I get a flash of her eyes; they only made it to my stomach, but I saw them.

"I'm happy to hear that," I say. The old Duchess really is going to need a belly to rival what Esiyae had, so I'll just ignore her and fix Salis instead. I hope my wives don't become this grumpy when we get older. Is there something in the wine that they serve the nobles? There has to be something that causes them all to be so unlikable. "I don't know how much your sister has shared about me, so I'm sorry if I'm repeating anything or saying something insulting. I don't mean it, I'm still learning about nobles. I've helped one of my maids through a strange mental issue she had from a near-death experience, as well as a number of women in the army, and they all seemed normal when they left my tent. Oh, yes, I'm a healer. One that likes to fill the patient's womb, but I have a few classes that call me a healer now, and I would love to see if I could help you. Fluvis has talked about you before, and I would love to help you. I know others have tried to help you, and I can't promise much, but I hope you'll give me a chance. Worst case, I think we can both walk away as friends."

"Please."

Salis even seems to be calmer now, though it may just be hopeful thinking on my part. I can feel the terrors in the back of my mind crawling around, waiting for me to relax so they can pounce. I don't have high hopes for helping Salis, but maybe I can pull us both through this dark time. I can find another way to punish Osanna. I doubt it is really that much of a punishment for her to eat my fear. That is her nature, after all.

"Good. Sorry, but my Skills require me to get a bit personal," I say, getting out of my chair. I step over to the trembling woman and give her a little kiss on the top of her head. The results don't show any ailments, but I pour some of my life mana into her anyway. It seems to soothe her, but only as long as I'm putting mana into her. The second I stop, she reverts to her old self. "We've got a few days. I'll see if I can figure something out. You deserve happiness."

"Thank you for trying," Salis says.

Maybe I did do something for her.

"Are you just going to ignore me?" Tsunis asks. "I'm the one you were all trying to convince, and now you're just going to move past me? I'm thinking what everyone else is thinking. You need to address my concerns, or the Queendom will not follow you."

"Why don't we go see some babies in the meantime?" I say, turning to Fluvis. "I have four more to meet, and there isn't anything left to do in this room."

"Yes, and some names to learn," the Duchess smiles back. "All the kids have an affinity. We had all the newborns checked at the same time. Not that we had much doubt, but it is nice to have it confirmed."

Damn, nobles are lucky. The newborns can only be a few days old, and we already know they're going to have mana. Do I need to have my kids checked, too? 'Hey, Space, are all my kids going to have an affinity?'

'If they don't, you should check if they're your kid. So far, you don't have a kid who won't be getting a class.'

Well, I'm glad I don't have to worry about that problem. I guess the Goddesses really want a part of me, even trying to attach themselves to my children. Zarzi is an all-you-can-eat buffet for them.

"How about we go visit them, Salis? I have too many kids for me to handle them all myself. Even with the extra wives I brought," I say. I didn't do the math on that, so hopefully I'm right. Not that she even knows how many wives I brought.

"Two each."

"Hmm?"

"If, if you all take two, then- then you can hold them all. If you include sis and her wives. And then maids."

'Space, there has to be something we can do for her. I don't know if she's right, but come on. She's stronger than Fluvis!'

'Sea is in a pretty good mood. Check with her.'

"Well, I'm sure the kids would love to have some one-on-one time with us. So, help me out; I'm sure they want to spend time with a nice aunt like you," I say. I would love to mention that it seems to be rare to have nice family members, so we have to get close to the ones who are, but I'm sure that would sink any chance we have of getting Fluvis's Mother to support us. Damn bitch. Can I even trust her with my kids? She seems worse than Lensa at raising them.

"Insane," Tsunis says. "Nothing to say now? Even the Queen responds to my questions. I'm bringing up a valid concern."

"Tsunis," Geta says. "Let it go. We have someone in the family who would be happy to demonstrate what Alzi is thinking right now. Don't make me fill in for her. I know the line between life and death a lot better than most."

I'll let Salis decide what to do with the old Duchess. I've got enough people to hurt right now, so I should spread the burden a bit. Unless she proves that I have to handle her right here and now.

I take Salis's hand and give her a gentle tug to stand. She doesn't come up after the first tug, but a second is all she needs to get up. Fluvis and Petunia are standing ready to show us to my babies, and we leave the asshole behind. I guess I can count this as a promise my wives actually kept. They need the charity, after all.

Fluvis has them all grouped up this time. The first set is now crawling around, though the maids are taking care that they don't escape the room or start fighting, especially since a fight would likely be dangerous between these girls. The lightning elemental has even caused her hair to frizz up! My baby is already using mana, and there are eleven more of them. I hope they don't all do that. We really don't need to deal with a succubus baby having her mana, or what a dragon will do with their mana when they're that young. The Goddesses are already enough of a problem, marking me without asking and scaring little Irlo.

But she is really cute with her thin hair sticking up.

They all came crawling right to me, and Salis, which freaked her out a bit, but it made Salis pick one of them up. Fluvis took over watching her as I had to figure out how to handle the other eleven kids who could crawl.

"Mommy only has two arms, and I need to greet your sisters who can't crawl yet," I say. But they are not willing to negotiate with me. Their eyes show they fully expect me to pick them all up right now, somehow. A few of them are even trying to climb up my legs. "Fine. I'll do my best. But I'm going to greet your younger sisters. It's only fair."

I carefully, and with the help of mana, pick up two in each arm, which they accept surprisingly well, trying to play with my hair instead of fighting each other for space. Sarania and my wives have to take the rest, and then everyone huddles around me so the babies don't cry as I walk over to the four cribs.

Inside the cribs are four deep blue dragons. Not the pale blue like Tirlo.

I have to wonder if their color will match their mana. Tirlo would be ice, and these four would be water. Will Shimmer have a child that breathes fire instead of magma? That could be interesting. The village didn't have us color-coded, but these girls are lining up a little too well, I think. But then I doubt my little girl will be breathing gold. It would be pretty funny to watch, but not very royal.

I'll let that be a mystery for now. If my kids really want to know, they can pray to the Goddesses themselves or ask me more than once. I'm sure I'll cave quickly.

"We made some cute little troublemakers," Fluvis says. "Thank you. I do not think you really need my house's support now. You are enough of a powerhouse to force the Queen to pick Elora regardless, so don't worry about that. We can get married tomorrow night, and I'll plan my move to the capital. Mother is a good fighter and will listen to the crown, even if she thinks she is better than it. There's no need to let my hate of her keep you from those you love. I'm sorry for not saying that in the letter, and I'm sure you've had a number of requests to have sex with others. It is hard to say it, yet now that I see your smile, I can't let myself be the reason you have to leave your kids for a long time again. You deserve to be with them. You did the hard work."

"Thank you. I would love to marry you," I say. "Our first meeting was transactional, but you didn't pretend it was anything else back then, and you've made up for it now. Your family would be one that I'm happy to marry. I definitely have too many that I wish I hadn't married in the mix. I would be happy to join our families tomorrow."

"I'll alert the temple that the wedding will go ahead," Petunia says. "We have nothing fancy planned. Just the short vow and then time with the kids after. I hope that is ok with you, Princess Alzi."

"Yes, that sounds perfect. Where are your wives, Fluvis?" I ask. "Are they still out fighting?"

"No. Estrella is likely fighting herself about whether to ask you for a child, and Lottie... Well, you'll see her soon," Fluvis says. "Just know she is yours. I still love her, but for what she did, she is yours. If you wish not to marry her, I understand. She can be a servant for the house instead."

"I'm fine with marrying her. I guess you wish for her to have a submissive position in the family; that's fine with me. I'll need to figure this all out. I've got too many wives, a growing number of slaves, and a lot of children. How this is all going to work, I don't know, but we'll figure it out. Now, do they have names?"

"Haha, yes, I heard about that little story. I'm sorry that a stressful moment like that happened to you. Yes, I've given them names. Shall we start? This will take some time. What a crazy thing to say about newborns and their names. You're a scary woman, Alzi. Don't let anyone change that."